XXII. 2.

Her Coronation.

On the 13th of January 1559, she made her triumphant passage," says Dr. Heylin, "through "London, to her palace at Westminster. Having "offered a prayer, she mounted in her chariot, *with so clear a spirit, as if she had been made "for that day's solemnity; entertained, all the way "she went, with the joyful shouts and acclama"tions of God save the queen, which she repaid "with such a modest affability, that it drew tears of

joy from the eyes of some, with infinite prayers "and thanksgivings from the hearts of all.

"But nothing more endeared her to them than "the accepting a Bible, neatly gilt, which was let "down to her from one of the pageants represent

ing Truth. With both her hands she received the "book, which she pressed and laid to her bosom, (as the nearest place unto her heart), giving the greater thanks for that, than for all the rest, "which plentifully had that day been bestowed upon her; and promised to be diligent in the

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reading of it. By which, and many other acts "of popular piety, with which she passed away "that day, she did not only gain the hearts of "them that saw her, but they that saw her did

so magnify her most eminent graces, that she "found the like affection in the hearts of all others "also."

On the following morning, with the like mag

nificence and splendor, she was attended to the church of St. Peter in Westminster. She was crowned by Dr. Owen Oglethorpe, bishop of Carlisle, according to the form, and took the oath prescribed by the Roman pontifical. The other catholic prelates declined assisting at the ceremony. Three bishops, ordained in the reign of Edward the sixth, and the friends of the reformation, were then alive; but "those bishops," as Dr. Heylin remarks, “were at that time deprived of their sees,-(whether justly or unjustly could not then "be questioned), and therefore not in a capacity "to perform that service. Besides there being, "at that time, no other form established for a coro"nation than that, which had much in it of the "ceremonies and superstition of the church of "Rome, she was not sure that any one of those "three bishops would have acted in it without "such alteration and omissions, in the whole "course of that order, as might have rendered the "whole action questionable among capricious "men; and therefore, finally, she thought it more "conducible to her reputation among foreign princes to be crowned by the hands of a catholie bishop, or one at least that was accounted as such, than if it had been done by any of the "other religions."

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The conduct of the catholic prelates who declined assisting at her coronation, was justified by them on the following grounds: they refused to officiate at the ceremony of her coronation, because they considered it to be certain, either that she

would not take or would not keep the coronation oath, which the kings of England, as all other christian kings, took at their coronation, "to main"tain the laws, honours, peace, and privilege of "the church*, as in the time or grant of Edward "the confessor." But they did not make the smallest opposition to her accession: they immediately did homage to her, and acknowledged her title to the crown. At her subsequent measures they sighed, but they sighed in silence: not a single act of a treasonable, seditious, or even a disaffected tendency, was so much as imputed to any of them.

XXII. 3.

Division of the Nation into a Catholic and a Protestant Party.

THE nation was divided, at this time, into a catholic and protestant party. From several circumstances, it is evident that a great majority of the people then inclined to the roman-catholic religion. All the bishops, with the solitary exception of Kitchin of Landaff, opposed the change of religion; the whole convocation, which met at the same time with the queen's first parliament, declared against it, and expressed their unanimous adherence to the ancient creed, by a declaration conformable to it, on the five important articles of the real presence, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass for the living and the dead, the supremacy of St. Peter and his successors, and the authority *Strype's Annals, vol. i. p. 51.

of the pastors of the church, exclusive of the laity, in matters of faith and discipline. They addressed these articles to the bishops, with a request to lay them before the lords in parliament. Both the universities signed a writing, declaring their concurrence in the same articles. Thus the change was in opposition to the wishes of the body of the clergy.

The laity were divided,-but several facts indicate that a great majority must have been in favour of the catholic religion; the single circumstance of the known general attachment, at this time, of the laity to their pastors, renders this highly probable.

Rishton, a contemporary writer, speaking from his own observation, says*, that "one third of the "kingdom was at this time protestant; most of the

nobility, the majority of the greater commoners, " and the generality of the persons employed in "agriculture and husbandry being catholics."

This conclusion is also favoured by the violence, which the court party found necessary to use, in the ensuing election of members to serve in the house of commons. Five candidates were nominated by the court to each borough, and three to each county; and by the sheriff's authority, the members were chosen from among these candidates; a measure, which appears to discover ap-> prehensions in the court that the general sense of the people was contrary to the reformation This conclusion is fortified by the complaints, which are found in the protestant writers of these

* De Schismate Angliæ, p. 272.

times, concerning the general dearth of teachers, which was immediately experienced in the universities and the public schools, and of ministers to officiate in the parishes.

XXII. 4.

Subdivision of the Protestants into Lutherans.

may

IT be generally said, that, with the exception of the belief of the ecclesiastical supremacy of the monarch, the church of England continued catholic during the reign of Henry. The first seeds of the protestant doctrine were sown by Lutheran hands. The emissaries employed by Henry, in obtaining the opinions of foreigners on the lawfulness of his marriage with Katharine of Arragon, became acquainted with Luther and some of his disciples; they returned home with dispositions favourable to his principles, and were either accompanied, on their return, or soon after followed, by some of their ablest advocates. Several attempts were made by the protestant princes of Germany to induce Henry to subscribe the confession of Augsburgh, and to place himself at the head of the league, which had been formed for its support. These did not succeed; but they gave occasion to communications between the Lutheran divines and the English advocates of reform. Thus, therefore, during the reign of Henry the eighth, the seeds of the reformation sown in this country were Lutheran *.

*

Strype, (Annals Eliz. vol. i. p. 53,) remarks, that "not "a few wished the alteration of religion to be settled according "to the Augustan confession: whereby a real and substantial