replied, as before, that he would have a clear answer, “yes, or no.”  They might say “yes,” and their pardon was ready.  They might say “no”—­and accept the premunire and its penalties.  And now, what should the clergy have done?  No very great courage was required to answer, “This thing is 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."[296]

They hesitated for another night.  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.[297] “Ecclesiae 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 recognise 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 words were read aloud by the archbishop, and were received in silence.  “Do you assent?” he asked.  The House remained speechless.  “Whoever is silent seems to consent,” the archbishop said.  A voice answered out of the crowd, “Then are we all silent.”  They separated for a few hours to collect themselves.  In the afternoon sitting they discussed the sufficiency of the subterfuge; and at length agreeing that it saved their consciences, the clause was finally passed, the Bishop of Rochester, among the rest, giving his unwilling acquiescence.

So for the present terminated this grave matter.  The pardon was immediately submitted to parliament, where it was embodied in a statute;[298] and this act of dubious justice accomplished, the Convocation was allowed to return to its usual occupations, and continue the prosecutions of the heretics.

The House of Commons, during their second session, had confined themselves meanwhile to secular business.  They had been concerned chiefly with regulations affecting trade and labour; and the proceedings on the premunire being thought for the time to press sufficiently on the clergy, they deferred the further prosecution of their own complaints till the following year.  Two measures, however, highly characteristic of the age, must not be passed over, one of which concerned a matter that must have added heavily to the troubles of the Bishop of Rochester at a time when he was in no need of any addition to his burdens.