Church were passed, of which 27 Henry VIII. c. 15, which re-enacted the permission to the King to nominate a commission for making ecclesiastical laws (which, however, never took effect), and 27 Henry VIII. c. 28, which dissolved the smaller religious houses, and gave their possessions to the King, were the most important.
A new Parliament and a new Convocation assembled in June. The primary business of both was to deal with the miserable affair of the dissolution of Henry's marriage with Anne Boleyn, and the subsequent execution of that unhappy person. Into the right or wrong of this matter it is quite beyond my province to inquire; it is enough to know that priests and lawyers. Parliament and Convocation, all and equally concurred in condemning her; and though it has been made, with most of us in modern times, almost an article of faith to believe her innocent, it is somewhat difficult to believe that all these dignified and highly reputed and responsible authorities concurred in the perpetration of a deliberate and atrocious crime.
The ecclesiastical legislation of this short Parliament, for it lasted but a single session, being dissolved on July 18, is a matter which more immediately concerns us, and it was not altogether of an unimportant character. Amongst its Acts were two which tended to extinguish completely any lingering rights or quasi-rights of the See of Rome in England, and others which dealt with the discipline of the clergy. The proceedings of Convocation in this session are of greater interest. Now, for the first time, the lay vicar-general appeared and took his seat next the Archbishop, and signed documents, so far as appears, even before him. Now also the Supreme Head began to exercise his functions
