and method of public service and Church government might be established, not only within her dominions, but among all the reformed and evangelical Churches abroad," even Parker assented to the idea, if only the Church of England might retain her episcopate, "not as from Pope Gregory, who sent over Augustine the monk hither, but from Joseph of Arimathea!" If nothing were attempted in this direction, it was mainly owing to the peremptory spirit and native jealousy of the Queen; but a measure of blame must attach to those of the returned exiles who accepted bishoprics and other dignities without insisting on obtaining such concessions or coming to such understanding as might have been in better accord with their own judgment and wishes.

"There were many learned and pious divines in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's reign, who, being driven beyond sea, had observed," says Bishop Burnet, "the new model set up in Geneva and other places for the censuring of scandalous persons, of mixed judicatories of the ministers and laity; and these, reflecting on the great looseness of life which has been universally complained of in King Edward's time, thought such a platform might be an effectual way for keeping out a return of like disorders."

That such suggestions should meet with little consideration from the Queen, is easily understood. They were set aside, however, not on the ground of any religious or pious objections, but for very mundane reasons indeed. For, as the Bishop tells us, there were those who

"Demonstrated to her that these new models would certainly bring with them a great abatement of her prerogative; since, if the concerns of religion came into popular hands, there would be a power set up distinct from her, over which she could have no authority. This she perceived well, and therefore resolved to maintain the ancient government of the Church."

Here we have a key to much of the ecclesiastical policy and procedure of Elizabeth's whole reign. This spirit of suspicion and distrust of the people was the fruitful source of tyrannical administration in matters ecclesiastical; while the jealous shrinking from anything like autonomy or self-regulation for

1 Strype's Parker, p. 70.

H

the Church did more than aught else to stereotype and stiffen its action, secularize its spirit, and perpetuate the relics of feudalism which, above all other English institutions, it has ever had a tendency to harbour. The anomaly of a free Parliament and yet an enslaved Church, in the midst of a people progressing in religious as well as in constitutional liberty, is a sad heritage from the old Elizabethan ecclesiastical plan. Hence the rise and maintenance of two great parties, with two different conceptions of the Church and its work: the one solicitous about carrying forward the internal or spiritual reformation of the Church on simple evangelical lines; the other disposed to set chief store by the external power of the Church as a great social institution, imposing to the eye, mighty in the State, and with certain mystic powers, rather than as an effective institution for convincing men of sin, converting them to Christ, and building them up in the faith of the Gospel.

I.

DEVELOPMENT OF A PRESBYTERIAN PARTY.

In the third year of Elizabeth, the purged and reformed Convocation met in Henry Seventh's chapel, 19th January, 156, to draw up, as far as it was permitted, those ecclesiastical arrangements and articles which were to bind the Church of England. The decisions of this Synod were not, however, adopted by the Queen, nor ratified as law by Parliament, till nine years afterwards; and the interval from 1562 to 1571 was a period of much wrestling and struggle, during the early part of which it remained doubtful what precise shape the Church's Constitution might be made to assume. Indeed, for the first ten years of her reign, until the suppression of the Northern Rebellion in 1569, Elizabeth's throne was far from being secure ; but thereafter the Church became yet more dependent on the mere will of the Crown, the very conflict and confusion among Church parties adding greatly to the Sovereign's personal authority in religious affairs. Even in 1562-3 the Queen could afford almost to ignore a remarkable PETITION, from "the main part of the Commons of this your realm of England, Wales, and Ireland," which seems like an echo of Knox's Genevan programme. But of graver significance to the Queen's mind at this moment were THE CRITICAL VOTES IN THE LOWER HOUSE OF CONVOCATION. Having agreed on the doctrinal Articles, reducing the forty-two of Edward VI. to the present thirty-nine, that House proceeded to questions of

It lies in that Morrice collection of MSS. alongside the bundle of Knox's papers reprinted by Dr. Lorimer. See his Knox, p. 220.

2 An extraordinary illustration of the royal supremacy in even making Church doctrine, is afforded by the surreptitious addition in Article XX. of the notable clause, "The Church has power to decree rites and ceremonies," which was NOT in the copy subscribed by Convocation. It was the Queen's own, and was ratified with the rest in 1571 by statute.

A minor, but similar stretch of prerogative occurred in 1576, when she struck out something distasteful to her from Grindal's puritanizing regulations, though they had passed Convocation in both Houses. See Wilkin's Concilia, sub anno 1576.

Church order and discipline. A vigorous effort was made to get rid of Canon Law altogether, at least to have that revision or substitute for it which had been prepared under Edward VI., the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum, to which we have previously referred.

The movement was overborne by the Bishops in the Upper House; but in the Lower, the majority of those present voted ominously in favour of a proposal to omit the sign of the cross in baptism, to leave kneeling at Communion to the Ordinary's discretion, and make both cope and surplice optional; the scale being turned after a keen debate by only one of the proxy votes.

Another circumstance in the same Convocation may indicate how readily the Reformed section in the English Church would have swung at this time to something like Presbyterian moorings, had it been left free to cast its own anchor." The distinguished Puritan Dean of St. Paul's, Dr. Alexander Nowell, who was now Prolocutor of the Lower House, had drawn up a Catechism, based on that of Bishop Poynet, which again was based on that of Calvin himself. It had been approved by a Committee of Convocation in the days of Edward VI., and though now opposed by the Prelates, was actually sanctioned by the Lower House. Among other Presbyterianizing doctrine, it gives such as this:

1 Even Archbishop Parker himself had at first administered the Lord's Supper in Canterbury Cathedral to persons standing. And the Queen's Commissioners also allowed the same posture at Coventry, where it in fact continued down to 1608. For evidence, see Certain Demands propounded unto Richard, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1605, p. 45. Also Removal of Imputations laid on Ministers in Devon and Cornwall, 1606, p. 51; and A Dispute upon the Question of Kneeling, 1608. See McCrie's Life of Knox, i. p. 104.

2 Strype's Annals, i. p. 500.

3 Another influence in favour of the Genevan party was the success of their ver sion of the Bible with its notes. There were eighty-five editions of the Scriptures issued in Elizabeth's reign; but sixty of these were of the Geneva version of 1560. The Bishops' Bible was produced in 1568 in opposition to it; but while this superseded Cranmer's, or the Great Bible, for use in churches, the Geneva maintained a unique place for household use.

4 Originally in Latin, in a Larger and Lesser form: translated into English by Norton, and into Greek by the author's very learned kinsman, Dr. William Whitaker. Nowell was of a distinguished family in Whalley, Lancashire, and, as a Marian exile, sided with Knox at Frankfort, though now conforming in part. J. Memoir prefixed to Catechisms. Parker Society.

It used to be doubted by party-writers whether even the Lower House did ever

"In Churches well ordered and well mannered there was, as I said before, ordained and kept a certain form and order of governance. There were chosen elders, that is, ecclesiastical magistrates, to hold and keep the discipline of the Church." 1

FIRST ENFORCEMENT OF UNIFORMITY, AND ITS RESULTS.

Up till this time, great freedom and variety had characterized the parish-church services, in ritual, postures, and vestments.2 But to the Queen all this was highly obnoxious and disorderly. Having therefore obtained a certain basis of uniformity, she peremptorily insisted on a strong policy of Episcopal coercion. How far blame rests with the Queen for her illjudged mandates, and how far with the Bishops for succumbing to them, has been an oft-debated question. Her own highhanded procedure on this unfortunate business reveals too painfully that Elizabeth's love of order and ceremonial was the measure of her religious sentiment. The fact was, she looked askance on Protestantism as a religious revival; and having little insight into the meaning and workings of a spiritual Christianity, she proceeded to drill and dragoon her most piously disposed subjects in a mere legal style, sacrificing the peace and purity of the Church of England to her idea of a stiff regimental uniformity. By the stern requirement of the Queen “that an exact order and uniformity be maintained in all

approve of such a Catechism; but the question is settled by a letter in State Paper Office (Dom. Corr.) from Nowell himself to Cecil. See p. vi. of Memoir prefixed to Catechism. Dean Hook (Lives of Archbishops, iv. 354) says, with a breath of relief, "We may be satisfied with expressing our deep sense of gratitude to the merciful Providence which has exonerated us from a burden it would be difficult to sustain," although, with so much heavier burdens to bear, the gratitude in this case seems excessive.

1 P. 218, Parker Society's edit.

Strype's Parker, p. 152, furnishes a summary from Cecil's papers of parish returns in 1564.

To the Dutch ambassadors she once said, "Why make such ado about the Mass? Cannot you attend it as you would a play? I have a white gown on now: Suppose I should begin to act the Mass priest, would you think yourselves obliged to run away? On the other hand, it was matter of surprise to her, that Papists could not attend the parish church, and keep their own religion in their pockets. And in her proclamation of 1569, after stating how her Majesty would not molest any for matters of conscience," she oddly enough adds, so long as they outwardly conform to the laws of the realm, which enforce frequentation of divine service in the ordinary Churches." Neal has dealt very fully with this whole question in the fourth chapter of his Puritans.