Page:The Queens of England.djvu/439

MARY THE FIRST. 395 for all previous errors. This exhortation led to a conference between the committees of the lords and commons ; an address, moved by both expressing their desire for a reunion with the papal see, was presented to the king and queen, and the legate at their intercession absolved the whole kingdom. And now it was proposed to repeal all statutes against the pope, the papal supremacy was to be re-established, and the order of spiritual affairs, as they stood previously to the separation from Rome, was to be restored. With this act was joined another fraught with even greater mischief, that for reviving the san- guinary statutes against the Lollards, and for punishing se- ditious words and rumors ; the first offense with the pillory and the loss of an ear, and the second with imprisonment for life. It was pronounced treason to imagine or compass the depriving Philip of the style of King of England, and the pub- lishing that he ought not to enjoy that title exposed the person guilty of so doing to perpetual imprisonment. Nevertheless he was generally spoken of only as "the queen's husband." It was now seen that Mary studied only the wishes of Philip. She was not only ready to adopt all his views, but was well disposed to enforce their adoption by her parliament. Charles the Fifth pressed her to make war against France ; but though Secretary Bourne, by Mary's desire, moved the measure in the house of commons, it was rejected, as was likewise the pro- posal to parliament to grant to Philip money and men to join the emperor in Flanders, both of which there was little doubt he intended ultimately to use against France. Nor was Gar- diner's proposition to the commons to demand a benevolence from all the towns in the realm more successful. This parlia- mentary resistance to her wishes was highly distasteful to Mary, who had in the early part of the session confidently calculated on having her husband recognized as presumptive heir to the crown, and of having authority vested in him of disposing of the treasure and forces of the kingdom. So far were her hopes defeated that she could not invest him even with the crown of queen's consort, though on the pretense of her being pregnant, she obtained an act for declaring him, in case of her death, protector of the kingdom and guardian of her child during its minority, if a male until eighteen, or if a female until fifteen. It was generally believed that even this concession to her wishes would not have been accorded, had not it been strongly suspected that she was not really with