Page:Church and State under the Tudors.djvu/124

 their whole constitution was despotically changed by the introduction of the lay vicegerent; and if we remember what the acts of that one year were, and what was their own previous and subsequent conduct with regard to those acts, we shall not easily believe that they were really any more spontaneous on their part than were those which preceded and followed them. The two important acts of Convocation in 1534 were the resolution that the Pope has no more power given him by God in England than any other foreign bishop; and the concurrence in the Act for the Submission of the Clergy. The latter was a mere repetition of the action which had been forced upon them by the Præmunire two and a half years before, and which they therefore well knew that they could not escape; and how much the former was a really voluntary act on their part may be seen from the fact that a quarter of a century later, on the accession of Elizabeth, after the thirteen years' trial of Henry's via media had been followed by twelve more years of bitter struggles between the opposing faiths, and of alternate government by the bigots of each side, Convocation declared, by a unanimous vote, not only for transubstantiation and the mass, but for the supremacy of the Pope and the authority of the priesthood in matters of faith and discipline. It appears clearly that throughout Henry's reign, while Parliament was his active, though humble and somewhat servile, coadjutor. Convocation, on the other hand, was but his convenient and utterly helpless tool. The reason of this state of things is not far to seek. Henry entered upon his reign with high notions of his own prerogative. The circumstances of the times, both at home and abroad, tended to foster them, as we have already seen, and also to induce the Parliament to become his abettor in carrying