ge that they
did so, except they can prove that the words of the statute, whereby the
king is recognised to be the supreme Head of the Church of England,
should show expressly that they intended to do so; as it is apparent
that they do not.

"There is none authority of Scripture that will prove that any one of
the apostles should be head of the universal Church of Christendom. And
if any of the doctors of the church or the clergy have, by any of their
laws or decrees, declared any Scripture to be of that effect, kings and
princes, taking to them their counsellors, and such of their clergy as
they shall think most indifferent, ought to be judges whether those
declarations and laws be made according to the truth of Scripture or
not; because it is said in the Psalms, 'Et nunc Reges intelligite,
erudimini qui judicatis terram': that is, 'O kings! understand ye, be ye
learned that judge the world.' And certain it is that the Scripture is
always true; and there is nothing that the doctors and clergy might,
through dread and affection, [so well] be deceived in, as in things
concerning the honour, dignity, power, liberty, jurisdiction, and riches
of the bishops and clergy; and some of them have of likelihood been
deceived therein."--Heads of Arguments concerning the Power of the Pope
and the Royal Supremacy: _Rolls House MS._

[404] 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 2.

[405] 26 Hen. VIII. cap. 13.

[406] More warned Fisher of this. He "did send Mr. Fisher word by a
letter that Mr. Solicitor had showed him, that it was all one not to
answer, and to say against the statute what a man would, as all the
learned men in England would justify."--_State Papers_, Vol. I. p. 434.

[407] The act was repealed in 1547, I Edw. VI. cap. 12. The explanation
which is there given of the causes which led to the enactment of it is
temperate and reasonable. Subjects, says that statute, should obey
rather for love of their prince than for fear of his laws: "yet such
times at some time cometh in the commonwealth, that it is necessary and
expedient for the repressing of the insolence and unruliness of men, and
for the foreseeing and providing of remedies against rebellions,
insurrections, or such mischiefs as God, sometime with us displeased,
doth inflict and lay upon us, or the devil, at God's permission, to
assay the good and God's elect, doth sow and set among us,--the which
Almighty God and man's policy hath always been content to have
stayed--that sharpe