English would have been irrecoverably lost, if God in his mercy had not cut short this execrable tyranny. The Queen was supposed to be with child: humanly speaking, it seemed to depend upon the event whether England should become a Protestant or a Popish kingdom; and there was such a disposition in the Protestants not to believe what they so greatly dreaded, and to persuade themselves, that a supposititious child would be imposed upon them, that many were punished for uttering the opinion with which they were possessed. Provision was made by Parliament, that, in case of the Queen's death, Philip should take upon himself the rule, order, education, and government of the child; and prayers were ordered, that as God, by his servant Mary, had delivered the people out of the hands of heretics and infidels, so he would complete the work by blessing her with a safe delivery, and with a male child. Upon a report of her delivery, the bells rung and processions were made, and public rejoicings were made at Antwerp. But those appearances which had so far deceived the Queen herself, that the cradle was made ready, proved to be the indications of a mortal disease.

Not a week before her death, three women and two men were burnt at Canterbury. Certain circumstances rendered this last auto-da-fe remarkable. John Corneford, one of the victims, when the sentence of excommunication was pronounced upon him and his stake-fellows, boldly retorted it upon his persecutors. "In the name of our Lord," said the courageous martyr," and by the power of his Holy Spirit, we do here give into the hands of Satan, to be destroyed, the bodies of all those blasphemers who condemn his most holy truth for heresy, to the maintenance of any false Church, or feigned religion; so that by this thy just judgement, O most mighty God, against thy adversaries, thy true religion may be known, to thy great glory and our comfort, to the edifying of all our nation. Good Lord, so be it. Amen!" It is not surprising that the Protestants believed this imprecation to have taken effect against their enemy, when, "within six days after, Queen Mary died, and the tyranny of all English Papists with her." These martyrs seem to have expected this desirable end, when they made it part of their prayers before they suffered, that their blood might be the last that should be shed. One of them, a young unmarried woman, called at the

stake for her godfather and godmothers, who, by the presiding magistrate's orders, were sent for accordingly. When they came, she asked them what they had promised for her at her baptism; and, repeating the Commandments and the Creed, demanded if they had engaged in her behalf that she should believe more than this? They answered, that they had not. "Then,” said she, "I die a Christian woman! Bear witness of me!"

The sacrifice of these victims is imputed to the individual cruelty of Harpsfield, then Archdeacon of Canterbury, a person as conspicuous among the persecutors at that time, as he was afterwards among the writers in defence of the Papal cause. He hurried on this execution, when such odious proceedings were in other places suspended, because the Queen's death was daily looked for. That event was not regretted, even by the Romanists, except by such as Harpsfield, and Story, and Bonner. "Melancholic in mind," (so she is described,')" unhealthful in body, little feared of her foreign foes, less beloved by her native subjects; not over-dear to her own husband, unsuccessful in her treaties for peace, and unfortunate in her undertakings for war," Queen Mary left none to lament her, and there was not even the semblance of sorrow for her loss. She died in the morning; in the afternoon the bells of all the churches in London were rung for the accession of Elizabeth, and at night bonfires were made, and tables set out in the streets, at which the citizens caroused.

Fuller, b. viii. p. 23.

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CHAPTER XV.

QUEEN ELIZABETH.

THE first act of the new Queen was to take Sir William Cecil into her council, and appoint him her principal Secretary; and of such consequence was the pulpit at this crisis, that one of the first objects of his attention was "to consider the condition of the preacher at Paul's Cross," and prevent any question concerning the governance of the realm from being touched upon there. The people had not been so ready to restore the Romish religion at Mary's accession, as they were now to escape from its intolerable yoke. When the Queen made her public entrance, a pageant was prepared in Cheapside, where Time accosted her, leading in his hand his daughter Truth, and Truth presented her with the English Bible, upon which was written, Verbum Veritatis. Elizabeth kissed the book, held it up with both her hands, and then laid it reverently upon her breast, to the joy of the beholders.

2

Elizabeth's life had been in imminent danger during her sister's reign. "It would make a pitiful and strange story," says Holinshed, "to recite what examinations and rackings of poor men there were to find out that knife which should cut her throat; what gaping among my Lords of the Clergy, to see the day wherein they might wash their white rockets in her innocent blood, but especially Stephen Gardiner." Philip's3 interference saved her life; but when she was committed to the custody of Sir Henry Beningfield at Woodstock, the unworthy Knight treated her with such severity, using his office, it is said, more like a jailer than a gentleman, that the Princess, hearing a milkmaid one day sing cheerfully in the fields, wished herself in the same humble condition of life, so she might enjoy the same liberty and safety. She now manifested her resentment of this treatment no otherwise than by discharging Sir Henry from Strype's Anuals, i. p. 5. 2 Ibid. p. 30. Burnet, ii. p. 287.

the Court, saying, "God forgive you that is past, and we do; and if we have any prisoner whom we would have hardly handled and straitly kept, then we will send for you." On the way to her coronation she expressed a due sense of the danger from which she had been preserved, in this prayer, “O Lord, almighty and everlasting God, I give thee most hearty thanks, that thou hast been so merciful unto me, as to spare me to behold this joyful day! And I acknowledge that thou hast dealt as wonderfully and as mercifully with me, as thou didst with thy true and faithful servant Daniel, thy Prophet, whom thou deliveredst out of the den, from the cruelty of the greedy and raging lions. Even so was I overwhelmed, and only by thee delivered. To Thee, therefore, only, be thanks, honour, and praise, for ever. Amen!"

St. Paul's Cross was supplied with a safe preacher in the person of Dr. Bill, the Queen's chaplain and almoner. The necessity of this precaution appeared when White, the Bishop of Winchester, preached the late Queen's funeral sermon. He extolled her because, having found the realm poisoned with heresy, she had purged it; and "remembering herself to be a member of Christ's Church, refused to write herself head thereof. To be born in Christ's Church," he said, " and not abide therein is horrible, execrable, cursed, and damnable. ... I was regenerate, and, by a solemn vow, became a member of Christ's Catholic Church; and have since divided myself from the unity thereof, and am become a member of the new Church of Geneva. Reformed by penance, I am now relapsed again to sin. Mark my end, . . . and what shall become of me? I shall in the end be damned everlastingly." Touching those who died in heresy, "it shall suffice me to say," said he, "and you to know, that they be in pain, in dolour, in ire, in fire, in darkness and horror; the indignation, the scourge, the vengeance of God, with confusion and damnation everlasting, is poured on them: neither have they qualification of pain, nor intermission of time, nor hope of end." And, speaking of the duty of those in his calling, he said, "Being by God appointed to keep watch and ward upon the walls, if they see the wolf towards the flock, (as at this present I warn you the wolves be coming out of Geneva, and other

1 Grafton, ii. p. 548. ed. 1802.

2 Strype's Annals, i. p. 36.

...

places of Germany, and have sent their books before, full of pestilent doctrines, blasphemy, and heresy, to infect the people,). if the Bishops, I say, and the ministers, in this case, should not give warning, neither withstand and resist, but for fear or flattery with the world, forsake their places, and thereby give occasion to the wolf to enter, then should the blood of the people be required at their hands."

The Bishop was ordered to keep his house for the offence he had given by this sermon.' The restraint was not continued long; and having been brought before the Lords of the Council, and admonished by them, he was released. The cruelties of the preceding reign were regarded with abhorrence by all, except those who had been instrumental in them; and, from principle not less than policy, Elizabeth had resolved to proceed mildly and temperately, as well as firmly, in establishing the reformed church. For this reason, and because the Romanists preached seditiously, and the eager Reformers encouraged by their discourses the disposition of the people to outrun the law, and demolish images and altars, all preaching was forbidden for a time; and if any should be bold enough to disregard the proclamation, all persons were forbidden to hear them,2 till the Queen and the three estates in Parliament should have consulted for the reconcilement of matters of religion.

When the Bill for restoring the supremacy to the Crown was debated in Parliament, it was opposed by the Bishops. Heath said, that as concerning temporal government, the House could give her Highness no further authority than she already had by right and inheritance, not by their gift, but by the appointment of God, she being their sovereign Lord and Lady, their King and Queen, their Emperor and Empress. But spiritual government they could not grant, neither could she receive." "If," said he, "by relinquishing the See of Rome, there were none other matter than a withdrawing of our obedience from the Pope's person, Paul IV., which hath declared himself to be a very austere stern father unto us ever since his first entrance into Peter's chair, then the cause were not of such great importance; . . . but by forsaking that See, we must forsake the unity of Christ's Church, and by leaping out of Peter's ship, hazard 1 Strype's Annals, i. p. 34. 2 Ibid. i. p. 41, 53.