to celebrate mass in her own chapel. "Shall that idol again "be suffered to be erected within the realm?" was the common cry; and the usual prayers in the churches were, that God would turn the queen's heart, which was obstinate against his truth; or if his holy will were otherwise, that he would strengthen the hearts and hands of the elect, stoutly to oppose the rage of all tyrants4. Nay, lord Lindsey and the gentlemen of Fife exclaimed, "The Idolater shall die "the death!" The ringleader in all these insults on majesty was John Knox, who possessed an uncontrouled authority in the church, and even in the civil affairs of the nation, and who triumphed in the contumelious usage of his sovereign. His usual appellation for the queen was JEZABEL; and though she endeavoured by the most gracious condescension to win his favour, all her kind advances could gain nothing on his obdurate heart. The pulpits became mere stages for railing against the vices of the court; among which were always noted as the principal, feasting, finery, dancing, balls, and whoredom, their necessary attendants. Curbed in all amusements, by the absurd severity of these reformers, Mary, whose age, condition, and education, invited her to liberty and cheerfulness, found reason every moment to look back with a sigh to that country which she had left. After the departure of the French courtiers, her life was one scene of bitterness and sorrow. And she perceived that her only expedient for maintaining tranquillity, while surrounded by a turbulent nobility, a bigoted people, and insolent ecclesiastics, was to preserve a friendly correspondence with Elizabeth: who, by former connections and services, had acquired much authority over all ranks of men in Scotland. She therefore sent Maitland of Lethington to London, in order to pay her compliments to the English queen, and express a desire of future good understanding between them. 5. Knox, p. 332, 338. 4. Ibid. Maitland Maitland was also instructed to signify Mary's willingness to renounce all present right to the crown of England, provided she was declared, by act of parliament, next heir to the succession, in case the queen should die without offspring. But so great was the jealous prudence of Elizabeth, that she never would hazard the weakening of her authority by naming a successor, or allow the parliament to interpose in that matter; much less would she make, or permit such a nomination to be made, in favour of a rival queen, who possessed pretensions so plausible to supplant her, and who, though she might verbally renounce them, could easily resume her claim on the first opportunity. Sensible, however, that reason would be thought to lie wholly on Mary's side, as she herself had frequently declared her resolution to live and die a virgin-queen, she thenceforth ceased to demand the ratification of the treaty of Edinburgh; and though farther concessions were never made by either princess, they put on all the appearance of a cordial reconciliation and friendship with each other". Elizabeth saw, without her interposition, Mary was sufficiently depressed by the mutinous spirit of her own subjects. Having, therefore, no apprehensions from Scot, land, nor any desire to take part at present in its affairs, she directed her attention to other objects. After concerting the necessary measures for the security of her kingdom and the happiness of her people, she turned an eye of observation toward the great powers on the continent. France being still agitated by religious factions, big with all the horrors of civil war, excited less the jealousy than the compassion of its neighbours; so that Spain, of all the European kingdoms, could alone be considered as the formidable rival of England. Accordingly an animosity, first political, then personal, soon appeared between the sovereigns of the two crowns. 6. Keith. Cambden. Haynes. 7. Ibid. Philip II. as has been already observed, immediately after concluding the peace of Chateau-Cambresis, commenced a furious persecution against the Protestants in Spain, Italy, and the Low Countries. That violent spirit of bigotry and tyranny by which he was actuated, gave new edge even to the usual cruelty of priests and inquisitors. He threw into prison Constantine Ponce, who had been confessor to his father Charles V. and in whose arms that great prince had breathed his last. This venerable ecclesiastic died in confinement; but Philip ordered, nevertheless, the sentence of heresy to be pronounced against his memory. He even deliberated whether he should not exercise like severity against the memory of his father, who was suspected, during his latter years, of indulging a propensity towards Lutheranism. In his unrelenting zeal for orthodoxy, he spared neither age, sex, nor condition. He appeared with an inflexible countenance at the most barbarous executions; and he issued rigorous orders for the prosecution of heretics, even in his American dominions. The limits of the globe seemed only enlarged to extend human misery. Having founded his deliberate tyranny on maxims of civil policy, as well as on principles of religion, Philip made it evident to all his subjects, that there was no means of escaping the severity of his vengeance, except by the most abject compliance or obstinate resistance. And by thus placing himself at the head of the Catholic party, the determined champion of the Romish church, he every where converted the zealots of the ancient faith into partizans of Spanish greatness. Happily the adherents of the new doctrines were not without a supporter, nor the Spanish greatness without a counterpoise. The course of events had placed Elizabeth in a situation diametrically opposite to that of Philip. Fortune guiding choice, and concurring with policy and incli 8. Thuanus, lib. xxiii. Grotius, Annal. lib. ii. Mariana, lib. v. 3 K nation, nation, had raised her to be the glory, the bulwark, and the stay of the numerous, but generally persecuted Protestants throughout Europe. And she united her interests, in all foreign negociations, with those who are struggling for their civil and religious liberties, or guarding themselves against ruin and extermination. Hence the animosity between her and Philip. While the queen of Scots continued in France, and asserted her claim to the southern British kingdom, the dread of uniting England to the French monarchy engaged the king of Spain to maintain a good correspondence with Elizabeth. But no sooner did the death of Francis II. put an end to Philip's apprehensions in regard to Mary's succession, than his rancour began openly to appear, and the interests of Spain and England were found opposite in every negociation and public transaction. Philip, contrary to the received maxims of policy in that age, saw an advantage in supporting the power of the French monarch; and Eliza beth, by a concurrence of circumstances no less singular, in protecting a faction ready to subvert it. Catharine of Medicis, the queen-mother of France, in consequence of her maxim of dividing in order to govern, only increased the troubles of the state. By balancing the Catholics against the Protestants, the duke of Guise against the prince of Conde, she endeavoured to render herself, necessary to both, and to establish her own dominion on their constrained obedience. But an equal counterpoise of power, which among foreign nations, is the source of tranquillity, proves always the cause of quarrel among domestic factions; and if the animosities of religion concur with the frequent occasions of mutual injury, it is impossible to preserve, for any time, a firm concord in such a situation. Moved by zeal for the ancient faith, the constable Montmorency joined himself to the duke of Guise; the king of Navarre, from his inconstant temper, and his jea lousy of the superior genius of his brother, embraced the A. D. 1562. same same party: and the queen-mother, finding herself depressed by this combination, had recourse to Conde and the Hugonots, who gladly embraced the opportunity of fortifying themselves by her countenance and protection9. An edict had been published in the beginning of the year, granting to the Hugonots or Protestants, the free exercise of their religion, without the walls of towns; provided they taught nothing contrary to the council of Nice, to the Apostles' Creed, or the books of the Old and New Testament. This edict had been preceded by a famous conference, held at Poissy, between the divines of the two religions; in which the cardinal of Lorrain, on the part of the Catholics, and the learned Theodore Beza, on that of the Protestants, displayed, beyond others, their eloquence and powers of argument. The protestant divines boasted of having greatly the advantage in the dispute, and the concession of liberty of conscience made their followers happy in that opinion. But the interested violence of the duke of Guise, or the intemperate zeal of his attendants, broke once more the tranquility of religion, and gave a beginning to a frightful civil war. Passing by the little town of Vassy, on the frontiers of Champagne, where some Protestants having assembled in a barn under the sanction of the edict, were peaceably worshipping God in their own way, his retinue wantonly insulted them. A tumult ensued: the duke himself was struck, it is said, with a stone: and sixty of the unarmed multitude were sacrificed in revenge of that pretended or provoked injury, and in open violation of the public faith. The Protestants, over all the kingdom, were alarmed at this massacre, and assembled in arms under Conde, Coligny, and Andelot, their most distinguished leaders; while the duke of Guise and the constable Montmorency, having got possession of the king's person, obliged the queen-mo 9. Davila, lib. ii. 10. Henault. Mezeray. Dupleix. ther |