The Life of King Henry the Eight • Paragraph 633
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In Canada and Australia protests were prepared and presented through the Cardinal--that from the Dominion being signed by all the members of the Hierarchy. In the House of Lords a Committee was appointed, on motion of Lord Salisbury, to deal with the matter although no Catholic Peers would serve upon it. They reported early in July that a modification of the Declaration might be made so as to omit the adjectives and objectionable phraseology without affecting the strength of the pledge itself. A Government measure was prepared along these lines and submitted to the House. It was opposed by Lord Rosebery on August 1st, on the ground that nothing could really bind conscientious convictions, that the King might change his views and not be bound by this Declaration in future, and, that it did not repudiate the temporal or spiritual supremacy of the Pope. The Archbishop of Canterbury did not like the changes, the Duke of Norfolk did not care for the new form and the Roman Catholics generally, in and out of the House, objected to the compromise as useless. The result was that Lord Salisbury eventually withdrew his measure and the matter dropped out of public discussion for the time--although the Canadian House of Commons and other public bodies in the Empire had meanwhile protested against the continued maintenance of the Declaration.