marriage treaty executed in January, 1554; national opposition to the the com soon journeyed as far as Flanders in order the more promptly to act as the queen's adviser. In spite of opposition to the Spanish alliance, which manifested itself in no uncertain terms at the council1 board, the queen and the emperor hastened it on, and early in January, 1554, the marriage articles that Charles had proposed in December ripened into a marriage treaty, which, after the insertion of all possible safeguards against foreign influence, was finally approved. Against such a marriage the nation had been resolved from the outset. The marriage; dread of such an event had given strength to Northumberland's conspiracy, and in Mary's first parliament the commons, as an assertion of their growing importance, presented a petition to mons peti- the queen in which, after suggesting the dangers that would against it; result from a union with a foreign prince, they earnestly advised her to marry one of her own subjects. The queen's passionate reply, in keeping with her Tudor blood, so alarmed the protestant party, who clearly foresaw that a Spanish alliance would not only overthrow their plan of religious reform, but also expose them to active persecution, that they broke into open revolt under the lead of Wyatt the moment that the completion of the marriage treaty was publicly announced. The outbreak, although premature, assumed such a dangerous form that the queen was for a time in great peril, and only her own queenly courage at the critical moment 5 saved her crown the queen's and her life. But her triumph was complete. By the 7th of triumph; February the insurrection had failed, and the prisons were crowded with the fugitive insurgents, who, together with the surviving leaders of Northumberland's conspiracy, now waited the queen's vengeance, which was sharp and summary. Lady Jane Grey, Jane Grey, her husband, father, and uncle, were sent to Wyatt, and others sent the block. Wyatt and his chief adherents soon followed; block, and while Elizabeth, whose complicity was suspected and who was sent to the Tower, was saved only by the interposition of the lords, who demanded that the slaughter should cease. the revolt under Wyatt ; Lady to the Elizabeth to the Tower; 1 Noailles, vol. i. p. 214. For pp. 52, 66; Foxe, vol. iii. p. 25; Holin 2 Marriage treaty between Mary and shed, 1096. Philip. Fadera, vol. xi. Burnet, vol. i. p. 479. 4 Renard's account of Mary's speech has been translated by Froude, vol. v. p. 297. 5 As to Mary's speech at the Guildhall, February 1, see Noailles, vol. iii. 6 As to her arrest, see MS. Mary, Domestic, vol. iii., State Paper Office; Renard to Charles V., February 17, Rolls House MSS. 7 Renard to Charles V., March 22, Rolls House MSS. party crushed; the moment the protestant party, whose leaders fled over sea, protestant was crushed, and Mary was left free to throw off the mask of moderation, and to enter upon the reactionary policy upon Mary inwhich she had resolved from the beginning. Faithful to her augurates a policy of promise made at the Guildhall in the midst of the rising, that reaction; she would not marry without the consent of parliament, the houses were called together on the 2d of April, when the marriage articles, as proposed by the emperor and as modified by the queen's advisers, were submitted for approval. The gross means of persuasion 1 which were employed having secured to to legalize a certain extent a compliant house of commons, the marriage a marriage bill passed bill was passed as soon as the parliamentary forms could be by parlia complied with. Then followed an act made necessary by the ment; fact that Mary was the first queen regnant who had ever made good her title to the crown of England. Some of the protestant preachers had claimed that the rule of a woman was not only prohibited by the word of God, but that the laws of the land, made alone for kings, failed to recognize the prerogatives of queens. To remove all constitutional difficulties upon that also an act score, an act was passed providing that "the royal power and Mary's dignities vested in a queen the same as in a king," and that position as all statutes applied equally to the sovereign whether male or queen female. After the failure to secure the passage of four bills presented by the chancellor to regulate the succession, to restore the Six Articles, to reënact the statute De hæretico comburendo, and to restore the jurisdiction of the bishops,5 parliament was dissolved on the 5th of May, and before the end of July the fateful union between Philip and Mary was celebrated ried in at Winchester. the first regnant; Philip and Mary mar July, 1554. ciliation - Philip and Pole: 3. Philip, while sacrificing himself to a political marriage, The reconwas no more intent upon restoring England to the Roman with Rome communion than upon binding the realm to his own house as an effective ally upon whom he could rely for aid in his struggles with France. Statesman as he was, he clearly foresaw that the first enterprise could not be attempted with any hope of success unless he could win from the pope such concessions 1 Burnet, vol. i. pp. 479, 491. 2 The marriage bill passed by the 12th of April. I Mary, c. ii. 8 As to Matilda's attempt to secure that position, see vol. i. p. 275. 4 1 Mary, sess. 3, c. I. 5 The last two bills passed the commons, but were lost in the upper house. attempts to conciliate Philip's as would assure the holders of the vast estates which had been torn from the church during the two preceding reigns that, in the nation the event of a restoration of the papal power, they would not by assur ances to the holders Pole authorized to "treat, compound, and dispense," as power to alienate real pro perty finally granted; be disturbed in their possessions. With the view of assuring of church the nation upon that vital point, Pole, in his first legatine comproperty; mission, was authorized to "treat, compound, and dispense with the holders of church property as to the rents and profits which they had received.1 But as that concession was deemed inadequate, the pope was assured that however offensive it to rents and might be to his dignity to make a bargain, and to set aside the profits; canons of the church which positively forbade the alienation of ecclesiastical possessions, it was absolutely impossible to win English submission unless he was willing to extend the dispensing power to real as well as personal property. Accordingly, in a second brief,2 dated June 28, 1554, the legate was authorized "to give, aliene, and transfer " to their possessors all real and personal property which had been taken from the church since the schism. Having thus prepared the legate to contract in behalf of the pope, it next became necessary for Philip, who certainly exercised a powerful political influence from the time of his arrival, to prepare a parliament to contract in behalf of the English nation. There was certainly interference with the elections to the lower house of the parliament which met on the 12th of November, by means of parliament; circulars accompanying the writs, in which the crown, after declaring that no "alteration was intended of any man's possessions," directed the sheriffs, mayors, and others to admonish the voters to choose from among themselves "such as, being eligible by order of the laws, were of a wise, grave, and catholic sort, such as indeed meant the true honor of God and the papal su 4 prosperity of the commonwealth." Such were the precaupremacy re- tions taken to assure the acquiescence of parliament in the reëstablishment of the papal supremacy which had now been abolished for thirty years, a period during which it is said that forty thousand families had profited from the church's possessions. But the assurance that no restitution would be de means em ployed by Philip to secure a compliant established, after an interval of thirty years; 1 The first paper, dated March 8, 1554, and printed in Burnet's Collectanea, is explained in the text, vol. ii. p. 780. 2 Printed in Burnet's Collectanea. 8 This clause was devised by Gardiner in order to satisfy present possessors. Pallavicino, vol. ii. p. 411. 4 The royal circular is printed in Burnet's Collectanea. attainder acknow and receives embodying manded, coupled with the other expedients, proved completely effective. The attainder of Pole having been reversed without Pole's difficulty, the legate, after his long exile, entered London by reversed; the river on November 24, prepared to coöperate with the assembly of estates in the august ceremony which was to attend the absolution and reconciliation of England with the See of Rome. On the 29th both houses resolved with scarcely parliament a dissenting voice1 to reacknowledge the supremacy, and they ledges the joined in a formal petition 2 to Philip and Mary, praying that supremacy they would intercede with the legate for a national absolution, absolution; which he duly pronounced the next day.3 Passing then from form to substance, the new concordat thus entered into between the pope and the nation was carefully embodied in an act which passed the commons on the 4th of January, 1555, entitled "An Act repealing all Articles and Provisions made contents of against the See Apostolick of Rome since the twentieth year 4 the act of King Henry the Eight, and for the establishment of all the new spiritual and ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the laity." 5 This act, which took the form of a petition to the crown, specially designated the acts made in parliament since the 20th of Henry VIII. in derogation of the papal supremacy, which were to be repealed, as follows: "The list of the act against obtaining dispensations from Rome for pluralities mation and non-residence (21 Hen. VIII. c. 13); the act that no per- repealed; son shall be cited out of the diocese where he or she dwelleth (23 Hen. VIII. c. 9); the act against appeals to the See of Rome (24 Hen. VIII. c. 12); the act against the payment of annates and firstfruits to the See of Rome (23 Hen. VIII. c. 206); the act for the submission of the clergy (25 Hen. VIII. c. 19); the act for the election and consecration of bishops (25 Hen. VIII. c. 20); the act against exactions from the See of Rome (25 Hen. VIII. c. 21); the act of the Royal Supremacy (26 Hen. VIII. c. 1); the act for the consecration of suffragan 1 As to the two dissenting votes in the commons, see Strype, vol. iii. p. 204; Ep. Poli. v. App. 314. 2 See Foxe, Acts and Mon., vol. vi. P. 571. 8 Ibid., vol. vi. p. 572, as to the form of absolution used. 4 "In the second stage the line of retrogression was drawn at 'the twentieth year of King Henry the Eight [April 22, 5 1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8. 6 Although the act was repealed, the annates were not restored. concordat; Refor statutes bishops (26 Hen. VIII. c. 14); the act for the reform of the canon law (27 Hen. VIII. c. 15); the act against the authority of the pope (28 Hen. VIII. c. 10); the act for the release of those who had obtained dispensations from Rome (28 Hen. VIII. c. 16); the act authorizing the king to appoint bishops by letters patent (31 Hen. VIII. c. 9); the act of pre-contracts and degrees of consanguinity (33 Hen. VIII. c. 38); the act for the king's style (35 Hen. VIII. c. 3); the act permitting the marriage of doctors of the civil law (37 Hen. VIII. c. 17).” By the legislation of Mary's first parliament catholic orthoHenry's ec- doxy had been restored; by the sweeping repeal just described clesiastical all that remained of Henry's ecclesiastical legislation was thus swept swept away. Parliament, having thus faithfully performed away; its part of the compact, was careful to see that the consideration promised to the holders of church property was fully holders of secured. By virtue of the dispensation, which was recited in the statute, the pope had promised that the holders of against the either church lands or goods should never be molested by the clergy; any papal decree whatever. But prudence required that the all that remained of legislation precautions taken to secure the church property claims of church a proviso which involved a clergy themselves, who had perhaps a better title than the pope, should be made parties to the agreement. To accomplish that end the clergy were required to state their claims in a petition,1 and then to relinquish them. In consideration authority of of that concession, which was fully recited in the act, the courts re- legislative powers of the clergy were reëstablished, and the stored with authority of the church courts was restored, subject, however, to the express declaration that "the title of all lands, relinquish possessions, and hereditaments in their majesties' realms" was subject to the jurisdiction of "their courts only," and that any mortmain person who obtained any process from any ecclesiastical court pended for in order to "molest any person or persons, or body politic, for any of the said lands or things above specified, should incur the danger of a præmunire."2 Although the mortmain act was suspended for twenty years for the benefit of the clergy, the terrors of the præmunire were not withdrawn. With the comdefends the pletion of the ecclesiastical legislation the temper of the compliElizabeth; ant parliament hardened into something like a spirit of resistance. ment; act sus twenty years; parliament rights of 1 Burnet, Hist. Reform., vol. i. p. 503. The petition itself is printed in the Collectanea. 2 1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8, § 31. |