which re-established the royal
supremacy met with violent opposition in the Commons, and only passed
through Cecil's adroit manoeuvring.

[Sidenote: Prayer-Book restored.]

But the steps which Elizabeth had taken made it necessary to go further.
If the Protestants were the less numerous, they were the abler and the
more vigorous party, and the break with Rome threw Elizabeth, whether
she would or no, on their support. It was a support that could only be
bought by theological concessions, and above all by the surrender of the
Mass; for to every Protestant the Mass was identified with the fires of
Smithfield, while the Prayer-Book which it had displaced was hallowed by
the memories of the Martyrs. The pressure of the reforming party indeed
would have been fruitless had the Queen still been hampered by danger
from France. Fortunately for their cause the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis
at this juncture freed Elizabeth's hands. By this treaty, which was
practically concluded in March 1559, Calais was left in French holding
on the illusory pledge of its restoration to England eight years later;
but peace was secured and the danger of a war of succession, in which
Mary Stuart would be backed by the arms of France, for a while averted.
Secure from without, Elizabeth could venture to buy the support of the
Protestants within her realm by the restoration of the English
Prayer-Book. Such a measure was far indeed from being meant as an open
break with Catholicism. The use of the vulgar tongue in public worship
was still popular with a large part of the Catholic world; and the Queen
did her best by the alterations she made in Edward's Prayer-Book to
strip it of its more Protestant tone. To the bulk of the people the book
must have seemed merely a rendering of the old service in their own
tongue. As the English Catholics afterwards represented at Rome when
excusing their own use of it, the Prayer-Book "contained neither impiety
nor false doctrine; its prayers were those of the Catholic Church,
altered only so far as to omit the merits and intercession of the
saints." On such a concession as this the Queen felt it safe to venture
in spite of the stubborn opposition of the spiritual estate. She ordered
a disputation to be held in Westminster Abbey before the Houses on the
question, and when the disputation ended in the refusal of the bishops
to proceed, an Act of Uniformity, which was passed in spite of their
strenuous opposition, restore