haracter, and to become the Church _of_ England, rather than a branch
of the Church universal _in_ England.

[Footnote 741: The phrase occurs in Cromwell's
draft bill for the submission of Convocation (_L.
and P._, v., 721).]

[Footnote 742: _Ibid._, v., 361. This was in
reference to Henry's refusal to allow a visitation
of the Cistercian monasteries, of which Chapuys
thought they stood in great need (31st July,
1531).]

The revolution was inevitably effected through the action of the State
rather than that of the Church. The Church, which, like religion
itself, is in essence universal and not national, regarded with
abhorrence the prospect of being narrowed and debased to serve
political ends. The Church in England had moreover no means and no
weapons wherewith to effect an internal reformation independent of the
Papacy; as well might the Court of King's Bench endeavour to reform
itself without the authority of King and Parliament. The whole
jurisdiction of the Church was derived in theory from the Pope; when
Wolsey wished to reform the monasteries he had to seek authority from
Leo X.; the Archbishop of Canterbury held a court at Lambeth and (p. 269)
exercised juridical powers, but he did so as _legatus natus_ of
the Apostolic See, and not as archbishop, and this authority could at
any time be superseded by that of a legate _a latere_, as Warham's was
by Wolsey's. It was not his own but the delegated jurisdiction of
another.[743] Bishops and archbishops were only the channels of a
jurisdiction flowing from a papal fountain. Henry charged Warham in
1532 with _praemunire_ because he had consecrated the Bishop of St.
Asaph before the Bishop's temporalties had been restored.[744] The
Archbishop in reply stated that he merely acted as commissary of the
Pope, "the act was the Pope's act," and he had no discretion of his
own. He was bound to consecrate as soon as the Bishop had been
declared such in consistory at Rome. Chapters might elect, the
Archbishop might consecrate, and the King might restore the
temporalties; but none of these things gave a bishop jurisdiction.
There were in fact two and only two sources of power and jurisdiction,
the temporal sovereign and the Pope; reformation must be effected by
the one or the other. Wolsey had ideas of a national ecclesiastica