Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/447

 15 7 1-] THE RIDOLFI CONSPIRACY. 433 valued the men who were thus provoking her, and she forced herself to bear with them. Strickland fell under her displeasure. He introduced a measure without permission for the alteration of the Prayer-book, and he was sent for, reprimanded, and forbidden to return to the House. But a universal cry of Privilege warned her to be cautious, and she withdrew her prohibition. The Commons persisted, passing measure after measure, the Bill for attendance at Communion, of which no draft remains to indicate the provisions of it; a Bill which has also perished, restricting or abolishing the dispensing power of the Court of Arches ; and a Bill which unfortunately did not share the fate of its com- panions, and made its way to the statute-book to trouble the peace of broader times. Convocation, nine years before, had reimposed upon the clergy, so far as they had power to legislate, the too celebrated Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. The Parliament had then refused their sanction to a measure which went far beyond the most extravagant pretensions of the Church of Rome in laying a yoke upon the conscience. But their moderation forsook them now. The heavy chains de- scended. The faith of England, which, but for this fatal step, might have expanded with the growth of the nation, was hardened into unchanging formulas, and intellect was condemned to make its further progress unsanctified by religion, the enemy of the Church in- stead of being its handmaid. 1 ' 13 Elizabeth, cap. xii. VOL. ix. 28