IXTRODUCTORY. 



policy was in full force. Conspired against by Philip and the 

 dupes of Mary Stewart, the Queen was conceived to be su- 

 premely useful to the English commonwealth, and therefore 

 ecdingly powerful. By this time, the Catholics, though 

 d. wue not generally disaffected. The Puritans, though 

 treated with severity, were well-disposed towards the Queen, who 

 thought her administration of affairs above criticism, however 

 contemptuously she treated those whom she employed. The 

 great apologist of the Anglican Church, Hooker, was far from 

 setting episcopacy on the pinnacle of divine authority. Luther 

 and Calvin were not to be repudiated, though episcopacy with 

 the former was a farce, with the latter an abomination. The 

 ministers of foreign reformed orders were not to be rejected, 

 or even slighted. Judah was not to vex Ephraim, nor Ephraim 

 Judah. Nor did the ritual of the reformed Anglican Church 

 bear any resemblance to that of the pre-Reformation age, nor 

 even to that which modern ritualists would fain have us believe. 

 I have gone through the accounts of every Oxford college 

 which had a considerable foundation, and of many whose 

 resources were scanty. In none have I found that any 

 expense beyond the barest and meanest charges were in- 

 curred on the chapel service. The colleges buy no vestments, 

 lay out no money in wax lights, inur no cost for incense, 

 cut down the Mass to five or six communions in the year. 

 The cost of the chapel used to be a serious item. It was a 

 remunerative outlay. Now it is only a private worship, and 

 it becomes the most inconsiderable head in the college ex- 

 penses. Such negative testimony is surely more conclusive 

 than unproved speculations. There is a brief space during 

 which in a few places a more ornate ritual is enforced or 

 adopted. I shall refer to this hereafter. 



After the death of Mary Stewart, after it was seen that her 

 son was not disposed to resent the injury, and after the ruin of 

 Philip's armada, the Puritan party, in and out of Parliament, 

 became bolder and more defiant. As the nation felt its 

 strength, it became less submissive to the Queen and to her 





