the Parliament, brought its labours to a premature termination; and for several years afterwards it met only to be prorogued again.[1] A vigorous attempt was made in this Convocation to do away with the habits—except the surplice—with organs, and with the sign of the cross in baptism, and to make kneeling at the communion optional—an attempt, moreover, which was extremely near succeeding, since on a division the proposers of these alterations had an actual majority of those present, but lost their motion, when the proxies also were reckoned, by a single vote, 27 members abstaining altogether.[2] Even more strongly Puritan suggestions had been previously made by Nowel, the Dean of St. Paul's, Sampson, Dean of Christ Church, and some others. It would have been interesting to see how such proposals would have been received by Elizabeth had this trifling majority been reversed. It is more to my immediate purpose, however, to observe two things in regard to this Convocation—viz. (1) That it[3] first obtained the Queen's permission to revise the Articles, and (2)[4] That the following protest was appended to the signatures attached to them when revised:—'Ista suvscriptio facta est ab omnibus sub hac protestatione, quod nihil statuunt in præjudiciiun cujusquam senatus consultum: sed tantum supplicem libellum petitiones suas continentem humiliter offerunt'—thus apparently declaring themselves subject, not only to the Crown, but also to Parliament.
Several incidents occurred during these first years of Elizabeth's reign which, though they had no direct bearing upon either the establishment or the modification of the relations of Church and State, yet may be referred
