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striving against your Majesty , ( God we take to witness ) for with David we confess that we are but canes mortui aut pulicqs , [ dead dogs or fleas ] in comparison . "
< Princes and statesmen , we know from numerous examples , will stand forth the champions of religion , when it neither warms
their hearts nor is in any degree the impelling motive , even when the form they contend for looks most friendly to theirinterest . I borrow this remark from Dr . Brett , a Protestant divine of the Establishment
in Ireland , and an early assertor of Catholic claims against the Con ~ { derations of Archdeacon Blackburne . Whatever were Elizabeth ' s real opinions in religion , if indeed she seriously entertained the subject , she soon determined that the Church of England should again become Protestant . The missal
was once more exploded and the liturgy restored , to which it was enjoined on a whole people , immediately , at their peril , to return . Thus ignorant of the nature of religion , as a personal concern , or inattentive to its obligations , have
been the Protestant , equally with the Papal maintainers of established churches . To expedite this return , a parliament was called , which , through courtly influence , consisted of members sufficiently obsequious to the wishes of the
queen . The first acts of this parliament puc into the hands of Elizabeth two eminent instruments of cruelty , the statute " to restore to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over the estate ecclesiastical and spiritual /' from which originated the court
of High Commission , and the " Act ibr the uniformity of common prayer and service in the church .
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and administration of the sacraments . " In the preamble to the former of these statutes the parliament indulge a recollection most
appropriate on such an occasion ; for they remind the queen of her " most dear father , of worthy memory , King Henry the 8 th . " She is empowered to * ' assign commissioners to execute ecclesiastical
jurisdiction , — to visit , reform , redress , order , correct and amend all such errors , heresies , schisms , abuses , offences , contempts , and
enormities whatsoever , which , by any manner of spiritual or ecclesiastical power , authority or jurisdiction , can or may lawfully be reformed , ordered , redressed , corrected , restrained or amended , to the pleasure of Almighty God , the
increase of virtue , and the conservation of the peace and unity of this realm /* Heresy is described to be whatever is so adjudged " by the authority of the canonical scripture , or by the first four general councils , or such as ^ shall
hereafter be ordered , judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of parliament , with the assent of the clergy in
convocation . " This court of high commission , after having been the source of grievous oppressions , was suppressed , in the l 6 th year of Charles I . 1641 .
The Act of Uniformity still remains , the disgrace of the Common Prayer Book , to which it is generally annexed . However solemn its phraseology , it is nothing better than a cruel , mockery of the
Christian liberty affected by Protestants , when they discarded the Pope . The clergy are forbidden to make , the slightest alteration in * the Book of Common Prayer and
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Sketch of English Protestant Persecution * —Letter VII . 311
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1813, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2428/page/27/
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