From the temper of these regulations it is manifest that if Elizabeth yielded to the advice of her counsellors and to the pressure of the times, she did not give up her private convictions or prejudices, and that she desired to make the marriage of her clergy as unpopular and disagreeable as possible. It was probably for the purpose of meeting her objections that the order for a return of the clergy, issued by Archbishop Parker, 1 October, 1561, contained in the blanks issued the unusual entry classifying them as married or unmarried,' and Strype informs us that in the Archdeaconry of London the returns show the ministry for the most part to have been filled with married men.2 Even the haughty spirit of the Tudor thus could not restrain the progress which had now fairly set in. Those around her who controlled the public affairs were all committed to the Reformation, and were resolved that every point gained should be made secure. When, there hath grown offence and some slander to the Church, by lack of discreet and sober behaviour in many ministers of the Church, both in chusing of their wives and undiscreet living with them, the remedy whereof is necessary to be sought; it is thought therefore very necessary that no manner of priest or deacon shall hereafter take to his wife any manner of woman without the advice and allowance first had upon good examination by the bishop of the same diocese and two justices of the peace of the same shire dwelling next to the place where the same woman hath made her most abode before her marriage; nor without the goodwill of the parents of the said woman if she have any living, or two of the next of her kinsfolks, or for lack of the knowledge of such, of her master or mistress where she serveth. And before she shall be contracted in any place, he shall make a good and certain proof thereof to the minister or to the congregation assembled for that purpose, which shall be upon some holyday where divers may be present. And if any shall do otherwise, that then they shall not be permitted to minister either the word or the sacraments of the Church, nor shall be capable of any ecclesiastical benefice. And for the marriages of any bishops, the same shall be allowed and approved by the metropolitan of the province and also by such commissioners as the Queen's Majesty thereunto shall appoint. And if any master or dean or any head of any college shall purpose to marry, the same shall not be allowed but by such to whom the visitation of the same doth properly belong, who shall in any wise provide that the same turn not to the hindrance of their house."-(Wilkins IV. 186.) See also a letter of Theodore Beza, Zurich Letters, p. 247 (Parker Soc. Publications). 1 Cardwell's Documentary Annals, I. 309. 2 Strype's Parker, Book II. chap. v.—In 1569 the returns for the Archdeaconry of Canterbury show 135 married clergymen to 34 licensed preachers, and there is no mention of any unmarried men (Ibid. III. xxiv.). therefore, in 1563, there was published a recension of the Forty-two Articles issued by Edward VI. in 1552, resulting in the well-known Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, care was taken that the one relating to the liberty of marriage should be made more emphatic than before. Not content with the simple proposition of the original that "Bishops, priests, and deacons are not commanded by God's law either to vow the estate of a single life, or to abstain from marriage," the emphatic corollary was added, "Therefore it is lawful for them as for all other Christian men to marry at their own discretion, as they shall judge the same to serve better to godliness" such as we find it preserved to the present day. This specific declaration in a special article marks the necessity which was felt to place the matter beyond controversy, as a rule of practice. The articles on justification and works of supererogation (Arts xi. and xix.) would have sufficed, so far as principle was concerned. This was not an empty form. Not only the right to marry at their own discretion, thus expressly declared, did much to relieve them from the degrading conditions laid down by the Queen, but the revival and strengthening of the article marked a victory gained over the reaction. When in 1559 the Queen appointed a commission to visit all the churches of England and enforce compliance with the order of things then existing, the articles prepared for its guidance enjoin no investigation into opinions respecting priestly marriage, showing that to be an open question, concerning which every man might hold his private belief. After the adoption of the Thirty-nine Articles, however, this latitude was no longer allowed. In 1 In the English version, as given by Burnet (Vol. II. Append. 217), there are 42 articles, of which this is the 31st. In the Latin edition (Wilkins IV. 236), there are but 39 articles, this being the 32nd, which is the arrangement according to the standard of the Anglican Church. 2 Wilkins IV. 189-91.-This commission was the commencement of the Court of High Commission, which played so lamentable a part in the troubles of the succeeding 1567 Archbishop Parker's articles of instruction for the visitation of that year enumerate, among the heretical doctrines to be inquired after, the assertion that the Word of God commands abstinence from marriage on the part of ministers of the Church. As we shall see, it was about the same time that the Council of Trent likewise erected the question of clerical marriage into a point of belief. 2 Yet Elizabeth never overcame her repugnance to the marriage of the clergy, nor is it, perhaps, to be wondered at when we consider the contempt in which she held the Church of which she was the head, and her general aversion from sanctioning in others the matrimony which she was herself always toying with and never contracting. When she made her favourites of both sexes suffer for any legalised indiscretions of the kind, it is scarcely surprising that she always looked with disfavour on those of the clergy who availed themselves of the privilege which circumstances had extorted from her, and which she would fain have withheld. When Archbishop Parker ventured to remonstrate with her on her popish tendencies, she sharply told him that "she repented of having made any married bishops." This was a cutting rejoinder, but even more pointed was the insolence from which his life-long services could not protect his wife. The first time the Queen visited the archiepiscopal palace, on her departure she turned to thank Mrs. Parker: "And you-madam I may not call you, mistress I am ashamed to call you, so I reigns. The result of its visitation in 1559 shows how little real conviction existed among the clergy who had been exposed to the capricious persecutions of alternating rulers. Out of 9400 beneficiaries in England under Mary, but 14 bishops, 6 abbots, 12 deans, 12 archdeacons, 15 heads of colleges, 50 prebendaries, and 80 rectors of parishes had abandoned their preferment on account of Protestantism (Burnet Vol. II. Append. 217), and of these it is fair to assume that the higher dig nitaries at least had not been allowed to retain their positions. 1 Wilkins IV. 253.-Strype's Parker, App. liii. 2 In 1576 she declared to Grindal, then Archbishop of Canterbury, "that it was good for the Church to have few preachers, and that three or four might suffice for a county; and that the reading of the Homilies to the people was enough."-Strype's Life of Grindal, p. 221.-See also Strype's Parker, Book II. chap. xx. know not what to call you-but, howsoever, I thank you. So, in Ipswich, in August 1561, she found great fault with the marriage of the clergy, and especially with the number of wives and children in cathedrals and colleges-a feeling possibly justified by occasional disorders not unlikely to occur. In 1563 we find Sir John Bourne complaining to the Privy Council that the Dean and Chapter of Worcester had broken up the large organ, the pride of the cathedral, which had cost £200; the metal pipes whereof were melted into dishes and divided among the wives of the prebendaries, and the case used to make bedsteads for them; the copes and ornaments, he added, would likewise have been distributed had not some of the unmarried men prevented it, "and as by their Habit and Apparel you might know the Priests wives, and by their Gate in the Market and the Streets from an hundred other Women: so in the Congregation and Cathedral Church they were easy to be known by placing themselves above all other of the most ancient and honest Calling of the said City." There was no lack of persons to pour such stories into the Queen's ear, and, with her well-known tendencies, it is no wonder that her counsellors found it difficult to restrain her to the simple order which she issued from Ipswich, declaring "that no manner of person, being either the head or member of any college or cathedral church within this realm, shall, from the time of the notification hereof in the same college, have, or be permitted to have, within the precinct of any such college, his wife, or other woman, to abide and dwell in the same, or to frequent and haunt any lodging within the same college, upon pain that whosoever shall do to the contrary shall forfeit all ecclesiastical promotions in any cathedral or collegiate church within the realm." Burghley, in sending this royal mandate to Parker, remarks, Her Majesty continueth very evil affected to the state of matrimony in the clergy. And if [I] were not therein very stiff, her Majesty would openly and utterly condemn and forbid it. In the end, for her satisfaction, this injunction now sent to your Grace is devised. The good order thereof shall do no harm. I have devised to send it in this sort to your Grace for your province; and to the Archbishop of York for his; so as it shall not be promulgated to be popular." It is doubtless to this occurrence that we may attribute the last relic of clerical celibacy enforced among Protestants, that of the fellows of the English universities. This injunction of Queen Elizabeth caused no little excitement. Though Burghley had prudently endeavoured to prevent its becoming "popular," yet Cox, Bishop of Ely, in remonstrating against its cruelty to those whom it affected in his cathedral seat, shows that it was speedily known to all men, and that it gave exceeding comfort to the reactionaries: "What rejoicing and jeering the adversaries make! How the godly ministers are discouraged, I will pass over." " In the universities, where crowds of young men were collected, there might be some colourable excuse for the regulation, but in the splendid and spacious buildings connected with the cathedrals some milder remedy might easily have been found, and the mandate was particularly unpalatable to married bishops, Parker himself, who was individually interested in the matter, made a personal appeal to the Queen, the result of which was to wound him deeply, as well as to show him how extreme were her prejudices on the subject. He pours forth his feelings in a letter to Burghley describing the interview: "I was in an horror to hear such words to come from her mild nature and Christianly learned con 1 Parker's Correspondence, pp. 146-8. |