Protestantism in England From the Times of Henry VIII - James Aitken Wylie

queen and her councilors were bent on the
emancipation of the nation from the yoke of Rome;
and the instrumentalities they made use of for the
diffusion of Protestantism form a sharp contrast to
the means employed under Mary to convert men to
the Roman worship. The Reformers set up the
Bible, the Romanists planted the stake.
During the first year of Elizabeth's reign,
though there lacked not thousands of clergy in
England, the laborers qualified to reap the fields
now white unto harvest were few indeed. But their
numbers were speedily recruited from a quarter
where the storms of prosecution had for some time
been assembling them. When the great army of
Protestant preachers at Zurich, at Geneva, at
Strasburg, and at other foreign towns heard that
Elizabeth was on the throne, they instantly
prepared to return and aid in the Reformation of
their native land. These men were rich in many
gifts-- some in genius, others in learning, others
were masters of popular eloquence, and all were
men of chastened spirit, ripe Christians and
scholars, while their views had been enlarged by
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