" said his friend. "Of course she is the successor in one
sense: what you say is very true. It is impossible to put your finger
all along the line of separation. It is a serrated line. The affairs of a
Church and a nation are so vast that that is sure to be so; although if
you insist, I will point to the Supremacy Act of 1559 and the Uniformity
Act of the same year as very clear evidences of a breach with the ancient
order; in the former the governance is shifted from its original owner,
the Vicar of Christ, and placed on Elizabeth; it was that that the
Carthusian Fathers and Sir Thomas More and many others died sooner than
allow: and the latter Act sweeps away all the ancient forms of worship in
favour of a modern one. But I am not careful to insist upon those points;
if you deny or disprove them,--though I do not envy any who attempts
that--yet even then my principle remains, that all that to which the
Church of England has succeeded is the edifices and the endowments; but
that her spirit is wholly new. If a highwayman knocks me down to-morrow,
strips me, clothes himself with my clothes, and rides my horse, he is
certainly my successor in one sense; yet he will be rash if he presents
himself to my wife and sons--though I have none, by the way--as the
proper owner of my house and name."

"But there is no knocking down in the question," said Anthony. "The
bishops and clergy, or the greater part of them, consented to the
change."

Mr. Buxton smiled.

"Very well," he said; "yet the case is not greatly different if the
gentleman threatens me with torture instead, if I do not voluntarily give
him my clothes and my horse. If I were weak and yielded to him, yes, and
made promises of all kinds in my cowardice--yet he would be no nearer
being the true successor of my name and fortune. And if you read her
Grace's Acts, and King Henry's too, you will find that that was precisely
what took place. My dear sir," Mr. Buxton went on, "if you will pardon my
saying it, I am astounded at the effrontery of your authorities who claim
that there was no breach. Your Puritans are wiser; they at least frankly
say that the old was Anti-Christian; that His Holiness (God forgive me
for saying it!), was an usurper: and that the new Genevan theology is the
old gospel brought to light again. That I can understand; and indeed most
of your churchmen think so too; and that there was a new beginning made
with Protestantism. But when her Grace calls he