l; they be so maliciously set
_in favorem haereticae pravitatis_".[668] The heresy was no matter of
belief, but hatred of clerical immunities. The _Epistolae Obscurorum
Virorum_, wrote More to Erasmus in 1516, was "popular everywhere";[669]
and no more bitter a satire had yet been penned on the clergy. In this
matter Henry and his lay subjects were at one. Standish, whom Taylor
describes as the promoter and instigator of all these evils, was a
favourite preacher at Henry's Court. The King, said Pace, had "often
praised his doctrine".[670] But what was it? It was no advocacy of
Henry's loved "new learning," for Standish denounced the Greek
Testament of Erasmus, and is held up to ridicule by the great Dutch
humanist;[671] Standish, too, was afterwards a stout defender of the
Pope's dispensing power, and followed Fisher in his protest against
the divorce before the legatine Court. The doctrine, which pleased the
King so much, was Standish's denial of clerical immunity from State
control, and his assertion of royal prerogatives over the Church. (p. 237)
In 1518 the Bishopric of St. Asaph's fell vacant. Wolsey, who was then
at the height of his power, recommended Bolton,[672] prior of St.
Bartholomew's, a learned man; but Henry was resolved to reward his
favourite divine, and Standish obtained the see. Pace, a good churchman,
expressed himself to Wolsey as "mortified" at the result, but said it
was inevitable, as besides the King's good graces, Standish enjoyed
"the favour of all the courtiers for the singular assistance he has
rendered towards subverting the Church of England".[673]

[Footnote 667: See Dr. Gairdner, _History of
English Church in Sixteenth Century_, ch. iii.,
where the story of Richard Hunne is critically
examined in detail. Its importance consists,
however, not in the question whether Hunne was or
was not murdered by the Bishop's chancellor Horsey,
but in the popular hostility to the clergy revealed
by the incident.]

[Footnote 668: _L. and P._, ii., 2.]

[Footnote 669: _Ibid._, ii., 2492.]

[Footnote 670: _Ibid._, ii., 4074.]

[Footnote 671: _Ibid._, iii., 929.]

[Footnote 672: _L. and P._, ii., 4082.]

[Footnote 673: _Ibid._, ii., 4074.