the Plantagenets, had been superseded from the accession of Henry VII. by a policy of studied conciliation, and the position of Wolsey had but symbolized the position of his order. But Wolsey was now gone, and the ecclesiastics who had shared his greatness while they envied it, were compelled to participate also in his change of fortune.
This great minister, after the failure of a discreditable effort to fasten upon him a charge of high treason,—a charge which, vindictively pressed through the House of Lords, was wisely rejected by the Commons,—had been prosecuted with greater justice for a breach of the law, in having exercised the authority of papal legate within the realm of England. His policy had broken down: he had united against him in a common exasperation all orders in the State, secular and spiritual; and the possible consequences of his adventurous transgression had fallen upon him. The Parliaments of Edward I., Edward III., Richard II., and Henry IV. had by a series of statutes pronounced illegal all presentations by the Pope to any office or dignity in the Anglican Church, under penalty of a premunire; the provisions of these Acts extending not only to the persons themselves who accepted office under such conditions, but comprehending equally whoever acknowledged their authority, 'their executors, procurators, fautors, maintainers, and receivers.'[1] The importance attached to these laws was to be seen readily in the frequent re-enactment of them,
- ↑ 35 Ed. I.; 25 Ed. III. stat. 4; stat. 5, cap. 22; 27 Ed. III. stat. 1; 13 Ric. II. stat. 2. cap. 2; 16 Ric. II. cap. 5; 9 Hen. IV. cap. 8.
