Reformation

She had promised, and perhaps intended, leniency; but here was a death-struggle between two incompatible ideals, and, in an age when scarcely anybody believed in toleration, Mary had only one choice. She executed 210 Protestants in her last three years; and, at her death, this rate was rather rising than falling. This was fatal ; her very first victim, John Rogers, had been so heartily cheered by the London crowd "that he seemed to be going to his marriage," so wrote the French ambassador to his master. This sympathy, strong from the first, grew in proportion as the queen's desperate efforts intensified. Moreover, a new generation was growing up which was far more widely educated than its ances tors; and this was especially noteworthy with the women.

Elizabeth.

The country welcomed Elizabeth ; and, though she was not tolerant in the modern sense, she and her ministers car ried through one of the most successful compromises in history, the "Reformation settlement." Elizabeth herself would possibly have preferred a moderate form of non-papal Catholicism, though one of her earliest acts was very significant ; she forbade the bishop who said mass in her presence to elevate the Host, and went out of the chapel when he disobeyed. Many of her subjects were con vinced and determined Catholics. But she recognized that Prot estantism had come to stay ; and she so managed that it should have far more freedom than in any Catholic land, while the Cath olics, on the other hand, had as much liberty as the Protestant non conformists.

Death was the legal penalty for obstinate refusal to take the oath of royal supremacy; but in fact no Catholic who refrained from political plots needed to fear more than a shilling fine for each refusal to attend Sunday service, until after the pope had excommunicated her and decreed her deposition. Scarcely one fif tieth of the Marian clergy were deprived of their livings for refusing the oath. Therefore the nation settled down rapidly ; and the result was a more rapid national advance in learning, in liter ature and in commerce than at any period since the Conquest. One set of figures may be quoted as typical of the rest. The religious quarrels told very heavily upon the universities. The number of degrees fell sadly at Oxford under Henry VIII., and rose again under Mary to the mediaeval average; at Cambridge, however, they fell under Mary. From 1555 to i558 they averaged only 28 a year; but in 1570 they haa risen to i7o, and in 1583 to 277, or three times the mediaeval average.

Scotland and Ireland.

The Scottish Reformation went on side by side with the English; each assisted the other. John Knox

and Elizabeth were far from complete agreement ; but they had sufficient sense and self-control to work together. This religious Concordat went far to obliterate ancient enmities; "Knox included in his liturgy a prayer that there might nevermore be war be tween Scotland and England; and that prayer has been fulfilled" (F. W. Maitland in Camb. Mod. Hist., vol. II.). In 156o the Scottish parliament did what the English had done a year before; mass and papal authority were formally rejected. Knox's Book of Discipline, founded mainly on Calvin's Institution and on the or ganization already adopted by French Protestantism, fixed Scot land in "presbyterianism." The democratic character of the Scottish Reformation, and Knox's own zeal for education, go far to explain the subsequent love of learning and the high level of general education in Scot land; though the greed of the barons frustrated the hope of en dowing a whole system of schools and colleges from confiscated Church property.

England's treatment of Ireland is a black page in Reformation history. The country was conquered, and the conquerors dealt with it after the brutal fashion of that time. Few Catholics lost their lives for religion pure and simple, as apart from political revolts; but a series of unjust penal statutes were enacted, and these, although seldom enforced in their full theoretical strictness, were relaxed far too slowly in the face of advancing civilization; therefore, instead of weakening, they have only strengthened the attachment of the Irish to their religion.

It has sometimes been argued that the present religious equilib rium, or something better, might have been obtained without revolution. But this contention seems scarcely reconcilable either with previous or with subsequent history.

We have seen how long this revolution had been brewing. It would be difficult to find any institution which has been so severely criticized by so many of its most devoted adherents, through so many centuries, as the mediaeval Church. At the very beginning of the 12th century, St. Bernard had emphasized weak nesses which, if not remedied, must necessarily bring disaster; yet orthodox churchmen of 15oo frequently quote St. Bernard's actual words as exactly applicable to the Church of their own day. Some scandals had been abated ; but others were even more rampant. Such improvements as had taken place were mainly due to pressure from the laity; and friction between clergy and their flocks seemed increasing rather than decreasing.