it had merely been a restoration of what had previously existed in England. It was no slight thing that the principles with regard to unity held by such men as Tonstall and Gardiner should have had to give way to the ultramontane theory of Pole; and no slight thing, too, that England should thus have been brought into the atmosphere, so to speak, of the Council of Trent, which had been sitting intermittently since 1542; in fact, almost ever since the breach with Rome. For the principles which were put forward in that Council, respecting the relation of the Bishops to the Pope as the source of their jurisdiction, were such as would not have been dreamt of in England fifty years before, nor yet in Spain or France. No doubt modern Roman theories of the relation of the Pope to the Church are to be found before this time; but at the Council of Trent they first became in some measure impressed upon the whole Roman communion'. And thus it is quite as true to say that the state of the English Church under Mary is an innovation, as to say that its state under Edward VI was an innovation 2.

See the author's Beginnings of English Christianity p. 152, note 1. Methuen, 1808.

* It may be mentioned also that the Marian abbey of Westminster was founded by Pole on the Cassinese

Thus things continued until the end of Mary's reign; and if the treatment of those who disapproved of the changes had been cruel and intolerant under Henry and Edward, it was certainly far more so under Mary. And in spite of their bad effect upon those who had acquired a horrible familiarity with them, the fires of persecution probably did more to purify and refine English religion than anything else. Whether the idea originated with Mary or her advisers, this un-English method of persuasion cleared people's minds. Men who may be called upon to burn for what they believe are at least likely to see to it that mere fads do not take the place of faith; and the waywardness of Edwardine experimentalism in religion gave place to the sober seriousness of men who knew their own minds. And as against this the papist party had comparatively little to oppose.

Few things are more significant and more strangely sad than the last year of Mary's

model, hitherto unknown in England. The abbat was to be appointed for three years instead of for life, without congé d'élire or royal confirmation.-Taunton, English Black Monks of St Benedict i. 173 f.

See Dixon, History of the Church of England vol. iv. P. 726.

life. She was deserted by her husband, she had lost the one remaining vestige of England's continental power, she was at variance with the Papacy1, for which she had given up everything, and the purifying influence of fire had done just the opposite of what she had hoped. Her beloved cousin Pole the Archbishop of Canterbury, her chancellor Gardiner, and nearly half the number of the Bishops were dying or dead. Everything seemed to have united to prove that she was fighting against a Power that was greater than she 2. It irresistibly suggests to the mind the last days of the Emperor Julian; dying, after a life spent in the attempt to uproot Christianity, with the consciousness that the Galilean had conquered.

1 Dixon, op. cit. chapters 29, 30; Lingard, History of England v. 254 (ed. 1854).

2 "When Reginald Pole died on the same day as Queen Mary, both of them worn out with impotence and disappointment, it was the sign of the work rejected and put away for ever. However charitably we may judge of the motives and characters of the agents in that work, God, who is more charitable than we, said plainly that He would have no more of it, and cleared England of it, and threw the field open for a different kind of work and workers; and those in high ecclesiastical office who had been misled into siding with Pole and Mary slipped quietly away, and left God's new agents to do God's new work."-From a sermon preached by Dr Mason

III.

On Mary's death at the end of 1558, the whole policy fell to pieces like a house built of cards; and when Elizabeth came to the throne, the mind of the Church was so clearly made up that what would be done was already a foregone conclusion. The papal authority was once more, and finally, abolished; the English services were restored, and their use made obligatory and binding upon all persons; and the sovereign was declared supreme governor over all her people, to the repudiation of all foreign jurisdictions whatever, civil or ecclesiastical. "The Queen's Highness," said the Act of Supremacy, "is the only supreme governor of this realm ・・・ and of all other her Highness's dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal; and . . . no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate has, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm 1."

at the Selwyn College Commemoration in 1896.-Selwyn College Calendar for 1897, p. 85.

1 The main sections of the Act are given in the Appendix, No. VI.

And in accordance with the practice and the principles of the day, all persons in authority were required to take an oath that they would accept the provisions of this legislation. The penalty for refusing the oath was deprivation. Here of course was a hardship. It was one thing to make laws, and to impose penalties upon those who broke those laws, and quite another thing to deal with people's conscientious beliefs, and make them accept them under the sanction of an oath. But such were the methods of the day, and no one side was more given to them than another. Again, fines were imposed upon such as refused to attend the services of the Church, but this too was one of the methods which was then resorted to on all hands 1.

Now what was the result?

(a) First, as regards the lay people. The great bulk of them accepted the changes at once. The majority of these received them with joy, and settled down happily to the enjoy

1 Another penal statute was passed in 1563 (5 Eliz. c. 1), but not put into operation, by which anybody publicly upholding the authority of the Pope in England is to incur the penalties of praemunire, and on a second offence of high treason. And the list of persons to whom the oath of supremacy is to be tendered is enlarged.