1563.] THE ENGLISH AT HA VRE. 37 The Protestants might be content with what they had got without forcing other men to profess what they did not believe and to make God a witness of the lie. To take an oath against their consciences or else to be put to death was no alternative to be offered to reasonable men ; and if it came to that extremity the Catholics would defend themselves. A majority might be found to vote for the law if the bishops were included ; but the bishops were a party to the quarrel and had no right to, be judges in it. The bishops had no business with pains and penalties ; they should keep to their pulpits and their excommunications and leave questions of public policy to the lay Lords.' 1 Had Montague been despotic in England the Protest- ants would have had as short a shrift as the Huguenots were finding in France ; but even a Catholic of the six- teenth century, when in opposition, could be more tem- perate than a Protestant in power. The Bill was lost or withdrawn to reappear in a new form : and the Peers who had checked the zeal of Bonner and Gardiner had the credit of staying in time the less pardonable revenge of their antagonists. On the French question there were anak ^ous differ- ences of opinion. When the temper of Parliament had been felt it was found that, notwithstanding the Puritan constitution of the Lower House, the feeling was in favour only of the recovery of Calais. The Lords and Commons ' -resolved to yield their whole power in goods 1 Annals of the Reformation : STKYPE, vol. i.
