Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/80

60 pastures under the plough. The Flanders Jews having made the Government susceptible on money questions, they passed a Statute of Usury, which formed a curious complement to their general administration of the finances. By the 9th of the 37th of Henry VIII., the legal interest of money was limited to ten per cent. 'But this was not meant,' it was now declared, 'as if to allow usury, which was a thing unlawful,' 'a vice most odious and detestable;' but only 'for the avoiding of more ill and inconvenience that before that time was used:' and since a sense of their duties in this matter 'could by no godly teaching and persuasion sink into the hearts of divers greedy, uncharitable, and covetous persons,' it was decreed that thenceforward no interest of any kind should be demanded or given upon any loan, under pain of forfeiture, imprisonment, and fine.

So far all had gone smoothly. On other matters the Commons were more suspicious and less tractable. The forfeiture of the estates of the Duke of Somerset gave occasion to a sharp debate. A Protestant heresy bill, introduced 'for the protection of the King's subjects from such heresies as might happen by strangers dwelling among them,' was referred to a committee of bishops; but fell through and was lost. Northumberland, intending to appropriate the estates of the bishopric of Durham, brought in a bill to deprive Tunstal, on a charge of treason, and succeeded, in spite of Cranmer's