arrived of
the violent resolutions taken at Rome, is sufficient to justify this
opinion.

* Burnet, vol. i. p. 144.

All payments made to the apostolic chamber, all provisions, bulls,
dispensations, were abolished: monasteries were subjected to the
visitation and government of the king alone: the law for punishing
heretics was moderated: the ordinary was prohibited from imprisoning
or trying any person upon suspicion alone, without presentment by two
lawful witnesses; and it was declared, that to speak against the pope's
authority was no heresy: bishops were to be appointed, by a conge
d'elire from the crown, or, in case of the dean and chapter's refusal,
by letters patent; and no recourse was to be had to Rome for pails,
bulls, or provisions; Campeggio and Ghinucci, two Italians, were
deprived of the bishoprics of Salisbury and Worcester, which they had
hitherto enjoyed:[*] the law which had been formerly made against paying
annates or first-fruits, but which had been left in the king's power to
suspend or enforce, was finally established: and a submission which was
exacted two years before from the clergy, and which had been
obtained with great difficulty, received this session the sanction
of parliament.[**] In this submission, the clergy acknowledged that
convocations ought to be assembled by the king's authority only; they
promised to enact no new canons without his consent; and they agreed
that he should appoint thirty-two commissioners, in order to examine
the old canons, and abrogate such as should be found prejudicial to his
royal prerogative.[***] An appeal was also allowed from the bishop's
court to the king in chancery.

* Le Neve's Fasti Eccles. Angl.

** 25 Henry VIII. cap, 19.

*** Collier, vol. ii. p. 69, 70.

But the most important law passed this session was that which regulated
the succession to the crown: the marriage of the king with Catharine
was declared unlawful, void, and of no effect: the primate's sentence
annulling it was ratified: and the marriage with Queen Anne was
established and confirmed. The crown was appointed to descend to the
issue of this marriage, and failing them, to the king's heirs forever.
An oath likewise was enjoined to be taken in favor of this order
of succession, under the penalty of imprisonment during the king's
pleasure, and forfeiture of goods and chattels. And all slander against
the king, queen, or their issue, was subjected to the penalt