(H. HN.) 'Since this was written the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, constituting the Vatican City State, was signed and ratified.
(See ITALY, HISTORY and Pius XI.) (Ed. E.B.) The separation between the English Catholics who acknowl edged the pope and the English State again became an accom plished fact by the Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity which were enacted before anything else in the first parliament of Eliza beth (1559)• The former, which did not call the Queen supreme head but "Governess" of the Church in England, was followed im mediately by the Act of Uniformity which prescribed the use in public worship of the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI. This was to come into force on June 24, 1559. The Oath of Suprem acy was tendered to all the surviving bishops, 14 in number, to many of the beneficed clergy, and to certain laymen who held important offices. The bishops with the exception of Kitchin of Llandaff, refused the oath, and were deprived of their sees. They were put under "various degrees of restraint, ranging from mere surveillance to hard captivity in prison." As the years went on they died in the different abodes assigned to them, the two last being Watson of Lincoln (1584) and Goldwell of St. Asaph's (1585), the latter having long before effected his escape to Rome.
We are partly left to guesswork as to how many of the lower clergy had the Oath of Supremacy tendered to them, and as to how many refused it. It is supposed that some 6,000 took it, but it is not clear how many of the minority of from 2,000 to 3,00o refused it. At least 200 refused, and it is credibly held that some 500 others evaded it in one way or another. Anyhow a majority took it and a minority refused it. With the laity in general, attendance at Sunday service in the parish church was made the test, and many who still adhered to the pope appear to have thought that they could still safely be present at the legal service as an Act of civil obedience. When the question was asked in Rome this way of acting was condemned and the cleavage thus accentuated.
It became a vital matter for Elizabeth's government to fill up the sees of the deprived bishops. Canterbury was vacant by the death of Cardinal Pole, and hence to the primatial see an in cumbent was appointed as early as the 1st of August 1559 in the person of Dr. Matthew Parker. This prelate, once consecrated, then proceeded to consecrate in turn the bishops named by the crown. At first, doubtless, many of the laity, estimated variously at anything between 90% and 5o%, held to the old religion, but the pressure on them was steady, and conformity with the Estab lishment went on with increasing momentum as the supply of Marian priests died out.
Catholic worship never completely ceased in Protestant Eng land, but it was evident that once the Marian priests who would still perform it became extinct, it could go on no longer unless some means- were taken to keep it up. William Allen (1532– 1594), afterwards cardinal, was the first to work for colleges or seminaries abroad to train priests for the English mission. He
succeeded in establishing Douay college in 1568, which so flour ished that it was not long before it contained 15o students. Through stress of war it had to be moved to Reims for a time but returned to Douay as soon as it was feasible. At Reims and Douay respectively a translation of the New and Old Testaments was made for the use of English Catholics, and this, though with subsequent revision, is still in use at the present day. In 1575 the English college in Rome was founded by Gregory XIII., and colleges followed in Valladolid, Seville, and other places. In this a supply of clergy, known as the seminary priests, was pro vided for the needs of the English Catholics. The early years of Elizabeth's reign up to 1571 were spent in the exercise of moderate pressure to ensure conformity with the Establishment, and in fruitless efforts to reconcile Elizabeth with the Holy See; such hopes died slowly in the minds of the pope, the king of Spain and the English Catholics : even the Council of Trent put aside the proposal to excommunicate the English Queen. But before 1571 there was a new pope St. Pius V., and holding compromise im possible, he issued on the 25th of February (157o) the Bull Regnans in excelsis, both excommunicating and deposing Eliza beth. There was a formidable rival for the English throne in Mary Queen of Scots, and after her capture and imprisonment, many Catholic nobles took part in the insurrection in her favour known as the "Rising of the North." This was suppressed, and Northumberland, Norfolk and about 900 others were executed. It was probably the unjustified hopes for the success of their enter prise which led to the publication of the bull of deposition, which was unknown and disapproved by both the imperial and Spanish rulers. It failed to shake the throne of Elizabeth, but led to bitter persecution of the Catholics. It emphasized the opposition be tween Catholicism and the English State, though indirectly weld ing the Catholics into a much reduced but solid body of "recu sants." The parliament of 1571 legislated against Rome, making it high treason to declare the queen a heretic or schismatic, or to bring into England any papal letter: forfeiture of goods was in curred by absence beyond the seas without licence. The execu tion of Mary Queen of Scots in 1587 also brought to a head Spain's attempt by the Armada to win a final victory over Eng land in the war gradually provoked by mutual aggression. Soon the tale of those who suffered death through the laws, which made treason and profession of Catholic faith and rites practically the same, grew longer: the "Elizabethan martyrs" began to appear. The total number who endured the extreme penalty was in all 189, of whom 128 were priests, 58 laymen, and 3 women. As to the body of the laity the large minority of the early years of the reign sank to anything between 120,000 and a third of the population : there were on the mission 30o seminary priests, 5o Marian priests and 16 Jesuits.