been, at least by Bonner, the President of Convocation, to the Lord Keeper, the Speaker of the House of Lords; but no further direct effect was produced by them.
It is a fact, to which modern historians of the English Church do not frequently draw attention, that the only Convocation during the earlier Reformation period which was evidently elected without any pressure from the Government, and was the freely-chosen representative of the clergy of England, should thus have declared its opinion, to all appearance unanimously, in favour of the Roman faith and the Roman obedience.[1] It is idle to pretend that this was not, as full}? as any other Convocation, a fair representative body. On the other hand, its out-and-out opposition to the Queen and the Government of the day prove plainly that it was so, and, further, very strongly suggest that it was so in a much greater degree than any other Convocation of the period; while the completeness with which its decisions were ignored shows clearly how very little the opinions of the clergy as a body really affected the course of the reformation of the Church. If we compare this Convocation with its predecessors in the reigns of Edward and Mary, we cannot but be struck with the remarkable opposition which exists between the decisions at which they arrived: nor can we avoid noting the fact, that at no time during the period does there appear to have been any general eviction of the clergy from their livings, such as that which took place a century later, in the reign of Charles II.; and the only possible conclusion seems to be, that the celebrated Vicar of Bray must have been the type of a very large class among the clergy. It is,
- ↑ Cox, writing to Weidner in May 1559, says that 'none of the clergy' joined the Reforming party. See the Zurich, Letters (Parker Society), vol. i. p. 27.
