sume at least the outward badges of piety. But they have additional
force when we reflect at the same time that, at the period when they
were manifested, the Reformation was making a gradual but sure progress
in England; that the question of religion occupied every intelligent
mind and affected the interests of every family; that the lives and
fortunes of millions, the fate of kingdoms, and the progress of
intellectual freedom throughout the civilized world were inseparably
connected with the cause of Protestantism.

If bigotry and fanaticism had been prevalent in England, and the
opposing party of Romanist and Reformer nearly equal, there would have
been witnessed in that country during the sixteenth century a succession
of atrocities and horrors compared with which the wars of the white and
red roses were bloodless. If; on the other hand, the great mass of the
nation had been indifferent, with regard not merely to forms, but to
religion itself, we should not have seen the outward show of piety in
the highest ranks; we should not have seen a house of commons
legislating in favor of Edward's liturgy, and a nation turning to
worship in their vernacular tongue. Nothing but a widely diffused spirit
of piety can account for the character of those miracles of literature
which made the days of Elizabeth glorious, and which are stamped with
nothing more strongly than their deep and wise religion.

Moreover, in the age of Elizabeth, England was more distinguished for
patriotism than any nation in civilized Europe. On the Continent the
feeling of nationality was absorbed, and the distinction of language,
laws, and country absolutely lost, in the zeal for religious belief.
Nations, which for centuries had been enemies, were found leagued
against their natural allies; inhabitants of the same state were
divided, and at war with each other; the prophecy was literally
fulfilled that "the brother shall betray the brother to death, and the
father the son, and children shall rise up against their parents, and
shall cause them to be put to death." "The Palatine," says Schiller,
"now forsakes his home to go and fight on the side of his
fellow-believer of France, against the common enemy of their religion.
The subject of the King of France draws his sword against his native
land, which had persecuted him, and goes forth to bleed for the freedom
of Holland. Swiss is now seen armed for battle against Swiss, and German
against German, that t