avagance. Latimer was the only person of real power
on whose friendship he could calculate, and Latimer was too plain-spoken
on dangerous questions to be useful as a political supporter.

The session commenced on the 15th of January.

[Sidenote: The clergy make their final submission.]

[Sidenote: Mixed Commission, intended for the revision of the Canon
law.]

The first step was to receive the final submission of convocation. The
undignified resistance was at last over, and the clergy had promised to
abstain for the future from unlicensed legislation. To secure their
adherence to their engagements, an act[230] was passed to make the
breach of that engagement penal; and a commission of thirty-two persons,
half of whom were to be laymen, was designed for the revision of the
Canon law.[231]

[Sidenote: Reform in the law for the prosecution of heretics.]

The next most important movement was to assimilate the trials for heresy
with the trials for other criminal offences. I have already explained at
length the manner in which the bishops abused their judicial powers.
These powers were not absolutely taken away, but ecclesiastics were no
longer permitted to arrest _ex officio_ and examine at their pleasure.
Where a charge of heresy was to be brought against a man, presentments
were to be made by lawful witnesses before justices of the peace; and
then, and not otherwise, he might fall under the authority of the
"ordinary." Secret examinations were declared illegal. The offender was
to be tried in open court, and, previous to his trial, had a right to be
admitted to bail, unless the bishop could show cause to the contrary to
the satisfaction of two magistrates.[232]

This was but a slight instalment of lenity; but it was an indication of
the turning tide. Limited as it was, the act operated as an effective
check upon persecution till the passing of the Six Articles Bill.

[Sidenote: The Annates Act having received the royal assent,]

[Sidenote: An alteration is necessary in the mode of electing bishops.]

[Sidenote: The Chapters had gradually lost the privileges granted to
them by the Great Charter.]

[Sidenote: The nomination had virtually rested with the crown.]

[Sidenote: Difficulty of re-arrangement. The _conge d'elire_.]

Turning next to the relations between England and Rome, the parliament
reviewed the Annates Act,[233] which had been left unratified in the
hope that the pope might have consented to a comp