CHAP. XXV.

EFFECT OF THE LEGAL ESTABLISHMENT OF THE PROTESTANT RELIGION ON THOSE WHO ADHERED TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

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THUS, "the revolution which has been men❝tioned in church affairs," to use the language of the writers of the Parliamentary History*, "took "place in a very surprising manner; and popes, "with cardinals, were banished this realm. On the rising of the parliament, the new liturgy in the vulgar tongue, which by their authority had been "established, was introduced into all churches and chapels of the kingdom: images were once more "taken down and removed out of them, with as "little disturbance as possible; and some of the 66 clergy themselves underwent the same fate; for "the oath of supremacy being tendered to them, "such as refused were deprived of their bishoprics, "livings, and all other ecclesiastical preferments: "but the numbers of the conscientious clergy "were but small, in comparison of the whole body. "In England, there were then computed nine "thousand four hundred ecclesiastical prefer"ments; of those, there went off no more than eighty parish priests, fifty prebendaries, fifteen "heads of colleges, twelve archdeacons, as many "deans, six abbots and abbesses, and fourteen * Vol. iii. p. 436.

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"bishops; which last number, except the bishop "of Landaff, were all that then were living. In this, the heads of the clergy showed much more "conscience than the tail of them. Other bishops, "&c. were elected and substituted in the places "of the deprived; and these alterations in religion "were done with so little noise and bustle in England, as was, says Camden, to the astonish"ment of the whole christian world.”

To the list of ecclesiastics who are said, in the foregoing extract, to have been deprived of their livings, in consequence of their non-conformity, the names of about fifty deprived prebendaries, and thirty-seven fellows of colleges, mentioned by Dodd*, may be added. But there is the strongest reason to suppose, that the number of non-conformists was considerably greater than that mentioned in the extract which we have inserted from the Parliamentary History. Seventeen fellows only of New College are noticed in the lists of the non-conformists which have reached us: but Wood informs us, that their whole number amounted

* Church Hist. vol. ii. p. 319. So lately as 1563, the speaker of the house of commons complained, that many of the schools and benefices "were seized, the education of youth 66 disappointed, and the succours for knowledge cut off. For "I dare aver," said he, "that the schools in England are fewer "than formerly by one hundred; and those, which remain, are many of them but slenderly stocked; and this is one reason, "the number of learned men is so remarkably diminished. "The universities are decayed, and great market towns "without either school or preacher." Coll. Ecc. Hist. vol. ii. p. 480.

to twenty-three; and he says, of the university of Oxford at large, that "after the catholics had left “it, upon the alteration of religion, it was so empty, "that there was very seldom a sermon preached in "it in the university church;-the university," he adds, "seemed to be destroyed*."

At the accession of queen Elizabeth, there were in England, including the Isle of Man, twentyseven episcopal sees; ten of these were vacant; all the prelates, who filled the remaining sees, except Kitchen, of Landaff, whom Camden calls "the

calamity of his see," on account of his dismemberment of its possessions, refused the oath of supremacy, and were displaced and imprisoned; but the imprisonment was gently managed, and the greater part of them were left prisoners at large.

Some were permitted to cross the seas, and died abroad. In consequence of some real or alleged imprudence, Watson of Lincoln was placed in strict confinement at Wisbeach castle; he appears to have been the only prelate, against whom government proceeded with severity.

We have seen, in a preceding page, that the number of ecclesiastics was computed at nine thousand four hundred. Most of the regulars who disobeyed the new regulations, fled to the convents of their several orders on the continent,their natural asylums: two religious establishments only preserved the continuity of their respective com

* See a short chronological account of the religious establishments by English catholics on the continent, by the abbé Mann, Archæologia, vol. xiii. p. 251.-And see Appendix, Note IV.

munities: the Carthusian monks, founded by king Henry the fifth, in 1416, retired successively to Bruges, Louvaine, and Mechlin, and finally to Nieuport in Flanders, where they continued till their suppression in 1793. The Bridgettine nuns, founded at Sion, in Middlesex, settled, after some wanderings, in Lisbon: a few ancient nuns, now residing in community at Somers-town, in the neighbourhood of London, still keep up the establishment of the monastery, once venerable, at Sion.

The fate of the secular clergy varied. We have seen, that the far greater number of them conformed to the new religion: those, who remained, were called “the old priests," and "queen Mary's "priests." Many of these retired to the continent, particularly to the Low Countries. All were received hospitably, several were admitted into public or official situations, and some obtained considerable preferment. The greater number, however, remained in England. Of these, some obtained sinecures, in which conformity was generally dispensed with; others remained in privacy, unknown, or at least unheeded.

But several, supported by the courageous munificence of catholic individuals among the nobility and gentry, who adhered to the ancient faith, actively discharged the duties of their character, for the benefit of their afflicted countrymen. Of these, some were to be found in London and other great towns, sheltered, by the largeness of the population, from particular notice: but the greater number resided with their patrons, and administered

to them, their tenants, and their neighbours, the rites of religion and the benefits of instruction, in the midst of hardship and danger. In a manuscript, with the perusal of which the writer has been favoured, the number of these valuable men is computed at one thousand. To them and their excellent protectors, the preservation of the catholic religion in this country, against the first shock of the reformation, was altogether owing.

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Not long after the passing of the act which has been mentioned, the emperor of Germany, and some other catholic princes, addressed the queen behalf of the catholics, and particularly suggested to her the reasonableness of allowing, to that portion of her subjects, one church in every town. The queen refused the request; but professed general kindness towards "those on whose behalf she was "solicited:" she intimated an intention of "endea"vouring to cure their refractory spirit," as she termed it, "by connivance," and observed, that England had not embraced any strange or new

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fangled faith, but had established the very same. "which Christ had commanded, the primitive "catholic church received, and the oldest of the "fathers jointly approved*.

In the fifth year of her reign, a law was passed, by which it was enacted, that persons maintaining the pope's authority within this realm, should incur the "penalties of præmunire;" that all " ecclesias"tical persons, graduates and fellows of the uni"versity, and all officers belonging to courts of * Bartoli, Istoria, lib. i. c. 9.