used a fanatical zeal among the Calvinistic party which predominated
in the Parliament of 1571. The movement in favour of a more pronounced
Protestantism, of a more utter break with the Catholic past, which had
slowly spread from the knot of exiles who returned to Geneva, now
gathered a new strength; and a bill was brought in for the reform of the
book of Common Prayer by the omission of the practices which displeased
the Genevan party among the clergy. A yet closer approach to the
theocratic system of Calvin was seen when the Lower House refused its
assent to a statute that would have bound the clergy to subscribe to
those articles which recognised the royal supremacy, the power of the
Church to ordain rites and ceremonies, and the actual form of Church
government. At such a crisis even the weightiest statesmen at
Elizabeth's council-board believed that in the contest with Rome the
Crown would have to rely on Protestant zeal, and the influence of Cecil
and Walsingham backed the pressure of the Parliament. But the Queen was
only stirred to a burst of anger; she ordered Strickland, who had
introduced the bill for liturgical reform, to appear no more in
Parliament, and though she withdrew the order as soon as she perceived
the House was bent on his restoration, she would hear nothing of the
changes on which the Commons were set.

[Sidenote: Elizabeth's resistance.]

Her resistance showed the sagacity with which the Queen caught the
general temper of her people. The Catholic pressure had made it needful
to exclude Catholics from the Commons and from the council-board, but a
Protestant Council and a Protestant Parliament were by no means fair
representatives of the general drift of English opinion. Her religious
indifference left Elizabeth a better judge of the timid and hesitating
advance of religious sentiment, of the stubborn clinging to the past, of
the fear of change, of the dread of revolution, which made the winning
of the people as a whole to the Reformation a slow and tedious process.
The Protestants were increasing in number, but they were still a
minority of the nation. The zealous Catholics, who withdrew from church
at the Pope's bidding, were a still smaller minority. The bulk of
Englishmen were striving to cling to their religious prejudice and to
loyalty as well, to obey their conscience and their Queen at once, and
in such a temper of men's minds any sudden and decisive change would
have fallen like a thund