icence by the king
and that they must swear allegiance to him before consecration. A
second act forbade the payment of Peter's pence and all other fees to
Rome, and vested in the Archbishop of Canterbury the right to grant
licences previously granted by the pope. A third act, for the
subjection of the clergy, put convocation under the royal power and
forbade all privileges inconsistent with this. The new pope, Paul III,
struck back, though {293} with hesitation, excommunicating the king,
[Sidenote: 1535-8] declaring all his children by Anne Boleyn
illegitimate, and absolving his subjects from their oath of allegiance.

[Sidenote: 1534]

Two acts entrenched the king in his despotic pretensions. The Act of
Succession, [Sidenote: Act of Succession] notable as the first
assertion by crown and Parliament of the right to legislate in this
constitutional matter, vested the inheritance of the crown in the issue
of Henry and Anne, and made it high treason to question the marriage.
The Act of Supremacy [Sidenote: Act of Supremacy] declared that the
king's majesty "justly and rightfully is and ought to be supreme head
of the church of England," pointedly omitting the qualification
insisted on by Convocation,--"as far as the law of Christ allows."
Exactly how far this supremacy went was at first puzzling. That it
extended not only to the governance of the temporalities of the church,
but to issuing injunctions on spiritual matters and defining articles
of belief was soon made apparent; on the other hand the monarch never
claimed in person the power to celebrate mass.

That the abrogation of the papal authority was accepted so easily is
proof of the extent to which the national feeling of the English church
had already gone. An oath to recognize the supremacy of the king was
tendered to both convocations, to the universities, to the clergy and
to prominent laymen, and was with few exceptions readily taken.
Doubtless many swallowed the oath from mere cowardice; others took it
with mental reservations; and yet that the majority complied shows that
the substitution of a royal for a papal despotism was acceptable to the
conscience of the country at large. Many believed that they were not
departing from the Catholic faith; but that others welcomed the act as
a step towards the Reformation cannot be doubted. How strong was the
hold of Luther on the country will presently be shown, but here {294}
only one instance of the exubera