ENGLAND. (ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.) 



11 



duke of Somerset, who was appointed regent, was 

 distinguished chiefly by the success which attended 

 the measures of the reformers. The Protestants 

 attained great part of the power which had for- 

 merly been engrossed by the Catholics ; and, in their 

 turn, showed themselves extremely willing to put in 

 practice all the arts of persecution. Edward died in 

 1553. 



The intrigues of Dudley, duke of Northumberland, 

 during the reign of Edward, procured lady Jane 

 Grey to be declared his successor ; and, after that 

 prince's death, she was, almost without her know- 

 ledge, proclaimed queen, and forced, very much 

 against her inclination, to ascend the throne. Her 

 reign, if it could be called such, lasted only a few 

 days. Mary, daughter of Henry VIII., was placed 

 upon the tlirone. Lady Jane Grey and her husband 

 were both confined to the tower; and, notwithstand- 

 ing their pretended criminal conduct was altogether 

 involuntary, they were afterwards executed. 



Mary, a bigoted Catholic, seems to have wished 

 for the crown, only for the purpose of re-establishing 

 the Romish faith ; and her purposes were faithfully 

 executed by Bonner, a zealot, no less bigoted than 

 herself. Political motives had induced Philip, of 

 Spain, to accept of Mary as a spouse ; but, notwith- 

 standing her affection for him, she could never pre- 

 vail on her subjects to allow him any share of power. 

 He, for that reason, openly despised her; and, in- 

 deed, seldom saw her, or visited England. Vexation 

 on this account, added to other maladies, hastened 

 Mary's end. She died in 1558. 



Elizabeth, another daughter of Henry VIII., by 

 Anne Boleyn, succeeded to her sister Mary ; and, 

 by the vigour and prudence of her administration, 

 compensated for the feeble reigns of her two prede- 

 cessors. Elizabeth, herself attached to the Protestant 

 Jaith, was resolved to establish* it in England, and 

 found little difficulty in the undertaking, as Mary's 

 persecutions had rendered the Catholic profession 

 extremely odious. 



Having concluded a peace with France, Elizabeth 

 had leisure to take part in the affairs of Scotland, 

 which, at that tune, were involved in confusion. The 

 plan_of the English queen was to continue and foment, 

 rather than terminate, this cenfusion. She artfully 

 effected her purpose, by encouraging and supporting 

 in their turns, the heads of the different factions. 

 She thus secured herself from the designs of a trouble- 

 some neighbour, and prevented any intention which 

 the French might entertain of invading her from the 

 Scottish frontier. Her activity in Scottish affairs was 

 augmented by her rivalry and secret hatred of Mary, 

 the queen of Scotland. When that princess's crimes, 

 according to some, or her misfortunes, according to 

 others, induced her to take shelter in England, 

 Elizabeth, instead of using her with kindness, or pro- 

 tecting her from insult, made her a prisoner ; refused 

 to see her ; retained her many years in confinement; 

 encouraged her subjects in the accusation of their 

 sovereign ; and, at last, by an iniquitous sentence, 

 condemned her to lose her life. Whether Mary's 

 conduct were criminal or unfortunate, Elizabeth's 

 proceedings cannot be palliated. They fix on her 

 memory a stain which time cannot obliterate. 



England was the most powerful nation which had 

 adopted the Protestant faith ; and, on that account, 

 Klizabeth was hated by all the Catholic sovereigns. 

 Philip, of Spain, actuated by that bigotry which so 

 strongly marked his character, and incited by policy, 

 as well as by personal animosity, resolved to attack 

 Elizabeth in her own dominions, and to annihilate the 

 heretical kingdom. With this view, he fitted out a 

 fleet more powerful than any which Europe had yet 

 seen; and manned it with his most experienced sailors, 



and his bravest soldiers. It arrived on the Eng- 

 lish coast; but instead of finding an easy prey, was 

 fiercely attacked by Elizabeth's fleet, which, though 

 not of equal strength, was more manageable. The 

 English vessels were under the command of officers 

 of approved valour and skill : by seizing every fa- 

 vourable opportunity, they gained many advantages 

 over the Spaniards ; and, at length, convinced them 

 that their hopes of conquest haa been somewhat too 

 sanguine. Directed with little knowledge, and ill 

 provided for a long voyage, the Spaniards were soon 

 in want of every necessary. A storm which at this 

 tune overtook them, completed that destruction which 

 the English fleet had commenced. The Spanish fleet 

 sailed homewards by the northern part of the island; 

 many of them were wrecked on the coasts of Scot- 

 land ; and of the whole invincible armada, few ships 

 returned safe to Spain. This destruction almost 

 completely annihilated the Spanish navy; rendering 

 it unfit to contend with that of England, and opening 

 the way to that unlimited naval power which the 

 English have since attained. 



Worn out with the cares of state, and oppressed 

 by griefs of a more private kind, Elizabeth, after a 

 reign of forty-five years, at length sunk under the 

 combined pressure. The execution of the earl of 

 Essex, who had been her chief favourite, but who 

 abused her goodness, more than any other cause, 

 seemed to unhinge her soul. She expired, in 1603, 

 and was succeeded by James VI. of Scotland, who 

 was descended from Henry VII. by his daughter, 

 who had been given in marriage to James V. 



The character of Elizabeth, as well as of other 

 distinguished monarchs of England, will be found 

 more fully dwelt upon in the several articles under 

 their respective names, than hi the present slight his- 

 torical sketch. The reader, therefore, is referred to 

 these for fuller information. The history of England 

 after the union of the crowns, as well as many details 

 connected with the statistics of the country, will be 

 found under the article BRITAIN. 



Sketch of the Ecclesiastical History of England. 

 The first religion of the inhabitants of this island was 

 druidism a superstition which seems to have also 

 prevailed in Gaul, Germany, and Scandinavia. (See 

 Druids.) The religion of the Anglo-Saxons and 

 Danes, who <me fJPbm the same quarter of Europe, 

 supplanted druidism, but was still a pagan religion. 

 Its principles are better known than those of many 

 nations of antiquity, a system of their theology, 

 called the Edda, being still extant. (See a translation 

 by Mr Mallet.) The Saxon and Danish priests be- 

 lieved and taught the immortality of the human soul, 

 and a state of rewards and punishments after death, 

 rejecting the druidical doctrine of the metempschy- 

 chosis, or transmigration of souls, as an absurd 

 fiction. The place of rewards, they called Val- 

 halla ; and the place of punishments, Nistheim, 

 or, the abode of Evil, where Hela dwelt, whose 

 palace was Anguish : her table, Famine ; her 

 waiters, Expectation and Delay; the threshold of her 

 door Precipice ; her bed, Leanness ; and her looks 

 struck terror into all beholders. In Valhalla, alj 

 brave men and good, and in Hela, all cowards anil 

 bad men, were to reside to the end of this world, 

 when the heavens and the earth, and even the gods 

 themselves, were to be consumed by fire. After this 

 general conflagration, a new and more glorious world 

 was to arise out of the former. The heroes, with all 

 good men, were to be admitted into Gimile, a palace 

 built of shining gold, far more beautiful than Val- 

 halla ; and cowards, assassins, felse swearers, and 

 adulterers, were to be confined hi Nastrande, a palace 

 built of the carcasses of serpents, far more dismal 

 than Nistheim. The moral precepts chiefly inculcated 



