oath was tendered,
was pledged from this moment to resist the blows which Rome was
threatening to deal. Extreme caution indeed was used in applying this
test to the laity, but pressure was more roughly put on the clergy. A
great part of the parish priests, though they had submitted to the use
of the Prayer-Book, had absented themselves when called on to take the
oath prescribed by the Act of Uniformity, and were known to be Catholics
in heart. As yet Elizabeth had cautiously refused to allow any strict
enquiry into their opinions. But a commission was now opened by her
order at Lambeth, to enforce the Act of Uniformity in public worship;
while thirty-nine of the Articles of Faith drawn up under Edward the
Sixth, which had till now been left in suspense by her Government, were
adopted in Convocation as a standard of faith, and acceptance of them
demanded from all the clergy.

[Sidenote: Mary and Knox.]

With the Test Act and the establishment of the High Commission the
system which the Queen had till now pursued in great measure ceased.
Elizabeth had "drawn the sword." It is possible she might still have
clung to her older policy had she foreseen how suddenly the danger which
appalled her was to pass away. At this crisis, as ever, she was able to
"count on Fortune." The Test Act was hardly passed when in February 1563
the Duke of Guise was assassinated by a Protestant zealot, and with his
murder the whole face of affairs was changed. The Catholic army was
paralyzed by its leader's loss, while Coligni, who was now strengthened
with money and forces from England, became master of Normandy. The war
however came quietly to an end; for Catharine of Medicis regained her
power on the Duke's death, and her aim was still an aim of peace. A
treaty with the Huguenots was concluded in March, and a new edict of
Amboise restored the truce of religion. Elizabeth's luck indeed was
chequered by a merited humiliation. Now that peace was restored Huguenot
and Catholic united to demand the surrender of Havre; and an outbreak of
plague among its garrison compelled the town to capitulate. The new
strife in which England thus found itself involved with the whole realm
of France moved fresh hopes in Mary Stuart. Mary had anxiously watched
her uncle's progress, for his success would have given her the aid of a
Catholic France in her projects on either side of the border. But even
his defeat failed utterly to dishearten her. The war between the