Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 8.djvu/395

Rh CHURCH.] ENGLAND 375 contemplated taking vengeance on the pope by the extremest legal enactments. Thus a state of feeling had been gener ated in England altogether different from that which had existed before Luther began to write, and when merely educational and literary reforms were contemplated. More violent and trenchant reforms seemed to be required, and these were now to find expression in the work of the parliament and convocation of 1529. In the first session of this parliament three measures aflfecting the revenues and fees of the clergy were passed, and Bishop Fisher, who assumed a very high tone in defending his order, was complained of by the Commons and censured by the king. The clergy saw themselves seriously threatened, and when, after Wolsey s fall, the whole of the clerical body was declared by the judges to have incurred the penalties of the prsemunire statute, the convocations, acting for their brethren, were ready to purchase immunity by the sacrifice of very large sums. But the king, not satisfied with this, demanded more from the clergy than a mere money pay ment. He demanded of them their acceptance of his claim to supremacy over the church, which was in fact a distinct renunciation of their allegiance to Rome. After much disputing as to the terms, this was at last agreed to by the two convocations (February and May 1531), but with the saving clause As far as is permitted by the law of Christ. When the Act of Parliament which embodied this acknowledgment of the clergy came afterwards to be drawn, this saving clause was omitted. From the moment when the clergy agreed to accept the royal supremacy, the rupture with Rome went on apace, and was embodied and carried out in one statute after another. The clergy who had yielded to the menaces of the praemunire law were soon compelled, by an attack brought upon them by the extreme unpopularity of the church courts, to concede another very important point. On March 18, 1532, the Commons pre sented to the king an address specially directed against the ordinaries, or those of the clergy who possessed jurisdiction, but bringing also many heavy charges against the whole of the clergy. The answers drawn up by convocation satisfied neither the king nor the Commons, and the convocation was called upon to promise that from henceforth no new canons should be made or promulgated without the king s consent, that a review of all the old canons should take place by a body of commissioners, and that only those ratified by the king should hold good. This complete surrender of the whole code of church law into the king s hands was to a certain extent evaded by the clergy, but substantially they agreed to the king s requirements (May 10, 1532). Hence forth no convocations could be summoned but by the king s writ, no church law could be made but such as the king approved, and the old canons were to be subjected to review. This important transaction, known as the Submission of the Clergy, may be considered as the supplement to their ac knowledgment of the royal supremacy, and as completing their rupture with Rome. The acts of the convocation which followed the petition against the payments exacted from them by the pope, the formal renunciation of the supremacy claimed by him were natural sequents of the other. Meantime the parliament went rapidly forward in the work of breaking off the fetters of Rome, and securing the independence of tho national church. In the session of 1533 was passed the famous statute for restraint of ap peals, which, grounding itself upon historical precedent, makes all ecclesiastical appeals from henceforth terminable within the kingdom (24 Henry VIII. c. 12). Other acts embodied the concessions made by the clergy (25 Henry VIII. c. 19), made illegal papal appointments to bishoprics (25 Henry VIII. c. 20) and papal dispensations (c. 21), and enacted the royal supremacy in the strongest terms (26 Henry VIII. c. 1 &quot;and c. 13). The last work of this re markable parliament was to give to the king all monasteries of less value than 200 a year, and all others which within a year after the passing of this Act (February 153G) should be surrendered to him. The way towards this measure which was revolutionary, not only in its religious, but also in its social aspect had been paved by the proceedings of Cardinal Wolsey in providing a foundation for his contem plated colleges. A papal bull had authorized the suppres sion of forty of the smaller religious houses for this purpose. Wolsey had only imitated the example of Chicheley, Waynnete, and Wickham, and it was suggested to the king, by Thomas Cromwell, that he could not be wrong in follow ing these eminent churchmen. Cromwell had been secretary to the cardinal, and had distinguished himself by advocating his cause after his fall. For some time past he had been the principal adviser of Henry in all the measures taken to free the land from Rome, and the most remarkable use which the king had made of the ecclesiasti cal supremacy conferred upon him by the clergy and the parliament was to appoint Cromwell his vicar-general, with full powers to exercise the undefined authority belonging to the royal supremacy over all churchmen and churches. By virtue of this power Cromwell had made a visitation of the monasteries by means of certain commissioners; and a report strongly censuring their stats, both moral, disciplinary, and financial, had been presented to parliament. On the strength of this report, the Act suppressing all the smaller religious houses of friars, canons, monks, and nuns was passed. The larger houses were destined soon to follow, for a rebellion having been excited in the north by the suppression of the smaller houses, the opportunity of its suppression was made use of to induce the greater abbeys to surrender, in the hope of thus escaping inquiry into their complicity in the rising, An Act confirming these surrenders was passed (1539), and the king thus became possessed of the whole monastic wealth of England both in movables and lands. A court called the Court of Augmentations was established to regulate the transfer. Small pensions were assigned to the monks and nuns thus forcibly driven into secular life, and the remainder of the sum, amounting in modern value to not less than 38,000,000, was expended in various ways. Six new sees were founded, some grammar schools were established, some forts built, but the greater part of the money was given with reckless pro digality to the courtiers. While the suppression of the monasteries was in progress, many acts were done tending to establish the new state of things, and to complete the revolt of the Church of England from the dominion of Rome. The king had pressed the acknowledgment of his supremacy, and had sacrificed, in doing this, many victims, and among them, two of the most eminent men in England, Bishop Fisher and Sir Thomas More (1535). In 1536 the first authoritative statement of reformed doctrine was made. Ten articles were drawn up by the king and accepted by the convocation of the clergy, which speak only of three sacraments, declare that the whole Christian faith is to be found in the Bible, and disparage the worship of images, the invocation of saints, and the belief in purgatory. In the following year (1537), a larger body of reformed teach ing was put forth in a book sanctioned by authority, called The Institution of a Christian, Man. But that which tended most of all to the rapid spread of reformed doctrine was the publication of the Bible in English. In 1530 the king had promised that this should be conceded. In 1534 the convocation, at the instance of Archbishop Cranmer, had reminded him of his promise, and petitioned for its fulfil ment. But there was no immediate prospect of this coming about, Consequently Cromwell, whose political life was staked on the progress of the Reformation, employed Miles Caverdale, in concert with Tyndale in Germany, to make