deputies were men of notoriously infamous characters; some of them had been branded, having been convicted of heinous crimes. On arriving at the gates of the houses, they appear to have demanded an immediate production of money, jewels, Churchplate and vestments; but specially of the titledeeds of their property.

To quote from an able and forcible writer as to their general doings and customary processes: “The monks and nuns, who had never dreamed of the possibility of such proceedings, who had never had any idea that Magna Charta and all the laws of the land could be set aside in a moment, and whose recluse and peaceful lives rendered them wholly unfit to cope with at once crafty and desperate villainy, fell before these ruffians as chickens fall before the kite. The report made by these villains met with no contradiction; the accused parties had no means of making a defence; there was no court for them to appear in; they dared not, even if they had the means, offer a defence or make a complaint, for they had seen the horrible consequences, the burnings, the rippings up of all those of their brethren who ventured to whisper their dissent from any dogma or decree of the Tyrant. The project was to deprive the people of their property; and yet the parties from whom

the property was to be taken were to have no court in which to plead their cause, no means of obtaining a hearing, could make even no complaint but at the peril of their lives. They, and those who depended on them, were to be at once stripped of this great mass of property, without any other ground than that of reports made by men sent for the express purpose of finding a pretence for the dissolution of the monasteries, and for the king's taking to himself property that had never belonged to him or his predecessors."

In the spring of the same year, that is, in 1535, Cromwell, in order not to forget the secular clergy, and at the same time not to allow them to forget him, suggested to the king the desirability of compelling those bishops and ecclesiastical authorities who appeared at all backward in their duties to recommend the same kind of subserviency to the inferior clergy under them as they had shown to the Supreme Head and ordinary, and to his VicarGeneral. By consequence official letters were dispatched to all the English Bishops, enjoining them to preach the newly-adopted Gospel of Erastianism with zeal and devotion. They were to put in the forefront of their homilies the novel title and ecclesiastical dignity of the king, now formally assumed, and to see that on all Sundays and feast

days the preachers under them did the same in plain and unmistakable terms. They were at the same time strictly enjoined to erase from the service-books of the Church every prayer, rule, and rubric in which the name of the Pope occurred, so that, as the phrase ran, the "memory of the Bishop of Rome, except to his contumely and reproach, might be extinct, suppressed, and obscured." A new form of bidding the beads before sermons was also enjoined by Cromwell, the clergy being required to pray "for the king, only Supreme Head of the Catholic Church of England, and for Queen Anne." It was also required, among other precise directions, that every preacher should preach once on the usurped power of the Bishop of Rome, and refrain from siding with his Grace's wife, Queen Catherine; that collects for the king and for the lady known as "Queen Anne" should be used at all High Masses in every Cathedral and parish church, as well as in the churches of all the religious houses throughout the land; while, as a still more practical stir-up of their flagging energies, the clergy were furthermore furnished with a kind of outline of a special sermon upon the history of the king's divorce case, in which readymade arguments and royal reasons were abundantly provided to uphold the policy and morals of

the Supreme Head, all furthermore-perhaps with a dash of irony--were expressly required "to preach only the Scripture and the pure word of Christ."

Within five weeks most of the prelates had sent in their replies. But some few of them, and many of the inferior clergy, were not quite so obedient and subservient to the royal Defender of the Faith as they perhaps might have been. A few were silent and sullen, as was reported to Cromwell by his active and inquisitorial agents; others were outspoken and plain-spoken in opposition, both to the Supreme Head and his Vicar-General. So, within ten days of the dispatch of the order regulating the preaching of the clergy, a circular letter was sent to all the Justices of the Peace throughout the country, commanding them to make immediate and diligent search, and insist that the Bishops did their duty as required without diminution or omission. This took place on the 9th of June. To place the Bishops and clergy under the town and country magistrates, though perhaps something of a novelty in Church government, was quite worthy of a lay Vicar-General and the king's other advisers. If default or dissimulation were found, it was to be reported without delay to the king's council; and if this were not done promptly

and efficiently by the Justices of the Peace-if, for example, they should halt or stumble, they were to be assured that the king, like a prince of justice, would so severely punish them for their inexcusable apathy that all the world beside would take warning and beware, contrary to their due allegiance, how they disobeyed the lawful commandment of their Sovereign Lord and Prince in such things. On the other hand, if they were true and faithful in the execution of their duty, it was authoritatively and right royally asserted that "they should thus advance the honor of God Almighty," and, what was obviously of more importance, “the imperial dignity of their High and Mighty Sovereign Lord."

Three priors of three Carthusian Monasteries were foremost in boldly resisting the claim of the spiritual supremacy made by the king when the oath was legalized. One was John Houghton, prior of London; another Robert Lawrence, prior of Beauvalle; and the third Augustine Webster, prior of Axholme. The charge against them was that they had asserted that "the king, our Sovereign Lord, is not Supreme Head on Earth of the Church of England." This was reported generally, and, reaching the ears of King Henry, made him not simply angry, but furious.