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An introductory history of England (v. 2)
An introductory history of England - v. 2 Author:Charles Robert Leslie Fletcher Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III THE MANHOOD OF KING HENRY VIII The ' Long Parliament of the Reformation' (1529-36) consisted of 45 lay peers, 19 bishops, and 29 abbots, and o... more »f 256 knights and burgesses. There were no doubt some attempts to influence the elections to the Lower House, but they were singularly unsuccessful; and there is absolutely no truth in the statement that intimidation was used by the King or his ministers to that House during the sittings. It has been asserted that the Statutes passed in this Parliament were drafted by the King's own secretaries (even as they are now by the King's ministers); if so, they were as profoundly modified in the debates as a modern government Bill is in a modern Parliament. Even those who think that the whole Reformation was both a blunder and a crime must admit that the Henrician part of it was thoroughly to the taste of the House of Commons. The only Statute not wholly pleasing to the House, that of ' Uses,' was thrown out time after time and only passed in the last session. Moreover, we should be in error if we imagined that the Parliament was busied wholly in effecting the breach with Rome. It took, in its stride, as a society of businesslike Englishmen were then apt to 1 Vid infra, p. 55. 48 THE PARLIAMENT OF 1529 do, a vast number of matters: finance, the navy, poor relief and above all commerce, most of the Statutes on which emanated from the Lower House. It is when we come to examine the attitude of the House of Lords that we are puzzled. Almost to a man the bishops were against the Crown ; but a large number of bishoprics fell vacant in the early years of this Parliament, and were at once filled by government nominees. The abbots appear to have been pliant; the freely spoken hints of dissolution would naturally lead them to keep...« less