This apparent fervour was for the most part only on the surface. Had Pole not returned armed with a Papal dispensation, exonerating all the possessors of ecclesiastical plunder from the necessity of restoring it, he would have been received in a very different spirit. It was not possible to bring back the ages of faith to a generation that had grown sceptical from change and worldliness, and both Houses consisted largely of this class of people. When the question of restoring Church lands had come under discussion before the Papal dispensation had been published, the Earl of Bedford fell into a violent passion, and breaking his rosary beads from his girdle flung them into the fire, declaring that he valued his sweet abbey of Woburn more than fatherly counsel that should come from Rome.[483] Although Sir William Cecil might have expressed himself less warmly, he certainly shared this sentiment, in regard to his benefices of Putney, Mortlake and Wimbledon; and the express mention of the lands held by Sir William Petre and the confirmation of his title to them in the bull of Paul IV. are sufficient proof of the Chief Secretary’s unwillingness to part with the monastic property that had fallen to his share.[484] And these men were fairly representative of all those who had been enriched in this way. It was to such as these that Pole addressed his earnest admonition concerning the sacred vessels of the altar, that they might not be put to profane uses, while he entreated all those who were in possession of ecclesiastical revenues, “through the bowels of mercy of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that from a regard to their own eternal lot, they would provide out of the Church lands, such especially as had been set aside for the maintenance of the parochial clergy, a competent subsistence for those who exercised that charge, which might enable them to live creditably, according to their state, and perform their functions, and support the burden of their calling”. On the first Sunday of Advent, he made his public entry into London, and heard High Mass at St. Paul’s. Gardiner on this occasion preached his famous sermon, in which he accused himself bitterly of his conduct under Henry VIII., and exhorted all who had fallen with him, or through his example, to rise with him, and return to the religion of their forefathers.[485] He took as the text of his discourse a part of the eleventh verse of the thirteenth chapter of St. Paul’s Epistle to the Romans, “It is the hour to rise out of sleep”. On the following Thursday, both Houses of Convocation waited on the Cardinal at Lambeth, and kneeling, received absolution “from all their perjuries, schism and heresies”.[486]