gue against him, some forty thousand clergy to be coerced into honest
dealing, and the succession to the crown floating in uncertainty--finally,
with excommunication hanging over himself, and at length falling, and his
deposition pronounced, Henry, we may be sure, had no easy time of it, and
no common work to accomplish; and all these things ought to be present
before our minds, as they were present before his mind, if we would see him
as he was, and judge him as we would be judged ourselves.

Leaving disaffection to mature itself, we return to the struggle between
the House of Commons and the bishops, which recommenced in the following
winter; first pausing to notice a clerical interlude of some illustrative
importance which took place in the close of the summer. The clergy, as we
saw, were relieved of their premunire on engaging to pay 118,000 pounds
within five years. They were punished for their general offences; the
formal offence for which they were condemned being one which could not
fairly be considered an offence at all. When they came to discuss therefore
the manner in which the money was to be levied, they naturally quarrelled
among themselves as to where the burden of the fine should fairly rest, and
a little scene has been preserved to us by Hall, through which, with
momentary distinctness, we can look in upon those poor men in their
perplexity. The bishops had settled among themselves that each diocese
should make its own arrangements; and some of these great persons intended
to spare their own shoulders to the utmost decent extremity. With this
object, Stokesley, Bishop of London, who was just then very busy burning
heretics, and therefore in bad odour with the people, resolved to call a
meeting of five or six of his clergy, on whom he could depend; and passing
quietly with their assistance such resolutions as seemed convenient, to
avoid in this way the more doubtful expedient of a large assembly.

The necessary intimations were given, and the meeting was to be held on the
1st of September, in the Chapter-house of St. Paul's. The bishop arrived at
the time appointed, but unhappily for his hopes, not only the chosen six,
but with them six hundred of the clergy of Middlesex, accompanied by a mob
of the London citizens, all gathered in a crowd at the Chapter-house door,
and clamouring to be admitted.

The bishop, trusting in the strength of the chains and bolts, and still
hoping to manage the affair official