kingdom. The sufferers amounted in council were surrounded, suffer them this year to seventy-nine, which num- to adopt a rapid attack on the former ber was probably increased by a com- fortress, a step strenuously recommission given to Bonner and twenty mended by the king. A parliament others for the discovery of heresy and the was now assembled, and relieved them punishment of certain offences, in which from a part of their difficulties by a they were invested with all the author- grant of money, which came too late ity which the infliction of fine and impri- to retrieve the errors that had been sonment could afford them. This, though committed, and on the prorogation of it far different from the establishment the bishops renewed their persecutions. of the inquisition, was a very important Thirty-nine suffered this year, making step towards its introduction. In all the total of the victims during this reign these transactions, the cardinal was pro- amount to two hundred and seventy. bably not guilty of any of the severest Some authors' give a much larger or most cruel measures. He seems to number; but humanity shudders at have tried, in a quiet manner, to check this; and in a proclamation now put the vehemence of the bishop of Lon- forth, the people are forbidden even to don; but he possessed neither firmness pray for the sufferers, a step in perseof character nor influence sufficient to cution much more unchristian than arrest these tyrannical proceedings: he could have been conceived, had not had indeed dismissed several persons experience taught us how far the evil on very equivocal submission; but by passions may carry human beings, so doing exposed himself to the malice when unrestrained by a sense of reliof the pope, which broke out on the gion. Bonner himself seems to have following occasion. been glutted with murder, and to have confined his exertions to the personal castigation of his ill-fated prisoners.

§ 374. Paul IV. had persuaded Henry II. of France to break the truce with Spain, contrary to all good faith; § 375. At length, however, it pleased and when, after the battle of St. Quin- Almighty God to put an end to these tin, in which the English had assisted cruelties by the death of Mary, who, the forces of Philip, the pope found after a protracted state of declining himself exposed to the power of the health and suffering, ended her ingloSpaniards by the removal of the army rious career on the seventeenth of Noof the duke of Guise from Italy, he vember. With all her faults, she must vented his rage on Pole, for not having be allowed the praise of sincerity: for prevented this step of the English cabi- the love she bore to the Roman Cathonet, withdrew his legantine powers, lic religion and the papacy, induced and summoned him to Rome to answer her to advance its supposed interests at the charges which were brought against her own expense, as well as that of him of favouring heresy. Peto, the her persecuted subjects; and her chief queen's confessor, was invested with misfortune seems to have been this, the authority of which the archbishop that a genius which would have shone was deprived; but Mary, justly offended in a nunnery was exalted to a throne. at these hasty decisions, refused to ad- Her temper, naturally sour, had been mit him into the kingdom. These disturbances, however, were quickly brought to a conclusion, for the advance of the duke of Alva on Rome reduced the pope to the necessity of a peace, one of the secret articles of which was the restoration of Pole.

(A. D. 1558.) The loss of Calais and Guisnes, which seems to have been chiefly owing to the defective manner in which they were supplied, brought the dissatisfaction of the English nation to its summit; nor did the difficulties, chiefly financial, with which the

1 Lord Burleigh reckons it at 400. (Burnet, p. iii. 189, fol., 454, 8vo.) The writer to Ridley, De Cana Domini, at 800 in the two first years of the persecution. (Burnet, vol. ii. 272, fol., 658, 8vo. This was probably Grindal. Strype makes it 288, vi. 556. Ecc. Mem. The numbers as given annually by Burnet amount to 270.

2 Her foundations were made out of the reve

nues of the crown, and instead of making a gain of godliness, as was the general plan of the Rethat which cost her nothing. Among other doformation, she offered not up unto the Lord, of nations, she gave some rectories, which were in the hands of the crown, to Oxford, to repair the schools; and restored the temporalities to Durham, which had been taken away as a prey for the duke of Northumberland.

rendered morose by the sufferings by reforming obvious abuses, and by which she underwent; and her per- gentleness of treatment. It does not sonal animosity was so wrapped up appear that he always wished to abunder the garb of religion, that she stain from severe measures against probably did not distinguish between heretics; but, as it has been before the two. Had she met with more wise observed, he could not follow the bent and liberal counsellors, she might have of his own mind; and it is not unescaped much of the obloquy with worthy of remark, that the only parwhich her name was then and is still don' issued for a heretic in this reign loaded; and had she followed the ad- was granted at his intercession. Many vice of Cardinal Pole, she would pro- Protestants had formed a very different bably have avoided many of those opinion concerning him, and believed. enormities which disgrace human na- that he was in fact the friend of the ture, and are an everlasting stigma on Reformation; but this false idea3 was the Christian religion. The legate soon taken off; and on finding their himself breathed his last within sixteen mistake, it is not wonderful that they hours of his mistress; a man very dif- should feel exasperated against him, ferent from those with whom he was though his conduct throughout seems politically connected, and who sought to have been that of a reasonable and to establish the religion he professed, sincere Roman Catholic.

CHAPTER VIII.

DURING PART OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, NOV. 17, 1558-1563.

401. Varied prospects of Elizabeth. 402. Prudence of her conduct. 403. Coronation; parliament. 404. Bishoprics pillaged by the crown. 405. Conference in Westminster Abbey. 406. Convocation; injunctions. 407. Ejection of the recusant clergy. 408. Court of high commission; images. 409. Consecration of bishops. 410. Defective ministry arising partly from the poverty of the church. 411. Reforms; Jewel's Apology. 412. Parliament; convocation. 413. Benefits of the Reformation. Evils arising from the Reformation.

§ 401. THE prospects of Elizabeth | bable that no small number of the people upon her succession to the throne were of England who adhered to the Roman of that varied nature which give birth Catholic persuasion would entertain to, as well as require, superior abilities; sentiments little different from those of nor would it have been easy to decide Philip. These disadvantages were counwhether or no the dangers which threat- terpoised by the unanimity of the naened her from without were balanced tion; for no monarch ever ascended the by the domestic advantages with which throne with stronger expressions of her reign was commenced. Against public opinion in their favour, or whose France and Scotland, her nearest neigh- character stood higher in the estimation bours, she was engaged in open hostili- of all orders. The cruelties of the late ties, and the loss of Calais had so dispirited the nation, that they were unable to exert themselves for its recovery, dissatisfied as they were at the idea of losing it. The army and navy which she possessed were scarcely adequate to the defence of her shores, and the pecuniary resources of the kingdom too low to afford her the means of recruiting them with effect. The plans of reformation in religion, which she had determined to adopt, were likely to alienate her only ally, and it was pro

reign had gone far beyond the wishes
of most of the more violent Roman Ca-
tholics; and the disgraces which had
attended the arms of England had ren-
dered the people generally dissatisfied
with the government: to which it may
be added, that Elizabeth had been the
victim of much personal vexation, and
the good conduct which she had exhi-
bited under very trying circumstances,

1 Strype's Ecc. Mem. vi. 29.
2 Cranmer, 498, App. lxxxii.
Ecc. Mem. v. 542.

had given her a just title to the popular-recting that the adoption of the English ity which usually attends the oppressed. language in the public prayers should § 402. The first acts of her reign were be confined to the Litany, the Lord's dictated by great prudence, and she Prayer, and the Creed. This step was seems to have been peculiary fortunate perhaps rendered necessary by the as well as judicious in the selection of eagerness to reform which was exhithe persons by whom these transactions bited by certain persons desirous of enwere chiefly directed. In the commu- tering on controversial subjects, and nications which she made to foreign anxious to get rid of every thing which courts, to inform them of her succession, offended them, without waiting for the she gratefully acknowledged the per- dilatory process of legal enactments. sonal debt which she owed to Philip, The queen, however, possessed far too nor did she neglect to send a despatch much sense to permit such tumultuary to the court of Rome; but Paul IV. alterations, and her own conduct was refused to acknowledge her legitimacy, characterized by firmness as well as and threatened to show her no favour, prudence. She began her political since she had assumed without his con- career by trying to gain the good opicurrence a crown which was held in fee nion and affection of all her subjects; of the apostolic see; a haughtiness of and the condescending propriety of her proceeding which must be deemed the personal manner contributed greatly to first step to that animosity between the produced this desired effect. She readily two courts, of which the effects were so presented herself to the eyes of all orseverely felt by the Roman Catholics ders, and assumed a demeanour which, of England. She seems indeed at this though rather theatrical, was very taktime to have desired as much union ing with the multitude. When, for between her subjects of different per- instance, she was proceeding on her suasions as was compatible with her way to the coronation," (A. D. 1559,) a own religious opinions and those which character in one of the city pageants, they severally professed; for though representing Truth, presented her with she had always been bred up a Pro- an English Bible, she kissed it, and testant, and decidedly favoured that side with both her hands held it up, and then of the question, yet, in retaining twelve laid it upon her breast, and greatly of those who had belonged to the coun- thanking the city for that present, said cil of Queen Mary as her own privy she would often read over that book. counsellors, she gave the surest pledge that she had no intention of introducing any very violent innovations. No one could have doubted her inclination to promote the cause of the Reformation, since one of the first cares which occupied her attention was the appointment of a committee to examine into the service of Edward VI., and to alter whatever was amiss; yet its consultations were accompanied with a marked attention to prudence, rather than by zeal for alteration; and the same feature belonged to the other proceedings of this period. The only innovation in the church service which she sanctioned on her own authority consisted in allowing the Ten Commandments, as well as the Gospel and Epistle, to be read in the vulgar tongue; and the same proclamation which enjoined this, forbade both parties to preach or expound them, di

§ 403. (Jan. 15.) She was crowned by Oglethorp, bishop of Carlisle, as none of the other Roman Catholic bishops would consent to take part in the ceremony. They foresaw the influence which her reign must probably have on religion; and being most of them unwilling to make new changes in their faith, they determined not to contribute in any degree to her establishment on the throne; a species of policy as unsound in principle as it was injurious to themselves in its effects; for unless they pretended to alter the line of legal succession by their noncompliance, it could hardly have any other tendency than that of alienating the mind of the queen from their cause, and certainly conveyed an idea that they wished to frighten her into compliance with their views: a step in itself unwarrantable, and which argued great ignorance of

ferment was vacant, and the appointment of the successor vested in the hands of the very authority which pillaged the benefice ?

her temper and disposition. Fully conscious of the difficulties with which the kingdom was encompassed, she hastened to compose her differences with foreign powers, in order that every faci- § 405. The act of uniformity, too, lity might be given to the internal settle- passed during this session, which, by ment of the government; and quickly restoring the use of the Common Prayer assembled a parliament, to frame such Book, gave back to the laity the full laws as might bring back the state of enjoyment of the sacrament of the religion to nearly the same condition as Eucharist under both kinds. These inhad been established in the days of her novations, however, were not made brother. The first act of this session without keeping up at least the appearrestored to the crown the fullest author- ance of free discussion; for a disputaity over all persons within the realm, tion was appointed to be held in Westwithout conferring the appellation which minster Abbey, in which the advocates had been previously borne with it; for of either faith might advance the arguElizabeth seems to have entertained ments in favour of their own opinions, some scruples as to the lawfulness of and endeavour to refute the positions assuming the title of supreme head of of their adversaries: but though this the church, as belonging to Him only conference was commenced with all due who is head over all. The powers, formality, yet it ended in tumult and however, which were conveyed by it confusion, and served only to widen the were fully ample to answer every pur- breach between the contending parties. pose of reform,1 and she was em-The failure on this occasion seems to powered to appoint commissioners, have been entirely owing to the Roman whose jurisdiction had bounds as inde- Catholics; for they refused to comply finite as the supremacy itself. An oath, with the conditions on which the debate too, was imposed on all persons holding was to take place. It had been agreed or taking any office, and most severe that each party should read their arguand unreasonable penalties affixed to ments on the questions, and then give the the refusal of it. During the whole of written documents to their opponents, the debate on this act, the strongest who on the next day were reciprocally opposition was shown on the part of the to answer each other, and to transfer Roman Catholic bishops, who advocated their papers. The points of discussion the cause of civil liberty; being na- were, 1. Whether it were contrary to turally adverse to opinions so much at the word of God and the custom of the variance with what they had lately pro- primitive church, to use an unknown fessed, and which were at the same tongue in the public service, and admitime likely to eject them from their pre-nistration of the sacraments. 2. Whether ferments.

§ 404. Nor were the temporal interests of the queen forgotten; for besides having the tenths and first-fruits restored to her, she was allowed to take possession of any ecclesiastical lands or property belonging to vacant sees, and to transfer an equivalent from such impropriations as were vested in the crown, a law which gave occasion to many exchanges seriously detrimental to the bishoprics; and it is hardly to be doubted, that the intention of those who passed the bill corresponded with the effects produced by it, for who was likely to examine scrupulously into the fairness of the exchange while the pre

every church has power to appoint rites and ceremonies, or to alter them, provided it be done to edification. 3. Whether the mass could be proved by the word of God to be a propitiatory sacrifice for the dead and the living. But on the first day, though Cole delivered a long oration on the first question, the Roman Catholics refused to give in a copy of their arguments, and on the second day the conference was broken up, through a dispute about the order of proceeding, and in consequence of

So well aware of the evil tendency of this law were the bishops who were first consecrated, that they offered the queen to raise for her an income of a thousand marks, if she would stop these exchanges; but their application was ineffectual. Strype's Grindal, 49.