“to write this strange language in cipher; for the noble lords utter it at open table. I think they will do something to be talked about.”[12] The leading members of the Commons held more serious meetings with one another. They said they had spoken enough, and that now they must act. They specified the abuses they would claim to have redressed, and prepared petitions for reform to be presented to the king. Before long the movement descended from the sphere of the nobility to that of the people; a sphere always important, and particularly when a social revolution is in progress. Petty tradesmen and artisans spoke more energetically than the lords. They did more than speak. The apparitor of the Bishop of London having entered the shop of a mercer in the ward of St. Bride, and left a summons on the counter calling upon him to pay a certain clerical tax, the indignant tradesman took up his yard-measure, whereupon the officer drew his sword, and then, either from fear or an evil conscience, ran away. The mercer followed him, assaulted him in the street, and broke his head. The London shopkeepers did not yet quite understand the representative system; they used their staves when they should have waited for the speeches of the members of parliament. The king tolerated this agitation because it forwarded his purposes. There were advisers who insinuated that it was dangerous to give free course to the passions of the people, and that the English, combining great physical strength with a decided character, might go too far in the way of reform, if their prince gave them the rein. But Henry VIII., possessing an energetic will, thought it would be easy for him to check the popular ebullition whenever he pleased. When Jupiter frowned, all Olympus trembled. Footnote 5: These letters will be found in Bonnet’s _Lettres Françaises de Calvin_ i. pp. 261, 305, 332, 345, 374. _Zurich Letters_, ii. pp. 70, 785, &c. Footnote 6: Isaiah xlix. 23. Footnote 7: Le Grand, _Preuves du Divorce_, p. 378. Footnote 8: “Il nous faudra jeter le froc aux orties.”—Ibid. Footnote 9: “Certain preachers who presumed to preach openly or secretly in a manner contrary to the catholic faith.”—Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 677. Footnote 10: Le Grand, _Preuves du Divorce_, Du Bellay to Montmorency, p. 374. Footnote 11: “Communis pronuba inter presbyteros, fratres, monacos et canonicos.”—Hall, _Criminal Causes_, p. 28. Footnote 12: “Je crois qu’ils vont faire de beaux miracles.”—Le Grand, _Preuves_, p. 374. CHAPTER II. PARLIAMENT AND ITS GRIEVANCES. (NOVEMBER 1529.) [Sidenote: Opening Of The New Parliament.]