On the return of a settled government, they were startled
for a moment in their security; the conduct of some among them had become
so unbearable, that even Henry VII., who inherited the Lancastrian
sympathies, was compelled to notice it; and the following brief act was
passed by his first parliament, proving by the very terms in which it is
couched the existing nature of church discipline. "For the more sure and
likely reformation," it runs, "of priests, clerks, and religious men,
culpable, or by their demerits openly noised of incontinent living in their
bodies, contrary to their order, be it enacted, ordained, and established,
that it be lawful to all archbishops and bishops, and other ordinaries
having episcopal jurisdiction, to punish and chastise such religious men,
being within the bounds of their jurisdiction, as shall be convict before
them, by lawful proof, of adultery, fornication, incest, or other fleshly
incontinency, by committing them to ward and prison, there to remain for
such time as shall be thought convenient for the quality of their
trespasses."[88]

Previous to the passing of this act, therefore, the bishops, who had power
to arrest laymen on suspicion of heresy, and detain them in prison
untried,[89] had no power to imprison priests, even though convicted of
adultery or incest. The legislature were supported by the Archbishop of
Canterbury. Cardinal Morton procured authority from the pope to visit the
religious houses, the abominations of which had become notorious;[90] and
in a provincial synod held on the 24th of February, 1486, he laid the
condition of the secular clergy before the assembled prelates. Many
priests, it was stated, spent their time in hawking or hunting, in lounging
at taverns, in the dissolute enjoyment of the world. They wore their hair
long like laymen; they were to be seen lounging in the streets with cloak
and doublet, sword and dagger. By the scandal of their lives they
imperilled the stability of their order.[91] A number of the worst
offenders, in London especially, were summoned before the synod and
admonished;[92] certain of the more zealous among the learned (_complures
docti_) who had preached against clerical abuses were advised to be more
cautious, for the avoiding of scandal;[93] but the archbishop, taking the
duty upon himself, sent round a circular among the clergy of his province,
exhorting them to general amendment.[94]

Yet this little cloud again disappeared