othing positively unlawful." Where
party feeling ran high indeed the matter was sometimes settled by a
compromise. A priest would celebrate mass at his parsonage for the more
rigid Catholics, and administer the new communion in church to the more
rigid Protestants. Sometimes both parties knelt together at the same
altar-rails, the one to receive hosts consecrated by the priest at home
after the old usage, the other wafers consecrated in church after the
new. In many parishes of the north no change of service was made at all.
Even where priest and people conformed it was often with a secret belief
that better times were soon to bring back the older observances. As late
as 1569 some of the chief parishes in Sussex were still merely bending
to the storm of heresy. "In the church of Arundel certain altars do
stand yet, to the offence of the godly, which murmur and speak much
against the same. In the town of Battle when a preacher doth come and
speak anything against the Pope's doctrine they will not abide but get
them out of the church. They have yet in the diocese in many places
thereof images hidden and other popish ornaments ready to set up the
mass again within twenty-four hours warning. In many places they keep
yet their chalices, looking to have mass again." Nor was there much new
teaching as yet to stir up strife in those who clung to the older
faith. Elizabeth had no mind for controversies which would set her
people by the ears. "In many churches they have no sermons, not one in
seven years, and some not one in twelve." The older priests of Mary's
days held their peace. The Protestant preachers were few and hampered by
the exaction of licences. In many cases churches had "neither parson,
vicar, nor curate, but a sorry reader." Even where the new clergy were
of higher intellectual stamp they were often unpopular. Many of those
who were set in the place of the displaced clergy roused disgust by
their violence and greed. Chapters plundered their own estates by leases
and fines and by felling timber. The marriages of the clergy became a
scandal, which was increased when the gorgeous vestments of the old
worship were cut up into gowns and bodices for the priests' wives. The
new services sometimes turned into scenes of utter disorder where the
ministers wore what dress they pleased and the communicant stood or sat
as he liked; while the old altars were broken down and the
communion-table was often a bare board upon trestles