1920.] social life in guernsey. 265 



induced a hurried change in their views, and on June 26th, 

 1562, we find them humbly craving pardon of Her Majesty 

 for their " erroneous judgments." Eighteen months later, 

 January 12th, 1564, they were all officially pardoned by the 

 Queen, but never regained their former positions, although 

 two months later — March 1564/5 — Hellier Gosselin was re- 

 elected as Jurat in the Royal Court. But Thomas Compton — 

 the first English Bailiff on our records — had been recalled to 

 that office, (1 > and John After was recognised (though probably 

 not officially appointed) as Dean. 



But it is very evident that, however sincerely the Refor- 

 mation had been welcome in the days of Edward VI., it was 

 thoroughly unpopular in the days of Elizabeth. One can 

 readily understand that, by this time, the people did not know 

 who, or what, to believe. The Romish faith which they held 

 so implicitly in the early part of the century had been 

 torn from them. They then found out that the renegades who, 

 during the reign of Edward VL,had persecuted those Catholics 

 w T ho had remained loyal to their convictions, immediately 

 turned round again in the days of Queen Mary, and were the 

 first to torture and kill unfortunate Protestants who had but 

 complied with the law of the period. So that by 1559, when 

 Elizabeth was on the throne, and they were again told that it 

 was criminal to be a Catholic and righteous to be a Protestant, 

 religion had, to the majority of the people, ceased to be a living 

 thing. Thus all moral barriers were swept away, and the 

 island was steeped in unbelief and crime. 



The policy of the English Court at that time was to 

 favour and encourage the Huguenot party in France, so as to 

 have their support, or at least their neutrality, in case of any 

 fresh wars arising between the two countries, and the Governors 

 of the islands, Paulet in Jersey, and Leighton in Guernsey, 

 encouraged this policy. 



During the Marian persecutions a leading Guernseyman, 

 William de Beauvoir, had fled to Geneva, where Calvin had 

 made his headquarters, and was elected Deacon of the 

 Protestant Church there, under John Knox and Miles Cover- 

 dale, for three successive years.* 2 ) On Elizabeth's accession 

 the majority of the Guernsey Priests being deprived of their 

 benefices, the problem was to fill them with French speaking 

 clergy in Holy Orders, so, at De Beauvoir's request, Calvin, 

 as a token of personal friendship, sent over one of his French 



(1) He had been Bailiff from 1538 to 1545, and resumed the office between 

 January 19th and 22nd, 1563. 



(2) Livre des Anglais. Geneva. 



