The two following days the Commons continued the debate. On the afternoon of the third day, while they were still in deliberation, they received a summons requiring the Speaker and their whole House to come to the bar of the Upper House, when they should hear certain matters that the Lords had to communicate to them. CHAP. XLII. Chancellor announces to the two death of Queen Houses the Upon their arrival, the Lord Chancellor Heath, in a solemn The Lord tone, announced "that God had taken to his mercy their late Sovereign the Lady Mary, and had given them another in the person of her sister, the Lady Elizabeth, whom he prayed God to preserve and bless." He then recommended that they should all assemble in Westminster Hall, where the Lords would come and cause her to be forthwith proclaimed Queen of England. Mary. 1558. Elizabeth was accordingly proclaimed, first in Palace Yard Nov. 17. before the members of the two Houses, and again at Temple Elizabeth Bar, in the presence of the Lord Mayor, Aldermen, and proclaimed. Companies of the city, amidst the deafening acclamations of the people. lor's ad dress to field. The new Sovereign was then at Hatfield, in Hertfordshire, Chancelwhere she had been living for some time in great seclusion. Early next morning, the Lord Chancellor and most of the her at HatCouncil waited upon her there, in a body, to give in their allegiance. Heath, as first in dignity, addressed her, congratulating her upon her accession to the throne, and the unanimity and joy with which her title was acknowledged by all classes of her subjects. Cecil had been beforehand with them, and had already Her angained her entire confidence, notwithstanding the part he swer. had taken in Northumberland's treason on the death of Edward VI., by which she would have been set aside, and notwithstanding his wary conformity during the whole of Mary's reign. He had prepared an answer for her which she now. delivered, to the effect that "she was struck with amazement when she considered herself and the dignity to which she was called; that her shoulders were too weak to support the burden, but it was her duty to submit to the will of God, and to seek the aid of wise and faithful advisers; that for this CHAP. Surrender of Great Seal to her. Ex-chancellor Heath re tained as Council lor. that it was her intention to retain several of those who had been inured to business under her father, brother, and sister; and if the others were not employed, she would have them to believe that it was not through distrust of their ability or will to serve her, but through a wish to avoid that indecision and delay which so often arise from the jarring opinions of a multitude of advisers." Heath then on his knee tendered her the Great Seal,rather expecting that she would desire him to take it back and to become her Lord Chancellor. At this moment it was quite uncertain what part she was to take in religion, and although there was a suspicion that she had an inclination in favour of the reformed doctrine, her conformity to the established ritual, and her famous answer when questioned about her belief in the real presence*, led Heath and the Catholic party to hope that she would now declare in their favour. To his surprise and chagrin, however, having received the Great Seal into her hand, she immediately delivered it to Sir Ambrose Cane to carry it to her private chamber, there to remain till she should otherwise direct.† Nevertheless she spoke very courteously to the Ex-chancellor, and retained him as a member of her Privy Council, along with twelve others who had served her sister,— adding eight new members. In truth, her policy though not yet avowed, was determined upon, and she had resolved that, Cecil being her Minister, she should without violence restore "Christ was the Word that spake it, He took the bread and brake it; "Memorandum Qd die Veneris XVIII. die Novembr anno primo Dne Elizabeth Regine, eadem Dna Regina existens apud Hatfield Regia in Com. Hert. in Domo ejusdem Dne Regine ibidem, inter horas decimam et undecimam ante meridiem ejusdem diei, in camera presencie, tunc ibidem, presentibus Edwardo Comte Derb, &c. ac aliis Magm Sigillm Angle in custod Reverendissimi in Christo Pris Nichi Archp Ebor adtune Cancellar Angl. existens prite Dne Regine pr prftum Revssim. Prem deliberat, erat ac eadem Dna Regina Magnum Sigillum prdin de manibus predi Revssimi Pris accipies Ambrosio Cane militi deliberabat ac prftus Ambrs Cane, Miles, pr mandatum ipsius Dne Regine Magnum Sigillum prftum in privatam Cameram prfte Regne secum ferebat ibidem pr pritam Dnam Reginam custodiend. quousq. eadem Regina alitr duxrit deliberand."-Rot. Cla. 1 Eliz. XLII. Queen choice of the Reformation introduced under her brother, and put herself CHAP. at the head of the Protestant party in Europe. It is lucky for us that she considered this to be for her interest, and that she was already afraid of all true Roman Catholics question- Elizabeth's ing her legitimacy and preferring the title of her cousin Mary, religion. Queen of Scots, so that she felt the necessity for having the support of the Protestant States against this claim. She herself, as well as Cecil and her principal advisers, were far from being bigoted on the Protestant side, and if they had taken a different view of the question of expediency, England might have remained to this lay under the spiritual dominion of the Pope. able con duct of The remainder of the career of Ex-chancellor Heath, Honourthough not marked by any very striking events, was most honourable to his character, and ought to make his memory Heath. revered by all denominations of Christians. Instead of following the example of the "willowlike" Marquess of Winchester, and adopting the new fashion in religion, he steadily though mildly adhered to that system in which he had been educated, and which he conscientiously believed to be divine; sacrificing not only his high civil office, but his ecclesiastical dignity of Archbishop, and contentedly retiring to poverty and obscurity. He concurs with refusing to Bishops in assist at Queen's His first open difference with the Queen was upon the occasion of her coronation. Although she, for a short time after her accession, observed a studied ambiguity, and she kept the hopes of the Catholics alive by assisting at mass, receiving the communion in one kind, burying her sister with coronation. the solemnities of the Romish ritual, and ordering a solemn requiem for the soul of the Emperor Charles V.; her determination to change the national religion was soon made manifest by her appointment of Protestants to places of power and profit, by her order forbidding the elevation of the host in her private chapel, and by a proclamation allowin the observance of the established worship "until consultation. might be had in parliament by the Queen and the three estates." The primacy not yet being filled up since the death of Cardinal Pole, who survived his cousin, Queen XLII. CHAP. Mary, only a few hours, Heath, as Archbishop of York, was the highest functionary in the Church, and he called a meeting of all the Prelates, to consider what was now fit to be done. A motion was made, and unanimously carried, that till satisfied of her adherence to the Church, none of them would put the Crown on her head, or attend her coronation. This was considered a masterly move; for, though a change had taken place in the opinions of the people from the times when a King's reign dated only from his coronation, and he was supposed to have no right to allegiance till he had been anointed,-coronation was still considered an essential rite, and there had been no instance of an uncrowned Sovereign meeting parliament and making laws. But the Queen was relieved from this great embarrassment by the defection of one prelate, Oglethorpe, Bishop of Carlisle, who agreed to crown her on condition that she should take the accustomed oath to preserve the liberties of the Church, receive the sacrament under one kind, and conform, during the ceremony, to all the ceremonies of the Catholic Pontifical. A. D. 1559. Jan. 25. Heath's speech in House of Lords against the religion. The Queen was accordingly crowned; parliament was opened by her, and a bill was introduced to declare her " Head of the Church." On the second reading of this bill, in the House of Lords, Heath, rising from the Archbishops' bench, delivered a very long oration, of which it may be worth while to give an abstract, as a specimen of the style of debating Reformed which then prevailed. He thus began: "My Lords all, with humble submission of my whole talk unto your honours, I purpose to speak to the body of this act, touching the supremacy." Then dividing and subdividing his discourse into heads, he first handled the objection, that this measure would be a relinquishing of the see of Rome. He spoke rather freely of Paul IV., who had recently denied the Queen's title, and had shown himself "a very austere, stern father unto us ever since his first entrance into Peter's chair;" but it was not a personal question with him, but by forsaking Rome they should fly from four things:- 1st, All General Councils: - 2dly, All Canonical Laws of the Church of Christ: -3dly, The Judgment of all Christian XLII. Princes: 4thly, and lastly, "we must forsake and fly СНАР. from the unity of Christ's Church; and by leaping out of Peter's ship, hazard ourselves to be overwhelmed and drowned in the waters of schism, sects, and divisions." Each of these heads he discusses, with many quotations and illustrations from the Old and New Testament, and the Fathers; and concludes with the observation, that as we had received our doctrine, faith and sacraments, entirely from the Church of Rome,-in forsaking that church as a malignant church, the inhabitants of this realm shall be forced to seek for another gospel of Christ, other doctrine, faith and sacraments, than we hitherto have received. He next considers the meaning of the words "supreme Head of the Church of England:" if they meant temporal power, that her Highness had without statute; and if spiritual power, neither could parliament confer it, nor was her Highness capable of receiving it. How could they say to her, "Tibi dabimus claves regni cœlorum ?" or "Pasce, pasce, pasce?" He then touches a very delicate topic that however it might be with a King, at all events a Queen, by reason of her sex, was incapable of being the Head of the Church. "That her Highness, being a woman by birth and nature, is not qualified, by God's word, to feed the flock of Christ, appeareth most plainly, by St. Paul's saying, Taceant mulieres in ecclesis; non enim permittatur eis loqui sed subditas esse.' Again, says the same great apostle, Turpe est mulieri loqui in ecclesiis,' 'Docere autem mulieri non permitto neque dominari in virum sed in silentio esse. To preach or minister the holy sacraments, a woman may not; neither may she be supreme Head of the Church of Christ. Christ, ascending into heaven, gave the whole spiritual government of his Church to men. 'Ipse dedit ecclesiæ suæ quosdam apostolos, alios evangelistas, alios pastores et doctores in opus ministerii in ædificationem corporis Christi.' But a woman in the degrees of Christ's church is not called to be an apostle nor evangelist, nor to be a shepherd, neither a doctor or preacher." He thus concludes: "So much I have here said, Right Honourable, and my very good Lords, against this act of supremacy, for the discharge of my con |