Page:A general history for colleges and high schools (Myers, 1890).djvu/618

552 availed nothing. What was considered idolatry in high places could not be tolerated.

Many persons during the reign were imprisoned for refusing to conform to the new worship; while two at least were given to the flames as "heretics and contemners of the Book of Common Prayer." Probably a large majority of the English people were still at this time good Catholics at heart.

Reconciliation with Rome.—Upon the death of Edward, an attempt was made, in the interest of the Protestant party, to place upon the throne Lady Jane Grey, a grandniece of Henry VIII.; but the people, knowing that Mary was the rightful heir to the throne, rallied about her, and she was proclaimed queen amidst great demonstrations of loyalty. Soon after her accession, she was married to Philip II. of Spain.

Mary was an earnest Catholic, and her zeal effected the full reëstablishment of the Catholic worship throughout the realm. Parliament voted that the nation should return to its obedience to the Papal See; and then the members of both houses fell