 Rather than risk empanelling a jury, and with Papal participation at this juncture no longer being welcome, the Lord Chancellor, Thomas Audley recommended that dissolution should be legalised retrospectively through a special act of Parliament.While these transactions were going on in England, elsewhere in Europe events were taking place which presaged a storm.In 1521, Martin Luther had published ("On the monastic vows"), a treatise which declared that the monastic life had no scriptural basis, was pointless and also actively immoral in that it was not compatible with the true spirit of Christianity.