The first House of Commons of Elizabeth proved by its acts to be strongly Protestant.

The assumption generally made that it was packed by the government has been recently exploded.

Careful testing shows that there was hardly any government interference.

Of the 390 members, 168 had sat in earlier Parliaments of Mary, and that was just the normal proportion of old members.

It must be remembered that the parliamentary franchise approached the democratic only in the towns, the strongholds of Protestantism, and that in the small boroughs and in some of the counties the election was determined by just that middle class most progressive and at this time most Protestant.
Another test of the temper of the country is the number of clergy refusing the oath of supremacy.