chance of a more equitable construction of their position, they consented with a tolerable grace, the Upper House of Convocation first, the Lower following. Their debates upon the subject have not been preserved. It was probably difficult to persuade them that they were treated with anything but the most exquisite injustice; since Wolsey's legatine faculties had been the object of their general dread; and if he had remained in power, the religious orders would have been exposed to a searching visitation in virtue of these faculties, from which they could have promised themselves but little advantage. But their punishment, if tyrannical in form, was equitable in substance, and we can reconcile ourselves without difficulty to an act of judicial confiscation.
The money, however, was not the only concession which the threat of the premunire gave opportunity to extort; and it is creditable to the clergy that the demand which they showed most desire to resist was not that which most touched their personal interests. In the preamble of the subsidy bill, under which they were to levy their ransom, they were required by the council to designate the King by the famous title which gave occasion for such momentous consequences, of 'Protector and only Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England.'[1] February.It is not very easy to see what Henry proposed to himself by requiring this designation, at so early a stage in the movement.[2] The- ↑ Burnet, vol. iii. p. 78.
- ↑ For Henry's reasons, see Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, p. 166, &c.
