Page:The Church of England, its catholicity and continuity.djvu/101

 in this respect was to establish uniformity. As the Calvinistic clergy flocked into the Church the distinction of Protestant and Catholic was more clearly defined than ever before. The Puritans, now becoming a separate party in the State, gave her no small anxiety over the object she had in view. But she succeeded in keeping them at bay. She had to conciliate them. Both parties were included in her Council. Elizabeth's first act, then, in coming to the throne was to restore the Sovereign's supremacy. The Pope resented this, and charged her with being illegitimate, and as having no right therefore to the Crown. He desired to see Mary, Queen of Scots, upon the throne. Elizabeth, unlike her father, showed her wisdom in not assuming to herself the title of Supreme Head of the Church. She preferred the title of Supreme Governor. The need now arose of restoring much of the work of the Reformation which Mary had destroyed. The Book of Common Prayer was called for in place of the old Roman Missals. The Second Prayer Book of Edward was restored, with alterations. To this Book a rubric was added speaking of the vestments and ornaments to be used in the Church, which was discomforting to the Puritans. These should be the same as were in use in the second year of the reign of Edward VI. This Book was enforced by an Act of Uniformity, and considering that so many Puritans were then in England, it might reasonably have been expected that most of them would have left the ranks of the Church of England. But it appears that only one hundred and eighty-nine of them resigned their livings.

When Elizabeth came to the throne there were very few Bishops left to fill the Sees. Many of them had been burnt