Page:Church and State under the Tudors.djvu/252

 to accept the principal Puritan modifications was defeated in the Lower House by one vote only, and this in the face of the fact that its acceptance would have involved all the difficulties of procuring a change in the law but recently passed in Parliament, as well as overcoming the opposition of the Queen herself. But as time went on further changes took place. Both parties gradually hardened in their opinions. Whitgift may be taken as the typical bishop of the latter part of Elizabeth's reign almost as completely as Jewell was in the early part, and Whitgift is looked upon justly as the great enemy (they themselves said the great persecutor) of the Puritans. Yet Whitgift was as extreme a Protestant as any who was ever made a bishop, and not only an extreme Protestant, but an extreme Calvinist; and in fact it was freely admitted on both sides, that Puritans and bishops alike were agreed to accept the Thirty-nine Articles as the true exponent of the doctrine of the Church of England.

There are certain occurrences which took place during the latter half of Elizabeth's reign which will serve so well to illustrate the position and progress of the Church of England, that it is well to state them in this place, although their relation to its position in the State is but indirect. The first of these has to do with the proposed deprivation of Mr. Whittingham, the Dean of Durham, and with the actual deprivation of Mr. Travers, the Afternoon Lecturer at the Temple. These two events, it is true, took place at intervals of several years, and the agents, both active and passive, were different, yet they are so closely connected in their causes and throw so much light upon one another that it is both easier and better to consider them together.

Almost from the beginning of his primacy at York