r ordinance. He chose a middle course which, as is generally
unavoidable in such cases, was not entirely free from uncertainty and
obscurity. It was voted, "That the inheritance of the crown should rest,
remain, and abide in the king:" [**] but whether as rightful heir, or
only as present possessor, was not determined.

* Bacon, p. 581.

** Bacon, p. 581.

In like manner, Henry was contented that the succession should be
secured to the heirs of his body; but he pretended not, in case of their
failure, to exclude the house of York or to give the preference to that
of Lancaster: he left that great point ambiguous for the present, and
trusted that, if it should ever become requisite to determine it, future
incidents would open the way for the decision.

But even after all these precautions, the king was so little satisfied
with his own title, that in the following year, he applied to papal
authority for a confirmation of it; and as the court of Rome gladly laid
hold of all opportunities which the imprudence, weakness, or necessities
of princes afforded it to extend its influence, Innocent VIII., the
reigning pope, readily granted a bull, in whatever terms the king
was pleased to desire. All Henry's titles, by succession, marriage,
parliamentary choice, even conquest, are there enumerated; and to the
whole the sanction of religion is added; excommunication is denounced
against every one who should either disturb him in the present
possession, or the heirs of his body in the future succession of the
crown; and from this penalty no criminal, except in the article of
death, could be absolved but by the pope himself, or his special
commissioners. It is difficult to imagine that the security derived from
this bull could be a compensation for the defect which it betrayed in
Henry's title, and for the danger of thus inviting the pope to interpose
in these concerns.

It was natural, and even laudable in Henry to reverse the attainders
which had passed against the partisans of the house of Lancaster:
but the revenges which he exercised against the adherents of the York
family, to which he was so soon to be allied, cannot be considered in
the same light. Yet the parliament, at his instigation, passed an act
of attainder against the late king himself, against the duke of Norfolk,
the earl of Surrey, Viscount Lovel, the lords Zouche and Ferrars of
Chartley, Sir Walter and Sir James Harrington, Sir William Berkeley,
Sir