March On this last point Elizabeth would yield nothing. CHAP VIII The clergy were under the charge of the bishops; and 1565 the bishops should manage them with law or without. One or two of the most violent of the London preachers were called before the Council and foul chidden' but lay interference with them was limited to remonstrance. Ecclesiasti The responsibility of punishing them was flung per- sion at sistently on the Archbishop, who at length, after once more ineffectually imploring Cecil to pacify the Queen,' opened a commission at Lambeth with the Bishop of London on the 26th of March. cal Commis Lambeth. London A few hours' experience sufficed to justify the worst alarm. More than a hundred of the London clergy appeared. Sixty- one promised conformity; a few hesitated; thirty-seven distinctly refused, and were suspended for three months from all manner of ministry.' They were the best preachers in the city; they showed reasonable quietness and modesty other than was looked Riots in the for;' but submit they would not.' As an immediate churches. consequence, foreseen by every one but the Queen, the most frequented of the London churches either became the scenes of scandal and riot, or were left without service. When the Archbishop sent his chaplains to officiate the congregation forcibly expelled them. The doors of one church were locked, and six hundred citizens who came to communion,' were left at the doors unable to find entrance; at another, an Anglican priest of high church tendencies, who was sent to take the place of the deposed minister, produced a wafer at the sacrament; the parishioners when he was reading the prayer of consecration removed it from the table, 'because it was not common bread.' At a third church 1 Parker to Cecil, March 26.-LANSDOWNE MSS. 8. April CHAP VIII the churchwardens refused to provide surplices. The 1565 Bishop of London was besieged in his house at St. Paul's by mobs of raging women, whom he vainly entreated to go away and send their husbands instead. Unable to escape from the hands of these Amazons, he was about 'to pray aid of some magistrate' to deliver him; and was rescued only by one of the suspended clergy, who persuaded them to go away quietly- yet so as with tears they moved at some hands' compassion." Everywhere the precise Protestants' offered their goods and bodies to prison rather than they would relent.' Elizabeth affects Catholic usages. Simultaneously and obviously on purpose Elizabeth forced upon the people the most alarming construction of the persecution. On Good Friday, her almoner Guest the high church Bishop of Rochester, preached a sermon in the Chapel Royal on the famous Hoc est corpus meum. He assured his congregation again and again that the bread at the sacrament was the very body, the very same body which had been crucified,' and that the Christian must so take it and so believe of it; and an enthusiastic Catholic in the audience was so delighted to hear the old doctrine once more in the Sovereign's presence, that he shouted out- That is true, and he that denies it let him be burnt.' On Easter Tuesday Elizabeth in stiff black velvet, and with all solemnity and devotion, publicly wasbed the feet of a poor woman; and the washing business over, with slow deliberation she had a large crucifix brought to her, which she piously kissed." 1 Parker to Cecil, March 26, March 28, April 3, April 12.-LANSDOWNE MSS. Grindal to Cecil, May 4.Domestic MSS., ELIZ., vol. xxxix., Rolls House. 2 Acabando de lavar el pie á la In part perhaps she was but pobre, hacia de mucho espacio una cruz muy larga y bien hecha para besar en ella de que pesaba á muchos de los que allí estaban.'— De Silva to Philip, April 21. MS. Simancas. a politic hypocrite, and desired to deceive de Silva and CHAP VIII Philip; but the world took her at her word, and believed 1565 that she was openly making profession of Catholicism April 28 while she was compelling the Protestants to be their own destroyers. Once more Parker poured out to Cecil his despair and distraction.1 Lambeth, April 28. bishop's the situa tion. 'SIR,-The Queen's Majesty willed my Lord of York The Archto declare her pleasure determinately to have the orders go opinion of forward. I trust her Highness hath devised how it may t be performed. I utterly despair therein as of myself and therefore must sit still as I have now done, always waiting either for toleration or else further aid. Mr. Secretary, can it be thought that I alone having sun and moon against me can compass this difficulty. If you of her Majesty's Council provide no otherwise for this matter than as it appeareth openly, what the sequel will be horresco vel reminiscendo cogitare. In King Edward's days the whole body of the Council travailed in Hooper's attempt; my predecessor Cranmer of blessed memory labouring in vain with Bishop Ferrars, the Council took it in hand; and shall I hope to do that which the Queen's Majesty will have done? What I hear and see-what complaints be brought to me, I shall not report, [or] how I am used of many men's hands. I commit all to God. If I die in this cause-malice so far prevailing-I shall commit my soul to God in a good conscience. If the Queen's Majesty be no more considered, I shall not marvel what be done or said to me. If you hear and see so manifestly as may be seen, and will not consult in time to prevent so many miseries, I have and do by these presents dis 1 Archbishop Parker to Cecil.-LANSDOWNE MSS. 9. 1565 April CHAP VIII charge my duty and conscience to you in such place as ye be. I can promise to do nothing but hold me in silence within my own conscience, and make my complaints to God ut exsurgat Deus et judicet causam istam, ille, ille, qui comprehendit sapientes in astutiâ corum.' God be with your honour. Protest of the Scotch 'Your honour's in Christ, 'MATT. CANTUAR.' The alarm produced by Elizabeth's attitude was not confined to the English Protestants. Adam Loftus, titular Archbishop of Armagh, bewailed to Cecil the malice of the crafty devil and subtle Satan,' who was ' turmoiling and turning things topsy-turvy, bringing in a mingled religion, neither wholly with nor wholly against God's word.' Such a religion was the more dangerous,' the Irish primate thought, as it was accounted good and comely;' but for himself he would rather see God followed wholly or Baal followed wholly; it was dangerous to urge a necessity in things which God's word did set at liberty.'" Alarm of Far worse was the effect in Scotland. The rigid CalCalvinists. vinists who had long watched Elizabeth with jealous eyes, clamoured that she was showing herself at last in her true colours. Posts and packets flying daily in the air,' brought such news as lost her and lost England the hearts of all the godly.' No imagination was too extravagant to receive credit. The two Queens were supposed to be in a secret league for the overthrow of the truth; and Darnley's return was interpreted as part of an 1 That God may arise, and may judge in this cause,-He-He-who taketh the wise in their own craftiness.' 2 The Archbishop of Armagh to Cecil, 1565.—Irish MSS. Rolls House. 1565 April insidious policy-at once to match the Queen of Scots CHAP VIII meanly and poorly,' and to confirm her in her evil ways 'by marrying her to a Papist.' The 'godly' exclaimed in anguish that no hope was left of any sure establishment of Christ's religion, but all was turned to confusion.' The evil effect' on men's minds was described as beyond measure infinite;' and Mary Stuart's desire to obtain liberty of conscience for the Catholics, and the increasing favour which she showed to Darnley were alike set down to Elizabeth. The Leicester scandals were revived with new anecdotes to confirm them.' The Protestants goaded into fear and fury swore that the priests at Holyrood should be hanged, and 'idolatry' be no more suffered. Mary Stuart being on a visit at Lundy in Fife, the Laird—‘a grave antient man with a white head and a white beard' -led his seven sons before her, all tall and stalwart men. They knelt together at her feet. The house,' the laird said, 'was hers, and all that was in it, and he and his boys would serve her truly till death;' but he prayed that while she remained no mass should be said there.' She asked why. He said it was worse than the mickle de'il.'" Remonstrance did not rest in words. A priest in Edinburgh taking courage from the reports which were 1 'It is in every man's mouth that lately the Duke of Norfolk's Grace and my Lord of Leicester were playat tennis, the Queen beholding them, and my Lord Robert being very hot and sweating, took the Queen's napkin out of her hand and wiped his face, which the Duke seeing said he was too saucy, and swore he would lay his racket upon his face. Hereupon arose a tumult, and the Queen offended sore with the Duke. Randolph to Throgmorton, March Randolph to Cecil, March 27.- |