ng themselves in rapturous flights ecstasies,
visions, inspirations, have a natural aversion to episcopal authority,
to ceremonies, rites, and forms which they denominate superstition, or
beggarly elements, and which seem to restrain the liberal effusions of
their zeal and devotion: but there was another set of opinions adopted
by these innovators, which rendered them in a peculiar manner the
object of Elizabeth's aversion. The same bold and daring spirit which
accompanied them in their addresses to the Divinity, appeared in their
political speculations; and the principles of civil liberty, which
during some reigns had been little avowed in the nation, and which were
totally incompatible with the present exorbitant prerogative, had
been strongly adopted by this new sect. Scarcely any sovereign before
Elizabeth, and none after her, carried higher, both in speculation
and practice, the authority of the crown; and the Puritans (so these
sectaries were called, on account of their pretending to a superior
purity of worship and discipline) could not recommend themselves
worse to her favor, than by inculcating the doctrine of resisting or
restraining princes. From all these motives, the queen neglected no
opportunity of depressing those zealous innovators; and while they were
secretly countenanced by some of her most favored ministers, Cecil,
Leicester, Knolles, Bedford, Walsingham, she never was, to the end of
her life, reconciled to their principles and practices.

We have thought proper to insert in this place an account of the rise
and the genius of the Puritans; because Camden marks the present year as
the period when they began to make themselves considerable in England.
We now return to our narration.

{1569.} The duke of Norfolk was the only peer that enjoyed the highest
title of nobility; and as there were at present no princes of the blood,
the splendor of his family, the opulence of his fortune, and the extent
of his influence, had rendered him, without comparison, the first
subject in England. The qualities of his mind corresponded to his high
station:--beneficent, affable, generous, he had acquired the affections
of the people; prudent, moderate, obsequious, he possessed, without
giving her any jealousy, the good graces of his sovereign. His
grandfather and father had long been regarded as the leaders of the
Catholics; and this hereditary attachment, joined to the alliance of
blood, had procured him the friendshi