The change was, in fact, but the inevitable completion and consequence of the conversion of the leaders of the people earlier.

With the masses, doubtless, the full contrast between the old and the new faiths was not realized.
Attending the same churches if not the same church, using a liturgy which some hoped would obtain papal sanction, and ignorant of the changes made in translation from the Latin ritual, the uneducated did not trouble themselves {329} about abstruse questions of dogma or even about more obvious matters such as the supremacy of the pope and the marriage of the clergy.

Moreover, there were strong positive forces attracting them to the Anglican communion.

They soon learned to love the English prayer-book, and the Bible became so necessary that the Catholics were obliged to produce a version of their own.

English insularity and patriotism drew them powerfully to the bosom of their own peculiar communion.
[Sidenote: Elizabeth's policy] Though we can now see that the forces drawing England to the Reformation were decisive, the policy of Elizabeth was at first cautious.