iament was expected to give its sanction without further
difficulty; the opposition of the country having been neutralised 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.[272] The English
laity {p.118} 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 brought forward; the first for the confirmation of the
treaty of marriage, the second to reassert the validity of the titles
under which the church estates were held by their present owners. If
the queen consented to the last, her title of Head of the Church might
be dropped informally, and allowed to fall into abeyance.[273]

[Footnote 272: 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_.]

[Footnote 273: Paget to Renard: Tytler, vol. ii.]

Gardiner, however, saw in the failure of the insurrection an
opportunity of emancipating the church, and of extinguishing heresy
with fire and sword.[274] He was preparing a bill to restore the
ancient rigorous tyranny of the ecclesiastical courts; and by his own
authority he directed that, in the writs for