Page:The Life of Sir Thomas More (William Roper, ed by Samuel Singer).djvu/142

 And incontinent upon their verdict the Lord Chancellor, for that matter chief commissioner, beginning to proceed in judgment against him, Sir Thomas More said unto him: "My Lord, when I was toward the law, the manner in such case was to ask the prisoner before judgment what he could say why judgment should not be given against him." Whereupon the Lord Chancellor, staying his judgment wherein he had partly proceeded, demanded of him what he was able to say to the contrary? Who then in this sort most humbly made answer:

"Forasmuch, my Lord," quoth he, "as this indictment is grounded upon an act of parliament directly repugnant to the laws of God and his holy church, the supreme government of which, or any part thereof, may no temporal prince presume by any law to take upon him, as rightfully belonging to the See of Rome, a spiritual preeminence by the mouth of our Saviour himself, personally present upon the earth, only to Saint Peter and his successors, bishops of the same See, by special prerogative granted; it is therefore in law, amongst Christian men, insufficient to charge any Christian man. And for proof thereof, like as amongst divers other reasons and authorities, he declared that this realm, being but a member and small part of the church, might not make a particular law disagreeable with the general law of Christ's universal Catholic Church,