In the third session of the Reformation Parliament, which began on 15 January 1532, the Commons presented a petition against the misdemeanours of the ordinaries, the judges in ecclesiastical courts, and in particular against the way in which heresy trials were conducted; from this ‘Supplication against the Ordinaries’ and the answers produced by Convocation arose the demands of May1532 which compelled Convocation to abdicate the independent jurisdiction and law-making power of the Church. Thus the Supplication, an interesting document in itself, also marks the beginning of the real attack on the liberties of the Church, an attack which had been heralded by the praemunire fine of 1531 but had not before resulted in practical measures. The events of this third session – the passage of the first Act of Annates and the enforced submission of the clergy – ended the period of temporizing and hesitation, and ushered in the full revolution which dominated the history of the 1530s. While the policy pursued up to the beginning of 1532 shows great reluctance in high places to destroy all hope of a settlement with Rome and of obtaining the divorce with the pope's sanction, the session of that year introduced a new and active policy, one of whose first achievements was to reduce the clergy to impotent obedience.

The Supplication, which had such momentous consequences, has not had the study it deserves.