However, it was not Parliament but the executive that carried out to its full extent the policy of persecution and religious reaction.
The country soon showed its opposition.

A temporary disarray that might have been mistaken for disintegration had been produced in the Protestant ranks by the recantation of Northumberland.

The restoration of the mass was accomplished in orderly manner in most places.

The English formulas had been patient of a Catholic interpretation, and doubtless many persons regarded the change from one liturgy to the other as a matter of slight importance.

Moreover the majority made a principle of conformity to the government, believing that an act of the law relieved the conscience of the individual of responsibility.