The vice-chancellor, flattering himself that he had a majority, notwithstanding these clamors, called a meeting of the doctors, bachelors of divinity, and masters of arts, for Sunday afternoon. About two hundred persons assembled, and the three parties were distinctly marked out. The most numerous and the most excited were those who held for the pope against the king. The evangelicals were in a minority, but were quite as decided as their adversaries, and much calmer. The politicians, uneasy at seeing the friends of Latimer and Cranmer disposed to vote with them, would have, however, to accept of their support, if they wished to gain the victory. They resolved to seize the opportunity offered them. ‘Most learned senators,’ said the vice-chancellor, ‘I have called you together because the great love which the king bears you engages me to consult your wisdom.’ Thereupon Gardiner and Fox handed in the letter which Henry had given them, and the vice-chancellor read it to the meeting. In it the king set forth his hopes of seeing the doctors unanimous to do what was agreeable to him. The deliberations commenced, and the question of a rupture with Rome soon began to appear distinctly beneath the question of the divorce. Edmunds spoke for the king, Tomson for the pope. There was an interchange of antagonistic opinions and a disorder of ideas among many; the speakers grew warm; one voice drowned another, and the confusion became extreme.[43] The vice-chancellor, desirous of putting an end to the clamor, proposed referring the matter to a committee, whose decision should be regarded as that of the whole university, which was agreed to. Then, seeing more clearly that the royal cause could not succeed without the help of the evangelical party, he proposed some of its leaders—Doctors Salcot, Reps, Crome, Shaxton, and Latimer—as members of the committee. On hearing these names, there was an explosion of murmurs in the meeting. Salcot, Abbot of St. Benet’s, was particularly offensive to the doctors of the Romish party. ‘We protest,’ they said, ‘against the presence in the committee of those who have approved of Cranmer’s book, and thus declared their opinion already.’ ‘When any matter is talked of all over the kingdom,’ answered Gardiner, ‘there is not a sensible man who does not tell his friends what he thinks about it.’ The whole afternoon was spent in lively altercation. The vice-chancellor, wishing to bring it to an end, said: ‘Gentlemen, it is getting late, and I invite every one to take his seat, and declare his mind by a secret vote.’[44] It was useless; no one took his seat; the confusion, reproaches, and declamations continued. At dark, the vice-chancellor adjourned the meeting until the next day. The doctors separated in great excitement, but with different feelings. While the politicians saw nothing else to discuss but the question of the king’s marriage, the evangelicals and