the schism should be preserved; (2) That all marriages contracted within the prohibited degrees, but sanctioned by the law, should be valid ; (3) That all institutions to benefices, all dispensations granted under any Act of Parliament, all judicial processes made before ordinaries or delegates, should be confirmed; (4) That all persons having sufficient conveyance of any land, tenements, or other property formerly belonging to the Church might, without scruple of conscience, and without impediment or trouble by pretence of any general council, canons, and ecclesiastical laws, thenceforth continue to enjoy the same. This dispensation of the cardinal was inserted in the body of the Act of Parliament which reasserted the papal supremacy,1 repealed all Acts which contravened it, declared that the title of Supreme Head of the Church never rightfully belonged to the Crown, restored the jurisdiction of all ecclesiastical ordinaries, and suspended the operation of the statutes of mortmain for twenty years. "This statute," says Dr. Hook, "sealed Pole's triumph over the liberties of his country, and we cannot record it without expressing the indignation which every patriot must feel against the legislators of that day."2

§ 26. The Lower House of Convocation addressed the bishops during this Parliament to obtain for them various privileges and immunities, and among other requests they desire to know whether those who have preached heretical doctrine shall be summoned before their ordinaries and compelled to recant or else punished.3 Thus reminded, the bishops proceeded to obtain from a subservient Parliament the power to recur to the old manner of dealing with heretics taken away by the statute of Henry VIII. which required a regular court and witnesses. The Parliament repealed this law, and enacted the revival of the old statutes made against the Lollards, so that the clergy of reforming opinions were now left utterly helpless in the hands of their enemies.5

§ 27. An embassy had been despatched to Rome to acquaint the pope with the good news of the submission of the revolted nation. Pope Julius died before it arrived, and Marcellus II., his successor,

1 1 and 2 Philip and Mary, c. 8. "The cardinal-legate strove long to prevent the two enactments as to the restoration to obedience and the title to ecclesiastical property being combined in one Act. But the English nobility adhered immovably to its demand, so that they must stand or fall together."-Von Ranke, Hist. of England, i. 203.

Lives of the Archbishops, iii. 290.

3 Cardwell, Synod. ii. 430. The demands run to the number of 28. 4 25 Henry VIII. c. 14.

5 "Gardiner assures us, and we may believe him in this, that it was not he that prompted the revival of the old laws against the Lollards. The chief impulse to it came, on the contrary, from the queen."-Von Ranke, i. 209.

only lived twenty-one days. Paul IV., who followed, received the ambassadors with high compliments, and conferred upon Philip and Mary the title of King of Ireland (in place of the old title of Lord). In England a gorgeous procession to celebrate the restoration of catholic unity was made in London on the feast of the conversion of St. Paul, and on the following day the Parliament and Convocation were dissolved,

§ 28. The cardinal desired the clergy to repair to their cures, and to use lenity and moderation, endeavouring to recover their people by gentleness rather than by violence. He now issued out his commissions to the bishops, and in the vacancy of the two metropolitan sees to the deans and chapters of those sees, giving them the fullest powers to absolve all those who repented of heresy and schism; to confirm the ordinations of those who were ordained under the new Ordinal, to absolve those who had been constrained to break their monastic vows, and who had taken any oath against the papal supremacy. The clergy, when absolved, were to be em. powered to absolve the laity in the form following:-"Our Lord Jesus Christ absolve you, and by the apostolic authority granted and committed unto me, I absolve you from all sentences of excommunication, and from all other censures and pains into the which you be fallen by reason of heresy and schism, or any otherwise; and I restore you to the unity of our holy mother the Church, and to the communion of all sacraments, dispensing with you for all manner of irregularity; and by the same authority I absolve you from all your sins, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost."1

§ 29. The Church of England was thus thrust back into the condition in which it was before 1529. All the gains of the Reformation-gains which had been acquired at so great a cost―were wrested from it. Its nationality was again obscured, and the vast mass of superstitious follies and abuses, implied by the name Rome, was again heaped upon it. The effects of this retrogressive step, so glibly voted by the Parliament, were now to be witnessed; and amidst the fearful scenes of the next four years was to be generated in the breasts of Englishmen that indelible hatred of "popery" which was destined to be at once the support and the difficulty of the Anglican Church of the future.

1 Burnet, Records, iii. v. 33.

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE PERSECUTION OF THE REFORMERS.

1555-1558.

§ 1. Persecution of the Reformers devoid of any reasonable explanation. § 2. The authors of this policy §3. Reformers petition to be brought to trial. § 4. The first sufferers-Rogers, Saunders, Hooper, and Taylor. § 5. Burning of Bishop Farrar. § 6. Letter to the bishops to quicken their zeal. § 7. The ignorance and simplicity of the victims. § 8. General remarks on the persecution. § 9. Reformers from beyond sea write to the Queen. § 10. The answer to their letter. § 11. Cranmer before Bishop Brooks. § 12. He writes to the Queen. § 13. Trial of Ridley and Latimer. § 14. Their degradation. § 15. They are burned at Oxford, October 16. § 16. Act to restore Tenths and First Fruits, and Impropriations, to the Church. § 17. The Legatine Synod. § 18. Cranmer condemned by the Pope. § 19. His degradation. § 20. His recantations. § 21. His purposed execution concealed from him. § 22. He abjures his recantations. § 23. His death and character. § 24. Pole made archbishop. $ 25. The Queen restores religious houses. § 26. Commission for destroying compromising documents. § 27. Visitation of the Universities. § 28. Commission to search out heretics. § 29. The Pope deprives Pole of his commission as legate. § 30. Meeting of Convocation in 1558. § 31. Death of Queen Mary.

§ 1. THE persecution of the reformers under Mary was uncalled for by any, even an imaginary, expediency, and can only be assigned to motives of bigotry and revenge. The old religion had been re-established without tumult and without difficulty. The leading reformers were either in prison or in exile. No danger was to be apprehended from them, and if the authorities had any faith in the prudence of the measures taken by the cardinal-legate, they might fairly hope soon to see the whole land of one mind again in religious matters. What purpose, then, were cruel executions to serve, and how could they be held consistent with any intelligent policy? It was not now, as in the days of Elizabeth, when treason against the State necessarily formed an ingredient in religious sentiments differing from the established religion. With the exception of a few fanatics, the reformers ali recognised Mary as the rightful queen. She was supported by all the great powers of the Continent. The emperor was her close ally, and the King of France had ordered Te Deum to be sung in all his churches for the restoration of England to the faith. The outbreak of persecution has appeared so strange even to Romanist

writers that they have been at pains to examine and ascertain the real author of this miserable policy, or to assign some cause for it. The cause which they appear most to favour is the exasperation of the Government at some insults offered to the established religion by a few fanatics, and especially to the conduct of one Ross, or Rose, who was said to have prayed for the death of the queen. That such inadequate motives could be assigned for a course of policy, pursued with zeal for no less than four years, shows well enough the desperate nature of the cause.

§ 2. The politic character of Bishop Gardiner, and the mild disposition of Cardinal Pole, forbid us to think that the commencement of the persecution was due to either of these. It was certainly, indeed, debated in the Council several times before the cardinal's arrival, and the answer made by the queen to some representation of the Council on the subject indicates the real originator of these fearful proceedings. "Touching the punishment of heretics, we thinketh it ought to be done without rashness, not leaving in the meantime to do justice to such as by warning would deceive the simple; and the rest so to be used that the people might well perceive them not to be condemned without just occasion, by which they shall both understand the truth, and beware not to do the like. And specially within London I would wish none to be burnt without some of the Council's presence, and both there and everywhere good sermons at the same time." 2 In this calm utterance speaks the concentrated spirit of Spanish bigotry, not untinctured by personal revenge. The queen, encouraged and supported by her husband—a man devoid of every human feeling-has already devoted to the flames, as a piacular offering to heaven, all in the land who could be found still to maintain the doctrines of that reforming movement which had so much troubled her life. It may be said that Philip was not responsible for the persecution, inasmuch as he put up his confessor, Alphonsus da Castro, to preach strongly against it. But it has been well pointed out by a writer on this period that this same Alphonsus da Castro was a most ardent defender of persecution both before and after the preaching of this sermon, and it is

1 See Lingard, v. 84; Dodd, ii. 98; and Tierney's notes. This last very able writer does himself much honour by his unqualified condemnation of these horrors. "To detail them would be a revolting task; the mind would shudder, the heart sicken, at the recital. At times a momentary suspension of cruelty seemed to indicate the presence of a milder spirit. But the illusion was quickly dissipated. New commissions were issued, new barbarities were enacted, and a monument of infamy was erected, which even at the distance of three centuries, cannot be regarded without horror." Note to Dodd, Church History, ii. 103. 2 Lingard, v. 82.