CHAPTER XLI.

ELIZABETH.

{1580.} The greatest and most absolute security that Elizabeth enjoyed

during her whole reign, never exempted her from vigilance and attention;

but the scene began now to be more overcast, and dangers gradually

multiplied on her from more than one quarter.

The earl of Morton had hitherto retained Scotland in strict alliance

with the queen, and had also restored domestic tranquility to that

kingdom; but it was not to be expected, that the factitious and

legal authority of a regent would long maintain itself in a country

unacquainted with law and order; where even the natural dominion

of hereditary princes so often met with opposition and control. The

nobility began anew to break into factions; the people were disgusted

with some instances of Morton’s avarice; and the clergy, who complained

of further encroachments on their narrow revenue, joined and increased

the discontent of the other orders. The regent was sensible of his

dangerous situation; and having dropped some peevish expressions, as

if he were willing or desirous to resign, the noblemen of the opposite

party, favorites of the young king, laid hold of this concession, and

required that demission which he seemed so frankly to offer them. James

was at this time but eleven years of age; yet Morton, having secured

himself, as he imagined, by a general pardon, resigned his authority

into the hands of the king, who pretended to conduct in his own name the

administration of the kingdom. The regent retired from the government,

and seemed to employ himself entirely in the care of his domestic

affairs; but either tired with this tranquillity, which appeared insipid

after the agitations of ambition, or thinking it time to throw off

dissimulation, he came again to court, acquired an ascendant in the

council, and though he resumed not the title of regent, governed with

the same authority as before. The opposite party, after holding separate

conventions, took to arms, on pretence of delivering their prince from

captivity, and restoring him to the free exercise of his government:

Queen Elizabeth interposed by her ambassador, Sir Robert Bowes, and

mediated an agreement between the factions: Morton kept possession of

the government; but his enemies were numerous and vigilant, and his

authority seemed to become every day more precarious.

The count d’Aubigney, of the house of Lenox, cousin-german to the king’s

father, had been born and educated in France; and being a young man of

good address and a sweet disposition, he appeared to the duke of Guise

a proper instrument for detaching James from the English interest, and

connecting him with his mother and her relations. He no sooner appeared

at Stirling, where James resided, than he acquired the affections of the

young monarch; and joining his interests with those of James Stuart, of

the house of Ochiltree, a man of profligate manners, who had acquired

the king’s favor, he employed himself, under the appearance of play

and amusement, in instilling into the tender mind of the prince new

sentiments of politics and government. He represented to him the

injustice which had been done to Mary in her deposition, and made him

entertain thoughts either of resigning the crown into her hands, or of

associating her with him in the administration.[*] Elizabeth, alarmed

at the danger which might ensue from the prevalence of this interest

in Scotland, sent anew Sir Robert Bowes to Stirling; and accusing

D’Aubigney, now created earl of Lenox, of an attachment to the French,

warned James against entertaining such suspicious and dangerous

connections.[**]

* Digges, p. 412, 428. Melvil, p. 130.

** Spotswood, p. 309.

The king excused himself by Sir Alexander Hume, his ambassador; and

Lenox, finding that the queen had openly declared against him, was

further confirmed in his intention of overturning the English interest,

and particularly of ruining Morton, who was regarded as the head of it.

That nobleman was arrested in council, accused as an accomplice in the

late king’s murder, committed to prison, brought to trial, and condemned

to suffer as a traitor. He confessed that Bothwell had communicated

to him the design, had pleaded Mary’s consent, and had desired his

concurrence; but he denied that he himself had ever expressed any

approbation of the crime; and in excuse for his concealing it, he

alleged the danger of revealing the secret, either to Henry, who had no

resolution nor constancy, or Morton, who appeared to be an accomplice in

the murder.[*]

* Spotswood, p. 314, Crawford, p. 333. Moyse’s Memoirs,

Spotswood, p. 312. t Digge, p. 359. 373.

Sir Thomas Randolph was sent by the queen to intercede in favor of

Morton; and that ambassador, not content with discharging this duty of

his function, engaged, by his persuasion, the earls of Argyle,

Montrose, Angus, Marre, and Glencairne, to enter into a confederacy for

protecting, even by force of arms, the life of the prisoner. The more

to overawe that nobleman’s enemies, Elizabeth ordered forces to be

assembled on the borders of England; but this expedient served only to

hasten his sentence and execution. Morton died with that constancy and

resolution which had attended him through all the various events of

his life; and left a reputation which was less disputed with regard

to abilities than probity and virtue. But this conclusion of the scene

happened not till the subsequent year.

Elizabeth was, during this period, extremely anxious on account of

every revolution in Scotland; both because that country alone, not being

separated from England by sea, and bordering on all the Catholic and

malecontent counties, afforded her enemies a safe and easy method of

attacking her; and because she was sensible that Mary, thinking herself

abandoned by the French monarch, had been engaged by the Guises to have

recourse to the powerful protection of Philip, who, though he had not

yet come to an open rupture with the queen, was every day, both by the

injuries which he committed and suffered, more exasperated against her.

That he might retaliate the assistance which she gave to his rebels in

the Low Countries, he had sent, under the name of the pope; a body

of seven hundred Spaniards and Italians into Ireland; where the

inhabitants, always turbulent, and discontented with the English

government, were now more alienated by religious prejudices, and were

ready to join every invader. The Spanish general, San Josepho, built a

fort in Kerry; and being there besieged by the earl of Ormond, president

of Munster, who was soon after joined by Lord Gray, the deputy, he made

a weak and cowardly defence. After some assaults, feebly sustained, he

surrendered at discretion; and Gray, who commanded but a small force,

finding himself encumbered with so many prisoners, put all the Spaniards

and Italians to the sword without mercy, and hanged about fifteen

hundred of the Irish; a cruelty which gave great displeasure to

Elizabeth.[*]

When the English ambassador made complaints of this invasion, he was

answered by like complaints of the piracies committed by Francis Drake,

a bold seaman, who had assaulted the Spaniards in the place where they

deemed themselves most secure--in the new world. This man, sprung from

mean parents in the county of Devon, having acquired considerable riches

by depredations made in the Isthmus of Panama, and having there gotten

a sight of the Pacific Ocean, was so stimulated by ambition and avarice,

that he scrupled not to employ his whole fortune in a new adventure

through those seas, so much unknown at that time to all the European

nations.[**] By means of Sir Christopher Hatton, then vice-chamberlain,

a great favorite of the queen’s, he obtained her consent and

approbation; and he set sail from Plymouth in 1577, with four ships

and a pinnace, on board of which were one hundred and sixty-four able

sailors.[***] He passed into the South Sea by the Straits of Magellan;

and attacking the Spaniards, who expected no enemy in those quarters,

he took many rich prizes, and prepared to return with the booty which he

had acquired. Apprehensive of being intercepted by the enemy, if he took

the same way homewards by which he had reached the Pacific Ocean, he

attempted to find a passage by the north of California; and failing in

that enterprise, he set sail for the East Indies, and returned safely

this year, by the Cape of Good Hope. He was the first Englishman who

sailed round the globe; and the first commander-in-chief; for Magellan,

whose ship executed the same adventure, died in his passage. His name

became celebrated on account of so bold and fortunate an attempt;

but many, apprehending the resentment of the Spaniards, endeavored

to persuade the queen, that it would be more prudent to disavow the

enterprise, to punish Drake, and to restore the treasure. But Elizabeth,

who admired valor, and who was allured by the prospect of sharing in the

booty, determined to countenance that gallant sailor: she conferred

on him the honor of knighthood, and accepted of a banquet from him at

Deptford, on board the ship which had achieved so memorable a voyage.

* Camden, p. 475. Cox’s Hist, of Ireland, p. 368.

** Camden, p. 478. Stowe, p. 689.

** Camden, p. 478. Hakluyt’s Voyages, vol. iii. p. 750

Purchas’s Pilgrim, vol. i. p. 46.

When Philip’s ambassador, Mendoza, exclaimed against Drake’s piracies,

she told him, that the Spaniards, by arrogating a right to the whole new

world, and excluding thence all other European nations who should

sail thither, even with a view of exercising the most lawful commerce,

naturally tempted others to make a violent irruption into those

countries.[*] To pacify, however, the Catholic monarch, she caused part

of the booty to be restored to Pedro Sebura, a Spaniard, who pretended

to be agent for the merchants whom Drake had spoiled. Having learned

afterwards that Philip had seized the money, and had employed part of

it against herself in Ireland, part of it in the pay of the prince of

Parma’s troops she determined to make no more restitutions.

{1581.} There was another cause which induced the queen to take this

resolution: she was in such want of money, that she was obliged to

assemble a parliament; a measure which, as she herself openly declared,

she never embraced except when constrained by the necessity of her

affairs. The parliament, besides granting her a supply of one subsidy

and two fifteenths, enacted some statutes for the security of her

government, chiefly against the attempts of the Catholics. Whoever

in any way reconciled any one to the church of Rome, or was himself

reconciled, was declared to be guilty of treason; to say mass was

subjected to the penalty of a year’s imprisonment and a fine of two

hundred marks; the being present was punishable by a year’s imprisonment

and a fine of a hundred marks: a fine of twenty pounds a month was

imposed on every one who continued, during that time, absent from

church.[**] To utter slanderous or seditious words against the queen was

punishable, for the first offence, with the pillory and loss of ears;

the second offence was declared felony; the writing or printing of such

words was felony, even on the first offence.[***] The Puritans

prevailed so far as to have further applications made for reformation in

religion:[****] and Paul Wentworth, brother to the member of that name

who had distinguished himself in the preceding session, moved, that the

commons, from their own authority, should appoint a general fast

and prayers; a motion to which the house unwarily assented. For this

presumption they were severely reprimanded by a message from the queen,

as encroaching on the royal prerogative and supremacy; and they were

obliged to submit, and ask forgiveness.[v]

* Camden, p. 480.

** 23 Eliz. cap. 1.

*** 23 Eliz. cap. 2.

**** D’Ewes, p. 302.

v Camden, p. 477.

The queen and parliament were engaged to pass these severe laws against

the Catholics, by some late discoveries of the treasonable practices

of their priests. When the ancient worship was suppressed, and the

reformation introduced into the universities, the king of Spain

reflected, that as some species of literature was necessary for

supporting these doctrines and controversies, the Romish communion

must decay in England, if no means were found to give erudition to the

ecclesiastics; and for this reason he founded a seminary at Douay, where

the Catholics sent their children, chiefly such as were intended for the

priesthood, in order to receive the rudiments of their education. The

cardinal of Lorraine imitated this example, by erecting a like seminary

in his diocese of Rheims; and though Rome was somewhat distant, the pope

would not neglect to adorn, by a foundation of the same nature, that

capital of orthodoxy. These seminaries, founded with so hostile an

intention, sent over, every year, a colony of priests, who maintained

the Catholic superstition in its full height of bigotry; and being

educated with a view to the crown of martyrdom, were not deterred,

either by danger or fatigue, from maintaining and propagating their

principles. They infused into all their votaries an extreme hatred

against the queen, whom they treated as a usurper, a schismatic, a

heretic, a persecutor of the orthodox, and one solemnly and publicly

anathematized by the holy father. Sedition, rebellion, sometimes

assassination, were the expedients by which they intended to effect

their purposes against her; and the severe restraint, not to say

persecution, under which the Catholics labored, made them the more

willingly receive from their ghostly fathers such violent doctrines.

These seminaries were all of them under the direction of the Jesuits, a

new order of regular priests erected in Europe, when the court of Rome

perceived that the lazy monks and beggarly friars, who sufficed in times

of ignorance, were no longer able to defend the ramparts of the church,

assailed on every side, and that the inquisitive spirit of the age

required a society more active and more learned to oppose its dangerous

progress. These men as they stood foremost in the contest against the

Protestants, drew on them the extreme animosity of that whole sect; and,

by assuming a superiority over the other more numerous and more ancient

orders of their own communion, were even exposed to the envy of

their brethren: so that it is no wonder, if the blame to which their

principles and conduct might be exposed, has, in many instances, been

much exaggerated. This reproach, however, they must bear from posterity,

that, by the very nature of their institution, they were engaged to

pervert learning, the only effectual remedy against superstition, into a

nourishment of that infirmity: and as their erudition was chiefly of

the ecclesiastical and scholastic kind, (though a few members have

cultivated polite literature,) they were only the more enabled by that

acquisition to refine away the plainest dictates of morality, and to

erect a regular system of casuistry, by which prevarication, perjury,

and every crime, when it served their ghostly purposes, might be

justified and defended.

The Jesuits, as devoted servants to the court of Rome, exalted the

prerogative of the sovereign pontiff above all earthly power; and by

maintaining his authority of deposing kings, set no bounds either to his

spiritual or temporal jurisdiction. This doctrine became so prevalent

among the zealous Catholics in England, that the excommunication

fulminated against Elizabeth excited many scruples of a singular kind,

to which it behoved the holy father to provide a remedy. The bull

of Pius, in absolving the subjects from their oaths of allegiance,

commanded them to resist the queen’s usurpation; and many Romanists were

apprehensive, that by this clause they were obliged in conscience, even

though no favorable opportunity offered, to rebel against her, and that

no dangers or difficulties could free them from this indispensable duty.

But Parsons and Campion, two Jesuits, were sent over with a mitigation

and explanation of the doctrine; and they taught their disciples, that

though the bull was forever binding on Elizabeth and her partisans,

it did not oblige the Catholics to obedience except when the sovereign

pontiff should think proper, by a new summons, to require it. Campion

was afterwards detected in treasonable practices; and being put to the

rack, and confessing his guilt, he was publicly executed. His execution

was ordered at the very time when the duke of Anjou was in England, and

prosecuted, with the greatest appearance of success, his marriage

with the queen; and this severity was probably intended to appease her

Protestant subjects, and to satisfy them, that whatever measures

she might pursue, she never would depart from the principles of the

reformation.

The duke of Alençon, now created duke of Anjou, had never entirely

dropped his pretensions to Elizabeth; and that princess, though her

suitor was near twenty-five years younger than herself, and had no

knowledge of her person but by pictures or descriptions, was still

pleased with the image, which his addresses afforded her, of love and

tenderness. The duke, in order to forward his suit, besides employing

his brother’s ambassador, sent over Simier, an agent of his own; an

artful man, of an agreeable conversation, who soon remarking the queen’s

humor, amused her with gay discourse, and instead of serious political

reasonings, which he found only awakened her ambition, and hurt his

master’s interests, he introduced every moment all the topics of passion

and of gallantry. The pleasure which she found in this man’s company

soon produced a familiarity between them; and amidst the greatest hurry

of business, her most confidential ministers had not such ready access

to her as had Simier, who, on pretence of negotiation, entertained her

with accounts of the tender attachment borne her by the duke of Anjou.

The earl of Leicester, who had never before been alarmed with any

courtship paid her, and who always trusted that her love of dominion

would prevail over her inclination to marriage, began to apprehend

that she was at last caught in her own snare, and that the artful

encouragement which she had given to this young suitor had unawares

engaged her affections. To render Simier odious, he availed himself of

the credulity of the times, and spread reports, that that minister had

gained an ascendant over the Queen, not by any natural principles of her

constitution, but by incantations and love potions. Simier, in revenge,

endeavored to discredit Leicester with the queen; and he revealed to

her a secret, which none of her courtiers dared to disclose, that this

nobleman was secretly, without her consent, married to the widow of the

earl of Essex; an action which the queen interpreted either to

proceed from want of respect to her, or as a violation of their mutual

attachment; and which so provoked her, that she threatened to send him

to the Tower.[*]

* Camden, p. 471.

The quarrel went so far between Leicester and the French agent, that the

former was suspected of having employed one Tudor, a bravo, to take

away the life of his enemy and the queen thought it necessary, by

proclamation, to take Simier under her immediate protection. It

happened, that while Elizabeth was rowed in her barge on the Thames,

attended by Simier and some of her courtiers, a shot was fired, which

wounded one of the bargemen; but the queen, finding, upon inquiry, that

the piece had been discharged by accident, gave the person his liberty

without further punishment. So far was she from entertaining any

suspicion against her people, that she was often heard to say, “that

she would lend credit to nothing against them, which parents would not

believe of their own children.”[*]

The duke of Anjou, encouraged by the accounts sent him of the queen’s

prepossessions in his favor, paid her secretly a visit at Greenwich; and

after some conference with her, the purport of which is not known, he

departed. It appeared that, though his figure; was not advantageous, he

had lost no ground by being personally known to her; and soon after, she

commanded Burleigh, now treasurer, Sussex, Leicester, Bedford, Lincoln,

Hatton, and Secretary Walsingham, to concert with the French ambassadors

the terms of the intended contract of marriage. Henry had sent over,

on this occasion, a splendid embassy, consisting of Francis de Bourbon,

prince of Dauphiny, and many considerable noblemen; and as the queen

had in a manner the power of prescribing what terms she pleased, the

articles were soon settled with the English commissioners. It was

agreed, that the marriage should be celebrated within six weeks after

the ratification of the articles; that the duke and his retinue should

have the exercise of their religion; that after the marriage he should

bear the title of king, but the administration remain solely in the

queen; that their children, male or female, should succeed to the crown

of England; that if there be two males, the elder, in case of Henry’s

death without issue, should be king of France, the younger of England;

that if there be but one male, and he succeed to the crown of France,

he should be obliged to reside in England eight months every two years;

that the laws and customs of England should be preserved inviolate;

and that no foreigner should be promoted by the duke to any office in

England.[**]

* Camden. p. 471.

** Camden, p. 484.

These articles, providing for the security of England in case of its

annexation to the crown of France, opened but a dismal prospect to the

English, had not the age of Elizabeth, who was now in her forty-ninth

year, contributed very much to allay their apprehensions of this nature.

The queen also, as a proof of her still remaining uncertainty, added a

clause, that she was not bound to complete the marriage, till further

articles, which were not specified, should be agreed on between the

parties, and till the king of France be certified of this agreement.

Soon after, the queen sent over Walsingham as ambassador to France, in

order to form closer connections with Henry, and enter into a league

offensive and defensive against the increasing power and dangerous

usurpations of Spain. The French king, who had been extremely disturbed

with the unquiet spirit, the restless ambition, the enterprising, yet

timid and inconstant disposition of Anjou, had already sought to free

the kingdom from his intrigues, by opening a scene for his activity

in Flanders; and having allowed him to embrace the protection of

the states, had secretly supplied him with men and money for the

undertaking. The prospect of settling him in England was for a like

reason very agreeable to that monarch; and he was desirous to cultivate,

by every expedient, the favorable sentiments which Elizabeth seemed to

entertain towards him. But this princess, though she had gone further in

her amorous dalliance[*] than could be justified or accounted for by any

principles of policy, was not yet determined to carry matters to a

final conclusion; and she confined Walsingham, in his instructions,

to negotiating conditions of a mutual alliance between France and

England.[**] Henry with reluctance submitted to hold conferences on

that subject; but no sooner had Walsingham begun to settle the terms

of alliance, than he was informed, that the queen, foreseeing hostility

with Spain to be the result of this confederacy, had declared that

she would prefer the marriage with the war, before the war without the

marriage.[***] The French court, pleased with this change of resolution,

broke off the conferences concerning the league, and opened a

negotiation for the marriage.[****] But matters had not long proceeded

in this train, before the queen again declared for the league in

preference to the marriage, and ordered Walsingham to renew the

conferences for that purpose. Before he had leisure to bring this point

to maturity, he was interrupted by a new change of resolution; [v] and

not only the court of France, but Walsingham himself, Burleigh, and all

the wisest ministers of Elizabeth, were in amazement doubtful where this

contest between inclination and reason love and ambition, would at last

terminate.[v*] [17]

* Digges, p. 387, 396, 408, 426.

** Digges, p. 352.

*** Digges, p. 375, 391.

**** Digges, p. 392.

v Digges, p. 408.

v* See note Q, at the end of the volume.

In the course of this affair, Elizabeth felt another variety of

intentions, from a new contest between her reason and her ruling

passions. The duke of Anjou expected from her some money, by which

he might be enabled to open the campaign in Flanders; and the queen

herself, though her frugality made her long reluctant, was sensible

that this supply was necessary, and she was at last induced, after much

hesitation, to comply with his request.[*] She sent him a present of a

hundred thousand crowns; by which, joined to his own demesnes, and the

assistance of his brother and the queen dowager, he levied an army, and

took the field against the prince of Parma. He was successful in raising

the siege of Cambray; and being chosen by the states governor of the

Netherlands, he put his army into winter quarters, and came over to

England, in order to prosecute his suit to the queen. The reception

which he met with made him expect entire success, and gave him hopes

that Elizabeth had surmounted all scruples, and was finally determined

to make choice of him for her husband. In the midst of the pomp which

attended the anniversary of her coronation, she was seen, after long and

intimate discourse with him, to take a ring from her own finger, and to

put it upon his; and all the spectators concluded, that in this ceremony

she had given him a promise of marriage, and was even desirous of

signifying her intentions to all the world. St. Aldegonde, ambassador

from the states, despatched immediately a letter to his masters,

informing them of this great event; and the inhabitants of Antwerp, who,

as well as the other Flemings, regarded the queen as a kind of titular

divinity, testified their joy by bonfires and the discharge of their

great ordnance.[**]

* Digges, p. 357, 387, 388, 409, 426, 439. Rymer. xv. p.

793.

** Camden, p. 486. Thuan. lib. lxxiv.

A Puritan of Lincoln’s Inn had written a passionate book, which he

entitled, “The Gulph in which England will be swallowed by the French

Marriage.” He was apprehended and prosecuted by order of the queen,

and was condemned to lose his right hand as a libeller. Such was the

constancy and loyalty of the man, that immediately after the sentence

was executed, he took off his hat with his other hand, and waving it

over his head, cried, God save the queen.

But notwithstanding this attachment which Elizabeth so openly discovered

to the duke of Anjou, the combat of her sentiments was not entirely

over; and her ambition, as well as prudence, rousing itself by

intervals, still filled her breast with doubt and hesitation. Almost

all the courtiers whom she trusted and favored--Leicester, Hatton, and

Walsingham--discovered an extreme aversion to the marriage; and the

ladies of her bed-chamber made no scruple of opposing her resolution

with the most zealous remonstrances.[*]

* Camden, p. 486.

Among other enemies to the match, Sir Philip, son of Sir Henry Sidney,

deputy of Ireland, and nephew to Leicester, a young man the most

accomplished of the age, declared himself: and he used the freedom

to write her a letter, in which he dissuaded her from her present

resolution, with an unusual elegance of expression, as well as force

of reasoning. He told her, that the security of her government depended

entirely on the affections of her Protestant subjects; and she could

not, by any measure, more effectually disgust them, than by espousing a

prince who was son of the perfidious Catharine, brother to the cruel and

perfidious Charles, and who had himself imbrued his hands in the blood

of the innocent and defenceless Protestants: that the Catholics were her

mortal enemies, and believed, either that she had originally usurped

the crown, or was now lawfully deposed by the pope’s bull of

excommunication; and nothing had ever so much elevated their hopes as

the prospect of her marriage with the duke of Anjou: that her chief

security at present against the efforts of so numerous, rich, and united

a faction, was, that they possessed no head who could conduct their

dangerous enterprises; and she herself was rashly supplying that defect,

by giving an interest in the kingdom to a prince whose education had

zealously attached him to that communion: that though he was a stranger

to the blood royal of England, the dispositions of men were now such,

that they preferred the religious to the civil connections; and were

more influenced by sympathy in theological opinions, than by the

principles of legal and hereditary government: that the duke himself

had discovered a very restless and turbulent spirit; and having often

violated his loyalty to his elder brother and his sovereign, there

remained no hopes that he would passively submit to a woman, whom he

might, in quality of husband, think himself entitled to command: that

the French nation, so populous, so much abounding in soldiers, so full

of nobility who were devoted to arms, and for some time accustomed

to serve for plunder, would supply him with partisans, dangerous to a

people unwarlike and defenceless like the generality of her subjects:

that the plain and honorable path which she had followed, of cultivating

the affections of her people, had hitherto rendered her reign secure and

happy; and however her enemies might seem to multiply upon her, the same

invincible rampart was still able to protect and defend her: that so

long as the throne of France was filled by Henry or his posterity, it

was in vain to hope that the ties of blood would insure the amity of

that kingdom, preferably to the maxims of policy or the prejudices

of religion: and if ever the crown devolved on the duke of Anjou, the

conjunction of France and England would prove a burden, rather than a

protection, to the latter kingdom: that the example of her sister Mary

was sufficient to instruct her in the danger of such connections; and to

prove, that the affection and confidence of the English could never be

maintained, where they had such reason to apprehend that their interests

would every moment be sacrificed to those of a foreign and hostile

nation: that notwithstanding these great inconveniences, discovered by

past experience, the house of Burgundy, it must be confessed, was more

popular in the nation than the family of France; and, what was of chief

moment, Philip was of the same communion with Mary, and was connected

with her by this great band of interest and affection: and that however

the queen might remain childless, even though old age should grow upon

her, the singular felicity and glory of her reign would preserve her

from contempt; the affections of her subjects, and those of all the

Protestants in Europe, would defend her from danger; and her own

prudence, without other aid or assistance, would baffle all the efforts

of her most malignant enemies.[*]

* Letters of the Sidneys, vol i. p. 287, et seq. Cabala, p.

363

{1582.} These reflections kept the queen in great anxiety and

irresolution; and she was observed to pass several nights without any

sleep or repose. At last her settled habits of prudence and ambition

prevailed over her temporary inclination; and having sent for the duke

of Anjou, she had a long conference with him in private, where she was

supposed to have made him apologies for breaking her former engagements.

He expressed great disgust on his leaving her; threw away the ring which

she had given him; and uttered many curses on the mutability of women

and of islanders.[*] Soon after, he went over to his government of the

Netherlands; lost the confidence of the states by a rash and violent

attempt on their liberties; was expelled that country; retired into

France; and there died. The queen, by timely reflection, saved herself

from the numerous mischiefs which must have attended so imprudent a

marriage: and the distracted state of the French monarchy prevented

her from feeling any effects of that resentment which she had reason to

dread from the affront so wantonly put upon that royal family.

The anxiety of the queen from the attempts of the English Catholics

never ceased during the whole course of her reign; but the variety of

revolutions which happened in all the neighboring kingdoms, were the

source, sometimes of her hopes, sometimes of her apprehensions. This

year the affairs of Scotland strongly engaged her attention. The

influence which the earl of Lenox, and James Stuart, who now assumed

the title of earl of Arran, had acquired over the young king, was but a

slender foundation of authority; while the generality of the nobles, and

all the preachers, were so much discontented with their administration.

The assembly of the church appointed a solemn fast; of which one of the

avowed reasons was, the danger to which the king was exposed from the

company of wicked persons: [**] and on that day the pulpits resounded

with declamations against Lenox, Arran, and all the present counsellors.

When the minds of the people were sufficiently prepared by these

lectures, a conspiracy of the nobility was formed, probably with the

concurrence of Elizabeth, for seizing the person of James at Ruthven,

a seat of the earl of Gowry’s; and the design, being kept secret,

succeeded without any opposition.

* Camden, p. 486.

** Spotswood, p. 319., Spotswood, p. 320.

The leaders in this enterprise were the earl of Gowry himself, the

earl of Marre, the lords Lindesey and Boyd, the masters of Glamis and

Oliphant, the abbots of Dunfermling, Paisley, and Cambuskenneth. The

king wept when he found himself detained a prisoner but the master

of Glamis said, “No matter for his tears, better that boys weep than

bearded men;” an expression which James could never afterwards forgive.

But notwithstanding his resentment, he found it necessary to submit

to the present necessity. He pretended an entire acquiescence in the

conduct of the associators; acknowledged the detention of his person

to be acceptable service; and agreed to summon both an assembly of the

church and a convention of estates, in order to ratify that enterprise.

The assembly, though they had established it as an inviolable rule, that

the king on no account, and under no pretence, should ever intermeddle

in ecclesiastical matters, made no scruple of taking civil affairs under

their cognizance, and of deciding, on this occasion, that the attempt of

the conspirators was acceptable to all that feared God, or tendered the

preservation of the king’s person, and prosperous state of the realm.

They even enjoined all the clergy to recommend these sentiments from the

pulpit; and they threatened with ecclesiastical censures every man

who should oppose the authority of the confederated lords.[*] The

convention, being composed chiefly of these lords themselves, added

their sanction to these proceedings. Arran was confined a prisoner in

his own house: Lenox, though he had power to resist, yet, rather than

raise a civil war, or be the cause of bloodshed,[**] chose to retire

into France, where he soon after died. He persevered to the last in the

Protestant religion, to which James had converted him, but which the

Scottish clergy could never be persuaded that he had sincerely embraced.

The king sent for his family, restored his son to his paternal honors

and estate, took care to establish the fortunes of all his other

children, and to his last moments never forgot the early friendship

which he had borne their father; a strong proof of the good dispositions

of that prince.[***]

* Spotswood, p. 322.

** Heylin’s Hist. Presbyter, p. 227. Spotswood.

*** Spotswood, p. 328.

No sooner was this revolution known in England, than the queen sent Sir

Henry Gary and Sir Robert Bowes to James in order to congratulate him

on his deliverance from the pernicious counsels of Lenox and Arran; to

exhort him not to resent the seeming violence committed on him by the

confederated lords; and to procure from him permission for the return

of the earl of Angus, who ever since Morton’s fall had lived in England.

They easily prevailed in procuring the recall of Angus; and as James

suspected, that Elizabeth had not been entirely unacquainted with

the project of his detention, he thought proper, before the English

ambassadors, to dissemble his resentment against the authors of it.

{1583.} Soon after, La Mothe-Fenelon and Menneville appeared as

ambassadors from France: their errand was to inquire concerning the

situation of the king, make professions of their master’s friendship,

confirm the ancient league with France, and procure an accommodation

between James and the queen of Scots. This last proposal gave great

umbrage to the clergy; and the assembly voted the settling of terms

between the mother and son to be a most wicked undertaking. The pulpits

resounded with declamations against the French ambassadors; particularly

Fenelon, whom they called the messenger of the bloody murderer, meaning

the duke of Guise: and as that minister, being knight of the Holy Ghost,

wore a white cross on his shoulder, they commonly denominated it, in

contempt, the badge of Antichrist. The king endeavored, though in

vain, to repress these insolent reflections; but in order to make the

ambassadors some compensation, he desired the magistrates of Edinburgh

to give them a splendid dinner before their departure. To prevent this

entertainment, the clergy appointed that very day for a public fast; and

finding that their orders were not regarded, they employed their sermons

in thundering curses on the magistrates, who, by the king’s direction,

had put this mark of respect on the ambassadors. They even pursued them

afterwards with the censures of the church; and it was with difficulty

they were prevented from issuing the sentence of excommunication against

them, on account of their submission to royal, preferably to clerical

authority.[*]

* Spotswood, p. 324.

What increased their alarm with regard to an accommodation between James

and Mary was, that the English ambassadors seemed to concur with the

French in this proposal; and the clergy were so ignorant as to believe

the sincerity of the professions made by the former. The queen of

Scots had often made overtures to Elizabeth, which had been entirely

neglected; but hearing of James’s detention, she wrote a letter in

a more pathetic and more spirited strain than usual; craving the

assistance of that princess, both for her own and her son’s liberty. She

said, that the account of the prince’s captivity had excited her most

tender concern; and the experience which she herself, during so many

years, had of the extreme infelicity attending that situation, had made

her the more apprehensive lest a like fate should pursue her unhappy

offspring: that the long train of injustice which she had undergone, the

calumnies to which she had been exposed, were so grievous, that finding

no place for right or truth among men she was reduced to make her last

appeal to Heaven, the only competent tribunal between princes of equal

jurisdiction degree, and dignity: that after her rebellious subjects,

secretly instigated by Elizabeth’s ministers, had expelled her the

throne, had confined her in prison, had pursued her with arms, she had

voluntarily thrown herself under the protection of England; fatally

allured by those reiterated professions of amity which had been made

her, and by her confidence in the generosity of a friend, an ally, and

a kinswoman; that not content with excluding her from her presence,

with supporting the usurpers of her throne, with contributing to the

destruction of her faithful subjects, Elizabeth had reduced her to a

worse captivity than that from which she had escaped, and had made her

this cruel return for the unlimited confidence which she had reposed in

her: that though her resentment of such severe usage had never carried

her further than to use some disappointed efforts for her deliverance,

unhappy for herself, and fatal to others, she found the rigors of

confinement daily multiplied upon her; and at length carried to such a

height, that it surpassed the bounds of all human patience any longer to

endure them; that she was cut off from all communication, not only with

the rest of mankind, but with her only son, and her maternal fondness,

which was now more enlivened by their unhappy sympathy in situation, and

was her sole remaining attachment to this world, deprived even of

that melancholy solace which letters or messages could give: that the

bitterness of her sorrows, still more than her close confinement, had

preyed upon her health, and had added the insufferable weight of bodily

infirmity to all those other calamities under which she labored: that

while the daily experience of her maladies opened to her the comfortable

prospect of an approaching deliverance into a region where pain and

sorrow are no more, her enemies envied her that last consolation, and

having secluded her from every joy on earth, had done what in them lay

to debar her from all hopes in her future and eternal existence: that

the exercise of her religion was refused her; the use of those sacred

rites in which she had been educated, the commerce with those holy

ministers, whom Heaven had appointed to receive the acknowledgment of

our transgressions, and to seal our penitence by a solemn readmission

into heavenly favor and forgiveness: that it was in vain to complain of

the rigors of persecution exercised in other kingdoms; when a queen and

an innocent woman was excluded from an indulgence which never yet, in

the most barbarous countries, had been denied to the meanest and most

obnoxious malefactor: that could she ever be induced to descend from

that royal dignity in which Providence had placed her, or depart from

her appeal to Heaven, there was only one other tribunal to which she

would appeal from all her enemies; to the justice and humanity of

Elizabeth’s own breast, and to that lenity which, uninfluenced by

malignant counsel, she would naturally be induced to exercise

towards her: and that she finally entreated her to resume her natural

disposition, and to reflect on the support, as well as comfort, which

she might receive from her son and herself, if, joining the obligations

of gratitude to the ties of blood, she would deign to raise them from

their present melancholy situation, and reinstate them in that liberty

and authority to which they were entitled.[*]

* Camden, p. 489,

Elizabeth was engaged to obstruct Mary’s restoration, chiefly because

she foresaw an unhappy alternative attending that event. If this

princess recovered any considerable share of authority in Scotland, her

resentment, ambition, zeal, and connections both domestic and foreign,

might render her a dangerous neighbor to England, and enable her, after

suppressing the Protestant party among her subjects, to revive those

pretensions which she had formerly advanced to the crown, and which

her partisans in both kingdoms still supported with great industry and

assurance. If she were reinstated in power with such strict limitations

as could not be broken, she might be disgusted with her situation; and

flying abroad, form more desperate attempts than any sovereign, who had

a crown to hazard, would willingly undertake. Mary herself, sensible

of these difficulties, and convinced by experience that Elizabeth would

forever debar her the throne, was now become more humble in her wishes;

and as age and infirmities had repressed those sentiments of ambition

by which she had formerly been so much actuated, she was willing to

sacrifice all her hopes of grandeur, in order to obtain a liberty; a

blessing to which she naturally aspired with the fondest impatience. She

proposed, therefore, that she should be associated with her son in

the title to the crown of Scotland, but that the administration should

remain solely in him: and she was content to live in England in a

private station, and even under a kind of restraint; but with some more

liberty, both for exercise and company, than she had enjoyed since

the first discovery of her intrigues with the duke of Norfolk. But

Elizabeth, afraid lest such a loose method of guarding her would

facilitate her escape into France or Spain, or, at least, would

encourage and increase her partisans, and enable her to conduct those

intrigues to which she had already discovered so strong a propensity,

was secretly determined to deny her requests; and though she feigned to

assent to them, she well knew how to disappoint the expectations of the

unhappy princess. While Lenox maintained his authority in Scotland, she

never gave any reply to all the application made to her by the Scottish

queen: at present, when her own creatures had acquired possession of the

government, she was resolved to throw the odium of refusal upon

them; and pretending that nothing further was required to a perfect

accommodation than the concurrence of the council of state in Scotland,

she ordered her ambassador, Bowes, to open the negotiation for Mary’s

liberty, and her association with her son in the title to the crown.

Though she seemed to make this concession to Mary she refused her the

liberty of sending any ambassador of her own; and that princess could

easily conjecture, from this circumstance, what would be the result of

the pretended negotiation. The privy council of Scotland, instigated

by the clergy, rejected all treaty; and James, who was now a captive in

their hands, affirmed, that he had never agreed to an association with

his mother, and that the matter had never gone further than some loose

proposals for that purpose.[*]

** MS. in the Advocates’ Library, A. 3, 28, p. 401, from the

Cott Lib. Calig. c. 9.

The affairs of Scotland remained not long in the present situation.

James, impatient of restraint, made his escape from his keepers; and

flying to St. Andrews, summoned his friends and partisans to attend

him. The earls of Argyle, Marshal, Montrose, and Rothes, hastened to pay

their duty to their sovereign; and the opposite party found themselves

unable to resist so powerful a combination. They were offered a pardon,

upon their submission, and an acknowledgment of their fault in seizing

the king’s person and restraining him from his liberty. Some of them

accepted of the terms; the greater number, particularly Angus, Hamilton,

Marre, Glamis, left the country, and took shelter in Ireland or England,

where they were protected by Elizabeth. The earl of Arran was recalled

to court; and the malecontents, who could not brook the authority of

Lenox, a man of virtue and moderation, found, that by their resistance,

they had thrown all power into the hands of a person whose counsels were

as violent as his manners were profligate.[*]

Elizabeth wrote a letter to James, in which she quoted a moral sentence

from Isocrates, and indirectly reproached him with inconstancy, and a

breach of his engagements. James, in his reply, justified his measures;

and retaliated, by turning two passages of Isocrates against her.[**]

She next sent Walsingham on an embassy to him; and her chief purpose in

employing that aged minister in an errand where so little business was

to be transacted, was to learn, from a man of so much penetration and

experience, the real character of James. This young prince possessed

good parts, though not accompanied with that vigor and industry which

his station required; and as he excelled in general discourse and

conversation, Walsingham entertained a higher idea of his talents than

he was afterwards found, when real business was transacted, to have

fully merited.[***] The account which he gave his mistress induced her

to treat James thenceforth with some more regard than she had hitherto

been inclined to pay him.

* Spotswood, p. 325, 326, et seq.

** Melvil, p. 140, 141. Strype, vol. iii. p. 156.

*** Melvil, p. 148. Jebb, vol. ii. p. 530.

{1584.} The king of Scots, persevering in his present views, summoned

a parliament; where it was enacted, that no clergyman should presume in

his sermons to utter false, untrue, or scandalous speeches against the

king, the council, or the public measures; or to meddle, in an improper

manner, with the affairs of his majesty and the states,[*] The clergy,

finding that the pulpit would be no longer a sanctuary for them, were

extremely offended; they said that the king was become Popish in his

heart; and they gave their adversaries the epithets of gross libertines,

belly-gods, and infamous persons.[**]

* Spotswood. p. 333

** Spotswood. p. 334.

The violent conduct of Arran soon brought over the popularity to their

side. The earl of Gowry, though pardoned for the late attempt, was

committed to prison, was tried on some new accusations, condemned,

and executed. Many innocent persons suffered from the tyranny of this

favorite; and the banished lords, being assisted by Elizabeth, now found

the time favorable for the recovery of their estates and authority.

After they had been foiled in one attempt upon Stirling, they prevailed

in another; and being admitted to the king’s presence, were pardoned,

and restored to his favor.

Arran was degraded from authority, deprived of that estate and title

which he had usurped, and the whole country seemed to be composed to

tranquillity. Elizabeth, after opposing during some time the credit of

the favorite, had found it more expedient, before his fall, to compound

all differences with him, by means of Davison, a minister whom she

sent to Scot land; but having more confidence in the lords whom she had

helped to restore, she was pleased with this alteration of affairs;

and maintained a good correspondence with the new court and ministry of

James.

These revolutions in Scotland would have been regarded as of small

importance to the repose and security of Elizabeth, had her own subjects

been entirely united, and had not the zeal of the Catholics, excited

by constraint more properly than persecution, daily threatened her

with some dangerous insurrection. The vigilance of the ministers,

particularly of Burleigh and Walsingham, was raised in proportion to the

activity of the malecontents; and many arts, which had been blamable in

a more peaceful government, were employed in detecting conspiracies,

and even discovering the secret inclinations of men. Counterfeit letters

were written in the name of the queen of Scots, or of the English

exiles, and privately conveyed to the houses of the Catholics: spies

were hired to observe the actions and discourse of suspected persons:

informers were countenanced; and though the sagacity of these two

great ministers helped them to distinguish the true from the false

intelligence, many calumnies were no doubt hearkened to, and all the

subjects, particularly the Catholics, kept in the utmost anxiety and

inquietude. Henry Piercy, earl of Northumberland, brother to the earl

beheaded some years before, and Philip Howard, earl of Arundel, son of

the unfortunate duke of Norfolk, fell under suspicion; and the

latter was, by order of council, confined to his own house. Francis

Throgmorton, a private gentleman, was committed to custody, on account

of a letter which he had written to the queen of Scots, and which was

intercepted. Lord Paget and Charles Arundel, who had been engaged with

him in treasonable designs, immediately withdrew beyond sea. Throgmorton

confessed that a plan for an invasion and insurrection had been laid;

and though, on his trial, he was desirous of retracting this confession,

and imputing it to the fear of torture, he was found guilty and

executed. Mendoza, the Spanish ambassador, having promoted this

conspiracy, was ordered to depart the kingdom; and Wade was sent into

Spain, to excuse his dismission, and to desire the king to send another

ambassador in his place; but Philip would not so much as admit the

English ambassador to his presence. Creighton, a Scottish Jesuit,

coming over on board a vessel which was seized, tore some papers with an

intention of throwing them into the sea; but the wind blowing them back

upon the ship, they were pieced together, and discovered some dangerous

secrets.[*]

Many of these conspiracies were, with great appearance of reason,

imputed to the intrigues of the queen of Scots; [**] and as her name was

employed in all of them, the council thought that they could not use

too many precautions against the danger of her claims, and the restless

activity of her temper. She was removed from under the care of the earl

of Shrewsbury, who, though vigilant and faithful in that trust, had

also been indulgent to his prisoner, particularly with regard to air and

exercise; and she was committed to the custody of Sir Amias Paulet

and Sir Drue Drury; men of honor, but inflexible in their care and

attention. An association was also set on foot by the earl of Leicester

and other courtiers; and as Elizabeth was beloved by the whole nation,

except the more zealous Catholics, men of all ranks willingly flocked

to the subscription of it. The purport of this association was to defend

the queen, to revenge her death, or any injury committed against her,

and to exclude from the throne all claimants, what title soever they

might possess, by whose suggestion or for whose behoof any violence

should be offered to her majesty,[***] The queen of Scots was sensible

that this association was levelled against her; and to remove all

suspicion from herself, she also desired leave to subscribe it.

* Camden, p. 499.

** Strype, vol. lii. p. 246.

*** State Trials, vol i. p. 122, 123.

Elizabeth, that she might the more discourage malecontents, by showing

them the concurrence of the nation in her favor, summoned a new

parliament; and she met with that dutiful attachment which she expected.

The association was confirmed by parliament; and a clause was added by

which the queen was empowered to name commissioners for the trial of

any pretender to the crown, who should attempt or imagine any invasion,

insurrection, or assassination against her: upon condemnation pronounced

by these commissioners, the guilty person was excluded from all claim to

the succession, and was further punishable as her majesty should direct.

And for greater security, a council of regency, in case of the queen’s

violent death, was appointed to govern the kingdom, to settle the

succession, and to take vengeance for that act of treason.[*]

A severe law was also enacted against Jesuits and Popish priests: it was

ordained, that they should depart the kingdom within forty days; that

those who should remain beyond that time, or should afterwards return,

should be guilty of treason; that those who harbored or relieved them

should be guilty of felony; that those who were educated in seminaries,

if they returned not in six months after notice given, and submitted

not themselves to the queen, before a bishop or two justices, should be

guilty of treason; and that if any, so submitting themselves, should,

within ten years, approach the court, or come within ten miles of it,

their submission should be void.[**] By this law, the exercise of the

Catholic religion, which had formerly been prohibited under lighter

penalties, and which was in many instances connived at, was totally

suppressed. In the subsequent part of the queen’s reign, the law was

sometimes executed by the capital punishment of priests; and though the

partisans of that princess asserted that they were punished for their

treason, not their religion, the apology must only be understood in this

sense, that the law was enacted on account of the treasonable views and

attempts of the sect, not that every individual who suffered the penalty

of the law was convicted of treason.[***] The Catholics, therefore,

might now with justice complain of a violent persecution; which we may

safety affirm, in spite of the rigid and bigoted maxims of that age, not

to be the best method of converting them, or of reconciling them to the

established government and religion.

* 27 Eliz. cap. 1.

* 27 Eliz. cap. 2.

* Some even of those who defend the queen’s measures, allow

that in ten years fifty priests were executed, and fifty-

five banished Camden, p. 649.

The parliament, besides arming the queen with these powers, granted her

a supply of one subsidy and two fifteenths. The only circumstance in

which their proceedings were disagreeable to her, was an application,

made by the commons, for a further reformation in ecclesiastical

matters. Yet even in this attempt, which affected her, as well as them,

in a delicate point, they discovered how much they were overawed by her

authority. The majority of the house were Puritans, or inclined to that

sect;[*] but the severe reprimands which they had already, in former

sessions, met with from the throne deterred them from introducing any

bill concerning religion; a proceeding which would have been interpreted

as an encroachment on the prerogative: they were content to proceed by

way of humble petition, and that not addressed to her majesty, which

would have given offence, but to the house of lords, or rather the

bishops, who had a seat in that house, and from whom alone they were

willing to receive all advances towards reformation;[**] a strange

departure from what we now apprehend to be the dignity of the commons!

* Besides the petition after mentioned, another proof of the

prevalency of the Puritans among the commons was, their

passing a bill for the reverent observance of Sunday, which

they termed the Sabbath, and the depriving the people of

those amusements which they were accustomed to take on that

day. D’Ewes, p. 335. It was a strong symptom of a contrary

spirit in the upper house, that they proposed to add

Wednesday to the fast days, and to prohibit entirely the

eating of flesh on that day. D’Ewes, p. 373.

* D’Ewes, p. 357

The commons desired, in their humble petition, that no bishop should

exercise his function of ordination but with the consent and concurrence

of six presbyters: but this demand, as it really introduced a change

of ecclesiastical government, was firmly rejected by the prelates.

They desired, that no clergyman should be instituted into any benefice

without previous notice being given to the parish, that they might

examine whether there lay any objection to his life or doctrine; an

attempt towards a popular model, which naturally met with the same fate.

In another article of the petition, they prayed that the bishops should

not insist upon every ceremony, or deprive incumbents for omitting

part of the service; as if uniformity in public worship had not been

established by law; or as if the prelates had been endowed with

a dispensing power. They complained of abuses which prevailed in

pronouncing the sentence of excommunication, and they entreated the

reverend fathers to think of some law for the remedy of these abuses:

implying that those matters were too high for the commons of themselves

to attempt.

But the most material article which the commons touched upon in their

petition, was the court of ecclesiastical commission, and the oath “ex

officio,” as it was called, exacted by that court. This is a subject of

such importance as to merit some explanation.

The first primate after the queen’s accession, was Parker; a man rigid

in exacting conformity to the established worship, and in punishing,

by fine or deprivation, all the Puritanical clergymen who attempted to

innovate any thing in the habits, ceremonies, or liturgy of the church.

He died in 1575; and was succeeded by Grindal, who, as he himself was

inclined to the new sect, was with great difficulty brought to execute

the laws against them, or to punish the nonconforming clergy.

He declined obeying the queen’s orders for the suppression of

“prophesyings,” or the assemblies of the zealots in private houses,

which, she apprehended, had become so many academies of fanaticism; and

for this offence she had, by an order of the star chamber, sequestered

him from his archiepiscopal function, and confined him to his own house.

Upon his death, which happened in 1583, she determined not to fall into

the same error in her next choice; and she named Whitgift, a zealous

Churchman, who had already signalized his pen in controversy, and who,

having in vain attempted to convince the Puritans by argument, was now

resolved to open their eyes by power, and by the execution of penal

statutes. He informed the queen, that all the spiritual authority lodged

in the prelates was insignificant without the sanction of the crown;

and as there was no ecclesiastical commission at that time in force, he

engaged her to issue a new one, more arbitrary than any of the former,

and conveying more unlimited authority.[*]

* Neal’s History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 410.

She appointed forty-four commissioners, twelve of whom were

ecclesiastics; three commissioners made a quorum; the jurisdiction of

the court extended over the whole kingdom and over all orders of

men; and every circumstance of its authority, and all its methods of

proceeding, were contrary to the clearest principles of law and natural

equity. The commissioners were empowered to visit and reform all errors,

heresies, schisms, in a word, to regulate all opinions, as well as to

punish all breach of uniformity in the exercise of public worship. They

were directed to make inquiry, not only by the legal methods of juries

and witnesses, but by all other means and ways which they could devise;

that is, by the rack, by torture, by inquisition, by imprisonment Where

they found reason to suspect any person, they might administer to him

an oath, called “ex officio,” by which he was bound to answer all

questions, and might thereby be obliged to accuse himself or his most

intimate friend. The fines which they levied were discretionary,

and often occasioned the total ruin of the offender, contrary to

the established laws of the kingdom. The imprisonment to which they

condemned any delinquent, was limited by no rule but their own pleasure.

They assumed a power of imposing on the clergy what new articles of

subscription, and consequently of faith, they thought proper. Though

all other spiritual courts were subject, since the reformation,

to inhibitions from the supreme courts of law, the ecclesiastical

commissioners were exempted from that legal jurisdiction, and were

liable to no control. And the more to enlarge their authority, they were

empowered to punish all incests, adulteries, fornications; all outrages,

misbehaviors, and disorders in marriage: and the punishments which

they might inflict, were according to their wisdom, conscience, and

discretion. In a word, this court was a real inquisition; attended

with all the iniquities, as well as cruelties, inseparable from that

tribunal. And as the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical court was

destructive of all law, so its erection was deemed by many a mere

usurpation of this imperious princess; and had no other foundation

than a clause of a statute, restoring the supremacy to the crown, and

empowering the sovereign to appoint commissioners for exercising that

prerogative. But prerogative in general, especially the supremacy,

was supposed in that age to involve powers which no law, precedent, or

reason could limit and determine.

But though the commons, in their humble petition to the prelates, had

touched so gently and submissively on the ecclesiastical grievances, the

queen, in a speech from the throne at the end of the session, could not

forbear taking notice of their presumption, and reproving them for those

murmurs which, for fear of offending her, they had pronounced so low

as not directly to reach her royal ears. After giving them some general

thanks for their attachment to her, and making professions of affection

to her subjects, she told them, that whoever found fault with the church

threw a slander upon her, since she was appointed by God supreme ruler

over it; and no heresies or schisms could prevail in the kingdom but by

her permission and negligence: that some abuses must necessarily have

place in every thing; but she warned the prelates to be watchful; for

if she found them careless of their charge, she was fully determined to

depose them: that she was commonly supposed to have employed herself

in many studies, particularly philosophical, (by which, I suppose, she

meant theological,) and she would confess, that few whose leisure had

not allowed them to make profession of science, had read or reflected

more: that as she could discern the presumption of many, in curiously

canvassing the Scriptures, and starting innovations, she would no longer

endure this licentiousness; but meant to guide her people by God’s

rule in the just mean between the corruptions of Rome and the errors of

modern sectaries: and that as the Romanists were the inveterate enemies

of her person, so the other innovators were dangerous to all kingly

government; and, under color of preaching the word of God, presumed

to exercise their private judgment, and to censure the actions of the

prince.[*]

From the whole of this transaction we may observe, that the commons,

in making their general application to the prelates, as well as in

some particular articles of their petition, showed themselves wholly

ignorant, no less than the queen, of the principles of liberty and

a legal constitution. And it may not be unworthy of remark, that

Elizabeth, so far from yielding to the displeasure of the parliament

against the ecclesiastical commission, granted, before the end of her

reign, a new commission; in which she enlarged, rather than restrained,

the powers of the commissioners.[**] [18]

* See note R, at the end of the volume.

** Rymer, vol. xvi p. 292, 386, 400.

During this session of parliament, there was discovered a conspiracy,

which much increased the general animosity against the Catholics, and

still further widened the breach between the religious parties. William

Parry, a Catholic gentleman, had received the queen’s pardon for a

crime by which he was exposed to capital punishment; and having obtained

permission to travel, he retired to Milan, and made open profession of

his religion, which he had concealed while he remained in England. He

was here persuaded by Palmio, a Jesuit, that he could not perform a more

meritorious action than to take away the life of his sovereign and his

benefactress; the nuncio Campeggio, when consulted, approved extremely

of this pious undertaking; and Parry, though still agitated with doubts,

came to Paris with an intention of passing over to England and executing

his bloody purpose. He was here encouraged in the design by Thomas

Morgan, a gentleman of great credit in the party; and though Watts and

some other Catholic priests told him that the enterprise was criminal

and impious, he preferred the authority of Raggazzoni, the nuncio at

Paris, and determined to persist in his resolution. He here wrote a

letter to the pope, which was conveyed to Cardinal Como; he communicated

his intention to the holy father, and craved his absolution and paternal

benediction. He received an answer from the cardinal, by which he found

that his purpose was extremely applauded; and he came over to England

with a full design of carrying it into execution. So deeply are

the sentiments of morality engraved in the human breast, that it is

difficult even for the prejudices of false religion totally to efface

them; and this bigoted assassin resolved, before he came to extremities,

to try every other expedient for alleviating the persecutions under

which the Catholics at that time labored. He found means of being

introduced to the queen; assured her that many conspiracies were formed

against her; and exhorted her, as she tendered her life, to give the

Romanists some more indulgence in the exercise of their religion: but,

lest he should be tempted by the opportunity to assassinate her, he

always came to court unprovided with every offensive weapon. He even

found means to be elected member of parliament: and having made a

vehement harangue against the severe laws enacted this last session, was

committed to custody for his freedom, and sequestered from the house.

His failure in these attempts confirmed him the more in his former

resolution; and he communicated his intentions to Nevil, who entered

zealously into the design, and was determined to have a share in the

merits of its execution. A book newly published by Dr. Allen, afterwards

created a cardinal, served further to efface all their scruples with

regard to the murder of an heretical prince; and having agreed to

shoot the queen while she should be taking the air on horseback, they

resolved, if they could not make their escape, to sacrifice their lives

in fulfilling a duty so agreeable, as they imagined, to the will of God

and to true religion. But while they were watching an opportunity for

the execution of their purpose, the earl of Westmoreland happened to

die in exile; and as Nevil was next heir to that family, he began to

entertain hopes that, by doing some acceptable service to the queen,

he might recover the estate and honors which had been forfeited by the

rebellion of the last earl. He betrayed the whole conspiracy to the

ministers; and Parry, being thrown into prison, confessed the guilt both

to them and to the jury who tried him. The letter from Cardinal Como,

being produced in court, put Parry’s narrative beyond all question;

and that criminal, having received sentence of death,[*] suffered the

punishment which the law appointed for his treasonable conspiracy.[**]

[19]

These bloody designs now appeared every where, as the result of that

bigoted spirit by which the two religions, especially the Catholic, were

at this time actuated. Somerville, a gentleman of the county of Warwick,

somewhat disordered in his understanding, had heard so much of the merit

attending the assassination of heretics and persecutors, that he came

to London with a view of murdering the queen; but having betrayed his

design by some extravagances, he was thrown into prison, and there

perished by a voluntary death.[***]

* State Trials, vol. i. p. 103, et seq. Strype, vol. iii. p.

255, et seq.

** See note S, at the end of the volume.

*** Camden, p. 495.

About the same time, Baltazar Gerard, a Burgundian, undertook and

executed the same design against the prince of Orange; and that great

man perished at Delft, by the hands of a desperate assassin, who, with

a resolution worthy of a better cause, sacrificed his own life, in order

to destroy the famous restorer and protector of religious liberty. The

Flemings, who regarded that prince as their father, were filled with

great sorrow, as well when they considered the miserable end of so brave

a patriot, as their own forlorn condition, from the loss of so powerful

and prudent a leader, and from the rapid progress of the Spanish arms.

The prince of Parma had made, every year great advances upon them, had

reduced several of the provinces to obedience, and had laid close siege

to Antwerp, the richest and most populous city of the Netherlands, whose

subjection, it was foreseen, would give a mortal blow to the already

declining affairs of the revolted provinces. The only hopes which

remained to them arose from the prospect of foreign succor. Being

well acquainted with the cautious and frugal maxims of Elizabeth, they

expected better success in France; and in the view of engaging Henry

to embrace their defence, they tendered him the sovereignty of their

provinces.

{1585.} But the present condition of that monarchy obliged the king to

reject so advantageous an offer. The duke of Anjou’s death, which, he

thought would have tended to restore public tranquillity in delivering

him from the intrigues of that prince, plunged him into the deepest

distress; and the king of Navarre, a professed Hugonot, being next

heir to the crown, the duke of Guise took thence occasion to revive the

Catholic league, and to urge Henry, by the most violent expedients, to

seek the exclusion of that brave and virtuous prince. Henry himself,

though a zealous Catholic, yet, because he declined complying with their

precipitate measures, became an object of aversion to the league; and as

his zeal in practising all the superstitious observances of the Romish

church, was accompanied with a very licentious conduct in private life,

the Catholic faction, in contradiction to universal experience, embraced

thence the pretext of representing his devotion as mere deceit and

hypocrisy. Finding his authority to decline, he was obliged to declare

war against the Hugonots, and to put arms into the hands of the league,

whom, both on account of their dangerous pretensions at home and their

close alliance with Philip, he secretly regarded as his more dangerous

enemies. Constrained by the same policy, he dreaded the danger of

associating himself with the revolted Protestants in the Low Countries,

and was obliged to renounce that inviting opportunity of revenging

himself for all the hostile intrigues and enterprises of Philip.

The states, reduced to this extremity, sent over a solemn embassy to

London, and made anew an offer to the queen of acknowledging her

for their sovereign, on condition of obtaining her protection and

assistance. Elizabeth’s wisest counsellors were divided in opinion

with regard to the conduct which she should hold in this critical and

important emergence. Some advised her to reject the offer of the states,

and represented the imminent dangers, as well as injustice, attending

the acceptance of it. They said, that the suppression of rebellious

subjects was the common cause of all sovereigns; and any encouragement

given to the revolt of the Flemings, might prove the example of a like

pernicious license to the English; that though princes were bound by

the laws of the Supreme Being not to oppress their subjects, the people

never were entitled to forget all duty to their sovereign, or transfer,

from every fancy or disgust, or even from the justest ground of

complaint, their obedience to any other master: that the queen, in the

succors hitherto afforded the Flemings, had considered them as laboring

under oppression, not as entitled to freedom; and had intended only to

admonish Philip not to persevere in his tyranny, without any view of

ravishing from him those provinces, which he enjoyed by hereditary right

from his ancestors: that her situation in Ireland, and even in England,

would afford that powerful monarch sufficient opportunity of retaliating

upon her; and she must thenceforth expect that, instead of secretly

fomenting faction, he would openly employ his whole force in the

protection and defence of the Catholics: that the pope would undoubtedly

unite his spiritual arms to the temporal ones of Spain: and that the

queen would soon repent her making so precarious an acquisition in

foreign countries, by exposing her own dominions to the most imminent

danger.[*]

* Camden, p. 507., Bentivoglio, part ii. lib iv.

Other counsellors of Elizabeth maintained a contrary opinion. They

asserted, that the queen had not even from the beginning of her reign,

but certainly had not at present, the choice whether she would embrace

friendship or hostility with Philip: that by the whole tenor of that

prince’s conduct it appeared, that his sole aims were the extending

of his empire, and the entire subjection of the Protestants, under

the specious pretence of maintaining the Catholic faith: that the

provocations which she had already given him, joined to his general

scheme of policy, would forever render him her implacable enemy; and as

soon as he had subdued his revolted subjects, he would undoubtedly fall,

with the whole force of his united empire, on her defenceless state:

that the only question was, whether she would maintain a war abroad, and

supported by allies, or wait till the subjection of all the confederates

of England should give her enemies leisure to begin their hostilities

in the bowels of the kingdom: that the revolted provinces, though in

a declining condition, possessed still considerable force; and by the

assistance of England, by the advantages of their situation, and by

their inveterate antipathy to Philip, might still be enabled to maintain

the contest against the Spanish monarchy that their maritime power,

united to the queen’s, would give her entire security on the side from

which alone she could be assaulted; and would even enable her to make

inroads on Philip’s dominions, both in Europe and the Indies: that a

war which was necessary could never be unjust; and self-defence was

concerned as well in preventing certain dangers at a distance, as in

repelling any immediate invasion: and that, since hostility with Spain

was the unavoidable consequence of the present interests and situations

of the two monarchies, it were better to compensate that danger and loss

by the acquisition of such important provinces to the English empire.[*]

* Camden, p. 507. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib iv.

Amidst these opposite counsels, the queen, apprehensive of the

consequences attending each extreme, was inclined to steer a middle

course; and though such conduct is seldom prudent, she was not, in

this resolution, guided by any prejudice or mistaken affection. She was

determined not to permit, without opposition, the total subjection of

the revolted provinces, whose interests she deemed so closely connected

with her own: but foreseeing that the acceptance of their sovereignty

would oblige her to employ her whole force in their defence, would

give umbrage to her neighbors, and would expose her to the reproach of

ambition and usurpation,--imputations which hitherto she had carefully

avoided,--she immediately rejected this offer. She concluded a league

with the states on the following conditions: that she should send over

an army to their assistance, of five thousand foot and a thousand horse,

and pay them during the war; that the general, and two others whom she

should appoint, should be admitted into the council of the states; that

neither party should make peace without the consent of the other; that

her expenses should be refunded after the conclusion of the war; and

that the towns of Flushing and the Brille, with the Castle of Rammekins,

should, in the mean time, be consigned into her hands by way of

security.

The queen knew that this measure would immediately engage her in open

hostilities with Philip; yet was not she terrified with the view of the

present greatness of that monarch. The continent of Spain was at that

time rich and populous; and the late addition of Portugal, besides

securing internal tranquillity, had annexed an opulent kingdom to

Philip’s dominions, had made him master of many settlements in the

East Indies, and of the whole commerce of those regions, and had much

increased his naval power, in which he was before chiefly deficient. All

the princes of Italy, even the pope and the court of Rome, were

reduced to a kind of subjection under him, and seemed to possess

their sovereignty on terms somewhat precarious. The Austrian branch in

Germany, with their dependent principalities, was closely connected with

him, and was ready to supply him with troops for every enterprise. All

the treasures of the West Indies were in his possession; and the present

scarcity of the precious metals in every country of Europe, rendered the

influence of his riches the more forcible and extensive. The Netherlands

seemed on the point of relapsing into servitude; and small hopes were

entertained of their withstanding those numerous and veteran armies,

which, under the command of the most experienced generals, he employed

against them. Even France, which was wont to counterbalance the Austrian

greatness, had lost all her force from intestine commotions; and as the

Catholics, the ruling party, were closely connected with him, he rather

expected thence an augmentation than a diminution of his power. Upon the

whole, such prepossessions were every where entertained concerning the

force of the Spanish monarchy, that the king of Sweden, when he heard

that Elizabeth had openly embraced the defence of the revolted Flemings,

scrupled not to say, that she had now taken the diadem from her head,

and had adventured it upon the doubtful chance of war.[*]

* Camden, p 508.

Yet was this princess rather cautious than enterprising in her

natural temper: she ever needed more to be impelled by the vigor,

than restrained by the prudence, of her ministers: but when she saw

an evident necessity, she braved danger with magnanimous courage; and

trusting to her own consummate wisdom, and to the affections, however

divided, of her people, she prepared herself to resist, and even to

assault, the whole force of the Catholic monarch.

The earl of Leicester was sent over to Holland at the head of the

English auxiliary forces. He carried with him a splendid retinue; being

accompanied by the young earl of Essex, his son-in-law, the lords Audley

and North, Sir William Russel, Sir Thomas Shirley, Sir Arthur Basset,

Sir Walter Waller, Sir Gervase Clifton, and a select troop of five

hundred gentlemen. He was received on his arrival at Flushing by his

nephew, Sir Philip Sidney, the governor; and every town through which he

passed expressed their joy by acclamations and triumphal arches, as

if his presence and the queen’s protection had brought them the most

certain deliverance. The states, desirous of engaging Elizabeth still

further in their defence, and knowing the interest which Leicester

possessed with her, conferred on him the title of governor and

captain-general of the united provinces, appointed a guard to attend

him, and treated him in some respects as their sovereign. But this step

had a contrary effect to what they expected. The queen was displeased

with the artifice of the states, and the ambition of Leicester. She

severely reprimanded both; and it was with some difficulty that, after

many humble admissions, they were able to appease her.

America was regarded as the chief source of Philip’s power, as well as

the most defenceless part of his dominions, and Elizabeth, finding that

an open breach with that monarch was unavoidable, resolved not to leave

him unmolested in that quarter. The great success of the Spaniards and

Portuguese in both Indies had excited a spirit of emulation in England;

and as the progress of commerce, still more that of colonies, is slow

and gradual, it was happy that a war in this critical period had opened

a more flattering prospect to the avarice and ambition of the English,

and had tempted them, by the view of sudden and exorbitant profit, to

engage in naval enterprises. A fleet of twenty sail was equipped to

attack the Spaniards in the West Indies: two thousand three hundred

volunteers, besides seamen, engaged on board of it; Sir Francis Drake

was appointed admiral; Christopher Carlisle, commander of the land

forces.

{1586.} They took St. Jago, near Cape Verde, by surprise; and found in

it plenty of provisions, but no riches. They sailed to Hispaniola; and

easily making themselves masters of St. Domingo by assault, obliged the

inhabitants to ransom their houses by a sum of money. Carthagena fell

next into their hands, after some more resistance, and was treated in

the same manner. They burnt St. Anthony and St. Helens, two towns on the

coast of Florida. Sailing along the coast of Virginia, they found the

small remains of a colony which had been planted there by Sir Walter

Raleigh, and which had gone extremely to decay. This was the first

attempt of the English to form such settlements; and though they have

since surpassed all European nations, both in the situation of their

colonies, and in the noble principles of liberty and industry on which

they are founded, they had here been so unsuccessful, that the miserable

planters abandoned their settlements, and prevailed on Drake to carry

them with him to England. He returned with so much riches as encouraged

the volunteers, and with such accounts of the Spanish weakness in those

countries, as served extremely to inflame the spirits of the nation to

future enterprises. The great mortality which the climate had produced

in his fleet was, as is usual, but a feeble restraint on the avidity and

sanguine hopes of young adventurers.[*] It is thought that Drake’s fleet

first introduced the use of tobacco into England.

* Camden, p. 509.

The enterprises of Leicester were much less successful than those of

Drake. This man possessed neither courage nor capacity equal to the

trust reposed in him by the queen; and as he was the only bad choice she

made for any considerable employment, men naturally believed that she

had here been influenced by an affection still more partial than that of

friendship. He gained, at first, some advantage in an action against the

Spaniards; and threw succors into Grave, by which that place was enabled

to make a vigorous defence: but the cowardice of the governor, Van

Hemert, rendered all these efforts useless. He capitulated after a

feeble resistance; and being tried for his conduct, suffered a capital

punishment from the sentence of a court martial. The prince of Parma

next undertook the siege of Venlo, which was surrendered to him after

some resistance. The fate of Nuys was more dismal; being taken by

assault, while the garrison was treating of a capitulation. Rhimberg,

which was garrisoned by twelve hundred English, under the command of

Colonel Morgan, was afterwards besieged by the Spaniards; and Leicester,

thinking himself too weak to attempt raising the siege, endeavored to

draw off the prince of Parma by forming another enterprise. He first

attacked Doesberg, and succeeded: he then sat down before Zutphen, which

the Spanish general thought so important a fortress, that he hastened to

its relief. He made the marquis of Guasto advance with a convoy, which

he intended to throw into the place. They were favored by a fog; but

falling by accident on a body of English cavalry, a furious action

ensued, in which the Spaniards were worsted, and the marquis of Gonzaga,

an Italian nobleman of great reputation and family was slain. The

pursuit was stopped by the advance of the prince of Parma with the main

body of the Spanish army; and the English cavalry, on their return from

the field, found their advantage more than compensated by the loss

of Sir Philip Sidney, who, being mortally wounded in the action,

was carried off by the soldiers, and soon after died. This person is

described by the writers of that age, as the most perfect model of

an accomplished gentleman that could be formed even by the wanton

imagination of poetry or fiction. Virtuous conduct, polite conversation,

heroic valor, and elegant erudition, all concurred to render him the

ornament and delight of the English court; and as the credit which he

possessed with the queen and the earl of Leicester was wholly employed

in the encouragement of genius and literature, his praises have been

transmitted with advantage to posterity. No person was so low as not to

become an object of his humanity. After this last action, while he was

lying on the field mangled with wounds, a bottle of water was brought

him to relieve his thirst; but observing a soldier near him in a like

miserable condition, he said, “This man’s necessity is still greater

than mine;” and resigned to him the bottle of water. The king of Scots,

struck with admiration of Sidney’s virtue, celebrated his memory in a

copy of Latin verses, which he composed on the death of that young hero.

[Illustration: 1-553-sidney.jpg SIR PHILIP SIDNEY]

The English, though a long peace had deprived them of all experience,

were strongly possessed of military genius; and the advantages gained

by the prince of Parma were not attributed to the superior bravery

and discipline of the Spaniards, but solely to the want of military

abilities in Leicester. The states were much discontented with his

management of the war; still more with his arbitrary and imperious

conduct; and at the end of the campaign, they applied to him for a

redress of all their grievances. But Leicester, without giving them any

satisfaction, departed soon after for England.[*]

* Camden, p. 512. Bentivoglio, part ii. lib. iv.

The queen, while she provoked so powerful an enemy as the king of Spain,

was not forgetful to secure herself on the side of Scotland; and she

endeavored both to cultivate the friendship and alliance of her kinsman

James, and to remove all grounds of quarrel between them. An attempt

which she had made some time before was not well calculated to gain Ihe

confidence of that prince. She had despatched Wotton as her ambassador

to Scotland; but though she gave him private instructions with regard

to her affairs, she informed James, that when she had any political

business to discuss with him, she would employ another minister; that

this man was not fitted for serious negotiations; and that her chief

purpose in sending him, was to entertain the king with witty and

facetious conversation, and to partake without reserve of his pleasures

and amusements. Wotton was master of profound dissimulation, and knew

how to cover, under the appearance of a careless gayety, the deepest

designs and most dangerous artifices. When but a youth of twenty, he had

been employed by his uncle, Dr. Wotton, ambassador in France during the

reign of Mary, to insnare the constable Montmorency; and had not his

purpose been frustrated by pure accident, his cunning had prevailed over

all the caution and experience of that aged minister. It is no wonder

that, after years had improved him in all the arts of deceit, he should

gain an ascendant over a young prince of so open and unguarded a temper

as James; especially when the queen’s recommendation prepared the way

for his reception. He was admitted into all the pleasures of the king;

made himself master of his secrets; and had so much the more authority

with him in political transactions, as he did not seem to pay the least

attention to these matters. The Scottish ministers, who observed the

growing interest of this man, endeavored to acquire his friendship; and

scrupled not to sacrifice to his intrigues the most essential interests

of their master. Elizabeth’s usual jealousies with regard to her heirs

began now to be levelled against James; and as that prince had attained

the years proper for marriage, she was apprehensive lest, by being

strengthened by children and alliances, he should acquire the greater

interest and authority with her English subjects. She directed Wotton to

form a secret concert with some Scottish noblemen, and to procure their

promise, that James, during three years, should not on any account be

permitted to marry. In consequence of this view, they endeavored to

embroil him with the king of Denmark, who had sent ambassadors to

Scotland on pretence of demanding restitution of the Orkneys, but really

with a view of opening a proposal of marriage between James and his

daughter. Wotton is said to have employed his intrigues to purposes

still more dangerous. He formed, it is pretended, a conspiracy with some

malecontents, to seize the person of the king, and to deliver him into

the hands of Elizabeth, who would probably have denied all concurrence

in the design, but would have been sure to retain him in perpetual

thraldom, if not captivity. The conspiracy was detected; and Wotton fled

hastily from Scotland, without taking leave of the king.[*]

James’s situation obliged him to dissemble his resentment of this

traitorous attempt, and his natural temper inclined him soon to

forgive and forget it. The queen, found no difficulty in renewing the

negotiations for a strict alliance between Scotland and England; and

the more effectually to gain the prince’s friendship, she granted him a

pension, equivalent to his claim on the inheritance of his grand mother,

the countess of Lenox, lately deceased.[**] A league was formed between

Elizabeth and James for the mutual defence of their dominions and of

their religion, now menaced by the open combination of all the Catholic

powers of Europe. It was stipulated, that if Elizabeth were invaded,

James should aid her with a body of two thousand horse and five thousand

foot; that Elizabeth, in a like case, should send to his assistance

three thousand horse and six thousand foot; that the charge of these

armies should be defrayed by the prince who demanded assistance; that

if the invasion should be made upon England, within sixty miles of the

frontiers of Scotland, this latter kingdom should march its whole force

to the assistance of the former; and that the present league should

supersede all former alliances of either state with any foreign kingdom,

so far as religion was concerned.[***]

* Melvil.

** Spotswood, p. 351.

*** Spotswood, p. 349. Camden, p. 513. Rymer, tom. xv. p.

803.

By this league, James secured himself against all attempts from abroad,

opened a way for acquiring the confidence and affections of the English,

and might entertain some prospect of domestic tranquillity, which, while

he lived on bad terms with Elizabeth, he could never expect long to

enjoy. Besides the turbulent disposition and inveterate feuds of the

nobility,--ancient maladies of the Scottish government,--the spirit of

fanaticism had introduced a new disorder; so much the more dangerous,

as religion, when corrupted by false opinion, is not restrained by

any rules of morality, and is even scarcely to be accounted for in

its operations by any principles of ordinary conduct and policy. The

insolence of the preachers, who triumphed in their dominion over the

populace, had at this time reached an extreme height; and they carried

their arrogance so far, not only against the king, but against the whole

civil power, that they excommunicated the archbishop of St. Andrews,

because he had been active in parliament for promoting a law which

restrained their seditious sermons; [*] nor could that prelate save

himself by any expedient from this terrible sentence, but by renouncing

all pretensions to ecclesiastical authority. One Gibson said in the

pulpit that Captain James Stuart (meaning the late earl of Arran) and

his wife, Jezebel, had been deemed the chief persecutors of the church;

but it was now seen that the king himself was the great offender; and

for this crime the preacher denounced against him the curse which

fell on Jeroboam, that he should die childless, and be the last of his

race.[**]

The secretary, Thirlstone, perceiving the king so much molested with

ecclesiastical affairs, and with the refractory disposition of the

clergy, advised him to leave them to their own courses; for that in a

short time they would become so intolerable, that the people would rise

against them, and drive them out of the country. “True,” replied the

king; “if I purposed to undo the church and religion, your counsel were

good; but my intention is to maintain both; therefore cannot I suffer

the clergy to follow such a conduct, as will in the end bring religion

into contempt and derision.”[***]

* Spotswood, p. 346, 346.

* Spotswood, p. 34[**?].

* Spotswood, p. 348.