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Parliament, and listened to the address in which her Lord Chancellor
exhorted the members to show their repentance for and detestation of
the heresy and schism of which he and they had been guilty, by
returning to the unity of the Catholic Church. All the new treasons,
felonies, and praemunire penalties of the previous reigns were
abolished on the ground, it was declared, that Mary hoped to win the
obedience of her subjects through love rather than through fear. The
marriage of Henry VIII. with Catharine of Aragon was declared valid,
and consequently Mary was acknowledged as the lawful successor to the
throne. The Edwardine religious settlement, including the Acts of
Uniformity, the Book of Common Prayer, the Ordinal, the Forty-two
Articles and the permission for clergymen to marry, was swept away,
and an Act was passed against disturbing religious services or
exhibiting irreverence towards the Eucharist. All this legislation was
in perfect conformity with the wishes of Convocation, which had met
shortly after the meeting of Parliament, and which with only a few
dissentients condemned the Book of Common Prayer, and re-affirmed the
belief of the English clergy in the doctrine of Transubstantiation.
Though the queen announced her dissatisfaction with the title of
supreme head, and granted full freedom of discussion regarding it,
Parliament showed itself decidedly unwilling to restore the
jurisdiction of the Pope. It was not that the members had any real
objection to the change from the doctrinal point of view, but, fearing
that a return to Roman obedience might involve a restoration of the
ecclesiastical property seized or alienated during the previous reign,
they wished to secure their property before they made their submission
to the Pope.

For so far Mary had acted with considerable mildness and prudence in
carrying out her religious programme, against which as yet no serious
opposition had been manifested. The question of her marriage, however,
was destined to create dissension between herself and her subjects.
The Emperor and the imperial ambassador urged her to accept the hand
of Philip, on the ground that by such a marriage internal jealousies
and dissensions might be avoided, and the triumph of Catholicism might
be assured. Many of the members of the council and the vast majority
of the English people were opposed to such a union. They feared that
were a foreign ruler to become the husband of their queen he must have
of necessity the chief voice in English affairs. They believed,
therefore, that England would be involved in all the wars of Spain,
and that were an heir to be born of such a union, England, instead of
being an independent nation, might become a mere Spanish province. The
enemies of Mary's religious programme thought they saw in the Spanish
marriage an opportunity of overturning her government, and of
re-establishing Protestantism in the country. Taking advantage of the
unpopularity of this proposal they appealed to the patriotism and love
of independence of the English people, and succeeded in winning to
their side many who were at least neutral in regard to her religious
proposals. It was planned by some to bring about a marriage between
the Princess Elizabeth and Edward Courtenay, both of whom had claims
to the throne, and to set them up as rivals to Queen Mary. The French
ambassador, alarmed at the prospect of Mary's marriage with the
hereditary enemy of France, encouraged the conspirators with promises
of assistance, not, indeed, because France desired the accession of
Elizabeth, but in the hope that during the confusion that would ensue
it might be possible to assert the claims of Mary Queen of Scotland,
the prospective wife of the Dauphin of France.

Notwithstanding the petition presented against the Spanish marriage by
Parliament, Mary persisted in the policy suggested to her by the
Emperor. Flemish envoys arrived on New Year's Day 1554 to arrange the
preliminaries. The marriage treaty was signed and two days later it
was announced to the mayor and the chief citizens of London. This was
the signal for the conspirators, who had been working secretly for
months, to bring their designs to a head. News soon arrived in London
that Sir Peter Carew had risen in Devon and had captured Exeter, that
Sir Thomas Wyatt was rousing the men of Kent, and that Sir James
Crofts had gone to Wales and the Duke of Suffolk to the midlands to
rally the forces of disloyalty. But the great body of the English
people were too deeply attached to their sovereign to respond to the
appeal of the rebel leaders. Wyatt's movement alone threatened to be
dangerous. As his forces advanced to the gates of London, Mary, who
had shown the greatest courage throughout the crisis, went in person
to the Guildhall to call upon the citizens of London to defend their