Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. III.djvu/228

202 202 ILLNESS AND DEATH OF ISABELLA. II. PART could be no longer useful in this way, she gave them away, as we have seen, to her friends. Both were uncommonly sagacious in the selec- tion of their ministers ; though Elizabeth was drawn into some errors in this particular, by her levity, '^^ as was Isabella by religious feeling. It was this, combined with her excessive humility, which led to the only grave errors in the adminis- tration of the latter. Her rival fell into no such errors ; and she was a stranger to the amiable qualities which led to them. Her conduct was certainly not controlled by religious principle ; and, though the bulwark of the Protestant faith, it might be difficult to say whether she were at heart most a Protestant or a Catholic. She viewed religion in its connexion with the state, in other words, with herself; and she took measures for enforcing con- formity to her own views, not a whit less despotic, and scarcely less sanguinary, than those counte- nanced for conscience' sake by her more bigoted rival. '^ This feature of bigotry, which has thrown a 72 It is scarcely necessary to men- by examination or inquisition, in tion the names of Hatton and any matter of faith, as long as they Leicester, both recommended to the shall profess the Christian faith." first offices in the state chiefly by (Turner's Elizabeth, vol. ii. p. 241, their personal attractions, and the note.) One is reminded of Parson latter of whom continued to main- Thwackum's definition in " Tom tain the highest place in his sover- Jones," "When I mention religion, sign's favor for thirty years or I mean the Christian religion ; and more, in despite of his total desti- not only the Christian religion, but tution of moral worth. the Protestant rclision ; and not 73 Queen Elizabeth, indeed, in a only the Protestant religion, but the declaration to her people, proclaims, church of England." It would be "We know not, nor have any difficult to say which fared worst, meaning to allow, that any of our Puritans or Catholics, under this subjects should be molested, either system of toleration.