History of the English People, Volume IV | Page 2

is thrown on the Queen's earlier steps by the

Zürich Letters published by the Parker Society. The strife with the later
Puritans can only be fairly judged after reading the Martin Marprelate
Tracts, which have been reprinted by Mr. Maskell, who has given a
short abstract of the more important in his "History of the Martin
Marprelate Controversy." Her policy towards the Catholics is set out in
Burleigh's tract "The Execution of Justice in England, not for Religion,
but for Treason," which was answered by Allen in his "Defense of the
English Catholics." On the actual working of the penal laws much new
information has been given us in the series of contemporary narratives
published by Father Morris under the title of "The Troubles of our
Catholic Forefathers"; the general history of the Catholics may be
found in the work of Dodd; and the sufferings of the Jesuits in More's
"Historia Provinciæ Anglicanæ Societatis Jesu." To these may be added
Mr. Simpson's biography of Campion. For our constitutional history
during Elizabeth's reign we have D'Ewes's Journals and Townshend's
"Journal of Parliamentary Proceedings from 1580 to 1601," the first
detailed account we possess of the proceedings of the House of
Commons. Macpherson in his Annals of Commerce gives details of the
wonderful expansion of English trade during this period, and Hakluyt's
collection of Voyages tells of its wonderful activity. Amidst a crowd of
biographers, whose number marks the new importance of individual
life and action at the time, we may note as embodying information
elsewhere inaccessible the lives of Hatton and Davison by Sir Harris
Nicolas, the three accounts of Raleigh by Oldys, Tytler, and Mr.
Edwards, the Lives of the two Devereux, Earls of Essex, Mr.
Spedding's "Life of Bacon," and Barrow's "Life of Sir Francis Drake."
CHAPTER I
THE PROTESTANT REVOLUTION
1540-1553
[Sidenote: Cromwell and the Monarchy.]
At the death of Cromwell the success of his policy was complete. The
Monarchy had reached the height of its power. The old liberties of

England lay prostrate at the feet of the king. The Lords were cowed and
spiritless; the House of Commons was filled with the creatures of the
Court and degraded into an engine of tyranny. Royal proclamations
were taking the place of parliamentary legislation; royal benevolences
were encroaching more and more on the right of parliamentary taxation.
Justice was prostituted in the ordinary courts to the royal will, while the
boundless and arbitrary powers of the royal Council were gradually
superseding the slower processes of the Common Law. The religious
changes had thrown an almost sacred character over the "majesty" of
the king. Henry was the Head of the Church. From the primate to the
meanest deacon every minister of it derived from him his sole right to
exercise spiritual powers. The voice of its preachers was the echo of his
will. He alone could define orthodoxy or declare heresy. The forms of
its worship and belief were changed and rechanged at the royal caprice.
Half of its wealth went to swell the royal treasury, and the other half lay
at the king's mercy. It was this unprecedented concentration of all
power in the hands of a single man that overawed the imagination of
Henry's subjects. He was regarded as something high above the laws
which govern common men. The voices of statesmen and priests
extolled his wisdom and authority as more than human. The Parliament
itself rose and bowed to the vacant throne when his name was
mentioned. An absolute devotion to his person replaced the old loyalty
to the law. When the Primate of the English Church described the chief
merit of Cromwell, it was by asserting that he loved the king "no less
than he loved God."
[Sidenote: Cromwell and the Parliament.]
It was indeed Cromwell who more than any man had reared this fabric
of king-worship. But he had hardly reared it when it began to give way.
The very success of his measures indeed brought about the ruin of his
policy. One of the most striking features of Cromwell's system had
been his developement of parliamentary action. The great assembly
which the Monarchy had dreaded and silenced from the days of Edward
the Fourth to the days of Wolsey had been called to the front again at
the Cardinal's fall. Proud of his popularity, and conscious of his
people's sympathy with him in his protest against a foreign jurisdiction,

Henry set aside the policy of the Crown to deal a heavier blow at the
Papacy. Both the parties represented in the ministry that followed
Wolsey welcomed the change, for the nobles represented by Norfolk
and the men of the New Learning represented by More regarded
Parliament with the same favour. More indeed in significant though
almost exaggerated phrases set its omnipotence face to face with the