No. IX.—Vol. I., p. 374.
I have adopted the common account of Cecil’s signing Edward VI.’s Instrument of Succession as a witness. It is endorsed by Mr. Froude.—(Hist., v. 509). But I ought to add, that Tytler, in his England under the Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, discredits the story which rests on a statement made by Roger Alford, twenty years afterwards, who on Cecil’s authority, and at his request, was trying to make out a case in favour of his master. Cecil’s signature occurs in the midst of many names appended to the document, not at all in the way of witness; and Tytler thinks, that Cecil had determined to retain his place, whatever sacrifice it might cost him. It did cost him dear—“for he was driven by it to falsehood, to evasion, and to little subterfuges, from which every upright mind would have recoiled.”—(Vol. ii. 175.) In a defence of himself, written in his own hand, for the eye of Queen Mary, and which Tytler has printed (vol. ii. 192), he says nothing of having signed the instrument as a witness.
It appears further, from an examination by Tytler, of some of Cecil’s papers in the Record Office, that in the reign of Queen Mary he conformed to the established religion by attending mass.—(Vol. ii. 443.) Yet it is remarkable that although regarded kindly at court, he never held office under the Popish Sovereign; and is distinctly described as “a heretic” by the Count de Feria, writing in 1558.—(p. 499). Whatever his compliances at the time, there must have been enough in his conduct to indicate that he was an unwilling Conformist, and that he was in heart a Protestant. Still, in respect to religious profession in the earlier part of life, he is seen to disadvantage when compared with Clarendon.