Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/293

1553.] With the same object, though not with the same object only, the Lords of the Council supported the Bishop of Winchester. They proposed to alter the form of the coronation oath, and to bind the Queen by an especial clause to maintain the independence of the English Church—a precaution, as it proved, not unnecessary, for the existing form was already inconvenient, and Mary was meditating how, when called on to swear to observe the laws and constitutions of the realm, she could introduce an adjective sub silentio; she intended to swear only that she would observe the laws and constitutions. But she looked with the gravest alarm to the introduction of more awkward phrases; if words were added which would be equivalent (as she would understand them) to a denial of Christ and his Church, she had resolved to refuse at all hazards.

But her courage was not put to the test. The true grounds on which the delay of the coronation was desired could not be avowed. The Queen was told that her passage through the streets would be unsafe until her accession had been sanctioned by Parliament, and the Act repealed by which she was illegitimatized. With Paget's help she faced down these objections, and declared that she would be crowned at once; she appointed the 1st of October for the ceremony; on the 28th she sent for the council to attempt an appeal to their generosity. She spoke to them at length of her past life and sufferings, of the