treat James thenceforth with some more regard than CHAP. she had hitherto been inclined to pay him. The King of Scots, persevering in his present views, summoned a Parliament; where it was enacted, that no clergyman should presume in his sermons to utter false, untrue, or scandalous speeches against the king, the council, or the public measures, or to meddle, in an improper manner, with the affairs of his majesty and the states'. The clergy, finding that the pulpit would be no longer a sanctuary for them, were extremely offended; they said that the king was become popish in his heart; and they gave their adversaries the epithets of gross libertines, belly-gods, and infamous persons'. The violent conduct of Arran soon brought over the popularity to their side. The Earl of Gowry, though pardoned for the late attempt, was committed to prison, was tried on some new accusations, condemned and executed. Many innocent persons suffered from the tyranny of this favourite; and the banished lords, being assisted by Elizabeth, now found the time favourable for the recovery of their estates and authority. After they had been foiled in one attempt upon Stirling, they prevailed in another; and, being admitted to the king's presence, were pardoned and restored to his favour. Arran was degraded from authority; deprived of that estate and title which he had usurped; and the whole country seemed to be composed to tranquillity. Elizabeth, after opposing, during some time, the credit of the favourite, had found it more expedient, before his fall, to compound all differences with him, by means of Davison, a minister whom she sent to Scotland; but having more confidence in the lords whom she had helped to restore, she was pleased with this alteration of affairs; and maintained a good correspondence with the new court and ministry of James. XLI. 1584. These revolutions in Scotland would have been re- Conspi racies in garded as of small importance to the repose and security England. of Elizabeth, had her own subjects been entirely united, and had not the zeal of the Catholics, excited by constraint more properly than persecution, daily threatened her with some dangerous insurrection. The vigilance XLI. CHAP. of the ministers, particularly of Burleigh and Walsingham, was raised in proportion to the activity of the 1584. malecontents; and many arts, which had been blameable in a more peaceful government, were employed in detecting conspiracies, and even discovering the secret inclinations of men. Counterfeit letters were written in the name of the Queen of Scots, or of the English exiles, and privately conveyed to the houses of the Catholics spies were hired to observe the actions and discourse of suspected persons: informers were countenanced and though the sagacity of these two great ministers helped them to distinguish the true from the false intelligence, many calumnies were, no doubt, hearkened to, and all the subjects, particularly the Catholics, kept in the utmost anxiety and inquietude. Henry Piercy, Earl of Northumberland, brother to the earl beheaded some years before, and Philip Howard, Earl of Arundel, son of the unfortunate Duke of Norfolk, fell under suspicion; and the latter was, by order of council, confined to his own house. Francis Throgmorton, a private gentleman, was committed to custody, on account of a letter which he had written to the Queen of Scots, and which was intercepted. Lord Paget and Charles Arundel, who had been engaged with him in treasonable designs, immediately withdrew beyond sea. Throgmorton confessed that a plan for an invasion and insurrection had been laid; and though, on his trial, he was desirous of retracting this confession, and imputing it to the fear of torture, he was found guilty, and executed. Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, having promoted this conspiracy, was ordered to depart the kingdom; and Wade was sent into Spain, to excuse his dismission, and to desire the king to send another ambassador in his place; but Philip would not so much as admit the English ambassador to his presence. Creighton, a Scottish jesuit, coming over on board a vessel, which was seized, tore some papers, with an intention of throwing them into the sea; but the wind blowing them back upon the ship, they were pieced together, and discovered some dangerous secrets'. Many of these conspiracies were, with great appear t Camden, p. 499. 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. ment. Elizabeth, that she might the more discourage male- 23d Nov. contents, by showing them the concurrence of the nation A Parliain 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 u Strype, vol. iii. p. 246. w State Trials, vol. i. p. 122, 123. × 27 Eliz. cap. 1. 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. a Besides the petition after-mentioned, another proof of the prevalency of the they had already, in former sessions, met with from the throne, deterred them from introducing any bill concerning 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. XLI. 1584. |