Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/465

 1566.]- THE MURDER OF DARNLEY. 445 the last troubled session : spring after spring, autumn after autumn, notice of a Parliament had gone out ; but ever at the last moment Elizabeth had flinched, know- ing well what lay before her. Further delay was at last impossible : the Treasury was empty, the humour of the people was growing dangerous. Thus at last on the 3oth of September the Houses reassembled. The first fortnight was spent in silent preparations ; on the T 4th the campaign opened with a petition from the bishops, which was brought forward in the form of a statute in the House of Commons. It will be remem- oered that after the Bill was passed in the last session empowering the Anglican prelates to tender the vote of allegiance to their predecessors in the Tower, they had been checked in their first attempt to put the law in execution by a denial of the sacredness of their conse- cration, and the judges had confirmed the objection. To obviate this difficulty and to enable the bench at last to begin their work of retaliation, a Bill was brought in declaring that ' inasmuch as the bishops of the Church of England had been nominated according to the pro- visions of the Act of Henry the Eighth, 1 and had been consecrated according to the form provided in the Prayer-book, they should be held to have been duly and advertisements are true, then to de- mand audience of the Scottish Queen and to deliver unto her the Queen's Majesty's letter,* sent herewith, re- quiring answer with speed ; and in case he shall find the said enterprise is intended only, and not executed, then he shall procure to stay the same by the best means he may.' 1 25 Hen. VIII. cap. 20. Not found.