of the court, and paid
their fines: the rest traversed; and the queen died before the affair
was brought to an issue. Judging of the matter by the subsequent claims
of the house of commons, and, indeed, by the true principles of free
government, this attempt of the queen's ministers must be regarded as
a breach of privilege; but it gave little umbrage at the time, and was
never called in question by any house of commons which afterwards sat
during this reign. The count of Noailles, the French ambassador, says
that the queen threw several members into prison for their freedom of
speech.[**]

* Coke's Institutes, part iii. p. 17. Strype's Memor. vol.
i.p.165

** Vol. v. p. 296.

CHAPTER XXXVII

MARY.

{1555.} THE success which Gardiner, from his cautious and prudent
conduct, had met with in governing the parliament, and engaging them
to concur both in the Spanish match and in the reestablishment of the
ancient religion,--two points to which, it was believed, they bore an
extreme aversion,--had so raised his character for wisdom and policy
that his opinion was received as an oracle in the council; and his
authority, as it was always great in his own party, no longer suffered
any opposition or control. Cardinal Pole himself, though more beloved
on account of his virtue and candor, and though superior in birth and
station, had not equal weight in public deliberations; and while
his learning, piety, and humanity were extremely respected, he was
represented more as a good man than a great minister. A very important
question was frequently debated before the queen and council by these
two ecclesiastics; whether the laws lately revived against heretics
should be put in execution, or should only be employed to restrain by
terror the bold attempts of these zealots. Pole was very sincere in
his religious principles; and though his moderation had made him be
suspected at Rome of a tendency towards Lutheranism, he was seriously
persuaded of the Catholic doctrines, and thought that no consideration
of human policy ought ever to come in competition with such important
interests. Gardiner, on the contrary, had always made his religion
subservient to his schemes of safety or advancement; and by his
unlimited complaisance to Henry, he had shown that, had he not been
pushed to extremity under the late minority, he was sufficiently
disposed to make a sacrifice of his principles to the established
theolo