With this oration Parliament was prorogued; and Elizabeth had kept her word to the Queen of Scots. With the Parliament ended also the first Convocation of the English Church-of the doings of which something should be said—although what Convocation might decide affected little either the stability or the teaching of the institution which it represented. The Church of England had been reproached with teaching no definite doctrine. It was proposed that 'Nowell's Catechism,' 'Edward's Articles,' and 'Jewel's Apology,' lately written at Cecil's instigation, should be bound together and receive authoritative sanction'whosoever should speak against the same to be ordered as in cases of heresy.' An effort was made to get rid of vestments and surplices, organs and bells- the table to stand no more altarwise;' the sign of the cross to be abolished in baptism; and kneeling at the Communion to be left indifferent, or discountenanced as leading to superstition. The more advanced Calvinists demanded the reinvigoration of that aged iniquity, the Ecclesiastical Courts, with a new code of canon law; the clergy meanwhile to have power to examine into the spiritual condition of their parishioners; to admonish them if their state was unsatisfactory; to excommunicate them if admonition failed; and excommunication to mean the loss of civil rights, imprisonment, fine, and the secular arm. Adulterers and fornicators were to be put to open shame, flogged at the cart's tail, banished or imprisoned for life; and moral offences generally were to be dealt with by similar means. It was no doubt well that English people should understand the faith which they professed; it was well that they should be prevented so far as possible from committing sin; but it would not perhaps have contributed in the long run to the end desired, if the clergy had been again empowered to deal with these things in their own peculiar manner. This last ambition was quenched and did not reappear. Six formulas committing the Church to ultraProtestantism were lost by the near majority of fifty-nine to fifty-eight, while the discussion generally resulted in the restoration of thirty-nine of the original forty-two articles of Edward as a rule of faith for the clergy. The Bishop of Worcester introduced a measure to prevent his order from making away with the Church property. Petitions were presented for a more strict observance of Sunday, which came to nothing. This, in the main, was the work aimed at or accomplished by Convocation: more moderate than might have been expected from the spirit in which the session had opened. The clergy were learning their position, and as a body were willing to work heartily on the narrow platform to which their pretensions had been limited. They too disappeared with the Parliament, and the Queen was left to extricate herself as she could from the embroglio in France. Although she knew nothing of the overtures of the Scots to Spain, there was much in Philip's attitude which was seriously menacing. His ambassador in Paris was advising the Government to refuse the restoration of Calais, while he himself professed to Chaloner his hope that England would recover it. Many thousand Span iards were serving in the French army, while more were preparing to join them; and it seemed as if his chief anxiety was to stimulate the war. The King of Spain had deeply resented the treatment of his ambassador. The Bishop of Aquila, he told Elizabeth, had been placed in England to preserve the alliance between his subjects and hers; and in what he had done had but obeyed the orders which he had received with his appointment.1 Gresham reported from Flanders, as the belief on the Bourse, that there would be much ado with the summer for religion, when King Philip would disturb all he could to maintain Papistry;' and Gresham's own uniform advice to Elizabeth was to buy saltpetre, cast cannon, and build ships.2 More important and far more alarming was the likelihood of a peace in France in which England, as the phrase went,' was to be left out at the cart's tail.' To the extent to which Elizabeth had been seeking objects of her own behind her affectation of a desire to help the Huguenots, the Huguenot leaders felt themselves entitled to desert her could they obtain the toleration which was of moment to themselves. Elizabeth had been ready to sacrifice them could she recover Calais by it. The Prince of Condé must have felt his conscience easy in repaying her in her own coin. On the 7th of March Sir Thomas Smith believed that he had obtained what Elizabeth wanted; and that he 1 Philip II. to Elizabeth, April 2, 1563: Spanish MSS. Rolls House. 2 Gresham to Cecil, March 21: Flanders MSS. would have peace and Calais in a month.1 The Queenmother had been ingeniously deluding him, that she might have evidence of treachery to lay before Condé, whom, on the 8th of the same month, she met with the Constable on an island in the Loire. The eclipse of the Guises enabled the interest of France once more to be preferred to the interest of Rome. Catherine offered Condé his brother's place as Lieutenant-General, with a moderate toleration-something perhaps in advance of that of which Elizabeth had advised the acceptance-for the Calvinists. The Calvinists should pray to God as they pleased if they would cease to molest the Catholics. The 'strangers' on both sides should be sent home; the Spaniards should retire from the south, the English should evacuate Normandy. The Prince had promised Elizabeth that he would agree to no terms without giving her notice and he kept his word. He wrote both to her and to Sir Thomas Smith, saying that he had taken arms for the freedom of conscience, which was now conceded; he assumed, without mentioning Calais, that Elizabeth had assisted him for the same object; and the object being secured there was no longer occasion for continuing the war.' In vain Elizabeth required him to remember his honour and promise; in vain she bade him beware 'how he set an example of perfidy to the world.' She was but receiving the measure which she had prepared for Smith to Cecil, March 7: FORBES, vol. ii. 2 Condé to Elizabeth, March 8; Condé to Sir T. Smith, March 11: FORBES, vol. ii. her allies. Peace was signed in France on the 25th of March, and notice was sent to Warwick that the purpose of the war being happily accomplished, he was expected to withdraw from Havre.1 April. The Prince however was unwilling to press matters to extremity. On the 8th of April he protested in a second and more gracious message, that neither by him nor by the Admiral had the town been placed in English hands; but he offered, in the name of himself, the Queen-Regent, and the entire nobility of France, to renew solemnly and formally the clause in the Treaty of Cambray for the restoration of Calais in 1567; to repay Elizabeth the money which she had lent him, and to admit the English to free trade and intercourse with all parts of France. Could Elizabeth have temperately considered the value of these proposals she would have hesitated before she refused them; but she was irritated at having been outwitted in a transaction in which her own conduct had not been pure. The people, with the national blindness to everything but their own injuries, were as furious as the Queen. The garrison at Havre was only anxious for an opportunity of making the French cock cry cuck.' They promised Elizabeth that 'the least molehill about her town should not be lost without many bloody blows;' and when a few days later there came the certainty that they would really be besieged, they prayed that the Queen would bend her brows and 2 1 Warwick to the Council, March 31: FORBES, vol. ii. |