d the sacraments, and were the enemies of
truth, order, and godliness. A measure would be laid before the
legislature for the better restraint of irregular licence of opinion.

The marriage was to pass quietly. Those of the Lords and Commons who
persevered in their disapproval were a small minority, and did not
intend to appear.[298] The bill, therefore, passed both Houses by the
12th of April.[299] The marriage articles were those originally
offered by the emperor, with the English clauses attached, and some
explanatory paragraphs, that no room might be left for laxity of
interpretation.[300] Lord Bedford and Lord Fitzwalter had already gone
to Plymouth, where a ship was in readiness to carry them to Spain.
They waited only till the parliamentary forms were completed, and
immediately sailed. Lord William Howard would go to sea with the
fleet, at his earliest convenience, to protect the passage, and the
prince might be expected in England by the end of May. The bill for
the queen's authority was carried also without objection. The forms of
English law running only in the name of a king, it had been pretended
that a queen could not be a lawful sovereign. A declaratory statute
explained that the kingly prerogative was the same, whether vested in
male or female.[301] Here, however, unanimity was at an end. The
paragraph about the succession in the queen's speech being obviously
aimed at Elizabeth, produced such an irritation in the council, as
well as in parliament, that Renard expected it would end in actual
armed conflict.[302]

[Footnote 298: Renard to Charles V., April 7.]

[Footnote 299: 1 Mary, cap. ii.]

[Footnote 300: See the treaty of marriage between
Philip and Mary in Rymer.]

[Footnote 301: 1 Mary, cap. i.]

[Footnote 302: Y a telle confusion que l'on
n'attend sinon que la querelle se demesle par les
armes et tumults.--Renard to Charles V., April 22.]

From the day of Elizabeth's imprisonment Gardiner had laboured to
extort evidence against her by fair means or foul.[303] {p.130} She
had been followed to the Tower by her servants. Sir John Gage desired
that her food should be dressed by people of his own. The servants
refused to allow themselves to be displaced,[304] and, to the distress
of Renard, angry words had been addressed to Gage by Lord Howard, so