he popular enthusiasm hardly waited in
fact for the orders of the Government. The whole system which had been
pursued during Edward's reign fell with a sudden crash. London indeed
retained much of its Protestant sympathy, but over the rest of the
country the tide of reaction swept without a check. The married priests
were driven from their churches, the images were replaced. In many
parishes the new Prayer Book was set aside and the mass restored. The
Parliament which met in October annulled the laws made respecting
religion during the past reign, and re-established the form of service
as used in the last year of Henry the Eighth.

[Sidenote: Mary's aim.]

Up to this point the temper of England went fairly with that of the
Queen. But there were from the first signs of a radical difference
between the aim of Mary and that of her people. With the restoration of
her father's system the nation as a whole was satisfied. Mary on the
other hand looked on such a restoration simply as a step towards a
complete revival of the system which Henry had done away. Through long
years of suffering and peril her fanaticism had been patiently brooding
over the hope of restoring to England its older religion. She believed,
as she said at a later time to the Parliament, that "she had been
predestined and preserved by God to the succession of the Crown for no
other end save that He might make use of her above all else in the
bringing back of the realm to the Catholic faith." Her zeal however was
checked by the fact that she stood almost alone in her aim, as well as
by cautious advice from her cousin, the Emperor; and she assured the
Londoners that "albeit her own conscience was stayed in matters of
religion, yet she meant not to compel or strain men's consciences
otherwise than God should, as she trusted, put in their hearts a
persuasion of the truth that she was in, through the opening of his word
unto them by godly, and virtuous, and learned preachers." She had in
fact not ventured as yet to refuse the title of "Head of the Church next
under God" or to disclaim the powers which the Act of Supremacy gave
her; on the contrary she used these powers in the regulation of
preaching as her father had used them. The strenuous resistance with
which her proposal to set aside the new Prayer Book was met in
Parliament warned her of the difficulties that awaited any projects of
radical change. The proposal was carried, but only after a hot conflict
w