eth
persevered in the practice originating in the reigns of her father and
brother, of endowing her courtiers out of the spoils of the church.
Sometimes, to the public scandal, she would keep a bishopric many years
vacant for the sake of appropriating its whole revenues to secular uses
and persons; and still more frequently, the presentation to a see was
given under the condition, express or implied, that certain manors
should be detached from its possessions, or beneficial leases of lands
and tenements granted to particular persons. Thus the bishop of Ely was
required to make a cession to sir Christopher Hatton of the garden and
orchard of Ely-house near Holborn; on the refusal of the prelate to
surrender property which he regarded himself as bound in honor and
conscience to transmit unimpaired to his successors, Hatton instituted
against him a chancery suit; and having at length succeeded in wresting
from him the land, made it the site of a splendid house surrounded by
gardens, which have been succeeded by the street still bearing his name.
He had even sufficient interest with her majesty to cause her to
address to the bishop the following violent letter, several times, with
some variations, reprinted.

* * * * *

"Proud prelate;

"I understand you are backward in complying with your agreement; but I
would have you to know, that I who made you what you are can unmake you;
and if you do not forthwith fulfil your engagement, by God I will
immediately unfrock you.

"Yours as you demean yourself,

"ELIZABETH."

* * * * *

Sir John Harrington, in his Brief View of the Church of England, accuses
the lord-chancellor Hatton of coveting likewise a certain manor attached
to the see of Bath and Wells, and of inflaming the queen's indignation
against bishop Godwin on account of his second marriage, in order to
frighten him into compliance; a manoeuvre which in part succeeded,
since the bishop was reduced, by way of compromise, to grant him a long
lease of another manor somewhat inferior in value.

With all this, Hatton, as we have formerly observed, was distinguished
as the patron of the established church against the puritans: but his
zeal in its behalf, whether real or affected, was attended by a spirit
of moderation then rare and always commendable. He disliked, and
sometimes checked, the oppressions exercised against the papists by the
rigid enforcement