id not think proper of themselves to carry into
execution. This abject servility never appeared more conspicuously than
in a new parliament which the king now assembled, and which, if he had
been so pleased, might have been the last that ever sat in England. But
he found them too useful instruments of dominion ever to entertain
thoughts of giving them a total exclusion.

The chancellor opened the parliament by informing the house of lords,
that it was his majesty's earnest desire to extirpate from his kingdom
all diversity of opinion in matters of religion; and as this undertaking
was, he owned, important and arduous, he desired them to choose a
committee from among themselves, who might draw up certain articles
of faith; and communicate them afterwards to the parliament. The lords
named the vicar-general, Cromwell, now created peer, the archbishops of
Canterbury and York, the bishops of Durham, Carlisle, Worcester, Bath
and Wells, Bangor, and Ely. The house might have seen what a hopeful
task they had undertaken: this small committee itself was agitated with
such diversity of opinion, that it could come to no conclusion. The duke
of Norfolk then moved in the house, that, since there were no hopes of
having a report from the committee, the articles of faith intended to be
established should be reduced to six; and a new committee be appointed
to draw an act with regard to them. As this peer was understood to speak
the sense of the king, his motion was immediately complied with; and,
after a short prorogation, the bill of the "six articles," or the bloody
bill, as the Protestants justly termed it, was introduced, and having
passed the two houses, received the royal assent.

In this law the doctrine of the real presence was established, the
communion in one kind, the perpetual obligation of vows of chastity, the
utility of private masses, the celibacy of the clergy, and the necessity
of auricular confession. The denial of the first article, with regard
to the real presence, subjected the person to death by fire, and to the
same forfeiture as in cases of treason; and admitted not the privilege
of abjuring: an unheard-of severity, and unknown to the inquisition
itself The denial of any of the other five articles, even though
recanted, was punishable by the forfeiture of goods and chattels, and
imprisonment during the king's pleasure: an obstinate adherence to
error, or a relapse, was adjudged to be felony, and punishable wit