bishops of this realm to be good, lawful, and perfect.' This Act, which asserts the validity of the consecrations already made by reason of the Act of Supremacy and of the Act of 5 and 6 Edward VI. c. 1, and the revival thereof by 1 Eliz. c. 1, also alleges that (2) the Queen, 'by her supreme power and authority, hath dispensed with all causes or doubts of any imperfection or disability that can or may in any way be objected against the same'; and has a further clause, apparently intended expressly to meet Bonner's case, (6) 'that no person shall at any time hereafter be impeached or molested by occasion or mean of any certificate by any archbishop or bishop heretofore made, or before the last day of the present session of Parliament to be made, by virtue of any Act made in the first session of this present Parliament, touching or concerning the refusal of the Oath declared and set forth by Act of Parliament in the first year of the reign of our said Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth, anything in this Act or any other Act or Statute heretofore made to the contrary notwithstanding,' and (7) that all tenders of the said Oath made by any archbishop or bishop aforesaid, or before the last day of this present session to be made by authority of any Act established in the first session of this present Parliament, and all refusals of the same Oath so tendered, or before the last day of this present session to be tendered by any archbishop or bishop by authority of any Act established in the first session of this present Parliament, shall be void and of none effect or validity in the law.'
We may now see plainly what was the theory of the relation between the Church and State in England in the early part of Elizabeth's reign, and we shall see further as we proceed how entirely that theory was
