CHAPTER XIV. TEMPTS AT CHURCH REFORMATION. TROUBLES IN THE STATE. — THE PAPISTS BUSY. — AT VIEWS. ELIZABETH'S MORALS. COURT CORRUP THOUGH Elizabeth's sovereignty in Church and State was now fully established, yet the period between 1566 and 1572 was one of great excitement, and of imminent danger to her government. It was at this time that the league between the chief papal princes of Europe was consummated, if not formed, having for its grand object the dethronement of Elizabeth and all other protestant princes, and the utter extirpation of protestantism. As a preparatory step, Pope Pius V. issued his bull in May, 1566, "to anathematize and confound the heretics, and to sow discord among them." In this bull, he anathematized "all heretics, [and all] living, trading, or travelling, in or among the same, wheresoever dispersed over the face of the whole earth; and further willed, and authorized the wise and learned of his ecclesiastics to labor, endeavor, and contrive all manner of devices to abate, assuage, and confound these heretics. That thereby the heretics might be reclaimed to confess their errors, and acknowledge the jurisdiction of the see of Rome, or that a total infamy be brought upon them and their posterities, by a perpetual discord and contention among themselves. By which means they might either speedily perish by God's wrath, or continue in eternal difference." This bull quickened the papists in the work which Pius IV. (about 1560) and the council of Trent had previously devised to prevent the union of protestants proposed by Calvin.† Popish emissaries soon swarmed over England, in various disguises, secular and ecclesiastical. They even assumed the garb of puritan ministers, and travelled about preaching ultra and extravagant doctrines of any description which they thought adapted to disturb and divide protestants. These popish missionaries were allowed to marry, and to take all necessary oaths, in order to deceive the government; and even to change their names, and to have several different names, the better to accomplish their nefarious purposes.‡ Books, too, against Elizabeth * Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 48, p. 218. " † Strype's Parker, 1. 141; Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. ch. 18, p. 341. Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. II. ch. 48, pp. 218-. The directions furnished these cheats by the council of Trent, were: That they were not to preach at all after one manner, but to observe the places wherein they came. If Lutherism was prevalent, then to preach Calvinism; if Calvinism, then Lutherism. If they came into England, then either of these, or John Huss' opinions, anabaptism, or any that were contrary to the holy see of Peter; by which their functions would not be suspected, and yet they might still drive on the interest of the mother church; there be and her government were freely dispersed abroad;* and popish astrologers and conjurers predicted that strange things were to happen even the death of the queen and the overthrow of protestantism.t About 1567-68, the English catholics, who before had been comparatively quiet, and had attended the parish churches, and partaken of the sacrament without much scruple, began, not only to forsake the established worship of the State, but to attend mass, and to celebrate religious services by themselves; while licensed agents of the pope were busy "reconciling" the lapsed penitents back to the bosom of the Romish church.‡ In 1568 or 1569, the famous Douay College was established in Flanders, by William Allen, a Romish priest, and afterwards a cardinal. The design of this establishment - - which was the precursor of nearly half a score of similar institutions — was to educate English-born youth to become Romish missionaries and spies in their native land.§ ing, as the council was agreed on, no better way to demolish this church's heresy, than by mixtures of doctrines, and by adding of ceremonies more than were at present permitted.” — Annals, vol. 1. pt. 1. ch. 19, p. 341; and vol. 1. pt. 11. chaps. 36, 48, pp. 55, 56, 219. *Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 46, p. 192. † Strype's Parker, 11. 1-5; Annals, vol. 1. pt. II. ch. 56, p. 354. Sanders, De Schisma Angl., p. 180; Hopkins, 1. 336-44; Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 12, pp. 243-; Life and Times of Sir Christopher Hatton, by Sir Harris Nicholas, p. 457, London, 1847. § Sanders, De Schisma Angl., pp. 178, 179, says that in the course of about fifty years, colleges, similar in character and design to the Douay, were established by the Romanists in Rome, Vallado These various popish agencies and exertions conspired to prepare the way for the great rebellion of 1568-69, when thousands of Elizabeth's subjects broke out into open war against the government. In the north of England, the communion table, the English Bible, and the church of England service-book were torn in pieces; mass was openly celebrated before thousands of people in the cathedral of Durham; and nearly six thousand men were mustered in arms, led by the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland. Their avowed lid, Seville, St. Omers, Madrid, Louvaine, Liege, and Ghent. According to Sanders, Douay and Rome, in the course of a few years, sent over to England no less than three hundred missionary spies, to work for Rome. Mr. Neal says: "The popish nobility and gentry sent over their children to these colleges for education; and it is incredible what a mass of money was collected in England for their maintenance, by their provincials, sub-provincials, assistants, agents, coadjutors, familiars, etc., out of the estates of such catholics as were possessed of abbey lands; the pope dispensing with their holding them on these considerations." -Hist. Puritans, 1. 344. The oath taken by every student on his admission to one of these colleges was as follows: "I, A B, considering how great benefits God hath bestowed on me, but then especially when he brought me out of mine own country, so much infected with heresy, and made me a member of the catholic church, as also desiring, with a thankful heart, to improve so great a mercy of God, have resolved to offer myself wholly up to divine service, as much as I may to fulfil the end for which this our college was founded. I promise, therefore, and swear, in the presence of Almighty God, that I am prepared from mine heart, with the assistance of divine grace, in due time to receive holy orders, and to return into England, to convert the souls of my countrymen and kindred, when, and as often, as it may seem good to the superior of my college to command me.". - Fuller's Ch. Hist., vol. 11. bk. IX. p. 486-91; Collier's Ecc. Hist. of Great Britain, vi. 470. object was to liberate Mary, Queen of Scots, and reëstablish the catholic religion in England. In 1570, Pope Pius V. publicly excommunicated Elizabeth, "pretended queen of England, and all heretics adhering to her.” * Thus everything seemed to be gathering and combining to crush the queen and destroy the protestant religion; and the hearts of all good protestants were ready to faint through fear of what might be coming upon them, from the combination of foreign princes and the machinations of home rebels against the government. Strype calls this "a year of extreme danger and apprehension to the queen and to the whole kingdom." Yet, during this very time, persecution was kept up by the queen against the puritans, the truest friends of her government and the Reformation, and Bridewell and other prisons were full of them.† *Collier, VI. 466. "More privately sent about 1569." — Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 19, p. 354. Secretary Cecil drew up a memorial in 1569, on the perils of the kingdom and their remedies. Among the then present perils, he enumerates: 'A conspiration of the pope, King Philip, the French king, and sundry potentates of Italy, to employ all their forces for the subversion of the professors of the gospel. The intention of the same, formed to be extended against England, immediately after the subduing of the prince of Conde and his associates. The discovery of a great number of gentlemen lately in Lancashire, that have upon persuasion forborne to come to the church, with opinion shortly to enjoy the use of the popish religion."" - Strype's Annals, vol. 1. pt. 11. ch. 54, p. 309. † Neal, 1. 270. The Rev. Mr. Axton, minister of Morton-Corbet, in Leicestershire, who was three times, during the year 1570, |