As long as Elizabeth lived she allowed these Puritan dogs to bark so long as they did not bite. The queen’s tolerant policy permitted them to complain about prayers from a book, and special clothing for ministers, and the sign of the cross during baptisms—just about any practice that looked like Roman Catholicism—but she would not hear of their control of the Church. She allowed them to lecture for hours on the importance of preaching and the biblical office of elder, but she made sure the Church of England remained firmly in the hands of bishops,
