Catholic reaction Protestant Revolt in Switzerland and England 6 1 7 with the many church ceremonies and festivals. Earnest men Protestant- who deplored the policy of those who conducted Edward's di^credi^ted^ 2:overnment in the name of Protestantism must have concluded ^X E*^^^^^'s
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that the reformers were chiefly intent upon advancing their own interests by plundering the Church. We get some idea of the desecrations of the time from the fact that Edward was forced to forbid " quarreling and shooting in churches " and " the bringing of horses and mules through the same, making God's house like a stable or common inn." Although many were heartily in favor of the recent changes, it is no wonder that after Edward's death there was a revulsion in favor of the old religion. Edward VI was succeeded in 1553 by his half sister Mary, Queen Mary the daughter of Catherine, w^ho had been brought up in the and^the^^ Catholic faith and held firmly to it. Her ardent hope of bring- ing her kingdom back once more to her religion did not seem altogether ill-founded, for the majority of the people were still Catholics at heart, and many who were not, disapproved of the policy of Edward's ministers, who had removed abuses " in the devil's own way, by breaking in pieces." The Catholic cause appeared, moreover, to be strengthened by Mary's marriage with the Spanish prince, Philip II, the son of the orthodox Charles V. ^ But although Philip later distin- guished himself, as we shall see, by the merciless way in which he strove to put down heresy within his realms, he never gained any great influence in England. By his marriage with Mary he acquired the title of king, but the English took care that he should have no hand in the government nor be permitted to succeed his wife on the English throne. Mary succeeded in bringing about a nominal reconciliation between England and the Roman Church. In 1554 the papal legate restored to the communion of the Catholic Church the " Kneeling " Parliament, which theoretically, of course, repre- sented the nation. During the last four years of Mar^-'s reign the most serious religious persecution in English history occurred. No less than
