han that, Parliament revived the heresy laws. It is a strange
comment on the nature of legislatures that they have so often, as in
this case, protected property better than life, and made money more
sacred than conscience. However, it was not Parliament but the
executive that carried out to its full extent the policy of persecution
and religious reaction.

The country soon showed its opposition. A temporary disarray that
might have been mistaken for disintegration had been produced in the
Protestant ranks by the recantation of Northumberland. The restoration
of the mass was accomplished in orderly manner in most places. The
English formulas had been patient of a Catholic interpretation, and
doubtless many persons regarded the change from one liturgy to the
other as a matter of slight importance. Moreover the majority made a
principle of conformity to the government, believing that an act of the
law relieved the conscience of the individual of responsibility. But
even so, there was a large minority of recusants. Of 8800 beneficed
clergy in England, 2000 were ejected for refusal to comply. A very
large number fled to the Continent, forming colonies at
Frankfort-on-the-Main and at Geneva and scattering in other places.
The opinion of the imperial ambassador Renard that English Protestants
depended entirely on support from abroad was tolerably true for this
reign, for their books continued to be printed abroad, and a few
further translations from foreign reformers were made. It is
noteworthy that these mostly treat of the {322} question, then so much
in debate, whether Protestants might innocently attend the mass.

Other expressions of the temper of the people were the riots in London.
On the last day of the first Parliament a dog with a tonsured crown, a
rope around its neck and a writing signifying that priests and bishops
should be hung, was thrown through a window into the queen's presence
chamber. At another time a cat was found tonsured, surpliced, and with
a wafer in its mouth in derision of the mass. The perpetrators of
these outrages could not be found.

[Sidenote: Passive resistance]

A sterner, though passive, resistance to the government was gloriously
evinced when stake and rack began to do their work. Mary was totally
unprepared for the strength of Protestant feeling in the country. She
hoped a few executions would strike terror into the hearts of all and
render further persecution unnecessar