Page:Cassell's Illustrated History of England vol 2.djvu/410

396 decisive measures of reform which she contemplated, by adding five new peers of the Protestant faith to the upper House, and by sending to the sheriffs a list of Court candidates out of which they were to choose the members. Like all her other public proceedings, this was a strange medley of Romanism and Protestantism. High mass was performed at the altar in Westminster Abbey before the queen and the assembled Houses, and this was followed by a sermon preached by Dr. Cox, the Calvinistic schoolmaster of Edward VI., who had just returned from Geneva.

The lord-keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, then opened the session by a speech, the queen being present, in which he held very high prerogative language, assuring both Lords and Commons that they might take measures for a uniform order of religion, and for the safety of the State against both foreign and domestic enemies; not that it was absolutely necessary, for she could do everything of her own authority, but she preferred having the advice and counsel of her loving subjects.

The first thing which the Commons proposed was the very last thing which she would have wished them to meddle with,—that is, an address recommending her to marry, so as to secure a legitimate heir to the throne. Elizabeth had, as we have seen, had many suitors, none of which, if we except the unfortunate Lord-Admiral Seymour, or the handsome but imbecile Courtenay, Earl of Devon, had she shown any willingness to marry. There have been many theories regarding the refusal of Elizabeth to enter into wedlock. The only one which we think will bear a moment's examination is, that her love of power was so strong in her as to absorb every other feeling and consideration. No woman of her time, or of any time, was so fond of flattery of her beauty, or showed so much pleasure in the attentions and courtship of handsome and distinguished men. From the days of her teens, when the lord-admiral used such familiarities with her, to her very old age, she had always one or more prince, peer, or gentleman who enjoyed her favour, and paid her all the adulation and assumed marks of fondness which lovers pay to their ladies. But, whatever amount of real passion she might feel on any of these occasions, there was a master passion far stronger—the love of power—enthroned in her soul, which made any marriage, any participation of that power with another, utterly impossible. So transcendant and invincible was this dominating principle in her, that, so far from allowing her to accept a husband, it would not even permit her to name or think of a successor to the latest day of her life. It was the fact that the Queen of Scots was her natural successor which made her hate her with a deadly, unappeasable hatred, and pursue her to destruction. Though her conduct for years with her favourite, the Earl of Leicester, was the subject of the grossest, and, as it would appear, too well-founded scandals; though she confessed to having promised him marriage; and though there has always been a tradition at Kenilworth that a certain grave is the grave of a daughter of Elizabeth and Leicester's, yet proudly she ever claimed the name of virgin queen; and capable as she undoubtedly was of the deepest dissimulation, yet never, we believe, did she utter truer words than on this occasion, when she declared that she had always vowed to remain single, and that nothing should move her from it. She made a long speech in reply to the address, glancing towards the close of it at her coronation ring, and then saying that when she received that ring, she became solemnly bound in marriage to the realm, and that she took their address in good part, but more for their good will than for their message. At this time Elizabeth was just turned twenty-five, and, according to the reports and portraits of the time, tall, fair of hair and complexion, and comely of person.

Without referring to the questionable marriage of her mother, Anne Boleyn, an Act was passed restoring Elizabeth in blood, and rendering her heritable to her mother and all her mother's line. She was declared to be lawful and rightful queen, lineally and lawfully descended of the blood royal, and fully capable of holding, and transmitting to her posterity, the possession of the crown and throne.

Next came the regulations for the government of the Church, which Elizabeth had so prudently avoided making upon her own responsibility, but left to the authority of Parliament. By it the tenths and first-fruits resigned by Mary were again restored to her. The statutes passed in Mary's reign for the maintenance of strict Romanism were repealed, and those of Henry VIII. for the rejection of the Papal authority, and of Edward VI. for the reformation of the church ritual were revived. The Book of Common Prayer, considerably modified, was to be in uniform and exclusive use. The old penalties against seeking any ecclesiastical authority or ordination from abroad were re-enacted, and the queen was declared absolute head of the Church.

Notwithstanding the softening of the parts and expressions in the liturgy most offensive to the Papists, such as the prayer "to deliver us from the Bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities," and the modification of the terms in administration of the sacrament, to avoid offence to other Protestant churches, the bishops opposed these measures most resolutely. The Convocation presented to the House of Lords a declaration of its belief in the real presence, transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, and the supremacy of the Pope. On the other hand, the Protestants were grievously disappointed in other particulars, especially as to restoration of the married clergy, and of the restoration to their sees of Bishops Barlow, Scorey, and Coverdale. Both these petitions failed on the ground of marriage, for Elizabeth never could tolerate married priests or bishops, and these expelled bishops were all married men. The Protestants were equally disappointed in the failure of a bill to nominate a commission to draw a code of canon law for the Anglican Church. Elizabeth, like her father, rather preferred deciding all such matters herself than allowing any other body to be authority.

But to give an air of liberality to what there was no intention of any concession in, permission was given for the Papist and Protestant divines to argue certain great points in public. Five bishops and three doctors on the part of the former, and as many Protestant divines, were appointed to dispute before the lord-keeper, Sir Nicholas Bacon, and the debates of the two Houses were suspended, that the members might attend the controversy. The Roman Catholics were to have the