XLI. 1584. ance of reason, imputed to the intrigues of the Queen CHAP. of Scots"; and as her name was employed in all of them, the council thought that they could not use too many precautions against the danger of her claims, and the restless activity of her temper. She was removed from under the care of the Earl of Shrewsbury, who, though vigilant and faithful in that trust, had also been indulgent to his prisoner, particularly with regard to air and exercise and she was committed to the custody of Sir Amias Paulet, and Sir Drue Drury; men of honour, but inflexible in their care and attention. An association was also set on foot by the Earl of Leicester and other courtiers; and as Elizabeth was beloved by the whole nation, except the more zealous Catholics, men of all ranks willingly flocked to the subscription of it. The purport of this association was to defend the queen, to revenge her death, or any injury committed against her, and to exclude from the throne all claimants, what title soever they might possess, by whose suggestion, or for whose behoof, any violence should be offered to her majesty. The Queen of Scots was sensible that this association was levelled against her; and to remove all suspicion from herself, she also desired to subscribe it. A Parlia Elizabeth, that she might the more discourage male- 23d Nov. contents, by showing them the concurrence of the nation ment. in her favour, summoned a new Parliament; and she met with that dutiful attachment which she expected. The association was confirmed by Parliament; and a clause was added, by which the queen was empowered to name commissioners for the trial of any pretender to the crown, who should attempt or imagine any invasion, insurrection, or assassination against her: upon condemnation, pronounced by these commissioners, the guilty person was excluded from all claim to the succession, and was farther punishable as her majesty should direct. And for the greater security, a council of regency, in case of the queen's violent death, was appointed to govern the kingdom, to settle the succession, and to take vengeance for that act of treason. A severe law was also enacted against jesuits and ■ Strype, vol. iii. p. 246. VOL. IV. w State Trials, vol. i. p. 122, 123. 1584. CHAP. popish priests. It was ordained that they should depart XLI. the kingdom within forty days; that those who should remain beyond that time, or should afterwards return, should be guilty of treason; that those who harboured or relieved them should be guilty of felony; that those who were educated in seminaries, if they returned not in six months after notice given, and submitted not themselves to the queen, before a bishop, or two justices, should be guilty of treason; and that if any, so submitting themselves, should within ten years approach the court, or come within ten miles of it, their submission should be void. By this law the exercise of the Catholic religion, which had formerly been prohibited under lighter penalties, and which was in many instances connived at, was totally suppressed. In the subsequent part of the queen's reign, the law was sometimes executed by the capital punishment of priests; and though the partisans of that princess asserted that they were punished for their treason, not their religion, the apology must only be understood in this sense, that the law was enacted on account of the treasonable views and attempts of the sect, not that every individual who suffered the penalty of the law was convicted of treason". The Catholics, therefore, might now with justice complain of a violent persecution; which we may safely affirm, in spite of the rigid and bigoted maxims of that age, not to be the best method of converting them, or of reconciling them to the established government and religion. The Parliament, besides arming the queen with these powers, granted her a supply of one subsidy and twofifteenths. The only circumstance in which their proceedings were disagreeable to her, was an application made by the Commons for a farther reformation in ecclesiastical matters. Yet even in this attempt, which affected her as well as them in a delicate point, they discovered how much they were overawed by her authority. The majority of the House were puritans, or inclined to that sect"; but the severe reprimands which y 27 Eliz. cap. 2. z Some even of those who defend the queen's measures allow, that in ten years fifty priests were executed, and fifty-five banished. Camden, p. 649. Besides the petition after-mentioned, another proof of the prevalence of the 1584. they had already, in former sessions, met with from the CHAP. throne, deterred them from introducing any bill con- XLI. cerning religion; a proceeding which would have been interpreted as an encroachment on the prerogative: they were content to proceed, by way of humble petition, and that not addressed to her majesty, which would have given offence, but to the House of Lords, or rather the bishops, who had a seat in that House, and from whom alone they were willing to receive all advances towards reformation: a strange departure from what we now apprehend to be the dignity of the Commons. The Commons desired, in their humble petition, that no bishop should exercise his function of ordination but with the consent and concurrence of six presbyters: but this demand, as it really introduced a change of ecclesiastical government, was firmly rejected by the prelates. They desired that no clergyman should be instituted into any benefice without previous notice being given to the parish, that they might examine whether there lay any objection to his life or doctrine: an attempt towards a popular model, which naturally met with the same fate. In another article of the petition, they prayed that the bishops should not insist upon every ceremony, or deprive incumbents for omitting part of the service: as if uniformity in public worship had not been established by law; or as if the prelates had been endowed with a dispensing power. They complained of abuses which prevailed in pronouncing the sentence of excommunication, and they entreated the reverend fathers to think of some law for the remedy of these abuses; implying that those matters were too high for the Commons, of themselves to attempt. But the most material article which the Commons touched upon in their petition, was the court of ecclesiastical commission and the oath, ex officio, as it was puritans among the Commons was, their passing a bill for the reverent observance of Sunday, which they termed the Sabbath, and the depriving the people of those amusements which they were accustomed to take on that day. D'Ewes, p. 335. It was a strong symptom of a contrary spirit in the Upper House, that they proposed to add Wednesday to the fast-days, and to prohibit entirely the eating of flesh on that day. D'Ewes, p. 373. b D'Ewes, p. 357. CHAP. called, exacted by that court. This is a subject of such XLI. importance as to merit some explanation. 1584. siastical court. The first primate after the queen's accession was The eccle- Parker; a man rigid in exacting conformity to the esta blished worship, and in punishing, by fine or deprivation, all the puritanical clergymen who attempted to innovate any thing in the habits, ceremonies, or liturgy of the church. He died in 1575; and was succeeded by Grindal, who as he himself was inclined to the new sect, was with great difficulty brought to execute the laws against them, or to punish the nonconforming clergy. He declined obeying the queen's orders for the suppression of prophesyings, or the assemblies of the zealots in private houses, which she apprehended had become so many academies of fanaticism; and for this offence she had, by an order of the star-chamber, sequestered him from his archiepiscopal function, and confined him to his own house. Upon his death, which happened in 1583, she determined not to fall into the same error in her next choice; and she named Whitgift, a zealous churchman, who had already signalized his pen in controversy, and who, having in vain attempted to convince the puritans by argument, was now resolved to open their eyes by power, and by the execution of penal statutes. He informed the queen that all the spiritual authority lodged in the prelates was insignificant without the sanction of the crown; and as there was no ecclesiastical commission at that time in force, he engaged her to issue a new one, more arbitrary than any of the former, and conveying more unlimited authority. She appointed forty-four commissioners, twelve of whom were ecclesiastics; three commissioners made a quorum; the jurisdiction of the court extended over the whole kingdom, and over all orders of men; and every circumstance of its authority, and all its methods of proceeding, were contrary to the clearest principles of law and natural equity. The commissioners were empowered to visit and reform all errors, heresies, schisms; in a word, to regulate all opinions, as well as to punish all breach of uniformity in the exercise of public worship. They were directed to make inquiry, e Neal's History of the Puritans, vol i. p. 410. XLI. not only by the legal methods of juries and witnesses, CHAP. but by all other means and ways which they could devise; that is, by the rack, by torture, by inquisition, by 1584. imprisonment. Where they found reason to suspect any person, they might administer to him an oath, called ex officio, by which he was bound to answer all questions, and might thereby be obliged to accuse himself or his most intimate friend. The fines which they levied were discretionary, and often occasioned the total ruin of the offender, contrary to the established laws of the kingdom. The imprisonment to which they condemned any delinquent was limited by no rule but their own pleasure. They assumed a power of imposing on the clergy what new articles of subscription, and consequently of faith, they thought proper. Though all other spiritual courts were subject, since the reformation, to inhibitions from the supreme courts of law, the ecclesiastical commissioners were exempted from that legal jurisdiction, and were liable to no control. And the more to enlarge their authority, they were empowered to punish all incests, adulteries, fornications; all outrages, misbehaviours, and disorders in marriage; and the punishments which they might inflict, were according to their wisdom, conscience, and discretion. In a word, this court was a real inquisition, attended with all the iniquities, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that tribunal. And as the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court was destructive of all law, so its erection was deemed by many a mere usurpation of this imperious princess; and had no other foundation than a clause of a statute, restoring the supremacy to the crown, and empowering the sovereign to appoint commissioners for exercising that prerogative. But preroga tive in general, especially the supremacy, was supposed in that age to involve powers which no law, precedent, or reason, could limit and determine. But though the Commons, in their humble petition to the prelates, had touched so gently and submissively on the ecclesiastical grievances, the queen, in a speech from the throne at the end of the session, could not forbear taking notice of their presumption, and reproving them for those murmurs, which, for fear of offending her, they had pronounced so low, as not directly to reach her |