"I come not to destroy, but to build: I come to reconcile not to condemn: I come not to compel, but to recall: I come not to bring in question anything that is done already, my commission is of grace and clemency to all such as will receive it: all matters that are past shall be as things cast into the sea of forgetfulness." To this oration the legislature listened attentively, some with signs of contrition.* At the end of it, the Legate having withdrawn himself, the Lord Chancellor, applying to him the prophecy of Moses of the upraising of a prophet from the midst of his brethren, and confessing himself to be of the number of delinquents, exhorted them to dispose themselves to a reconciliation.†

In Parliament next day the Speaker declared to the Commons that "the Legacy of the Lord Cardinal was to move us to come again to the unity of the Church, from which we were fallen": and the Master of the Rolls and the Solicitor delivered a message from the Lords that "they had appointed the Lord Chancellor, four earls, four bishops, four barons, to confer with a number of that house." A number of that house was accordingly sent to the Lords: and the two bodies together "devised a Supplication to the King and Queen's Majesties; which was engrossed, and agreed by the House to be presented to the King and Queen: whereby the Realm and Dominions might be again united to the Church of Rome, by the means of the Lord Cardinal Pole." It was humble enough. They professed themselves repentant of the schism and disobedience committed by the realm in doing anything to impugn the primacy of the See Apostolic: and in token of their sincerity they pledged themselves to repeal in

* See the letter of John Elder, in Chron. of Queen Jane and Queen Mary, p. 154. Comp. Fox, Holinshed, Soames, iv. 260, Hook's Pole. + Philip's Pole, ii. 228. Commons' Journals, November 29.

that present parliament all laws and ordinances that had been made against the authority of the Holy Father, making humble suit to their Majesties, who were undefiled with their offence, that by means of the most reverend Legate they might obtain from the See Apostolic absolution and discharge from the danger of such sentences and censures as they were fallen into by the laws of the Church, and might be received as repentant children into the bosom and unity of Christ's Church. "So as this noble realm, with all the members thereof, may in unity and perfect obedience to the See Apostolic and pope for the time being, serve God and your Majesties, to the furtherance and advancement of his honour and glory. Amen." On the question of adopting this there was unanimous consent in the Lords: in the Commons the solitary protestation of Sir Ralph Bagnall, that he was sworn to obey King Henry's laws, who had laboured like a worthy king for twenty years to expel the Pope from England, and that he would keep his oath; and the silent vote of another member, was the only resistance that was encountered. The marvellous element was not absent, when the messengers of the two Houses, coming to communicate their several decisions, met midway, and found that they were both charged with the same message.+

The next day, November 30, the Feast of St. Andrew, was the great day of reconciliation, when the Estates presented their Supplication, and were accepted by the Legate. "At afternoon, before the King's and

* Contra la primaria autorità della Sede Apostolica. Descriptio Reductionis.

+ See it in Elder's Letter, as above.

I messi s'incontravono per via: segno evidentissimo che lo Spirito di Dio lavorava in amendue i luoghi in uno tempo, e di una medisima conformità. Descriptio Reduct.

Queen's Majesties at the Palace, the Lords and Commons being present, the Supplication was read in Latin, and exhibited by their Majesties to the Lord Legate: who, making an Oration of the great joy that was for the return of the lost sheep, did by the Pope's Holiness's authority give absolution to the whole Realm, and the Dominions of the same."* But the brief and perhaps sullen record, which the annals of the assembly contains, gives but a faint impression of the ceremonial glories of that day. It was the feast of the Apostle of Scythia, it was the festival of the institution of the Golden Fleece the King attended Mass in Westminster Abbey with Alva and six hundred Spanish nobles: who were rivalled by the splendid concourse of the college of the Garter. Philip returned to dinner to the palace: and at afternoon (as they said) it was that Parliament resorted to the chamber of presence. On raised seats beneath a costly canopy the King and Queen assumed their state: a little further off from them than they from one another sat the Legate: the bishops and the temporal lords took their places on benches below the platform lengthwise on either side on cross benches between them were ranged the estate of the Commons. When all were in order, the Lord Chancellor arose, and declared the resolution at which the Houses had arrived: demanding whether they continued in the same mind: and when all voices answered "We do," whether they would return to the unity of the Church and to the obedience of the Pope, when it was answered that they would. He then on

* Commons' Journals.

+ "Se volevano che si procedesse all' alto del supplicare il pardono, e l' absolutione, e della reunione alla Chiese Catholica, ed alla obedienza del Papa supremo capo di quella." Reductio, 316. Heylin is the only English writer of authority that gives the same version of what Gardiner said, "Whether they would return to the unity of the Church, and obedience of the Pope supreme head thereof." I am unwilling to believe

his knees presented their Supplication to the King and Queen and read it aloud. The Queen in her own and the King's name interceded for the pardon of the realm: the members stood up, making as if they would supplicate the Legate; which he prevented, signifying his willingness a secretary read the commission of the Legate: setting forth the powers with which he was invested.* The Legate, still seated, exclaimed, “Behold the peculiar favour of heaven! The nation that was the first to be called out of heathen darkness is the first to repent of schism. How will the angels rejoice!" He then rose, every one being now on their knees save the Queen and the King; and pronounced the Absolution in a clear and distinct voice. As he uttered the words of peace, the Queen and many others shed tears of piety and joy. Scarcely had he reached the names of the three divine Persons, with which it ended, than they cried Amen, amen. When it was over, they rose, and embraced one another with the words, "This day we are born again." A Te Deum in the chapel closed these strange solemnities.†

that Gardiner even now really used words which would have completely befooled his own past life. It may be added, it will not escape the reader, that in the documentary memorials of the time the reconciliation is commonly termed a return to the unity of the Catholic Church and to the obedience of the Pope or of the Holy See. But in truth it was not a return to the unity of the Catholic Church, from which England never had departed: it was a return to the obedience of the Pope, made by the powers of the realm. Compare note on p. 214 of this vol.

* The Commission is given by Collier, Records, lxxiii. "Quid aliud di:amus," exclaims Julius, "quin dextram Domini hanc tam insperatam rerum conversionem fecisse, ut florentissimum Angliæ regnum, ab Henrico Octavo in dissidium ab Ecclesia Catholica secessionemque seductum, ac deinde Edwardi ejus nati successione in paterno et hereditario errore corroboratum et firmatum, in eum nunc statum repente devenerit, ut ad sanctum Ovile atque ad Ecclesiæ Catholicæ Septa revocari facillime posse videatur? Defuncto enim vita Edwardo, adnisisque illius sectatoribus, qui rerum habenas, qui arces, qui exercitum, qui classem obtinebant, Regnum alicui ex sua secta deferre," &c.

The English of the Absolution is given by Heylin, Collier, Froude,

The Legate rested not until on the same evening he had written a despatch to the Pope: and to Julius the Third Pole sent one of his comparisons. "The things which of late I wrote to your Holiness of the hope that I entertained of the return of this realm to the unity of the Church and the obedience of the Holy See, were mixed with fears on account of the inveterate hatred of my countrymen to the papal name. I feared also that the first entry into the cause would be put off by some other matter or convention. Vehemently pressed I their serene Highnesses not to allow it to be so. But little need was there. On this day, at evening, on the day when Andrew first brought his brother Peter to Christ, has this realm been reclaimed to the obedience of Peter's See and of your Holiness! It was done in Parliament, the King and Queen were present, with such consent of joy and gladness that, when I had finished my oration, there was, amidst a marvellous demonstration of delight, an universal shout, Amen, Amen. O event honourable to the land that brought me forth and has received me back! O event not less honourable to the princes by whose piety it has been effected! O profitable event! O godliness, O ancient faith, that now shines forth in both these princes! Of what great things may not the Church, our mother, the spouse of Christ, assure herself Hook, &c. The Latin is in Wilkins, iv. 111, from the first edition of Fox, fol. 1011. Dominus noster Jesus Christus, qui nos suo pretioso sanguine redemit, et mundavit ab omnibus peccatis et inquinamentis nostris, ut exhiberet sibi sponsam gloriosam, non habentem maculam, neque rugam; Quem et Pater constituit caput super omnem ecclesiam, ipse per suam miserecordiam vos absolvat. Et nos auctoritate apostolica per sanctissimum dominum nostrum Julium papam tertium, ejus vices in terris gerentem, nobis concessa, vos et unum quiconque vestrum, et regnum universum, et ejus dominia, ab omni heresi et schismate, et quibusvis sententiis, censuris, et pœnis propterea incursis absolvimus et liberamus, et unitati sanctæ matris Ecclesiæ restituimus, prout in litteris nostris plenius continebitur. In nomine Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti.