A settlement was brought about in Queen Elizabeth's reign, which satisfied all but the extreme men on either side. She was the more inclined to the Protestant cause inasmuch as she hated the Catholic King Philip of Spain, who called her 'the heretic queen', and whose spies were to be found all over England. When the struggle with Spain was near at hand, Protestants and Catholics forgot their quarrels in face of a common danger, and the queen had no more loyal subjects than the great Catholic families of Cheshire. Rowland Stanley, of Hooton-in-Wirral, gave a large sum of money for improving the defence of the sea-coast, for it was thought that Philip might land troops in Wirral. The Reformation was only part of a great awakening of peoples all over Western and Central Europe. Scholars studied and brought from Italy copies of the books of the ancient Greek and Roman writers. The invention of printing helped the spread of learning, and the Tudor monarchs encouraged the building of schools and colleges in order that all classes might have the benefit of a better education. Over the porch of the King's School, Chester, is a statue of King Henry the Eighth. He was the founder of the school, which for a long time was carried on in the ancient refectory of the abbey. Some of the wealth taken from the abbeys and monasteries was devoted to the foundation of schools. The Grammar School at Macclesfield was endowed in the reign of Edward the Sixth. At Bunbury, Thomas Aldersey, a haberdasher of London, founded a school, the chantry and college of Sir Hugh Calveley having been dissolved at the same time as the abbeys. Sir John Deane, son of Laurence Deane, of Davenham, gave some property which had been in the possession of monks for the building of a free Grammar School at Northwich, 'forasmuch as God's glory, His honour and the public weal is advanced and maintained by no means more than by virtuous education and bringing up of youth under such as be learned and virtuous school-masters.' 'God's glory' was indeed not the least of the things that Cheshire boys of the sixteenth century were taught to observe. In the statutes of the founder of Witton Grammar School it is laid down 'that the scholars shall thrice a day serve God within the school, rendering Him thanks for His goodness done to them, craving His special grace that they may profit in learning to His honour and glory'. In the reign of Henry the Eighth the voice of the people of Cheshire was heard for the first time in the Parliament of the English people at Westminster. Hitherto, the miniature Parliament of the Norman and royal Earls of Chester had been considered sufficient for them. Henry now summoned two knights of the county and two burgesses from the city of Chester to take their place side by side with the chosen representatives of the other English shires and boroughs in the national assembly. CHAPTER XXI ELIZABETHAN CHESHIRE. I