[349] Annates or firstfruits were first suffered to be taken within the realm for the only defence of Christian people against infidels; and now they be claimed and demanded as mere duty only for lucre, against all right and conscience.—­23 Hen.  VIII. cap. 20.

[350] 23 Hen.  VIII. cap. 20.

[351] It hath happened many times by occasion of death unto archbishops or bishops newly promoted within two or three years after their consecration, that their friends by whom they have been holpen to make payment have been utterly undone and impoverished.—­23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.

[352] M. de la Pomeroy to Cardinal Tournon.

“London, March 23, 1531-2.

“My Lord,—­I sent two letters to your lordship on the 20th of this month.  Since that day Parliament has been prorogued, and will not meet again till after Easter.

“It has been determined that the Pope’s Holiness shall receive no more annates, and the collectors’ office is to be abolished.  Everything is turning against the Holy See, but the King has shown no little skill; the Lords and Commons have left the final decision of the question at his personal pleasure, and the Pope is to understand that, if he will do nothing for the King, the King has the means of making him suffer.  The clergy in convocation have consented to nothing, nor will they, till they know the pleasure of their master the Holy Father; but the other estates being agreed, the refusal of the clergy is treated as of no consequence.

“Many other rights and privileges of the Church are abolished also, too numerous to mention.”—­MS. Bibliot.  Imper.  Paris.

[353] STRYPE, Eccles.  Mem., vol. i. part 2, p. 158.

[354] Ibid.

[355] Sir George Throgmorton, Sir William Essex, Sir John Giffard, Sir Marmaduke Constable, with many others, spoke and voted in opposition to the government.  They had a sort of club at the Queen’s Head by Temple Bar, where they held discussions in secret, “and when we did commence,” said Throgmorton, “we did bid the servants of the house go out, and likewise our own servants, because we thought it not convenient that they should hear us speak of such matters.”—­Throgmorton to the King:  MS. State Paper Office.

[356] 23 Hen.  VIII. cap. 20.

[357] Printed in STRYPE, Eccles.  Mem., vol. i. p. 201.  Strype, knowing nothing of the first answer, and perceiving in the second an allusion to one preceding, has supposed that this answer followed the third and last, and was in fact a retractation of it.  All obscurity is removed when the three replies are arranged in their legitimate order.

[358] STRYPE, Eccles.  Mem., vol. i. p. 199, etc.

[359] 23 Hen.  VIII. cap. 20.

[360] STOW, p. 562.

[361] “In connection with the Annates Act, the question of appeals to Rome had been discussed in the present session.  Sir George Throgmorton had spoken on the papal side, and in his subsequent confession he mentioned a remarkable interview which he had had with More.