Page:The Works of Francis Bacon (1884) Volume 1.djvu/528

 400 THE FELICITIES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. had confirmed this to be true, I mean immediately after that the dreadful tempest arose from Spain, threatening no less than utter desolation, yet did it nothing mollify or turn the edge of these men s malice and fury, but rather whetted it, as if they had cast off all natural affection to their country. As for the times succeeding, I mean after the thir tieth year of her reign, though indeed our fear of Spain, which had been the spir to this rigour, had fairly breathed out, or was well abated; yet con sidering the memory of times past had made so deep impression in men s hearts and cogitations, and that it would have seemed either inconstancy to repeal those former laws, or sloth to neglect them, the very constitution of things did suggest to the queen, that it was not safe to reduce them unto that state wherein they had continued until the three-and-twentieth year of her reign. Hereunto may be added the industry of some persons in improving the revenues of the exchequer, and the zeal of some other ministers of justice, which did never think their country safe unless the laws were rigorously executed; all which did impor tune and press the execution of the laws. Not withstanding, the queen, for a manifest token of her royal nature, did so dull the edge of the laws, that but a very few priests, in respect of their number, did suffer death. Now all this which I have said is not by way of defence, for the matter needs it not; for neither could this kingdom have been safe without it, neither were the proceedings any way comparable or of kin to those bloody and unchristianly massacres in the Catholic countries, which proceeded merely from rancour and pride, and not from any necessity of state : howsoever, 1 hope I have made my first assertion good, that she was moderate in the point of religion, and that the change which happened was not in her nature, but upon the necessity of the times. Now for the constancy of Queen Elizabeth in religion, and the observance thereof, 1 know no better argument than this, That although she found the Romish religion confirmed in her sister s days by act of parliament, and established by all strong and potent means that could be devised, and to have taken deep root in this kingdom; and that all those which had any authority, or bore any office in the state, had subscribed to it : yet for that she saw that it was not agreeable to the word of God, nor to the primitive purity, nor to her own conscience, she did, with a great deal of courage, and with the assistance of a very few persons, quite expel and abolish it. Neither did she this by precipitate and heady courses, but tim ing it wisely and soberly. And this may well be conjectured, as from the thing itself, so also by an answer of hers, which she made upon occasion. For within a very lew days of her coming to the crown, wnen many prisoners were released out of piison, as the custom is at the inauguration of a pmce, there came to her one day as she was go ing to chapel, a certain courtier that had the li berty of a buffoon, and either out of his own mo tion, or by the instigation of a wiser man, present ed her with a petition : and before a great number of courtiers, said to her with a loud voice, &quot;That there were yet four or five prisoners unjustly de tained in prison; he came to be a suitor to have them set at liberty; those were the four evange lists, and the apostle Saint Paul, who had been long shut up in an unknown tongue, as it were in prison, so as they could not converse witn the common people.&quot; The queen answered very gravely, &quot; That it was best first to inquire of them, whether they would be set at liberty 01 no.&quot; Thus she silenced an unseasonable motion with a doubtful answer, as reserving the matter wholly in her own power. Neither did she bring in this al teration timorously, or by pieces, but in a grave and mature manner, after a conference betwixt both sides, and the calling and conclusion of a parliament. And thus within the compass of one year, she did so establish and settle all matters belonging to the church, as she departed not one hair s breadth from them to the end of her life : nay, and her usual custom was, in the beginning of every parliament, to forewarn the houses not to question or innovate any thing already established in the discipline or rites of the church. And thus much of her religion. Now if there be any. severer nature that shall tax her for that she suffered herself, and was very willing to be courted, wooed, and to have sonnets made in her commendation; and that she conti nued this longer than was decent for her years : notwithstanding, if you will take this matter at the best it is not without singular admiration, be ing much like unto that which we find in fabu lous narrations, of a certain queen in the Fortunate Islands, and of her court and fashions, where fair purpose and love making was allowed, but lasci- viousness banished. But if you will take it at the worst, even so it amounteth to a more high admi ration, considering that these courtships did not much eclipse her fame, and not at all her majesty; neither did they make her less apt for govern ment, or choke with the affairs and businesses of the public, for such passages as these do often entertain the time even with the greatest princes. But to make an end of this discourse, certainly this princess was good and moral, and such she would be acknowledged; she detested vice, and desired to purchase fame only by honourable courses. And indeed whilst I mention her moral parts, there comes a certain passage into my mind which I will insert. Once giving order to write to her ambassador about certain instructions to be delivered apart to the queen-mother of the house i of Valois, and that her secretary had inserted a I certain clause that the ambassador should say, as i it were to endear her to the queen-mother, &quot;That , they two were the only pair of female princes,