[Footnote 704: It has been alleged that the immediate object of this Parliament was to relieve the King from the necessity of repaying the loan (_D.N.B._, xxvi., 83); and much scorn has been poured on the notion that it had any important purpose (_L. and P._, iv., Introd., p. dcxlvii.). Brewer even denies its hostility to the Church on the ground that it was composed largely of lawyers, and "lawyers are not in general enemies to things established; they are not inimical to the clergy". Yet the law element was certainly stronger in the Parliaments of Charles I. than in that of 1529; were they not hostile to "things established" and "inimical to the clergy"? Contemporaries had a different opinion of the purpose of the Parliament of 1529. "It is intended," wrote Du Bellay on the 23rd of August, three months before Parliament met, "to hold a Parliament here this winter and act by their own absolute power, in default of justice being administered by the Pope in this divorce" (_ibid._, iv., 5862; _cf._ iv., 6011, 6019, 6307); "nothing else," wrote a Florentine in December, 1530, "is thought of in that island every day except of arranging affairs in such a way that they do no longer be in want of the Pope, neither for filling vacancies in the Church, nor for any other purpose" (_ibid._, iv., 6774).] [Footnote 705: _L. and P._, iv., 4909, 4911; _cf._ 5177, 5501.] [Footnote 706: _Ibid._, vi., 1528.]