408 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [en. 45. The difficulty which had hitherto prevented her re- cognition, had been the persistency with which she identified herself with the party of revolution and ultramontane fanaticism. The English people had no desire for a Puritan sovereign, but as little did they wish to see again the evil days of Bonner and Gardiner. They were jealous of their national independence ; they had done once for all with the Pope, and they would have no priesthoods, Catholic or Calvinist, to pry into their opinions or meddle with their personal liberty. For a creed they would be best contented with a some- thing which would leave them in communion with Christendom and preserve to them the form of super- stition without the power of it. Had Elizabeth allowed herself to be stayed by the ultra- Protestants, Mary Stuart would have appealed to arms and would have found theweiffhtiest portion of the nation on her side. Had the Queen of Scots' pre- tensions been admitted so long as her attitude to the Reformation was that of notorious and thorough-going hostility, she would have supplied a focus for disaffec- tion. A prudent and reasonable settlement would have oeen then made impossible; and England sooner or later would have become the scene of a savage civil war like that which had lacerated France. Elizabeth, with the best of her advisers, expected that as she grew older Mary Stuart would consent to guarantee the liberties which England essentially valued, and that bound by conditions which need not have infringed her own liberty of creed, she could be
