CHAP. 8 13. The Elizabethan Com promise. siastical system; especially as it happened that a considerable number of the reformed clergy, who had gone into exile during Mary's reign, had fallen at Frankfort under the influences of Calvinism, and were dissatisfied even with the last revision of the Prayer-Book which had been made under Cranmer's guidance at the close of Edward's reign. In the Calvinistic churches the theory that nothing was to be accepted but that which could be proved from scripture to be true was opposed to the theory of the English reformers, that nothing was to be rejected which could not be proved by scripture to be false, and gained a hold upon men by the logical completeness of Calvin's system. They opened the Bible to find there above all things the doctrine of predestination, and the presbyterian institutions. In the Genevan Church the ministers, supporting themselves on the democracy of the congregations, in reality swayed the congregations by the authority of their teaching. Naturally Elizabeth felt ill at ease between these rival systems. The Catholics would look first to the pope and only secondarily to herself. The Calvinist would pay her respect so far as she favoured the growth of his special form of religion. Nor was this all. The Catholic expected her to suppress and persecute the Calvinist. The Calvinist expected her to suppress and persecute the Catholic. It was here that her private interest coincided with the interest of the nation at large. It would have been a great calamity if England had been divided into hostile parties opposing one another to the death, like the factions by which France was for half-a-century to be miserably distracted. It was this consideration which formed the justification of Elizabeth in taking the Church into her own hand. The episcopal constitution was maintained as a means by which she might keep the clergy in order. But she was too wise to attempt, and too little of a theologian to wish to reduce the doctrine taught by them to a narrow and consistent orthodoxy. The work done by Cranmer in the days of her father and her brother had laid the foundations of a wider and more comprehensive teaching. The habit of taking all that existed for granted till it was proved to be untrue, on the one hand gave encouragement to intellectual vigour, and on the other hand left free scope to the various mental and spiritual tendencies of the Englishmen of the day. In the outward forms and ceremonies of the Elizabethan Church, its clinging to the old words and to many of the old thoughts, there was that which would attract those who were half Catholics in heart, whilst by its spirit of personal religion, its careful cherishing of individual responsibility, its honour paid to domestic life by its permission to the marriage of the clergy, as well as by the tone of its doctrinal articles, it would attract those who were inclined to Calvinism without being thoroughgoing disciples of the Genevan reformer. СНАР. VI. §14. The Eliza bethan Common Such a compromise would have had no chance of establishing itself if all men in England had been religious, and if those who were religious had thought onof nothing but religion. In point of fact, there were wealth. many men who cared for the greatness of the State and for the independence of the nation far more than they cared for the prevalence of one doctrine rather than of another, and a far larger number of men who were willing that a government should allow what doctrines it pleased to be taught, provided that it secured peace and plenty to the community. In this way an ecclesiastical system, weak in ecclesiastical support, was strengthened by all the forces of a government which was popular upon other grounds than its religious views, and held its ground till it had lasted long enough to avail СНАР. § 15. Elizabeth on Catholics. was itself of the strength given by the respect which sur- It was impossible that a compromise so prepared her Defence should be equally satisfactory to all. The great secular against the conflict of the age was the conflict between the jurisdiction of the temporal princes and the jurisdiction of the pope. To take her part in this, Elizabeth would have been obliged, even if she had not wished to do so, to lean towards the Protestants. The English Protestants had no help to expect from their brethren on the Continent, and were therefore obliged to trust for support entirely to themselves. The English Catholics belonged to a Church whose head was a foreign ecclesiastic, and which numbered among its supporters two of the great monarchs of Western Europe. It was therefore not unlikely that those monarchs, if they entered into a quarrel with Elizabeth, might rally to their side at least a part of her Catholic subjects. For some time Elizabeth was able to keep the foreign danger at bay by dexterously playing off France and Spain against each other. For she knew well that neither of those rival monarchies would be content to see the forces of England added to those of the other. But before long the danger approached her in another form. Mary Queen of Scots was not merely the queen of a neighbouring kingdom, she was the claimant of the English throne, on the ground that Elizabeth was disqualified by the stain of illegitimate birth. Elizabeth would fain have avoided the inevitable struggle. Then came the catastrophe in Scotland. Mary Stuart was driven from her own kingdom by her subjects. As a refugee, she sought protection and support in England for the reconquest of the throne which she had lost. Elizabeth had a hard problem before her. To set Mary free was to give her the chance of reconquering a strong position in Scotland, and with that she would gain a scarcely less strong position in England. Her right to the English throne, which she had never relinquished, would be made good with all the forces of Scotland, probably backed with a French or Spanish army, and by the willing support of all the malcontents of England, headed by three-fourths of the nobility of the land. In retaining Mary in prison Elizabeth judged that she was doing the best for herself and the great cause which she represented. It may indeed be doubted whether she was wise in this. Mary as a prisoner was more powerful than Mary at large would have been. She became, voluntarily or involuntarily, the centre CHAP. VI. CHAP. § 16. The Jesuit Pro of intrigues against the crown. The defence of the captive princess threw an imaginative halo over the cause of the ancient Church. Young men vowed to live and die in her defence. The tale of her sufferings was spread over all Europe, and woke the spirit of chivalry and devotion in her favour, till Elizabeth's subjects began to doubt whether there was safety for their queen and nation as long as Mary continued to live. Together with the political propaganda, a new repaganda. ligious propaganda alarmed the queen. The Society. of Jesuits had been formed with the express intention of combating Protestantism. Every Jesuit on entering the order relinquished all power over himself. The will of his superior became his only law, in accordance with which he was bound to act, to speak, to think. In opposition to the self-contained religion of the Protestant appeared a form of religion which treated the individual conscience with contempt. The extravagance of discipline appeared as the opponent of the extravagance of individual religion. To the Jesuit, Protestantism appeared to be equivalent to Antinomianism, and he convinced himself and strove to convince others that those who had rejected the obedience of the Church of Rome were fanatics ready to plunge into any vice under the cover of the profession of assent to a correct form of words. As often happens with bitter partisans, he mistook the caricature of the belief which he disliked for its vital strength. At least he had the courage of his opinions. It was impossible that Elizabeth should regard the movement as one of a merely religious character. The whole present and future organisation of England was at stake. The success of the Catholic reaction implied the substitution of Mary receiving orders from the pope for Elizabeth ruling in |