er outward
conformity, and those whom the Liturgy did not suit might use their own
ritual in their private houses. Elizabeth and her wise advisers believed
that if her subjects could be kept from fighting and killing one
another, and were not exasperated by outward displays of difference,
they would learn that righteousness of life was more important than
orthodoxy, and to estimate at their real value the rival dogmas of
theology. Had time permitted the experiment to have a fair trial, it
would perhaps have succeeded, but, unhappily for the Queen and for
England, the fire of controversy was still too hot under the ashes.
Protestants and Catholics had been taught to look on one another as
enemies of God, and were still reluctant to take each other's hands at
the bidding of an Act of Parliament. The more moderate of the Catholic
laity saw no difference so great between the English service and the
Mass as to force them to desert the churches where their fathers had
worshipped for centuries. They petitioned the Council of Trent for
permission to use the English Prayer Book; and had the Council
consented, religious dissension would have dissolved at last into an
innocent difference of opinion. But the Council and the Pope had
determined that there should be no compromise with heresy, and the
request was refused, though it was backed by Philip's ambassador in
London. The action of the Papacy obliged the Queen to leave the
Administration in the hands of Protestants, on whose loyalty she could
rely. As the struggle with the Reformation spread and deepened she was
compelled to assist indirectly the Protestant party in France and
Scotland. But she still adhered to her own principle; she refused to
put herself at the head of a Protestant League. She took no step without
keeping open a line of retreat on a contrary policy. She had Catholics
in her Privy Council who were pensioners of Spain. She filled her
household with Catholics, and many a time drove Burghley distracted by
listening to them at critical moments. Her constant effort was to disarm
the antagonism of the adherents of the old belief, by admitting them to
her confidence, and showing them that one part of her subjects was as
dear to her as another.

For ten years she went on struggling. For ten years she was proudly able
to say that during all that time no Catholic had suffered for his belief
either in purse or person. The advanced section of the Catholic clergy
was in