sent for without delay, and Southampton was chosen as the port at which he should disembark, 'being in the country of the Bishop of Winchester,' where the people were, for the most part, good Catholics.
Parliament was expected to give its sanction without further difficulty; the opposition of the country having been neutralized by the same causes which had influenced the council. The Queen, indeed, in going through the ceremony before consulting Parliament, though she had broken the promise which she made in the Guildhall, had placed it beyond their power to raise difficulties; but other questions were likely to rise which would not be settled so easily. She herself was longing to show her gratitude to Providence by restoring the authority of the Pope; and the Pope intended, if possible, to recover his first-fruits and Peter's pence, and to maintain the law of the Church which forbade the alienation of Church property.[1] The English laity were resolute on their side to keep hold of what they had got; and to set the subject at rest, and to prevent unpleasant discussions on points of theology, Paget, with his friends, desired that the session should last but a few days, and that two measures only should be
- ↑ Pole's first commission granted him powers only 'concordandi et transigendi cum possessoribus bonorum ecclesiasticorum, (restitutis prius si expedire videtur immobilibus per eos indebite detentis,) super fructibus male perceptis ac bonis mobilibus consumptis.'—Commission granted to Reginald Pole: Wilkins's Concilia, vol. iv. Cardinal Morone, writing to Pole as late as June, 1554, said that the Pope was still unable to resolve on giving his sanction to the alienation.—Burnet's Collectanea.
