ion of Julius, was read in the
House of Commons.[513] On the 29th the crown debts were alleged as a
reason for demanding a subsidy. The queen had been prevented from
indulging her desire for a standing army. The waste and peculation of
the late reign had been put an end to; and the embarrassments of the
treasury were not of her creation. Nevertheless the change in social
habits, and the alteration in the value of money, had prevented the
reduction of the expenditure from being carried to the extent which
had been contemplated; the marriage had been in many ways costly, and
large sums had been spent in restoring plundered church plate. So
great had been the difficulties of the treasury, that, although fresh
loans had been contracted with the Jews, the wages of the household
were again two years in arrear.

[Footnote 513: _Commons Journals_, 2nd and 3rd
Philip and Mary.]

Parliament showed no disposition to be illiberal; they only desired to
be satisfied that if they gave money it would be applied to the
purpose for which it was demanded. The Subsidy Bill, when first
introduced, was opposed in the House of Commons on the ground that the
queen would give the keys of the treasury to her husband; and after a
debate, a minority of a hundred voted for refusing the grant.[514] The
general spirit of the Houses, however, was, on the whole, more
generous. Two fifteenths were voted in addition to the subsidy, which
the queen, on her side, was able to decline with thanks.[515] The
money question was settled quietly, and the business of the session
proceeded.

[Footnote 514: _Commons Journals_, 2nd and 3rd
Philip and Mary.--Noailles to the Constable,
October 31.]

[Footnote 515: _Commons Journal._ Noailles says
that the queen demanded the fifteenths, and that
the Commons refused to grant them. The account in
the _Journals_ is confirmed by a letter of Lord
Talbot to the Earl of Shrewsbury.--Lodge's
_Illustrations_, vol. i. p. 207.]

If her subjects were indifferent to their souls, Mary was anxious
about her own. On the 11th of November, a bill was read a first time
in the House of Lords, "whereby the king's and queen's majesties
surrendered, and gave into the hands of the pope's holiness the
first-fruits and tenths of all