priety of this argument, and refused to comply. It became necessary, therefore, to fill the places which had become void by death or deprivation. It was not thought desirable to resort to the Irish bishops, and at length four English bishops were found to officiate at the consecration of Matthew Parker as archbishop of Canterbury. Their names were William Barlow, late bishop of Bath and Wells, now elect of Chichester; John Scory, late bishop of Chichester, now elect of Hereford; Miles Coverdale, late bishop of Exeter; and John Hodgskins, suffragan bishop of Bedford. None of the solemnities essential to the occasion appear to have been omitted, and a full record of the consecration has been preserved 1o. Thus by God's mercy, our chain of bishops was kept unbroken, even when it seemed most likely to fail. Parker and his colleagues immediately proceeded to lay their hands on other faithful men, and to commit to them the trust they had themselves received.

A Second Book of Homilies which had been prepared, or nearly so, before the death of Edward VI., was now revised and finished by Parker and the other bishops. Jewel, by this time bishop of Salisbury, is supposed to have had the chief hand in its composition. Not long afterwards the Forty-two Articles, agreed upon in 1552, were examined, and assented to by the queen, under the title of "Thirty-nine Articles agreed upon by the archbishops and bishops of both provinces, and the whole clergy, in the convocation holden at London in the year 1562, for avoiding diversities of opinion, and for the establishing of consent touching true religion." These Articles were again revised, and some small alterations were made in them, in the year 1571. A more perfect translation of the Holy Scriptures was the chief remaining work in the way of reformation which marked the reign of Elizabeth. Many were to be found in that day who desired her to do more. During the reign of Mary, several of

10 An absurd story was invented by the papists, forty years afterwards, to the effect that Parker's consecration was not made by "laying on of hands" by bishops, but was merely a civil ceremony, which took place at the Nag's Head Tavern in Cheapside. But it has been fully refuted by the existence of authentic accounts, which prove that the consecration took place in due form at Lambeth.

those who were opposed to the restoration of Romanism had fled to Switzerland and Germany, and there imbibed the views of the foreign reformers, who in their zeal against whatever resembled Romanism, no matter how innocent it was, objected to many rites and usages which the Church of England had retained. On the return of these persons to England, they were clamorous for more extensive changes than Cranmer and those who acted with him had made; and it required much firmness and judgment on the part of Elizabeth and her advisers to preserve the mild and moderate character of the English Church. As long as Parker lived she possessed a sagacious and uncompromising counsellor on ecclesiastical matters. But his successor, Grindal, was a favourer of “prophesyings," and other strange and undisciplined exercises of ministerial functions. Things assumed a better appearance in this respect under Archbishop Whitgift—at least, irregularities which struck at the very root of the episcopal office did not obtain episcopal sanction. The party which held views tending rather towards the German than the Roman direction-that is, which allowed too much scope to private judgment, rather than too little, as Rome did― were called generally Puritans1. But this name embraced a variety of forms of dissent; such as Anabaptists, Brownists or Independents, Sabbatarians, or even Pantheists. The country swarmed with small tracts and pamphlets, which carried in their very titles evidence of their defamatory and irregular character. Among these were "Martin Marprelate" and "A Dialogue setting forth the tyrannical dealing of the Bishops against God's children." And Cartwright, a deposed Professor of Divinity at Cambridge, had endeavoured to frame their theology and government into a system.

1 The dissenters of Elizabeth's day were called Nonconformists, because they declined to comply with the liturgy, rites, and ceremonies of the Church ;-and Puritans, because they alleged that by the further reforms for which they contended, religion would be made more pure and spiritual.

The term Recusant, also, was sometimes used to denote all dissenters, whether popish or puritan; but it is generally applied to the papists, who refused to acknowledge the royal supremacy, or partake of the Holy Communion in parish churches.

All this was sadly perplexing at the time; but we shall see that the confusions of this kind during Elizabeth's reign were but the first-fruits of that narrow and self-sufficient temper which was to lead to greater evils by-and-by. Much of the division in religious opinions which still exists in England may trace its origin to this period.

As for the Romanists in England, they seem at first to have acquiesced in the reforms which Elizabeth brought in. They might well have been unsettled by the decrees of the Council of Trent, which pretended to be an Ecumenical❜ Council, holden for the purpose of settling the disputes in the Christian world, and which in no indirect terms alluded to the movement which was going on in England; but they did not cease to attend the authorized services of the Eng-lish Church till the year 1570, when the queen was excommunicated by the pope. This is a fact which it is well to bear in mind.

The person of Elizabeth was well formed, and her countenance was fair and noble. She was, however, far surpassed in. personal appearance by Mary Queen of Scots, who was at this time dauphiness, and shortly became Queen of France; and Elizabeth, in spite of her masculine understanding, was weak enough to be mortified at being thus outshone by her relative, who was one of the most -beautiful and accomplished women of the age.

The Queen of Scots was next to Elizabeth in succession to the English crown, and being warmly attached to the Roman Church, was regarded by the more bigoted papists as entitled to dispossess Elizabeth, who was disqualified in their opinion by her birth and religious views. Unhappily, Mary and her husband (Francis II.) assumed the royal arms of England; and thus a rivalry arose between the two queens, in which Elizabeth's just indignation at this invasion of her right was sharpened by a less worthy jealousy of Mary's personal advantages.

The love of admiration, which was shared by this great queen with the weakest of her sex, appeared not only in

2 An Ecumenical Council (derived from a Greek word signifying "the inhabited world"), is one which represents all the Christian world. The Council of Trent, therefore, was not oecumenical, for the British and Eastern Churches were not represented in it. It sat at intervals from A.D. 1545 to 1563.

her bearing towards Mary, and her love of dress and flattery, but also in the manner in which she behaved towards the various suitors who aspired to her hand. Among these was Philip of Spain, her sister's widower, to whom she sent a civil refusal, which he seems to have deeply resented. When urged by her parliament to marry, Elizabeth had replied that she was espoused to her kingdom, and wished for no fairer remembrance than the inscription on her tomb, "Here lies Elizabeth, who lived and died a virgin queen." She was, however, greatly caught by personal beauty in the other sex; and while (as in the case of Lord Burleigh, Sir Francis Walsingham, and Sir Nicholas Bacon,) she chose her ministers for sterling wisdom, she was greatly influenced in the choice of her more personal attendants by the glitter of outward accomplishment. The person who enjoyed the greatest share of her favour for a long course of years, was Lord Robert Dudley, son of the Duke of Northumberland, who was beheaded in the late reign. He was made Earl of Leicester, and was the handsomest noble in the English court, but by no means a person of unblemished character. The favour and even caresses which Elizabeth bestowed on him, excited his hope of an union, which perhaps she never seriously contemplated. At a later period of her reign she almost pledged herself to the Duke of Anjou, many years her junior; but was persuaded to overcome the feeling which she could not at that time have indulged to the happiness of herself or her kingdom. The weakness with which she courted admiration is amusingly seen in her conduct, when Sir James Melvill was in her court on an embassy from Queen Mary. She danced in his presence, and pressed him to say whether she or the Queen of Scots danced best, and which of them he thought the fairest. He replied that his queen did not dance" so high and disposedly" as Elizabeth; and that Elizabeth was the fairest queen in England, and Mary the fairest queen in Scotland.

On the early death of Francis II., his widow was entreated by her subjects to return to her own kingdom. Elizabeth at first refused to ensure her a safe passage, unless she would renounce her title as Queen of England. She was, however, saluted by the English fleet, when she fell in with it on her way. In Scotland she found the

people so bitterly opposed to any thing resembling popery, that it was with difficulty she could secure the performance of its rites in her own chapel; and her measures and character were regarded with much suspicion. After many discussions about her marriage, in which Elizabeth did not act with candour or kindness, she was united to Henry Darnley, a relative of both queens, whose only other recommendation was his personal beauty. They lived unhappily, and Darnley's jealousy was so raised by the favour which she showed to one Rizzio, a musician, that he conducted several nobles to Mary's private apartments at Holyrood, and assisted them in putting him to death almost in her sight. She was then likely to become a mother, and was soon delivered of a son. The news of that event renewed the jealousy of Elizabeth, who, on hearing of it, gave vent to her feelings by saying, "The Queen of Scots has a fair boy, while I am a barren stock."

A tragedy now took place in Scotland, in which Mary's fair fame must be for ever implicated. She had removed her husband, who was indisposed, to a lone house, which was blown up a few hours after she had herself left it: and the unfortunate prince was found dead in the fields at a little distance. Mary shortly afterwards gave her hand to the Lord Bothwell, of whose share in the murder of Darnley there can be no doubt. The Scottish nobles were roused to action by this dreadful event. Bothwell was forced to fly the kingdom, and Mary was confined in Loch-Leven castle; while her son was proclaimed James VI., under the regency of the Earl of Murray, a natural son of his grandfather. The queen escaped from Loch-Leven, but was defeated at Langside, and resolved to cross the borders, and place herself in Elizabeth's hands. The English council determined that she should be detained; an injustice, which this conduct of Mary, however culpable, could not excuse; and they gained her reluctant consent to an examination into the charges against her, which took place at York. The proofs of her guilt were such, that Elizabeth refused to see her, and she was removed to Tutbury, a seat of Lord Shrewsbury. Here she had communication with the papists in the north, and a rising took place under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland, the result of which was that Northumber