Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/90

 levied a few years before. An act for this purpose he soon obtained from a House of Commons who were his own nominees, for there was no freedom of election in his day. The commons, however, were encouraged to complain freely of any kind of extortion except the king's, and they attacked the spiritual courts for levying exorbitant fines on probates, and the clergy for mortuaries, for pluralities and non-residence, and for occupying grazing farms. Acts were passed on all these subjects, not without a remonstrance in the House of Lords from Bishop Fisher, who had already incurred the king's displeasure by daring to oppose him on the divorce question. These things were but a faint foreshadowing of the great revolution this parliament effected in later sessions in the relations of church and state; but they bore fruit at once in disputes between the two houses (encouraged no doubt by the king's agents), in which the king himself was called in to arbitrate.

As to his projected divorce Henry was now pursuing the policy suggested by Cranmer [q. v.] of taking the opinions of universities on the validity of his marriage. A judicial decision was not necessary if he could only procure opinions in his favour of sufficient weight. For this purpose bribes and intimidation were necessary even in the case of Cambridge and Oxford, and a little cajolery besides. But the opinions of foreign universities were more sought after, as seemingly more impartial, and Henry's chief reliance was upon France, where Francis, having now redeemed his children after making peace with the emperor at Cambray, was quite willing to favour his policy underhand. Henry sent Reginald Pole to Paris to influence the divines of the Sorbonne, and in the spring and summer of 1530 other agents were busy corrupting the universities of northern Italy. In the end the king obtained, besides a multitude of individual opinions, no fewer than eight decisions under the seals of learned corporations in France and Italy against the validity of marriage with a brother's wife, and against the competency of the pope to dispense in such a case. At the same time he got a large number of the peers of his own realm, including Wolsey, Archbishop Warham, and four other bishops, and twenty-two abbots, to join in a memorial to the pope urging him to comply, without further delay, with his request for a dissolution of his marriage.

The opinions of the foreign universities were read in the House of Commons 30 March 1531, at the close of the parliamentary session, and ‘above an hundred books drawn by doctors of strange regions’ were exhibited to the like effect; after which More, as lord chancellor, had the ungrateful task imposed upon him of telling the members to report to their constituencies what they had seen and heard, so that it might appear that the king's proceedings were due merely to conscientious scruples. Meanwhile the king's agents were watching the cause at Rome, and Henry was procuring further opinions from various universities to show that he was not bound to obey the pope's citation. He had procured opinions in Rome itself declaring that Rome was not a safe place in which to deliver judgment. On 31 May, by his direction, more than thirty lords waited upon the queen at Greenwich, and informed her that he was displeased with her for having caused him to be cited to Rome. The lords at the same time urged her to allow the matter between them to be settled by arbitration. This appeal was ineffectual, and in July following Henry finally parted company with her, leaving her at Windsor without saying adieu while he went on to Woodstock.

Very important proceedings had meanwhile taken place in that sitting of parliament (January–March 1531) in which the opinions of the universities were read. Before the opening of the session the attorney-general had begun to take action against the bishops, on the ground that the whole body of the clergy had incurred the penalties of præmunire by acknowledging the legatine jurisdiction of Cardinal Wolsey. It seemed strange to punish these submissive sheep when the king himself had sent for another legate from Rome on his own special business. Logically, too, it was seen that a host of laymen who had brought or responded to suits in the legatine court were just as amenable to the statute as the clergy. The latter, however, it was expected, would for peace sake be glad to compound for their offences, and the commons were to give their assistance to bring them to their knees. The convocation of Canterbury did, in effect, offer no less than 100,000l. to the king under the name of a free gift, in the hope that he would stay proceedings. The king intimated that he would accept the gift, and grant them a pardon of the præmunire only on condition that they acknowledged him as supreme head of the church of England. The clergy at once withdrew their offer. After long debates, however, and frequent messages from the king, they at length agreed to accept a pardon with the acknowledgment required, qualifying, however, the title of ‘supreme head’ by the words ‘quantum per Christi legem licet.’ Parliament was then asked to confirm the pardon; but the commons took alarm at finding that the spiritualty were pardoned and the laity still