Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 3.djvu/228

208 the course possibly which the many debates had taken—would be acceptable to the two Houses. A penal statute would be required to enforce the resolutions; and it was for their lordships to determine the character and the extent of the punishment which would be necessary. To give room for differences of opinion, two committees were this time appointed—the first consisting of Cranmer, the Bishops of Ely and St David's, and Sir William Petre; the other of the Archbishop of York, the Bishops of Durham and Winchester, and Dr Tregonwell. The separate reports were drawn and presented; the peers accepted the second. The cruel character of the resolutions was attributed, by sound authority, to the especial influence of Gardiner. It was not, in its extreme form, the work of the King, nor did it express his own desires. His