he concurrence of a
convocation, or even of a parliament. His proclamations are in effect
acknowledged to have not only the force of law, but the authority of
revelation; and by his royal power he might regulate the actions of
men, control their words, and even direct their inward sentiments and
opinions.

* Those who possessed goods or money above five pounds, and
below ten, were to pay eightpence a pound; those above ten
pounds, a shilling.

** A chauntry was a little church, chapel, or particular
altar in some cathedral church, etc., endowed with lands or
other revenues for the maintenance of one or more priests
daily to say mass or perform divine service, for the use of
the founders, or such others as they appointed: free chapels
were independent on any church, and endowed for much the
same purpose as the former. Jacob's Law Dict.

*** 37 Henry VIII. c. 17.

The king made in person a speech to the parliament on proroguing them;
in which, after thanking them for their loving attachment to him, which,
he said, equalled what was ever paid by their ancestors to any king of
England, he complained of their dissensions, disputes, and animosities
in religion. He told them, that the several pulpits were become a kind
of batteries against each other; and that one preacher called another
heretic and Anabaptist, which was retaliated by the opprobrious
appellations of Papist and hypocrite: that he had permitted his people
the use of the Scriptures, not in order to furnish them with materials
for disputing and railing, but that he might enable them to inform their
consciences and instruct their children and families: that it grieved
his heart to find how that precious jewel was prostituted, by being
introduced into the conversation of every alehouse and tavern, and
employed as a pretence for decrying the spiritual and legal pastors:
and that he was sorry to observe, that the word of God, while it was
the object of so much anxious speculation, had very little influence
on their practice; and that, though an imaginary knowledge so much
abounded, charity was daily going to decay.[*] The king gave good
advice; but his own example, by encouraging speculation and dispute,
was ill fitted to promote that peaceable submission of opinion which he
recommended.

* Hall, fol. 261. Herbert, p. 534.

{1546.} Henry employed in military preparations the money granted by
parliame