Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/409

A.D. 1559.] lion was the more praiseworthy of the two, because "Mary had chosen the better part."

After this display of episcopal rancour and folly, the bishop found himself arrested at the foot of the pulpit stairs, where he continued his infatuated conduct by defying the authority of the sovereign, and threatening to excommunicate her. It is scarcely credible that one short reign of intolerance could so completely have carried back the bishops into the Middle Ages, and led them to act in a manner so utterly inconsistent with a firm but conscientious wisdom in support of their own faith.

Spurred on by these insults, Elizabeth, after having kept up the appearance of conformity with the Papal church for about a month, began to take a decided course. She had had mass regularly performed in her own chapel, but on Christmas Day, Oglethorpe, the Bishop of Carlisle, was preparing to perform high mass in the Royal chapel, when Elizabeth sent to him, commanding him not to elevate the host. Oglethorpe replied that he could not obey the command; that his life was the queen's, but his conscience was his own. Elizabeth sat quietly during the reading of the gospels, but that being concluded, when every one expected to see her make the usual offering, she rose and quitted the chapel with all her train. She followed this up by issuing an order forbidding any one to preach without Royal licence, and stopped all preaching whatever at that political pulpit, St. Paul's Cross. She probably gave Heath, the lord chancellor, a hint, through Cecil, to retire, for he resigned the seals, which were immediately transferred to Sir Nicholas Bacon.

The bishops, alarmed at the indications of a change in the public form of religion, met in London, and discussed the question, whether they could conscientiously assist at the coronation of a princess who appeared to be preparing for the subversion of the established hierarchy, and decided that they could not. Possibly, confiding in the apparent resolution of their body to maintain their present ecclesiastical status, they imagined that they should render the legal performance of the coronation impossible; but if so, they had little idea of the spirit they had to deal with. Elizabeth had all the ability, the self-will, and sense of her authority, which distinguished her father, and she soon made them feel it. They had now engaged in a contest with the Crown in which they were certain of defeat, for the people showed such attachment to their new queen, as would bear her through any opposition which the prelates could create. She found means to detach one single bishop from the general ranks, Oglethorpe of Carlisle, who had dared before to oppose her, and who must soon after have again joined his brethren in refusing the oath of supremacy, for we are told that all refused it except Kitchen, of Landaff.

This difficulty being removed, and the celebrated astrologer, Dr. Dee, having been consulted by the queen to point out a propitious day for the coronation, Sunday, the 15th of January, was fixed for that purpose.

On the 14th she made her procession, according to custom, from the Tower to Westminster; and the bishops might learn the uselessness of their opposition from the vast concourse of people of all ranks who filled the streets to witness the scene, and to make the air ring with their acclamations. Elizabeth appeared to do her utmost to make herself popular. She paid great attention to all the pageants which were prepared in the different streets through which she passed, and to all the speeches recited, and made many condescending little speeches of her own. The meanest person was suffered to address her, and she carried a branch of rosemary, given to her by a poor woman at Fleet Bridge, all the way to Westminster. She was greatly delighted to hear a man in the crowd say he remembered old King Harry VIII.

Not a bishop, except Oglethorpe, deigned to participate in the ceremony, though, with some trifling alterations, the queen had it performed in the ancient manner. She took the coronation oath, swearing to maintain the religion as established, meaning to break it as a matter of necessity, and after the oath, as the bishop was kneeling at the altar, she sent a little book by a lord for him to read out of, which he at first refused, and read on in his own books; but, after a while, seeming to think better of it, he read in the queen's book, and then read the gospel and epistle in English, at the queen's request. Following these concessions, he sang the mass from a missal which had been carried before the queen.

The whole affair of the coronation was a singular mixture of the old and the new; and whilst the bishops declined to be present because they believed the queen would turn out heretical, the Protestants were alarmed by the predominance of Popish rites in the ceremony, and the next day pressed her for a declaration of her intentions as to religion. But it was not her intention to disclose her whole meaning too soon; and she pursued her way, abandoning one thing and holding fast another, in a way which must have greatly tantalised all parties. Though she refused to sit out the mass in her chapel, she yet still kept her great silver crucifix and her holy water there, and forbade the destruction of images. At the very time, moreover, that she had a number of reformed divines sitting in the house of Sir Thomas Smith, preparing a new Book of Common Prayer, she received very coolly any recommendations for reform. "The day after her coronation," says Bacon, "it being the custom to release prisoners at the inauguration of a prince, Queen Elizabeth went to the chapel, and in the great chamber, one of her courtiers, who was well known to her, either out of his own motion, or by the instigation of a wiser man, presented her with a petition, and, before a great number of courtiers, besought her, with a loud voice, that now this good time, there might be four or five more principal prisoners released; there were the Four Evangelists, and the Apostle Paul, who had been long shut up in an unknown tongue, as it were in prison, so as they could not converse with the common people. The queen answered very gravely, that it was best first to inquire of themselves whether they would be released or not." Whilst thus appearing to favour very little this request, she did not neglect it, and the Convocation, at the request of Parliament, soon after recommended the translation of the Scriptures, and a translation was ere long published by Royal authority, which, after several revisions, was re-issued by King James I., and became the basis of our present authorised version.

On the 25th of January, Elizabeth proceeded to open her first Parliament. She had prepared to carry the