of the public patrimony*." Perceiving that it was vain to dissuade the Queen entirely from her purpose, they advised the erection of some religious houses; and the project was immediately executed. This declaration of her feelings, with the re-establishment of some religious houses, was followed by an attempt to persuade Parliament into a general restitution of church property; but however that body could express their zeal in cruel laws, they were not prepared for such an act of self-denial, and some of them, laying their hands upon their swords, declared they knew how to defend their own property t.

It is unnecessary to say in relation to this short reign, that it was a period inauspicious to public liberty: Besides the sources of influence which have already been developed as at this time belonging to the throne, the Catholic party were too eagerly bent upon improving their present advantage against the adverse faction, to quarrel with little stretches of prerogative, while the Protestants durst not attempt, regularly, to

Heylin's Hist. of Queen Mary, p. 65. Scott's Somers' Tracts, vol. i. p. 55, 56. See Heylin, p. 41. as to the motives of Parliament in reconciling the kingdom to Rome; and in p. 53. the feelings upon , a motion to restore the church lands.

+ Heylin, p. 55. Neal, vol. i. p. 96. Parl. Hist. vol. i. p. 626. Burnet, vol. iii. p. 571, 577, 581. The parliament met in October 1555, and shewed a very different temper from what they had previously done, being equally alienated from the Queen and the clergy. A subsidy was opposed with great vehemence. It was said that the Queen had profusely given away the riches of the crown, and then turned to the laity to pay her debts: Why did she not rather turn to the spirituality?" Id. p. 581.

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oppose public measures, and the aristocracy had too deep a stake to provoke the Queen on subordinate points. The proceedings of such a reign, therefore, ought never to be cited as illustrating the ancient constitutional principles of the English government*.

Humbled by adversity, and terrified by the cruelty of government, the majority of the reformers submitted to a season of injustice, in the hope that, with the life of the reigning monarch, their calamities would terminate, and their party be raised from degradation. The patience with which many of them endured torments, in the cause of their religion, by begetting admiration, more widely diffused their principles, while it excited the deepest abhorrence against Mary and her husband, and though sham-plots, the resort of a wicked party to obtain a pretext for cruelty, were devised, yet the real spirit of revolt, manifested in repeated insurrections, which, though quelled, did not either exhaust, or break, the spirit of the party †, would lead us to infer that

To strengthen her adherents with military power, Mary granted licences of retainder to them against the laws. About two thousand retainers were thus kept up. Elizabeth also granted licences, but neither so many as her sister had done, nor for such a number of retainers by any individual. Thus Bishop Gardiner had 200, while Archbishop Parker, in the next reign, had only 40, and the Duke of Norfolk 100. Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. iii. p. 479. Mary also raised an extraordinary guard. Id. p. 426.

+ The Protestant party now appealed to the constancy of their martyrs as a proof of the goodness of their cause; but their language was very opposite in the preceding reign. Latimer, in his third sermon before the king thus expresses himself:

"This is no good ar

this reign could not have been long protracted*. Many of the leading reformers, however, fled into Protestant countries, where they prayed

gument, my friends. A man seemeth not to fear death, therefore his cause is good. This is a deceiuable argument. He went to his death boldly, ergo, he standeth in iust and honest quarrell.

exceedingly imprudent in After some executions of

"The anabaptists that were burnt heere in many townes in England, (as I heard of credible men, I sawe them not myselfe) went to their death even intrepide, as ye will say, without any feare in the world, cheerefully. Well, let them goe. There was in the old Doctors' times another kinde of poysoned hereticks, that were called Donatists: and these hereticks went to their execution, as though they should have gone to some iolly recreation or banket, to some belly cheere, or to a play. And will you argue then? He goeth to his death boldly and cheerefully, ergo he dieth in a iust cause?" &c. P. 55, 56. The Lutherans abroad called the English martyrs in Mary's reign, "the Devil's martyrs," because they denied the corporal presence of Christ in the eucharist. Note by Maclaine to his translation of Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 388. The Protestants appear to have been provoking vengeance against themselves. those engaged in Wyatt's insurrection, a cat, in the habit of a priest, with a shaven crown, and a piece of paper in her fore claws, in the shape of, and representing the wafer, was hung upon a gallows, near the cross, in Cheapside, on which one of the rebels had been hanged. Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, vol. iii. p. 120. Heylin, p. 47. But the following, which we shall give in the words of Bishop Burnet, was much worse. "There were," says he, " many ludicrous things every where done in derision of the old forms, and of the images: many poems were printed, with other ridiculous representations of the Latin service, and the pageantry of their worship. But none occasioned more laughter than what fell out at Paul's the Easter before; the custom being to lay the sacrament into the sepulchre at evening, on Good-Friday, and to take it out by break of day on Easter morning. At the time of the taking it out, the quire sung

* As for sham plots, see Burnet, vol. iii. p. 569. For discontents, p. 649. A small supply was given in 1558, after several days debate, though the situation of affairs was urgent, p. 651.

to be allowed that freedom in the worship of their creator, which was inhumanly denied them in England. Had they consulted their own bosoms, they might not have been disappointed in the re

these words, Surrexit, non est hic; He is risen, he is not here. But then the priest looking for the host, found it was not there indeed, for one had stolen it out, which put them in no small disorder; but another was presently brought in its stead. Upon this a ballad followed, that their God was stolen and lost, but a new one was made in his room. This raillery was so salt, that it provoked the clergy much. They resolved ere long to turn that mirth and pleasantness of the heretics into severe mourning." vol. iii. p. 524, 525. By the way, this passage by the right reverend and worthy prelate is scarcely in good taste, though there is a great apology for the Protestants of that age: out of 16,000 clergymen, 12,000 had been turned out of their livings on account of their marriages, and they naturally were instigated to revenge themselves by satire. But the folly was gross. Some of the Protestant preachers in their private congregations went very far against the Queen herself: one Ross, used to pray, "that God would either turn her heart from idolatry, or else shorten her days." Their mirth at her false conception, for the circumstance "made much game," was extremely provoking. Heylin, p. 47.

The kingdom is said to have been greatly afflicted by divine vengeance during this reign, which was manifested in pestilence, famine, immoderate rains, and at other times immoderate droughts, tempests, deluges, strange diseases, &c. &c. the like of which had never been known before. Strype's Ecclesiastical Memorials, p. 476. Burnet, p. 661. Elizabeth's reign was free from such evils; but then the people suffered from another source. ""Tis strange," says Strype, "how sorceries prevailed, and the mischiefs they did." Annals, vol. i. p. 7. Bishop Jewel, in a sermon before her majesty, says, 66 By the way, to touch a word or two of the matter, for that the horrible using of your poor subjects enforceth thereunto. It may please your grace to understand, that this kind of people, I mean witches and sorcerers, within these few last years, are marvellously increased within your Grace's realm. These eyes have seen the most evident and manifest marks of their wickedness. Your grace's subjects pine away even unto the death, their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. Wherefore your poor subjects' most humble petition unto your Highness is, that the laws touching such male

sult, as they would there have discovered that intolerance was not confined to Catholics: The rigid Lutherans refused them an asylum, because they rejected the idea of the corporal presence of Christ in the Sacrament*. But, in France, Geneva, and those parts of Switzerland and Germany,

factors may be put in due execution. For the shoal of them is great, their doings horrible, their malice intolerable, the examples most miserable and I pray God they never practise farther than upon the subject." Jewel's Works, p. 204. Many have laughed at this Queen's successor for his superstition; but the opinions which he maintained were universal in that age. Parliament passed statutes against witches. Burghley had such an opinion of astrology, that he had Elizabeth's nativity cast, to ascertain whether she would marry, and wrote out the judgment with his own hand, in Latin. A copy of it is preserved by Strype. Annals, vol. ii. p. 16. Appendix, No. IV. Sir Thomas Smith "stutied astrology much." Id. p. 17. In an after age, Sir Matthew Hale declared that he had no doubt whatever of witchcraft. Howel's State Trials, vol vi. p. 699. The whole trial and matter furnished there, are remarkably curious. Addison, at a later period says, "I cannot forbear thinking that there is such an intercourse and commerce with evil spirits, as that we express by the name of witchcraft." Again, he says, rather unphilosophically, "I believe, in general, that there is such a thing as witchcraft; but, at the same time, can give no credit to any particular instance of it." Spect. paper on Witchcraft, White Mole. It is probable that all the phenomena described by Jewel really occurred: for, whoever will look into Bryan Edwards' History of the West Indies, will find that the consequences of the imaginary powers of Obeah upon the negroes are not inferior to the bishop's description. A negro who suffers under this imaginary evil, "believes himself to be the victim of an invisible and irresistible energy. Sleep, appetite, and cheerfulness forsake him; his disturbed imagination is haunted without respite; his features wear the settled gloom of despondency: dirt, or any other unwholesome substance, becomes his only food; he contracts a morbid habit of body, and gradually sinks into the grave." Vol. ii. p. 91. Edit. 1793.

*Note by Maclaine to his translation of Mosheim, vol. iv. p. 388. Edin. 1819.

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