Henry’s vanity being gratified by this favour of the Pope, he entered more zealously into the designs of the Inquisition, and issued a royal proclamation, in which he commands that all persons _defamed_ or _suspected_ of _preaching_ or _writing_ contrary to the Catholic church should, by the bishops, be arrested and cast into prison. He then adds, “If any person, by the law of holy church, be convicted before the bishop or his commissary, that the said _bishop may keep in prison the said person so convicted, so long as it shall seem best to his discretion_; and may set a fine to be paid to the king, by the person convicted, _as it shall be thought convenient to the said bishop_, the said fine to be levied for the king’s use. And if any person within the realm of England be convicted of the aforesaid errors and heresies, he shall be committed to the secular jurisdiction, and shall suffer execution according to the laws of this realm.” Sanctioned thus by the king, the bishops, who appear to have been the authors of this proclamation, proceeded, by vile inquisitors, to search for victims, whom they imprisoned and grievously fined. Their scandalous exactions enriched them, as their inquisitorial power rendered them superior to any law, or screened them from accountability. The temporal lords, and the commons’ house of parliament, therefore, presented a petition to the king for relief, declaring the prelates had “_gotten into their hands more than a third part of all his majesty’s realm_!” They add, in their appeal to the king against these dreaded inquisitors,-- “And what do all these greedy, idle, holy thieves do with these yearly exactions which they take of the people? Truly nothing, but exempt themselves from the obedience of your grace. Nothing but translate all rule, power, lordship, authority, obedience, and dignity, from your grace to themselves. Nothing but that all your subjects should fall into disobedience and rebellion against your grace, and be under them, as they did to your noble predecessor, King John; who, because he would have punished certain traitors that conspired with the French king, to have deposed him from his crown and dignity, interdicted his land. For which matter your most noble realm hath wrongfully, alas! stood tributary, not to any temporal prince, but to _a cruel, devilish bloodsucker, drunken ever since with the blood of the saints and martyrs of Christ_!