Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/190

170 at once to Edward, and in the presence of Lord Northampton, remonstrated with him. Finding the King obstinate, he requested a private audience, which the Duke was too prudent to permit. He then endeavoured to move the council. Northumberland told him that the judges had acquiesced, and that it was not for him to interfere with the King's pleasure; yet he continued to hold off, and, finding his remonstrances useless, he absented himself from Greenwich on the day of the signature. But the Archbishop's name could not be dispensed with. He was sent for, and came in only after the rest had signed. He said that he had sworn to maintain the will of Henry VIII. If he signed the letters patent, he was perjured. The Duke and his friends replied that they had sworn as well as he, and if he had a conscience, so had they. He did not judge their consciences, he said, but he must act for himself by his own. He would not sign till he had again seen his master; and he was taken to the King's room.

Edward there assured him that the change of the succession had the sanction of the judges; neither himself nor his subjects could be bound by his father's will; he had a right to act for the good of the commonwealth by his own judgment. The Archbishop had not been present at Montague's protest, and knew nothing of itHe desired to see the judges himself; and the judges having satisfied their own consciences that treason was not treason while the King lived, now told him that he