Whatever the private misgivings Jewel entertained about the state of
English religion, in the fall of 1559, following his duties as a royal visitor,
in the seven months he spent in London between the end of the Royal
visitations and his departure for Salisbury, he emerged in his own right
as a controversialist and apologist for the Elizabethan Settlement in the
preaching of the Challenge Sermon. Although he publicly defended the
material substance of the Elizabethan Church, he also expressed grave
concerns about what may be termed formal or ceremonial religious
matters. Two specific difficulties emerge in the aftermath of the
Settlement of Religion, both touching ritual and worship, though only
one assumed material importance for Jewel. In the first instance, the use
of particular vestments became a tension in Jewel’s mind that betrayed
itself recurrently in his personal correspondence. Though a practice he
believed best deserted, Jewel never felt constrained by his conscience to
make an issue of the matter by a public dissent; indeed, on this issue he
publicly always acted in concert with both his queen and his archbishop.
The second concern, that Elizabeth retained a crucifix in her chapel,
differed from vestments, for it involved what Jewel believed was
idolatry.^62 Jewel had no sooner returned from his visitations than he
found himself embroiled in controversy with his own coreligionists,
primarily archbishop Parker and Richard Cox. Jewel had distinct
notions about what it was appropriate for the monarch to practice, in
that the monarch’s practice could indeed become a precedent, the very
thing he feared would become the end of Elizabeth’s infatuation. He had
already confessed to Martyr that Elizabeth’s affectations could set
policy with respect to her retention of even an expurgated Mass in her
chapel:
Itaque factum est, ut multis jam in locis missae etiam invitis edictis
sua sponte ceciderint. Quod si regina ipsa eam abigeret e suo larario,
res omnis facillime posset confici. Tanti sunt apud nos exempla
principum: quod enim regis exemplo fit, id vulgus, ut scis non
dubitat recte fieri.^63THE STRUGGLE FOR THE ELIZABETHAN CHURCH 67
(^62) ‘That little silver cross, of ill-omened origin, still maintains its place in the queen’s
chapel.’ Letter of 16 November 1559, Works, IV, p. 1225.
(^63) Ibid., p. 1205. 14 April 1559 to Martyr. ‘Thus it is that the mass has stopped of itself,
even with such unhelpful laws. Now if the queen herself would remove it from her chapel,
the whole matter might easily be resolved. Such are the examples of princes, since what is
done by the example of the prince, as you know, the people consider it to be done
correctly.’ However, he does concede ‘Nonetheless she has so tempered her mass, which she
keeps but for present considerations, that, even though there is much in it that should not
be tolerated, one is able to listen to it without great peril.’ ‘Quanquam illa ita missam illam
suam, quam adhuc temporis tantum causa retinet, temperavit, ut, quamvis in ea multa
gerantur quae ferri vix possint, tamen non ita magno cum periculo audiri possint.’ p. 1205.