Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 4.djvu/358

338 three thousand Spanish troops sprang suddenly upon the town. They were driven back after a desperate conflict. But Constance was placed under the ban of the Empire, and compelled at last to yield, and Charles prepared to force his pleasure on Strasburg and Magdeburg. He believed himself irresistible, and those who wished best to the opposition had faint hopes that it would succeed. But for the present, at all events, his hands were full. With Germany to bend or to break, with Italy unsettled, the Pope impracticable, and France again threatening a European war, he had no leisure to interfere with England. On this side at least, the Protector had nothing to fear; and the quarrel with France and the war with Scotland being not enough to occupy him, he could proceed with the Reformation of religion.

An Act of Parliament had forbidden irreverent speaking of the sacrament. The sacrament, however, was the real point on which the minds of men were working most passionately; and as the Government had resolved upon permitting or introducing an innovation upon the Catholic doctrine, it was desirable to familiarize the country with the prospect of change. A general order had prohibited all preaching except under a license from the Government; and a set of noisy declaimers, avant couriers, as they called themselves, of the Crown, first to cry for reform while reform was in the ascendant, first to fly or apostatize in time of danger, made the