384.  The Nation halting between Two Opinions.

In this double course she represented a large part of the nation, which hesitated about committing itself fully to either side.  Men were not wanting who were ready to lay down their lives for conscience’ sake, but they do not appear to have been numerous.

Some sympathized at heart with the notorious Vicar of Bray, who kept his pulpit under the whole or some part of the successive reigns of Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth, changing his theology with each change of rule.  When taunted as a turncoat, he replied, “Not so, for I have always been true to my principles, which are to live and die Vicar of Bray."[2]

[2] “For this as law I will maintain
            Until my dying day, sir,
         That whatsoever king shall reign,
            I’ll be Vicar of Bray, sir.”

Though there was nothing morally noble in such halting between two opinions, and facing both ways, yet it saved England for the time from the worst of all calamities, a religious civil war.  Such a conflict rent France in pieces, drenched her fair fields with the blood of Catholics and Protestants, split Germany and Italy into petty states, and ended in Spain in the triumph of the Inquisition and of intellectual death.[1]

[1] S. R. Gardiner’s “History of England”; consult also J. F. Bright’s “History of England” and L. Von Ranke’s “History of England.”

385.  The Question of the Queen’s Marriage.

Elizabeth showed the same tact with regard to marriage that she did with regard to religion.  Her first Parliament, realizing that the welfare of the country depended largely on whom the Queen should marry, begged her to consider the question of taking a husband.  Her reply was that she had resolved to live and die a maiden queen.  When further pressed, she returned answers that, like the ancient Greek oracles, might be interpreted either way.

The truth was that Elizabeth saw the difficult of her position better than any one else.  The choice opf her heart at that time would probably have been Robert Dudley, her “sweet Robin,” the handsome but unscrupulous Earl of Leicester; but, as he called himself a Protestant, she knew that to take him as consort would be to incur the enmity of the Catholic powers of Europe.  On the other hand, if she accepted a Catholic, she would inevitably alienate a large and influential number of her own subjects.

In this delimma she resolved to keep both sides in a state of hopeful expectation.  Philip II of Spain, who had married her sister Mary (S370), made overtures to Elizabeth.  She kept him waiting in uncertainty until at last his ambassador lost all patience, and declared that the Queen “was possessed with ten thousand demons.”