476 THE FELICITIES OF QUEEN ELIZABETH. 



religion, and the observance thereof, I know no better 

 argument than this, That although she found the 

 Romish religion confirmed in her sister s days by act 

 of parliament, and established by all strong and 

 potent means that could be devised, and to have 

 taken deep root in this kingdom ; and that all those 

 which had any authority, or bear any office in the 

 state, had subscribed to it ; yet for that she saw it 

 was not agreeable to the word of God, nor to the 

 primitive purity, nor to her own conscience, she did, 

 with a great deal of courage, and with the assist 

 ance of a very few persons, quite expel and abolish 

 it. Neither did she this by precipitate and heady 

 courses, but timing it wisely and soberly. And this 

 may well be conjectured, as from the thing itself, so 

 also by an answer of her s which she made upon 

 occasion. For within a very few days of her coming 

 to the crown, when many prisoners were released 

 out of prison, as the custom is at the inauguration 

 of a prince, there came to her one day, as she was 

 going to chapel, a certain courtier that had the 

 liberty of a buffoon, and either out of his own 

 motion, or by the instigation of a wiser man, pre 

 sented her with a petition : and before a great num 

 ber of courtiers, said to her with a loud voice, &quot; That 

 &quot; there were yet four or five prisoners unjustly 

 &quot; detained in prison ; he came to be a suitor to have 

 c&amp;lt; them set at liberty ; those were the four Evan- 

 &quot; gelists, and the Apostle Saint Paul, who had been 

 &quot; long shut up in an unknown tongue, as it were in 

 &quot; prison, so as they could not converse with the 



