At length, people out of doors growing impatient, and dangerous symptoms threatening to show themselves, the king summoned a meeting in the Star-chamber between eight members of both Houses.  The lay peers, after some discussion, conclusively gave way; and the bishops, left without support, were obliged to yield.  They signified their unwilling consent, and the bills, “somewhat qualified,” were the next day agreed to—­“to the great rejoicing of the lay people, and the great displeasure of the spiritual persons."[245]

Nor were the House of Commons contented with the substance of victory.  The reply to their petition had perhaps by that time been made known to them, and at any rate they had been accused of sympathy with heresy, and they would not submit to the hateful charge without exacting revenge.  The more clamorous of the clergy out of doors were punished probably by the stocks; from among their opponents in the Upper House, Fisher was selected for special and signal humiliation.  The words of which he had made use were truer than the Commons knew; perhaps the latent truth of them was the secret cause of the pain which they inflicted; but the special anxiety of the English reformers was to disconnect themselves, with marked emphasis, from the movement in Germany, and they determined to compel the offending bishop to withdraw his words.

They sent the speaker, Sir Thomas Audeley, to the king, who “very eloquently declared what dishonour it was to his Majesty and the realm, that they which were elected for the wisest men in the shires, cities, and boroughs within the realm of England, should be declared in so noble a presence to lack faith.”  It was equivalent to saying “that they were infidels, and no Christians—­as ill as Turks and Saracens.”  Wherefore he “most humbly besought the King’s Highness to call the said bishop before him, and to cause him to speak more discreetly of such a number as was in the Commons House."[246] Henry consented to their request, it is likely with no great difficulty, and availed himself of the opportunity to read a lesson much needed to the remainder of the bench.  He sent for Fisher, and with him for the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for six other bishops.  The speaker’s message was laid before them, and they were asked what they had to say.  It would have been well for the weak trembling old men if they could have repeated what they believed and had maintained their right to believe it.  Bold conduct is ever the most safe; it is fatal only when there is courage but for the first step, and fails when a second is required to support it.  But they were forsaken in their hour of calamity, not by courage only, but by prudence, by judgment, by conscience itself.  The Bishop of Rochester stooped to an equivocation too transparent to deceive any one; he said that “he meant only the doings of the Bohemians were for lack of faith, and not the doings of the Commons House”—­“which saying was confirmed by the bishops present.”