Page:Church and State under the Tudors.djvu/209

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REIGN OF ELIZABETH
185

spokesman, Archbishop Heath, assuming a high tone, and exhorting her to follow her sister's example, replied in a bold, if somewhat theatrical speech, beginning with a quotation from Joshua, that she and her house would serve the Lord, and continuing with a very plain announcement that she would make no terms with the 'Bishop of Rome.'[1] It is said, further, that papers left behind by Mary showed that several of the bishops had been, even in Edward's time, carrying on an intrigue with Rome. However this may be—and it certainly closely resembles one of those mere stories which are told of every party or every important person when the spirit of partisanship runs high—it is certain that within a few months the Oath was tendered to all the bishops, and that all, except Kitchin of Llandaff, refused it, and were in consequence deprived by the Commmissioners. Some of these were imprisoned, though without any rigour, for various terms, and afterwards sent to live under the surveillance of various Protestant bishops; others were left at liberty to dwell where they pleased; some went abroad to Rome and elsewhere. Bonner alone was committed to the Marshalsea, there to remain till his death in 1569, though one or two others were imprisoned again at a later time in consequence of new offences.[2] Towards the end of this year took place a curious interchange of letters between five of the Marian bishops and Queen Elizabeth, in which they urged her to follow the example of her sister, and submit herself and her realm to the Pope; and she, in her reply, attributed the conversion of England, not to the Papal Mission, but to Joseph of Arimathaea—a touch, no doubt, of Archbishop Parker's antiquarianism. The Oath was now exacted gradually from all the beneficed

  1. Strype, Annals, vol. i. pt. i. pp. 206-8.
  2. Ibid.