Switzerland at the moment of the queen's accession. The governments of England, however inclined by humanity and prudence to indulge a scrupulous conscience, were not exempt from the common error of their age, that obedience was as much due to the supreme power in matters of religion as in the civil relations of life. Some circumstances peculiar to the situation of Elizabeth contributed to an exercise of that supposed right against puritans, which may — perhaps not improperly be called the first civil war between protestants. That princess was now at the head of the protestant party, and certainly foresaw that the catholics were on the brink of a fearful struggle with the reformers. She dreaded a division in the protestant camp. Dissenters from a protestant establishment were regarded as mutineers who were likely to be deserters. They were peculiarly obnoxious, because they seemed to justify the adverse party in branding the reformation as the parent of endless confusion. To Elizabeth, as the ruler of the most powerful of the reformed states, whose honour and authority were identified with the safety of the reformation, seemed more especially to belong a power of maintaining union among protestants, who, even united, would still continue to be the weaker of the parties about to take the field against each other. The puritans were powerful in council and at court. Bedford, Warwick, and Leicester, Cecil, Walsingham, and Knollys, were friendly to their cause.* In the lower house of convocation, in 1562, a proposition to modify "the usages" (the name given to the practices alleged to be papal) was rejected by the least of possible majorities, being only fifty-nine to fifty-eight; and those who were somewhat inferior in numbers appear to have been of more weight, if considered either as men of learning, or as numbering among them nearly all the voluntary exiles for religion. + Grindall hesitated about 1822. - Neale's Hist. of Nonconformists, vol. i. chap. iv. p. 166. edit. Lond + Strype, Annals, c. xxix. "Those," says the annalist, "who were for stripping the church of her rites and ceremonies were such as had lately conformity; honest George Fox protested against it. Jewell, then celebrated as the champion of the church, spoke harshly against the usages, and assigned the queen's inflexible adherence to them as his motive for acquiescence. Elizabeth, who had a queen's jealousy of power, and a woman's passion for splendour, became so much incensed by resistance, that she proceeded to extremities which ended in a lasting separation of the puritans from the church. The publications which issued from the ecclesiastical opposition were forbidden by decrees of the court of star-chamber. Proclamations were issued against the printers, and even readers, of books unlicensed by the ordinary. Jewell refused to license an apology by one of the accused, saying, "I am afraid After several of printers; their tyranny is terrible.' deprivations and depositions by the commissioners who executed the queen's authority as ruler of the church,after a strong manifestation of the aversion of the youth of Cambridge from impositions on conscience by human jurisdiction, a meeting of about 100 persons was, on the 10th of June, 1567, entered by the afficers of justice, who apprehended fourteen of them, and brought them before the privy council, on charges of absence from their parish church, and of having used a form of worship different from that enjoined by lawful authority. Several of them who refused to submit were imprisoned, but soon released: thus began, in England, the persecution of protestants by their fellow dissenters from the church of Rome.+ The principle of intolerance was affirmed by deeds as well as by words. The minor machinery of persecution was put together and set up,-nay, it was brought into activity ; a pernicious example little excused by the limited extent of its immediate mischief. No English blood had for ten years been shed on the lived abroad in the reformed churches of Geneva, Switzerland, or Germany." *Strype, Ann. vol. i. part ii. chap. lii. p. 272. + Strype's Parker, chap. xvi. scaffold or in the field for a public quarrel, whether political or religious. In this important respect, that period forms a happy contrast with the ten years which preceded. It is probable that no great country could for centuries have boasted the like felicity. The close of the year 1569 was, unfortunately, distinguished by a revolt, which partook both of a civil and of a theological nature. This was the famous insurrection of Percy, earl of Northumberland, and Neville, earl of Westmoreland, whose domains stretched along the line of the northern border, and whose ungovernable but bold followers, inured to conflict, and trained in the surprises and stratagems of border warfare, placed these lords among the most powerful and independent of the English barons. They were adherents of the ancient religion, which retained its ascendant in the remote provinces; so much, that we learn from sir Ralph Sadler" that there were not then ten gentlemen in the north who approved the queen's measures relating to the church." They were encouraged to revolt by the measures of the catholic states, and doubtless excited to it by express assurances of effectual succour from abroad. Philip II. broke through his frozen reserve when he rebuked the duke of Alva for speaking in friendly terms of England, which the king called " a lost and undone realm." + "The case," says sir Nicholas Throgmorton, " is not as in time past, when powerful neighbours contended for superiority. Now, when the general design is to exterminate all nations dissenting with them in religion (as is most apparent), what will become of us if the profession of the like faith with ourselves be utterly destroyed in Flanders and France?" + In 1568 Cecil had demanded redress for the detention of English vessels by Spain; and notified to the Spanish ambassadors that preparations were made for resisting these wrongs by arms. In July sir Henry Norris, at Paris, received secret information of designs *Sadler, ii. 55. Letter to Cecil, December 6. 1569. "Perdido y acabado Reyno." Note from Harrington, secretary of le gation at Madrid. Haynes, 472. Throgmorton to Cecil. Haynes, 471. against Elizabeth, whose government was to be overthrown by the rescue of the queen of Scots, and by a revolt at home, supported by Spanish and even French troops, by aid from the duke of Alva, and with sanction and supply from the supreme pontiff. Ridolpho, a Florentine banker in London, was the secret agent of the pope in exciting the catholics to revolt.* As the moment for action approached, Morton, formerly a dignitary of the Roman catholic church at York, was sent from Italy, whither he had retired, with the title of apostolical penitentiary, to persuade his kinsmen in the north to take up arms for the restoration of religion. † Nothing could more effectually promote his purpose than the tidings of which he could not fail to be the bearer, that Pius V. had issued or prepared a bull against Elizabeth, which, with the temper and pretensions of the eleventh century, anathematised the queen and all her adherents as heretics; deprived her of her pretended right over England ; absolved all her subjects from the oath and the duty of allegiance; and enjoined, under pain of excommunication, all the inhabitants of her dominions, that they should not dare to obey her laws or commands. In consequence of apprehensions thus excited, the queen of Scots was removed from Bolton, where she had too many catholic neighbours, to Tutbury Castle, a place more distant from the borders. White, a gentleman of Elizabeth's household, warns Cecil against suffering many to have conference with her. "For besides," said he, " that she has a goodly personage, she hath withal an alluring grace, a pretty Scottish speech, and a searching wit, clouded (softened) with mildness. § She found means in her new dwelling to despatch secret messages to Norris to Cecil. Paris, July 7. 1568. Haynes, 466. Camd. i. 194. Dod, ii. 114. Dod, ii. 306. This famous bull, " Regnans in excelsis," &c., is dated by Camden and Dod 5 Calend. Mart. 1569, which, in modern language and style, would be the 23d of February, 1570. One copy Dod found dated 5 Cal. Maii, 1570, which would make it two months later. The activity of Pius V. in fomenting insurrection in England may be seen in his life by Hieronymo Catena, first published at Rome in 1588. The writer brings the narrative down to the trial of the duke of Norfolk. The substance is in Camden. § White to Cecil, Feb. 26. 1568. Haynes, 509. Westmoreland, Northumberland; Radcliffe, a brother of lord Sussex; Leonard Dacres, the uncle of lord Dacres; and to the families of Norton and Tempest, men of tried fidelity to the ancient church. Hartlepool, in the bishopric of Durham, was chosen to be the port where the auxiliaries to be supplied by the duke of Alva were to land. The buzz of so many hostile preparations, in distant and various quarters, would have reached a government less watchful than that of Elizabeth. Rumours of an insurrection were prevalent early in the autumn*, which caused the earl of Sussex to be sent to take the command in the north. Lord Hunsden was shortly after despatched to Berwick, to second Sussex. After several ineffectual efforts to recall the border chiefs to their duty, the queen summoned them, on the duty of their allegiance, to repair to her court. † Northumberland paused at the near approach of peril. His followers, distrusting his wavering and inconstant disposition, now shrinking from the fearful consequences which, in a moment of rashness inspired by religious zeal, he had irrevocably incurred, had recourse to the expedient of conquering his fear of distant peril by the fear of present danger. He was roused at midnight by one of his servants, named Beckwith, who frightened his master by calling on him hastily to arise and shift for himself; for that his enemies, Ulstrop and Vaughan, were about the park, and had beset him with great numbers of men. He ran to the house of one of his gamekeepers, without waiting to ascertain who or how many his enemies were. The bolder conspirators caused the bells of his town of Alnwick to be rung backward, in order to increase the numbers, the consternation, and confusion of the multitude. On the next day he was driven into the irreparable act of marching at the head of his vassals to join Westmoreland at Brancespeath. In the manifesto of these two lords they declared it to be their purpose, in concert with the other nobility of the realm, to pro * Camden. Queen to West. and North. Nov. 10. 1569. Haynes, 552 |