Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

constitution, and expressed mostly the will of the
Pope, they were the substitution of a foreign and
usurped authority for the legitimate rule of the king
and the Parliament. A commission of thirty-two
persons, sixteen of whom were ecclesiastics, and
the other sixteen laymen, was appointed by the
crown to examine the old canons and constitutions,
and to abrogate those that were contrary to the
statutes of the realm or prejudicial to the
prerogative-royal.[4] A new body of ecclesiastical
laws was framed, composed of such of the old
canons as being unexceptionable were retained,
and the new constitutions which the commission
was empowered to enact. This was a favorite
project of Cranmer's, which he afterwards renewed
in the reign of Edward VI.
It was foreseen that this policy, which was
daily widening the breach between England and
Rome, might probably in the end bring upon the
nation excommunication and interdict. These
fulminations had lost the terrors that once in vested
them; nevertheless, their infliction might, even yet,
occasion no little inconvenience. Arrangements
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