and Pole designs, and whom the nation itself had guarded in the midst of every peril as its deliverer. Thus overwhelmed by failure and disappointment, Mary, in the midst of the depression that both Mary followed the loss of Calais, died in the morning of the 17th died on the of November, 1558, and a few hours later Cardinal Pole, the 17th of zealous counsellor who had toiled in vain by her side, was no 1558. more. November, The last two stages lish Reformation: the third stage, coextensive with the Mary, in her secution; CHAPTER V. ELIZABETH AND THE FINAL SETTLEMENT. 1. WITH the death of Mary ended the third stage of the of the Eng- English Reformation, the period of reaction during which the nation wearied and disheartened by the political and religious chaos, the social and financial distress endured under Edward's selfish and despotic councillors, and alarmed at the reactionary prospect of a fresh dynastic struggle — sought peace and order reign of at the feet of the legitimate sovereign even upon terms that involved the surrender of the entire fruit of the religious revolution which Henry had inaugurated, excepting only the ecclesiastical property, whose wide distribution had made it almost a national endowment. The hope of a reconciliation upon such a basis, faint enough at best in view of the general aversion to the papal overlordship and to clerical domination culminated through the ecclesiastical courts, utterly vanished in the prefamous per- sence of the Marian persecution, which so deepened and intensified the religious strife as to leave the nation more hopelessly divided than ever before into two irreconcilable and warring the fourth factions. The fourth and last stage began with the accession stage began of Elizabeth, upon whom devolved the difficult task of formuwith the ac- lating and enforcing a political programme through which the Elizabeth, nation was finally emancipated from papal and Spanish domination, and all parties and sects compelled to accept or acquiesce in a system of religious uniformity which rested upon parliamentary enactments, and which was enforced with all the despotic authority of the conciliar system. Utterly devoid of the religious enthusiasm that had in turn driven Edward and Mary in political opposite directions, and viewing all theological differences in a purely political light, the new queen came to her task with a mental equipment which harmonized completely with that of the wise and wary counsellor who for forty years stood by her side. Foremost among that class of English statesmen known as "politicals," who accepted the new doctrine that every people possessed not only the right to determine for itself the form and last cession of who com pelled all parties to acquiesce in a state system of religious uniformity; Elizabeth's temper; masterful cious mid of the national belief, but also the right to enforce such belief as a matter of state policy,1 stood William Cecil, afterwards Cecil's Lord Burghley, whose one aim was to restore order and unity, policy; and to build up the national power and influence at the sacrifice of every other consideration. It may be true "that the wisdom of Elizabeth was the wisdom of her ministers, and that her chief merit, which circumstances must divide with herself, lay in allowing her policy to be guided by Lord Burghley." 2 Whatever its source, the fact remains that the wisdom that shaped the masterful policy of the crown during Elizabeth's reign was a tentative, political, and yet withal a patriotic wisdom, which, holding the best interests of England steadily in view, chose in the effort to reëstablish the religious unity of the nation that judicious middle course so imperiously the judidictated by the pressure of circumstances. From the outset dle course; every line of action which opened before the queen, who was forced to move on, was beset with serious difficulties. At difficulties confronting war with both France and Scotland, England's only ally was Elizabeth Philip, behind whom stood the pope, and more important still and Cecil; the English catholics, who "were in the majority in every county in England, except Middlesex and Kent." 8 To ward off probable dangers which might have resulted from a sudden breach with Spain and the papacy, the celebration of the mass all changes was permitted to go on, a proclamation was issued forbidding until the any change or innovation until consultation could be had in meeting of parliament; parliament, while the queen, whose title to the throne grew out of a marriage made in defiance of papal authority, took and Elizacare to formally notify Paul IV. of her accession. The haughty beth's title response of the pontiff, reproaching Elizabeth with her pre- throne; 1 See above, p. 58. 2 Froude, Preface to Hist. of Eng land. 8 "Distresses of the Common wealth," Domestic MS., Elizabeth, vol. i. "The Protestants were confined chiefly to the great towns and seaports; and those who deprecated doctrinal alteration, either from habit, prudence, or mere instinct of conservatism, still constituted two thirds, perhaps three fourths, of the entire population."- Froude, vol. vi. p. 114, citing "Note on the State of the Realm, in the hand of Sir William Cecil, Cotton. MSS., Calig. B. 10." 4 The queen was crowned with mass on January 20, 1559, and on the 25th parliament was opened with the old form, except that the communion was administered in both kinds. The queen was to commune as she pleased. Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 397; Burnet, Hist. Reform., vol. i. p. 565. 5 On the day of her accession, commanding her subjects "not to attempt, upon any pretence, the breach, alteration, or change of any order or usage presently established within our realm." 6 Burnet, vol. i. pp. 560, 561. This fact, generally stated in all histories, has been denied by Mr. Tierney, the editor forbidden to the sumption, reminding her of her illegitimacy, and demanding that her claims to the succession should be submitted to his tribunal, quickly assured her, however, of the fact, already realized, that her very title to the throne was irrevocably bound up with the cause of the Reformation. Under the force of that conviction her first move had been to so reorganize her council so council as to place protestants in the ascendant, in order reorganized to secure to herself the support of that able and aggressive the protest minority in the contest which a fresh break with Rome would ascendant; make inevitable. The only conclusive response that could as to put be made to the pope's pretensions was the reassertion of the Lutheran doctrine, which Henry had originally put forward, of the exclusive right of the nation not only to decide upon the title to the crown, but also as to the form of religious belief first parlia- which should prevail within its bounds. For that purpose was January, called Elizabeth's first parliament, which met on the 25th 2 of January, 1559. ment met in 1559. Terms of the final settlement: of the act restoring the royal supremacy; 2. Although it was not passed until near the end of the session, the first act to go upon the statute-book was that entitled "An act to restore to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over the estate, ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolishing all summary foreign powers repugnant to the same." The contents of that act, wiping out the papal and reëstablishing the royal supremacy, may be summarized as follows: (1) the act of 1 & 2 Phil. & Mar. c. 8, whereby Henry VIII.'s ecclesiastical legislation was swept away, was repealed, and ten of his acts were revived; 4 persecuting (2) the persecuting statutes of 1381, 1400, and 1414, which repealed; Mary had revived, were also repealed; (3) the ground being thus cleared, the papal supremacy was expressly abolished in penalties sweeping terms, which made its exercise as illegal as it had nizing the been under Henry VIII.; and penalties, in three grades, were supremacy; imposed upon all who should "by writing, printing, teaching, preaching . . maintain or defend the authority" abolished by the act; (4) the provisions then made for the reëstablish statutes for recog papal of Dodd's Church Hist. of Eng., vol. 1 Ibid., vol. i. p. 561; and for more 2 It was summoned for the 23d, but was prorogued until the 25th. 8 i Eliz. C. I. 4 23 Hen. VIII. c. 9; 24 Hen. VIII. 12; 25 Hen. VIII. cc. 1, 8, 19, 20; 26 Hen. VIII. c. 14; 28 Hen. VIII. c. 16; 32 Hen. VIII. c. 28; 37 Hen. VIII. C. 17. The rogatives the crown and not to the sover au- eign personally; per the Court of allegiance ment of the royal supremacy were of an impersonal character, in order to escape the awkward dilemma which would have resulted from a simple revival of Henry's Act of Supremacy, and the consequent declaration of the queen as the "Supreme Head." Instead of again transferring the papal prerogatives papal preto the sovereign personally, it was now declared that they now anshould "by the authority of this present parliament be united nexed to and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm." 2 (5) vast powers thus vested in the crown the sovereign was thorized to exercise through commissioners,3 who were finally organized into the Court of High Commission, which as a origin of corporate body undertook to discharge the corrective juris- High Comdiction of the crown over "the ecclesiastical state and mission; sons," clerical and lay. (6) In order to make the new su- new oath of premacy effective, an oath of allegiance and supremacy was and su provided, whose refusal disqualified any one from accepting premacy; any office under the crown or any benefice in the church, while those who were already in possession of such offices or preferments were upon a refusal of the oath liable to be deprived of them. The logical sequence of the act reëstablishing the new Act of royal supremacy was a new Act of Uniformity, restoring the ity; devotional system as established during the reign of Edward VI. A tendency in that direction had been manifested from the outset by a proclamation issued in December, 1558, which, preliminary proclamawhile it silenced the pulpits and forbade radical change until ons there could be consultation in parliament, partially restored the use of the vernacular in divine service; 5 and by another issued in March, 1559, forbidding irreverent speaking of the sacrament of the altar, and enjoining the reception of the communion in both kinds. At the same time a royal commission was appointed to secretly draft a new prayer-book for submis 1 As originally introduced in the commons, the bill restored to the queen that title. See Strype's Annals, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 405. 2 The act declared the sovereign "the only Supreme Governor of this realm, and of all other her Highness' dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal." 3 r Eliz. c. i, §§ 17, 18. 4 x Eliz. c. I, §8 19-26. 5 Strype's Annals, vol. ii. p. 389; Cardwell's Docum. Ann., p. 176. 6 Lansd. MS., p. 198; Blount, Reform. of the Church of Eng., vol. ii. p. 338. See Burnet, vol. i. p. 562; Strype's Annals, vol. ii. pp. 392, 397. In the preliminary consultations it was decided that the revisers should meet "at Sir Thomas Smyth's lodgings in Channon row." Uniform tions; secret com- mission to |