Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/356

 342 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 55. The reaction was especially marked in Norfolk and Suffolk. An incipient rebellion had been smothered there ; but the Duke was passionately loved by the people, who were described as being ' wildly minded/ Protestantism had been, as usual, injudicious, when judgment was particularly required. The services in Norwich Cathedral ' had been denuded of all which could savour of Babylon.' ' Certain of the prebend- aries ' had changed the administration of the Sacrament, pauperized the ceremonial, broken down the organ, and, so far as lay in them, had turned the quire into -a Gene- van conventicle. 1 Where the tendencies to Rome were strongest, there th'e extreme Reformers considered themselves bound to exhibit in the most marked con- trast the unloveliness of the purer creed. It was >they who furnished the noble element in the Church of England. It was they who had been its martyrs ; they who, in their scorn of the world, in their passionate desire to consecrate themselves in life and death to the Almighty, were able to rival in self-devotion the Ca- burden and weary the poor people. 'The enormities and abuses of spiritual judges in extorting money with the corrupt dealing of Chancel- lors and Commissaries It is to be noted further of Archdeacons who savour of Rome and favour not good religion, they abusing their authority do more harm than any preacher doth profit in divine sermons, partly by severe handling the preachers, and sometimes by cruel thrcatenings, withdrawing the people from God's "Word and keeping them in doubt in matters of faith. In the late visita- tion at Norwich very few preachers escaped without an open rebuke at the lawyers' hands. Neither was any Papist reformed or touched with any sharp word.' Abuses in the Canon Law, 1569, 1570 : MS 8. Domestic. Endorsed in Cecil's hand. 1 The Queen to the Bishop of Norwich, September 25 : MSS. Domestic. Cecil's hand.