Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/274

 254 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 43. vided discretion had been observed in limiting the points which were to be insisted on within the bounds which were indispensably necessary, and provided the bishops' powers were equal to the duties imposed upon them. Henry the Eighth had again and again issued similar orders ; and on the whole, because he was known to be evenhanded and because the civil authority supported the ecclesiastical, he had held in check the more dan- gerous excesses both of Catholic and Protestant. But the reformed opinions had now developed far beyond the point at which Henry left them. They had gained a hold on the intellect as well as on the passions of the best and noblest of Elizabeth's subjects ; and on the other hand, as the Dean of Durham complained, vast numbers of the Catholic clergy were left undisturbed in their benefices who scarcely cared to conceal their creed. The bishops were rebuked if they attempted to exact the oath of allegiance from Papist recusants ; while the Queen's displeasure was reserved for those who were true from the bottom of their hearts to the throne which the Catholics were undermining. The ablest and worthiest of the English clergy were those on whom the injunctions would press. most heavily. Eliza- beth it seemed had not yet forgiven the good service which they had done her when Anne Hobsart died, and when but for them she would have married Lord Robert. But there was no escape. The surplice should be worn though it scorched like the robe of Nessus. The Archbishop, with the help of the Bishops of London, Ely, Lincoln, and Winchester, drew up a body of articles