Page:The histories of Launceston and Dunheved, in the county of Cornwall.djvu/211

 CHARTER OF PHILIP AND MARY. 191 when Luther and Cromwell, Wolsey and Cranmer, Gardiner Bonn • were living actors in the mighty struggk ,u. creeds, when an English translation of the Bible was first publicly tolerated ; and when the first and second books of Common Prayer were adopted in England. In the first year of Mary's reign, Courtenay, a son of the Marquis of Exeter, mentioned in our Dunheved account for 1532, was created Earl of Devonshire. On the 25th July, 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, a son of the German Emperor, Charles V., referred to in our account for 1543. The Queen, even before her marriage, appears to have convened an obsequious parliament, which, by one vote, repealed all the laws passed by her late brother concerning religion, and to have made successful efforts to obtain popular sanction to the re-introduction of Roman Catholic usages. One method of obtaining such sanction may have been her liberal grant of Charters to the ancient boroughs. Considering that the Royal Commissioners, Graynfield and others, had, so recently as 1549, settled all known causes of public complaint at Dunheved, one does not expect to find a Royal Charter, with extended powers, issuing in 1555. The fact, however, is that Philip and Mary, on the 15th February, in the second year of his, and third year of her reign, "without fine or fee, great or small," conferred upon this borough many important political privileges which have now, for three hundred years, been enjoyed by the inhabitants. We will venture to suggest that our direct connection with Launceston Priory, which her father had lately made desolate, may have excited Her Majesty's "munificence and grace." It is beyond doubt that large numbers of the dependants upon that Priory were discontented. Mary's