ages
desiring some of them to call upon him at his house had given them
wings.[104]

[Footnote 103: Renard to Queen Mary: _Granvelle
Papers_, vol. iv. p. 65.]

[Footnote 104: Renard to Charles V., September 9:
_Rolls House MSS._]

Finding her measures no longer opposed, the queen refused next to
recognise the legality of the marriage of the clergy. Married priests
should either leave their wives or leave their benefices; and on the
29th of August, Gardiner, Bonner, Day, and Tunstal, late prisoners in
the Tower, were appointed commissioners to examine into the conditions
of their episcopal brethren. Convocation was about to meet, and must
undergo a preliminary purification. Unhappy Convocation! So lately the
supreme legislative body in the country, it was now patched, clipped,
mended, repaired, or altered, as the secular government put on its
alternate hues. The Protestant bishops had accepted their offices on
Protestant terms--_Quamdiu se bene gesserint_, on their good
behaviour; and, with the assistance of so pliant a clause, a swift
clearance was effected. Barlow, to avoid expulsion, resigned Bath.
Paul Bush retreated from Bristol. Hooper, ejected from Worcester by
the restoration of Heath, was deprived of Gloucester for heresy and
marriage, and, being a dangerous person, was committed on the 1st of
September to the Fleet. Ferrars, of St. David's, left in prison by
Northumberland for other pretended offences, was deprived on the same
grounds, but remained in confinement. Bird, having a wife, was turned
out of Chester; Archbishop Holgate out of York. Coverdale, Ridley,
Scory, and Ponet had been already disposed of. The bench was
wholesomely swept.[105]

[Footnote 105: Some of the Protestant bishops
(Cranmer, Hooper, Ridley, and Ferrars were
admirable exceptions) had taken care of themselves
in the seven years of plenty. At the time of the
deposition of the Archbishop of York an inventory
was taken of the personal property which was then
in his possession. He had five houses, three very
well provided, two meetly well. At his house at
Battersea he had, of coined gold, L300; plate gilt
and parcel gilt, 1600 oz. Mitre, gold, with two
pen