Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/277

 1565.] THE EMBASSY OF DE S1LVA. 257 pleased, and say to them what they pleased. TLey had begun the trouble, and it was for them to pacify it. ' I can do no good,' he said. 'If the ball shall be tossed unto us, and we have no authority by the Queen's hand, we will sit still ; I will no more strive against the stream fume or chide who will. The Lord be with you ! ' l Still labouring to do his best, the Archbishop called a meeting of the bishops and invited them either to re- commend obedience among the clergy or to abstain from encouraging them in resistance. But the bishops were now as angry as the Queen. They refused in a body to ' discourage good Protestants ; ' and Parker told Elizabeth plainly that unless she supported him in car- rying them out the injunctions must be modified. He had to deal with men * who would offer themselves to lose all, yea, their bodies to prison, rather than conde- scend ; ' while the lawyers told him that he could not deprive incumbents of their livings 'with no more warrant but the Queen's mouth/ While Parker addressed the Queen, the other bishops waited on Cecil with the same protest. The Reforming clergy, they said, refused everywhere ' to wear the apparel of Satan ; ' ' Christ had no fellowship with Belial ; ' and ' for themselves they would not be made Papists in disguise/ Cecil, who knew that all appeals to Elizabeth in her present humour would only exasperate her, replied that 1 Parker to Cecil, March 8 : Lansdowne MS& VOL. VII. 17