on the composition of the Parliamentary
assemblies; would not this then be the case when it had declared
itself again Catholic? No doubt the government, at the head of which
Gardiner appeared as Lord Chancellor, used all the means at its
disposal to guide the elections according to its views. It appears to
have been with the same motive that the Queen in a proclamation, which
generally breathed nothing but benevolence, remitted payment of the
subsidies last voted under her brother. Yet we can hardly attribute
the result wholly to this. Parliamentary elections are wont to receive
their impulse from the mistakes of the last administration and the
evils that have come to light: and much had undeniably been done under
Edward VI which could not but call forth discontent. The ferment at
home was increased by financial disorder: church property had suffered
enormous losses. But above all the supreme power had taken a sudden
start in breaking through its ancient bounds. And, last of all, the
Protestant tendencies had allied themselves with an undertaking which
ran directly counter to the customary law and to previous
Parliamentary enactments. And so it might come to pass that the same
feelings swayed the elections which had mainly brought about Mary's
accession.

But, after all, the result of these elections was not such as to make
a complete return to the Papal authority probable. The Emperor
Charles, who mainly guided the Queen's steps, warned her from
attempting it. She had prayed him to communicate to her the Pope's
declarations issued in favour of her hereditary right: he sent them to
her, but with the advice to make no use of them, since they might
involve her in difficulties without end. It seemed to him sufficient
if the Parliament simply repealed the enactments which had formerly
been passed respecting the invalidity of her mother's marriage with
her father. In the bill which was drawn up on this point in the Upper
House it was merely stated that the marriage, in itself valid and
approved by the wisest persons of the realm, had been made displeasing
to the King through evil influences and annulled by a sentence of
Archbishop Cranmer, on whom the greatest blame fell. To many men this
seemed already going too far, since together with the dispensation the
old church authority was again recognised: but as there was not a word
about the Pope in it, this was less apparent: the bill was passed
unanimously. The act might be