raemunire. The aged Primate,
fallen on evil times, drew the heads of a defence which he intended to
make, but never did make, in the House of Lords. Archbishops, he said,
were not bound to enquire whether Bishops had exhibited their Bulls or
not. It had not been the custom. If the Archbishop could not give the
spiritualities to one who was pronounced a bishop at Rome till the King
had granted him his temporalities, the spiritual powers of the Archbishops
would depend on the temporal power of the Prince, and would be of little
or no effect, which was against God's law. In consecrating the Bishop of
St. Asaph he had acted as the Pope's Commissary. The act itself was the
Pope's act. The point for which the King contended was one of the Articles
which Henry II. sought to extort at Clarendon, and which he was afterwards
compelled to abandon. The liberties of the Church were guaranteed by
Magna Charta, and the Sovereigns who had violated them, Henry II., Edward
III., Richard II., had come to an ill end. The lay Peers had threatened
that they would defend the matter with their swords. The lay Peers should
remember what befell the knights who slew St. Thomas. The Archbishop said
he would rather be hewn in pieces than confess this Article, for which St.
Thomas died, to be a Praemunire.[174]

Warham was to learn that the spirit of Henry II. was alive again in the
present Henry, and that the Constitutions of Clarendon, then premature,
were to become the law of the land.

Fisher of Rochester had received no summons to attend the present
Parliament; but he sent word to the Imperial Ambassador that he would be
in his place, whether called up or not, that he might defend Catherine
should any measure be introduced which affected her. He begged Chapuys not
to mention his name in his despatches, except in cipher. If they met in
public Chapuys must not speak to him or appear to know him. He on his part
would pass Chapuys without notice till the present tyranny was overpast.
Bishop Fisher was entering upon dangerous courses, which were to lead him
into traitorous efforts to introduce an invading army into England and to
bring his own head to the block. History has only pity for these
unfortunate old men, and does not care to remember that, if they could
have had their way, a bloodier persecution than the Marian would have made
a swift end of the Reformation.

I need not repeat what I have written elsewhere on the acts of this
Session.[17