Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 5.djvu/304

284 of these elements then settled to their work; and plunging at once into the great question of the time, the Commons came to an instant understanding that the lay owners of Church lands should not be disturbed in their tenures under any pretext whatsoever.

Commendone, on returning to Rome, had disregarded his obligations to secrecy, and had related all that the Queen had said to him in the open Consistory; from the Consistory the account travelled back to England, and arrived inopportunely at the opening of Parliament. The fatal subject of the lands had been spoken of, and the Queen had expressed to Commendone her intention to restore them, if possible, to the Church. The council cross-questioned her, and she could neither deny her words nor explain them away; the Commons first, the Lords immediately after, showed her that whatever might be her own hopes or wishes, their minds on that point were irrevocably fixed.

No less distinct were the opinions expressed in the Lower House on the Papacy. The authority of the Pope, as understood in England, was not a question of doctrine, nor was the opposition to it of recent origin It had been thrown off after a struggle which had