BX 5071 .L4 1880 v.l 
 Lee, Frederick George, 
 1902. 
 
 The church under Queen 
 Elizabeth 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2015 
 
 https://archive.org/details/churchunderqueen01leef 
 
THE CHURCH 
 
 UNDER 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
13eatt parifm. 
 
 " In the whole carriage of This Work I have 
 assumed unto myself the freedom of a just histo- 
 rian; concealing nothing out of fear, nor speaking 
 anything for favour ; delivering nothing for a 
 Truth without good authority ; but so delivering 
 that Truth as to witness for me that I am neither 
 biassed by love or hatred, nor overswayed by 
 partiality and corrupt affections." — Peter Heylyn, 
 
 D.D. 
 
 J^ttie et constantta. 
 
THE CHURCH UNDER 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 BY 
 
 THE REV. FREDERICK GEORGE LEE, D.D. 
 
 VICAB OF ALL SAINTS', LAMBETH." 
 
 AUTHOR OF " HISTOEICAL SKETCHES OF THE REFORMATION," 
 ETC., ETC. 
 
 VOLUME THE FIRST. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION ON 
 " THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH." 
 
 ' That bright Occidental Star, Queen Elizabeth, of most 
 happy memory." — The Epistle Dedicatory of King 
 James's version of the Bible. 
 
 LONDON: 
 W. H. ALLEI AND CO. 
 
 13, WATERLOO PLACE, PALL MALL, S.W. 
 1880. 
 
 (All rights reserved,.) 
 
" Coming nearer home, he said that England had lost the 
 perfection of the unity of Faith and the unity of the Church ; 
 but though not a Catholic people it was Christian still. 
 Taken in its millions it was a baptized people. Through the 
 neglect and sin of fathers and mothers, multitudes grew up 
 without baptism ; but the English people still believed in 
 Revelation, in the coming of Jesus Christ into the World as 
 the Saviour of men, and in the inspiration of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures as the Word of God." — H. E. Cardinal Manning, 
 Archbishop of Westminster. (1879.) 
 
 " I will say that battered as is that old hull [the Church of 
 England] , it is a great breakwater between the raging waves 
 of Infidelity and Catholic Truth in this land ; that it has 
 held so long together, under so many disadvantages and dif- 
 ficulties, must be a work of Divine Providence for some great 
 end which remains to be developed." — Augustus Welby 
 Pugin. (1853.) 
 
 " Doubtless the National Church has hitherto been a ser- 
 viceable breakwater against doctrinal errors more fundamental 
 than its own. How long this will last in the years now 
 before us, it is impossible to say : for the Nation drags down 
 its Church to its own level." — H. E. John Henry Cardinal 
 Newman. (1864.) 
 
 " Let only Catholics co-operate with their Anglican brethren, 
 and Anglicans co-operate with Catholics, for the restoration 
 of mutual and Corporate Unity : for the triumph of Catholic 
 Truth, not for the destruction of anything that men hold 
 and cling to as the outward and living form of their visible 
 existence ; and the glorious result, which every good man 
 must wish for, and which none but evil men would deprecate, 
 will soon crown our mutual and combined efforts." — Ambrose 
 L. M. P. De Lisle. (1857.) 
 
TO ALL 
 
 WHO ARE PREPARED TO LOOK OUR DIFFICULTIES 
 AS ENGLISH CHURCHMEN FAIRLY IN THE FACE ; 
 AND WHO, 
 
 HAVING REALIZED THEM, ARE ENDEAVOURING, 
 IN A CONSERVATIVE SPIRIT AND BY A REASONABLE METHOD, 
 TO OVERCOME THEM; 
 
 THE GENEROUS, THE SELF-SACRIFICING, THE ZEALOUS, 
 
 FRIENDS, KNOWN AND UNKNOWN, 
 ABROAD AND AT HOME, 
 LABOURING, 
 IN THE FAITH AND FEAR OF GOD, AND ON 
 NO SANDY FOUNDATION, 
 FOR 
 
 CORPORATE REUNION, 
 
 THESE VOLUMES 
 ARE RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED, 
 IN THE HOPE, WITH A BLESSING FROM ON HIGH, 
 OF 
 
 RESTORED PEACE AND VISIBLE UNITY, 
 UNDER THE PATERNAL RULE OF 
 
 THE PRIMATE OF CHRISTENDOM. 
 
 a 5 
 
" The Beformation, no doubt, cost much. It broke up the 
 Visible Unity so dear to Christians who believe our Lord's 
 universal prayer in St. John and the Epistle to the Ephesians, 
 to be part of the Word of God. It bred a race of violent 
 experimentalists, who were in their time enemies of Faith, of 
 Charity, and of Order." — Dr. Canon Liddon's Sermon at St. 
 Mary's, Oxford, reported in the " Guardian " of June 25th, 
 1879. 
 
 " I know of no law, human or Divine, which forbids me, or 
 any other freeborn Englishman, whilst submitting to every 
 existing ordinance of man for the Lord's sake, to use all 
 constitutional means for the repeal and abrogation of all 
 such laws as I believe to be mischievous and contrary to the 
 revealed and declared Will of Cod. What I, for one, mean, 
 when I say that I will do my utmost to undo the work of the 
 Eeformation, is this : — I believe that the chief and most im- 
 portant work which was done at the Reformation was to 
 render the things of God unto Caesar. I shall always strive, 
 to the best of my humble ability, to give back to God the 
 things of God. And the cuckoo-cry of ' the principles of 
 the Eeformation are in danger,' certainly will not" scare me 
 from my purpose. If the Reformation-gentlemen considered 
 themselves justified, as I suppose they did, in upsetting the 
 Settlement of Magna Charta, a Settlement brought about 
 and cemented by the martyrdom of our most glorious Saint 
 and Patron, St. Thomas, why should I have a moment's hesi- 
 tation in doing my best to strive to alter the Reformation 
 Settlement and go} back to that of Magna Charta and St. 
 Thomas? I wait for an answer." — " The Keys of the King- 
 dom of Heaven " : a Sermon, by the Rev. T. W. Mossman, 
 O.C.R., pp. 14, 15. London : 1879. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THE PRESENT POSITION OF THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH. 
 
 When, in 1833, the Tractarian movement first 
 arose at Oxford, it is remarkable that its leaders, 
 in their important work of restoration and repa- 
 ration, commenced with explaining and maintain- 
 ing the doctrine of the Sacraments, and not that 
 of the true nature and character of the Universal 
 Church. This was like carving the pinnacle 
 before securing the foundation. They assumed, 
 but never once attempted to prove, that the es- 
 tablished Communion in England was identical, 
 in all essential particulars, with the Old Church 
 of the country, and in communion with the 
 Church throughout the world. They started 
 with the assumption that none of the changes at 
 the " Eeformation " had altered its organic life, 
 
viii 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 though, the then disorganized religious state of 
 England stared them in the face. Of course this 
 easier method saved them a world of investiga- 
 tion and trouble. Having a solid foundation, as 
 they so obviously believed themselves to pos- 
 sess, they could proceed to build up a super- 
 structure. This, as we know, they did both with 
 system and spirit. In so doing they took for 
 granted that the ordinary historical theories con- 
 cerning the changes under Henry VIII., Ed- 
 ward VI., and Elizabeth, were in the main true 
 and to be depended on. But these theories have 
 turned out to be only theories ; and, though 
 bolstered up for some years under Burnet's 
 tuition ; in the face of historical documents which 
 have been brought to light of late, they now no 
 longer hold their ground. They are exploded ; 
 for they were founded only on fiction and ro- 
 mance. It is hard to entertain the conviction that, 
 during Queen Elizabeth's reign, the persecutors 
 of the Catholics, men like G-rindal, Sandys, Cecil, 
 and Walsingham, belonged to the same religious 
 communion as did those poor souls who, on reli- 
 gious grounds, endured such virulent persecution 
 at their hands — the Rack, the Scavenger's Daugh- 
 ter, and the Little Ease. The idea of " the 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 ix 
 
 Catholic Church," as set forth in the Three 
 Creeds, was wholly different, therefore, in the 
 minds of the persecutors and the persecuted. 
 With the former "the Church" was a local or 
 national institution recently made by themselves 
 and Parliament, of which the Queen was the 
 source of all jurisdiction and authority, the law- 
 ful bestower of the chief dignities, the final 
 arbiter of all theological and ecclesiastical dis- 
 putes ; in fact, the Supreme Head or Governess. 
 With the latter, as with St. Gregory the Great, it 
 was " evident to all who knew the Gospel, that 
 by the Voice of the Lord the care of the Whole 
 Church was committed to Holy Peter, the Prince 
 of all the Apostles. . . . For to him it is said, 
 ' Thou art Peter, and upon this Rock I will build 
 My Church, and I will give unto thee the Keys 
 of the Kingdom of Heaven.' Behold he receives 
 the Keys of the Heavenly Kingdom ; the power 
 of binding and of loosing is given to him. To 
 him the care and government of the whole Church 
 is committed.'' 1 * 
 
 * " Cunctis evangelium scientibus liquet, quod voce Do- 
 minica sancto et omnium Apostolorum principi Petro Apostolo 
 totius Ecclesise cura commissa est. . . . Ecce claves 
 Regni Ccelestis accipit, potestas ei ligandi ac solvendi tri- 
 
z 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The Tractarian movement, nevertheless, has 
 done much for England ; for it has given a new 
 phase of character to, and created a fresh interest 
 in, the Established Church. In external ques- 
 tions — decency, order, and ornaments — it has 
 brought about a silent revolution. The slovenly 
 and idle of a previous generation, who moved in 
 a well-defined groove, have given place to quite 
 another race, much more active no doubt, owning 
 several meritorious virtues ; but distinguished at 
 the same time by greater narrowness, less solid 
 learning and zeal, and a remarkable tendency on 
 the part of some of its members to rest satisfied 
 with ephemeral and shallow literature. Art, poetry, 
 and architecture, however, discreetly made use of, 
 have at the same time each lent a helping hand 
 in securing the far better Reformation than that 
 which was completed under Queen Elizabeth. 
 Even in deeper and more important questions 
 much has been likewise done by the Tractarians. 
 So that if the main bulk of the nation, the people 
 generally, have only been slightly touched by that 
 
 buitur, cura ei totius Ecclesise et principatus committitur." — 
 " S. Gregor. Mag. Epist. ad Maurit. August.," lib. iv. Epist. 
 32. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 xi 
 
 movement ; if the Establishment itself has become 
 more comprehensive, a considerable and respect- 
 able minority — perhaps a third of the clergy, their 
 dependents, and their immediate friends and 
 allies ; certain laymen with ecclesiastical tastes, 
 and many single-women of the upper and middle 
 classes — have been largely influenced.* Thus, 
 as everyone may see, a minority has, both in prin- 
 ciple and taste, become more Catholic ; while the 
 Church of England itself, in its corporate capa- 
 city, has distinctly grown more latitudinarian and 
 human. 
 
 Out of this movement another has recently de- 
 veloped, harmless enough and even beneficial so 
 long as the energies of its more active members 
 were confined to restoring churches, introducing 
 Gregorian music, and surpliced choirs, putting up 
 
 * In this movement it is remarkable, — as showing its ex- 
 ceptional characteristics, — that individual effort and not cor- 
 porate action secures success. The Church of England itself, 
 as a corporation, does little or nothing. Even if the ordi- 
 nary work of Christianity has to be done, a special organiza- 
 tion, like the S. P. Gr,, the Tee-total Society, or the Home 
 Mission Order, has to be started to do it. Moreover, so 
 much depends on the lives of individuals. A certain work 
 may flourish so long as some gifted parson carries it on; 
 but, if change or death should happen, the work too often 
 altogether collapses. 
 
xii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 stained glass windows, wearing albs and chasubles, 
 and repairing the universal ruin and desolation 
 which the Reformation, the Great Rebellion, and 
 the Revolution of "William of Orange, — separate 
 acts in one doleful drama, — have in turn so effi- 
 ciently wrought. But anything but harmless, 
 when it inconsistently began to advocate laxity 
 of doctrine, and tolerate " Schools of Thought " 
 in which Catholicism finds no place; to enlarge 
 the breach between England and Rome ; to dis- 
 countenance Corporate Reunion ; to disparage the 
 English Roman Catholics,* who through so long 
 a night of moral darkness have kept the Lamp of 
 Divine Truth burning. These, though persecuted 
 with demoniacal fury, have come forth again to 
 proclaim, without change or variation, the very 
 same Faith which Bede and St. Wilfred, St. 
 
 • Mr. Mackonochie, the noted Ritualist, is reported to 
 have declared in a sermon that " separation from the Church 
 of England involved separation from Christ." If to the 
 modern English Establishment had been exclusively en- 
 trusted the office of custodian of the Faith, it is no exag- 
 geration to say that the Faith in England must long ago 
 have perished ; for even now it is impossible for anyone to 
 declare for certainty what the Establishment teaches con- 
 cerning the elementary doctrine of baptism ; much less, in 
 regard to others, what it preserves, affirms, or regards with 
 indifference. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 Xlll 
 
 Thomas-the-Martyr, Warbam, More, "Watson, and 
 Cardinal Pole held and taught. They have an 
 admirable organization ; they cannot be ignored, 
 and on every reasonable Anglican theory, being 
 brethren in Christ, surely should not be abused. 
 
 It is of course disappointing and melancholy to 
 note that some of the more recent exhibitions of 
 " Ritualism," as it is called, display all the nar- 
 rowness, virulence, and pettiness of the most 
 perverse sects.* From fair and open argument 
 with Roman Catholics their self-elected leaders 
 have long ago retired ; and by a now prolonged 
 silence (except the hebdomadal jabber f of their 
 
 * As two recent examples of this, the cases of Mr. E. S. 
 GrindJe,the celebrated "Presbyter Anglicanus," and Mr.Orby 
 Shipley, who disconnected themselves from the Establishment, 
 will be familiar to all. The ungenerous, spiteful, and inso- 
 lent manner in which some of their old allies at once wrote 
 of them was pitiful and humiliating to read. 
 
 f As a specimen of the profane scoffing and infidel-lik( j 
 sneers (worthy of Voltaire himself) in which some of the 
 Ritualists indulge, the following extract from one of their 
 serials dated April 19th, 1879, edited by a parson, is given. 
 It displays a vicious spirit so thoroughly repulsive and anti- 
 Christian, that no wonder can arise that God seems to have 
 forsaken the sect it represents, now given up to frivolity, in- 
 testine squabbles, and despair : — 
 
 " The Romans, I see, have imported miracles into England. 
 France has no longer a monopoly of our Lady of Lourdes. 
 She has condescended to cure the paralytic even in the very 
 
xiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cheap serials), appear to indicate that, confuted 
 if not discomfited, they have given up the contest 
 as lost. Their influence, consequently, is very 
 much less than they assume it to be. It may be, 
 and possibly is, very considerable in certain pri- 
 vate convents, where the Superior, without legi- 
 timate authority or reasonable check of visitor or 
 diocesan, can exercise a moral tyranny which 
 only old women could practice, and only young 
 ones put up with. 
 
 midst of ' unorthodox London.' The event came off a fort- 
 night ago at a home for poor Roman Catholic boys in the 
 Harrow Road, and which is supported by sensational adver- 
 tisements headed ' Save the boy.' Lord Archibald Douglas 
 is about to build a chapel for his lads, dedicated, of course, 
 to our Lady of Lourdes, and, of course again, some of the 
 water from the holy fountain was brought to England to be 
 sprinkled round the foundation-stones. Two of the lads, who 
 have been unable for many months to walk, through paralysis, 
 were carried to see the ceremony, and sprinkled with the 
 precious water. The story goes that on the morrow the 
 nurse went to carry the boys as usual, but, mirabile dictu, they 
 with one consent began to walk. The doctor will, of course, 
 be ready to disclaim all merit in the earthly drugs which he 
 was giving to them, and the people who set down the awe to 
 excitement and overwrought expectation will be regarded as 
 little better than infidels. And as a miracle is born, if I may 
 so say, at one's very door, what the miracle will be like when 
 it is full-grown, after all the witnesses have been scattered 
 and investigation is rendered difficult, those may guess who 
 have traced the effect of their own imagination in dealing 
 with the wonderful." See " Appendix, No. ILL" 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XV 
 
 The reiterated boast, again, that the horny- 
 handed Working-men of London and our great 
 cities care for the Ritualistic movement, is at once 
 confident and loud ; but this appears to be only 
 based on the daring assertions of unscrupulous 
 wire-pullers ; who, holding the strings and rings, 
 lie concealed in the background, while their hired 
 puppets caper and threaten, brag and posturize, 
 reading out what has been written for them to 
 maintain or assert on some public stage. Dis- 
 order and Topsy-turvyism must certainly have 
 risen to a perfect climax, and all Authority 
 have been repudiated, when compositors, basket- 
 makers, and the owners of cheap newspapers 
 can unblushingly stand forward, without any 
 commission whatsoever from their fellow-work- 
 men, to browbeat, bully, and pretend to instruct 
 the various bishops of the Established Church in 
 their official duties. 
 
 But amongst the great mass of Englishmen the 
 general policy of these Ritualists (besides being 
 taken up so much with questions of externals,) is 
 altogether too wayward and weak ever to com- 
 mand any but an occasional, and then very often 
 only a contemptuous, consideration. 
 
 The old High Church party, or what now re- 
 
xvi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 mains of it, has still, as is well known, a few 
 great and influential leaders with a small follow- 
 ing in the nation, and smaller influence. Unable 
 to resist the Divorce Bill,* the infidel School 
 Board system, and Lord Penzance, its members 
 still make weighty speeches and put forth disre- 
 garded Protests. For promoting Union and De- 
 fending the principles of the Church of England 
 (whatever they may be), they form grand organ- 
 izations like the English Church Union, which, it 
 is to be feared, only make old separations more 
 patent and fresh divisions more painful. Rome, 
 and all that belongs thereto, they appear fanati- 
 cally to hate — the language of some being at 
 once ridiculous and profane; while they some- 
 what ostentatiously profess to be in love with 
 what they call " the true principles of the Refor- 
 mation." Secret societies for special prayer, and 
 for enabling ministerial neophytes to lead a less 
 
 * " The Divorce Act, so far as it went, was an act of na- 
 tional apostasy, and in a marvellously brief space, it has 
 succeeded in breaking down the Christian instincts of the 
 community. It gives us a startling view of the degradation 
 of the public morals which has already taken place, to learn 
 from Sir James Hannen that the motive of the suitors who 
 go before him, is, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, 
 simply to obtain a licence to marrv again." — " Church Times," 
 September 19th, 1879. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XVII 
 
 worldly life than many Church-of-England par- 
 sons live, like the Society of the Holy Cross, are 
 blown down and fall to pieces like a child's card- 
 house, when the breath of Public Opinion, bearing 
 their condemnation, meets them all of a sudden. 
 Scared members, forgetting their official dignity, 
 scream at being discovered; and, in fear and 
 trembling which seems perfectly sincere, are 
 soon scattered as sheep without either fold or 
 shepherd. 
 
 Archdeacon Palmer of Oxford, in his recent 
 Charge (a.d. 1879), has described the position of 
 the Established Church, and stated the case con- 
 cerning the Supreme Jurisdiction of the Crown, 
 with great accuracy and singular calmness. Tem- 
 perate, unambiguous, and plain, he is at the same 
 time frankly and perfectly Erastian ; though ap- 
 parently ready to sacrifice something, if it can be 
 shown to him that the principle of Erastianism 
 is fatal, as it certainly is, to any efficient Christian 
 work. Moreover, he quite admits the right and 
 reasonableness of endeavouring to remedy the 
 evil in a constitutional method. Here are his 
 words : — 
 
 " In my judgment, the cardinal fact is, that the final de- 
 termination of all ecclesiastical causes is vested in the Crown, 
 
 b 
 
xvm 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 and is confided to a Court which the Crown has established 
 with the consent of Parliament, and of Parliament alone, 
 and that all other courts ecclesiastical are bound to echo its 
 decisions. This, as I have reminded you, has been the law 
 and use of England for nearly three centuries and a half, if 
 we neglect the short reign of Philip and Mary. It has been, 
 in principle, more than once formally recognized, never for- 
 mally repudiated, by the synods of the Church of Eng- 
 land.* 
 
 " It is our right, as Englishmen, to use all lawful and con- 
 stitutional means, in order to procure the repeal of the 
 statutes on which this special jurisdiction of the Crown 
 rests, if we think such repeal desirable — as it is our right 
 to use like means in order to procure the repeal of any other 
 statutes now in force. But it is also, I venture to think, our 
 duty, both as Englishmen and as Churchmen, to obey these 
 statutes while they are unrepealed, and to submit to the de- 
 cisions of the court which derives its authority from them. 
 I need not attempt to prove our duty as Englishmen to obey 
 any law of the land ; but I may be asked what further obli- 
 gation to obedience in this particular lies on us as Church- 
 men. My answer is twofold. First, we are bound to obey, 
 
 * This statement of fact and law is mainly identical with 
 that of the Archdeacon's brother, Lord Selborne, who in his 
 controversies both with " A Sussex Priest," Mr. E. S. Grindle, 
 as to principle, and with Mr. James Parker of Oxford as to 
 fact, retired in both cases from any attempt to maintain the 
 two untenable positions which his lordship had assumed, and 
 on which, it is to be feared, a Privy Council Judgment was 
 in part founded. See " Canon or Statute : a Correspondence 
 on the P. W. R. Act between Lord Selborne and a Sussex 
 Priest." London: 1875. " Did Queen Elizabeth take Other 
 Order in the Advertisements of 1566? a Letter to Lord 
 Selborne, with a Postscript. By James Parker, M.A." Lon- 
 don : 1879. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XIX 
 
 on the principle of deference to Church authority. Our 
 Church, as I have said already, has more than onco synodi- 
 cally affirmed the Supreme Jurisdiction of the Crown in causes 
 ecclesiastical ; she has never synodically rejected it. Secondly, 
 we are bound to obey, on the principle of regard to the 
 highest interests of the Church. I do not speak of lands, 
 or money, or any civil privileges whatever. I value these 
 things highly. I value highly what men call the establish- 
 ment of religion in this country. But I value it only as 
 means to an end ; I value it only as a gigantic home Mission 
 fund, which enables the Church to carry the message of sal- 
 vation to the poorest dictricts of our great towns, and the 
 most secluded nooks in England. Let it all go to-morrow, 
 if it can be shown to be the price of its retention that the 
 Church must deny her Lord, or cease to do His work effec- 
 tively." 
 
 As showing the actual working of this system 
 before our eyes, the following advice by Bishop 
 Moberly, in his recent Charge to the clergy of 
 his diocese (a.d. 1879) regarding the use of the 
 Mixed Chalice and the duty of obedience to Lord 
 Penzance, appears astounding : — 
 
 His lordship " was ready to admit, in the abstract, that a 
 secular authority ought not to interpose in matters of sacred 
 doctrine ; but still he thought the wisest course would be 
 to submit to decisions when they bad once been pronounced 
 (even when they pressed unduly upon the clergy), instead of 
 permitting them to be pointed at as signs of disunion. The 
 Bishop referred to the ' Mixed Chalice ' question, and quoted 
 various authorities to show that the Mixed Chalice, probably 
 made use of by our Lord Himself at the institution of the 
 Eucharist, was certainly in use in the Primitive Church, and 
 
 b 2 
 
XX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that there was nothing to show that it ever gave rise to 
 superstition in the Roman Church before the Reformation. 
 He considered it had never been prohibited by Act of Parlia- 
 ment or Canon, but he counselled the clergy, as an adverse 
 judgment had been given, to refrain from the practice in 
 question." 
 
 On which it is sufficient to remark that if, in 
 the first ages of the Church, the bishops had 
 shown themselves to have been as amiable, peace- 
 loving, and impressible as Dr. Moberly, there 
 would certainly have been no Christianity of any 
 sort or kind left to be squabbled over in the pre- 
 sent faithless age. It must surely be rather a 
 stretch of faith — not to write " an act of cre- 
 dulity " — to believe that men like this are 
 divinely-appointed custodians of the Christian 
 deposit of Faith. 
 
 The Key to the spiritual position, as both Arch- 
 deacon and Bishop conclusively show, and as all 
 can now see, was long ago given up, when Eng- 
 land was duped into practically repudiating her 
 relations with the Universal Christian Kingdom, 
 its laws, and its ruler. Cranmer first betrayed 
 the local flock which he was to govern ; and so 
 made a similar work easier for those who came 
 after him, — Matthew Parker and his immediate 
 allies. The New Church, as finally arranged, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXI 
 
 formed, and moulded under Queen Elizabeth, was 
 a purely local and national body, neither more 
 nor less ; and has so remained under a variety of 
 theological and ecclesiastical changes,* unto the 
 present day. For no national Parliament can 
 possibly create a divine institution, and the mis- 
 sionary work of a human society ever fails. Par- 
 liament may properly give a charter to a gas 
 company, or authorize a railway board to use a 
 corporate seal; but as for making a "Church" 
 which is not inherently and essentially national 
 and local — this is altogether beyond its great and 
 acknowledged powers. 
 
 The sooner, therefore, that members of the Es- 
 tablished Communion admit this and begin to 
 
 * Mr. F. H. Dickenson, a frequent correspondent of the 
 " Guardian," in a Letter which appeared in the number for 
 September 10th, 1879, writes most truly and accurately 
 thus : — " Any one who has watched the Church of England 
 during the past forty years must see that Our Faith and 
 Doctrine have largely altered ; and there is no reason to think 
 that alteration has ceased," — one fresh proof, were it needed, 
 of the changeable and human character of the institution 
 in question. Did the " Guardian's " correspondent regard it 
 as divine, he would no doubt instinctively shrink from 
 making proposals to patch, mend, or further " reform " it. 
 As it stands, he merely exercises, with regard to it, the in- 
 herent and indisputable right of every free-born English- 
 man. 
 
XXU 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 realize the most primary and elementary detail of 
 God's revelation — and so, by precise thought, re- 
 cognize respectively the true nature of the Church 
 of Pentecost and the actual character of the 
 Church of England ; regarding each of which 
 many have the most confused and inexact ideas) 
 — the better will it be for all of us. By a series 
 of tortuous arguments and historical misrepre- 
 sentations, confusion has been made worse con- 
 founded. For loose expressions, words like " the 
 Church " used in half a dozen different senses, 
 and a mis-bestowal of the marks of the One Ca- 
 tholic body — the Ark of Salvation, — upon mere 
 local communions, cannot be sufficiently repre- 
 hended.* Such dialectical ambiguities perplex, 
 
 * I take the following from the current newspapers and 
 serials of September, 1879: " Our Mother, the Church of Eng- 
 land." — " Our Church is far more favoured of God than any 
 other Church." — " Not true members of Our Church at all ; 
 their hearts are elsewhere, with another Church," &c. — " Our 
 beloved Church is founded on the Bible, whereas," &c. — 
 " Where other Churches have secured a vantage-ground Our 
 Church should certainly do the same."' — " They remain in 
 Our Church in order to revile her," <fec. &c. &c. ad nauseam: 
 all most conclusively proving that in the minds of the loose- 
 thinking scribblers who use such phrases " Our Church " is 
 (as without a doubt it most certainly is) something quite 
 different from the Church of the Creeds — the One Divine 
 and Worldwide Corporation. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XX111 
 
 confuse and mislead. The One Church of God is 
 alone divine, all local and national churches being 
 essentially human. 
 
 As a consequence of such unfortunate confu- 
 sion of thought and expression, certain persons 
 have acted in late years as though the actual 
 laws of the national Church of England ought to 
 be practically revised or modified from time to 
 time by some other external and independent law 
 — some fanciful ideal, some statute of Utopia; — 
 and in so acting have brought much trouble upon 
 themselves and little advantage to their neigh- 
 bours. How can the Catholic Church — which 
 concerns all nations and peoples, but belongs ex- 
 clusively to none — which is infallible, for it was 
 created by the Holy Spirit, — how can this Divine 
 Corporation either revise or reverse the sentences 
 of any Parliamentary communion ? What actual 
 machinery can be brought into operation to effect 
 such a process? Which of the ancient canons, more- 
 over, ever recognized a woman as capable of being 
 Supreme Head of a parish — putting aside a dio- 
 cese or a group of dioceses ? The Catholic Church 
 throughout the whole world is, as we all know, 
 guided by canon law, administered by living and 
 lawful ecclesiastical judges, independent of Kings, 
 
xxiv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Queens, and all secular rulers, and not amenable to 
 civil courts ; while the Church of England is now 
 notoriously governed by Lord Penzance. Thomas 
 Cromwell first ruled it under Henry VIII., Somer- 
 set under Edward VI., Cecil under Elizabeth. 
 Ever since its foundation it has been similarly 
 governed, either by Commissioners appointed by 
 the monarch, or some local court ; and as long as 
 it retains its present position, isolated and local, 
 it will continue to be so governed. 
 
 People complain of the English Court of Ap- 
 peal in spiritual causes,* which consists of certain 
 
 * " What, I ask," wrote Mr. ex-Chancellor Wagner," would 
 St. Ambrose have said to the recent trial of ' Jenkins versus 
 Cooke ' ? This unseemly trial proves, beyond all possibility 
 of cavil, that the Civil Power in England claims to decide, in 
 the last resort, not merely ' the temporal accidents of spiritual 
 things,' but even who shall, or who shall not, be admitted to 
 the Holy Communion, and, what is infinitely more serious still, 
 that the Primate of all England is quite willing personally to 
 acquiesce in this most fatal claim, else he would have re- 
 fused, with horror, to sit in the Court at all. It is sadly 
 significant and noteworthy that not one single bishop of the 
 province of Canterbury has, as yet, publicly protested against 
 a claim which, if granted, would wholly efface the spiritual 
 authority of a ' bishop in the Church of God,' and make him 
 the mere creature or tool of the Civil Power, powerless to 
 exert the authority entrusted to him by our Lord Jesus 
 Christ."—" Christ or Csesar ? " Part II. p. 40. London : 
 1877. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 XXV 
 
 Privy Councillors ; but if they are content to 
 remain visibly separated from the rest of Chris- 
 tendom, and not amenable to the great and uni- 
 versal Court of Appeal of the One Catholic 
 Church, — and to this they are certainly not 
 amenable, for some positively glory in their iso- 
 lation, — they must put up with the inconvenience 
 and make the best of it. 
 
 The law which this local and peculiar Court 
 professes to administer is not the law of God ; of 
 that it knows nothing, and cares nothing. Its 
 business is to regulate the public preaching and 
 teaching of the ministers of the Establishment, 
 not according to God's revelation or the canon 
 law of the Church Universal — with these it has 
 nothing whatsoever to do — but, as the Reformers 
 first determined, in strict and literal accordance 
 with the Statutes of the Eealm, with the enact- 
 ments of the British Parliament. 
 
 As regards religion, every doctrine of God's 
 revelation is subjected to the decisions of purely 
 State tribunals. Our Blessed Lord is now only 
 permitted to occupy that place which a represen- 
 tation of Him obtained under Alexander Severus, 
 in the Temple of the Gods. All religions, it is 
 maintained, are at last alike. The Church is now 
 
XXVI 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 a " denomination." The crimes of blasphemy, in- 
 fidelity, sacrilege, and atheism, moreover, are at 
 length no crimes at all. Civil and religious 
 liberty has efficiently changed all that. Images 
 of atheists are set up in the public thoroughfares, 
 and pointed at with pride as representations of 
 great public benefactors. Blasphemers are ho- 
 noured, and people are thus indirectly enjoined 
 to go and do likewise. Parental rights, more- 
 over, having their roots in natural religion, are, 
 as regards education in England, on the high road 
 to being altogether wiped out and lost. Of this 
 the mob approves. The source of all Authority, 
 whether that of kings or priests, is God 
 Almighty ; but, when legitimate Authority is 
 laughed to scorn and trampled under foot by 
 those who in its place have set up a rival human 
 authority — always wayward, weak, uncertain, 
 vacillating, and liable to all kinds of error — 
 those who refuse to believe, fear, and serve their 
 Maker, find that they too soon become slaves, 
 tyrannized over cruelly, and whose backs are in 
 the long run well scourged by scorpions of their 
 own nurturing. 
 
 People sometimes remark that our Catholic 
 ancestors must have been very indifferent or 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXV11 
 
 greatly wanting in zeal to have allowed such 
 changes as those effected by a few " Reformers" 
 to have been made without resistance. But in 
 answer to this it should be remembered that they 
 did resist to the best of their ability. In York- 
 shire, Durham, Norfolk, Devonshire, Oxfordshire, 
 and Lincolnshire, at various times, a most noble 
 resistance was made by force, as well by poor as 
 by rich. But it failed ; and the heavy hand of 
 Vengeance, with a sanguinary and cruel grip,* 
 came down upon all engaged in that resistance. 
 
 But to judge this question more equitably. 
 Let us consider how tamely and quietly the 
 changes effected by the Divorce Court, Infidel 
 Education, and Lord Penzance's Parliamentary 
 
 * The Catholic Belief Act of 1778, and for Ireland in 1782, 
 which relaxed some of the more ferocious parts of the penal 
 laws and their most cruel grip, was only passed at a time 
 when France and America were in confederation against 
 England, and union at home was sorely needed. Down to 
 that period the penal statutes of Elizabeth, James L, and 
 William of Orange had disgraced our statute book. In 
 addition to persecution, riots, and violence for Roman Catho- 
 lics were known under Lord George Gordon ; again in 1807, 
 in 1829, and in 184G ; and again when the new Roman Catho- 
 lic Hierarchy was set up. It is highly improbable that this 
 volcano is quite extinct ; for, as most of the legal relaxations 
 of late years have been made at times of national trial and 
 political strain, when fears abounded, the real sentiments of 
 the populace may be unknown or inadequately forecast. 
 
xxvm 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 authority — certain steps in our downward descent 
 as a nation — are being actually submitted to, 
 before our very eyes, ere we judge our ancestors 
 too severely. The disastrous divisions of the 
 Reformation have finally resulted in the anti- 
 Christian system of education now completely in 
 the ascendant. At the universities, in our an- 
 cient grammar-schools, as well as in the recent 
 national plan for instructing the lower classes — 
 supported by public rates* — the Christian Reli- 
 gion is quietly and contemptuously set aside, — 
 with evil results which will soon enough be pain- 
 fully discovered. Such a system of public schools 
 
 * Dr. James Eraser, who occupies the position of a Chris- 
 tian bishop at Manchester, is reported to have quite recently 
 remarked that he looked upon the gradual extinction of all 
 schools save Board Schools with calm satisfaction and with- 
 out any fear. The Vicar-General of the Diocese of Salford, 
 however, recently pointed out that " the Church of England 
 was gradually surrendering the great principles of religious 
 education and handing her schools over to the School Boards. 
 After a while the Church-of -En gland schools would cease 
 altogether to be public elementary schools. "When that time 
 came there would remain only the'Board schools and the Catho- 
 lic schools. How long it would be before this change would 
 take place he could not say, but the course followed by the 
 clergy of the National Church left little doubt that a change 
 would one day take place. As for Catholics, they could never 
 surrender their schools to the School Boards or any other 
 authority. With the Godless education of the Board schools 
 they could never have anything to do." 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxix 
 
 may probably soon result in a corresponding system 
 of public churches, where every sect may perform 
 its orgies ; and where, moreover, every individual 
 may worship whatsoever god or gods may have 
 been set up, or may be tolerated, by the State ; or 
 where the more advanced "philosophers" may 
 worship each other or themselves. Now, it is only 
 a very small minority of the English people who 
 can heartily approve of either of these three dan- 
 gerous measures, yet they have been each duly 
 carried, and are now the law of the land ; while few, 
 possibly, would dream of agitating for their aboli- 
 tion. The evil is seen, but not the remedy. 
 Patriotism, zeal, and self-sacrifice are all given 
 up in favour of self-seeking, wicked principles, 
 and a false peace — that peace which only too 
 surely heralds national corruption and certain 
 decay. 
 
 In our cities and large towns — which are 
 quietly reverting to Paganism ; for, of late years, 
 since the infamous " Gorham Judgment," not 
 more than fifteen per cent, of the people are 
 baptized at all* — what do we behold? The 
 
 * At the Swansea Congress, the Rev. G. A. Seymour, of 
 Winchester, maintained that " there is amongst our people a 
 lamentable neglect of the Sacrament of Baptism, and stated 
 
XXX 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 churches of the Establishment too often ill - 
 attended, and in some parts practically empty. 
 
 that hardly more than ten per cent, of our people in our large 
 towns are baptized in the Church of England. He consi- 
 dered that amongst Christian nations England was in this 
 particular the lowest in the scale, except perhaps America." 
 — " Guardian," October 8, 1879. In the same number, but 
 on another page, of the newspaper from which the above is 
 taken, there appeared a letter signed " A Country Clergy- 
 man," which ran thus. The words in italics and within 
 brackets are my own comments : — " Sir, — An unbaptized 
 child died in my parish the other day. Immediately I heard 
 of it I went to the house and offered to show my respect 
 [for its parents who had studiously despised our Lord's com- 
 mand] and sympathy [for them under the stupid charges which 
 believers in the Christian Religion might make] by officiating at 
 the funeral [contrary to the rules of the Prayer Book and the 
 law of the land]. I explained that I would put on my surplice 
 and say the Lord's Prayer at the grave. My offer was most 
 gratefully accepted. I used the following short service, com- 
 piled from Bishop How's "Pastor in parochia," and from ou~ 
 own services [and so proved to the parents and th e public that 
 baptism is a mere ceremony, and that the unbaptized have 
 quite as much right to Christian burial by the parson as the 
 baptized. Am I not liberal with the trust which has been re- 
 posed in me ?] I gave the relatives a copy of the prayer, with 
 which they were much pleased." — In the " Reunion Maga- 
 zine," vol. i. pp. 51-73, is an article on " Baptism in the 
 Church of England," from the pen of a layman, (as is said,) 
 in which some carefully-arranged statistics show that in some 
 parishes just four per cent, of the children born, and no more, 
 are baptized ; in others on an average about nine per cent. 
 On pp. 494-498, are letters which show that Bishop Alford, 
 who has " warned people to be on their guard against the 
 fashionable doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration," openly bap- 
 tized fourteen adults by once flicking his wetted fingers in 
 the air over all of them, and that in a large Oxfordshire 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxi 
 
 Violent changes, from services of a Catholic cha- 
 racter to those of a Puritan, and vice versa, have 
 often led to indifference. Zeal in a Catholic 
 direction, having been consistently frowned upon 
 by State authorities, has too often been clean 
 stamped out. The churches on Sundays are thus 
 empty and the streets crowded. What there may 
 we see ? A poor, down-looking, stunted race, 
 with hard features and anxious, care-worn faces ; 
 out of the effeminate mouths of nine out of every 
 ten stumpy men a burnt and smoking pipe stick- 
 ing out like a spout or drain — the smouldering 
 narcotic of which is supposed, in some manner, 
 to stimulate their enfeebled and flagging energies. 
 These pitiable forms seem, all of them, at once 
 so self-engrossed and restless, eagerly hurry- 
 ing on to growl over or gnaw the World's meat 
 which perisheth, that no ray, even the faintest, 
 of the beautiful life to come ever seems to fall 
 upon their thronged and darkened pathway. For 
 Faith is dead. They believe only in that which 
 they can handle and clutch. Of the Angel-world 
 
 town the font has never been filled for forty years. Cardinal 
 Newman and Mr. Eobert Brett long ago pointed out the 
 neglect of baptism, as also did the Eev. W. J. E. Bennett, 
 of Frome. 
 
XXX11 
 
 INTBODUCTION. 
 
 and the Supernatural, of times when the veil 
 around this earth is drawn aside, and glimpses 
 of Another "World are in mercy momentarily be- 
 stowed, they neither know nor care. Their gods 
 and guides are the men of science, falsely so 
 called, or — -to rise to a somewhat higher level — it 
 may be their own bellies. Their dismal gospel is 
 summed up in the popular but dread resolution — 
 " Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die." 
 Therefore they all make our nation now stand 
 out as a striking contrast to " Merry England of 
 the olden time." 
 
 As to many rural districts, the spirit of Indiffe- 
 rence, like a dark cloud, has settled on the once 
 happy homes of our country poor. The State 
 Religion, on which the Reformation-impress is 
 still indelibly stamped,* influences them but 
 
 * " I have known the Communion-table used as a writing 
 desk for Sunday-school children, and at Vestry-meetings." — 
 Rev. W. H. Kelke, "Records of Bucks," vol iii. p. 127.— 
 In a small but curious volume, " Odds and Ends " (London : 
 1872), Mr. William Maskell gives an account of an unique 
 atrocity — the dissection, in the year 1839, of a corpse that 
 had been exhumed, upon the Communion-table of the church 
 of Powerstock in Dorsetshire. " The Church," he writes, 
 " was shut up for three weeks after, on account of the stench 
 which had penetrated through and saturated the entire 
 building. I believe," he continues, " that the Communion- 
 table was then restored to its former sacred purpose." — 
 pp. 54-73. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 XXX111 
 
 feebly, if at all. In Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Buck- 
 inghamshire, and South "Wales, many of the vil- 
 lage churches, week by week, are practically 
 empty. In towns Dissent still breeds ; while 
 Unbelief, chilling its thousands to the heart's 
 core, leaves them desolate and sad ; restless in 
 the present, hopeless for the future, or quietly in- 
 different. For, beginning with the elementary 
 doctrine of baptism, every detail of sacred reve- 
 lation has long been a topic of controversy, 
 wrangled over by the misbelieving and profane. 
 Faith has at length so melted into opinion or 
 mere sentiment, that even the Home of Opinion, 
 now swept and garnished, is found to be cold, 
 empty, and desolate. There is neither voice nor 
 language, nor any to answer, nor any to regard. 
 Some few by custom still superstitiously expose 
 their phylactery and quote their favourite texts, 
 — like the ancient dame, who, as she asserted, 
 found such personal comfort from mumbling 
 over and over again the consoling word " Meso- 
 potamia"; but a supernatural law (as it is as- 
 sumed to be) without a lawful interpreter, as a 
 religion without a divine guide, or a so-called 
 "spiritual body" without a spiritual head, can 
 only first lose the confidence, and then deservedly 
 
 c 
 
XXXIV 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 merit the contempt, of those who for generations 
 can trace the dire influence of " Reform," and 
 long for a divine peace, forfeited and lost in past 
 centuries ; gone perhaps, for those few who most 
 keenly miss it, never to return. 
 
 The only persons who have duly surveyed and 
 accurately measured the situation as to profit by 
 it, are the modern Latitudinarians or Liberals — 
 the legitimate successors of Socinus, Cranmer, 
 Erastus, Tillotson, Hoadley, and Balguy. And, 
 since the rise of the Oxford movement, the leaders 
 of it, in their conflicts with Latitudinarians, have, 
 by reason of their losses and disasters, been again 
 and again compelled to shift their position, modify 
 their principles,* and change their tactics. Per- 
 sons professing the Catholic Faith, out of com- 
 munion with the rest of Christendom, inevitably 
 maintain their difficult position under the greatest 
 
 * E.g. the late Eev. John Keble in the poem on " Gun- 
 powder Treason," having relinquished the inexact belief 
 of the Eeformers for the teaching of the Catholic Church, 
 somewhat awkwardly altered his verse. See p. 40, where the 
 original poem is quoted. — Still more recently, Archdeacon 
 Denison, who took so prominent a part in the restoration of 
 Convocation, deplored his mistake in having done so ; be- 
 lieving, because of later events, that Convocation had done 
 more harm than good. The truth is that, until the question 
 of the relations of England to the rest of Christendom is 
 faced and settled, little can or will be done. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXV 
 
 disadvantages. No one could have fought the 
 battle of Catholic dogma in the Church of Eng- 
 land, with greater foresight, discretion, and 
 ability than did Dr. Newman when at Oxford. 
 But, with all his consummate tact and immense 
 learning, with all his high generosity and noto- 
 rious zeal, he frankly and truly confessed himself 
 defeated.* The Liberals or Latitudinarians won 
 
 * " The most oppressive thought in the whole process of 
 my change of opinion, was the clear antibipation, verified by 
 the event, that it would issue in the triumph of Liberalism. 
 Against the anti-dogmatic principle I had thrown my whole 
 mind ; yet now I was doing more than anyone else could do 
 to promote it. I was one of those who had kept it at bay in 
 Oxford for so many years ; and thus my very retirement 
 was its triumph. The men who had driven me from Oxford 
 were distinctly the Liberals ; it was they who had opened the 
 attach upon Tract 90, and it was they who would gain a 
 second benefit, if I went on to retire from the Anglican Church. 
 But this was not all. As I have already said, there are but 
 two alternatives, the way to Rome, and the way to Atheism ; 
 Anglicanism is the halfway-house on the other. How many 
 men were there, as I knew full well, who would not follow 
 me now in my advance from Anglicanism to Rome, but would 
 at once leave Anglicanism and me for the Liberal camp. It 
 is not at all easy (humanly speaking) to wind up an English- 
 man to a dogmatic level. I had done so in a good measure 
 in the case both of young men and of laymen, the Anglican 
 Via Media being the representative of dogma. The dogmatic 
 and the Anglican principle were one, as I had taught them ; 
 but I was breaking the Via Media to pieces, and would not 
 dogmatic faith altogether be broken up, in the minds of a 
 great number, by the demolition of the Via Media ? Oh ! 
 
 c 2 
 
xxx vi 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 in almost every conflict. With what result is well 
 known. Dr. Newman and his friends were driven 
 out ; while Dr. Tait, one of the Four Tutors who 
 persecuted him, is at Canterbury, and is still bent 
 on getting rid of the Athanasian Creed, in which 
 he frankly avows neither he himself nor his 
 brother-prelates believe,* it being too dogmatic 
 in itself, and too distasteful to the Public. Dr. 
 Hampden died Bishop of Hereford. The Editor 
 of " Essays and Reviews " is now Bishop of 
 Exeter, welcomed by High Churchmen for his 
 zeal and energy. The present Bishop of Salis- 
 bury, who so disliked Dr. Newman's "Essay on 
 Development " that he formally replied to it, has 
 himself so developed in the Latitudinarian direc- 
 tion that he actually administered the Lord's 
 Supper ao Westminster to a Unitarian preacher. 
 Thus the Liberals — aided, of course, by their own 
 political party, and bribed and promoted by the 
 
 how unhappy this made me!" — "History of my Religious 
 Opinions," by J. H. Newman, D.D. (original edition), 
 pp. 329-330. London : 1864. 
 
 * " We [the Archbishop and Bishops] do not, — there is not 
 a soul in this room who does, — take the concluding clauses 
 of the Athanasian Creed in their plain and literal sense." — 
 Speech of Archbishop Tait in Convocation, " Guardian," 
 February 14th, 1872. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 XXXY11 
 
 Conservatives — triumph all along the line. And 
 so-called " High Churchmen " have at length con- 
 descended to be their faithful armour-bearers and 
 trumpeters. 
 
 The spring of these Liberals or Erastians is 
 elastic, and their grasp firm, as when, rising to 
 shake themselves from the temporary dust of any 
 conflict with High Churchmen, they sufficiently 
 realize their own strength, and, with disdain for 
 their discomfited opponents and with considerable 
 self-confidence, march forward to greater victories. 
 They know too well that the power of the English 
 Establishment either to maintain or to enforce 
 the dogmatic principle is as the power of a lifeless 
 and rain-sodden scarecrow, neither more nor less. 
 They perceive most accurately that the authority 
 which first created the Establishment, and as is 
 reasonable enough, still effectually dominates it, in- 
 tends to dominate it. This every bishop sees and 
 knows.* That power was Parliament; it is now 
 
 * Quite recently the Bishop of Oxford, somewhat miscon- 
 ceiving his position, went in person as a suppliant to the 
 Court of Queen's Bench, asking that he might be allowed to 
 act as a true bishop in his own diocese. But the Court, 
 which of course represents Her Majesty the Queen, — the Su- 
 preme Governess of the Church of England, from whom (as 
 Dr. Mackamess on his knees before her duly acknowledged) 
 
XXXV111 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 Parliament, modified, reformed, and extended, — 
 ever influenced in the present enlightened age by 
 Public Opinion ; but, at best, Parliament. 
 
 However, the very boldness of these triumphant 
 Erastians in high places, their sharply-defined and 
 sweeping policy, carried out with no regard to 
 the convictions of their opponents, and with an 
 inconsiderate roughness and rudeness worthy of 
 Thomas Cromwell or Hugh Latimer, has done 
 more than anything else to throw many Christian 
 people back on first principles. So long as some 
 moderation and impartiality were shown at Lam- 
 beth ; so long as it was possible to believe by a 
 kind of traditional fiction that the so-called 
 " Church Courts " were Church Courts, people, 
 without inquiring, were content to regard them 
 as such, and quietly to acquiesce. But the Public 
 
 he received both spiritualties as -well as temporalties, — de- 
 clined to allow him to do anything of the sort. Lord Pen- 
 zance is now the Chief Ecclesiastical Judge for Her Majesty 
 in every diocese ; in Oxford as elsewhere. He was set up by 
 a recent and special Act, which either all the bishops helped 
 to pass, or now willingly administer ; and therefore Bishop 
 Mackarness' demand was obviously unreasonable. The Act 
 in question, though with art and cunning made specially for 
 the inferior parsons, is thus found to have included the 
 bishops. The Bishop of London has recently admitted, iu 
 his "Charge" [1879], that it was both a mistake and a 
 failure. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xxxix 
 
 Worship Regulation Act* has successfully de- 
 stroyed all such notions ; while the appointment 
 by the two Primates of an ex- Judge of the Divorce 
 Court to work the Act was a deliberate insult to 
 the Christian clergy, and an outrage disgraceful 
 to all concerned. f It has, at all events, shown 
 
 * "It is, in point of fact — at least, so it seems to me— a 
 thoroughly revolutionary measure in its principle, having for 
 its main end or consequence the abolition of all the ancient 
 courts Christian ; courts which, however fallen from their 
 first estate, and unsatisfactory in their [present condition, 
 have existed from the very earliest times in this country, 
 and were an integral part of its Christianity ; and the sub- 
 stitution in their stead of a new secular court, with no Chris- 
 tian instincts or traditions whatever to guide it, and deriving 
 its authority and jurisdiction in no way whatever from the 
 Church, but entirely from the new Act of Parliament which 
 created it. Regarded in this light, which I believe to be the 
 true light, and one, I fear, which the verdict of Posterity will 
 only too fully endorse, the Public Worship Regulation Act of 
 last year is one of the most mischievous and indefensible 
 measures ever yet concocted. For it is the virtual triumph of 
 the anti-Christian principle of Erastianism over ecclesiastical 
 authority and independence ; the acknowledgment, in prac- 
 tical effect, by the voice of the nation, that the Established 
 Church of England is to be regarded from henceforth as 
 little better than a mere State function or department of the 
 earthly State, instead of (as it must be if it be Christ's re- 
 presentative) its spiritual ruler and teacher." — " Christ or 
 Caesar ? " Part II. pp. 6, 7. London : 1877. 
 
 f " I do not suppose a more galling insult to a body of 
 educated gentlemen, such as the clergy of England are, is 
 recorded in history than that which has been practically 
 offered to us by the two Archbishops (Tait and Thomson) 
 in the peculiar character of the appointment they have 
 
xl 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 conclusively the true character of the Establish- 
 ment and its rulers, — a singular advantage to 
 those who, like the late Mr. Keble, have been 
 long doubtful whether it was from Heaven or of 
 men.* As long, of course, as people cannot per- 
 ceive the evils which exist, so long no remedy can 
 possibly be forthcoming. 
 
 In the sixteenth- century breach with Rome, the 
 first point and position repudiated was that the 
 Pope, either by divine right or of ecclesiastical 
 necessity, had any reason, duty, or call to inter- 
 fere with the concerns of the Church of Eng- 
 land. The English Church was affirmed to 
 be,, of itself, a perfect and complete spiritual 
 
 thought fit to make." — " Christ or Caesar?" by A. D. Wagner, 
 Chancellor of Chichester Cathedral, Part II. p, 10. London : 
 1877. 
 
 * " I suppose, from some part of your letter, that you have 
 been told I am speaking to friends occasionally as if I was 
 perplexed about continuing where I am. My perplexity is 
 rather what to say to others who ask my advice, than how to 
 act myself. Few persons have a stronger feeling than I of 
 the duty of continuing where one's lot is cast, except where 
 the call to go elsewhere is very plain. It may be that I do 
 not see my way clearly in the controversy between us and 
 Rome ; but as long as I was in doubt, and perhaps a good 
 deal longer than I might seem to myself in speculation to 
 be so, I should think it my duty to stay where I am." — 
 " Memoir of Eev. John Keble," by Sir J. T.'Coleridge, p. 230. 
 London: 1869. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xli 
 
 kingdom, wanting neither advice, assistance, 
 nor interference from without. On this point 
 the new Statute of Appeals* was very clear. 
 Having thus deliberately removed the key- 
 stone to the perfect Arch of Truth and Unity, 
 other stones, one after the other, some large, 
 some small, were more easily taken out and 
 thrown aside ; with what eventual result to that 
 divinely-built Arch everyone can now too plainly 
 perceive. Many of these stones, (to. carry on the 
 simile,) long lost or lying neglected amongst sur- 
 rounding rubbish, have been painfully discovered 
 and carefully replaced. For this no Christian 
 patriot can be too heartily grateful. Newman, 
 Pusey, Manning, Keble, Marriott, and Robert 
 Wilberforce, amongst others, did the work. But 
 the last stone to be secured and put up again in 
 
 * The words of this innovating statute are: — " The body 
 spiritual whereof having power, when any cause of the law 
 divine happened to come in question, or of spiritual learn- 
 ing, then it was declared, interpreted, and showed by that 
 part of the body politic called the spiritualty, now being 
 usually called the English Church, which always hath been 
 reputed and also found of that sort, that both for knowledge, 
 integrity, and sufficiency of number, it hath been always 
 thought, and is also at this hour sufficient and meet of itself 
 without the intermeddling of any exterior person or persons, 
 to declare and determine all such doubts, and to administer 
 all such duties as to their rooms spiritual doth appertain." 
 
xlii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the order of time, though, the chiefest in import- 
 ance and most needed, (because without it the 
 others are unbonded together, and the spiritual 
 construction remains inherently imperfect,) is the 
 key-stone of the completed Arch, — the Primacy 
 of the Father of the Faithful, — of him who, in 
 Christ's Name, guides both pastors and sheep, as 
 Patriarch of the Church Universal. A visible 
 ruler for a diocese, and a primate for a province, 
 reasonably imply the need of one visible head 
 for the whole Family. The day has not yet 
 dawned for this crowning work of the Tractarian 
 movement to be undertaken. But, though some 
 for politic reasons, timorous or crotchetty, may 
 deny its importance, everything points silently to 
 the certain issue indicated. In the destructive 
 Reformation of the sixteenth century the Pope 
 was first repudiated, then certain doctrines and 
 practices ; in the better and constructive move- 
 ment of the present day, the lost doctrines have 
 already been recovered ; an acknowledgment of 
 the traditional and reasonable rights of the See 
 of St. Peter,* will naturally come last : at all 
 
 * The statement that " the bishop of Rome hath no juris- 
 diction in this realm of England " (Art. xxvii.) has long 
 ceased to be an accurate proposition. In the present day it 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 xliii 
 
 events with those Christians in the Establishment 
 who, by co-operation and reunion, are prepared 
 to resist Latitudinarianisin, False Science, Eras- 
 tianism, and blank Infidelity, so dangerous in 
 these latter days, so potent, so diabolical. 
 
 The labour may be painful, the cost consider- 
 able, some may be even working against their 
 will, the sacrifices may be great ; but, for all 
 these, the work will be surely and efficiently com- 
 pleted.* 
 
 is plainly contrary to obvious facts. Under altered circum- 
 stances, Parliament ought now to construct another Article, 
 harmonizing with Parliamentary changes. Again : the 
 28th Article pronounces a certain doctrine concerning the 
 Sacrament of the Altar to be " repugnant to the plain words 
 of Scripture." Now the plain words are these : — •' This is 
 my Body." Consequently when our Lord said, " This is My 
 Body," the plain meaning of these words was " This is not 
 My Body." By parity of reasoning, had our Lord said, "This 
 is notM.j Body," the plain meaning of His words would have 
 been — Transubstantiation. On the same principle, when 
 there came a Voice from Heaven: — "This is My Beloved 
 Son," it is " repugnant to the plain words of Scripture " to 
 suppose that the Eternal Father revealed the Hypostatic 
 Union : but if the Eternal Father had affirmed, " This is not 
 My Beloved Son," the plain meaning would have been what 
 in short every good Christian believes — erroneously as it 
 would seem on such " Elizabethan " principles of interpre- 
 tation — to be true. 
 
 * About a century and a half ago, this was prophesied as 
 sure to come to pass. Our Blessed Saviour appeared in a 
 vision to a humble Catholic, who was constantly asking at 
 the throne of grace for the restoration of the Ancient 
 
xliv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 And it will be completed from within.* Bene- 
 ficent and practical reformers from all sides, and 
 of all sorts, mainly Liberals, are still at work upon 
 its further "reform"; ever mending, tinkering, 
 and changing it. There is surely room, therefore, 
 within its wide-embracing fold and comprehen- 
 sive boundaries, for those few who, having reached 
 a somewhat higher and clearer altitude than that 
 ordinarily attained by their fellows in the fog and 
 mist below, can plainly see that all such destruc- 
 tive " Eeforms " (judging by past experience) 
 are likely to turn out as profitless and worthless 
 as those of previous centuries ; and who long for 
 the religious oneness of old. The English people 
 were promised national unity in religion, but this 
 was never secured to them — poor dupes ! even 
 
 Faith, and He said, " My son, I have heard your prayer so 
 often poured out before Me ; I will have mercy upon Eng- 
 land." " When, Lord ; oh ! when ? " " Not now," replied 
 our Blessed Saviour, "but when England shall build as 
 many churches as she destroyed at the change of Religion ; 
 and when she shall restore and beautify the remainder." — 
 See, for this account at length, " The Future Unity of Chris- 
 tendom," by A. L. P. De Lisle, p. 68. London : 1857. 
 
 * The Church of England points out with great clearness 
 how this may be done, by its very distinct directions concern- 
 ing conditional baptism. What is applicable to the Sacra- 
 ment of Regeneration is, of course, of equal applicability to 
 Confirmation, Orders, &c. 
 
INTEODTTCTION. 
 
 though gibbet and butcher's knife, rack and tor- 
 ture, were enlisted in the enterprising work ; and 
 now, instead of the unity of bygone centuries, 
 they are cursed with the active dissensions and 
 noisy screams of a hundred and fifty discordant 
 and repulsive sects. 
 
 Who will say, then, that it would be unwise and 
 unreasonable for the National Church, — or at all 
 events for those within its broad borders who 
 still believe in the Christian revelation, to admit 
 its failure, and by combination strive to cause its 
 acknowledged isolation and impotence to come to 
 an end ? 
 
 There are very few members of the Church of 
 England who do not now admit that, whatever 
 its deserts, disestablishment, disendowment, and 
 disruption are not unlikely to be its eventual fate. 
 They only differ as to when these final " reforms," 
 as they term them, are likely to take place. For 
 since the Primate of Christendom has been robbed 
 and disendowed at Rome — England having stood 
 admiringly by — local institutions of a similar kind 
 are not likely to survive for long. Why, then, 
 should not such a disastrous issue for our beloved 
 country be duly looked in the face and prepared 
 for ? Those who in the National Church still 
 
xlvi 
 
 INTEODUCTION. 
 
 believe in G-od the Trinity, in the Incarnation of 
 the Eternal Word, and in that Divine Corporation 
 (Baptism being the gate of entrance to it) the 
 One Catholic Church, should on every ground 
 visibly unite, not only amongst themselves, but 
 with all other parts of (rod's One Family (by re- 
 generation). The various recent movements for 
 Corporate Reunion* prove that men's hearts are 
 now, thank G-od ! being, to some extent, turned 
 away from strife and contention towards peace, 
 co-operation, and unity. 
 
 Furthermore, — as a practical consideration, — 
 in the Church of England, — the universal liberty 
 which is granted to all cannot be denied only to 
 those who hold the Catholic Faithf in its inte- 
 grity ; and who, witnessing the miserable divisions 
 around and about, aim at removing them and 
 healing the breaches. As citizens they have a 
 perfect and unchallenged right, through their 
 natural birth, to all the privileges of membership 
 of the Established Church, just as baptized per- 
 
 * See Appendix, No. II. 
 
 t " Far was it from the purpose of the Church of England 
 to forsake and reject the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, 
 Germany, or any such-like Churches." — Canon, No. xxx. of 
 1603. 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 xlvii 
 
 sons (if baptized) they have an equal right to all 
 the privileges of the Church Universal. These 
 latter privileges, if refused or denied to them in 
 the public edifices of the National Communion 
 (in which the National "Will is dominant), they not 
 only have a similar right, but own a positive duty 
 to secure for themselves in some other way. 
 Furthermore, by argument and reasoning they 
 are free to promote change, so as, without de- 
 struction or revolution, to seek out the old ways 
 and return to the ancient paths. 
 
 To the few — they are sure to be " Liberals " — 
 who may unfairly deny to others that liberty 
 which they so constantly claim for themselves, 
 and who may urge " patience," love for our step- 
 mother, and " loyalty" : to those likewise who may 
 prate about disloyalty to the Church of England, 
 the Author may reply in the forcible words of 
 another : — 
 
 " What and where is the Church of England to which I 
 am disloyal ? So far as the Church of England is identi- 
 fied with Christian doctrine, Christian worship, Christian dis- 
 cipline, and upholds and maintains these, I am as loyal and 
 as devoted to her now as I ever was, or as any one else can 
 be. But what is meant by the Church of England in con- 
 nection with the idea of loyalty to the Church of England ? 
 Is it the Church of England of the High Church party, or of 
 the Low Church party, or of the Broad Church party ? for 
 
xlviii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 the members of these three parties seem to me to mean quite 
 different things by the phrase ' Church of England.' Is it 
 a book two hundred years old ? or a tradition ? or a senti- 
 ment ? or the will of the nation ? or a body corporate — a 
 living organization ? If it be a living organization, how does 
 it make its voice heard ? for a society in which there is ' no 
 voice nor any that answereth ' is not the Church of God. As 
 an individual clergyman, I have long been asking myself 
 ' What is my authority for what I teach and do ? ' To my 
 mind the responsibility of teaching others in matters affect- 
 ing their salvation — a responsibility at all times great and 
 overwhelming — becomes absolutely insupportable when there 
 is no living Authority to which the individual teacher can 
 refer, and by which he can be guided and fortified." * 
 
 The Author of this volume does not profess 
 that it is a History of the Reign of the successful 
 but miserable woman who ruled the nation's des- 
 tinies for nearly forty-five years, and regarding 
 whom the common herd entertain such loose but 
 glowing ideas. It is only intended to be a sketch 
 of the state of the Church during that period. 
 To write the History of the years between Eliza- 
 beth's accession and her death would involve the 
 production of many large volumes. Here the 
 author's aim has been to provide a plain and 
 readable account of what actually occurred, as 
 
 * " Do They Well to be Angry ? By Presbyter Angli- 
 canus," p. 26. London : 1876. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 xlix 
 
 far as it practically bears on the new ecclesiastical 
 position, upon which recent events have thrown so 
 clear and powerful a light; and, in so doing, 
 neither to keep in the background unpleasant and 
 unwelcome facts — a policy successfully adopted 
 by so many Church-of- England writers — nor so 
 to lay on heavily the dull colours of a somewhat 
 dark picture, as, by finishing-touches, to make it 
 at all darker than it need be. For this there is 
 no necessity whatsoever. The naked acts of cer- 
 tain of those who had secured the upper hand, 
 plainly and faithfully recorded, either from their 
 own words or from authentic documents, are de- 
 cidedly not pleasant reading for simple-minded 
 folks who reverently believe that what some 
 persons term "the Eeformation " was another 
 sacred Pentecost, and had for its Divine Author 
 (may Grod pardon their delusion !) the Holy Spirit 
 of Truth. 
 
 As this book is passing through the press, a 
 friend, who has efficiently aided me, calls my at- 
 tention to a statement of fact extracted from one 
 of the Ritualistic newspapers, concerning the so- 
 called " Reformers," which is here appended : — 
 
 " They began by making the Holy Eucharist contemptible 
 in the eyes of the nation, and went on to make it unusual as 
 
 d 
 
1 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 well as slovenly. The complaint of the people under Ed- 
 ward VI. that the altars had been in many places turned 
 into " oyster-boards " was not, as has been falsely alleged, a 
 coarsely ribald perversion of facts. It was the literal truth. 
 Wherever the more Zwinglian bishops and clergy had their 
 way, it was no such structure as that which we see to-day 
 in every fairly decent English church, in shape, size, posi- 
 tion and covering — in short, every way except being of wood 
 instead of stone — like the old altars, which served for the cele- 
 bration of the Sacrament. Common trestles and boards (just 
 like those on which even still street vendors of shell-fish 
 exhibit their wares) carried in and out of church with exactly 
 the same care and quietness as they are now used for a 
 schoolroom tea, were what the astonished people saw ; and 
 the Sacrament dispensed with as much studious irreverence 
 as if the minister had intended nothing save to make it 
 contemptible. Then, besides, whereas up to 1549 there was 
 not a corner of England where there was not at least a 
 weekly Mass accessible, and very few where there was not 
 a daily one within easy reach, the first result of the Zwin- 
 glian action in 1552 was to sweep away the daily Mass* 
 everywhere, and the Sunday Mass, as it would seem, in a 
 number of places, at once considerable, and rapidly becom- 
 ing the great majority. And in the third place, whereas the 
 Mass had been from the earliest days of Christendom the 
 chief, and for more than a thousand years the most public, 
 rite of the Church, it was not now merely made infrequent, but 
 was hustled, as it were, into a corner, just as if a thing to be 
 
 * The person who could deliberately write of the Eliza- 
 bethan Eeformers' Supper as a " Mass " must be either a 
 profound ignoramus or as daring as he is impudent and 
 dishonest. For the celebration of Mass was distinctly 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 li 
 
 ashamed of ; and the evil custom sprang up, albeit not 
 justified then or since by any rubric or canon, of restricting 
 all knowledge of it to the small and steadily dwindling band 
 of actual communicants on each occasion." — "Church Times," 
 26th September 1879. 
 
 As regards English Ordinations, concerning 
 which some new facts are brought to light in 
 the following pages — putting aside both historical 
 and theological dissertations, which might appa- 
 rently be carried on without profit or conviction 
 to either phalanx of disputants, until the Day of 
 Doom — it is self-evident that the moral argument 
 in favour of their validity is certainly very strong ; 
 perhaps stronger than either the theological or 
 historical argument. When the frightful state 
 of degradation into which the National Church 
 during Elizabeth's reign had been brought is 
 honestly contemplated ; and when the striking 
 contrast between its position then and its altered 
 state now is duly realized, — the manner in which 
 so much that had been then cast away as value- 
 
 abolished by Act of Parliament ; while those priests who 
 were found celebrating it were drawn, hung, and quartered. 
 Grindal, Pilkington, and Sandys had no more intention of 
 "saying Mass" than they had of restoring circumcision. 
 
 d 2 
 
lii 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 less is now sought after and has been once more 
 secured ; the beautiful restoration of Cathedrals, 
 Abbeys, and Parish Churches, the rebuilding of 
 new ones after Catholic models ; the renewed in- 
 terest in all ecclesiastical subjects by an earnest 
 and self-denying minority ; the restored worship, 
 the living zeal, the obvious results, — we may 
 reasonably infer, (though there be no exact pre- 
 cedent nor perfect parallel in past history for the 
 complex character and unique* position of the 
 Established Church of England,) that, as Divine 
 Grace has never been withdrawn from her crippled 
 rulers, so an inherent and essential distinction 
 between clergy and laity has been in the main 
 consistently and continually remarked and ad- 
 mitted. 
 
 If the Author's intention had been to rake up 
 old scandals, the materials for which are at hand 
 and in abundance, it might have been done with 
 
 * " The results of the religious movement of the time had 
 taken shape under the resolute but cautious hand of the 
 Queen [Elizabeth] in a Church polity, which was thought at 
 the time, and has proved to be, unique ; but which has also 
 proved singularly suited to the character of the English 
 nation." — " Hooker," edited by E. W. Church, p. 5, Intro- 
 duction. Oxford: 1868. 
 
INTKODUCTION. 
 
 liii 
 
 ease. But this, in the main, has been carefully 
 and charitably avoided. For such work would 
 have been in every way distasteful to him. It is 
 only where disagreeable features serve to give an 
 accurate impression of the period under descrip- 
 tion that he has not shrunk from recording bare 
 and obvious facts. This was absolutely neces- 
 sary in some few cases, for so many historical 
 romancers have shovelled aside all distasteful 
 incidents and events, and have only told their 
 story — a story in more senses than one — from its 
 sunshiny side, — suppressing, perverting, and mis- 
 leading, — that it was consequently essential rather 
 to be fair, honest, and faithful, than one-sided, 
 over-picturesque, and false. For until the true 
 nature and virulence of a disease is seen, no 
 adequate remedy can be applied, and no cure 
 looked for. 
 
 There are a considerable number of foot-notes 
 in the following pages, because many of the state- 
 ments made in the narrative needed to be main- 
 tained by careful and exact quotations. These 
 foot-notes might have been largely increased 
 from various sources, more especially from the 
 State Papers, recent Catholic publications, and 
 private MSS.; but, though the author has abun- 
 
liv 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 dant authority for each and every assertion 
 made by him, he has thought it wise to avoid 
 over-weighting what only professes to be an 
 "Historical Sketch" with too many of such 
 quotations. 
 
 The Author is considerably indebted to the re- 
 searches and labours of Brother Henry Foley, 
 S.J., whose " Records of the English Province," 
 in five handsome volumes, full of authentic and 
 out-of-the-way information, will remain as a 
 monument of his most patient and pains-taking 
 labours, and of the noble and charitable deeds of 
 so many eminent and illustrious English members 
 of his great Society. The profound treatise by 
 Harpsfield, Archdeacon of Canterbury, on " The 
 Pretended Divorce of Henry VIII.," so ably 
 edited by the Rev. Nicholas Pocock, of Queen's 
 College, Oxford, . has been carefully and profit- 
 ably studied. He has likewise read with in- 
 terest, and made use of, the three series en- 
 titled " The Troubles of Our Catholic Fore- 
 fathers," edited by the Rev. John Morris — 
 publications of equal value and interest. Dr. 
 Jessopp's " One Generation of a Norfolk House," 
 and the " Douay Diary," have been also studied 
 with interest and profit ; for all these recent 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 lv 
 
 volumes throw a strong light on the darkened 
 pages of English History in Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign, and are of considerable value. 
 
 f. g. l. 
 
 All Saints' Vicarage, 
 Lambeth, 
 November 15th, 1879. 
 
Ivii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Death of Henry VIII. — Edward VI. — Queen Mary's work of 
 Restoration. — Reconciliation under Mary. — Death of 
 Cardinal Pole. — Punishment of jper jurors and heretics. — 
 Elizabeth and Lord Seymour of Sudeley. — Her familia- 
 rities with Lord Seymour. — Cecil's birth and origin. — 
 His rise, arts, and influence. — His selfish and tortuous 
 policy. — Character of Sir Francis Walsingham. — How 
 free nations lose their liberties. — Proclamation of the 
 Supreme Head. — Arrival of Protestant exiles. — Various 
 outrages of the Gospellers. — John' Knox on the Rule of 
 a Woman. — He flatters Elizabeth's vanity. — The Queen 
 consults Dr. Dee the astrologer. — The Procession of Re- 
 cognition. — City decorations. — Her reception by the 
 citizens. — The " Liber Regalis." — Her coronation by 
 Oglethorpe. — Old ceremonies observed. — She takes the 
 customary oaths. — The unction disliked. — Due obser- 
 vance of ancient rites. — The imprisoned Evangelists. — 
 Parliament recommends marriage. — Elizabeth legiti- 
 mized by Act of Parliament. — Invested with spiritual 
 
Iviii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 jurisdiction. — Existing traditions of the Supremacy. — 
 Feckenham condemns revolution. — The Supremacy a 
 special grant. — New punishments appointed. — Archbi- 
 shop Heath's declaration. — The warnings of Bishop 
 Scott. — " Questions and advices." — The Second Prayer 
 Book restored. — The Mass mutilated. — Character of the 
 New Prayer Book. — Changes in the Service Book. — 
 " Communion-boards " introduced.— Massing-cups abo- 
 lished in the Supper. — Occasional services mutilated. — 
 Bites, services, and ceremonies abolished. — Opposition 
 of the Lords Spiritual. — The Bishops' Profession of 
 Faith.— Disputation at Westminster. — The various theo- 
 logians engaged.— White and Watson committed to 
 prison. — Act of Uniformity. — The celebration of Mass 
 ceases. — Opposition of the bishops. — Character of Bishops 
 Heath and Bonner. — Bonner unfairly maligned. — Cha- 
 racter of Bishops Tonstall and White. — Baynes, Scott, 
 Oglethorpe, and Watson. — Matthew Parker elected 
 Archbishop. — Letters Patent. — Old suffragan bishops 
 then living. — No legal consecration-service existing. — 
 No archbishop nor four bishops to be had. — Commis- 
 sion to consecrate Parker.- — The Nag's Head fable. — 
 Parker consecrated at Lambeth, — Details of the rite. — 
 Importance of Barlow's consecration. — Parker confirms 
 the elections of Barlow and Scory . . pages 1-68 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Grindal writes to Hubert. — Proclamation concerning Beli- 
 gion. — Gross tactics of the Innovators. — The Sacraments 
 disparaged. — Revolting sacrilege at Canterbury. — Pu- 
 nishments for the same. — The Eeformation and Great 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 lix 
 
 Rebellion. — The new Oath of Homage. — Foreign Protes- 
 tants provided for. — French preachers imported. — Fo- 
 reign Protestants banished. — Denunciation of this act. — 
 Pope Pius IV.'s Letter to the Queen. — Consecration of 
 new bishops. — Caution of Cecil. — Deplorable condition 
 of the churches. — The old clergy scattered. — The new 
 method of preaching. — New and "godly" Homilies. — 
 Celebration of " The Lord's Supper." — The communi- 
 cants helped themselves. — Further innovations recom- 
 mended. — The changes unpopular. — The New Oath 
 tendered to the clergy. — The Supreme Governess un- 
 recognized as such. — Catholics persecuted and scattered. 
 — Exiles in Flanders and Italy. — Resistance to the in- 
 novations. — The new orders suspected. — Difficulties con- 
 cerning ordinations. — The fact of Parker's consecration. 
 — His archiepiscopal Register. — Difficulties in the same- 
 — Original documents contradictory. — The charge of 
 forgery. — Married prelates disliked. — The Queen's In- 
 junctions. — Matrimonial inquisitions. — Her Majesty's 
 edict about marriage. — Deplorable state of Ely Cathe- 
 dral. — Mass still said in secret. — The Queen visits 
 Canterbury. — The Geneva Bible. — Laxity in faith and 
 morals. — The Queen and her nobility consult the astro- 
 logers. — Necromancers and conjurors become popular. — 
 Fond and fantastical prophecies. — Deplorable state of 
 the country. — The Bishop's Visitation Articles. — Power- 
 lessness of the new prelates.— Ignorance of the hyste- 
 rical preachers. — Lax notions concerning ordination. — 
 The "call" held to be essential. — Character of the 
 newly-arranged service. — The Cross a stumbling-block. — 
 The Queen's birthday made a festival. — Erastianism, 
 Irreligion, and Indifference. — Rivalry between church 
 and ale-house. — No consecration in " the Supper." — Cur- 
 rent heresies and blasphemy. — Bishop Pilkington's 
 profanity. — The new " Service of the Supper." — The 
 
lx 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Bible and Prayer Book translated into Welsh. — State 
 of the Church in Wales. — The Establishment of 
 to-day. — Work of the General Councils. — The Council 
 of Trent. — Importance of that Council. — Its direct 
 effects ....... pages 69-139 
 
 CHAPTER III, 
 
 Decision at the Council of Trent. — Division between Catho- 
 lics and Erastians. — Sir William Cecil's Beport. — Diver- 
 gencies in the New Service. — Protestant Maxim. — Great 
 destitution of the poor. — The Queen's visit to Cambridge. 
 — A play in King's College Chapel. — Her Majesty's love 
 affairs. — Sir William Pickering and the Earl of Arun- 
 del. — The latter resigns his office. — The Lord Bobert 
 Dudley. — The Queen tickles him. — Coolness between 
 the Queen and Leicester. — Her true affection for him. — 
 Leicester's new sleeping-apartment. — Her treatment of 
 Archbishop Heath. — Ordered to be " less straitened." — 
 Suspicions regarding him. — Controversy concerning 
 ministers' apparel. — The surplice disused by many. — 
 Fierce and furious controversies. — Printers and book- 
 sellers restrained. — Bise and progress of Nonconformity. 
 — Bigid uniformity enforced. — The case of Home against 
 Bonner. — The new ordinations condemned. — Parliament 
 confirms the new orders. — Impotence of Parliament in 
 the question. — Special Act concerning ordination. — The 
 new supremacy unprecedented. — Apologies for her office 
 of Supreme Governess. — A plea for the Old Churchmen. 
 — Dr. William Allen. — He describes the situation. — The 
 Catholics driven to desperation. — Further persecutions 
 and imprisonments. — Dissatisfaction in Yorkshire, Dur- 
 ham, and Northumberland. — Bising under the Northern 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Ixi 
 
 Earls. — The nobility advocate open resistance. — High 
 Mass restored at Durham. — Rejoicing of the people. — 
 Defeat of the Pilgrims of Grace. — The poor severely- 
 punished. — Hangings, butcheries, and tortures. — Lord 
 Sussex is too humane. — Chivalry of the Northern nobi- 
 lity. — Pope Pius V. issues his Bull of Excommunication. 
 — Jurisdiction of the Eoman Pontiff. — St. Austin's rela- 
 tion to Rome. — Exact terms of the Bull. — Fresh raid 
 upon the beggars. — The poor kept out of the Queen's 
 sight. — Sufferings and privations of the poor. — Contrast 
 of the Past with the Present. — The poor hunted, stocked, 
 and flogged ..... pages 140-199 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Beggars flogged and branded. — The Pope's knowledge of 
 affairs. — Queen Elizabeth's bishops unprecedented. — The 
 ancient priests and new ministers. — True state of eccle- 
 siastical affairs. — The new'ministers ignorant. — Sermon- 
 hearers moved to laughter and ribaldry. — Laymen ap- 
 pointed to benefices. — The farmers of benefices and their 
 hirelings. — Their plans and policy. — The case of Thomas 
 Lancaster. — Appointed Archbishop of Armagh. — True 
 character of the bishops. — Their greediness, self- seeking, 
 and robberies. — Pilkington amasses great riches. — Dis- 
 agreement between Sandys and Grindal. — Sandys mar- 
 ries two wives. — Sir John Bourne and Bishop Sandys. — 
 Mistress Sandys disparaged. — Sandys translated to 
 London. — Then translated to York. — Holds a Visitation 
 at Doncaster. — Sandys and the innkeeper's wife. — Sir 
 Robert Stapleton imprisoned. — Character of Bishop 
 Bale. — Sometime Bishop of Ossory. — Coarseness of his 
 language. — His opinions. — His published writings. — 
 Scurrility and heresy of the same. — The bishops obe- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 dient and obsequious. — The Queen grants dispensations. 
 — Instrument of Archbishop Grindal's resignation. — 
 State of the Northern towns. — Condition of Norwich 
 Cathedral. — State of the city of Norwich. — Bishop John 
 Parkhurst. — State of the diocese of Norwich. — Sir W. 
 Cecil blames Parkhurst. — State of the diocese of Car- 
 lisle. — Bishop Rowland Meyrick. — State of the diocese of 
 Bangor. — State of the diocese of Litchfield. — State of the 
 churches in general. — State of the diocese of Oxford. — 
 Bishop JohnUnderhill. — The Cathedral of St. Frideswide. 
 — Effects of the Reformation. — State of the diocese of 
 St. David's. — Visitation Articles. — Bishop Middleton's 
 Injunctions. — Ancient rites and reverence forbidden. — 
 Changes in funeral ceremonies. — Old burial customs abo- 
 lished. — Representations of the Queen's Coat of Arms 
 and of Moses and Aaron. — State of the diocese of Lincoln. 
 — Its extent and natural characteristics. — The ancient 
 see of Dorchester. — Abbeys and hospitals of Lincoln- 
 shire. — The old nobility found wanting. — Risings in 
 Berks, Hants, and Oxon. — Unlawful assemblies forbid- 
 den. — Justice and True Religion dethroned. — Bulling- 
 ham's heresy and sacrilege. — Destruction under Arch- 
 deacon Ay liner. — Inventory of monuments of superstition. 
 Altar-slabs grossly profaned. — Reforms at Ashby, Bard- 
 ney, and Belton. — Revolting desecration. — Desecration 
 at Croxbie and Durington. — The Vicar of Haconbie's 
 sacrilege. — Sacrilege at Horblinge and Langtoft. — Altar 
 linen made into shirts and smocks. — Such destruction 
 very general. — Entirely approved of by the bishops. — 
 The Present and Past again contrasted. — Almost 
 miraculous change for the better. — Improvement in 
 the Episcopate. — Improvements in the Established 
 Church pages 200-276 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 lxiii 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The Pope's Bull affixed to the gates of the Bishop of Lon- 
 don's Palace — John Felton is tried for high treason. — 
 His execution. — Elizabeth professes to despise the Pope's 
 action. — He acts as Father of the Christian Family. — ■ 
 Parker and others suggest contempt for the Bull. — In- 
 surrection of John Throckmcrton. — Fresh enactments 
 against supporters of the Old Beligion. — Sanguinary 
 tyranny of the Queen.— The Queen's Government a des- 
 potism. — The Queen's New Beligion. — The Court of 
 High Commission. — The nation sick at heart. — Character 
 of the new nobility. — Case of Dr. John Storey. — Dismem- 
 bered, disembowelled, and beheaded. — Death and burial 
 of Bishop Bonner. — Death and burial of Bishop Thirlby. 
 — The Puritan " Admonition to Parliament." — Publica- 
 tions of the Puritans. — The bishops and Church govern- 
 ment attacked. — Thomas Cartwright and his policy. — 
 Controversy concerning rochets, surplices, and chimeres. — 
 Secular pomp and extravagance of the bishops. — Humi- 
 liating position of Archbishop Parker. — Evil precedents of 
 Cranmer. — His cruelties and mode of punishing heretics. 
 — A local Church readily dominated. — Elizabeth appoints 
 Church Commissioners. — Doings of Strickland and 
 Snagg. — Difficulties of the English Catholics. — Increased 
 boldness of the innovators. — Abolition of the Christian 
 Sacrifice. — Fresh legislation. — High treason to say Mass : 
 felony to hear mass. — Consequences of this new legisla- 
 tion. — Convocation packed and manipulated. — The offi- 
 cers and furniture of the churches. — -Position of the 
 Parish Clerk. — Old rites in some places traditionally 
 observed. — Funeral customs and ceremonies still in use. 
 — Certain important traditions crushed out.- — Decency 
 and order attempted. — Absentees from church noted 
 down. — Bishop Pilkington's opinions. — Confirmation now 
 
Ixiv 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 become a rite. — Consequent disuse of Confirmation. — 
 State and dignity of Bishop Whitgift. — New Injunctions 
 issued. — Disorganization and disorder rampant. — Many 
 of the beneficed clergy unordained. — Such persons tole- 
 rated. — Confusion wrought by the Puritans. — Each 
 bishop assumes quasi-Papal authority. — The Bishops' 
 Courts and their officers. — Concessions to the Puritans. 
 — Episcopal ordination not then essential. — Neglect of 
 the warnings of the old and faithful bishops. — England 
 visibly separated from the rest of Christendom. — The 
 True source of Authority. — All authority weakened. — 
 Consequences of the Reformation. — False principles cur- 
 rent and dangerous. — Modern [progress and culture. — 
 The glad tidings of fire, sword, and force pages 277-326 
 
THE CHURCH 
 
 UNDER 
 
 QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Heney VIII. had died, in despair, a dreadful 
 death, terrible to have looked upon, on January 
 28, 1547 ; was buried with pomp and ceremony 
 at Windsor, and then speedily forgotten. The 
 prayers and masses which, by his long and 
 elaborate Will, he had so earnestly desired might 
 be said for his soul in perpetuity, were never said 
 at all. The desolator of other men's graves, 
 and, worse than this, of God's sanctuaries, was 
 thus himself left desolate and unremembered in a 
 deserted sanctuary where the lamps had been 
 put out, and from which the Adorable Presence 
 had departed. 
 
 Then as to his children. Edward VI., a sickly, 
 
 1 
 
2 THE CHUBCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 fanatical, and debilitated youth, — bred in heresy, 
 brought up in schism, flattered by those who 
 ought to have known better,* and pampered 
 with cant ; until, under such tuition, he had 
 become an offensive and unbearable prig, — was 
 happily removed by Providence to another world 
 in the midst of his Protestant uncle's disreputable 
 and disastrous rule, and before further and greater 
 evils for the nation had been sealed. 
 
 Queen Mary, King Henry's lawful daughter, 
 did a noble work in restoring to the Church tithes 
 and first-fruits, in bringing back certain of the 
 religious orders, such as the Benedictines and 
 Bridgetines, to their old homes, and in vainly 
 endeavouring to stem the tide of innovation, 
 error, and profanity. She duly deposed some of 
 the bishops, who, having been monks, had broken 
 their vows of celibacy and chastity — amongst 
 
 * Roger Aschain, when writing to the Duke of Somerset, 
 in 1547, spoke of the King as a juvenile Josiah, a virginal 
 youth, so pure in himself, and so perfect in the new gospel, 
 that he could not be suspected even of the smallest inclina- 
 tion towards, or attachment for, the Whore of Babylon. On 
 another occasion (a.d. 1550), Cranmer made himself ridiculous 
 by the following outrageous flattery, which he personally put 
 forth to Cheke, the young king's tutor : — " Ah, Master Cheke, 
 you may be glad all the days of your life that you have such 
 a scholar ; for he hath more divinity in his little finger than all 
 we (the bishops) have in our bodies." — Preface to " Foreign 
 Kalendar," by J. Stevenson, p. xlvii. 
 
RECONCILIATION UNDER QUEEN MARY. 3 
 
 whom were John Bird and Robert Ho] gate.* 
 More especially does she merit the sincerest ad- 
 miration from all who believe in One Body, One 
 Spirit, and one hope of the Christian calling, for 
 having, under lawful Authority, visibly reunited 
 desolate England to the rest of Christendom once 
 again. The service of reconciliation in West- 
 minster Abbey on November 30th, 1554, when 
 the Cardinal- Archbishop of Canterbury solemnly 
 absolved the nation from its sin of schism, was 
 
 * " We need not delay long over these two names. Hol- 
 gate of York, and Bird of Chester, were respectively a 
 Gilbertine monk and a Carmelite friar, and as such had, 
 amongst other vows, taken the vow of celibacy. Holgate 
 married after he was appointed to York, as he himself 
 alleges, to please the Duke of Somerset. Protestants give 
 him the character of being covetous and worldly-minded ; 
 and Burnet admits that though he went along with Cranmer, 
 who got him promoted from Landaff to York, yet he was no 
 credit to the Reformation. He has left little or nothing by 
 which his opinions may be ascertained, and the principal 
 thing known to his discredit was the claim preferred against 
 him at the council-board of Edward VI., by one, Norman, 
 that he had carried off his wife. The Council, that could wink 
 at Poynet's peccadilloes, was not likely to be hard upon Hol- 
 gate. They contented themselves with forbidding him to 
 come to Parliament, and then never troubled their heads any 
 more about the matter. He lived just long enough to be 
 deprived (March 16th, 1554) by Mary, on the same plea with 
 Bird of Chester and the Bishops of St. David's and Bristol, 
 viz. that they had married." — The Reformers of the 
 Reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., " Union Review," 
 vol. viii. p. 526. London : 1870. 
 
 1 * 
 
4 THE CHURCH QNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 the public ratification of a grand deed of Chris- 
 tian charity done in her reign, which, in the 
 great and terrible Day when all works are to be 
 tested, shall surely be found to cover a multitude 
 of sins ; and which, even in our own national life 
 and history, may yet render her pleasant name — 
 " the sweetest name that ever woman bore," — so 
 much and so unjustly maligned, sweet to the 
 memory of all who, notwithstanding divisions in 
 the sad origin of which they had no share, still 
 claim the sacred and honoured appellation of 
 Catholic, and are constantly labouring and pray- 
 ing for the gift of visible unity once more upon 
 earth. 
 
 Queen Mary at length found that peace which, 
 by experience, so many discover for themselves 
 the World cannot give, for she died on Thurs- 
 day, November 17, 1558, on which day Cardinal 
 Reginald Pole went likewise to his blessed and 
 well-earned reward.* Of his Eminence, Edwin 
 Sandys, in a letter to Bullinger, dated 20th De- 
 cember of the same year, thus sneeringly wrote : 
 " That good cardinal, that he might not raise 
 any disturbance or impede the progress of the 
 gospel, departed this life after his friend Mary, 
 
 * There remains an interesting and well-painted portrait 
 of the Cardinal, in his official robes, in the dining-hall of 
 Lambeth Palace. 
 
PUNISHMENT OP PERJURERS AND HERETICS. 5 
 
 ' Maria sua.' Such was the love and harmony 
 between them, that not even Death itself could 
 separate them. We have nothing, therefore, to 
 fear from Pole, for ' dead men do not bite.' " * 
 
 This pious queen has been often severely 
 blamed for her punishment of heretics, and this, 
 not because she caused to be made new and ex- 
 ceptional laws to meet exceptional and unusual 
 difficulties (never the case), but because she could 
 not and did not hinder the lawful authorities 
 from putting into execution very severe laws, 
 long in force and which then existed. A male- 
 factor who, in cold blood, poisons a man or cuts 
 off his head is even now righteously hung. 
 Those decreasing few, who still believe that the 
 spirit of a man is of more importance than his 
 flesh — that the life to come is of more value than 
 the life that now is ; that to poison the soul is at 
 least as heinous a crime as to poison the body — 
 may not, after all, be so irrational or eccentric as 
 they are unjustly assumed to be ; if, while 
 murder, rebellion, and rapine are still severely 
 punished by modern law, they hold that treason, 
 heresy, and perjury deservedly received, under 
 Queen Mary, equally severe punishments. 
 
 When Elizabeth, the King's natural daughter 
 by Anne Boleyn, was in her teens, her bearing 
 
 * " Zurich Letters," vol. i. No. 2. 
 
6 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 towards the other sex had been, to say the least, 
 unusual and remarkable. Various queer and 
 perhaps questionable stories had been afloat 
 regarding her, some of which were possibly false, 
 and others certainly exaggerated. But in one 
 notable case this was not so. Her conduct in 
 relation to Lord Seymour of Sudeley, the Lord 
 Admiral, a married man, in the highest degree 
 reprehensible, caused very grave scandal. But 
 perhaps the chief fault lay with his lordship, and 
 not mainly with the young princess. He is be- 
 lieved by many to have contracted a marriage 
 with Katherine Parr, Henry VIII. 's widow, for 
 convenience' sake, and in order to be near Eliza- 
 beth, who resided with, and was under the care 
 of, her step-mother. At the period in question, 
 though Elizabeth was barely fifteen years of 
 age, she was as forward and precocious in know- 
 ledge as she was altogether lacking in feminine 
 delicacy and maidenly modesty. The familiarities 
 of Lord Seymour which she tolerated were simply 
 disgusting. Elizabeth actually allowed him to 
 enter her sleeping-chamber in his bed-gown and 
 slippers only, before she was out of bed in the 
 morning, and there to indulge in acts and actions 
 gross in the extreme. He struck her with his 
 palms on the back and other parts of her un- 
 draped body, and when she rollickingly rolled 
 about under the disordered sheets, or, hastily 
 
HER FAMILIARITIES WITH LORD SEYMOUR. 7 
 
 slipping out of bed, laughingly hid herself behind 
 the damask curtains, he toyed with her anew 
 both by word and deed, by gross inuendos, scan- 
 dalous questions of double meaning, and other 
 indelicate words and acts. Queen Katherine 
 Parr, aroused by jealousy, coming upon them 
 suddenly one day at Seymour Place, found the 
 princess on her husband's knees, with his left 
 arm round her waist. On this she sent the prin- 
 cess away towards the close of the month of May 
 1548; but what she had seen and knew, affecting 
 her mind and health, so harassed her, poor lady ! 
 that she soon afterwards died in childbirth. This 
 death happened so opportunely for the Lord 
 Admiral's obvious purpose as regards the prin- 
 cess, that the malice of his enemies attributed 
 the timely but sudden decease of his wife, the 
 Lady Katherine, to poison. 
 
 During the latter years of Mary's reign several 
 needy and adventurous politicians, who, under 
 Edward VI., had already risen by self-assertion, 
 knavery, and craft to positions of some influence, 
 secretly offered their services to Elizabeth. Most 
 of them were of low birth and origin. One of these, 
 Sir William Cecil,* was the son of a well-to-do 
 
 * One writer, the learned and anonymous author of 
 " Responsio ad Edictum Eliz. Keg.," published at Augsburg 
 in 1592, asserts that Cecil's father held an inferior situation 
 
8 
 
 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Lincolnshire yeoman, subsequently an inn-holder 
 at Stamford, who, because of his youthful good 
 looks, had been made page to Henry VIII. This 
 page's only son, a shrewd, cold, and calculating 
 person, knighted in 1551 — but better known as 
 Lord Burghley, a title which he subsequently re- 
 ceived on February 25, 1571, together with the 
 G-arter — saw exactly how the land lay, and dis- 
 covered, as he imagined, a fair chance of further 
 temporal advancement. Educated at Gray's Inn, 
 he had been sometime private secretary to the Duke 
 of Somerset, and was afterwards made that noble- 
 man's " Master of requests." At that period he 
 masqueraded as a zealous Reformer, was in confi- 
 dential communication with the Zwinglian heretics, 
 and ostentatiously declared that he thirsted for 
 what they called "the pure milk of the Word," 
 meaning thereby the blasphemous glosses and 
 odious caricatures of Christianity in which these 
 repulsive and dangerous people delighted. In 
 1548 he had held a secretaryship of state. On the 
 timely death of Edward, however, like many others, 
 Cecil at once changed his tactics when Mary 
 became Queen. Then, dropping the heretics, and 
 having avoided Lady Jane Grey, he appeared as 
 
 in the office of the Royal Wardrobe ; that his grandfather 
 kept an inn at Stamford, and was afterwards one of the 
 Royal Guards. 
 
Cecil's eise, arts, and influence. 
 
 9 
 
 a devout and zealous Catholic. In the silver and 
 velvet gypcyre at his side he carried, and fre- 
 quently produced, the "Hours of Our Lady," and 
 muttering his devotions, ostentatiously used his 
 large-beaded rosary. But Mary was not to be 
 duped. Knowing his antecedents, she never 
 trusted him. To Elizabeth, however, he proved 
 to be welcome. For, passing over her natural and 
 proper advisers, the old nobility of blood and 
 good repute, she at once appointed him Lord 
 Treasurer of her household and Chief Minister of 
 State. On the very day of her accession, before 
 she started for London, he had presented to her 
 twelve " Minutes of Subjects," needing, as he 
 asserted, Her Grace's instant consideration; 
 while, four days afterwards, he was sworn of 
 her Privy Council. He was thus taken into her 
 confidence. At once he urged her to put away 
 without delay all those who had occupied places 
 of influence under the late queen, some of whom 
 he feared ; suggesting that their places be sup- 
 plied by " men meaner in substance and younger 
 in years " — advice which she certainly took. In 
 order to overawe and compass efficiently the de- 
 gradation of the Catholic clergy, he suggested 
 that Her Majesty, striking boldly and sharply, 
 should promptly involve them in the disagreeable 
 meshes of a prcemunire ; while, on the other 
 hand, in order to terrify the more rampant and 
 
10 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 unscrupulous innovators — the communistic Pro- 
 testants and Hot Gospellers — who threatened to 
 become a nuisance and a danger, he recommended 
 the immediate enactment of a sharp law against 
 public assemblies. 
 
 Under his advice the kingdom was brought 
 into sore troubles and great straits. Under 
 the plea of serving his royal mistress and bene- 
 fitting the State, he pursued with art so tortuous 
 a policy that bribes to secure supporters of it, and 
 acts of corruption and venality, were again and 
 again repeated. He carefully enriched himself,* 
 ruined his enemies, and rewarded his friends. 
 By his instrumentality true Liberty was banished. 
 There was no fear of God before his eyes ; for, more 
 than any other man then living, he deliberately 
 sealed the irreligious division between England 
 and the rest of Christendom, and left our dis- 
 
 * He contrived to secure for himself the greater part of 
 the endowments of the Abbey of Peterborough, which 
 formed an adequate estate with which to support his new 
 dignity of a peer, which later on he received. But he was 
 not content with these, for, as Dr. Peter Heylyn wrote, — 
 " During the vacancy of the See of Norwich, and during his 
 (Dr. Scambler's) incumbency, Sir Wilnam Cecil, Principal 
 Secretary of State, possessed himself of the best manors in 
 the Soke, which belonged to it ; and for his (the bishop's) 
 readiness to confirm them to him, he preferred him to the 
 See of Norwich." 
 
CHARACTER OP SIR FRANCIS WALSINGHAM. 11 
 
 tracted nation a prey to every kind of ambitious 
 and crooked-minded adventurer who thought fit 
 to set up as a reformer of religion or a self- 
 appointed concoctor of new forms of misbelief. 
 In fine, he was one of those keen-sighted worthies, 
 condemned rather than commended by an Apostle, 
 who think that gain is godliness.* 
 
 Another State official of almost equal influence 
 to that wielded by Cecil was his fellow Secretary 
 of State, Sir Francis Walsingham. For art in 
 corrupting others, and skill in elevating treachery 
 to the dignity of a science, for ability in planning 
 and carrying out forgery, as well as in arranging 
 for the assassination of inconvenient allies or open 
 enemies, he was vastly superior to Cecil, as will 
 ere long be discovered ; for, while his hypocrisy 
 was consummate, his ability and dexterity were 
 obviously greater, and his general success conse- 
 quently very considerable. He was of an exceed- 
 ingly savage nature. It was evidently a pleasure 
 to him, however strange, to inflict personal 
 cruelty upon any supposed enemy who might 
 chance to be in his power. When prisoners of the 
 old faith, later on, were brought before him in his 
 judicial capacity, or for due and careful examina- 
 tion, he would sometimes kick and cuff them in a 
 
 * 1 Timothy vi. 5. 
 
12 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 passion, or strike them heavily with his staff; 
 while, if they hesitated to convict themselves, the 
 numerous rude epithets he made use of were fre- 
 quently disgusting, and his oaths equalled in 
 coarseness, though in repulsiveness rarely sur- 
 passed, those which so frequently glided glibly 
 off the compressed and pursed-up lips of his 
 royal mistress. 
 
 Such tools, tactics, and events served once 
 more and anew to point out to the educated and 
 more thoughtful how true was Plato's expressive 
 saying of old,* that free nations have seldom lost 
 their liberties by conquest, but chiefly at the 
 hands of low-born and unscrupulous men who 
 have ridden into power upon the tumultuous 
 waves of popular passion. 
 
 The Queen, being present at the Bishop of Car- 
 lisle's mass, soon after her accession, — on Christ- 
 mas morning, as some assert, and while the cantors 
 of her chapel were singing the Gloria in excelsis 
 at their lectern, — sent a messenger to his lordship 
 within the sanctuary peremptorily forbidding him 
 to elevate the Host.f But Oglethorpe replied 
 
 * " Plato's Kepublic," viii. 562 ; sec. 99. 
 
 f " Nothing, however, has yet been publicly determined 
 with respect to the abolishing Popish superstition, and the 
 re-establishment of the Christian religion. There is, how- 
 
PKOCLAMATION OP THE SUPEEME HEAD. 13 
 
 that, as it was the unvarying rule of the Catholic 
 Church for all priests to do so, he must ask 
 Her Majesty's permission to allow him to con- 
 form. Upon this, before the Gospel, and at once, 
 without further parley, she rose from her fald- 
 stool, biting her thin lips in anger, and, motioning 
 her attendants to follow, re- clasped her book of 
 devotions, stamped vigorously on the floor, and 
 so hastily departed. This incident, obviously pre- 
 arranged, was much discussed and commented on 
 by many. The bishops duly noted it. 
 
 On the 27th of December, at Cecil's instigation, 
 exercising her assumed office of Supreme Spiritual 
 Head of the Church of England, she issued a 
 Proclamation throughout both the Provinces of 
 Canterbury and York, formally and distinctly for- 
 bidding any elevation of the Blessed Sacrament 
 by any of her priests. Her chaplain, Minter, 
 saying mass in her presence on the morning of 
 the same day, duly and dutifully observed his 
 Sovereign's commands.* In the same Proclama- 
 
 ever, a general expectation that all rites and ceremonies will 
 shortly be reformed by our faithful citizens and other godly 
 men in the afore-mentioned Parliament, either after the 
 pattern which was lately in use in the time of King Edward 
 the Sixth, or which is set forth by the Protestant princes of 
 Germany in the above-named Confession of Augsburg." — 
 Richard Hilles to Bullinger, dated February 28, 1559. 
 " Zurich Letters," 2nd Series, No. 7. 
 
 * Vide " Laderchius," iii. p. 204, and Tierney's edition of 
 Dod's " Church History," vol. ii. p. 124. 
 
14 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 tion — as a temporary makeshift, until the old and 
 sacred rites brought back under Queen Mary were 
 again abolished by Parliamentary authority — the 
 Supreme Governess graciously permitted the Creed, 
 the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, 
 as well as the Litany, to be said or sung in the 
 vulgar tongue. 
 
 At Sandwich, Dover, and Canterbury, the 
 Protestant exiles arrived in force and high spirits, 
 and were noisy and triumphant in their bearing. 
 If Jewell may be trusted, the Queen was ex- 
 tremely gratified by their return, and expressed 
 her satisfaction.* Afterwards, however, Her 
 Highness had some reason for changing her mind 
 concerning the value of their presence and labours. 
 Some of them, in their enthusiasm at her acces- 
 sion, made a disturbance during mass in the parish 
 church of Dover, hurling a missalf during the 
 elevation at the head of the celebrant, whom they 
 termed " a cursed popish dog," " a shaveling," 
 " an Antichrist," and an " idol-smacker." J 
 
 * " We hear that their return was very acceptable to the 
 Queen, and that she openly declared her satisfaction." — Letter 
 from John Jewell to Peter Martyr, dated January 26, 1559, 
 " Zurich Letters," vol. i. No. 3. 
 
 f Some writers say it was a breviary. But as it was taken 
 off the cushion on a side altar ,'it was most probably a missal. 
 
 J " Ape of Antichrist," " mass-monger," " Balaamite," 
 " abbey-lubber," were some of the other choice names given 
 
VARIOUS OUTRAGES OF THE GOSPELLERS. 15 
 
 Without authority, the Zwinglian service-book 
 of Edward VI. was again brought into requisition 
 in several places. Legally-instituted clergy were 
 hooted at, spat upon, and persecuted ; so that they 
 were unable to minister in public. Several 
 images of our Divine Lord, His Blessed Mother, 
 and the Saints, were violently wrenched down from 
 the rood screens and treated with obscene indig- 
 nities. At Canterbury, as a deliberate act of 
 contempt, a holy-oil stock was emptied of its 
 sacred contents, in order to grease the creaking 
 wheels of a wainman's cart, which had come in 
 from the adjacent village of Harbledown. At 
 Brentford, at the same time, an indignity too dis- 
 gusting for words was perpetrated in the font of 
 the parish church by one of the new gospellers, 
 as a practical protest against the religion of Bede, 
 St. Anselm, and Sir Thomas More. The Babel- 
 voices of noisy controversialists,* young as well 
 as old, everywhere rose anew ; while furious 
 
 to those who clung to the ancient faith. I have gathered 
 both these and those in the text above from the MS. corre- 
 spondence and Protestant literature of the day. 
 
 * " They held arguments also among themselves about the 
 meaning of various scripture texts, all of them, men and 
 women, girls and boys, labourers, workmen, and simpletons ; 
 and these discussions were often wont, as it was said, to pro- 
 duce quarrels and fights." — " Life of William Weston," 
 p. 241. London: 1875. 
 
16 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 preachers, with screaming voices and deep male- 
 dictions for their opponents, went so far in 
 creating serious riots* at Oxford, Newark, and 
 Chichester, as that the existing authorities of 
 those places had to step in and keep the peace by 
 armed force, amongst these energetic evangelists 
 of " another gospel which is not another." 
 
 During Edward's reign, or possibly later, John 
 Knox, the so-called " Reformer," had written a 
 treatise, t in his vigorous but coarse and illogical 
 style, indirectly aimed at Mary Tudor, directly at 
 Mary Stuart, maintaining that the rule of a woman 
 was " repugnant to nature, a contumely to God, 
 a thing most contrarious to His revealed Will and 
 approved ordinances, and finally the subversion of 
 all equity and justice." Elizabeth, of course, 
 knew of this treatise, which is a wonderful pro- 
 duction for its sanctimonious language, but did 
 
 * "On the other (the Protestant) side many were raised 
 to great preferments, who, having spent their time of exile 
 in such foreign churches (! !) as followed the platform of 
 Geneva, returned so disaffected to episcopal government with 
 the rites and ceremonies here hy law established, as not long 
 after filled the Church with most sad disorders ; not only to 
 the breaking of the bond of peace, but to the grieving and 
 extinguishing the spirit of unity." — " The History of Queen 
 Elizabeth," by Peter Heylyn, p. 115. London : 1671. 
 
 t "A First Blaste of the Trumpett against the Monstrous 
 Eegimen of Women," by John Knox. 
 
JOHN KNOX FLATTERS HER VANITY. 
 
 17 
 
 not at all appreciate either its logic or rhetoric. 
 Knox, when brought into communication with her, 
 boldly got over the difficulty not by giving up his 
 principle, but by maintaining that the Queen was a 
 remarkable and obvious exception to the general 
 rule. Her whole life, he pointed out in writing, had 
 been so blessed and favoured of God Almighty, 
 she was so overflowing with grace, she had been so 
 evidently elected by Him, and specially preserved 
 for His chosen people, that what was unlawful 
 and unnatural in all other women was perfectly 
 lawful and even desirable in her. This appeared 
 to satisfy her temporarily, though it is more than 
 probable, as Sir William Throckmorton pointed 
 out, that the political services of Knox were 
 still required, and therefore that his printed in- 
 sults should be overlooked : — " Considering what 
 Knockes is hable to doo in Scotlande, which is 
 verie muche, all this turmoil there being stirred 
 up as it is, it shuld stande your Majestie instead 
 (if) his former faultes were forgotten." 
 
 Before determining the exact day for her corona- 
 tion, the Queen sent her favourite, Robert Dudley, 
 to consult the well-known and notorious necro- 
 mancer and astrologer, Dr. Dee,* to whom Her 
 
 * Vide Godwin's " Life of Dr. Dee," in loco. This also is 
 clear from the actual entries in Dr. Dee's Diary and writings, 
 from which the following is taken : — " Her Majestie refused 
 
 2 
 
18 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Majesty, having privately renounced the sacrament 
 of penance and its competent ministers, often 
 went for advice, and with whom she held close 
 conversations, — a notable case of degeneracy ; 
 and proving that, when the Christian faith in its 
 integrity is mutilated by choice or cast aside, 
 gross superstition often takes its place. Dr. Dee 
 then dwelt at a small house, close to the water-side 
 and no great distance from the parish church of 
 Mortlake.* On her personal application, through 
 
 to come in ; but willed to fetch niy glass so famous, and to 
 show her some of the properties of it, which I did : her 
 Majestie being taken down from her horse by the Earle of 
 Leicester. Master of the Horse, at the church wall of Mort- 
 lake, did see some of the properties of that glasse, to her 
 Majestie's great contentment and delight." — Dr. Dee's 
 " Compendious Memorial," p. 516. When Lord Leicester 
 and Lord Laskey dined with Dee (a.d. 1583), he was not 
 sufficiently well off to provide a suitable repast, so the Queen, 
 who was at Sion House, hearing of it, sent him " forty angels 
 of gold." In 1592 Mr. Thomas George brought him " an 
 hundred marks from her Majestie." " 1577. Nov. 22nd, 
 I rod to Windsor to the Q. Majestie. Nov. 25th, I spake 
 with the Quene hora quinta. Nov. 28th, I spake with the 
 Quene hora quinta. I spake with Mr. Secretary Walsingham " 
 (Ashmole asserts that this person was one of Dee's greatest 
 patrons). ..." 1578. Oct. 8th, the Quene's Majesty 
 had conference with me at Bicheniond inter 9 et 11. . . . 
 1580. The Quene's Majestie, to my great comfort (hora 
 quinta), came with her trayn from the court, and at my dore 
 graciously calling me to her on horseback." — " Dr. John Dee's 
 Diary." Camden Society. London : 1842. 
 * MSS. Ashmol. No. 1788. fol. 149. 
 
THE PROCESSION OF RECOGNITION. 
 
 19 
 
 Dudley, Dr. Dee informed her that Sunday, the 
 15th of January, was undoubtedly a lucky day ; 
 and so, with the sanction of her Council, the cere- 
 mony was appointed to be then performed. 
 
 On Thursday, the 12th, Her Majesty conse- 
 quently proceeded from "Westminster to the Tower 
 preparatory to the grand and customary " proces- 
 sion of recognition." 
 
 On the 14th of January, leaving the Tower 
 about two o'clock in the afternoon, the Queen 
 passed through the City back to Westminster, 
 according to ancient precedent. Her coach, 
 covered with crimson velvet, and richly capari- 
 soned horses, were surrounded by a well-ordered 
 cavalcade of state officers and attendants, all 
 magnificently attired. Eight knights bore a 
 broad canopy of cloth-of-gold over her. She was 
 almost everywhere greeted with acclamations by 
 the curious and interested crowds which thronged 
 Cheapside and Fleet Street, or ranged themselves 
 in front of the mansions of the nobility in the 
 Strand. Before she started, her ladies-in-waiting 
 heard her piously and complacently compare her- 
 self to Daniel delivered from the den of lions, 
 and thank God out-loud for His providential 
 care of her.* 
 
 * Holinshed's " Chronicles," vol. ii. p. 1787, &c. 
 
 2 * 
 
20 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 The rich decorations in Fen church and Grace- 
 church streets were continuous. Triumphal 
 arches with complimentary allegorical representa- 
 tions, which were supposed to be explained by the 
 recitation of wordy verses, were the scenes of 
 much applause from dense crowds. In Cheapside, 
 a stage had been erected and adorned, where eight 
 little children personified the Beatitudes, and ex- 
 pressed a hope, in rugged but honest verse, that 
 God would make her strong and bestow His 
 blessing. 
 
 This part of the City was decorated with sump- 
 tuousness and taste. Here the rich mercers dwelt 
 in quaint and picturesque gabled houses, one story 
 overhanging another ; all the walls and windows 
 of which were tastefully adorned with carpets, 
 costly hangings, streamers, banners, and tapes- 
 tries ; and from which crowds in holiday attire 
 looked down upon the moving pageant with smiles 
 and greetings. Here, too, the City authorities, who 
 had been efficiently stirred up to do their duty by 
 Cecil, had gathered in their picturesque and effec- 
 tive official dresses — before vulgarity was rampant 
 and good taste had quite decayed — headed by the 
 Recorder, Sir Ranulph Cholmely, who, in the 
 name of the Lord Mayor and citizens, offered 
 Her Majesty as their gift a crimson satin purse 
 containing a thousand marks in gold. This was 
 graciously accepted, and Elizabeth then promised 
 
HER RECEPTION BY THE CITIZENS. 
 
 21 
 
 to be a good queen to alT her people — a promise 
 that was certainly not kept for any length of 
 time. 
 
 A halt was made, by previous appointment, at a 
 triumphal arch near St. Paul's, where in the cold 
 January air a female child, half-draped, in accord- 
 ance with the revived Paganism of that day, and 
 let down by silken cords from above, came forward 
 with rehearsed grimaces and exaggerated genu- 
 flections to present Her Majesty with a large early 
 copy of the mistranslated Geneva Bible with its 
 wordy preface and Calvinistic notes. 
 
 This questionable present she graciously re- 
 ceived with bows and other acknowledgments ; 
 and then, ostentatiously placing it to her heart, 
 she acknowledged, with condescending smiles, the 
 boisterous applause of Cecil's creatures, — placed 
 there to close this impressive incident in a pre- 
 arranged drama. 
 
 As the procession took its way along the Strand 
 westwards, the Tower guns were heard booming 
 in the distance. Darkness soon overspread the 
 city, and the stars came out. Her Majesty rested 
 that night in the palace at Whitehall, and pre- 
 pared herself for the solemnities of the morrow. 
 
 The Queen, as will be seen, was crowned at 
 Westminster by Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle. 
 It seems more than probable that up to the latest 
 hours of the previous Saturday evening, though 
 
22 THE CHURCH UN DEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 several had been tampered with and tested, no 
 bishop* could be thoroughly relied upon to per- 
 form the act ; for, early on Sunday morning, it 
 became necessary to hastily borrow from Bonner, 
 the Bishop of London, suitable episcopal' vest- 
 ments for the officiating prelate. This necessary 
 part of the solemnity could hardly, therefore, 
 have been finally arranged until the small hours 
 of the night. Oglethorpe, after great persuasion, 
 had consented ; but he stood alone, and soon re- 
 pented of his act and deed. In the Abbey there 
 remained, as there still remains, an old literary 
 treasure, the " Liber Regalis," possibly used at the 
 coronation of Richard II. and his Queen, con- 
 taining " Ordo consecrandi Reginam solam," 
 which, after it had been inspected by Sir William 
 Cecil, — five of whose MS. notes may still be read 
 on its thick vellum folios — was by him approved 
 and made use of by Oglethorpe in the ceremony. + 
 
 * In an existing record of the Coronation in the Ashmolean 
 MSS. now in the Bodleian Library at Oxford, other bishops 
 are mentioned as being present. If so, these were no doubt 
 those guilty of treasonable acts and heresy, who had gone 
 abroad in Mary's reign, and had now hastily returned. 
 
 t " Liber Begalis, seu Ordo Consecrandi Begem solum : 
 Ordo consecrandi reginam cum Bege : Ordo consecrandi 
 reginam solam. Bubrica de Begiis exequiis, e codice West- 
 monasteriensi Editus." — Printed for the Boxburgh Club (at 
 the cost of Frederick, Earl Beauchamp). London: 1870. 
 
HER CORONATION BY OGLETHORPE. 23 
 
 This book is the copy of an office of the four- 
 teenth century, with special rubrics applicable to 
 the coronation of kings and queens in the Bene- 
 dictine Abbey of Westminster, and was no doubt 
 prepared for the actual use of the officiating pre- 
 late on such occasions. 
 
 The Abbey Church, where all the Catholic orna- 
 menta remained, had been arranged for the cere- 
 mony in accordance with recognized tradition ; 
 though, on account of the exhausted state of the 
 Treasury, the ceremonial was shorn of some of its 
 ancient splendour. Early in the morning the 
 Queen came in the royal barge from Whitehall to 
 Westminster, where the populace and specially 
 the Protestant and Reforming part of it, had 
 gathered to greet her with acclamations and 
 applause. 
 
 She was met in Westminster Hall by the Bishop 
 of Carlisle, vested in cope and mitre, and bearing 
 a pastoral staff; and other inferior clergy, in sur- 
 plices and copes, were in attendance. But none 
 of the diocesan bishops, who were in canonical 
 and lawful possession of their sees, were present. 
 One and all, save Oglethorpe, deliberately and in- 
 tentionally stayed away. The choristers and 
 clerks of the Royal Chapel in scarlet cassocks and 
 lawn rochets, were there to do their part, and a 
 large cross of silver-gilt was carried at the head 
 of the procession. All the high officers of state 
 
24 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 were in attendance, while a canopy of cloth-of- 
 gold was borne over the Queen, as she walked 
 with state and dignity from Westminster Hall to 
 the Abbey, along an appointed pathway railed in 
 and spread with blue cloth powdered with con- 
 ventional roses. 
 
 Within the Abbey, which was crowded, some 
 of the Benedictine monks looking down upon the 
 gay scene from the southern triforium of the choir, 
 as Father Seigebert Bulkeley mentioned, all the 
 detailed rites of the " Liber Regalis" were duly ob- 
 served — the Recognition, the Proclamation, the 
 customary Offerings, the Oath, and the Unction.* 
 Every step was duly taken in accordance with pre- 
 cedent — as Cecil had enjoined should be the case 
 — and nothing essential or important seems to 
 have been omitted. 
 
 The Oath, the Unction, and the actual rite of 
 Consecration were of course details in the sacred 
 service of the most essential and important public 
 character — and were seen and acknowledged so 
 to be, as well by those who favoured the old, as 
 by those who were secretly promoting the advance 
 of the new, religion. 
 
 * " In Nomine Patris," &c. " Prosit tibi hsec unctio olei in 
 honorem et confirmationem seternam in ssecula sseculoruin. 
 Amen." — "Liber Regalis," in loco. 
 
SHE TAKES THE CUSTOMAET OATHS. 
 
 25 
 
 On this occasion, by the advice of Cecil and 
 her new councillors, and in order to secure to her- 
 self the Crown without clanger of subsequent 
 question or dispute, the Queen had been carefully 
 advised to dissemble falsely, in God's own house 
 and Presence, to swear and" forswear, to appear 
 to be what she certainly was not, and to seem to 
 believe in that which she had privately resolved to 
 set aside. Within a few feet of the shrine and 
 sacred relics of the saintly confessor, she openly 
 took the usual solemn and sacred oath of Chris- 
 tian kings,* when it was tendered her, kissing 
 thereupon the precious text of the Holy Gospels, 
 and, in sight of peers and people, promising there- 
 by to defend the Catholic Religion, and to guard 
 faithfully the rights and immunities of God's Holy 
 Church, as all the previous monarchs from the days 
 of St. Edward had each done. The bystanding 
 
 * Miss Strickland thus attempts to defend this act : — " It 
 is our duty to our subject to suggest, as her defence from 
 the horrid appearance of wilful perjury, that it is possible she 
 meant at that time to model the Reformed Church she pro- 
 jected, and for which she challenged the appellation of 
 Catholic, as near as possible to the Anglo-Saxon Church." — 
 "Lives of the Queens of England," vol. vi. p. 164. London: 
 1844. Upon which defence the only remark that need be 
 made is, that, as far as ordinary research has enlightened us, 
 perjury is not known to have been an authorized practice 
 of the Anglo-Saxon Church. 
 
26 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 peers heard her repeat the solemn words and saw 
 her do the appointed acts. Any honest " Refor- 
 mers," so called — and some were certainly present 
 — must surely have been ashamed of the oath she 
 then took, for they well enough knew that she 
 had no intention of keeping it, though not one 
 of them is known to have publicly protested 
 against it. 
 
 At the appointed time Elizabeth withdrew with 
 her ladies-in-waiting to be prepared for the act 
 of anointing. This was done on forehead, breast, 
 and hands, as usual ; though the Queen does not 
 appear to have much liked the ceremony, for, on 
 retiring again for a few moments afterwards, she, 
 with unpardonable levity, observed to one of her 
 personal attendants that the oil was stinking,* 
 and that she had " much misliked the greasing." 
 
 When she returned to the space before the high 
 altar, she was found arrayed in a mantle of cloth- 
 of-gold and ermine : she was then ceremonially 
 
 * " She was also anointed, but she disliked the ceremony 
 and ridiculed it ; for when she withdrew, according to the 
 custom, to put on the royal garments, it is reported that she 
 said to the noble ladies in attendance upon her, ' Away with 
 you, the oil is stinking.' " — Edward Rishton's " Continuation 
 of Sander's History," edited by David Lewis, M.A., p. 243. 
 London: 1877. "Good News from London," pp. 65, 66. 
 Printed at the sign of the Swan. London : 1675. 
 
DUE OBSERVANCE OP ANCIENT EITES. 
 
 27 
 
 girt with a sword, endued with the armillum and 
 solemnly crowned. The coronation ring was put 
 on the accustomed finger,* in her right hand was 
 placed the sceptre, in her left the orb. After this 
 the officiating prelate first did homage, followed 
 in order by the peers,! and then solemn high mass 
 was continued. All the ancient rites of the Salis- 
 bury Missal were scrupulously observed, save 
 that the Epistle and Gospel were sung in English 
 as well as in Latin, and there was no elevation 
 of the Sacred Host.J At the offertory the three 
 state swords were offered, with other customary 
 oblations. Her Majesty, kneeling at her fald- 
 stool, communicated under one kind, received the 
 pax with apparent devotion; and so, in due course, 
 the Sacrifice was ended, and the coronation ser- 
 vice completed. 
 
 It had long been a custom for English monarch s 
 
 * Vide " Liber Regalis," pp. 33-35. Ed. London : 1870. 
 
 t Miss Strickland, in her " Life of Queen Elizabeth " 
 (vol. vi. p. 168), remarks that the issue of the Bull of Pope 
 Paul IV., dated 12th January 1558-9, " declaring heretical 
 sovereigns incapable of reigning . . . did not deprive 
 her of the allegiance of her Catholic peers, all of whom paid 
 their liege homage to her," failed to note that as the coronation 
 took place only three days after the time of its promulga- 
 tion, the Bull could not possibly have reached England or 
 become known to the peers in question. 
 
 X Opinions and accounts differ on this point, though testi- 
 mony for the statement in the text predominates. 
 
28 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 on the occasion of their coronation to release 
 certain prisoners. Elizabeth, on the morning 
 afterwards, making no exception to the rule, did 
 the same, in the presence of her court. At the 
 close of the proceedings, one of the courtiers, who 
 had duly rehearsed the farce beforehand, came 
 forward, with the accustomed genuflections and 
 bows, and in a loud voice, but keeping his coun- 
 tenance effectually, implored the Queen that four 
 or five more prisoners might be graciously re- 
 leased. Her Majesty inquired their names. 
 
 " Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four 
 Evangelists, and the Apostle Paul," was the im- 
 mediate retort. " These men, most dread sove- 
 reign, have been, as it were, so closely shut up 
 in the prison of an unknown tongue, that until 
 released they cannot converse with the Lord's 
 people." 
 
 As Bacon has recorded, the Queen answered 
 gravely, " It is first best to inquire of them 
 whether they themselves approve of being re- 
 leased or not." 
 
 This incident was spoken of in public and 
 commented on by the preachers from the Conti- 
 nent. 
 
 On the 13th January 1558-1559, five new 
 peers were created, viz. William Parr, a Lanca- 
 shire nobleman, restored to his title of Mar- 
 quis of Northampton ; Edward Seymour, made 
 
PARLIAMENT RECOMMENDS MARRIAGE. 29 
 
 Earl of Hertford; Thomas Howard, "son of the 
 late Duke of Norfolk, made Viscount Howard of 
 Bindon in Dorsetshire; Sir Oliver St. John, made 
 Lord St. John of Bletsoe ; and the Lady Mary 
 Boleyn's son, Sir Henry Carey, created Baron 
 Hunsdon. All these belonged to the innovating, 
 or, as some term it, the "Reforming" party. 
 The Court, under Cecil's advice, resolved at the 
 same time to influence the elections to the House 
 of Commons, so five candidates were previously 
 named for each of the counties and three for each 
 of the boroughs, from amongst whom the members 
 were chosen. 
 
 Ten days after the coronation the Houses of 
 Parliament met. The first act taken by the 
 Commons was to vote and present a " humble but 
 earnest Address to the Queen, that she would 
 vouchsafe to accept some match capable of sup- 
 plying heirs to her Majesty's royal virtues and 
 dominions." The Queen, who evidently did not 
 like interference on such a subject, told the 
 Speaker and other members that she might long 
 ago have married if she had so willed, but that for 
 herself she should be heartily content to have it in- 
 scribed on her tomb after death that she had lived 
 and died a virgin queen. She added, for their 
 future guidance, amongst some involved sentences 
 of studied ambiguity, that it was obviously neither 
 their duty to prescribe to nor to bind her, but to 
 
30 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 petition, if they so willed, and then humbly to 
 obey. 
 
 Other important work followed. Thus : — 
 Queen Mary, King Henry's lawful daughter by 
 his Queen the Lady Katherine, and Elizabeth the 
 illegitimate daughter of the King by Anne Boleyn, 
 had both been expressly declared illegitimate by 
 statute under Henry VIII.* When Mary suc- 
 ceeded to the throne, however, an Act had been at 
 once passedf declaring that she had been born " in 
 a most just and lawful matrimony," and thus the 
 unstained honour of her mother was dutifully and 
 properly vindicated. Elizabeth at the present time, 
 who, of course, stood on another platform, acted 
 in quite a different manner : possibly under the 
 influence of her advisers, who saw the complex 
 and complicated difficulties before them, and who in 
 the new Act passed were consequently vague and 
 ambiguous in the language they selected. This Act 
 at once claimed for Elizabeth regular and due 
 royal descent, and at the same time conferral 
 upon her the right to reign by the authority of 
 Parliament ; two features obviously inconsistent 
 and self-destructive. 
 
 In due course, after some discussion, but at no 
 
 * 28 Henry VIII. c. 7. 
 f 1 Mary, Session ii. c. 1. 
 
INVESTED WITH SPIEITUAL JURISDICTION. 31 
 
 long interval after assembling, the two Houses 
 passed some most momentous laws, the full force 
 and importance of which upon the National Church 
 are even now scarcely realized. 
 
 By these new laws what was not over-exactly 
 termed the " ancient jurisdiction of the Crown 
 over the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual," was 
 said to be "restored," and all "foreign jurisdic- 
 tion repugnant to the same " abolished. By this 
 Act, the general repeal under Queen Mary of the 
 "reforming" statutes of Henry VIII. and 
 Edward VI. was directly abrogated : all spiritual 
 and ecclesiastical jurisdiction of every sort and 
 kind, without any exception, being thus vested in 
 the Crown, though now worn by a woman, in 
 virtue of which enactment special Royal Com- 
 missions, composed of clerks and laymen, were 
 at once appointed, their powers from time to time 
 renewed and extended ; while the " Court of High 
 Commission," as it was termed, was subsequently 
 established on the same parliamentary authority 
 in 1583. 
 
 Furthermore, and at once, all ministers and 
 officers whatsoever, whether temporal or spiri- 
 tual, whether bishops or judges, canons or magis- 
 trates, parish clerks or pikemen, were bound to 
 take an oath acknowledging the Queen to be 
 " the only supreme governor of the realm as well 
 in spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as 
 
32 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 temporal"; * and renouncing "all foreign juris- 
 dictions, powers, superiorities, or authorities," 
 under pain of forfeiture of present office, and 
 disability to hold any other. 
 
 It was further enjoined that the oath in ques- 
 tion was to be formally and duly tendered to 
 every such person throughout the realm within 
 thirty days of the prorogation of Parliament at 
 
 * That this tradition, now all but exploded, lias come down 
 to the present time is abundantly evident from the following 
 Protest of the Dean and Chapter of Westminster, read, prior 
 to the consecration of the Bishop of Durham (a.d. 1879), by 
 the Dean in the Jerusalem Chamber : — 
 
 " I, the Very Reverend Arthur Penrhyn Stanley, Doctor in 
 Divinity, Dean of the collegiate church of St. Peter, West- 
 minster, immediately subject to the Queen s Majesty and no 
 other, do hereby, on behalf of the Dean and Chapter of the 
 said church, declare and protest that by compliance with 
 licence of the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury to the Lord 
 Archbishop of York to consecrate the Rev. Joseph Barber 
 Lightfoot, Doctor in Divinity, to be Bishop and Pastor of 
 the cathedral church of Durham, we do not intend to 
 acknowledge any jurisdiction or authority of the Lord Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury over us, the said Dean and Chapter, or 
 over our said collegiate church ; but do claim and assert that 
 we are immediately subject to the Queen's Majesty and no other 
 ecclesiastical authority whatsoever ; and that we have granted 
 the use of our said collegiate church to the Lord Archbishop 
 of York for the said consecration, in pursuance of the man- 
 date of Her Majesty the Queen, dated at Westminster, the 
 29th day of March last, in the forty-second year of Her 
 Majesty's reign. 
 
 " Dated the 25th day of April, 1879. 
 
 " (Signed) Arthur Penrhyn Stanley." 
 
FECKENHAM CONDEMNS REVOLUTION. 33 
 
 the end of its session.* All persons about to 
 take Orders, or to receive degrees in the univer- 
 sities, all clergymen about to be promoted to any- 
 spiritual livings, or already in possession of bene- 
 fices, as well as all laymen in office, such as 
 judges, magistrates, or persons receiving wages 
 of the Crown, or suing out livery of their lands, 
 were to take the oath. It was specially enacted, 
 moreover, as a leading and crucial principle, that 
 the authority needful for the visitation of all 
 spiritual persons, and the correction of errors, 
 heresies, and abuses, should be annexed to the 
 Crown ; and that the power of exercising this 
 authority by delegates to be appointed by Letters 
 Patent under the Great Seal should remain with 
 the Queen and her successors for ever. 
 
 Against this revolutionary and ridiculous act 
 John Feckenham, Abbot of Westminster, made a 
 powerfully argumentative and even brilliant 
 speech in the House of Lords, in which he thus 
 dwelt on the deeds of disorder, disobedience, and 
 destruction then being perpetrated : — 
 
 " In her late Majesty's reign, your Lordships 
 may remember how quiet and governable the 
 
 * In this enactment Temporal Peers were excepted by a 
 special clause ; just as in recent times the English bishops 
 succeeded in getting the Public Worship Regulation Act 
 passed for the clergy generally, while they duly and carefully 
 secured themselves from either or any of its operations. 
 
 3 
 
34 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 people were. It was not then their custom to pre- 
 scribe to Authority, to run before the laws, nor 
 disobey the proclamations of their sovereign. 
 There was then no sacrilegious rapine, no plun- 
 dering of churches, no blasphemous outrage and 
 trampling the holy sacraments under their feet. 
 It was none of their way to tear down the pix, 
 and hang up the knave of clubs in its place. 
 They did not hack and hew the crucifix in those 
 times. They were better observers of discipline 
 than to eat flesh openly, and fill their shambles 
 with butchers' meat in the holy solemnity of 
 Lent. In the late reign the generality of the 
 people, and particularly the nobility and those of 
 the Privy Council, were exemplary for their public 
 devotion : it being the custom to go to a church 
 or chapel, to beg the protection of G-od, before 
 they entered upon the business of the day. But 
 now the face of things is quite otherwise."* 
 
 This Supremacy in things spiritual, as the 
 whole tenor of the new Act most clearly shows, 
 was not held to be inherent in the Crown — such 
 an idea would have been absurd — but was re- 
 garded as a special grant, f expressly made by 
 
 * Abbot Feckenham's speecb against tbe Act of Uniformity. 
 —"Bib. Cott. Vesp. I).," xviii. fol. 8, et seq. 
 
 f No person can give or grant tbat wbicb he bimself does 
 not possess or own. So was it in the case of Elizabeth's 
 Parliament. 
 
NEW PUNISHMENTS APPOINTED. 
 
 35 
 
 the power and authority of Parliament. Here, 
 then, was a portentous and complete revolution. 
 
 Those, therefore, who should be found to main- 
 tain, " by express words, deed, or act," the 
 authority of any foreign prince or prelate, were, 
 by this new enactment, to forfeit their goods ; or, 
 if these did not amount to the value of £20, 
 such persons were, for the first offence, to be 
 put into prison for twelve months ; to incur the 
 penalties of prcemunire for the second; and to be 
 regarded as guilty of high treason, and to be put 
 to death as traitors — i.e. drawn, hung, dismem- 
 bered, disembowelled, beheaded, and quartered — 
 for the third. 
 
 This Act, be it noted, directly revived all the 
 most obnoxious and atrocious of the enactments 
 of Henry VIII. and Edward VI., as has been 
 already pointed out. The substitution, however, 
 of the term " Supreme Governor "* for " Supreme 
 Head" of the English Establishment f was a 
 
 * Calvin in his "Commentary on the Book of Amos " 
 (ch. vii. v. 13) had written thus : — " Erant enim blasphemi 
 qui vocarent eum (Henricum VIII.) Summum Caput Ecclesise 
 sub Christo " ; so those Protestant theologians who valued 
 this heresiarch's opinions had the craft and wisdom to change 
 the term without changing the thing. 
 
 f No special provision was made in case the monarch 
 became a Brownist, a Lutheran, or Presbyterian — an omission 
 which might have caused difficulties in recent times, had not 
 the " Supremacy of Public Opinion " been gradually allowed 
 
 3 * 
 
36 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 mere distinction without a difference, as subse- 
 quent events too truly proved. 
 
 It must not be supposed that such a revolu- 
 tion was brought about without both expostula- 
 tion and protest on the part of some. The whole 
 of the Episcopate to a man voted against the 
 third reading; and two bishops, on behalf of 
 their brethren in spiritual authority, made effi- 
 cient speeches against it. These were Archbishop 
 Heath of York, and Bishop Scott of Chester. 
 
 The Archbishop most forcibly pointed out that, 
 as the Queen's sovereignty descended by here- 
 ditary right, the grant of such special supremacy 
 in spiritual matters was quite beyond the power 
 of Parliament to bestow, and altogether so great 
 a novelty, and unprecedented, as to be both 
 dangerous and wrong. His Grace further main- 
 tained that all women, of what sort soever they 
 might be, were entirely unqualified for spiritual 
 functions. They could neither preach nor ad- 
 
 to take the place of the Tudor supremacy, which, as all except 
 the modern Erastians admit, has long lost both its moral and 
 political value and importance. Originally introduced by the 
 halter and irons, it is now bereft of its power and has com- 
 pletely collapsed. The " Supremacy of Public Opinion," how- 
 ever, as administered and enforced in Parliamentary law 
 courts, has efficiently taken its place ; and of course will 
 remain in power in the State Establishment so long as it is 
 the will of the majority of the electors that a State Establish- 
 ment shall be maintained. 
 
THE WAENINGS OP BISHOP SCOTT. 
 
 37 
 
 minister the sacraments nor exercise spiritual 
 censures — acts which belonged exclusively to the 
 clergy and the hierarchy. 
 
 Bishop Scott of Chester then argued that with- 
 out a chief pastor the visible Church would be 
 weakened. Such a guide was practically neces- 
 sary for receiving appeals from and determining 
 controversies within the boundaries of all local or 
 national churches. Taking notice that the Pope's 
 authority had been disclaimed by an English pro- 
 vincial council, he announced that the resolutions 
 of such an assembly were of no force whatsoever 
 against the decrees of the Universal Church.* 
 
 * As a recent author has so forcibly and ably written : — 
 " When England embraced the Christian faith, she became 
 a part of Christ's spiritual Kingdom or Empire. She did 
 not become the whole of that Kingdom. It was an absolute 
 impossibility for her to do so. Until therefore one part of 
 anything can be equal to the thing itself, so long is it im- 
 possible that a part of Christ's Kingdom can be His whole 
 Kingdom. In other words, England is not an Empire, 
 speaking spiritually. And if England is not a spiritual 
 Empire, but one mere Province of a spiritual Empire, then 
 appeals cannot have their final determiDation without the 
 assent and consent of the other Provinces of the universal 
 Kingdom. If such a thing w,ere possible then might one 
 Province claim to decide a spiritual question in one way, and 
 another Province in another way. Thus direct conflict 
 would arise. There would be instead of One spiritual 
 Kingdom or Empire of Christ, as many spiritual Kingdoms 
 as there are Christian nations in the world, all absolutely 
 independent one of another, and every one possibly divided 
 
38 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 England, he maintained, was only one part of 
 Christ's universal kingdom ; and, furthermore, 
 that no man nor body of men can bestow that 
 which they themselves do not already possess. 
 These speeches were carefully heard and warmly 
 applauded. 
 
 About this period a document of " Questions 
 and Advices," drawn up, no doubt, by Sir Thomas 
 Smith, one of King Edward's advisers, was sub- 
 mitted to Cecil, as a guide in the work of so- 
 called " Reformation." A new service-book was 
 at once needed, and the Queen by Letters Patent 
 appointed Drs. Bill, Parker, Cocks, and May, to- 
 gether with Mr. Grindal, Mr. Whitehead, and 
 Mr. Pilkington, to prepare it. The lawful Bishops 
 of the Church of England were in this work 
 
 against every other, and fighting against every other. 
 And thus the Catholic Church would have long since been 
 brought to desolation, and have had an end. This was 
 not the way, beloved, that the Divine Wisdom built His 
 House, and hewed out His Seven mystic pillars. It is the 
 Statute of Appeals, and the assertion that England is, 
 spiritually speaking, an Empire, and that the Church of 
 England as a part is equal to the whole ; and that this 
 part of the one Kingdom of Christ is competent to decide 
 spiritual questions apart from the other Provinces of Christ's 
 Kingdom and independently of them ; in other words, with- 
 out the consent of the rest of Christendom, which is in 
 direct and irreconcilable antagonism to the revealed word of 
 God, and a bold and daring contradiction to the express will 
 of the Incarnate Son of God." — "The Kevs of the Kingdom 
 of Heaven," by the Eev. T. W. Mossman, O.C.E., p. 8. 
 London : 1879. 
 
THE " SECOND PEATEE BOOK " EESTOEED. 39 
 
 wholly ignored in favour of men owning no spi- 
 ritual authority whatsoever, and deeply tainted 
 with dangerous heresies. Cecil, desiring mode- 
 ration and comprehensiveness, gave these persons 
 very express orders both what to do and what 
 to avoid.* The Lord Keeper Bacon, in his speech 
 at the opening of Parliament, pointed out that 
 "nothing should be advised or done which any- 
 way in continuance of time was likely to breed or 
 nourish any kind of idolatry or superstition." In 
 these particulars his lordship's timely and valu- 
 able advice was certainly not ignored. 
 
 With a few trifling alterations, what is known 
 as the " Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. "f 
 was now, by the Act of Uniformity, restored to 
 use, having been thus recommended. That devo- 
 tional volume was the baldest and barest that could 
 have been compiled. Its scrappy service for the 
 
 * A frightful passage from the Litany, which harmonized 
 well enough with the maniacal notion of most of the "Re- 
 formers," that the Bishop of the See of St. Peter is " the 
 Antichrist " — " From the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome 
 and all his detestable enormities" — was, at Cecil's suggestion, 
 but after considerable opposition, omitted. 
 
 t On July 19, 1559, a Commission was issued by the 
 Queen, constituting Parker, Archbishop-elect of Canterbury, 
 Grindal. Bishop-elect of London, and others, Commissioners 
 for carryiug into execution the Acts for the uniformity of 
 Common Prayer, and for restoring to the Crown the 
 ancient jurisdiction of the State ecclesiastical. — "Domestic 
 Papers, Elizabeth," vol. v. No. 18. 
 
40 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Holy Communion, into which the Ten Command- 
 ments had been introduced,* for the sake of the 
 second (believed by the narrow-minded fanatics 
 who had first compiled the new production to be a 
 protest against what has been in recent times called 
 " Eucharistic Adoration " f), was supposed to have 
 been founded on an English version of the Sarum 
 Mass ; hacked about and mutilated, however, in 
 every portion. All the old Introits, many of the 
 Proper Prefaces, all the Secret Prayers, and Col- 
 lects after Communion, were abolished by a few 
 
 * A long and wearisome dissertation by Pollanus, delivered 
 at Strasburg, pointing outhowthe Second Commandment for- 
 bids the worship of the Host, and how desirable it is that this 
 "Law of God " should be kept before the eyes of the popu- 
 lace, was no doubt the origin of the introduction of the Ten 
 Commandments both into the Liturgy and on to the east wall 
 of our English churches. 
 
 f The doctrine of the Reformers concerning what they 
 called " the Lord's Supper," was truly and faithfully taught 
 by the late Mr. John Keble, in his well-known un-revised 
 verse in "The Chi'istian Tear" : — 
 
 " O come to our Communion Feast : 
 There present in the heart, 
 Not in the hands, th' eternal Priest 
 Will His true self impart." 
 
 " The minister gives what is in his power, namely, the 
 Bread and Wine, and not the Body of Christ ; nor is it ex- 
 hibited by the minister and eaten by the communicant, other- 
 wise than in the word preached, read, or meditated upon. 
 And to eat the Body of Christ is nothing more than to 
 believe, as He Himself teaches in the sixth (chapter) of 
 John." — Letter of Hooper to Bucer, "Original Letters," 
 p. 47. Parker Society's Works. 
 
CHAEACTEE OP THE NEW PEAYEE BOOK. 41 
 
 rude strokes of the pen. Those sacred parts of 
 the ancient Canon not cast aside as idolatrous, or 
 rejected because the venerated saints of Christen- 
 dom were thereby had in memory, were mis- 
 translated, detached from their contexts, broken 
 up, interpolated with novel phrases of ambiguous 
 meaning, separated either from other, and with- 
 out an ancient parallel formed into a new service 
 which remains as a monument of the deliberate 
 craft, skilful double-dealing,* and heretical ten- 
 dencies of those who compiled it. 
 
 At what is known as the " Consecration 
 Prayer," no directions whatsoever were given to 
 the presiding minister for blessing the bread and 
 wine, or for touching either of those elements 
 while the prayer was being said — a crucial omis- 
 sion. For Church ministers to have done so from 
 the time of Elizabeth to the period of revision 
 under Charles II. would have been to have broken 
 the statute law of the land. It is open to ques- 
 
 * The saying that " the Church of England owns an 
 Arniinian Prayer Book and Calvinistic Articles," though 
 perhaps strictly inexact, is a testimony to the intentional 
 vagueness and studied ambiguity of those formularies. At 
 the present day none of her authorities can declare what she 
 teaches even with regard to Baptism. All "views" (as they 
 are called) are tolerated, from the doctrine of Catholics to 
 the heresy of Calvinists. Anything and everything is 
 allowed, little is forbidden, but nothing definite or precise 
 is authoritatively and universally taught. 
 
42 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 tion, therefore, if, notwithstanding the profound 
 special pleading of several modern writers in its 
 favour, such a form for celebrating the Holy 
 Eucharist in use for exactly a hundred years, 
 could have been valid. If there be intentionally 
 no act of blessing, of course no benediction is 
 given. If there be no express deed of consecra- 
 tion (as both Common Sense and Theology 
 declare) no consecration is by consequence 
 effected. 
 
 The well-known " rule of contraries " was duly 
 applied by those who made these changes. For 
 example, in the Mass there was always an altar 
 of stone used : in the new Service of the Supper 
 a table of wood. At the former the priest was 
 enjoined to stand before the altar : at the latter, 
 by way of contrast, the minister was directed to 
 go to the north end of the table. In the Mass 
 the priest invariably began the service on the 
 Epistle side, and the Gloria in excelsis was said 
 or sung at its commencement : in the Supper the 
 minister began on the Gospel side, while in this 
 new service the Gloria in excelsis was placed at 
 its close. 
 
 Moreover, the mixed chalice, the invocation of 
 the Holy Ghost, and the sign of the cross, were 
 all omitted : at the delivery of the bread and 
 wine, instead of the old form, the offensive words 
 " Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ 
 
" COMMUNION-BOARDS " INTRODUCED. 43 
 
 died for thee," &c.,* were substituted. A table 
 consisting of a pair of rude trestles and a hori- 
 zontal wooden board,f now took the place of the 
 
 * In the Mass, as the words spoken on giving Communion in- 
 dicated, the Body and Blood of Christ were bestowed ; whereas, 
 in the Supper, the minister distributed " Bread and Wine " 
 to a seated congregation in remembrance of our Saviour's 
 death upon Calvary. No greater contrast, than that so mani- 
 fest between the new and the old, could be conceived. 
 
 As Jewell, a bishop and an authority, thus wrote : — 
 " Spiritually and with the mouth of our faith we eat the 
 Body of Christ and drink His Blood. . . . The Bread 
 that we receive with our bodily mouths is an earthly thing, 
 and therefore a figure, as the water in baptism is likewise a 
 figure." — " John Jewell, Bishop of Sarum, in Controversy 
 with Harding," p. 448. 
 
 And Bishop Grindal — " Whoso will be relieved by the 
 Body of Christ must receive Him as He will be received, with 
 the instrument of faith appointed thereunto, not with his 
 teeth or mouth." — Grindal's " Remains," p. 46. 
 
 f " Twain trestlys and a boord of joyner's work for the 
 Supper." — Churchwardens' Accounts, a.d. 1559, for St. 
 Mary's, Ipswich. 
 
 " Item (paid) to John ye carpenter for ye mackyng of 
 treystlesfor yeCommunyon,iijs. 4d." — Church Book, Thame, 
 Oxon, a.d. 1560. 
 
 Mr. J. H. Parker, C.B. (a.d. 1879) thus kindly writes to 
 me : — " Some thirty years ago a friend of mine, who was a 
 brother archaeologist, published a pamphlet to explain that all 
 the Communion Tables of the time of Elizabeth and James I. 
 had the table itself — that is, the wooden slab, tabula, or 
 board — detached from the framework, on which it is placed, but 
 many of them still remained undetached. He printed a list of 
 these, and I verified many of them. Others had been attached 
 to the framework in quite recent times with modern iron screws. 
 In some cases, instead of a framework, tressels were used, and 
 this, I believe, is still the case in the Isle of Jersey, at least 
 when I was there. The table, or wooden slab, was brought 
 
44 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 ancient consecrated stone altar. Sometimes it 
 was placed in the middle of the choir, and occa- 
 sionally in the nave. Cross and candlesticks were 
 swept away. Instead of the old " massing cups," 
 the " chalices of Antichrist," " cups of the sor- 
 ceress," as they were profanely called, — most of 
 which had disappeared,* having been too affec- 
 tionately grasped and retained by the Edwardian 
 " Reformers " and their energetic agents, — newly 
 made domestic and secular-looking vessels for the 
 Communion table, of quite a different shape, with 
 covers, seem to have been almost universally 
 adopted. Thus a Supper of bread and wine, 
 given once a quarter at mid- day, in remembrance 
 of an act done long ago, Christ's death, was once 
 again intentionally substituted for the adorable 
 sacrifice of the Christian dispensation, enjoined 
 by our Divine Master to be offered continually — 
 
 out of the chancel and placed in the nave on fcressels by the 
 side of the reading-desk for the Communion Service. I was 
 told this was always the case in that island." 
 
 * It seems very doubtful if so many as twenty old English 
 chalices and patens remain throughout the whole of the two 
 provinces. I know of old examples at Trinity and Corpus 
 Christi Colleges, Oxford ; Wymondham, Norfolk ; Nettle- 
 combe and Pilton, Somersetshire ; Brancaster, Norfolk ; 
 West Drayton, Middlesex ; St. Sampson's, Guernsey ; Great 
 Walthani, Essex ; Combe Pyne, Devonshire ; Cliffe, Kent ; 
 Walmer, Kent ; Leominster, Herefordshire ; Shernbourne, 
 Norfolk ; and a few in private keeping. The Rev. E. J. 
 Phipps owned a good specimen. 
 
OCCASIONAL SERVICES MUTILATED. 
 
 45 
 
 a sacrifice true, proper, and propitiatory, as well 
 for the departed as for the living. 
 
 Furthermore in our Baptismal Service the ex- 
 orcisms, the unction, the trine immersion, and 
 the putting on of the chrisom-cloth were all 
 omitted. The Service for Confirmation* was so 
 altered and disfigured, both in its form and 
 matter (for here likewise the use of unction and 
 the sign of the cross were dropped), that many 
 doubt whether it is valid ; it being thus reduced 
 to a mere episcopal blessing which might be 
 again and again repeated without any danger of 
 sacrilege. In the Service for the Visitation of 
 the Sick all mention of the Sacrament of Extreme 
 Unction was cast out ; and reservation of the 
 Holy Eucharist omitted. In the Burial of the 
 Dead, all the touching and beautiful prayers for 
 the departed were dropped, and the Eucharist at 
 funerals disallowed. Neither alb, vestment, nor 
 cope was henceforth to be used ; but only a sur- 
 plice for a priest or deacon, and a rochet for a 
 bishop. 
 
 The solemn and expressive services for Holy 
 Week ; the various episcopal rites peculiar to 
 Maundy Thursday and Easter Even ; the special 
 
 * See a short, but learned and vigorous, ai*ticle on this 
 subject — " Confirmation in the Church of England " — on 
 p. 271 et seq. of "The Reunion Magazine," vol. i. London: 
 Nutt. 1879. 
 
46 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 hallowing and beneficent solemnities of Good 
 Friday ; as for example, the consecration of the 
 holy oils, the service of the Prae-sanctified, the 
 Creeping to the Cross, the benediction of new 
 fire, of the Paschal taper and of the font, — ancient 
 and hallowed rites which so efficiently taught 
 people through the eye, — were all swept away : 
 so that, in our own day, as a consequence of such 
 changes, the Christian feasts having, many of 
 them, been long disused, Parliament has thought 
 it desirable and necessary to appoint four secular 
 days of recreation ; while Good Friday, the death- 
 day of the world's Redeemer, has been practically 
 made a festival ; and Ascension Day, a feast of 
 obligation, has been almost entirely forgotten.* 
 
 The magnificent and appropriate services com- 
 mon to days on which prelates, martyrs, confes- 
 sors, virgins, and holy women, had been for 
 centuries commemorated, were totally and com- 
 pletely abolished. Portuaries, Manuals, Missals 
 of the various national rites, Books of the Hours 
 of Our Lady, the Offices for the Dead, Pontifi- 
 cals, Ceremonials, Antiphonals and jewelled 
 Books of the Gospels, were each and all utterly 
 
 * As the Church of England in its corporate capacity 
 takes little heed of this loss, and its authorities adopt no 
 measures to restore the due observance of the day, a new and 
 special Society has been set up to compass and effect this 
 object, so much required, and so excellent in itself. 
 
OPPOSITION OF THE LORDS SPIRITUAL. 47 
 
 cast out and burnt — save, of course, the accept- 
 able gold and jewels which adorned them. Severe 
 punishment followed even the possession of such 
 volumes. A restless desire for change combined 
 with a repulsive fanaticism, thus led those who in 
 the struggle had now secured the whip-handle of 
 usurped Power, to destroy and sweep away what- 
 ever seemed to be at variance with their newly- 
 formed tastes, or personal ambition. 
 
 In the early part of the month of May, a bill 
 for annexing to the Crown all abbeys, priories, 
 nunneries, chantries, and hospitals, passed through 
 both Houses of Parliament. In the Upper House 
 every one of the Lords Spiritual voted against it, 
 and when passed, dissented from it by a formal 
 act. It will thus be seen that the legal spiritual 
 authorities of the Church of England, as bound by 
 oath and office, declined, as by every principle of 
 morality they were bound, to take any part in 
 this fresh act of sacrilege and robbery. 
 
 While Parliament sat considering the new pro- 
 positions, the clergy as of old were assembled in 
 Convocation. To these the Queen sent a some- 
 what arrogant message of warning, indicating 
 with sufficient clearness to those who had already 
 watched the course of recent events, what her 
 royal will, as Supreme Governess of the Esta- 
 blished Church, was, in reference to those propo- 
 sitions. On being informed of the opposition of 
 
48 THE CHUECH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 all the prelates,* she had stamped her foot vio- 
 lently and sworn her usual expressive oath. But 
 the fearless bishops, nobly and bravely doing 
 their duty as guardians of the Faith and their 
 flocks, — neither hirelings, wolves, nor robbers, 
 come into the fold " some other way," — drew up 
 a Profession of Faith and presented it to the 
 House of Lords,f asserting, firstly, the true and 
 undoubted doctrine of the Holy Sacrifice and the 
 Real Presence, in opposition to a sentimental pre- 
 
 * Bishop Tunstall wrote to Cecil from London on Aug. 19, 
 1559, who declared that he could not consent to the visitation 
 of his diocese, if it extended to the pulling down of altars, 
 the defacing of churches, and the taking away crucifixes. — 
 " State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth," vol. vi. p. 137. 
 
 f The chief points of their profession stand thus : — 
 
 " Prinio, quod in sacramento altaris, virtute verbi Christi a 
 sacerdote debite prolati existentis, prsesens est realiter, sub 
 speciebus panis et vini, naturale Corpus Christi, conceptum 
 de Virgine Maria ; item naturalis ejus sanguis. 
 
 "Item, quod, post consecrationem, non remanet substantia 
 panis et vini, neque ulla alia substantia, nisi substantia Dei 
 et hominis. 
 
 " Item, quod in missa offertur verum Christi Corpus, et 
 verus ejusdem sanguis, sacrificium propitiatorium pro vivis 
 et defunctis. 
 
 " Item, quod Petro apostolo, et ejus legitimis successoribus 
 in Sede apostolica, tanquam Christi vicariis, data est suprema 
 potestas pascendi et regendi Ecclesiam Christi militantem, 
 et fratres suos confirmandi. 
 
 " Item, quod authoritas tractandi et definiendi de iis, quae 
 spectant ad fidem, sacramenta, et disciplinam ecclesiasticam, 
 hactenus semper spectavit, et spectare debet, tantum ad 
 pastores Ecclesise, quos Spiritus Sanctus ad hoc in Ecclesia Dei 
 posuit, et non ad laicos." — Wilkins' " Concilia," vol. iv p. 179. 
 
DISPUTATION AT WESTMINSTER. 
 
 49 
 
 sence in the heart or mind of the receiver, which 
 the innovators maintained ; secondly, the lawful 
 and generally-recognized power and privileges of 
 the Holy See ; and, thirdly, the exclusive right 
 of the spiritual rulers of the Church Universal, and 
 not of the laity or a lay assembly, to define and de- 
 clare and decide upon, its doctrine and discipline. 
 
 In consequence of this, and as one mode of 
 blunting the power and destroying the influence 
 of the Bishops, a disputation was appointed to 
 be held in "Westminster Abbey on March 31st, 
 by which clever expedient the critical spirit of 
 the period was fostered, public attention aroused, 
 and time for more consideration of the grave cir- 
 cumstances which had arisen efficiently secured. 
 The Lord Keeper Bacon, representing the Su- 
 preme Governess, presided, and the sittings of 
 the Houses of Parliament were suspended, in 
 order that idle, curious, or interested members 
 might attend and witness the exciting dialectical 
 contest. Numerous languid loungers,* accus- 
 tomed to the fashionable delights of the rat-pit 
 and bear-baiting, gathered for the anticipated en- 
 tertainment. Protestant ballad-singers and buf- 
 
 * Thomas Cecil wrote to his father, Sir William, on July 
 25, 1561, to say that he had been present at the Court at 
 Paris at a fight between a lion and three dogs, in which the 
 dogs were victorious. — " State Papers, Elizabeth, 1547- 
 1580." 
 
 4 
 
50 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 foons, stationed near the west door of St. Mar- 
 garet's Church, amused the lower classes by 
 caricaturing religion. Various controversial sub- 
 jects were discussed within the Abbey ; e.g., 
 whether prayers in Latin were to be henceforth 
 permitted ; whether local churches have the right 
 and power to set themselves up against the deci- 
 sions and decrees of the whole Church of God ; 
 and whether the Eucharist be a propitiatory sacri- 
 fice for the quick and the dead. On the side of 
 the ancient faith were Archbishop Heath, Bishops 
 "White, Bayne, Scott, and Watson; with Dr. Cole, 
 Dean of St. Paul's; Dr. Nicholas Harpsfield, Arch- 
 deacon of Canterbury and Judge of the Court of 
 Arches ; and Dr. Langdale, Archdeacon of Lewes. 
 On the side of the innovating party were Bishop 
 Scory, Dr. Cocks, Mr. Horne, Mr. Aylmer, Mr. 
 Whitehead, Mr. Grindal, Mr. Ghest, and Mr. Jewell. 
 The prelates in rochets and violet mantles assem- 
 bled in the choir, where a long and narrow table 
 down its pathway had been placed for their use, 
 and were seated on the Gospel side. The other 
 party, in gowns, putting their trust in the Queen's 
 delegate, and on the look-out for some of the good 
 things of this, world,* took their places on the 
 
 * Edmund Ghest, on August 31, 1559, wrote to inform 
 Cecil that " Mr. Seth Holland will not renounce the Pope," 
 and then solicits that he (Ghest) may succeed him in the 
 deanery. — " Domestic Papers, Elizabeth," vol. vi. p. 137. 
 
WHITE AND WATSON IMPRISONED. 51 
 
 south. The monks' stalls were filled with peers 
 and others interested in the dispute. A gather- 
 ing of exiled preachers and foreign divines in 
 black cassocks and stiff white ruffs, armed with 
 large tomes, from which to prompt and aid their 
 friends, were grouped near the choir doors. The 
 public, wherever a sight and hearing could be had, 
 assembled in numbers. The whole dispute, con- 
 ducted with singular one-sidedness, but anxiously 
 listened to, was so unfair to the legal representa- 
 tives of the Ancient Church, that the Catholic 
 party, perceiving this, after vain remonstrances, 
 and being wholly in the hands of Bacon who pre- 
 sided, wisely and resolutely retired on the second 
 day. Upon this Bishops White and Watson were 
 at once, without notice, process, or trial, com- 
 mitted to prison in the Tower — -a gross piece of 
 high-handed tyranny.* Nothing, of course, could 
 have been more effective in overcoming the 
 force of their telling arguments, or in preventing 
 their incisive logic and solemn appeals from having 
 reasonable and just weight with the listeners. It 
 was asserted in justification that they were thus 
 punished for disobedience to the Queen's delegate, 
 
 * Some writers assert that these two bishops' true offence 
 was that they had already privately and solemnly threatened 
 the Queen with excommunication if she continued to intrude 
 in matters inherently and essentially spiritual. 
 
 4 * 
 
52 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 who sat and acted in her Most Sacred Highness' s 
 place, and who had enjoined them to proceed and 
 not to retire ; but the real object of this bold 
 action was to overawe others and overbear all 
 legitimate opposition to the proposed Parliamen- 
 tary legislation. 
 
 The Bill enjoining the New Prayer Book soon 
 afterwards became law, it having been carried in the 
 Upper House by a narrow majority of three in a 
 large assembly — a tolerably clear indication of 
 the feeling against innovation and change which 
 existed, and proving that such an act of tyranny 
 as that just recorded was absolutely essential for 
 the success of the innovators. 
 
 The Act of Uniformity enjoining the use of 
 the revised Service Book, indirectly decreed that 
 on and after the Feast of St. John the Baptist, 
 1559, any one who said mass according to those 
 rites of the Church of England which had been 
 followed essentially for nearly a thousand years, 
 as well as any and every one who heard mass, or 
 administered baptism or any of the sacraments ac- 
 cording to the old directions and services, or who 
 used any but the new, should, for the first offence, 
 be fined one hundred marks ; for the second, four 
 hundred marks ; and if these respective fines were 
 not promptly paid, imprisonment for twelve 
 months followed ; with imprisonment for life and 
 the forfeiture of all goods and chattels if a third 
 
THE CELEBRATION OF MASS CEASES. 
 
 53 
 
 offence were proved. Jewell, though a severe and 
 sour writer of bad theology, sometimes became 
 witty, and occasionally postured as a buffoon ; as 
 for instance when he wrote to Peter Martyr, some 
 months later, telling him the welcome news that 
 the Catholics had no right to complain of the 
 Queen, for that mass had never before been so 
 highly valued or expensive as then ; for, by God's 
 Gospel, it cost every spectator of it no less than 
 two hundred crowns. 
 
 On the day appointed, therefore, the public 
 celebration of mass ceased. Those who elected 
 to range themselves in opposition to the innova- 
 tors soon found what was involved in such a 
 choice.* As the records of this reign are ex- 
 amined, step by step, and the harrowing tale of 
 persecution is told, it will be seen with what a high 
 hand those carried affairs who by the use of 
 Might over Right had secured influence, autho- 
 rity, and power. All the varied " beggar s-on- 
 horseback " rode a rapid race to their due and 
 proper goal. 
 
 But we must proceed step by step, and with 
 
 * On June 30, 1559, the Marquis of Winchester wrote to 
 Cecil to inform him that the Dean and Canons of Winchester 
 Cathedral, the Warden and Fellows of New College, and the 
 Master of St. Cross' Hospital " left their services, and will 
 enter no new service, being against their consciences." 
 
54 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 due care, to state exactly only that which can be 
 surely and conclusively proved to be true. 
 
 With the single exception of Anthony Kitchin, 
 Bishop of Llandaff, who had been consecrated 
 by Cranmer on May 3, 1545, without approval 
 by, or authorization from, Rome, the whole body 
 of bishops, one and all, firmly resolved to decline 
 assent to this new legislation. Involving as it 
 did both a fresh separation from the Chief Bishop 
 of Christendom, whose saintly predecessor, Pope 
 St. Gregory the Great, had sent St. Augustine 
 to become a light to our country ; and being likely 
 as they believed, to augment all the complex evils 
 of new and needless divisions, they declined to be 
 participators in that which was wrong. In their 
 noble opposition — being unable to render to a 
 woman, a female Caesar, the things of God — they 
 were firm and determined. They could not in 
 conscience maintain that the Queen was the 
 Supreme Governor or Governess of the Church 
 under Christ ; and, therefore, repudiated the 
 action and legislation of the civil authority, as 
 beyond its due and proper powers, and by the 
 law of God altogether illegal. 
 
 Amongst these are several names of men of 
 high virtue and repute, names which because of 
 their action at the crisis in question, merit to be 
 had in everlasting remembrance. The first is 
 that of Nicholas Heath. He had been conse- 
 
CHARACTER OF BISHOPS HEATH AND BONNER. 55 
 
 crated Bishop of Rochester by Bonner of London, 
 and others, in the chapel of London House, in the 
 spring of 1540. Translated three years after- 
 wards by Henry VIII. to the see of Worcester, 
 he was thrown into prison and treated with great 
 harshness under Edward VI. ; but on Queen 
 Mary's accession, confessing his previous failings, 
 and the aid he had given to the innovators, he 
 was reconciled to the Church and made Arch- 
 bishop of York and Lord High Chancellor. In 
 his Province he laboured assiduously, and was 
 venerated and respected both by high and low. 
 
 Edmund Bonner was another. A Worcester- 
 shire and Oxford man, he had for some years 
 been one of Henry VIII. 's courtly chaplains, 
 and had certainly made himself notorious enough 
 by his mistaken zeal in promoting that King's 
 divorce. When in Rome, in so doing (as he him- 
 self admits), he had behaved with great personal 
 rudeness and insolence to the Pope. At home 
 he had gone a considerable way on the " Reform- 
 ing " road, and had even accepted many of the 
 violent changes under Edward VI. ; but the fana- 
 ticism, heresy, and blasphemies then in favour at 
 Court — working on all sides so many evils — 
 were more than he could approve of or adopt. 
 So the civil authorities deprived him of his see, 
 which was given to Nicholas Ridley ; and Bonner 
 likewise was cast into prison. Under Queen 
 
56 THE CHTECH UXDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Marv. havinsr been dulv restored to his former 
 episcopal seat, he did a great work in stemming 
 the tide of irreligious revolution ; in restraining 
 misbelievers ; and in building anew the waste and 
 desolate places of his important diocese. He was 
 certainly unpopular with some ; his acts in ad- 
 ministering a harsh and cruel law have been con- 
 siderably misrepresented ; and his name has been 
 cast out as evil by certain historical romancers or 
 one-sided partizans ; but when after experiencing 
 the evils of innovation, a man of resolute and 
 settled principles, owning authority, acts with 
 decision and boldness on the side of Truth, he 
 must expect opposition, and scorn the unjust con- 
 demnation of petty and misinformed scribes, too 
 often the trumpeters and apologists of Error and 
 Falsehood. 
 
 Cuthbert Tonstall, Bishop of Durham, old and 
 afflicted, and Thomas Thirlby, Bishop of Ely, 
 were committed to the care of Matthew Parker, 
 the Queen's new Archbishop, and his lady, at 
 Lambeth Palace. The former, Tonstall, soon 
 died, some said of a broken heart, in Xovember 
 of the same year, and was buried in the parish 
 church ; * the latter lived through eleven stirring 
 
 * "November (1570). The xxis day Cuthbret Tonstall a 
 popish, bishop was burred." — MS. List of Baptisms, Mar- 
 riages, and Burials at St. Mary's, Lambeth. 
 
CHARACTER OP BISHOPS TONSTALL AND WHITE. 57 
 
 years, and witnessed more changes and greater 
 violence, passing to his rest in August of the 
 year 1570. 
 
 John White, born at Farnham in Surrey, was 
 educated at "Winchester and New College, of 
 which latter he was made a fellow in 1527. Suc- 
 cessively Head Master and Warden of Winchester, 
 he was consecrated Bishop of Lincoln by Bonner 
 and others at St. Saviour's, South wark, on April 
 1st, 1554 ; two years afterwards he was translated 
 to Winchester, where his reputation for sweetness 
 of disposition and sanctity was great. He 
 preached the funeral sermon of Queen Mary, 
 and was so affected at the loss which Her 
 Majesty's death had occasioned,* that for some 
 time he stood in the pulpit, overwhelmed with 
 sincere grief and speechless. 
 
 Even as these resisted, so did others. James 
 Turberville, Bishop of Exeter, so consecrated on 
 the Feast of the Nativity of Our Lady in 1555, 
 was faithful and true even unto death. Gilbert 
 Browne, sometime Archdeacon of London, but 
 subsequently Bishop of Bath and Wells, deprived 
 by Queen Elizabeth for disallowing her spiritual 
 supremacy, was then consigned to the custody of 
 
 * He "fell into such an unfeigned weeping that for a long 
 space he could not speak." — " Brief View," &c. by Sir John 
 Harington. 
 
58 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Gregory Dodds,* Dean of Exeter, and so died 
 in 1569. David Pole, sometime Dean of Arches 
 Court, and subsequently Bishop of Peterborough, 
 was deprived, because he likewise similarly re- 
 sisted, and departed this life in June 1568. 
 Ralph Baynes, a Yorkshireman and a great 
 Hebrew scholar, consecrated Bishop of Litchfield 
 in 1554, was deprived in June 1559, and died five 
 months afterwards. Queen Elizabeth sent Cuth- 
 bert Scott, Bishop of Chester, having first de- 
 prived him, to the Fleet Prison, but he soon 
 afterwards escaped, and died most devoutly at 
 Louvain. Owen Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, 
 was also deprived in 1559, — on the last day of 
 which momentous year he slept his last sleep in 
 peace. Thomas Watson, Bishop of Lincoln,! was 
 likewise turned out of his bishopric at the same 
 time, as were also Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of 
 St. Asaph, and John Feckenham, Benedictine 
 Abbot of Westminster. Of these three, the first 
 and the last were carefully imprisoned, first in 
 the Marshalsea, and subsequently in the dungeons 
 
 * Some writers give another name to this dean who had 
 the custody of this Bishop of Bath. 
 
 f For a most interesting account of Bishop Watson, the 
 reader should consult " Sermons on the Sacraments " by that 
 prelate, edited by the Bev. T. E. Bridgett, who has prefixed 
 thereto an admirable " Biographical Notice" of the Bishop, 
 aind has edited the book with conspicuous care and ability. 
 Loudon: Burns and Oates, 1876. 
 
MATTHEW PARKER ELECTED ARCHBISHOP. 59 
 
 of Wisbeach Castle, situated in the flat and un- 
 healthy fen country of the east, and after much 
 suffering died there in 1585 ; G-oldwell escaped to 
 the city of Rome, living there for more than a 
 quarter of a century in great sanctity and full of 
 years, when he too slept sweetly in Christ. 
 Richard Pate, sometime Bishop of Worcester, who 
 had been officially present at the Council of Trent 
 in 1552, happily escaped to the Continent and 
 there died in peace. 
 
 On the 9th of September 1559, Letters Patent 
 were issued appointing a Royal Commission to 
 confirm the election of Matthew Parker, who had 
 been irregularly elected by a minority of the 
 Chapter of Canterbury on the 1st of August, and 
 to give him episcopal consecration. At this time, 
 ten of the English sees were vacant by death ; 
 for many of the bishops had been thus called 
 away from a scene of much anxiety and trouble, 
 by a strange and fatal malady, some called it " the 
 Plague," which wrought great havoc amongst 
 all classes. Shortly afterwards, fifteen other 
 bishops either resigned voluntarily, on marking 
 what additional changes were about to take place ; 
 or were formally deprived by certain Royal Com- 
 missioners, to whom, for this purpose, Her 
 Majesty had duly delegated that supreme spiritual 
 authority which had been vested in her by Par- 
 liament. 
 
60 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 The Letters Patent concerning Parker's promo- 
 tion had been addressed to Tonstall, Bishop of 
 Durham, to Bourne, Bishop of Bath, to Poole, 
 Bishop of Peterborough, to Kitchin, Bishop of 
 Llandaff, all occupying sees, and to William Bar- 
 low and John Scory, bishops without sees. By 
 an unusual inadvertence, however, no clause 
 enabling a bare majority, or a certain number 
 without the rest, to act, was inserted in the docu- 
 ment. So that if any individual, or more, 
 declined the honour, the work of the Royal Com- 
 missioners could not be carried out. This Com- 
 mission, therefore, remained unfulfilled, to the 
 great vexation of the Queen and to the deep 
 annoyance of Sir William Cecil, who found him- 
 self in a considerable difficulty. 
 
 For, as it soon turned out, none of the prelates 
 occupying the old sees, and possessing due and 
 recognized canonical jurisdiction, could by any 
 means be induced to act. Neither public argu- 
 ments nor private threats could move them from 
 their resolution of abstention from participating 
 in any way in what they believed to be the irre- 
 gular and uncanonical act resolved on. 
 
 Besides the prelates who thus stood aloof (all, 
 in truth, except Anthony Kitchin), there were 
 several suffragan bishops alive, whose orders were 
 undoubted, but who were of course without 
 jurisdiction, some of whom had gone into retire- 
 
SUFFEAGAN-BISHOPS STILL LIVING. 61 
 
 merit ; others had received benefices and were 
 still hale and strong, but much disinclined for 
 further change. Amongst these were Thomas 
 Sparke, Bishop of Berwick, who lived until 1571, 
 and Robert Pursglove,* Bishop of Hull, who only- 
 died in 1579. William Finch, Bishop of Taunton, 
 went to his rest in the very year in which Parker 
 was consecrated. Of Thomas Morley, Bishop of 
 Marlborough, John Bradley, Bishop of Shaftes- 
 bury, and Thomas Manning, Bishop of Ipswich, 
 all most probably alive at Elizabeth's accession, 
 there are no existing records known. None of 
 these suffragans, however, were sought out. 
 
 In consequence, therefore, of the fiasco referred 
 to, several learned clerks and canon lawyers, who 
 either had a leaning to the Protestant party or 
 were avowed members of it, viz. Doctors May, 
 Weston, Leeds, Harvey, Yale, and Bullingham, 
 were immediately consulted by Cecil, in order not 
 only to suggest some remedy, but likewise to re- 
 move two very practical impediments to legal 
 
 * At Tideswell, in Derbyshire, where this bishop, Robert 
 Pursglove was born, and educated under his uncle, William 
 Bradshawe, Prior of Gisburne, in Yorkshire, he was also buried 
 in 1575, and a memorial brass representing him in full ponti- 
 fical vestments, with a series of verses in Latin and English, 
 still remains. He was Bishop-Suffragan of Hull, Archdeacon 
 of Nottingham and Provost of the College of Eotherham. — 
 See " The Gentleman's Magazine," vol. lxiv. part 2, p. 1101. 
 London: 1794. 
 
62 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 security and actual success. For just then Cecil 
 could not move. His existing letters and MSS. 
 show that he was truly and completely puzzled.* 
 These two leading practical difficulties stood thus : 
 First, the law of the land unquestionably required 
 the metropolitan and three provincials or at least 
 four bishops holding sees, to confirm the election 
 of a new Primate, but, as Cecil wrote, " There is 
 no Archb. nor iiij bishopps now to be had " ; and, 
 secondly, the revised Ordinal, legalized under 
 Edward Vl.t had been formally and regularly 
 abolished at the commencement of Queen Mary's 
 reign. " This booJce is not established by Parle- 
 ment" continued the Secretary of State ; while the 
 ancient Pontifical of Salisbury, used then once 
 again, had in its turn been just formally set aside 
 by Elizabeth. There was, therefore, no legal 
 form for consecration in existence, or available at 
 all. Here, then, was a grave dilemma. 
 
 The canon lawyers in question, however, came 
 
 * " State Papers, Domestic, Queen Elizabeth," vol. v., July, 
 1559. London: 1856. 
 
 f " They have invented a new way to make bishops and 
 priests and a manner of service and ministration that St. 
 Augustine never knew, St. Edmund Lanfranc, St. Anselm, 
 nor never one bishop of Canterbury, saving only Cranmer, 
 who forsook his profession as apostata ; so that they must 
 needs condemn all the bishops in Canterbury, but Cranmer 
 and he that now is." — "The Addition concerning the Burning 
 of St. Paul's " (a sixteenth-century fly-leaf). 
 
COMMISSION TO CONSECRATE PARKER. 63 
 
 to the conclusion that under the difficult and 
 pressing circumstances — for necessity notoriously 
 has no law — a new Commission might be issued 
 to Anthony Kitchin of Llandaff and to certain 
 unattached prelates, bishops without sees, autho- 
 rizing; them to confirm and consecrate* Matthew 
 Parker. This advice was taken. 
 
 Accordingly on December 6th, 1559, a fresh 
 Commission by Letters Patent was appointed and 
 issued, addressed to the occupant of the see of 
 Llandaff ; to Barlow, sometime Bishop of Bath, a 
 prelate of very fly-blown character ; to Hodgkins, 
 sometime Suffragan of Bedford ; to Scory and 
 Coverdale, bishops ; to John Salisbury, Suffragan 
 Bishop of Thetford, and to John Bale, Bishop, by 
 Letters Patent, of Ossory in Ireland, a boisterous 
 and alarming fanatic, — enjoining them, or any 
 four of them, to proceed to the confirmation of 
 the election, and so to the consecration of the 
 Archbishop-elect. 
 
 Kitchin, the only bishop with a see, save Bale, 
 the coarse and foul-mouthed Protestant from Ire- 
 land, when he thus found himself utterly isolated 
 from the rest of his episcopal brethren, deliber- 
 ately and firmly declined to act. Reasoning and 
 
 * It should be particularly noticed that this course of 
 action would only touch the regularity, canonicity, and due 
 legality of the consecration in question ; not its validity. 
 
64 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 threats were again both made use of, but to no 
 avail. He would not and did not appear. 
 
 Accordingly Parker's election was confirmed 
 on the 7th of September 1559 ; and he subse- 
 quently received episcopal consecration in the 
 Chapel of Lambeth Palace on Sunday the 17th 
 day of the same month and year, very early in 
 the morning, at the hands of Barlow, Scory, 
 Hodgkins, and Coverdale.* 
 
 * An able writer in the eighth volume of " The Union 
 Eeview " for 1870, pp. 532-533, believed to be one of our 
 leading historical critics, thus refers to this inauguration of 
 the new rulers, and to some of those who took a leading 
 official part in it : — " That the ceremony was gone through, 
 admits of do more doubt than does the contempt of three at 
 least of the four consecrators for the rite which they were 
 called upon to perform. But it will be remembered that 
 Scory has been accused of performing a jesting ceremony in 
 imitation of a' consecration at the Nag's Head Tavern, where 
 the consecrators met on the day of the confirmation of the 
 new Primate after the work of the morning was done, and 
 dined together. It is certain that Scory was quite capable of 
 going through a mock ceremony of consecration, and consi- 
 dering the character of the man, we think it is very likely he 
 did. Neither of his colleagues would have been at all shocked 
 at such a piece of profaneness ; and probably Parker himself 
 would have made light of it. Parker himself was at least 
 externally a decent character, but we do not find that he at 
 all shrunk from intercourse with such rascals as Barlow and 
 Scory were. We have already alluded to Barlow, but Scory 
 was the worst of the two. His course very much resembled 
 Barlow's, with the additional scandal that he abjured his 
 faith and dismissed his wife, and served under Bonner, in 
 Queen Mary's reign. That he was chaplain to Archbishop 
 Cranmer can add no infamy to Cranmer's name ; but it must 
 
PARKER CONSECRATED AT LAMBETH. 65 
 
 As the records which chronicle this important 
 act inform us, with unusual and almost unac- 
 countable minuteness, the east end of the sanc- 
 tuary on that occasion was hung with tapestry, 
 and its floor laid with crimson cloth. In lieu of 
 the abolished altar, a table had been placed at 
 the east end, covered with a carpet, and having 
 on it a cushion. To the north was set a seat for 
 the Archbishop-elect ; to the south faldstools for 
 the consecrating bishops were arranged. These 
 persons, as already pointed out, were Barlow, 
 Hodgkins, Scory, and Coverdale. They came in 
 long before it was light, accompanied by Parker, 
 and preceded by four torch men, by choir, chap- 
 lains, and legal officials. Edmund Grindal, Richard 
 Cocks, and Edwin Sandys — all subsequently bishops 
 — were also present, together with two registrars 
 and two public notaries. Morning prayer was 
 said by Pearson, a minister, and a sermon was 
 preached by Scory ; after which the Archbishop- 
 elect and the other bishops went out to the vestry, 
 prepared themselves for the actual consecration, 
 
 be admitted to be a blot on Ridley's fair fame, that he also 
 made Scory his chaplain. When we have added to this, that 
 he preached at the burning of Joan Bocher for heresy, and 
 that amongst other Protestant notions held by him, he was 
 notoriously opposed to the consecration of churches, we have 
 said all that is necessary to secure him from being quoted 
 with approbation by Anglican divines." 
 
 5 
 
66 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 and again returned. Barlow took the chief part 
 in the consecration, and with his attendants, 
 Edmund Ghest, Archdeacon of Canterbury, and 
 Nicholas Bullinghani, Archdeacon of Lincoln, was 
 vested in surplice and cope. Scory and Hodgkins 
 appeared simply in surplices or rochets. Cover- 
 dale, who shunned what he termed such "heathen 
 and Babylonish garments," appeared in something 
 less ornate, a simple woollen gown. In the rite the 
 new and bald Ordinal of 1549 seems to have been 
 exactly followed (though it had been legally set 
 aside under Queen Mary and never restored), save 
 that, as the chief consecrator was not an arch- 
 bishop, all the four bishops, when laying their 
 hands upon Parker's head, each said, <£ Take the 
 Holy Ghost, and remember that thou stir up the 
 grace of God which is in thee by the imposition 
 of hands, for God hath not given us the spirit of 
 fear, but of power, and love, and soberness." In 
 these words there was no specification of the office 
 to be conferred. There was no unction either, 
 nor was there any delivery of a pastoral staff, 
 though this last-named rite was formally and ex- 
 pressly enjoined in the service which was used. 
 
 Here, then, and in this manner, the new suc- 
 cession began ; * and some persons maintain that 
 
 * On the subject of the Nag's Head Table, out of which 
 uninformed controversialists have endeavoured to make capital, 
 
IMPORTANCE OF BARLOW'S CONSECRATION. 67 
 
 its validity depended exclusively upon William 
 Barlow. Hodgkins, however, had been certainly 
 consecrated by John Stokesley, Bishop of London, 
 and two others, as early as 1537, and Scory and 
 Coverdale by Cranmer in 1551 ; so there is some- 
 thing of importance and consideration to be said 
 in favour of the validity, though little for the 
 canonical regularity, of this unprecedented official 
 act. 
 
 The objection to Barlow that he was possibly 
 unconsecrated, because the actual register of his 
 consecration is wanting, seems unreasonable and 
 groundless, for during more than twenty years 
 he publicly and continually acted as a bishop, 
 and specially took a chief part in the mortuary 
 masses for the soul of Henry VIII. ; and this in 
 
 Dr. Lingard wrote as follows : — " Of this tale concerning 
 which so much has been written, I can find no trace in any 
 author or document of the reign of Elizabeth. It is not. impro- 
 bable that the Commissioners, having confirmed the election, 
 dined together at the Nag's Head, the inn chiefly frequented 
 by the clergy at that period, and that this circumstance may 
 have given rise to the story." — "History of England," by 
 John Lingard, D.D., p. 380, vol. vii. London: 1838. "It may 
 be admitted as proved," writes Canon Estcourt, in his learned, 
 able, and temperate treatise entitled " The Question of 
 Anglican Ordinations Discussed," " that the Nag's Head story 
 is a legend without foundation in fact, and that the charge some- 
 times made of Parker and the first Elizabethan bishops 
 assuming their place and discharging their functions without 
 consecration of any kind is also unfounded." — p. 115. Lon- 
 don : 1873. 
 
 5 * 
 
68 THE OHURUH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 the presence of other prelates who notoriously 
 disliked change and dreaded innovation, and must 
 have known well enough that, as regards his epis- 
 copal character, he was truly and actually what 
 he was generally supposed to be. 
 
 This consecration having been effected, Parker 
 in turn confirmed the election of Barlow to Chi- 
 chester, and of Scory to Hereford ; and then with 
 their aid soon afterwards, in due course, proceeded 
 to consecrate the other persons who at the com- 
 mand of the Supreme Head had been elected to 
 the various vacant bishoprics. 
 
69 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Prior to the later events recorded in the last 
 chapter, a proclamation had been issued in the 
 spring of the year, of which Grindal, writing from 
 London to Hubert the Reformer, about the end 
 of May, thus gave his opinion : — 
 
 " Now at last, by the blessing of Grod, during 
 the prorogation of Parliament, there has been 
 published a Proclamation to banish the Pope and 
 his jurisdiction altogether, and to restore Religion 
 to that form which we had in the time of 
 Edward VI. If any bishops or any beneficed 
 persons shall decline to take the oath of abjuration 
 of the authority of the see of Rome, they are to 
 be deprived of every ecclesiastical function and 
 deposed. No one after the Feast of St. John the 
 Baptist next ensuing may celebrate mass without 
 subjecting himself to a most heavy penalty." * 
 
 * Grindal to Conrad Hubert. " Zurich Letters" (Parker 
 Society), vol. ii., No. 8. 
 
70 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 This Proclamation produced immediate fruit. 
 The innovators, who had been expecting it for 
 some weeks, were, upon its receipt, at once pre- 
 pared to act with boldness and determination. 
 The carrying out of its decrees was, of course, left 
 to local authorities. To such, considerable lati- 
 tude was given. These authorities, beforehand 
 and from headquarters, had been privately but 
 duly instructed. There was to be an immediate 
 raid on everything valuable in the churches, more 
 especially on all ecclesiastical articles wrought in 
 precious metal, and the Church lands were to be 
 revalued, and possibly, as regards ownership, re- 
 arranged.* Those country gentlemen, therefore, 
 who were at once doubtful on their own part of 
 what to do, and doubted as to their zeal and com- 
 petence by the agents of Cecil throughout the 
 kingdom, were to be discreetly and confidentially 
 sounded as to whether a share in the anticipated 
 pickings and stealings might not probably quicken 
 their interest and stir up their dormant energies 
 to accomplish what the Council so earnestly 
 desired should be immediately done. 
 
 In order to rouse public opinion, therefore, 
 scurrilous publications from the pens of the re- 
 
 * An information made to Queen Elizabeth of the several 
 abuses and frauds, &c, done unto the State, &c. — Harl. 
 MSS. quoted in p. 124 of Weaver's " Funeral Monuments." 
 
IMMOEAL TACTICS OF THE INNOVATOES. 71 
 
 turned exiles, or foreign Protestants, had been 
 simultaneously circulated by thousands. Some of 
 these were gross in their language, filthy in their 
 suggestions, revolutionary in their proposals, and 
 though garnished with numerous texts of scrip- 
 ture, blasphemous in their teaching.* They 
 appear to have been sent for distribution to all 
 such laymen and apostate clergy as were known 
 to be favourable to the tactics of the innovators. 
 They were likewise freely distributed throughout 
 the various Inns of Law, and especially amongst 
 the students of Oxford and Cambridge. The 
 authorized Commissioners for continuing and 
 completing the changes resolved upon, found that 
 the various parishes which had been selected for 
 their special visitation had been duly prepared 
 for their advent by the receipt, no one knew how 
 or from what quarter, of the inflammatory and ob- 
 scene literature in question. f The language applied 
 therein to the Pope was frightful — far worse than 
 
 * In the 51st of the Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth in 
 1559 this crying evil was seen and acknowledged thus: — 
 " Because there is a great abuse in the Printers of Books, 
 which from covetousness chiefly regard not what they print, 
 so they may have gain, whereby ariseth the great disorder 
 by publication of unfruitful, vain, and infamous books and 
 papers," &c. — " Sparrow's Collections," p. 80. London : 1671. 
 
 f The natural descendants of these unpleasant scribes 
 may possibly be found amongst the modern Soupers of 
 Connemara. 
 
72 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 that which had recently been eliminated from the 
 Litany — but it will be found more than equalled 
 by the ribald trash and rancorous Letters and 
 Homilies which have been reprinted and issued 
 of late years in portly volumes by modern Puri- 
 tans.* In the afore-mentioned literature, the 
 sacraments were disparaged, the priesthood ridi- 
 culed, the act of ordination written of as "a 
 magical incanting," extreme unction styled "a 
 corrupt following of the apostles " and the " dirty 
 greasing of Antichrist" ; while the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment of the altar, hitherto reserved in a silvern or 
 golden pyx, was profanely called " Little Jack- 
 in-the-box," "John in captivity," and treated 
 with deliberate and artfully-desigDed indignities 
 too fearful to describe. 
 
 All over the kingdom, in fact, wherever the in- 
 novators were sufficiently numerous, daring, and 
 profane, this kind of controversial blasphemy was 
 current, and often became fashionable and popu- 
 lar ; while some of the deeds done — by no means 
 unlike in character to that about to be recorded — 
 are in truth too frightful for any detailed de- 
 scription of them to be put into words. 
 
 One record of such — with the swift punishments 
 which followed — will for the present suffice. It 
 
 * Publications of the Parker Society. 
 
REVOLTING SACRILEGE AT CANTERBURY. 73 
 
 has come down to us on good and sufficient 
 authority — a priest of the Church of God — and 
 affords, it is to be feared, too graphic and accu- 
 rate a picture of similar dark deeds then perpe- 
 trated : — 
 
 "After that the Holy Mass was, by public Pro- 
 clamation of the late Queen,* commanded to 
 surcease immediately in all places of England by 
 Midsummer Day immediately following, four men 
 of Dover, in the county of Kent, besides others 
 which assisted at the same action, went into the 
 church of the same town and took forth the 
 copes, vestments, and other priestly ornaments 
 belonging thereto, giving forth and boasting 
 abroad that they would go fetch the Pope from 
 Canterbury ; and the very next day after Mid- 
 summer Day, these companions came to Canter- 
 bury, put on the said copes, and other ornaments 
 upon their backs, and in a pix, made to reserve 
 the Blessed Sacrament of the Body of our 
 Saviour Jesus, they put a dog's [excrement] ; 
 and then beginning at St. George's Gate, rode in 
 form of procession quite through the city, till 
 they came to Westgate ; which done, the very 
 same night they posted back again to Dover. 
 
 " One of these four was Captain Roberts, who 
 
 * The book was not published until the reign of King 
 James the First. 
 
74 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 presently after carried all the copes, vestments, 
 and other ornaments over the seas to Dunkirk, 
 where he sold them. His miserable and wretched 
 end was, that there leaping out of one small boat 
 into another, to go to his ship, the boat he was 
 in, slipping away, he stepped short of the other, 
 and so falling into the water, pitched his unhappy 
 head upon an anchor, where he beat out his brains. 
 
 " The second, shortly after running mad, cast 
 himself off from Dover Pier into the sea, and so 
 was drowned. 
 
 " The third died of John Calvin's disease ; that 
 is to say, he was eaten up with lice, being yet 
 alive. 
 
 " The fourth, who afterwards became minister 
 of Maidstone, falling grievously sick, endured 
 God's terrible judgments, for he stunk so abomin- 
 ably, that none, no, not his own wife, could 
 endure to come near him ; so that when they 
 gave him meat to eat, they were forced to put it 
 upon the end of a long pole, and so to reach it 
 unto him through a window. For confirmation 
 whereof there are right credible and worshipful 
 persons yet alive who can testify the same for a 
 certain truth." * 
 
 It is sometimes asserted, by interested or igno- 
 
 * From the Preface to " A Devout Exposition of the Holy 
 Maes," by John Heigham, a.d. 1622. 
 
THE " REFORMATION " AND GREAT REBELLION. 75 
 
 rant writers, that such acts as these never took 
 place at all until the frightful and unhappy period 
 of the Great Rebellion. Oliver Cromwell and Lord 
 Brooke they condemn : for Thomas Cromwell, 
 Nicholas Ridley, Grindal, and Aylmer, they have 
 only apologies or praise. The picture by such 
 writers of the days of Queen Elizabeth is conse- 
 quently rose-tinted, peaceful and pleasant to look 
 upon. But it is a picture of pastoral beauty, 
 peace, and repose drawn rather from heated imagi- 
 nation than from stern facts. Horrible, in truth, 
 as were the deeds of Dowsing and Prynne sixty 
 years later, none of them equalled in atrocity those 
 just related ; while these last-named unhappy 
 Puritans, who had sucked in the principles of 
 Protestantism and the rejection of all Authority 
 with their mother's milk, must have well known 
 by tradition hundreds of dismal precedents for 
 their own sacrilegious iniquities and destructive 
 acts, which may have spurred them on to over- 
 turn, murder, upheave, commit outrages, and 
 destroy, as they did to their hearts' content. 
 
 It has been also asserted by recent writers, 
 evidently in good faith, that the Oath of Homage 
 as at present taken by the bishops of the Church 
 of England is a modern invention,* unknown 
 
 * " Can any of your readers tell us something about the 
 history of this secret oath ? Who was the first bishop who 
 
76 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 until quite recent years, or at all events of no 
 earlier antiquity than the disordered days of the 
 revolutionary William of Orange, and of no for- 
 mal authority. These writers, however, have only 
 unintentionally helped to darken knowledge by 
 bold assertions which, alas ! most efficiently ex- 
 emplify their own ignorance and blundering. 
 That Oath, in the actual terms still made use of, 
 came into existence when the new Church was 
 originally set up, and it was certainly and duti- 
 fully taken by the first Protestant Archbishop of 
 Canterbury on his knees before the Queen. Sir 
 William Cecil, no doubt, was its author, and pos- 
 sibly Dr. Matthew Parker himself had a hand in 
 its revision ; for he not only took it himself,* but 
 
 ventured to swear that he held his spiritualties from the 
 Crown ? Has any bishop denied this, or protested against 
 its apparent meaning ? Or will any one give an explanation 
 of the term which will relieve consciences, and effectually 
 meet the charges our enemies are sure to bring against us — ■ 
 that here is proof positive of the unmitigated Erastianism 
 of the whole English Episcopate ? " — Eev. Charles Gutch, 
 B.D., on the " Oath of Homage." 
 
 * The following is the Oath of Homage, taken on February 
 23, 1560 (See "Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. xi.): 
 "I, Matthew Parker, Doctor of Divinity, now elect Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, do utterly testify and declare in my 
 conscience, that Tour Majesty is the only Supreme Governor 
 of this Realm, and of ali other Tour Highness's dominions 
 and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things 
 or causes, as temporal, and that no foreign prince, person, 
 prelate, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, eccle- 
 
FOREIGN PROTESTANTS PROVIDED FOR. 77 
 
 thus created a precedent for all his suffragans, 
 without any single exception, the most remote as 
 well as the more proximate. 
 
 No longperiod after her accession, the Lord Trea- 
 surer was directed by the Queen, under the advice 
 of Aylmer, an exile for his Protestantism, to as- 
 sign the grand and effective church of the Austin 
 Friars in the City of London — a church, be it 
 noted, which in Edward the Sixth's time, had 
 already been thoroughly cleared out of all its 
 ancient furniture and valuable ornaments, and left 
 as bare and bald as possible — to the use of French, 
 
 siastical 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 unto Your 
 Majesty, Your heirs and lawful successors, and to my power 
 shall assist and defend all jurisdictions, privileges, pre- 
 eminences and authorities granted or belonging to Your 
 Highness, Your heirs and successors, or united and annexed 
 to the Imperial Crown of this Realm. And further, I know- 
 ledge and confess to have and to hold the said archbishopric of 
 Canterbury, and the possessions of the same entirely, as well 
 the spiritualties as temporalties thereof, only of Your Majesty and 
 the Crown Royal of this Your Realms. And as for the said 
 possessions, I do my homage presently unto Your Highness, 
 and to the same, and Your heirs and lawful successors, shall 
 be faithful and true. So help me God, and the contents of 
 this book." 
 
 " We, also, whose names be underwritten, being bishops of 
 the several bishoprics within Your Majesty's Realm, do 
 testify, declare, and acknowledge all and every part of the 
 premises in like manner as the right reverend father in God, 
 the Archbishop of Canterbury, has done." 
 
78 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Flemish, and other foreign Protestants. Upon 
 this Grindal, in full communion with the conti- 
 nental sectaries, applied to Calvin for a pastor, 
 who in response despatched Monsieur Nicholas de 
 Grallars, a French preacher, to undertake the office 
 of superintendent there, and who received the 
 bishop's " authority." The services, exactly 
 modelled after those of the foreign conventicle, 
 consisted of long prayers and longer sermons. 
 But the disputes about free will and justification,* 
 original sin and prevenient grace, became so fierce 
 and furious — for the preacher was constantly 
 answered on the spot by his hearers — that the civil 
 authorities were often called in to settle biblical 
 controversies, which had ended in a free fight and 
 a riot, by turning out both preacher and hearers 
 by force, and then locking the doors. 
 
 Moreover, some of the foreign reformers who 
 had arrived here, in order to stir up the sluggish 
 nature of English Protestants, were persons who 
 had so offended against the laws of their own 
 
 * " If any preacher or parson, vicar or curate, so licensed 
 shall fortune to preach any matter tending to dissension, or 
 to the derogation of the religion and doctrine received, that 
 the hearers denounce the same to the Ordinaries, or to the 
 next bishop of the same place ; but no man openly to contrary 
 or to impugne the same speech so disorderly uttered, whereby 
 may grow offence and disquiet of the people, but shall be 
 convinced and reproved by the Ordinary." — " Articles for 
 Doctrine and Preaching," issued by Queen Elizabeth, 1564. 
 
FOREIGN PROTESTANTS BANISHED. 79 
 
 country, that their presence in London was not 
 particularly desired. We all know that justifica- 
 tion by faith rather than by good works — for 
 " good works are but filthy rags," as the preachers 
 of this new gospel maintained — was their chief 
 and favourite dogma : a dogma not conducive 
 either to sound morals or sober conduct. So 
 that in the course of a very few years, i.e. in 
 1568, the Queen issued a Proclamation,* requir- 
 ing all such intruding Protestants to be examined, 
 as many of them were credibly believed to have 
 been guilty of " rebellion, murders, robberies, or 
 such like," and to have only come over here to 
 preach their blasphemous gospel in order to avoid 
 the reasonable consequences of notorious trans- 
 gressions in their own country. 
 
 Eventually, when their extravagances became 
 dangerous and unendurable,! for it is always far 
 
 * " Wilkins' Concilia," vol. iv. pp. 204 and 254. 
 
 t " Here under the shelter of the Reformed Religion, they 
 maintained several gross errors and heresies. Some of these 
 were German Anabaptists ; and others propagated opinions 
 of a very dangerous tendency ; and thus misbelief gained 
 ground, and some of the ignorant natives were miserably 
 misled. To stop the spreading of this infection, the Queen, 
 by a Proclamation, ordered these hereticks, both aliens and 
 natural-born English, to depart the kingdom within one-and- 
 twenty days. The penalty of staying longer was imprison- 
 ment and forfeiting their goods." — "An Ecclesiastical History 
 of Great Britain," by Jeremy Collier, vol. vi. p. 322. London : 
 1846. 
 
80 THE CHURCH UXDEK QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 easier to open the flood-gates of heresy and rebel- 
 lion than to close them again — these Protestants, 
 on pain of imprisonment and loss of goods, were 
 ordered to leave the kingdom within twenty-one 
 days. 
 
 Such a strong measure, of course, excited them 
 greatly ; and their preachers were fierce in its 
 denunciation and furious with Cecil. Many of 
 them openly maintained, as Knox and Calvin had 
 done long ago, that the rule of women in the 
 Lord's Fold was a monstrous anomaly and a sin ; 
 and dealt out covert maledictions at the Queen 
 and her secret love-affairs most unsparingly, using 
 language rather forcible than choice. 
 
 Soon after the Queen's accession, Giovanni 
 Angelo de Medicis, Pope Pius IV., wrote a beau- 
 tiful and even touching letter to Her Majesty, 
 sending it by a nuncio, the Abbot Vincent Par- 
 paglia,* who was directed to travel through Lower 
 
 * Some writers have asserted, but with little or no evi- 
 dence of the fact, that Parpaglia bore a message from the 
 Pope volunteering to reverse his predecessor's sentence 
 against the so-called " marriage " of Henry VIII. with 
 Anne Boleyn, and to sanction the revolutionary changes 
 which had been made anew in the divine office, on condition 
 that the Queen acknowledged His Holiness's supremacy ; but 
 from the days of Camden down to those of Chancellor 
 Harington, of Exeter, no sufficient and conclusive proofs 
 of this proposition have been forthcoming. — See " Camden's 
 Annals," p. 46. London: 1688. Tierney's edition of " Dodd's 
 
THE POPE'S LETTEE TO THE QUEEN. 81 
 
 Germany towards England. But the Queen, 
 learning the purport of his coming, and having 
 consulted her Council, who feared any change of 
 purpose on her part, declined to allow him to land 
 in her kingdom. He had reached Calais, but was 
 thus compelled to return. 
 
 The paternal action of His Holiness has been 
 so misrepresented that the actual words of his 
 written communication ought to be carefully 
 studied : — 
 
 " Very dear daughter in Christ, We send you 
 greeting, health, and the apostolical benediction. 
 How greatly We desire (Our pastoral charge so 
 requiring it) to procure the salvation of your 
 soul, and to provide likewise for your honour, and 
 the security of your kingdom withal, God, Who is 
 the Searcher of all hearts, knoweth, and you your- 
 self may understand by what We have given in 
 charge to this Our beloved son Vincentius Par- 
 paglia, Abbot of St. Saviour's, a man well known 
 to you, and well approved by Us. Wherefore, 
 We do again and again exhort and admonish your 
 Highness, most dear daughter, that, rejecting evil 
 
 Church History," vol. ii. p. 147. London : 1839. " Collier's 
 History," vol. vi. p. 395. London : 1840. " Ware's Foxes 
 and Firebrands," part hi. p. 15; and " Pope Pius IV. and the 
 Book of Common Prayer," by E. C. Harrington. London : 
 1856. 
 
 6 
 
82 
 
 THE CHURCH ODER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 counsellors, which love not you but themselves, 
 and serve their own lusts, you would take the 
 fear of God into council with you, and, acknow- 
 ledging the time of your visitation, would show 
 yourself obedient to Our fatherly persuasions and 
 wholesome counsels, and promise to yourself from 
 Us all things that may make not only to the sal- 
 vation of your soul, but also whatsoever you shall 
 desire from Us, for the establishing and confirm- 
 ing of your princely dignity, according to the 
 authority, place, and office committed unto Us by 
 God. And if so be (as We desire and hope), that 
 you shall return into the bosom of the Church, We 
 shall be ready to receive you with the same love, 
 honour, and rejoicing, that the father in the 
 gospel did his son returning to him ; although 
 Our joy is like to be the greater, in that he was 
 joyful for the safety of one son, but you, draw- 
 ing along with you all the people of England, shall 
 hear Us and the whole company of Our brethren 
 (who are shortly. God willing, to be assembled in 
 a General Council, for the taking away of heresies, 
 and so for the salvation of yourself and your whole 
 nation,) fill the Church Universal with rejoicing 
 and gladness. Yea, you shall make glad Heaven 
 itself with such a memorable fact, and achieve 
 admirable renown to your name, much more glo- 
 rious than the crown you wear. But concerning 
 this matter, the same Yincentius shall deal with 
 
CONSECRATION OF NEW BISHOPS. 83 
 
 you more largely, and shall declare Our fatherly 
 affection toward you; and We entreat your 
 Majesty to receive him lovingly, to hear him dili- 
 gently, and to give the same credit to his speeches, 
 which you would to Ourself . 
 
 " (riven at Rome, at St. Peter's, under the 
 Fisherman's Ring, May 5th, 1560, in the first year 
 of our Pontificate." * 
 
 Edmund Grindal, who, after a fashion, but with 
 considerable canonical irregularities, had been 
 elected Bishop of London, was by Parker and 
 others consecrated at Lambeth on St. Thomas' 
 Day, 1559, at the same time that Richard Cocks, 
 Rowland Meyrick, and Edwin Sandys were like- 
 wise consecrated for the sees of Ely, Bangor, and 
 Worcester. 
 
 The first and most striking fact which was 
 brought home to the new bishops, after they had 
 secured possession of their temporalities, was the 
 extremely small amount of money which the epis- 
 copal lands and manors actually produced. Many 
 had been already sold or alienated ; of those re- 
 maining, long leases had already been granted by 
 the Crown during vacancies ; and all the lands 
 had sorely deteriorated by want of due attention 
 
 * MS. "Vatican," 2896, n. 214. MS. "Titus," C. vii., n. 11. 
 Brit. Museum. 
 
 6 * 
 
84 THE CHTJBCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 and proper cultivation. The prelates, therefore, 
 made complaint to Sir "William Cecil ; but on the 
 part of the Supreme Governess he delicately re- 
 buked them for their importunity,* pointing out 
 with grim satire that spiritual persons should be 
 satisfied with spiritual things, and not look too 
 anxiously after things temporal. 
 
 Preparations also were about this time made 
 for filling up the many other sees vacant — a work 
 in which Sir William Cecil took a leading and pro- 
 minent part. Even at this period he foresaw 
 clearly enough that the " foreign gospel " and its 
 preachers might cause him considerable inconve- 
 nience. He was extremely careful, therefore, not 
 to commit himself absolutely to their policy. And 
 though he occasionally condescended to employ 
 them and secure their help, he was shrewd enough 
 to keep them all at arm's length. 
 
 The new bishops found themselves likewise ter- 
 ribly embarrassed by the pressing want of clergy,! 
 
 * " When the bishops sued to the Lord Treasurer for 
 revenue, they were merely answered that spiritual things be 
 
 meetest for spiritual men." — E ny to Challoner, "Foreign 
 
 Papers, Elizabeth," p. 137, No. 323, Nov. 23, 1559. 
 
 f " Many of our parishes have no clergymen, and some 
 dioceses are without a bishop. And out of that very small 
 number who administer the sacraments throughout this great 
 country, there is hardly one in a hundred who is both able 
 
DEPLOEABLE CONDITION OF THE CHURCHES. 85 
 
 and had no means to their hands with which to 
 supply it. Many of the parish churches, having 
 lost their chief endowments and been completely 
 cleared out of everything of value in metal, — in 
 some nothing but a tin or latten vessel remaining 
 for the Communion board,* the windows of the 
 choir broken, the lead from the roofs stripped off, 
 and side chapels or chantries often destroyed for 
 the sake of the stones of which they had been 
 built, — even the exiles from Geneva and else- 
 where declined to serve them. Numerous cures 
 were vacant, and several hundreds of chapelries 
 unserved ; students for the ministry at Oxford and 
 Cambridge had been so reduced in numbers that 
 they might be now counted rather by tens than, 
 
 and willing to preach the Word of Q-od." — "Zurich Letters," 
 1st series, No. 35, From Thomas Lever to Bullinger, dated 
 10th July 1560. " In the diocese of Durham the ministry 
 is destitute of a sufficiency of worthy men, there and in other 
 places." — Robert Home, Dean of Durham, to Cecil, Nov. 13, 
 1560, " Foreign Papers, Elizabeth." London : 1865. 
 
 " Where is there any learned number to supply their 
 rooms ? There be few schools abroad to bring up youth ; 
 but so many benefices so small that no men will take them ; 
 and so the parishes be unserved, and the people wax without 
 fear of G-od." — "Bishop Pilkington's Works" (Parker 
 Society), p. 593. London : 1842. 
 
 * " That the parish provide a decent table, standing on a 
 frame, for the Communion table." — " Queen Elizabeth's 
 Articles for Doctrine and Preaching," 1564. 
 
86 THE CHUBCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 as of old, by hundreds or even by thousands.* 
 Those of the cast-out monks who were in any 
 way competent for the office had been duly pro- 
 moted to the priesthood six years previously in 
 Queen Mary's reign; others, however, had long ago 
 taken to secular callings ; some, again, had become 
 parish clerks and sextons ; some had been charged 
 on suspicion, captured, and allowed to rot in 
 prison ; others had gone abroad in their extremity ; 
 a few, in despair of securing anything more suit- 
 able, had undertaken the office of steward to 
 noblemen and gentlemen who had obtained pos- 
 session of the monastic lands ; while many of the 
 monks had found, what had been denied to them 
 throughout the last years of their chequered lives, 
 peace and rest in death. 
 
 Amongst the more fanatical innovators, preach- 
 ing, and the desire to attend it, had at this time 
 become such a rage — the Communion table, as 
 well actually as metaphorically, being now wholly 
 overshadowed by the pulpit — that unless a divine 
 
 * In the year ]561, as Anthony a Wood has put on record, 
 so frightful was the emptiness and depression at Oxford, 
 that throughout the whole year there were no degrees given 
 " in Divinity, and but one in the Civil Law, three in Physic, 
 and eight in Arts," and, in the Act of the same year, " not 
 one in Divinity, Law, or Physic." The students also were so 
 poor and beggarly that many of them were forced this and 
 the year following to obtain license under the Commissary 
 Seal, to require the alms of well-disposed people. — "Annals 
 of the University," by Anthony a Wood. Sub anno, 1561. 
 
THE NEW METHOD OF PEEACHING. 87 
 
 could expound a crabbed text with art, skilfully 
 analyse its various parts in detail, compare it with 
 twenty other texts dealing with the same or a 
 similar subject, and then adroitly branch off with 
 perplexing dissertations in half-a-dozen unex- 
 pected directions, he was fearlessly written down 
 as at once incompetent and godless, lacking spi- 
 ritual gifts and free grace, a mere dumb dog, un- 
 worthy of hire or notice. 
 
 Such treasures as those who could thus preach 
 popularly for two hours or so without any break 
 or mishap, were still few and far between. 
 Though fully appreciated, they could not be se- 
 cured every day or anywhere. Their homiletic 
 gifts were choice, rare, and superfine. The 
 demand for them, consequently, was greatly in 
 excess of the supply. But even these when hand- 
 ling Scripture — often casting pearls before swine 
 — were properly shunned, with a shudder, by those 
 who at heart clung to the Ancient Faith. 
 
 Inferior officers of the Establishment, the illi- 
 terate and ill-mannered, the " sundry artificers " 
 aud those of " base occupation," to whom Parker 
 and Grindal had, it may be supposed, given some 
 kind of ordination, and a special commission to 
 preach,* were required, instead of " holding 
 
 * " The supply of clergy was insufficient, and even the 
 withdrawal or removal of what but for this would have been 
 
88 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 forth out of their own heads " — as the phrase 
 then stood, and so remained almost to our own 
 day — were required to deliver over and over again 
 the "godly" but somewhat coarse-languaged Ho- 
 milies which the innovators had authoritatively put 
 forth for the practical use of their ill -instructed,* 
 ignorant, and vulgar allies. If these HomiUes in 
 question were those which satisfied the not over- 
 refined tastes of the new prelates, we need not 
 stay to contemplate what was the kind of taste 
 popular with these new and too-truly " inferior " 
 clergy. 
 
 The dearth of spiritual privileges and the deso- 
 lation consequent thereupon, became by conse- 
 quence truly awful. Churches were closed, for 
 there were none to serve them. Infants remained 
 unbaptized, women were not churched, children 
 
 so considerable a portion as one in fifty-three of the bene- 
 ficed clergy in England, seriously embarrassed the new 
 bishops. As in other times, men unqualified by learning, 
 and by the possession of clerical gravity, or deficient in re- 
 gard to our ideal moral standard, however truly they con- 
 formed to the naturally low standard of general morality, 
 were ordained and beneficed to supply the deficiency of the 
 first years of the reign of Elizabeth." — " The English Epis- 
 copate at the Accession of Elizabeth," p. 289. " Union 
 Review." London: 1875. 
 
 * " We are only wanting in preachers, and of these there 
 is a great and alarming scarcity. The schools also are en- 
 tirely deserted." — " Zurich Letters," John Jewell to Peter 
 Martyr, 1st Series, No. 38. Parker Society. 
 
CELEBRATION OF "THE LORD'S SUPPER." 89 
 
 were uninstructed. In some places the dead were 
 buried, like dogs, without either rite or ceremony ; 
 save that poor and pious neighbours gathered near 
 to tell their beads and recite the Be profundis, 
 and this often at the risk of condign punishment. 
 
 Even in cathedrals the Communion was admi- 
 nistered but once a quarter, though ordered once 
 a month. Sometimes the authorities tolerated 
 the ministerial acts of persons who had not re- 
 ceived any but Presbyterian ordination, and pos- 
 sibly not even that. The " Lord's board," as it 
 was called, was brought down with its tressels 
 from the east end of the chancel,* and placed, as 
 for a domestic meal, with benches round, in the 
 middle of the choir. It was covered with an 
 ample table-napkin of Damascus cloth. A large 
 leathern bottle of wine,f a loaf of bread, and a 
 
 * The table is ordered to be " set in the place where the 
 altar stood . . . saving when the Communion of the Sacra- 
 ment is to be distributed, at which time the same shall be so 
 placed in good sort within the chancel. . . . After the 
 Communion is done, from time to time, the same holy table to 
 be placed where it stood before." — Queen Elizabeth's Injunc- 
 tions, 1559. 
 
 f " A bottyl of leather and a flagon of white metall for 
 wine for the Supper." — Churchwarden's Accounts of St. 
 Mary Magdalene's, Oxford, 1551-2. " Item, whether you 
 have a faire potte or two of pewter for the sweet keeping 
 of the wine?" — "William Chaderton's Visitation Articles for 
 the Diocese of Lincoln, a.d. 1603. " The bread delivered to 
 
90 THE CHURCH DNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 knife, sometimes a pewter plate and flagon, or 
 occasionally a wooden platter and a tin cup, were 
 by the sexton then placed upon it. A cushion 
 and a Prayer Book of the latest revision com- 
 pleted the ornamenta. The proceedings began 
 by the singing of a hymn.* Bound the table 
 the people sat or stood. The minister, though 
 ordered to go to its north end by the direction 
 of the rubric, often stood at the easternf part, or 
 seated himself in an arm-chair, where he alter- 
 nately preached and prayed. "When the service 
 was over, what remained of the bread and wine 
 was passed round again to the congregation, 
 who helped themselves, and so were communi- 
 cated, after a fashion, twice over ; the bottles and 
 flagons were then taken away, the cloth re- 
 moved, and the table often lifted back again to 
 its place under the east wall. 
 
 the communicants be such as is usual to be eaten at the 
 table with other meats. . . . No other bread to be used 
 by the minister." — William Overton's Visitation Articles, 
 1584. 
 
 * " There may be sung a hymn or such-like song to the 
 praise of Almighty God in the best sort of melody and 
 music that may be conveniently devised, having respect that 
 the sentence [Qy. sense] of the hymn may be understanded 
 and perceived." — Injunctions of Queen Elizabeth, 1559. 
 
 t " The minister, when there is no Communion, useth a 
 surplice only, standing on the east side of the table, with 
 his face towards the people." — Strype's " Life of Pai'ker," 
 vol. i. p. 365. 
 
FURTHER INNOVATIONS RECOMMENDED. 91 
 
 Such was the ordinary rule and custom with 
 reference to what was termed "the Supper." 
 
 Some of the more fanatical and mad of the 
 innovating party, however, adopting the Protes- 
 tant method of interpretation of Scripture, main- 
 tained that even such practices were wrong, and 
 without biblical authority, and that the Lord's 
 Supper ought to be something very different — a 
 well-prepared and substantial meal, at which the 
 faithful could satisfy the cravings of hunger with 
 " a variety and abundance of meat and drink." * 
 Ever since the days of St. Paul, the Catholic 
 Church, as they so modestly maintained, had been 
 in blind error. It was thus reserved to certain 
 infallible innovators of the sixteenth century, mad- 
 men, fanatics, and demon-possessed, to re-deliver 
 the lost Truth. One fool often makes many. 
 There were several who enthusiastically embraced 
 this new and remarkable idea. 
 
 * Eobert Cooke, one of the gentlemen of the Queen's 
 Chapel, wrote: "My remarks relate to the Last Supper of 
 Christ, in the administration of which a mistake is made 
 now-a-days, and ever has been almost from the time of St. 
 Paul : since he placed before the Corinthians a supper to be 
 eaten ; we only a morsel of bread in mockery of a supper. 
 They used a variety and abundance of meat and drink, so 
 as to depart satisfied; we return hungry." — Robert Cooke 
 to Kodolph Gualter, " Zurich Letters," 2nd Series, Letter 
 95. 
 
92 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 When such services as that just described were 
 calmly contrasted with the ancient and familiar 
 Mass,* no wonder that the dazed and staggered 
 people felt disposed to leave the despoiled and 
 empty churches to the owls and bats ; no wonder 
 that, as was so often the case, they refused to enter 
 them. Except with those who were on the look- 
 out for their own advancement, the changes 
 effected were most unpopular. Some of the new 
 bishops, in their exuberant piety, scolded like angry 
 fishwomen, or swore like their Royal Mistress, f 
 
 * " For their continual massing afore noon, we praise God 
 that hath delivered us from it, as a thing contrary to His 
 holy will and ordinance. St. Paul says that when they came 
 together to eat the Lord's Supper they should tarry one for 
 another; but these shorn, shaveling, shameless priests would 
 neither remain together one with another, nor yet let the 
 people have any part with them. Every one would creep 
 into a corner to an altar alone, there lift up on high, eat and 
 drink up all alone, sell good pennyworths, and bless them 
 with the empty chalice." — " Bishop Pilkington's Works," 
 Parker Society, p. 528. London : 1842. 
 
 f " The cholerick oaths and manifold rare upbraidings " 
 [of my Lord of Hereford] " be of no avail with the bastards 
 of Antichrist, though spoken in the Queue's Majestie's name." 
 — Again : John Best, Bishop of Carlisle, writing to Cecil, 
 reports the state of his diocese. " The priestes are wicked 
 impes of Antichrist, for the most part very ignorant and 
 stubborn; past measure false and subtle." — " Domestic 
 State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. xvii. 
 
 For a due account of Her Majesty's ability and proficiency 
 in profane swearing, the reader should consult her godson 
 Sir John Harington's " Nugae Antiquse." 
 
NEW OATH TENDERED TO THE CLERGY. 93 
 
 but neither bad language nor coarse oaths served 
 the cause of the New Gospel, which in many parts 
 sorely languished. The novel title of Supreme 
 Governess, the new-fangled supremacy itself, with 
 all its complex consequences, as well as the newly- 
 revised Prayer Book, were each and all disliked. 
 Nothing in the recent Proclamation had com- 
 mended itself to the great body of the People — 
 whether ancient nobility, lawful clergy, or gen- 
 tlemen of blood and estate be comprehended in 
 that wide but ambiguous term — and a large and 
 influential majority refused to acquiesce in the 
 changes. 
 
 What, therefore, the upholders of Might against 
 Right were compelled to attempt, could only be 
 effected by a tortuous and astute policy ; not by 
 direct but by crooked courses ; and these were 
 taken artfully and warily, according to varying 
 circumstances and by the aid of means ready to 
 hand. The work was done by degrees, and in 
 the manner and by a method now to be described. 
 
 The Oath of Supremacy was duly tendered to 
 all the clergy in accordance with the recent enact- 
 ment. Many important offices were vacant. By 
 almost the whole of the leading dignitaries of the 
 Church it was firmly and resolutely refused. 
 More than twelve of the deans deliberately de- 
 clined to take it, and, as some avowed, were quite 
 prepared for the consequences of their refusal. 
 
94 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Numbers of the archdeacons, canons, and pre- 
 bendaries did the same,* as did also numerous 
 heads of colleges and influential members of the 
 two Universities. Amongst the parochial clergy, 
 an important rather than a considerable minority 
 were likewise equally true to the Faith of their 
 Fathers ; declining with firmness and resolution 
 to acknowledge an illegitimate woman as, in any 
 form or shape, or because of any legislation, the 
 Supreme Governess of the Church of England. 
 In this they were sometimes supported by the 
 public. f Many of them, however, were passive 
 and obedient, waiting for another change, and 
 hoping earnestly for better and brighter times. 
 One re-action had happily taken place ; others, 
 they assumed, might possibly follow. 
 
 As, a consequence of their refusal, certain of 
 
 * " The whole of the clergy deprived at this time stands 
 thus : fourteen bishops, already mentioned ; three bishops- 
 elect, one abbot, four priors, and one abbess ; twelve deans, 
 fourteen archdeacons, sixty canons or prebendaries, one 
 hundred priests, well-preferred ; fifteen heads of colleges in 
 Oxford and Cambridge, to which may be added about 
 twenty doctors in several faculties." — " Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory of Great Britain," by Jeremy Collier, vol. vi. p. 242. 
 London : 1846. 
 
 t On the inauguration of Dr. Francis as the new Protes- 
 tant Provost of Queen's College, Oxford, there was a serious 
 riot. — Letter of Scholars of Oxford to Cecil, May 11, 1561. 
 " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," No. 7, vol. xvii. 
 
CATHOLICS PERSECUTED AND SCATTERED. 95 
 
 the dignitaries in question were either cast into 
 prison and loaded with chains, or promptly ba- 
 nished the realm. No favour was shown to any 
 who resisted the enactment, except, for personal 
 reasons, to a few feeble and worn-out clergy who 
 were cruelly denied the consolations of religion, 
 confined to special localities, and not permitted to 
 go beyond well-defined limits. But the old 
 priests* retained their well deserved popularity. 
 The Friars Observant at Greenwich, some of the 
 Benedictines from Westminster, the Carthusian 
 Fathers in Richmond, as well as the Bridgetine 
 Nuns of Sion House, one and all, marking the 
 signs of the times, left their desolated country, 
 and for ever turned their backs upon their former 
 sacred homes. Persons of blood and rank, noble- 
 men and gentlemen, and sometimes, indeed, noble 
 and delicate ladies likewise, cheerfully left their 
 pleasant mansions and ancient possessions, suf- 
 fering any spoiling of their goods and destitution 
 rather than give up their Faith. The most re- 
 spected and best learned of the universities, be- 
 
 * Some old priests, Brigg, Blaxton, Arden, Gregory, and 
 others, though driven out of Exeter, were received in Bishop 
 Scory's diocese (Hereford) with acclamation, and feasted in 
 the streets by torchlight — of which he wrote and made com- 
 plaint. — "Domestic State Papers, 1547-1580," Aug. 17, 
 1561. 
 
96 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 coming exiles, were scattered throughout foreign 
 lands, weeping by strange waters because of the 
 religious desolation of their native homes. Some 
 found a refuge and home in Flanders, others in 
 France, some in Italy. As regards the latter 
 country, it is interesting to remember that the 
 saintly Archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo, 
 received the English exiles in that beautiful city 
 with cordial kindness. He truly bound up their 
 spiritual wounds, pouring in oil and wine. For 
 several years, indeed, His Grace's own confessor 
 was a Welsh canon, Dr. Griffith Roberts, and Ins 
 last grand vicar was another Welshman, Dr. Owen 
 Lewis. 
 
 For the inferior clergy these days were indeed 
 days of trial. Many of them obviously conformed 
 to the new order of things for fear of poverty, 
 others because they preferred the license and 
 freedom which an acceptance of the new doctrines 
 practically ensured. Step by step, those who 
 would not take the Oath of Supremacy* were 
 " weeded out," as one of the new prelates phrased 
 it ; but, though the Visitors and Commissioners 
 
 * Those who resigned their appointments rather than do 
 so were possibly under two hundred and fifty in number; 
 but of those who remained, hoping for another change and 
 better days, several hundreds, possibly some thousands, 
 heartily disliked the new religion and its founders. 
 
RESISTANCE TO THE INNOVATIONS. 
 
 97 
 
 appointed by the Queen went about their work 
 with a will, the practical difficulties which met 
 them at every turn were considerable. Though 
 the innovators were a small minority, they were 
 united and determined, while the great body of 
 the people were against the changes ; and the 
 hearty resolutions of such were constantly met 
 with by those violent and foul-mouthed officials 
 who had been sent forth to continue and complete 
 the revolution.* By degrees, however, because 
 of the constant and continual fines imposed for 
 nonconformity, many who clung to the ancient 
 faith did not altogether decline to attend the new 
 service, and even to receive the bread and wine 
 distributed at what was called " the Supper of 
 the Lord." 
 
 The exact state of affairs at this melancholy 
 period was graphically described by a competent 
 judge and author, Edward Rishton, a watchful 
 and observant priest, who followed a consider- 
 able number of the clergy of the ancient faith, 
 in a total denial of the validity and value of 
 
 * John Scory, Bishop of Hereford, writes to Cecil, June 
 21, 1561, to say that there are great disorders in the Cathedral 
 church of his diocese, which, he charitably remarks, is " a 
 very nurserye of blasphemy, whordom, pryde, superstition, 
 and ignorance." — " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. 
 xvii. No. 32. 
 
 7 
 
98 TEE CHUECH TJNDEB QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 the new ordinations. Some moderns may have 
 desired, and yet desire, that a different contem- 
 porary judgment might have been given at the 
 time when the new rites and regulations were 
 first set forth and adopted ; but, from the days 
 of Thomas Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph,* 
 to those of Canon Edgar Estcourt of St. Chad's 
 Cathedral in Birmingham, one uniform opinion 
 and tradition appears to have been held. The 
 limited number of exceptions only serve to prove 
 the rule. 
 
 " It may be confidently asserted," writes Canon 
 Estcourt, " that there is an unbroken tradition 
 from the year 1554 to the present time, con- 
 firmed by constant practice in France and Rome, 
 as well as in this country, in accordance with 
 which Anglican ordinations are looked upon as 
 
 * A contemporary inquiry was made at Rome in the spring 
 of the year 1570, as well concerning the character of the new 
 orders as of the assumed prelatial dignities held by those who 
 had not been previously ordained priests. Goldwell, Bishop 
 of St. Asaph, gave his opinion, as did also Dr. Nicholas 
 Morton, of the diocese of York ; Henry Henshaw, of the 
 diocese of Lincoln; Edmund Daniel, Dean of Hereford; 
 Thomas Kinton, of the diocese of Sarum, and others. All 
 the opinions of these persons were against the validity of the 
 new rites and ordinations. See, for the document itself, the 
 Continuation of the " Annals of Baronius," by Laderchius, 
 vol. hi. pp. 197 et seq. 
 
DIFFICULTIES CONCERNING ORDINATIONS. 
 
 99 
 
 absolutely null and void ; and Anglican ministers 
 are treated simply as laymen, so that those who 
 wish to become priests have to be ordained un- 
 conditionally. Not a single instance to the con- 
 trary can be alleged."* 
 
 There are certain difficulties which, it must be 
 frankly allowed, have been always felt by learned 
 Roman Catholics and Orientals with regard to the 
 fact of Parker's consecration, and which must be 
 duly faced and removed before any recognition of 
 the validity of English ordinations can be reason- 
 ably expected either from the Eastern or Western 
 Churches. Anglicans must not remain con- 
 tented with assertions which appear to satisfy 
 themselves, but be prepared with arguments 
 and conclusions which will convince their oppo- 
 nents. 
 
 The modern Easterns, though personally civil 
 and polite enough, frequently repudiate our or- 
 dinations with scorn. The late Archbishop of 
 Syros and Tenos, even more civil than some of his 
 brethren, re-ordained absolutely, the Rev. James 
 Chrystal, an American clergyman of the Protes- 
 tant Episcopal Church ; while the Servian Archi- 
 mandrite, who once gave the Holy Communion to a 
 
 * The "Question of Anglican Ordinations discussed," by 
 E. E. Estcourt, M.A., pp. 145-6. London : 1873. 
 
 7 * 
 
100 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 London clergyman, the Rev. William Denton, who 
 had rendered good service to the Servian Church, 
 was most severely reprimanded by Authority, 
 and made to give a promise in writing that he 
 would never repeat that his canonical offence ; and 
 this in a formal document which described the 
 Church of England as "unorthodox" and "Pro- 
 testant," and the clergyman in question as 
 " without the priesthood." At Rome every care 
 is taken to arrive at the truth, so that the inade- 
 quate defences regarded as sufficient and satisfac- 
 tory by some at home, will never pass muster in 
 the presence of the skilled theologians of the 
 Eternal City. The author had hoped (if he may 
 be pardoned for writing thus,) that his book main- 
 taining the Validity of the Ordinations of the 
 Church of England, in which he made the best de- 
 fence in his power, might have called our bishops' 
 attention to a subject of the gravest moment, 
 which touches the organic life of the Established 
 Church; but at present these have made no 
 sign. A huge assumption, as Roman Catholic 
 theologians maintain, that all was right in 
 Parker's case, is of course easily enough made ; 
 but detailed proofs of facts and satisfactory re- 
 plies to objectors often give trouble, entail 
 research, and yet remain insufficient for the 
 purpose. 
 
 As regards the fact of Parker's consecration at 
 
parker's aechiepiscopal register. 101 
 
 Lambeth on the 17th of December, 1559, it must 
 be admitted that the following difficulties appear 
 to exist : — 
 
 1. The Lambeth Register was not publicly pro- 
 duced — in fact no reference, either in attack or 
 defence, was made to it of any sort or kind — until 
 1613, fifty-three years after the date of Parker's 
 consecration, though the new bishops had been 
 constantly pressed to show some written proofs of 
 their consecration by Nicholas Sander, William 
 Allen, Stapleton Bristow, Reynolds, and more 
 especially by Harding in his "Confutation of 
 Jewell's Apologie," first published only six years 
 after Parker's consecration, i.e. in 1565. Why it 
 was not produced is, to say the least, singular, if 
 not mysterious. 
 
 2. Stowe the chronicler, though he, as any reader 
 may see, was often exact and circumstantial in 
 recording the most trivial matters, and duly put 
 on record the consecration of Reginald Pole and 
 others, omitted by some strange oversight any 
 account whatsoever of Parker's consecration ; 
 though he was very intimate with this new 
 prelate, and was often a guest at Lambeth 
 Palace. 
 
 3. Holinshed and Stowe both state that Arch- 
 bishop Parker, and Grindal, Bishop of London, 
 were present at the obsequies of Henry II., King 
 of Prance, performed in St. Paul's Cathedral 
 
102 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 on the 8th and 9th of September 1559 ;* yet the 
 first, Parker, was certainly not consecrated 
 until December 19th, and Grindal not until the 
 21st of that same month. The terms " arch- 
 bishop" and " bishop," therefore, were conse- 
 quently most inexact; unless, indeed, the Queen's 
 Letters Patent enjoining the respective Chapters 
 to elect these persons, were regarded by Stowe as 
 of more importance than any other previous or 
 subsequent rite. 
 
 4. From an original document in the State 
 Paper Office,! it is clear that Matthew Parker, 
 who then styled himself " elect Archbishop of 
 Canterbury," did homage for his temporalities 
 before the Queen at Westminster in February 
 1559. At that period he certainly was neither 
 elected nor consecrated, and it is equally certain 
 
 * Parker had been elected on August 1st. In a letter to 
 the Privy Council, dated the 27th of that month, he signed 
 it "Matth. C[antuar.]" And it appears, as Canon Estcourt 
 points out (on p. 83 of his " Question of Anglican Ordina- 
 tions "), that he is addressed in the same style in official 
 documents. Another remarkable error is that, in an Order 
 of the Queen, dated October 26th, it is asserted that, 
 amongst others, the Elect-Bishop of Chichester, Dr. Wil- 
 liam Barlow, " remain unconsecrated." — " State Papers, 
 Elizabeth," vol. vii. p. 19. 
 
 f It is referred to in the " State Papers of Elizabeth, 
 Domestic," vol. xi., under the date 23rd February 1560, 
 and is printed at length in Collier's " Ecclesiastical History 
 of Great Britain, vol. ix. pp. 331-2. London : 1846. 
 
ORIGINAL DOCUMENTS CONTRADICTORY. 103 
 
 that bishops did not usually do such homage until 
 their consecration had been effected. Here it 
 may be remarked by some that February 1559 
 may possibly mean February 1560 ; but if so, then 
 the Lambeth Register, in which his consecration is 
 recorded as having taken place in December 1559, 
 is altogether wrong, for Parker, in February 1560, 
 could never have then wittingly termed himself 
 merely " elect archbishop," when, according to the 
 said Register, he had been actually consecrated 
 two months previously. 
 
 5. Again. There is in the State Paper Office* 
 a Commission from the Queen, constituting Par- 
 ker, who is termed " Archbishop-elect of Canter- 
 bury," Grindal, who is styled " Bishop-elect of 
 London," and others, Commissioners for carrying 
 into execution the Acts for the Uniformity of 
 Common Prayer, and for restoring to the Crown 
 the ancient jurisdiction of the State Ecclesiastical. 
 This document is dated the 19th of July 1559, 
 nearly a fortnight before the election of Parker to 
 the See of Canterbury, which took place on the 
 1st of August ; consequently the use of the term 
 "bishop-elect" is inexact, or else the dates of the 
 Lambeth Register, as regards these events, are 
 
 * " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. v. No. 18. 
 London: 1856. 
 
104 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 wrong. At all events this State Paper is dis- 
 tinctly and remarkably out of harmony with them. 
 
 Whether these various difficulties, either appa- 
 rent or real, are not removed by the knowledge 
 that certain independent documents exist plainly 
 proving that the ceremony took place on Decem- 
 ber 17, 1559, is, of course, quite another question, 
 which each investigator must determine for him- 
 self after duly weighing the harmonious or con- 
 flicting evidence on both sides. But that the 
 evidence is conflicting, and that difficulties do 
 exist, cannot be doubted. 
 
 There are some persons, it should here be noted, 
 who go further, and maintain that the whole of 
 the first and earlier parts of Parker's Register, 
 including the heraldic title-page, are in one hand- 
 writing; and that this is of a later date than 1559, 
 possibly of the subsequent reign of James I., when, 
 in the new Church of England, different and 
 less questionable opinions concerning the subject 
 began to prevail. But this, of course, is a subject 
 for impartial Catholic theologians and skilled 
 paleographers satisfactorily to decide. 
 
 Immediately the clergy found themselves at 
 liberty to enter the honourable estate of matri- 
 mony, most of the reforming party took to them- 
 selves wives. Some had already done so secretly. 
 Archbishop Cranmer's distinguished precedent of 
 
M AERIE D PRELATES DISLIKED. 105 
 
 having had two,* was in many cases dutifully- 
 followed by the new bishops, — though, of course, 
 these wives were procured one after the other, 
 and not both at the same time. But these 
 married prelates, and, indeed, the married clergy 
 likewise, were looked upon with intense dislike, 
 and often with contempt, by the people in general ; 
 while the terms which were sometimes applied 
 both to their wives and children were much more 
 plain and impressive than complimentary. f Even 
 the Queen's Highness disliked the wives of pre- 
 lates. As a rule, the reforming clergy, when 
 waxing amorous, could only secure helpmeets from 
 the lowest of the people — almost all others turned 
 aside with disgust at the proposal; J while many 
 of those thus secured owned questionable or fly- 
 blown characters, had been waiting-women, ale- 
 house attendants, or publicly disreputable. The 
 gravest scandals by consequence arose in several 
 places, § to which from time to time the attention 
 
 * " The husband of one wife." — Titus i. 6. 
 
 t See "Briefe Confutation of a Godlie Warning," p. 47. 
 London : 1572. 
 
 X " No knight's daughter, nor esquire's, could be so certi- 
 fied to accept of him." — " Briefe Confutation," &c, p. 50. 
 
 § " Because there hath grown offence, and some slander 
 to the Church, by lack of discreet and sober behaviour in 
 many ministers of the Church, both in choosing of their 
 wives, and indiscreet living with them, the remedy whereof 
 is necessary to be sought." — Queen Elizabeth's " Injunctions 
 to the Clergy," a.d. 1559. 
 
106 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 of the Queen's Privy Councillors was officially 
 drawn. On two occasions Sir William Cecil wrote 
 contemptuously of those whose matrimonial acts 
 had been called into question, to the great annoy- 
 ance of Parker. The subject was new, and cer- 
 tainly difficult. Sir John Mason informed Cecil 
 that " in sundry particular churches at this pre- 
 sent [there is] such fleshly demeanour in appear- 
 ance, as small difference is to be seen in any point 
 between them and lay-houses, wherewith the 
 World taketh occasion of offence, and God, I 
 think, is not much pleased."* Some other instances 
 of wantonness and demoralization in the houses of 
 the ministers cannot be further alluded to. 
 
 The Queen's Injunctions had laid down some 
 excellent and practical rules on the subject; but 
 they appear to have been too generally disre- 
 garded. When a minister or deacon had made 
 choice of some buxom woman or country lass, 
 and she was certified to be ready, or at least not 
 unwilling, to accept him, the bishop of the diocese 
 and two neighbouring justices of the peace on 
 some holiday, and in church in presence of the 
 congregation, were to examine her personally, 
 " behind and before, in mind and in body, by in- 
 
 * "State Papers," Aug. 11, 1561. Sir John Mason to 
 Secretary Cecil. 
 
MATRIMONIAL INQUISITIONS. 
 
 107 
 
 spection and by report," to see that she was whole 
 and sound, healthy, and of good repute, free 
 from either moral or physical blemish;* and, in 
 order to find this out, her parents, or, if they 
 were dead, two of her nearest kinsfolk, or " her 
 master or mistress whom she serveth," being 
 summoned to appear, " shall make a good and 
 certain proof thereof " both to the minister of the 
 parish and to the assembled congregation. Such 
 was usually known as a "matrimonial inquisition ": 
 profane or over-witty persons sometimes gave it 
 a less pleasant name. Having passed through 
 this disagreeable but perhaps necessary ordeal, 
 the bishop and the magistrates, if satisfied, gave 
 permission, under their hands and seals, to the 
 two persons more particularly interested to gratify 
 their praiseworthy intentions " with all due and 
 convenient speed." 
 
 A similar process was also necessary and en- 
 joined by the Queen in the case of bishops. Only 
 here special commissioners of rank — not mere 
 justices of the peace — were appointed to under - 
 
 * A transcript of the minutes of such an examination — 
 " Inquisitio Matrimonialis," &c. — is before me as I write. It 
 took place in an Oxfordshire Peculiar of the ancient diocese 
 of Lincoln, before its re-arrangement ; and, though faithfully 
 paraphrased in the text above, is, in some of its details, far 
 too coarse to be verbally quoted. 
 
108 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEX ELIZABETH. 
 
 take the needful examination, and with these were 
 associated the venerable metropolitan, himself 
 a married man. For such an exalted ecclesias- 
 tical officer this was certainly a new, as no doubt 
 it must have been an interesting, duty. 
 
 Deans of cathedrals and > heads of houses, fired 
 with matrimonial ambitions, when proposing to 
 wed, were to apply to the official Visitor of then.' 
 respective institutions, whose duty it was, as the 
 Supreme Governess enjoined, to make a similar 
 personal examination of the wife-designate, and 
 to see that the proposed union " tend not to the 
 hindrance of their house." 
 
 Archbishop Parker was terribly mortified at the 
 Queen's formal edict about the marriage of the 
 clergy, and horrified at her unscriptural and un- 
 feeling language. He wrote to Sir "William Cecil* 
 
 * Parker, in this letter, asserts of the Queen that he was 
 " in an horror to hear such words to come from her mild 
 nature and Christ ianly learned conscience, as she spake con- 
 cerning God's holy ordinance and institution of matrimony." 
 And again, " To tarry in cathedral churches with such open 
 and rebukeful separations, what modest nature can abide 
 it? Or tarry where they be discredited. Horsekeepers' 
 wives, porters', pantlers', and butlers' wives may have their 
 cradles going ; and honest learned men expulsed with open 
 note, who only keep the hospitality, who only be students 
 and preachers, who only be unfeigned orators in open 
 prayers for the Queen's Majesty's prosperity and continu- 
 ance, where others say their back paternosters for her in 
 corners."— Parker to Cecil, Petyt MSS., No. 47, folio 374. 
 
DEPLORABLE STATE OF ELY CATHEDRAL. 109 
 
 to explain his manifold grievances, and evidently 
 looked for some word of consolation from him. 
 He went so far as to lament that under such 
 conditions he had ever accepted the See of Can- 
 terbury. If the bishops' inferior servants might 
 have their -wives within the precincts of the ca- 
 thedrals, and in the useful out-houses of the epis- 
 copal palaces — if these respectable officers might 
 rock their offspring's cradles, why might not the 
 lady of the most reverend and loyal Primate of 
 all England do the same ? Parker evidently was 
 very sore at what he termed these " rebukeful 
 separations." 
 
 Bishop Cocks of Ely likewise on his own part 
 complained loudly to Archbishop Parker that the 
 "women of the bishops and prebendaries " were by 
 the Queen's Majesty's edict turned out of the col- 
 leges and precincts of the cathedrals. He wrote, 
 " forasmuch as it is not needful, but at this time 
 very miserable, and sounding contrary to the or- 
 dinance of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures of 
 God," he hoped that the edict might be with- 
 drawn. He went on to inform his afflicted metro- 
 politan that there was then but " one prebendarj^ 
 dwelling with his family in Ely Church," and if 
 the wife and children were turned out, the pre- 
 bendary himself would go." " Turn him out," 
 wrote the bishop, plaintively, " doves and owls 
 may dwell there for any continual housekeeping. 
 
110 THE CHURCH ODER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 It is miserable that the poor man's family should 
 be turned out, and miserable that such a number 
 of houses should be left desolate."* Expressive 
 sentences like this sufficiently set forth the awful 
 havoc which had been made in the garden of 
 God by these "wild boars " of the Reformation. 
 They had indeed rooted up the garden, for, 
 where flowers of grace erewhile grew in abun- 
 dance, now only sterility and desolation reigned. 
 
 As regards the practical action of those who re- 
 sisted the innovators, we may learn much from 
 the following interesting and pregnant words : — 
 " At the same time they had mass said se- 
 cretly in their own houses by those very priests 
 who in church publicly celebrated the spurious 
 liturgy, and sometimes by others who had not 
 defiled themselves with heresy; yea, and very 
 often in those disastrous times were on one and 
 the same day partakers of the Table of our Lord 
 and of the table of devils ; that is. of the Blessed 
 Eucharist and of the Calvinistic Supper. Yea, 
 what is still more marvellous and more sad, some- 
 times the priest saying mass at home, for the sake 
 of those Catholics whom he knew to be desirous 
 of them, carried about him Hosts consecrated 
 
 * Petyt MSS., No. 47, folio 3 78, in the Inner Temple. 
 
SHE VISITS CANTEEBUEY CATHEDEAL. Ill 
 
 according to the rite of the Church, with which 
 he communicated them at the very time in which 
 he was giving to other Catholics more careless 
 about the Faith the bread prepared for them 
 according to the heretical rite." * 
 
 When the Queen visited Canterbury, she was 
 received pontifically, as the Head of the Church 
 of England. On one occasion Parker, supported 
 by the Bishops of Lincoln and Rochester, met 
 her outside the west door. There a " gramma- 
 rian " made a long-winded oration in her praise, 
 in which the words Ave ! Eliza, and numerous ex- 
 aggerated epithets were used. Then, alighting 
 from her horse, she entered the cathedral, where 
 the Psalm Deus misereatur and. some collects were 
 said. The choir -men and boys, with the dean and 
 prebendaries, stood in order on either side, and 
 " brought Her Majesty up with a square song, 
 she going under a canopy, borne by four of her 
 temporal knights, to the traverse, placed by the 
 Communion board, where she heard evensong." f 
 
 * Continuation of the " History " by Rev. Edward Rish- 
 ton, B.A., B.N.C., Oxon. ; edited by David Lewis, M.A. ; 
 p. 267. London: 1877. 
 
 f This is Parker's own description of the event. See Petyt 
 MSS., No. 47, folio 22. "The Communion board" is what 
 the writers of the old religion termed " the Protestant 
 oyster-board," which it no doubt greatly resembled. 
 
112 THE CHUECH TJXDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 In 1560 the Geneva Bible was printed and cir- 
 culated. Both in Preface and Notes the false 
 doctrines of Calvin were studiously inculcated; 
 and, being popular with the now extending 
 Puritan party, it had a considerable circulation, 
 exercising much influence. Some of its Notes 
 were obviously directed against prelacy ; while 
 others were so grossly heretical, that, in the then 
 excited state of public opinion, their evil teaching 
 was avowedly feared by the bishops. These 
 superintending officials, though much divided both 
 in faith and opinion, were mainly desirous of 
 doing what the Queen enjoined upon them, and 
 of subserviently following Her Highness's spiri- 
 tual directions, however much they might change 
 or vary ; yet at the same time feared altogether 
 to offend their foreign allies and Puritanical sup- 
 porters. Archbishop Parker, therefore, arranged 
 that Cranmer's English version of the Scriptures 
 should be at once revised and re-issued — a work 
 which was accomplished about eight years after- 
 wards, and is the foundation of our present 
 English version of the Bible. 
 
 Early in the year 1563, Parliament met and 
 considered more important measures concerning 
 religion (or irreligion, as some might phrase it) 
 and the new Church. The wheels of the Esta- 
 blishmentarian machine often creaked and groaned, 
 and continually stuck in the progress of ordinary 
 
LAXITY OF FAITH AND MORALS. 113 
 
 motion ; for the concern was lumbering, unwieldy, 
 ill-planned and rudely constructed, and made ex- 
 tremely little way onwards. 
 
 To drop a simile. The confusion which reigned 
 when Puritans, Catholics, and State-religionists 
 were in constant and active conflict, was steadily 
 increasing. In many places disorders of a gross 
 character were abounding. The laxest doctrines 
 of common morality were proclaimed by the new 
 preachers, who were at once venal and " godly." 
 Vapid and vain sentiments were highly valued, 
 more especially by the foolish persons who uttered 
 them ; while good works, looked upon by some as 
 external tokens of predestined reprobation, seem 
 to have been altogether at a discount. 
 
 At the same time these self-constituted pro- 
 phets pushed themselves and their wares to the 
 fore-front ; and in scriptural phraseology, inter- 
 larded often with highly scurrilous assertions, 
 condemned all those who would not promote, or 
 abhorred, the New Gospel ; proclaiming for such, 
 temporal ruin here and everlasting misery here- 
 after. Sometimes with the solemn deliverance 
 of prophecies they combined the practices of 
 palmistry, necromancy,* and astrology. Others, 
 
 * A certain William Wycherley practised necromancy, 
 from whose formal depositions the following is taken : — 
 " 23rd August. Item, he saith that about ten years past he 
 used a circule called Circulus Salamonis at a place called 
 
 8 
 
114 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 again, called up, or professed to call up, familiar 
 spirits whom they consulted; or peered into .a 
 crystal globe either to watch distant events there- 
 in revealed, or to obtain guidance in seeking for 
 hidden treasures. When it was known that the 
 Queen and some of her new nobility consulted 
 such professors, it need not cause surprise that 
 the common people followed their example. By a 
 fanciful study of the armorial bearings granted to 
 some new peer or recently-made knight, some of 
 these likewise — seers of the New Gospel — professed 
 to forecast the certain future of those who bore 
 the arms, and to unfold for such the mysteries 
 and marvels of coming years. In the royal arms 
 the proximity of the Lilies of France with the 
 Lions of England, led some of the prophets — why, 
 
 Pembsam [Qy. Pepplesham], in Sussex, to call up Baro, 
 whom he taketh [to be] an Orientalle or septentrialle spirit. 
 Where was also one Eobert Bayly, the scriere of the cris- 
 talle stone ; Syr John Anderson, the magister operator ; 
 Syr John Hickley, and Thomas Goslyng, in the which their 
 practice they had sword, ring, and holly water ; where they 
 were frustrated, for Baro did not appere, nor other vision of 
 spirit, but there was a terrible wind and tempest for the 
 time of the circulation. Per me Wylliam Wycherley. . . . 
 Maier, a preest, and now lay-master of the Mynt at Durham 
 House, hath conjured for treasure and their stolen goods. 
 Sir John Lloyd, a preest that sometime dwelt at Godstone, 
 besides Croydon, hath used it likewise. Thomas Owldring 
 of Yarmouth, is a conjuror, and hath very good books of 
 conjuring, and that a great number." — Lansdowne MSS., 
 British Museum, vol. ii. art. 26. 
 
NECROMANCERS AND CONJURORS. 115 
 
 is not on record — to predict either sudden death or 
 a disagreeable future for. the Queen; reports of 
 which reaching Her Highness's ears caused her 
 to fume, fret, and even to swear right royally. 
 Many members of the old and noble families, as 
 well as the " new men " — who had pushed them- 
 selves forward, and, because of their greed and 
 rapacity, were not over-popular, — became the sub- 
 jects of such-like prophetic inspiration. Those 
 who were superstitious, and many of them were 
 this, gravely feared the prophets in question and 
 trembled when they heard their predicted doom. 
 In alliance with the prophets came the perambu- 
 lating conjurors who, on a slightly different plat- 
 form, undertook to prove by ocular demonstration, 
 to the shallow or to those who thought themselves 
 wise, the impossibility of the reality or value of 
 the Sacrament of the Altar ; and who, clothed in 
 disused or imitation sacerdotal vestments, and by 
 the aid of tin cups and thin pellets of bone, on 
 which were engraved representations of the enemy 
 of souls, or some inferior demon, most profanely 
 caricatured the Mass and its manual actions, with 
 utterances of " Mwmpsimus " and " Sumpsimus" 
 and the still-used phrase of harmless modern con- 
 jurors, " Hocus-pocus." * 
 
 * A horrible travestie of the words of consecration in the 
 Canon of the Mass, " Hoc est Corpus Meum." 
 
 8 * 
 
116 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEX ELIZABETH. 
 
 The work of destroying the ancient faith of a 
 nation is of course never so difficult as the work 
 of building it up. Hence, when in the interests of 
 Cecil, Bacon, and "Walsingham, the ballad-singers, 
 the self-constituted prophets, and the wandering 
 conjurors were openly allied with the Establish- 
 mentarian preachers and diocesan superinten- 
 dents, (while the representatives of the old system 
 were thumb-screwed, hung, or banished,) the work 
 of destruction and corruption, of course, went on 
 apace. 
 
 But the prophets and conjurors were so per- 
 sonally distasteful to the Queen and her Council, 
 having caused them so much annoyance, that in 
 1563 Parliament promptly passed an Act* against 
 "fond and fantastical prophecies," in which the 
 punishments were most severe. Persons con- 
 victed of excogitating or spreading prophecies 
 founded on the armorial bearings of any noble- 
 man, knight, or gentleman, or upon the days of 
 the month or year on which they had been born 
 or ennobled, were rendered punishable with a 
 year's imprisonment and a fine of ten pounds, for 
 the first offence ; and to the forfeiture of all their 
 goods and chattels and imprisonment for life, for 
 the second. By the same severe enactment, any 
 
 * 5 Elizabeth, c. 15, 16. 
 
DEPLORABLE STATE OE THE COUNTKY. 117 
 
 persons practising " conjurations, enchantments, 
 and witchcraft " were declared felons, and or- 
 dered to be punished as such without the benefit 
 of clergy. If, however, the witchcraft was not 
 directed against the life of any one, perpetual im- 
 prisonment was the extremest punishment per- 
 mitted. 
 
 But all such measures were impotent to do the 
 work intended. The flood-gates of impiety, 
 superstition, and disorder had been deliberately 
 opened by those who had assumed power ; but it 
 was seen to be no easy task to close them again. 
 
 As to the bishops of the new sort, they found 
 themselves hampered and hindered on all sides. 
 For not a tenth part of the people, even in the towns 
 and cathedral cities, went with the Reformers,* 
 
 * On January 12th, 1562, in a Letter to Cecil, Bishop 
 Home gave a deplorable account of the Protestant cause at 
 Winchester: "Having many ways endeavored and travailed 
 to bring and reduce the inhabitants of the City of Win- 
 chester to good uniformity in religion, and namely to have 
 the cures there served, as the Common Prayer might be fre- 
 quented, which hath not been done sithence the massing- 
 time ; and also that good and sound doctrine might be taught 
 amongst them, which they as yet do not so well like and 
 allow, I could not by any means hitherto bring the same to 
 pass. . . . The said inhabitants are very stubborn, whose 
 reformation would help the greatest part of the shire bent 
 that way, and I would the rather have this brought to pass, 
 for that some of them have boasted and vaunted that do 
 what I can I shall not have my purpose. . . . Sundry 
 there are in the shire, which have borne great countenance in 
 
118 THE CHUECH TJNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 while scarcely a fifth of those in rural villages and 
 hamlets were prepared to accept the new religion. 
 But those who had grasped the whip-handle of 
 Authority or Might declined to slacken their hold 
 upon it ; while any dutiful return of the nation 
 to faith and obedience was held to be simply out 
 of the question. 
 
 A study of the " Visitation Articles " and " In- 
 junctions " of the bishops, show evidently enough 
 the true state of their dioceses. As to the old 
 churches, most of them had been thoroughly 
 cleared out of all their sacred ornaments.* Rood- 
 
 late times, which hinder as much as they can the proceedings 
 in religion." — Original MS. in State Paper Office. 
 
 * For example, in John Parkhurst's " Visitation Articles 
 for the Diocese of Norwich," a.d. 1561, the following inquiry 
 is made of the various churchwardens : — " Whether all 
 aulters, images, holi-water stones, pictures, paintings, as of 
 Th'assumption of the Blessed Virgin, of the descending of 
 Christ into the Virgin in the fourme of a little boy at 
 Th 'annunciation of the Aungell, and al other superstitious 
 and dangerous monuments, especiallie paintings and imagies 
 in walle, boke, cope, banner, or els where, of the Blessed 
 Trinitie, or of the Father (of whom there can be no image 
 made), be defaced and removed out of the churcheand other 
 places, and are destroyed, and the places where such impietie 
 was, so made up as if there had been no suche thing there." 
 And, again, Grindal inquired "Whether in your churches 
 and chappels all aulters be utterly taken down and cleane 
 removed, even unto the foundation; and the place where they 
 stood paved, and the wall whereunto they joined whited over 
 and made uniform with the rest, so as no breach or rupture 
 appear. And whether your rood-lofts be taken downe, and 
 
POWERLESSNESS OP THE NEW PRELATES. 119 
 
 lofts had been hewn down ; pictures, paintings, 
 and banners, looked upon as tokens of " impietie," 
 had followed the vessels of silver and gold. 
 Almost everything, including screens, woodwork, 
 roofs, and walls, had been painfully whitewashed. 
 As to the new ministers, disorder and confusion, 
 irregularities and examples of self-will, were 
 everywhere apparent, and the bishops could do 
 little or nothing to mend matters. These poor 
 perplexed officials of the Supreme Governess, not 
 having learnt to obey, were in no case competent 
 to rule. Certain of the principles which they 
 had imbibed abroad were at once heretical and 
 revolutionary; so no wonder that Disorder reigned 
 throughout the land, and self-pleasing was the 
 leading principle which guided men's minds. 
 "When once the principle of "Reform" had been 
 duly and practically admitted, every one had his 
 own nostrum for the existing national sickness ; 
 while no one exactly approved of that change which 
 his neighbour had endeavoured to effect or had 
 effected. The " reforms " which the mushroom 
 peers had daringly carried out, and by which they 
 
 altered, so that the upper partes thereof with the soller or 
 loft be quite taken down unto the crosse-beame, and that the 
 said beame have some convenient creast put uppon the same." 
 — " Articles to be Enquired of, &c, by Edmond Grindall, 
 Archbishop of York, a.d. 1571." London: William Serres. 
 
120 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 themselves had so considerably benefited in things 
 temporal, were, by other people who wished to 
 try their hands at a like game, voted to be totally 
 inadequate to the grave necessities of the times ; 
 so that fresh and wider changes were by conse- 
 quence ruthlessly inaugurated. Faith and sta- 
 bility had vanished, though Sentiment and Opinion 
 sometimes secured a hearing amid the disputes of 
 controversialists and the profane and ponderous 
 cant of hysterical preachers. But Peace and 
 Unity — twin sisters of a divine corporation en- 
 dued with God's Holy Spirit — had been duly and 
 efficiently banished from the realm.- In their 
 place the confusion of Babel and an excruciating 
 discord as of combative demoniacs rose on all 
 sides. 
 
 Some of these hysterical preachers — " Gospel- 
 lers," as they were now called, or " ministers," 
 (though the fact has too often been ignored,) — were 
 mere tinkers ; some were tailors, who believed 
 themselves to be " inspired " ; others farm la- 
 bourers, such as ditchers, hedgers, or ploughmen, 
 who thought themselves " called " ; a few had 
 probably been admitted, in some mode or another, 
 to the office of Lector or reader ; on which autho- 
 rity, as it appears, they presumed to baptize, to 
 celebrate the Lord's Supper, and to marry couples. 
 Discipline had long been flung to the winds. As 
 such ministers only received a miserable pittance 
 
LAX NOTIONS CONCERNING ORDINATION. 121 
 
 for their " labours in the Gospel," and as most of 
 them were married, they took to trading — buying 
 and selling, in order to keep body and soul to- 
 gether, to feed their wives and children, and thus 
 to keep the wolf from the door. The bishops, 
 who were better housed, fed, and paid, did not 
 approve of all this, but by their lordships' Injunc- 
 tions and Visitation Articles * condemned the 
 traders ; and, though they hated and persecuted 
 " the greased varlets of Antichrist," f as they 
 termed the old priests, they could not exactly sanc- 
 tion the ministrations of vulgar and unordained 
 adventurers from " the lowest of the people." 
 
 During the whole of the reign of Queen Eliza- 
 beth, it may be here properly pointed out, the 
 loosest notions regarding the importance and 
 value of ordinations prevailed almost universally. 
 The old Catholic doctrine, with the ancient Ordi- 
 
 * " Whether your minister ordereth the course of his life 
 answerable to his vocation, or useth buying and selling or 
 trading or tinkering or tailoring, or to hedge, ditch, or go to 
 plough ; or hath sollicited other men's visits for game, or 
 hath employed himself about other such business not beseem- 
 ing or fitting his calling ? " — " Articles of Enquiry," of Cocks, 
 Bishop of Ely, a.d. 1566. " Item, whether that any reader 
 being admitted but to reade, taketh upon him to baptize, to 
 marry, to celebrate the Lord's Supper, or to distribute the 
 Lord's cup." — " Injunctions of Parkhurst, Bishop of Nor- 
 wich." London : John Day. 1561. 
 
 f Arnoldus Raissius, quoted by Austin Allfield in his 
 " Answer to Justitia Britannica," cap. iii. p. 103. 
 
122 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 nals, having been abolished, the necessity of im- 
 position of hands with corresponding "form"* 
 gave place to a notion that what alone was truly 
 necessary to the making either of an overseer or 
 a minister, was a call from the congregation whose 
 servant he was then to become. Hence, in the 
 tractates published and in the discussions which 
 arose, this " call " became the leading feature in 
 the making of ministers. Superadded ceremo- 
 nies were held to be ornamental and politic, but 
 not in any way essential. In fact no Church-of- 
 England controversialist whatsoever of that reign 
 can be found who maintained plainly and catego- 
 rically the present doctrine of the Established 
 Church on the subject; nor was it until the year 
 1597, when Richard Bancroft was "called" to be 
 Bishop of London, that any practical attempt 
 was made to reach any higher theological level 
 than that which most of the Zwinglians, Calvi- 
 nists, and Establishmentarians, regarded as per- 
 fectly scriptural, secure, and true. When this 
 prelate was in 1604 elevated to the See of Canter- 
 bury, he succeeded in stemming the further pro- 
 gress of such lax teaching ; for, pressed as the 
 Establishmentarians had been by so many able 
 
 * This word is of course here used in its technical and 
 theological sense. The " form " and " matter " of ordination 
 own a special meaning. 
 
CHARACTER OP NEWLY- ARRANGED SERVICE. 123 
 
 defenders of the ancient faith, it was found that 
 no defence of the polity of the new Church could 
 be efficiently made in which the necessity of valid 
 ordination, independent of any " call," or sup- 
 posed " call," was not plainly and systematically 
 asserted as essential to validity and value. 
 
 As regards the character of divine service, it was 
 universally meagre in the extreme. The Reforma- 
 tion advocates were sorely offended at what little of 
 ancient order and decency had been deliberately 
 retained — the surplice, organs, and the observance 
 of holy days ; so that several of them, and some 
 of these in high positions, declined to participate 
 in services at which such practices were adopted. 
 For example, Peter Martyr, Canon of Christ 
 Church, Oxford, declared, " As to myself, when I 
 was at Oxford, I would never wear the surplice 
 in the choir, although I was a canon, and I had 
 my own reasons for doing so."* John Jewell, — 
 who was never more fitly or aptly described than 
 when the late Mr. Richard Hurrell Froude termed 
 him " an irreverent Dissenter," — when writing to 
 this said Protestant Canon of Oxford, remarked 
 that " the scenic apparatus of divine worship is 
 now under agitation ; and those very things which 
 
 * " Zurich Letters," 2nd Series, No. 14. — Parker Society's 
 Publications. 
 
124 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 you and I have so often laughed at, are now seri- 
 ously and solemnly entertained by certain persons 
 (for we are not consulted) ; as if the Christian 
 religion could not exist without something 
 tawdry."* It was this person, subsequently 
 made a bishop, who put himself forward, or was 
 put forward by others, to defend by his pen the 
 new National Church which had been set up by 
 Parliament ; and a laboured, tortuous, and poor 
 apology and defence he made of it, as the nume- 
 rous and forcible replies to his treatise sufficiently 
 prove. The language of Richard Cocks, Bishop 
 of Ely, still further shows the true character of 
 certain of these miserable innovators : — " We are 
 only constrained," he writes, " to our great 
 distress of mind, to tolerate in our churches the 
 image of the cross, and Him Who was crucified : 
 the Lord must be entreated that this stumbling- 
 block may at length be removed. "+ In 1563, 
 Edwin Sandys, then Bishop of Worcester, pe- 
 titioned the Convocation of Canterbury to suppli- 
 cate the Head of the Church — by which he meant 
 the Queen — " that all curious singing and play- 
 ing of the organs maybe removed"; while two 
 other prelates, Grindal and Robert Home, in a 
 
 * " Zurich Letters," 1st Series, No. 9. — Parker Society's 
 Publications. 
 
 f " Zurich Letters," 1st Series, No. 28. 
 
THE QUEEN'S BIETHDAY MADE A FEAST. 125 
 
 letter to their foreign ally, Bullinger, who appears 
 to have been greatly exercised in his mind that 
 such eminent English gospellers should appear to 
 tolerate these superstitions, thus plainly declared 
 their private convictions : " We do not assert 
 that the chanting in churches, together with the 
 organ, is to be retained." Nothing of the sort 
 was their real wish. They desired that the 
 prayers, if said at all, should be preached or pro- 
 nounced to the people ; while, as to Popish chant- 
 ing, they write, " We disapprove of it, as we 
 ought to do."* This same person, Edmund 
 Sandys, proposed in Convocation, " That all 
 saints' feasts and holy clays bearing the name of 
 a creature, may, as tending to superstition, 
 . be clearly abrogated, "f On the other 
 hand, certain of these cringing fanatics and here- 
 tical preachers having abolished the chief feasts of 
 the Mother of Grod — though some of them were 
 restored, for very shame's sake, about a hundred 
 years later — had no scruple whatsoever in pro- 
 fanely making Queen Elizabeth's birthday a new 
 feast of the first importance, equal to those of 
 Christmas or Ascension Day ; of singing invoca- 
 tions of Her Majesty, commencing Ave Eliza I in 
 
 * " Zurich Letters," 1st Series, No. 75. 
 t Wilkins' " Concilia," vol. iv. p. 239. 
 
126 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 St. Paul's Catliedral, instead of the ancient and 
 beautiful Angelus Domini, or the antiphons 
 which often followed evensong; or of placing 
 her portrait and coat-of-arms over the chancel- 
 arch of certain churches. The Erastianism and 
 ■wickedness of such innovations will be now 
 frankly acknowledged by all Christian people.* 
 
 What they had produced throughout the country 
 may be readily enough gathered from the books 
 and tracts of the day, copies of which can still be 
 studied. Irreligion and Indifference, twin giants 
 of Evil, stalked unopposed throughout the land. 
 Even some of the highest officials were startled 
 at the sharp and striking results of their own 
 deplorable handiwork ; verily standing aghast at 
 the existing desolation and demoralization. They 
 had succeeded in overturning one religion — that 
 which St. Augustine brought from the sacred city 
 of Rome ten centuries before — and hundreds of 
 
 * See Wilkins' " Concilia," vol. iv. p. 239; Edward Riskton's 
 continuation of "Sander's History," Book iv. chap. vi. ; a 
 paper by Dr. Eimbault on " Music of the Reformation 
 Period " ; Grindal's " Remains," Parker Society's edition, in 
 loco ; and Nichol's " Progresses of Queen Elizabeth." At 
 Ricot Chapel, Oxfordshire, there was anciently a portrait of 
 this Queen placed exactly over the Communion table ; but 
 when the adjoining mansion, " Ricot House," was pulled 
 down, this picture is said to have been taken to Wytham, near 
 Oxford, the present seat of the Earl of Abingdon. 
 
RIVALRY BETWEEN CHURCH AND ALE-HOUSE. 127 
 
 thousands deplored its overthrow : they had set 
 up another, recently made by the Queen and Par- 
 liament, which the people, knowing its origin and 
 authorship, looked upon both with aversion and 
 contempt. 
 
 To suppose that the main body of the baptized 
 desired any such change is a fond and false 
 notion, without historical sanction, and in the 
 teeth of numerous batches of evidence to the 
 direct contrary. The churches, bare and barn- 
 like, were in fact, almost deserted.* The preachers 
 often addressed only their own families and the 
 whitewashed walls. The old religion the poor 
 could understand ; but they preferred the quiet 
 pleasures of the ale-house to the dismal doctrines 
 of John Calvin and the noise of his disciples. 
 
 Let a writer on behalf of the ancient faith 
 state his position and judgment of what had been 
 done : — " This manner of ministration of sacra- 
 ments set forth in the Book of Common Prayers 
 
 * " Come into a church on the Sabbath Day, and ye shall 
 see but few, though there be a sermon ; but the ale-house is 
 ever full. ... A Popish summoner, spy or promoter, 
 will drive more to the church with a word to hear a Latin 
 Mass, than seven preachers will bring in a week's preaching 
 to hear a godly sermon." — Bishop James Pilkington's 
 Preface to his " Commentary on the Prophet Aggeus. — 
 Works," p. 6. Parker Society. London: 1842. 
 
128 THE CHUECH TJNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 was never allowed nor agreed upon by the Uni- 
 versal Church of Christ in any General Council or 
 Sacred Synod; no, not by the clergy of England 
 at the last Parliament ; but only it was agreed 
 upon by the laity, which have nothing ado with 
 spiritual matters or causes of religion, but ought 
 to stand to the decrees, judgment, and deter- 
 mination of the clergy in causes of Faith and 
 Religion."* 
 
 Again, let the same writer point out what was 
 the impression in his own day as to the substitu- 
 tion of a table for an altar, and as to the in- 
 tentional absence — for, to use a modern phrase, 
 "omission was prohibition " — of any act of con- 
 secration in the new and chopped-up service of 
 the Supper : — 
 
 " The Catholic Church, which we professed at 
 our baptism to believe [in] and obey, teacheth us 
 to receive Christ's Body consecrate at Holy Mass 
 with prayers, invocations, and benediction with 
 the sign of the Holy Cross ; and not bare bread 
 and wine without consecration and benediction as 
 is used in this Communion, being against the 
 decrees and ordinance of Christ's Catholic 
 Church. Almighty God does command us to 
 separate ourselves from such as take in hand a 
 
 * " Certain Questions Propounded," &c. London : 1564. 
 
CUEEENT HEEESIES AND BLASPHEMY. 129 
 
 ministration of sacraments against the ordinance 
 of Christ's Church, and that ye touch nothing 
 pertaining to them, lest ye be lapped in their 
 sin."* 
 
 These statements are clear enough. The writer 
 honestly urged all his readers not to participate in 
 the heresiesf and blasphemy of the innovators. 
 Whatever else such charitable warnings serve to 
 show, they certainly prove that some at least were 
 true to the Faith of their forefathers. 
 
 On the other side let the varied words of an 
 eminent innovator and Protestant Prince Palatine, 
 Bishop Pilkington of Durham, be studied. He 
 spoke with authority, even the authority of his 
 Supreme Mistress, Queen Elizabeth, whom he 
 obsequiously maintained]: had rightly all spiritual 
 
 * " Certain Questions Propounded," &c. London : 1564. 
 f The following is a specimen of the anti-religious poetry 
 of the Elizabethan aera : — 
 
 " 0 presumptious undertaker, 
 
 Never cake could make a baker, 
 
 Yet a Preist would make his Maker. 
 What's become of all ye Christs y e preists have made ? 
 Do those hosts of Hosts abide, or do they fade ? 
 
 One Christ binds, y e rest doe flie ; 
 
 One's a truth, the rest's a lie." 
 
 MS., in quarto, in the library of the Rev. E. Higgins, of 
 Bosbury House, Herefordshire, — the Common-place Book of 
 the Lady Elizabeth Cope. 
 
 X " As I noted before, so it is not to be lightly considered, 
 that, where so often the Prophet here rehearseth the names 
 
 9 
 
130 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 pre-eminence, even over patriarchs and popes : — 
 " In the restoring of the Gospel many weep when 
 they see not the churches so well decked and fur- 
 nished as before. The Pope's church hath all 
 things pleasant in it to delight the people withal ; 
 as for the eyes, their God hangs on a rope [i.e. in 
 the pyx or ciborium], images gilded, painted, 
 carved most finely, copes, chalices, crosses of gold 
 and silver, banners, &c, with relics and altars ; 
 for the ears, singing, ringing, and organs piping ; 
 for the nose, frankincense sweet; to wash away sins 
 (as they say), holy water of their own hallowing 
 and making ; priests an infinite sort ; masses, 
 trentals, diriges, and pardons, &c. But where 
 the Gospel is preached, they knowing that God 
 is not pleased but only with a pure heart, they 
 are content with an honest place appointed to 
 resort together in, though it were never hallowed 
 by bishop at all; but have only a pulpit, a preacher 
 to the people, a deacon for the poor, a table for 
 the Communion, with bare walls, or else written 
 
 of Zerubabel and Joshua, the two chiefest rulers ; yet he 
 evermore setteth in order the Civil Magistrate and Power 
 before the Chief Priest, to signify the pre-eminence and pre- 
 ferment that he hath in the commonwealth and other matters, 
 more than the Chief Priest (by what name soever he be 
 called), whether it be the pope, archbishop, or metropolitan." 
 ■ — " Aggeus and Abdias," by James Pilkington, chap. i. 
 London: W. Serres, 1562. 
 
THE NEW " SERVICE OF THE SUPPER." 131 
 
 with scriptures, having God's eternal word sound- 
 ing always amongst them in their sight and 
 ears. * 
 
 Again, as regards the contrast between the Old 
 and the New : — 
 
 " For when thou comest to Communion with 
 the Papists, and according to St. Paul would 
 ' eat of that bread and drink of that cup,' they 
 will neither give thee bread nor wine accord- 
 ing to Christ's institution (for they say the sub- 
 stance is changed and there remaineth no bread) ; 
 but they will give thee an idol of their own 
 making, which they call their God. They come* 
 not together, according unto Christ's rule, to break 
 the bread ; but they creep into a corner, as the 
 Pope teaches them, to sacrifice for the quick and 
 the dead, to sell heaven, to harrow [i.e. to 
 plunder] hell, and sweep purgatory of all such as 
 will pay. They come not to communicate with 
 the people, but to eat up all alone." 
 
 No words could possibly set forth the actual 
 position of the innovators more exactly and cor- 
 rectly. Yet, it is clear that the people cared not 
 for the recent inventions in religion ; on the con- 
 
 * Bishop Pilkington's " Aggeus and Abdias." London : 
 W. Serres, 1562. 
 
 f Bishop Pilkington's "Exposition upon the Prophets," 
 Ac, pp. 171, 172.— Parker Society. London: 1842. 
 
 9 * 
 
132 THE CHUBCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 trary, being earnestly and heartily attached to the 
 One True Faith, they disliked them. 
 
 Pilkington, by consequence, goes on to grumble 
 because the desecrated and deserted churches 
 were despised and neglected by the populace, as 
 they deserved to be ; and to complain of the 
 people because they did not appreciate the alter- 
 nate preaching and reading, reading and preach- 
 ing, so wordy, tedious, and uninteresting, of the 
 restless innovators. Then, as now, many affirmed 
 that they themselves could read quite as profit- 
 ably, if not more so, at home : — 
 
 " Let us be ashamed, then, of those lewd say- 
 ings, ' What should I do at the church ? I may 
 not have my beads ; the church is like a waste- 
 barn ; there is (sic) no images nor saints to wor- 
 ship and make curtsey unto ; little God-in-the- 
 box is gone (! !) ; there is nothing but a little 
 reading and preaching, that I cannot tell what it 
 means. I had as lief keep me at home.' " * 
 
 About this period, the Bible and the newly- 
 revised Prayer Book — already altered three times 
 since 1549 — were ordered to be translated into 
 Welsh, for use in the Principality of Wales, where 
 the people knew little or nothing, of English ; 
 though they could follow well enough, and join 
 
 * " Aggeus and Abdias." — London : W. Serres, 1562. 
 
STATE OF THE CHURCH IN WALES. 133 
 
 in, the ancient Latin services of the Western 
 Church. The Rosary they knew, and the Litany 
 of the Saints, and the Angelus, which they recited 
 three times a day. But these new translations 
 effected little good. 
 
 As we all know, the Established Church in 
 Wales has turned out a complete failure. Foes 
 assert it, friends admit it. What religion still 
 remains is of a dissenting type. 
 
 Englishmen not knowing the language and 
 customs of the Welsh people, have been too often 
 appointed to the highest offices in that commu- 
 nion. Both deans and bishops have frequently 
 been merely common-place aliens. So that pre- 
 lates, rewarded for political services, or younger 
 sons of impoverished noblemen, have been chiefly 
 distinguished — and it is no mean worldly advan- 
 tage — for the fruitfulness of their wives, the size 
 of their families, the excellence of their wine, and 
 the large sums of money left to their English 
 survivors by testamentary bequests at their un- 
 mourned decease. 
 
 The cathedrals, until quite lately, had long lain 
 in partial ruin. The snows of winter and the 
 sunshine of summer alternately fell on the floors 
 of unroofed chantries and desecrated chapels, 
 where a few chipped and cast-down altars and 
 battered monuments, slowly crumbling to decay, 
 told of a worship that had been long ago cast 
 
134 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 out, and of Catholic families long gone to their 
 rest and become extinct. The cathedral choir — 
 musty in its atmosphere, and gloomy in its aspect, 
 with no scrap of colour throughout it from floor 
 to roof, except maybe the crimson stair-carpet of 
 its lofty pulpit, or the velvet cushion for the dean's 
 elbows — may have been used as a preaching-place 
 once a week ; and perhaps for the Lord's Supper, 
 travestied by some ministerial sloven, once a 
 quarter. Otherwise it stood only as an impressive 
 monument of a cast-out Faith ; and as an actual 
 reminder to the more thoughtful of the impo- 
 tence of reforms and revolutions to benefit a 
 Christian population. In the chief Welsh towns 
 at the present day, the Establishment can 
 scarcely hold its own ; while in the villages too 
 many of the antique barn -like churches, so cold, 
 desolate, and unused, green with damp and rot, 
 and sometimes not even paved, are not unfre- 
 quently practically empty. In the disastrous 
 principles of Reform and Change there was ob- 
 viously no finality. If one set of men might 
 mend, mar, and muddle, — why not the restless, 
 the self-seeking, and the revolutionary of every 
 succeeding generation ? 
 
 So great was the confusion existing, so per- 
 plexing were the discords of controversialists ; 
 while cross-purposes, the sowing of political dis- 
 cord in foreign nations, and an universal upheav- 
 
WORK OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS. 135 
 
 ing of opinion, popular with self-seekers and 
 reformers, were so common that the wisest were 
 most anxious for the close and consequences of 
 the Council of Trent. 
 
 Here it may be incidentally, but not inappro- 
 priately noticed, with regard to General Councils, 
 that the sublime doctrines of the Christian Reli- 
 gion have been duly developed in a certain his- 
 torical sequence, parallel to the order in which 
 they are set forth in the Creeds. Thus the true 
 doctrine of the adorable Trinity chiefly occupied 
 the two first (Ecumenical Councils ; the four next 
 ■ — those of Ephesus, Chalcedon, the Second and 
 Third of Constantinople — were engaged in ex- 
 pressing with unerring exactness the faith con- 
 cerning the Incarnation ; while the first indirect 
 definition regarding the Holy Eucharist was made 
 by the seventh (Ecumenical Council, the Second 
 of Nicgea. The subjects of grace and of the 
 sacraments in general, of man's free will and 
 justification, were treated and settled, once for 
 all, by the Council of Trent. Later questions, 
 mainly rationalistic, relating to the true nature 
 of the Church, the office and work of the Holy 
 Ghost, His Divine indwelling, and the infalli- 
 bility and indefectibility of the Kingdom of the 
 World's Redeemer, have been treated more re- 
 cently. The rationalism of the present day, in 
 which the very existence of God has been denied, 
 
136 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 and the evils which flow from such rationalism — 
 Brastianism, godless education, and nationalism in 
 religion — are the great subjects which quite re- 
 cently have been authoritatively condemned. 
 
 On the 3rd and 4th of December, 1563, the 
 last session of the sacred Council of Trent was 
 held. It had been in abeyance for the greater 
 part of the time since its first assembling on the 
 13th of December 1545. Pope Paul III. and 
 Pope Julius III. had in due course guided its 
 decisions and decrees, but during its sessions had 
 passed to their reward. Its work, from begin- 
 ning to end, was one of true, honest, and legiti- 
 mate reform. The lawful rulers of the Western 
 Church — duly and painfully considering all here- 
 sies, schisms, defects, innovations, and errors, 
 and more especially those modern " reforms " 
 which had become so disastrously current amongst 
 the Northern races — carefully amended whatever 
 needed amendment, and this in no ambiguous 
 terms. Its Catechism, Canons, Decrees, and 
 Confession of Faith remain consequently as 
 monuments of the consummate wisdom of its 
 members, and as certain tokens of the guiding 
 Presence of the Divine Paraclete, with the 
 Patriarch of Christendom, the cardinals and 
 prelates. 
 
 The close of the Council was impressive indeed. 
 First, all things that had been duly done for the 
 
IMPORTANCE OP THE COUNCIL OF TRENT. 137 
 
 progress of the Church and the benefit of the 
 faithful, were solemnly confirmed by those pre- 
 sent in the presence of the Blessed and Adorable 
 Sacrament. To the then Pontiff, Pius IV., the 
 members of the Council wished many years and 
 eternal memory. Peace from the Lord God, 
 everlasting glory and eternal happiness in the 
 sight of the Saints, were asked for on behalf of 
 the two departed Popes who had reigned during 
 the Council's previous sessions. For the Emperors 
 Charles V. and Ferdinand, and for all Christian 
 kings, " preservers of the right faith," the mem- 
 bers of the Council prayed God to bestow many 
 years of life. Prayers went up to the Almighty, 
 likewise, for the legates, the cardinals, and the 
 bishops. The Faith of the Church, as newly ex- 
 plained, was confessed by all, and promises 
 openly made to keep the Council's Decrees. 
 " We all thus believe," they affirmed. " We all 
 think the very same thing; we all, consenting 
 and embracing both Creed and Decrees, volun- 
 tarily subscribe thereto. This," they went on to 
 declare, " is the Faith of blessed Peter and of the 
 Apostles ; this is the Faith of our fathers, this 
 we believe, this we hold, to this we adhibit our 
 names." 
 
 Then the Cardinal of .Lorraine, arising un- 
 covered, declared as follows : — " Adhering to 
 these Decrees, may we be rendered worthy of the 
 
138 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 grace and mercy of the First and Great High 
 Priest, Jesus Christ, Our Lord and God ; Our 
 Immaculate Lady, the Holy Mother of God ; and 
 all the Saints interceding for us." 
 
 " Amen ; so be it ! " was the unanimous and 
 universal response. 
 
 " To all heretics," continued His Eminence, 
 " be anathema." 
 
 " Amen ! " was the like hearty and unanimous 
 answer. 
 
 Then, after having sung Te Deum, the members 
 dispersed. Such was the Council's impressive 
 and solemn close. 
 
 In England what had been effected was at 
 once seen to be of the gravest and greatest im- 
 portance. Independent of the discussions con- 
 cerning doctrines, the very practical point of 
 occasional conformity with the new religion and 
 worship, which certain Englishmen had followed, 
 was fearlessly dealt with ; while those who had 
 occasionally frequented the churches were dis- 
 tinctly forbidden to do so any longer. 
 
 Immediately this decision was formally pro- 
 claimed a change came over those who clung to 
 the ancient faith. Reports of the terms in which 
 the decision had been given reached England in 
 due course, some months before the formal decree. 
 An authority hitherto recognized by all the Chris- 
 tian nations of the West, the Chief Patriarch of 
 
EFFECT OF THE TRIDENTINE COUNCIL. 139 
 
 the Church of God, now spoke. His words were 
 reverently listened to; the old law of Chris- 
 tianity, newly applied, was at once dutifully 
 heard and duly obeyed. 
 
 Much suffering followed upon obedience ; but 
 it sanctified the sufferers, and abundantly blessed 
 them all, during the anxious and trying time of 
 their earthly probation. 
 
no 
 
 CEAPTER III. 
 
 This decision of the Council of Trent, as will 
 soon be discovered, exercised great influence on 
 the course of events in England. But these must 
 not be forestalled. The exact point and purport 
 of that decision were not publicly made known 
 by the issue of any formal document ; but the 
 duty of those who retained the old Faith soon 
 became perfectly well understood. 
 
 Hence, more completely and generally than 
 ever, the churches, and specially the more remote 
 and village churches, became deserted.* This 
 fact is on record again and again in the writings 
 of the Fathers of the so-called " Reformation." 
 
 * In some of the towns, pre-arranged theological contro- 
 versies and squabbles over the meaning of Scripture, enlivened 
 the ordinary dulness, when bull- or badger-baiting were out 
 of season. 
 
DIVISION BETWEEN CATHOLICS AND ERASTIANS. 141 
 
 The new prelates deplored the emptiness of the 
 sacred edifices in writing to each other. Some 
 of them, furthermore, grumblingly complained to 
 Sir William Cecil ; but if the existing fines for 
 absence and for non-participation in the new 
 " rites of the Supper " would not aid in filling 
 the desecrated sanctuaries, that statesman, as he 
 responded, was unable as yet to suggest any more 
 efficient practical remedy. The bishops should 
 more painfully and piously give themselves to 
 preaching and prayer. They should be " less 
 w r ith your women and children, and more with 
 your flocks," * as an anonymous writer forcibly 
 remarked. 
 
 The division, therefore, between the ancient 
 Catholics and the upholders of the new religion 
 became still further marked and manifest ; while 
 the State Powers thus confessed themselves impo- 
 tent either to bridge over the newly-made chasm, 
 or to prevent further rents and fissures being 
 deliberately made by those standing on its brink. 
 
 Ere we pass on to the deeds of later years, it 
 is necessary to deal here with a few events and 
 positions of some importance. 
 
 The state of Ecclesiastical affairs, about the 
 year 1564, more especially the frightful confusion 
 
 * " A Modest Cure, together with a Cry from the Wilder- 
 ness," &c, pp. 35, 36. London : 1566. 
 
142 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 everywhere practically existing, and in some 
 places rampant — quite worthy of note — is suffi- 
 ciently proved from a record still remaining in 
 Sir William Cecil's own handwriting.* It was 
 evidently made after due and careful inquiry on 
 the part of that influential state official. As re- 
 gards the performance of divine service and the 
 administration of those sacraments which were 
 retained, — Cecil's own expressive sentences are 
 scarcely altered in what is about to be reproduced, 
 and, where altered, only paraphrased in what now 
 immediately follows : — 
 
 Some of the ministers say the service and 
 prayers in the chancel, others in the body of the 
 church. Some say the same in a seat made in 
 the church ; others in the pulpit, with their faces 
 to the people. Some keep precisely the order of 
 the new Prayer Book, others introduce metrical 
 psalms ; some use a surplice at prayers, while 
 others minister in their secular and ordinary 
 attire — hat, doublet, and hose. As regards the 
 position of the Communion table, in certain places 
 it stands in the body of the church, in others 
 in the choir. Within the latter it is sometimes 
 placed altar-wise about a yard from the east 
 wall ; in other cases it stands in the midst of the 
 
 * See vol. iii., No. 7, of the Lansdowne MSS. in the British 
 Museum. 
 
DIVERGENCIES IN THE NEW SERVICE. 143 
 
 chancel north and south. In some places it con- 
 sists of a table duly constructed in joiner's work, 
 in others it is a mere rough board placed upon 
 common trestles. By some of the new ministers 
 it is covered with a carpet or an old vestment ; by 
 others the bare oak table is intentionally left per- 
 fectly exposed and uncovered. In the actual 
 administration of the Communion, ordered to take 
 place once a month, some of the cathedral clergy 
 and the Queen's chaplains ministered the ordinance 
 in a surplice with a cope over it ; others were clad 
 in a surplice only ; others, again, with no official 
 dress of any sort or kind. Uniformity was thus 
 out of the question, as those discovered, who, 
 with unbridled self-pleasing, and license, having 
 altered the ancient services to suit their own 
 tastes and opinions, found it exceedingly hard to 
 induce others to adopt exactly the same standard 
 of ecclesiastical taste, though prescribed by In- 
 junction or Proclamation. So it was, likewise, as 
 regards details. Some used an ancient chalice 
 and paten at the table, others a communion cup 
 of the new sort, others a common cup. The 
 Bread, either leavened or unleavened, was re- 
 ceived by some kneeling, by others standing, by 
 some walking round the table,* by others sitting, 
 
 * " They used to begin with three or four sermons, preached 
 one after the other. They then went to Communion, not 
 
144 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 by many with their heads covered. All thus 
 pleased themselves, while Discord reigned. Again : 
 at baptism some ministers administered the sacra- 
 ment at the font, others in a basin ; some with a 
 surplice, others without ; some drew the sign of 
 the cross on the child's brow ; others, with, an 
 honest shudder at the very notion, deliberately 
 omitted it as the acknowledged " mark of the 
 Apocalyptic Beast." 
 
 This new religion, so eminently selfish, which 
 Cecil and Elizabeth had set up, had given point 
 to the well-known foreign Protestant maxim — 
 " Every one for himself, and God for us all." The 
 poor, therefore (now so haggard and famishing), 
 whom the Divine Author of Christianity had de- 
 clared that His followers should always have with 
 them, were voted an eye-sore and a nuisance. 
 
 When, consequently, the Queen, in her royal pro- 
 gresses, passed through different districts of this 
 once-favoured land, she could not fail to observe 
 the miserable condition of the lean and famishing 
 peasantry, who came out from their hovels to 
 stare sullenly at her as she was borne along on 
 her velvet-dressed litter. Ill-fed, half -clothed, 
 
 receiving it either on their knees or standing, but moving by, 
 so that it might be called a Passover in very truth." — " Life 
 of William Weston," p. 241. London : 1875. 
 
GREAT DESTITUTION OP THE POOB. 145 
 
 lantern-jawed and wolf-like, with scarcely any 
 rights left, with no protectors against tyranny 
 from above or grinding cruelty from below 
 (for the new nobles and the local constables 
 equally oppressed them), those few who were old 
 enough to remember a former state of things 
 may have been pardoned if they felt disposed 
 to curse the day upon which they had been 
 born. 
 
 During the whole of her reign, in truth, the 
 state of the lower classes was appallingly sad, and 
 their destitution deplorable. The monasteries 
 having long ago been destroyed, or put to secular 
 purposes, and their ample revenues given away to 
 worthless adventurers as bribes ; and these re- 
 venues too often lost, squandered, and dissipated 
 by those who had by law sacrilegiously taken 
 possession of such sacred possessions and their cor- 
 responding treasures, — the country poor suffered 
 severely. No moral consideration could induce 
 the new owners of the monastic estates to aid in 
 relieving or maintaining the indigent and aged 
 people, who bore in patience their poverty and 
 woes. No doubt these estates were grievously 
 impoverished, and produced but little ; for, as a 
 rule, (the times being times of change,) they were 
 neither cultivated so well, nor looked after so 
 carefully, as when the monks owned a life-interest 
 in them. Too often the new secular proprietors 
 
 10 
 
146 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 were tyrants, oppressive usurers, cold-hearted, 
 and godless. 
 
 Our Divine Redeemer, as all Christians know, 
 has left here upon earth the poor, the unfortunate, 
 and the miserable- — a beautiful necessity — to be- 
 come objects of the love and care of those who 
 have received temporal blessings and the riches 
 of this world. Like a refreshing shower during 
 sunshine. He has caused to descend upon them a 
 double portion of His divine charity — the graces 
 of Calvary and the glories of Tabor. Withdraw- 
 ing Himself awhile during man's time of pro- 
 bation, He has thus bequeathed the poverty- 
 stricken to us. They are at once His liveliest 
 image and His best-loved inheritance. But under 
 Queen Elizabeth they were neglected, despised, 
 and passed by. For faith was cold and charity 
 was not. 
 
 On the occasion of the Queen's visit to Cam- 
 bridge, she went in state, on a Sunday morning in 
 August 1564, to King's College Chapel, to hear a 
 Latin sermon by Dr. Perne, prefaced by the 
 Bidding Prayer. Prior to this, the Litany in 
 English was sung, during which she entered with 
 a combination of regal and pontifical splendour. 
 Four doctors of divinity carried a canopy of cloth- 
 of-gold over the Supreme Governess — the same 
 canopy which, in the fourth year of her sister's 
 reign, had been borne over the Blessed Sacrament 
 
A PLAY IN KING'S COLLEGE CHAPEL. 147 
 
 by four knights in the same chapel ; and she was 
 attended by her ladies in waiting and high officers 
 of state, — some of whom carried those external 
 symbols of Her Highness's spiritual and ecclesi- 
 astical authority which she had assumed, and 
 desired never should be wanting on such occa- 
 sions. The Queen approved of the sermon ; and 
 " liked the singing of the choir so well," that she 
 attended Evensong in the afternoon, on which 
 occasion some lyrical verses in her honour, paro- 
 dying one of the ancient antiphons of Our Lady 
 with which the Sunday Vespers had been formerly 
 concluded, were sung. It had been arranged that 
 one of the plays of Plautus — the " Aularia " — 
 should be represented in the hall of King's College 
 on Sunday evening ; but as the space of that re- 
 fectory was limited, and there was not sufficient 
 room to erect a suitable state-throne and canopy 
 for the Queen, Her Majesty gave orders that a 
 stage should be put up and that the play should 
 be acted in the chapel, which was done, and the 
 performance was not concluded until midnight. 
 The Queen was so pleased with the acting, but 
 more particularly with the good looks, of a hand- 
 some youth who had very cleverly personified 
 Dido, that on that sultry autumn midnight she at 
 once sent for him to her apartments at King's 
 College, to speak to him and to commend him to 
 his face ; and, when she left the University, she 
 
 10 * 
 
148 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 graciously bestowed an annual benefaction of 
 twenty pounds per annum for life upon this 
 favoured and lucky performer.* It will thus be 
 seen that the revived taste for pagan literature 
 had at this time become so rampant, as that a 
 chapel dedicated to the solemn worship of God 
 the Trinity was, by royal command, thus delibe- 
 rately profaned. 
 
 By her numerous love affairs — for she was 
 always in love, ever making plans for matrimony 
 — she contrived to make herself the scandal of 
 England and the laughing-stock of the European 
 Courts. Details of her personal behaviour when 
 her favourites were concerned, often so un- 
 womanly and disgusting, of her coarse words 
 and questionable sayings, were, in open letters 
 or by occult cypher, transmitted by the clever 
 ambassadors from abroad to their various royal 
 and imperial masters ; who were thus kept well 
 and truly informed of what was actually going 
 on, and who, on reading them, grinned over such 
 records of her amorous antics. 
 
 * The authorities at Cambridge seem to have been exceed- 
 ingly annoyed, if not greatly disgusted, at her parsimony and 
 favouritism. On leaving she simply thanked them for their 
 hospitality, and gaTe some of the Heads of Houses her right 
 hand to kiss. A " Copie of verses " then penned and 
 printed, — commenting on her gift to the youthful actor, and 
 hinting that the said gift was a reward for questionable 
 favours, — too coarse to transcribe, is preserved there. 
 
PICKEEING AND THE EAEL OF AEUNDEL. 149 
 
 The first of her lovers was a knight of a re- 
 spectable family, Sir William Pickering, of whom 
 John Jewell informed Bullinger that he was 
 " both a prudent and pious man." Sir William 
 had been sent on a mission to one of the petty 
 princes of Germany, and on his return the Queen, 
 suddenly smitten, heaped such favours on him, 
 and paid him such unusual attention, both at 
 proper and improper times, that the courtiers 
 quite believed that a marriage would (or at all 
 events, after what had happened, that it should) 
 take place. Pickering was undoubtedly hand- 
 some, with a fine brow, regular features, and 
 small hands and feet ; his address, moreover, 
 was courtly, his tastes were refined. Whether, on 
 discovering the amatory peculiarities of the Su- 
 preme Governess, and her expectations, he became 
 both alarmed and disgusted, or not, may never 
 be accurately known. Anyhow, the affair all at 
 once collapsed — no one knew why or wherefore — 
 and this as suddenly as it had been initiated. 
 
 Her next lover was Henry, Earl of Arundel, 
 K.G., born in 1512, at heart a staunch supporter 
 of the ancient faith, a brave soldier,* and one 
 who on several occasions had done good service 
 
 * He had distinguished himself greatly by his bravery at 
 the siege of Boulogne. 
 
150 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 to the state. In Edward VI. 's reign he had been 
 unjustly and heavily fined upon frivolous pre- 
 tences ; but his noblest achievement was to have 
 peaceably secured the throne to the late pious 
 and religious Queen Mary. He it was who pro- 
 claimed her in the City and then rode down to 
 Suffolk to receive her commands and serve her 
 well. But this unhappy nobleman, in order to 
 please the new Queen, had voted in the House of 
 Lords, against the convictions of his conscience, 
 in favour of the so-called " Reformation " and 
 the new laws, and kept up an appearance of 
 maintaining it. A member of the old nobility, 
 for he was the eighteenth earl of his house and 
 name, he was munificent and even regal in his 
 choice offerings and rich gifts to his Sovereign, 
 and often entertained her with masques, banquets, 
 and balls. In fact his vast fortune had proved 
 wholly inadequate to pay for the expenses he had 
 thus incurred, and he greatly impoverished his 
 estates by so doing. At length, irritated by the 
 Queen's behaviour, he haughtily returned his 
 staff of office as Lord Steward, with some over- 
 plain and too homely words of warning and ex- 
 postulation. Later on, however, he opposed the 
 Court party (disliking the Queen's projected 
 marriage with the Duke of Anjou), and, being 
 by them feared, was soon persecuted. When he 
 could no longer minister to the Queen's amuse- 
 
THE LORD EOBEET DUDLEY. 
 
 151 
 
 ment, evinced independence, and was growing 
 old and gouty,* she speedily turned her atten- 
 tion to younger and livelier favourites ; and not 
 only treated the Earl with contempt, but with 
 great harshness. He died in 1580. f 
 
 The person who made the deepest impression 
 on her heart was a worthless fellow of neither 
 family nor blood, Lord Robert Dudley. He, with 
 his father the Duke of Northumberland, the low- 
 born son of the rapacious usurer of Henry VIII.'s 
 reign, had been attainted for the attempt to re- 
 remove both Mary and Elizabeth from the suc- 
 cession to the crown. But he had recently been 
 restored in blood, received several official appoint- 
 ments and grants, and met with great favour 
 from the Queen herself. $ He was appointed 
 
 * In 1565 he went to try the effects of the baths at Padua 
 for relief from the gout in his feet, but with no great success. 
 " He had been made her tool in politics and her sport in 
 secret," writes Miss Strickland. 
 
 f " In him," wrote Camden, " was extinct the surname of 
 this most noble family, which had flourished with great 
 honour for three hundred years and more ; from the time of 
 Richard Fitz-alan, who, being descended from the Albinis, 
 ancient Earls of Arundel and Sussex, in the reign of Edward I. 
 received the title of Earl without any creation, in regard of 
 his being possessed of the castle and honour of Arundel." 
 
 % In the fifth year of her reign she granted Robert Dudley 
 the castle and manor of Kenilworth and Astel Grove, the 
 lordships and manors of Denbigh and Chirk, with other 
 lands and possessions, together with a special license for 
 transporting cloth, which he disposed of to John Mark and 
 
152 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Master of the Horse, with a fee of one hundred 
 marks a year, and, to the astonishment both of 
 the peers and the public, made a Knight of the 
 Garter, and soon afterwards Constable of Windsor 
 Castle. On September 29th, 1563, he was created 
 Baron of Denbigh and Earl of Leicester. This 
 took place with great state at Westminster, as 
 Sir James Melville, who was present, has left on 
 record. The Queen, in her chair of state, per- 
 sonally invested Robert Dudley with the new 
 robes of his dignities as he knelt before her. 
 During the trying process, many eyes being upon 
 him, he bore himself with due gravity and dis- 
 cretion ; for several peers, officers of state, and 
 foreign ambassadors were present. Before the 
 new peer arose, however, the amorous Queen had 
 the execrable taste to tickle him in the neck 
 underneath his liuen shirt, at which he crimsoned 
 deeply; and afterwards, with smirks and smiles 
 of satisfaction, to ask Melville, the Scotch Am- 
 bassador, what he thought of the Earl's person 
 and bearing.* 
 
 others, merchant adventurers. — See " The Sidney Papers," 
 in loco, and the grant of the peerage for life to Alice Dudley 
 (wife of Sir Robert Dudley, son of the Earl of Leicester), 
 as Duchess of Dudley, by King Charles I. 
 
 * A very fine miniature of this nobleman, from the pencil 
 of Isaac Oliver (1556-1617), is in the possession of the Duke 
 
COOLNESS BETWEEN THE QUEEN AND LEICESTEE. 153 
 
 Elizabeth had evidently pressed a marriage 
 between Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Lei- 
 cester, in order that when the former refused 
 him, as was sure to be the case, the way might 
 be more easily opened for the completion of her 
 own matrimonial arrangements with the new 
 nobleman. Should Mary accept him — which 
 was highly improbable — it would not be difficult 
 for Elizabeth to bring the proposal to nought, 
 and then secure the man for herself. 
 
 There was at one time a coolness between the 
 Queen and Leicester, which the latter cleverly 
 turned to his own account, and made use of in 
 the following manner. Holding that a temporary 
 absence might serve his purpose, and whet Her 
 Highness's appetite for his return and company, 
 he resolved to ask to be sent to France on some 
 diplomatic mission, and induced De Foys, the 
 French Ambassador, to make this request in 
 person of the Queen. On hearing it she flew 
 into a passion, swore her usual oath, and at once 
 ordered Leicester into her presence to offer some 
 explanation of his unexpected desire. 
 
 The Earl came in due course, when she imme- 
 diately asked him if it were possible that he truly 
 
 of Buccleuch, K.G. It is inscribed with the name of Leicester 
 and with the date of his death, 1588. 
 
154 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 wished to go to France. " I will have it," she 
 said, " from thine own lips, if so it be." He 
 replied, with unusual calmness, " With your 
 Highness's permission and favour, it is one of 
 the several things I most desire." 
 
 The Queen was so nettled by this quiet re- 
 sponse that she told him, with bitterness, that it 
 would be no great honour to send a groom (this 
 was a sarcastic allusion to his office of Master of 
 the Horse) to so great and puissant a prince as 
 the French King. 
 
 He is said to have been made intensely indig- 
 nant by this studied insult, and to have changed 
 colour greatly. But he kept his temper and 
 wisely restrained his speech. 
 
 When he had retired from her presence, which 
 he did at once, she laughingly observed to the 
 Ambassador — " I cannot live, believe me, I cannot 
 live without a sight of that man daily. He is 
 like my lap-dog. When that is seen running for- 
 ward, they who see it say that I, his mistress, am 
 nigh. And so it is. Where my Lord of Leices- 
 ter is, there too am I ; there, good de Foys, must 
 I be likewise." 
 
 Soon afterwards fresh warmth, not to write 
 heat, took the place of the temporary coolness 
 which had existed between the Queen and her 
 favourite ; while, as a consequence of their be- 
 coming inseparable companions, once more the 
 
Leicester's new sleeping- apaetment. 155 
 
 case, fresh scandalous reports were current at 
 home, while abroad it was openly asserted that 
 they lived in adulterous intercourse.* 
 
 On one occasion Elizabeth had condescended to 
 discuss these reports with Quadra, the Spanish 
 Ambassador. In so doing the poor lady surely 
 forgot both her dignity as a queen and her deli- 
 cacy as a woman, in personally and argumenta- 
 tively pointing out the a priori improbability of 
 what was asserted by her enemies, by a joint in- 
 spection of her own and her favourite's sleeping- 
 chambers, and their due geographical relation to 
 each other. This unpleasant incident, which, it 
 is to be feared, altogether failed of its purpose, 
 was discussed by some of the other ambassadors, 
 and, as usual, also talked about abroad. 
 
 Subsequently the Queen, finding that her 
 favourite's health was likely to suffer from the 
 alleged dampness of the room in which he had 
 hitherto slept, had the daring indelicacy to assign 
 him a chamber in close proximity to the royal 
 sleeping-apartment. f The boldness of this act 
 
 * A gentleman in Norfolk was put upon his trial for having 
 asserted that " my Lord of Leicester had two children by the 
 Queen," and for this plain-speaking was compelled to lose 
 both his ears or else to pay a fine of <£100. — See " Lodge," 
 vol. ii. p. 47. 
 
 f Testimony of Quadra, Bishop of Aquila, in original 
 despatches at Simancas. 
 
156 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 quite astonished some of the more refined amongst 
 the courtiers ; while certain of the old nobility, 
 though silent, shook their heads gravely at the 
 mention of it. But no one publicly criticized or 
 protested. Fortune in this, as in other cases, fa- 
 voured the brave. Elizabeth, in these amorous 
 contrivances, was truly as brave as she was bold, 
 and, it may be added, as daring as she was inde- 
 licate and unblushing. 
 
 But more of this hereafter. Almost to the day 
 of her death she was always seeking for the ad- 
 miration of the other sex. As she grew in years, 
 so she grew in vanity, selfishness, and cruelty — 
 cruelty such as in a woman the World has sel- 
 dom been called upon to contemplate and turn 
 from in aversion. 
 
 Her treatment of the venerable Archbishop of 
 York, Dr. Nicholas Heath, for example, was 
 simply inhuman and scandalous. She had been 
 deeply indebted to him, seven years previously, 
 at a sore crisis in her life, the death of her half- 
 sister Queen Mary, but seems to have speedily 
 enough forgotten her obligation. He it was 
 who, when her title to the throne was so doubt- 
 ful, served by boldness and prompt action to 
 establish her questionable position ; for, like an 
 apt statesman and loyal subject, he secured the 
 sanction of both Houses of Parliament to the 
 Proclamation by which her reign was peacefully 
 
HEATH ORDERED TO BE " LESS STRAITENED." 157 
 
 and duly inaugurated. Yet because, being " a 
 Churchman of the true ancient sort," he was 
 conscientiously unable to accept the ridiculous 
 figment of her so-called " Supremacy," and, as 
 in duty bound, resisted, both in the Houses of 
 Lords and Convocation, the imposition of such a 
 fraudulent novelty upon Englishmen, by every 
 lawful means at hand, she had the Archbishop 
 privately conveyed to the Tower, without charge 
 or trial, and there for five weary years confined 
 in a dark and unwholesome dungeon, to his great 
 sorrow and pain. 
 
 When in ordinary conversation the Venetian 
 Ambassador so properly put before the Queen the 
 strong judgment entertained abroad of such un- 
 justifiable acts of persecution and iniquity, — for, 
 as he remarked in regard to the imprisoned Arch- 
 bishop, " no man in a civilized State should be 
 condemned to punishment without a hearing," — 
 she enjoined that Archbishop Heath was to be 
 " less straitened." At that time, Thomas Young, 
 an intruder, neither canonically elected, nor duly 
 confirmed, had usurped the place and revenues of 
 the ancient archiepiscopal see, legally belonging 
 to Heath, and was doing his best to serve the 
 cause of Cecil and the innovators in a loyal and 
 beautiful county — the people of which were almost 
 unanimously in favour of the Ancient Faith. 
 Heath was therefore permitted to retire to the 
 
]58 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Manor House in York,* formerly the residence of 
 the Abbot of St. Mary's and subsequently one of 
 the official houses of the see in question ; and, 
 though kept under a close watch, he was allowed 
 to walk abroad within a certain distance of his 
 place of confinement. But even this moderate 
 liberty was looked upon by some with dislike and 
 jealousy. The suspicions regarding this vener- 
 able prelate were, however, suspicions and nothing- 
 more ; possibly the consequence of malice, or pro- 
 bably of mere gossip. In the meantime Lord 
 Scropef applied to the Council for advice and 
 directions in the case of the Archbishop's sus- 
 pected peregrinations. The question was discussed, 
 in the Queen's presence, on the 22nd of June 
 1565, with the assistance of the Lord Keeper 
 Bacon, the Marquis of Northampton, the Earl of 
 
 * Canon Raine, of York, thus most courteously writes to 
 me : — " If the place is described as ' the Manor House in 
 York,' it is the large building formerly the residence of the 
 Abbot of St. Mary's and now the Yorkshire School for the 
 Blind. It was generally called 'the Manor House' or 
 ' the King's Manor,' as the Stuart kings resided there." 
 
 f This was Henry, ninth Lord Scrope of Bolton, K.G, 
 summoned to Parliament from 21st October 1555, to 4th of 
 February 1589. In the fifth year of Queen Elizabeth he 
 was appointed Governor of the Castle of Carlisle and Warden 
 of the West Marches. He married, first, Eleanor, daughter 
 of Edward, Lord North, by whom he had an only daughter ; 
 and, secondly, the Lady Margaret Howard, sister of the Duke 
 of Norfolk, by whom he had an only son Thomas, who became 
 tenth Lord Scrope. 
 
CONTROVERSY CONCERNING MINISTERS' APPAREL. 159 
 
 Leicester, Mr. Secretary Cecil, Mr. Cave, Mr. 
 Petre, and Mr. Sackville ; when it was deter- 
 mined that Lord Scrope should deal sharply and 
 promptly with the old man of eighty, " to the end 
 that he should declare the full truth why he wan- 
 dereth abroad, and if he will not be plain in his 
 declaration," — the Queen, just turned thirty years 
 of age, goes on to have "fully determined" and 
 recorded od the Council Register that he must be 
 tortured, pinched, or thumb-screwed, — " to use 
 some kind of torture to him, so as to be without 
 any great bodily hurt, and to advertise his (Lord 
 Scrope's) doings herein," * are the exact words 
 of the Privy Council Order. 
 
 About this time, i.e. 1566, another controversy 
 arose, not from maintainers of the old order of 
 affairs, but from certain of the more advanced in- 
 novators. And it arose as follows : — 
 
 For the new bishops a lawn rochet and black 
 chimere, with silk scarf, and neck-band of sable 
 or other furs, was customarily adopted or enjoined 
 to be worn. In existing pictures of them they 
 are thus represented.! This was the ancient do- 
 
 * See, for the documents and authorities relating to this 
 act of iniquitous cruelty, " Memorials of the Howards," 
 edited by Mr. Howard, of Corby Castle. 
 
 f See a contemporary portrait of Matthew Parker in the 
 dining-hall of Lambeth Palace. 
 
160 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 mestic dress of a "Western Catholic prelate — not 
 a dress for public ministrations, but for hall or 
 study — which he always used in private. But, 
 as it seemed to mark off the chief superintendents 
 from ordinary ministers, it gave great offence to 
 the latter and their followers, more especially 
 when they were violent Calvinists or rampant 
 Zwinglians. Equality in the House of God was 
 what was wanted by the innovators, with a com- 
 plete banishment of all external signs, symbols, or 
 " vestures of superstition," as they were termed. 
 
 Anything more than the ordinary dress of the 
 preachers was consequently held in horror. The 
 same was the case with the use of the surplice 
 and silken hood enjoined upon the inferior clergy. 
 From the outset the foreign Protestants had 
 rudely characterized the surplice as " the whore 
 of Babylon's chemise," " the Romish ragge," 
 "Antichrist's shyrte," and by other equally choice 
 terms. As early as 1550, however, John Hooper, 
 an apostate Cistercian monk, who had been duly 
 infected with the heresies of Geneva, had firmly 
 refused to wear any such vestments, and had 
 carried on a furious and angry controversy with 
 Dr. Nicholas Ridley against them ; while Miles 
 Coverdale, a rough Yorkshireman, who had once 
 been an Augustinian friar, but repudiated the 
 Faith and become first a Lutheran and subse- 
 quently a Calvinistic heretic, was heartily at one 
 
FIERCE AND FUEIOUS CONTROVERSIES. 161 
 
 with Hooper in his practice ; and was even obsti- 
 nately vigorous and foul-mouthed in his anti- 
 vestment frenzy. The extravagant violence of 
 this old man's language, glanced at now, only 
 raises a smile or a sincere feeling of pity. 
 
 This controversy, which obviously covered 
 theological differences of a true and deep nature, 
 grew rapidly in fierceness and fury.* The anti- 
 vestment agitators pleaded for a " pure and plain" 
 service, which, judging from contemporary state- 
 ments on the subject, it might not unreasonably 
 be presumed they had from their own standing- 
 point already secured — for the churches had been 
 largely emptied of their ornaments, wrecked of 
 all that was valuable, and whitewashed. Still the 
 innovators declined to attend any worship where 
 surplice, rochet, or hood appeared on the backs 
 of the ministers ; and they expressed this their 
 
 * To add a few details as to facts : — The Puritans objected 
 to the pre-eminence and authority of the bishops, and the 
 jurisdiction of the episcopal courts. They disliked the repe- 
 tition of the Lord's Prayer, as savouring of vain repetitions 
 on Popish beads ; they would not use the versicles and 
 responses, which were, they maintained, too much like the 
 " ancient idolatrie." The reading of the Apocrypha, the 
 sign of the cross in baptism, the ring in marriage, and 
 the terms of the marriage-contract, were equally distasteful. 
 Chanting the psalms, the use of organs or musical instru- 
 ments, and more especially the enjoined dresses of the clergy, 
 were all signs or marks of the Beast. 
 
 11 
 
162 THE CHUECH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 settled determination in scurrilous pamphlets and 
 the most violent speeches, as well as in action. 
 Many of these were printed at private presses, 
 some had been prepared abroad, others were 
 issued without any publisher's name, so that no 
 one could be held responsible for what they con- 
 tained. All of them were wildly anti-episcopal, 
 and full of abuse of the new Protestant bishops, 
 who were characterized as "turncoats," "anti- 
 Gospellers," and " traitors." The Master and 
 Wardens of the Stationers' Company consequently 
 were formally enjoined to search for and seize 
 such works. Their authors were to be dealt with 
 by the arbitrary Court of High Commission, which, 
 managing by a side-wind to make laws as they 
 seemed to be required, came down upon all Puri- 
 tan offenders with sledge-hammer force. The 
 recent "reforms" were asserted to be at once 
 " godly " and " sufficient " ; anything further was 
 ruthlessly condemned. Furthermore, any book- 
 dealer selling a copy of the offensive pamphlets in 
 question was to be fined twenty shillings for each 
 offence. The printer was to be imprisoned, while 
 both printer and bookseller was each hencefor- 
 ward forbidden to follow his respective calling on 
 any plea, at any time, in any case, or under any 
 circumstances. 
 
 These tyrannical and contemptible enactments, 
 which came fresh from the soiled hands of the 
 
EISE AND PROGRESS OP NONCONFORMITY. 163 
 
 daring rebels who, without any authority, had 
 pretended to "reform" the Church of God, and 
 which enactments, it may be remarked, were quite 
 worthy of their authors, utterly failed of their 
 purpose. The Puritans continued to read, write, 
 and publish most violent and obnoxious tractates ; 
 and, as a party, soon became distasteful and a 
 source of grave danger to the Government. 
 
 These energetic persons who on principle, how- 
 ever false, objected to the " prelatial " and 
 " Popish " character of the new Religion, soon 
 secured for themselves the title of " Nonconform- 
 ists." According to their consciences, (or what 
 may have done duty for the same,) they could 
 not and would not adhere to the system recently 
 set up. They deliberately dissented from it ; they 
 could not conform to it, even though enjoined 
 thereto by so high an authority as the Queen's 
 Highness herself. Of course it was quite reason- 
 able that any of the preaching ministers who 
 adopted this policy should retire from work in 
 the new state organization or religious institution 
 — leave the pulpit and close the Book of Homi- 
 lies. But this was not enough. Her Majesty's 
 advisers went much further in their dealings with 
 these unhappy people.* All Englishmen, as the 
 
 * In June of the year 1567 a congregation of more than a 
 hundred Puritans was surprised and seized at Plumbers' 
 
 11 * 
 
164 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 teaching then stood, must acknowledge the Queen's 
 Supreme Headship, and worship exactly as she wor- 
 shipped, bow when she bowed, pray as she prayed, 
 sing as she sang, and in no other way. The pon- 
 derous preachments and dreary services of Geneva, 
 which some miserable fanatics, stricken with self- 
 delusion, looked upon as the highest types of 
 evangelical purity, were consequently as much 
 forbidden as the Hereford or Salisbury rite for 
 Holy Mass. The so-called " prophesyings " of 
 the Puritans were quite as odious to the Queen 
 as the Catholic Sacraments of Confirmation and 
 Extreme Unction, the Rosary or the Angelus. 
 Such a practical policy scarcely befitted those who 
 so loudly condemned the proceedings of the pre- 
 vious reign. And this point was more than once 
 ably but unavailingly pressed upon the Queen by 
 some of the official representatives of foreign 
 courts. Yet, let the truth be told, it was only 
 by persecution, fines, imprisonment, and the gal- 
 lows, that the new system of nationalism in reli- 
 gion could be maintained at all. 
 
 About this time an ecclesiastical case of great 
 importance — of such importance indeed as that 
 
 Hall, in the City of London, of which fifteen were marched 
 off to prison without either charge, trial, or condemnation. 
 After they had thus been treated they were examined by 
 Grindal, the Bishop of London, who rated them fiercely, but 
 failed to secure their conformity. 
 
THE CASE OF HORNE AGAINST BONNER. 165 
 
 special legislation immediately took place because 
 of it — was heard in the secular courts. Robert 
 Home, Bishop of Winchester, a Puritan gentle- 
 man of some zeal, indicted Dr. Bonner, the de 
 jure but not de facto Bishop of London (for 
 Edmund Grindal by royal authority had usurped 
 that important position), for refusing to take the 
 recent Oath of Supremacy. Bonner had been for 
 years a close prisoner in the Marshalsea, and this 
 place of confinement was in the diocese of Win- 
 chester. The plea which Bonner put in was a 
 plain and bold one, viz. that Home, falsely calling 
 himself " Bishop of Winchester," had never been 
 duly, regularly, and legally consecrated accord- 
 ing to the laws of the Church of England ; and 
 consequently that he could not be, and was not, 
 bishop of the diocese in which Bonner was con- 
 fined, and therefore had no legal authority what- 
 soever to tender him the oath in question. It 
 was a bold move on the part of the closely-im- 
 prisoned and ill-treated prelate; but, being founded 
 on fact and law, turned out to be a due, proper, 
 and valid plea. The judges who heard the case 
 were much annoyed and sorely puzzled by the 
 position into which Bonner, a learned canonist, 
 had thus so adroitly placed Horne. They resolved, 
 therefore, to give no decision whatsoever; for 
 otherwise it must have been clearly and unques- 
 tionably against Horne, and in favour of Bonner. 
 
166 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 So the proceedings were most irregularly and un- 
 justly stayed and quashed. Bonner was sent back 
 to the unhealthy cells of the Marshalsea. Home 
 did not venture to tender him the oath again ; 
 while the result of this lawsuit sorely vexed and 
 dismayed the new prelates, and annoyed the 
 Queen's Council greatly. 
 
 Throughout the whole country the issue of this 
 suit gradually became known, and it was largely 
 discussed. It had effectually served to test the 
 question whether the new bishops and ministers 
 were "true and lawful" or not. The old clergy, 
 who compared the novel form of Ordination with 
 the old, looked upon the new Church officers with 
 both suspicion and aversion, the more vigorous 
 amongst them with contempt. They were un- 
 noticed by the rich and learned,* and despised by 
 the poor and unlettered ; so much so indeed that 
 the Supreme Governess had to invoke the aid of 
 Parliament to fill up what was so obviously want- 
 ing, and to strengthen that which was so noto- 
 riously weak. 
 
 * Grindal, when Archbishop of York, writing from Cawood 
 to Cecil, on August 29, 1570, tells him plaintively that he has 
 not been well received; the greater part of the gentlemen of 
 the county being not well affected towards godly religion, 
 and among the common people many superstitious practices 
 remain. — " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. lxxiii. 
 p. 390. 
 
PARLIAMENT CONFIRMS THE NEW ORDERS. 167 
 
 An Act of Parliament was therefore passed 
 declaring that the method of making and conse- 
 crating the archbishops and bishops of this realm, 
 notwithstanding all objections, was " good, lawful, 
 and perfect." The tedious terminology and 
 numerous redundancies of expression are remark- 
 able ; but, inasmuch as, under the circumstances, 
 it was obviously the only method available for 
 settling, once for all, the various disputes* which 
 had arisen on the subject, it is necessary to put a 
 part of it, at all events, on record. 
 
 Its preamble asserted that " divers questions 
 by overmuch boldness of speech and talk of 
 the common sort of people, being unlearned, 
 having lately grown," concerning the new kind 
 of Ordinations, whether the same be done accord- 
 ing to law or not, " which is much tending to the 
 slander of all the state of the clergy "; therefore, 
 for avoiding such slanderous speech and for 
 enabling Parliament to settle the question, this 
 Act is passed. No reference is made to any rites 
 older than those of King Henry's reign, and 
 whatever has been or is wanting is duly sup- 
 plied "by the authority of Parliament" — of 
 
 * The writers who during Elizabeth's reign dealt with this 
 subject, and who had occasioned such " vai-ious disputes," 
 were Harpesfield, Hoskins, Sander, Harding, Stapleton, Allen, 
 Reynolds and others — all of whom, it should be remembered, 
 were English churchmen vigorously resisting the innovators. 
 
168 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 course a high authority in things temporal, but 
 nothing more. Parliament, of course, can compass 
 many deeds and effect much, but it is utterly 
 powerless to make either a priest or a bishop, and 
 no Declaration, Resolution, or Statute can render 
 valid and certain any ordination or consecration 
 already invalid or doubtful. 
 
 The most important part of the new enactment 
 is now verbally quoted : — 
 
 " And further, for the avoiding of all ambi- 
 guities and questions, that might be objected 
 against the lawful confirmations, investings, and 
 consecrations of the said archbishops and bishops, 
 Her Highness, in her Letters Patent, under the 
 Great Seal of England, directed to any archbishop, 
 bishop, or others, for confirming, investing, and 
 consecrating of any person elected to the office or 
 dignity of any archbishop or bishop, hath not 
 only used such words and sentences as were ac- 
 customed to be used by the said late King Henry, 
 and King Edward, Her Majesty's father, and 
 brother, in their like Letters Patents, made for 
 such causes, but also hath used, and put in Her 
 Majesty's said Letters Patents divers other gene- 
 ral words and sentences, whereby Her Highness, 
 by her supreme power and authority, hath dis- 
 pensed with all causes or doubts of any imper- 
 fections, or disability, that can or may in anywise 
 be objected against the same, as by Her Majesty's 
 
SPECIAL ACT CONCERNING ORDINATIONS. 169 
 
 said Letters Patents remaining of record more 
 plainly will appear ; so that to all those that will 
 well consider of the effect and true intent of the 
 said laws and statutes, and of the supreme and 
 absolute authority of the Queen's Highness, and 
 which she, by Her Majesty's said Letters Patents, 
 hath used, and put in use, in and about the 
 making and consecrating of the said archbishops 
 and bishops, it is, and may be, very evident and 
 apparent that no cause of scruple, ambiguity, 
 or doubt can or may justly be objected against 
 the said elections, confirmations, or consecrations, 
 or any other material thing meet to be used, or 
 had, in or about the same ; but that everything 
 requisite and material for that purpose, hath been 
 made and done as precisely, and with as great a 
 care and diligence, or rather more, as ever the 
 like was done before Her Majesty's time, as 
 the records of Her Majesty's said father's and 
 brother's time, and also of her own time, will 
 more plainly testify and declare. 
 
 " Wherefore, for the plain declaration of all the 
 premises, and to the intent that the same may 
 the better be known to every of the Queen's Ma- 
 jesty's subjects, whereby such evil speech, as here- 
 tofore hath been used against the high state of 
 prelacy, may hereafter cease, be it now declared 
 and enacted, by the authority of this present Par- 
 liament, that the said Act and Statute made in 
 
170 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 the first year of our said Sovereign Lady, the 
 Queen's Majesty, whereby the said Book of 
 Common Prayer, and the administration of sacra- 
 ments, with other rites and ceremonies, is autho- 
 rized and allowed to be used, shall stand and 
 remain good and perfect, to all intents and pur- 
 poses ; and that such order and form for the con- 
 secrating of archbishops and bishops, and for the 
 making of priests, deacons, and ministers, as was 
 set forth in the time of the late King Edward VI., 
 and added to the said Book of Common Prayer, 
 and authorized by Parliament, in the fifth and 
 sixth years of the said late King, shall stand, and 
 be in full force and effect, and shall, from hence- 
 forth, be used and observed in all places within 
 this realm, and other the Queen's Majesty's 
 dominions and countries : 
 
 " And that all acts and things heretofore had, 
 made, or done, by any person or persons, in or 
 about any consecrations, confirmation, or invest- 
 ing of any person or persons elected to the office 
 or dignity of any archbishop or bishop within this 
 realm, or within any other the Queen's Majesty's 
 dominions or countries, by virtue of the Queen's 
 Majesty's Letters Patents or commissions, since 
 the beginning of her reign, be, and shall be, 
 by authority of this present Parliament, declared, 
 judged, and deemed, at and from every of the several 
 times of the doing thereof, good and perfect, to all 
 
THE NEW SUPREMACY UNPRECEDENTED. 171 
 
 respects and purposes, any matter or thing that 
 can or may be objected to the contrary thereof, 
 in any wise, notwithstanding : 
 
 " And that all persons that have been, or shall 
 be, made, ordered, or consecrated archbishops, 
 bishops, priests, ministers of God's Holy Word 
 and Sacraments, or deacons, after the form and 
 order prescribed in the said order and form how 
 archbishops, bishops, priests, deacons, and minis- 
 ters should be consecrated, made, and ordered, 
 be in very deed, and also by authority hereof 
 declared and enacted to be, and shall be, arch- 
 bishops, bishops, priests, ministers, and deacons, 
 and rightly made, ordained, and consecrated ; any 
 statute, law, canon, or other thing to the contrary 
 notwithstanding." 
 
 Some may say that the deed done, or pretended 
 to be done, by this wordy and unprecedented Act, 
 was in truth a large stretch of the new Supremacy. 
 But surely the same national authority which had 
 created that power, could equally define its limits, 
 supply its existing deficiencies, and furthermore 
 extend its operation. 
 
 The Queen herself, however, did not in the 
 least believe — though officially she was bound to 
 do so — in her so-called " Supremacy." She was 
 not so theoretically uninstructed in the Christian 
 religion, as to conceive for a moment that a 
 "woman could either own or exercise such spiritual 
 
172 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 power, or that any other warrant for her having 
 assumed such a title as Supreme Governess could 
 be found beyond the bare yet bold decree of the 
 English Parliament. She more than once dis- 
 tinctly admitted as much.* To Lausac, an Envoy 
 from France, sent hither on certain special busi- 
 ness, she frankly owned her sure conviction that 
 the Supremacy of the Church of England, and 
 indeed of the whole Family of God, did not 
 belong to her, but to the successor of St. Peter ; 
 but she apologetically added that circumstances 
 had created a breach with the Pope, and that the 
 English Parliament and People, having resolved to 
 make a new Church for themselves, she was thus 
 obliged to assume and exercise the office of 
 Supreme Governess of it ; in which, for the sake 
 both of convenience and necessity, she was offi- 
 cially compelled to feign her belief. 
 
 At the same time that persecution was being 
 carried on against two parties — the anti-innovat- 
 
 * This can be seen on record from a perusal of " An 
 Answer to Sir Edward Coke's Keports " (p. 365), the author 
 of which also points out that Lord Montagu and the Earl of 
 Southampton had heard similar expressions of the Queen's 
 mind. So, too, had the Duke of Feria, who, after talking 
 with the Queen on the inherent absurdity of a woman ruling 
 a Church, wrote to his master, King Philip, to inform him 
 that she did not in her innermost heart believe in any such 
 notion, but only took the title and office because Cecil and 
 Bacon had assured her of the urgent necessity of so doing. 
 
A PLEA FOE THE OLD CHURCHMEN. 173 
 
 ing and the non-conforming — certain foreign 
 princes endeavoured so to influence the Queen 
 that she might be induced to repudiate the wicked 
 and dangerous policy of her advisers — more 
 especially this newly-invented spiritual Supre- 
 macy. The Emperor Ferdinand, in a holograph 
 letter, implored Her Majesty not to forsake the 
 religious fellowship of all the Christian princes of 
 Europe, or of a long line of illustrious Catholic 
 ancestors at home ; nor to set her own fallible 
 opinion, and that of the " new men of yester- 
 day " — themselves so notoriously unsettled and 
 changeable — in opposition to, and above that of, 
 the Universal Church of Our Redeemer — the 
 Church of fifteen centuries and more. He also 
 entreated her to refrain from imprisoning and 
 persecuting the suffering remnant of true Catholic 
 prelates, whose only fault was that they were 
 loyal and faithful to the almost universal religion 
 of Christendom and its chief Bishop. Moreover, 
 His Majesty suggested that, for those of her sub- 
 jects whom no fines could make apostates, no 
 bribes serve to pervert, and no persecution alter, 
 some few desecrated and empty churches here and 
 there might be given up for the ancient rites and 
 religion as heretofore.* 
 
 * The Queen had already given up the Church of the 
 Austin Friars and the crypt of Canterbury Cathedral to cer- 
 
174 THE CHUECH T7NDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 But these wise and timely proposals fell upon 
 a heart that was being alternately excited by the 
 lusts of the flesh and chilled by the pride of life, 
 and upon a conscience dulled to the voice both of 
 Truth and of Justice. Xothing whatsoever was 
 gained by the Emperor's well-intended and cha- 
 ritable letter. Affairs steadily and surely went 
 from bad to worse. 
 
 For practical action the ancient Church-of- 
 England men were at this time led by a very able 
 and remarkable ecclesiastical statesmen — a leader 
 of experience, learning, and prudence — who ren- 
 dered good service to their cause. William Allen, 
 a Lancashire man, educated at Oxford, Fellow of 
 Oriel in due course, and for some years the Prin- 
 cipal of St. Mary's Hall in that University, had 
 ever set his face as a rock against the innovators 
 and their innovations. On the death of Queen 
 Mary he had withdrawn to Louvaine, but on his 
 return to England, about this period, became fore- 
 most in condemning any participation whatso- 
 ever in the mutilated rites or public services of 
 the new religion.* All true Catholics, he asserted, 
 
 tain foreign heretics ; while the nave of the Abbey of Glas- 
 tonbury had been actually turned into a workshop for 
 Protestant weavers from Flanders. 
 
 * It seems a little doubtful when Dr. Allen was in England. 
 Possiblv he may have come over for awhile with Dr. Morton 
 and others to consult the old bishops and the ancient Catholic 
 nobilitv on his proposition, and soon gone abroad again. 
 
DR. ALLEN DESCRIBES THE SITUATION. 175 
 
 were absolutely bound to abstain from taking any 
 part in the worship set up by Act of Parliament,* 
 and patiently to suffer the consequences of non- 
 compliance. Since the decision at Trent no con- 
 troversy on the subject could even be entertained. 
 This was Dr. Allen's opinion, stated with luci- 
 dity and frankness ; and it was largely followed. 
 
 When, therefore, this pious and learned church- 
 man (afterwards Cardinal Allen) defended the 
 position of those who sought a remedy for 
 the existing spiritual desolation in England by the 
 establishment of a theological college abroad, he 
 thus beautifully and powerfully wrote, describing 
 the situation exactly : — 
 
 " The universal lack, then, of the sovereign 
 sacrifice and sacraments catholicly ministered, 
 without which the soul of man dieth, as the body 
 doth without corporal food ; this constraint to the 
 contrary services, whereby men perish everlast- 
 ingly ; this intolerable Oath, repugnant to God, 
 the Church, Her Majesty's honour, and all men's 
 consciences; and the daily dangers, disgraces, vexa- 
 tions, fears, imprisonments, impoverishments, de- 
 
 * " In Lancashire," as Richard Barnes, Bishop of Carlisle, 
 wrote to Cecil, " the people fall from religion, revolt to 
 Popery, and refuse to come to church." — Carlisle, October 
 27, 1570, " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," vol. lxxiv. 
 p. 395. 
 
176 THE CHDBCH UXDEB QUEEN" ELIZABETH. 
 
 spites, which they must suffer; and the railings and 
 blasphemies against God's sacraments, saints, minis- 
 ters, and all holies, which they are forced to hear 
 in our country, are the only causes, most dear sirs, 
 or (if we may be so bold, and if Our Lord permit 
 this declaration to come to Her Majesty's read- 
 ing) Most Gracious Sovereign, why so many of 
 us are departed out of our natural country, and 
 do absent ourselves so long from that place, where 
 we had our being, birth, and bringing-up, through 
 God ; and which we desire to serve with all the 
 offices of our life and death, only craving corres- 
 pondence of the same, as true and natural children 
 of their parents." * 
 
 In the year 1569, it seemed to many of those 
 who still remained faithful to the Old Religion, 
 that, as a consequence of the action of the Fathers 
 of Trent, they were being verily driven to despe- 
 ration by the cruel severity of the penal enact- 
 ments ; by the gross persecution which, over and 
 above the law, was notoriously connived at and 
 tolerated; and by their own utter inability, as 
 mere isolated units, to defend themselves, to stem 
 the tide of social ruin, or to oppose the policy of 
 those who were in authority. Amongst the new 
 
 * " Apologie and True I>e<-laration of the Institution of 
 the Eiglish Colleges." <fcc., pp. 12, 13. 
 
FURTHER PERSECUTIONS AND IMPRISONMENTS. 177 
 
 ministers controversy and squabbles appeared in- 
 terminable.* The old clergy had either been 
 silenced, or compelled to adopt the new religion, 
 its regulations and worship. Numbers of the 
 most learned who had refused to do so — digni- 
 taries of the highest rank — had been deprived, 
 imprisoned, or sent abroad. Many more, the very 
 flower of the learned clergy, had become volun- 
 tary exiles. Protests and expostulations to the 
 harsh makers of cruel laws were useless. These 
 had been made in abundance, in various forms and 
 shapes, by various persons ; but, as already 
 pointed out, were made in vain. For nobody 
 heeded them. Obedience to the new laws was 
 carefully exacted from all. The dictates of con- 
 science, like the Ancient Faith and rites, were 
 laughed to scorn. Men who clung to the old 
 Religion were harassed to death by persecution, 
 fines, and imprisonment. The many sores in the 
 body politic were deliberately and carefully kept 
 
 * " Our people (the innovators and so-called ' Reformers ') 
 are carried awaj with every wind of doctrine. If you know 
 what their belief is to-day, you cannot tell what it will be 
 to-morrow. Is there one article of religion in which these 
 communities, which are at war with the Pope, agree 
 together? If you run over all the articles, from the first 
 to the last, you will not find one which is not held by 
 some of them to be an article of faith, and rejected by others 
 as an impiety." — " Letter of Dudith to Capitonius," amongst 
 the " Epistola Bezse." 
 
 12 
 
178 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 open. Rich and poor, ignorant and learned, alike 
 suffered. So deep was the feeling of irritation in 
 the Northern Counties, that under the guidance 
 of the Earls of Northumberland and Westmore- 
 land, the people eventually rose as one man to 
 throw off the unbearable burdens by which they 
 were thus oppressed. Her Majesty, it was main- 
 tained, was surrounded " by divers new set-upp 
 nobles, who not only go about to overthrow and 
 put downe the ancient nobilitie of the realme, but 
 also have misused the Quene's Majestie's own 
 personne,* and also have by the space of twelve 
 years nowe past sett upp and mayntained a new- 
 found religion and heresie contrarie to God's 
 Word." f In Yorkshire, Durham, and Northum- 
 berland, there had long been a stir amongst all 
 classes. Dr. Nicholas Morton, sometime a Preben- 
 dary of York, who had gone to Rome for counsel 
 and advice, came back again with the rank and 
 office of Apostolical Penitentiary ; in order to be- 
 stow afresh upon those ancient clergy who so 
 deliberately rejected the innovations, those special 
 faculties required, and that needful jurisdiction 
 
 * This was evidently a direct allusion to Robert Dudley, 
 who elsewhere was characterized, with regard to his relations 
 with the Queen, in terms which cannot be decently quoted. 
 
 t Author's Excerpts and MSS. 
 
RISING UNDER THE NORTHERN EARLS. 179 
 
 desired, which so many believed to have lapsed 
 altogether, He was a near relation of the old 
 Yorkshire families of Markenfeld and Norton, 
 owned considerable influence, and had long done 
 his best to band together the leading representa- 
 tives of the ancient nobility in resisting the inno- 
 vators. He received sympathy and support from 
 the families of Dacres, Ratcliffe, Swinbourne, and 
 Tempest — names to be had in renown. During 
 the summer and autumn he visited these and 
 other families at their pleasant homes, where his 
 welcome was hearty and sincere ; and pointed out 
 plainly the only practical remedy for discord and 
 disunion. His words were acceptable. But, 
 when he treated of passive obedience, his advice 
 was not taken by all. Some were for action 
 rather than words. Words and expostulations 
 were useless. Strength must now be met by 
 strength : the Brute Force of unbelief and revo- 
 lution by the chivalry of Faith and Self-sacrifice. 
 
 As Sir Ralph Sadler was careful to inform the 
 Court, there were not at that time " in all this 
 country ten gentlemen that do favor and allow of 
 Her Majesty's proceedings in the cause of reli- 
 gion." * When forced by fine and confiscation 
 to attend the now dreary services and dreadful 
 
 * Sir Balph Sadler's " State Papers," vol. ii. p. 55. 
 
 12 * 
 
180 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 sermons of the new Calvinistic religionists — in 
 which damnation was sternly dealt out to all 
 doubters of their own and their partizans' elec- 
 tion — and this entirely against their consciences, 
 they were only the more exasperated by such en- 
 forced attendance, and made the more discontented. 
 On this point sentiment, both amongst rich and 
 poor, was almost unanimous. The Countess of 
 Westmoreland, and several members of the Mar- 
 kenfeld and Norton* families were for open and 
 active resistance. Some asserted that Dr. Allen 
 favoured this policy. In the middle of November, 
 therefore, the banners of another Pilgrimage of 
 Grace were unfurled, and many prayers went up 
 to Heaven for success and victory. 
 
 At Durham, which was immediately occupied 
 by the armed retainers of the two earls, High 
 Mass was once more celebrated in the cathedral, 
 in the presence of several thousand earnest and 
 excited worshippers. Whittingham, the pseudo- 
 dean, f who had never received any ordination 
 whatsoever by a bishop, and therefore was a mere 
 layman, with a great show of practical wisdom, 
 
 * See pedigree of " Norton, alias Conyers," pp. 244, <fec, 
 of " The Visitation of Yorkshire," edited by Joseph Foster. 
 London : 1875. 
 
 f William Whittingham, a layman, installed October 8th, 
 1563, died 10th June 1579. 
 
HIGH MASS RESTOEED AT DURHAM. 181 
 
 took himself out of harm's way with more than 
 convenient speed. In the cathedral the " tressells 
 of hordes " for the Lord's Supper were ignomi- 
 niously kicked out of the choir, and broken into 
 splinters ; the English Bible and the Zwinglian 
 service-books were enthusiastically torn into 
 fragments. Nobody desired that the "Word of 
 God should be doctored by mis-translations, omis- 
 sions, and false human glosses. A portable altar 
 was set up at the east end of the deep choir, 
 flanked by velvet hangings ; and a processional 
 crucifix with taper-bearers on either side was up- 
 lifted once again at the head of the procession in 
 that sacred sanctuary. The old vestments were 
 brought out from the sacristy; the wax tapers were 
 once more lit; a chalice and ciborium of precious 
 metal, with a York Missal, were sought out anew 
 and used ; while the voices of those who sang the 
 Gloria in excelsis, Credo, Sanctus, and Benedic- 
 tus of the Sacred Mass — an united crowd, which 
 filled the Norman nave from northern side to 
 southern, and from the sanctuary steps to the 
 western Galilee — rose grandly like the sound of 
 many waters. 
 
 From Durham the " Pilgrims of Grace " 
 marched southwards, in strict order and with 
 some confidence, issuing appeals to the afflicted 
 populace westward and eastward to rise in defence 
 of the Religion of their forefathers. The watch- 
 
182 THE CHUECH TJNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 words, " God, Our Lady, and the Catholic Faith," 
 were passed from lip to lip, and from village to 
 village. Bells from the church-towers welcomed 
 the Pilgrims with merry peals. The old clergy came 
 out of their retreats and seclusion to offer a silent 
 prayer for success, or to bestow a coveted blessing, 
 as the army with banners passed along the 
 northern lanes. The innovators, on the other 
 hand, cowardly and terrified, offered no resistance. 
 Some few stared with astonishment, but did 
 nothing more. At Darlington and Staindrop the 
 Mass was restored amidst the acclamations and 
 thanksgiving of thousands. People, congratulat- 
 ing each other, flocked in from the villages around 
 to worship and rejoice. The Banner of Our 
 Divine Redeemer, representing His Blessed Pas- 
 sion and Sacred Wounds, was borne by an old 
 esquire, Richard Norton, whose Christian character 
 and high social position had, for many years, se- 
 cured the respect and affection of the populace. 
 At Richmond and at Ripon the Pilgrims were 
 also welcomed and strengthened, and there like- 
 wise the old rites were restored : so that the 
 Court, on learning from Sir Ralph Sadler of what 
 was taking place, became thoroughly alarmed; 
 while the Supreme Governess, after her impres- 
 sive but unhallowed custom, swore like an ex- 
 cited fishwife. 
 
 But the royal plans in opposition to this move- 
 
DEFEAT OF THE PILGEIMS OF GRACE. 183 
 
 ment had been well made. The Earl of Warwick 
 was steadily advancing northwards with twelve 
 thousand soldiers. Lord Hunsdon, likewise, was 
 on the march. Troops under the command of 
 the Earl of Sussex, who had make York his head- 
 quarters, soon afterwards came up to and faced 
 the Pilgrims. Spies and agents had already mis- 
 reported the advance of many other forces of the 
 Crown ; so that the insurgents, losing heart, and 
 being divided in counsels, ill-fed and dispirited, at 
 length dispersed and fled. The Earl of Westmore- 
 land succeeded in making his escape to Flanders ; 
 but the Earl of Northumberland, crossing the 
 Scottish Border, was soon confined as a prisoner 
 by the Regent Murray in Lochleven Castle. Many 
 of the northern gentry also escaped to Scotland, 
 and obtained protection from the heads of the 
 southern clans. 
 
 At home the work of vengeance, which more 
 than rivalled the cruelties of William the Con- 
 queror, began with no delay. 
 
 Martial law was everywhere proclaimed. Of 
 the nobility and gentlefolk there were no less 
 than fifty-seven promptly attainted of treason. 
 The legal machinery speedily did its work. 
 Their confiscated lands, goods, and chattels, 
 served both to pay the expenses of the royal 
 troops and to reward those who had conde- 
 scended to do the Queen's dreadful work at the 
 
184 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 same time. No less than three hundred villages 
 were at once wasted with fire and sword. 
 People who had heard Mass, as well as priests 
 who had said Mass, were specially singled 
 out for severity. Anyone who confessed to have 
 carried a cross, worn a surplice, or borne a 
 banner, stood self-convicted of treason, and was 
 decreed to be "strung up " without mercy or delay. 
 An old widow-woman named Alice Wilkinson, 
 who had been seen to use her beads and pray for 
 Esquire Norton and the Pilgrims, found her cot- 
 tage in flames over her head, and herself home- 
 less and penniless, as a fitting punishment. Most 
 persons will think this too severe. Homesteads 
 and farm produce, however, in general, were 
 ruthlessly burnt, and cottages destroyed ; while 
 in every town and village the gibbets were hung 
 with the carcases of those who had been killed. 
 Many were turned out to die in the cold of a 
 severe winter. Sir William Cecil had personally 
 given strict orders that the chief inhabitants of 
 each township should be at once summoned before 
 the soldiery, and compelled by imprisonment or 
 starvation — if need be "by lack of food " was his 
 exact phrase — to disclose the names of those of 
 their neighbours who had joined in the rebellion. 
 Sussex, naturally harsh, appears, in doing this, 
 to have shown no mercy whatsoever. Three 
 hundred people, in the County Palatine of Dur- 
 
HANGINGS, BUTCHERIES, AND TORTURES. 185 
 
 ham, at once suffered death ; but, in writing to 
 Cecil, on the 28th of December, the Earl of 
 Sussex informs him that the number of those 
 hung was at present uncertain, but " I guess," he 
 continues, " that it will not be under six or seven 
 hundred at the least that shall be executed of the 
 common sort, besides the prisoners taken in the 
 field," who appear to have been at once cruelly 
 butchered in cold blood. Subsequent to this, 
 Lord Sussex, using again a favourite and expres- 
 sive Elizabethan phrase, ordered eighty to be 
 "strung up" without benefit of clergy, — that is 
 unconfessed, unabsolved, and uncommunicated, — 
 at Durham, forty-one at Darlington, twenty at 
 Barnard Castle, and no less than one hundred and 
 seventy-two in the other towns and villages of 
 that county. To all, religious consolations were 
 peremptorily refused. The poor creatures were 
 forced to die without either prayers, houselling, 
 or unction. Numbers more were imprisoned, 
 half-starved, tortured in various modes, beaten, 
 hung up by the wrists to a beam, and otherwise 
 grossly maltreated ; but several of those who sur- 
 vived were subsequently pardoned, on the sole 
 and express condition that they took the Oaths 
 of Allegiance and Supremacy. Those who de- 
 clined to allow that the Queen was Supreme 
 Governess of the Church were compelled to linger 
 on for years, and finally to rot and die in prison. 
 
186 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 During the perpetration of these Nero-like 
 atrocities, it appears that even the stern Lord 
 Sussex was not sufficiently prompt in his harsh- 
 ness, nor savage in his cruelty, to satisfy the 
 requirements of his most religious and gracious 
 Queen. What he had done was good and politic 
 as far as it went, she intimated ; but Her Sacred 
 Majesty was evidently anxious to hear of the per- 
 petration of yet further and greater severities.* 
 "The Queen's Majesty," as he informed his lieu- 
 tenants, " doth much marvel that the execu- 
 tions are not yet ended, and she disburdened of 
 the charges which are considered for that respect ; 
 wherefore I pray you heartily to use expedition 
 [in torturing, starving, and hanging] for I fear 
 this lingering will breed displeasure to us both."f 
 
 The stern calamities which befel the old nobi- 
 lity of the north and their faithful retainers, on this 
 
 * See " Memorials of the Northern Rebellion," by Sir 
 Cuthbert Sharp, from which interesting and valuable com- 
 pilation the main facts of the text have been thankfully 
 taken. 
 
 f Later on, it appears that even Lord Sussex was thoroughly 
 weary of his bloody work and brutal butcheries ; for he 
 wrote complainingly to Cecil : " I was first a lieutenant ; I 
 was after little better than a marshal; I had then nothing 
 left to me but hanging matters." For further evidence re- 
 garding the putting down of this rebellion, the original letters 
 of Sir George Bowes, quoted by Sir Cuthbert Sharp, furnish 
 most reliable but melancholy information. 
 
CHIVALRY OP THE NORTHERN NOBILITY. 187 
 
 and on other occasions, are not forgotten even at 
 the present day. Their cbivalric deeds of unsel- 
 fish daring, having inspired some of the most 
 musical ballad-writers of former days, when they 
 penned their touching songs ; noble aspirations 
 and lofty thoughts being thus scattered like good 
 seed, which bore good fruit for many an after 
 generation. Through times of moral darkness 
 and heresy, in the esquire's hall, and round the 
 cottage hearth, of the northern counties, — the 
 land of the Percies, the Nortons, and the Nevilles, 
 — touching records of faithfulness to conscience, 
 fidelity to God, and of noble self-sacrifice, were, 
 with tearful eye and faltering voice, told to those 
 who came after, — by which for generations many 
 a sanctified heart was silently edified, and many a 
 strong arm nerved for the doing of good and 
 great deeds. 
 
 Early in the spring of the year 1570, the saintly 
 and self-denying* Pontiff, Pope Pius V., at last 
 
 * " Pius V.," wrote Lord Macaulay, " under his gorgeous 
 vestments, wore day and night the hair-shirt of a simple friar ; 
 walked barefoot in the streets at the head of processions ; 
 found, in the midst of his most pressing avocations, time for 
 private prayer ; often regretted that the public duties of his 
 station were unfavourable to growth in holiness ; and edified 
 his flock by innumerable instances of humility, charity, and 
 forgiveness of injuries ; while at the same time he upheld 
 the Authority of his See with all the stubbornness and vehe- 
 mence of Hildebrand." — Essays, Eanke's " History of the 
 Popes," in loco. 
 
188 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 issued his solemn Bull of Excommunication 
 against Queen Elizabeth. Some assert that the 
 absence of any authority from Rome to defend 
 their righteous cause by force of arms, had power- 
 fully influenced several of the old nobility in their 
 action with reference to the recent Pilgrimage of 
 Grace ; and induced them to desist altogether 
 from active co-operation with those who, as a 
 last resort, had been driven to take up arms in 
 defence of God, the Church, and their country. 
 Henceforth such a doubt could not exist. The 
 terms of the Bull are luminous, concise, and full 
 of vigour. Warnings from one who certainly had 
 the right to make them, the Chief Bishop of 
 Christendom, had remained unnoticed ; friendly 
 expostulations were wholly unheeded ; his patience 
 had been taken undue advantage of ; it was now 
 the obvious duty of the Father of the Faithful to 
 act. Of the World's Redeemer and King it had 
 been foretold by David, long previously to the 
 Incarnation — " He shall call Me, Thou art My 
 Father, My God and My strong salvation : and I 
 will make Him My First-born, higher than the 
 kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for Him 
 for evermore ; and My covenant shall stand fast 
 with Him. . . . But if His children forsake 
 My law, and walk not in My judgment ; if they 
 break My statutes and keep not My command- 
 ments, I will visit their offences with the rod and 
 
JURISDICTION OP THE EOMAN PONTIFF. 189 
 
 their sin with scourges." * The divine and eter- 
 nal Kingdom, thus prophesied of, then existed. 
 Christ ruled everywhere by delegation. Parish 
 priest, bishop, metropolitan, archbishop, and 
 patriarch, each and all, in due order and subordi- 
 nation, and with their legitimate authority ac- 
 knowledged, in their degree represented our 
 ascended Lord. But the Bishop of the See of 
 St. Peter represented Him in one eminent and 
 special manner, claiming jurisdiction over the 
 whole Family of Grod. Most confused and in- 
 exact notions exist regarding this jurisdiction of 
 the Roman Pontiff. All that was claimed for him 
 was an acknowledgment that, as Chief Bishop of 
 Christendom, he had everywhere authority to 
 reform and redress heresies, errors, and abuses 
 within the Church, which was not confined to any 
 place or nation, but was Catholic or Universal. 
 Furthermore, so as to avoid discord and disputes, 
 and to preserve the visible and actual unity of the 
 Episcopate, it belonged to the Holy Father to 
 confirm the election of bishops and to approve 
 of and sanction their institution. He also claimed 
 to grant to the clergy licenses of non-residence, 
 and permission to hold more than one benefice 
 with cure of souls, as also to dispense by act and 
 
 * Psalm xcix. 27-32. 
 
190 THE CHTJKOH UNDER QCFEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 deed with the canonical impediments to matri- 
 mony ; and finally he received appeals from the 
 highest spiritual courts throughout the whole 
 Christian World. In England the lawful suc- 
 cessor of him who had sent St. Austin to Kent, 
 and by whose authority he had placed his chair as 
 archbishop at Canterbury, by whose own graces 
 and miracles the beautiful Tree of the Church had 
 taken root downward and borne fruit upward, — 
 now so weightily spoke, not with the stuttering 
 accents of usurping and pitiful heretics, but with 
 the due and delegated authority of the First-born 
 of the Most Highest. Here follows an English 
 version of this important Latin Bull : — 
 
 " Sentence declaratory of Our Sovereign Lord, 
 the Pope Pius V., against Elizabeth, pretended 
 Queen of England, and the heretics who abet her, 
 whereby all subjects are declared released from 
 the Oath of Allegiance, and every other bond, and 
 those who hereafter shall obey her, are bound by 
 the bond of Anathema. 
 
 " Pius, Bishop, servant of the servants of God, 
 in memorial of the matter. 
 
 "The sovereign jurisdiction of the One Holy 
 Catholic and Apostolic Church (outside of which 
 there is no salvation), has been given by Him, 
 unto Whom all power in heaven and on earth is 
 given, the King Who reigns on high, to but one 
 person on the face of the earth, even to Peter, 
 
BULL IN CONDEMNATION OF ELIZABETH. 191 
 
 Prince of the Apostles, and to the successor of 
 Peter, the Bishop of Rome. Him He has set up 
 over all nations, and over all kingdoms, to root up 
 and destroy, to waste and to scatter, to plant and 
 to build ; to the end that he may maintain in the 
 Unity of the spirit the faithful people bound to- 
 gether by the bond of charity, and present them 
 unto Him their Saviour perfect and without loss. 
 
 " In the discharge of this duty, We, whom God 
 of His goodness has called to the Government 
 of His Church, shrink from no labour, striving 
 with all Our might to preserve in their integrity 
 that very Unity and the Catholic Religion which 
 are now assailed by so many storms, by His per- 
 mission from "Whom they come, for Our correc- 
 tion, and for the trial of the faith of His children. 
 But the wicked are so many, and are growing so 
 strong, that there is no part of the world which 
 they have not attempted to corrupt by their evil 
 doctrines ; among others labouring for this end is 
 the servant of iniquity Elizabeth, the pretended 
 Queen of England, with whom, as in a safe re- 
 fuge, the worst of these men have found a secure 
 retreat. 
 
 " This woman having taken possession of the 
 kingdom, unnaturally claims for herself the place, 
 the great authority and jurisdiction of the sove- 
 reign head of the Church throughout all England, 
 and has involved in miserable ruin that kingdom 
 
192 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 so lately recovered to tbe Catholic faith and 
 piety. 
 
 " She has forbidden by the strong hand of 
 power the observance of the True Religion, over- 
 turned by the apostate Henry VIII., and by the 
 help of the Holy See restored by Mary, the lawful 
 queen, of illustrious memory. She has followed 
 after and accepted the errors of heretics. She 
 has driven the English nobles out of the Royal 
 Council, and filled their places with obscure here- 
 tics. She has been the ruin of those who profess 
 the Catholic Faith, and has brought back again 
 the wicked preachers and ministers of impieties. 
 She has done away with the Sacrifice of the Mass, 
 the Divine Office, fasting, the distinction of meats, 
 celibacy, and the Catholic rites. She has ordered 
 the use of books, containing manifest heresy, 
 throughout the realm, and the observance by her 
 subjects of impious mysteries and ordinances, ac- 
 cording to the rule of Calvin, accepted and prac- 
 tised by herself. 
 
 "She has dared to take away their churches 
 and benefices from the bishops, the parish priests, 
 and other Catholic ecclesiastics, and has given 
 them with other ecclesiastical goods to heretics. 
 She has made herself a judge in ecclesiastical 
 causes. She has forbidden the prelates, clergy, 
 and people to acknowledge the Church of Rome, 
 or to obey its mandates and the Catholic consti- 
 
BULL IN CONDEMNATION OP ELIZABETH. 193 
 
 tutions. She has compelled many to take an 
 oath to observe her wicked laws, to renounce the 
 authority of the Roman Pontiff, to refuse to 
 obey him, and to accept her as the sole ruler 
 in temporal and spiritual matters. She has de- 
 creed pains and penalties against those who do 
 not submit to her, and has inflicted them upon 
 those who continue in the unity of the faith and 
 obedience. 
 
 " She has thrown Catholic prelates and parish 
 priests into prison, where many, worn out by sor- 
 rows and their protracted sufferings, have ended 
 their days in misery. 
 
 " All this being notorious and known unto all 
 nations, and so confirmed by very many grave wit- 
 nesses, as to leave no room for palliation, defence, 
 or concealment, sin being added to sin, and ini- 
 quity to iniquity, the persecution of the faithful, 
 and the ruin of religion daily growing more and 
 more at the suggestion and under the direction of 
 Elizabeth aforesaid, whose will is so obstinate 
 and whose heart is so hardened that she has set 
 at nought not only the charitable prayers and 
 counsels of Catholic princes entreating her to re- 
 turn to a better mind and be converted, but also 
 Our own, by her refusal to allow the Nuncios of 
 the Holy See to enter the realm. We, having re- 
 course, by necessity compelled, to the weapons of 
 justice, are unable to control Our grief that We 
 
 13 
 
194 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 must proceed against one whose predecessors 
 have rendered signal services to Christendom. 
 
 "Relying, then, on His authority "Who has placed 
 Us on this sovereign throne of justice, though 
 unequal to the bearing of so great a burden, We 
 declare, in the fulness of the Apostolic power, the 
 aforesaid Elizabeth a heretic, and an encourager 
 of heretics, together with those who abet her, 
 under the sentence of excommunication, cut off 
 from the unity of the Body of Christ. 
 
 " Moreover, We declare that she has forfeited 
 her pretended title to the aforesaid kingdom, to 
 all and every right, dignity, and privilege ; We 
 also declare that the nobles, the subjects, and the 
 people of the kingdom aforesaid, who have taken 
 any oath to her, are for ever released from that 
 oath, and from every obligation of allegiance, 
 fealty, and obedience, as We now by these Letters 
 release them, and deprive the said Elizabeth of 
 her pretended right to the throne, and every other 
 right whatsoever aforesaid : We command all and 
 singular the nobles, the people subject to her, 
 and others aforesaid, never to venture to obey 
 her monitions, mandates, and laws. 
 
 " If any shall contravene this Our decree, We 
 bind them with the same bond of anathema. 
 
 " Seeing that it would be a work of too much 
 difficulty to send these Letters to every place where 
 it is necessary to send them, Our will is that a 
 
FRESH EAID UPON THE BEGGARS. 195 
 
 copy thereof by a public notary, sealed with the 
 seaf of an ecclesiastical prelate, or with the seal of 
 his court, shall have the same force in courts of 
 law and everywhere throughout the world that 
 these Letters themselves have if they be produced 
 and shown. 
 
 " Given at St. Peter's, in Rome, in the year of 
 the Incarnation of our Lord One thousand five 
 hundred and sixty-nine, on the fifth of the calends 
 of March,* in the fifth year of Our Pontificate. 
 
 " Cm. G-LORIERIUS. 
 " H. CUMYN." 
 
 What resulted from this Bull will be apparent 
 from the events of later years — to be recorded 
 and commented upon in due course. 
 
 In the spring of the year 1571, there was a 
 severe, sharp, and carefully-organized raid upon 
 the beggars. In the north the distress, of course, 
 was most severe. Hundreds in the past winter 
 had died of starvation. Poverty, even then, as 
 may be noted, was a sin for which, by order of 
 the autocratic authorities, there was to be no 
 absolution and no forgiveness. Charity was dead. 
 
 * February 27, 1570, according to the present computation. 
 Anciently the year began on the 25th of March. 
 
 13 * 
 
196 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Selfishness reigned.* The poor and miserable 
 were hateful to look upon and expensive to feed. 
 The old were far too long-lived. Somehow or 
 another they must be put out of the way or con- 
 fined to their miserable habitations. When the 
 Queen took her journeys through the country, 
 therefore, the lean, the famished, the wolf -like and 
 the repulsive-looking, were now, by special Privy 
 Council order, to be carefully kept out of her 
 royal sight; for she disliked their aspect and 
 dreaded their cries of hunger. Thirty years ago 
 and more, the monasteries had all been destroyed, 
 and with them had been lost any adequate reali- 
 zation of the duty of practising the corporal 
 
 * As Bishop Sandys himself wrote : — "But we are fallen 
 into these evil times, wherein iniquity aboundeth, and charity 
 waxeth cold. Hearty love is turned into hearty hatred : our 
 hands are bloody, and our hearts malicious. He liveth not 
 that loveth his neighbour as himself. If we did love our 
 neighbours as ourselves, we would not oppress them with 
 extortion and usury : we would not undermine them, and 
 wring them in bargaining : we would not so proudly contemn 
 them, so spitefully envy them, so impudently slander them, 
 or so greedily practise for their infamy and discredit: we 
 would not speak them fair, and mind them evil ; fawn on 
 them, and betray them ; seek our credit by their reproach, 
 our gain by their loss : when we see their necessities, we 
 would relieve and succour them, bind up their wounds with 
 the good Samaritan, and charitably provide for them." — 
 " Sandys' Works," pp. 206, 207, Parker Society. London : 
 1842. 
 
SUFFERINGS AND PRIVATIONS OF THE POOR. 197 
 
 works of mercy; for good deeds were regarded 
 by the new Gospellers as " filthy rags." Most 
 of the older monks and friars had found their 
 only rest in death. But of the younger who 
 had been professed, some still lived ; a few had 
 passively accepted the new state of affairs ; while 
 many of the lay-brothers had no doubt become 
 mendicants — reasonably dissatisfied with having 
 lost their only homes, and having no apparent 
 chance of obtaining work in the present, and less 
 hope of being able to keep body and soul together 
 in the future. 
 
 These and such as these, their name was " Le- 
 gion," seemed to fill the land — for field after field 
 remained untilled ; acre after acre now lay fallow 
 — they infested the towns and villages, the wild 
 bye- ways and out-of-the-way hamlets, asking alms 
 of esquire and yeoman, hind and peasant, at the 
 portal of the hall and at the thatched porch of the 
 cottage ; living often during autumn on wild 
 fruit, uncooked roots, and during winter upon the 
 barley-bread of alms. In the frost and cold they 
 frequently herded with the cattle at night, or in 
 summer went to rest under hedges and trees. 
 With no apparent means of subsistence, and 
 always practically witnessing against the success 
 of the New Religion, — for they constantly de- 
 plored the destruction of the religious houses, — 
 and often, when lingering near village cross or 
 
198 THE CHUEOH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 wayside hostel, in language frequently bold and 
 sometimes possibly seditious, they forcibly con- 
 trasted the Past with the Present, to the grave 
 disparagement of the latter, and to the annoyance 
 of the powers that were. 
 
 Such dangerous wanderers, therefore, as the 
 Privy Council determined,* must now be every- 
 where persecuted ; hunted from pillar to post; ex- 
 amined by justices of the peace to find out if they 
 used the rosary or sympathized with the Old Reli- 
 gion ; flogged on their naked backs, without regard 
 either to age or sex, for being poor and having no 
 
 * It was required by the Privy Council that " certificates 
 of all the vagabonds, rogues, and mighty valiant beggars, 
 men and women," who had been " examined, whipped, 
 stocked, and punished according to law," should be duly 
 made out and sent up. — " Domestic State Papers, Elizabeth," 
 vol. lxxx., August 20, 1571. In Gloucestershire, William 
 Wynter, justice of the peace, and others, have made search 
 for vagabonds, but have found none but such poor beggarly 
 persons as are not thought fit to trouble their lordships with. 
 — August 27, 1571. At Aylesford, on August 28, the justices 
 of Kent apprehended " thirteen men and women, stout and 
 valiant vagabonds, all of whom have been stocked and 
 whipped severely." — Vol. lxxx. At Thame, in Oxfordshire, 
 some " proper stoute abbey - men " were convicted and 
 punished as vagabonds. Of these it is stated that on Sep- 
 tember 8th, 1571, "they took their stocking and whipping 
 verie ill. So they were sore bloodied, and one thereafter 
 died, no long while thereupon." — Author's MSS., from 
 Churchwardens' and Parish Accounts of Thame. 
 
HUNTED, STOCKED, AND FLOGGED. 199 
 
 home ; put into the stocks on a starvation allow- 
 ance for several days ; whipped afresh when they 
 were taken out, until the purple wale-marks 
 on their shoulders became bloody wounds, from 
 which the gore trickled downwards to the earth ; 
 while sometimes the poor creatures, being so weak 
 with want of food, and feeble and shrunken be- 
 cause of their poverty, suddenly sunk senseless 
 towards the ground, straining the cords round 
 their wrists, and so were literally flogged to 
 death. 
 
 It was an awful sight and a horrible ; worthy 
 of the reign of a woman falsely called " glorious " 
 and " good," — a sight to have made angels weep 
 and Englishmen shudder and sicken ; and a na- 
 tional sin well meriting all the various and heavy 
 punishments which one after another descended 
 sixty years afterwards upon our distracted nation, 
 during those fearful twenty winters and more of 
 the miseries of the Great Rebellion and the dire 
 slaughter of the Civil War. 
 
200 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 CBAPTEE IV. 
 
 The two events recently recorded, viz. the formal 
 condemnation of the Queen by Pope Pius V., and 
 the strong determination to persecute even unto 
 death, and so extirpate, those of the English poor 
 who still adhered to the Old Religion, by taking 
 care that all obstinate persons of that class could 
 be summarily and easily dealt with and disposed 
 of by the new laws, effectively cleared the way 
 for the Queen's advisers, and enabled them to 
 act with still greater decision than they had 
 hitherto shown. The recent enactment against 
 beggars would enable the authorities to worry, 
 starve, brand with a hot iron, flog and put 
 in the stocks and pillory, any persons of the lower 
 or migratory class supposed to be dangerous. 
 The possession of a string of prayer-beads, a cru- 
 cifix, an Agnus Dei, or any foreign book of devo- 
 
THE POPE'S KNOWLEDGE OF APFAIES, 201 
 
 tions, served to secure for the poverty-stricken 
 possessor of it, the title of " Italianate atheist."* 
 A poor, friendless man who was found saying his 
 prayers on a rosary, at the steps of a wayside 
 cross, was held to be a certain ally of the Pope 
 and a possible assassin of the Queen. As regards 
 the Bull of Pius V., Cecil and Walsingham could 
 never henceforth mistake the attitude of the Pri- 
 mate of Christendom. Exercising his acknow- 
 ledged powers, he had at length drawn the 
 spiritual sword from its scabbard — as all the 
 European nations then saw, and had spoken out 
 in a cause in which, as the Father of the Faith- 
 ful, he believed himself to have both an official 
 and personal interest. His Holiness had not 
 acted in haste, nor without a perfect knowledge 
 of the degraded state of England, nor without 
 exact information of what the new prelates 
 preached and taught ; f nor without constant 
 
 * "The number of obdurate Papists and Italianate atheists 
 is great at this time, both desperate, and grown, as it evi- 
 dently appeareth, to the nature of assassins." — Grindal to 
 Lord Treasurer Burghley, 29th January 1572, " Grindal's 
 Remains," p. 333, Parker Society's Works. 
 
 t Sandys had written thus : — " Our Gracious Governor 
 (i.e. Elizabeth) . . . hath caused all rubbish and what- 
 soever was hurtful to be removed ; the den of thieves to be 
 dispersed ; buyers and sellers of Popish trash, monks, friars, 
 massmongers, with like miscreants, to be hurled and whipped 
 out, the stumbling-stones of superstition, the baggage of 
 
202 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 consultation with those exiles for their faith at 
 Rome,* who knew the exact situation accurately, 
 and were able to afford him the most complete in- 
 formation as to what was needed. Queen Eliza- 
 beth's bishops were obviously and notoriously of 
 a new and unprecedented kind and make.f Her 
 
 man's traditions, with all monuments of idolatry, vanity, 
 and Popery, to be cast out of the House of God and vine- 
 yard of the Lord." — " Sandys' Works," p. 59, Parker Society. 
 London : 1842. 
 
 " The Popish Church hath neither the true foundation, nor 
 yet the right marks of the Church of God ; her foundation 
 is man ; her 'marks' are blasphemy, idolatry, superstition. 
 Christ is ' the Head of His Body the Church' ; this Head 
 cannot err. The head of the Church anti-Christian is the 
 Pope, that man of sin, a liar ; vea, a very father of lies." — 
 Ibid. p. 67. 
 
 * These were Goldwell, Bishop of St. Asaph; Glennock, 
 Bishop-elect of Bangor; Nicholas Morton, Prebendary of 
 York ; Henshaw, Rector of Lincoln College, Oxford ; Daniel, 
 Dean of Hereford ; Bromborough, Hall, and Kirton, Doctors 
 of Divinity, and some other priests of experience and good 
 reputation. 
 
 f " The position of bishops in the Church of England 
 has been from the first anomalous. The Episcopate was vio- 
 lently separated from the Papacy, to which it would have 
 preferred to remain attached, and, to secure its obedience, it 
 was made dependent on the Crown. The method of epis- 
 copal appointments, instituted by Henry YLTI. as a temporary 
 expedient, and abolished under Edward as an unreality, was 
 re-established by Elizabeth, not certainly because she believed 
 that the invocation of the Holy Ghost was required for the 
 completeness of an election which her own choice had already 
 determined, not because the bishops obtained any gifts or 
 grace in their consecration which she herself respected, but 
 because the shadowy form of an election, with a rehgious 
 ceremony following it, gave them the semblance of spiritual 
 
ANCIENT PEIESTS AND NEW MINISTEKS. 203 
 
 " ministers," whatever they were, were certainly 
 not of the same order as the parish clergy of 
 old. The " ancient priests " altogether repudiated 
 the new ; while the new in turn caricatured and 
 condemned the old as worshippers of the Blessed 
 Sacrament, which they so profanely termed " Jack- 
 in-the-Box," and of idols. A strong measure 
 would evidently not have been adopted, if one 
 less vigorous and decisive would have been likely 
 to have wrought a cure. 
 
 It was not, however, the Queen's dealings with 
 her own religious subjects alone which brought 
 about the Holy Father's action. At the instiga- 
 tion of her ministers she had again and again 
 proclaimed herself the determined opponent every- 
 where of the cause of Catholic Christianity abroad. 
 Secretly yet efficiently, by the aid of spies, secret 
 agents, and bribes, she had co-operated with the 
 
 independence, the semblance without the substance, which 
 qualified them to be the instruments of the system which she 
 desired to enforce. They were tempted to presume on their 
 phantom dignity, till the sword of a second Cromwell taught 
 them the true value of their apostolic descent ; and we have 
 a right to regret that the original theory of Cranmer was 
 departed from — that being officers of the Crown, as much 
 appointed by the Sovereign as the Lord Chancellor, the 
 bishops should not have worn openly their real character and 
 received their appointments immediately by letters patent 
 without further ceremony." — Froude's " History of England," 
 vol. vi. pp. 552, 553. London: 1870. 
 
204 THE CHUBCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 fanatical rebels of several neighbouring states in 
 opposing their sovereigns ; and this not unfre- 
 quently when she herself professed to be at peace 
 with the latter, and actually had accredited minis- 
 ters at their respective courts. Her treatment 
 of Mary, Queen of Scots, likewise, was marked by 
 gross injustice, and by indecency without a pa- 
 rallel. This treatment ensued because of Queen 
 Mary's religion : for she was the last hope of those 
 who looked for another restoration of the Ancient 
 Faith. The persecution which she endured, — and 
 which, as will be seen, terminated in her murder, 
 — she endured because she was true to that 
 Faith, from which in no single iota did she inten- 
 tionally swerve. 
 
 Here, therefore, it will be convenient to set 
 forth with certain detail and at some consider- 
 able length, in a record ranging over several 
 years, the true state of ecclesiastical affairs, both 
 as concerns the kingdom in general and certain 
 parts of it in particular. A private letter, an official 
 document, a public trial, or a personal squabble 
 between offcials, may often comprise much of in- 
 terest and point, as will be shown. The changes 
 which had now taken place had been brought 
 about, not by unauthorized private individuals 
 acting on their own responsibility, but by exalted 
 officials, the archbishops and chief bishops of the 
 National Church, who had been clothed with all 
 
THE NEW MINISTERS IGNORANT. 205 
 
 such temporal authority as Parliament could 
 authorize the Queen to bestow upon them ; and 
 who had indeed worked with a will and system 
 both in the overthrow of the Old, and the conso- 
 lidation of the New Religion. Some readers, in 
 that which follows, may think that out-of-the-way 
 and valueless details of information have been 
 gathered together without object ; but surely 
 any record of facts which serves to bring out 
 points of historical interest may well be rescued 
 from oblivion and be made to serve its purpose. 
 
 Throughout the whole of the Queen's reign, 
 there had been constant complaints from all 
 quarters of the difficulty in getting the existing 
 cures served by persons who could read suffi- 
 ciently well to recite the Morning and Evening 
 Prayers. Early in Parker's episcopate, in addi- 
 tion to the " readers " everywhere set apart, he 
 had ordained more than a hundred and twenty 
 "ministers" in one week; and many of these 
 were reported to have been schoolmasters, 
 "scribes," "most ignorant persons," * tradesmen 
 
 * " What must we say, when most of them are Popish 
 priests, consecrated to perform Mass, and the far greater part 
 of the remainder are most ignorant persons, appointed at the 
 mill of the people, not to the ministry of the Word? " — George 
 Withers to the Elector Palatine, Letter lxii, "Zurich Letters," 
 2nd Series, Parker Society. Parker's admissions may be 
 thus read in his own words : " Whereas, occasioned by the 
 
206 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 who had failed to get their living, and even hus- 
 bandmen. "When these persons, in their ordinary 
 secular habits,* appeared in the pulpits, they 
 made such a deplorable exhibition of their fana- 
 ticism and ignorance, that the congregation was 
 sometimes moved to laughter and ribaldry, the 
 new service was brought into contempt, and the 
 people declined to go to church at all. This kind 
 of irreverent exhibition became so common at one 
 
 great want of ministers, we and you, brother, for tolerable 
 supply thereof, have heretofore admitted into the ministry 
 sundry artificers and others not traded and brought up in 
 learning, and as it happened in a multitude some that were 
 of base occupation ; forasmuch as now by experience it is 
 seen that such manner of men, partly by reason of their 
 previous profane acts ; partly by their light behaviour other- 
 wise and trade of life, are very offensive unto the people, yea, 
 and to the wise of the realm [i.e. to Bacon and Cecil], are 
 thought to do great deal more hurt than good, the Gospel 
 there sustaining slander ; these shall be to desire and require 
 you hereafter to be very circumspect in admitting any to the 
 ministry, and only to allow such as having good testimony of 
 their honest conversation, have been traded and exercised in 
 learning, or at the least have spent their time with teaching 
 of children, excluding all others which have been brought up 
 and sustained themselves either by occupation or other kinds 
 of life alienated from learning." — " Archbishop Matthew 
 Parker's Correspondence," vol. i. p. 121. 
 
 * So averse was Dr. Turner, holding the important position 
 of Dean of Wells, to sacerdotal habits, that acting in his 
 official capacity in 1565 he caused a common adulterer to do 
 public penance in a priest's square cap. — See Dr. W. Turner 
 to H. Bullinger, Letter li., July 23rd, 1566, "Zurich Letters," 
 2nd Series, Parker Society. 
 
LAYMEN APPOINTED TO BENEFICES. 207 
 
 period, that disputes and brawls constantly oc- 
 curred, even at the font and Communion board. 
 The consequence was that fresh legislation took 
 place, by which all criticism of these distressing 
 ministers during divine service was forbidden 
 under pains and penalties,* though the practice 
 was not by any means stopped. It has been cal- 
 culated that out of the nine thousand benefices, 
 including chapelries attached to mother churches, 
 which about the year 1570 required pastors, at 
 least half were unoccupied and unserved during 
 the greater part of this Queen's reign. The work 
 of destruction had not been so difficult as was 
 anticipated : the work of reparation and restora- 
 tion would possibly remain uncommenced, most 
 certainly uncrowned, for generations. 
 
 In some cases the lay-leaders and allies of the 
 innovators, needy gentlefolks, succeeded in getting 
 themselves appointed to vacant cures, more espe- 
 cially to those impoverished. Benefices which had 
 thus remained unfilled for several years, (they 
 were numerous,) were often granted to the new 
 
 * One of the bishops thus inquired : — " Whether there be 
 any that hath unreverently abused or given any evill and un- 
 seemly terms of any minister of God's Word and Sacra- 
 ments . . . either in the time of his celebration of 
 Divine Service, or Sermon, or in the time of the administra- 
 tion of the sacraments in the Church ? " — Visitation 
 Articles of Thornborough, Bishop of Bristol, 1603. 
 
208 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 nobles, to knights,* and to Protestant yeomen 
 who asked for them. Sometimes one person 
 would secure as many as four or five cures with- 
 in a given radius. He thus became the " farmer " 
 of the various benefices, and was known as such ; 
 and then proceeded to seek out some " abbey- 
 man," " old schoolmaster," or " cunning scribe 
 and reader," who would be prepared to minister 
 alternately at the various churches for some piti- 
 able and paltry pittance. Many of these were un- 
 ordained.f By increasing the rents of the church 
 
 * In Edward VI.'s reign William Cecil, a layman 
 (eventually Lord Burghley), had been made Rector of 
 Wimbledon, and occupied the Rectory-House. At the same 
 period the Princess Elizabeth secured, through Cecil himself, 
 the parsonage of Harptree in Somersetshire for " Master John 
 Kenyon," who had been yeoman of her robes — of course only 
 a layman. He was, however, duly instituted, and then hired 
 a " reader " to supply his place and do the work while he re- 
 ceived the revenues. Examples of this kind of jobbery are 
 constantly met with in the official correspondence of the 
 Reformation-bishops. 
 
 f Of a certain Lowth, a minister of Carlisle side, Grindal, 
 after some inquiry as to the fact, wrote to Parker, on the 
 4th March 1575, " I think it will fall forth that he was never 
 ordered priest or minister ; and yet hath he these fifteen or six- 
 teen years exercised that function." — " Grindal's Remains," 
 p. 353, Parker Society. Eleven years afterwards Bishop 
 Aylmer, in the diocese of London, officially inquired "whether 
 any ministers appointed without orders taken of the Bishops 
 do baptize, minister the Communion, or deal in any function 
 ecclesiastical ? " — Aylmer's " Articles of Enquiry," 1586. 
 In the Queen's letter to the bishops, for suppressing " pro- 
 phesyings," she asserts that " in sundry parts of Our realm 
 
POLICY OF THE BENEFICE-FARMERS. 209 
 
 lands ; by inducing the reader to curtail the ap- 
 pointed services, and so get through four or five 
 in one day; by private arrangements with the 
 diocesan officials who winked at such proceedings 
 (if paid to close their eyes or purposely look in 
 another direction) ; these " benefice-farmers" were 
 thus enabled to squeeze a little more out of the 
 impoverished cures. Giving as little as they 
 could and getting as much, the last thought that 
 ever entered the heads of such reforming-gentry 
 was any consideration for the neglected popula- 
 tion. "Greed of gain," as Archbishop Parker 
 admitted and deplored, " be, together with self- 
 seeking, eating up of all charity to G-od and one's 
 neighbour." 
 
 The Archbishop's opinions concerning ordina- 
 tion, its true nature, importance, and value, may 
 not inaccurately be gathered, though but indi- 
 rectly, from a very important letter written to 
 
 there are no small number of persons presuming to be 
 teachers and preachers of the Church (though neither law- 
 fully thereunto called, nor yet fit for the same)." — Cotton MS., 
 British Museum ; Cleopatra, F. 2, folio 287. January 4th, 
 1572 : William Bele, M.A., was presented to the Prebend of 
 Scnalford, alias Scarford, at the Queen's presentation by 
 lapse ; because one Alwood, the pretended Canon and Pre- 
 bendary, was mere laicus, as it is set down in the Register." 
 — Strype's " Annals," vol. ii., Part I., p. 277. Oxford : 1824. 
 
 14 
 
210 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 him by Jewell,* Bishop of Salisbury, dated April 
 26th, 1568, as follows :— 
 
 "Whereas I wrote of late unto Your Grace 
 touching the bearer M. Lancaster, now elect of 
 Armagh, f that it might please Your Grace to stay 
 him from further ordering of ministers, it may 
 now like the same to understand that I have 
 sithence communed with the same M. Lancaster 
 concerning the same, and find by his own confes- 
 sion that he hath already ordered divers (although 
 not so many as it was reported) : Howbeit among 
 the same he hath admitted and ordered one whom 
 by the space of these eight years I, for many 
 good and just causes me moving, evermore have 
 refused. Your Grace may further advertize him 
 hereof, as unto your wisdom shall seem good ; 
 certainly in such cases his discretion is very 
 small." 
 
 Now when the date of this letter is carefully 
 noted, it is found that Lancaster was not conse- 
 crated for nearly two months afterwards, i.e. 
 
 * For this letter, at length, see Jewell's Works, Parker 
 Society, vol. iii., Part II., p. 1274. London ; 1850. 
 
 f Thomas Lancaster had. been Treasurer of Salisbury, and 
 was consecrated Archbishop of Armagh, June 13th, 1568. A 
 person of the same names had been consecrated, eighteen 
 years previously, to the see of Kildare. — Loftus MSS. Marsh's 
 Library, Dublin. 
 
LANCASTER, ARCHBISHOP OF ARMAGH. 211 
 
 until the 13th of June. Yet, as a mere minister 
 or priest, he had already been ordaining others ; 
 and Jewell takes it for granted, that, like himself, 
 Parker will regard all such ordinations — if a pre- 
 vious call has been made — as perfectly good and 
 valid, though somewhat irregular ; and he does 
 not for a moment declare them to be utterly null 
 and void, as they certainly were. Does it not 
 follow, therefore, as an obvious consequence, that 
 the opinions then current in the new Church, and 
 the lax practices then tolerated by its chief offi- 
 cers, prove that some at least of the leading 
 " Reformed " prelates practically repudiated al- 
 together the Catholic doctrine of ordination ? If 
 it had been otherwise — if the law on the subject 
 had been then what the law now is — such a case 
 as that of which Jewell makes mention would 
 have been properly and severely dealt with. Yet 
 how stands the question ? This very man Lan- 
 caster, a Protestant, who had notoriously assumed 
 episcopal duties without episcopal consecration, 
 was not only not even reprimanded, but was soon 
 afterwards consecrated Archbishop of Armagh, as 
 if, in the case in question, nothing worthy of com- 
 plaint or reprimand had occurred, or nothing out- 
 of-the-way happened. Election by the people, 
 from a Lutheran point of view, was regarded as 
 an essential in the " making of ministers " ; the 
 imposition of hands was held to be an ornamental 
 
 14 * 
 
212 THE CHUKCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 but useless addition.* In this conviction the 
 above facts show that Archbishop Parker and 
 Bishop Jewell were perfectly agreed. 
 
 Many of the bishops, it is evident, were adven- 
 turous self-seekers taken from the lowest of the 
 people, or needy and impecunious gentlefolks, who, 
 together with their property and old position, 
 had lost their self-respect ; and who, when their 
 willingness to aid the innovators had been autho- 
 ritatively made clear to the Council, were put 
 into places of trust and importance to continue 
 and consolidate the policy of change. They were 
 too often keen and successful money-hunters, and 
 willing tools of the Court. A large majority of 
 these Reformation prelates, though constantly 
 prating about the " Gospel " (as they termed 
 their own immoral principles), were always sharply 
 on the look-out for something more solid and 
 less transcendental than the Calvinistic calcula- 
 
 * Luther taught that there were two kinds of calling to 
 the office and work of the ministry ; one, internal, from God, 
 such as that of Prophets, Apostles, and Holy Teachers. The 
 second, external, by the free election of the people, or by the 
 selection and nomination of persons having authority, such 
 as rulers and magistrates. The imposition of hands, with 
 prayer, by some presiding minister, was a public indication to 
 the congregation gathered together that the person had 
 already been selected, and it was at the same time a ratifica- 
 tion of the choice made. But it was no means of grace. 
 The essential act was the selection, not the imposition of 
 hands. 
 
EEMAEKABLE GEEED OF THE NEW PRELATES. 213 
 
 tions and phantasies in which they themselves 
 professed to believe. There is scarcely one who 
 is free from the charge of peculation, double- 
 dealing, and self-aggrandizement.* Their whole 
 energies seem to have been set on securing for 
 themselves, their wives and families, every tem- 
 poral advantage which could be had from their 
 official positions, or squeezed out of the estates 
 connected with them. From the days of William 
 Barlow, " the calamity of his see," t as he was 
 termed, to those of Bishop Pilkington, who robbed 
 the diocese of Durham right royally, the same un- 
 changing policy was pursued. Sometimes, as in 
 the case of Aylmer, Bishop of London, and his 
 
 * Camden's " Annals," in loco. 
 
 t For an account of the disagreements between Sandys 
 and Parker, see Petyt MSS., No. 47, folio 376, in which the 
 former writes at length to the latter. Again : of the ruin 
 wrought under William Barlow at Bath, Sir John Haring- 
 ton gives the following account from personal knowledge : — 
 " I speak now only of the spoil made under this bishop, 
 scarce were five years past after Bath's ruins ; but as fast 
 went the axes and hammers to work at Wells. The goodly 
 hall covered with lead (because the roof might seem too low 
 for so large a room), was uncovered, and now this roof 
 reaches to the sky. The Chapel of Our Lady late repaired 
 by Stillington, a place of great reverence and antiquity, was 
 likewise defaced, and such was their thirst after lead (I 
 would they had drunk it scalding) that they took the dead 
 bodies of bishops out of their leaden coffins, and cast abroad 
 the carcases scarce thoroughly putrified." — " Brief View of 
 the State of the Church of England," p. 110. 
 
214 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 immediate predecessor, they openly quarrelled 
 amongst themselves over the temporaries, and 
 so drew public attention to their selfish pro- 
 ceedings. 
 
 We may learn from what Strype and others 
 have put on record, that the Queen was highly 
 incensed on hearing that James Pilkington, Bishop 
 Palatine of Durham,* had so managed to mani- 
 pulate the revenues of that see, which he held for 
 seventeen years, as to have been enabled to give 
 a marriage portion of no less than ten thousand 
 pounds to his daughter — an enormous sum in 
 those days, equal in fact to that which the Queen 
 herself had received from King Henry VIII. her 
 father. " If the revenues be so mighty," remarked 
 Her Highness, " and the Crown be so poor, my 
 lord of Durhamf can surely spare Us a little. We 
 will charitably lighten his heavy burden for him 
 
 * When this Puritan was a poor exile at Frankfort he is 
 said to have consoled his afflicted and complaining fellows 
 with " the heavenly promises of riches hereafter " — asserting 
 that " few men were predestined to celestial joys who owned 
 much money." 
 
 t James Pilkington, born at Rivington, county Lancaster, 
 in 1520, was third son of Richard Pilkington. He graduated 
 B.A., Cantab., 1539 ; became Fellow of St. John's, Cambridge, 
 26th of March 1539 ; M.A., 1542; B.D., 1550. He married 
 Alice, daughter of Sir John Kingsmill, and died 23rd of 
 January 1575, aged fifty-five, leaving his wife and two 
 daughters as survivors. He was buried at Bishops Auckland, 
 but afterwards removed to Durham. 
 
DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN SANDYS AND GRINDAL. 215 
 
 somewhat." So, without process or further ado, 
 she henceforth took one thousand pounds a year 
 from the bishop's income, and devoted it to main- 
 taining her garrison at Berwick. 
 
 Sandys and Grindal disagreed fiercely about 
 dilapidations — which neither cared to pay for — 
 and the forcible words and strong adjectives they 
 both used in controversy on the subject were very 
 remarkable. In a fierce dispute about a leasehold 
 house at Battersea, which the Archbishops of 
 York had frequently used when in London, the 
 language uttered and written was both unpre- 
 latic and violent. Aylmer, too, was not a whit 
 behind-hand either in the vigour of his words or 
 in the grasping spirit he displayed. He and 
 Sandys had so furious a public quarrel regard- 
 ing the revenues due to either from the See of 
 London upon Sandys' translation to York, that the 
 Lord Treasurer, for decency's sake, was called 
 in to appease it, but in vain. Tho two prelates 
 wrangled and snarled for some hours. Cecil as 
 arbiter offended both, and satisfied neither. They 
 continued to dispute for several years, and died 
 engaged in tortuous lawsuits. In these, and in 
 other particulars, their characters were certainly 
 a little fly-blown. 
 
 The first wife of this man Edwin Sandys, some- 
 time Bishop of Worcester, is said to have been 
 his own niece or great-niece, the young and at- 
 
216 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 tractive widow of one of the keepers of the Mar- 
 shalsea prison, where, at the outset of his career, 
 Sandys had been for some weeks confined. She 
 was formally described as the daughter of 
 " Master Sandys of Essex," and " a right buxom 
 woman." But she died shortly after their illicit 
 and uncanonical union ; and he soon married 
 another, thus piously consoling himself, — Cecilia, 
 daughter of Sir Thomas Wilford. 
 
 In "Worcestershire, Sandys acted with a very 
 high hand. For example : On a visitation-tour, 
 his attention was called to an old stone altar still 
 standing in the parish church of Battenhall,* 
 where the chief proprietor was Sir John Bourne, 
 who had been Secretary of State under Queen 
 Mary. Sandys ordered it to be " removed, de- 
 faced, and at once put to some common use." 
 But Sir John and his allies resisted this injunction 
 by force, so far as that when the altar-stone was 
 pulled down he had it taken to his own mansion. 
 Hearing of this, Sandys became impressively 
 violent ; ordered another visitation of the same 
 village church to be held without delay ; but, 
 when an appeal was made to Archbishop Parker, 
 as metropolitan, as to the need for such a step, 
 Sandys was advised to be quiet and not push 
 
 * Some assert that this occurred at a parish in the city of 
 Worcester. 
 
SIR JOHN BOURNE AND BISHOP SANDYS. 217 
 
 matters to further extremities — advice which he 
 appears reluctantly and not very good-temperedly 
 to have taken. 
 
 Sir John Bourne, on the other hand, made a 
 series of grave and disagreeable accusations 
 against Sandys, some of which were certainly true 
 enough* ; but, on an appeal to the Privy Council 
 
 * Amongst. Sir John Bourne's charges against Bishop 
 Sandys, are the following, given by Strype : — " That the 
 manor house of Northwike (built in the beginning of 
 Henry VII. his reign) he had already pulled down and razed 
 from the bottom of the foundation ; and having sold the 
 hall, and the most part of the matter and stuff unto his 
 friends, making thereof a great piece of money ; with some 
 part of the rest had raised at his palace a pretty building, 
 which he called his nursery : to which it was also put, his 
 wife being of good fecundity, and a very fruitful woman. 
 And that for the furniture and finishing of the said nursery, 
 he had likewise razed and pulled down a fair long vaulted 
 chapel of stone, standing within his said palace. That his 
 wife being thus fruitful, he had for one of his children pro- 
 cured, in his brother's name, one lease of the parsonage of 
 Flodbury : which benefice was yearly worth four hundred 
 marks, and better, being one of his own patronage, having 
 a goodly mansion, and a goodly demean : whereof was wont to 
 be kept great hospitality." — Strype's "Annals," vol. i., Part II., 
 pp. 38, 39. Oxford : 1824. Sir John Bourne likewise asserted 
 that the pipes of a great pair of organs, which had cost two 
 hundred pounds, had been melted down to make the pre- 
 bendaries' wives dishes for their kitchens, and the organ-case 
 had made them bedsteads ; that the silver plate of the 
 sacristy had been divided amongst the prebendaries, and that 
 it was intended to divide the copes and other ornaments. 
 The bishop, though evidently much annoyed that these and 
 
218 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 (all of whom were disposed to defend and uphold 
 the innovators at any cost, and who certainly had 
 the power to do so), Bourne was condemned for 
 having spoken disparagingly of Mistress Sandys 
 and urged his retainers to do likewise, and com- 
 mitted to the Marshalsea. Subsequently, on 
 retracting his sayings, he was released. But 
 when invited to spend Christmas with the bishop, 
 who, in this case, appears as a peace-maker, 
 he threw the letter into the fire.* He continued 
 to criticise the Protestant prelate and his lady 
 very sharply, until the former was translated to 
 London. At Worcester, Sandys was likewise 
 accused of granting long leases of farms and 
 lands belonging to the see to various poor Pro- 
 
 such-like reports should get abroad, admitted of his accuser 
 that " none love him for himself, but for his religion many 
 like him." — Strype's " Annals," vol. i., Part II., pp. 39-42. 
 
 * Bourne treated Sandys with contempt, as the bishop 
 maintained. When after many contentions the latter 
 invited Sir John and his lady to spend Christmas with 
 him, he not only refused to come, but threw the letter into 
 the fire. Sir John's eldest son had a special aversion to 
 priests' and bishops' wives, which at that period was shared 
 by many, and applied a term to them which certainly was 
 strong, and not over polite. Sir John himself in this parti- 
 cular had equally offended, as the bishop averred, " Three 
 women going through his park, wherein is a path for foot- 
 men, he, supposing they had been priests' wives, called unto 
 them, ' Ye shall not come through my park, and no such 
 
 priests' w s.' " — Strype's " Annals," vol. i., Part II., pp. 24 
 
 and 30. Oxford : 1824. 
 
SANDYS TEANSLATED TO LONDON. 
 
 219 
 
 testant relations, who had secured them for very 
 low and inadequate rents. But inquiry on the sub- 
 ject was suppressed. When he went to London, 
 with a like benevolent intention of doing good to 
 the household of faith, more particularly his own, he 
 attempted a similar policy ; but the Court, hearing 
 of his contemplated proceedings, warned him in 
 time that such tactics were not to be again 
 attempted with impunity ; while the Lord Trea- 
 surer, in the name of the Chief Governess, rebuked 
 him in very strong and vigorous Scripture-phrases. 
 In London, Sandys was good enough to take 
 under his special protection the Dutch Protestants 
 in Austinfriars ; and on the other hand suppressed 
 for awhile the Mass celebrated at the Portuguese 
 ambassador's mansion in Tower Street — to which 
 crowds had for some time resorted. He was 
 translated to York on the 8th of March 1576; 
 but, as he complained to the Lord Treasurer, was 
 most coldly received* by the nobility and gentle- 
 people on his arrival. 
 
 * Sandys could scarcely have looked for a very cordial 
 greeting from the nobility and gentry of the Ancient Faith in 
 Yorkshire, as he had thus described the ecclesiastical position 
 in a sermon at York Minster : " As Christ hath delivered all 
 His out of the captivity of Satan and sin, so hath He also us, 
 after a more special and peculiar manner, out of that den of 
 thieves, out of that prison of Roinish servitude, out of the 
 bloody claws of that cruel and proud Antichrist." — " Sandys' 
 
220 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 In May 1581, Sandys was holding a visitation at 
 Doncaster ; and contrary to the canons, went to an 
 inn in the town, where he remained for some days 
 for rest and refreshment. One midnight the wife 
 of the innkeeper was found in His Grace's bed- 
 chamber by her own husband.* The latter had 
 returned home, as it appears, somewhat unex- 
 pectedly, and, seeking his spouse in vain in her 
 own room, thus discovered her. Such a discovery 
 of course required an explanation. It certainly 
 had an awkward appearance. The noise which 
 ensued disturbed other inmates of the hostel, 
 amongst whom was a shrewd and popular York- 
 shire knight, Sir Robert Stapleton, of Wighill,t 
 who, at once taking in the situation, and for the 
 honour of the Archbishop's cloth and dignity, is 
 said to have endeavoured to prevent unnecessary 
 
 Works," p. 180, Parker Society. London : 1842. Grindal, on 
 going to York to take up his new office seven years previously, 
 had written to Sir W. Cecil to the same effect : " I was not 
 received with such concourse of gentlemen, at my first coming 
 into this shire, as I looked for." It is evident, therefore, that 
 the " new cause " had not gained many adherents. 
 
 * For detailed particulars of this case, see Strype's 
 " Annals," vol. iii., Book I., chap, ix., and Appendices Nos. 20 
 and 21. Also, " Biographical Notice of Sandys," by the 
 Bev. John Ayre. Parker Society's Works. London : 1842. 
 
 f Sir Bobert Stapleton, of Wighill, of an old Yorkshire 
 family, was a connection of the ancient Catholic houses of 
 Neville and Constable. For pedigree, see p. 333 of Foster's 
 " Pedigrees of Yorkshire." London : 1875. 
 
SANDYS AND THE INNKEEPER'S WIFE. 221 
 
 scandal. The excited host of the inn had gone 
 so far as to threaten the exalted prelate with 
 a taste of his unsheathed dagger, which lie 
 brandished again and again. But Stapleton 
 interposed with earnestness and temporary suc- 
 cess ; for the Archbishop, who, if innocent, com- 
 mitted an unpardonable error of judgment, 
 consented at once to give the innkeeper a con- 
 siderable bag of golden angels to purchase his 
 forgiveness and silence.* Subsequently other 
 demands were made upon the unfortunate prelate 
 under a threat of exposure, — to which both 
 Stapleton and the injured husband, whether 
 rightly or wrongly, are reported to have been 
 parties. Such an incident in the case of so dig- 
 nified a prelate, who had a wife of his own, of 
 course afforded food for conversation and criticism 
 in a very loose and dissolute Court when the 
 news reached Richmond and Whitehall. The 
 Queen and Leicester, evidently sympathising with 
 the Archbishop, had the innkeeper brought up 
 
 * Sir John Harington asserts that the hostess had pre- 
 viously been Mistress Sandys' waiting-maid, and that on 
 taking a candle to the bishop in bed, she " slipped into my 
 lord's bed in her smock." Parsons, a contemjjorary writer, 
 asserts that " this prelate had in his younger days been too 
 familiar with this woman, which is said to veniall 
 sin with those of his profession." — " Brief View of the State 
 of the Church of England," pp. 177-179. 
 
222 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 to the Star Chamber for examination ; and the 
 evidence in detail was written out for Her 
 Majesty's perusal and edification, Leicester direct- 
 ing Her Grace's attention to its more salient and 
 striking points. The result was that the judges 
 condemned the innkeeper to acknowledge the 
 Archbishop's innocence at the York Assizes, which 
 was formally done ; but only amidst the jeers 
 and contemptuous laughter of those who filled 
 the court-house. For many months the Arch- 
 bishop shut himself up at home. Several coarse 
 squibs in prose and verse on this topic were 
 secretly printed and hawked about the Castle-yard 
 and Cathedral-close ; while copies of two were 
 affixed to the chief entrance of Bishopsthorpe 
 Church — His Grace's parish — to the interest and 
 amusement of the shrewd and observant Yorkshire 
 rustics. Subsequently Sir Robert Stapleton, when 
 found to be an adherent of the old religion, was 
 confined in the Tower for nearly two years ; 
 because he declined either to vary from his 
 original statement or to express regret for the 
 charitable part which he had taken in a very 
 questionable and unpleasant affair. Archbishop 
 Sandys never recovered this blow.* According to 
 
 * On his monument in Southwell Minster this disagreeable 
 event is unnecessarily commemorated. The Archbishop is 
 said to have " suffered, from what the innocent mind can 
 least of all endure — atrocious slanders." 
 
THE CHAEACTER OF BISHOP BALE. 223 
 
 his monument, he was soon afterwards translated 
 to a better world.* 
 
 A few pages must now be devoted to Dr. John 
 Bale,f one of the chief bishops of the Reforma- 
 tion-sera, and certainly one of the most outspoken 
 
 * The following, though vigorous and plain-spoken, is 
 true : — " The ' Reformers ' differed from each other, as widely 
 as the colours of the rainbow, in most other things ; but 
 thev all agreed in this, that good works were unnecessary to 
 salvation, and that the ' saints,' as they had the modesty to call 
 themselves, could not forfeit their right to heaven by any sins 
 however numerous and enormous. By those, amongst whom 
 plunder, sacrilege, adultery, polygamy, incest, perjury, and 
 murder were almost as habitual as sleeping and waking ; by 
 those who taught that the way to everlasting bliss could not 
 be obstructed by any of these, nor by all of them put 
 together ; by such persons, charity, besides that it was so 
 well-known a Catholic commodity, would be, as a matter of 
 course, set wholly at nought." — " History of the Protestant 
 Reformation," by W. Cobbett, p. 189. Dublin : 1868. 
 
 f John Bale, a Suffolk man, first a Carmelite friar, was 
 perverted to Protestantism, and then married a woman whose 
 Christian name was Dorothy. As regards his perversion, 
 Bishop Nicholson remarks that " his wife seems to have had 
 a great hand in that happy work." He was patronized by 
 Cromwell and Cranmer ; and subsequently by Queen Eliza- 
 beth and Matthew Parker. Bale died, under Parker's rule 
 and patronage, Prebendary of Canterbury, and was buried 
 there in 1563. Though more coarse in his language than 
 some others of the Reformers, he was a fair and faithful 
 specimen of an outspoken and consistent Reformation-prelate. 
 It is only just to the late Rev. Henry Christmas, D.C.L., to 
 note that, when re-editing Bale's Works for the Parker 
 Society, he left his conviction on record that certain of them 
 " could not with propriety be presented to the public." 
 
224 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 and plain-spoken. His name occurs in the com- 
 mission for Dr. Parker's consecration ; and, 
 although, for some reason or another, he was not 
 present on the occasion, it is evident that he was 
 well known to the authorities and held in high 
 estimation by them. He had been for some time 
 Bishop of Ossorj in Ireland ; but found himself 
 extremely unpopular in that Catholic land, where 
 the unattractive Gospel of which he was a 
 minister was wholly repudiated. So, as the 
 income of the Irish see in question was very 
 small, and his followers correspondingly so, Dr. 
 Bale thought it prudent to turn his steps home- 
 wards, more especially when his family increased 
 and his wife desired preferment for him in 
 England. 
 
 His language was often unusually coarse, as 
 will be seen from the specimens of it now to be 
 given. He deals with the most sacred subjects 
 in a spirit of virulence* and buffoonery — a spirit 
 perfectly in harmony with certain of the doings 
 of his allies and himself, but very much out of 
 place in a minister of religion. He writes of the 
 
 * Pilkington of Durham was sometimes equally virulent : 
 — " I will show you what is written in the life and history of 
 Thomas Becket, Bishop of Canterbury, their stinking martyr 
 and traitor to his prince." — " Pilkington's Works," p. 589, 
 Parker Society's Works. London : 1842. 
 
THE OPINIONS OF BISHOP BALE. 225 
 
 Catholic sacraments and sacred rites of the 
 Universal Church in language so frightful, that 
 many will find it difficult to believe that the pro- 
 fane author of such sentiments was in his right 
 mind ; while modern Anglicans may feel a little 
 ashamed of owning him as a successor of the 
 Apostles. His contemporaries, however, were 
 well enough pleased with him, and his writings 
 do not appear to be out of harmony with the 
 official " Homilies " which had been recently 
 issued. For Parker secured him the place of a 
 prebendary at Canterbury ; consulted him on 
 several occasions, and sometimes used his services 
 in preaching, confirming, and visiting certain 
 churches in the diocese. 
 
 The following are his sentiments concerning 
 priestly ordination, and the Sacrament of the 
 Eucharist : — 
 
 "As touching the priests' consecration, which is such a 
 charm of enchantment which may not be done but by an 
 oiled officer of the Pope's generation ; . . . for in all 
 the Bible it is not that any man can make a dry wafer- 
 cake a new Saviour, a new Redeemer, a new Christ, or a 
 new God : no, though he should utter all the words and 
 Scriptures therein."* 
 
 * " Works of Bishop Bale," pp. 232-233, Parker Society's 
 Publications. London: 1849. 
 
 15 
 
226 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Of the same adorable sacrament this impious 
 " Reformer " likewise writes : — 
 
 The Mass " serveth all witches in their witchery, all 
 sorcerers, charmers, enchanters, dreamers, soothsayers, ne- 
 cromancers, conjurors, cross-diggers, devil-raisers, miracle- 
 doers, dog-leeches, and bawds ; for without a Mass they 
 cannot well work their feats."* 
 
 The old clergy, legitimate successors of Saint 
 Augustine, Saint Anselm, and William of Wyk- 
 ham, he calls, " puffed-up porklings of the 
 Pope "t : and again writes : — 
 
 " These were the idle priests at London and their beastly 
 ignorant broods, with old superstitious bawds and brothels, 
 the Pope's blind cattle." 
 
 Of preaching-clergy of the old order of things 
 he is equally abusive : — 
 
 " Let beastly blind babblers and bawds, with their charm- 
 ing chaplains, then, prate at large out of their malicious 
 spirit and idle brains. "J 
 
 The Church Universal is — 
 
 " The Madam of mischief and proud Synagogue of Satan." 
 And the Catholic bishops are — 
 " Those two-horned whoremongers, those conjurors of 
 
 * " Bale's Works," p. 236. 
 t Ibid., pp. 242 and 249. 
 % Ibid., p. 245. 
 
THE OPINIONS OF BISHOP BALE. 227 
 
 Egypt, and lecherous locusts, leaping out of the smoke of the 
 pit bottomless."* 
 
 The " communion of saints," according to this 
 apostate Carmelite, is the — 
 
 " Proud Synagogue of Satan, with gold, silver, pearl, pre- 
 cious stones, velvets, silks, mitres, copes, crosses, cruetts, 
 ceremonies, censurings, blessings, babblings, brawlings, pro- 
 cessions, puppets, and such other mad masteries, (whereof 
 the Church that Christ left here behind Him knew not one 
 jot,) to provoke the carnal idiots to her whoredom in the 
 spirit."f 
 
 No fanatic who ever put pen to paper could 
 possibly outstrip in coarseness the following epis- 
 copal blasphemy; never repudiated by any autho- 
 rity in the new Church, and recently re-published 
 for the edification of those who are charmed with 
 and attracted towards Bale's religion. 
 
 " Who ever heard of so great a wonder that a dry cake 
 should become a God to be worshipped ? . . . they will 
 take upon them to create (Him) every day afresh, and when 
 
 * " Bale's Works," p. 259. He may be fairly matched by 
 Dr. Walter Haddon, in his reply to Jerome Osorius, a Portu- 
 guese, who wrote thus of the outcast English monks and nuns 
 — " It was provided by laws that the sows should not again 
 wallow in such filthy mire." — Strype's "Annals," vol. i., 
 Part II., p 74 Oxford: 1824. 
 
 t Ibid., pp. 259, 260. 
 
 15 * 
 
228 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 their old God stinketh in the box, remove Him out of the 
 way, and put a new in His room."* 
 
 Finally, — for it is impossible to quote much 
 which he wrote, and which his modern admirers 
 have thought it decent to reproduce, — he declares, 
 in language borrowed from the Apocalypse and 
 most blasphemously misapplied, that the Catholic 
 Church is a "great whore," " a stinking strum- 
 pet."! " She is," he goes on to maintain, " in like 
 case flourishingly decked with gold, precious 
 stones, and pearls, not only in her manifold kinds 
 of ornaments, as in her copes, corporasses,J 
 chasubles, tunicles, stoles, fanons, and mitres, 
 but also in mystery of counterfeit godliness." 
 " Their shavelings of prodigious beastliness in 
 lecherous living, [live] under the colour of 
 chastity." § 
 
 The bishops, as cannot fail to be remarked, 
 were all most obsequious and obedient to the 
 
 * " Bale's Works," p. 283. 
 t Ibid., p. 494. 
 
 X The Reformers had always much disliked these. Bishop 
 Hooper had asked, Anno 1552, " whether the Communion be 
 used in such place and after such sort, as most varieth 
 from, and is most distant from the Popish Mass, and whether 
 they use any corporas cloth in the Communion ? " — Hooper's 
 " Interrogatories." 
 
 § " Bale's Works," p. 497. 
 
THE BISHOPS OBEDIENT AND OBSEQUIOUS. 229 
 
 Queen* ; and at all times dutifully and faithfully- 
 regarded the Crown as the source of all their 
 authority, and the fountain of their jurisdiction — 
 as Parliament had decreed. They thus most 
 thoroughly understood their true position, frankly 
 accepted it, and do not appear to have ever desired 
 any change ; — save, of course, that all of them 
 looked to become archbishops, (it was only in 
 human nature to do so,) while the Archbishop of 
 York for the time being, no doubt, expected in due 
 course to be translated to Canterbury. Their new 
 Oath of Homage, taken by each one and every one 
 on his knees before Her Highness, has already been 
 referred to. It behoved them, therefore, never 
 to forget her to whom they owed all that they 
 were, or might be, in dignity, rank, office, and 
 state — the Queen. On the whole, it must be un- 
 grudgingly admitted that their memories were 
 tolerably faithful and did not often fail. 
 
 As examples of their profound subservience to 
 
 * Bishop Sandys was particularly laudatory of Elizabeth. 
 Here are his words : — " Did God ever bless the throne of any 
 man as He hath done the royal seat of His anointed this 
 day ? Hath the like ever been heard of in any nation to that 
 which in ours is seen ? Our Deborah hath mightily re- 
 pressed the rebel Jaben ; our Judith hath beheaded Holo- 
 fernes, the sworn enemy of Christianity ; our Hester hath 
 hanged up that Haman which sought to bring both us 
 and our children into miserable servitude." — " Sandys' 
 Works," p. 81, Parker Society. London : 1842. 
 
230 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 the Supreme Governess, it may be here recorded 
 that Parker and Grindal, in 1561, humbly ap- 
 proached the Queen, for letters "to authorize the 
 now Bishop of Hereford to visit the same church 
 from time to time as occasion shall serve."* 
 
 Thus none of them presumed to do anything 
 whatsoever which involved the exercise of juris- 
 diction, without having first sought permission 
 from the only person in whom it was now sup- 
 posed to be vested. 
 
 Three years later, that is, in March 1564, the 
 Queen issued a dispensation,! on the humble 
 petition of the Warden of Winchester College, 
 abolishing Wednesday as a fast day in that vene- 
 rable institution, — for with Her Majesty it now 
 lay to undertake all which the Primate of Chris- 
 tendom, since the days of St. Augustine, had by 
 right of his office and dignity hitherto done for 
 this island. She could grant licenses, dispensa- 
 tions and graces ; for, to quote the Bidding 
 Prayer, she was " in all causes, and over all 
 persons, both civil and ecclesiastical, in these her 
 dominions, supreme." 
 
 When, therefore, some years afterwards, Grin- 
 dal, who had so faithfully proclaimed the " prin- 
 
 * 13th March 1561.— State Paper Office. 
 
 t Parker MSS., C. C. C. Camb., No. cxiv. p. 547. 
 
ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL'S RESIGNATION. 231 
 
 ciples of the Beformation,"* resigned his arch- 
 bishoprick, a.d. 1583, he properly resigned it 
 
 * Judging from what was stated at Caldmore, near Wal- 
 sall, on August 11th, 1879, by Colonel Bagnall, the diocese 
 of York still bears the impress of " the principles of the 
 Beformation." This quotation is from one of the organs of 
 the Eitualists : — " Eeferring to the Rev. S. F. Green's case at 
 Miles Platting, he said that Mr. Green was accused of clean- 
 sing the chalice at Holy Communion ; but, remarked the 
 speaker, no notice was taken of cases where the commonest 
 decencies were neglected, where the vessels and other appoint- 
 ments of the altar were treated with neglect and disrespect ; 
 in reference to which the Colonel remarked, he was with 
 Mr. Bailey at an old ancient church on the Wolds in the dio- 
 cese of York, where the altar and appointments were allowed 
 to fall into a disgraceful condition. For the altar was a 
 common deal table, covered with an old baize cloth, the 
 colour of which was probably originally green, but by long 
 use the original colour could not then be well ascertained. 
 Upon the table were bits of plaster fallen from the ceiling, 
 and dust abounded. By the appearance of the church he 
 should believe it was not cleaned from Sunday to Sunday, 
 except on a few occasions for christenings, &c. This was a 
 church at least eight hundred years old, and still retained 
 some marks of its former grandeur, but now we may well 
 exclaim : ' Ichabod, Thy glory has departed ! ' In the vestry, 
 on the chimney-piece, they found a short clay pipe, ashes, &c. 
 In the church itself they thought they smelt a disagreeable 
 odour, and looking about, they found an old cupboard which 
 contained dirty rags, and a chalice with the stains of wine 
 still upon it. He should like to ask if this state of things 
 would suit Lord Penzance ? There was not under these cir- 
 cumstances representations made to Bishops or Archbishops 
 in consequence of this gross neglect. But when a clergy- 
 man, actuated by faith, strove to celebrate the Holy Eucharist 
 with order and that reverence due to the great mystery, 
 he was persecuted and prosecuted." 
 
232 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 into the hands of the Queen, the fountain of 
 spiritual authority in the new Church, as the 
 following extract from his formal instrument 
 declares : — " Pure, sponte, simpliciter, et abso- 
 lute, in manus excellentissimse ac illustrissimas in 
 Christo principis et Dominse, Elizabethse, Dei 
 gratia Angliae, Francise et Hiberniae Reginge, etc. 
 cujus singulari favore et benignitate dictum ar- 
 chiepiscopatum consecutus sum, resigno." Be- 
 tween himself and his spiritual Master, Jesus 
 Christ, there only stood one person, and that 
 person was Queen Elizabeth. 
 
 Some idea in detail of the state of the various 
 dioceses of England at different periods during 
 Elizabeth's reign* must now be given from the 
 words of her new prelates themselves, and others, 
 otherwise the Pope's action might appear too 
 severe. As regards that of Durham, in the north, 
 
 * Iu 1571 there was a Communion only once a quarter in 
 every parish church, with a sermon an hour long. For servants 
 and officers it began at five o'clock in the morning, and ended 
 at eight ; for masters, gentry, and dames another commenced 
 at nine, with a like sermon to end at twelve. " The people," 
 as may be read, " do orderly arise from their pews, and so 
 pass to the Communion-table, where they receive the Sacra- 
 ment ; and from thence in like order to their place ; having 
 all this time a minister in the pulpit, reading unto them com- 
 fortable scriptures of the Passion or other pertaining to the 
 matter in hand." — Strype's " Annals," vol. ii., Part I., vp. 134, 
 135. Oxford: 1834. 
 
STATE OF THE NORTHEEN TOWNS. 
 
 233 
 
 let Dr. Pilkington in a plain-spoken letter to the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury first tell his own 
 story : — 
 
 " It is too lamentable," he writes, concerning 
 one of his chief towns, Blackburn, " to see and 
 hear how negligently they say any service there, 
 and how seldom. . . . The old vicar of Black- 
 bi a, Roger Linney, resigned for a pension, and 
 nc , a.d. 1564, "Whalley has as evil a vicar as the 
 wc ,t ; and there is one come thither that has 
 be< deprived, and changes his name, and now 
 tea ies school there, of evil to make them 
 
 WC }."* 
 
 ihbishop Parker, in writing to Lord Burgh- 
 
 lej ^ave a terrible account of the state of 
 
 N( ; ch Cathedral, in the east of England. The 
 
 die 3 appears to have been equally badf ; and 
 
 th me is supported by local records. The 
 
 ch fas an utter desolation. It had long ago 
 
 be eared of everything valuable, — ornaments, 
 
 * r MSS. C. C. Coll., Camb., No. cxiv. p. 519. 
 
 t Ir. Nesse, of the diocese of Norwich, caused his 
 
 bish \e vexation. He was reported to be of " trouble- 
 
 som disordered behaviour." So the bishop rebuked 
 
 him ter dated February 25th, 1572, and threatened 
 
 him gal process if he did not mend his manners. He 
 
 har 1 , r some time a great preacher of the new evangel, 
 
 bi bishop looks upon him as " slanderous " — because 
 
 h t marry, but " frequented a suspected house." 
 
234 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 service-books, lamps, vestments, and tapestry. 
 The rain came in from the roof, partly stripped 
 of its lead, the walls were sodden ; the pictured 
 glass of the windows broken, so that the wind 
 whistled round transepts, ambulatory, and cha- 
 pels ; the font was thrown down ; the monuments 
 in the various chantries were in course of de- 
 struction. " The church is miserable," are, ie 
 Archbishop's exact words. It "hath but six 'e- 
 bendaries ; and but one of them at home, i 'th 
 needy and poor, of which some of those > - I 
 know to be Puritans. Chapman of late dispj 3ed 
 by the Bishop of Lincoln ; Johnson co/ ng 
 abroad, with his four several prebends (as iey 
 say) in new-erected churches, both against s ite 
 and his oath." There was no daily service,] ier 
 in cathedral or parochial church : a mere " re r" 
 read out Mattins and Evensong once a wed nd 
 kept the parish registers.* Communion ws le- 
 brated only three times a year ; no serm/ ad 
 been preached in the cathedral for nine I hs 
 
 * The readers, formally set apart, in some way / her, 
 
 but by no public, authorized, and legal form, "W to 
 
 preach, administer the Sacrament of the Lord's a or 
 
 baptize ; but to read the Common Prayers aij ie 
 registers. They were taken out of the laity, t^ 
 
 others ; any that was of sober conversation . It 
 
 behaviour, and that could read and write ■ s 
 " Annals," vol. i. p. 516. Oxford : 1824. 
 
STATE OF THE CITY OP NOEWICH. 235 
 
 previously, and none of the people of the city 
 apparently cared to attend* for " the common 
 prayer sayd only on the Sundaies." The preben- 
 daries, with a single exception, were away, their 
 houses dilapidated ; the deanery of Norwich was 
 vacant. Of the late dean of the cathedral and 
 of the bishop of the diocese Parker indirectly and 
 vaguely, but forcibly remarked : — " I have been 
 of late shamefully deceived by some young men, 
 and so have I been by some older men."f 
 
 At St. Saviour's Church in that city, all organs 
 and singing having been abolished, and the 
 minister having taken to reading the Sunday 
 prayers from a new pulpit in the nave, — as Park- 
 hurst had enjoined, — some of the parishioners 
 were exceedingly displeased. One, Thomas Lynn,;}: 
 so far resented this innovation, that he appeared 
 in the church with some " cunning queristers," 
 as some say — or with " three or four lewd boys, 
 
 * The cathedral was not singular in this respect, for it is 
 on record that ' ' many were now wholly departed from the 
 communion of the church, and came no more to hear Divine 
 Service in the parish churches, nor received the Holy Sacra- 
 ment according to the law of the realm. This was especially 
 taken notice of in the diocese of Norwich." — Strype's 
 "Annals," vol. ii., Part. I., p. 161. Oxford: 1824. 
 
 f Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, No. xvii. folio 58. 
 
 % Strype's "Annals," vol. ii., Part L, p. 328. Oxford: 
 1824. 
 
236 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 set on by some lewder persons," — as they were 
 described by others, and, when the parson facing 
 the people preached the Magnificat like a sermon, 
 they, on their part, " chanted it out loudly, after 
 the auncient mode." 
 
 The Bishop, Dr. John Parkhurst, was a strong 
 and irreverent Puritan ; and seems to have been 
 always on the side of the Protestant innovators. 
 Anything approaching to what he impiously called 
 " the clouted Popish mass " his unrighteous soul 
 abhorred. When the tressels and Communion- 
 board were brought down for " the Lord's Sup- 
 per," he forbad its being decked like an altar ; 
 or the retention of any rites by the presiding 
 minister, which might in any way recall the an- 
 cient Sacrifice.* The sign of the Cross he also 
 forbad, as well as any washing of the Communion- 
 
 * These were the Bishop's express and formal directions : — 
 " Item, that they neither suffer the Lorde's table to be 
 hanged and decked like an aulter, neyther use any gestures 
 of the popish masse in the time of ministracion of the 
 Communion, as shifting of the booke, washing, breathing, 
 crossing, or such-like." — Injunctions of John Parkhurst, 
 Bishop of Norwich, a.d. 1561." And, again, eight years 
 later : — " At such times as ye shall use the perambulation 
 in the Rogation dayes for the boundes of your parish, you 
 shall not use any surplas uppon you, or stay at any crosse, 
 or suffer any banners to be carried, or other superstition to 
 be used." — Injunctions of Bishop John Parkhurst, a.d. 1569. 
 London : John Walley. 
 
STATE OP THE DIOCESE OF NORWICH. 237 
 
 cup after its use. If any minister went forth 
 for a perambulation at Rogation-tide, he was to 
 go without surplice, and to stop at no wayside 
 cross. Nor was any banner to be carried. On 
 taking possession of his episcopal seat, he allowed 
 anyone, apparently, who, in his own estimation, 
 could preach and proclaim the new gospel — though 
 " not bred to learning," a trader, or even a hus- 
 bandman — to officiate in the parish churches of 
 his diocese. Fanaticism, ignorance, and pre- 
 sumption were, with him, sure tokens of election 
 and grace. At Cotessey, near Norwich, a " love- 
 feast " was held in the chancel, the Communion- 
 board of which served as the table of the profane 
 entertainment, round which the elect sat, — an 
 entertainment which ended in scandals too shock- 
 ing for any detailed description.* 
 
 In the city of Norwich the Calvinists and 
 Zwinglians from Flanders had a church appor- 
 tioned to them, and Parkhurst took them under 
 his protection. The three ministers were named 
 Anthonius, Theophilus, and Isbrandus. Neither 
 was superior to the other two, yet in controversy 
 each wanted to have the first word, the last 
 retort, and the final triumph. They quarrelled 
 
 * MS. letter in the possession of the Author from the Col- 
 lections of the Very Rev. F. C. Husenbeth, D.D. 
 
238 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 violently, and their respective adherents came to 
 blows. " Falling in their sermons upon par- 
 ticular doctrines controverted amongst them- 
 selves, [they] preached so earnestly in answers 
 and confutations one of another, that the con- 
 gregation was all in confusion, and the peace of 
 the church broken up."* When the Bishop 
 interfered, they would not obey, laughing him 
 to scorn, and openly defying his authority. 
 
 It will cause no surprise, therefore, that Sir 
 William Cecil, when writing to Parker on the 
 12th of August 1561, declared that " the Bishop 
 of Norwich is blamed even of the best sort for 
 his remissness in ordering his clergy. He winketh 
 at schismatics and anabaptists, as I am informed. 
 Surely I see great variety in ministration. A 
 surplice may not be borne here. And the minis- 
 ters follow the folly of the people, calling it 
 charity to feed their fond humour. Oh ! my Lord, 
 what shall become of this time ? "t 
 
 * Strype's "Annals," vol. ii., Part II., p. 174. Oxford: 
 1824. 
 
 f Petyt MSS., No. 47, folio 372, in the Inner Temple. 
 In Parkkurst's Visitation Articles for 1(361, under the head 
 of " The People and tkeyr Duetie," he seems active enough 
 against the innovators, and asks " whether any man is known 
 to have said or heard masse, sithens it was abrogate by 
 lawe ; and whether any man maketh any singing cakes to 
 say masse withal, reserveth vestments, superaltaries, masse- 
 bookes, or other instruments of this supersticion ? " — Injunc- 
 tions. Printed by John Day, 1561. 
 
STATE OP THE DIOCESE OF CARLISLE. 239 
 
 With all such laxity of discipline, however, 
 some hundreds of parishes in the eastern portion 
 of the country remained wholly unserved. 
 
 In the year 1563, in the Archdeaconry of Nor- 
 wich for example, there were no less than eighty 
 vacant benefices ; in the Archdeaconry of Norfolk 
 one hundred and eighty-two ; in the Archdeaconry 
 of Suffolk one hundred and thirty ; in the Arch- 
 deaconry of Sudbury forty-two. In addition to 
 these there had been a large number of chapels 
 " standing so ruinous a long time, that now they 
 were quite taken down."* 
 
 In the diocese of Carlisle, to go back again 
 northwards, a similar state of affairs existed. The 
 destroyers had done their work only too well. 
 Every rapacious "reformer" had gained his 
 point. The altars had been overthrown and 
 broken down, the chalices and pixes stolen — 
 either legally or otherwise — and the Old Religion 
 utterly cast out. No one could be obtained, 
 however, — judging from Archbishop Grindal's 
 complaint to Sir William Cecil, — to preach the 
 new gospel : — 
 
 " The Bishop of Carlisle (John Best) hath often 
 complained to me for want of preachers for his 
 diocese, having no help at all of his cathedral 
 
 * Strype's " Annals," vol. i. p. 539. Oxford: 1824. 
 
240 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 church. Sir Thomas Smith is his Dean, occupied 
 in the Queen's Majesty's affairs, as ye know. All 
 his prebendaries . . . are ignorant priests, or 
 old, unlearned monks."* 
 
 Again, about the year 1565, in the diocese of 
 Bangor, then presided over by Dr. Rowland Mey- 
 rick, the new gospel was evidently making but 
 little, if any, progress, and the salutary practice of 
 good works even less. " Many of the churches be 
 utterly closed." " Therein there be neither "Word 
 nor Sacraments." The Bishop, though a Welsh- 
 man, was very unpopular, except with the laxest 
 and most immoral of the preachers, for he seems 
 to have been sorely intent on both contemplating 
 and grasping things temporal. For spiritual con- 
 cerns he showed but little interest. He is re- 
 ported to have been cringing and abject to his 
 superiors, always lazy and indolent, and most 
 pompous, overbearing, and tyrannical to those 
 beneath him. His lordship was evidently more 
 indebted to the new religion than the new reli- 
 gion was to him. This diocese, it is put on 
 record, is " much out of order," " having no 
 preaching there, and pensionary concubinage 
 openly continued."! 
 
 * Lansdowne MSS., British Museum, No. vi. folio 86. 
 Grindal to Cecil, 27th December, 1563. 
 t Ibid., "No. Tiii. folio 78. 
 
STATE OF THE DIOCESE OP LICHFIELD. 241 
 
 Nor was the extensive diocese of Lichfield 
 apparently more favoured. It suffered, as the 
 bishop himself admitted, " lamentable inconve- 
 niences growing to the Church of God by the 
 insufficient ministry."* The new gospel, which 
 the old clergy secretly hated and despised, had 
 not as yet shed many blessings upon the cruelly- 
 robbed people in that part of the Queen's do- 
 minions ; nor could its religious state compare 
 with what it had been in the previous century. 
 
 On June 11, 1581, Dr. William Overton, bishop 
 of that see, had, he asserted, the stubbornest 
 diocese in all this land, and a clergy the most un- 
 willing to show themselves ready and dutiful in 
 any good service, specially if it touched their 
 purse. f 
 
 The chief church of Coventry had been long 
 ago efficiently " reformed." The " robbers of 
 churches " had gathered in bands and flocks, and 
 had there left little worth taking. Some writers 
 
 * " To help the lamentable inconveniences growing to the 
 Church of God by the insufficient ministry, they are not 
 only to be sifted which are already made ministers, but also 
 a diligent care and foresight is to be used that only suffi- 
 cient men be admitted to that function hereafter." — Certain 
 "Advertisements " by William Overton, Bishop of Coventry, 
 a.d. 1584. 
 
 t Vide " State Papers, Domestic, Elizabeth," vol. cxlix. 
 p. 18. 
 
 16 
 
242 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 have laid this and similar acts of destruction to the 
 charge of those who, in the succeeding century, 
 sided with the usurping ruffian Oliver Cromwell. 
 But it was certainly effected under Edward VI. 
 and Elizabeth. Everything of great value in 
 the shape of gold or silver plate, jewels, MSS., 
 and rich vestments had long ago vanished under 
 the rule of Protector Somerset. The vessels of 
 latten, brass, and white metal — all savouring of 
 superstition — had already been devoutly stolen, 
 so that no one might henceforth sin by using 
 them. Several of the bells and much of the lead 
 had been removed. The rafters and roof-boards 
 of aisles and chantries had rotted ; rain some- 
 times poured in on to the pavement ; in the spring 
 birds built their nests above the wall-plates ; in 
 the winter the aisles and side chapel-floors were 
 flooded with water ; while green lichen and weeds 
 soon grew luxuriantly on their walls. Certain of 
 the chapels were thus partially roofless. Yet 
 even then some adventurous Gospeller, with a 
 sham Commission, a mere poor gleaner in a harvest 
 field once rich, came and stole all the remaining 
 brass.* 
 
 * " The pavement of Coventry Church is almost all tomb- 
 stones, and some very ancient. But there came in a zealous 
 fellow, with a counterfeit Commission, that, for avoiding of 
 superstition, hath not left one pennyworth, nor one penny- 
 
STATE OP THE DIOCESE OF OXFOED. 
 
 243 
 
 A few words may now be written as to the dio- 
 cese of Oxford — one of the new sees. Henry VIII. 
 had intended to have had it styled the "Bishoprick 
 of Osney and Thame " — after two important re- 
 ligious houses in Oxfordshire which had been 
 suppressed. But the abbey-churches of Osney 
 and Thame were soon both destroyed ; while the 
 parish church of Thame — though of prebendal 
 rank, and a cruciform and dignified building of 
 considerable size for its purpose — was inadequate. 
 So, in 1546, the bishoprick had a seat appointed 
 to it in the priory church of St. Frideswide, now 
 Christ Church, Oxford. From the death of 
 Robert King, — who for some time had been 
 Abbot of Thame, with the title of Bishop of 
 Rheon, and was one of the suffragans of the 
 Bishop of Lincoln, — a death which had taken 
 place in the last year of Queen Mary's reign, 
 until the year 1567, the see of Oxford had been 
 kept vacant ; so that its revenues might be uti- 
 lized in serving the Queen's friends or bribing 
 her enemies. On the 14th of October of the 
 last-named year Dr. Hugh Curwen, sometime 
 Archbishop of Dublin, who, like other of the 
 
 breadth, of brass upon the tombs of all the inscriptions, 
 which had been many and costly." — " Brief View of the 
 State of the Church," by Sir John Harington, p. 85. 
 London : 1653. 
 
 16 * 
 
244 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Protestant prelates, had not been at all appre- 
 ciated in Ireland, was appointed to the see of 
 Oxford ; but he died within a year of his enthron- 
 ization. It then remained unfilled for the long 
 period of nearly twenty-one years, when Dr. John 
 Underhill was consecrated on the 14th of De- 
 cember 1589. The poverty of this see ; the actual 
 difficulty of living ; the misery of many of the 
 burdened clergy ; the notable fact that more than 
 one hundred and ninety benefices had been un- 
 served for nearly a quarter of a century, and that 
 the country people, some not baptized, were un- 
 taught, unfed, and often buried without Christian 
 rites, depressed his lordship so seriously that, 
 within two years and a half, in a state of incur- 
 able melancholy, he took to his bed, and passed 
 to his final account. So that the episcopal seat 
 in this new cathedral of Our Blessed Lady and 
 St. Frideswide was filled for little more than three 
 out of forty-six years. The Spiritual Governess 
 had given its lands and revenues to her favourite, 
 the Earl of Leicester ; after whose death Lord 
 Essex secured them for himself. Both these 
 noblemen so spoiled and wasted them, that there 
 was nothing left to later bishops but impropria- 
 tions and a dilapidated mansion in St. Aldate's, 
 at Oxford. So devastated was this and other 
 new sees, in truth, that the bishops were actually 
 obliged to solicit pecuniary aid from the rectors 
 
EFFECTS OF THE BEFORMATION. 245 
 
 and vicars of their respective dioceses to enable 
 them to furnish their episcopal residences. 
 
 Within a single century of Queen Elizabeth's 
 death, those who admire her vigorous policy will 
 learn with satisfaction and thankfulness that, 
 whether true or false, good or bad, the Old Reli- 
 gion had been thereabouts almost entirely rooted 
 and stamped out. Judging from a " Return of 
 the Popish Recusants for the County and City of 
 Oxford" made in 1706,* they might then be 
 easily numbered. A mere handful, no one could 
 pretend to fear them. Mr. Nathaniel Bevan, 
 Vicar of North Aston, officially reported that one 
 Sutton, "supposed to be the priest," "reads Mass 
 in my parish most Sundays aud holidays." At 
 Somerton, twenty-seven remained of whom the 
 Vicar wrote : " We have probable grounds to be- 
 lieve that they meet sometimes for their service 
 in a house in the parish ; but they are civil, quiet, 
 and peaceable." At Whitchurch there was only 
 one — Esquire Hyde. At another parish there 
 were " two old women only.'-' At North Leigh, 
 near Blenheim Park, " Mary Morris, wife of a 
 day labourer," was the sole representative of the 
 religion of William of Wykeham. At Burford 
 " Elizabeth Haines, a poor sojourner; no other." 
 
 * To be seen in the Diocesan Registry at Oxford. 
 
246 THE CHUECH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 At Checkendon there was a family of the name 
 of Grimsditch who were Catholics. At Sandford 
 Esquire Powell and his dependents likewise clung 
 to the Ancient Faith ; as did the Earl and Countess 
 of Kildare at Caversham, together with the knightly 
 family of the Curzons of Waterperry, and a few 
 more. However persons may shrink from ap- 
 proving the policy of Elizabeth's advisers, they 
 cannot deny that, by the aid of fine, imprison- 
 ment, knife, halter, and torture-chamber, it thus 
 turned out a complete and triumphant success ; 
 for the solitude had been made, the peace was 
 secured. With some persons — the selfish and 
 the shallow — success is a certain test of truth. 
 
 The actual state of affairs in the diocese of St. 
 David's, likewise, may be tolerably well gleaned 
 from certain " Injunctions to be observed and 
 kept,"* issued to the clergy of his diocese by 
 Middleton, bishop of that see in 1583. Judging 
 them from a Christian standing-point, it is not 
 easy to determine whether their heresy or pro- 
 fanity be their most notable feature. 
 
 This man, Marmaduke Middleton, a person re- 
 markable for nothing in particular, had been 
 
 * The original of these, printed in 1583, can be seen in a 
 large and curious collection of such documents in the Bod- 
 leian Library at Oxford. 
 
STATE OF THE DIOCESE OF ST. DAVID'S. 247 
 
 made Bishop of Waterford, in Ireland, in 1579, by- 
 Letters Patent. No canonical election had ever 
 taken place, and there seems to be some doubt 
 whether he had ever received episcopal conse- 
 cration of any sort or kind.* Four years after- 
 wards, like other Protestant prelates, who had 
 laboured in vain, if they had laboured at all, he 
 found that Ireland was no fitting place for him, 
 as the gospel he proclaimed was there repudiated 
 with scorn ; so, after the death of Richard Davies, 
 Bishop of St. David's, on November 7, 1581, he 
 begged for that vacated see, and in the following 
 year, with Burghley's sanction, was appointed to 
 it. Within twelve months he issued a large series 
 of Visitation Articles, or Injunctions, from which 
 much exact information may be gained as to his 
 actual goings-on. He persecuted with vigour 
 those who clung to the Old Faith ; he was a pro- 
 found, intelligent, and obsequious Erastian ; he 
 destroyed several churches and built none ; and 
 at the end of ten years was called to his account. 
 
 These "Injunctions" are worthy of careful 
 study. They contain his lordship's sage and ma- 
 ture directions, and are quite free from any taint 
 
 * It is only fair to the late Archdeacon Cotton to state 
 that he believed himself to be in possession of indirect evi- 
 dence of Middleton's consecration. See also, on the other 
 side, "The Episcopal Succession," &c. by Dr. Maziere Brady, 
 vol. i. p. 351. Eome : 1876. 
 
248 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 of superstition. In the administration of the 
 Sacrament of Baptism, trine immersion and trine 
 affusion were each distinctly forbidden by them. 
 No chrisom-cloth was to be used ; the godfathers 
 "were not allowed to touch the child's head as 
 heretofore ; for Bishop Middleton, as he was 
 careful to explain, discountenanced the ancient 
 but erroneous idea that there was any " virtue or 
 hidden mystery" in baptism; and desired, as a 
 godly exercise, in the new method of baptizing, 
 that all young sponsors should " saie the whole 
 Catechisme," and "make an open confession at the 
 font of the Articles of their faith," before assum- 
 ing that office and duty. Lay-baptism he dis- 
 tinctly forbade. 
 
 All the old ceremonies of the Mass, and espe- 
 cially consecration, were likewise distinctly for- 
 bidden. Ths minister was neither to handle, 
 bless, lift up, consecrate, nor show to the people, 
 the Bread and Wine, but to " let it lie upon the 
 table until the distribution thereof." He was to 
 act exactly "according to the orders of the Book 
 [of Common Prayer] without any addition or 
 detraction." In this, of course, the manual 
 actions had been deliberately omitted.* Xo one 
 
 * This omission, perfectly intentional, was entirely in 
 harmony with the opinions of Elizabeth's bishops, who had 
 adopted the Second Prayer Book. 
 
BISHOP MIDDLETON'S INJUNCTIONS. 249 
 
 was under any circumstances to remain either in 
 church or chancel, unless an actual communicant, 
 prepared then and there to communicate ; for this 
 likewise savoured of the " abominable and vain " 
 custom of hearing Mass ; and, if any stubborn or 
 obstinate person kneeling on his knees, knocking 
 his breast, or devoutly saying his prayers, pro- 
 posed to do so, and would not depart, when quietly 
 ordered out of church, the presiding minister was, 
 with no consideration for the expectant or the 
 hungry, to stop the whole proceedings at once 
 without further ado, and then summon the "trou- 
 bler of God's divine service" — the ignorant person 
 who, believing in the efficacy of prayer, prayed — 
 before the Judge of the local Consistory Court. 
 
 The officiating parson himself was enjoined to 
 stand always in the " bodie of the church, or in 
 the ]ower end of the chancel, with his face in- 
 variably turned unto the people." Turnings about 
 were solemnly discountenanced. The use of a low 
 voice or mumbling, — as it was contemptuously 
 called, — was expressly forbidden. The " mass- 
 mongers " had mumbled; so by way of contrast 
 the minister was expected to bellow or bawl. 
 He was to use a loud voice, or as loud as he 
 could make it, — for " faith cometh by hearing,"* 
 
 * This text was actually quoted as a justification for 
 shouting out the prayers. 
 
250 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 and never to go near the Communion-board, unless 
 there was an actual Communion ; for such cus- 
 tom, — to use the Bishop's own profane language 
 — " doth retain a memorie of the idolatrous 
 Masse."* To avoid even the appearance of any- 
 thing so heinous, during the ante-Communion 
 service, he was to stand in his own seat or pulpit 
 and nowhere else, " with his face turned down 
 towards the people " ; and he was, moreover, to 
 take special care that the board and tressels 
 remained wholly unadorned, in their plain and 
 severe simplicity. No linen cloth was to be laid 
 upon the Communion-table, and no other covering 
 ordinarily ; and, when the tressels and board 
 were done with, when the ante-Communion 
 prayers were ended, or when the sacred meal 
 was over, they were to be removed " to the upper 
 end of the raised chauncell." 
 
 Again, when any woman gave thanks to God 
 for her safe delivery, neither she, when making 
 her offering, nor the midwife who accompanied 
 her, were "to kiss the Communion boarde," — a 
 very old Catholic custom, common in many parts 
 of England, of old ; and almost universal abroad. 
 
 * This custom was almost universal throughout England 
 up to the period of the commencement of the Oxford move- 
 ment, except perhaps in cathedrals and colleges. Thus chancels, 
 when large and long, often stood disused and deserted. 
 
CHANGES IN FUNERAL CEREMONIES. 251 
 
 As regards ceremonials at funerals — those ex- 
 pressive rites which the Church of Grod had ever 
 made so solemn and hallowing, blessing and 
 benefiting all who took part in them — no hand- 
 bell was henceforth to be rung throughout the 
 diocese of St. David, no oblations were to be 
 offered, " no prayers for the dead were to be 
 made " — the exact words of this episcopal heretic 
 are quoted — " either in the house or upon the way, 
 or elsewhere": practices which, it appears, had 
 been too frequently and universally tolerated by 
 the clergy of this diocese up to the time of 
 Middleton's unwelcome arrival. Month's minds 
 or year's minds were absolutely prohibited. All 
 " Popish superstition " was to be given up. A 
 practice of the communion of saints was thus 
 authoritatively forbidden and cast out. Again : 
 if strange ministers came to pay their respects to 
 the memory of a departed Welshman, they were 
 not to array themselves in any rochets or surplices, 
 nor to carry lighted candles or torches, nor to 
 place any wax tapers on or near the corpse whilst 
 it was in the church. If they prayed at all, they 
 were to pray not for the person departed but for 
 themselves — a form of selfishness peculiarly repul- 
 sive on such an occasion. A short peal was to 
 be rung both before and after the funeral ; and 
 then the people were to depart without adding any 
 ancient Catholic prayers of their own, or anything 
 
252 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 which resembled them. Wooden crosses were 
 not to be erected, as had been so long the custom, 
 and was common, where the corpse had rested on 
 its way to its last earthly home ; and the putting- 
 up of " crosses of wood " in the churchyard 
 " upon or about the grave " was also distinctly 
 forbidden. Hence, until quite recent times, no 
 cross was ever found placed at the head of a 
 grave. Almost all churchyard crosses were 
 broken ; though sometimes the shaft remained. 
 
 Moreover (and here the actual words are 
 quoted), " Images, pictures, and al monuments 
 of fained miracles, as well in walles, as in glasse 
 windowes, [shall] be defaced ; and namely [i.e. 
 particularly] the Image of the Crucifixe* and the 
 two Maries in the chauncell windowes." Pictures 
 of the Queen herself, together with gorgeous repre- 
 sentations of Her Majesty's heraldic achievement, 
 were alone allowed by way of internal decorations. 
 Later on, — when Christian sacraments had been 
 dragged down to the level of Jewish types of the 
 same, — representations of Moses and Aaron were 
 admitted. All rood-screens, likewise, were to be 
 pulled down. 
 
 * It has always seemed to the author quite an incompre- 
 hensible mystery why these " Reformers " displayed so 
 Satanic a hatred of the Crucifix and of representations of 
 the Crucifixion. 
 
STATE OF THE DIOCESE OP LINCOLN. 253 
 
 With regard to questions of living, morals, and 
 theological duties, it was enjoined that those 
 ministers who had previously kept inns, taverns, 
 or " victualling houses," were to give them up, 
 learn to read better and more intelligibly, and 
 stick to the study of Bullinger's " Decades " or 
 the published " Homilies," which were so plain- 
 spoken, spirited, and impressive ; nor were these 
 ministerial worthies — who, never having them- 
 selves learnt, were now commissioned to teach — 
 ever to play at dice, cards, tables, or bowls. Four 
 times a year, with a loud voice and impressive 
 manner, they were to read out in church the 
 " Queen's Majestie's Injunctions." They were, 
 furthermore, to possess no books of divinity except 
 such as had been specially recommended and ap- 
 proved by their bishop ; nor was any man to have 
 two wives, or any woman to have two husbands — 
 one of his lordship's most practical and important 
 provisions — for gross looseness of morals had too 
 speedily followed upon misbelief and grave laxity 
 of doctrine. 
 
 From Wales let us now pass to Lincolnshire, 
 the chief part of one of the most important 
 dioceses of England. 
 
 The old diocese of Lincoln, then as now, em- 
 braced more than one county and a large tract of 
 land, perhaps but sparsely populated. It took in 
 the whole of the central part of eastern England, 
 
254 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 from Barton-upon-Humber and Great Grimsby 
 in the north, to Crowland and Market Deeping 
 in the south, with the Isle of Axholme and the 
 county of Nottingham. As early as the reign of 
 William Rufus, St. Remigius, the devoted Bishop 
 of Dorchester-upon-Thame in Oxfordshire, had, 
 for good and sufficient reasons, removed his see 
 from a sacred spot, well wooded and watered, 
 where the junction of two ancient rivers is made, 
 to a fortified place in the north-east — the present 
 ancient and interesting city of Lincoln. St. Hugh 
 the Carthusian, and Alexander the Munificent, by 
 their charitable labours, had each left their im- 
 press upon the devout and reverent people under 
 them ; while those parts of Oxfordshire and 
 Buckinghamshire which in previous generations 
 had perhaps owned Dorchester as their mother- 
 church, henceforth turned to the important see of 
 Lincoln, as a child turns to its parent, for guidance 
 and aid. 
 
 That City itself must have been once fair and 
 beautiful in the sight of God and the Holy 
 Angels ; for there, independent of the glorious 
 and richly-furnished Cathedral of Our Lady and 
 St. Hugh, which towered over weald and wold, 
 no less than fifty-two parish churches,* with all 
 their efficient machinery — their rich altars and 
 
 * Now there are but fifteen. 
 
ABBEYS AND HOSPITALS OF LINCOLNSHIRE. 255 
 
 lighted lamps, their means of grace for the un- 
 regenerate, and their Angel's Food for the pious 
 wayfarer — stood around and about that majestic 
 sanctuary, calling people by open door and plea- 
 sant chime to worship and prayer, and silently 
 reminding them ever of the unseen world, its 
 beauty and its peace. 
 
 Throughout the shire, all around, northward, 
 eastward and westward, — dotted here and there 
 amid clumps of trees, or where willows marked 
 out the tortuous way of some sluggish stream, or 
 nestling under some green slope, — rose spire or 
 tower or stunted bell-cote of many a village fane. 
 Throughout Lincolnshire, prior to the sixteenth- 
 century changes, no less that a hundred and eight 
 religious houses had long been centres of light 
 and life to a people who appreciated and valued 
 them. Of these the more celebrated were the 
 abbeys of Barlings and Bardney, Swineshead and 
 Croyland, with the notable priory of Sempring- 
 harn, where St. Gilbert had so often prayed. 
 
 The Knights Templars had owned five houses, 
 which were suppressed and destroyed ; while no 
 less than fourteen hospitals, where the corporal 
 works of Mercy had long been charitably practised 
 to the great benefit of the poor, shared a similar 
 fate. Those who had been subservient to King 
 Henry VIII., those who in the succeeding reign 
 had actively supported Protector Somerset and 
 
256 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 his policy, and those who later on were secret and 
 sure allies of Cecil and Walsingham, had secured 
 a considerable share of the various spoils. Such 
 gained a few things here, if they lost more here- 
 after. Many ancient families, impoverished by 
 the disastrous Wars of the Roses, to their eternal 
 shame, consented to acquiesce in the unhappy 
 changes carried out, on condition of being allowed 
 to participate in the lands and manors stolen from 
 the religious communities. 
 
 Under Edward VI., much, as is well known, 
 had been done in many parts of England to strip 
 the parish churches of their ornaments and trea- 
 sures. On the 15th of February 1549, Commis- 
 sioners had been despatched in all directions to 
 find out exactly what still existed of value and to 
 take inventories of the same. Two years after- 
 wards, other commissions were issued to do a 
 similar work ; and, again, two years later, in May 
 1553, a fresh set of Inquisitors was sent about 
 to different dioceses on a like errand. These 
 Commissioners were even then most unpopular. 
 
 The people in general were Catholic, and saw 
 with horror and dismay the churches of the Most 
 High plundered, desecrated, and utterly destitute 
 of any kind of religious worship or service.* The 
 
 * " Great endeavours were also made in this Synod for the 
 mending the poor and bare condition of vicarages, many of 
 
RISINGS IN BERKS, HANTS, AND OXON. 257 
 
 bells of the churches were never rung ; the doors 
 never opened. Parsonages were in ruins. It was 
 in vain, however, at that time that Humphrey 
 Arundell, the valiant Cornish soldier, rose in de- 
 fence of the Faith, in that wild western country, 
 and in the name of some hundreds petitioned for 
 an immediate restoration of the abolished Mass ; 
 for the ancient rites and the Old Religion. In 
 Berks, Hants, and Oxfordshire* the people like- 
 wise rose in a fury to defend their parish churches; 
 
 which were of so small revenue, that abundance of parishes 
 were utterly destitute of ministers, to assist the people in 
 their serving of God, and to instruct them in spiritual know- 
 ledge for the edification of their souls. So that there was 
 no small apprehension that in time a great part of the 
 nation would become pagans. Besides, to render the con- 
 dition of small livings more deplorable, the pensions that 
 were due to religious persons, and allowed them for their 
 lives when their houses were dissolved, seemed to have 
 been by patrons charged upon their livings, when them- 
 selves ought to have paid them. And commonly poor 
 ministers, when they came into livings, were burdened 
 with payment of divers years' tentbs and subsidies that 
 were payable by former incumbents. There seemed now 
 also to be some that put the Queen upon taking a new sur- 
 vey of all ecclesiastical livings, pretending that thereby the 
 values of firstfruits and tenths would be considerably ad- 
 vanced to her, to the further oppression of the needy clergy." 
 — Strype's "Annals," vol. i. pp. 512-513. Oxford: 1824. 
 
 * In this county the old families of Simeon of Brightwell, 
 Dormer of Thame and Ascot, Davey of Dorchester, Wolfe of 
 Haseley, Browne (afterwards) baronets of Kiddington, Curzon 
 of Waterperry, Phillips of Thame and Ickford (Bucks), and 
 many others were warm defenders of the Ancient Faith. At 
 the close of Elizabeth's reign three distinguished priests, 
 
 17 
 
258 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 so that the Commissioners on several occasions 
 slunk away in fear and dismay, terrified at the 
 intensifying opposition. But a recent Act against 
 unlawful and rebellious assemblies* was speedily 
 put into operation ; and men were thus warned 
 that the King, their sovereign lord, charged and 
 commanded them to disperse themselves, and 
 peaceably depart to their habitations and to their 
 lawful business, under the pains and perils of the 
 Act. If more than twelve persons assembled 
 they were liable to punishment. Though they 
 demanded a restoration of the old religion of 
 their forefathers, and the rites and ceremonies of 
 bygone times, of which they reasonably enough 
 felt the loss, their demands were not only con- 
 temptuously disregarded, but they were at once 
 tried as rebels, soon found guilty, and speedily 
 enough "strung up," — as the brief and expressive 
 phrase stood, — as a punishment for t:heir incon- 
 venient and fanatical attachment to the Ancient 
 Faith ; and as a warning to others who might 
 be secretly attached to it, that if they ventured 
 actively to resist the innovators in authority they 
 would similarly and sharply suffer. 
 
 Francis Harcourt, Anthony Greenaway, and Eoger Lee, all 
 belonging to knightly families of Oxfordshire, and all con- 
 nections of each other, were in the forefront as regards 
 their praver-s and labours for Catholic Christianity. 
 * 3 & 4 Edward VI., cap. 5. 
 
JUSTICE AND TEUE RELIGION DETHRONED. 259 
 
 All this, of course, was well and accurately 
 enough remembered on all sides. The issue was 
 quite evident. Those who lifted up their voices 
 for God and His Truth, knew plainly enough 
 what they had to expect. The least resistance to 
 constituted authority would at once merit the 
 strictest and severest punishment. Judges and 
 bishops prated about " the law " ; while Justice 
 was dethroned and True Religion was being 
 strangled. And, though news travelled slowly 
 in those days, when conveyances were lumbering, 
 bridges were few, and roads impassable ; yet the 
 Lincolnshire gentlepeople and the sturdy yeomen 
 of the Wolds knew too well what lay in store for 
 them, if they should dare to oppose the triumphant 
 policy of Elizabeth's chief advisers. The dark doom 
 of the Abbot of Barlings, in the days of the first 
 Pilgrimage of Grace, had not been forgotten ; for, 
 by the side of many a Lincolnshire hearth, when 
 the days were drawing in, had been frequently 
 recited the vigorous and stirring ballads which 
 so properly commemorated that prelate's strong 
 faith and noble self-sacrifice. 
 
 "When, therefore, the high-principled adherents 
 of the Old Religion had been silenced, either by 
 imprisonment, fines, persecution, or expatriation ; 
 and when, for the sake of peace and quietness, 
 the weak-kneed and cowardly were quite known 
 to be unlikely to make any resistance ; the work 
 
 17 * 
 
260 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 of destruction, carefully planned, was most effi- 
 ciently carried out in the diocese of Lincoln. All 
 the ancient clergy of any note or influence had 
 been put out of the way. Bishop "Watson, the 
 chief pastor of that flock, could do little or 
 nothing but pray, and hope for better days ; for 
 he was safe and secure in prison. Nicholas Bul- 
 linghain, one of the ministers who had been 
 present at the inauguration of the new hierarchy, 
 when Matthew Parker was consecrated, had been 
 himself subsequently elevated to the episcopate 
 in the month of January 1560, by Parker and 
 others ; and, having by the Queen's authority 
 usurped the place of his betters, — come into the 
 fold in fact by some other way, — now ruled at 
 Lincoln, with the sanction and under the special 
 and direct patronage of the Supreme Governess. 
 If heresy be opposition to the Catholic Faith, and 
 sacrilege be sinful, then Bullingham's words and 
 tactics certainly merit an application of those terms 
 to him. It would be a distasteful work of supe- 
 rerogation, condemned by the Thirty-nine Arti- 
 cles,* to set forth in detail the theological 
 propositions by which Bishop Bullingham recom- 
 mended his new gospel to the acceptance of the 
 Lincolnshire peasantry. He and Jewell and Bale 
 
 * See Article xiv. " Of Works of Supererogation." 
 
DESTRUCTION UNDER ARCHDEACON AYLMER. 261 
 
 and Pilkington, with Sandys and Grindal, were 
 the burning and shining lights of the new system, 
 and the coarse-languaged Evangelists of another 
 gospel. What took place under his rule in the 
 work of what was styled "Reform" — comprised 
 in a duly-recorded document of melancholy in- 
 terest — will best be shown and more accurately 
 apprehended than by any study of his " Decades," 
 or by any perusal of his existing manuscript 
 letters. No more frightful record of deliberate 
 sacrilege and savage profanity could be found, 
 either on parchment or paper, amongst the records 
 of any civilized country. 
 
 This work of destruction was begun in 1566, 
 under the special direction of Dr. John Aylmer, 
 then Archdeacon of Lincoln, but eleven years 
 afterwards, i.e. in 1577, Bishop of London. The 
 various acts performed were not the result of a 
 sudden burst of maniacal fury, on the part of an 
 ignorant and brutalized populace, maddened by 
 previous sufferings, or spurred on to violence and 
 reprisals by unjust persecution; but they were 
 deeds done calmly and coolly* at the express 
 
 * Mr. Edward Peacock thus thoughtfully writes : — " It re- 
 quires an effort to place ourselves, in imagination even, in 
 the same position of affectionate reverence for mere articles 
 of furniture — silk and gold, brass and stone — as our fore- 
 fathers ; but let us remember that the vestments thus wan- 
 tonly cut up into hosen and cushions, or made into costumes 
 
262 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 direction of those who perhaps may have believed 
 themselves in a special manner to have been the 
 living agents of the incarnate Son of God ; and 
 who certainly were the appointed officers of a 
 Royal Lady who, at her coronation, had openly 
 professed the Catholic Religion, received the 
 Sacrament of the Altar under One kind, and who 
 had then solemnly pledged herself in the face of 
 the nation to maintain the Ancient Faith. 
 
 for strolling players, were the solemnly blessed garments in 
 which they had seen their priests celebrate the Great Sacri- 
 fice of the Catholic Church ; that the altar-slabs thus used 
 as fire-backs and bridges had been dedicated by episcopal 
 unction and the relics of the saints, and had received the 
 far higher consecration of being the appointed place whereon 
 that same sacrifice was consummated ; that the Rood was to 
 them the visible representation of their God — of Him Who 
 had died for them on Calvary, and Who, with hands, feet, 
 and side pierced as they saw Him there, would, as they be- 
 lieved, come ere long in glory and terror to judge the 
 universe. The bells that profane persons hung to the 
 harness of their horses had been borne before the priest 
 through many a crowd of kneeling villagers when the 
 Blessed Sacrament was carried from its resting-place over 
 the altar to the bedside of the sick and the dying. The 
 banners, the hearse, the lights, and almost every article of 
 the Church's furniture were connected in their minds with 
 the solemn funeral services, which, in their plaintive melody, 
 show forth more fully than anything else that is left to us 
 the wistful longing of the faithful here for the kingdom 
 where sickness and death, marrying and giving in marriage, 
 and all other sorrows and joys of this phenomenal exist- 
 ence, shall have passed away." — "English Church Furniture, 
 Ac," edited by E. Peacock, F.S.A., pp. 21, 22. London: 
 1866. 
 
INVENTORY OF " MONUMENTS OF SUPERSTITION." 263 
 
 The destruction and desolation thus caused by 
 authority, carried out in cold blood, with pre- 
 paration, resolution, and success, can now scarcely 
 be imagined ; nor can the dead and miserable state 
 of affairs, from a religious point of view, which 
 speedily ensued be easily conceived. What had 
 taken place in the diocese of Lincoln, as far as 
 regards about a hundred and fifty parish churches, 
 can still, however, be tolerably well realized from 
 the careful study of a volume* edited with care 
 and judgment by a very competent hand, and 
 which is mainly the reprint of an original " In- 
 ventory of the Monuments of Superstition," the 
 document referred to, preserved amongst the 
 miscellaneous papers of the Episcopal Registry 
 at Lincoln, — with interesting and copious foot- 
 notes and most valuable appendices added. 
 
 It was not enough, as the manuscript in ques- 
 tion so plainly shows, that the altars were ordered 
 to be utterly taken down and destroyed, — which 
 was done to the dismay and amazement of a large 
 majority of the people, who were awe-struck by 
 the punishment with which those were threatened 
 
 * " English Church Furniture, Ornaments, and Decora- 
 tion at the Period of the Reformation, as exhibited in a 
 List of Goods destroyed in certain Lincolnshire Churches, 
 a.d. 1566." Edited by Edward Peacock, F.S.A. London: 
 1866. 
 
264 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 who actively interfered in behalf of the ancient 
 rites, — but the sacred cross-marked slabs, which 
 had been duly blessed in God's Name, with con- 
 secrated chrism, were to be purposely and de- 
 liberately profaned. To lay them down in the 
 church porch or middle aisle, so that the people 
 on entering it were compelled to tread upon 
 them, was not, in Archdeacon Aylmer's opinion, 
 a use sufficiently "common " or profane; so cer- 
 tain of them were sometimes placed as steps 
 leading to the nearest pig-stye, or even put to a 
 more infamous and disgusting use — too disgusting 
 to refer to more particularly : and this under the 
 direct official authority of the Primate of Eng- 
 land* and Dr. Nicholas Bullingham, the intruded 
 " Bishop of Lincoln." 
 
 A mere brief abstract, with a few startling ex- 
 amples of what was actually done in detail, must 
 now be set forth with care. For after a study of 
 this, the romance-writers of the Reformation may 
 henceforth write in vain. Most of the recorded 
 inventories are alike, both in form and phrase- 
 ology : the destruction being systematic and 
 complete. Every trace of the Old Religion, its 
 mystic sacrifice and solemn rites, was carefully 
 
 * " The churchwardens shall see that the altar-stones be 
 broken, defaced, and bestowed to some common use." — Injunc- 
 tions of Edmund Grindal, 1571. London: William Serres. 
 
"reforms" at ashby, bardney, and belton. 265 
 
 removed ; and the language employed relating to 
 the ancient solemnities and their ornamenta, was 
 violent, contemptuous, and coarse, as will be too 
 clearly seen. 
 
 At Ashby, near Sleaford,* as may be read, the 
 images of the Rood were burnt, and the altar- 
 stones used to pave the church. At Aslacbie 
 " the Mass-books, the processioners, the manual, 
 and all such peltrie of the Pope's sinfull service, 
 was made away, torn, and defaced in the second 
 or third year of Our Sovereign Lady that now 
 is." The same was the case at Ashwardbie. 
 Here " all the Mass-books and all books of Pa- 
 pistrie were torn in pieces, and sold to pedlars 
 to lap spice in." At Bardney, the old priest, 
 Sir Robert Cambridge, had removed the service- 
 books ; but the candlesticks and other ornaments 
 were broken and sold. The altar-stones of the 
 church of Barkeston were put to profane uses, 
 having been laid down in pavement at the town 
 bridge, while the holy- water vat was turned into 
 a vessel for milk. At Belton in the Isle of Ax- 
 holme, a representation in alabaster of All Saints, 
 with "divers other idolls," were cut in pieces, 
 burnt, and defaced. What the churchwardens 
 
 * For details see pp. 29-171 of Mr. Peacock's important 
 volume. 
 
266 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 profanely call " a sepulchre, with little Jack," — 
 i.e. the Blessed Sacrament, — had been smashed a 
 year ago, " but little Jack was broken in peces 
 this yeare by the said churchwardens." Here, 
 too, the altar-cloths were said to be " rotting in 
 pieces in the bottom of a cheste." At Bichfield, 
 the torn-down altar-stones had been placed on 
 Broad Bridge to bear up the bank. At Billing- 
 borough, the churchwardens certified to Bishop 
 Bullingham that " all the trumpery and Popish 
 ornaments were sold and defaced, so that there 
 remaineth no superstitious monument within our 
 parish church." The sacring-bell of Burton 
 Coggles church had been given to William Eland, 
 who contemptuously hung it by his horse's ear. 
 At Bomnbie, the pix had been used for a salt- 
 cellar; while at Botheby, when Archdeacon 
 Aylmer held his visitation, the Rood-loft had been 
 sold to one Richard Longland, churchwarden, who 
 made a bridge of it by which his cattle might 
 reach their pasture. The altar-stone was disposed 
 of to Mr. Francis Pennell, who made a fire-hearth 
 of it. At Braughton two pixes which held the 
 Sacrament had been given as playthings to a 
 child ; while at Braunceton the altar-bread box 
 of bone or ivory became the money-box of John 
 Watts. Here Robert Bellamy bought two cor- 
 poras-cases, " whereof his wife made of one a 
 stomacher for her wench," and of the other, when 
 
DESTRUCTION AT CEOXBIB AND DURRINGTON. 267 
 
 ripped up, a purse. The pix-cloth of this parish 
 had been secured by John Storr, whose " wief 
 occupieth yt in wiping her eies." These arrange- 
 ments were sanctioned at Lincoln by the bishop 
 and others on the 18th of March 1565. At 
 Croxbie, when some plumber was mending the 
 leads of the nave, and needed a fire for his work, 
 the crucifix, and Our Lady, and St. John were 
 thrown into it and burnt. Of the Rood-loft a 
 Mr. John Sheffield, ancestor of the present Earls 
 of Mulgrave, made a ceiling in his house ; and of 
 one of the altar-stones a sink for his kitchen. 
 At Croxton, the tabernacle for the Blessed Sacra- 
 ment was converted by some earnest Reformer into 
 a dresser upon which to set dishes. Of one of the 
 chasubles at Denton, a certain William Green 
 made a velvet doublet ; the sepulchre from the 
 chancel John Orson turned into " a presse " for 
 his own clothes. At Dowsbie the churchwardens 
 had secured two suits of vestments, of which 
 they made cushions and bed-quilts ; while at Dur- 
 rington it is thus recorded : — " Altar stones ij — ■ 
 one is broken and paveth the church, and the 
 other is put to keep cattail from the chappall 
 wall ; and yet standeth edgewaies on the ground." 
 At Gonwarbie, two copes and two chasubles were 
 sold to a tailor, and a holy-bread basket to a 
 fishmonger " to carrie ffish in " ; while at Grant- 
 ham, St. Wulfran's shrine was sold to a gold- 
 
268 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 smith, and the proceeds devoted to the purchase 
 of a " sylver Pott, parcell gilt, and an ewer of 
 silver for the mynistracion of the holye and 
 most sacred Supper of Oure Lorde Jhesus Crist 
 called the Holye Oommunyon." Three altar- 
 stones from Habrough Church were first broken, 
 and one of them was then laid in the porch,* so 
 that the people should be obliged to tread upon it 
 on entering; while stepping-stones for man and 
 dog at the churchyard stile, were made of the 
 other two. The Vicar of Haconbie must have 
 been a person somewhat deficient in piety and 
 reverence. For the Rood here with Mary and 
 John were burnt under his direction, as well as an 
 elaborate reredos of alabaster, " full of images." 
 The altar-candlesticks were also broken, two pur- 
 ple velvet vestments were cut up and made into 
 cushions, while the vicar himself was foremost in 
 his energy for such reform. Of the tabernacle 
 veil he made a hanging for his own hall, of two 
 
 * These pages are being prepared for the press at the 
 little village of Chearsley between Thame and Aylesbury, 
 where the Buckinghamshire family of Francklin were once 
 lords of the manor, and founded a chantry ; and I find that 
 one of the altar-stones, with its top downwards, placed as a 
 step at the south porch of the church in Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign, still remains. It measures four feet eight inches by 
 two feet one inch, is nearly four inches thick, and is bevelled 
 round its edge. 
 
SAOEILEGE AT HOBBLINGE AND LANGTOFT. 269 
 
 banner-cloths he made window-curtains for the 
 vicarage parlour, and of an altar canopy of velvet 
 he made himself a tester for his bed ; where, when 
 awake, he and his lady, by due contemplation, 
 with their eyes turned upwards, could constantly 
 realize the practical advantages of the " Refor- 
 mation." The holy- water stoup this religious and 
 reverent divine deliberately turned into " a swine's 
 troughe." At Horblinge, the MS. service-books 
 were sold to a mercer, who tore them up to wrap 
 spice in ; the Rood-loft to a certain John Craile, 
 who made of it a weaver's loom ; three altar- 
 stones were used for swine-troughs and bridges ; 
 while two old vestments were given to Richard 
 Colson a scholar, who, it is on record, " haith 
 made a player's cote thereof." The altar-stones 
 at Kelbie are " defaced and laid in high waies 
 and serveth as bridges for sheepe and cattail to 
 go on ; so that there now remaineth no trash nor 
 tromperie." At Langtoft, one altar-stone was 
 placed at the bottom of a cistern, another was 
 used in mending the church wall, and a third in- 
 serted in a fire-hearth. A bedstead was made out 
 of the Rood-loft of Osbombie by John Audley — 
 a member of an illegitimate branch of the baronial 
 family of that name. At Market Raison the 
 " Rood with Mary and John — with the rest of 
 the idolatrous images belonging to the abomin- 
 able Mass',' had been burnt three years pre- 
 
270 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 viously." The cross-cloth of Stallingbrook had 
 been sold to some strolling players ; that at Tal- 
 lington the churchwarden, John Wright, took and 
 hung up in his hall ; an amice from Thorpe was 
 given to a poor woman, with which to make a 
 shirt for her child. At Thurlby the altar-stones 
 were set up edgeways to make churchyard stiles. 
 At Waddingham the banner-cloths and cross- 
 clothes were made into coats for the children of 
 strolling players ; while at Welby what is styled 
 the "linen baggage" is made into shirts and 
 smocks. The high-altar stone at Witham had 
 been placed at Mr. Haringtons's fire-back. At 
 Wrought, in the Isle of Axholme, " the rest of 
 such triflinge toyes and tromperie appertamioge to 
 the popish masse and popish prelate was made 
 away and defacid in King Edwarde's time." 
 
 In certain of the cases here detailed, no doubt 
 many of the ornamenta noted as "stolen" were 
 removed by devout people in the hope of seeing 
 better times and another change, when they would 
 be brought out again for use.* Many such, care- 
 
 * Mr. Peacock thus wrote :— " I should not have published 
 it had I not felt that the text illustrated in no ordinary 
 manner the spirit of the Reformation. There is nothing in 
 the annals of the French Revolution more sickening to a 
 Christian man than some of the entries in these pages. I 
 did not point out in my ' Preface,' as I wished to write en- 
 tirely without partizanship, the fact that from many of the 
 
SUCH DESTRUCTION VERY GENERAL. 271 
 
 fully hidden away, have been from time to time 
 discovered. A Lincoln antiquary* of taste and 
 repute some years ago gathered a large collection 
 of old vestments and fragments of hangings from 
 differents parts of the diocese. 
 
 Now, when it is remembered that Bishop Bul- 
 lingham and Archdeacon Aylmer — under whose 
 authority the frightful deeds thus put on record 
 had been done — were not only perfectly in har- 
 mony with Queen Elizabeth, the Chief Ruler of 
 the Church of England, but entirely at one with 
 their episcopal and archidiaconal brethren of both 
 provinces, it is clear that the work of destruction, 
 carried out in the diocese of Lincoln, was in no 
 manner peculiar ; that it did not differ either in 
 method or completeness with the same kind of 
 
 churches (e.g. Scotton, p. 135 ; Market Kaison, p. 124, 
 para. 8) things are said to have been ' stolen.' Surely these 
 repeated entries imply that Catholic-minded persons removed 
 the things to keep them from profane hands. I think that 
 in many cases where the vestments are said to have been 
 ripped up for bed-hangings, ' quishinges,' &c, that the 
 persons who did so only made believe to put them to 
 household uses for the sake of saving them. The John 
 Thimbleby (p. 108) ' wat haith def acid ' a cope and a vest- 
 ment was certainly a Eoman Catholic. So, I think, were 
 the Ffairfaxes mentioned under Langtoft (p. 111)." — Author's 
 MSS. and Excerpts, " Letter from E. Peacock, Esq., dated 
 13th September 1866." 
 
 * The late E. J. Willson, Esq., F.S.A., whose son has in- 
 herited the collection. 
 
272 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 work done in other dioceses ; and that what took 
 place in that of Lincoln, just referred to, was 
 likewise completed in every other diocese through- 
 out the kingdom. Bishops Pilkington,* Sandys, 
 Grindal, Overton, Meyrick, Bale, Bullingham, and 
 Parkhurst, were each and all thoroughly agreed in 
 their principles and course of action ; and in sub- 
 stituting the new religion which had been set up 
 for the old one which had been deliberately and 
 duly abolished by Parliament, (the adherents of 
 which were being persecuted and extirminated, ) 
 they were only carrying out the obvious and 
 avowed intentions of those state officials who had 
 placed them in high ecclesiastical positions ex- 
 pressly to carry out the changes and so-called 
 "reforms" resolved upon. 
 
 Of course to any English churchman of the 
 Oxford school, the proceedings in question will no 
 doubt be read with some pain. It is no easy task 
 to show that the revived doctrines and Catholic 
 
 * Wkittingham, Dean of Durham, under Pilkington, in 
 his frightful excesses quite equalled the dark deeds of Bul- 
 lingham and Aylmer ; for he made the stone coffins of the 
 Priors of Durham, whom he termed "servants of the syna- 
 gogue of Satan " — into swine-troughs, and the holy-water- 
 stoups of brass, which stood within each of the doors of the 
 cathedral, into vessels for ignoble uses in the kitchen of his 
 house. — See " Machyn's Diary," p. 59, and Anthony a Wood's 
 " Atheme Oxon." vol. i. p. 195. London : 1721. 
 
THE PRESENT AND PAST CONTRASTED. 273 
 
 practices, now so largely current in every diocese 
 of our beloved country, and, many of them, so 
 generally popular, were utterly repudiated by the 
 dismal prelates, whose violent and heretical 
 language is so awful in itself and so disquieting 
 to dwell upon ; and whose destructive labours it 
 is so distasteful to put on record. Men, who in 
 a spirit of self-sacrifice now repair churches, 
 cleanse the font, rebuild the broken-down altar 
 of the Lord, beautify His sanctuary, adorn with 
 pictured pane and mosaic representation the 
 chancel wall, — who open their restored churches 
 for the daily office ; who — in the face of secular 
 courts and senseless "judgments" — 'believe in 
 baptismal regeneration, practise confession, pray 
 for the departed, and have been led, step by step, 
 to restore the Christian Sacrifice and Eucharistic 
 adoration ; and who, furthermore, look upon 
 themselves, now clothed in sacerdotal garments, 
 and standing facing the Crucifix at lighted altars, 
 as sacrificing priests of the New Law, — can surely 
 have but very little in common with the vulgar 
 anti-Catholic bishops of Queen Elizabeth's day, 
 whose profane and awful words, when read at a 
 distance of three centuries and more, make a 
 reverent person shudder ; and the dark record of 
 whose blasphemies and active wickedness when 
 calmly faced, sends a thrilling shiver through the 
 heart of a Christian, and makes every decent 
 
 18 
 
274 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Englishman — unparalyzed by indifference and not 
 choked by false Science — blush, for shame that 
 such officials ever belonged to so moderate and 
 respectable an institution as the Church of Eng- 
 land by law established, now appears. 
 
 The change for the better which in several 
 respects has taken place of late years in this 
 communion, as those external to it allow, is, in 
 truth, little short of miraculous. In Queen 
 Elizabeth's reign, the bishops and ministers, 
 having only little to give, of course gave but 
 little. But "to him that hath shall be given." 
 The grace of baptism used aright merits more 
 grace — the gift of contrition and the admitted 
 efficacy of prayer. An imperfect knowledge of the 
 Most High, duly made use of, merits more know- 
 ledge. That which is used for God's honour and 
 glory is never squandered, and cannot be alto- 
 gether lost. Nor are men, after they have known 
 the grace of baptism, what they were before. 
 
 In the present day, some Englishmen frequently 
 complain of the policy, principles, and action of 
 the bishops of the Established Church under 
 difficult circumstances, and when dealing with 
 delicate and complex cases ; and oft-times they 
 complain without just cause ; for, as a rule, those 
 dignified officials are perfectly true to the duties 
 imposed on them, and obedient and faithful to 
 
IMPROVEMENT IN THE EPISCOPATE. 275 
 
 their present Master — the British Public.* Too 
 much independence should not be looked for 
 from them. The water-spring can never rise 
 above its source ; nor, to use another simile, are 
 grapes gathered from thorns. In the present 
 day Her Most Gracious Majesty's bishops, not- 
 withstanding their extraordinary but precedented 
 Oath of Homage, are obviously far superior in 
 character to those of Elizabeth, the first female 
 Governor of the Church of England; for they 
 are decorous, moral, and moderate. It is true 
 that they are sometimes more active in defending 
 the temporalities and position of the Establish- 
 ment than the Creeds which it still professes to 
 maintain, — in other words, some seem to value 
 more highly their temporal than their spiritual 
 trusts, — yet they are almost always active, well- 
 informed, worldly-wise, and shrewd. No bishop 
 of the times in which we live would, for example, 
 think of marrying, or rather of taking into his 
 keeping as mistress, the attractive spouse of a 
 butcher, as did John Poynet ; nor would any 
 
 * The reader who is curious to see how gradual, hut cer- 
 tain, has been the change from the " Royal Supremacy," 
 invented at the so-called " Reformation," to the " Supremacy 
 of Public Opinion," may read with interest, and possibly 
 with profit, an article on that subject in the " Reunion Maga- 
 zine," vol. i. London: 1879. 
 
 18 * 
 
276 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 modern Archbishop of Canterbury, as did Cran- 
 mer, — after the woman in question had obtained 
 a divorce, and the amorous prelate was waiting 
 to welcome her to bed and board, — publicly offi- 
 ciate at the questionable nuptials, and so seal his 
 suffragan's happiness. Nor, in truth, would a 
 modern Anglican prelate of the exalted rank of 
 Archbishop Sandys, put up at an inn during his 
 visitation rounds, and so far forget himself as to 
 allow the wife of the host to be discovered in 
 his sleeping-chamber during the darkness and 
 quiet of midnight. With all their drawbacks 
 and difficulties, therefore, English Churchmen 
 have much for which to be thankful. What has 
 been already accomplished may be reasonably re- 
 garded as an earnest of what it is still possible to 
 labour for with zeal and credit, and it may be, 
 after all, with success. 
 
277 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 A copy of the Bull of Pope Pius V., already duly 
 published and set forth, was affixed to the door 
 of the English Ambassador's house at Paris ; and 
 another was placed on the gate of the Bishop of 
 London's Palace at St. Paul's, late at night on 
 May the 24th, 1570, by John Felton, a gentleman 
 of Southwark, and Cornelius Irishman, a priest. 
 The former was tried for high treason at Guild- 
 hall on the 4th of August, and found guilty. His 
 attachment to the Old Religion was evidently 
 deep, earnest, and enthusiastic — as the risk he 
 ran showed. Under the severest and most cruel 
 torture, borne without shrinking, he absolutely 
 refused to name his accomplices ; he declined 
 moreover to acknowledge that he had received 
 the copy made use of from the Chaplain of the 
 
278 THE CHUKCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Spanish Ambassador ; he gloried in having thus 
 promulgated the Bull, and asserted his perfect 
 readiness to die a martyr to the Faith of his 
 fathers. To the " heretical system," as he termed 
 it, which the Queen and her advisers had set up, 
 he professed his cordial repugnance ; he declined, 
 after the decision of the Pope, to acknowledge 
 Elizabeth as his sovereign ; but personally, as he 
 asserted, he bore her no malice whatsoever, 
 hoping that she would one day renounce her 
 heresy and accept the Faith ; while on the morn- 
 ing of his execution, August 8th, as a token and 
 testimony of earnest sincerity, he drew a diamond 
 ring of the value of four hundred pounds from 
 off his finger, and sent it by the Earl of Sussex 
 as an offering to the Queen. 
 
 Though she professed to despise the sentence 
 pronounced by the Pope, and though her advisers 
 appeared to treat it with the utmost contempt, it 
 is tolerably clear that neither the one nor the 
 others at all liked it ; and it is perfectly certain 
 that it was a cause of much suspicion, uneasiness, 
 and alarm to both. Making it a subject of con- 
 versation with her ambassadors, she is said to 
 have declared it to be an insult to all the Euro- 
 pean Sovereigns ; and induced the Emperor 
 Maximilian to get it withdrawn. The Holy 
 Father, on being solicited to do this, at once 
 perceived, as all but Cecil and his allies saw, 
 
POPE PIUS V. AND QUEEN ELIZABETH. 279 
 
 that the blow had been keenly felt. But before 
 His Holiness could give any reasonable answer 
 to the Emperor's request, he must first know 
 whether Elizabeth acknowledged his authority. 
 This was a preliminary and crucial point which 
 could not be overlooked. Having procured in- 
 tervention regarding the Bull, it might be pre- 
 sumed that she did. But to the definite question, 
 "Does the Queen of England regard the sentence 
 as valid or invalid ? " he must have an unam- 
 biguous and reasonable answer. If Her Majesty 
 looked upon it as valid, why did she not at once 
 seek reconciliation with the successor of St. 
 Gregory and the Patriarch of Christendom ? If 
 invalid, there was, of course, nothing to revoke ; 
 for, from her own standing-point, the act was 
 null and void. The pitiful revenge, which, with 
 written oaths and strong language, she had 
 threatened, was altogether beneath the Pope's 
 notice. As the Father of the Christian Family, 
 and acting in His Master's Name, he had, as he 
 remarked, only done his duty. If, therefore, the 
 Queen did not repent, and alter her policy, events 
 must take their course. 
 
 Her Majesty's advisers, therefore, lost no time 
 in taking fresh action consequent upon the pub- 
 lication of this Bull. Parker, Grindal, and 
 Sandys, judging from their advice, held that it 
 was a matter to be treated with contempt ; but, 
 
280 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 whether this was their true and secret opinion 
 appears exceedingly doubtful. Cecil certainly 
 did not agree with them, but thought otherwise. 
 For a local insurrection in Norfolk, in which 
 Esquire John Throckmorton took a leading part, 
 appeared to give some grounds for disquiet. On 
 the 2nd of April, 1571, consequently, several fresh 
 laws, most carefully and artfully framed, were 
 duly and finally passed* ; and such was the prac- 
 tical response made by the Queen to the Pope. 
 Henceforth if any one called Elizabeth a heretic, 
 or gave her the title of schismatic, or declared 
 her to be an usurper or an infidel, he was 
 liable to be charged with treason and punished. 
 What the punishment for treason was no one was 
 ever allowed to forget. Anyone introducing a 
 Papal Bull into England was likewise held to be 
 a traitor ; and, if the fact were proved, the usual 
 punishment followed. All persons who should, 
 by writing or printing, dare to affirm that any 
 one particular person was the heir of the Queen, 
 " except the same were the natural issue of her 
 body "f — a phrase of remarkable significance — 
 
 * Some propositions relating to persons who refused to 
 communicate at the new service of the Supper were so ex- 
 travagant, that, when certain peers complained of their tyran- 
 nical character, they were withdrawn. 
 
 f At one period most unpleasant rumours were afloat, 
 amongst others a report that the Queen was likely to become 
 
SANGUINARY POLICY OP THE QUEEN. 281 
 
 were to be imprisoned for twelve months for the 
 first offence, and to suffer the penalties of praemu- 
 nire for the second. Furthermore, if any English 
 people were found sending over relief to their 
 expatriated relations, who, because of the fury of 
 the persecution and the impossibility of exercising 
 the Catholic Religion at home, had gone abroad, 
 very severe punishments at once ensued. Finally, 
 those who went abroad without license, as well as 
 those who had obtained written permission to go, 
 were to return at once after a warning by pro- 
 clamation, at the risk of forfeiting all their goods 
 and chattels, and the profits of their lands during 
 lifetime, to the Queen's use. Tyranny is no term 
 with which to describe such proceedings. The 
 darkest age of barbarism — when cruellest despots, 
 without responsibility or conscience, governed 
 undraped savages — could scarcely produce paral- 
 lels to the policy of this fearful woman and her 
 unprincipled advisers. 
 
 Her government was in fact a pure and simple 
 despotism — a despotism of the darkest dye.* The 
 
 a mother. But Lord Leicester thought it his duty to write to 
 Sir Francis Walsingham to inform him that the Queen's in- 
 disposition was but slight, and that the rumour in question 
 was unfounded. 
 
 * Those who assisted in erecting this system, though con- 
 tinually condemning the proceedings of Bonner and others 
 in Mary's reign, seem never to have been struck by their own 
 
282 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Court of High Commission and the Star Chamber 
 Court were the principal instruments by which 
 such alarming despotism was carried out ; and, if 
 unpopularity met any man of rank or mark ; if, in 
 the hearing of a spy of Cecil's, or of some long- 
 eared and contemptible informer, he uttered a 
 word or sentence which might be twisted and 
 turned against him ; or if the Queen found him 
 less pliant or obsequious than she thought he 
 ought to be, he stood henceforth in the greatest 
 danger of liberty or life. Both those who ad- 
 hered to the Old Religion, and those who were for 
 proceeding further along the road of Reform, 
 alike suffered. 
 
 The Queen, jealous of the prerogatives and 
 powers with which Parliament had endowed her, 
 was resolved to make all her subjects of one re- 
 ligion — that which, mainly for state purposes, had 
 been recently excogitated and set up. This bore 
 a certain relation to the old, for some of the 
 leading dogmas of Christianity were embodied in 
 it ; but other doctrines which served to preserve 
 a due balance, and which together made up a 
 complete circle of Divine Truth, were rejected. 
 
 great inconsistency. Bonner, so unjustly maligned, was at 
 least upholding and maintaining a system which was as old 
 as the time of St. Austin of Canterbury, whereas the new in- 
 stitution of Cecil and Parker was of quite recent date. 
 
THE COURT OP HIGH COMMISSION. 283 
 
 The ecclesiastical somersault which Her Majesty 
 herself had made between the Faith she professed 
 to hold on the morning of her coronation and 
 that in which she now appeared to believe, was a 
 somersault which she expected all her subjects to 
 be capable of taking, and ready to take. 
 
 The Court of High Commission enabled her 
 effectually to carry out her plans, and especially 
 to answer the Pope. By this she formally gave 
 to certain prelates and state officers exceptional 
 powers : their authority extending over the whole 
 realm, and over all ranks and degrees from peer 
 to peasant. These Commissioners were em- 
 powered to exercise a complete control over both 
 the faith and opinions of all ; and, according to 
 their discretion, to punish all men, in any way and 
 by any method short of death. It was open to 
 them to proceed against delinquents by law, if 
 they thought fit ; but, on the other hand, if these 
 Commissioners thought it desirable, they might 
 employ imprisonment (without trial or conviction), 
 the rack, or any customary torture, so as to 
 obtain their desired ends. If any man was even 
 suspected — no matter regarding what, where, or 
 why — they were empowered, ex officio, to adminis- 
 ter an oath to him ; by which, as they maintained, 
 he was bound, as a good subject, to reveal his 
 most inward thoughts, opinions, and convictions ; 
 and not only thus to accuse himself, but his 
 
284 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 nearest and dearest friend or relations, and this 
 on pain of death. Such ingenious and frightful 
 tactics opened the door to dark acts of injustice 
 worthy of the heartiest reprobation. Moreover, 
 "whenever they pleased, these High Commissioners 
 could fine and imprison men as and when they 
 willed, without fear or rebuke. They claimed 
 alike an absolute control over the souls and con- 
 sciences, as well as over the bodies, lands, and 
 monies of Englishmen, — and all this on the hypo- 
 critical and false plea that such a policy was es- 
 sential for delivering their countrymen from a 
 " slavish subjection to a foreign Prince and Pre- 
 late." In the action of these courts nobody's 
 conscience was regarded, whether Catholic or 
 Puritan ; in fact, no one was expected to possess 
 a conscience, and no mercy was shown to any 
 who presumed to exhibit the least independence. 
 Furthermore, no practical remedy for the exist- 
 ing evils seems to have been as yet devised, even 
 by those called upon to suffer in patience and 
 endure. 
 
 The nation at this period was in truth sick at 
 heart. The old nobility could not act together, 
 were jealous of each other, and had lost their in- 
 fluence. The new, ever so avaricious and grasp- 
 ing, cared little for the poor ; and in turn were 
 themselves cared not for by any of those beneath 
 them. The abbey and church lands were now 
 
CHARACTER OP THE NEW NOBILITY. 285 
 
 theirs ; but their first thought was to make the 
 most of their new possessions, and the poor were 
 deliberately passed by. New notions were eagerly 
 clutched at. Some of the nobility openly advo- 
 cated change, and in certain cases did so with a 
 lack of good breeding and a singular want of 
 taste.* There was an almost universal restless- 
 ness of thought ; disorder everywhere reigned, 
 and poverty was widespread. Men by hundreds 
 rose of a winter morning who knew not how to 
 sustain their ordinary wants during the day; 
 social misery increased, dissatisfaction was ram- 
 pant. The successful thieves — for this is what 
 they were — who had ennobled themselves, or in- 
 duced the Queen to make them peers, had ruder 
 imitators in the lowest ranks of the people ; who, 
 if they could obtain success in no other manner, 
 became cut-purses and highwaymen. For them, 
 under the new order of things, Might was Right. 
 
 Take, for example, one well-known case. Dr. 
 John Storey, a distinguished civilian who in King 
 
 * The Duchess of Suffolk, wife to Mr. Peregrine Bertie, 
 a renowned Protestant, had had a small rochet and chimere 
 (the domestic dress of a bishop) made for one of her poodle 
 dogs, which, in contempt for the Bishop of Winchester, she 
 put on the animal's back, with its fore-legs in lawn sleeves. 
 The dog itself she was polite enough to name " Gardiner." — 
 See " Memoir of Peregrine Bertie, Eleventh Lord Willoughby 
 de Eresby," &c. London : 1838. 
 
286 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Edward VI. 's reign had done all that lay in his 
 power to oppose the changes in religion ; and who, 
 under Queen Mary, had been commissioned to 
 see that the Rood and its attendant images, with 
 a figure of the patron saint of every church, had 
 been restored, was now to suffer death. He had 
 done this good work of reparation and restora- 
 tion so energetically and enthusiastically, that the 
 innovators — no bad judges of who were their 
 friends and who their enemies — held him in par- 
 ticular abhorrence. The earlier reformers had 
 often singled him out for special abuse ; for he 
 had frequently exposed their heresy and self- 
 seeking, had drawn a most powerful contrast * 
 
 * The contrast has been vigorously drawn in recent days 
 by Mr. J. A. Froude, though his conception of the Catholic 
 religion and Catholic practices is as inexact as it is queer. 
 Some assertions he makes, if made in earnest, are exaggerated 
 caricatures, altogether unworthy of a writer of history : — 
 " The Catholic believed in the authority of the Church ; the 
 Reformers in the authority of Reason. Where the Church 
 had spoken, the Catholic obeyed. His duty was to accept 
 without question the laws which councils had decreed, which 
 Popes and bishops administered, and, so far as in him lay, 
 to enforce on others the same submission to an outward rule 
 which he regarded as divine. All shades of Protestants, on 
 the other hand, agreed that Protestants might err; that Christ 
 had left no visible representative, whom individually they 
 were bound to obey ; that religion was the operation of the 
 Spirit on the mind and conscience ; that the Bible was Cod's 
 Word, which each Christian was to read, and which, with 
 God's help and his own natural intelligence, he could not 
 
CASE OF DR. JOHN STOEET. 
 
 287 
 
 between the Old Religion and the New, and was 
 exceedingly plain-spoken and zealous for the 
 Faith. On Queen Mary's death he had pru- 
 dently withdrawn to the Netherlands, where he 
 received an appointment in the local Custom- 
 house. There he was often brought into contact 
 with English merchants. On one occasion — evi- 
 dently by previous arrangement with the authori- 
 ties at home — he was seized bodily, when search- 
 ing an English vessel, and brought by force to 
 England. Though guilty of no transgression 
 save that of self-expatriation, so that he might 
 observe without let or hindrance the religion of 
 his forefathers, he was at once put into confine- 
 ment in the Tower*; and at the age of seventy 
 
 fail to understand. The Catholic left his Bible to the learned. 
 The Protestant translated the Bible, and brought it to the 
 door of every Christian family. The Catholic prayed in 
 Latin ; and whether he understood his words, or repeated 
 them as a form, the effect was the same, for it was magical. 
 The Protestant prayed with his mind, as an act of faith, in a 
 language intelligible to him, or he could not pray at all. 
 The Catholic bowed in awe before his wonder-working image, 
 adored (! !) his relics, and gave his life into the guidance of 
 his spiritual director. The Protestant tore open the ma- 
 chinery of the miracles, flung the bones and ragged garments 
 into the fire, and treated priests as men like himself." — 
 Froude's " History of England," vol. vii. pp. 23, 24. London : 
 1863. 
 
 * On the walls of the Beachamp Tower the inscription, no 
 doubt cut with his own hand, still remains, thus : — 
 
 1570 : IHON . STOKE . DOCTOR . 
 
288 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 years cruelly executed. The Oath of Supremacy* 
 was at once tendered him ; but he refused, to 
 take it, as contrary to his faith and conscience. 
 Xeither argument nor threat could move him. 
 He had never had a doubt that such a she-supre- 
 macy — the acceptance of which it was endeavoured 
 to impose upon him — was both ridiculous and 
 profane ; and no inducements held out of a few 
 more years of life (he had already reached the 
 appointed threescore years and ten) could lead 
 him for an instant to alter his noble determina- 
 tion. He was consequently condemned to be 
 drawn, hung, dismembered, disembowelled, and 
 quartered ; and thus, his punishment deliberately 
 prolonged, the poor old man suffered. "When cut 
 down from the hanging-post alive — an important 
 
 * " Bishop Burnet acquaints us in his ' History of the Re- 
 formation ' that Queen Elizabeth scrupled at first very much 
 to accept the Supremacy. And well she might. For she could 
 not but know herself unqualified by her very sex, even for 
 the lowest degree of any ecclesiastical dignity or function. Yet 
 she accepted it, and discarded the Pope, as her father had 
 done before her, though upon a different motive. For Henry 
 did it to be revenged of the Pope ; but Queen Etizabeth's 
 motive was ' because she knew very well,' says Dr. Haylin, 
 4 that her legitimacy and the Pope's supremacy could not 
 stand together.' So that although her policy was not quite 
 so bad as her father's, it was mere pohcy and interest of state 
 that determined her to this capital article of her Reforma- 
 tion, and the considerations of religion had no part in it." — 
 " England's Conversion and Reformation compared," p. 302. 
 Antwerp: 1725. 
 
DEATH AND BURIAL OF BISHOP BONNER. 289 
 
 part of the sentence — he is said to have struggled 
 with, and struck, the executioner, who was draw- 
 ing out the bowels from his ripped-up and bleed- 
 ing body; but of course Storey, wounded, 
 maimed, and half- strangled, was soon overcome ; 
 and groaning heavily, then died for his Religion 
 and his conscience in excruciating agonies. 
 
 Thus men of independence and vigour, the 
 grey-haired as well as the hale and lusty, were 
 put out of the way. It needed a firm faith in 
 the unseen world, and a full reliance on the Al- 
 mighty's promised help in time of need, to enable 
 them thus nobly and calmly to meet death. God 
 grant that, if the valley were shadowy and dark 
 for such sufferers, the land beyond was fair and 
 peaceful and bright to their disembodied souls ! 
 
 But even this bloody method failed of its pur- 
 pose. Uniformity was never attained ; divisions, 
 as will be seen, steadily increased. 
 
 Dr. Bonner, Bishop of London, whose dignity 
 and revenues had been usurped, died a prisoner 
 in the Marshalsea on the 5th of September 1569. 
 He was unpopular because he had taken an active 
 part, in Mary's reign, against the innovators ; 
 and various writers have united in his condemna- 
 tion. But exceedingly little has ever been produced 
 to show that the popular conception of this pre- 
 late's character and actions was either just or 
 true. Moreover, those who live for the sake of 
 
 19 
 
290 THE CHURCH UNDEB QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 popularity frequently get exceedingly little for 
 their pains. In sowing over-abundantly they often 
 reap but very sparingly. Bonner was more than 
 once offered his liberty if he would change his 
 religion ; but he died as he had lived, a consistent 
 man and a good Catholic, preferring to the smile 
 of the present World the welcome of his Master 
 and the eternal joys of the world to come. He 
 was buried at nightfall in the churchyard of St. 
 George's, Southwark.* 
 
 Bishop Thirlby — the only predecessor of Car- 
 dinals Wiseman and Manning in the see of West- 
 minster — died at Lambeth Palace, where he had 
 been confined for eleven years, on the 26th of 
 August 1570, and was buried, without Catholic 
 rites, in the midst of the choir of the parish 
 church of Our Lady of Lambeth. 
 
 It should here be noted that many principles 
 which those who had formed the new Church had 
 entirely put out of consideration in constructing 
 
 * Bishop Sandys thus wrote to Cecil : — " Dr. Bonner had 
 stand excommunicate by a sentence in the Arches' eight or 
 nine years and never desired absolution. Wherefore by the 
 law Christian sepulture might have been denied him ; but 
 We thought not good to deal so vigorously, and therefore 
 permitted him to be buried in St. George's Churchyard. And 
 the same to be done not in the day solemnly but in the night 
 privily."— Bishop Sandys to Sir W. Cecil, 9th Sept. 1569, 
 " Remains of Archbishop Sandys," p. 307. Parker Society. 
 
PUBLICATIONS OF THE PURITANS. 291 
 
 it, were at once true and important ; and some of 
 these were very soon seized upon and adopted by 
 the Puritan leaders — many of whom were la- 
 borious scholars, and, though sometimes pedants, 
 men of rare ability. The inherent truth of such 
 principles and their obvious reasonableness, in- 
 sured them both respect from the populace and 
 acceptance ; while in some instances they were 
 received with enthusiasm. An " Admonition to 
 Parliament," presumed to be from the pens of 
 Wilcox and Field, two Puritan divines, who 
 lectured at Wandsworth, contained the bitterest 
 language against the new Church, and was 
 greedily bought up and read. Whitgift on the 
 side of the Establishment, and Cartwright on 
 the Puritan side, both engaged in controversy 
 concerning it. Long sermons and longer con- 
 troversies were at that time all the fashion. This 
 particular controversy lasted no less than six 
 years. At its end neither batch of disputants 
 seemed to be wiser than at the beginning. At 
 Cambridge, one Charke, a preacher, was also 
 anything but complimentary to the new hierarchy. 
 It is true that as a body they were a very com- 
 monplace lot, with no higher notion of their 
 office than that they were state officers, — perhaps, 
 after all, a not inaccurate estimate, — yet, when 
 this university divine maintained that " Satan had 
 introduced bishops, archbishops, metropolitans, 
 
 19 * 
 
292 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 patriarchs, and popes," neither Dr. Matthew 
 Parker nor Dr. Edwin Sandys could have been 
 exactly flattered. The polite and impressive 
 language they had so often applied to the Holy 
 See and its occupants was now in turn applied 
 to themselves. Nemesis had arrived sooner than 
 was anticipated. When, moreover, the Puritans* 
 taught, for instance, that the Church ought 
 always to be independent of the State, they only 
 recommended an obvious truism ; for Cassar has 
 nothing to do with the things of God. When, 
 again, they maintained that women could have no 
 part in Church government, except to listen, 
 learn, and obey, they knew themselves to be sup- 
 ported on that point both by apostolic teaching 
 and by universal precedent throughout Christen- 
 dom. Here they and the Pope were at one. This 
 doctrine, therefore, they constantly declared in 
 private, and often preached in public. The Su- 
 
 * They objected altogether to bishops and specially to the 
 superiority of bishops over other ministers. With them all 
 preaching-ministers were alike. They also disliked the 
 Ecclesiastical Courts (as in subsequent times they had the 
 best reasons for doing), the "vain repetition" of the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the existence in the Table of Lessons of any 
 parts of the Apocrypha. They objected to the use of the 
 sign of the cross in baptism ; to the ring and the words of 
 betrothal in marriage ; to the observance of festivals ; to the 
 chanting of Psalms ; to the use of organs or other musical in- 
 struments ; and, above all, to the habits — the surplice, silken 
 hood, cope, rochet, and chimere of the ministry. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT AND HIS POLICY. 293 
 
 preme Governess of course did not approve of 
 such homilies, and swore when she heard of their 
 delivery. But whether Her Highness liked them 
 or not, the Puritans continued to preach on. As 
 a consequence, divisions multiplied, and new sects 
 were born. 
 
 As a maintainer and defender of these principles 
 one remarkable man stood in the forefront, and 
 for some time gave considerable trouble to the 
 authorities. Thomas Cartwright, born in Hert- 
 fordshire, about 1535, received his education at 
 St. John's College, Cambridge. In Queen Mary's 
 reign he had withdrawn from making preparation 
 for the ministry, and for a while made his living 
 as a scribe. On Elizabeth's accession, however, 
 when the tide had turned, he went back to Cam- 
 bridge, where he was elected a Fellow of Trinity 
 College ; but, being disappointed of further pro- 
 motion, as some have asserted, went off to Geneva, 
 where he cordially accepted the Calvinistic theo- 
 ries, in all their logical sharpness and terrible 
 conclusions ; and then returned in 1570, when he 
 was made Margaret Professor of Theology at his 
 own University. The controversy concerning 
 clerical vestures was then raging furiously and 
 being conducted with vigour, — in which he took a 
 leading part against them. But he carried his 
 controversy with the Queen's new Church still 
 further. He was opposed to bishops themselves, 
 
294 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 their incomes, courts, and officers, as well as to 
 their lawn rochets and satin chiineres ; and in 
 due course, because of his ability and plain- 
 speaking, was soon looked upon as the head and 
 leader of the Puritan party — a party patronized 
 by Lord Leicester. Thus the new bishops were 
 not only compelled to face and receive the con- 
 troversial fire from Dr. Allen, Stapleton, and 
 others, who for several years had so ably and 
 consistently maintained the Ancient Faith, but 
 were now likewise taken in the flank by the racy 
 and raking arguments of Cartwright and his 
 allies. They were thus between two fires. 
 
 The policy and method of Cartwright in ap- 
 pealing to this or that text of Scripture, or in 
 quibbling and arguing about antiquity, entirely 
 took the wind out of the sails of the Establish- 
 mentarian prelates. They knew not what to say. 
 If one controversialist could appeal to the Bible, 
 so could two, or twenty, or two hundred, and 
 why should they not ? They each did so. No 
 one could determine the controversy. No one 
 could finally decide it. Private judgment un- 
 trammelled and unchecked had come in. Authority 
 had been turned out. Thus confusion became worse 
 confounded.* Babel was being painfully rebuilt. 
 
 * Eventually the ministers themselves admitted as much. 
 " Because that is generally known throughout the whole 
 
POMP AND EXTRAVAGANCE OF THE BISHOPS. 295 
 
 Again, this honest and out-spoken Puritan was 
 highly incensed at what he looked upon as the 
 pompous state and extravagance and good living* 
 of the bishops : " He is much offended "with the 
 train they keep," are Parker's own words of 
 complaint to Lord Burghley, "and saith that 
 three parts of their servants are unprofitable to 
 the filling of the Church and Commonwealth ; 
 and he is very angry with their furniture of 
 household. "f All this annoyed and mortified 
 the Archbishop greatly, who, whatever he may 
 have been, was very modest in his opinion both 
 of his personal and official powers. For he thus 
 implored Lord Burghley to induce the Supreme 
 Head to step in and settle the dispute concerning 
 the value of episcopacy : — " Sir, because you be a 
 Principal Councillor, I refer the whole matter to 
 Her Majesty and to your order. For myself, I 
 
 Citie (of London) that no one parish or parson can agree to- 
 gether, & that the cause thereof is the privatt readinge in 
 houses. ... we humbly require that these readers may 
 be forbidden and some straight punishment for this great and 
 horrible sin may be appointed, or else the preachers here- 
 after commanded to hold their peace." — Address of the 
 London Clergy to Convocation, a.d. 1580. — MSS. of Anthony 
 a Wood, No. 8494, fol. 30, Bodleian Library. 
 
 * "Tin cupps for the Supper suffice; but my Lord of 
 Durham now hath them of gold for his lady and impes." — 
 " A True Protestacion," &c, p. 31. London : 1575. 
 
 f Lansdowne MSS., Brit. Museum, No. xvii., folio 93. 
 
296 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 can as well be content to be a parish clerk as a 
 parish priest. I refer the standing or falling 
 altogether to your own considerations, whether 
 Her Majesty and you will have any arch- 
 bishops or bishops, or how you will have them 
 ordered." 
 
 The abject and humiliating position of this 
 great official — this first Protestant archbishop— 
 thus set forth in his own words, could not pos- 
 sibly be more abject or degrading. He has 
 evidently no principles to maintain, and therefore 
 none to resign. But he is even ready to sacrifice 
 his office, as well as himself,— to give up the 
 whole question of episcopacy (which with him 
 evidently could have been no question of prin- 
 ciple), — if the Head of the Church, the new She- 
 Pontiff, and her Principal Secretary should in 
 their infallible judgment decree that His Grace 
 ought to do it. In this Parker proved himself a 
 worthy successor to Thomas Oranmer. 
 
 That prelate, who, twenty-six years previous 
 to Elizabeth's accession, had first stood forward 
 to make a breach with the Holy See, and who, to 
 his earthly king and patron, had proclaimed him- 
 self ready at all risks and at any cost to act 
 independently of his legitimate Patriarch, bore a 
 heavy responsibility upon his shoulders. Where 
 he had passed, others, like Parker, were ready to 
 follow. The acts of Cranmer at his consecration 
 
EVIL PRECEDENTS OF CRANMEE. 297 
 
 had been so bold and unprincipled, and at the 
 same time so adroit and well-suited to the tem- 
 porary purpose of the King his master, that all 
 the complex and miserable evils which have 
 afflicted this nation since — the final separation, 
 with division subdivided by division — may in 
 truth be traced upward to the frightful sacrifice 
 of principle perpetrated when this wretched man 
 became Archbishop of Canterbury. 
 
 In truth, no one acquainted with the facts of 
 his true history has presumed to deny that he 
 was a despicable character ; and that the only 
 noble act he xlid was at the close of his life, when 
 he appropriately let his right hand first suffer at 
 the stake, because it had been the instrument by 
 which a degraded and corrupt mind had wrought 
 out so many evil deeds. His notorious obsequi- 
 ousness to his successive masters, Henry, Seymour, 
 and Dudley, was only equalled by the barbarous 
 cruelty exercised by him upon the various obsti- 
 nate and wrong-headed sectaries who, from time 
 to time, found themselves in his power. In one 
 respect this archbishop is distinguished from all 
 other persecutors, even from pagans, in that he 
 not only actively promoted the capital punishment 
 of those who disagreed with him in religion, but 
 of those likewise who agreed with him in it. In 
 Henry's reign, for example, he took a leading 
 part in bringing to the stake Lambert, Anne 
 
298 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Askew,* Frith, and Allen, besides condemning 
 many others to the same awful punishment for 
 denying a bodily presence of our Lord in the 
 Sacrament of the Altar. Under King Edward, — 
 the Calvinistic child who was the pliant and pie- 
 tistic tool of others, — Cranmer had secured the 
 conviction of Arians and Anabaptists — two of 
 whom, Joan Knell and George Van Parr, he 
 actually caused to be burnt, personally preventing 
 the King from pardoning the poor wretches, by 
 authoritatively and unctuously assuring him that 
 " princes being God's deputies, ought to punish 
 impieties against Him."f 
 
 But to return to the method by which the new 
 Church was practically ruled — a point of great 
 practical moment. For many persons now-a-days 
 hold that what they term " recent innovations " J 
 
 * At the church of Snodlandin Kent, there is, or was when 
 the author visited it about eighteen years ago, a highly- 
 coloured and most impressive stained- glass -window, of all the 
 tints of the rainbow, in which certain of the Reforming 
 bishops are represented, above the Communion-table, in the 
 most gorgeous Eucharistic vestments — "the garments of 
 Babylon," as they would have termed them. In one of the 
 lights is a highly idealized representation of Cramner ; in 
 another — with somewhat of inconsistency, not apparent 
 doubtless to those who put it up — a representation of this 
 very " Anne Askew " whom he had brought to the stake. 
 
 f " Burnet's History," Part II., book 1. 
 
 X The existence of the Privy Council as the Final Court 
 of Appeal in spiritual questions, for example ; the abolition of 
 the Arches' Court and the Chancery Court of York ; the sub- 
 
A LOCAL CHURCH EASILY DOMINATED. 299 
 
 had no place in the pure conception and perfect 
 scheme of the "Reformers," — a remarkable delu- 
 sion, utterly contrary to historical facts ; totally 
 opposed both to the policy of the Queen and the 
 unvarying practice of each of Her Majesty's 
 prelates. 
 
 The Church of God, as we all admit, was ever 
 governed by her lawful authorities, the bishops ; 
 the Church of England from its first creation by 
 the Reformers was ruled by Royal Commissioners, 
 who settled its constitution, arranged its Prayer 
 Book, sanctioned and legalized its Ordinal, and 
 managed its temporal affairs. These, with a few 
 exceptions, were laymen, some of them lawyers, 
 others needy gentlepeople who had apostatized, 
 or "new men" of base birth and low origin, 
 who had already risen from the ranks by ser- 
 vility, want of good principles, and by intrigue ; 
 and who reasonably desired to rise higher, and 
 secure more of the good things of this world by 
 fresh deeds which will not bear the light of day. 
 Their scheme of setting up a local church which 
 they could mould, alter, and dominate as they 
 willed, was a master-stroke of state-craft. But it 
 was also mischievous, wicked, and wrong. " God's 
 
 stitution of a new Parliamentary Court for the whole of the 
 two Provinces ; and the setting up, by statute, of a new and 
 non-spiritual Judge. 
 
300 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 mill grinds slowly." At length, however, some 
 —waking from a deep sleep, stretching out their 
 hands, yawning with a will, and rubbing their 
 eyes — begin to see the situation as it is (not as it 
 seemed to them in their rosy dream), and are now 
 too accurately realizing what was done. 
 
 Elizabeth's Commissioners, of whom Archbishop 
 Parker was chief, were to make strict inquiries 
 concerning all erroneous, heretical, and dangerous 
 opinions. They were to find out who were absent, 
 Sunday by Sunday, from the Church services, as 
 well as those who frequented the private prayer- 
 meetings and preachings of the Puritans. They 
 were to give their best endeavour to suppress all 
 heretical and seditious publications ; all anony- 
 mous and other libels and squibs, then becoming 
 numerous,* against the Queen, and her officers 
 both of Church and State, and if possible to get 
 hold of both writer and printer, and nail their ears 
 to the pillory, or cut them off ; they were, more- 
 over, to deal with all adulteries, bigamies, forni- 
 cations, and other offences against the ecclesias- 
 tical law — which had enormously increased — and 
 
 * It was made felony " to write, print, or set forth any 
 manner of book, rhyme, ballad, letter, or writing, containing 
 any false or seditious matter to the defamation of the Queen's 
 Majesty or to the encouraging of insurrection or rebellion 
 within the realms." — Statutes of the Realm, vol. iv. p. 659. 
 
DOINGS OF STRICKLAND AND SNAGG. 301 
 
 to punish, the offenders with so-called " spiritual 
 censures." 
 
 Catholics and Puritans alike both suffered. 
 
 In 1571 two Puritan members of Parliament, 
 Strickland and Snagg, boldly proposed to amend 
 the Prayer Book in a Protestant direction ; but 
 they were soon put down. The Queen, as Su- 
 preme Governess, maintained, accurately enough, 
 that such proposals struck at the very root of her 
 prerogative, as no doubt was the case ; and that 
 she, as Head of the Church, being alone charged 
 with the care of it, distinctly forbad Strickland 
 to go forward with the measure. At first he de- 
 clined, and was pardonably sulky over the ques- 
 tion ; but, on being warned of the consequences of 
 his resolution, and having been brought before 
 the Privy Council, he was most arbitrarily and 
 illegally forbidden to attend the House at all.* 
 
 * Her Majesty's arbitrary action on this occasion was 
 severely commented on. Some said that as Parliament had 
 made her the Head of the Church, she was obviously infe- 
 rior to Parliament, and must abide by its decisions. On the 
 other hand the prompt action she took in the case of Strick- 
 land, if justifiable with one member of Parliament, might 
 subsequently have been applied to all. The Puritans were 
 furious, and considerable sensation was created. Besides 
 such action as that recorded above, the Queen interfered per- 
 sonally in the election of members of Parliament. In Ox- 
 fordshire and Buckinghamshire she sent written orders to 
 those known to favour the innovating section, to see that her 
 
302 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 This strong measure, however, was more than the 
 Commons chose to allow to pass unchallenged. 
 They, therefore, protested, and Strickland soon 
 took his seat again. 
 
 In the meantime, those who were directly af- 
 fected by the issue of the Pope's Bull, found 
 themselves in still greater straits. Foreign 
 Catholic sovereigns with their hands full of 
 troubles and responsibilities of their own, had 
 apparently allowed its promulgation to pass un- 
 noticed ; while, amongst those of the Old Reli- 
 gion at home, there had at once arisen serious 
 dissensions with regard both to its terms and its 
 object, as well as to its immediate effects. Some 
 maintained that it had been irregularly and un- 
 authoritatively issued. Others argued that no one 
 was bound to take action upon it, until the Chris- 
 
 allies, and those who would actively support them, should 
 alone be elected. Amongst such were Sir Henry Lee of 
 Quarrendon; the Cheynes, a knightly family of Drayton 
 Beauchamp and Cheshani-Bois ; and the Packingtons of 
 Aylesbury ; all connections by marriage, and all more or less 
 of a GalUo-like type. The long disfranchised borough of 
 Galton was at that period notoriously under the influence of 
 a certain Madam Copley. But this lady had not repudiated 
 the Ancient Faith, and was consequently held to be " not 
 well-aft'ected." So the Queen gave directions that Madam 
 Copley's nominees should be passed over, and only " loyal" 
 men returned. See Loseley MSS., and Author's MS. 
 Excerpts. 
 
INCEBASBD BOLDNESS OP THE INNOVATORS. 303 
 
 tian nations of Europe had first determined upon 
 accepting it in combination, and of actually 
 putting it into practice. Argument, as experience 
 teaches, is often easier than action. 
 
 While opinions thus differed, and nothing was 
 done, it became tolerably evident that the innova- 
 tors did not intend to be at all checked or circum- 
 scribed by any such action. Cranmer, by his 
 laxity regarding oaths, had some years previously 
 taught how an Archbishop of Canterbury might 
 become entirely independent of the Pope ; and the 
 Queen's advisers, having accurately and perfectly 
 learnt their lesson, applied the principle involved 
 in it with boldness and spirit. Having first re- 
 pudiated the Pope, they then abolished the Chris- 
 tian Sacrifice.* In so doing, they were indepen- 
 dent of every existing authority, being amenable 
 
 * In the abolition of the Christian Sacrifice, Protestantism 
 and Mahometanism appear to stand on a level. In the re- 
 commendation of penance and self-denial, however, the latter 
 apparently has the advantage of the former. Here it may be 
 noted that one of the Queen's leading bishops is profane 
 rather than witty (as he evidently intended to be) in the 
 following pedantic and laboured paragraph regarding the 
 Mass : — " How many toys, crossings, blessings, blowings, 
 knockings, kneelings, bowings, liftings, sighings, houslings, 
 turnings and half-turnings, mockings, mowings, sleepings, 
 and apish playings, soft whisperings and loud speakings, have 
 we to consecrate our own devices withal, or [i.e. before] it 
 can be gotten done ! " — " Pilkington's Works," p. 498, 
 Parker Society. London : 1842. 
 
304 THE CHUECH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 to no one, and superior to all. In action they 
 were wholly unchecked by any considerations of 
 what might be said in criticism — a position 
 scarcely conceived of now-a-days when Public 
 Opinion owns such an extended, and, in some 
 cases (where Prejudice does not come in) bene- 
 ficent and advantageous influence. 
 
 When, therefore, to say Mass was to be guilty 
 of high treason,* and to hear Mass, of felony, — 
 each offence punishable with an infamous death, 
 it certainly behoved all those who could take a 
 broad and wide view of the position to be pre- 
 pared for some kind of action, unless the Faith 
 were to be actually allowed to die out. Of course 
 
 * " Treason, by the law of England, and according to the 
 common use of language, is the crime of rebellion or con- 
 spiracy against the Government. If a statute is made, by 
 which the celebration of certain religious rites is subjected 
 to the same penalties as rebellion or conspiracy, would any 
 man, free from prejudice, and not designing to impose upon 
 the misinformed, speak of persons convicted on such a sta- 
 tute as guilty of treason, without expressing in what sense 
 he uses the words, or deny that they were as truly punished 
 for their religion as if they had been convicted of heresy ? 
 A man is punished for religion, when he incurs a penalty for 
 its profession or exercise, to which he was not liable on any 
 other account. This is appUcable to the great majority of 
 capital convictions on this score under Elizabeth. The per- 
 sons convicted could not be traitors in any fair sense of the 
 word, because they were not charged with any thing properly 
 denominated treason." — Hallam's " Constitutional History 
 of England," Sixth Edition, vol. i. p. 164, note. 
 
SAYING MASS MADE TEBASON. 
 
 305 
 
 penal laws, like the enactments referred to, could 
 never change the nature or essence of things. 
 They could not make certain actions, for the 
 punishment of which these laws had been specially 
 passed, to become crimes in the sight of God 
 and man, if they were not so before. Murders, 
 treasons, and rebellions, great and acknowledged 
 sins, have generally been punished with death; 
 but can any reasonable being — can any person in 
 his right mind, assert that to say Mass was a sin 
 at all, or a sin of a like dye, or had ever before 
 been looked upon as such, or that it merited a 
 similar punishment ? The most holy and sacred 
 Mass was simply the august sacrifice of the New 
 Law, instituted by Our Divine Lord Himself, and 
 offered to Almighty God day by day, from east 
 to west, in all preceding ages, and in every Chris- 
 tian kingdom, from the foundation of our holy 
 religion to the period in question. Is it credible, 
 then, that, as in other Christian countries, all the 
 bishops and priests of Great Britain through a 
 period of nine hundred years, should have been 
 guilty every morning of committing a crime, 
 equivalent in its punishment to that for murder 
 or rebellion ? * The very notion thus stated, 
 
 * Some of the more daring innovators persisted in main- 
 taining that all " Mass-mongers," as they termed the old 
 clergy, because of their office, were " conjurors." The Pro- 
 
 20 
 
306 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 though absurd enough, suffices to prove that the 
 enactment of these sanguinary statutes, — executed 
 for generations, and some of them remaining as 
 laws of the land within the memory of those 
 still living, — was one of the blackest stains on 
 Elizabeth's character. 
 
 The direct consequences of such legislation 
 have already been only indirectly hinted at, though 
 some few have been plainly set forth. In the 
 latter portions of this Sketch of the Church under 
 Queen Elizabeth, certain dark deeds which resulted 
 from that legislation, will be duly put on record. 
 With several writers they have been deliberately 
 kept in the background. 
 
 Before the result of the recent legislation 
 against recusants is considered in detail, it is 
 necessary to glance for awhile at another part of 
 
 testant bishops in their sermons had deliberately encouraged 
 this kind of language, with profane epigrams about " Hocus- 
 pocus." For example, Grindal, when Bishop of London, 
 wrote to Cecil on April 17, 1571, alluding to the examination 
 of Cox alias Devon, an old priest who had been taken that 
 day. The Council, the bishop hopes, will surely punish him 
 for his magic and conjuration. Devon, it appears, had said 
 Mass at the house of Sir Thomas Wharton, of Newhall, 
 Essex; at Sir Edward Waldegrave's ; and at Stubbe's, in 
 Westminster. On the 19th, the Earl of Oxford encloses to 
 Cecil " An Inventory of all such implements of superstition 
 as were found in the chamber near Lady Wharton's bed- 
 chamber at Newhall, Essex," after the pursuivants had ran- 
 sacked it. 
 
CONVOCATION PACKED AND MANIPULATED. 307 
 
 the picture, and to note certain obvious features 
 in the new order of things, which, by way of con- 
 trast, may better enable the reader to take in 
 exactly what had been done. 
 
 Many of the new clergy were zealous in their 
 labours, and had little disposition to let .their 
 moderation be known unto all men. For, as it 
 was mainly the over-zealous and fanatical who had 
 been promoted to high places since the Queen's 
 accession ; so fanaticism and over-zeal, held to be 
 the highest virtues by those who expected promo- 
 tion, were often rampant. 
 
 Just as the Queen's first Parliament had been 
 packed with "good men and true," — that is with 
 persons known to Cecil as favourable to his 
 designs and a change in religion, — so likewise had 
 the two Convocations of the English Provinces. 
 When those clergy who on principle had resisted 
 the innovations, had either resigned, been impri- 
 soned, or expatriated, there were no great difficul- 
 ties in manipulating the elections for proctors. 
 The deans and other officials were, of course, all of 
 one way of thinking ; and every care was taken 
 that the representatives of the chapters and paro- 
 chial ministers should be of a like stamp, and 
 in harmony with them, as far as harmony could 
 be looked for. 
 
 As early as the year 1562, the Lower House of 
 the Convocation of Canterbury, clearly indicating 
 
 20 * 
 
308 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 its "reformed" character, had formally made 
 requisition to the bishops, firstly, that " no person 
 abide within the Church during the time of the 
 Communion, unless he do communicate : that is, 
 they shall depart immediately after the Exhorta- 
 tion be ended, and before the Confession of the 
 communicants " ; and, secondly, that it be added 
 to this Confession that " the communicants do 
 detest and renounce the idolatrous Mass." * 
 
 Deacons — whether distinct from "readers" does 
 not appear — on their being licensed were expected 
 to promise as follows : — " I shall not openly in- 
 termeddle with any artificer's occupation, as cove- 
 tously to seek a gain thereby, having in ecclesias- 
 tical living the sum of twenty nobles or above by 
 year,"f — a position which, from some documents 
 consulted, it is tolerably clear that no ordinary 
 " reader " could have held. 
 
 The furniture now needed for the churches, 
 but not always supplied, consisted of a font, a 
 pulpit, a table (i.e. a board), some tressels, a 
 large Bible, and a Prayer Book each for the par- 
 son and clerk. John Fox's "Book of Martyrs" — 
 a volume of controversial misrepresentations and 
 falsehoods, which still stands without a rival — 
 
 * Strype's "Annals," vol. i. p. 508. Oxford: 1824. 
 t Ibid., p. 515. Oxford : 1824. 
 
POSITION OF THE PARISH CHURCH. 309 
 
 was specially ordered to be procured and left open 
 in some side aisle, in order that all might read 
 its gross and wicked assertions, illustrated by 
 rude but thrilling and effective wood-cuts, and so 
 swell the ranks of the innovators. The Queen's 
 "Injunctions" and the "Paraphrase" of Eras- 
 mus likewise had to be procured by the church- 
 wardens, together with the two volumes of 
 savoury "Homilies," recently published, for the 
 non-preaching ministers to read out to the 
 people. 
 
 The parish clerk, who in out-of-the-way places* 
 was no doubt conservative enough, and no great 
 promoter of change (for change was not likely to 
 benefit him much), went on the even tenor of his 
 way, as of old, making as few practical alterations 
 as possible. In many places, as at St. Just's in 
 Cornwall, Wincanton in Somersetshire, Thame in 
 Oxfordshire, St. Margaret Pattens in the City of 
 London, and at St. Edmund's, Bury St. Ed- 
 munds, f he still wore the accustomed linen 
 
 * Mass was said in several remote parishes, throughout 
 the whole of the reign of Elizabeth, e.g. at Morwenstow and 
 Lanherne in Cornwall ; at Stonor Park, Oxon. ; at Thame 
 Prebendal House Chapel ; at Waterperry House ; at Wing 
 in Buckinghamshire ; Nash Court in Kent ; Raglan Castle ; 
 and in many parish churches in Lancashire, where the local 
 nobility and gentry connived at such breach of " the law ": in 
 some places even unto the period of the Great Rebellion. 
 
 f Author's MSS. and Excerpts. 
 
310 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 rochet — sometimes "without sleeves, as more con- 
 venient. No doubt he continued likewise to ob- 
 serve many of the ancient traditional rites and 
 ceremonies, not specified by any printed or written 
 direction, as a matter of course ; to ring the bells 
 as of yore, marking peal from chime,* the clang 
 of the marriage-bells from the solemn toll of the 
 great bell for funerals. It was more probably 
 his pious custom to begin and end all services, 
 regular or occasional, "with the sign of the cross ; 
 to strike his breast at the Confession ; reverently 
 to cover his face with his hands at the Miserere 
 as usualf ; to respond as of old at baptisms and 
 churchings ; to have the cross borne at the head 
 of a corpse at funerals ; and, generally, to sever 
 as few as possible of those traditional threads J 
 
 * In hundreds of country parishes throughout England 
 and Wales, the Mass-hell is still rung on Sunday mornings 
 at 8 o'clock, though there be no service held of any sort or 
 kind. 
 
 t The fact that these traditional observances were for- 
 bidden in the later years of Queen Elizabeth, by her bishops 
 in their "Visitation Articles," shows, by implication, that 
 they were still practised in some places. 
 
 X As late as the first year of James L, one Howell Thomas 
 was buried openly in the parish church of Caerleon, with all 
 the ancient rites. Father Eobert Jones said the Funeral Mass 
 early in the nioming, after which a large concourse of per- 
 sons, hooded and bearing lighted tapers, preceded the corpse 
 to the burial-place. The ancient offices seem to have been 
 used, for no minister was present, while at the close of the 
 
FUNERAL CUSTOMS AND OBSERVANCES. 311 
 
 which both in church and churchyard linked so 
 firmly the living with those who had worshipped 
 there in the past, and who now slept their last 
 sleep beneath the green grass, under the shadow 
 of some old church tower. 
 
 Except amongst the upper classes and the more 
 prosperous tradesmen and yeomen, the people 
 seemed to have still buried their dead, when in- 
 terred in the churchyard green, in a shroud and 
 winding-sheet, without coffins. Most of the 
 nobility and gentlepeople owned vaults in the 
 churches or chantry chapels, and were buried 
 
 funeral ceremonies, one Lander ventured to predict that Mass 
 would soon be said publicly again. — "State Papers, Domestic, 
 James I.," vol. xiii., 52a, a.d. 1603. Even later than this 
 public feeling was so strong on the subject of the burial of 
 the dead, that an attempt at excommunication on the part 
 of the Minister of Allesmore near Hereford, was completely 
 defeated by force. It seems that a devout Catholic woman 
 died ; but, as the old rites had been used in her sickness, the 
 minister maintained that she was excommunicated, and could 
 not be interred in the churchyard. The clerk dug a grave, 
 but the minister ordered it to be filled in again. The body 
 remained unburied for more than eight days. At length 
 her neighbours determined to inter the corpse. So they rose 
 early on the appointed day, and with torches, tapers, and the 
 ancient ringing of bells, they boldly went to the churchyard 
 and peacefully effected their object. The minister had ap- 
 pealed to the Bishop, who sent his officers to take the people 
 into custody ; but the number of Catholic sympathizers so 
 increased, that this was out of the question, and serious riots 
 were feared. — See " Treatise on Mitigation," by Robert 
 Parsons. 
 
312 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 with exceeding great heraldic pomp — strictly ac- 
 cording to their true and recognized rank. Of 
 this the heralds took especial care, for they duly 
 marshalled the procession, formally sanctioned the 
 coat-armour put up, and were not unrewarded as 
 regards fees. The clergy likewise by custom were 
 commonly interred in the choirs or chancels, and 
 often, as of old, with their feet towards the west. 
 In these cases leaden and oak coffins were always 
 used. But the large majority of persons during 
 Elizabeth's reign were evidently buried without 
 coffins. The long winding-sheet was folded again 
 and again round the stiff body, after which it was 
 bound closely with swathings of clean and white 
 linen, with a frill both at head and foot ; then 
 placed on a bier, or sometimes in a parish coffin 
 kept for the purpose, over which during the 
 funeral service a wooden herse stood, commonly 
 covered with a silken pall. 
 
 In certain dioceses, as in that of St. David's, 
 already referred to, some young and vigorous 
 bishop — " a mightie proper enemy to the Pope 
 and all his fond and pernicious tromperie " — had 
 done his best to crush out all Catholic customs, and 
 to destroy reverence and decency ; but in others, 
 and specially in that of York — where the wolds 
 were wild, the parishes extensive, and the country 
 population scattered; and, perhaps, mainly be- 
 cause parsons were scarce, and ministers few in 
 
DECENCY AND ORDER ATTEMPTED. 
 
 813 
 
 number — the parish clerk, retaining his old duties, 
 was duly authorized by the Primate of England * 
 not only to read the First Lesson, but to mono- 
 tone the Psalms at Mattins and Evensong, and 
 to recite the Epistle in the monthly or quarterly 
 service of the Lord's Supper. In some cases, 
 when no minister was to be had, the clerk appears 
 to have churched the women, catechized the chil- 
 dren, and buried the dead.f 
 
 Here and there, especially in certain large 
 towns, well-meant attempts to preserve to the 
 newly-arranged services some kind of order and 
 decency were sometimes made. So long as former 
 traditions survived this was not so impractic- 
 able. But such services were not popular ; the 
 churches had fallen into such decay — there were 
 broken windows around, damaged roofs above, 
 and damp pavements beneath — that the people 
 failed to attend them, save under pressure from 
 authority, and fear of punishment for being 
 absent. Thus week-day services ceased, and only 
 
 * The clerk, at least in the diocese of York, was expected 
 to be both able and ready to read distinctly the First Lesson, 
 the Epistle, and the Psalms, with all the ordinary responses, 
 and to keep the church clean, swept, and sweet. Whether 
 he was ordained at all, and if so by what form, is uncertain. 
 The old clerks had almost always received the four minor 
 orders. — Archbishop Grindal's " Articles to be enquired of," 
 &c. a.d. 1571. London : William Serres. 
 
 t Author's Excerpts and MSS. Elleker Letters, No. 17. 
 
314 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 Sundays came to be at all observed. For then 
 lists of all absentees were made out by church- 
 wardens and sides-men, who stood at the chief 
 entrance with ink-horn, pen, and paper, and once 
 a quarter lists were returned to the diocesan autho- 
 rities. In newly-founded grammar schools, how- 
 ever, and in alms-houses, some kind of prayers, 
 usually a modification of Mattins and Evensong, 
 were almost always enjoined to be said daily — to 
 the credit of their founders. 
 
 Loose doctrines continued to be taught with re- 
 gard to the need and nature of episcopacy. "What- 
 soever the Pope was believed to maintain as true 
 and necessary, that (whatever it might be) was still 
 openly opposed, caricatured, and condemned. Yet 
 when the ultra- Puritans became potent, those in 
 authority in the Established Church, were obliged 
 to shift their ground a little. Bishop Pilkington 
 of Durham, for example, remarked — "I agree 
 that James, brother of Our Lord, was bishop 
 there at Jerusalem, as the ancient writers testify ; 
 but that he said or did anything like the Popish 
 clouted Latin Mass, that I utterly deny." * 
 
 Elsewhere the same Protestant authority 
 wrote : — 
 
 " In all these ages were some that both knew, 
 
 * " Works of Bishop Pilkington," p. 496, Parker Society. 
 London: 1842. 
 
CONFIRMATION NOW A MERE "RITE." 315 
 
 taught privately, and followed the Truth ; though 
 they were not horned and mitred bishops, nor 
 oiled and sworn shavelings to the Pope. Such 
 Popish bishops I am sure no man is able to prove 
 to have been in every see of this realm continually 
 since the Apostles' time, nor elsewhere. When 
 he has proved it, I will say as he does."* 
 
 Confirmation, no longer a sacrament, but only 
 a mere rite,f in which the subjects confirmed 
 themselves, was then looked upon by the great 
 majority as most probably a work of supereroga- 
 tion, and was in noway appreciated. Hence very 
 few confirmations were held anywhere; for, in 
 truth, nothing approaching a ceremony — unless 
 the Queen were the chief subject of it — was now 
 tolerated, much less run after. "When Apostles 
 could bestow a power of speech to the stammer- 
 ing or stupid, or when to those preaching to 
 
 * " Works of Bishop Pilkington," p. 598. 
 
 f " The rite of Confirmation, as I desire to point out, is 
 something altogether different to the Sacrament of Confirma- 
 tion. The latter is as old as Christianity, administered both 
 in the East and West, whereas the former, the ' rite,' was 
 first invented by the English Reformers. It is, as we all 
 know, a service in which persons make a promise in the face 
 of the congregation ' to ratify and confirm ' the pledge made 
 on their behalf by their sponsors — a very impressive service ; 
 a kind of ' renewal of vows.' But this is not a sacrament, 
 as any bishop of the Established Church would frankly and 
 passionately maintain." — Sermon by the Bishop of Dorchester, 
 O.C.R., reported in the " Daily Chronicle," September, 1878. 
 
316 THE CHUECH TJXDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 strange nations, (as some remarked,) a special 
 " gift of tongues " was thus imparted, laying on 
 of hands was all very well. But when nothing 
 visible ensued — as was certainly then the case — 
 it became merely an empty and idle ceremony. 
 Long sermons or wearisome " prophesyings," as 
 they were termed, were then all the rage. "What 
 were termed "theatrical displays " * had quite gone 
 out of fashion. When, therefore, Dr. John Under- 
 bill in 1589 was sent to Oxford, as bishop, this 
 interesting rite had not been administered for more 
 than a quarter of century t ; and when an obscure 
 person, named John Jegon, was appointed to the 
 see of Xorwich in the spring of 1603, there had 
 been no confirmation in that part of the country 
 for the space of twelve years. * 
 
 It was a long time before the people became 
 accustomed to wedded bishops and parsons' wives. 
 
 * " With respect to Confirmation, I do not suppose you 
 approve of the theatrical display which the Papists have 
 admitted among their sacraments. But, if those who rightly 
 instructed in the Catechism, are admitted to the Lord's 
 Supper with public testimony and imposition of haDds (which 
 we know that Christ also practised to young children), I do 
 not see what occasion there is for any one to quarrel about 
 it." — Kodolph Gualter to Bishop Cocks, Letter 94, Second 
 Series Zurich Letters. 
 
 t This melancholy fact is apparent from documents ex- 
 isting in the Diocesan Registry at Oxford. 
 
 X " A Replication to an Auncient Enemy," &c, p. 31. 
 London: Serres. 
 
STATE AND DIGNITY OF BISHOP WHITGIFT. 317 
 
 Several smitten and insinuating prelates who had 
 made offers of marriage to the daughters of 
 knights and esquires, were cruelly repulsed ; and 
 this sometimes even when the watchful Paterfa- 
 milias was himself an innovator, and "most godly 
 and worshipful." Sir John Harington records some 
 notable incidents relating to this subject ; and it 
 is well known that for several generations after 
 the changes under Elizabeth, the inferior clergy 
 had to be content with the pink-faced and fresh 
 daughters of husbandmen, with " serving-maids," 
 or, as a doubtful alternative, with " ancient 
 widows." 
 
 When Dr. John Whitgift was Bishop of Wor- 
 cester (a.d. 1577-1583), though the revenue of 
 the see was not very great, he always came up to 
 Parliament well attended — his servants in purple 
 liveries and staves of office, his ambling nag 
 caparisoned with a richly embroidered saddle- 
 cloth, his chimere of new and shining satin, and 
 his lawn-sleeves perfectly clean and undarned — a 
 fashion much gone out, because many of the pre- 
 lates were so miserly, and consequently so shabby ; 
 but one which was greatly liked by the Queen.* 
 It happened one day that Bishop Aylmer of 
 
 * « Brief View of the State of the Church of England," 
 by Sir J. Harington, p. 8. London : 1653. 
 
318 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 London, meeting His Lordship of Worcester with 
 such an orderly troop of attendants, demanded of 
 him how he could afford to keep so many men, 
 upon which Whitgift answered, with a sharp 
 twinkle of the eye and a smile, that it was because 
 he kept so few women. 
 
 The distracted bishops, pulled hither and thither 
 by controversial partizans, were now so troubled 
 by the Puritans that formal Injunctions were 
 issued in the summer of 1571, forbidding reading, 
 praying, preaching, or administering the Sacra- 
 ments* in any place, public or private, without 
 license. This was certainly needed, if anything 
 approaching to order was to be retained ; and 
 was not determined on a day too soon, for the 
 disorder then existing was of so remarkable a 
 kind, that, to some, it seemed likely to be sub- 
 versive of all peace, either in Church or State, and 
 threatened to produce anarchy. A sermon, in 
 those days, instead of ending with a devout for- 
 
 * Unless a man could preach fluently without a manu- 
 script, the Puritan leaders doubted if he were " called," 
 though possibly " ordered." " As for those unlearned ones, 
 whom you call, neither are they ministers, though you so 
 term them ; neither have authority to minister sacraments, 
 though you give them power, except they can minister the 
 Word by preaching also." — "An Answer to Certain Pieces of 
 a Sermon made at Paul's Cross, by Dr. Cooper, Bishop of 
 Lincoln." London: 1572. 
 
DISORGANIZATION AND DISORDER. 319 
 
 mula, often closed amidst controversial expostu- 
 lations and noisy assertions, and sometimes ended 
 with a free fight. A parsimonious Chelmsford 
 churchwarden* who, on one occasion, had pro- 
 vided a certain amount of wine for use at some 
 religious commemoration (let us hope it was a 
 love-feast, and not "the Supper" of the Prayer 
 Book), had the empty flagon thrown at his head, 
 because he had not supplied sufficient for the 
 spiritual wants of the militant and excited 
 " saints." Such disorders were by no means 
 singular. The Act of Parliament! which had 
 been passed in the spring of the year had already 
 gone as far as it was possible to go in conciliating 
 these wandering preachers and communistic pro- 
 phets. Probably a full third of the beneficed 
 clergy were either, (1), only " readers " or old 
 parish clerks ; (2), persons who, when abroad, had 
 received a "call" from some of the foreign sects, 
 or who had been "ordered" by a minister "f; 
 
 * " The Brownists of Chelmsford," &c, by a Congregational 
 Minister, p. 37. Chelmsford : 1821. 
 f Statutes, 13 Elizabeth, cap. xii. 
 
 J " One Badam, an old worn-out minister of Gloucestershire, 
 deprived of all living by the Superintendent of Hereford 
 [i.e. John Scory, bishop] for his lewd conversation, and 
 among the rest for making ministers for money, without his 
 lordship's knowledge, &c." — "An Ancient Editor's Note- 
 book." Library, Stonyhurst College. From this it is clear 
 that an old minister [neither bishop nor priest] simoniacally 
 pretended to make "ministers." 
 
320 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 (3), persons who had been appointed preachers by 
 the Superintendents of Foreign Protestants in 
 London, Sandwich, Canterbury, Dover, Norwich, 
 and elsewhere ; or (4), old men who, either in 
 religious houses or as seculars, had, in previous 
 reigns, received minor orders and the office of the 
 sub-diaconate or diaconate; or (5), persons who, 
 believing themselves " sent," and repudiating 
 forms and ceremonies, had never been ordained 
 at all. Enquiries which some of the bishops had 
 carefully made, convinced them clearly enough of 
 the true state of affairs ; and, as it was quite im- 
 possible by any existing legal machinery to turn 
 out at least one-third of the persons beneficed, 
 amounting to no less than three thousand, it was 
 clear that what could not be cured must be en- 
 dured. Complaints had long been made that any- 
 body and everybody who believed himself to be 
 under the guidance of the Spirit,* insisted both 
 on praying and preaching in parish churches as 
 well as by market-places and on village greens. 
 Persons of the humblest class, and with no attain- 
 
 * The " farmers of benefices" were quite content to employ 
 such persons, because their services could be secured for a 
 small payment ; and, consequently, seldom enquired about 
 "ordination." The Bishops' Courts, moreover, granted all 
 kinds of dispensations, from which considerable fees were 
 received. 
 
CONFUSION WROUGHT BY THE PURITANS. 321 
 
 ments, — some could only read with difficulty, and 
 often stumbled much in reading at all, — came 
 forward on their own authority to curse the 
 religion of their ancestors, with impressive oaths 
 and terrible language, to interpret the mystical 
 imagery of the Apocalypse in a sense " disadvan- 
 tageous to the foreign Bishop of Rome," and at 
 the same time, as some reason for their astounding 
 dogmatism, to maintain the certainty of their 
 own predestination to eternal life, and their sure 
 guidance from on high. As regards "reforms," 
 those already carried out by the Spiritual Go- 
 verness, Parker, and Cecil, were not worthy of the 
 name. Instead of having had one Pope, of old, 
 all the new prelates, as it was maintained, now 
 wanted to be themselves Popes ; they wore the 
 outlandish garments of Babylon, fined and per- 
 secuted "the saints" (as the Puritans modestly 
 called themselves), cited them to their courts, 
 where legal sharks abounded, and steadily re- 
 sisted that further " godly reformation," which 
 was still, as they argued, so sorely needed. When 
 Archbishop Parker summoned Sampson and other 
 Puritan leaders to Lambeth, His Grace soon 
 found out how fanatical and disobedient they 
 were, and how entirely exhortations to con- 
 formity were contemptuously disregarded. 
 
 It was determined, therefore, to allow all those 
 who were in possession of benefices, — whether 
 
 21 
 
322 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 ordained or not, and whatever they were, whether 
 laymen, ministers, or priests, — to retain their re- 
 spective preferments by simple subscription to 
 such of the " Articles of Religion " of 1563 "as 
 only concern the profession of the true Christian 
 faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments." Con- 
 ditional ordination was never even contemplated. 
 With the same aim, certain words of the twentieth 
 Article, viz. " The Church hath power to de- 
 cree rites and ceremonies, and authority in con- 
 troversies of faith," were somehow omitted in a 
 new edition of these Articles which Jewell, 
 Bishop of Salisbury, had prepared for publica- 
 tion ; and this with the express intention of 
 more effectually smoothing the path of the Puri- 
 tans, and of avoiding further contests or agitation. 
 Such, however, was never secured. For agitation 
 was still carried on, and contests were more fre- 
 quent than ever. The large concessions already 
 made to the Puritans were of. course accepted. 
 And, be it noted, they were no sooner accepted, 
 than fresh agitators began at once to demand 
 further and still greater changes. 
 
 The chief point, however, which should never 
 be forgotten by those who look back on the past, 
 but of which few are really aware, is that, at the 
 period referred to, the question of the necessity 
 of episcopal ordination was settled, at the distinct 
 suggestion of the bishops themselves, — with the 
 
EPISCOPAL ORDINATION NOT ESSENTIAL. 323 
 
 pontifical authority of the Supreme Governess her- 
 self, and by and with the consent of Parliament, — 
 in the plain sense of its not being necessary at 
 all. Thus the loose and lawless opinions of 
 Cranmer, Barlow, and Bale, concerning ordina- 
 tion, were not only commonly current throughout 
 the new Church, but were actually approved and 
 ratified by this new and special enactment ; for- 
 mally confirming those whose ordinations were 
 avowedly questionable, doubtful, or invalid, in 
 the full, free, and peaceable possession of their 
 respective benefices. 
 
 Were the solemn warnings, let it here be asked, 
 of Bishops Thirlby and Scott, of Abbot Fecken- 
 ham, and Bishop Watson, uttered in all solemnity 
 on Queen Elizabeth's accession, but utterly dis- 
 regarded, the warnings of the lawful teachers 
 of the Church of England, — not greatly needed 
 when, in less than twenty years, such a complete 
 revolution could have been thus effected ? 
 
 Alas for the poor of our crowded cities ! Alas, 
 too, for the poor scattered over the wealds and 
 wolds of our dear old England, — robbed thus of 
 their brightest heritage, the Faith of their Fathers : 
 offered henceforth, in lieu of the promised Bread 
 and a foretaste of the peace up above, only the dis- 
 cordant wranglings of dreary disputants, and — 
 a stone ! 
 
 What has already and hitherto been set forth 
 
324 THE CHURCH UNDEE QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 will serve to show how thoroughly the work of 
 destruction had been done. Not only had the 
 people of England been cruelly cut off from com- 
 munion with the rest of Christendom — against the 
 will of a large majority, and obviously without 
 the knowledge of what was being done, on the 
 part of a still larger ; but all religion was being 
 deliberately corrupted and destroyed,* and all 
 authority weakened. 
 
 Those who for their own selfish purposes had 
 set to work to make a new Church for the English 
 people, may possibly have done their best, in the 
 process of its being first planned, then arranged, 
 
 * As Mr. Mossman has acutely observed : — " The position 
 taken up by the English Church at the time of the Refor- 
 mation was that a national, or local, or particular Church has 
 a right to sit in judgment upon the Church Universal : that 
 a part of the Church has a right to decide for herself whether 
 or not the doctrines which she has hitherto held in common 
 with the whole Church Universal are true or false, and accept 
 them or reject them accordingly ; a right to decide whether 
 or not the Canons of the Church Universal are in accordance 
 with the laws of Christ and His Apostles, and abrogate them, 
 or establish them accordingly ; a right to decide for herself, 
 as against the rest of Christendom, which Sacraments were 
 ordained by Christ, and which were not ; and a right to 
 decide finally what ritual and ceremonies of the Church are 
 lawful and edifying, and so to be retained ; and what, on the 
 other hand, are unlawful and unedifying, and so to be re- 
 jected, as tending to superstition and idolatry to be abhorred 
 of all faithful Christians."—" The Keys of the Kingdom of 
 Heaven: a Sermon." London: 1879. 
 
THE TRUE SOURCE OP AUTHORITY. 325 
 
 then manipulated anew, altered again, reformed 
 afresh, and still made dependent, weak, and un- 
 influential ; but the lesson they all so entirely 
 forgot, — a lesson which is more than ever needed 
 at the present clay, — is that " all power " has been 
 given to the Son of Man on Earth as well as in 
 Heaven ; that He has mercifully delegated that 
 power to be exercised for the benefit of all races 
 and nations to His One Universal Church, and 
 that no local Communion, isolated and apart, can 
 in its sinful isolation convey the full benefit of 
 God's royal gifts to any. 
 
 The authority of prince as well as prelate, 
 indeed, comes from the same divine source — God 
 Almighty; and this is true, though now rejected 
 by those who think themselves wiser than their 
 forefathers. Furthermore, the destruction of one, 
 as the experience of Christians teaches, ensures 
 the certain weakening of the other, and vice versd. 
 It can cause no surprise, consequently, that, when 
 the old and legitimate Christian authority of 
 the Holy See was rudely abolished in England, 
 all authority became weakened ; or that, in due 
 course, it was discovered that the destruction of 
 the Altar under Elizabeth had directly led to the 
 overthrow of the Throne under Charles I. Put- 
 ting aside the question of a she-supremacy, the 
 monstrous and impracticable doctrine that children 
 should rule their parents, and subjects their kings, 
 
326 THE CHURCH UNDER QUEEN ELIZABETH. 
 
 that a disjointed rabble, excited by godless self- 
 seekers and political fanatics, may lawfully and 
 properly set aside both Patriarch and Prince, as 
 and when they will, and as often as they like, is 
 a doctrine which more than any other has tended 
 to bring about that alternate disorder, confusion, 
 mistrust, and revolution by which the once Chris- 
 tians of Europe are now in these latter years of 
 Civilization, Culture, and Progress, periodically 
 cursed. The most influential modern Evangel is 
 obviously the gospel of the Gatling-gun — the glad 
 tidings of Fire, Sword, and Force. The so-called 
 " progress " of once Christian races turns out to 
 be only the impressive progress of a crab — their 
 culture, a mere knowledge of how to pamper the 
 body, paganize the mind, corrupt the conscience, 
 and starve the immortal soul. 
 
 END OP VOL. I. 
 
 Printed bi w. h. allen and co., 13 Waterloo place, s.w. 
 
By the same Author. 
 
 Recently published. One Volume, post 8vo., 440 pp., 
 cloth, 10s. 6d. 
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES OF THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Opinions of the Press. 
 
 " These clever, outspoken pictures of men and things .... He writes with 
 spirit and freshness about scenes and concerning men whom many readers know 
 scarcely more than by name, and has many things to say which so-called ' Protes- 
 tant ' Historians are apt to slur over or omit. The chapter on the death of 
 Richard Whiting, the Abbot of Glastonbury, is one of the best in the volume, and 
 will amply repay careful reading." — Standard, 13th January 1879. 
 
 " Contains much interesting matter. The style is uniformly good, and the stories 
 of the Pilgrimage of Grace, and of the death and burial of Henry, are well and 
 graphically told." — Spectator. 
 
 *' The whole of the chapter on the Martyrdom of the Charterhouse Monks is well 
 worth reading, and not only this, but indeed the entire volume .... The object 
 of the book is well sustained throughout. The writer steadily keeps in view the 
 end which he proposes to himself as desirable." — Tablet. 
 
 " Much that he writes about the tyranny and wickedness of Henry VIII. is very 
 just— as for instance in the executions of the Monks of the Charterhouse and the 
 death of Abbot Whiting of Glastonbury. The stories of those horrors and of the 
 Pilgrimage of Grace are both truly and graphically told." — The Aeademy. 
 
 "Almost all of them are powerfully and vigorously drawn. They contain, for the 
 most part, the history of sad and dark deeds, and excite a feeling of sympathy with 
 those who suffered . . . We have read the book with a considerable degree of 
 interest, which will be shared by those who care to know about some of the Eccle- 
 siastical movements in the past history of our country, and at the same time to be 
 acquainted with one of the most prominent forms of religious thought in the pre- 
 sent day." — Leeds Mercury. 
 
 " Dr. Lee's valuable work is calculated to dispel much of the ignorance of the 
 real character of the Reformation, which historians for various reasons have 
 fostered, and to throw light on the darkest pages of English history. Let us hope, 
 also, that it may do its part towards restoring that Unity which the Reformation 
 destroyed." — Weekly Register, November 1878. 
 
 " I must at once bear testimony to the literary force and power of the book. It 
 is a series of historical stories which show on every page of them the dramatic 
 instinct of their author. One is carried along by the narrator to the catastrophe. 
 Nor does he gain his effects by cheap sensational novel-writing \ nor, I believe, with 
 any intentional disregard of truth." — Western Morning News, 2nd Nooember 1878, 
 
Opinions of the Press — cont. 
 
 " A volume, written very temperately, in which the long-suppressed facts con- 
 cerning Tudor tyranny are set forth and commented upon by an unsparing hand 
 . . . . Will be sure to make its mark, for it is intensely interesting, and, though 
 solid, most readable." — Bei ts Advertiser. 
 
 " The account of the sufferings of the Monks of the Charterhouse, which, as 
 Dr. Lee here sets it forth, will be new to most of our readers, is written with a 
 graphic power and picturesqueness quite out of the ordinary run." — Kentish 
 
 Observer. 
 
 " It is certainly quite time that Englishmen should know that the great revolu- 
 tion in religious thoughts and practices, which is generally known as the Re- 
 formation of the sixteenth century, was not accomplished by means which are 
 altogether above suspicion. There were on the Protestant side some violent men 
 and some unjust deeds. These men and their deeds it is sometimes thought to be 
 the duty of Protestant historians to attempt to justify or pass over altogether. 
 But such a course is manifestly unwise ; we can do nothing for truth by suppression 
 of truth, and Protestants as well as sympathisers with Rome ought to be thankful 
 to have the truth told on a side which has not always done justice to it. For 
 reminding us of this simple act, which, truism as it is, some of us have too often 
 forgotten, our thanks are due to Dr. Lee." — Liverpool Albion. 
 
 " We have not come across so thoroughly readable a book for years. Whatever 
 may be thought of its principles, there can be no doubt that the accomplished 
 author can write brilliantly and forcibly, and that he has drawn some powerful 
 pictures of the Reformation with picturesqueness and much graphic ability." — 
 Daily Post. 
 
 "Picturesque and graphic ; here and there brilliant." — Windsor Express. 
 
 " A most opportune and valuable work .... One sure test of the ability of 
 the author, and of the interest of the work itself, is the power it exercises over the 
 mind of the reader. We opened this volume, and the interest which it excited 
 induced us not to read it at a sitting, for that would be impossible, but to make it 
 our constant companion until we had completed it." — Westminster Gazette. 
 
 " It is the spirit, rather than the bare facts, of Dr. Lee's sketches which we are 
 forced to condemn as unhistorical." — Saturday Review. 
 
 "Very readable, being composed with considerable literary skill." — Church 
 
 Bells. 
 
 " Written in an easy, readable, and somewhat slashing style .... We go a 
 long way with Dr. Lee in his compassion for Elizabeth's Roman Catholic victims." 
 
 — Church Times. 
 
 " It professes to be historical, but its claim to such a title is simply ludicrous ; 
 and the style is so poor that it hardly reads like the production of an educated 
 man." — Rock. 
 
 " It is a way (?) of writing which Dr. Lee has ;— a flower of rhetoric culled from 
 the New Cut at Lambeth. — John Bull. 
 
 " In religion as in polities, few footsteps are retraced. But Dr. Lee is a man not 
 to be daunted by danger or difficulty ; and even where we disagree with his con- 
 clusions, we must respect the unfailing courage with which he wages the conflict 
 and bears the brunt of battle. The talent of the author and the interest of the 
 subject-matter of the work are evidenced by the fascination which this book will 
 be found to exercise over the reader. The author can hardly hope that it will con- 
 vince in every case, but we feel sure that few readers will commence the perusal 
 without reading the book from cover to cover. This is largely owing to the 
 dramatic skill of the author in painting for us these scenes of the past. No man is 
 more thoroughly imbued with the spirit of the men of three centuries and a half 
 ago than Dr. Lee. He is not of the nineteenth century. Neither his virtues nor 
 his faults are those of the present da}'. His ' Sketches ' are those of a pre- 
 Raphaelite in the most literal sense of the word."— Morning Post. 
 
Date Due 
 
 
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