The death of King Edward VI and…
November 1554 CE
The death of King Edward VI and the accession of Mary I to the throne of England had hastened the return from exile of Cardinal Reginald Pole, as papal legate.
Cardinal Pole comes to England in 1554 to receive the kingdom back into the Roman fold.
Mary and the Emperor Charles V had delayed him until November 20, however, due to apprehension that Pole might oppose the Queen's forthcoming marriage to Charles's son, Philip of Spain.
Mary has fallen in love with Philip and, thinking she is pregnant, holds thanksgiving services at the diocese of London in November 1554.
Pole’s return is followed by an Act of Parliament, the Revival of the Heresy Acts.
This revives former measures against heresy: the letters patent of 1382 of Richard II, an Act of 1401 of Henry IV, and an Act of 1414 of Henry V. All of these had been repealed under Henry VIII and Edward VI.
Gardiner is now also called upon, in old age, to undo not a little of the work in which he had been instrumental in his earlier years—to demonstrate the legitimacy of the queen's birth and the legality of her mother's marriage, to restore the old religion, and to recant his own words touching the royal supremacy.
It is said that he wrote a formal Palinodia or retraction of his book De vera obedientia; but the reference is probably to his sermon on Advent Sunday 1554, after Cardinal Reginald Pole had absolved the kingdom from schism.