ght an accusation against the clergy before the
king. When Parliament met A.D. 1529, that House, as its very first act,
declared to the sovereign that sedition and heresy were pervading the
land, and that it had become absolutely necessary to apply a corrective.
It affirmed that the troubles into which the realm had fallen were
attributable to the clergy; that the chief foundation, occasion, and
cause thereof was the parallel jurisdiction of the Church and State;
that the incompatible legislative authority of convocation lay at the
bottom of the mischief. Among other specific points it alleged the
following:--That the houses of convocation made laws without the royal
assent, and without the consent or even the knowledge of the people;
that such laws were never published in the English language, and that,
nevertheless, men were daily punished under them without ever having had
an opportunity to eschew the penalties; that the demoralization extended
from the Archbishop of Canterbury down to the lowest priest, that
dignitary having tampered with the despatch of justice in his Court of
Arches; that parsons, vicars, priests, and curates were in the habit of
denying the administration of the sacraments save upon the payment of
money; that poor men were harrassed without any legal cause in the
spiritual courts for the mere purpose of extortion, and exorbitant fees
were exacted from them; that the probate of wills was denied except on
the gratification of the appetite of prelates and ordinaries for money;
that the high ecclesiastics extorted large sums for the induction of
persons into benefices, and that they did daily confer benefices on
"young folk," their nephews and relatives, being minors, for the purpose
of detaining the fruits and profits in their own hands; that the bishops
illegally imprisoned, sometimes for a year or more, persons in their
jails, without informing them of the cause of their imprisonment or the
name of their accuser; that simple, unlearned men, and even
"well-witted" ones, were entrapped by subtle questions into heresy in
the ecclesiastical courts, and punishment procured against them.

These are serious charges; they imply that the Church had degenerated
into a contrivance for the extortion of money. The House of Commons
petitioned the king to make such laws as should furnish a remedy. The
king submitted the petition to the bishops, and required of them an
answer.

[Sidenote: Reply of the bishops to