t further enacted that no archbishop or bishop, official,
commissary, or any other minister, having spiritual jurisdiction, shall
ask, demand, or receive of any of the king's subjects any sum or sums of
money for the seal of any citizen, but only threepence sterling.--23 Hen.
VIII. cap. 9.

[348] 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 10.--By a separate clause all covenants to defraud
the purposes of this act were declared void, and the act itself was to be
interpreted "as beneficially as might be, to the destruction and utter
avoiding of such uses, intents, and purposes."

[349] Annates or firstfruits were first suffered to be taken within the
realm for the only defence of Christian people against infidels; and now
they be claimed and demanded as mere duty only for lucre, against all right
and conscience.--23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

[350] 23 Hen. VIII. cap. 20.

[351] It hath happened many times by occasion of death unto archbishops or
bishops newly promoted within two or three years after their consecration,
that their friends by whom they have been holpen to make payment have been
utterly undone and impoverished.--23 Henry VIII. cap. 20.

[352] _M. de la Pomeroy to Cardinal Tournon._

"London, March 23, 1531-2.

"My Lord,--I sent two letters to your lordship on the 20th of this month.
Since that day Parliament has been prorogued, and will not meet again till
after Easter.

"It has been determined that the Pope's Holiness shall receive no more
annates, and the collectors' office is to be abolished. Everything is
turning against the Holy See, but the King has shown no little skill; the
Lords and Commons have left the final decision of the question at his
personal pleasure, and the Pope is to understand that, if he will do
nothing for the King, the King has the means of making him suffer. The
clergy in convocation have consented to nothing, nor will they, till they
know the pleasure of their master the Holy Father; but the other estates
being agreed, the refusal of the clergy is treated as of no consequence.

"Many other rights and privileges of the Church are abolished also, too
numerous to mention."--MS. Bibliot. Imper. Paris.

[353] STRYPE, _Eccles. Mem._, vol. i. part 2, p. 158.

[354] Ibid.

[355] Sir George Throgmorton, Sir William Essex, Sir John Giffard, Sir
Marmaduke Constable, with many others, spoke and voted in opposition to the
government. They had a sort of club at the Queen's Head by Temple Bar,
where they held di