CHAPTER IV THE ELIZABETHAN ERA ITH Elizabeth's accession disappeared all WITH connection. England evidently found her true representative in the new queen. Her position, views, and policy were so thoroughly national and popular that the expressive appellation of England's Elizabeth was bestowed upon her, while recollections of Philip and Mary associated their religion with Spain and Spaniards in many English minds.' In a literary sense Wickliffe's opinions, which, though politically suppressed, had left their traces on the English intellect, probably prepared the way for Protestantism in England, but till Elizabeth's reign it was never very firmly established, though at the close of her father's life it seemed the prevailing influence. Though Henry VIII. had quarrelled with the Papacy, his rapid change from ardent Catholicism to a very worldly Protestantism, together with the opposing I Macaulay's and Hume's Histories, also Tennyson's "Queen Mary." influences of his different ministers or advisers, Wolsey, More, Thomas Cromwell, and Cranmer, prevented the sure triumph of Protestantism, even when it seemed politically supreme.1 But Elizabeth, at her accession, was viewed as the young heroine of England. Her immediate popularity equalled that of her father. She was her nation's religious as well as political champion and representative. No previous English queen ever occupied the same position in the sight of her subjects. The beautiful, prophetic language Shakespeare attributes to Cranmer about her future reign, though perhaps rather exaggerated or fantastic for modern taste, apparently expressed truly enough the real feelings of her Protestant subjects during her long important reign.2 All the mental and physical resources of England were at her immediate command. The bravery of See Macaulay on Henry's political and religious position."History of England," Vol. 2nd. 2 "This royal infant (Heaven still move about her), Upon this land a thousand, thousand blessings, She shall be, (But few now living can behold that goodness), And all that shall succeed. She shall be to the happiness of England youth, the counsel of age, the wealth of the nobility, the loyalty of the commons, the fervent attachment of the clergy, the wisdom of philosophers and the genius of poets alike supported, glorified, and adorned her long tenure of supreme power. With her was now identified the national independence of all foreign influence by the severance of the last link, hitherto uniting western Europe in one form of Christianity, for previously Henry VIII.'s religion was too uncertain, and Edward VI.'s reign too short for thorough confidence in Protestant ascendancy. Elizabeth, with far more consistency, was head of the Church as well as the State. She represented the English intellect with royal rights, and theological assumptions united in a resolute, sagacious, and popular queen. Yet, despite her power, august position, and vast dominion, there remained, among the English Catholic minority, a rather large proportion of intellect, wealth, and education. To these outnumbered and distrusted subjects the failure of Protestantism in southern Europe was the grand consolation for its triumph in the north. The determined resistance of Ireland to Protestantism afforded as yet little relief to English Catholics. That unfortunate island, hitherto always England's political foe, friendly to her enemies and hostile to her allies, could not be thought a sure friend to English Catholics, whose ancestry were identified with those of Protestant fellow-countrymen in Ireland's historical conquest. Elizabeth's greatest foe, alike to her glory, safety, and historic reputation, appeared in the attractive, romantic form of her cousin, the Catholic Mary Queen of Scots. This princess, as if fated to irritate and perplex Elizabeth in personal as well as political rivalry, possessed to an extraordinary degree that personal beauty and charm of manner which none of Elizabeth's flatterers or admirers, however enthusiastic, could truly attribute to their patronising mistress. In Mary of Scotland the future hopes of all British Roman Catholics became centred; she was to them almost as much the political heroine of Catholicism as Elizabeth was of Protestantism. During their lives the religious minds of Britain, unequally divided between the old faith and differing forms of the new, considered them opposing champions of the contending Christian divisions. Scotland, like England at this time, experienced all the perilous excitement of doctrinal conflict. Like England also, the power of literature, though in a less degree, was chiefly directed in favour of Protestantism. I The earnest preaching and writing of John Knox and George Buchanan were scarcely answered by Scottish Roman Catholics. Their faith in Scotland made far less resistance than in England, The comparative slow growth, or late influence of Scottish literature is thus noticed by Mr. Buckle: "To the beginning of the eighteenth century, Scotland could only boast of two authors, Buchanan and Napier, whose works have benefited mankind." He adds that till the beginning of the 19th century Scottish literature was extremely backward." History of Civilisation," Vol. 3rd. where many more Catholic families remained in suspected seclusion on their estates, deriving sympathy from Continental co-religionists, who, triumphant in France, Spain, and Italy, still contemplated the return of Britain to the Catholic Church. It apparently never occurred to literary or thoughtful men at home or abroad to effect any religious reconciliation. Political supremacy, aiming to enforce Christian uniformity, was as much the prevailing desire of the educated as of the ignorant classes throughout western Europe. This object was revealed by the Reformers in fervent English or German, while the utter condemnation of the least difference from Catholic doctrine reappeared in the solemn Latin decrees of Rome, wholly uninfluenced by the progress or changes of time. The British intellect, founding its literary knowledge on the Greek and Roman classics and its religion on Jewish history, now expressed more fully than ever its religious thoughts in the English language. Yet among all Christian divisions the monarchical system of government found exclusive favour and support. Obedience and devotion to kings or chiefs, their heroism, generosity, exploits, and popularity, were the favourite subjects of traditions, songs, and ballads, throughout Britain from the earliest times. These sentiments were gradually developed by advancing civilisation into a practical, steady, though ' Hallam's "Literary History," also Guizot's "Civilisation in Europe." |