The History of England, Volume III Henry VIII A parliament
by David Hume
[1531. 16 January.] A new session of parliament was held, together with a convocation; and the king here gave strong proofs of his extensive authority, as well as of his intention to turn it to the depression of the clergy. As an ancient statute, now almost obsolete, had been employed to ruin Wolsey, and render his exercise of the legantine power criminal, notwithstanding the king’s permission; the same law was now turned against the ecclesiastics. It was pretended, that every one, who had submitted to the legantine court, that is, the whole church, had violated the statute of provisors; and the attorney-general accordingly brought an indictment against them.e The convocation knew, that it would be in vain to oppose reason or equity to the king’s arbitrary will, or plead that their ruin would have been the certain consequence of not submitting to Wolsey’s commission, which was procured by Henry’s consent, and supported by his authority. They chose therefore to throw themselves on the mercy of their sovereign; and they agreed to pay 118,840 pounds for a pardon.f A confession was likewise extorted from them, that the king was the protector and the supreme head of the church and clergy of England; though some of them had the dexterity to get a clause inserted, which invalidated the whole submission, and which ran in these terms, in so far as is permitted by the law of Christ.
The commons, finding that a pardon was granted the clergy, began to be apprehensive for themselves, lest either they should afterwards be brought into trouble on account of their submission to the legantine court, or a supply, in like manner, be extorted from them, in return for their pardon. They therefore petitioned the king, to grant a remission to his lay subjects; but they met with a repulse. He told them, that if he ever chose to forgive their offence, it would be from his own goodness, not from their application, lest he should seem to be compelled to it. Some time after, when they despaired of obtaining this concession, he was pleased to issue a pardon to the laity; and the commons expressed great gratitude for that act of clemency.g
[1532.] By this strict execution of the statute of provisors, a great part of the profit, and still more of the power, of the court of Rome was cut off; and the connexions between the pope and the English clergy were, in some measure, dissolved. The next session found both king and parliament in the same dispositions. [15 January.] An act was passed against levying the annates or first fruits;h being a year’s rent of all the bishoprics that fell vacant: a tax which was imposed by the court of Rome for granting bulls to the new prelates, [Progress of the reformation.] and which was found to amount to considerable sums. Since the second of Henry VII. no less than one hundred and sixty thousand pounds had been transmitted to Rome, on account of this claim; which the parliament, therefore, reduced to five per cent. on all the episcopal benefices. The better to keep the pope in awe, the king was entrusted with a power of regulating these payments, and of confirming or infringing this act at his pleasure: And it was voted, that any censures, which should be passed by the court of Rome, on account of that law, should be entirely disregarded, and that mass should be said, and the sacraments administered, as if no such censures had been issued.
This session the commons preferred to the king a long complaint against the abuses and oppressions of the ecclesiastical courts; and they were proceeding to enact laws for remedying them, when a difference arose, which put an end to the session, before the parliament had finished all their business. It was become a custom for men to make such settlements, or trust deeds, of their lands by will, that they defrauded, not only the king, but all other lords, of their wards, marriages, and reliefs; and by the same artifice the king was deprived of his premier seisin, and the profits of the livery, which were no inconsiderable branches of his revenue. Henry made a bill be drawn to moderate, not remedy altogether, this abuse: He was contented, that every man should have the liberty of disposing in this manner of the half of his land; and he told the parliament in plain terms, “If they would not take a reasonable thing, when it was offered, he would search out the extremity of the law; and then would not offer them so much again.” The lords came willingly into his terms; but the commons rejected the bill: A singular instance, where Henry might see, that his power and authority, though extensive, had yet some boundaries. The commons, however, found reason to repent of their victory. The king made good his threats: he called together the judges and ablest lawyers, who argued the question in chancery; and it was decided, [1532. 10 April.] that a man could not by law bequeath any part of his lands, in prejudice of his heir.i
The parliament being again assembled after a short prorogation, the king caused the two oaths to be read to them, that which the bishops took to the pope, and that to the king, on their installation; and as a contradiction might be suspected between them, while the prelates seemed to swear allegiance to two sovereigns;k the parliament shewed their intention of abolishing the oath to the pope, when their proceedings were suddenly stopped by the breaking out of the plague at Westminster, which occasioned a prorogation. It is remarkable, that one Temse ventured this session to move, that the house should address the king, to take back the queen, and stop the prosecution of his divorce. This motion made the king send for Audley, the speaker: and explain to him the scruples, with which his conscience had long been burdened; scruples, he said, which had proceeded from no wanton appetite, which had arisen after the fervours of youth were past, and which were confirmed by the concurring sentiments of all the learned societies in Europe. Except in Spain and Portugal, he added, it was never heard of, that any man had espoused two sisters; but he himself had the misfortune, he believed, to be the first Christian man that had ever married his brother’s widow.l
[e] Antiq. Brit. Eccles. p. 325. Burnet, vol. i. p. 106
[f] Hollingshed, p. 923.
[g] Hall’s chronicle. Hollingshed, p. 923. Baker, p. 208.
[h] Burnet, vol. i. Collect. No 41. Strype, vol. i. p. 144.
[i] Burnet, vol. i. p. 116. Hall. Parliamentary history.
