Page:Cambridge Modern History Volume 2.djvu/552

 much splendour and by a revival of all the features and details which belonged to such ceremonies in medieval times. The whole Court also now resumed the brilliant attire and costly adornments of the reign of Henry VIII. On the 5th of the month Mary's first Parliament assembled. The Council, out of deference to the royal wishes, had contemplated measures which would have reversed all the anti-papal enactments of both the preceding reigns. But here the Commons assumed a decisive attitude: and it was eventually determined that the question of restoring the lands and other property, which had been wrested from the Church and the suppressed monasteries, should not be considered, and that, with respect to the supremacy in matters of religion, legislation should go back no further than to the commencement of Edward's reign. Whatever appeared to favour papal authority was, as Mary in a letter to Pole herself admitted, regarded with suspicion. On the other hand, much was done to propitiate the new sovereign. A bill was at once brought in legalising the marriage of Catharine of Aragon and abolishing all disabilities attaching to the profession of the old faith. The opposition of the Protestant party in the House caused a certain delay; but after an interval of three days the ministers brought in two bills the one affirming the legality of Catharine's marriage without adverting to the papal decision; the other rescinding the legislation affecting religious worship and the Church during the reign of the late King. The retrospective force of the latter bill went, however, no further-the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown being still tacitly admitted. But, on the other hand, it involved the renunciation of the chief results of Cranmer's efforts during the preceding reign-the Reformed Liturgy, the First and Second Books of Common Prayer, the administration of the Sacrament in both kinds, and the recognition of a married clergy-and was consequently not allowed to pass without considerable opposition. But its opponents, although representing nearly a third of the Lower House, did not deem it prudent to press the question to a division, and in the Upper House no resistance was offered.

It was manifest that conclusions so incompatible-the recognition of Mary as Head of the Church in England and the tacit assumption of the Papal Supremacy-represented a temporising policy which was not likely to secure the permanent support of either party. Cardinal Pole declared himself profoundly dissatisfied: the Divine favour had recently been conspicuously shown in that outburst of loyal feeling which had secured Mary's succession, and sovereign and people alike were bound by gratitude forthwith to seek reconciliation with the Holy See and to afford its Legate an honourable reception. The Emperor and Gardiner, on the other hand, still counselled caution, and more especially patience in awaiting the results of a gradual re-establishment of that Roman ritual which early association and religious sentiment endeared to the hearts of a majority of the population. In common with many of her