of the petition of the Commons against the clergy. It farther re-enacted the Statute of Appeals of the previous year, with the important addition of a right of further appeal from the Archbishop to the King in Chancery, which was to work by means of a commission under the Great Seal.[1] The Annates Act,[2] again, was a repetition in a much more thoroughgoing form of the Act of two years before, and is further remarkable as containing also the provision for the appointment of bishops on the royal nomination, and with a merely colourable election by the Chapter, which was again restored under Elizabeth, and which has given rise to so much discussion and animadversion in our own days.
The previous Annates Act had been a measure evidently intended partly as a reform of an acknowledged abuse, and partly as a warning to the Pope of what might be in store for him in the future.[3] This is plainly seen in the fact that bulls were, under it, still to be obtained from Rome for the appointment of bishops, though the sums to be paid for them were diminished, and that the King was empowered to suspend the Act, and in the meantime to negotiate with the Pope for a settlement on moderate terms. This Act, on the other hand, forbids not only all payments but all bulls also, and, together with the following Act forbidding payments to Rome of other kinds and on other occasions, constituted an entire practical repudiation of the Pope's authority.
While it was yet the springtime of 1534, the sessions of both Parliament and Convocation came to an end, but the Acts of this important year were far from being
