under Edward, under Mary, no
distinction had been drawn between inner belief and outer conformity.
Every English subject was called upon to adjust his conscience as well
as his conduct to the varying policy of the state. But the fires of
Smithfield had proved that obedience such as this could not be exacted
save by a persecution which filled all England with horror. Such a
persecution indeed failed in the very end for which it was wrought.
Instead of strengthening religious unity, it gave a new force to
religious separation; it enlisted the conscience of the zealot in the
cause of resistance; it secured the sympathy of the great mass of
waverers to those who withstood the civil power. To Cecil, as to the
purely political statesmen of whom he was the type, such a persecution
seemed as needless as it was mischievous. Conformity indeed was
necessary, for men could as yet conceive of no state without a religion
or of civil obedience apart from compliance with the religious order of
the state. But only outer conformity was needed. That no man should set
up a worship other than that of the nation at large, that every subject
should duly attend at the national worship, Cecil believed to be
essential to public order. But he saw no need for prying into the actual
beliefs of those who conformed to the religious laws of the realm, nor
did he think that such beliefs could be changed by the fear of
punishment. While refusing freedom of worship therefore, Cecil, like
Elizabeth, was ready to concede freedom of conscience. And in this
concession we can hardly doubt that the bulk of Englishmen went with
him. Catholics shared with Protestants the horror of Mary's persecution.
To Protestantism indeed the horror of the persecution had done much to
give a force such as it had never had before. The number of Protestants
grew with every murder done in the cause of Catholicism. But they still
remained a small part of the realm. What the bulk of Englishmen had been
driven to by the martyrdoms was not a change of creed, but a longing for
religious peace and for such a system of government as, without
destroying the spiritual oneness of the nation, would render a religious
peace possible. And such a system of government Cecil and Elizabeth were
prepared to give.

[Sidenote: Mary's death.]

We may ascribe to Cecil's counsels somewhat of the wise patience with
which Elizabeth waited for the coming crown. Her succession was assured,
and the thron