Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 9.djvu/130

ri6 REIGN OF ELIZABETH. [CH. 53. more moderate element in the council, a step was taken which, though often threatened, had been hitherto de- layed by the influence of Pembroke and Arundel. The Act of Uniformity was at last to be enforced, and every magistrate in the kingdom was to be required to sub- scribe to an obligation to maintain the law, and him- self to set an example of obedience by attendance at church. 1 The ecclesiastical arrangements everywhere were in extreme confusion ; and the principles of Anglicanism had been worked with extreme looseness. 2 1 Form to be subscribed by all magistrates. Addressed to the Lord Keeper. ' Our humble duties remembered to your Lordship. This is to signify that we whose names are by ourselves underwritten do acknowledge that it is our bounden duty to observe the contents of the Act of Parlia- ment entitled An Act for the Uni- formity of Common Prayer and Serv- ice in the Church and the adminis- tration of the Sacraments. And for observation of the same law we do hereby formally promise that every one of us and our families will and shall repair and resort at all times convenient to our parish church, or upon reasonable impediment, to other chapels or places for the same common prayer, and there shall devoutly and duly hear and take part of the same common prayer and all other divine service, and shall also receive the Holy Sacrament from time to time according to the terms of the said Act of Parlia- ment. Neither shall any of us that have subscribed do or say or assert, or suffer anything to be done or said by our procurement or allowance, in contempt, lack, or reproof of any part of religion established by the foresaid Act.' MSS. Domestic, No- vember, 1569. 2 In connection with the bond of the magistrates, reports were sent in of the condition of different dioceses. The following account of the diocese of Chichester may perhaps be an illustration of the state of the rest of the county. Sussex being southern country was one of those where the Reformation was sup- posed to have made most progress Disorders in the Diocese of Chichester, December, 1569. ' In many churches they have no sermons, not one in seven years, and some not one in twelve years, as the parishes have declared to the