wrong; it is against God's will, and therefore it must not be, whether premunire come or do not come.' They might have said it, and if they could have dared this little act of courage, victory was in their hands. With the cause against them so doubtful, their very attitude would have commanded back the sympathies of half the nation, and the King's threats would have exploded as an empty sound. But Henry knew the persons with whom he had to deal—forlorn shadows, decked in the trappings of dignity—who only by some such rough method could be brought to a knowledge of themselves. 'Shrink to the clergy'—I find in a State paper of the time—'Shrink to the clergy, and they be lions; lay their faults roundly and charitably to them, and they be as sheep, and will lightly be reformed, for their consciences will not suffer them to resist.'[1]
They hesitated for another night. Feb. 10.The day following, the Archbishop submitted the clause containing the title to the Upper House, with a saving paragraph, which, as Burnet sententiously observes, the nature of things did require to be supposed.[2] 'Ecclesiæ et cleri Anglicani,' so it ran, 'singularem protectorem, et unicum et supremum Dominum, et quantum per legem Christi licet, etiam supremum caput ipsius Majestatem agnoscimus—We recognize the King's Majesty to be our only sovereign lord, the singular protector of the Church and clergy of England, and as far as is allowed by the law of Christ, also as our Supreme Head.' The