More creditable to the cause was the adherence of men like Sir William Cecil, later Lord Burghley, a man of cool judgment and decent conversation.

Coverdale, still active, was made a bishop.

John Foxe published, all in the interests of his faith, the most popular and celebrated history of the time.

Roger Ascham, Elizabeth's tutor, still looked to Lutheran Germany as "a place where Christ's doctrine, the fear of God, punishment of sin, and discipline of honesty were held in special regard." Edmund Spenser's great allegory, as well as some of his minor poems, were largely inspired by Anglican and Calvinistic purposes.
[Sidenote: Conversion of the masses] It was during Elizabeth's reign that the Roman Catholics lost the majority they claimed in 1558 and became the tiny minority they have ever since remained.

The time and to some extent the process through which this came to pass can be traced with fair accuracy.