turned the
Pallium and the Bulls, receiving the Annates in exchange. The pope's part
in the matter was now terminated. No Annates would be sent any longer to
Rome, and no Bulls would be returned from Rome. The appointments lay
between the chapters and the crown; and it might have seemed, at first
sight, as if it would have been sufficient to omit the reference to the
papacy, and as if the remaining forms might continue as they were. The
chapters, however, had virtually long ceased to elect freely; the crown had
absorbed the entire functions of presentation, sometimes appointing
foreigners,[682] sometimes allowing the great ecclesiastical ministers to
nominate themselves;[683] while the rights of the chapters, though existing
in theory, were not officially recognised either by the pope or by the
crown. The king affected to accept the names of the prelates-elect, when
returned to him from Rome, as nominations by the pope; and the pope, in
communicating with the chapters, presented them with their bishops as from
himself.[684] The papal share in the matter was a shadow, but it was
acknowledged under the forms of courtesy; the share of the chapters was
wholly and absolutely ignored. The crisis of a revolution was not the
moment at which their legal privileges could be safely restored to them.
The problem of re-arrangement was a difficult one, and it was met in a
manner peculiarly English. The practice of granting the _conge d'elire_ to
the chapters on the occurrence of a vacancy, which had fallen into
desuetude, was again adopted, and the church resumed the forms of liberty:
but the licence to elect a bishop was to be accompanied with the name of
the person whom the chapter was required to elect; and if within twelve
days the person so named had not been chosen, the nomination of the crown
was to become absolute, and the chapter would incur a Premunire.[685]

This act, which I conceive to have been more arbitrary in form than in
intention, was followed by a closing attack upon the remaining "exactions"
of the Bishop of Rome. The Annates were gone. There were yet to go,
"Pensions, Censes, Peter's Pence, Procurations, Fruits, Suits for
Provision, Delegacies and Rescripts in causes of Contention and Appeals,
Jurisdictions legatine--also Dispensations, Licenses, Faculties, Grants,
Relaxations, Writs called Perinde valere, Rehabilitations, Abolitions,"
with other unnamed (the parliament being wearied of naming them) "infinite
sor