Page:Church and State under the Tudors.djvu/167

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REIGN OF MARY
143

work together to enable the Queen to carry out her own, which, as already said, concurred with no one's else.

Besides the restoration of the Papal power the other great object was the exclusion of Elizabeth from the succession to the throne.

Gardiner, it would seem,[1] would even have backed her in this latter design, but Gardiner did not approve of the marriage with Philip and was at this time less than lukewarm in his zeal for the Pope. Paget, the sole advocate of the marriage, was earnest in maintaining the claims of Elizabeth, and even the necessity of recognising them to the full. He was a latitudinarian in religion, and certainly not anxious to restore the Pope. All the more moderate Catholics went with Gardiner.

The Protestants, on the other hand, could not so with Paget: they had a dread, only too well founded, of Philip and his Spaniards.

Hence, while nobody supported the Queen heartily, none were, except the Protestants, heartily opposed to her. Parliament, it is true, was opposed to the Spanish match, and the House of Commons even ventured to remonstrate with Mary on the subject. They gained nothing by their motion but a rebuke for their presumption from the Queen, together with the reply that 'on this matter she would take counsel with God, and with none other.' This famous interview occurred on Nov. 16. Two months afterwards broke out the rebellion of Sir Thomas Wyatt. But the rebellion was badly led. Courtenay was a coward and -a weakling, if not even a conscious traitor. He betrayed Carew to Gardiner, and precipitated the whole movement, Carew hastened off into Devonshire, but was unable to effect a rising, and had to make his escape. Suffolk

  1. Renard, as noted by Froude, vol. vi. p. 120.