Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 7.djvu/454

 434 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 45. few and feeble and they were looked upon askance with orthodox suspicion. At their side the descendants of the schoolmen were working on the old safe methods, proving paradoxes by laws of logic amidst universal ap- plause. The Professor of Medicine maintained in the Queen's presence that it was not the province of the physician to cure disease, because diseases were infinite, and the infinite was beyond the reach of art ; or again, because medicine could not retard age, and age ended in death., and therefore medicine could not preserve life. "With trifles such as these the second childhood of the authorities was content to drowse away the hours. More interesting than either science or logic were perilous questions of politics, which Elizabeth permitted to be agitated before her. The Puritan formula that it was lawful to take arms against a bad sovereign was argued by examples from the Bible and from the stories of the patriot tyrannicides of Greece and Home. Doctor Humfrey deserted his friends to gain favour with the Queen, and protested his horror of rebellion ; but the defenders of the rights of the people held their ground, and remained in possession of it. Pursuing the question into the subtleties of theology, they even ventured to say that God himself might in- stigate a regicide, when Bishop Jewel, who was present, stepped down into the dangerous arena and closed the discussion with a vindication of the divine right of kings. More critically even in that quiet haven of peaceful thought the great subject of the day, which Elizabeth called her death-knell, still pursued Her. An eloquent