324 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 60. the Catholics, she answered that no Catholic had suf- fered anything who acknowledged her as his lawful sovereign, and that in spiritual matters she believed as they did. 1 Fanatics, Puritan or Papist, she despised with Erasmian heartiness. Under her brother and sister she had witnessed the alternate fruits of the supremacy of the two theological factions. She was determined to hold them both under the law, which to her had more true religion in it than cartloads of creeds and articles. Puritanism drew its strength from the people. The Popish priests were a regiment of the Bishop of Rome. She would permit no authority in England which did not centre in herself. The Church should be a depart- ment of the State, organized by Parliament and ruled by the national tribunals. The moderates of both par- ties could meet and worship under its ambiguous formu- las. There should be no conventicles and no chapels, to be nurseries of sedition. Zealots who could not be satisfied might pay a fine for their precision, and have their sermons or their sacraments at home. She never ceased to hope that foreign princes would 7 see things as she saw them. To the intelligent lati- tudinarian his principles appear so obviously reasonable that he cannot understand why they are not universally accepted. Elizabeth desired only a general peace, out- ward order and uniformity, with liberty to every one to think in private as he pleased. What could any man Me replied que no castigaba | que ellos.' Don Bernardino de los Catholicos sino por no confesarla por reyna : que en lo demas creya lo Mendoza al Key, xvii. de Junio, 1578 : MSS. Simancas.
