in appearance very much as it was before, and made it, in fact, far more subservient to himself than it ever had been to the Pope. This was shown very remarkably in the share which Convocation had to take in his various divorces. The people had been used to regard divorce as an especial prerogative of the ecclesiastical power. Accordingly, when Henry wanted a divorce, Convocation and the Archbishop had to provide him with the excuse for it, and to pronounce the judgment, so as to make it appear to receive the sanction of the Church, in a manner at least superficially regular; but for the anti-papal legislation there was neither the possibility nor the need of a regular precedent, and accordingly it was mostly enacted without troubling Convocation for their consent.
The bearing of all this upon the progress of the Reformation, strictly so called, will be best discussed in relation to the commencement of the next reign.
