in 1548 of the Interim of Augsburg (a decree of the Emperor Charles which attempted to reconcile Catholics and Protestants), led some Protestant divines to England. Of these Martin Bucer was the chief. Becoming identified with Cambridge, he taught Puritanism there, as Peter Martyr, another foreigner of the same type, had already been doing at Oxford. Hooper, who became Bishop of Gloucester in 1550 by the influence of Somerset, was the first English champion of Puritanism. There is no doubt that the sympathies of English Protestantism during Edward's reign leant greatly to the Genevan system, of which John Calvin was the soul.

The Marian persecution deepened the Puritan feeling. It drove a host of men from England to avoid imprisonment or death; and during their residence on the Continent they acquired, from intercourse with Calvin and his followers, those views of church government and church service which the Puritans have always advocated. Prominent among these exiles, whose headquarters were Geneva, was John Knox, the Reformer of Scotland. Fox of the Acts and Monuments, Coverdale of the English Bible, Grindal, Sandys, Bale, Jewel, and many other able men went also to this school of exile. The accession of Elizabeth brought them back; but they had broken into two bands. Frankfort, the stronghold of the Moderates, had been pitted against Geneva, the stronghold of the Ultras. The Book of Common Prayer formed the battleground, and the Genevans published a service-book for themselves. On their return to England the leaders of the Frankfort party received the sees vacated by the Marian prelates; and the Genevans, who first assumed the name of Puritans, remained nominally a portion of the Anglican Church, until the enforcement of the Act of Uniformity under the direction of Archbishop Parker obliged them to secede.

CHAPTER VI.

ELIZABETH AND HER STATESMEN.

Character of Elizabeth-Cecil, Lord Burghley-Francis WalsinghamNicholas Bacon-Anti-papal policy-Norfolk's fatal love-War in the Netherlands-End of Mary Stuart-Elizabeth's suitors-Dudley, Earl of Leicester-Devereux, Earl of Essex-Death of Elizabeth.

THE

HE wise and masculine woman whose name stands second on the short list of our queens regnant, owed much of the splendour that invests her reign to the temper and the talents of the eminent men who encircled her throne. She, uniting in herself two extremes of character-the one almost heroic in its daring valour, the other often ludicrous in its vanity-might frequently have embroiled herself both with her own people and with her powerful neighbours, but for the strong and steady hands that guided the vessel of the state.

First and greatest of her statesmen was William Cecil,* created Baron Burghley in 1571. This cool and cautious man had attracted the notice of King Henry by the skill he displayed in arguing with two Irish priests against the papal supremacy. Steering with masterly tact through all the hazards of the time, he won the confidence of Protector Somerset, and in 1548 received the appointment of Secretary of State. unhappy ruler flung a temporary shadow on Cecil, who spent three months in the Tower. When he regained his freedom, he devoted himself to his darling project,

The fall of that the fortunes of

* William Cecil, born at Bourn in Lincolnshire in 1520.

and that in which he won greatest renown-the improvement of the national finances. To him in a great measure England owes her merchant navy; for by taking their privileges from the merchants of the Hanseatic Steelyard, whose wharfs by the Thames monopolized nearly all the foreign trade, he induced English merchants to build their own ships, in which to carry their own cargoes. His Protestantism did him no harm, even in the red days of Mary, for he carefully kept it in the background. Elizabeth's accession relieved him from danger, and opened a splendid field for the exercise of his genius. To no one did she lend a readier ear. Seeing that the mischiefs that entangle a state or an individual plunged in debt already hampered the greatness of England, he induced the queen to begin a system of rigid economy which was scarcely ever relaxed. The crown debts-four million, it is said-were paid, principal and interest. The debased coinage was purified. At last, instead of groaning over empty coffers, and over debts in every capital on the Continent, England came to feel the peace and to enjoy the profit of being her neighbours' creditor. Secretary Cecil's right-hand man in these money-dealings was a noted London merchant, called Sir Thomas Gresham. took a large share in the building of a Flemish-looking Bourse of wood and brick with covered walks and convenient stalls, where the merchants met to transact their business; and having induced Elizabeth in 1571 to visit it, obtained for it the name of the Royal Exchange.* That very year saw Cecil raised to the peerage, and also to the illustrious post of Lord High Treasurer. Known henceforth as Lord Burghley, he devoted the ripeness of his years to the development of that calm and far-seeing policy which had won honour for his gray hairs. Of course he had many foes; but he kept the even tenor of his way unruffled to the last, enjoying his books and flowerbeds whenever he could loose the chains of toil for a few hours. * This building was burned in the Great Fire of 1666.

He

Gout at last wore out his strength; and in 1598 England lost a man who, by the steady force of common sense and quiet thought, achieved fame for himself, and conferred solid benefits on his country.

Fewer words may dismiss Elizabeth's other ministers and advisers. Sir Francis Walsingham, a diligent and watchful man, who served oftener than once as ambassador in France, became one of the principal secretaries of state, and, as such, undertook for Elizabeth the management of that most unhappy business the conviction of Mary Queen of Scots. It grates harshly on our notions of statesmanship to find Walsingham tampering with letters, employing spies, and bribing wholesale in the performance of his political duties. Born at Chiselhurst in Kent about 1536, he died in 1590.

Chiselhurst also sent out a lord-keeper of the Great Seal in the person of Sir Nicholas Bacon, father of the famous author of the Novum Organum. Sir Nicholas never achieved greatness; but he agreed remarkably well with his friend and brother-in-law Cecil, whose temper much resembled his own. Men like these, by their grave sound sense, ballasted the vessel of the state at this eventful time. Sir Francis Knollys, the vice-chamberlain, who was a good deal mixed up with the earlier imprisonment of Mary Stuart, and Matthew Parker, Archbishop of Canterbury and a special scourge of the Puritans, had also a share in the councils of Elizabeth.

With such advisers the daughter of Anne Boleyn faced the difficulties of queenship. These difficulties arose chiefly from the complication of religious questions. Although, as has been said, the queen was not without a love for the picturesque worship of the Romish Church, her advisers inclined her to Protestantism of the less rigorous kind; and she refused to admit a papal legate into the kingdom. Having had the question of her supremacy settled by an act of her first Parliament-an edict which contained the baleful seed of the High Commission

1568

Court of 1583--she proceeded to exercise her spiritual authority by inflicting persecution on both Roman Catholics and Puritans. These persecutions have blotted her illustrious reign beyond repair. The pressure of penal laws grew heavier. In 1568-the year when Mary Queen of Scots arrived homeless in England-Roman Catholics were banished from court. Some too were imprisoned for hearing mass. A reaction, long working in the northern counties, swelled at last into revolt. The Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland carried the banner of the Five Wounds through Durham to Barnard Castle, where they turned at news of Sussex's approach and fled to Scotland, leaving their men to the executioner (1569).

Her

On Sunday, the 16th of May 1568, Mary Stuart crossed the Solway Firth in a fishing-boat, to find herself detained as a captive where she had hoped to be welcomed as a guest. sorrows, her charms, the fact that she was heiress to the English throne if Elizabeth left no issue, or perhaps all these things combined, wrought so powerfully on the Duke of Norfolk that he sought the royal captive as his wife. In vain Elizabeth, in bitter and sarcastic words, expressed her displeasure at the proposal. He would not listen to her arguments; so she tried the effect of stone walls, and shut him up in the Tower. The movements of the English Catholics were watched eagerly at Rome; in fact many of the wires were worked there. Stung by Elizabeth's obstinacy, Pius the Fifth issued a Bull excommunicating and deposing the heretic queen. One Felton was put to death for fixing this document on the gates of the Bishop of London's palace. Nothing daunted, Elizabeth replied by an act (13 Eliz. c. 2) declaring that all persons publishing a Bull from Rome should be guilty of high treason. So the battle raged. Norfolk, released in 1570, after having given a written promise not to proceed with the contemplated marriage without Elizabeth's consent, enjoyed thirteen months of freedom. At the