Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/73

 and induced Henry to have him arrested for high treason, because he had broken a law made in the reign of Edward III. and Richard II., against bringing any foreign authority into the realm. This Wolsey had done by acting as papal legate, and by holding a court for the Pope in England. Broken-hearted at the loss of the King’s favour, Wolsey began his journey to London. When he reached Leicester he was so ill that he had to take shelter in the Abbey there. ‘‘Had I served my God as diligently as I have served the King,” he said to the lieutenant of the Tower, “He would not have given me over in my gray hairs.” His sickness was unto death, and the man who had served the king so faithfully, and loved him so truly, only escaped the penalty of treason by dying Nov, 30th, 1530.

9. Act of Supremacy.—Henry found a new and able minister in Thomas Cromwell, one of Wolsey’s retainers. He advised the King to make himself Head of the Church, and then procure a divorce from his own courts. At first Henry did not like to act on this advice, but when he found that it was the only way by which he could marry Anne Boleyn, he determined to carry out Cromwell’s suggestion. Parliament was called in 1529, and because it was willing to do the king’s bidding it lasted for seven years. During its existence many important laws were passed, mostly at the command of Cromwell and Henry.

Henry’s first step in throwing off the Pope’s authority over the English Church was to force the clergy to acknowledge him ‘‘Head of the Church,” by threatening them with the loss of their goods and lives for having recognized the authority of Wolsey as papal legate. Then Parliament passed three laws, one of which forbade the clergy from sending ‘‘first fruits” to Rome; a second, forbade the taking of appeals to Rome; and the third called the “Act of Supremacy,” made Henry ‘‘Head of the Church.” The latter Act was passed in 1535.

Before this, however, in 1533, Cranmer, who had been made Archbishop of Canterbury, granted in the council of bishops the coveted divorce, and Henry immediately married Anne Boleyn. In the same year Anne’s daughter, Elizabeth, was born. Parliament, to please Henry, declared the Princess Mary illegitimate, and settled the succession on Anne’s children.