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out heresy. He wanted to know about the doctrine taught by the clergy, about seditious or heretical books in circulation, and about priests who administered any sacraments in English. In addition, Bonner wanted the names of any laity who, at the moment of consecration, “do hang down their heads, hide themselves behind pillars, turn away their faces, or depart out of the church,” any who “murmured, grudged or spoke against” the Mass, the sacraments, or ceremonies, and any who “made noise, jangled, talked or played the fool in church.”12 He demanded the names of any circulating “slanderous books, ballads or plays, contrary to the Christian religion.” He wanted to know about any who refused to take part in rituals such as procession on Sunday, and issuing of the pax, and any who had eaten flesh on the traditional fasts or vigils. Pictures on the walls of churches were to be removed that “chiefly and principally do tend to the maintenance of carnal liberty” by attacking fasting, good works, celibacy, or the veneration of the Blessed Sacrament.13

Gradually, signs indicating the return to Catholicism were visible across the country. In November 1553, Saint Katherine’s image was carried around the steeple at St. Paul’s on her patronal feast day, and on Saint Andrew’s Day there was “a general procession … in Latin with ora pro nobis.”14 As Machyn recorded in his diary, “The viii day of December was [the] procession at [St.] Paul’s. When all was done my lord of London [Bonner] commanded that every parish church should provide for a cross and a staff and cope to go to the procession every Sunday, Wednesday and Friday, and pray unto God for fair weather through London.”15

Outside London, Robert Parkyn, a Yorkshire priest, described how

it was joy to hear and see how these carnal priests (which had led their lives in fornication with their whores and harlots) did lower and look down when they were commanded to leave and forsake their concubines and harlots and to do open penance according to the Canon Law … all old ceremonies, laudably used beforetime in the holy Church was then revived, daily frequented and used.16

The process of Catholic revival, resisted by some but welcomed by many, had begun.

CHAPTER 43

A MARRYING HUMOR

So as to restore the succession and continue the line, they [the Council] considered it necessary for the good of the kingdom that the Queen should enter into an alliance, and marry; and the sooner the better, because of the state of her affairs and her years.1

—RENARD TO THE EMPEROR, OCTOBER 5, 1553

UPON MARY’S ACCESSION THERE WAS GENERAL EXPECTATION THAT she would marry. No one expected a woman to rule alone. It was important that she have an heir to ensure a Catholic succession and someone to assist her in government.2 Mary now accepted the need to marry: “I have lived a virgin, and I doubt not, with God’s grace, to live still. But if, as my ancestors have done it might please God that I should leave you a successor to be your governor.”3 At thirty-seven Mary would have to wed quickly if she were to stand any chance of conceiving.

Despite the contemporary belief that a queen needed a consort, there was also apprehension. It was assumed that a husband would exercise power. Under English law not only would a woman’s property, titles, and income pass to her husband upon marriage, but she would also cede governance of her person. For Mary, any prospective bridegroom had to be of royal blood and a good Catholic.

English hopes came to focus on the twenty-five-year-old Edward Courtenay, a great-grandson of Edward IV. His father, the marquess of Exeter, had been executed by Henry VIII in 1538; his mother, Gertrude Courtenay (née Blount), the marchioness of Exeter, remained one of Mary’s most trusted intimates. Chief among his supporters was the lord chancellor, Stephen Gardiner, who had spent a number of years imprisoned with Courtenay in the Tower. Although Gardiner was supported by almost all the other privy councillors, Mary quickly made it clear that she had no intention of marrying Courtenay or