revert to Edward VI's regulations, and
to declare all things null and void that had been enacted under Mary,
mainly on the ground that they had been enacted in violation of legal
forms. A speech was laid before her, in which the validity of the last
elections was disputed, since qualified members had been excluded from
the sittings of both houses, although they were good Englishmen: the
later proclamations of summons were held to be null, because in them
the formula 'Supreme Head of the English Church' had been arbitrarily
omitted, without a previous resolution of Parliament, though on this
title so much depended for the commonwealth and people: but no one
could give up a right which concerned a third person or the public
interest; through these errors, which Mary had committed in her
blindness, all that had then been determined lost its force and
authority.[184] But the Queen and her counsellors did not wish to go
so far. They remarked that to declare a Parliament invalid for some
errors of form was a step of such consequence as to make the whole
government of the nation insecure. But even without this it was not
the Queen's purpose merely to revert to the forms which had been
adopted under her brother. She did not share all the opinions and
doctrines which had then obtained the upper hand: she held far more to
ceremonies and outward forms than Edward VI or his counsellors: she
wished to avoid a rude antagonism which would have called forth the
resistance of the Catholics.

In the Parliament that met immediately after the coronation (which was
still celebrated by a Catholic bishop), they began with the question
which had most occupied the late assembly, namely, should the Church
revenues that had been attached to the crown be restored to it. The
Queen's proposal, that they should be left to the crown, was quite the
view of the assembly and obtained their full consent.

The Parliamentary form of government however had also the greatest
influence on religious affairs. Having risen originally in opposition
to Rome, the Parliament, after the vicissitudes of the civil wars,
first recovered its full importance when it took the side of the crown
in its struggle with the Papacy. It did not so much concern itself
with Dogma for its own sake: it had thought it possible to unite the
retention of Catholicism with national independence. Under Mary every
man had become conscious that this would be impossible. It was just
then that