How the government influence was to be directed, was not long in being shown. Till parliament should meet, E. issued a proclamation that the English language should be used in the greater, part of the church service„and that the iaost,should not be ele vated by the priest during mass. This sufficiently indicated into 'What hands power Lad passed, and was enough to throw the mass of the indifferent to the side of the Prot estants, and to cause a Protestant majority to be returned to E.'s first parliament. The acts of this parliament must be ever memorable in our history. It was then that Eng land took its position as a Protestant power. The Book of Common Prayer, retaining, doubtless, some mixture of mediaeval thought, but still vivid with new energy, was appointed to be used in all churches; the Thirty-nine Articles were settled as the national faith; the queen was declared to be bead of the church. Thus all allegiance to Rome was thrown off. This revolution was soon accomplished and with little turmoil. The bishops, with one exception, refused to conform; but as a sign of the times, marking how thoroughly the priesthood must have become demoralized before their power was lost, it is noteworthy that of the 9,000 clergymen who held livings in England, there were fewer than 200 who resigned, rather than obey the new order of things.
The policy of E.'s ministers was one of peace and economy. They found the nation at war with France and Scotland, and one of their first acts was to secure peace upon favorable terms. Ever afterwards, they followed the same path. No war was under taken in her reign for the sake of territorial conquest. To strengthen her own throne, E. secretly succored the Protestants in Scotland, in France, and in the Low Countries; but she had few open wars. To be at peace with a government, nay, apparently to be upon the most amicable terms with it (as E. was with the French court, while she sent assistance to the Huguenots at Rochelle), and at the same time to aid its rebellious sub jects, was in those days thought only part of the politic dissimulation, without which, it was believed, no nation could be safely ruled. To maintain the security of her own throne, and to prevent foreign interference in English matters, was the mainspring of E.'s foreign policy; and she lost no opportunity of weakening and finding occupation abroad for any foreign power that unduly threatened'her authority.
The one great blunder of England's policy was the treatment of Mary Queen of Scots. Had E. pursued a straightforward course, when her rival was thrown into her hands, much evil might have been spared. Some of the English ministers were prepared to take effectual measures to remove a life which might be turned into so dangerous a tool in the hands of Catholics. E. shrank from that course, but had not the courage and generosity to set queen Mary at liberty. Had this course been taken, Mary would have gone to France or Spain, would have made a foreign marriage, and as a foreigner would have lost the only sources of her real power—the sympathies of the Scotch and English Catholics. As it was, E. retained her a prisoner, and thus for years gave cause to
conspiracy after conspiracy among the English Catholics. For a rebellion incited to set Mary free, the richest and most popular of the English nobility, Norfolk, was executed. The discovery of every new plot led to demands, on the part of parliament, for the execution of Mary. The plots then took a graver aspect. The assassination of E., and the placing of Mary on her throne, became the object. On the discovery of Babington's conspiracy for this purpose, the popular cry was irresistible, and was joined in by Cecil and Walsingham, and others of E.'s ministers, who had sinned too deeply against Mary to run the risk of her succession to the throne. With reluctance and hesitation, the sincerity of which need not be questioned, E. consented; and Mary, after long years of confinement, was condemned and executed.
This led to new evils. The participation of the Catholic party in the plots was retaliated by persecution. Many suffered under an act passed in 1585, making it treason for a Catholic priest to be in England, and felony to harbor one. These cruel measures were the ultimate means of bringing upon England the most menacing foreign attack which she had suffered. Philip of Spain had long meditated vengeance against England. The greatest state in Europe, enriched by splendid acquisitions in the new world, could ill brook that a power of the second rank should incite rebellion among her subjects in the Netherlands, should aid the Protestants in their desperate struggle against Alva, and allow its ships (little better than pirates, it must be confessed) to enter the Spanish harbors, and cut out the rich laden galloons. These were the real reasons: to restore the Catholic faith, and to revenge the death of a Catholic queen, furnished ostensible reasons. Years had been spent in preparation. In 1588, the " invincible armada" sailed from the Tagus, manned by 8,000 sailors, and carrying 20,000 soldiers. To aid these, a land-army of 100,000 men was to be transported from the Netherlands under the duke of Parma. The news roused all England, and every man who could carry arms—Protestant and Catholic from 18 years of age to 60—was enrolled in the forces. The old queen herself rode at Tilbury, energetically encouraging the army. A fleet of 200 vessels and 15,000 seamen gathered itself on the southern coasts, and waited the attack. Superior skill and courage gained the victory for the English; and what these had begun, the force of the elements completed. The splendid armada was broken and destroyed before it could join the land-army, not a soldier of which ever left foreign ground; while not a seaman of the fleet, save those whom shipwrecks sent, ever set foot on English ground.