The convocation of the province of Canterbury having met on the 7th of January, 1531, Cromwell entered the hall, and quietly took his seat among the bishops; then rising, he informed them that their property and benefices were to be confiscated for the good of his Majesty, because they had submitted to the unconstitutional power of the cardinal. What terrible news! It was a thunderbolt to those selfish prelates; they were amazed. At length some of them plucked up a little courage. ‘The king himself had sanctioned the authority of the cardinal-legate,’ they said. ‘We merely obeyed his supreme will. Our resistance to his Majesty’s proclamations would infallibly have ruined us.’—‘That is of no consequence,’ was the reply; ‘there was the law: you should obey the constitution of the country even at the peril of your lives.’[109] The terrified bishops laid at the foot of the throne a magnificent sum, by which they hoped to redeem their offences and their benefices. But that was not what Henry desired: he pretended to set little store by their money. The threat of confiscation must constrain them to pay a ransom of still greater value. ‘My lords,’ said Cromwell, ‘in a petition that some of you presented to the pope not long ago, you called the king your _soul_ and your _head_.[110] Come, then, expressly recognize the supremacy of the king over the Church,[111] and his majesty, of his great goodness, will grant you your pardon.’ What a demand! The distracted clergy assembled, and a deliberation of extreme importance began. ‘The words in the address to the pope,’ said some, ‘were a mere form, and had not the meaning ascribed to them.’—‘The king being unable to untie the Gordian knot at Rome,’ said others, alluding to the divorce, ‘intends to cut it with his sword.’[112]—‘The secular power,’ exclaimed the most zealous, ‘has no voice in ecclesiastical matters. To recognize the king as head of the Church would be to overthrow the catholic faith.... The head of the Church is the pope.’ The debate lasted three days, and, as Henry’s ministers pointed to the theocratic government of Israel, a priest exclaimed, ‘We oppose the New Testament to the Old; according to the gospel, Christ is head of the Church.’ When this was told the king, he said, ‘Very well, I consent. If you declare me _head of the Church_ you may add _under God_.’ In this way the papal claims were compromised all the more. ‘We will expose ourselves to everything,’ they said, ‘rather than dethrone the Roman pontiff.’