early educated in the school of the Inquisition, and had imbibed the spirit of the infamous duke of Alva. Regardless, therefore, of the more prudent and pacific advice of the legate, they continually urged the cruel agents of their revenge, to proceed with greater vigour in the work of exterminating heretics.

During the violence of these persecutions, the princess Elizabeth was frequently exposed to great dangers. Surrounded by spies, who reported her every word and action, she found it necessary to use the utmost caution and even to conform to rites which her conscience disapproved. More than once she was threatened with rigorous imprisonment, and it is even affirmed, that Gardiner succeeded, on one occasion, in obtaining a warrant for her death, which was afterwards recalled by the queen. To avoid suspicion, and relieve her mind from painful solicitude, she resigned herself to literary pursuits, in which she made no inconsiderable progress.

The Spanish alliance, from which such political advantages had been anticipated, proved unfruitful and calamitous. Philip of Spain was so mortified by a domestic disappointment, which frustrated his most sanguine hopes, that he left the queen in disgust, nor was he ever afterwards reconciled to her, though to gratify his pride, she plunged the kingdom into a war with France, which was attended with most disgraceful results. During this war, the town and fortress of Calais, which it had cost Edward III. eleven months to obtain, and which had been in the possession of the English more than two hundred years, was retaken by the duke of Guise in a few days. This stroke, in addition to the alienation of her husband's affections, the unsettled state of her kingdom, and the manifest increase of protestantism, notwithstanding all her efforts to destroy it, so depressed the spirits of the queen, that they induced a disease, which soon terminated her existence. She died on the 17th November, A.D. 1558, in the fifth year of her reign, and forty-third of her age, unlamented, despised, and hated by the greater part of her subjects; though there were some who affected to deplore the event, as one of the most calamitous that could befall the christian church. On the same day expired the cele

brated cardinal Pole, who had acted a conspicuous, and upon the whole, an honourable, part, through this and the two preceding reigns, and who furnishes a rare example of one, who was most zealously attached to the church of Rome, and yet an enemy to intolerant and persecuting

Burnet's Hist. of the Reformation. Fox's Acts and Mon. Strype's Memorials. Hollingshed. Stowe. Rymer, &c. &c.

REFLECTIONS.

The sanguinary bigot, whose reign is sketched in the preceding pages, has been commonly, and not unjustly, classed with the Caligulas, the Neros, and the Domitians of antiquity. None can feel inclined to become the apologist of one, who was the disgrace of her sex, her country, and her age. Yet justice requires that some of those circumstances should be adverted to which formed her character, and, in some degree, extenuate her guilt. Her mother, the princess Catharine of Arragon, had imbibed from her earliest years a superstitious attachment to the catholic religion, and an utter antipathy to every species of reputed heresy. These principles were strengthened by the personal wrongs which she suffered from the reformers, and the zeal with which the Roman pontiff espoused her cause. It cannot be doubted, that this much-injured queen would labour to instil into the mind of her infant daughter, (who had been pronounced illegitimate, and excluded from the succession by the leaders of the protestant party,) similar prejudices against the Reformation, and in favour of the ancient religion. These prepossessions were likely to be strengthened, rather than removed, by the conduct of Henry towards his daughter, who would consent to a reconciliation with the princess Mary upon no other conditions than those of her renouncing the authority of the church of Rome, and acknowledging her own illegitimacy. The conduct of Edward and his ministers towards this princess, in pro

hibiting the free exercise of her religion, and in taking measures to deprive her of the throne, was certainly not calculated to diminish her prejudices, and attach her to the protestant cause. After her accession, she was surrounded by catholic prelates, who came forth from the prisons in which they had been unjustly immured, filled with rancour, and thirsting for revenge. And, to crown all, she was unhappily allied by marriage to a haughty and cruel despot, who breathed the malignant spirit of an inquisitor-general. Placed in such hands, and early initiated into such principles, what could be expected but that the character of Mary would prove sanguinary and tyrannical? Yet, on the other hand, better things might have been anticipated from a sovereign, whose very sex afforded a pledge of sensibility and tenderness-who was chiefly indebted for her crown to the zealous support of protestants-and who had solemnly promised to continue to them their religious privileges. Upon the whole, it cannot be doubted that, in persecuting heretics, queen Mary acted more conscientiously than Henry VIII. had done, and that she really considered it her duty to exterminate them; but in cruelty of disposition, she surpassed even that monarch, and stands almost without a rival either in ancient or modern times.

Who can forbear to offer the tribute of sympathy and affection to the memory of the truly illustrious princess who was the innocent victim of her jealousy and revenge? Who is there but must regret that the lovely, the learned, the pious, lady Jane Grey, should have yielded so far to the solicitations of her ambitious relatives, as to emerge from her beloved retirement, and launch forth upon the stormy sea of political contention? Yet these regrets are checked, and almost turned into exultation and triumph, when we follow the footsteps of this christian heroine to the scaffold, from which she ascended to glory. Scarcely can we read the affecting detail of her last moments, without panting after the crown of martyrdomwithout pitying her remorseless persecutors, rather than herself without exclaiming, "Let me die the death of the righteous." How manifestly did it appear, that this illustrious princess had learnt of Him, who was meek

and lowly in heart! For, like the adorable Redeemer of mankind, she too was led as a lamb to the slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so she opened not her mouth. When reviled, she reviled not againwhen doomed to suffer unjustly, she complained, she threatened not, but committed herself to Him that judgeth righteously.

The death of Cranmer reminds us at once of the weakness of the most eminent christian, when left to himself, and the efficacy of that grace which enables even the feeblest ultimately to triumph over the infirmities of nature. Let no one presumptuously say, "If I had been "placed in similar circumstances, no fear of suffering or "of death, should have induced me to deny my Lord;" for this is the very spirit of self-confidence which is likely to involve us in so foul a disgrace. When did Peter basely deny his Lord, but immediately after he had said, with more honesty than humility of mind, "Though all 66 men forsake thee, yet will not I. Lord! I will go with "thee to prison, and to death!" Yet the recovery both of this disciple and of the venerable reformer, and the christian heroism with which at last they shed their blood for the testimony of Jesus, may serve to encourage those who, through fear of man, have fallen into a snare, to return to him against whom they have deeply revolted, assured that he will "heal their back-slidings, receive them graciously, and love them freely!"

ESSAY VIII.

The Reign of ELIZABETH, from her Accession to the Imprisonment of Mary, Queen of Scots.

A. D. 1558—1568.

ELIZABETH, the daughter of Henry VIII. by Ann Boleyn, was a prisoner at Hatfield, when the death of Mary transferred the sceptre into her hands. On her

arrival in London, she was greeted with the acclamations of an immense multitude of spectators, who assembled to witness her procession to the Tower, according to the established custom of that age. Nor was the joy, which her elevation to the throne inspired, confined to the metropolis; it circulated rapidly through the kingdom; it pervaded all classes of society, and sufficiently proved the reluctance with which the iron yoke of her predecessor had been endured. Many circumstances concurred to render this princess a general favourite. The tragical end of her unfortunate mother-the scenes of peril and suffering through which she had herself passed, during the late sanguinary reign-her consummate prudence under the most trying circumstances the high opinion universally entertained of her talents and learning-but above all, her approved moderation on religious subjects -all tended to raise the expectations and secure the allegiance of her future subjects.

The reverse which had taken place in the circumstances of Elizabeth, since she had formerly entered the Tower as a state-prisoner, so deeply affected her mind, when she re-entered that ancient edifice as queen of England, that, falling upon her knees, she rendered public thanks to the Almighty for having extricated her from so many dangers, and frustrated the designs of her enemies. A numerous retinue of courtiers now gathered round her, among whom were many who had treated her in adversity with neglect, and even with cruelty; yet the homage of all was received with apparent cordiality-Bonner alone excepted, from whom she manifestly recoiled with horror and disgust.

Elizabeth's first act of royal authority evinced that political wisdom which characterized her whole reign. This related to the selection of a council of state, which was, under existing circumstances, à measure of peculiar difficulty and hazard. To allay the fears of the papists, who naturally expected that their recent atrocities would subject them to signal vengeance, she made choice of eleven noblemen who had belonged to her sister's council, and were supposed to be of the catholic religion, though their hands were less stained with blood, "than those of