eedom, success could only be won by
the aid of measures which bordered upon oppression, yet here also the
even hand of justice was but commending the chalice to the lips of those
who had made others drink it to the dregs. They only were likely to fall
under the Treason Act who for centuries had fed the rack and the stake
with sufferers for "opinion."

[Sidenote: Appointment of suffragan bishops.]

Having thus made provision for public safety, the parliament voted a
supply of money for the fortifications on the coast and for the expenses
of the Irish war; and after transferring to the crown the first-fruits
of church benefices, which had been previously paid to the See of Rome,
and passing at the same time a large and liberal measure for the
appointment of twenty-six suffragan bishops,[408] they separated, not to
meet again for more than a year.

[Sidenote: Cardinal Farnese is chosen pope.]

[Sidenote: He is chosen by French influence, in the hope he will pursue
a liberal and conciliating policy.]

Meanwhile, at Rome a change had taken place which for the moment seemed
to promise that the storm after all might pass away. The conclave had
elected as a successor to Clement a man who, of all the Italian
ecclesiastics, was the most likely to recompose the quarrels in the
church; and who, if the genius or the destiny of the papacy had not been
too strong for any individual will, would perhaps have succeeded in
restoring peace to Christendom. In the debates upon the divorce the
Cardinal Farnese had been steadily upon Henry's side. He had maintained
from the first the general justice of the king's demands. After the
final sentence was passed, he had urged, though vainly, the
reconsideration of that fatal step; and though slow and cautious,
although he was a person who, as Sir Gregory Cassalis described him,
"would accomplish little, but would make few mistakes,"[409] he had
allowed his opinion upon this, as on other matters connected with the
English quarrel, to be generally known. He was elected therefore by
French influence[410] as the person most likely to meet the difficulties
of Europe in a catholic and conciliating spirit. He had announced his
intention, immediately on Clement's death, of calling a general council
at the earliest moment, in the event of his being chosen to fill the
papal chair; and as he was the friend rather of Francis I. than of the
emperor, and as Francis was actively supporting Henry, and was
ne