Footnote 150: ‘As he had planted himself upon the firm rock of God’s Word.’—Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 643. Footnote 151: Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 648. Footnote 152: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 330 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 153: Ibid. p. 650. Footnote 154: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 650 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 155: Isaiah xliii. 2. In Bilney’s Bible, which is preserved in the library of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, this passage (verses 1-3) is marked in the margin with a pen. Footnote 156: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 654 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 157: Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 655, note. Footnote 158: Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 655 (Parker Soc.). Footnote 159: ‘And toward his enemy so charitable.’—Latimer, _Works_, ii. p. 330. (Parker Soc.). Footnote 160: _History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century_, vol. v. bk. xx. ch. xv. Footnote 161: ‘To the intent that the Gospel of Christ might be set forward.’—Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 683. Footnote 162: Ibid. p. 687. Footnote 163: ‘He took his crozier-staff and smote him oh the breast.’—Ibid. Footnote 164: _History of the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century_, vol. v. bk. xx. ch. vii. Footnote 165: Foxe, _Acts_, iv. p. 689. Footnote 166: ‘And also twisted in his brows with small ropes so that the blood....’—Ibid. Footnote 167: Cotton MS. Anderson, _Annals of Bible_, i. p. 310. ‘It will cause the sect to wax greater, and those errors to be more plenteously sowed in the realm, than heretofore.’ CHAPTER XIII. THE KING DESPOILS THE POPE AND THE CLERGY. (MARCH TO MAY 1532.) Henry VIII. having permitted the bishops to execute their task of persecution, proceeded to carry out his own, that of making the papacy disgorge. Unhappily for the clergy, the king could not attack the pope, and they entirely escaped the blows. The duel between Henry and Clement was about to become more violent, and in the space of three months (March, April, and May) the Romish Church, stripped of important prerogatives, would learn that, after so many ages of wealth and honor, the hour of its humiliation had come at last. Henry was determined, above all things, not to permit his cause to be tried at Rome. What would be thought if he yielded? ‘Could the pope,’ wrote Henry to his envoys, ‘constrain kings to leave the charge God had entrusted to them, in order to humble themselves before him? That would be to tread under foot the glory of our person and the privileges of our kingdom. If the pope persists, take your leave of the pontiff, and return to us immediately,’—‘The pope,’ added Norfolk, ‘would do well to reflect if he intend the continuance of good obedience of England to the see apostolic.’[168]