the Parliament passed from its previous compliant mood into
opposition, which was not yet successful because it was only that of
the minority, but which prepared the way for the coming change of
tone. It attached itself joyfully to the new Queen, whose birth
necessarily made her adopt a policy which took away all apprehensions
of a union with the Romish See injurious to the country.

The complete antagonism between the Papal and the Parliamentary
powers, of which one had swayed past centuries and the other was to
sway the future, is shown by the conduct of the Pope, when Elizabeth
announced her accession to him. In his answer he reproached her with
it as presumption, reverted to the decision of his predecessors by
which she was declared illegitimate, required that the whole matter
should be referred to him, and even mentioned England's feudal
relation to the Papacy:[185] but Parliament, which had rejected this
claim centuries before, acknowledged Elizabeth as legitimately sprung
from the royal blood, and as Queen by the law of God and of the land;
they pledged themselves to defend her title and right with their lives
and property.

Owing to this the tendencies towards separation from Rome were already
sure to gain the superiority: the Catholic members of the Privy
Council, to whom Elizabeth owed her first recognition, could not
contend effectively against them. But besides this, Elizabeth had
joined with them a number of men of her own choice and her own views,
who like herself had not openly opposed the existing system, but
disapproved it; they were mainly her personal friends, who now took
the direction of affairs into their hands; the change which they
prepared looked moderate but was decided.

Elizabeth rejected the title of 'Supreme Head of the Church,' because
it not merely aroused the aversion of the Catholics, but also gave
offence to many zealous Protestants; it made however no essential
difference when she replaced it by the formula 'in all causes as well
ecclesiastical as civil, supreme.' Parliament declared that the right
of visiting and reforming the Church was attached to the crown and
could be exercised by it through ecclesiastical commissioners. The
clergy, high and low, were to swear to the ecclesiastical supremacy,
and abjure all foreign authority and jurisdiction. The punishment for
refusing the oath was defined: it was not to be punished with death as
under Henry VIII, but with the loss of office