text:  Then as the mist of doubt and persecution which had covered Mary's throne cleared away the intellect of England in all its health and vigour and symmetry stood revealed in the men and women of the Elizabethan age:-- "To say " observes Dr Arnold "that the Puritans were wanting in humility because they did not acquiesce in the state of things which they found around them is a mere extravagance arising out of a total misapprehension of the nature of humility and of the merits of the feeling of veneration