3

able to primitive usage.1 In the following year was passed the Act for Uniformity of Service and Administration of the Sacraments,' ordaining that the 'order of divine worship,' contained in the Book of Common Prayer which had been drawn up by a committee of bishops and other divines appointed for that purpose, should in future be the only one to be used by all ministers in any cathedral, parish, or other church. In the same session, the marriage of priests was declared lawful; and shortly afterwards images and pictures of saints in churches were ordered to be destroyed.* But these changes were not carried out without consider - Insurrecable opposition from a part of the nation. Insurrections of a serious nature broke out in Devonshire, Norfolk, an d several other counties; and religious persecution, "the Persecution. deadly original sin of the reformed churches," was employed as vigorously, if not so extensively, as in the succeeding reigns of Mary and Elizabeth.

tions.

A.D. 1549.

During the short reign of Mary the Papal religion was MARY. 1553-1558. completely re-established, probably with the entire ap- Re-estabproval of a large portion, if not of a majority, of the lishment of the Papal nation, for whom the progress of the Reformation doctrines religion. had been too precipitate. All the laws made against the supremacy of the See of Rome, since the 20th year of Henry VIII., were formally repealed; but it was found impossible to restore the ecclesiastical property in the hands of subjects; and even the bill for restoring to the

1 I Edw. VI. c. 1, An Act against such as shall irreverently speak against the sacrament of the altar, and the receiving thereof under both kinds.'

2 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. I. The penalties for refusing to use, or speaking or writing in derogation of, the Book of Common Prayer, were, for the first or second offence, a fine; for the third, forfeiture of goods and imprisonment for life. In 1552, a second Act of Uniformity (5 & 6 Edw. VI. c. 1) was passed, reciting that the Book of Common Prayer had been 'perused, explained, and made fully perfect,' and ordering the new version alone to be used.

3 2 & 3 Edw. VI. c. 21.

4 3 & 4 Edw. VI. c. 10.

5 I 2 Phil. & Mary, c. 8, repealing all Statutes, Articles, and Provisions made against the See Apostolic of Rome, since the 20th year of King Henry VIII., and for the Establishment of all Spiritual and Ecclesiastical possessions and hereditaments conveyed to the Laity.' The preamble recites that much false and erroneous doctrine hath been taught, preached and written, partly by divers the natural-born subjects of this realm, and partly being brought hither from sundry other foreign countries, had been sown and spread abroad within the same.'

Church the first-fruits and impropriations in the Queen's The Marian hands was passed not without difficulty. The cruel and Persecution. wide-spread persecution of the Protestants under Mary, far The Re- from eradicating the reformed faith was instrumental in

formation promoted by it.

promoting it. The abhorrence and disgust excited in the people against Mary and the Roman hierarchy were extended to the doctrines which they professed. 'Many persons,' remarks Hallam, 'are said to have become protestants under Mary, who, at her coming to the throne, had retained the contrary persuasion. And the strongest proof of this may be drawn from the acquiescence of the great body of the people in the re-establishment of protestantism by Elizabeth, when compared with the seditions and discontent on that account under Edward.'1

1 Const. Hist. i. 107.

[On the Reformation Settlement, and its bearing on the question of Establishment and the relations of Church and State in England, reference may be made to the late Prof. Brewer's Church of England, ed. by L. T. Dibdin, Barrister-at-Law, Lond. 1885. Much interesting information will also be found in Narratives of the Reformation, 1532-56, Letters on the Suppression of the Monasteries, the Diary of Henry Machyn, and in Rev. N. Pocock's Troubles connected with the Prayer Book of 1549 (Camden Soc.).——ED.]

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CHAPTER XII.

THE TUDOR PERIOD.

REIGN OF ELIZABETH. (A.D. 1558—1603.)

THE reign of Elizabeth spans a period of very great political and religious ferment throughout Europe. It is the glory of this great Queen that by her courage and wisdom, aided by the able policy of her statesmen, Cecil, Nicholas Bacon, and Walsingham, she safely guided the nation through a sea of troubles, foreign and domestic, and achieved for England a position in the foremost rank of European monarchies. In commercial and naval enterprise, in every branch of material prosperity, the country advanced with sure and rapid strides, while Literature was adorned by the writings of Shakspeare, Spenser, Sidney, Hooker, and Jewel. But of Constitutional progress, during the greater part of Elizabeth's reign there is little to be recorded. From her father she had inherited the arbitrary Tudor notions of the Royal prerogative. Her government was eminently despotic both in church and state; and it was only at intervals that the gradually reviving spirit of liberty manifested itself in the House of Commons.

of Elizabeth

A brief consideration of the principal features of EcclesiasElizabeth's ecclesiastical polity-so important in its influ- tical polity ence on later English Constitutional history-will appropriately precede a discussion of the civil government during her reign.

The first care of Elizabeth's first Parliament-which met on the 25th of January, 1559, about two months

Act of

after her accession to the throne-was to restore the constitution and liturgy of the National Church to nearly the same state in which Edward VI. had left them at his death. This was effected by the statutes commonly known as the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity. By the Act of Supremacy. Supremacy, the statute of Philip and Mary (1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8), which had generally repealed all the previous statutes affecting religion, was abrogated,—thus reviving the laws of King Henry VIII., which established the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown.

A.D. 1559.

Oath of supremacy and allegiance.

It was also particularly enacted: (1) That no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, spiritual or temporal, shall use, enjoy or exercise any manner of power, jurisdiction, superiority, authority, pre-eminence, or privilege, spiritual or ecclesiastical, within this realm, or the dominions thereof. (2) That such jurisdictions, privileges, superiorities, pre-eminencies, spiritual and ecclesiastical, as by any spiritual or ecclesiastical power or authority hath heretofore been, or may lawfully be, exercised or used for the visitation of the ecclesiastical state and persons, and for reformation, order, and correction of the same, and of all manner of errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts and enormities, shall for ever be united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm. (3) All beneficed ecclesiastics, and all judges, justices, mayors, and other laymen holding office under the Crown, were required to take the oath of supremacy and allegiance,1 on pain of forfeiting their benefices or offices. (4) Any person maintaining

This oath, which remained unaltered till the Revolution, was thus worded: 'I, A. B., do utterly testify and declare that the Queen's highness is the only supreme governor of this realm, and all other her highness's dominions and countries, as well as in all spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes, as temporal; and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state or potentate hath or ought to have any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities and authorities, and do promise that from henceforth I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the Queen's highness, her heirs and lawful successors, and to my power shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, pre-eminence, privileges, and authorities, granted or belonging to the Queen's highness, her heirs and successors, or united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm.'

the spiritual or temporal jurisdiction of any foreign prince or prelate should, for the first offence, forfeit all his property real and personal; for the second, incur the penalties of praemunire; and for the third offence, suffer death as a traitor. (5) The Queen was also empowered to execute the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of every kind vested in her by the Act by means of commissioners appointed under the great seal for such time as she should direct.1 It was by virtue of this last provision that Elizabeth established, in 1583, the famous High Commission Court, which continued a powerful instrument of oppression in the hands of the Crown until abolished by the Long Parliament under Charles I.

By the Act of Uniformity, (1) the revised Book of Act of Common Prayer as established by Edward VI. in 1552, A.D. 1559Uniformity. was, with a few alterations and additions, revived and confirmed. (2) Any parson, vicar, or other minister, whether beneficed or not, wilfully using any but the established liturgy was to suffer, for the first offence, six months' imprisonment, and if beneficed, forfeit the profits of his benefice for a year; for the second offence, a year's imprisonment; for the third, imprisonment for life. (3) All persons absenting themselves, without lawful or reasonable excuse, from the service at their parish church on Sundays and holydays, were to be punished by ecclesiastical censures and a fine of one shilling for the use of the poor.2

and tenths

By another Act of the same session, first-fruits and First-fruits tenths, which the preamble states the late Queen had restored to given up, upon certain zealous and inconvenient respects,' the Crown. were again vested in the Crown, in order to lessen the huge, immeasurable and inestimable charges of the royal

1 1 Eliz. c. 1, An Act to restore to the Crown the ancient jurisdiction over the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolishing all foreign powers repugnant to the same.'

2 1 Eliz. c. 2, ‘An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer in the Church, and Administration of the Sacraments.'