romise of submission, and his influence steadily widened. With
Presbyterianism itself indeed Elizabeth was strong enough to deal. Its
dogmatism and bigotry were opposed to the better temper of the age, and
it never took any popular hold on England. But if Presbyterianism was
limited to a few, Puritanism, the religious temper which sprang from a
deep conviction of the truth of Protestant doctrines and of the
falsehood of Catholicism, had become through the struggle with Spain and
the Papacy the temper of three-fourths of the English people. Unluckily
the policy of Elizabeth did its best to give to the Presbyterians the
support of Puritanism. Her establishment of the Ecclesiastical
Commission had given fresh life and popularity to the doctrines which it
aimed at crushing by drawing together two currents of opinion which were
in themselves perfectly distinct. The Presbyterian platform of Church
discipline had as yet been embraced by the clergy only, and by few among
the clergy. On the other hand, the wish for a reform in the Liturgy, the
dislike of "superstitious usages," of the use of the surplice, the sign
of the cross in baptism, the gift of the ring in marriage, the posture
of kneeling at the Lord's Supper, was shared by a large number of the
clergy and the laity alike. At the opening of Elizabeth's reign almost
all the higher Churchmen save Parker were opposed to them, and a motion
for their abolition in Convocation was lost but by a single vote. The
temper of the country gentlemen on this subject was indicated by that
of Parliament; and it was well known that the wisest of the Queen's
Councillors, Burleigh, Walsingham, and Knollys, were at one in this
matter with the gentry. If their common persecution did not wholly
succeed in fusing these two sections of religious opinion into one, it
at any rate gained for the Presbyterians a general sympathy on the part
of the Puritans, which raised them from a clerical clique into a popular
party.

[Sidenote: Philip and Ireland.]

But if Elizabeth's task became more difficult at home, the last years of
her reign were years of splendour and triumph abroad. The overthrow of
Philip's hopes in France had been made more bitter by the final
overthrow of his hopes at sea. In 1596 his threat of a fresh Armada was
met by the daring descent of an English force upon Cadiz. The town was
plundered and burned to the ground; thirteen vessels of war were fired
in its harbour, and the stores ac