Immediately after the ceremony of reconciliation took place, the queen sent viscount Montague, Thirlby bishop of Ely, and sir Edward Carne, ambassadors to Rome. They reached it on the 23d of May 1555; and, on the 23d of the following June, were admitted to an audience with the pope. They prostrated themselves at the feet of his holiness, represented the sorrow of the nation, for their schism and heresy, and their desire to return into communion with the holy see. The pope received them graciously, expressed a general approbation of the proceedings of the legate, but complained of the detention of the ecclesiastical property, and intimated his right to the ancient render of Peterpence. "He himself," he said, "had, when he was

"although the bill passed by a majority, yet there were in "the house of commons 126 against it, some of whom made

very bitter reflections thereupon: which showed mens "minds, and the temper of her parliament, were very much "altered from that wonderful unanimity, with which they "had before gone into all the queen's measures.

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"The effects thereof stopped not here: a jealousy was soon spread over the realm, that as matters were then going on, a general resumption of church lands would some time " or other be infallibly attempted. Now those estates were "already so distributed among the nobility and gentry, of

every persuasion, that much the greatest part were deeply "concerned therein: wherefore many soon applied them"selves to the princess Elizabeth."

Some care was taken by Mary and the friends of the catholic religion to restore the monastic state in this country, but without much success; some small communities, however, of Benedictines, Carthusians, Bridgettines, and Franciscans, were settled at Westminster, Sheen, Sion-house near Brnetford, and Greenwich.

young, been employed in collecting it, and even "had been edified by the alacrity with which it was paid."

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It is observable, that, before Henry the eighth, the kings of England styled themselves only lords of Ireland. That monarch, in the twenty-third year of his reign, assumed the title of king of Ireland, and, two years afterwards, his title was recognized by parliament. This the pope considered an invasion of the right, assumed by the holy see, to be the sovereign and ultimate feudal lord of that kingdom.

To prevent any controversy on this head, Mary accompanied the letter, presented to the pope by the ambassadors, with one, in which she solicited him to confer on her the title of queen of Ireland: With this request, the pope complied*; the bull was dated several days before the presentation of the ambassadors, and thus the difficulty, which might otherwise have arisen, was dexterously eluded.

XXI. 2.

Four Disputations between Catholic and Protestant Divines in the reign of Queen Mary.

In our account of the reign of king Edward the sixth, we have noticed six disputations between catholics and protestants, on the subject of religion, that were held in the space of one year. Four similar disputations were held in 1553, soon after

* By a bull, transcribed by Bzovius, ad annum 1555.

the accession of queen Mary. The catholics then held the temple, and these disputations were designed for the express purpose of giving satisfaction to protestants.

66:

same,

The first* took place on the 18th of October in the year we have mentioned, in the convocation house, in St. Paul's church, London, and continued during six days. "The questions, (says Persons), "were the accustomed, about the real presence, "and transubstantiation. The manner of disputing "was not in form, or after any fashion of school, "but rather of proposing doubts, and answering the for satisfaction of them that were not re"solved. The prolucutor protested, that the con"ference was held not to call any points of catholic "religion into doubt, but to solve such scruples or "doubts, as any man might pretend to have." Philpot, archdeacon of Winchester, took the lead on the protestant side: he denied the real presence in the most explicit terms: "I will speak plain "English, quoth he†:-the sacrament of the altar, "which ye reckon to be all one with the mass, is "no sacrament at all, neither is Christ anywise. " present in it."

Three other disputations were held in three successive days, at Oxford, in April 1554, on the three questions of the real presence, transubstantiation, and the sacrifice of the mass. Cranmer,

*Fox, p. 214. Persons's Review of Ten Disputations, s. 7. + Fox, 1285. Persons's Review, c. 1, s. 7. Persons's Review, c. 1, s. 8...

Fox, 1299.

Ridley, and Latimer attended, and argued at each of them.

The disputants arrived at no certain conclusion, in any of the ten meetings which have been mentioned. The three last were conducted with most order, and the controversy carried on with the greatest fairness;-" Yet," says father Persons* if Fox relate truly, "the manner of arguing was "not so orderly and school-like as might have "beent."

* Fox, 1299. Persons's Review, c. i. s. 8.

+ The conclusions which Persons himself draws from them for his readers, we shall give in his own words.

"If a man would oppose to these ten public disputations "before recyted, ten learned councells of the catholic church, "that disputed, examined, and condemned this heresie of "theirs against the real presence, within the space of these "last six hundred years, since Berengarius first began it, as "namely, those four named by Lanchfranke, to witt, that of "Rome, under Leo the ninth; and another of Versells, under "the same pope; the third at Towars in France, under pope "Victor, successor to Leo; the fourth at Rome againe, under દ pope Nicholas the second; in all which Berengarius himselfe "was present, and in the last, not only abjured, but burnt his "owne booke. And after this, six other councells to the same "effect, the first at Rome, under Gregory the seventh, where "Berengarius againe abjured, as Waldensis testifieth; the "second of Lateran in Rome also, under Innocentius the third'; "the general councell of Vienna; the fourth at Rome againe, "under pope John the twenty-second; the fifth at Constance, "and the sixth at Trent. All these councells, I say, if a man "consider with indifferency of what variety of learned men they "consisted, of what singular piety and sanctity of life, of how .co many nations, of what dignity in God's church, how great "diligence they used to discuss this matter, what prayer, what "conferringe of scriptures, and other meanes they used, and

XXI. 3.

Persecution of the Protestants for Heresy.

for

THERE is reason to believe that, when Mary ascended the throne, her dispositions towards those who should continue to differ from her in religious opinions, were just, moderate, and wise. Doctor Heylin admits, that before the end of the second year of her reign she practised no violence. The first volume of Dodd's Church History contains the faculties and instructions, which the pope gave reconciling the kingdom to the holy see they are written in the language of moderation, and do not contain a single expression, which suggests measures of constraint. The lenity of cardinal Pole, her majesty's principal adviser, seems to be universally admitted. So much is this the case, that Hume*, in a debate which he supposes to have taken place in Mary's reign, on the subject of

"with how great consent of both Greek and Latyn church "conforme to all antiquity, they determined and resolved "against the opinion of protestants in our dayes; he will

easily discover how much more reason and probability of "security there is, of adventuringe his soule of the one side "then of the other +."

At the end of this chapter father Persons proceeds to an claborate discussion of the controversies, on the three articles of the real presence, transubstantiation and the sacrifice of the mass :—all who desire to be acquainted with the nature and bearings of these discussions in the reign of queen Elizabeth, must be highly gratified by the perusal of this part of his work. * Chap. xxxvii.

+ On the last disputation, see also Collier's Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 354.