divorce the king had interfered
despotically to control the judgment of the universities, he had made no
attempt, as we have seen, to check the tongues of the clergy. Nor if he had
desired to check them, is it likely that at the present stage of
proceedings he could have succeeded. No law had as yet been passed which
made a crime of a difference of opinion on the pope's dispensing powers;
and so long as no definitive sentence had been pronounced, every one had
free liberty to think and speak as he pleased. So great, indeed, was the
anxiety to disprove Catherine's assertion that England was a _locus
suspectus_, and therefore that the cause could not be equitably tried
there, that even in the distribution of patronage there was an ostentatious
display of impartiality. Not only had Sir Thomas More been made chancellor,
although emphatically on Catherine's side; but Cuthbert Tunstal, who had
been her counsel, was promoted to the see of Durham. The Nun of Kent, if
her word was to be believed, had been offered an abbey,[364] and that Henry
permitted language to pass unnoticed of the most uncontrolled violence,
appears from a multitude of informations which were forwarded to the
government from all parts of the country. But while imposing no restraint
on the expression of opinion, the council were careful to keep themselves
well informed of the opinions which were expressed, and an instrument was
ready made to their hands, which placed them in easy possession of what
they desired. Among the many abominable practices which had been introduced
by the ecclesiastical courts, not the least hateful was the system of
espionage with which they had saturated English society; encouraging
servants to be spies on their masters, children on their parents,
neighbours on their neighbours, inviting every one who heard language
spoken anywhere of doubtful allegiance to the church, to report the words
to the nearest official, as an occasion of instant process. It is not
without a feeling of satisfaction, that we find this detestable invention
recoiling upon the heads of its authors. Those who had so long suffered
under it, found an opportunity in the turning tide, of revenging themselves
on their oppressors; and the country was covered with a ready-made army of
spies, who, with ears ever open, were on the watch for impatient or
disaffected language in their clerical superiors, and furnished steady
reports of such language to Cromwell.[365]

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