In this double course she represented a large part of the nation,
which hesitated about committing itself fully to either side. Men
were not wanting who were ready to lay down their lives for
conscience' sake, but they do not appear to have been numerous.
Some sympathized at heart with the notorious Vicar of Bray, who kept
his pulpit under the whole or some part of the successive reigns of
Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, changing his theology with
each change of rule. When taunted as a turncoat, he replied, "Not so,
for I have always been true to my principles, which are to live and
die Vicar of Bray."[2]
[2] "For this as law I will maintain
Until my dying day, sir,
That whatsoever king shall reign,
I'll be Vicar of Bray, sir."
Though there was nothing morally noble in such halting between two
opinions, and facing both ways, yet it saved England for the time from
the worst of all calamities, a religious civil war. Such a conflict
rent France in pieces, drenched her fair fields with the blood of
Catholics and Protestants, split Germany and Italy into petty states,
and ended in Spain in the triumph of the Inquisition and of
intellectual death.[1]
[1] S. R. Gardiner's "History of England"; consult also J. F. Bright's
"History of England" and L. Von Ranke's "History of England."