this time accorded, fortunately, with the views of the Government; for when it was perceived how well and easily the places of the deposed Bishops had been supplied, the party changed their system, and determined' to retain what benefices they held, at the expense of outward conformity, thinking the best service which they could render to the papal cause, was to keep posses`sion of their posts, in the hope and expectation of better times. The double purpose would thus be answered, of keeping Protestant ministers out, and secretly fostering in their parishioners a predilection for the old superstitions; and their policy was by this means reconciled with their interest.

With such unanimity did they act upon this deceitful system, that of 9400 beneficed Clergy, only 177 resigned their preferment, rather than acknowledge the Queen's supremacy. So far as the great majority were influenced by selfish considerations, their object was answered, but as a politic measure, never were men more egregiously mistaken; and this they discovered when too late. It was a most important object for Government to bring about the great change in the quietest manner, with as little injury as possible to individuals, and as little offence to the feelings, and even prejudices, of the people. For this reason, the supplication, saying, "from the tyranny of the Bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities, good Lord, deliver us!" which was part of the Litany in the Liturgy of Edward's reign, was expunged3 now. For the same reason, it was enjoined, that the sacramental bread should be continued in the form of wafers; and the language of the article which affirmed a real presence, was so framed as to allow latitude of belief for those who were persuaded of an exclusive one. The effect was an almost general conformity, on the part of the Romanists, without doubt or scruple concerning the propriety of so conforming; till to their own great misfortune, and that of the country, they were required by the Papal Court to pursue a different course.

Heath, Bonner, Turberville, and two of the other deprived Bishops, thought it their duty to address a letter to the Queen, entreating her to listen to them, rather than to those evil counsellors who were leading her astray. Her ancestors, they reminded. her, had duly and reverently observed the ancient Catholic faith, 2 Ibid. i. p. 72.

1

Strype's Annals, i. p. 104, 105.

3 Ibid. i. p. 84.

till by heretical and schismatical advisers, her father was first withdrawn, and then her brother; "after whose decease," said they, "your virtuous sister, Queen Mary, of happy memory, succeeded who, being troubled in conscience with what her father's and her brother's advisers had caused them to do, most piously restored the Catholic faith by establishing the same again; as also by extinguishing the schisms and heresies, which at that time began to flame over her territories, for which God poured out his wrath upon most of the malefactors and misleaders of the nation." Elizabeth' replied to this letter instantly: she denied their assertion that Christianity had been first planted in this kingdom by the Romish Church; and she answered the remarks upon her father's having listened to heretical advisers, by cutting personalities. "Who, we pray, advised him more, or flattered him, than you, good Mr. Heath, when you were Bishop of Rochester? And than you, Mr. Bonner, when you were Archdeacon? And you, Mr. Turberville? Nay, farther, who was more an adviser of our father, than your great Stephen Gardiner when he lived? Recollect was it our sister's conscience made her so averse to our father's and brother's actions, as to undo what they had perfected? Or was it not you, or such like advisers, that dissuaded her, and stirred her up against us, and others of her subjects? We give you warning," she concluded, "that for the future, we hear no more of this kind, lest you provoke us to execute those penalties enacted for the punishment of our resisters, which out of our clemency we have forborne."

The Queen was contented with thus reprimanding them, though the manner in which they spoke of the atrocities of the last reign, might well have justified some stronger mark of displeasure. But when it appeared that some of these Bishops preached against the new order of things, and encouraged a seditious spirit in those who flocked to them, (White and Watson venturing even to threaten the Queen with excommunication,) it was found necessary to place them under some degree of restraint. Heath, after a short confinement in the Tower, was allowed to reside upon his own lordship of Chobham,2 merely upon

1 Strype's Annals, i. p. 147. 2 Not Cobham, as generally stated. I am obliged to the Vicar of Chobham (where Heath was buried) for correcting the error. It is frequently made, both places being in the same county, and within ten

1

giving security that he would not interfere with state affairs, or interrupt the laws. Elizabeth always esteemed him, and sometimes visited him in his old age. Oglethorpe died almost immediately after the coronation. Tonstal and Thirlby were both committed to the gentle custody of Parker; instead of being confined in his coal-house, they lived at his table, and were treated by him as honourable guests. Shame, rather than conviction, seems to have kept them from conforming; for Tonstal was avowedly more than half a Protestant, and Thirlby had acted with better faith, when he co-operated with Cranmer, than when Bonner was his bloody associate. Bonner was committed to the Marshalsea, where he had the use of the garden and orchards, and lived as he liked, without any other privation than that of liberty; for though he was allowed to go abroad, he dared not, because of the hatred of the people. He never betrayed the slightest shame or compunction for the cruelties which he had committed, but maintained to the last the same coarse and insolent temper; indeed, it was rumoured and believed, that he looked for no life but the present, and therefore had no hope or fear beyond it. Three of the ex-bishops withdrew to the continent. The others lived unmolested, and died at large, except Watson, always a morose, and latterly a dangerous man, whom it was deemed necessary to commit to close prison, when the Romanists began their treasonable practices.

It was now the Romanists' turn to plead conscience, and argue that gentle usage ought to be afforded to those whose only offence consisted in a difference of opinion upon religious subjects. The Emperor, and other Catholic princes, wrote to the Queen in behalf of the ejected Clergy, requesting that they might be mercifully dealt withal, and that churches might be allowed to the Papists in all the cities and chief towns. The way to have obtained this, would have been to have given an example in miles of each other. The advowson of the one was purchased by a gentleman who thought he was buying the other, and who did not discover his mistake till, upon intelligence that the living had become vacant, he made his inquiries at Cobham, and found the incumbent there alive, and likely to live.

Strype's Parker, 47. 2 "He was deprived and secured," says Fuller, "in his castle, I mean the Marshalsea in Southwark: for as that prison kept him from doing hurt to others, it kept others from doing hurt to him, being so universally odious, he had been stoned in the streets if at liberty."-Worthies, vol. ii. p. 469. * Strype's Annals, i. p. 573.

Ibid. i. p. 295, 304.

Ibid. i. p. 148.

their own dominions of the clemency and toleration which they required. Elizabeth' answered that though these Popish Clergy insolently and openly opposed the laws and the peace of the realm, and wilfully rejected the doctrines which they themselves had preached under the Kings Henry and Edward, she was dealing and would deal favourably with them; albeit not without some offence to her subjects, seeing how cruelly these men had acted toward the Protestants in her sister's reign. But to grant them churches would be against the laws of her parliament, and highly dangerous to the state of her kingdom. It would be to sow various religions in the realm, to distract good people's minds, to cherish parties and factions, and to disturb religion. and the commonwealth in that quiet state wherein it then was; ... a thing evil in itself, and in example worse; to her own good subjects hurtful, and neither greatly commodious nor safe unto those for whom it was asked.

The Queen had recalled the English resident from Rome, but the Pope ordered him, on pain of excommunication, not to leave the city, and to take upon himself the government of the English hospital there. The order was believed to be in conformity with the resident's wishes, and given to prevent him from apprizing his government of the secret practices of the French against Elizabeth. Pius IV. soon succeeded to the Papacy, and on his accession, despatched a nuncio to England with secret instructions, and a conciliatory2 letter. He entreated the Queen, as his most dear daughter, that, rejecting those counsellors, who loved themselves, not her, and served their own desires, she would take the fear of God to counsel, and acknowledge the time of her visitation. In that case, he promised to confirm her royal dignity, according to the authority and functions committed to him by God; told her that he would receive her with the same love, honour, and rejoicings, as the father in the Gospel had received the prodigal son; and that by so doing, she would not only fill the whole church with rejoicings, but even heaven itself. The secret articles were reported to be, that he would annul the sentence against her mother's marriage, allow the use of the cup to the English, and confirm the English liturgy. But Strype's Annals, i. p. 148. 2 Ibid. i. p. 228.

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his

Elizabeth had chosen the better part; and the nuncio, while on way, was informed that he could not be permitted to set foot in England.

The Reformation had divided Europe into two great parties, but providentially at this time there was a rooted enmity between the two great Catholic kingdoms of France and Spain; and this contributed essentially to Elizabeth's preservation during the first years of her reign. Mary, the Queen of Scotland, and at that time wife of the Dauphin, always a dangerous rival, would then have been a most formidable one, if Elizabeth had not been both secretly and openly supported by the Spanish court. The King of France claimed the kingdom for his son, in Mary's right; they quartered the arms of England with those of Scotland and France, and urged the Pope to pronounce Elizabeth illegitimate and heretical, and to declare Mary the lawful Queen. Philip's influence prevented this. Henri's death delivered England from a treacherous and powerful enemy: the French, by their impolitic conduct in Scotland, gave Elizabeth just cause for taking part with the Protestants in that country; and when Mary, being soon left a widow, returned thither, her own situation was so beset with difficulties and troubles, that she had little power, and less leisure, for tampering with the English mal-contents. But from the time when Mary, seeking an asylum in England, was made a prisoner there, she became a point of hope, as well as an object of commiseration to the English Catholics; and she was more formidable to Elizabeth in her state of bondage, than if she had continued Queen of France.

Two persons so circumstanced with regard to each other as the Queens of England and Scotland, must have been mortal enemies, unless they had been women of saintly piety and virtue. Both were endowed with extraordinary talents, and in the natural dispositions of both, it is probable that the better qualities greatly preponderated. But they were so situated, that it was scarcely possible for them to think or act justly towards each other. Mary, as a Catholic, believed Elizabeth to be illegitimate, and therefore thought herself entitled to the crown of England. The Romanists, and especially the powerful family of the Guises, to which she was related, acted openly upon the principle, that all measures were allowable against the enemies of the Romish