and trouble in
obtaining probates. Others complained that the clergy in Convocation
made laws inconsistent with the laws of the realm; that the ordinaries
delayed instituting parsons to their benefices; that benefices were
given to minors; that the number of holy-days, especially in
harvest-time, was excessive; and that spiritual men occupied temporal
offices. The chief grievance seems to have been that the ordinaries
cited poor men before the spiritual courts without any accuser being
produced, and then condemned them to abjure or be burnt. Henry,
reported Chapuys, was "in a most gracious manner" promising to support
the Commons against the Church "and to mitigate the rigours of the
inquisition which they have here, and which is said to be more severe
than in Spain".[813]

[Footnote 811: _Ibid._, v., 831.]

[Footnote 812: _Ibid._, v., 1017-23. If the Court
was responsible for all the documents complaining
of the clergy drawn up at this time, it must have
been very active. See others in _L. and P._, v.,
49, App. 28, vi., 122.]

[Footnote 813: _L. and P._, v., 989.]

After debating these points in Parliament, the Commons agreed that
"all the griefs, which the temporal men should be grieved with, should
be put in writing and delivered to the King"; hence the drafts in the
Record Office. The deputation, with the Speaker at its head, presented
the complaints to Henry on 18th March. Its reception is quite
unintelligible on the theory that the grievances existed only in the
King's imagination. Henry was willing, he said, to consider the
Commons' petition. But, if they expected him to comply with their
wishes, they must make some concession to his; and he recommended (p. 293)
them to forgo their opposition to the bills of Uses and Wills, to
which the Lords had already agreed. After Easter he sent the Commons'
petition to Convocation; the clergy appealed to the King for
protection. Henry had thus manoeuvred himself into the position of
mediator, in which he hoped, but in vain, to extract profit for
himself from both sides.[814] From Convocation he demanded submission
to three important claims; the clergy were to consent to a reform of
ecclesiastical law, to abdicate their right of independent legislation,
and to recognise the necessity of the King's approval for existing
canons. These demand