The barrier which had stemmed the reactionary tide had now fallen. Omnipotent in Parliament and Convocation, the King inclining in their favour, carrying with them the sympathy of the wealth, the worldliness, and the harder intellect of the country, freed from the dreaded minister, freed from the necessity of conciliating the German Protestants, the Anglican leaders made haste to redeem their lost time, and develope their policy more wisely than before.
Their handiwork is to be traced in the various measures which occupied the remainder of the session. The first step was to despatch the Bishop of Bath to the Duke of Cleves, to gain his consent, if possible, to his sister's separation from the King; Anne, herself, meanwhile, being recommended, for the benefit of her health, to retire for a few days to Richmond. The bill of attainder was disposed of on the I9th of June; on the 22nd the bishops brought in a bill for the better payment of tithes, which in a few years last past certain persons had contemptuously presumed to withhold.[1]
- ↑ 32 Henry VIII. cap. 7; Lords Journals, 32 Henry VIII. Session June 22.
the Imperial Court, supplied the Emperor's silence by his own enthusiasm. He wrote to Henry an ecstatic letter on the 'fall of that wicked man who, by his false doctrines and like disciples, so disturbed his Grace's subjects, that the age was in manner brought to desperation, perceiving a new tradition taught.' 'What blindness,' he exclaimed, 'what ingratitude is this of this traitor's, far passing Lucifer's, that, endeavouring to pluck the sword out of his sovereign's hand, hath deserved to feel the power of the same! But lauded be our Lord God that hath delivered your Grace out of the bear's claws, as not long before of a semblable danger of the lioness!'—Pate to Henry VIII.: State Papers, vol. viii. p. 364.
