The Acrostic Paradise Lost by John Milton and Terrance Lindall

On the next page is a MANUSCRIPT OF AN IMPORTANT
SPEECH QUEEN ELIZABETH I GAVE BEFORE THE
BRITISH PARLIAMENT ON MARCH 29, 1585 in the collection
of the Yuko Nii Foundation.
Elizabeth I gives a trenchant warning to Parliament about religion, very likely on
Catholicism: “One thing I may not overskip. Religion, the ground on which all
other matters ought to take root, and, being corrupted, may mar all the tree. And
that there be some fault-finders with the order of the clergy, which so may make
a slander to myself, and to the church, whose over-ruler God hath made me,
whose negligence cannot be excused, if any schisms or errors heretical were
suffered. Thus much I must say, that some faults and negligences must grow
and be, as in all other great charges it happeneth; and what vocation
without? All which, if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to
depose you. Look ye, therefore, well to your charges.”.
ELIZABETH I GIVES A TRENCHANT WARNING TO PARLIAMENT
ABOUT RELIGION THE SAME YEAR AN ACT WAS PASSED THAT
OUTLAWED ORDAINED CATHOLIC PRIESTS IN ENGLAND
Elizabeth I persecuted Catholics and approved measures that outlawed
Catholicism during her long reign. The same year the present speech was given,
“An act against Jesuits and seminary priests” was passed which made it treason
for any Catholic priest ordained abroad after 1559 to come into or remain in
England and a felony for anyone to shelter or assist such a priest, treason and
felony were both punishable by death. This action consolidated English society
and made it possible over the following centuries to create the greatest
empire the world has ever seen.
The writing is in “secretarial hand,” most commonly used at court during the
Elizabethan period. This writing style is the direct precursor to our modern
handwriting.
! 192!