Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/79

 1563.] THE ENGLISH AT HA VRE. 59 It was no doubt well that English people should understand the faith which they professed ; it was well that they should be prevented so far as possible from committing sin ; but it would not perhaps have contri- buted in the long run to the end desired, if the clergy had been again empowered to deal with these things in their own peculiar manner. This last ambition was quenched and did not reap- pear. Six formulas committing the Church to ultra- Protestantism were lost by the near majority of fifty-nine to fifty- eight, while the discussion generally resulted ii? the restoration of thirty- nine of the original forty- two articles of Edward as a rule of faith for the clergy. The Bishop of Worcester introduced a measure to prevent his order from making away with the Church property. Petitions were presented for a more strict observance of Sunday, which came to nothing. This, in the main, was the work aimed at or accomplished by Convocation : more moderate than might have been expected from the spirit in which the session had opened. The clergy were learning their position, and as a body were willing to work heartily on the narrow platform to which their pretensions had been limited. They^too disappeared with the Parliament, and the Queen was left to extricate herself as she could from the embroglio in France. Although she knew nothing of the overtures of the Scots to Spain, there was much in Philip's attitude which was seriously menacing. His ambassador in Paris was advising the Government to refuse the restoration of Calais, while he himself professed to Chaloner his hope that England would recover it. Many thousand Span-