was
only by a rigid severance of the cause of reform from what seemed to him
the cause of revolution that More could hope for a successful issue to
the projects of reform which the council laid before parliament.

The "Petition of the Commons" sounded like an echo of Colet's famous
address to the convocation. It attributed the growth of heresy not more
to "frantic and seditious books published in the English tongue contrary
to the very true Catholic and Christian faith" than to "the extreme and
uncharitable behavior of divers ordinaries." It remonstrated against the
legislation of the clergy in convocation without the King's assent or
that of his subjects, the oppressive procedure of the church courts, the
abuses of ecclesiastical patronage, and the excessive number of holy
days. Henry referred the petition to the bishops, but they could devise
no means of redress, and the ministry persisted in pushing through the
houses their bills for ecclesiastical reform. The importance of the new
measures lay really in the action of parliament. They were an explicit
announcement that church reform was now to be undertaken, not by the
clergy, but by the people at large. On the other hand it was clear that
it would be carried out in a spirit of loyalty to the Church. The
commons forced from Bishop Fisher an apology for words which were taken
as a doubt thrown on their orthodoxy.

Henry forbade the circulation of Tyndale's translation of the Bible as
executed in a Protestant spirit. The reforming measures, however, were
pushed resolutely on. Though the questions of convocation and the
bishops' courts were adjourned for further consideration, the fees of
the courts were curtailed, the clergy restricted from lay employments,
pluralities restrained, and residence enforced. In spite of a dogged
opposition from the bishops the bills received the assent of the House
of Lords, "to the great rejoicing of lay people, and the great
displeasure of spiritual persons."

Not less characteristic of the New Learning was the intellectual
pressure it strove to bring to bear on the wavering Pope. Cranmer was
still active in the cause of Anne Boleyn; he had just published a book
in favor of the divorce; and he now urged on the ministry an appeal to
the learned opinion of Christendom by calling for the judgment of the
chief universities of Europe. His counsel was adopted; but Norfolk
trusted to coarser means of attaining his end. Like most of the Engli