1376, 1408, 1513; vii., 108, 257, 297, 344, 376.]

[Footnote 900: _Ibid._, vi., 1445.]

[Footnote 901: _Ibid._, vii., 1554.]

[Footnote 902: _Ibid._, vii., 48, 54, 634.]

[Footnote 903: _L. and P._, vii., 171.]

Before Parliament met Francis sent Du Bellay, Bishop of Paris, to
London to make one last effort to keep the peace between England and
Rome. Du Bellay could get no concessions of any value from Henry. All
the King would promise was that, if Clement would before Easter
declare his marriage with Catherine null and that with Anne valid, he
would not complete the extirpation of the papal authority.[904] Little
enough of that remained, and Henry himself had probably no expectation
and no wish that his terms should be accepted. Long before Du Bellay
had reached Rome, Parliament was discussing measures designed to
effect the final severance. Opposition was of the feeblest character
alike in Convocation and in both Houses of Parliament. Chapuys himself
gloomily prophesied that there would be no difficulty in getting the
principal measures, abolishing the Pope's authority and arranging for
the election of bishops, through the House of Lords.[905] The second
Act of Appeals embodied the concessions made by Convocation in 1532
and rejected that year in the House of Lords. Convocation was neither
to meet nor to legislate without the King's assent; Henry might
appoint a royal commission to reform the canon law;[906] appeals were
to be permitted to Chancery from the Archbishop's Court;[907] (p. 320)
abbeys and other religious houses, which had been exempt from
episcopal authority, were placed immediately under the jurisdiction of
Chancery. A fresh Act of Annates defined more precisely the new method
of electing bishops, and provided that, if the Chapter did not elect
the royal nominee within twelve days, the King might appoint him by
letters patent. A third act forbade the payment of Peter-pence and
other impositions to the Court of Rome, and handed over the business
of dispensations and licences to the Archbishop of Canterbury; at the
same time it declared that neither King nor realm meant to vary from
the articles of the Catholic Faith of Christendom.

[Footnote 904: _Ibid._, vii., App. 13.]

[Footnote 905: _Ibid._, vii., 171; _cf._ XII., ii.,
952.]