stitutions, only unfolded to us by the patient research of modern investigators. Each ignores all the foreign influences which at this crucial period shaped the future of the English people. But, in fact, the ideas and principles of the Puritans in civil as well as religious matters were not indigenous to English soil. They were in the main not only novel in England, but also of foreign growth, and, being transplanted, they took root but slowly, and after a brief efflorescence lived, for a time, but a sickly life. Where they came from and how they were brought to England are interesting questions, involving an examination of the development of English Puritanism on lines quite different from those usually followed.

The accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England, on November 17th, 1558, was hailed with joy by all classes in the nation, except the few fanatical bigots who had sympathized with the bloody persecutions of her sister Mary. The Protestants saw in the young queen a daughter of the marriage which had brought about a separation from the Church of Rome, and upon that fact, and upon her Protestant education, based their hopes of the future. The Catholics knew that she had professed their creed during the reign just ended, and felt assured that she had none of the bigotry which would endanger their personal safety, even if she went back to her earlier faith. All had heard of her as a young princess of studious habits, who had borne imprisonment with exemplary patience, looking every inch a queen, and yet with manners modest and affable.*

* Signor Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador, writing home in 1554, four years earlier, when Elizabeth was twenty-one, says: "Such an air of dignified majesty pervades all her actions that no one can fail to judge her a queen. She is a good Greek and Latin scholar, and,

ELIZABETH'S ACCESSION-THE RELIGIOUS FUTURE

431

The first act of the queen was the selection of Sir William Cecil, the famous Lord Burghley, as her chief secretary and confidential adviser. Cecil had been the secretary of her brother Edward, but after his death had conformed to the Catholic religion, as Elizabeth had done; although Mary had looked upon his conversion with distrust, and refused to give him any public office. He had always been friendly to Elizabeth, and she never showed greater wisdom than in choosing him for her leading councillor. What was to be the religion of the State no one knew at first, and the conduct of the queen left the question doubtful. She attended mass, she buried her sister with all the solemnities of the Catholic ritual, and ordered prayers to be said for the soul of Charles V., who had just died. On the other hand, she released all the prisoners confined for their religion by her sister, allowed the Protestant exiles to return from the Continent, and when the Bishop of Carlisle was about to say mass in the royal chapel, she gave orders that the Host should not be elevated in her presence.* At about the same time a proclamation was issued forbidding all preaching in the kingdom. Evidently some intelligence was awaited before a final decision could be reached. It came, and it determined the religious history of England.

Immediately upon the death of Mary, messengers had been despatched to the different courts of Europe to an

besides her native tongue, she speaks Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian benissimo; and her manners are very modest and affable." Rawdon Brown's "Calendar State Papers," 1554, from "Venetian Archives;" quoted in a charming little book, "English Lands, Letters, and Kings, from Celt to Tudor," by Donald G. Mitchell (New York), p. 209. Scores of witnesses testify as to what her manners became when she had been a few years upon the throne.

*Lingard's "History of England" (Philadelphia, 1827), vii. 205.

nounce the succession of Elizabeth. It was known that the French king would not recognize her title, for the Dauphin had married Mary Stuart, who claimed the English crown. But Philip of Spain was the natural enemy of France; he had always professed a friendship for his sister-in-law, and now that he was a widower he offered her his hand. Such a marriage, however, required a dispensation from the pope. Unfortunately for the Catholic cause, the papal throne was occupied by a pontiff (Paul IV.), who was over eighty years old, narrow-minded, and under the influence of France. When, therefore, the English ambassador announced the accession of Elizabeth, the pope replied that he was unable to comprehend the hereditary right of one who was not born in lawful wedlock; that the Queen of Scots claimed the crown as the nearest legitimate descendant of Henry VII.; but that if Elizabeth was willing to submit the controversy to his arbitration, she should receive from him every indulgence which justice could allow.*

With such a rebuff from Rome, which cut off all hopes of a Spanish marriage, and with an adverse claimant to the crown, who was a Catholic and supported by the power of France, nothing remained to Elizabeth, whatever her inclinations, except to announce herself as a Protestant queen. Still, secrecy was maintained until arrangements could be completed for assembling a new Parliament. A commission was privately set at work

*Lingard, vii. 204; Creighton's "Age of Elizabeth" (New York, 1885), p. 46. Paul died in the succeeding August, 1559. His successor, Pius IV., was a man of very different ideas. He sent a nuncio to England, offering, it is said, to approve of the Book of Common Prayer, provided only that the English Church would submit to the papal supremacy. But the offer came too late. The nuncio was not even allowed to enter England. Creighton, p. 50.

PARLIAMENT RECONSTRUCTS THE ENGLISH CHURCH 433

to revise the Prayer-book of Edward VI. Some of the old bishops were imprisoned, and four or five new Protestant peers created so as to control the upper House. The lower House was filled in the usual manner. During the reign of Mary, the sheriffs had been instructed to see that only good Catholics were returned as members. Now they were instructed to have a choice made from a list of candidates furnished by the court.* On January 15th, 1559, Elizabeth was formally crowned, one of the old bishops consenting to officiate, using the rites of the Catholic Church. On January 25th the new Parliament began its session. Of the bishops, only ten were in attendance and voting; of the sixty-one peers, thirty were conspicuous by their absence. The lower House was made up of court nominees, distinguished for their zeal in the cause of Protestantism.

The Parliament, thus constituted, in a session of three months, reconstructed the English Church, which, with little change, has continued on the basis then established until the present day. The packed members of the lower House knew nothing of the vacillation of the queen. They were decided in their opposition to the Church of Rome, and had no question of her entire sympathy. As Englishmen, they had the traditional reverence for the crown which would lead them to pass almost any measure which came to them with the royal recommendation. Proceeding in a few days to give to the crown the first-fruits (that is, the first year's income of all church livings) and tenths (that is, one tenth of all incomes thereafter), they began by enacting two statutes, which are of great importance as affecting all the subsequent history of the Puritans.

Strype's "Annals," i. 33; Lingard, vii. 206, citing "Clarendon Papers." Froude, vii. 41.

The first of these statutes is commonly called "The Act of Supremacy." By its provisions the sovereign was declared to be the supreme governor of the Church. She was authorized to nominate all bishops, to control the ecclesiastical state and persons by juridical visitation, to correct all manner of heresies, schisms, offences, contempts, and enormities in the Church; and these powers of visitation and correction she was authorized to delegate to commissioners of her own selection. All persons in the State holding benefices or offices were required to take the oath of supremacy, avowing "the queen to be the only supreme governor within the realm, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical causes and things as temporal." Any one affirming the authority, within the realm, of any foreign power, spiritual or ecclesiastical, was, for the first offence, to forfeit all his goods; for the second, to incur the penalties of a præmunire; and for the third, to be punished as a traitor.*

The second act revived the Book of Common Prayer of the time of Edward VI., with some alterations and additions. It provided that any minister who should refuse to use it, who should use any other rites and forms than those therein set down, or who should speak in its derogation, should, for the first offence, forfeit the profits of his benefice for a year, and be imprisoned for six months without bail; for the second, lose his benefice and be imprisoned for a year; and for the third, be imprisoned for life. Any persons not in order who should thus offend, or use public prayers in any other than the prescribed form, were for the first and second offence to be severely fined, and for the third to forfeit all their property and suffer imprisonment for life. Per

* 1 Eliz. cap. 1.