to in this place, since they seem in various modes and degrees to illustrate those relations. First of these, we should note the commencement of that issue of Commissions by the Queen to various persons chosen by her, for the purpose of inquiring into and regulating the ecclesiastical affairs of the whole kingdom, or a whole province, or a single diocese. These Commissions, whether permanent, such as that which developed into the Court of High Commission, or temporary, and intended only for some particular occasion, were issued under the Queen's letters patent, were directly authorised by the 1 Eliz. c. 1, sec. 18, and formed the regular mode in which the sovereign's supremacy was brought to bear upon the government of the Church, until the commencement of the discontents which preceded the great Rebellion in the sixteenth year of Charles I. It, in fact, enabled the sovereign to govern the Church with the aid of the Privy Council alone, independently alike of Parliament and of Convocation. We shall have ample occasion to see,[1] in the course of this reign, how far this personal government of the Church was actually carried into practice.
The congregation of Dutch Protestants[2] which had been established, under the permission of Edward VI., by his letters patent, and had been driven away and dispersed under Mary, petitioned Elizabeth for the restoration to them of the church given them by Edward, and the renewal of their charter, which they appear shortly after to have obtained.[3] Of this Presbyterian church, as
- ↑ Strype, Life of Grindal, bk. ii. chaps. 8 and 9.
- ↑ State Papers, Edward VI., July 24, 1550.
- ↑ State Papers, Eliz. vol. xi. 24, Feb. 1560: The Queen to the Marquess of Winchester, empowering him to deliver over the Church of the Augustine Friars to the Bishop of London for the celebration of divine service by the strangers in London.
