 This gave the King his opportunity and an edict forbidding such appeals was immediately issued, and the three bishops were arrested.Their imprisonment, however, must have lasted only a few months for in February 1531, Convocation met, and Fisher was present.This was the occasion when the clergy were forced, at a cost of 100,000 pounds, to purchase the King's pardon for having recognized Cardinal Wolsey's authority as legate of the pope; and at the same time to acknowledge Henry as supreme head of the Church in England, to which phrase the addition of the clause "so far as God's law permits" was made through Fisher's efforts.