'A public weal, wretched and too far disgraced,

Where the right head is off cut and a wrong instead placed:

A brute beast untamed, a misbegotten,

More meet to be ruled than rule among men.

'Such treatment of the Queen as this was did, no question, irritate her much, and provoke her to issue out such angry declarations of her mind and resolutions of taking vengeance of all such-like bookwriters and book-readers.'

The proclamation was, indeed, a very strong one; it commands all wicked and seditious books to be delivered up on pain of death, without delay, by martial law.

We come now to the reign of Elizabeth, when several works on various subjects were very summarily dealt with. The first we will mention was on a subject that caused great anxiety during this reign, that of the Succession. The doubtful legitimacy of the Queen herself, the testamentary dispositions of Henry VIII. in favour of the children of his younger sister Mary, Duchess of Suffolk, and the claims of Mary, Queen of Scots, as the representative of the King's elder sister Margaret, all concurred to render the question of the future descent of the Crown a subject of most perilous import to those who ventured to discuss it.

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One person, however, John Hales, Clerk of the Hanaper, published a book in 1563, entitled A declaration of the 'succession of the crown of England,' in support of the marriage and the claims of Lord Hertford's children by the Lady Catherine Grey. The Queen was so angry at its appearance that the author was committed to the Tower, and Bacon himself, the Lord Keeper, who was suspected of having had a hand in its appearance, fell considerably in his mistress's favour.

Im

In 1594, seven years after the execution of Mary Queen of Scots, appeared A conference about the next Succession to the crowne of Ingland, published by R. Doleman. 'printed at N. with licence. This work supported the claims of Lord Hertford's second son, or the children of the Countess of Derby, amongst English persons; or, if these are set aside, of any one foreyne Prince that pretendeth, the Infanta of Spayne is likest to bear it away.' The authors of the book were R. Parsons the Jesuit, Cardinal Allen, and Sir Francis Englefield. The unfortunate printer is said to have been hanged, drawn, and quartered; and the book itself so rigorously suppressed, that it was made high treason to possess a

* Queen Jane.

*

copy of it. Herbert, however, contradicts this last assertion. It made little difference, however, which side in the controversy any author might take; the fact of his daring to express his sentiments on the point was a sufficient reason for his being told to hold his tongue. Accordingly, when in 1593, Peter Wentworth published A pithie exhortation to her Majestie for establishing her successor to the crown; whereunto is added a discourse containing the author's opinion of the true and lawful successor to her Majesty,' he soon had reason to lament his audacity. A printed slip in the Grenville copy of his book informs us Doleman's objections to the suc'cession of James I. were ably refuted in this volume, and "the claims of the Scottish King set forth by sound argument; yet for daring to advise his Sovereign, the author was com 'mitted to the Tower, where he shortly afterwards died, and his book ordered to be burnt by the hangman.' This last assertion, is, we shall see presently, somewhat questionable.

Whether Elizabeth was ever really in earnest in any of her numerous love affairs, it is impossible to say; but perhaps her first admirer, Thomas Seymour, did succeed in gaining her affections; and it seems hard to believe but that the Earl of Leicester had ample reason for supposing his passion to be returned. There can be no question, however, about her unqueenly behaviour towards some of her suitors, particularly the Archduke Charles in 1564; or again still more unpardonably, the young Duke of Anjou in 1579, when she was fortysix years old. The general belief that this marriage would take place, roused some vehement feelings, which found expression in a book by John Stubbes, The discovery of a gaping gulf whereinto England is like to be swallowed by another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the Banes, by letting her Maiestie see the sin and punishment thereof.' Hallam assures us that the book was very far from a virulent libel, and 'written with great affection.' If so, the author was very unfortunate in the choice of his title. On the 27th of September appeared the proclamation for its suppression, where it is described as a 'fardell of false reportes, suggestions, and manifest lies; and directions are given that it should be destroyed in open sight of some publique officer.' The author himself, and Page the distributor, were brought into the market-place at Westminster, and there had their right hands cut off with a butcher's knife and a mallet. Stubbes took off his cap with his left hand, and cried Long live Queen Elizabeth.' On Oc

* Ames, vol. iii. 1726.

tober 5, 1579, a circular was prepared by the Council to give notice to the clergy and others that the seditious suggestions set forth in Stubbes's book were without foundation, and that special noted preachers should declare the same to the people. Eleven copies of this circular are in the State Paper Office unfinished, some signed, others not fully signed, and some not signed at all; from which it would appear that none were sent, and that the matter dropped.*

Some time before this, on February 25, 1570, Pope Sixtus V. issued his famous Bull against Queen Elizabeth, a copy of which was nailed on the door of the Bishop of London on May 15. The Pope describes her as a bastard and usurper, the persecutor of God's saints, and declares that it would be an act of virtue, to be repaid with plenary indulgence and forgiveness of all sins, to lay violent hands on her and deliver her into the hands of her enemies. Philip of Spain is the rightful King of England, the Defender of the Faith he is the head of the league formed for her destruction, and Alexander Duke of Parma is commander-in-chief. The Bull was translated into English, and printed in large numbers at Antwerp. At the same time, Dr. Allen, just made a Cardinal, whom the Queen describes as a 'lewd-born subject of ours, now become an 'arche traitor,' wrote a pamphlet, which she characterises as a'vile, slanderous, and blasphemous book, containing as many lies as lines,' under the direction of the Duke of Parma. This pamphlet was translated into English, and a large edition printed for distribution in England, when the enemy should set foot in it. It was entitled An Admonition to the Nobility ' and People of England and Ireland concerning the present Wares, made for the execution of His Holines Sentence by 'the highe and mightie King Catholike of Spain.' The "Ad'monition," says Mr. Motley,† accused the Queen of every crime and vice that can pollute humanity, and it was filled 'with foul details unfit for the public eye in these more 'decent days.' A copy of this very rare work is in the Grenville Library.

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The

Along with these was prepared a broadside for yet wider distribution. It was to have been posted up in every conspicuous place if the Armada had been successful. heading was: A Declaration of the Sentence and Deposition of Elizabeth the Usurper and pretended Queene of England.' R. Parsons is supposed to have been the author of it. On

Calendar of State Papers, 1547-1580, p. 634.

History of the United Netherlands, vol. ii. p. 379. Ed. 1869.

the failure of the expedition the broadside was so studiously suppressed, that its very existence has been questioned. Two copies, however, at least have come down to us-one sold at the sale of Canon Tierney's library in 1862, when it fetched the sum of 317., the other is in the Bodleian at Oxford. It will be found printed at length in the Canon's edition of Dodd's Church History,' vol. iii. At the time when these libels were being prepared for distribution_Elizabeth was in negotiation with the Duke of Parma. The Queen naturally requests her Commissioners to inquire of the Duke concerning these publications. The Duke had the effrontery to declare that he knew nothing either of the Bull or the Admonition. At that very time there was lying in his cabinet a letter, received a fortnight before from the King of Spain, thanking him for having had the Cardinal's letter translated at Antwerp.*

In 1578 appeared another book which caused a great sensation. This was A Treatise of Schisme, shewing that al 'Catholikes ought in any wise to abstaine altogether from 'heretical Conventicles:' printed at Douay, and written by Gregory Martin, afterwards Professor of Divinity at the English College at Rome. It gave great offence to the Queen and her Ministers, and very naturally, for it invites the ladies about the Queen's person to imitate the example of Judith, in ridding the world of Holofernes.' Though printed in 1578, it was not till 1584 that measures were taken concerning it. A copy had been sent by Cardinal Allen to Carter the printer, for a new edition. That very copy, wanting the title-page, now in the Bodleian. The impression was seized, and Carter himself arraigned at the Old Bailey for printing it, and the next day hanged at Tyburn.

is

Among the many sects which troubled the Church of England in those days was that of the Brownists, whom Dr. Hook regards as the original Independents. Their founder, Robert Brown, of C.C.C., Cambridge, came back from a journey to Zealand so convinced of the Popish tendencies of the Church of England, as to declare there was nothing of Christ left in her discipline. The books and pamphlets in which his doctrines were set forth were prohibited by a proclamation, issued October 1584; and there is little doubt but that he would have shared the fate of two of his disciples, who were hanged at Bury St. Edmunds for distributing these suppressed publications, had he not been, fortunately for himself, a relation of Lord Burleigh.

Motley, vol. ii. p. 386.

Another sect which fell under the Queen's displeasure was the Family of Love. The original founder of this ancient Agapemone was a Dutch Anabaptist, born at Delft, called David George; but the person who gave it its definite form and character was Henry Nicolas, or Nicolai, a native, as some say, of Munster, and others of Amsterdam, who resided for some time in London in the reign of Edward VI. His pretensions were quite as blasphemous as his master's. He gave out that he could no more erre or mistake the right than Moyses, the prophets, or Christe and his Apostles, and that his books were of equal authority with Holy Scripture itself. Moses, he said, taught mankind to hope, Christ to believe, but he to love, which last being of more worth than both the former, he was consequently greater than both those prophets.' Attention had been called to their teaching in a book by I. Rogers, published in 1572, called The Displaying of an 'horrible Secte of grosse and wicked Heretiques, naming themselves the Family of Love;' and again by two authors in 1579, W. Wilkinson and I. Knewstub.

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Little notice, however, was taken of them till 1580, although in 1575 they had applied to Parliament for toleration, and accompanied their application with a confession of faith,'—a curious document, no doubt, which we hope may be discovered by the Historical Commission. What answer was returned to their appeal we cannot tell, but five years afterwards a proclamation was issued against them, which, if the description given of them therein was at all just, was certainly not uncalled for. They are charged with teaching damnable heresies, 'directly contrary to divers of the principal articles of our belief and Christian faith,' and that as many as shall be allowed by them to be of that family to be elect and saved, and all others, of what church soever they be, to be rejected and damned.' A still more serious charge is that those Sectaries hold opinion that they may, before any magistrate, ecclesiastical or temporal, or any other person, not being professed to be of their sect, by oath, or otherwise, deny anything for their advantage.' Accordingly orders are given to proceed severely against all such persons, and also that search be made in all places suspected for the books and writings maintaining the said heresies and sects, that they may be destroyed and burnt.' Some of these books are specially mentioned, the author whereof they name H. N., without yielding to him, upon their examination, any other name,' Evangelium Regni or the Joyful Message of the Kingdom,' eprinted by sentences in Knewstub's book, which he an

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