great violence and iniquity were
used in the elections; but, besides that the authority of this writer is
inconsiderable, that practice, as the necessities of government seldom
required it, had not hitherto been often employed in England. There
still remained such numbers devoted by opinion or affection to many
principles of the ancient religion, that the authority of the crown was
able to give such candidates the preference in most elections; and all
those who hesitated to comply with the court religion, rather declined
taking a seat, which, while it rendered them obnoxious to the queen,
could afterwards afford them no protection against the violence of
prerogative. It soon appeared, therefore, that a majority of the commons
would be obsequious to Mary's designs; and as the peers were mostly
attached to the court from interest or expectations, little opposition
was expected from that quarter.

* Heylin, p. 26. Godwin, p. 336. Cranm. Mem. p. 317.

** Heylin, p. 26.

*** Saunders de Schism. Anglie.

**** Beale. But Fox, who lived at the time, and is very
minute in his narratives, says nothing of the matter. See
vol. iii. p. 16.

In opening the parliament, the court showed a contempt of the laws,
by celebrating, before the two houses, a mass of the Holy Ghost in the
Latin tongue, attended with all the ancient rites and ceremonies, though
abolished by act of parliament.[*] Taylor, bishop of Lincoln, having
refused to kneel at this service, was severely handled, and was
violently thrust out of the house.[**] The queen, however, still
retained the title of supreme head of the church of England; and it was
generally pretended, that the intention of the court was only to restore
religion to the same condition in which it had been left by Henry; but
that the other abuses of popery, which were the most grievous to the
nation, would never be revived.

The first bill passed by the parliament was of a popular nature, and
abolished every species of treason not contained in the statute of
Edward III., and every species of felony that did not subsist before the
first of Henry VIII.[***] The parliament next declared the queen to be
legitimate, ratified the marriage of Henry with Catharine of Arragon,
and annulled the divorce pronounced by Cranmer,[****] whom they greatly
blamed on that account. No mention, however, is made of the pope's
authority, as any ground of the marriage. All the statutes of