328 NOTICE OF ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL. influence over them; and she issued positive commands to Grindal for their suppression. At the same time she expressed to him her extreme displeasure at the number of preachers licensed in his province; and required that it should be very considerably lessened; "urging that it was good for the world to have few preachers, that three or four might suffice for a county; and that the reading of the homilies to the people was enough." But the venerable primate, so far from consenting to abridge the means of that religious instruction which he regarded it as the most sacred duty of a protestant church to afford; took the freedom of addressing to her majesty a very plain and earnest letter of expostulation. In this piece, after showing the great necessity which existed for multiplying, rather than diminishing, opportunities of edification both to the clergy and the people; and protesting that he could not in conscience be instrumental to the suppression either of preaching or prophesyings; he proceeded to remonstrate with her majesty on the arbitrary, imperious and as it were papal manner, in which she took upon herself to decide points better left to the management of her bishops. He ended by exhorting her to remember that she also was a mortal creature; and accountable to God for the exercise of her power; and that she ought above all things to be desirous of employing it piously for the promotion of true religion. The event showed this remonstrance to be rather well-intended than well-judged. Indignation was the only sentiment which it awakened in the haughty mind of Elizabeth; and she answered it by NOTICE OF ARCHBISHOP GRINDAL. 329 an order of the Star-chamber, in virtue of which the archbishop was suspended from his functions for six months; and confined during the same period to his house. At the end of this time he was urged by Burleigh to acknowledge himself in fault and beg the queen's forgiveness; but he steadily refused thus to compromise a good cause; and his seques tration was continued. It even appears that nothing but the honest indignation of some of her ministers and courtiers restrained the queen from proceeding to deprive him. At the end of four or five years: her anger being somewhat abated; it pleased her to take off the sequestration, but without restoring the primate to her favor; and as he was now old and blind, he willingly consented to resign the primacy and retire on a pension: but in 1583, before the matter could be finally arranged, he died. Archbishop Grindal was a great contributor to Fox's "Acts and Monuments;" for which he collected many materials; but he was the author of no considerable work; and on the whole he seems to have been less admirable by the display of any extraordinary talents than revered and exemplary for the primitive virtues of probity, sincerity and godly zeal. These were the qualities which obtained for him the celebration of Spenser in his "Shepherd's Calendar;" where he is designated by the name of Algrind and described as a true teacher of the Gos pel and a severe reprover of the pride and worldliness of the popish clergy. The lines were written during the period of the prelate's disgrace, which is allegorically related and bewailed by the poet. 330 NOTICE OF JEWEL, BISHOP OF SALISBURY. Another distinguished ornament of the episcopal bench was Jewel; consecrated to the see of Salisbury in 1560. It is remarkable that this learned apologist of the church of England had expressed at first a stronger repugnance to the habits than most of his colleagues; but having once brought himself to compliance, he thenceforth became noted for the rigor with which he exacted it of others. In the time of Henry VIII. Jewel had become suspected of the opinions which he openly embraced on the accession of Edward; and he was sufficiently distinguished amongst the reformers of this reign to be marked out as one of the first objects of persecution under Mary. As a preliminary step on which proceedings might be founded, the Romish articles were offered for his signature; when he disappointed alike his enemies and his friends by subscribing them without apparent reluctance. But his insincerity in this act was notorious; and it was in contemplation to subject him to the fierce interrogatories of Bonner, when timely warning enabled him, through many perils, to escape out of the country. Safe arrived at Frankfort, he made a public confession, before the English congregation, of his guilt in signing articles which his conscience abhorred; and humbly entreated forgiveness of God and the church. After this, he repaired to Strasburgh and passed away the time with his friend Peter Martyr. The erudition of Jewel was profound and extensive; his private life amiable; his performance of his episcopal duties sedulous; and such was the esteem in which his celebrated Apology was held, that NOTICE OF DR. COX, BISHOP OF ELY. 331 Elizabeth, and afterwards James I., ordained that a copy of it should be kept in every parish-church in England. Of Dr. Cox, elevated to the see of Ely, mention has already been made; and it would be superfluous here to enter more largely into the ecclesiastical history of the reign. A careful consideration of the behaviour of Elizabeth towards the two successive primates Parker and Grindal, will furnish a sufficiently accurate notion of the spirit of her religious policy; besides affording a valuable addition to the characteristic traits illustrative of her temper and opinions. CHAPTER XIII. 1561. Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex.Translations of ancient tragedies. Death of Francis II.—Mary refuses to ratify the treaty of Edinburgh-returns to Scotland.-Enmity between Mary and Elizabeth.-Philip II. secretly encou rages the English papists.- Measures of rigor adopted against them by Elizabeth.-Anecdote of the queen and Dr. Sampson.-St. Paul's struck by lightning.-Bishop Pilkington's sermon on the occasion.-Paul's Walk.-Precautions against the queen's being poisoned.-The king of Sweden proposes to visit her.-Steps taken in this matter. THE eighteenth of January 1561 ought to be celebrated as the birth-day of the English drama; for it was on this day that Thomas Sackville caused to be represented at Whitehall, for the entertainment of Elizabeth and her court, the tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex, otherwise called Gorboduc ; the joint production of himself and Thomas Nor From the unrivalled force of imagination, the vigor and purity of diction and the intimate knowledge and tasteful adaptation of the beauties of the Latin poets displayed in the contributions of Sackville to the Mirror of Magistrates, a lettered audience would conceive high expectations from his attempt in a new walk of poetry; but in the then barbarous state of our Theatre, such a performance as Gorboduc must have been hailed as |