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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 May 2006
Elizabeth I (1558-1603) may never have uttered the famous words attributed to her in a letter by Sir Francis Bacon: “I would not open windows into men's souls.” Her division between conformity in public worship and private religious sensibility reverses the authoritarian view that governmental fiat determines religious conviction. Elizabeth's acknowledgment of liberty of conscience free from surveillance sounds apocryphal, but the remark does correspond to the Queen's secretiveness about her personal beliefs. Liberty of conscience was not the case when Sir Thomas More, despite his legalistic strategy of maintaining silence concerning his refusal to acquiesce to the Royal Supremacy over the church, was convicted of treason at the outset of the political Reformation under Henry VIII (1509-47). Perjured testimony that the humanist scholar, lawyer, and former Lord Chancellor of England had denied the King's supremacy in the Church of England led to his condemnation. Before his death sentence was handed down, More discharged his conscience by defending ecclesiastical unity and objecting to royal control of the church.
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