half done; that, by the recent legislation, she had cleared the way and acquired the means for effecting her object, but the object itself was as yet far from being attained.
Half her own ministers were either latitudinarians, like Paget, or concealed heretics, like Cecil. Elizabeth was her inevitable successor, and Elizabeth belonged to the latter category; and Mary most probably felt that her own life was uncertain, and that, unless she could root out the tendency to heresy, which she saw all around her, in her own lifetime, all would relapse at her death, and her labour would be in vain. Whatever the constraining motive, or, as is more likely, the combination of motives, there is no doubt of the fact that with the close of the first Parliament of Philip and Mary began the cruellest, the most relentless, and the longest persecution which has ever been seen in England; and that, in the main, it is to Mary herself personally that this persecution is due.[1] Gardiner's share in it is not so clear, for though it is evident that at first he was in its favour, it seems also clear that he did not long remain so. Incapable of religious zeal himself, he seems to have doubted, until repeated trials had cleared up the doubt, whether the Protestants believed any more sincerely than he did—whether, when it came to the point, they would think their particular views were worth defending at the cost of their lives.
From the position which Gardiner held in Mary's esteem and counsels, there can be no hesitation about fixing the charge of the commencement of the persecution upon him—at least, it could not have commenced without his concurrence or against his will; but
- ↑ See Renard in State papers quoted by Froude, vol. vi. p. 197. See also the commission to Bonner, Thirlby, and others, for a severe way of proceeding against heretics (Burnet, vol. v. p. 469).
