the blood of the martyrs became the seed of a regenerated Church.

Hook, in the Lives of the Archbishops, notes the fact that there was no great leader of the Reformation in England-no Luther, no Zwingli, no Calvin, for none of our reformers could be compared to them in intellectual power: the English Reformation was the work of a people, not of a man.

CHAPTER X

THE ELIZABETHAN SETTLEMENT

We now enter upon the period in which the national Church assumed its final character.

The first great Act of Elizabeth's Parliament was An Act to restore the ancient jurisdiction over the Estate Ecclesiastical and Spiritual, and abolishing all foreign powers repugnant to the same. The Act revises ten Acts subsequent to 22 Henry VIII., and one of Edward vi.; it confirms the repeal of six Acts of Henry VIII., and repeals the Heresy Act of Philip and Mary, as well as the repealing Act of those sovereigns. All foreign authority within the Queen's dominions is abolished: ecclesiastical jurisdiction is annexed to the Crown; power is given to the Queen to appoint commissioners to exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction; an oath is to be required of officers of Church and State, and in this oath the title of Supreme Head is tacitly changed; the sovereign is called 'the only

supreme governor of this realm, and of all other her highness' dominions and countries, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical things or causes as temporal.' The oath is to be taken before assuming office, and those refusing to take the oath are declared incapable of office.

The standard of reference for the commissioners in deciding what is heresy shall be what has been so determined by the authority of the canonical Scriptures, or by the first four general councils, or

any

6

of them, or by any other general council, wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said canonical Scriptures,' and what may be hereafter so declared by Parliament with the assent of Convocation.

The limits of authority of Crown and Parliament are here more carefully defined than in the Acts of Henry VIII. and Edward vi. There is no power for the Crown to appoint a vicar-general, as Henry did; and the power given to the Crown to appoint commissioners guards against the abuse of personal power whilst securing the prerogative of the Crown.

If Parliament passes any Acts dealing with doctrinal matters it must be with the assent of Convocation, thus securing the right of the Church in the decision of spiritual questions, and the right

of the laity in Parliament to examine and assent to the decisions of Convocation.

The next important Act of this reign was the Act of Uniformity, 1559. This Act restored the Second Prayer Book of Edward VI., with some alterations, the result of a collation with the First Prayer Book by a committee of theologians. The Act was notable for the penalties ordered for using any other than the Form of Service presented; thus for the first offence the loss of profits from any spiritual benefice held, and six months' imprisonment; for the second offence, deprivation ; for the third, imprisonment for life. There were similar penalties for those not holding spiritual offices, but taking part in worship other than that prescribed.

The Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity place the Church and the State in the position which they now hold with regard to each other, and it will help us in understanding the present relationship if we examine the action of each and the part which each played in the settlement.

And we note that, at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth, Convocation was not consulted much in the settlement, but when once the settlement was accomplished, Elizabeth rigorously kept each estate to its proper function, and exercised with

discretion the governing power she possessed for the regulation of the relationship between the temporal and spiritual estates.

There was an evident necessity for the personal action of the sovereign, and the support of that action by Parliament, at the beginning. For the reaction under Mary had thrown things into confusion, and had not been able, in the short space of five years, to establish itself. There were three sets of clergy in existence, viz. the great mass, who had quietly gone on ministering in their parishes through all the changes, Catholic priests still, but sorely puzzled about their position; the strongly Neo-Catholic or Reformed clergy, who had been ordained in Edward's time and deprived by Mary's laws; and the small but compact and determined party of distinct Papalists, or 'Romanensians,' as Canon Dixon calls them.

Now when Convocation met at the beginning of the reign, there would be in it a large party of the old Catholic clergy, willing to accept the First Prayer Book and the Royal Supremacy, but extremely jealous of the extruded Edwardians, and fearing the introduction by them of novelties from Germany and Geneva. The Marian bishops, and some who still remained of Henry's bishops, were more or less Papalist; and curiously the number