the (p. 257)
commonwealth?"[722] This passage gives no support to the theory that
members of Parliament were nothing but royal nominees. If the
constituencies themselves were bent on electing "such as bare office
in the country," there was no call for the King's intervention; and
the rich merchants and others, of whom complaint is made, were almost
as much to the royal taste as were the officials themselves.

[Footnote 722: Brinkelow, _Complaynt of Roderik
Mors_ (Early English Text Society), pp. 12, 13; for
other evidence of the attitude of Parliament
towards social grievances, see John Hales's letter
to Somerset in _Lansdowne MS._, 238; Crowley's
_Works_ (Early English Text Society), _passim_;
Latimer, _Sermons_, p. 247.]

For the time being, in fact, the interests of the King and of the lay
middle classes coincided, both in secular and ecclesiastical affairs.
Commercial classes are generally averse from war, at least from war
waged within their own borders, from which they can extract no profit.
They had every inducement to support Henry's Government against the
only alternative, anarchy. In ecclesiastical politics they, as well as
the King, had their grievances against the Church. Both thought the
clergy too rich, and that ecclesiastical revenues could be put to
better uses in secular hands. Community of interests produced harmony
of action; and a century and a half was to pass before Parliament
again met so often, or sat so long, as it did during the latter half
of Henry's reign. From 1509 to 1515 there had been on an average a
parliamentary session once a year,[723] and in February, 1512, Warham,
as Lord Chancellor, had in opening the session discoursed on the (p. 258)
necessity of frequent Parliaments.[724] Then there supervened the
ecclesiastical despotism of Wolsey, who tried, like Charles I., to
rule without Parliament, and with the same fatal result to himself;
but, from Wolsey's fall till Henry's death, there was seldom a year
without a parliamentary session. Tyrants have often gone about to
break Parliaments, and in the end Parliaments have generally broken
them. Henry was not of the number; he never went about to break
Parliament. He found it far too useful, and he used it. He would have
been as reluctant to break Parliament as Ulysses the bow which he
alone could