GROWTH OF THE SPIRIT OF PATRIOTISM 405 equally absurd to ignore the spirit of patriotism which was growing more intense among them with every pass ing year. Spain, to be sure, was at peace with England, but she was gradually coming to be recognized as the great foe of human liberty. On the other hand, although Elizabeth cared nothing for principles and was anxious only to save herself, the people at large knew little of the vacillations, the inclinations to the papacy, the breaches of faith, and treachery to her friends which the statepapers now reveal, and which were the chief causes of her peril. She imposed few taxes, she was popular in her manners, and she gave her country peace. To her people, who underneath the surface had noble characteristics, she represented a principle, that of nationality; and, as a Protestant sovereign, an idea—that of hatred of the papists, and of Spain, their leading champion. Every corsair who set out in search of Spanish plunder returned more of an Englishman than ever; his island home was dearer to him, for it protected him from all his enemies; his sovereign he worshipped, for she was the good genius of his fortunes. Each one, also, brought back his tale of the crimes against humanity perpetrated by the Inquisition. These actions, so far as Englishmen were concerned, might be justified legally as fair reprisals, but such a consideration would have no effect upon this people. Their rulers might stretch Jesuits upon the rack, or consign heretic Dutchmen to the flames, but it was an inexpiable offence for a foreign power thus to treat an Englishman.* * A notable, but by no means an exceptional, illustration of this national trait is found in Strype's "Annals of the Reformation." This industrious writer, who made his compilations in the early part Step by step the irrepressible conflict is coming on. Little by little England is feeling her strength, and preparing for the grand outburst of national energy which followed the annihilation of the Spanish Armada and of the eighteenth century, was a High-churchman, and an unwavering admirer of Elizabeth and her ecclesiastical policy. He describes, with apparent satisfaction, the burning at the stake, in 1575, of two Anabaptists from Holland; men who made no disturbance, but, meeting quietly for private worship, were arrested, and, on being questioned, avowed opinions which the Church called heretical. He also tells with approval of the execution, in 1580 and 1581, of a number of Jesuit priests, who, before trial, were subjected to torture, their nails torn out, and their arms racked into helplessness, all for preaching in secret the doctrines of their faith. Neither these transactions, nor the subsequent executions of scores of other Catholics and Separatists, elicit from our venerable author one word of human pity; but in 1581 an English Protestant was burned at the stake in Rome, and concerning his fate we find the following language: "But there happened this year an example of papal persecution, in Rome, upon an Englishman, which exceeded much any persecution complained of in England." The victim of this persecution was one Richard Atkins, of whose doings Strype himself gives this account. Burning with religious zeal, he left his own country, and went to Rome, to expose the wickedness of the pope and the idolatry of the people. In carrying out his enterprise, he first visited the English College there, rebuked the students for the great misorders of their lives, called the mass a "filthy sacrament," and denounced the pope as the Antichrist who was "poisoning the whole world with his abominable blasphemies." For these speeches he was arrested, but after a few days' confinement was set at liberty. Next, he attacked a priest who was carrying the Host through the streets, and attempted to take away the sacred emblem. This offence, too, was overlooked. At last, he went to St. Peter's during mass, pushed his way to the altar, seized the chalice, throwing the wine upon the ground, and struggled with the priest to take away the consecrated wafer. This last exploit led to his martyrdom, and to Strype's denunciation of "papal persecution." Strype's "Annals,” iii. 38. ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM-INFLUENCES AT WORK 407 gave the country a new life. The exclusion of their wool and cloth from the markets of the Netherlands seemed to her merchants at first a dreadful calamity. It led, however, as we have seen, to their seeking new markets for themselves, and thus, with an expanding commerce, they learned the lesson of self-confidence, the chief requisite of success in any calling. Accompanying this feeling was the intense national and Protestant spirit which was every day becoming more aroused under the running private war with Spain. In the fact that these momentous changes were brought about largely through the operations of the corsairs, who represented one marked phase of the new national energy, may be found my excuse for giving so much space to an account of these national heroes. Still, the Protestantism which the nation was acquir ing in this manner had little of a religious character. It did well enough for Elizabeth; it would have suited all her requirements that a subject should love her, hate the pope, and plunder the Spaniards. But there was another spirit abroad in the land—a spirit which was to make England, for a time, a Puritan country; a country of correct morals, and imbued with a love of justice and equal rights before the law. To be sure, this condition was not to continue long, but, considering what we have seen in the preceding pages, the wonder is that it ever came about at all. It is evident that the influence which could work such a revolution must have been a very potent one. In fact, it was complex in its nature, but, like the influences which produced the former waves of progress, mainly traceable to a foreign origin. Of its nature and the methods of its operation we shall see something in the next chapters. CHAPTER VIII ENGLISH PURITANISM THE JESUITS AND THE PURITANS-1558-1585 WE have seen in the preceding pages something of the religious condition of England during the first part of the Elizabethan age. There is nothing surprising in the picture, when we bear in mind the prior history of the country, and the form which the Reformation took on among its people. Upon the Continent the Refor mation was a religious movement; here it was largely secular and political. The result, at first, was a great breaking-down of religion and morality, while the concentration in one hand of the civil and religious power built up a tyranny which, in some of its features, seems at the present day well-nigh Asiatic in its disregard of human rights.* Before the century closed, however, the country saw a change, which was to become even more marked after Elizabeth had passed away. This change consisted in the elevation of the tone of morals among certain classes, and the appearance in the same quarter of a deep religious feeling, accompanied by a wide-spread demand for some measure of civil liberty. Such a revolution was caused little by anything within the nation, much less by anything within the Established Church. * Hume likens it to the governments of Russia and Turkey in his time, and he was not as prejudiced as many persons think. RELIGIOUS TORPOR IN ENGLAND-THE CATHOLICS 409 The religious system which the English Reformers constructed on the ruins of the papacy was a compromise, and, like all compromises, was disliked by the earnest men of either party. It retained a ritual, with most of the prayers and many of the forms and ceremonies of the old religion, while its doctrines were taken largely from the theology of Calvin. Such an establishment, presided over by a temporal monarch who assumed almost the authority of a pope, would have been impossible among a people who had much deep relig ious feeling. But the English, in the main, had none; and hence this hybrid, incongruous system might have worked well enough had the nation been left to itself, undisturbed by any foreign influence. Such an isolation was, however, now impossible. Upon the Continent the old and the new system of belief were fighting out a life-and-death struggle. Elizabeth tried to keep it from her doors; but every day an expanding commerce narrowed the channel which separated England from the field of conflict, and thicker and faster fell the sparks from the flames lighted by the warring factions. That some of them should take effect on British soil was, in the nature of things, inevitable. The change which came about in England, lifting it to a higher plane, was due mainly to the conflict between two forces in the nation: one, a newly awakened Catholicism, the other the new-born Puritanism. Neither was native to the soil; each derived its power from a Continental influence. How true this was as to the Catholics can be seen from a glance at their history during the first years of the reign of Elizabeth. As soon as she was fairly seated on the throne, she required all the priests and dignitaries of the old Church to conform to the Protestant |