which she had coveted so long.

"There was much murmuring" at measures such as these. Many thought "that
the Bishop of Rome would curse all Englishmen, and that the Emperor and
he would destroy all the people." Fears of the overthrow of religion
told on the clergy; the merchants dreaded an interruption of the trade
with Flanders, Italy, and Spain. But Charles, though still loyal to his
aunt's cause, had no mind to incur risks for her; and Clement, though he
annulled Cranmer's proceedings, hesitated as yet to take sterner action.
Henry, on the other hand, conscious that the die was thrown, moved
rapidly forward in the path that Cromwell had opened. The Pope's
reversal of the primate's judgment was answered by an appeal to a
general council. The decision of the cardinals to whom the case was
referred in the spring of 1534, a decision which asserted the
lawfulness of Catherine's marriage, was met by the enforcement of the
long-suspended statute forbidding the payment of first-fruits to the
Pope.

Though the King was still firm in his resistance to Lutheran opinions,
and at this moment endeavored to prevent by statute the importation of
Lutheran books, the less scrupulous hand of his minister was seen
already striving to find a counterpoise to the hostility of the Emperor
in an alliance with the Lutheran princes of North Germany. Cromwell was
now fast rising to a power which rivalled Wolsey's. His elevation to the
post of lord privy seal placed him on a level with the great nobles of
the council board; and Norfolk, constant in his hopes of reconciliation
with Charles and the papacy, saw his plans set aside for the wider and
more daring projects of "the black-smith's son." Cromwell still clung to
the political engine whose powers he had turned to the service of the
Crown. The parliament which had been summoned at Wolsey's fall met
steadily year after year; and measure after measure had shown its
accordance with the royal will in the strife with Rome.

It was now called to deal a final blow. Step by step the ground had been
cleared for the great statute by which the new character of the English
Church was defined in the session of 1534. By the Act of Supremacy
authority in all matters ecclesiastical was vested solely in the Crown.
The courts spiritual became as thoroughly the king's courts as the
temporal courts at Westminster. The statute ordered that the King "shall
be taken, accepted, and reputed the only supreme head o