le in pronouncing the deprivation of the
bishops: a fate which befell Gardiner of Winchester, Bonner of London,
Day of Chichester, Heath of Worcester. In vain did they plead that the
court before which they were brought was not a canonical one; the
government appealed to the general rights of the temporal power as it
had once been exercised by the Roman Emperors. In the conflict of
church opinions the Protestant-minded prelates now had the upper hand.
Many who did not conform bought toleration from the government by
sacrifices of money and goods. Elsewhere the newly-appointed bishops
assented to concessions which did not always profit even the crown,
but sometimes, as at Lichfield, private persons.[154] Already the
further question was discussed whether there is in fact any essential
distinction between bishops and presbyters: a church of foreigners was
set up in London, to present a pattern of the pure apostolic
constitution as an example to the country. The government which had
acquired such a thorough mastery over the clergy developed an open
disinclination to the old forms of constitution in the church. Who
could have said, so long as things remained in the path thus once
entered upon, whither this would lead?

NOTES:

[139] Froude iv. 515 (extracts from the documents).

[140] Collier ii. 220 (Records lii).

[141] Proclamation of 8 July 1549 in Tytler, England under Edward VI
and Mary I, p. 180.

[142] The point of view under which it was drawn up appears in a
declaration inserted in the edition of 1549: 'the most weighty cause
of the abolishment of certain ceremonies was, that they were abused
partly by the superstitious blindness of the unlearned, and partly by
unsatiable avarice.--Where the old (ceremonies) may be well used there
they [their opponents] cannot reprove the old only for their age. They
ought rather to have reverence unto them for their antiquity, if they
will declare themselves to be more studious of unity and concord, than
of innovations and newfangleness which--is always to be eschewed.'

[143] 12 Sept. 1547 in Halliwell ii. 31. Cranmer appointed a prayer in
church for the marriage of Edward and Mary, 'to confound all those,
which labour to the lett and interruption of so godly a quiet and
amity.' In Somerset's prayer printed, since the first edition of this
book, in Froude v. 47, it is said: 'Look upon the small portion of the
earth, which professeth thy holy name; especially have an eye t