th the authority of
the Roman pontiff: that a sentence, so solemnly pronounced by two popes
against her mother's marriage, could not possibly be recalled without
inflicting a mortal wound on the credit of the see of Rome; and even if
she were allowed to retain the crown, it would only be on an uncertain
and dependent footing: that this circumstance alone counterbalanced all
dangers whatsoever; and these dangers themselves, if narrowly examined,
would be found very little formidable: that the curses and execrations
of the Romish church, when not seconded by military force, were, in the
present age, more an object of ridicule than of terror, and had now as
little influence in this world as in the next: that though the bigotry
or ambition of Henry or Philip might incline them to execute a sentence
of excommunication against her, their interests were so incompatible,
that they never could concur in any plan of operations; and the enmity
of the one would always insure to her the friendship of the other:
that if they encouraged the discontents of her Catholic subjects,
their dominions also abounded with Protestants, and it would be easy to
retaliate upon them: that even such of the English as seemed at present
zealously attached to the Catholic faith, would, most of them, embrace
the religion of their new sovereign; and the nation had of late been
so much accustomed to these revolutions, that men had lost all idea of
truth and falsehood in such subjects: that the authority of Henry VIII.,
so highly raised by many concurring circumstances, first inured the
people to this submissive deference; and it was the less difficult for
succeeding princes to continue the nation in a track to which it had so
long been accustomed; and that it would be easy for her, by bestowing on
Protestants all preferment in civil offices and the militia, the church
and the universities, both to insure her own authority, and to render
her religion entirely predominant.[*]

The education of Elizabeth, as well as her interest, led her to favor
the reformation; and she remained not long in suspense with regard to
the party which she should embrace. But though determined in her own
mind, she resolved to proceed by gradual and secure steps, and not to
imitate the example of Mary in encouraging the bigots of her party to
make immediately a violent invasion on the established religion.[**]
She thought it requisite, however, to discover such symptoms of her
inte