This act, which I conceive to have been more arbitrary in form than in intention, was followed by a closing attack upon the remaining “exactions” of the Bishop of Rome.  The Annates were gone.  There were yet to go, “Pensions, Censes, Peter’s Pence, Procurations, Fruits, Suits for Provision, Delegacies and Rescripts in causes of Contention and Appeals, Jurisdictions legatine—­also Dispensations, Licenses, Faculties, Grants, Relaxations, Writs called Perinde valere, Rehabilitations, Abolitions,” with other unnamed (the parliament being wearied of naming them) “infinite sorts of Rules, Briefs, and instruments of sundry natures, names, and kinds.”  All these were perennially open sluices, which had drained England of its wealth for centuries, returning only in showers of paper, and the Commons were determined that streams so unremunerative should flow no longer.  They conceived that they had been all along imposed upon, and that the “Bishop of Rome was to be blamed for having allured and beguiled the English nation, persuading them that he had power to dispense with human laws, uses, and customs, contrary to right and conscience.”  If the king so pleased, therefore, they would not be so beguiled any more.  These and all similar exactions should cease; and all powers claimed by the Bishop of Rome within the realm should cease, and should be transferred to the crown.  At the same time they would not press upon the pope too hardly; they would repeat the same conditions which they had offered with the Annates.  He had received these revenues as the supreme judge in the highest court in Europe, and he might retain his revenues or receive compensation for them, if he dared to be just.  It was for himself to resolve, and three months were allowed for a final decision.

In conclusion, the Commons thought it well to assert that they were separating, not from the church of Christ, but only from the papacy.  A judge who allowed himself to be overawed against his conscience by a secular power, could not any longer be recognised; but no thing or things contained in the act should be afterwards “interpreted or expounded, that his Grace (the king), his nobles and subjects, intended by the same to decline or vary from the congregation of Christ’s church in anything concerning the articles of the Catholic faith of Christendom, or in any other things declared by the Holy Scripture and the Word of God necessary for salvation; but only to make an ordinance, by policies necessary and convenient, to repress vice, and for the good conservation of the realm in peace, unity, and tranquillity, from ravin and spoil—­ensuing much the old antient customs of the realm in that behalf."[686]

The most arduous business was thus finished—­the most painful remained.  The Nun of Kent and her accomplices were to be proceeded against by act of parliament; and the bill of their attainder was presented for the first time in the House of Lords, on the 18th of February.  The offence of the principal conspirators was plainly high treason; their own confessions removed uncertainty; the guilt was clear—­the sentence was inevitable.  But the fault of those who had been listeners only was less easy of measurement, and might vary from comparative innocence to a definite breach of allegiance.