1558-1603. Severities commenced tholics. CHAP. forming to the Romish worship.* It was in that III. year also, four years only from the Queen's accession, that a law was passed which empowered any against Ca- prelate, or a certain number of commissioners, to tender the oath of supremacy to all persons having taken orders, having obtained a degree in either University, or being admitted to practise as lawyers or civilians. The individual declining this oath was allowed three months to reflect, and persisting in his refusal he was to be declared guilty of high treason. There must have been some truly dangerous symptoms in the Catholic body at this moment, as it is well known that Elizabeth seldom meant to irritate that class of her subjects unnecesThe laws Sarily. It appears also, from facts, that this terrific only partial instrument was rather designed to intimidate the leaders of disaffection than to be generally applied.† against them ly enforced. Considerable credit, indeed, would seem to be due to Camden and others, who affirm, that during the first fourteen years of Elizabeth, the private exercise of the Catholic rites was a matter of almost general connivance. Instances, however, failed not to occur of persons suffering on account of * Strype's Annals, I. 233, 241. See a letter written in 1562, in Haynes, p. 395, which shows, that even such men as Grindal could appeal to the avarice of the court in favour of persecuting all who should be convicted of hearing mass, or entertaining priests. Torture was suggested as likely to extort confessions, and confessions were to be sought as a means of levying fines. The first offence against the statute requiring uniformity of worship, did not legally expose the offender to imprisonment; but there is reason to believe, that the punishment assigned for the second stage of the alleged criminality, was frequently inflicted on the first. Indeed, the fate of obnoxious persons through the whole of this reign, was affected more by the temper of the government than by the statutes of the realm; the severity of the latter being sometimes increased, and sometimes diminished, according to circumstances. 5 Eliz. c. 1. Strype's Life of Parker, p. 125. III. entertaining priests, or under the charge of recu- CHAP. sancy—a word which came to be used as describing 1558-1603. all persons wilfully absenting themselves from their parish church. Offences of the latter description became much more frequent among English Catholics as their numbers declined. This arose from the fact, that during the early part of this reign, it was almost generally understood by them, that to submit so far to the edicts of the state as to render an outward conformity to the religion which it enjoined, might be venial, provided the forms connected with the true faith were observed in private. Of this numerous class, sometimes called Catholic Catholic conformists, many in the course of years became Protestants. But the more conscientious, and especially such as were called to suffer on account of their fidelity, remained steadfast, and only became better known by means of the anathemas which were afterwards employed by the jealousy of their priesthood, to put an end to this dangerous sort of compromise. These becoming more devoted to their faith the more they saw it proscribed, were sometimes found to decline from the spirit of their allegiance as they advanced in religious zeal. conformists a numerous body. conspiracies. But whatever may have been the lenity of the Catholic one party, or the submission of the other, previous to 1570, the events of that year placed them in an attitude of hostility with regard to each other, that was both new and alarming. It was then that a formidable conspiracy in favour of the Scottish Queen of Queen, was detected; allied to this was the rebellion under the northern earls; and to stimulate these elements of treason, Pius V. issued Scots. CHAP. a bull, proclaiming Elizabeth a heretic, and, as a III. consequence, declaring her kingdom forfeited, her Elizabeth possession of the crown a usurpation, and her 1558-1603. excommuni declared an Pius V. cated, and subjects absolved from their allegiance. It was usurper, by evident from these events, that should the English Queen die without issue, a desperate effort would probably be made to place her rival on the vacant throne, and the accession of Mary would of course be followed by the return of popery. To guard against this evil was an object about which the statesmen of Elizabeth are known to have exercised a never slumbering solicitude. To use their own great language, it was "the great cause;" nor is the the states policy of such men as Cecil and Walsingham to be at all understood, without bearing this leading fact distinctly in mind.* The " cause," with men of Eli zabeth. The Catho- The pontiff had severed the bond of allegiance with greater between his partisans in this country and their sove lics treated severity. reign; and that sovereign, in return, obtained a statute which made it treason to reconcile any of her subjects to the church of Rome. It even declared that crime to be chargeable on all persons known to be in a state of reconciliation with the papal see, and attached the guilt of misprision of treason to such as should connive at these and similar offences.† An act was also passed by the same parliament, • Camden. Annals. Murdin's Papers, passim. The conspiracy referred to above, was conducted by parties who descended to solicit the duke of Alva to invade the country, and we must suppose, with the expectation that he would renew the atrocities in England, which have rendered his name so infamous in the Netherlands. Yet Camden relates of the chief of these conspirators, the duke of Norfolk, that it was almost incredible "how dearly he was beloved by the populace," on account of his munificence and affability. † 13 Eliz. c. 2. This act went so far as to prohibit the introduction of crosses, pictures, or other superstitious things consecrated by the pontiff. III. 1558-1603. which rendered it treasonable to attempt any im- CHAP. peachment of the Queen's title, and which exposed the parties to heavy penalties who should either print or write in favour of any person as her successor, unless that person should be the issue of her body, or recognized as heir to her crown by authority of parliament. The same consequences were also attached to the conduct of any individual who, without the above qualifications, should prefer a claim to the crown, during the Queen's life.* Mary and her adherents were thus condemned to silence on the matter dearest to their hopes. To violate either of these laws, was not only to brave the serious penalties which enforced them, but to meet a growing feeling of hostility which was now extending itself more or less to all parties. The More violent gravest statesmen, and such churchmen as Arch- parties with bishop Parker, began, in common with the puritans, the Queen to consider the removal of the Scottish Queen as the only measure which could destroy the machinations of their adversaries at home or abroad, since that only could render their prospect of success certainly hopeless. The lenity of the Queen toward her Catholic subjects, was a part of her policy, in which she was supported, to a considerable extent, by Burleigh. But that wary statesman Advice of would have employed the zeal of the puritan as the this crisis. most appropriate check on that of the Catholic. Elizabeth, however, obstinately refused to act on 13 Eliz. c. 1. † Parl. Hist. pp. 782, 783. Strype, II. 133–135. The Queen professed to appreciate the carefulness and zeal of her subjects, but would not consent, for the present, that the title of the Scottish Queen to the English throne should be "abled or disabled." temper of all regard to of Scots. Burleigh at III. 1558-1603. policy of CHAP. this part of his counsel. Her ambitious temper taught her to doubt the prudence of encouraging Different men whose tenets served to elicit so much disElizabeth. cussion on the questions of popular liberty, and led her rather to covet the aids of a priesthood which should direct its influence more to the imagination, than to the reason, of its votaries. These only could be expected to have the conscience of their followers strictly at command, and to be themselves at the command of the sovereign. The object of the English Queen evidently was, to retain the elements of the papal system most favourable to subordination; and to seize the reins of supremacy herself, instead of allowing them to pass into the hands of the pontiff. Persecution fails to secure tran Twenty years, however, had passed from her accession, years chequered with persecution, quillity. treason, and rebellion, and the prospect of tranquillity was still receding. The native Catholics found, that to discard the supremacy of the pope, and to obtain those spiritual benefits which the delegates of that ecclesiastic could alone dispense, was impossible. But it was also found that the religion which had availed itself of all the embellishments which art or pageantry could supply, might subsist without them; and that its rites, when practised in the most veiled secrecy, and stripped of their wonted appendages, often appeared as if possessed of a new charm, and one which nothing except suffering in their cause could have given Some of its them. When men are obliged to resort to such expedients that they may worship their Maker, it ought to be expected that the secrecies of devotion evil effects. |