and the more tragical fate of the future martyr Hullier, who, as well as his living, lost his life. If the annals of other dioceses lay before us, examples might be multiplied, but the proportion would probably remain the same. The blow seems to have fallen more heavily on cathedral churches and prebends than upon parishes, and it is not unlikely that the number of parish priests deprived was even less than we have allowed. It is worthy of notice that by the special grace of the Queen the deprived incumbents were exempted from the payment of any first-fruits that were due from them.*

At this time there were great dissensions in the Council. Gardiner and Paget, each having a variable following, stood opposed in respect of several measures of state, but still more in their general drift of policy, their ultimate aspirations. The imperious demeanour of the prelate repelled the prudent and able courtier, who had been restored to his honours, and as an enemy of Northumberland had been admitted to some share of the confidence of his sovereign. The feud between them was of long standing; and in the preceding reign it had been marked by one or two bitter altercations.† Gardiner at this period of his career, by all accounts, exhibited a violence of conduct, which in part sprang from his inability to maintain his own former opinions against the Romanensian or papal party. With them indeed he now cast in his lot. Foreseeing the return of the Papacy, he showed himself among the first in welcoming it for unhappily for his fame and for his country, he ceased in some respects to maintain that fixity of which no public man has a right to be

"Grant of exemption to persons deprived of promotions, dignities, and offices ecclesiastical from payment of first-fruits due to the Crown." State Pap. Dom. Calend. p. 63.

† See Vol. III. 263, 269 of this work.

destitute; the want of which in public men is criminal, because to enter public life is to declare that certain unalterable convictions have been gained, and to rise in public life is to take the advantage of having others believe that convictions have been gained that are unalterable. A change had been going on within him, which now manifested itself. "His long imprisonment has taught him nothing," remarked the shrewd Frenchman Noailles.* But on the contrary it had taught or untaught him much. It had exasperated him against the Puritan or Calvinistic party, which had caused his sufferings. It had set him revolving in solitude his recollections of the Henrician revolution, the secret doubts of Henry himself in breaking with Rome, and the incidents of the times, until he felt inclined to abandon the principles for which he had contended as a Henrician apologist, and to seek not for the restoration of the Henrician settlement but of the Roman jurisdiction. It may be that this change took place with many secret struggles. It may be that the delay of the Queen in openly professing obedience to Rome was due to his opposition: and this need not be charged to the enmity towards Pole

* Winchester monstre jà a ce commencement, selon l'opinion de plusieurs, qu'il ne fera moins arrogant et violent en l'administration des affairs que aultres qui en ont eu cidevant l'authorité, et se peut on bien appercevoir qu'il n'a rien oublié en prison, on ii a ètè sept ans, de sa façon accustumèe." Ambassades, ii. 118. August, 1553. In a later despatch, of the time at which we now are, Noailles says that great part of the Council were "bandée et formalisée" against the Chancellor, and sworn to his destruction, and that he would have gone down but for the support which he had from his mistress the queen: that she, as a last resource, so far were things carried, sent for the captain of the guard and told him not to arrest Gardiner, whatever commandment the Council might give and forbad the lieutenant of the Tower to receive Gardiner, if he were sent without the token of a ring which she showed him. iii. 219. May, 1554. This reminds Noailles's editor of the story of Cranmer saved by Henry the Eighth's ring. See Vol. II. 345 of this work.

with which he has been credited by many. When once his resolution was taken, his high temper carried him forward. In the Council he roused great irritation; and, though in reality merciful, he caused alarm by his fierceness of speech, and gained a reputation of vindictive cruelty. "The Queen ought not to follow the opinion of bloody men," muttered the Council against him, when he was not there. He was often absent: he exhibited sometimes an inclination to act without them. To Paget above all his demeanour was odious; and Paget in turn would at times be absent from the Council for days together, incurring the suspicion of favouring heresy (the word now used for the reformed religion), and of fostering the plots, rather than face his former patron at the board. On one occasion he exclaimed that the Lord Chancellor lorded it over them like a new Northumberland. "I share the opinion," he said another time, “that the affairs of the kingdom cannot be remedied without restoring the old religion; but the Lord Chancellor is for carrying the matter through by fire and blood." Paget indeed, who said of himself that he never loved extremes," now occupied a dubious position. Like many other laymen, he had deserted the New Learning (or whatever it may be called), and was suspected by the zealots in exile beyond seas, who violently abused him. He went so far as to declare himself converted to the doctrine of Transubstantiation, solemnly renouncing his former opinion. He was suspected no less by the Old Learning, who perceived that he maintained a constant intercourse with them whom they called heretics, especially with Hoby, " one of the most malicious heretics in England": and he was suspected by the Queen, who concealed not that she thought him an

* See his letters to Gardiner in one of their old quarrels, in 1546, apud Maitland, Essays, 335.

inconstant and variable man. He represented fairly well the general number of the lay nobility, who never loved extremes, who would have preferred to let religion alone, but seeing that a religious revolution was impending, were determined that at all events it should not touch them in the point of property. With him stood Arundel, Pembroke, Sussex, Cornwallis, the Marquis of Winchester, Howard, Browne, and Petre: with Gardiner stood Waldgrave, Rochester, Inglefield, Gage, Jermingham, and Bourne. But at times every one seemed independent of every other: at times Gardiner and Paget forgot their differences and went together; or their followers changed sides. What one did, it was exclaimed, another undid: what one counselled another contradicted: and some from animosity altogether withdrew themselves. In this confusion it was proposed to reduce the Council to six permanent members, and employ the rest in distant parts of the country, not burdening them with attendance, unless they happened to be at Court. The new body was to consist of Gardiner, Paget, Arundel, Rochester, Petre, and Thirlby: between Gardiner, Paget and Arundel a reconciliation was to be effected: and solemn oaths of fraternity, loyalty, duty and obedience were to combine them all. But the rest refused to be banished thus that they as well merited to belong to the Council as the others, having aided to maintain the Queen in her royal rights; being Catholic men, and the others for the more part heretics.*

In such a turmoil of things it was that the second Parliament of Mary met. To punish London for complicity or sympathy with the plots by making trade feel the absence of the Court, the Lord Chancellor had fixed

* These particulars have been gathered from Renard's letters to the Emperor Charles, which are printed in the second volume of Tytler's Edward and Mary.

to hold the session at Oxford: and the summons ran that they should meet there.* But this design, though it led to some memorable consequences, was not carried out. The Houses met at Westminster, April 2. Great changes in the Commons marked the efforts of the Court to secure a body pliant to the wishes of the Queen and of those who had sat in Mary's first Parliament no more than seventy members were returned.† The first business was to ratify the articles of the Queen's marriage: for the marriage itself had been put out of question by the Queen a month before, who had married Philip by proxy, in the person of Count Egmont, in the presence of the foreign ambassadors. She heard the speech in which the Lord Chancellor made the communication to the Houses. "Her Highness," said Gardiner, taking high ground, "is in no way bound to inform her subjects upon this matter: but animated by the wish to confirm the affection which she feels for her kingdom, she would have them consider the articles of her marriage, which are the reverse of those made public by the late conspirators. Instead of Philip making an acquisition of England, England will make an acquisition of Philip with his kingdoms and provinces." He went on to speak of religion: that the rebellion, which had been quelled so recently, had been a religious rebellion, promoted by men who despised the Sacraments: and that a measure for the restraint of irregular opinions would be laid before them.‡ As to the marriage contract, no

* "Presens hoc Parliamentum primo summonitum apud civitateni Oxon. et abinde usque Westm. adjornatum." Lords' Journ. Renard says, Le Chancelier sans communication d'autres conseillers; sinon d'un ou deux, assigna le parlement a Oxford, soulx pretexte que l'on appovriroit ceulx de Londres par l'absence de la Court." Ap. Tytler, ii. 339.

+ So I have ascertained by working through the lists given in the Blue Book of 1879, referred to in the last chapter.

Renard to the Emp. Tytler, ii. 368: Noailles, iii. 151: Froude, vi. 214. The division of Gardiner's speech into the Queen's marriage and religion