of the line which he actually recommended when it came to a
decision. How far he was personally responsible for the Anglican
Settlement, the Poor Laws, and the foreign policy of the reign, how far he
was [v.04 p.0817] thwarted by the baleful influence of Leicester and the
caprices of the queen, remains to a large extent a matter of conjecture.
His share in the settlement of 1559 was considerable, and it coincided
fairly with his own somewhat indeterminate religious views. Like the mass
of the nation, he grew more Protestant as time wore on; he was readier to
persecute Papists than Puritans; he had no love for ecclesiastical
jurisdiction, and he warmly remonstrated with Whitgift over his persecuting
Articles of 1583. The finest encomium was passed on him by the queen
herself, when she said, "This judgment I have of you, that you will not be
corrupted with any manner of gifts, and that you will be faithful to the
state."

From 1558 for forty years the biography of Cecil is almost
indistinguishable from that of Elizabeth and from the history of England.
Of personal incident, apart from his mission to Scotland in 1560, there is
little. He represented Lincolnshire in the parliament of 1559, and
Northamptonshire in that of 1563, and he took an active part in the
proceedings of the House of Commons until his elevation to the peerage; but
there seems no good evidence for the story that he was proposed as speaker
in 1563. In January 1561 he was given the lucrative office of master of the
court of wards in succession to Sir Thomas Parry, and he did something to
reform that instrument of tyranny and abuse. In February 1559 he was
elected chancellor of Cambridge University in succession to Cardinal Pole;
he was created M.A. of that university on the occasion of Elizabeth's visit
in 1564, and M.A. of Oxford on a similar occasion in 1566. On the 25th of
February 1571 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Burghley of Burghley[1]
(or Burleigh); the fact that he continued to act as secretary after his
elevation illustrates the growing importance of that office, which under
his son became a secretaryship of state. In 1572, however, the marquess of
Winchester, who had been lord high treasurer under Edward, Mary and
Elizabeth, died, and Burghley succeeded to his post. It was a signal
triumph over Leicester; and, although Burghley had still to reckon with
cabals in the council and at court, his hold over the queen strengthened
with the laps