CHAP. as the policy of our counsellors, were far more directed against II. Reforma tion. Spain. But what had the greatest efficacy in disgusting the English with Mary's system of faith, was the cruelty by which it was accompanied. Though the privy council were in fact continually urging the bishops forward in this persecution*, the latter bore the chief blame, and the abhorrence entertained for them naturally extended to the doctrine they professed. A sort of instinctive reasoning told the people, what the learned on neither side had been able to discover, that the truth of a religion begins to be very suspicious, when it stands in need of prisons and scaffolds to eke out its evidences. And as the English were constitutionally humane, and not hardened by continually witnessing the infliction of barbarous punishments, there arose a sympathy for men suffering torments with such meekness and patience, which the populace of some other nations were perhaps less apt to display, especially in executions on the score of heresy †. The * Strype, ii. 17. Burnet, iii. 263, and Append. 285, where there is a letter from the king and queen to Bonner, as if even he wanted excitement to prosecute heretics. The number who suffered death by fire in this reign is reckoned by Fox at 284, by Speed at 277, and by lord Burghley at 290. Strype, iii, 473. These numbers come so near to each other, that they may be presumed also to approach the truth. But Carte, on the authority of one of Noailles's letters, thinks many more were put to death than our martyrologists have discovered. And the prefacer to Ridley's Treatise de Coena Domini, supposed to be bishop Grindal, says that 800 suffered in this manner for religion. Burnet, ii. 364. I incline however to the smaller statements. + Burnet makes a very just observation on the cruelties of this period, that "they raised that horror in the whole nation, that there seems ever since that time such an abhorrence to that religion to be derived down from father to son, that it is no wonder an aversion so deeply rooted and raised upon such grounds, does upon every new provocation or jealousy of returning to it break out in most violent and convulsive symptoms." p. 338. Delicta majorum immeritus luis, Romane. But those who would diminish this aversion, and prevent these convulsive symptoms, will do better by avoiding for the future either such panegyrics on Mary and her advisers, or such insidious extenuations of her persecution, as we have lately read, and which do not raise a favourable impression of their sincerity in the principles of toleration to which they profess to have been converted. Noailles, who, though an enemy to Mary's government, must, as a catholic, be reckoned an unsuspicious witness, remarkably confirms the account given by Fox, and since by all our writers, of the death of Rogers, the proto-martyr, and its effect on the people. "Ce jour d'huy a esté faite la confirmation de 'alliance entre le pape et ce royaume par un sacrifice publique et solemnel d'un docteur predicant nommé Rogerus, le quel a eté brulé tout vif pour estre Lutherien; mais il est mort persistant en son opinion. A quoy le plus grand tion. II. theologian indeed and the philosopher may concur in deriding CHAP. the notion that either sincerity or moral rectitude can be the test of truth; yet among the various species of authority to which Reformarecourse has been had to supersede, or to supply the deficiencies of argument, I know not whether any be more reasonable, and none certainly is so congenial to unsophisticated minds. Many are said to have become protestants under Mary, who at her coming to the throne had retained the contrary persuasion *. And the strongest proof of this may be drawn from the acquiescence of the great body of the kingdom in the re-establishment of testantism by Elizabeth, when compared with the seditions and discontent on that account under Edward. The course which this famous princess steered in ecclesiastical concerns, during her long reign, will form the subject of the two ensuing chapters. partie de ce peuple a pris tel plaisir, qu'ils n'ont eu crainte de luy faire plusieurs acclamations pour comforter son courage, et meme ses enfans y ont assisté, le consolant pro de telle façon, qu'il semblait qu'on le me- CHAP. Catholics. CHAPTER III. ON THE LAWS OF ELIZABETH'S REIGN RESPECTING THE ROMAN CATHOLICS. Change of Religion on the Queen's Accession-Acts of Supremacy and UniformityRestraint of Roman Catholic Worship in the first Years of Elizabeth-Statute of 1562 -Speech of Lord Montague against it—This Act not fully enforced-Application of the Emperor in behalf of the English Catholics-Persecution of this Body in the ensuing Period-Uncertain Succession of the Crown between the Families of Scotland and Suffolk-The Queen's Unwillingness to decide this, or to marry-Imprisonment of Lady Katharine Gray-Mary Queen of Scotland-Combination in her Favour-Bull of Pius V.-Statutes for the Queen's Security-Catholics more rigorously treated-Refugees in the Netherlands-Their Hostility to the Govern ment-Fresh Laws against the Catholic Worship-Execution of Campian and others-Defence of the Queen by Burleigh-Increased Severity of the Government -Mary-Plot in her Favour-Her Execution-Remarks upon it—Continued Persecution of Roman Catholics-General Observations. THE accession of Elizabeth, gratifying to the whole nation on account of the late queen's extreme unpopularity, infused peculiar Elizabeth joy into the hearts of all well-wishers to the Reformation. Child of that famous marriage which had severed the connexion of England with the Roman see, and trained betimes in the learned and reasoning discipline of protestant theology, suspected and oppressed for that very reason by a sister's jealousy, and scarcely preserved from the death which at one time threatened her, there was every ground to confide, that, notwithstanding her forced compliance with the catholic rites during the late reign, her inclinations had continued stedfast to the opposite party *. Nor * Elizabeth was much suspected of a concern in the conspiracy of 1554, which was more extensive than appeared from Wyatt's insurrection, and had in view the THE CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND. 117 III. Elizabeth Catholics. was she long in manifesting this disposition sufficiently to alarm CHAP. placing her on the throne, with the earl of Devonshire for her husband. Wyatt indeed at his execution acquitted her; but as he said as much for Devonshire, who is proved by the letters of Noailles to have been engaged, his testimony is of less value. Nothing however appears in these letters, I believe, to criminate Elizabeth. Her life was saved, against the advice of the imperial court, and of their party in the cabinet, especially lord Paget, by Gardiner, according to Dr. Lingard, writing on the authority of Renard's despatches. Burnet, who had no access to that source of information, imagines Gardiner to have been her most inveterate enemy. She was even released from prison for the time, though soon afterwards detained again, and kept in custody, as is well known, for the rest of this reign. Her inimitable dissimulation was all required to save her from the penalties of heresy and treason. It appears by the memoir of the Venetian ambassador, in 1557 (Lansdowne MSS. 840), as well as from the letters of Noailles, that Mary was desirous to change the succession, and would have done so, had it not been for Philip's reluctance, and the impracticability of obtaining the consent of parliament. III. Catholics. CHAP. very essential, in the church service, before the pope's behaviour could have become known to her; and the bishops must have Elizabeth been well aware of the course she designed to pursue, when they adopted the violent and impolitic resolution of refusing to officiate at her coronation *. Her council was formed of a very few catholics, of several pliant conformists with all changes, and of some known friends to the protestant interest. But two of these, Cecil and Bacon, were so much higher in her confidence, and so incomparably superior in talents to the other counsellors, that it was evident which way she must inclinet. The parliament met about two months after her accession. The creed of parliament from the time of Henry VIII. had been always that of the court; whether it were that elections had constantly been influenced, ast we know was sometimes the case, or that men of adverse principles, yielding to the torrent, had left the way clear to the partisans of power. This first, like all subsequent parliaments, was to the full as favourable to protestantism as the queen could desire the first fruits of benefices, and, what was far more important, the supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs, were restored to the crown; the laws made concerning religion in Edward's time * Elizabeth ascended the throne November 17, 1558. On the 5th of December Mary was buried, and on this occasion White, bishop of Winchester, in preaching her funeral sermon, spoke with virulence against the protestant exiles, and expressed apprehension of their return. Burnet, iii. 272. Directions to read part of the service in English, and forbidding the elevation of the host, were issued prior to the proclamation of December 27, against innovations without authority. The great seal was taken from archbishop Heath early in January, and given to sir Nicholas Bacon. Parker was pitched upon to succeed Pole at Canterbury in the preceding month. From the dates of these and other facts, it may be fairly inferred, that Elizabeth's resolution was formed independently of the pope's behaviour towards sir Edward Karn; though that might probably exasperate her against the adherents of the Roman see, and make their religion appear more inconsistent with their civil allegiance. If, indeed, the refusal of the bishops to officiate at her coronation (Jan. 14, 1558-9) were founded in any degree on Paul IV.'s denial of her title, it must have seemed in that age within a hair's breadth of high treason. But it more probably sprang from her order that the host should not be elevated, which in truth was not legally to be justified. Mass was said, however, at her coronation, so that she seems to have dispensed with this prohibition. See a paper by Cecil on the best means of reforming religion, written at this time with all his cautious wisdom, in Burnet, or in Strype's Annals of the Reformation, or in the Somers Tracts. |