But

pressed her sentiments in favour of true religion. her heart was convinced, rather than changed. Though she never would have acted with blind bigotry like her sister, yet she seems to have been a Protestant quite as much from circumstances as from inclination. The Reformation under her never proceeded so far as under Edward VI. She would, probably, if left to herself, have adopted a course still more modified, half-way between her father and brother. But the nation demanded more, and she could not refuse to go further than her own inclination dictated. These things were overruled for good, and we cannot but admire the dealings of Providence, whereby the Most High caused it to be for the interest of the queen and her people to oppose the detestable tyranny of the popedom. Yet, had Elizabeth gone forward more decidedly, she would have been sustained in her course; and had she been more under the influence of personal piety, she would have escaped many difficulties in which she was afterwards involved. All that the queen did as to religion, before the meeting of the parliament, was to stop the popish persecutions, to forbid any one to preach without a license, and to direct that a part of the public services should be in English. The mass was still continued, but the elevation and idolatrous adoration of the host was forbidden.

On January 29, 1559, the parliament met. Efforts were made to procure the election of members well disposed to the queen. Sir Ralph Bagnal, who had stood alone in his opposition to the introduction of the papal authority, was now knight of the shire for the county of Stafford. One act restored to the crown the firstfruits and tenths of ecclesiastical preferments, which had, during the late reign, been placed at the disposal of cardinal Pole to forward popery. Another act allowed the queen to apply part of the bishop's revenues to the public service. A more important law restored to the crown the supremacy in ecclesiastical matters, and set aside that of the pope. This was expressed in

less objectionable terms than in the reigns of her father and brother. Lever, an exile, urged that the title of supreme head of the church ought not to be assumed by any mortal. Elizabeth was induced to take lower ground, though she was acknowledged as supreme governor in spiritual and ecclesiastical matters. As a woman, she was not qualified to decide the matters brought before her in this capacity. She was, therefore, authorized to appoint what was called "the high commission court," vested with arbitrary powers in matters relating to religion. It led to much oppression and many abuses.

Another law related to uniformity in matters of religion. Previously to this act being passed, ten Protestant and as many popish divines were instructed to discuss publicly, whether having prayer in an unknown tongue is contrary to Scripture, and the practice of the primitive church; whether every national church may not regulate its own ceremonies without reference to the papal authority; and whether the sacrifice of the mass can be supported from Scripture. The pa pists cavilled, and shifted their ground; they refused to argue these points fairly in writing, though they at first had agreed to do so. Some papists were imprisoned and fined for contumacy; they had gone so far as openly to propose to excommunicate queen Elizabeth.

The act of uniformity directed the restoration of Protestant worship, according to a form not very different from that appointed in the reign of Edward vi. The variations were made from a desire to retain the moderate papists within the national church; but, like many other measures of compromise in religious matters, this failed. The alterations were chiefly as to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, by introducing expressions which would speak less clearly against the doctrine of the real presence: but how much depends upon this! The doctrine of transubstantiation, or of the real presence of the body of Christ in the conse

crated elements, in any degree, implies an authority and power in the priest, which leads by sure steps to the errors of popery. Men of learning and speculative minds may try to rear a system which clothes the priesthood with a modified degree of Divine power; but, in fact, the priest thereby is "showing himself that he is God:" for no one less than the Creator can effect a change, however disguised by the term “spiritual sense,” if any alteration is supposed to have been made in the sacramental elements.

Another result of education in popish principles must also be noticed with considerable regret. The act did not allow that liberty of conscience in matters of religion, which every man has a right to exercise. At this time, the restraining measures were aimed only at popery; they did not go beyond fines and imprisonment, and contrasted very favourably for the Reformation, when compared with the proceedings of queen Mary's reign. They were called for by the conduct of the bigoted papists, some of whom openly gloried in the persecutions of which they had been guilty. Dr. Story boasted in the House of Commons, that at Uxbridge he had thrown a fagot at "an earwig," as the Protestants were contemptuously styled, while singing psalms at the stake, severely wounding him in the face. But these laws afterwards were found to press very severely on many Protestants; and it was long before the evil of attempting to interfere with the right of private judgment was admitted. Even the best men of the sixteenth century were very ignorant on the subject of toleration. This must be attributed to popery: it was only by degrees that scriptural truth on this subject prevailed. But antichrist, whatever form it assumes, is intolerant.

The number of ecclesiastics who adhered to popery was very small; so far Elizabeth and her councillors succeeded to procure outward compliance. The number of bishops had been reduced by death to fourteen ; they were attached to popery: they agreed to refuse

the oath respecting supremacy, when tendered to them in June, 1559, calculating, that if they firmly united, the queen would not venture to expel so many from their sees. But they were ignorant of the resolute spirit of Elizabeth, who, with her councillors, saw the necessity for standing firm against the pope's having any influence in England. Thirteen bishops persevered in rejecting the oath. Kitchen, bishop of Llandaff, alone took it; but only about two hundred parish priests and other ecclesiastics gave up their preferments! Nares states, that of nine thousand four hundred beneficed Romish clergy, only one hundred and seventy-seven relinquished their stations; the rest conformed. The result was very disadvantageous to the Reformation. For a long period the pulpits of England were nearly silent. The doctrines of truth were seldom heard from them; or at most in a homily, which, however excellent, was purposely so mangled in reading, as to be unintelligible to the hearers. Hence the

principles of popery remained deep-rooted in many a country parish, though its outward practices were restrained. But the monastic establishments formed by queen Mary were dissolved. In the month of August, several crucifixes, images, and other superstitious articles, removed from St. Paul's and other metropolitan churches, were burned in the streets—a pleasing contrast to the burning of martyrs by queen Mary less than a year before.

Jewell and other valuable English Reformers had returned from the continent; they saw with deep regret how slowly and imperfectly the Reformation proceeded. Even in 1563, there were but three Protestant preachers in the university of Oxford. Burnet has printed some of the correspondence between Jewell and his friends abroad, in which he bitterly sorrows over the state of things. In 1562, he laments that outward matters connected with popery were allowed to remain, adding, 'for in doctrine we have gone to the quick." Again, in 1566, he wishes that all, even the slightest, ves

66

66

tiges of popery could be removed from the churches, and much more from the minds of men. But at this time the queen cannot bear any change with respect to religion." Jewell was one of the chief ornaments of the English church in this reign. In 1562, he published his celebrated Apology: it was a defence of the Protestant faith, as re-established in England. In a controversy with Harding, he triumphantly refuted and exposed the leading errors of popery, meeting the Romanists on their own ground. The works of Jewell present a faithful picture of the controversy, as it was then carried on, and have supplied a rich store of materials for later writers. The original letters just noticed are preserved at Zurich, and will, it is hoped, soon be printed.

Having stated the course pursued in re-establishing the Protestant religion in England, it will not be necessary to go into minute details, in a sketch like the present. During this reign, it was manifest that the Reformation was checked and limited by the fears of many of its friends, as well as by the artifices of its enemies.* The popish prelates were, at length, removed from their sees, but were treated in a manner widely different from their own proceedings in the late reign. Bonner was the only one subjected to imprisonment; he remained in the Marshalsea till his death, in 1569, indulging in licentious expressions, and gross disorderly conduct. When the pictures in the early editions of Foxe's Acts and Monuments, which represented him inflicting tortures upon the Protestants with his own hands, were shown to him, the callous wretch viewed them with a laugh, and asked how the artist could depict him so well. He openly gloried in what he had done. His imprisonment was necessary to screen him

*The reader may refer to Strype, Burnet, and Soames, as writers of the Established Church, for particulars upon these subjects; also to Neale, Brook, and Price, for the statements of writers of other denominations of Protestants. The accounts of Romish historians do not explain the real proceedings of this reign. They are all written with a manifest design to distort and misrepresent, often by the grossest falsehoods.