[1] See Genealogical Table, p. 207. [2] After Elizabeth, Mary Stuart, Queen of Scots, stood next in order of hereditary succession.  See Table, p. 207.

On the other hand, Philip II of Spain (SS370, 374) favored Elizabeth, but solely because he hoped to marry her and annex her kingdom to his dominions.  Scotland was divided between two religious factions, the Catholics and the Protestants, and its attitude as an independent kingdom could hardly be called friendly.  The Catholics in the greater part of Ireland were in a state bordering on rebellion, and were ready to join in any attack on an English sovereign.

378.  The Religious Problem.

But the religious problem was more dangerous than any other, for England itself was divided in its faith.  In the north, many noble families stood by the Catholic faith, and hoped to see the Pope’s authority fully and permanently restored (S352).  In the towns of the southeast, a majority favored the Church of England as it had been organized under the Protestant influence of Edward VI (S362).[1]

[1] See Goldwin Smith’s “England.”

Within these two great parties there were two more, who made up in zeal and determination what they lacked in numbers.  One was the Jesuits; the other, the Puritans.  The Jesuits were a new Roman Catholic order (1540), banded together by a solemn oath to restore the complete power of the Church and to extend it throughout the world.  Openly or secretly their agents penetrated every country, and their opponents declared that they hesitated at nothing to gain their ends.

The Puritans were the extreme Protestants who, like John Calvin of Geneva and John Knox of Edinburgh, were bent on cleansing or “purifying” the reformed faith from every vestige of Catholicism.  Many of them were what the rack and the stake had naturally made them,—­hard, fearless, narrow, bitter.

In Scotland the Puritans had got possession of the government, while in England they were steadily gaining ground.  They were ready to recognize the Queen as head of the Church of England, they even wished that all persons should be compelled to worship as the government prescribed, but they protested against what they considered the halfway form of Church which Elizabeth and the bishops seemed inclined to maintain.

379.  The Queen’s Choice of Counselors.

Elizabeth’s policy from the beginning was one of compromise.  In order to conciliate the Catholic party, she retained eleven of her sister Mary’s counselors.  But she added to them Sir William Cecil (Lord Burghley), who was her chief adviser,[2] Sir Nicholas Bacon, and, later, Sir Francis Walsingham, with others who were favorable to the Protestant faith.

[2] See Macaulay’s essay on “Lord Burghley.”

On his appointment, Elizabeth said to Cecil, “This judgment I have of you, that you will not be corrupted with any gifts, that you will be faithful to the State, and that without respect to my private will you give me that counsel which you think best.”  Cecil served the Queen until his death, forty years afterward.  The almost implicit obedience with which Elizabeth followed his advice sufficiently proves that Cecil was the real power not only behind, but generally above, the throne.