became almost as great an enemy to the English Churchman as the Papist had always been. Elizabeth, it is true, displayed the same vacillation in her management of the Church as she did in every other department of policy, and, as in other matters, so in these, she too often left her servants to bear the consequences of her own indecision. Thus, early in 1564, she addressed a sharp letter[1] to the two archbishops complaining of the diversities in the services and ceremonies of the Church, and ordering them to 'provide such other further remedy, by some other sharp proceedings as should percase not be easy to be borne by such as should be disordered.' Upon receipt of this, the archbishops, with such bishops as were on the Ecclesiastical Commission, and one or two others, drew up the book of 'Advertisements,' so called, containing certain orders for the regulation of the clergy in the matters complained of: but when they were drawn up Elizabeth declined to sign them, alleging that the authority of the archbishops and the Commissioners was sufficient; and it was two years or more before they obtained the royal authority, after undergoing some revision.
An incident occurred, at the close of the year 1567, which shows how the government of the Church by the State extended to some degree beyond the bounds of the establishment. It is curious that both Edward VI. and Elizabeth, while as regards their own subjects they tolerated no nonconformity, yet took under their patronage certain Netherlanders and others driven from their own country on religious grounds. These persons, while they were permitted to settle in London, Norwich, Colchester, Canterbury, and elsewhere, and to exercise their own (Presbyterian) form of religion, were at the
- ↑ Strype, Annals, vol. i. pt. ii. pp. 128-9.
