It does not appear that Cranmer had any share in drawing up these articles, but he signed them. It has been said, to excuse him, that neither he, nor many of his colleagues, had at that time a distinct knowledge of such matters, and that they intended to make amendments in the articles; but these allegations are insufficient. Two facts alone explain the concessions of this pious man: the king's despotic will and the archbishop's characteristic weakness. He always bent his head; but, we must also acknowledge, it was in order to raise it again. Archbishop Lee, sixteen bishops, forty abbots or priors, and fifty archdeacons or proctors signed after Cromwell and the primate. The articles passed through Convocation, because—like Anne's condemnation—_it was the king's will_. Nothing can better explain the concessions of Cranmer, Cromwell, and others in the case of Anne Boleyn, than their support of these articles, which were precisely the opposite of the Scriptural doctrine whose triumph they had at heart. In both cases they had yielded slavishly to those magic words: _Le roi le veut_, The king wills it. Those four words were sufficient: that man was _loyal_ who sacrificed his own will to the sovereign. It was only by degrees that the free principles of protestantism were to penetrate among the people, and give England liberty along with order. Still that excuse is not sufficient: Cranmer would have left a more glorious name if he had suffered martyrdom under Henry VIII., and not waited for the reign of Mary. When the king's articles were known, discontent broke out in the opposite parties. 'Be silent, you contentious preachers and you factious schoolmen,' said the politicians: 'you would sooner disturb the peace of the world, than relinquish or retract one particle!'[405] The articles were sent all over England, with orders that everyone should conform to them at his peril. Cranmer did not look upon the game as lost. To bend before the blast, and then rise up again and guide the Reform to a good end, was his system. He first strove to prevent the evil by suggesting measures calculated to remedy it. Convocation resolved that a petition should be addressed to the king, praying him to permit his lay subjects to read the Bible in _English_, and to order a new translation of it to be made;[406] moreover, a great number of feast-days were abolished as favoring 'sloth, idleness, thieves, excesses, vagabonds, and riots;'[407] and finally, on the last day of the session (20th of July), Convocation declared—to show clearly that there was no question of returning to popery—that there was nothing more pernicious than a general council;[408] and that, consequently, they must decline to attend that which the pope intended to hold in the city of Mantua. Thereupon parliament and Convocation were dissolved, and the king did without them for three years. [Sidenote: CROMWELL'S INSTRUCTIONS.]