but was slain in a drunken brawl in their camp. This was in 1565. Soon afterwards, the greater part of Ulster was declared to be forfeited to the crown, and the title of O'Neal suppressed.

Upon the whole, the first ten years of this reign were the most peaceful. The foreign and domestic foes of Elizabeth had not yet concentrated their bitter hatred, to render their efforts so formidable as they were in subsequent years. This period, however, was not without domestic troubles. The soldiers withdrawn from France in 1563, brought home a pestilential disease, which raged in London during the next twelve months; there were also seasons of scarcity, but the deliverance from Mary's persecutions encouraged the Protestants to support these lesser evils. Strype says, "All her loving subjects rejoiced, though the envious papists murmured and grudged. God did past all human expectations prosper the queen's doings."

ELIZABETH.

PART II.

FROM A.D. 1568, TO A.D. 1580.

THE first ten years of the reign of Elizabeth were troubled by contests with France, and the state of Scottish affairs. But a deeper and more deadly contest was preparing-that struggle with the papacy which involved every sort of warfare, national or private, open battles of armies, secret conspiracies, craft and stratagem, turmoil and deception.

Soon after the peace of Passau, in 1552, the papacy regained much of the influence which had been shaken by the establishment of the Reformation in Germany. With regard to the British islands, popery fully regained its sway under the reign of Mary; while the alliance between France and Scotland kept down the northern Reformers. But Scotland was roused. Popery had there been exhibited in its worst forms; as a political, as well as a religious system, it excited the utmost abhorrence. Knox and others were made instrumental in leading Scotland to throw off the yoke of popery; while the death of Mary set Englishmen at liberty to declare their abhorrence of idolatry and persecution. The pope at that time was Paul iv., a cruel character, who encouraged Mary of England to follow her merciless course. To check the progress of Lutheranism in Italy, he established the Inquisition at Rome; but he died in August, 1559, when the populace destroyed the prison of the Inquisition, and liberated his victims. The accession of Elizabeth was

a bitter event to him; every circumstance connected with her birth and early life placed her in direct opposition to the see of Rome. The pope, indeed, invited the new queen to cast herself upon his clemency, and to sue for her crown as his gift; but nothing short of the most abject submission and direct apostasy could insure his confirmation of that inheritance, which she claimed as the descendant of a marriage, the validity of which would not for a moment be admitted by the papacy. Such submission must have caused Elizabeth to lose the hearts of her subjects, for the nation rejoiced in her as the Protestant daughter of Henry VIII., and the day was past when the pope could obtrude a vassal, either by force or fraud, upon the throne of England.

Pius IV. followed the track marked out by his predecessor, though with more measured steps. He reestablished the Inquisition, and by authority derived from the council of Trent, prepared that declaration of faith, which, under the title of the creed of pope Pius, embodies the principles of popery to the present day. In this document, the leading errors of the church of Rome, its peculiar articles of faith, are added to those of the apostles' creed, and are taught as of equal authority, concluding with an anathema against all Protestants; that is, declaring them accursed, to be put to death here, and asserting their eternal condemnation. Pius IV. urged the kings of France and Spain to persecute their Protestant subjects; he was willingly obeyed by the latter. In France, he set the leaders of the nation at variance, which ended in massacre and civil warfare; the pope taking part by sending troops to act against the Huguenots. By the final decrees of the council of Trent, which he re-assembled, Pius IV. prevented any reformation in the church of Rome, and fixed its doctrines and practice in that form which they have ever since maintained. This gave him additional power to pursue his great design for extirpating Protestantism. Having in vain attempted to win over Elizabeth, by

a direct offer to establish and confirm her royal authority, provided she would submit to his control, (a promise which she and her ministers knew would be kept no longer than might suit the views of the papacy,) nothing remained but to destroy her, and overturn the religious system which she was establishing in England. This was his firm resolve, although she earnestly desired to arrange matters, so as to comprehend the adherents of the church of Rome, provided they would only engage not to obey the mandates of a foreign power in temporal affairs, when contrary to the laws of their own kingdom.

There is not space here to relate all the steps by which the pope proceeded. That his design went forward is plain; an emissary was sent from Rome, in 1566, to Mary of Scotland, to prevent her from coming to any agreement with her Protestant nobles, urging that "all Catholic princes were banded to root them" (the Protestants) "out of all Europe." Elizabeth listened not for a moment to the blandishments or threats of the Vatican. She stedfastly refused to admit a nuncio or ambassador from Rome. Her council stated her full persuasion, that such an emissary would attempt to raise a rebellion. Some inferior agents, however, gained admittance into Ireland, where they took an active part in exciting rebellious proceedings. One obtained admission to Mary in Scotland in the garb of a merchant; he encouraged her in the mistaken course she was pursuing; but his stay was short, and he escaped with some difficulty. It is painful to observe the quick succession of popes, when we reflect that the atrocious proceedings of the papacy were almost invariably the acts of men, whose last hour was at hand! Pius IV. died in 1565.

Pius v. was equally firm of purpose with his predecessor, while he was more unhesitating and implacable in his proceedings. If an unscrupulous adoption of atrocious measures, pursued with unwearying perseverance, gives evidence that a man is a follower of Satan,

this infallible head of the church of Rome, styling himself "Holiness," was undoubtedly one. He, too, was an inquisitor; he was chosen pope, because the cardinals believed he would not hesitate to carry out into action the violent plans of his predecessor. He did so; for this he was afterwards declared a saint, miracles were said to have been wrought by him; the first of May is appointed for paying religious worship to him. In the collect for that day's service, he is declared to have been chosen of God "to depress the enemies of the church;" as it is expressed in the gentle phrase of the English missal; but the original, as used in the Latin public service, is, "to crush the enemies of the church;" the word is applicable to the destruction of noisome and poisonous reptiles-such the church of Rome declares Protestants to be. This was the spirit in which Pius v. entered into open contest with Elizabeth; it was his own seeking, and his letters show the implacable ferocity with which he sought her destruction. In them, he urged the kings and nobles subject to his power, to extirpate, even by "massacre," those whom he calls the “enemies of God." In a letter to the cardinal of Lorraine, he directs him to convince the king of France that he cannot satisfy the Redeemer, unless he shows himself inexorable to all who plead for those most wicked of men. How different this from the language of Christ, the Redeemer himself! Consider his words, recorded in the volume of Divine inspiration: "This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you," John xv. 12-" Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea," Mark ix. 42. Christ solemnly declared, "I say unto you, Love your enemies," adding an injunction not to curse, but to "pray for them which despitefully use you," Matt. v. 44. Then is it possible that this pretended" vicar of the Son of God" could be a believer in that blessed book? unless, indeed, as the devils are said to "believe and tremble." Letter after