passed
since she came to the throne, in 1557. The same qualities of thought
and style which had marked the writers of her reign, prolonged
themselves in their successors, through the reigns of the first two
Stuart kings and the Commonwealth. Yet there was a change in _spirit_.
Literature is only one of the many forms in which the national mind
expresses itself. In periods of political revolution, literature,
leaving the serene air of fine art, partakes the violent agitation of
the times. There were seeds of civil and religious discord in
Elisabethan England. As between the two parties in the Church there
was a compromise and a truce rather than a final settlement. The
Anglican doctrine was partly Calvinistic and partly Arminian. The form
of government was Episcopal, but there was a large body of
Presbyterians in the Church who desired a change. In {126} the ritual
and ceremonies many "rags of popery" had been retained, which the
extreme reformers wished to tear away. But Elisabeth was a
worldly-minded woman, impatient of theological disputes. Though
circumstances had made her the champion of Protestantism in Europe, she
kept many Catholic notions, disapproved, for example, of the marriage
of priests, and hated sermons. She was jealous of her prerogative in
the State, and in the Church she enforced uniformity. The authors of
the _Martin Marprelate_ pamphlets against the bishops, were punished by
death or imprisonment. While the queen lived things were kept well
together and England was at one in face of the common foe. Admiral
Howard, who commanded the English naval forces against the Armada, was
a Catholic.

But during the reigns of James I. (1603-1625) and Charles I.
(1625-1649) Puritanism grew stronger through repression. "England,"
says the historian Green, "became the people of a book, and that book
the Bible." The power of the king was used to impose the power of the
bishops upon the English and Scotch Churches until religious discontent
became also political discontent, and finally overthrew the throne.
The writers of this period divided more and more into two hostile
camps. On the side of Church and king was the bulk of the learning and
genius of the time. But on the side of free religion and the
Parliament were the stern conviction, the fiery zeal, the excited
imagination of English Puritanism. The {127} spokesman of this
movement was Milton, whose great figure dominates the literary history