ing the right even of the children of
"antichrist" to worship as they would in a Protestant commonwealth. If
the Protestant lords in Scotland had been driven to assert a right of
nonconformity, if the Huguenots of France were following their example,
it was with no thought of asserting the right of every man to worship
God as he would. From the claim of such a right Knox or Coligni would
have shrunk with even greater horror than Elizabeth. What they aimed at
was simply the establishment of a truce till by force or persuasion they
could win the realms that tolerated them for their own. In this matter
therefore Elizabeth was at one with every statesman of her day. While
granting freedom of conscience to her subjects, she was resolute to
exact an outward conformity to the established religion.

[Sidenote: Religion unchanged.]

But men watched curiously to see what religion the Queen would
establish. Even before her accession the keen eye of the Spanish
ambassador had noted her "great admiration for the king her father's
mode of carrying on matters," as a matter of ill omen for the interests
of Catholicism. He had marked that the ladies about her and the
counsellors on whom she seemed about to rely were, like Cecil, "held to
be heretics." "I fear much," he wrote, "that in religion she will not go
right." As keen an instinct warned the Protestants that the tide had
turned. The cessation of the burnings, and the release of all persons
imprisoned for religion, seemed to receive their interpretation when
Elizabeth on her entry into London kissed an English Bible which the
citizens presented to her and promised "diligently to read therein." The
exiles at Strassburg or Geneva flocked home with wild dreams of a
religious revolution and of vengeance upon their foes. But hopes and
fears alike met a startling check. For months there was little change in
either government or religion. If Elizabeth introduced Cecil and his
kinsman, Sir Nicholas Bacon, to her council-board, she retained as yet
most of her sister's advisers. The Mass went on as before, and the Queen
was regular in her attendance at it. As soon as the revival of
Protestantism showed itself in controversial sermons and insults to the
priesthood it was bridled by a proclamation which forbade unlicensed
preaching and enforced silence on the religious controversy. Elizabeth
showed indeed a distaste for the elevation of the Host, and allowed the
Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Ten