But whatever was done was in good taste,—­marked by good sense and moderation,—­to preserve decency and decorum, and repress all extremes of superstition and license.  The clergy preached in a black gown and Genevan bands, using the surplice only in the liturgy; we see no lace or millinery.  The churches were stripped of images, the pulpits became high and prominent, the altars were changed to communion-tables without candles and symbols.  There was not much account made of singing, for the lyric version of the Psalms was execrable.  For the first time since Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzen, preaching became the chief duty of the clergyman; and his sermons were long, for the people were greedy of instruction, and were not critical of artistic merits.  Among other things of note, the exiles were recalled, who brought back with them the learning of the Continent and the theology of Geneva, and an intense hatred for all the old forms of superstition,—­images, crucifixes, lighted candles, Catholic vestments,—­and a supreme regard for the authority of the Scriptures, rather than the authority of the Church.

These men, mostly learned and pious, were not contented with the restoration as effected by Elizabeth’s reformers,—­they wanted greater simplicity of worship and a more definite and logical creed; and they made a good deal of trouble, being very conscientious and somewhat narrow and intolerant.  So that, after the re-establishment of Protestantism, the religious history of the reign is chiefly concerned with the quarrels and animosities within the Church, particularly about vestments and modes of worship,—­ things unessential, minute, technical,—­which led to great acerbity on both sides, and to some persecution; for these quarrels provoked the Queen and her ministers, who wanted peace and uniformity.  To the Government it seemed strange and absurd for these returned exiles to make such a fuss about a few externals; to these intensified Protestants it seemed harsh and cruel that Government should insist on such a rigid uniformity, and punish them for not doing as they were bidden by the bishops.

So they separated from the Established Church, and became what were called Nonconformists,—­having not only disgust of the decent ritualism of the Church, but great wrath for the bishops and hierarchy and spiritual courts.  They also disapproved of the holy days which the Church retained, and the prayers and the cathedral style of worship, the use of the cross in baptism, godfathers and godmothers, the confirmation of children, kneeling at the sacrament, bowing at the name of Jesus, the ring in marriage, the surplice, the divine right of bishops, and some other things which reminded them of Rome, for which they had absolute detestation, seeing in the old Catholic Church nothing but abominations and usurpations, no religion at all, only superstition and anti-Christian government and doctrine,—­the reign of the beast, the mystic