were to regard themselves as possessed of no authority independent of the Crown. They were not successors of the apostles, but merely ordinary officials; and, in evidence that they understood and submitted to their position, they were required to accept a renewal of their commissions. Cranmer set the willing example, in an acknowledgment that all jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as secular, within the realm, only emanated from the sovereign.[1] The other prelates consented, or were compelled, to imitate him.[2]
But for the measures which the reforming party meditated, the Protector was not yet wholly in the position which he or they desired. He was hampered by a council of which the chancellor was a member; and so long as he could do nothing without the council's consent, he could but walk in the track which Henry had marked for him. Wriothesley, however, by a fortunate
- ↑ 'Quando quidem omnis jurisdicendi auctoritas atque etiam jurisdictio omni modo, tam illa quæ ecclesiastica dicitur quam sæcularis a Regiâ potestate velut a supremo capite ac omnium magistratuum intra regnum nostrum fonte et scaturigine primitus emanaverit.'—Cranmer's Renewal of his Commission: Burnet's Collectanea.
- ↑ Gardiner complained to Paget, holding Paget in some way as responsible. Paget replied, 'I malign not bishops, but would that both they and all others were in such order as might be most to the glory of God and the benefit of this realm: much less I malign your Lordship, but wish ye well; and if the estate of bishops is or shall be thought meet to be reformed, I wish either that you were no bishop, or that you could have such a pliable will as could bear reformation. Your Lordship shall have your commission in as ample a manner as I have authority to make out the same, and in as ample a manner as you had it before, which I think you may execute now with less fear of danger than you have had cause hitherto to do.'—Paget to Gardiner: Tytler, vol. i. p. 25.
