Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/466

 446 KEIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45. lawfully appointed, any statute, law, or canon to the con- trary notwithstanding/ In this form, untrammelled by further condition, the Act went from the Commons to the Lords, and had it passed in its first form there would have been an immediate renewal of the attempt to persecute. The Lords however were better guardians than the Commons of English liberties. Out of 8 1 peers 22 were the bishops themselves, who as the promoters of the Bill unquestionably voted for it in its fulness ; yet it was sent back, perhaps as an intimation that there had been enough of spiritual tyranny, and that the Church of England was not to disgrace itself with imi- tating the iniquities of Rome. A proviso was added that the Act should be retrospective only as it affected the general functions of the episcopal office, 1 but was not to be construed as giving validity to the requisition of the oath of allegiance in the episcopal courts ; or a*s giving the bishops power over the lives or lands of the 1 ' Provided always that no per- son or persons shall at any time hereafter be impeached or molested in body, lands, livings, or goods, by occasion or means of any certificate by any Archbishop or Bishop here- tofore made, or before the last day of this present Session of Parliament to be made by authority of any Act passed in the first session of this present Parliament, touching or con- cerning the refusal of the oath de- clared and set forth by Act of Par- liament in the first year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady the Queen : and that all tenders of the said oath made by any Archbishop or Bishop aforesaid, or before the last day of the present Session to be made by authority of any Act established in the first Session of this present Parliament, and all refusals of the same oath so tendered, or before the last day of this present Session to be tendered by any Archbishop or Bishop by authority of any law established in the first session of this present Parliament, shall be void, and of none effect or validity in the law.' Statutes of the Realm, 8 Elizabeth, cap. I.