CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY UNDERGRADUATE LIBRARY V.1 ^'/iSj™™.!?,,."""^"*'' England, and Ame 3 1924 014 712 032 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924014712032 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA AN INTRODUCTION TO AMERICAN HISTORY BY DOUGLAS CAMPBELL, A.M., LL.B. MEMBER OP THE AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION THIRD EDITION, REVISED AND CORRECTED IN TWO VOLUMES YoL. L NEW YORK HAEPEE & BEOTHEES PUBLISHEES 1893 IT CONTENTS PAQB Little attention paid to foreign history when American history first written xxxix Results of modern investigation xl Early American history where Bancroft left it fifty years ago xli History of English Puritanism unintelligible as usually written, and why xli Neglect of the influence of the Netherland Republic .... xiiii When America settled, Holland, in general civilization, led the world by about two centuries xlv New England Puritans misrepresented in history xlvi Modes of meeting charges against them xlvii English, and not Puritan, defects of character exhibited in America xlix The whole truth regarding English civilization the vindi- cation of the New England Puritans 1 Scope of this work li INTRODUCTION THE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES Assumption of most writers that the people of the United States are an English race with English institutions. ... 1 Effects on American history 2 How this idea has been developed 3 Ignorance of Englishmen regarding America 5 For Americans no such excuse 6 American people always cosmopolitan. — Some of their leading men in colonial days 7 Middle colonies at time of Revolution. — Half of population not English 9 ^Leading institutions of United States not of English origin. 11 Influence of institutions upon national character 11 '•No State Church as in England. — Its importance there. . . 12 Its abolition in the United States 15 Principle of civil equality underlying American system. — Its . derivation 16 CONTENTS V PAOX The written Constitution of the United States and Eng- land's unwritten Constitution l7 The President, Senate, House of Representatives, and Su- preme Court. — Not English 19 How regarded by English statesmen 20 The state constitutions more important as showing the growth of American institutions 22 Their development and provisions 23 Distribution of land in England, and its effects. — Primo- geniture 25 Obstacles to its alienation. — No recording system 26 Enclosure of English common lands 27 England entering on an era of change 27 Distribution of land in the United States. — Its importance. 29 Popular education in America. — Its early date 30 Popular education in England. — Its recent date 32 Opposition of the governing classes 33 Public libraries in England and America 35 Free high schools and colleges 36 Defects ip English university education. — Why American students go to the Continent 38 Rapid progress of American colleges 41 »Local self-government. — The English system incomprehen- sible 42 The American system, township, county, and state 44 Importance of the townships. — The system not English. . . 45 Religious liberty in England and America. — Date of its introduction 47 Freedom of the press. — Date of its introduction 48 The written ballot. — Date of its introduction 51 English and American charitable institutions contrasted ... 54 Prison reforms. — Debt of England to America 55 America's reformatory institutions copied in Europe 57 ''America's legal system and its origin 59 Opposition of the colonists to English jurisprudence 61 Modern jurisprudence derived from the Roman law 63 vi CONTENTS The character of this law 64 Influence of ancient Kome on modern society 65 Rome when the civil law took its present form 68 American legal reforms copied by England 70 America's debt to England — language, literature, character, Yankeeisms, etc 72 rThe theory that the institutions of America were invented by the early settlers 74 America the old world 76 The institutions of America very old ; partly Roman, partly Germanic 77 The Netherlands preserved Roman institutions and Ger- manic ideas of freedom 78 The home of the English race and the instructors of England 79 Causes and eflEects of England's prejudice against the Dutch 79 Americans should not share it 82 Importance of Netherland history to the modern student . . 83 The Netherland Republic as contrasted with monarchical and aristocratic England in learning, art, and public morals. . 84 The English have never understood republicans in Holland or America 87 ^Puritanism and American institutions 88 CHAPTER I THE NETHERLANDS BEFORE THE WAR WITH SPAIN THE COUNTRY AND ITS PEOPLE, AGRICULTURE, MANUFACTURES, COM- MERCE, AND ART The Puritan of Holland 90 The country of the Netherlanders a conquest of man 92 The geographical factor in history. — England an illustration 95 Its importance in the Netherlands 96 Influence on the national character 98 The importance of the human factor 100 The early inhabitants of the Netherlands 101 Germans in the North, Celts in the South, the foremost of their races 101 CONTENTS Til PAGE Their characteristics 102 The Hollanders preserved their Germanic spirit 104 Connection with Kome and Italy. — Its influence 105 Contrast between England and the Continent 106 Italy never became barbarian. — The crusades and their results 108 Italians in the Netherlands 110 Development of agriculture. — The Netherlands become the instructors of Europe Ill England's backwardness 112 Development of manufactures and commerce. — They be- come the manufacturing centre of Europe 113 Originate woollen manufactures 114 Advance in the fourteenth century. — Wealth and luxury as compared with France and England 115 Outstrip Italy in the commercial race 117 Their architecture, ecclesiastical and secular 118 Their town-halls the delight of the artist 120 Private dwellings, their furniture, etc. — Comparison with England 120 Painting. — Founders of modern art. — Discover oil-painting 122 Originate portrait and landscape painting 124 Character of Netherland art. — " The beautiful the splendor of the true " 125 Foremost in the mechanical arts, jewelry, tapestry, etc. . . . 126 Wood-engraving their discovery 127 Printing from blocks 128 Printing from type its natural sequence 128 Music. — Furnished music and musicians to Europe for two centuries 129 CHAPTER n THE NETHERLANDS BEFORE THE WAR WITH SPAIN THE GUILDS, THE TOWKS, THE STATE, EDUCATION, KELIGION, AND MORALS Contrast between Puritanism in the Netherlands and in England, and causes of difference 131 viii CONTENTS PAGE Condition of the Netherlands at the abdication of Charles v., 1555 134 Seventeen separate states, each with its individual govern- ment. — Their population 135 Holland and the herring fishery 136 The towns of the Netherlands, a survival of Koman institu- tions. — Citadels of freedom 137 Bruges and its origin. — A modern town 139 The guilds, partly Koman and partly German 140 Their organization and government. — Minor republics. . . . 142 Spirit of equality iu guilds 144 Albert DUrer and the Painters' Guild of Antwerp 145 The Netherland towns, their charters and form of government 147 Antwerp a type of the larger towns 148 Town government in Holland 150 The rural districts. — Serfdom abolished. — Condition of the peasants 151 The organization of the State, and State government. — No taxation without consent 152 First meeting of the States-General, 1477 154 The Magna Charta of Holland. — Its provisions 155 Freedom of trade and commerce 156 Education. — Organization of the " Brethren of the Life in Common," 1400 158 Their numerous schools, and their influence on education. 159 Scholars in the Netherlands. — Erasmus, VesaliuS, St. Alde- gonde, etc 160 Phenomenal education of the masses 161 The Reformation in the Netherlands. — Heresy an old story 162 Early editions of the Bible in the common tongue. — More generally read than in any other country 163 The Reformation begins at the bottom among the common people. — Its exceptional character 164 Victims of the Inquisition greater in number than in all the rest of Europe 166 Protestant sects in the Netherlands. — Lutherans, Calvinists, and Anabaptists 167 CONTENTS ix Religion and morality not necessarily allied in Europe in the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries 168 This severance not confined to the Catholics 169 Holland a moral country, and so the bulwark of Protes- tantism 170 Private and public integrity 171 High position of her v^omen 172 CHAPTER III REVOLUTION IN THE NETHERLANDS (1555-1574) Why revolution did not come earlier. — Philip II. contrast- ed with his father, Charles V 1.73 Eleven years of misrule and Inquisition 174 Origin of the " Beggars," 1566 175 The Iconoclasts 176 Philip II. and his chief adviser, the Duke of Alva 177 Bright prospects for Spain a century before 178 How her liberty was destroyed 179 Disastrous effects of discovery of America on Spanish character 180 Ruin of national prosperity. — Military greatness 181 Alva a typical Spanish soldier of the time. — His arrival in the Netherlands, 1567 182 The Council of Blood 183 Exodus of Netherlanders to England 184 William of Orange 185 His undisciplined armies defeated by Alva 186 The " Beggars of the Sea." — Elizabeth's seizure of Philip's money 188 Alva's financial difficulties. — His proposed tax and its effects 189 Suspension of business, and Alva's plan for its renewal. . . 192 Capture of Brill by the " Beggars," 1 572 193 General uprising in the northern provinces 195 Reorganization of the government by a popular vote 197 Bright prospects for the future, 1572 198 France friendly — deliverance at hand 200 X CONTENTS FAOE Massacre of St. Bartholomew, its causes and disastrous re- sults in the Netherlands. — Elizabeth's connection with it 201 Cuts ofi all hopes of French assistance 203 Holland left to fight alone 203 Eeliance of William of Orange on Providence. — Basis of Puritanism 204 Position of Holland, and character of the war 206 The siege of Harlem, 1573 206 Its surrender. — Cold-blooded butchery of garrison and in- habitants. — Great loss of Spaniards 209 Spaniards repulsed from Alkmaar. — Refuse to assault the works. — The country flooded 211 Alva recalled to Spain. — His work a failure. — Succeeded by Requesens 212 Siege of Leyden begun, 1574. — Successes of the patriots. . 213 Rejection of proposed amnesty on condition of giving up the religious question 215 Leyden saved by cutting its dikes. — Heroism of the in- habitants 216 University of Leyden founded, 1675. — Marks an epoch in the history of education 217 Becomes the centre of the learning of Europe 218 Its famous scholars. — Honors accorded to them 219 Contributions of Holland to science 222 Invents the telescope, microscope, pendulum clock, etc. . . . 222 Tolerance of Leyden. — English Dissenters among its pupils 223 University of Franeker. — Instruction free as in Leyden. . . 224 Application of confiscated church property in the Nether- lands. — Contrast with England 225 Hospitals and soldiers' homes 226 CHAPTER IV REVOLUTION IN THE NETHERLANDS INDEPENDBNCE DECLABED — ASSASSINATION OP WILLIAM OF OEANGB — EBLIGIOUS TOLERATION ESTABLISHED, 1574-1S85 The perilous condition of Holland 228 CONTENTS xi PAGB Death of Requesens, 1576 229 Mutiny of Spanisli soldiers. — " The Spanish Fury." — They sack Antwerp and other towns 229 All the provinces unite to drive out the invaders 229 Arrival of Don John of Austria 230 His romantic scheme for the conquest of England 231 Assistance for the Netherlanders from England and France 231 Death of Don John 232 Arrival of the Prince of Parma, 1578, a soldier and a diplo- matist 233 He wins back the southern provinces. — The North stands firm 233 " The Union of Utrecht " the written constitution of the Netherland Republic, 1579 233 Declaration of Independence, 1581. — Its importance. — Cop- ied by England and America 234 The Duke of Anjou, brother of the French king, proclaimed sovereign 236 Wooing of Elizabeth by Anjou. — Its comical and serious features. 236 Anjou accepts the sovereignty of the Netherlands. — His inglorious career and death, 1584 238 Attempts of Philip to bribe William of Orange 240 His assassination, 1584. — The foremost Puritan of the age. 240 Results of his work. — Seven provinces redeemed 241 Difficulties of his task. — Comparison with Cromwell 242 Religious toleration established. — Its novelty in Europe . . . 243 William denounced at home, but he carries the day 244 He protects the Anabaptists, who first proclaim religious liberty and separation of Church from State 245 Their doctrines and their treatment in other countries. . . . 246 Origin of religious liberty in the United States. — Its debt to Holland 249 Virginia's Declaration of Rights, 1776 250 New York first establishes religious liberty by constitu- tional enactment 251 t Xii CONTENTS PASS Influence of Holland in religious matters on the general government of the United States 252 Eesults of the assassination of William of Orange. — The people have no thought of surrender 254 A republic forced upon the Netherlanders 266 They offer the sovereignty to France. — The " Holy League," formed against Henry of Navarre, prevents its acceptance 257 Spain marching on to universal dominion 259 Protestant England and her queen 260 Thus far Elizabeth had kept out of the religious war upon the Continent. — Her methods no longer practicable. . . . 261 CHAPTER V ENGLAND BEFORE ELIZABETH Obstacles to a correct view of the Elizabethan age in Eng- land 263 False glamour of the poet and novelist over an age very backward in many directions 263 Poetry not a fruit, but the flower, of civilization. — Homer and Dante 265 Shakespeare and Bacon produced by the same causes. . . . 266 Bacon not a learned man ; ignorant of science, Latin, etc. . 267 Little appreciation of Shakespeare in England until a re- cent date 268 The same true of Bacon as a scientist 269 History of England a peculiar one, marked by waves of progress, all due to foreign influences 271 Modern tendencies to exaggerate the Anglo-Saxon influence 273 High civilization under the Eomans 275 Its importance to the student of Continental history 276 Entirely obliterated by the Anglo-Saxons 277 The country becomes again a pagan barbaric land 278 The Anglo-Saxon barbarians. — "Battles of Kites and Crows" 279 The Anglo-Saxons deteriorate, lose their ideas of personal freedom. — The king, the serf, slavery 280 CONTENTS xiii PAGB Conversion of England. — Its character and results 282 The Danes and King Alfred 283 Results of six centuries of Anglo-Saxon rule. — English virtues 284 The Norman conquest the great event in English history. . 287 How the Normans obtained their civilization. — Connection with Rome and the East 287 Conquest of England. — Comparison of the Normans with the Saxons 289 They introduce the French language. — English disappears for nearly three hundred years 290 Build the cathedrals, found the universities 291 Study of the Roman civil law begun 292 Debt of England to the Jews. — They introduce the study of the physical sciences. — Roger Bacon 293 The Normans give England her institutions, good and bad, the feudal system, judiciary, trial by jury, etc 295 Magna Charta. — Its origin and character 296 Organization of the English Parliament 296 Expulsion of the Jews. — Introduction of the Netherland weavers 299 Final absorption of the Normans by the Anglo-Saxons. — Return of the English language. — England rapidly goes down 300 Chancer stands on the border line. — His song awakens no echo 300 The Hundred Years' War with France. — Disastrous results to England 301 Pestilence. — Abandonment of agriculture. — The sturdy beggars. — Restriction of the suffrage 303 Decline of learning. — Wyclif and the Lollards 304 The Wars of the Roses still more disastrous in their results 305 Despotism of the Tudors. — Civil liberty trodden underfoot. — Literature and learning almost dead , 307 The printing-press in England. — Its paltry results 308 The Oxford reformers and their small classical acquirements 309 XIV CONTENTS FACE Advanced scholars on the Continent 310 The Reformation and its evil effects under Henry VIII. . . 312 The movement almost entirely a secular one 313 Still worse under Edward VI 314 Proposition to demolish Westminster Abbey 315 Demoralization of all classes. — Public corruption. — Fraud in manufactures 316 Religious reaction under Bloody Mary. — Tale of the martyrs 317 When Elizabeth ascended the throne, the state of society the worst that had ever been known in the land 319 CHAPTER VI ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND PKITATB LIFE, EDUCATION, BELIGION, AND MORALS Changes in England during the last three centuries 320 At accession of Elizabeth little commerce, manufactures, or agriculture. — Largely a pastoral land 321 Revolution of industries produces great demoralization of society 321 Dwellings of the English 322 The Shakespeare house at Stratford 323 The first English theatres 324 Mansion-houses of the gentry 326 Chimneys very rare, also window-glass, beds, carpets, and chairs 326 Great improvements with increase of wealth under Eliza- beth 327 The castles of the Earl of Northumberland. — Their accom- modations 328 London and its houses 330 Rushes for carpeting. — ;The queen's palace 331 Forks unknown until 1611. — Table knives introduced, 1563 332 The Englishman's food 333 Prices of the time 333 Fondness for sweets 335 The dress of the Englishman. — Its peculiarities 336 CONTENTS XV FAGS Female attire. — Introduction from the Netherlands of starch- ing and linen underclothing 336 Keverence for the crown. — Its manifestations 337 Popular sports, bear and bull baiting 340 Education. — Exaggerated ideas from a few isolated cases. 341 Elizabeth and her acquirements 342 England far behind the Continent in the classics. — Mathe- matics and science reprobated. — Experience of Giordano Bruno 343 Reform of the calendar, 1582 345 Not adopted in England till 1762. — Opposition of the people 346 Peers of the realm could not read 348 Ignorance of the middle and lower classes. — Shakespeare's family 349 Retrogression since Norman times 350 Condition of religion 351 The clergymen 352 The bishops 353 Decline of morality. — Its causes 353 Foreign opinions of Englishmen 354 Elizabeth's untruthfulness, bad faith, dishonesty, and pro- fanity. — An example for her people 355 Immorality of her court. — Increases during her reign 357 Morals of the people at large 358 May-day and other festivals. — Their excesses 359 Evil influences of Italy and its literature 360 Earnest men in time will work a revolution 361 CHAPTER VII ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND PUBLIC LIFE — ADMINISTRATION OF JUSTICE — TRADE — TREATMENT OF IRELAND — PIRACY Character of men about the court 363 Corruption in State and Church 365 Administration of justice 366 XVi CONTENTS PAGE Every right trampled underfoot 367 Protest from the judges, 1592 368 Pardoning of criminals a regular business among tlie cour- tiers and maids of honor 369 Prevalence of crime. — Bands of robbers 370 Adulteration and fraud in manufactures 372 Gambling. — Its curious forms 373 Usury. — Lotteries. — Drinking 374 The English in Ireland. — Their objects 375 Opinion of Lord Burghley as to Irish rebellions 376 Attempt of Earl of Sussex to assassinate Shan O'Neil, 1561. 376 Second attempt with poison 377 Scheme of English worthies for plundering Ireland, 1569. 379 Massacres by Sir Humphrey Gilbert, etc 380 Earl of Essex's breach of hospitality and murder of two hundred Irish, 1573 380 His massacre of six hundred women and children at Rathlin 381 Sussex, Gilbert, and Essex in history 383 English piracy. — Its importance 384 Cabot's voyage. — No effects on English commerce, which was almost wholly in the hands of foreigners 385 Spanish and Portuguese commerce. — Its expansion 386 English shipping. — Its low condition 387 Lord Burghley's scheme for encouraging mariners. — " Pi- racy detestable and cannot last " 388 It does last, and builds up England's naval greatness 389 Its origin and character 389 Attempts of Spain to keep the peace 390 Englishmen plunder Catholics and Protestants alike 390 Piracy leads to the slave-trade of England 392 African slavery in America 393 Attempts of Spanish government to mitigate its evils 394 Voyages of John Hawkins. — The queen his partner 395 Disastrous termination of third voyage. — Fires English heart 397 Elizabeth seizes Philip's money. — Results of her action. . . 398 CONTENTS xvii PAGE Francis Drake leads a piratical expedition 401 Drake sails around the world, 1580 402 Distribution of his plunder. — Knighted for his piracy .... 403 Burghley, Sussex, and Walsingham refuse to share his spoils. — They desire open war with Spain, which Eliza- beth opposes 403 Drake a national hero 404 Growth of the spirit of patriotism. — Hatred of Spain .... 405 English Protestantism. — Influences at work 407 CHAPTER VIII ENGLISH PURITANISM THE JESUITS AND THE PURITANS, 1558-1585 Character of English Reformation 408 Compromise disliked by the earnest men of either party. . 409 Religious torpor in England 409 Apathy of English Catholics 410 A sudden awakening 411 Catholic reformers on the Continent produced by the Ref- ormation 411 The Jesuits, their origin and growth 412 Their missionary work 413 Reform the Catholic Church 414 Establish free schools 415 Become the educators and confessors of Catholic Europe.. 416 Not consistent with historic truth to conceal their virtues. 417 Check Protestantism. — Become the bulwark of papacy. . . 417 England a missionary field 418 EnglisTi missionaries educated at Douay and Rome 419 Their success in England 420 Jesuit mission, 1580. — Campian and Parsons 420 Revival of Catholicism, and its causes 421 The people open to conviction. — Proportion of Protestants to Catholics 423 Crushing out the Catholic revival. — Why it was possible . . 424 English Puritans. — Their place in history 425 B xviii CONTENTS PAGE Opinions of Hume, Hallam, and Macaulay 426 Novelty of Puritan principles in England 429 Growth of Puritanism unexplained by historians 429 Accession of Elizabeth 430 Uncertainty as to the religious future of the nation 431 Why Elizabeth proclaimed Protestantism 432 Action of her first Parliament. — It reconstructs the Eng- lish Church 433 Vast powers conferred on the queen 434 Return of the English Reformers from the Continent. — • Their experiences abroad 435 Inclined to Calvinism, and opposed to forms and cere- monies, and why 436 Their expectations for the future 437 CHAPTER IX ENGLISH PURITANISM QTTEBN ELIZABETH AND THE PURITANS, 1658-1585 Elizabeth's religious inclinations 438 Controversy in the Church over the question of ceremonials 439 Name of Puritan comes into existence, 1564 440 Persecution of the Puritans begun, 1565 441 John Foxe and his " Book of Martyrs." — Its great influence 442 Its author a Puritan. — His treatment 444 Persecution of Miles Coverdale, the translator of the Bible into English 445 Suppression of independent congregations, 1567 446 English statesmen opposed to persecuting the Puritans. . . 446 Motives of Elizabeth 447 Her scheme of reconciliation -with Rome. — The Puritans its greatest obstacle 449 Her communications to the Spanish ministers 450 She shields the Catholics 451 Corruption in the Church fostered by Elizabeth, and why. 453 Dishonesty of her bishops 454 CONTENTS XiX PAGE How the bishops obtained their offices 455 Elizabeth the great plunderer of the Church 456 Ignorance of the clergy 457 The Puritans favor education. — Discouraged by Elizabeth. 458 The Spanish advisers of Elizabeth warn her against the Puritans 460 Thomas Cartwright advocates Church reforms on Presbyte- rian lines, 1570 462 Denounces the system of appointing bishops. — The system still in use 463 Expelled from Oxford and flies to the Netherlands 465 Continued persecution of the Puritans 466 Attempt of the bishops to educate the clergy, 1571 467 Suppressed by Elizabeth 468 Anabaptists burned for heresy, 1575 469 Archbishop Grindal suspended for favoring preaching and the education of the clergy 470 Whitgift appointed archbishop, 1583. — His ignorance and narrow-mindedness 470 Elizabeth determines " to root out Puritanism " 471 Whitgift introduces a system which Burghley says is mod- elled after the Inquisition in Spain 47l Wholesale expulsion of Puritans 473 High Commission Court organized. — Its vast powers 474 The English Inquisition and its results 475 Protests from Privy Council, Catholic and Protestant, una- vailing i 476 Low state of clergy. — Morality of no account in compari- son with conformity 477 The Bishop of London will not remove a conforming cler- gyman " for the mere fact of adultery " 478 Early Puritanism dying out under continued persecution. . 480 PAGE SX CONTENTS CHAPTER X ENGLISH PURITANISM INFLTTEKCE FROM THE NETHERLANDS, 1568-1585 The influence of the Marian exiles does not explain the re- ligions history of England 481 Decline of Puritanism among the upper classes 483 Results of Elizabeth's persecution 484 How Puritanism came to dwell among the middle classes and the poor unexplained by historians 486 Early emigration from the Netherlands into England 487 The Lollards found where the Netherlanders had set- tled '. 488 Under the persecutions of Philip 11. the stream becomes a mighty river 488 Number of Netherland refugees in England, and places of their settlement 489 Beginning of the industrial history of modern England . . . 490 The refugees instruct the English in agriculture, manufact- ures, and commerce 491 Aid in making England Protestant and free 492 Greatest missionary work known to history. — Its peculiar advantages 493 The Netherland settlements the strongholds of English Puritanism 495 Influence in developing a love of civil liberty 495 The places of their settlement the recruiting ground of Cromwell's army, and the homes of the settlers of New England 497 More immediate influence on England , 500 Contest with Catholicism as a political power 501 The war in the Netherlands an object-lesson to England . . 501 Fifty thousand Netherland families proclaiming the atroci- ties of Catholic Spain 502 EfEect on England 502 CONTENTS XXi PAGIC Impressionable nature of the English people 503 English volunteers for the war in the Netherlands 504 Exhibition of ancestral courage 505 Catholic uprising in Ireland, 1580 507 Ferocity developed by the Irish wars 508 PEEFACE I HAVE attempted in the foUomng pages to trace the origin and development of Puritanism, the greatest moral and political force of modern times, with special reference to its influence on the people and institutions of the United States, my lines of investigation differing widely from those which have heretofore been followed by historians. How the work came to be undertaken is, of course, in itself a matter of no importance. And yet a public, well-nigh surfeited with books about the Puritans and the early settlers of America, may reason- ably call upon an author to give, at the outset, some good reason for asking a further share of its attention to an old and apparently threadbare subject. To such a very proper question this preface is intended as an answer. "When a law student, more than twenty-five years ago, I began collecting material for a history of the jurispru- dence of Colonial 'New York. The field was compar- atively unexplored, for, as I discovered, most persons supposed that little was left of the old records. Much to my surprise, I found in various quarters a great wealth of matter, and after some years began to arrange the results of my investigations. Then, finding how closely PREFACE political and legal questions were intertwined in this early history, I concluded to enlarge the scope of my work, so as to show the growth not only of the legal but of the constitutional system of the state. And here I met a series of surprises, for I encountered at every turn traces of institutions and ideas, generally supposed to have been derived from England, or at least to be of New England origin, but which clearly, so far as con- cerned New York, were derived from a different quar- ter. Here were free schools, the system of recording deeds and mortgages, lands held in common by the towns — all under the old Dutch rule ; here the doctrine was first laid down by a legislative assembly that the people are the source of political authority ; here were first established permanent religious freedom, the right of petition, and the freedom of the press. On the other hand, here were no executions of witches or Quakers, and no kidnapping and enslavement of the Indians. In comparing this record with that of New England, the points of contrast were no less remarkable than those of resemblance, while all the deductions from such a comparison were opposed to the ideas inculcated by our current histories. From their earliest school-days Amer- icans have been told that this nation is a transplanted England, and that we must look to the mother-land as tlie home of our institutions. But the men who found- ed New York were not Englishmen ; they were Holland- ers, Walloons, and Huguenots. The colony was under Dutch law for half a century ; its population was prob- ably not half English even at the time of the Eevolu- tion ; and yet here one finds some of the institutions PREFACE XXV which give America its distinctive character, while, what is more remarkable, no trace of many of these same institutions can be found in England. What was their origin became to me an interesting question. New York, which was first settled, certainly did not derive them from New England, and New England probably did not derive them from New York. Could there have been a common fountain which fed both these streams, the debt to which has never been acknowledged? Of course, the Netherland Republic must have been this fountain, if one existed ; but to prove its existence, and the mode in which its influence was exerted on New England, required an examination far outside the rec- ords of New York. Hence a new set of questions arose before me, relating to the character and environment of the men who set- tled America, especially the Pilgrims who lived so many years in Holland, and the Puritans who flocked there in thousands during the reigns of Elizabeth and the first two Stuarts ; what civilization they had as Englishmen, what they saw and learned among the Dutch, and what they carried back to England and across the Atlantic. The importance of the latter questions can be seen at once. If I was correct in my hypothesis as to the debt which America owes to Holland — a debt incurred not only through New York, but also through the Pilgrims and Puritans of New England, and, as I afterwards dis' covered, through the Quakers of Pennsylvania — then our American history would occupy a different position from that usually accorded to it. Instead of standing alone as a phenomenon, to be studied by itself, or as a XXVI PREFACE continuation of the record of Englishmen, to be studied on narrow insular lines, it would fill a much broader field, reaching back to Continental Europe, linking itself to the old civilization of the Eomans, and forming more distinctly a part of that modern history which has been said to begin with the call of Abraham. The pressure of professional labors prevented me for many years from devoting much time directly to thit branch of study, but it was largely the occupation ol my leisure. I was able to make two visits to Holland, and meanwhile a great mass of literature appeared throw- ing new light upon some of these questions. Finally, about six years ago, a permanent illness gave me an enforced rest, and I concluded to finish my history of New York. After reading over my old manuscript, I set out to write an extended introduction to the work, treating of the various settlers of America before they crossed the Atlantic, their civilization at home, the character of the institutions among which they were developed, and the connection of those institutions with the historic past. That introduction, as I ex- tended my investigations, has slowly grown into the present book. Its conclusions may seem novel to some readers ; but if true, they will stand despite their novelty. I have chosen as a title " The Puritan in Holland, England, and America," because the Puritan, who has done so much for the modern world, was not the prod- uct of any one race or country. He was born out of the uprising against the abuses of the Church of Rome. He came to maturity in upholding liberty against the as- PREFACE saults of kingly power. In him was represented the principle of religious and civil freedom.* ' I have used the word " Puritan " in this book, when applied to Englishmen (except when otherwise qualified), as it has been gener- ally used in history. It came into the language about 1564, shortly after Elizabeth ascended the throne. Fuller's " Church History," ix. 66. Its strict meaning changed from time to time, being some- times religious, with varying applications, and then again political, thus creating a confusion that has led to many historical blunders, but its popular signification has always been the same. See, for ex- ample, its employment by Shakespeare. Among the people of Eng- land at large the name came finally to be applied to all those who were religious and moral, and who, either by word or life, protested against the irreligion and immorality of the time. In Baxter's " Autobiography " we see illustrated the use of the word in the reign of Charles I. Baxter's family were called Puritans, although they were strict Conformists, or Episcopalians, because they never got drunk and went to church regularly. The people judged tliem rightly, for Baxter became a chaplain in Cromwell's army. Religion and morality revolted against authority as it was then represented by the Stuarts. Strictly speaking, as will be shown in its proper place, the name was confined to those Calvinistic members of the English Church who sought its reformation from within. These men formed the large majority of the settlers of New England. Those who left the church were called Brownists, Separatists, or Independents, and from them came the Pilgrim Fathers who settled Plymouth. The name Puritan, however, was not confined to Eng- land, nor have I given it any such narrow limitation. In 1587, Lord Buckhurst visited Holland as tlie representative of Queen Elizabeth. He reported of the people of the Provinces that they consisted " of divers parts and professions, as, namely, Protestants, Puritans, Ana- baptists, and Spanish hearts." Buckhurst to the Queen, May 37th, 1587; Motley's "United Netherlands," ii. 123. See also Motley's "Barneveld," ii. 119, 284, 285. PREFACJS The armed contest began in Holland, and lasted there for eighty years before it was transferred to England. In its early days, nearly a hundred thousand Nether- landers, driven from their homes by persecution, found an asylum on British soil. Throughout it was a Puri- tan warfare. The Earl of Leicester, sent by Elizabeth to aid the rebellious Netherlands, was politically in sym- pathy with the English Puritans. The grandfathers and fathers of thg men who fought with Cromwell at Naseby and Dunbar received their military training under "William of Orange and his son. Prince Maurice. Thousands upon thousands of them, during a period of some seventy years, served in the armies of the Dutch Eepublic. Many others, driven out of England by Eliz- abeth and her successors, settled in Holland, and a still larger number went there for business purposes, engag- ing in trade and manufactures, while keeping in close relations with their native land. Some of the refugees, after a residence of years among the Puritans of the Netherlands, emigrated to America ; others returned to England, and took up arms under the Long Parliament.* * Fairfax, Essex, Monk, Warwick, Bedford, Skippon, and many otliers — in fact, the men who organized the Parliamentary army — re- ceived their military training in the Low Countries. " The Figlit- ing Veres," by Clements Robert Markham, p. 456. Tlie famous Iron- sides of Cromwell were trained by Colonel Dalbier, a Hollander, and the same officer did a much more important work by giving Crom- well his first instruction in the military art, teaching him, as Carlyle says, "the mechanical part of soldiering." Carlyle's "Cromwell," i. 193 (ed. Wiley & Putnam, 1845). The first judge advocate of the Parliament's army was also a Hollander, Dr. Dorislaus. Idem, p. 231. PREFACE XXIX The Englishmen, very many thousands in number, who found a temporary home in Holland were the most active and enterprising of their race. They went from a monarchy, where the power of the crown over many questions of Church and State was unlimited, to a republic, where the people for centuries had been accus- tomed to self-rule. They went from a land where, from natural causes, material and intellectual progress had been much retarded to one which, in almost every de- partment of human endeavor, was then the instructor of the world. That they must have learned much, apart from the art of war, and that they must have communi- cated much to England, seems apparent at a glance to any one conversant with the situation. And yet we shall search through English histories in vain for any but the slightest allusions to the effects of this foreign influence. Important as this subject is to Englishmen who care for the truth of history, to Americans it is still more important. In England, after the restoration of the Stuarts, the influence of the Netherland Republic, great as it was for a time, seemed to be almost lost. It was not lost,_ in fact, any more than are those streams which suddenly disappear beneath the surface of the earth, only to break out in what appear new fountains farther on their course. In America, however, there was noth- ing to cause even such a temporary disappearance. The Pilgrims who settled Plymouth had lived twelve years in Holland. The Puritans who settled Massachusetts had all their lives been exposed to a Netherland influ- ence, and some of their leaders had also lived iii Hoi- XXX PREFACE land. Thomas Hooker, coming from Holland, gave life to Connecticut, which has been well called the typical American commonwealth. Eoger Williams, who found- ed Ehode Island, was so much of a Dutch scholar that he read Dutch books to the poet Milton. Penn, who founded Pennsylvania, was half a Dutchman. New York and New Jersey were settled by the Dutch West India Company. Here, then, we might expect to find traces of the influence of the great Netherland Eepub- lic even more marked than in the case of England. And how have the historians of America dealt with this subject ? Here is a country which was settled by men of diverse nationalities. It has always been cos- mopolitan. Its institutions differ radically from those of England. The modes of thought of its people are not English. The two countries are, in some respects, drawing together to-day, but this is simply because Eng- land is adopting ideas like our own, and coming tow- ards our republican institutions. Despite all these facts, known to every American, we are continually told that we are an English people, with English institutions ; and all American history has been written upon that theory. Scarcely an attempt is made to trace out the cause of the manifest differences between the two countries, by looking at the institutions and modes of thought of the other nations which influenced our early settlers, and contributed so largely to our population. Our descend- ants will probably view the result somewhat as we re- gard most of the classical histories of a century ago. Such is the mode in which American history has been written. Why it has been so written is an inter- PREFACE XXXI esting question, the answer to which is, however, very simple. In the first place, its authors have been almost exclu- sively Englishmen, or descendants of Englishmen, living in New England. Now the English have never been wanting in that appreciation of themselves which has characterized all the master races of the world.* This trait of character has played no small part in the devel- opment of their world-wide empire, the education which has taught them to believe in their natural superiority over men of other nations having largely aided to fit them for great actions. In addition, it has led to their recording every achievement of an Englishman, and thus to the completeness of their chronicles, and the unexampled mass of their literature relating to English- men and English actions. But with its advantages there are some corresponding disadvantages. One of their briUiant writers, who has lived for years upon the Continent, has well said, " The difficulty with which the English can be brought to respect the French can be partly explicable by their difficulty in respecting foreigners in general, unless they * The Venetian traveller -wlio wrote the " Relation of England," in 1500, nearly four centuries ago, says: "The English are great lovers of themselves and of everything belonging to them. They think that there are no other men than themselves, and no other ■world but England ; and whenever they see a handsome foreigner they say he looks like an Englishman, and it is a great pity he should not be an Englishman ; and whenever they partake of any delicacy with a foreigner they ask him whether such a thing is made in his country." Printed by the Camden Society. xxxii PREFACE have been dead for a long time, like Homer and Virgil, or are invested with a sacred character, like Moses and Isaiah." * No reader needs to be told that this attitude towards foreigners is not peculiar to Englishmen, even among modern nations, although, as exhibited by them, it may seem at times a trifle emphasized. Still, how- ever conducive to the greatness of a people, and whether found in Greece, Kome, France,, England, or America, it does not conduce to the writing of full and accurate his- tories, which must, of necessity, deal with the affairs of other nations. t * Pliilip Gilbert Hamerton, " French and English," Atlantic Monthly, July, 1886, p. 32. Lecky speaks of " that hatred of for- eigners so deeply rooted in the English mind, and which has played a part that can hardly be exaggerated in English history, " England in the Eighteenth Century," Amer. ed., pp. 1-19. See also opinion of the Due de Sully, in 1603, Motley's " United Netherlands," iv. 156. t How foreign history is generally regarded in England, even at the present day, is well illustrated by the interesting discussion which was carried on there during the winter of 1885 and 1886, over the question, •' What books shall we read ?" Sir John Lub- bock, the eminent naturalist, opened with a list of one hundred books; others followed, until most of the distinguished scholars of the kingdom had been heard from. The intention was to select one hundred works, the knowledge of which would make the best edu- cation for an Englishman. The range was wide; the various lists covered the poetry, science, philosophy, and general literature of all nations. No fault could be found with them on that score ; but it is very curious to see the way in which history was treated. Classical history — that is, the life and growth of dead nations — was fully rep- resented. The history of England also occupied a large space. But in all the lists only three allusions were made to the modern history of any people except the English. One authority recommended PREFACE Here, then, in the fact that American history has been written mainly by Englishmen, or by men of Eng- lish descent, and entirely from an English standpoint, we find one natural explanation of its incompleteness — an incompleteness found in the history of every nation, when the author is moved more by a patriotic desire to cast a halo around his ancestors than to arrive at the exact truth.* But, apart from aU this, there is some- thing more important and far-reaching which has affect- ed all the early writers about America who have shaped popular opinion. Comparatively few persons, perhaps, appreciate how recent a science is that of historical investigation. Less than a century and a half ago. Sir Robert Walpole, lying upon his death-bed, and requesting a friend to read to him, was asked to select the book. " Anything but his- tory," he answered : " that must be false." The dying statesman, who for more than twenty years, as Prime Minister of England, had been making history, knew Carlyle's works, which would include his " Frederick the Great " and "French Revolution;" and the head master at Eton recom- mended Thiers's " Consulate and Empire." See the lists, Westmin- ster Review, July, 1886, p. 99, "What and How to Read." * English writers are keen enough in the appreciation of this fail- ing in their American cousins. Sir Henry Maine, in his last work, speaks of " the nauseous grandiloquence of the American panegyr- ical historian," "Popular Government," p. 233. Doyle, in comment- ing on the writings of the early New England settlers, says : " We are reading not a history, but a hagiology."— " The English in Amer- ica. The Puritaus," by J. A. Doyle (the Longmans, Green, & Co., 1887), i. 4. G PREFACE full well whereof he spoke. His criticism was some- what novel then, but the period since its utterance has made the sneer a maxim. In his time, to the common mind all history was alike : the legends of Livy and the personal observations of Tacitus, the gossip of Suetonius and Caesar's story of his own. campaigns, all were equally true and equally sacred. To question them was well-nigh heresy. But to-day is the age of the iconoclasts. Under their blows our old idols are crumbling to powder. They dig up the musty records from which history has been made ; they search into the lives of the historians to find out what were their sources of information, and they seek further to find out why they wrote. True science is ex- act, for it is founded on laws which are immutable ; true poetry is immortal, for its breath is inspiration ; but his- tory is hke the work of the photographer, it depends for its accuracy upon the material, the workman, the focus, and the atmosphere. ITo wonder if the scholar rises from his task to say with "Walpole, as to much of it, that " it must be false." It was Voltaire, as Buckle has pointed out, who first brought secular history to the bar of human reason. By attacking the early fables of Greece and Eome he laid open the broad domains of the past to the fearless seekers after truth. What they have done as to the classics is known to every schoolboy. "We have seen a host of great scholars, led by the audacious Mebuhr, reconstructing Koman history; we have seen another army sifting the grains of truth from the fairy tales of the Greek historians ; while, almost to-day, an indefatigable explorer exhumes the walls of ancient Troy, and shows PKEFACE XXXV to the world that Homer was no writer of mere ro- mance. But it is not ancient history alone that our scholars are rearranging. Everywhere, in almost every land, they are delving among the records, getting at the truth of modern history. It is not easy to reahze how diffi- ' cult this task has been until a recent date. Every one has heard of the French chronicler who was charged with treason by Richelieu for having in his works told some distasteful truths about a king who, for two centuries, had slumbered in his grave. That, we say, was long ago. So were the actions of Louis XIV., who withdrew a pension from one historian for some imper- tinent remarks about taxation, kept F^nelon in banish- ment for a supposed criticism of his reign in the romance of " Telemachus," and threw another author into the Bastile for innocently revealing a state secret in a pan- egyric of himself. This was the custom of the age. Histories written under such auspices would hardly be entitled to much credit.* But when this danger passed away, and in the last century historians could, in some lands, venture to tell the truth, the question arose, how the truth could be obtained. History, says Carlyle, is " ever more or less the written epitomized synopsis of rumor." It will, of * Hallam very wisely remarks that the invention of printing was at first detrimental to historical accuracy. When men wrote books only for the use of themselves, their friends, or a limited circle of readers, they could tell what they understood to be the truth. When books came to be printed for general circulation, they could in most countries tell only what was agreeable to the authorities. rEEFACE course, as to many public events, be simply rumor run mad, unless corrected by official records, diplomatic correspondence, and other state papers which, until very recently, were regarded in all countries as the property of the monarch, and for reasons of state de- nied to the historian.* One can imagine the position of a writer who sat down to compose a work upon his own or any other country M'^hen such material was every- where kept a secret. The French Kevolution, and the ideas which followed in its train, first developed the modern theory that offi- cial documents are for the public good, and that as to past events the public will be best served by being told the truth. How much has been brought to light since the archives of some of the old monarchies have been unlocked is a familiar story even to those acquainted only with the works of our own Prescott and Motley, who led the van in this department of investigation. But while France, Spain, Holland, and other countries have been aiding the historian, conservative England has been one of the last powers in Europe to open its records to the public, and even now has not done so fully. How this has affected American history can be readily understood. In 1841, John Eomeyn Brodhead was sent to Eu- * This tlieory and practice still prevail at Rome. The pope has always been the depositary of valuable state secrets. It is well known that in the archives of the Vatican repose documents which would solve many historical problems of great interest. If they are ever thrown open to examination, numerous points in history will doubt- less have to be revised. PEEFACE xxxvii rope by the State of New York to procure copies of documents relating to its colonial history, from the public oflBces of England, France, and Holland. He went as an accredited agent from a friendly power, sup- ported by all the influence of the general government. It was known that the State Paper Office of England contained a mass of correspondence of the royal gov- ernors, minutes of the Board of Trade, and other docu- ments which would throw much light on early Ameri- can affairs. In Holland were supposed to be valuable papers relating to the Dutch period, and in France others connected with Canadian relations. Such proved to be the case, and in each of the latter countries the New York agent was treated with the greatest courtesy. He was allowed to examine all the colonial records, was aided in every manner, and furnished with copies of such documents as he selected. In England he met with a very different reception. Lord Palmerston replied to his application to look over the colonial records by saying that if he would desig- nate the particular paper which he wished to see, it would be officially examined, and then, if there were no objection, he could obtain a copy at the customary rates. As Mr. Brodhead knew nothing of the docu- ments, and wished to look them over to find out which were valuable, this proposition of the noble Secretary was a virtual denial of his request. Thus matters stood for about a year, when a new Liberal ministry came into power. Under its regulations he was at length per- mitted to examine the original records, and was fur- nished with copies of such as he selected, although xxxviii PREFACE annoyed by petty harassing restrictions, and charged exorbitant fees. There the theory still existed that such papers formed part of the monarch's private li- brary, access to which could be obtained only through royal favor.* Lest some uncharitable reader might suppose that this was exceptional treatment, extended to an Ameri- can by his English cousins on account of their near re- lationship, let me cite another example. In 1844, C. M. Davies, an Englishwoman, published the last volume of a valuable history of Holland. In preparing her work she desired to consult the correspondence of the Eng- lish ambassador at The Hague, from 1750 to 1780. This correspondence was kept in the same office with the papers relating to American affairs. The English- woman, less fortunate than the American, was not al- lowed to see the papers at all, and was compelled to send her book to press without their aid.f The mission of Mr. Brodhead to Europe accom- plished a great result. He brought back with him a large collection of documents relating to American his- tory, many of which never before had seen the light. Those in French and Dutch were translated, and in 1856 the whole were published by the State in ten large volumes, entitled " Documents Eelating to the Colonial History of New York." So far as public events are concerned, these are not rumors, but true material for * See report of Mr. Brodhead, "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York," vol. i. t Davies's " Holland," iii. 607. PREFACE history. Their importance can be appreciated when we think of the material used by most historians before they were given to the world. In 1836, James Grahame, a Scotchman, published his "History of the United States," a pioneer work in Great Britain, and one which has been looked upon Avith considerable favor in New England. The author tells in the Preface how his vol- umes were compiled. He evidently never visited Amer- ica, and never consulted an original document of any kind. He borrowed entirely from other books, mostly those published in New England ; and even for them he had to go to Gottingen, in Germany, on account of the deficiencies of the British libraries.* When Grahame wrote his book, very few persons in England or America knew or cared anything about foreign nations or their history. Davies's volumes on Holland had not appeared, and those of Motley were not yet thought of by their author. In France the documents were just coming to light which, within the past few years, have caused French early history to be rewritten, showing the character of the Huguenots who formed so large an element of our American popula- tion.f It was at this same period that Bancroft wrote his first three volumes, which deal with our colonial history down to 1748.:!: Composed under such condi- * See Preface, " Grahame's History of the United States," vol. i. t See Baird's " Rise of the Huguenots in France," vol. i. Int. p. 5. I Grahame's work was published in 1836 ; Bancroft's, vol. i. 1834 ; vol. ii. 1837 ; vol. iii. 1840. These closed the early period. Davies's " Holland," vol. i., appeared in 1841, the " New York Colonial Docu- Xl PREFACB tions, and from such material, one need not wonder at the character of our early American histories. Written only from an Enghsh standpoint, that of neglect of everything not Anglo-Saxon in its origin, they would naturally be incomplete ; but when we add the further fact that even the English material was largely inac- cessible to the historian, nothing in the result will cause surprise. In the half-century which has elapsed since the pub- lication of Bancroft's third volume, bringing American historj'^ down to 1748, great advances have been made in the science of historical investigation. In addition, numberless documents have been discovered, apart from those relating to New York, which illuminate the whole period of the settlement of America and the making of the republic. Motley, Froude, Eanke, Masson, Gardi- ner, and a host of others have not only thrown much new light on the condition of England in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but they have shown in various ways the close relations which existed between the English Puritans and their republican brethren in the ^Netherlands — relations which were little thought of fifty years ago. It would seem to be impossible for an unprejudiced reader even to glance over this mod- ern historical literature without at least surmising that ments" and Motley's "Dutch Republic" in 1856. Bancroft used many documents which he obtained for himself in Europe, but it never seemed to have occurred to him that the Netherland Repub- lic might have exercised an influence on the early settlers of New England. PEEPACE xli America, which differs so widely from the mother coun- try, might show rational and historical reasons for being different. And yet, with floods of light pouring in from every quarter, and while scholars are rewriting the his- tory of almost every country on the globe, so powerful has been the current of popular opinion that the story of early Colonial America, in this particular, stands to- day substantially where Bancroft left it fifty years ago. The attempt is still made by the great majority of writers to trace everything American to an English source ; and when that search proves fruitless, resort is had to the inventive genius of the inspired first settlers, and to that alone. But, as I have already suggested, it is not American history alone which has suffered from ignoring the ex- istence of the Netherland Eepublic, and its influence upon the modern world. Carlyle, in his Introduction to the " Letters and Speech- es of Cromwell," says : " One wishes there were a History of English Puritanism, the last of all our Heroisms ; but sees small prospect of such a thing at present. Few nobler Heroisms, at bottom perhaps no nobler Heroism ever transacted itself on this Earth ; and it lies as good as lost to us ; overwhelmed under such an avalanche of Human Stupidities as no Heroism before ever did. In- trinsically and extrinsically it may be considered inac- cessible to these generations. Intrinsically, the spiritual purport of it has become inconceivable, incredible to the modern mind. Extrinsically, the documents and records of it, scattered waste as a shoreless chaos, are not legi- ble. . . . The Kushworths, "Whitlockes, Nalsons, Thur- xlii PREFACE loes ; enormous folios, these and many others have been printed, and some of them again printed, but never yet edited— edited as you edit wagon-loads of broken bricks and dry mortar, simply by tumbling up the wagon." Many persons besides Carlyle have probably wished for a history of English Puritanism. But this Heroism, like that of the making of the United States, will re- main unexplained and unintelligible just so long as it is looked upon as a mere chapter of English history, and hot as an outcome or continuation of that great Continental movement, intellectual and spiritual, which, in the six- teenth century, revolutionized the world. Neither can be understood, unless we recognize the true intellectual, moral, and religious condition of the English people, out of which their Puritanism, with all its faults and virtues, was evolved, and appreciate the influence which must have been exerted upon such a people by the close prox- imity of a republic the leader of the world by at least a century in agriculture, commerce, and manufactures, and by more than two centuries in all ideas relating to civil and religious liberty. To the American this appreciation should not be a task of difficulty if he enters upon the subject with a mind free of prejudice. He has seen how, in his own time, the existence of the American Eepublic has affect- ed the people of Central and South America, and how its influence has been exerted even across the ocean upon the nations of Continental Europe. He, therefore, of all others, should be capable of understanding how the Dutch Eepublic must have affected those heroic men in England and America who, in their newly FREFACB xliii awakened intellectual life, were trying to break the shackles of civil and religious tyranny. "Writing the history of English Puritanism without any allusion to this influence is much like writing the early history of England without referring to the ideas- brought in by the I^orman conquerors, or a history .of the Renaissance in Italy without mentioning the influ- ence of the classic authors of Greece. But in the case of America and its Puritans even these comparisons are inadequate. Another illustration wiU, perhaps, be more apposite. Let the reader imagine that Japan, instead of send- ing a few score of students to the United States, had sent over many thousand families, and had kept five or six thousand soldiers in our army for some forty years ; and that during the same period a hundred thousand Americans had settled in Japan itself. Im- agine, further, that at the end of the forty years a num- ber of the Japanese settlers in America had started out to found a colony in some newly discovered land, and that there had been added to their ranks a large num- ber of Americans and some twenty thousand other Japanese, some of whom had lived in America, and most of the oth'ers going from sections in which Amer- icans had been living for many years. These colonists found a mighty state, whose people speak Japanese, but have almost no Japanese institutions, having established a republic, and copied their institutions mainly from the United States. The writer who after two centuries should sit down to compose a history of this new re- public, and, omitting all reference to the United States, Xliv PKEFACE credit these settlers with the invention of their un- Japanese institutions, would be simply following the example of the English, and most of the American, authors who have written of America and her institu- tions. The foregoing suggestions as to the influence of Hol- land upon England and America may appear strange to persons who have been accustomed to regard the Hol- landers as "stupid Dutchmen." Washington Irving burlesqued those who settled New York in a book which, although written in his boyish days, and in later years admitted by him to be a " coarse caricature," * fit- ted in with the English prejudice, and in some quarters has almost become accepted history. He depicted them as besotted with beer and narcotized by tobacco, ill- mannered, clownish, and objects only of ridicule. Many persons know nothing of them except from this travesty. "What a contrast is presented bj'^ the facts ! f * "Life of Irving," by his Nephew, i. 183. t In 1C68, Colonel Francis Lovelace wrote from New York, in a private letter to King Charles II.: "I find some of these people have the breeding of courts, and I cannot conceive how such is ac- quired." Lamb's "History of the City of New York," i. 243. This letter was written shortly after the province had passed from the dominion of the Dutch "West India Company, which had been its owners for half a century. The writer was an Englishman, the offi- cial representative of the Duke of York, the new proprietor. He had sailed up the Hudson to Esopus and Albany, remaining there a week ; had explored Long Island ; had been fBted in the infant capi- tal ; everywhere had seen the leading families ; and after this exami- nation wrote his letter to the king. He evidently had met different people from those bred in the fertile imagination of Irving. PHEFACB Xlv Motley, the historian of the Netherlanders, himself a New-Englander, says that they were "the most ener- getic and quick-witted people of the world." Guicoiar- dini, an Italian, who lived among them for forty years, said, in 1563, of their inventive faculty : " They have a special and happy talent for the ready invention of all sorts of machines, ingenious and suitable for facilitating, shortening, and despatching everything they do, even in the matter of cooking." Here is the Yankee of Europe. Taine, a Frenchman, fully acquainted with English in- stitutions, says : " At this moment, 1609, Holland, on the sea and in the world, is what England was in the time of ]S"apoleon. * * * Internally their government is as good as their external position is exalted. For the first time in the world, conscience is free and the rights of the citizens are respected. * * * In culture and instruction, as well as in the arts of organization and government, the Dutch are two centuries ahead of the rest of Europe."* It must now be remembered by the reader that when America was settled the Netherland Kepublic was a great power in Europe, with a population about as large as that of England, and one incomparably wealthier. When all this was unthought of, and when original documents were inaccessible, historians were hardly blameworthy who ignored the influence of Holland upon England and America. But now no such excuse exists. To history the words of Joubert are particularly applicable : " Ignorance, which in matters of morals ex- * "Art in the Netherlands," Durand's translation, pp. 166, 169, 171. xlvi PREFACE tenuates the crime, is itself in matters of literature a crime of the first order." Of this there can be no ques- tion when a writer has the material for obtaining a knowledge of the truth. Of course, if he has the knowledge and conceals it, he is outside the literary pale. So much for the Dutch Puritans, and for the mode in which the historians of England and America have dealt with them. But their New England brethren have, in some respects, been equally unfortunate ; not that they have been overlooked, but by some persons wofully mis- understood, if not wilfully misrepresented. A leading literary journal of England, not many years ago, contained the following estimate of their character : " The savage brutality of the American Puritans, truth- fully told, would afford one of the most significant and profitable lessons that history could teach. Champions of liberty, but merciless and unprincipled tyrants ; fugi- tives from persecution, but the most senseless and reck- less of persecutors; claimants of an enlightened religion, but the last upholders of the cruel and ignorant creed of the witch doctors ; whining over the ferocity of the In- dian, yet outdoing that ferocity a hundredfold ; com- plaining of his treachery, yet, as their descendants have been to this day, treacherous, with a deliberate indiffer- ence to plighted faith such as the Indians have seldom shown — the ancestors of the heroes of the Revolutionary and of the Civil War might be held up as examples of the power of a Calvinistic religion and a bigoted repub- licanism to demoralize fair average specimens of a race which, under better influences, has shown itself the least PKEFACB Xlvii cruel, least treacherous, least tyrannical of the master races of the world." * This is a strong indictment drawn hy our British cousins, whose opinions some of us are accustomed to hold in high respect when other people feel their lash. But whatever its source, it, without question, only slightly exaggerates the estimate of the ISTew England Puritans held by a large number of persons, both in Europe and in the United States. Whether this esti- mate is correct or not is a question forced on every one who cares for the truth of history; and from some points of view the question is to-day of practical im- portance. One mode of meeting such charges is to deny, con- ceal, or gloss over the facts. How this is done can be seen by consulting some of the histories of New Eng- land, where many of the acts of intolerance and cruelty of the early Puritans are concealed, and others are soft- ened down to a few trifling peccadillos.f Of course, when the writer of such books is confronted with the records, he has no refuge except in silence. This will not answer. We cannot, by closing our eyes, seal the records to the world. The story which they tell is very dark, especially as to the Quakers and the Indians. It is almost pitiable to see the attempt at its emasculation by writers who, while trying to praise, seem to feel * The Saturday Sevim, Jan. 29th, 1881. t All the histories are not, however, of this character. That of Hildreth is a notable exception, but it is little read. So, also, is "The Emancipation of Massachusetts," by Brooks Adams. Xlviii PREFACE ashamed of their ancestors. I have sometimes tried to imagine to myself the effect produced among their de- scendants if these same ancestors could for a brief time return to earth, and be invested with their old authori- ty. Think of them reading our histories, or at a New England dinner listening to speeches which ascribe tc them the virtues which they abhorred, at a sacrifice of those which they held in special honor. Kude and un- civilized enough they were in many things, but they trained up their children to tell the truth and respect their parents. Such a mode of dealing with the question is not good for the living, nor just to the dead. The truth is al- ways best. In this case it will vindicate Puritanism if the whole of it is told. The essence of the charge made by the Saturday Re- view— SinA. this publication, always unfriendly to every- thing American, is quoted simply because it is the rep- resentative of a large class of critics — ^is that Puritanism was responsible for the actions of some of the New Eng- land settlers ; that is to say, they were intolerant and sometimes cruel, because they were Oalvinists in religion and republicans in politics. But investigation will show that in this, the vital, the enduring question-of the con- troversy, the facts of history do not bear out the charge. In support of this position, there are two entirely distinct lines of argument, each of itself conclusive. The first deals with the Puritans of Holland. They were, like their New England brethren, Oalvinists and republicans. They sealed their devotion to the faith by carrying through a war unparalleled in the history of PRBPACE Xlix arms, and founding a republic which endured for over two centuries. No one who knows their history can tjuestion their zeal as Calvinists or their love of liberty as men; but neither at home nor in America do we find them, with their long training in self-government, exhibiting the traits of character which are charged to Puritanism in New England. This alone ought to set- tle the question forever. It shows that, whatever else may have been the cause, the faults of our New Eng- land ancestors are not chargeable to their theological tenets or their love for republican institutions. The second line of argument is broader in its scope. Admitting all that can be said in truth about the New England Puritans, yet it can be shown from the rec- ords of England that their actions were simply those of the Anglo-Saxon race ; that, on the whole, its Amer- ican representatives were' far in advance of the men who remained at home, and much earlier freed them- selves from superstition and intolerance. In other words, that it was not the Puritan, but the Englishman, who perpetrated the offences against humanity which want of knowledge charges to popular government and a Calvinistic faith. Thanks to the progress made in historical investiga- tion during the past quarter of a century, the proofs for the estabhshment of this position are overwhelmingly abundant. They will not be found in the ordinary school histories, nor collected in any English book. Still the records are there, and they are supplemented by the observations of keen-eyed foreigners from all quarters, whose notes and comments have been brought to hght D 1 PEEFACE in the last few years. In the general rewriting of Eu- ropean history, now in progress, founded not only on new material, but on new modes of investigation, some chapters in that of England will have to be revised, at least for the American reader. Enough, however, has been already done to dispose of the illusion of the " good old times " when the Puritan came into exist- ence. The brilliant fictions woven by the poet and the noyelist about the Elizabethan age may make the next period of stern reality, in which the Puritan came into authority, seem harsh and forbidding; but when the light of truth is turned upon those early days, and we see them as they appeared to men living at that time, we shall begin to understand what the modern world owes to English Puritanism, with all its excesses and shortcomings. It is in this mode of treatment, not by concealing their faults, but by telling the whole truth, and compar- ing them with their countrymen at home, who had not even the excuse of their intense convictions, that we should seek the vindication of the New England Puri- tans. Were they alive, they would approve of this course themselves. They asked for no false reputations when on earth. They were great enough, and have done enough for humanity, to stand forth and, like Cromwell, be painted without the concealment of a de- fect or the exaggeration of a virtue. In some direc- tions they had not travelled very far. They had but faint ideas of civil or rehgious liberty, as we understand them after two centuries and a half of substantial self- government, or even as they were understood among PREFACE the republicans of Holland, who had long before started on the journey. But we should remember that men must first get liberty for themselves before they think of it for others. The homeless man has little scope for hospitality. Broad conceptions of liberty come very slowly to maturity. These settlers sprang from a race which for generations had lived under the despotism of the Tudors and the Stuarts. Their first idea was to build a home for their own shelter, and to secure the rights whose value they had only begun to realize. While this work was going on there would naturally, save in rare and exceptional natures, be but little thought of others; but when self - protection was as- sured, when his own home was finished, the Puritan never sat down to selfish ease, regardless of the hun- gry and the houseless. This work I have intended mainly as an introduction to American history, although it may also serve in some measure as an introduction to modern English history, in which Puritanism has played a leading part. My principal design has been to show the nature of the influences which shaped the character of the people of Holland and England when the early settlers of Amer- ica left their homes, to trace the origin of the ideas and institutions which these settlers brought with them across the ocean, and to explain the mode in which they have worked into our present constitutional sys- tem. In following oat this scheme, an introductory chapter points out the present differences between England and the United States — differences of the most marked char- PREFACE acter, extending to a wide range of subjects of great im- portance. The subsequent chapters relate to the history of Holland and England, their comparative civilization when America was settled, the institutions which each country had developed, the growth of their Puritanism, and the influence exerted upon England and America by the Dutch Kepublic. In the chapters relating to England an attempt is also made, while tracing the de- velopment of Puritanism in that country, to show the origin of its peculiarities which have excited so much ad- verse criticism. These peculiarities are shown, in the light of modern research, to be due simply to the con- ditions under which it was developed among the Eng- lish people. In the discussion of this subject, as I can foresee, the inherited illusions of some of my readers may be unpleasantly disturbed, although it is difficult for me personally to understand a reluctance to know- ing the truth about one's ancestors. This perhaps arises from the fact that, while some of mine were among the Pilgrim Fathers, others came from a race the recent savagery of which is admitted with perfect frankness by all English writers. But New-Englanders, like Scotch- men, and like their English brethren, may take such pride in what their countrymen have accomplished since the days of the Stuarts that they can afford to do away with fiction. Knowing the truth, one can judge whether the world has retrograded or advanced with the develop- ment of liberal institutions, and perhaps can draw some useful lessons for the future. It does not fall within the scope of the present work to follow the settlers of America into their new home, PEEFACK liii except so far as to describe some of their leading insti- tutions, and to show how the much-criticised treatment of the Baptists, the Quakers, and the witches by the Puritans of New England compared with that to which the same classes were subjected in the mother country. Hereafter, if the patience of the public be not exhausted, I may attempt to show what was accomplished directly for America by the men from republican Holland who settled the colony of New York. In now closing this somewhat extended preface, a few words must be added in acknowledgment of the assist- ance which has been rendered me by others. In the first place, to my many friends of the Century Club of New York, where a considerable part of my investigations have been carried on, my thanks are due for suggestions, references to books, and information on special subjects, which have all been of the greatest value. Apart from these general contributions, I am in this country chiefly indebted to the Kev. Dr. Charles A. Briggs, of the Union Theological Seminary, New York ; Prof. C. C. Langdell, of the Harvard Law School ; Prof. A. M. Wheeler, of Yale CoUege; Mr. and Mrs. William C. Brownell, of New York — aU. of whom have read parts of my manuscript — and to the Eev. Henry U. Swinnerton, of Cherry Yalley, who has read the whole ; the latter four making many valuable sugges- tions. None of these scholars are responsible for the defects of my book or for any of my conclusions; but for their scholarly offices so generously extended I de- sire to express my grateful acknowledgments. In another quarter my obligations are of a different liv PREFACE character. Since illness has interrupted my personal investigations in Holland, I have been compelled to do this work from across an ocean, relying entirely on foreign aid. This, however, has been so lavishly extend- ed that probably I should have accomplished nothing more, perhaps even less, in attempting to carry on my further researches in person, unless I had settled down in the country for a residence of years. For this aid my thanks are in the first place due to my old class- mate of thirty-one years ago at Union College, the Hon. Samuel K. Thayer, now the United States Minister at The Hague. Not only have he and his efficient private secretaries furnished me with copies of many valuable documents from the archives of the Netherlands which I felt confident existed there, and which never before had been given to the American public, but he has en- listed in my behalf some of the most distinguished scholars of the country. These scholars, who have a microscopic acquaintance with the history of their own land which every student may well envy, have rendered me invaluable assistance in the solution of problems connected with their ancient republican institutions, some of which have disappeared in modern days. How much I am indebted to them only the historical investigator can appreciate who knows what it is to hunt for days or weeks through musty records or worm-eaten volumes often for a single fact. The kindness extended to me has not been ex- ceptional, for the scholars of the Netherlands are world- famous for the liberality with which they impart their knowledge — a liberality of which every American who PREFACE Iv has ever applied to them has had ample proof. Still, I appreciate it none the less. "When I owe a debt to so many, it may perhaps seem invidious to make any dis- tinction ; yet it is but fair to say that my chief acknowl- edgments are due to the late Dr. M. F. A. G. Campbell, Librarian of the Royal Library at The Hague ; Dr. P. J. Blok, Professor of History at the University of Gron- ingen; and Dr. F. G. Slothouwer, Professor of History at the Latin School of Leeuwarden, in Friesland. January, 1892. NOTE TO SECOND EDITION. A new edition of this work having been called for, the author has made a few small changes in the original text, which have been kindly suggested by Mr. Justin Winsor, Librarian of Harvard University ; Mr. Andrew S. Draper, late Superintendent of Public Instruction in New York; Mr. S. E. Van Campen, an American scholar, resident in London, engaged in Dutch researches ; and Mr. Burton N. Harrison, of New York. Cherry Valley, N. Y., August, 1892. NOTE TO THIED EDITION. For this edition I have made a few slight changes, most of which have been suggested by kindly critics in this country and in Europe, to all of whom I desire to express my thanks. The corrections are mainly of a slight order, not affecting the general argument of the book. Cherkt Valley, N. Y., Dec. 7th, 1893. THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA INTRODUCTION THE PEOPLE AND INSTITUTIONS OF THE UNITED STATES Most American authors, and all Englishmen who have written of America, set out with the theory that the people of the United States are an English race, and that their institutions, when not original, are derived from England. These assumptions underlie all Ameri- can histories, and they have come to be so generally accepted that to question them seems almost to savor of temerity. Perhaps, however, the temerity is only in the seeming. Hans Christian Andersen, in one of his charming tales, describes a royal court all of whose members believed that the emperor was arrayed in price- less garments from a magic loom, until he showed him- self unclothed in the public street, and a little urchin blabbed the truth. Then every one perceived that the magic garments had no existence except in their imag- inations. And so, when men and nations reach the stage in their development where they use their own eyes instead of echoing the thoughts of others, popular delusions often vanish before a breath. I.—] 3 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA In history this process is rapidly going on. The dis- covery of new facts from year to year shatters the idols of centuries, rehabilitates injured reputations, and throws light on disputed or obscure questions ; but, what is of greater importance, the people of this generation are getting out of leading-strings, are seeing with their own eyes, and thinking for themselves. Thus subjecting even old facts to an original examination, regardless of prej- udice and untrammelled by convention, the history of all countries is assuming a new form. "Brains," says Ma- chiavelli, "are of three generations — -those that under- stand for themselves, those that understand when another shows them, and those that understand neither of them- selves nor by the showing of another." The last, of course, are always hopeless, but the first class is rapidly increasing. To its members the history of America looked at only as an offshoot from England must al- ways seem incomplete and full of contradictions. To reconcile these apparent contradictions, fill out the rec- ord, and show the growth of the republic as a consistent whole, two facts should be given their proper place — that the population of America has always been largely cos- mopolitan, and that its institutions have been gathered from many quarters of the globe. Of course, if these propositions are correct, we must change the point of view to which we have been accus- tomed in the study of our early history. If it is true that our people and institutions come largely fro'm other lands than England, it is important to see how these foreign races developed in their homes, and of still greater moment to learn the history, character, and workings of the institutions which are un-English in their origin. This is the only philosophic mode of treating history, and it is the only way in which it can be made of value. WHY AMERICANS ARE REGARDED AS AN ENGLISH RACE 3 To begin with the settlement of Jamestown, or the land- ing of the Mayflower, is well enough if America is simply England transplanted across the sea. But if America is much more than a transplanted England, the case is very different. Then the neglect of the other nations which have contributed to its population and institutions leads to a I'esult like that of writing a biography without referring to the subject's ancestors or describing his youth and education. How the idea that the Americans are purely an Eng- lish race has been developed is apparent at a glance. Englishmen, when in good humor, or " afraid we may do them a mischief," as Lowell says,* call us their kin across sea, American cousins, or children of the mother country, although always expressing surprise that the offspring bears so little resemblance to its fond parent.f On the other hand, Americans have done their part. Until a recent date, many of our writers seemed to think that England held the only stamp for literary as well as social reputation ; and perhaps even now society has not a monopoly of the class whose members feel flat- tered at being mistaken for second-rate Englishmen. The mass of the people, however, have no such feeling. Independence has come, or at least is speedily coming, in thought as well as in political relations. This the future historian will notice as one of the most important results flowing from the great civil war, which first gave Americans assurance of the strength of the republic. Looking back, after the lapse of centuries, we see the * " Among My Books," p. 239. t " The American Philistine, however, is certainly fur more different from his English brothers than I had before supposed." — Matthew Ar- nold, after his first visit to America. Nineteenth Centvry, Feb., 1885. 4 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA effects produced upon Greece by the defeat of the Per- sian invaders, upon England by the annihilation of the Spanish Armada, and upon Holland by the victory over Spain. The results in America of a gigantic struggle for national existence, carried to a successful termination, will be no less far-reaching. "We see them already in the marvellous development of the Industrial pursuits of the country, in literature, science, and art ; and they will be still more marked in time. Not the least important, however — for it is connected with all the others — is the change of feeling in America regarding our relations to other countries, and especially to Great Britain. A few years ago, although we professed to care noth- ing for foreign opinion, the author of an American book waited with bated breath until he heard what the Eng- lish critics had to say about it, and our grandiloquent orators and editors never felt happy unless the traveller whom they patronized praised our "glorious institu- tions." * But to-day our American authors, artists, archi- tects, scholars, and men of science no longer need to look abroad to secure a reputation. As for our institutions, they have stood the crucial test of war. It is to be hoped that we shall never undervalue their earnest crit- icism from any quarter, but the American has the feel- ing that in some respects he understands their nature better than a foreigner. Our revolution gave us pohtical independence ; perhaps our civil war was needed to give * It was this feeling which led to the bitter resentment of the criticisms published by writers like Mrs. Trollope and Charles Dick- ens. Many of our people felt like lynching Mr. Dickens for his early remarks about America ; but a recent English traveller, Sir Lepel Griffin, has said things much more severe. Yet of him few Americans have even heard, and those who have read bis book merely smile and think him entitled to his opinions. BNGLISn IQNOKANCE OF AMERICA 5 US intellectual independence as well. One thing is very clear : The time has passed for conjuring with the wand of British authority. America is no longer on her knees ; she has risen, and begins to look around her. No wonder if she should now call in question some of the traditions about her pedigree. For the average Englishman who thinks of the Amer- icans as a pure Enghsh race there is great excuse. Of their country, until within the past few years, he knew comparatively nothing, except that the English language was spoken here, and that at one time some of the states were British colonies.* But with Americans the case is * One notable exception should be made, however, in this connec- tion. In a speech delivered in London on April 38th, 1887, Mr. Glad- stone said : " The institutions and progress of the United States have always been subjects of great interest to me, ever since, many years ago, I studied the life of Washington. I became then aware, first, of the magnitude of the destiny reserved for Americans, and, second, of the fact that the period of the birth of the American States was of more interest than any other it was possible to study. Whenever a youth, desirous of studying political life, consults me respecting a course of study in the field of history, I always refer him to the early history of America." — iV. 7. Tribune, April 37th, 1887. In a speech delivered at Cliester, Oct. 36th, 1889, Mr. Gladstone urged the workingmen of England to study the history of the American Revo- lution. The system of government in America, he said, combined that love of freedom, respect for law, and desire for order which formed the surest elements of national excellence and greatness. It was no extravagance to say tliat, although there were only three mill- ion people in the thirteen states at the time of the Revolution, the group of statesmen that proceeded from them were a match for any in the whole histoiy of the world, and were superior to those of any other one epoch. —N. T. Tribune, Oct. 37th, 1889. Again, Mr. Glad- stone said, a little later : " I incline to think that the future of Amer- ica is of* greater importance to Christendom at large than that of any other country." — Sforih American Beview,Dec., 1889. 6 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA quite different. Many of them have visited Upper Can- ada and JS'ova Scotia, which are settled by a race almost wholly British in its origin. No one can see these Cana- dians without being struck at once with the contrasts between them and the men he meets at home.* Still more of our people have within the past few years travelled in England. Certainly no intelligent Ameri- can can remain there long, talk with peasant, farmer, and country squire, listen to the conversation in cars, hotels, and shops, experiment with a humorous story on a party of Englishmen, go beneath the mere surface of dress and language, and study the people as he does those of the Continent, and then believe that we are of the same race, except as members of the same Aryan di- vision of the human family, with the same human nature. Identity of language is a great bond of union, and so is community of literature. But these, and especially the latter, may induce very erroneous conclusions when we come to deal with historical questions. Accustomed to read few modern foreign books except those written by English authors, it was very natural for our fathers to think only of their English blood. They found in the pages of the poet and the novelist of England their own natures depicted, and thence, perhaps hastily, concluded that they were one people with the writers. The fact is that human nature is essentially the same all the world over. We are not Hebrews because the Proverbs of Solomon are so applicable to us, nor French nor Ger- man, because Montaigne and Goethe tell us how we feel and think. The present generation is reading a host of books written bj^ foreigners, French, German, and Eus- * So the people of Australia are purely English in manner, modes of thought, etc. See Fronde's " Oceana." DIVERSITY OF RACE IN TUB UNITED STATES 7 sian, but everywhere we see a picture of the same human nature, if the books are true to life. Let us now glance at some of the facts, remembering that there were twelve states in the original Union, ex- clusive of Massachusetts, the maker of our histories and school-books. In 1Y59, the Eev. Mr. Burnaby, an Eng- lishman, visited America. Of the Northern colonies in general, he said that they " are composed of people of different religions and different languages." * In Penn- sylvania he found the most enterprising people of the continent. These, he noticed, consisted of several na- tions, who spoke several languages — " they are aliens in some respects to Great Britain." f In New York City he found that half of the inhabitants were Dutch ; of the population in general he remarked : " Being of dif- ferent nations, different languages, and different relig- ions, it is impossible to give them any precise or defi- nite character." A century before, a traveller reported that eighteen languages were spoken on Manhattan Isl- and. This was probably an exaggeration, but it had a broad basis of truth. How great was this original di- versity of origin is shown in the fact first pointed out by Governor Horatio Seymour : " Nine men prominent in the early history of New York and of the Union rep- resent the same number of nationalities. Schuyler was of Holland, Herkimer of German, Jay of French, Liv- ingston of Scotch, Clinton of Irish, Morris of Welsh, and Hoffman of Swedish descent. Hamilton was born in one of the English "West India islands, and Baron Steuben, who became a citizen of New York after the Eevolutionary War, was a Prussian." X * " Bumaby's Travels," p. 301. t Idem, p. 109. J " History and Topography of New York : a Lecture," by Horatio Seymour. 8 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA - No one acquainted with the barest outlines of Amer- ican history needs to be told about these men. Hamil- ton organized the government of the United States. He was the head of the Federalist party, and many per- sons think the greatest statesman that America has ever known. His influence on American thought and institutions was only equalled by that of Jefferson, who was the representative of Democracy almost pure and simple. These two men, more than all others, shaped the future of the United States; and yet the one, although a New-Yorker by adoption, was born of a Scotch father and a French mother, and the other, who was probably of Welsh and Scotch extraction, was French in all his feelings, having no English ideas.* Jefferson said, " Every man has two countries, his own and France ;" and it was from the writers of France that he drew the principles on which his political the- ories were based.f Of the other New-Yorkers un-English in their extrac- tion. Jay was the first Chief Justice of the United States, Clinton was the great Northern founder of the Anti- * Like most of the Eevolutionary statesmen of Virginia, Jefferson came from what Lincoln has called the " plain people," and little is known with certainty about his pedigree. There is no proof, how- ever, tliat he was of English descent, and the family traditions are that his paternal ancestor came from Wales. In many of his char- acteristics he was certainly more of a Celt than an Anglo-Saxon. His mother was a Randolpli, of a family claiming to be descended from the Scotch Earls of Murray. Parton's " Life of Jefferson ;" Randall's " Life of Jefferson," i. 6, 7. t In view of these facts, one perhaps can understand why it was that, while Englishmen knew nothing of America, the first foreigner to attempt a criticism of its institutions was the Frenchman De Tocqueville. DIVERSITY OF KACE IN THE UNITED STATES 9 Federalist (now the Democratic) party ; while the Mor- rises and Livingstons played leading parts in American affairs. These were the men who framed the Constitu- tion of 'New York, declared by John Adams to be excel- lent over all others. It is their state which first intro- duced the legal reforms which have revolutionized the procedure and methods of jurisprudence of America and England. But it was not New York alone that was affected by this intermixture of blood. Pennsylvania, which contributed largely to American institutions, Delaware, and New Jersey were settled by men of diverse nationalities, so that at the outbreak of the Kevolution probably only a minority of their inhabitants were of English origin.* In addition, all through the other colonies were scat- tered large numbers of Scotch-Irish, French Huguenots, Germans, Irish, Scotch, Welsh, and Swedes, counted as English, but essentially modifying the mass of the popu- lation and the national type.f English travellers constantly express surprise that the English race in America, as they are pleased to caU us, should be so different from the same race at home. Here * " Life of GouverDeur Morris," by Theodore Roosevelt, p. 11. t Only the most careful study will enable one to approximate to any correct figures on this subject. In regard to the Huguenots, the work has been begun in an admirable history by Baird of the " Huguenot Emigration to America," which unfortunately death has interrupted. The results of similar investigations as to other nation- alities would probably surprise the public. Especially is this the case as to the Scotch-Irish, whose history in America has never been attempted. In the last chapter of this work I shall have something to say about these men, showing what multitudes of them flocked through Pennsylvania and the Southern colonies before the Eevo- lution, and what an important influence they exerted upon the fort- unes of their adopted country. 10 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA in America the people, looking at political and social questions, " see straight and think clear," according to Matthew Arnold, while on the other side of the Atlantic, as he says, they certainly do not. This surprise will re- main just so long as the delusion exists that the Amer- icans are of pure English descent, and the influence of other nations upon them continues to be overlooked. Let any reader apply the test, and inquire among his acquaintances. He will probably find very few who, being able to trace their ancestry back on its different sides for several generations, are of unmixed stock. English blood most of them will have, and they ought to prize it for its pluck and sturdy manliness ; but cross- ing this will be found, in almost every case, the blood of other nations with qualities that the English have never had.* * A great modern thinker thus expresses his opinion as to the ultimate effect upon America of tliis intermingling of nationalities, now going on more rapidly than ever : " From biological truths it may be inferred that the eventual mixture of the allied varieties of the Aryan race forming the population will produce a finer type of man than has hitherto existed, and a type of man more plastic, more adaptable, more capable of undergoing the modifications needed for complete social life. I think that wliatever difliculties they may have to surmount, and whatever tribulations they may have to pass through, the Americans may reasonably look forward to a time ■when they will have produced a civilization grander than any the world has known." — " Herbert Spencer in America," p. 19. I trust that I may be pardoned for saying here, once for all, that my quota- tions like those from Mr. Gladstone and Herbert Spencer are not made for the purpose of exciting the vanity of a nation -whicli in so many departments has as yet little to be proud of, but simply to show that even intelligent English observers notice the marked dif- ference between the people of America and those of the mother country. The sober-minded reader will draw his conclusions from the facts. INSTITUTIONS 11 Turning now from the question of race to that of institutions, a subject which some may think much more important, we reach a simpler field. Here is no room for conjecture or mere opinion. We have the in- stitutions of the two countries before us ; they can be compared by any one acquainted with them both, and the result speaks for itself. Instead of those of the United States being derived from England, it is a curious fact that, while we have in the main English social customs and traits of character, we have scarcely a legal or politi- cal institution of importance which is of English origin, and but few which have come to us by the way of England. The influence of institutions upon national character has been, perhaps, exaggerated by some writers; it cer- tainly has been underestimated by others. The French are inchned to the exaggeration, the English to the under- estimate. Of course institutions should be adapted to a people, just as a school should be adapted to a scholar's capacity. A tribe of savages would be benefited as little by a system of government borrowed from a civilized nation as a little child would be benefited by a post- graduate course at a college. All this is true enough, and in this is summed up much of what is meant when institutions are spoken of as a growth. But, on the other hand, as a child may develop into a scholar in one school who would have remained a dunce in another, simply on account of the difference in his teachers, so a people may make progress under one set of institutions, while with another set they would remain stationary. There were no horses upon the American continent until they were introduced by the Europeans. The horse, we are told, is an evolution, and perhaps in time might have been evolved in America, but his introduc- 12 THB PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA tion certainly has aided the development of the country. Institutions, likewise, are growths and not creations ; but when grown they bear transplanting, and will thrive if the soil is fertile and the climate genial. Thus trans- planted, they become most important factors in the evo- lution of society.* Before considering the subject of American institu- tions, there is one English institution of the greatest im- portance, utterly unknown in the United States, to which a few words may be well devoted. This is the State Church. To Americans familiar with the history and literature of England, this subject is so well known * Matthew Arnold -was one of the English scholars who had been accustomed to undervalue the influence of institutions. A visit to America in 1884 modified his opinions. Upon returning home he wrote as follows : " I suppose I am not by nature disposed to think so much as most people do of institutions. The Americans think and talk very much of their ' institutions.' I am by nature inclined to call all this sort of thing machinery, and to regard rather men and their characters. But the more I saw of America the more I found myself led to treat ' institutions ' with increased respect. Un- til I went to tlie United States, I had never seen a people with in- stitutions which seemed expressly and thoroughly suited to it. I had not properly appreciated the benefits proceeding from this cause." — "Last Words about America,''^ Mneteenth Century, Feb., 1885. Matthew Arnold, before coming to America, did not appar- ently share the views of his illustrious father. The latter says: " The immense variety of history makes it very possible for differ- ent persons to study it with different objects. But the great object, as I cannot but think, is that which most nearly touches the inner life of civilized man — namely, the vicissitudes of institutions, social, political, and religious." — " Lectures on Modern History,'' Lecture III. William C. Brownell, in his " French Traits," has an instruc- tive chapter on Democracy, in which he shows the importance at- taclied by Frenchmen to the subject of institutions. " French Traits," Charles Scribner's Sons, 1889. THE STATE CHURCH OF ENGLAND 13 that many persons are inclined to overlook the impor- tance of such an establishment in one country and of its absence from the other ; and yet there is no single in- stitution in England which in the last three centuries has exerted a greater influence in moulding the national character and in shaping the national thought than the Established Church, while nothing, perhaps, has been so important to the United States as the absence of this institution. In England the Church is an adjunct of the State. It is supported by a tax, levied on every one, whether believing in its doctrines and attending its services or not. Its prelates are appointed by the crown, under the form of an election, which is, however, nothing but a form. Its ministers are not selected by their congre- gations, but are appointed by the State, or by private individuals who have inherited or purchased this priv- ilege, and who may be atheists or pagans. The influ- ence of this organization, as shown in English history, is too famihar to need more than a bare suggestion. During the reigns of Elizabeth and the Stuarts it was little but the handmaid of tyranny. Ever since that time it has been the consistent opponent of almost every reform. This is natural enough, for in England reforms have always been forced on a reluctant State, of whose machinery the Church has formed an important part. It has always been the bulwark of the aristocracy ; so that if one goes, the other will probably go with it. This, too, is natural enough, for its ministers depend for their bread upon the upper classes. Its organization extends over every square mile of English soil ; its rev- enues are enormous — some of its ministers enjoying princely incomes — and yet no Protestant Christian body has done so little, in comparison with its wealth and 14 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA numbers, for the cause of religion or morality.* In late years it seems in some quarters to have developed a new- spirit, so that its future is uncertain, but nothing can change the record of the past. This is not the place to discuss the question whether in all these matters the influence of the State Church of England has been well or ill directed. It has been claimed that it is an evil to educate the common people, or give them too much religious instruction. Such was * Writing in 1850, one of the best informed of English observers said : " Here, where the aristocracy is richer and more powerful than that of any other country in the world, the poor are more depressed, more pauperized, more numerous in comparison to the other classes, more irreligious, and very much worse educated than the poor of any other European nation, solely excepting Russia, Turkey, South Italy, Portugal, and Spain." — "Kay's Social Condition of the Eng- lish People," Amer. ed. p. 333. If any reader thinks that I have over- colored, any statement in this chapter or elsewhere, regarding the condition of the poor in England, I ask him to consult this book. Mr. Joseph Kay was sent out by the Senate of Cambridge University to examine the comparative social condition of the poorer classes in the different countries of Europe. In 1850 he gave to the world the results of his investigations, extending over several years, in a work entitled "The Social Condition and Education of the People of Eng- land." The chapters on England, which have been reprinted sepa- rately in the United States, are made up from personal observations and official reports, and give evidence of an earnest desire on the part of the author to impress his countrymen with the gravity of their situation. The preface to the American edition of 1863 well says of these chapters : " They are a warning to us, and hence useful, although abounding in facts that are not agreeable, and of a descrip- tion that needs to be read only by men who have duties at the polls, and those few women who take an active part in raising or guard- ing our various institutions." See also John Poster's essay on " Popular Ignorance," and Booth's " In Darkest England," published in 1890. THE CUURCH IN AMERICA 15 the theory of Queen Elizabeth and her successors. It may be that the political reforms opposed by the State Church were mistaken measures and will ultimately prove disastrous. It may have been wise to exclude Jews and Catholics from oflBce, and to prevent any one from obtaining a liberal education at the great universi- ties unless he professed the faith of the State. It may be that a better class of ministers is obtained under the English system of appointment, where the office is said sometimes to be sold to the highest bidder, than under a system which permits the congregations to select their own ministers. All these claims may be well or ill founded ; the S3^stem may be the best or the worst ever devised by man, but it certainly is the most important of English institutions, except, perhaps, the aristocracy, to which it is allied, and it is unknown in the United States. Several of the American colonies, follo;wing the ex- ample of England, established churches supported by the State. But the Eevolution, which severed the re- lations between the colonies and the mother country, soon put an end to these establishments. Here New York took the lead. In its first Constitution, adopt- ed in 1777, a provision was inserted repealing and ab- rogating all such parts of the common law and all such statutes as could "be construed to establish or maintain any particular denomination of Christians or their ministers."* Virginia followed in 1785, and at later dates all the other old states in which the Church had been established did the same, except New Hampshire, concluding with Connecticut in 1818 and Massachusetts in ISSS.f The new states which have * Constitution of 1777, sec. 35. + Schaflf's " Chnrch and State in the United States," p. 46. Some 16 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA joined the Union since the adoption of the Federal Con- stitution have, without exception, followed the example of New York, and have by constitutional provision placed a complete separation between Church and State.* Here then, in the most important domain, that of re- ligion, we find the greatest possible difference between the two countries, a difference which may furnish much food for thought to those who believe that America has Eng- lish institutions. But when we pass to political matters, the differences are no less important and far-reaching. Beginning at the bottom, we find that our whole politi- cal system is founded on a basis entirely different from that of the " mother country." The theory of all our insti- tutions is summed up in the words of the Declaration of Independence, " All men are created equal." This has been called a " glittering generality." So it is, and so is the refulgent atmosphere in which we live, and the crystal ocean which girds the globe. Yet what air and water are to man, human equality is to the life of the republic. We need not the authority of Sir Henry Maine f for the statement that this doctrine comes from Koman jurisprudence, that it is not English, and that it is and ever has been unknown to English law, where the members of the noble order have always enjoyed peculiar privileges, extending even to the courts of jus- tice. No one could persuade the Queen of Great Brit- ain and Empress of India that any of her subjects is by of the colonies had no established Church, and so seemed to require no constitutional provision upon tlie subject. * See Poore's " Charters and Constitutions of the United States." + Maine's " Ancient Law," p. 91. " All men are equal," the most distinctive expression of the doctrine of Roman law. " Tlie Early History of Institutions," Sir Henry Maine (Henry Holt, New York, 1888), p. 330. WEITTEN CONSTITUTIONS OF AMERICA 17 birth her equal. Coming down the hst to the pettiest baronet, the same feehng exists, and it is not confined to the class which claims superiority. The lower orders, as they call them — and this is, perhaps, the most demor- alizing feature of the system — share the sentiment, and look up to an earl and duke as a good Catholic looks up to a patron saint. So strange does all this caste spirit seem to an American that it is almost incomprehensible. It is one of the last things which travellers appreciate, but until they do so they will understand little of the English people, their institutions, or their history.* Ascending now from foundation to superstructure, we find as radical a contrast. The United States and all the separate states have written constitutions. The im- portance of these formal written instruments all Amer- icans appreciate, and even Englishmen are beginning to see their value. By them the powers of government are distributed among the executive and legislative de- partments, while above aU sits the judiciary, not only to keep each department to its proper functions, but also to guard the rights of each individual citizen or stran- ger. These constitutions represent the will of the peo- ple, are superior to all congresses or legislatures, and can only be altered by the people, in such modes, as to time and majorities, as guarantee deliberation and a wide- spread settled feeling of a necessity for change.f * See " Aristocracy in England," by Adam Badeau, 1886, for a full study of this subject ; Taine's " Notes on England ;" Emerson's "English Traits," pp. 185, 305, ed. 1857. Says JFatthew Arnold, " Inequality is our bane. * * * Aristocracy now sets up in our country a false ideal, which materializes our upper class, vulgarizes our mid- dle class, brutalizes our lower class." — Nineteenth Century, Feb., 1885, p. 233. t No change can be made in the Constitution of the United I.— 2 18 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, BNGLAND, AND AMERICA Of all this England knows nothing. Its so-called Con- stitution is a thing of tradition, sentiment, theory, ab- straction, anything except organic, supreme, settled law. "What is constitutional to-day, to-morrow may become unconstitutional by the mere fiat of the British Parlia- ment, which, it has been said, can do anything except make a man a woman, or a woman a man. The courts construe the laws, but can neither protect one depart- ment of the government against another, nor the indi- vidual against the tyranny of the majority.* States until proposed by two thirds of both houses of Congress, and ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the states. In New York a constitutional amendment has to pass through two legisla- tures, and then be ratified by a iDopular vote. * "Parliament is, from a merely legal point of view, the absolute sovereign of the British Empire."—" The Law of the Constitution," Dicey, p. 354. " In spite of appearances," said Mr. Frederic Harri- son, on the 1st of January, 1886, " and conventional formulas, habits, and fictions to the contrary, the House of Commons represents the most absolute autocracy ever set up by a great government since the French Revolution. Government here is now simply a commit- tee of that huge democratic club, the House of Commons, without any of the reserves of power in the other parts of the Constitution which are found in the constitutions of France and America." Quoted in "French and English," by Hamerton, Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1886, p. 331. " The Constitution, being unwritten, provides no special safeguard against revolutionary reforms like those in Amer- ica and France."— Idem, p. 334. Says another recent English writer : " Our glorious Constitution, reduced to its simplest elements, con- sists merely of one unwritten article. If it were written, it would run : ' The majority of the English electoral body, having proved themselves to be a majority after a fierce electoral fight, in which every personal ambition, every selfish interest, and every malignant passion has been let loose, may do exactly what they like, without let or hindrance, with the organization of English society and with the resources of the British Empire.' ''—National Sevieio, Sept., 1886, p. 65. THE EXECUTIVE IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA 19 Here is a fundamental difference at the outset. Now let us look at particulars. The United States has a real executive, who is commander-in-chief of the armies, ap- points judges and subordinate executive officers with the approval of the Senate, has a substantial veto power, and holds office by election for a fixed term. England has two executives: one an hereditary figure-head, who holds levees, lays corner-stones, and leads, or is supposed to lead, society, being the supreme arbiter in questions of official etiquette ; the other is a committee of the House of Commons, called a Cabinet, which exercises all real executive power, although unauthorized by statute, with- out any check on its authority, but also without any settled term of office, being subject to be swept away at any moment by a gust of popular passion. Each country has two legislative houses, but the re- semblance goes no further. The upper house in Eng- land, in which members keep their seats for life, simply represents the aristocracy, which means land, and the Church, which means religious caste in pohtics. In the United States the Senate represents the separate states, each one, large or small, having an equal voice, while one third of its members changes each two years. In England the upper house has no substantive power, ex- cept that of obstruction, fitfully and feebly exercised under the terror of annihilation. In the United States the Senate is a real body with authority, helping to make laws and serving as a check on the executive. Its confirmation is necessary to the appointment of judges and all executive officers, except those of the lowest class, while no treaty is valid without its approbation. Again, it must unite with the House of Eepresentatives, before the President can make war or peace. None of these powers belong to the House of Lords. They are 20 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA all exercised by the Cabinet, a committee which is re- sponsible only to the passions and prejudices of the House of Commons. No wonder that Lord Salisbury said, in a recent speech : " The Americans, as you know, have a Senate. I wish we could institute it in this country. Marvellous in efficiency and strength." * Our House of Kepresentatives is composed of members elected for two years, aU of whom are paid. In England the members of the House of Commons receive no sal- aries, so that, unless supported, as in the case of some Irish members, by voluntary contributions, only the rich are really eligible to office; and they may serve for a week or seven years, as the Cabinet shall determine, since it may order a new election at any time. Above all, in America, as I have said, above Presi- dent, Senate, and House of Kepresentatives sits the Su- preme Court to see that the Constitution, the ultimate organic will of the people, is preserved intact. Its judges are appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate, but they hold office for life or good behavior.f * Of it Matthew Arnold remarks : " The United States Senate is perhaps of all the institutions of that country the most happily de- vised, thcmost successful in its workings." Gold win Smith describes it as "first in average intelligence among all the political assemblies in the world." Nineteenth Century, June, 1888, p. 889. t Lord Salisbury, in a speech at Edinburgh on Nov. 33d, 1883, thus describes it : "I confess I do not often envy the United States, but there is one feature in tlieir institutions which appears to me the subject of the greatest envy, their magnificent institution of a Supreme Court. In the United States, if Parliament passes any measure inconsistent with the Constitution of the country, there ex- ists a court wliich will negative it at once, and that gives a stability to the institutions of the country which, under the system of vague and mysterious promises here, we look for in vain." Quoted " Car- negie's Triumphant Democracy," p. 369. Lord Salisbuiy evidently ENGLISHMEN STUDY AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 31 These features make up the peculiarities of the Amer- ican Federal system and differentiate it from other forms of government. All nations have an executive of some kind, most of them have judges and legislative bodies, so that in these general outlines there is nothing on which to base a theory of English origin. The question is whether our peculiar institutions, those distinctive of America, are derived from the "mother country." Of course. Englishmen knew nothing about the peculiari- ties of our Constitution, until, within the past few years, when they saw America looming up as an agricultural and manufacturing rival. Then a few of them began to look across the sea. Still later, greater attention has been given to the subject by Ireland's demand for Home Kule, based on something like the relations of our states to the general government. Assuming that our Federal institutions are English, it is quite remarkable to see how unfamiliar they appear to the statesmen and writers of their home, now that at length they have attracted notice. How a Tory Prime Minister regards the more important ones we have al- ready seen. Mr. Gladstone goes even further and says : " The American Constitution is, as far as I can see, the most wonderful work ever struck off at'a given time by the brain and purpose of man." * did not know liow constitutional questions are brought before our Supreme Court ; but had he known, his admiration probably would have been increased. * Dicey, a writer on the English Constitution, says : " The plain truth is, that educated Englishmen are slowly learning that tiie Amer- ican Republic affords the best example of a conservative democracy ; and, now that England is becoming democratic, respectable English- men are beginning to consider whether the Constitution of the Unit- ed States may not afford means by which, under new democratic 22 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA English writers who have looked into the institutions of America have naturally had their attention drawn to the Constitution of the United States, which deals only with national affairs. Seeing this instrument in all its completeness, and knowing little of the prior history of the separate states, they seem to conclude, as Mr. Glad- stone did, that it was struck off in 1787 by the. brains of the few men who formed the convention at which it was put in shape. Their work was a great one, but the American knows that the United States had been living under state constitutions for over ten years prior to the Union, and that many of the salient features of the Federal Constitution were not novel. For their history and origin we must go far back of the immortal conven- tion of 1787. The Constitution of the United States was adopted in 1787, but eleven years before that date the Federal Con- gress recommended to the thirteen colonies that they should proceed to form separate state constitutions. This was done by all of the thirteen, except Khode Island and Connecticut, which preferred, for many years, to live under the form of government established by their co- lonial charters. To any one who desires to study the. character and the development of American institutions these state constitutions, with their subsequent amend- ments, are, in some respects, much more important than the Federal Constitution. All of them have been mate- powers, maybe preserved the political conservatism dear and habit- ual to the governing class of England." These are the opinions of leading Englishmen, and they might be multiplied indeiinitely. See Carnegie's "Triumphant Democracy," p. 501, etc. I wish hereto make a general acknowledgment of the liberal use made of the valuable facts relating to this subject, and to some others, collected by Mr. Carnegie. STATE CONSTITXITIONS 23 rially modified since their first adoption ; in some the changes have been revolutionary, in all the tendency of the changes has been towards a common form approach- ing a democratic model. At the outset, however, the contrast between their different provisions was very marked. The original in- struments were framed by bodies of men of different nationalities, living at great distances apart from each other, and with varying views, the results of study, ex- perience, or inherited traits of character, as to the form of government and as to the institutions which were best fitted to their respective wants. Some provided for a State Church as in England, others prohibited its estab- lishment ; some gave religious liberty to aU, others re- stricted it to Protestant believers in the Bible ; some pro- vided for voting by ballot, others for the English system of voting viva voce / some provided for two legislative houses, others for only one ; some gave the governors great power, others hampered them with councils; some carried provisions for the freedom of the press beyond anything ever known in England, others were satisfied with English guarantees ; some abolished primogeniture, others retained it undisturbed ; some provided for free schools, others left that subject to the Legislature ; some gave to prisoners accused of crime the privilege of ap- pearing by counsel, others remitted them to the tender mercies of the common law ; some denounced the san- guinary criminal code of England, others made no allu- sion to the subject. These are but specimens of provisions in the original state constitutions, which show how divergent were the views of the men who framed these instruments upon many subjects of the first importance. Some of these provisions, as we shall see hereafter, were incorporated 24 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA into the Federal Constitution, but others, having no re- lation to national affairs, have been left to bear fruit in different circles. But even these constitutions form but a small part of the evidence to be examined by one who w^ishes to discover the origin of American institu- tions. Back of them v^iU be found a body of laws and customs, many of them entirely un-English in their char- acter, which, for more than a century before the Dec- laration of Independence, moulded the character of the people who then became a nation. If historians had devoted to the investigation of these subjects one tithe of the labor which has been given to tracing the influence of the Celts, the Romans, the Anglo-Saxons, or the Normans on Great Britain, we should hear little of the surprise now expressed at the fact that America differs so much from the mother country. Eeturning now to our general subject, and passing from those matters of organization which relate par- ticularly to the structure and machinery of the general government, let us glance at a broader field and con- sider some more important institutions, which may be likened to the material of which the building is con- structed. It will hardly be disputed that the laws and customs which, after those establishing religious and political equality, are most distinctive in the American system relate to the ownership of land, popular edu- cation, and local self-government. The relative impor- tance of these three subjects may be questioned by dif- ferent thinkers, but probably all will agree as to their combined influence. Taking them up in the order named, the question at present to be considered is how far America has, in these matters, patterned after Eng- land. DISTRIBUTION OF LAND IN ENGLAND 25 First, then, as to land.* In England about half of the land is owned by one hundred and fifty persons. In Scotland half is owned by some seventy-five persons, while thirty-five own half of Ireland. Talking all Great Britain together, about four fifths of the profitable soil is owned by seven thousand individuals, and the other fifth by about one hundred thousand.f All the land of the United Kingdom amounts to about 77,000,000 acres ; of these some 46,000,000 are under cultivation, and the remainder is unproductive. Yet Great Britain imports half of her grain, while about one twentieth of her popu- lation are paupers.:]: Were the great parks which are now kept for purposes of luxury or mere ostentation, and the vast uncultivated wastes which now only preserve game or serve as sheep pastures, divided up among little pro- prietors who would make every rood of ground available, England would hear much less of her labor question. As it is, however, everything for centuries has tended in the opposite direction. First stands the law of primogeniture, under which, in case of intestacy, all the real estate goes to the oldest * " The fact is," says a writer in the British Quarterly Review, " that the mode in which property, and especially land, is distributed has the chief influence in determining the political and social char- acter of the people." Again he remarks : " Indeed, it may almost be said that land and aristocracy are in England convertible terms." British Quarterly Review, April, 1886, p. 379. f'Free Land," by Arthur Arnold (1880), cited Gneist'S "His- tory of the Englisli Constitution," transl. London, 1886, ii. 376 ; also "France and Hereditary Monarchy," by John Bigelow, 1871, p. 53. I " Our National Resources, and How they are Wasted," William Hoyle, pp. 40, 42 ; " Home Politics," Daniel Grant, p. 8, quoted by Bigelow, pp. 31-35 ; " In Darkest England," by William Booth. 26 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA male heir, thus building up great families. Next stands the system relating to the transfer of land among the living, which clogs its alienation and renders its purchase by the poor almost impossible. Every American knows how simple is our system of recording deeds and mortgages. Under it, in ordinary cases, any man of average intelligence can search his own title and make out his own conveyance, or can have it done in the country for about five dollars ; for, unless a deed or mortgage is recorded in the proper office of the county, it is of no avail against the later J>ona-fide in- strument of an innocent party duly put on record. In England, except in some small sections of the country where this system has been lately introduced, nothing of this kind exists. AU title-deeds are kept by the owner ; and unless a careful examination is made by a lawyer, there is no security for a purchaser whatever. In no other civilized country of the world do sales and mort- gages of land habitually take so long a time to transact, and nowhere else are the charges in the case of small properties so great.* Time and time again, from the days of CromweU down, the attempt has been made to introduce the recording system which prevails in the United States and in most of the countries of the Continent, but al- ways without success. Parliamentary committees have recommended it, upon the ground that it would give in- creased security, and facilitate, by cheapening, the trans- fer of land. But there lay potent reasons for its rejec- tion. The large proprietors, representing the aristocratic element of society, have desired that the mode of acquir- * Wegtminster Beview, July, 1886, p. 80. The lowest legal charge IS about thirty dollars. ENCLOSURE OP ENGLISH COMMON LANDS 27 ing land should be neither easy nor cheap. Land is for aristocrats, and not for the common people. The result is that the great class of yeomen, the men who in by- gone centuries gave England her greatness, has almost entirely disappeared.* In its place has grown up a race of peasants, well-nigh the most ignorant and brutalized among the so-called civilized peoples of the globe. Not content with refusing to sell land to the poor, and making its transfer diificult and expensive, the ruling classes have gone one step farther. Formerly a large part of the soil of England was owned in common, each village or community holding its great tract open to all the inhabitants for purposes of pasturage. But since the beginning of the last century, 9,000,000 acres of these common lands, more than one eighth of the whole soil of Great Britain, have been taken possession of by private individuals and enclosed under acts of Parlia- ment.f It was in reference to this wholesale robbery of the poor that the well-known lines were written : " The law locks up the man or woman Who steals the goose from off the common, But lets the greater villain loose Who steals the common off the goose." In view of these facts, we can appreciate the words of one of England's keenest observers in speaking of the kaleidoscopic constitutions of France : " It does not re- quire any special clearness of vision to perceive that so far from having closed the era of great changes. Great Britain and Ireland have only entered on it." J * "Pauperism, its Causes and Remedies," Prof. Fawcett, p. 208. + Prof. Thorold Rogers, Time, March, 1890. X Philip Gilbert Hamerton, Atlantic Monthly, Sept., 1886, p. 322. 28 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA One of these days England may awake to reap the whirlwind. She is now the only Teutonic nation, and perhaps the only civilized society in existence, in which the bulk of the land under cultivation is not owned by small proprietors.* To her laboring classes she ife giv- ing not land, but the spelling-book and the ballot. Speaking of the arms of a slave state, which represented a negro asleep upon a cotton bale, "Wendell Phillips once asked, " But what will the people do when the negro wakes up ?" Our cousins across the sea can take a simi- lar question to heart. From time to time the English public are aroused to an appreciation of the filth and misery which pervade the dwellings of their poor. Then men rush into print with their various nostrums, emi- gration, vast schemes of private benevolence, new models for cottages, and the like ; but it seldom occurs to any of them to suggest a change in their land laws by which the poor man might own his dwelling. Nothing, how- ever, is so conducive to the self-respect, without which all sanitary regulations are powerless, as the possession of one's habitation.f Turn now from England to America, and what a dif- See also Gneist, " Hist, of English Constitution," ii. 462. Matthew Arnold says of the nobility and the property question : " One would wish, if one sets about wishing, for the extinction of titles after the death of the holders, and for the dispersion of property by a stringent law of bequest."— iVineicera*^ Century, Yeh., 1885, p. 234. * British Quarterly Review, April, 1886. t "The large domains are growing larger; the great estates are absorbing the small freeholds. In 1786, the soil of England was owned by 250,000 corporations and proprietors." — Emerson's " Eng- lish Traits," p. 184. A century earlier the number of those who farmed their own land was greater than the number of those who farmed the land of others. Macaulay, vol. i. chap. iii. DISTRIBUTION OP LAND IN AMERICA 29 ferent picture is presented! The census of 1880 shows that the farms in the United States number over four millions, of which only about twenty-five thousand con- tain more than a thousand acres. Of the whole number nearly three fourths are worked by the owners, and of the remainder, the larger part are worked on shares. In 1850, before slavery was abolished, the farms num- bered only about a million and a half, and they averaged two hundred and three acres each. In 1880, the average had sunk to one hundred and thirty-four acres, so that while the amount of cultivated land is largely on the increase, the process of subdivision is still more rapid. Practical experience here, as well as elsewhere, shows that small tracts of land are worked more economically than large ones, and are most productive when cultivated by the owner. The above figures take no account of mere city or village lots for building purposes. The number of these is very large, for, as the American knows, the laborer, except in the large cities, usually owns his own dwelling, and thus is a proprietor of the soil. The ownership of land always makes a man con- servative. "When it is generally divided, as in the Unit- ed States, and where, under a liberal Homestead Law, any one can obtain a farm by actually putting it under cultivation, there will be found little room for theories of spoliation.* * The census of 1890 shows only about 73,000 paupers in the poor- houses of the United States, out of a population of over 63,000,000, a relative decrease since 1880. About 6000 of those are colored, and of the whites three fifths are foreign-born or of foreign parentage. Of the poor permanently supported in their own houses or in pri- vate families, only some 34,000 are given, but in this case the returns do not pretend to even approximate correctness. Census Bulletin No. 90, July 8, 1891. 30 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Such is the difference between England and America as to the distribution of land. Speaking of this subject, Daniel Webster summed up the case in his great speech at Plymouth, when he said of the JSTew England settlers that "the character of their political institutions was determined by the fundamental laws respecting prop- erty." These laws, he said, provided for the equal division of the estate of an intestate among his children, while the establishment of public registration and the simplicity of our forms of conveyance have facilitated the change of real estate among the living. Next comes the subject of popular education. This is, perhaps, more important than any question of the dis- tribution of property. " Give hght, and the darkness will dispel itself." Give education, and everything else will right itself in time. Still, some of the nations of the Old World may discover to their cost that unless other reforms go with the education of the masses, the righting process will seem like the first breaking of light over chaos. The history of popular education in America is a familiar story. All the early settlers of New England paid great attention to instructing their children ; first at home, or in the ministers' houses, and then in public schools. In 1647, the Massachusetts Colony passed a law providing that every township of fifty household- ers should appoint a schoolmaster to teach the chil- dren to read and write ; and that his wages should be paid by the parents, or the public at large, according to the decision of the majority of the inhabitants. By 1665, every town in Massachusetts had a common school, and, if it contained over one hundred inhabitants, a gram- mar school. The other New England colonies followed in the wake of Massachusetts. In Connecticut every POPDLAK EDUCATION IN AMERICA 31 town that did not keep a school for three months in the year was liable to a fine. Meantime the Dutch had es- tablished free schools in New York. This was the be- ginning of the educational system of the United States. "When the Puritan spirit began to decline there was a f aUing-ofif in the schools and an increase of illiteracy ; but the love of learning never died out, and the free schools never were abandoned. At the close of the Kevolution there was donated to the Union the vast domain north of the Ohio and west of the Alleghany Mountains, New York leading off in this generous cession.* In 1785, Con- gress passed an act reserving for educational purposes the sixteenth section of each township in this public ter- ritory. The policy then established has been followed in regard to all subsequent acquisitions, and in 1858 an additional section was granted by the government.f Up to the present time these grants aggregate over seventy- eight million acres, a territory larger than the whole of Great Britain and Ireland combined. In 1880, the United States spent eighty-two and a half million dollars on her common public schools, which were estimated to number one hundred and seventy-seven thousand, and in 1889 the expenditure had risen to over a hundred and thirty millions, while the schools had increased to two hundred and sixteen thousand. The census of 1880 showed that in the Northern States only five per cent, of the native population were unable to read and write. Now, does any one imagine that America is indebted to Eno-land for its free-school system or general scheme * Magazine of American History, March, 1888, p. 300. t Each township contains thirty-six sections, one mile square. The allotment for educational purposes is therefore, since 1858, one eighteenth of the national domain. Census Bulletin No. 53, 1891. 32 THE PUEITAK IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA for the education of the masses? Let us see. While New York was settled by Hollanders, and New England, as we shall see hereafter, largely by Puritans from Eng- land tinctured with Dutch ideas, Virginia had a differ- ent class of colonists. It is absurd to speak of them as of a better blood than the settlers in the North, for the latter came of the best old Anglo-Saxon stock, and they were made up of the most intelligent as well as the most sturdy and virtuous of their race. But Virginia was set- tled from a different class of the community. Her col- onists, when not convicts or indented servants, were mostly average Englishmen of the Established Church, and, like the average Englishmen, opposed to all innova- tions in Church or State. So it came about that, in 1671, Sir WiUiam Berkeley, the Governor of Virginia, could write to England: "I thank God there are no free schools or printing, and I hope we shall not have them these hundred years. For learning has brought heresy, and disobedience, and sects into the world, and printing has divulged them, and libels against the best govern- ment. God keep us from both !" There spoke simply the typical English Tory, and the type was to remain un- changed in England for two hundred years to come. Now turn to the mother country itself, and look at her record. During the reign of Edward VI., some grammar schools — we should now, perhaps, call them Latin or high schools — eighteen for the whole kingdom, were established by the reformers of his government. At various times a few more were added by private in- dividuals. One of these rare schools, founded at Strat- ford-on-Avon by a native of that town who had gone up to London and become Lord Mayor, bore the name of William Shakespeare on its rolls. But for the good fortune of his townsman he might have died mute and POPULAR EDUCATION IN ENGLAND 33 inglorious. These were purely charitable institutions where learning, such as it was, was doled out as an alms. The government did nothing further in the cause of edu- cation for nearly three centuries, until the year 1832, when Parliament made for this object the munificent appropriation of twenty thousand pounds. This was the first recognition in England of the principle that the State owes any duty to its children. In 1839, the annual grant was raised to thirty thousand, and then was in- creased from time to time until 1869, when it amounted to half a million pounds, about one fifth as much as the sum spent annually by the State of ISTew York alone. This money was used not to found or support free schools, but to aid those of a voluntary character. At these state-aided schools about one million three hun- dred thousand children were instructed, two millions more were receiving no education at all, and another million were being taught at private adventure schools, where the education was of the most defective character.* The English governing classes seem until a very re- cent date to have felt the same reluctance to educating the working people that they still feel to giving them land. Keep a man landless, and you make him depend- ent ; keep him in ignorance, and you make him subservi- ent. It was urged in England, and the argument has been heard in America, that if all classes are educated the rich cannot secure good servants, and that hired la- borers wiU be discontented with their lot. This is all very well for the masters, but how about the servants ? America does not believe that the English lackey, much as he contributes to one's comfort, is the type of man- * " Fifteen Years of National Education in England," Westminster Review, Oct., 1886. I.— 3 34 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMBKICA hood that civilization is intended to develop, and it has found from practical experience that a farm - laborer works no worse because he looks forward to being a proprietor himself. In 18Y0, England, for the first time, entered upon a system of national education by establishing common schools for the masses. Since that time great progress has been made, although the education is yet defective, is of only an' elementary character, and not wholly free.* In view of the state of education in England at that time, we can appreciate the surprise felt by Charles Dickens when, in 1842, he visited the manufacturing town of Lowell, in Massachusetts. Upon his return * In 1886, Mattliew Arnold made a report to the Educational Department of England on the elementary schools of the Continent, which he had examined in an official capacity. Strangely enough, he discovered, what every foreigner knew before, that the English system was much behind that of other countries. He found the school-children of Prance, Germany, and Switzerland looking " hu- man." Those who have seen the look on the faces of the English peasantry will appreciate his meaning. But what can be expected when we consider how recent has been the effort to raise them up? Matthew Arnold, Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1886. Still, backward as it is, the system is intended only for the very poor and very young. For the middle classes no provision is made at all. On this subject Mr. Arnold wrote, in 1885 : " I have often said that we seem to me to need at present in England three things in especial — more equal- ity, education for the middle classes, and a thorough municipal sys- tem : a system of local assemblies is but the natural complement of a thorough municipal system." — Nineteenth Oentury, Feb., 1885, p. 331. In 1891 the English budget showed a surplus, caused by the in- creased consumption of intoxicating liquors in the kingdom. Of this surplus, £2,000,000 were, after a long parliamentary debate, devoted to the cause of elementary education, in addition to the ap- propriations made before. This will make education for the very poor substantially free. PUBLIC LIBKAEIES IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA 35 home he wrote, regarding the operatives that he saw- there : " I am now going to state three facts which will startle a large class of readers on this side of the Atlan- tic very much. Firstly, there is a joint-stock piano in a great many of the boarding-houses. Secondly, nearly all these young ladies subscribe to circulating libraries. Thirdly, they havcj got up among themselves a period- ical called the Lowell Offering, 'a repository of orig- inal articles written exclusively by females actively em- ployed in the mills,' which is duly printed, pubhshed, and sold, and whereof I brought away from Lowell four hundred good, sohd pages, which I have read from be- ginning to end. It will compare advantageously with a great many English annuals." * Connected with the subject of popular education are some other important and interesting facts.; In Sep- tember, 1886, the Library Association of the United Kingdom met in London. The report then presented showed that in all of England, Scotland, and Ireland there were but one hundred and fourteen free libraries. The London Standard, in an article on the subject, held up America as an example for England to imitate. "Americans," it said, "are our masters in many de- partments of literary administration," and then referred to our town hbraries, which in England are almost un- known.f "Well may Enghshnien express surprise at the public libraries in the United States. According to the last report upon this subject, made by the Commissioner of Education in 1884, those containing more than three * "American Notes," p. 06. t New York Tribune, Sept. 30th, Oct. 4th, 1886. This system began in New York in 1835, but that state has been since far out- stripped by some of her sisters. 36 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA hundred volumes each numbered over five thousand, with an aggregate of over twenty miUion volumes, and most of them are free. "We have no such single colossal collection as that of the British Museum, but the books there are used only by scholars as works of reference. These, too, which are much needed, will come in time.* The books scattered over America are intended for an- other purpose, and are read by the people for whom they are supplied. The result is that the Americans, whose tastes are thus fostered, are the greatest reading people of the world. Of all the standard English books, many more copies, in proportion to the population, are sold in the United States than in Great Britain. Even the "Encyclopaedia Britannica," supposed to be partic- ularly a work for scholars, had fifty thousand American subscribers for its ninth edition, against ten thousand in Great Britain, with more than half the population of the United States. Of Herbert Spencer's works, more than one hundred thousand were sold before he visited this country, in 1882. "When we come to American books, the figures are fabulous. The " American Cyclo- pedia" had one hundred and twenty thousand subscrib- ers, and the "Memoirs of General Grant" over three hundred thousand. Turning now from the common schools and the libra- ries for the education of the masses, when we glance at institutions for higher education, the contrast between America and England is even more marked. The latter country affords no free education to the middle classes, * Of our. public libraries, more than three hundred contain over ten thousand volumes, forty-seven over fifty thousand, twelve over a hundred thousand, and two over four hundred thousand, each. Carnegie's " Triumphant Democracy," p. 362. FREE HIGH SCHOOLS IN AMERICA 37 and no free higher education to any, while in this field America reigns supreme. In thoroughness of instruc- tion her average primary schools, though superior to those of England, are perhaps inferior to those of Ger- many and even France, with their old civilization and denser populations. But her system of free public high schools is a growth of democracy, which has been as yet achieved in none of the older countries.* France and Germany have some high schools assisted by the State, but America is the only country in the world where the principle is fully recognized that every person is enti- tled to receive a thorough and complete education at the public charge. To secure this, not only are free grammar or high schools generally to be found in all the larger towns — and those of Western cities like Denver and Omaha are not inferior to those in Eastern places of the same sizef — but twenty-eight states have established state universities, which in most cases offer a free classical and scientific college education. In addition, all the states but six have founded free normal schools and training colleges, some one hundred and thirty-four in number, for the education of male and female teachers.^ In the United States are three thousand six hundred and fifty schools higher than those for primary instruc- tion. Of these, three hundred and eighty-four, exclu- sive of those for women alone, are universities or col- leges. To be sure, many of these institutions are but * Westminster Review, Jan., 1887, p. 13. t In 1888-89 the United States expended on her high schools about $40,000,000. — " Report of Com. of Education." This was in addi- tion to the $180,000,000 for common schools. X See "Report of the U. S. Commissioner of Education," 1887-88. 38 THK PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA high schools authorized to confer degrees, but they place the key of knowjedge within the reach of every one Avho cares for a student's life, and increase enormously the chances of bringing to the front any latent genius. In England such development is,, in the main, only for the rich. At one time it was very natural for the American scholar to look down on our American colleges, and to look up with awe to the classic halls of Oxford and Cambridge as model seats of learning. But the latter feeling has practically passed away. The clear-sighted American long since discovered that, to the student, England, with her somewhat antiquated system of in- struction, has little to offer. The fact is, that the Eng- lish are to-day nearly as far behind the world in higher as in primary education. During the great intellectual awakening which followed the Middle Ages, the classics were eagerly studied by European scholars because they opened up a new world of thought, and furnished mod- els of literary excellence elsewhere unknown. In tak- ing up these branches, England lagged a century behind the Continent, and now that other fields are developed she is almost as much in the rear as ever. Although the world has made great advances since the Eevival of Learning, it is still very difiEicult to persuade an English- man that the sole aim of a university education is not to pass some civil-service examination, or to obtain a knowledge of Greek and Latin, the chief test of a schol- ar three centuries ago, to which may now be added a knowledge of the mathematics. Everywhere the value of these studies is conceded; but Continental nations rec- ognize the fact that others are of equal, if not of para- mount, importance. The result is, that the Englishman of the present generation who desires to pursue with ENGLISH HIGHER EDUCATION 39 thoroughness any branch of modern study, including even his own literature, is compelled, in most cases, to seek his instruction in the Continental universities* If England has anything of which she may be justly proud, it is her literature, and especially her poetry. From Shakespeare to Tennyson she shows a roll of authors unsurpassed in modern times. "Whatever else may pass away, however time may work changes in her form of government — whether she lose Ireland, India, her commercial supremacy, or her wealth — her literature at least will be immortal. Yet when we see a Frenchman writing the only history of that literature worthy of the name, and when we are told by her own scholars that * Of the English university education of to-day, Prof. Huxley says : " That a young Englishman may be turned out of our universi- ties epopt and perfect, so far as their system takes him, and yet ig- norant of the noble literature which has grown up in these islands during the last three centuries, no less than of the development of the philosophic and political ideas which have most profoundly influ- enced modern civilization, is a fact in the history of the nineteenth century which the twentieth will find hard to believe; though, per- haps, it is not more incredible than our current superstition that whoso wishes to write and speak English well should mould his style after the models furnished by classical antiquity." — The Pall Mall Budget, Oct. 28, 1886. Cambridge has never done anything worth speaking of for the study of English literature, and it was not until 1886 that a chair for that subject was founded at Oxford. Prof Max Miiller said at the time: "I have had to confess, particu- larly in conversation with Americans, who often come to Oxford for the sole purpose of studying English literature, that our not having a professor of that subject at Oxford seemed to me a serious blem- ish."— Idem. Prof. Skeat, of Cambridge, wrote to 'the new young professor who had been educated at Berlin and Gottingen: "You ]£now — what few Englishmen have any idea of — what training in our language and literature is and involves. For it, American students always go to Germany. They can't get it here." — Idem. 40 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, KNGLAND, AND AMERICA for its proper study one must go to Germany, nothing else as to English higher education need cause surprise. As to every other department of knowledge the story is novY the same. Take medicine, surgery, chemistry, or any other branch of science ; law, philosophy, history, or art in any of its forms, and although Englishmen have achieved exceptional greatness in almost every department, no one ever thinks of going to England, as in times past, to pursue his studies. Americans go there to visit the homes of their ancestors, to look at stately castles and superb cathedrals, to travel through a land full of historic interest ; but when they wish to study they go to France, G-erraany, Italy, or Austria.* So long as America simply followed English prece- * That the English themselves are waking up to an appreciation of the fact that something is wrong about their colleges appears from the protest against their educational system, signed by several hun- dred leading scholars, which was published in tlie Nineteenth Cen- tury for Nov., 1888. See also article on " Oxford and its Professors," Edinburgh Beview, Oct., 1889. No instruction in English literature, rhetoric, modern European languages or literature, while the attend- ance at lectures on science, philosophy, law, etc., is little more than nominal. Max Muller says: "To enable young men to pass their examinations seems now to have become the chief, if not the only, object of the universities." — "India, What Can It Teach Us?" Amer. ed. p. 19. The examinations are for admission to the civil service. Every reader, of course, will understand that my remarks apply only to the general system of English education, which is of the last cen- tury, and out of touch with modern thought. Individual Englishmen are, through home-training, foreign study, the influence of national societies, and a general intellectual atmosphere in the universities and elsewhere, among the most cultured and scholarly of men. This has come about despite the defects in their system. How much more would be accomplished under a less narrow and insular system is a different question. AMERICAN HIGHER EDUCATION 4X dents, her colleges were defective and her scientific schools hardly worthy of the name. Now, under Continental influences which every scholar appreciates, that reproach is passing away. The American system is in process of speedy development. It begins at the bottom with the widest base of general education. Deep scholarship, high intellectual culture, broad scientific knowledge, finished artistic skill, are fruits of slow growth. Why this new country has, in the past, been so deficient in these respects needs no explanation. But now, even in the upper departments, although she has no cause to be boastful, she is making gratifying progress. Already, in wood-engraving for book-illustration, and in artistic sil- verware, she has no superior, and in stained glass she has no equal. In astronomy and in some branches of mathematics she takes a fair place. In surgery and in all surgical appliances she probably leads the world. Her medical, chemical, and engineering schools are so excellent that for mere purposes of instruction one scarce- ly needs to go abroad. Her universities are estabhsh- ing post-graduate courses, which bid fair in time to supersede the necessity of foreign studj"", in literature and historical science. Harvard, it must be remembered, received and welcomed the new learning from Germany, at the hands of Everett, Bancroft, and Ticknor, before it was accepted at the English universities. Everett's translation of Buttmann's Greek Grammar was reprinted in England, with the " Massachusetts " omitted after the word "Cambridge " at the end of the preface. Mr. Ban- croft's translation of Heeren was the first of its kind, and the earliest version from Henry Heine into English was made by a graduate of Harvard.* * James Russell Lowell, " 250th Amiiversary of Harvard." 42 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA America is to-day the richest and the first manufact- uring, as she is the first agricultural, country of the world. If, with her wealth, free institutions, and uni- versal education, she also in the future becomes the first in learning and in art, she will evidently not be follow- ing the example of England, where higher education is restricted to the few. The third peculiar institution of America is that of local self-government. The contrast in this particular between America and England is as marked as anything that can be well imagined ; but it was little noticed in the latter country until the agitation of the question of home rule for Ireland brought it to the front. Even now, after all that has been written upon the subject, unless one has examined the subject with care, it is diflScult for a person on this side of the Atlantic to appreciate the condition of local government in Great Britain. The difficulty arises from the fact that there is nothing which can be called a system, and the consequent helter-skelter con- fusion is something the very existence of which seems to an American almost incredible. Ask the average Englishman to explain how local affairs are managed in England, and he will look at you with wonder. He can perhaps tell you something about his own parish, or something very vague about his own county, but beyond that he knows nothing. Some matters are regulated by the clergyman and his vestry, others by the poor wardens ; the sheriffs and county officials are appointed by the Crown, which means the Cabinet ; but of local self-government by the people themselves almost nothing exists except in the cities and larger towns.* , * The reader who wishes to study the character of English local LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN ENGLAND 43 When the Enghshman turns to America, he sees a system, and it is one that fills him with surprise, at least, if with no other feeling. Generally he looks only at its more salient features, the relations between the states and the federal government. In England Parliament legislates for the whole kingdom. That body takes upon itself the management of the domestic, the local, the parochial, the municipal affairs of all the communities institutions can consult " Local Grovernment," by M. D. Chalmers, in the " English Citizen Series," Macmillan & Co., 1883. This book tells a tale almost incredible of confusion, inefficiency, and waste. " Local government in this country," it says, " may be fitly described as consisting of a chaos of areas, a chaos of authorities, and a chaos of rates," p. 17. " Confusion and extravagance are the character- istic features of the whole system," p. 21. " Local boards are innumer- able, many of them are useless, but are kept up merely to supply places and salaries for the officials." — Idem. " The total property in England liable to taxation is estimated to produce a gross rental of £157,000,000. Local expenditures for 1880 alnounted to £50,000,000, nearly one third of the rental," pp. 26,38. "English local aifairs are regulated by some 650 acts of Parliament of general application, and several thousand of a special character for particular towns or dis- tricts. The latter accumulate at tlie rate of about sixty a year. In England and Wales are 53 counties, 339 municipal boroughs, 70 Improvement Act districts, 1006 urban sanitary districts, 41 port sanitary authorities, 577 rural sanitary districts, 2051 school-board districts, 434 highway districts, 843 burial-board districts, 649 unions, 194 lighting and watching districts, 14,916 poor-law parishes, 5064 highway parishes, and about 13,000 ecclesiastical parishes. These all overlap and intersect each other, so as to make a perfect tangle of jurisdictions. One farm of 200 acres was, some few years ago, in twelve diflferent parishes, and subject to about fifty different rates," pp. 18, 31. Some districts are governed by twelve, fifteen, or twenty different local authorities, selected at difi'erent times, and with dif- ferent qualifications for the voters. No wonder that every English- man gives tlie subject up in despair, as incapable of comprehension. 14 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA jf England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. It arranges "or every local gas bill, water bill, sewerage bill, and 'ailway bill for the two islands. In America, the Federal Congress legislates only on matters of national concern, jverything else is left to the separate states. But the difference between the two countries goes nuch deeper than this. The American system is a com- )lete one, reaching down to the foundations, and the 'oundations are its most important portions. At the )ottom lies the township, which divides the whole North Lnd West into an infinity of little republics, each manag- ng its own local affairs. In the old states they differ in i,rea and in their machinery. In the new states of the (Vest they are more regular in size, being generally six niles square. But in all the system is substantially like. Each township elects its own local officers and nanages its own local affairs. Annually, a town meet- ng is held of all the voters, and suffrage is limited only )y citizenship. At these meetings, not only are the ocal officers elected, such as supervisors, town-clerks, ustices of the peace, road-masters, and the like, but aoney is appropriated for bridges, schools, libraries, and ther purposes of a local nature. Next above the township stands the county, an aggre- :ate of a dozen or so of towns. Its officials, sheriffs, adges, clerks, registers, and other officers to manage ounty affairs are chosen at the general state election, t also has a local assembly, formed of the town super- isors. They audit accounts, supervise the county in- bitutions, and legislate as to various county matters. ^Above the counties again stands the state government, dth its legislature, which passes laws relating to state ffairs ; and finally the federal government, which deals nly with national concerns. The whole forms a con- LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN AMERICA 45 sistent and harmonious system, whicli reminded Mat- thew Arnold of a well-fitting suit of clothes, loose where it should be loose, and tight where tightness is an ad- vantage. As we have already noticed, the feature of it aU which strikes the Englishman most forcibly is the sepa- ration of local from national affairs in the administra- tion of the state and the general government. But the township system, with its more direct local self-govern- ment, is of greater importance. Given that, and the rest ofithe system follows almost as matter of course. Every American is a politician, and feels a keen interest in his presidential and state elections. But, after all, these are generally of much less practical importance to him than the ho«ae elections, which determine whether his local affairs shall be wisely, economically, and justly admin- istered. General taxation is a trifle compared with that for his schools, roads, bridges, and other local expenses. It is in the town meeting that the incipient statesman is formed. It is in managing his local affairs that the American acquires the discipline, the self-respect, and self-reliance which enable him, when occasion calls, to command a company, a regiment, or an army, control a railroad or govern a state. "When our late war closed, the United States had one of the most efficient armies that ever stood in line of battle. The secret lay in the fact that each man was a drilled and disciplined, but at the same time a thinking, machine. The drill and discipline came from years of service, but the man beneath them came from the school-house and the town meeting. Ifow, does any one imagine that the American insti- tutions of local self-government are of English origin ? "What England is to-day we have faintly outlined. As 46 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA to the past, we can pursue the same line of inquiry as was followed in relation to the origin of the free-school system. It was only where the Puritans settled that the township and the town meeting were fully developed. Virginia attempted to copy directly the parishes and vestries, boroughs and guilds, of England. Jefferson said : " These Avards, called townships in New England, are the vital principle of their government ; and have proved themselves the wisest invention ever devised by the wit of man for the perfect exercise of self-govern- ment, and for its preservation." De Tocqueville wrote, over fifty years ago : " The more we descend towards the South, the less active does the business of the town- ship or parish become ; the population exercises a less immediate influence on affairs ; the power of the elected magistrate is augmented and that of the elections di- minished, while the public spirit of the local communities is less awakened and less influential." The system does not appear to be English in its origin. How it came to America is an interesting question. We have now passed in review some of the most im- portant of the institutions which to-day are found in the United States and are not found in England. Even if we went no further, he would be a bold man who, after studying their influence upon the national life and character, should still continue to claim that America was only a transplanted England. But, in addition to these peculiar institutions, there are others, now com- mon to both countries, which have exerted a powerful influence in the United States for more than a century, while they have been only recently introduced into Eng- land, and in that country are just beginning to bear fruit. Three of these are of an importance which no one EKLIGIOUS LIBERTY IN ENGLAND AND AMERICA 47 will question. They are freedom of religion, freedom of the press, and the secret ballot. The first protects the conscience, the second protects the mind, the third protects the suffrage. Without these guarantees the United States of the nineteenth century seems impossi- ble, and yet for none of them are we indebted to the legislation or to the example of the mother country. In adopting each of them, England has not been the leader, but has followed in the footsteps of America. First, as to the introduction of religious liberty into the two countries, a few dates tell the whole story. Of the Established Church in England I have already spoken — the Church which exacts a tax from every one, and which is the chief bulwark of the aristocracy. Still, with the exception of this tax, all religious de- nominations stand to-day in England on a basis of equality before the law, save that a Catholic cannot sit on the throne, nor can he hold the office of Lord Chancellor of England or that of Lord Lieutenant of Ireland. But the establishment of this equality is of very recent date. In 1689 a partial Act of Toleration was enacted, but it was not extended to Unitarians un- til 1813, to Eoman Catholics until 1829, and to Jews un- til 1858. Until such respective dates the members of these proscribed religious bodies were excluded from pubhc oflQce, while it was not until 1871 that all relig- ious tests were abolished in the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, so as to open those institutions equally to students of all rehgious denominations. The removal of this last restriction, as we shall see hereafter, was nearly a hundred years after religious liberty had been proclaimed in the United States. ISText let us consider the qu&tion of the freedom of the press. Of the importance of this subject nothing 48 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA need be said ; but here again attention is for the present requested simply to a few facts and dates. About a century after tlie printing-press was introduced into England, and as soon as it came to be recognized as a power in religious and political discussions, it Avas placed under a rigid censorship. Printing was permitted only in certain specified places, and the approval of certain officials was required before a book could be given to the public. This system continued until 1693, when the licensing law was permitted to expire.* But with the abolition of the censorship the Enghsh judges took the subject up, and the system which was developed under their manipulation of the law was nearly as oppressive as the one just abolished. They held that in ci-iminal prosecutions for libel — and such prosecutions were the ordinary means of silencing polit- ical opponents — the truth could not be given in evidence, and that the jury before whom the offender was tried had nothing to do except to pass upon the fact of publi- cation. " The greater the truth, the greater the libel," became the maxim of the law. In other words, if a (jitizen published a statement regarding an official or a candidate for office, charging him with corruption or with any other offence against the state, the publisher or author could be arrested for libel, and would be tried before a judge, who excluded all evidence of the truth of the charges, left to the jury only the question of the publication or authorship, and then, if the prisoner was found guilty, sentenced him to fine or imprisonment, and frequently to both. No one at all acquainted with the political history of England needs to be told how persistently this muzzle * Hallam's " Constitutional History," iii. 163. FREEDOM OP THE PRESS IN ENGLAND 49 of the press was utilized by the government during the last centurj'^. There were, from time to time, juries to be found who, under the spell of consummate orators, were willing to go to prison for contempt of court rather than to find a verdict against the tribunes of the people. But for such revolts against the law English liberty would have been dead indeed. Yet although under these occa- sional breaths of free air the spark was kept alive, the flame burned very low.* * Chief Justice Holt is rei)resented in history as one of the friends and upholders of liberty. In 1704, Tutchin, the printer of the Ob- servator, was tried before liim for an article criticising Queen Anne's ministers in language which we should now consider very innocent. The defendant's counsel having attempted to justify it, Holt observed to the jury : " I am surprised to be told that a writing is not a libel ■which reflects upon the government, and endeavors to possess the people with the notion that the government is administered by cor- rupt persons. If writers should not be called to account for possess- ing the people with an ill opinion of the government, no government can subsist. You are to consider whether the words which I have . read to you do not tend to beget an ill opinion of the administration of the government. Their purport is that those who are employed koow nothing of the matter, and those who do know are not em- ployed ; that men are not adapted to offices, but oflSces to men, out of particular regard to their interest, and not to their fitness." The defendant was accordingly found guilty. Campbell's "Lives of the Chief Justices" (Blanchard & Lea, 1853), ii. 120. This was the law for many years, that any reflection upon the administration was punishable as a criminal libel. See Hallam's " Cons. Hist.," iii. 164-166. In 1731, on the trial of Franklin, Lord Raymond positively refused to admit any evidence to prove the published matter to be true. In the famous trial of the Dean of St. Asaph, some fifty years later, Lord Mansfield sustained this doctrine, and he was afterwards supported in his view of the law by all the judges in the House of Lords. Campbell's "Lives of the Chief Justices," iL 410-413. I.— 4 50 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA In 1792, Mr. Fox's Libel bill was passed, declaring that on a trial for libel the jury, in giving its verdict, had a right to take into consideration the character and ten- dency of the paper alleged to be libellous. StiU, the truth of the facts stated in the publication complained of could not be inquired into ; for half a century longer the maxim prevailed, " the greater the truth the greater the libel ;" and it was only in the year 1845, under Lord Camp- bell's Libel biU, that the truth was finally admitted in evidence, and the jury was allowed to decide whether the defendant was actuated by malice or by a desire for the good of the community.* Such was the law of libel in England until 1845. Now let us turn to the United States. The first amendments to the Federal Constitution, adopted in 1791, provided that Congress should make no law " abridging the free- dom of speech or of the press," and most of the early constitutions of the states already contained similar or more stringent guarantees. But in 1790 a further step had been taken by one of the Middle States. In that year Pennsylvania adopted her second Constitution, which contained the following provision : " In prosecu- tions for the publications of papers investigating thfe ofiicial conduct of officers or men in a public capacity, or where the matter published is proper for public infor- mation, the truth thereof may be given in evidence ; and in all indictments for libels the jury shall have a right to determine the law and the facts, under the direction of the court, as in other cases." This was two years before the half-way measure of Mr. Fox, and fifty-five years be- fore the bill of Lord Campbell. Imitating the example * Campbell's " Lives of the Chief Justices," " Mansfield," ii. 413. THE WRITTEN BALLOT 51 of Pennsylvania, the other states followed with similar provisions, so that long before the press was free in Eng- land, America had adopted the principle that in prosecu- tions for libel the truth could be given ia evidence if published for proper motives and for justifiable ends, and that the jury was to judge of the law as well as of the facts.* As we search in vain to find in England the origin of the rehgious freedom and the freedom of the press which prevail in the United States, so we shall meet with the same results in searching for the origin of the system under which our elections are carried on by means of a written or printed ballot. A secret election is the safe- guard of republican institutions. Where votes for pub- lic officers are given viva voce, or in any other manner which permits one person to learn how another has voted, there can be no real freedom of elections. This principle is now so well understood that it seems an axiom in politics, and yet it was not until the year 1872 that voting by ballot was introduced into the mother * New York did not embody this principle in lier Constitution until 1831 ; but the Legislature had declared by a statute, passed in 1805, that this was the law of the state. In 1735, when a colony, her lawyers insisted that the English law of libel was not applicable here, and the court held witli them so far as to permit the jury to pass upon the law as well as the facts, and the prisoner was acquitted. " Zeno-er's Trial," printed in New York and London. Thenceforth the New York press was free ; but in New England a censorship ex- isted until about 1755. Tyler's " Hist, of American Literature," i. 113. In 1723, for example, Benjamin Franklin was forced to leave Boston, much to the advantage of Pennsylvania, for having published a libel on its hierarchy ; his brother, for the same offence, was imprisoned for a month, and forbidden to publish his paper except under official supervision. 53 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA country. Until that time all municipal elections, and all elections for members of Parliament, were conducted by show of hands or oral declarations, after the primitive fashion of rude nations, the feudal chieftain, the land- lord, or employer being enabled to See whether his hench- men, tenant, or employe was voting for the candidate of his selection. For many years protests had been made against this system. O'Connell introduced a bill on the subject in 1830, and the original draft of the reform bill of Lord John Eussell provided for voting by ballot. But writ- ers like Sydney Smith denounced the "Mouse -trap" scheme, and the influence of the men who profited by intimidation or corruption was powerful enough to pre- vent its adoption until 1872, when Mr. Forster passed his famous act, which, deriving its main features from Australia, combines the elements of secrecy, simplicity, and efficiency.* Here again we see America as an instructor, and not as a copyist, of England. When the thirteen colonies adopted their first state constitutions, from 1776 to 1790, four of the thirteen — Delaware, Pennsylvania, iSTorth Carolina, and Georgia — provided that all voting at elections should be by baUot.f The Constitution of New York permitted the Legislature to try it as an ex- periment ; this was done in the election of governor and lieutenant-governor in 1778, and ten years later the new system was fully introduced. Following these exam- ples all the states, old and new, have by their constitu- * " Encyclopsedia Britannica,'' article " Ballot." t Connecticut and Rhode Island, which continued to live under their old charters for many years, already had the system. THE WEITTEN BALLOT IN AMERICA 53 tions provided for the same mode of voting, Kentucky bringing up the rear in 1891.* This is not the place for considering the question of the origin of reUgious liberty, the freedom of the press, or the secret ballot. Hereafter these subjects will be discussed. Eut one fact in regard to their existence in America is very apparent. As religious liberty and the secret ballot were established here nearly a century, and the freedom of the press more than half a century, before their establishment in England, we need not look for their origin to any English precedent. English writers, like Sir Henry Maine, who have looked into the Federal- ist^ express surprise at the sources from which the ex- pounders of the Federal Constitution drew their histori- cal illustrations. Their writings display, Maine says, an entire familiarity with the Republic of the United Neth- erlands, and the Eomano-German Empire, but " there is one fund of political experience upon Avhich the Federal- ist seldom draws, and that is the political experience of Great Britain."t But the men who founded the American * Kentucky, which was carved out of Virginia, adopted the ballot in its first Constitution, 1793, but went back to the English viva-voce system in 1799, and retained it until 1891, except in elections for congressmen, which are regulated by a statute of the United States. Virginia itself retained the old system until 1864. During the agi- tation for a ballot in England, extending over more than half a cen- tury, the example of the United States was constantly referred to by its advocates. See Edinburgh Beview, 1853, p. 611; 1831, p. 481. For other articles on the subject, see 1819, p. 165 ; 1833, p. 543 ; 1837, p. 211; 1857, p. 263. t " Popular Government," by Sir Henry Maine, p. 306. This same writer, in an earlier work, referring to the American Revolution, makes a significant remark : " Tlie American lawyers of the time, and particularly those of Virginia, appear to have possessed a stock of knowledge which diflfered chiefly from that of their English con- 54 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AMD AMERICA republics, state and federal, were not seeking to imitate Great Britain. They set out to establish institutions such as they thought England ought to have, and not those which they found existing. The difference between these twoobjects, the actual and the ideal English institutions of a century ago, although often overlooked, is very marked. Leaving now these great institutions which lie at the base of the republic, let us see how America deals with her dependent, abnormal, and criminal population, who in England form such a large section of the people. In 1842, Charles Dickens said of Boston : " Above all, I sin- cerely believe that the public institutions and charities of this capital of Massachusetts are as nearly perfect as the most considerate wisdom, benevolence, and human- ity can make them. I never in my life was more af- fected by the contemplation of happiness under circum- stances of privation and bereavement than in my visits to these establishments." * In commenting on the dif- ference between the charities of America and England, Dickens laid great and deserved stress upon the fact that those of this country were in the main managed by the state, while in England they are left to the benevo- lence of private individuals. He argued that where the unfortunate classes are regarded as wards of the people at large, a better feeling must exist towards the govern- ment than where they are considered outcasts and mere objects of private charity. This is the key-note of the difference between the nations, and Ave find the same contrast here as in the matter of education. temporaries in including much -which could only liave beeu derived from the legal literature of Continental Europe." — " Ancient Law," Amer. ed.p. 91. * " American Notes." CHARITABLE AND PENAL INSTITUTIONS 55 In the United States, the blind, deaf and dumb, and imbecile are looked upon as citizens having a claim upon the State, and it is one always cheerfully acknowledged. In England they are regarded as paupers, who must be kept from starving by the poor-rates, but beyond that having no claim upon the government. In fact, Great Britain, to-day, is the only country in the civilized world where the State does not aid in the education of the blind, the deaf and dumb, and those without ordinary mental powers.* The proportion of the abnormal class- es in America is much smaller than in Great Britain, so that fewer institutions are needed as compared with the population. Great Britain and Ireland, for example, have forty-six deaf-and-dumb asylums, all private, while the United States has sixty-nine. The latter are most- ly public, however, and in them the whole cost of board, clothing, and education is in almost every case under- taken by the State.f When we now turn to prison reforms, we shall see America again as an instructor. No one at all acquaint- ed Avith history needs to be told of the criminal code of England and of the prison system, which continued there until a Very recent date. Up to the reign of George I. there were sixty-seven offences that were punishable by * " The British tax-payer, alone among all civilized Christian men,, enjoys immunity from taxation for the instruction of those who un- der the name of the ' abnormal classes,' those who without sight and -without ordinary mental power, are the special care of even such a poor nation as Norway." — Dr. Buxton's " Notes on Progress." t The Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1884, p. 597; Report of U. S. Cora, of Education, 1887-88. Besides these, the United States have thirty- two public asylums for the blind and twenty-two for feeble-minded children. Idem. 56 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA death. Between his accession and the termination of the reign of George III., about one hundred and thirty -six were added to the number. Of the criminal statutes of Great Britain, Sir Samuel Romilly said : " I have examined the codes of all nations, and ours is the worst, and worthy of the anthropophagi." As for the prisons, they were what Macaulay called them, simply " hells on earth." The first reform in the criminal code of English-speak- ing people began in Pennsylvania, having been ordered in the State Constitution of 1776, and this was followed by a penitentiary built at Philadelphia in 1786, through the influence of the Friends. The method of confine- ment in this institution is known as the Pennsylvania system. It consists of absolute solitary imprisonment, in which the convict is shut off from all human compan- ionship. New York followed, in 1797, with a new penal code and a new penal system. At first, the solitary Pennsylvania plan was tried, but this was found to en- tail serious physical and mental evils upon the subjects. Finally, at Auburn prison there was introduced, in 1823, the system of solitary confinement at night, with congre- gated silent work by day. This is known as the Auburn system, and has been more generally adopted through- out the civilized world.* In Great Britain, despite the labors of the noble How- ard, Elizabeth Fry, and others, there was no real prison reform until after 1831. In that year a committee of the House of Commons was appointed to investigate the whole subject, and shortly afterwards it sent a rep- resentative, Mr. Crawford, across the Atlantic to exam- ine the prisons of America, which just at that time had * "A Half Century with Juvenile Delinquents," by B. K. Peirce, D.D. (New York, 1869), p. 31. HOUSES OF EEPUQE 57 been highly praised by distinguished travellers from France.* Upon his return, in 1834, Mr. Crawford made an able and exhaustive report, which attracted wide at- tention. The result was the introduction into England of the American prison system, upon both the Pennsyl- vania and the New York model. But America has done more than to give model peni- tentiary systems to the Old World. One of the great- est evils of the former prisons consisted in the huddling together of all ages and classes — the young with the old, the child guilty of his first offence with the habitual criminal, grown gray in crime. In the removal of this moral leprosy New York led the way by establishing, in 1824, a House of Kefuge for juvenile delinquents.! By the laws of the state magistrates were, and ever since have been, authorized to send to this reformatory institution all minors convicted of trivial offences, and even those guilty of felony if under sixteen years of age. There they are taught trades, are educated to hab- its of industry and thrift, learn that they have friends who care for their welfare, physical and spiritual, and the result has been that a large proportion of the in- mates have been permanently reformed. In 1828, Penn- sylvania followed the example of New York, and in the * " There can be little doubt," says a writer in the " EncyclopsEdia Britannica" (article " Prison Discipline "), " that tliis committee, like every one just then, was greatly struck by the superior method of prison discipline pursued in the United States. The best American prisons had recently been visited by two eminent Frenchmen, MM. Beaumont and De ^ocqueville, who spoke of them in terms of the highest praise. It was with the object of appropriating what was best in the American system that Mr. Crawford was despatched across the Atlantic on a special mission of inquiry." t Edinburgh Bemew, 1855, p. 396. 58 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA next forty years over twenty similar institutions were established in the United States, which, in that time, gathered within their walls from forty to fifty thou- sand criminal or imperilled children. From America the system has spread to Europe, and is now almost universal.* As the result of this kind of work, the com- mitments of female vagrants in the city of New York fell off from 5880 in 1860 to 2525 in 1885, although in that time the population nearly doubled. The commit- ments of young girls for petit larceny were diminished from 94:4 to 243, and those of males from 2626 to 1950. Since 1853 one association in New York, the Children's Aid Society, has found homes in the "West for some 80,000 persons, most of them outcast, neglected, and orphan children, of whom over ninety-five per cent, have turned out well.f England established her first public institu- tion for juvenile offenders under the act of 1854.;]: We have now reviewed most of the important institu- tions which may be considered peculiarly American — that is, such as are found in this country, and not in all other countries claiming to be civilized. In our freedom from a State Church, the principle of equality underly- ing our whole system, in our written constitutions, the organization of our Senate, the power of our Supreme Court, our wide-spread local self-government, and our methods of transmitting and alienating land, we find, even to-day, the most radical differences between Amer- ica and the mother country ; while we also find that we *"A Half Century with Juvenile Delinquents." The census of 1890 shows that there are now in the United States about sixty of these juvenile reformatories. Census Bulletin No. 73, t See Report of Society for 1886, p. 17. I See Nineteenth Century, Jan., 1887 ; " Prison Discipline," by Lord Norton. ORIGIN OF AMBEICAN LAW 59 have been leaders, and not followers, in those institu- tions where a resemblance now exists, such as our sys- tem of popular education, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, the secret ballot, and the vast machinery of public charitable and reformatory work. There still remains one subject to be considered in this connection, our American system of law, which is usu- ally regarded as of English origin. To some persons, especially those of the legal profession, this topic seems of great importance ; they call crimes by English names, use English phrases in their legal documents, read Eng- lish law-books, and are inclined to argue, from the stand- point of their studies, that we must be an English race, because we inherit the inestimable legacy of the Com- mon Law. The question as to our legal system has been already discussed, so far as relates to the most important sub- jects with which governments ever attempt to deal; that is, religion through the Church, education through the printing-press, means of subsistence through the land, and the development of manhood through local self-gov- ernment. Compared with the law upon these subjects, which England certainly did not transmit to us, the rules by which states or individuals transact their ordinary business are but minor matters. As for the machinery of justice in America, some feat- ures of it are important, for they have served to shape the national character ; such are trial by jury, the right of accused persons to be defended by counsel, and the employment by the State of special officers for the pros- ecution of criminals. These may be regarded as insti- tutions ; and, as they are not common to all countries, their origin is on that account noteworthy, and will receive consideration in another place. But the body 60 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA of municipal law, which lays down rules of action for the common affairs of life, stands on a different basis. Among all civilized nations, although different names may be employed, the same crimes are punished, and in much the same manner ; the same principles of law pre- vail in business matters, and there is but little variance in their modes of application. The question of the ori- gin of these rules as they exist to-day in the United States is, however, an interesting one, and, if not of in- trinsic importance, its discussion will throw a side-light on some other material subjects. Apart from the great differences already noticed, and some others which wiU be specifically pointed out here- after, the legal systems of England and America are much alike. But this alone does not prove that Ameri- can law is of English origin, any more than it would prove it in regard to the Decalogue, which we also have in common with our kin across the sea. The latter, al- though read by most Americans only in King James's version of the Bible, far antedates the birth of England, and so does much of what we somewhat loosely speak of as English law. Most of this law is a transplanted growth, very little, except the decayed or stunted shoots, having sprung from British soil. Some of it has come to us by the way of England — that is, through the decisions of her judges and the writings of her commentators — but even the amount of this is often overestimated. We speak of EngHsh law as of Enghsh agriculture and Eng- lish manufactures, little realizing at the time how all of the three have changed since America was settled. As to the law, the change, though gradual, has been almost a revolution.* * "An account of the growth and development of our legal system THE COLONISTS OPPOSED TO ENGLISH LAW 61 Such of the early settlers of America as came from England were so opposed to the whole legal machinery which they left behind them, that in some of the colo- nies lawyers were not permitted to practise their pro- fession. Any one who reads the State Trials of the time of Elizabeth and the Stuarts wiU understand their abhorrence of the English mode of administering crimi- nal law. But, apart from this, they disliked the whole civil jurisprudence of their native land, regarding it as cumbrous, intricate, unjust, a snare for the unwary and a weapon for the knave. "Well might they entertain such opinions, for probably they were founded on their own bitter experience. Few things in the history of England, during the last half of the sixteenth and the first part of the seventeenth century, are more remark- able than the prevalence of litigation, the growth and wealth of the lawyers, their chicanery, and the abuses of the courts.* The system was such that justice, even when there was honesty among the judges, was almost utterly lost sight of in a jungle of technicalities, worthy of the early schoolmen. The American colonists gener- ally supplanted this system with codes, many of the pro- visions of which were not borrowed from England, all having the merit of simplicity and being based on plain principles of justioe.t is perhaps the most urgently needed of all additions to English knowledge." — Sir Henry Maine, " The Early History of Institu- tions " (Henry Holt, 1888), p. 342. See Gneist, " Hist, of the English Constitution," ii. 331, as to the want of a work on the history of Eng- lish law in the eighteenth century, when the most rapid changes took place in some departments. * See Hall's " Society in the Elizabethan Age." t The early codes of Massachusetts and Connecticut are on some important points more than a century in advance of the law in Eng- 62 THK PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA As the colonies grew, their jurisprudence naturally de- veloped with them, and after they became independent states this development was much more rapid. New law was required to meet new conditions of society. Some- times the want was supplied by enactments of the Legis- lature, at others by what Bentham aptly called judge- made law, the creation of the courts. The result is that the legal system of America has changed about as much in the last two centuries as the face of the country itself. In England, too, the same change has been going on, in much the same directions, and from the same causes. Some of the admirers of the old Common Law, who re- gard it as the perfection of human reasoning — perhaps upon the theory that knowing it to be ugly they think it must be great — tell us that all this seeming transforma- tion is unreal, that there has been only a development of original principles, and that the seeds of all our mod- ern system were contained in the earliest jurisprudence of the English race. Such a view of the facts ignores all the Continental influences Avhich have affected the institutions of England, and to a much greater extent those of the United States. To show how this effect has been produced is the main object of the present work, and to its general discussion the subject of the law might make a fitting prelude. England and America have, to-day, much the same land. Cromwell, who had studied law, and the other leading men of the Commonwealth were almost as much opposed to the lawyers as the colonists themselves. They wished to simplify the law, but the lawyers, as a class, opposed tliis and every other reform. They flourished on abuses. Cromwell regarded them not only as corrupt, but as among tlie worst enemies of liberty. Hosmer's " Sir Henry Vane," p. 438. I shall show hereafter what attempts were made under the Commonwealth to reform the law. ROMAN LAW IN AMERICA 63 legal principles, but they are the same because derived in large measure from a common foreign source, the Ro- man Civil Law. It is to Eome that we are indebted for almost all of our system of equity and admiralty ; our laws relating to the administration of estates and the care of minors, the rights of married women, bailments, and, to a large extent, our whole system of commercial law. Of the old Common Law of early times, the sys- tem of a race of barbarians, very little now remains. How this has been brought about is a very simple story. It must be borne in mind that the men who conquered the Britons and founded England were pagan savages, the rudest of their race, and least tinctured with the civ- ilization of Rome. Cut ofp from the Continent, where much of the old civilization still survived, the descend- ants of these men lingered on in barbarism, long after some of their brethren across the Channel. As for the law of the conquerors, it was such as might be expected from such a source. They knew and cared little about legal principles. Quite early they established the doc- trine, common to all rude nations,* that what some chief or judge had decided years before, however monstrous or unjust, must be followed by his successors. This made memory take the place of reason, a substitution never entirely reversed among their descendants, either in legal or political discussions. But if there was little reason, there was enough reasoning to take its place. This, however, was of the same character as that which prevailed in the early universities, where words were everything and principles of small account. Under this system there grew up a jurisprudence cumbrous, compli- cated, aqd unnatural, which in many of its features will * See Maine's "Ancient Law." 64, THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA only excite amazement and derision among our descend- ants a few generations hence. Still, there was one link between England and the Continent; that was the Eomish Church, which was soon re-established. This brought in foreign ecclesiastics, and fortunately some of them had a knowledge of the law of Eome. They not only fostered its study in the colleges, but, obtaining judicial power as chancellors, where it was possible, and against the bitter opposition of the other Judges, they adopted its more enlightened princi- ples in the courts, building up what is known as the sys- tem of equity, to correct the crudities, injustice, and ab- surdities of the Common Law. When England in time became a commercial and manufacturing country, and was brought into contact Avith her more advanced neigh- bors, the process went on further. The nations of the Continent had formed their jurisprudence on the Civil Law : it was 'taught in their universities, and became the basis of all commercial dealings. Hence it was that with the development of her commerce and manufactures England absorbed more and more of the law of ancient Eome. As to the character of this law, let us call a few mod- ern witnesses. Chancellor Kent says of the Pandects of Justinian that, with all their errors and imperfections, they " are the greatest repository of sound legal princi- ples applied to the private rights and business of man- kind that has ever appeared in any age or nation."* Sir George Bowyer says : " The corpus of civil law is a ju- ridical compilation which contains the whole science of jurisprudence."t Eoby adds that the Civil Law of Eome * Kent's "Commentary," i. 541. t "Introduction to the Study of tbe Civil Law," p. 3. INFLUENCE OF THE CIVIL LAW 65 is to-day the principal source of private law in all the civilized countries of the world.* " Servatur ubique jus Eoinanum non ratione imperii sed imperio rationis."t It was upon this foundation that Grotius, of Holland, built up the modern system of international law. No one needs to be told that it was from the law of Eome that Lord Mansfield, in the last century, borrowed the principles which, though they excited the indignation of Junius, have given to his name an imperishable renown as the father of English commercial jurispru- dence. Within the present century the assimilation has been going on more rapidly then ever. Much of the re- sult, in America, is due to the efforts of Judge Story, whose text-books are filled with illustrations and prin- ciples borrowed from the Civil Law. But the work has been progressing in all directions. Looking at our legal system to-day, it can be said that most things in it con- sistent with natural justice come from Rome, and that its incongruous, absurd, and unjust features are a sur- vival of old English customs and English legislation. Such statements as to the influence of the Civil Law upon the jurisprudence of England and America may seem novel to some readers ; but the whole subject of the influence of Rome upon modern society is comparatively new. From tlieir early training, in school and college, many persons are inclined to regard the literature and * Roby's " Introduction to Justinian's Digest." t See also Phillimore's " Introduction to tlie Study of Roman Law," and "Private Law among the Romans." Sir Henry Maine says of it : " Tlie Roman law, which, next to the Christian religion, is the most plentiful source of the rules governing actual conduct throughout Western Europe."— " The Early History of Institutions" (Henry Holt, 1888), p. 9. Also Maine's " Ancient Law," passim. I.— 5 66 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA the history of Greece and Eome as standing on the same basis in their relations to modern life : that of impor- tance to the scholar, and of insignificance to the so-called man of practical affairs. This is a great mistake. We speak of the authors of Greece and Rome as equally the classics, and are inclined to regard the language, insti- tutions, and history of each country as equally dead. In fact, they are all living, but in a very different sphere of action. It has been well said that no language should be called dead which embalms living thoughts. From this point of view the Greek will never die, for it is the language of poetry, philosophy, and eloquence. In these . departments it reigns supreme, and here the Eoman tongue can bear no comparison with it. Hence it was that in the revival of learning the Greek classics played so great a part as re-civilizers of the world. Some per- sons think that their mission is now accomplished, and that for the future they may be relegated to the special- ists, with the authors of India or Egypt. Whether this is so or not we need not here discuss ; I desire now simply to call attention to the fact that the literature and his- tory of Eome occupy a very different position. The Greeks were poets, artists, philosophers ; the Eomans were essentially practical men, men of action, architects of empires, law-givers, moulders of institutions. From the historic life of Greece the modern world is cut off as by a broad deep sea, although one underlaid with electric cables such as now bind the continents together. From Eome, however, there is no such sever- ance. "When the barbaric hordes swept over the Conti- nent of Europe, in one sense Eome went down, but in another she survived, for she absorbed the conquerors, gave them her language and laws, and largely shaped their institutions. " All roads lead to Eome," says the EOME AND MODERN CIVILIZATION 67 old motto, and historians are beginning to fully appre- ciate, as Freeman has pointed out, that in modern history all roads also diverge from the Eternal City. So long as the centuries which succeeded the downfall of Eome were regarded as periods of almost abysmal darkness, sharply dividing ancient from modern' civiliza- tion and thus unworthy of .the attention of the scholar, this connection was of course unrecognized. In fact, in our school systems the study of Eoman history formerly ended with the foundation of the Empire. As for Gib- bon, whose magnificent work, although incomplete and corrected in many places by later investigations, still stands as a vast monument of erudition, it was the fashion to regard the author as an enemy of religion^ and his history as a book to be kept from the hands of the immature. The result has been that the past gen- eration had, in general, but vague notions of the Eoman Empire, regarding it as the home of tyranny and universal corruption, and its barbarian successors as something like a devastating flood which swept away all that the world had ever known of law, order, and civilization. One of the chief instruments in removing this erro- neous impression has been the study of the Eoman law, as carried on in the Continental universities. For many years it was believed that the Pandects of Justinian had been lost for centuries, and were only discovered at Amalfi in 1137. This theory has been thoroughly ex- ploded, and the fact established that they were never lost, but were always studied and became the chief fac- tor in moulding the jurisprudence of the new kingdoms of the Continent.* The other theory, that Eome, under * " History of the Roman Law during the Middle Ages," M. de Savigny. 68 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA the Empire, was the cesspool of corruption depicted by some of her historians and satirists has also been shown to be unfounded.* The Roman law took its form mainly in the first three centuries of the Empire. A portion of this period is described by Gibbon, in language of great significance, as the world's true golden age.f Those were what we call heathen times, but it must be remembered that, before this law was codified for future generations, Rome had accepted Christianity, and under its infiuence great and beneficial changes had been introduced, chief among which were those relat- ing to the rights and position of women and minors. In the sixth century, from 629 to 565, Justinian gath- ered up all that was considered valuable in the old and new systems, and gave to the world the compilations * " History of Eome and the Romau People," Victor Duruy, vi. 309, etc. t " If a man were called upon to fix the period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus. The vast extent of the Roman Empire was governed by absolute power under the guidance of virtue and wisdom. The armies were restrained by the firm but gentle hand of five successive emperors, whose character and authority commanded involuntary respect. The forms of the civil administration were carefully preserved by Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, and the Antonines, who delighted in the image of liberty and were pleased with considering themselves as the accountable ministers of the laws." — Gibbon, vol. i. cliap. iii. See as to Trajan's time, tlie Letters of the younger Pliny. One of these emperors, Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, has left for posterity his ideas as to life and its conduct. Nowhere can a nobler philosophy be found, inculcating, as it does, self-control, self-abnegation, benev- olence, charity, and toleration. THE CIVIL LAW AND THE COMMON LAW 69 which, ever since studied upon the Continent, have been the delight and wonder not alone of the jurist, but of the philosopher and moralist as well. What compari- son could be expected, when men put aside their petty prejudices, between such a system and that of the un- cultured pagan savages who laid the foundation of the English Common Law? From these suggestions the reader who is not a lawyer can perhaps understand why it is that American students who desire to obtain a pro- found knowledge of jurisprudence go to Germany to study the Civil Law.* * Tlie unprofessional reader can scarcely appreciate the rapid changes in our legal system now in progress, mainly attributable to the fact that we have cut loose from England, from English modes of thought and courses of study. At the 350th anniversary of Har- vard College, Judge Oliver Wendell Homes, Jr., of Massachusetts, made a notable address before the Law School Association. Speak- ing of Judge Story, who was a great student of the Civil Law, and who, he said, has done more than any other English-speaking man in this century to make the law luminous and easy to understand, he remarked : " But Story's simple philosophiaing has ceased to sat- isfy metfs minds. I think it might be said with safety that no man of his or of the succeeding generation could have stated the law in a form that deserved to abide, because neither his nor the succeeding generation possessed or could have possessed the historical knowl- edge, had made or could have made the analyses of principles, which are necessary before the cardinal doctrines of the law can be known and understood in their precise contours and in their innermost meanings. " This new work is now being done. Under the influence of Ger- many, science is gradually drawing legal history into its sphere. The facts are being scrutinized by eyes microscopic in intensity and pan- oramic in scope. At the same time, under the influence of our re- vived interest in philosophical speculation, a thousand heads are an- alyzinn- and generalizing the rules of law and the ground on which they stand. The law has got to be stated over again, and I venture 70 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA How America has led England in some of the more salient legal reforms can be seen from a few examples. When the American States adopted their first constitu- tions, five of them contained a provision that every person accused of crime was to be allowed counsel for his defence. The same right was, in 1791, granted for all America in the first amendments to the Constitution of the United States. This would seem to be an ele- mentary principle of justice, but it was not adopted in England until nearly half a century later, and then onl^'^ after a bitter struggle, to which I shall refer hereafter. Somewhat akin to this is the reverse principle prevail- ing in the United States, that in criminal trials the gov- ernment shall in every county be represented by a special public prosecutor, generally called a district attorney. Nothing of this kind is known in England, even at the present day, although the introduction of the sj'stem has been frequently advocated by the highest authorities. The last American reform in criminal law is that of allowing prisoners to testify in their own behalf. This is also now advocated in England.* In civil matters, the greatest reform of modern times has been the simplification of procedure in the courts, and the virtual amalgamation of law and equity. Here again America took the lead, through the adoption by New York, in 1848, of a Code of Practice, which has been followed by most of the other states of the Union, and in its main features has lately been taken up by Eng- land. In the same manner have come about the reforms in the laws relating to married women, by which a whole to say that in fifty years we shall have it in a form of which no man could have dreamed fifty years ago." * See article by Justice J. F. Stephen, Nineteenth Century, Oct., 1886. THE LEGAL EMANCIPATION OF WOMEN 71 sex has been emancipated. According to the old Eng- lish theory, a woman was a chattel, all of whose property belonged to her husband. He could beat her as he might a beast of burden, and, provided that he was not guilty of what would be cruelty to animals, the law gave no redress. In the emancipation of women Mississippi led off, in 1839, New York following with its Married Wom- en's Act of 1848, which has been since so enlarged and extended, and so generally adopted by the other states, that, for all purposes of business, ownership of property, and claim to her individual earnings, a married woman is to-day, in America, as independent as a man. In some respects we are still behind the Continental nations of Europe, which recognize the oneness of man and wife by providing that a husband shall not will away his prop- erty from the woman who has aided in its acquisition. That law, and the further one that a man shaU not dis- inherit his children without just cause, both derived from the jurisprudence of Eome, will come in time ; but for no such reforms, either past or present, need we look to English precedents. "With the law w^e may close for the present our com- parison of English and American institutions. The contrast between them is so striking that the deriva- tion of one from the other seems almost incredible. Nor is this contrast the result of any recent change in either country. As we have seen, it reaches back to the first settlement of New England, and has developed simply on its original Hnes. Here the spirit of the insti- tutions has always pointed to equality and the elevation of all classes through the machinery of the government. In England, on the other hand, with rare exceptions un- til very modern times, the government has been conduct- ed in the interest of the so-called upper classes— that is. 72 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA the few persons whose ancestors took possession of the land, the church, the machinery of the courts, the legis- lature, and the executive, and those who, in later days, have acquired wealth by trade.* The people have never been recognized, except for the few years when the Pu- ritans held sway. The striking fact to-day is, that the masses are rising up, and are bound to make their long- buried grievances acknowledged. The new England to be evolved from the coming change may not be so pict- uresque ; for vast estates and lordly castles, set off by moss-covered noisome hovels and troops of beggars, do certainly form picturesque objects in a landscape ; but the general happiness, the object of modern civiliza- tion, may be the gainer.f Much we owe to England, and the debt will never be ignored or outlawed. We have her vigorous language, are sharers of her noble literature, have many of her customs and modes of thought, and claim to inherit some of her indomitable energy, practical sagacity, hab- its of organization, and general love of fair play and open speech. In little things, too, often regarded as peculiar to America, we are only preserving old Eng- lish forms and customs. For example, when a vigi- lance committee in the South or West decorate an ob- noxious stranger with a coat of tar and feathers, they * One of these rare exceptions occurred in the reign of Heniy VIII., who, however he may have trampled on the rich and powerful, en- deared himself to the people at large, to an extent which the pres- ent generation find it difficult to understand, by his protection of the poor. Gneist's " Hist, of the English Constitution," ii. 187. t The coming change in England will probably be a peaceful one, for the practical Englishmen, unlike some of their neighbors, have a happy faculty of solving political problems when their solution becomes imperative. ORIGIN OP AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 73 are only exercising a form of English hospitality prac- tised in the seventeenth century.* When the Yankee says " I guess," he is but using the English of Chau- cer and Shakespeare.f So when he speaks of "fall" in- stead of autumn, he is following Dryden.:j: In calling a person "homely" instead of plain, he has the war- rant of Milton.§ So " whittle " is found to be old ; || " shck " also,l " freshet," ** and many other so-called Americanisms. There is no danger of the reader's underestimating the influence of England upon America, or the great virtues of the English people. But these subjects, important as they are in themselves, have no bearing upon the ques- tion which I have undertaken to discuss — the origin of our republican institutions. These institutions have moulded, and will serve hereafter to mould, the na- tion's life. The questions how and whence they came to America should interest not alone the scholar, but every one who cares for the future of his country. The past holds for us something beyond the mere pleasure of a romance. It lays before us as a lesson the experi- * Int. to Lowell's "Biglow Papers," vol. ii. t "Of twenty yere of age lie was, I gesse." — Chaucer. " Better far, I guess, That we do make our entrance several ways." " 1st Part Henry VI.," act ii. sc. 1. f " What crowds of patients the town doctor kills ; Or how last fall he raised the weekly bills.'' § " It is for homely features to keep home. They had their name hence."— Milton, " Comus." I In " Hakewith on Providence," 1637, given by Johnson. f Used by Chapman, 1603, Sir Thomas Browne, and Fuller. ** " All fish from sea or shore, Freshet or purling brook." — Milton. 74 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA ence of other nations ; of those alone who have the sa- gacity to profit by that experience can it be said that " histories make men wise." The method in which this subject has been heretofore generally treated is familiar to every reader, and it is a method which has at least the merit of simplicity, obvi- ating the necessity of all original investigation. Look- ing back at American literature, we find that, to all ques- tions regarding the origin of our un-English institutions, the stock-answer has been returned, that they were in- vented by those mysterious and inspired prophetic souls who founded Massachusetts. Of all the fabled heroes of antiquity, architects of empires, or benefactors of the human race, none, in popular opinion, have ever equalled in depth of thought and fecundity of iijvention the plain artisans and farmers who crossed the ocean in the May- flower, or those who followed them in the next few years. What a marvellous magician's bath the Atlantic must have been two centuries and a half ago, when even a sail across its waters could work such miracles ! If any other nation succeeds in originating a single great in- stitution in an ordinary lifetime, it gains historic fame. In this case, the mere voyage from England sufficed, Ave are expected to believe, for the invention of at least three of the first magnitude. At the head of the list stands the free-school system of the United States. For this claim we have the authority of James Russell Lowell, who calls it the invention of our Puritan ancestors in Massachusetts.* The second is the township system. This also originated in the same quar- ter, according to Palfrey, the historian of New Eng- * Essay on " New England Two Hundred Years Ago,'' Among My Books. THEIR REPUTED ORIGIN 75 land.* The third is the system of recording deeds and mortgages. This also is claimed to have been devised in America, presumably in Massachusetts.f As the set- tlers of New England certainly did possess these impor- tant institutions, while the Englishmen at home as cer- tainly did not, the inference that they were invented in America is a natural one, if we set out with the assump- tion that England is the only other country in the world. However, a little light is thrown upon the subject when we learn that free schools existed, not only among the Eomans, but among the Moors nine centuries ago; that the township system prevailed in Central Asia probably before the dispersion of the human race, and now exists in upper India ; and that deeds were recorded in Egypt long before the Christian era. These are but specimens of American institutions, and simple illustrations of the ordinary mode of dealing with their history by modern writers, for we may notice that our ancestors never made such claims. Some per- sons might think that it was characteristic Yankee tall- talk, indulged in only among uneducated people, to credit their origin to Massachusetts and to transplanted Eng- lishmen; but this, as we have already seen, is incor- rect. Most English and all American histories have been written after the same modeLJ * i. 275. t " New American Cyclopaedia," article " Recording." X Another example will illustrate this even more fally. In 1836, Edward Everett delivered an address in commemoration of the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of Harvard College. Refer- ring to the appropriation by the General Court of Massachusetts of the sum of four hundred pounds for the establishment of that insti- tution, he said : " I must appeal to gentlemen around me, whether before the year 1636 they know of such a thing as a grant of money 7G THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA In all this there is nothing remarkable ; for to persons accustomed from early education never to look beyond Great Britain for anything American, our institutions, when not recognized as English, may well seem to be original. In addition is the fact that such a mode of dealing with one's ancestors has, until a recent date, seemed patriotic among all nations. It is to be hoped, however, that to the present generation, extending its researches in all directions, these institutions will not be less dear or less important because found to have about them some of the halo of republican antiquity, reaching back further than the voyage of the ixaraortalMayflower. "We speak of this as the " new world," but geologically it is the old. Modern scientists, in studying the records furnished by the rocks, have discovered that it was in being when Europe was submerged beneath the waves. by the English House of Commons to found or endow a place of edu- cation. I think there is no such grant before that period, nor till long after; and therefore I believe it is strictly within the bounds of truth to say that the General Court of Massachusetts, which met in September, 1636, is the first body in which the people by their repre- sentatives ever gave their own money to found a place of education." The same kind of language was used at the 250th anniversary in 1886. No such thing being known in England, therefore it never existed. Wo shall see hereafter how, half a century before the time of which Mr. Everett spoke, the people of Holland, through their represent- atives, had given all the buildings and a magnificent endowment for the establishment of two free universities, one of which (that of Leyden) is among the most distinguished in the world. Many of the men who settled in Massachusetts came from Leyden, and Har- vard College itself was established on land settled by colonists led by Thomas Hooker, a refugee English preacher who had lived in Holland for three years. Strange enough such language as that of the Governor of Massachusetts would have sounded to the men who made the grant of four hundred pounds. ANTIQUITY OF AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS 77 So of our system of government. The political move- ments of the last century have worked such changes across the ocean that to-day the Constitution of the United States is almost the oldest in existence outside of Asia. But our leading institutions go back much further. When historians come to study them, as they have studied dynasties, they will find that here also America is the old and much of Europe the new bar- baric world. In the construction of the republic, our fathers had the same advantages which a man of fortune possesses who sets out to build a new house. Although not rich in gold, they were the heirs of all the wisdom of the ages. They were hampered by no old structure to be modernized, and by no old materials to be put to use. A continent lay before them on which to build ; the whole world was their quarry, and all the past their architects. They showed marvellous skill, wisdom, and foresight in the selection of their plans, in the choice of their materials, and in their methods of construction. All this is honor enough, without endowing them with the lamp of an Aladdin or the wand of a magician. Taking the word in its broad sense, the institutions of America are largely Puritan, so that we must look to the growth of Puritanism to understand their introduction. But when we seek for their origin, we should send our thoughts far beyond the little island of England or the narrow confines of Massachusetts. National institutions are like great trees standing in a field, which, though showing only a trunk and branches above the surface, have another frame as large spreading through the soil below. Those of America shelter to-day over sixty million people. Their roots are too large to be contained in any one small quarter of the globe. Two great elements have contributed to make Amer- 78 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA ica what it is : one, the civilization of ancient Rome, with its genius for government and its instinct for justice and equal rights ; the other, the strong wild blood of the Germanic race, with its passion for indi- vidual freedom, which has given nerve, energy, and strength to modern Europe. The first of these elements was utterly extinguished in England by the Anglo-Saxon conquest, while the feudal system afterwards came in to rob the Germanic conquerors of many of their early ideas regarding civil liberty. One country alone in Northern Europe was largely free from both this devastation and this blight. There the civilization of Rome was never extinguished, and the feudal system took but feeble root. The people' were of Germanic blood, and preserved more purely than any others their Germanic ideas and institutions ; but engrafted on them were the arts, the learning, and the laws derived from communication with civilized and civilizing Italy. To the patriot, to the lover of civil and religious liberty, as well as to the student of art and science in any land, the history of this republican country must always have a peculiar charm. But, apart from its general features, this history is so interwoven with that of England and America that any one concerned with the past of either of these countries will find it a subject of unfailing interest. When modern Englishmen set out to write the history of their country, they cross the Channel and describe the Angles and the Saxons in their early home upon the Continent.* That home was so near to the Netherlands that the people of Holland and the conquerors of Britain * See Green's "Making of England," Stubb's " Constitutional His- tory," etc. DKBT OF ENGLAND TO THE NETHERLANDS 79 spoke substantially the same language, and were almost of one blood. To the Englishman, thinking only of the greatness of his own land, this original relationship may seem sufHcient honor for a tiny fragment of the earth's surface not as large as Switzerland, but it is only the first chapter of the story. For hundreds of years in later times, and until long after the settlement of Amer- ica, the Netherlands stood as the guide and instructor of England in almost everything which has made her materially great. When the Reformation came in which Northwestern Europe was new-born, it was the Nether- lands which led the van, and for eighty years waged the war which disenthralled the souls of men. Out of that conflict, shared by thousands of heroic Englishmen, but in which England as a nation hardly had a place, Puri- tanism was evolved — the Puritanism which gave its triumph to the Netherland Eepublic, and has shaped the character of the English-speaking race. In time, England came to hate the benefactor to whom she owed so much, and some of her people have repaid their debt in a manner not uncommon in such cases. Thus, after the Eestoration of the Stuarts, and still more after the Tory reaction which followed the Eevolution of 1688, the political writers about the court habitually ridiculed the Dutchmen for virtues which they could not understand. The republican Hollander thought it a disgrace to have his wife or daughter de- bauched by a king or noble. The courtiers about Charles II. viewed this subject differently, and regarded the Dutchman as ill-mannered for his want of taste.* * In Holland, where he passed part of his days of exile, Charles and his courtiers were constantly and openly rebuked for their licen- tious and profligate habits. These rebukes were as little relished 80 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Added to this were the Hollander's respect for the pri- vate rights of all classes ; his devotion to art and learn- ing ; his love of fair dealing in personal and in public matters ; his industry, frugality ; and, finally, his univer- sal toleration. A man with these traits of character, al- though sympathetic with the English Puritan on many points, was hardly comprehensible to the ruling classes in England two centuries and a half ago. No one could deny the Dutchmen's courage, for they were among the boldest soldiers and sailors that the world has ever seen ; but they were not gentlemen from the aristocratic point of view. As for the Englishmen of the Restoration, one little incident will illustrate what they thought high breed- ing. Sir "William Temple, as is well known, was one of the most elegant and accomplished gentlemen at the Court of Charles II. — a wit among the courtiers, and a courtier among the wits.* Being sent as ambassador to The Hague, he fortunately jotted down some of his experiences, and among others the following. Dining one day with the Chief Burgomaster of Amsterdam, and having a severe cold, he noticed that every time he spit on the floor, while at table, a tight, handsome wench, who stood in a corner holding a cloth, got down on her knees and wiped it up. Seeing this, he turned to his host and apologized for the trouble which he gave, receiving the jocular response, " It is well for you that and as little forgiven by the " meri^ monarch " as was the stern dis- cipline to which he was subjected in Scotland during his early life. Rogers's " Story of Holland," p. 257 ; Davies, iii. 13. No reader needs to be reminded how many of the noble families of England are descended from illegitimate scions of royalty, and how they prize their ancestry. * Macaulay's Essays, " Sir "William Temple." ENGLISH ANTIPATHY TO THE DUTCH 81 my wife is not home, for she would have turned you out of the house for soiling her floor, although you are the English ambassador." This incident, he says, " illustrates the authority of women in Holland." That it conveyed no other lesson to his mind gives us a bet- ter idea of the manners of the English upper classes two centuries ago than pages of description.* Hallam, writing of England in the time of Elizabeth, says : " Hypocritical adulation was so much among the vices of that age, that the want of it passed for rudeness." f It was this form of rudeness in the Hollander, and not what would be called bad manners to-day, that was found objectionable by the English. When we now remember that England and Holland became commercial rivals, and that England has never scrupled at anything to crush out a competitor, we need not wonder at the national prejudice towards the Dutch- man, whose virtues, developed under a republic, were a standing protest against a government for the upper classes alone. In 1673, Chancellor Shaftesbury, in an address to Parliament, summed up the whole case against Holland. It was an enemy of all monarchies, especially the English; their only competitor in commerce and naval power, and the chief obstacle to the universal do- minion which England should aim at : Delenda esto Car- thago. Such a government must be destroyed. :j: Such, in brief outline, is the origin of the Englishman's antipathy to the Ihitch ; an antipathy which in great * "Memoirs of what Passed in Cliristendom from 1673 to 1679," Sir William Temple's "Works, ii. 458. See .also Felltham's " Re- solves ;" " Observations on the Low Countries," 13th ed. (London, 1709), p. 609. t "Const. Hist."i. 377. I " Parlt. Hist." vol. iv. col. 504, cited by Davies. I— 6 82 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA measure had led to a general disparagement of this peo- ple, and thus to obscuring the truth of history ; although to such an exhibition of national prejudice there have always been illustrious exceptions.* That the American of English descent should, in for- mer times, have shown some of this prejudice is in no ways remarkable, since he knew little of the facts. But his indulgence in the disparagement at the present day, when all the records are accessible, is a very different matter, for it is to the country of this republican people, * What some of the able Englishmen of the seventeenth century thought of them will be shown in a late chapter. As to those of modern times, the first whom we may notice is Samuel Rogers, the poet. He, in the notes to his " Italy," pays a high tribute to the Dutch Eepublic, as superior to Venice, saying that it produced " not only the greatest seamen, but tlie greatest lawyers, the greatest physicians, the most accomplished scholars, the most skilful paint- ers, and statesmen as wise as they were just." Hallam, an able and certainly not a prejudiced judge, says that Holland, "at the end of the sixteenth century and for many years afterwards, was pre-emi- nently the literary country of Europe," and all through the seven- teenth century was the peculiarly learned country also. The Dutch were "a great people, a people fertile of men of various ability and erudition, a people of scholai's, of theologians and philosophers, of mathematicians, of historians, and we may add of poets." — Hallam's " Literature of Europe," iii. 278, iv. 59. Macaulay, writing of the period just before the English revolution of 1688, says that the aspect of Holland " produced on English travellers of that age an effect similar to the effect which the first sight of England now produces on a Norwegian or a Canadian." " History of England," chap. ii. Still fuller is the tribute of the last English writer upon Holland, a mem- ber of Parliament and a professor of political economy at Oxford. He claims that the revolt of the Netherlands and the success of Hol- land is the beginning of modern civilization, the Dutch having taught Europe nearly everything which it knows. "The Story of Holland," by James E. Thorold Rogers, pp. 10, 11. IMPORTANCE OF NBTHKELAND HISTORY 83 in many respects so like his own, but so different from England, that he must turn if he would understand the making of the United States. Nor is it only to the republicans of America or the students of the past that this country is of interest. The story of the rise and development of the Nether- lands should be known to every one who cares about the political, social, and economic questions which now agitate the world. Does one wish to see what . local self-government can do for a people, nowhere can he find a better example of its strength than in the cities which made up the great Netherland Eepublic. Does he, on the other hand, wish to see the weakness of a federation in which the general government does not deal directly with the citizen, but only with organic bodies of the State ; nowhere, not even in the confed- eration which preceded our American Union, will he find a better illustration than that afforded by the same republic in its early days. When we turn to other questions, social and economic, a still broader field is opened up. The history of this country, when rightly understood, probably disposes of more popular delusions and throws more light upon the future of democracy than that of any other country in the world. However, as it has been the interest of the so-called upper classes to foster these delusions, perhaps we should not wonder at the little attention bestowed upon this history. What, for example, becomes of the standing argu- ments for an aristocracy and for men of leisure when we turn on them the light from Holland? English writers are accustomed to tell us that art and science owe their encouragement to the existence of the noble orders, and that but for their example fine manners and 84 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA lofty thought would vanish from the earth. Nowhere can be found a better illustration of the defective rea- soning which draws general conclusions from insufficient data. In England, this has appeared to be the fact, because in that country the aristocracy have largely absorbed the wealth and education which enable men to foster art and science. Yet England, until a very recent day at least, has done almost nothing for art, and in science and deep scholarship could never be com- pared with Holland in her palmy days. But Holland owed her pre-eminence in these departments, not to an aristocracy, nor even to a moneyed class Avhose inher- ited wealth led them to abstain from business. The men who sustained her painters and musicians, who fostered science and broad learning, were the plain burghers in the cities, merchants, and manufacturers, men whom Queen Elizabeth called "base mechanicals," who all Avorked themselves, and by example or by precept taught that labor alone is honorable. In this connection a sin- gle incident will show how mathematics were cultivated in the Netherlands. In 1617, a young French soldier, serving in the Dutch army, was passing through the streets of Breda. A crowd was gathered on a corner, and he pushed forward to learn the cause of the excitement. Its members were all studying a paper posted on a wall, and talking about its contents. As he did not understand the language, he asked a by-stander to translate it for him into French or Latin. The paper contained an abstruse mathemat- ical problem, which in this way had been submitted to the public for solution; The soldier obtained his trans- lation, went to his quarters, and a few days afterwards sent in the correct answer, signed "Descartes." This was the introduction to the world of the greatest philos- ENGLISH AND DUTCH OFFICIAL HONESTY 85 opher and TBathematician of the age, whose transcen- dent ability was at once recognized in Holland.* Can the reader imagine such an occurrence as this in the England of the Stuarts ? A crowd might have gathered there to see a bull-baiting or a dog-iight, but never to study a problem in mathematics. As for the nobihty of character and loftiness of thought supposed to be encouraged by an hereditary aristocracy, the contrast is no less striking. "When Eliz- abeth sent a little army to the Netherlands to assist in the war with Spain, there was hardly one of her cap- tains, no matter how high his rank, who did not swin- dle in his pay-rolls, until Prince Maurice detected and stopped the fraud.f As for the nobles at home, under Elizabeth and her successor, many of them who bore the most illustrious names, and occupied the highest social position, were then, like their descendants for genera- tions afterwards, always up for sale. They took bribes from every quarter, even from the enemy, and never seemed to suffer in the public estimation when detected. :j: How, during the war in the Netherlands, some of her of- ficers sold out the fortresses committed to their charge, and how Ehzabeth herself was always attempting to betray her Protestant allies, we shall see hereafter. Turning now to Holland, republican Holland, the country of the " base mechanicals," the opposing record is a very brief one. Never in war or peace, though Spain was lavish of promises and a master of corrup- tion, was a native Hollander bought with gold.§ The * " John de Witt," by James Geddes, p. 35. t Motley's " United Netlierlands," iii. 98, 99. I Ibid., iv. 480, etc. § Davies's "Holland," ii. 656. 86 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Dutch ofBcials were of a class very different from that encountered at the English Court. "When, in 1608, the Spanish ambassadors were on their way to negotiate a treaty at The Hague, they saw eight or ten persons land from a little boat, and, sitting down on the grass, make a meal of bread and cheese and beer. " Who are these travellers ?" said the Spaniards to a peasant. " They are the deputies from the States," he answered, " our sov- ereign lords and masters." " Then we must make peace," they cried ; " these are not men to be conquered !" * It was not alone upon the land, nor among the upper classes, that we mark the contrast between the English and Dutch ideas of official honesty. In 1656, two Span- ish treasure - ships were captured by Cromwell's navy. They were said to have contained about a million ster- ling, but when brought into port two thirds of the booty was missing, having been stolen by the officers and men. One captain, it was reported, secured about sixty thou- sand pounds.t In 1627, the Dutch navy had also capt- ured a Spanish treasure-fleet, containing silver and gold valued at over twelve million florins.;]: Bringing his prize into port and having turned over all the treasure to the government, Peterson Heyn, the admiral, who had begun life as a common sailor, was asked to name his own reward. He answered that he wished for no re- ward in money, having only done his duty to the State ; but that he would like permission to retire to private life.§ * Voltaire, quoted in " Notes to Rogers's Italy." t Guizot's " Cromwell," p. 370. I About a million sterling. § Davies's "Holland," ii. 573. He was not permitted to retire, but was made lieutenant admiral, and two years later died glori- ously in battle. He was buried at Delft, near William of Orange. THE ENGUSH NEVEU UNDERSTOOD THE DUTCH 87 Such men as these, who were not exceptional, but only- types, the English ruling classes understood as little as some of their descendants understood Washington and Lincoln when alive. Admiral De Euyter, one of the greatest naval heroes of all time, who began life as a rope-maker, was found by the French Count de Guiche, on the morning after his four days' battle with the English fleet, feeding his chickens and sweeping out his cabin. William of Orange, when at the height of his authority, mingled with the common people, wearing the woollen waistcoat of a bargeman, and an old mantle which a student would have pronounced threadbare.* The naval commanders of England, who, in the main, were nothing more than pirates, looked down on the simple-minded Dutchmen, who wanted no reward but the consciousness of having done their duty. The court- iers around Elizabeth and her successors, who wore their fortunes on their backs, and thought any mode of get- ting money honorable except to labor for it, sneered at the republicans who hung the walls of their houses with the choicest paintings, cultivated music, studied science and the classics, and were the greatest soldiers and sail- ors of the age, but went about in plain clothing, dis- pensed exact justice to poor and rich ahke, cared for the unfortunate, and frowned on idleness and vice. The world, however, has moved in the last three centuries, although this feeling has, in some quarters, not entirely disappeared. In the preceding pages I have attempted to show how radically the leading institutions of America differ from those of England. To trace the origin of these insti- * Taine, " Brooke's Sidney," p. 16 et seq. 88 THE PDEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA tutions is to tell the story of Puritanism in the Neth- erlands, where the Puritan, with his centuries of civili- zation and self-government behind him, was of a very different type from his brother across the Channel. To show how they came to America is to tell the story of the English Puritan, much of which relating to his men- tal and moral environments, and the influences which shaped his character, giving it some unlovely features, never has been attempted. These lines of investigation constantly cross each oth- er; for the period of the great struggle for civil and religious liberty in the Netherlands, out of which the Puritan in Holland was evolved, also gave birth to the English Puritan, and to the settlement of what is now the United States. It is only by looking at the whole story together, and keeping in mind the connection of its different parts, that we can understand how the American Eepublic, the foundations of which were laid by the Pilgrim Fathers, was influenced by its prototype on the other side of the Atlantic. I hope, therefore, that the reader will pardon me if in some places I lead him over familiar fields, although my path, especially in England, will present views somewhat different from those generally given by historians.* * To some readers it may appear tliat in my early chapters too much space has been given to the affairs of the Netherlands, which Motley is supposed to have made familiar to tlie public. This criti- cism might have more force if I could assume that all my readers would be fresh from the study of Motley's works. But even among historical scholars I am inclined to think that many have had an experience like mine. Wlien I read " The Rise of the Dutch Repub- lic," at its first appearance, I thought many portions of it too highly colored. The author did not, to my satisfaction, explain why this OMITTED DUTCH HISTORY 89 people should exhibit sucli heroic traits of character, and develop so high a form of civilization as compared with that of their con- temporai'ies in other lands. These questions, perhaps, seemed of little materiality to the historian who, from the original records, was ■writing the story of a single epoch. For my purposes, however, it has been necessary to go back of the inception of the struggle with Spain, and to seek out the origin and nature of the national institu- tions and characteristics which gave strength to the insurgents, de- veloped their civilization, and led to their influence on England and America. In doing this, I have become fully satisfied of the sub- stantial fidelity of Motley's naiTative, while I have also become con- vinced that the comparatively little effect produced by his works on modern historical thought, as shown in the histories of other coun- tries, especially those of England and America, is largely due to the absence of what he has omitted. Some of these omissions I have attempted to supply, and, to make the result at all intelligible, the repetition of a portion of the narrative has seemed to me essential. CHAPTER I. THE NETHEELANDS BEFORE THE WAR WITH SPAIN THE COTTNTEY AND ITS PEOPLE, AGKICULTUEE, MANUFACTUEES, COMMEECE, AND AET It has been customary among modern writers, when treating of the Puritans, to confine their use of the name to Enghshmen or their descendants in America. But the word, when iirst originated, had no such restricted mean- ing. It came into the EngUsh language during the early- days of Elizabeth, and was constantly employed through- out the reigns of the first two Stuarts. Its meaning in the country of its origin was changed from time to time, but it was always applied to a type of man which was not peculiar to England.* Hence it was that, while Eliz- abeth and James I. were on the throne, men in Holland were called Puritans, both by Hollanders and English- men, equally with men of the same class in England ; and in modern times Motley has used the name in the same manner.f Supported by these precedents, I have in this work given to the words Puritan and Puritan- ism a broader significance than that usually accorded to them. ' * See Preface, p. ix. Wlien I come to consider the development of English Puritanism, I shall show how the name originated, and what meanings were attached to it at various periods. t Motley's " United Netherlands," ii. 133 ; " Life of Barneveld," ii. 119, 284, 285. THE PURITAN OF HOLLAND 91 In many of his characteristics the Puritan was as old as history itself. In almost every clime and age men have stood up to advocate reforms, and by their lives to protest against the immoraUty and corruption of the society about them. But the pecuUar characteristic of the Puritan, distinguishing him from prior reformers in Church or State, was his religious belief. He was the child of the Eeformation, and it is therefore to the teach- ings of the Eeformation that we must look for his origin. But although the Eeformation produced the Puritan, it wrought no miracle in the nature of the men whom it affected. If it found them ignorant and narrow-minded, it did not at once make them learned and liberal in their ideas. On the contrary, its first effects were rather in the opposite direction, intensifying some of their natural failings. Like all other great spiritual revolutions, it took men as it found them, and developed them on their original lines. In the end it broadened their ideas, and, by teaching them the equahty of man in the eyes of his Creator, led up to the lesson of human equality on earth. But such lessons bear their fruit very slowly ; and had the world waited until their development in England, its modern harvest might have been long deferred. The Puritan of England followed, but after a consid- erable Interval, his prototype in Holland. He borrowed from HoUand many of the ideas and institutions which he attempted to introduce into England, and with which he succeeded in the United States. Although in each country he was the product of the Eeformation, it was the Eeformation engrafted on the past. It is therefore to their respective pasts that we must look if we would understand why the Puritans of Holland differed so widely from those of England, and how the one came to affect the other. To the American of English descent 92 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA such an examination should be of peculiar interest, for in tracing the development of the Hollanders, he is not following the records of an alien race. They were of sub- staiitially the same blood as his English ancestors ; so that, in comparing the past of the two, he is simply seeing how his own kith and kin developed under the influence of different natural environments and different institutions. Beginning now with the country of the elder and more matured civilization, let us first consider the in- fluences which shaped the character of the Puritan of the Netherlands. Following this we shall, in these early chapters, see something of the struggle with Spain, in which that character was developed, down to the time when the Puritans of England came under the direct in- fluence of their brethren across the Channel. In the middle of the sixteenth century, the Nether- lands, or Low Countries, as they were often called, con- sisted of seventeen separate provinces, which together covered a territory about half the size of England. As the result of their great reTolt from Spain, this little tract of land was divided into two nearly equal portions. The ten southern Catholic provinces, now composing Belgium, continued under their foreign ruler. The northern seven, which were Protestant, by the most re- markable war in history — a war waged by sea and land for eighty years — were welded into the great Dutch Re- public, called the United Netherlands, and sometimes Holland, after the name of the largest state of the con- federacy. This republic, with its thirteen thousand square miles of surface, formed but a patch upon the map of Europe : England alone is four times as large, Great Britain and Ireland ten times, France nearly twenty, Europe three hundred ; Switzerland is larger ; historic Greece was half as large again. THE COtlNTEY OF THE NETHERLANDERS 93 The improvements of modern science, especially in the machinery of war, together -with the general progress of societj'-, have a tendency to equalize men, and give countries rank according to their size and population. It therefore seems strange to us that within three cen- turies the world should have been led by a people who occupied so minute a subdivision of its surface. The first glance at the character of their country would have a tendency to add to this surprise, for, picturing it as it appeared in early days, one would ask how man ever re- duced it to subjection. Then, however, would follow the thought that a race which could conquer this cross be- tween the earth and the sea might, with one element in either hand, easily control the world. The Netherlands are largely composed of the alluvial deposit of the Meuse, the Scheldt, and the Ehine. For countless ages these rivers poured into the German Ocean the soil of France and Germany, building up the mainland, as the Nile has done in the Mediterranean, and the Mississippi in the Gulf of Mexico. The sea in return cast up its dunes and sand-banks. Back of these, and behind the hardening slime which the rivers heaped up from side to side as they straggled on their course, most of the country was a broad morass. Here and there were islands which seemed to float on the surface of the ooze, tracts of brushwood, forests of pine, oak, and alder, while tempestuous lakes filled in the picture. Along the coast appeared a succession of deep bays and gulfs, through which the Northern Ocean swept in re- sistless fury. At length, the wearied rivers appear to have given up the contest, and lost themselves, wander- ing helplessly amid the marshes. Then man took up the strflggle. Little by little the land was rescued; dikes chained the ocean and curbed the rivers in their 94 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA channels ; lakes were emptied, canals furrowed, and even the soil itself created. In this warfare with the elements, the brunt of the contest fell on the hollow-land, or Holland. It had no iron — in fact, no metal of any kind — for tools, and no stone for houses or for dikes. Even wood was wanting, for the early forests had been destroyed by tempests. To this country nature seemed to have denied nearly all her gifts ; so that, almost disinherited at birth, it stands a vast monument to the courage, industry, and energy of an indomitable people. From end to end it is to-day a frowning fortress, keeping watch and ward against its ancient enemy, the sea.* In great part it lies below the water level. Even now inundations ever threaten ruin. One who has seen the North Sea in a fury can imagine what such perils were in the earlier days when science was in its infancy. Time after time whole districts have been submerged, cities swallowed up — twenty, eighty, a hundred thousand persons disappearing in a night. So marked have been the transformations from this cause that a map of Holland as it existed eight hundred years ago would not be recognized to-day.f * Tlie coast of Harlem is protected by a dike of Norway granite, five miles in length and forty feet iu height, which is buried two hundred feet beneath the waves. Amsterdam is built entirely on piles, frequently thirty feet long. The foundations of every town and village in Friesland are artificial constructions. It is estimated that seven and a half billions of francs have been expended on pro- tective work between the Scheldt and the Dollart. Taine's "Art in the Netherlands," pp. 39, 40. t Edinburgh Review, Oct., 1847, p. 426 ; " Holhiiid and its People," De Amicis ; Taine's " Art in the Netherlands," Durand's transl., p. 38, and authorities cited. This change has been going on in the whole of the Netherlands. For example, Ghent was a seaport in the ninth century, and Bruges iu the twelfth. THE GEOGBAPHICAL FACTOR IN HISTORY 95 Still, man remained the conqueror. On this patch of manufactured earth was realized the boast of Archime- des. The little republic, just come to maturity when America was settled, vanquished and well-nigh de- stroyed the mightiest military power of Europe. Short- ly afterwards, it met the combined forces of Charles II. and Louis XIV. of France. As a colonizer it ranks sec- ond to England alone, reaching out to Java, Sumatra, Hindostan, Ceylon, New Holland, Japan, Brazil, Guiana, the Cape of Good Hope, the West Indies, and New York. To-day the waste which the ancients looked on as unin- habitable is among the most fertile, the wealthiest, and most populous regions of the world ; its people stand the foremost in Europe for general intelligence and purity of morals.* It is very evident that these Netherlanders must have had a remarkable history. That history can only be un- derstood by always bearing in mind the natural surround- ings and conditions of existence in this peculiar land. The destinies of every people are determined, to a great extent, by the soil, climate, and geographical configura- tion of their country ; but these influences differ in in- tensity, and hence in the manner and rapidity, with which they accomplish great results. Thus it is that the question of geographical situation becomes of more im- portance in the history of some nations than in that of others, although this truth is not always given its due prominence. For example, the whole story of the English people centres around the fact that they have lived in an island * Proportions considered, there are fewer persons in Holland igno- rant of the alphabet than in Prussia. " Holland and its People," De Amicis, p. 157, Amer. ed. 96 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA fortress, where, since the ISTormaii Conquest, they have been secure from Continental invasion and left to work out their own problems substantially undisturbed. Such a position of separation from the elder nations of the Continent has had its marked advantages, developing the love of country and liberty, the self-confidence, and the practical sagacity for which the Englishman has always been distinguished. To it is also largely due the vast accumulated wealth which has made this little island the treasury of the world. But, on the other hand, the very isolation which has had such beneficent results, with the security from reprisals which has made her wide-spread spoliations possible, lies at the bottom of many of her great defects. The gigantic moat which separates her from the rest of Europe has kept out much of good as well as of evil influence. Had it been closed three or four centuries ago by one of nature's mighty convulsions, England would fill a very different place on the historic page. The history of the ^Netherlands furnishes perhaps even a better illustration of the influence of environment in shaping a people's life. Certainly the points at which their conditions of existence differed from those of the English, and the effects produced by these natural dif- ferences, form very suggestive subjects for a student. We have already seen something as to the character of the soil, and the mode in which it has been created and preserved. Now take a map of the country, and we shall see that on two sides it is bounded by the German Ocean, and on the other two by France and Germany. More than this, the latter boundaries are not made up of natural barriers ; they are simply lines upon the map, passing through level districts and intersected bj;- great rivers. Here, then, we must pause for a moment and THE GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE NETHERLANDS 97 see how the geographical factor has influenced this people. Although the sea-coast stretched along but two sides of the country, it was one perhaps even more favorable to primitive commerce than that of England, for its indentations and the limitless extensions furnished by its river channels afforded innumerable refuges against the pirates, who were in former ages the chief enemies of trade. This relation to the sea made the people, like the English, from the earliest time a race of sailors. But the inland connection with the other European peoples was at first even more important. Most of the early commerce was carried on by the rivers, and by the old Eoman roads which led from Italy. Through these arteries flowed the civilizing streams, which, though at times quite faint in their pulsations, never ceased their vivifying work. Here was an element almost en- tirely wanting in England ; of its importance we shall see more hereafter. Suffice it now to say that every- where in the commerce, manufactures, arts, institutions,, and laws of the Netherlands, we find traces of this con- nection with ancient and modern Italy. StiU, this situation, with three great rivers flowing through the country to the ocean, and with roads lead- ing out in aU directions, favorable as it was for trade in times of peace, was one calculated to invite attack in times of war. Having no ocean barriers like those of England, no mountain ranges hke the Alps or Apen- nines, no rocky fastnesses Mke those of Switzerland, the Low Countries have in all ages been subject to the in- cursions of their lawless neighbors. The " Cockpit of Europe " is the name given to this region in modern days, from the number of battles which have been fought upon its soil. To the enormous war expenses I.— T 98 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA thrust upon them from their exposed position is largely due the comparative decline of these once all-powerful and wealthy provinces. At first glance it seems strange that under such con- ditions the Netherlands ever secured a foothold among the powers of the earth. But before the invention of gunpowder revolutionized the art of war, the subject of national defence was a quite different one from that pre- sented in later days. The fact is, that the absence of natural barriers and mountain retreats became one main cause of the power and prosperity of the people of this country during and at the close of the Middle Ages. Men for whom nature or fortune has done much, even ifl the way of protection against their enemies, are too often inclined to rely on these advantages rather than on themselves. Here, however, where nature had done nothing, the men became self-reliant. They built their own fortresses, covering the land with walled towns which developed into great cities, where each man, whether an artisan or gentle-born, was trained to the use of arms. To the existence of these towns, and to the formation of the country, the Netherlands owed their peculiar exemption from the blighting influence of the feudal system, which checked civiUzation in so great a part of Europe. The cities with their narrow, tortuous streets, and a country the soil of which was largely a morass, and all intersected by canals, arms of the sea, and rivers, afforded little scope for the movements of mounted knights and their retainers. Still greater has been the influence of another feature of their geographical position. Manufactures and com- merce brought wealth, and with it luxury, love of art, and learning, but, especially in Holland, little of the enervation which usually follows in their train. In most INFLUENCE ON THE NATIONAL CHARACTER 99 lands accumulated wealth, has bred a disinclination to labor, fostering a leisured class, the great curse of a community. But here the time has never come when men could sit down and say their work was finished, and that they would enjoy life in ease. Before them has ever stood the sea, daily and hourly threatening their existence. Their fathers made the land, but they have preserved it only by incessant labor. A little crevice in their dikes, unnoticed for a few hours, might devastate a district. Even with the most watchful care, no man can go to bed at night assured that in the morning he will find his possessions safe. These conditions of life in the Netherlands must al- ways be remembered if we would understand their history. The constant struggle for existence, as in all cases when the rewards are great enough to raise men above biting, sordid penury, strengthens the whole race, mentally, morally, and physically. Again, labor here has never been selfish and individual. To be effective it requires organization and direction. Men learn to work in a body and under leaders. A single man labor- ing on a dike would accomplish nothing; the whole population must turn out and act together. The habits thus engendered extend in all directions. Everything is done in corporations. Each trade has its guild, elects its own officers, and manages its own affairs. The peo- ple are a vast civic army, subdivided into brigades, reg- iments, and companies, all accustomed to discipline, learning the first great lesson of life, obedience. On the other hand, this daily contest with nature, the regularity of life thus enforced, and the attention to minute details essential to existence, crush out the ro- mantic spirit which makes some nations so picturesque. "We find among them none of the wild chants of other 100 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Northern people. No poet sings to them of goblins and fairy sprites. Their world is inhabited by actuali- ties, and not by witches or the spirits of dead heroes. Hence they were never highly poetical, as the English were until after the time of Shakespeare, when they too became a race of manufacturers and merchants. They are not contemplative philosophers, like the Germans ; they dwell in no abstractions and indulge in little sen- timent. Life here below has been their study : how to improve the condition of man on this planet ; how to make the home attractive by art, music, flowers, and social recreations ; how to dispense justice to rich and poor alike, relieve the unfortunate, and give every one an equal chance in life ; how to protect the oppressed from other lands, keeping the conscience as well as the body free ; how to teach the world that men can be rich without insolence, poor without discontent, learned with- out pride, artistic without corruption, earnest in relig- ion without bigotry. This is honor enough. Had these people also produced a Homer, a Dante, or a Shake- speare, they would have been a miracle and not a growth. But there is something more than soil, climate, and natural surroundings which determines a nation's his- tory. All men under the same conditions will not reach the same result. Great is the influence of environment, but great also is the mysterious influence of race. Place a people of one blood on the American continent, and they remain wandering tribes of painted hunters. Ee- place them with men of another breed, and the land in less than three centuries is covered with cities, fretted with railroads, and groaning under the wealth of agri- culture, manufactures, and commerce. The natural con- ditions are the same ; it is only the human factor which has been changed. THE EARLY INHABITANTS OP THE NETHERLANDS 101 In the history of the Ilfetherlands this human factor forms an interesting study. It is evident that upon such a soil none of the weak and puny races of the earth could ever have gained a foothold. Once there, and settled in their habitations, they would be greatly mould- ed by the natural surroundings ; but the first struggle required the foremost blood which the world has ever known. Even beyond this, the influence of race is so persistent that we shall find it all through their history, shaping the character and institutions of this people ; so that when at last, after fifteen centuries, the seventeen provinces, living under much the same conditions, are divided into two equal parts, differing in religion and form of government, the line of cleavage follows nearly that of the earliest race divisions noticed by the Romans. Who, then, were the people that wrested this land from the ocean and gave it fertility and wealth ? What am- phibious race, half beaver, half man, first occupied the primeval morasses which now compose the ISTetherlands we do not know. Our earliest account of the country is derived from Csesar, and it is supplemented by that of Tacitus, who seems to have been particularly interest- ed in its people. According to tradition, the aborigines had been swept away about a century before our era. However this may be, the historic scene opens with the advent of the Eomans, and at that time the face of the country was almost unchanged by the hand of man. To us, therefore, the races which the Eomans found in occu- pation may stand as the first occupants ; and when we come to see their character, we shall comprehend the second great factor in the history of their descendants. When Julius Csesar swept over Western Europe on his meteoric career of conquest, he found this land oc- cupied by tribes whose pecuhar valor historians and 102 THE PDEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEKICA poets have made immortal. The Ehine formed nearly the division boundary between those of Gallic and those of Germanic blood. On its southern bank dwelt the Belgse, -whom he named the bravest of the Gauls. There he " overcame the Nervii," who died, but would not sur- render. He annihilated them in a battle memorable in his marvellous campaigns — a battle where he himself fought like a common soldier in the ranks. North of the Ehine, or rather on an island formed by two of its branches, he found a tribe of Teutonic origin, even more illustrious. These were the Batavians, whom Tacitus called the bravest of the Germans. The other barbarians were conquered and paid tribute to Eome ; they simply became her allies, the tax-gatherer never setting foot upon their island, which now forms the heart of Holland.* As allies they earned an historic name. C^sar cherished their cavalry as his favorite troops, and with them turned the tide of battle at Phar- salia. For over a century after his murder, the Eatavian legion formed the imperial body-guard, making and un- making emperors, and the Batavian island the base of operations against Britain, Gaul, and Germany.f The Gallic and Germanic tribes who occupied re- spectively the southern and the northern portions of the ITetherlands, now Belgium and Holland, differed widely in their characteristics. The men of either race were of gigantic stature, muscular, and inured to war ; but there the resemblance largely ceased. The Gaul loved ornaments, decked himself in gay colors, and wore his yellow hair floating in the breeze. He liked society. * Tacitus, " Germania," §§ 39, 30. t Grattan's "Hist, of the Netherlands," p. 18; Motley's " Dutch Republic," i. 1-5. THE GAULS AND THE GERMANS 103 and so dwelt in towns and villages, cultivating the soil. He was swift to anger, but easily appeased. Supersti- tious, he was priest-ridden, being governed mainly by the Druids. Unchaste, to him the marriage state was almost unknown. The German, on the other hand, was very simple in his costume. His fiery-red hair he bound up in a war-knot, heightening its color if nature had been too chary. Beyond this he wore no ornaments. He looked down on agriculture, and thought no pursuit honorable but that of arms. Less irascible than the Gaul, he held his anger longer and was capable of more continued conflict. Dishking society, he preferred to live alone under the broad sky, with one wife who was his companion in peace and war. No priest controlled his actions, but in the sacred groves he paid a simple homage to one almighty, unseen God. In their civil organization also these races differed widely. Among the Gauls were three classes — the priests, nobility, and people ; but the people, according to Csesar, were all slaves. Clanship prevailed. The chief rulers were elected, but only the nobles partici- pated in the choice. Among the Germans there was a simple and almost pure republic. Their kings and chiefs were elected by universal suffrage. The general assembly of the people chose the village magistrates, and decided all important questions. Minor affairs were regulated by what Americans would call town meet- ing, gatherings of all the men of a community. There was no private ownership of land, but annually certain farms were allotted by the magistrates for the cultiva- tion of a single crop.* * Motley's " Dutch Republic," i. 4-11. Green's " Making of Eng- land," chap. iv. 104 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Thus, in their earhest historic period these two races stand out in marked contrast. Time has softened some of their primitive traits, while others have entirely dis- appeared; and yet to-day the Irishman, the Scotch Highlander, the Belgian, and the Frenchman show their Gallic blood, while the Germanic origin of the English- man and the Hollander is no less apparent.* In the Netherlands there was naturally a considera- ble intermingling of race. The Germans made their way into the southern provinces, giving to the people there something of a toughness of fibre unknown among the other Celts.f On the other hand, many thousands of the Flemings and "Walloons, especially during the war with Spain, flocked into Holland, carrying with them a skUl in the manufactures and the arts superior to that of their northern neighbors. Still, in the main, the southern provinces, which at last remained attached to Spain and the papacy, were peopled by Celts, and the northern ones which became Protestant and re- publican, by men of Germanic origin. Of all the nations of Germanic descent, the Holland- ers preserved most faithfully their ancestral spirit. The * The Gauls were Celts of the same race as the inhabitants of Ire- land and Britain. In Ireland, the Celtic blood has remained pre- dominant ; so it also has in Wales and in the Highlands of Scotland. In England, it gave way largely, some historians claim almost en- tirely, before the Anglo-Saxons. It is probable that even the Celts were not the original inhabitants of any of these countries. They had driven out the former occupants, and in the time of Caesar were in turn being pushed on by the Germanic tribes who had reached the Rhine. t Thus, for example, Charlemagne planted several thousand Saxon colonists on the west coast of Flanders. Hutton's " James and Philip Van Arteveld," p. 1. AHCIBNT ROME AND MODEKN CIVILIZATION 105 early Batavians pass from history, but they melt into the Frisians, whose name is synonymous with liberty, nearest blood-relations of the Anglo-Saxon race. When Charlemagne established his dominion they came into the empire and accepted chiefs of his appointment, but they were still governed according to their own laws. The feudal system, which stifled liberty in so many re- gions, never was imposed on them. " The Frisians," said their statute-books, "shall be free as long as the wind blows out of the clouds, and the world stands." * With the pohtical history of the Netherlands down to the time of their great war with Spain, we need con- cern ourselves but little. It is sufficient for our purpose to briefly trace the general outline, and sketch some of the more salient features, the chief interest centring about the development of their material prosperity and the growth of their institutions. But before entering upon these subjects, one fact must be noticed which, often overlooked or not given its due prominence, fur- nishes the key to much of Continental as well as of EngHsh history during and just subsequent to the pe- riod which we call the Middle Ages. When discussing the subject of the Eoman civil law in the Introduction, a brief allusion was made to the high civilization attained by the Eomans, and its in- fluence on modern Europe. Hereafter, when we come to consider the history of England, we shall see how much of this civilization was introduced into Britain, and how it was utterly blotted out by the Anglo-Saxon conquerors. On the Continent, however, the overthrow * Motley, i. 33. The Asega book, containing their statutes, is still extant. 106 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA of the old governments was followed by a very different condition of affairs. In Britain, the conquerors cleared the soil before them, supplanting the former occupants, and introducing their own language. The movement, though slow, taking a century and a half for its com- pletion, was that of the avalanche carrying destruction in its path. In other parts of Europe, the conquerors settled down peaceably among the conquered, to a large extent adopted their hfe, and finally were themselves absorbed. Applying the test of speech, we see which race became predominant from the simple fact that the French, the Spanish, and the Italian tongues are the languages, not of the new-comers, the Franks, the Goths, and the Lombards, but of the people whom they found upon the soil. The effect in these countries was more Hke that of a river overflowing its banks; the waste may for a time seem universal, but when the flood sub- sides, the face of nature remains substantially unchanged. It is this fact, the difference between the conquest of Britain and that of the Continent, which must be kept in view when we think of the Dark Ages Avhich suc- ceeded the barbarian irruption. They were very dark in England, which then received its modern name, and the gloom lasted there almost undisturbed for many cen- turies ; but the hue was quite different upon the Conti- nent, where the ancient civilization still survived. Look- ing through colored glasses, it is but natural to confuse the shading of the landscape. Hence the Englishman or American, if he would view the Middle Ages on the Continent aright, must disabuse his mind of many no- tions derived from reading English history alone.* * " Parchment and paper, printing and engraving, improved glass and steel, gunpowder, clocks, telescopes, tire mariner's compass, the CAUSES OF NETHERLAND CIVILIZATION 107 Let US now see if we can account in any measure for the high civilization which undoubtedly prevailed in the Netherlands at the time of their revolt from Spain. This is a question which has probably excited the in- terest of every one who has paid any attention to their history, for writers like Davies and Motley have left it substantially undiscussed, leading some critics to con- sider their descriptions overdrawn. The first Germanic and Gallic inhabitants of this country must have learned much from Kome. As we have seen, the Batavian Island was for many years an important base of Roman miUtary operations. Many of its natives held high posts in the imperial army, and brought home some of the culture of the capital. The Menapians, who occupied the present provinces of Flan- ders and Antwerp, also shared in the benefits of this connection. The remains of their ancient towns, dis- covered in places at present covered by the sea, often bring to light traces of Eoman constructions and Latin inscriptions in honor of the Menapian divinities. Even at this period the Netherlanders were a maritime people, exporting salt to England, and salted meat (which was in high repute) to Italy. The men were handsome and richly clothed ; and the land was well cultivated, and abounding in fruits, milk, and honey.* Later on, when the Eoman empire went down, they had as near neigh- bors on the south the quick-witted Franks, and on the reformed calendar, the decimal notation, algebra, trigonometry, chemistry, counterpoint — which was equivalent to a new creation of music — these are all possessions which we inherit from that which has been so disparagingly termed the stationary period." — Whewell's " History of the Inductive Sciences," i. 331. None of them, as every reader knows, came from England. * Grattan, pp. 30-25. 108 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEEICA east was Germany, the head of the renewed empire, still preserving some portion of the ancient civilization, and very soon to gain much more. There were to grow up the cities of the Hanseatic League, the pioneers of modern progress, of which famous confederation, formed in the thirteenth century, several of the towns of Hol- land were among the earliest members.* But more important than all were the close relations which the llTetherlands maintained with Italy. To ap- preciate the influence of this connection, it must be re- membered that Italy never became barbarian. The race was not Teutonized ; that is to say, not crushed and transformed to anything like the same degree as the people of the other European countries by the invasion of the northern tribes.f In the end, the Italians might have shared the fate of their contemporaries, and have lost their civilization under the slow, brutalizing influence of the conquerors ; but this disaster was largely averted by the results which followed in the train of the Crusades. In 1096, * " Tlie Hansa Towns," Zimmern, p. 214. t " The barbarians established tliemselves on the soil temporarily or imperfectly. The Visigoths, the Franks, the Hernli, the Ostro- goths, all abandoned it or were soon driven away. If the Lombards remained there, they rapidly profited by the Latin culture. In the twelfth century the Germans, under Frederic Barbarossa, expecting to find men of their own race, were surprised to find them so Latin- ized, having discarded the fierceness of barbarians and taken from the influences of the air and soil something of Roman finesse and gentleness ; having preserved the elegance of the language and the urbanity of primitive manners, even imitating the skill of the an- cient Romans in the constitution of their cities and in the govern- ment of their public affairs. Latin is spoken in Italy up to the thirteenth century." — Taine's " Art in Italy," p. 28. ITALY AND THE NETHERLANDS 109 Peter the Hermit led out the first of the vast horde of visionary enthusiasts who for centuries poured into Asia Minor, whitening two continents with their bones in the chivah-ic attempt to redeem the holy sepulchre. These gigantic expeditions brought to the greater part of Europe only a fearful loss of life and property, com- pensated for mainly by the impoverishment of the no- bles, which aided in breaking up the feudal system. Upon Italy, however, the effect was very different. There dwelt the head of the Church, who acted as guar- dian for all the pilgrims, regulated their movements, and levied a general tax on the faithful laity of Europe to sustain the wars against the infidels. This tax, known as Saladin's Tenth, poured an unfailing stream of treas- ure into Rome ; while the people of all Italy were also acquiring wealth by furnishing the crusaders with sup- plies and transportation to the Holy Land. Still more important, however, was the impetus given to commerce by this opening-up of the unknown regions of the East.* In 1295, Marco Polo, with his father and uncle, after an absence of nearly a quarter of a century, returned to Yenice, bringing back their fairy tales of the wonders of far Cathay, and the whole of the Old World was spread out before these enterprising merchants. It was the commerce thus developed that built up the Ital- ian republics, and bred the race of merchant princes who made the Italy of the Kenaissance the mother.of liter- ature, art, and science. It is probable that the connection between the Neth- * The crusaders introduced silk and sugar into Europe. They also introduced the -windmill, whicli, invented in Asia Minor and transported to the Netherlands, was to prove of untold value in the development of that country. See Gibbon, vi. 193. 110 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA erlands and Italy was never broken ; if it was, the re- establishment occurred at a very early day. We find that the guilds to manufacture salt and for the purpose of bringing under cultivation marshy grounds ascend to the Roman epoch.* From the seventh and ninth centu- ries Bruges, Antwerp, and Ghent are " ports " or privi- leged markets. They fit out cruisers for the whale fish- ery ; they serve as the entrepots for the JSTorth and the South.f The first crusade owed its success in a great degree to the valor and prudence of Godfrey de Bouillon, a Flemish knight, who, it is said, took the field with ten thousand horsemen and eighty thousand infantry. In 1272 there were so many Genoese in Flanders that Charles of Anjou asks to have them banished ; but pub- lic opinion is too strong, and their expulsion is found to be impracticable. Some twenty years later Philip the Fair of France compels Guy de Dampierre to restore the property which he had taken from the Lombard merchants settled in Flanders. :{: In the next century we find a large number of Italians from Lombardy liv- ing in Middelburg, where they establish a banking-house, soon adding commerce in gold and jewels. Their goods were displayed in a special building called the " House of the Lombards." Similar houses existed in other cit- ies.! Ludovico Guicciardini, writing in 1563, says that even in Zeeland, though few persons spoke French or Spanish, there were many who spoke Italian.! In the * Moke's " Moeurs et Usages des Beiges,'' quoted by Taine. t Taine's " Art in the Netherlands," p. 84. I Hutton's "Van Arteveld," chap. ii. § Havavd's " Heart of Holland," chap. xiii. London also had its Lombard Street. II This writer, who is the leading authority upon the condition of DEVELOPMENT OF AQKICULTTJHE 111 sixteenth century, as the result of geographical explora- tion, attention was called to botany, and public botan- ical gardens were established. Their order is significant as showing the influence of Italy : Pisa, 1543 ; Padua, 1545 ; Florence, 1556 ; Eome and Bologna, 1568 ; Ley- den, 1577 ; Leipsic, 1580 ; MontpeUier, 1597 ; Paris, 1626 ; and Oxford, 1680.* Thus HoUand stands but thirty- four years behind the first of the Itahan cities. These illustrations are only suggestive of the relations between the countries, of which we shall see much more hereafter. To trace the full connection would involve a large chapter of the history of the Middle Ages. Keeping now in mind the character of the country, its early occupants, and their connection with the civil- ization of Italy, the course of their development can be readily understood. Beginning with the earliest form of industry, what would be the natural feeling of such a race towards the soil, when we remember that it was their own produc- tion? One of the commonest lessons of experience is that men hold in light esteem the gifts of nature which come to them without an effort. The mother's favorite is not the stalwart, healthy child who needs no care, but the weakling or the cripple. The Germans, and to some extent the Gauls, wandering through their Northern wilds, where land was to be had by taking, looked down on agriculture as unworthy of a freeman. The only no- ble prizes of life were those won by skill or courage, the Netherlands in the sixteenth century, was a Florentine, a neph- ew of the famous Italian historian. He lived in the Netherlands for about forty years, and in 1563 published, at Antwerp, an extensive work descriptive of the manners, customs, institutions, and resources of the country. * Whewell's "History of the Inductive Sciences," iii. 391. 112 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA such as the spoils of the chase or battle. But, settled amid the everlasting morasses of the Netherlands, where life was a constant struggle with the elements, these men found the conquests of peace no less difficult, and there- fore no less honorable, than those of war. Thus with labor ennobled, the natural result followed. Curbing the ocean and overflowing rivers with their dikes, they came to love the soil, their own creation, and to till it with patient, almost tender care. Hence, as farmers and gardeners, breeders of fine cat- tle and horses, they early took the place which they have ever since maintained. Even in the fourteenth century we find agriculture taught in the schools of Flanders, spade husbandry greatly affected, and Flem- ish gardeners and cultivators in much demand in aU parts of Europe.* Flax and hemp were grown to a large extent ; hops were cultivated for the brewers ; the gardens supplied pease, beans, vetches, onions, garlic, and orache — a vegetable now superseded by spinach — and the orchards apples, pears, and cherries in abundance.f England, until a comparatively recent time, knew nothing of these pursuits. "When Catherine of Ara- gon wished for a salad, she was compelled to send for it across the Channel by a special messenger.:]: Furnish- ing the court with salads, the Low Countries, in time, gave to the English people hops for their beer, cab- bages, carrots, beets, and other vegetables for their table, fiower- seeds for their gardens, large cattle for * Hutton's " Van Arteveld." Many Flemish farmers went over to England, to the alluvial plains of East Norfolk. As to the excel- lence of Flemish husbandry for over six centuries, see M'Culloch's Geographical Dictionary, article " Belgium." t Hutton. J Hume. DEVELOPMENT OF COMMEKCE AND MANUFACTURES 113 their fields, great Flemish mares for the carriages of the aristocracy, artificial grasses for the support of their stock through winter, and lessons in the cultivation of their soil, which quadrupled its products.* StiU, though pre-eminent in agriculture, this was but a minor industry among the Netherlanders. Fighting the water for a home, they early learned their power, and the humbled ocean became a servant as faithful and almost as potent as the fabled genius of the lamp. In little barks they explored the Northern seas, sailed up into the Baltic, crept around the coast of France and Spain into the Mediterranean, became the best sailors, built up the largest commerce, and early took rank as the foremost merchants of the world. In the tenth cen- tury, Bruges is a great commercial centre ; f in the thir- teenth, it is the first commercial city of Europe.;]: Why their commerce developed so rapidly is obvious when we consider the growth of their manufactures. * Hume, cbap. xxxiii., fixes the date of tlie introduction of vege- tables into England as during the latter part of the reign of Henry Vni. Even then they made progress very slowly, being used mainly for medicinal purposes. Cabbages were first grown in England during the reign of Elizabeth. Southerden Burn, ]>. 257. See also Wade's "History of England Chronologically Arranged," i. 156. He says that asparagus, cauliflower, artichokes, etc., were introduced about 1603. " Hops, reformation, bays, and beer Came into England all in one year." — Old English rhyme, quoted Southerden Burn, p. 205. See Rogers's " Story of Holland " as to instruction in agriculture, t "The Hansa Towns," p. 163. I Motley, i. 37. Seebohm's " Protestant Revolution," 17. The lat- ter work, American edition, contains an interesting map, showing how all the routes of commerce by sea and land centred in the Neth- erlands. I.— 8 114 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Chief among these manufactures was that of woollen cloth, an industry so important to Northern nations that its introduction marks an epoch in their history, for before this period they had nothing but skins as ma- terial for warm clothing. This had its origin in Flan- ders, but at a period so early that historians cannot fix the date.* With the cloth industry, or following in its train, grew up the manufacture of silk, linen, tapestry, and lace, which made Flanders the manufacturing as well as the commercial centre of the world. Exporting her fabrics in turn increased her commerce, and there were gathered in her busy marts the products of all climes : drugs and spices from the East ; velvets and glass from Italy ; wines from France ; furs, metals, and wax from Eussia, Norway, and Sweden. Nor was it only by the ocean that this early trade was carried on. Following the old Eoman roads, the enterprising Netherlanders * Hallam, writiug of the commerce of Europe, says : " The north- ern portion was first animated by the woollen manufactures of Flan- ders. It is not easy to discover the early beginnings of this, or to account for its rapid advancement. The fertility of that province and its facilities of internal navigation were doubtless necessary causes ; but there must have been some temporary encouragement from the personal character of its sovereigns or other accidental cir- cumstances. Several testimonies to the flourishing condition of Flemish manufactures occur in the twelfth century, and some might be found perhaps earlier. A writer of the thirteenth century asserts that all the world was clothed from English wool wrought in Flan- ders. This, indeed, is an exaggerated vaunt ; but the Flemish stuffs were probably sold wherever the sea or a navigable river permitted them to be carried." — Hallam's "Middle Ages," chap, ix., part 2. Robertson says that the manufacture of wool and flax seems to have been considerable in the Netherlands in the time of Charlemagne. Robertson's " Charles V." (Amer. ed. 1770), i. 69. THE NETHERLANDS IN THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY 115 made their way through France, and down into Spain, meeting there the highly civihzed and cultivated Moors, to whom they probably owed many of their improve- ments in agriculture and the arts. Sailing up the Ehine, they kept up close relations with the Germans, who, under the influence of Italy, were rapidly stepping to the front rank among civilized peoples. * "With Italy itself, which divided with them the commerce of the world, their relations grew more and more intimate, for they were far enough apart to assist rather than to in- jure each other's trade, and hence their rivalry was de- prived of bitterness. "What a scene as compared with the rest of Northern Europe, and especially with England, in which we have the greatest interest, must have been presented by the Low Countries during the fourteenth century ! In 1370, there are thirty-two hundred woollen-factories at Malines and on its territory.f One of its merchants carries on an immense trade with Damascus and Alexandria. An- other, of Valenciennes, being at Paris during a fair, buys up all the provisions exposed for sale in order to display his wealth. Ghent, in 1340, contains forty thousand weavers. In 1389, it has one hundred and eighty-nine thousand men bearing arms ; the drapers alone furnish eighteen thousand in a revolt. In 1380, the goldsmiths of Bruges are numerous enough to form in war time an entire division of the army.:]: At a repast given by one * See Janssen's "History of Germany," for an account of its condi- tion before the Kefonnation. Also Liibke's " Hist, of Art,'' Am. ed. ii. 1, and Giordano Bruno as to its condition about 1590, before the Thirty Tears' War sent it back to semi-barbarism. t Little domestic concerns unlike our modern factories. t Taine's " Art in the Netherlands," p. 86. 116 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA of the Counts of Flanders to the Flemish magistrates, the seats provided for the guests being unfurnished with cushions, they quietly folded up their sumptuous cloaks, richly embroidered and trimmed with fur, and placed them on the wooden benches. When leaving the table at the conclusion of the feast, a courtier called their at- tention to the fact that they were going without their cloaks. The burgomaster of Bruges replied ; " We Flemings are not in the habit of carrying away the cushions after dinner." The queen of Philip the Fair, of France, on a visit to Bruges, exclaimed with astonish- ment, not unmixed with envy : " I thought myself the only queen here ; but I see six hundred others, who appear more so than I." * Commines, the French chronicler, writing in the fifteenth century, says that the traveller, leaving France and crossing the frontiers of Flanders, compared himself to the Israelites when they had quitted the desert and entered the borders of the Promised Larid. Philip the Good kept up a court which surpassed every other in Europe for luxury and magnificence. f In 1444, he gave at Lille a grand pageant, the " Feast of the Pheasant," such as the modern world had never seen before. His son, Charles the Bold, married the sister of the King of England, and gave in her honor a pageant * Grattan's " History of the Netherlands," p. 75, Carey & Lea, Phil., 1831. t " His library consisted of the rarest manuscripts and the earliest specimens of printed books, splendidly bound and illuminated, the nucleus of a, collection which, enriched by successive additions, is now one of the most important of the world." His collection of gems and plate was said to be the finest in existence. Kirk's " Charles the Bold," i. 88. EXPANSION OP COMMERCE H7 extending over many days, even more magnificent. The English visitors wrote home that it reaUzed the fairy tales of King Arthur and his Bound Table.* As Kirk well says, in his " Life of Charles the Bold," " the luxuries of life come before the comforts," a truth to be remem- bered w-hen we come to view the Elizabethan age in England. Beading of her two or three thousand gowns, the revels which attended her royal progresses, the costly garments of the courtiers, the tapestry, the gold and silver plate to be found in some few mansions, we should make a great mistake if we regarded these exhibitions as proofs of an advanced civilization or of national com- fort. In aU such matters of luxury and display, Eng- land of the sixteenth or seventeenth century had noth- ing to compare with the Netherlands a hundred or even two hundred years before. After luxury, come comfort, intelligence, morality, and learning, which de- velop under very different conditions. In the course of time even Italy Avas outstripped in the commercial race. The conquest of Egypt by the Turks,t and the discovery of a Avater passage to the In- dies, broke up the overland trade with the East, and de- stroyed the Italian and German cities which had flour- ished on it. Of the profits derived from the substituted ocean trafiic with the Indies, and the new commerce with America — the commerce which helped so largely to give Spain her transitory wealth and greatness — the Low Countries, acting as distributors, obtained more than their full share. Passing from the dominion of the House of Burgundy to that of the House of Austria, * See as to feasts and pageants, one witnessed by Albert Diirer in 1530, described in Taine's "Art in the Netlierlands." t 1513, 1515, and 1520. 118 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA which also numbered Spain among its vast possessions, proved to them in the end an event fraught with mo- mentous evil. Still for a time, and from a mere mate- rial point of view, it was an evil not unmixed with good. The Netherlanders were better sailors and keener mer- chants than the Spaniards, and, being under the same rulers, gained substantial advantages from the close con- nection. The new commerce of Portugal also filled their coffers ; so that while Italy and Germany were im- poverished, they became wealthier and more prosperous than ever, having, by the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury, absorbed most of the carrying trade of the world. As I have already pointed out, the English, down to the time of Elizabeth and until educated by their neigh- bors, knew very little even of agriculture except in its rudest forms. They were mainly engaged in raising sheep, and their wool, with that from Spain and Scot- land, went to the great market of the ^Netherlands.* The wool-sack of the Lord Chancellor of England, says a modern writer, symbolizes the period in which sheep- raising was the only industry of the people. When Philip the Good founded at Bruges his new order of chivalry, he chose as an emblem a golden fleece. The artisans of the Netherlands had woven the wool into gold.f With wealth pouring in from all quarters, art natu- rally followed in the wake of commerce. Architecture was first developed, and nowhere was its cultivation * Green's " History of the English People," vol. i. book iii. chap. iv. t Conway's " Early Flemish Artists," p. 57. About 1380, the Eng- lish, taught by Netherland emigrants, first began to make coarse woollen cloth. Southerden Burn's "Protestant Refugees in Eng- land," p. 4. ARCHITECTURE, ECCLESIASTICAL AND SECULAR 119 more general than in the ^Netherlands. Our knowledge of the Middle Ages is still so imperfect that little can be said with certainty about the men who designed and the workmen who constructed the superb cathedrals, which, scattered over Northwestern Europe, protest against our supercilious estimate of modern progress, standing, like the ruins on the Nile, mute but unim- peachable witnesses to a former civilization. It is be- lieved that these structures owe their origin to a great secret masonic brotherhood, league, or guild, bound probably by religious vows, with headquarters in Trainee and Germany, and branches in other parts of Europe. To a branch of this league are attributed the splen- did and elaborately finished buildings with which the Netherlands were adorned between the twelfth and fif- teenth centuries.* Chief among these buildings were the cathedrals of Flanders and Brabant, some of which were brilliant masterpieces. But the Church did not here, as in most other lands, absorb aU the skill and genius of the builders, and in this fact we see at once how this people stand apart from their contemporaries in Northern Europe. Else- where, in the North at least, architectural art was only a handmaid of religion, aU decoration, under the guid- ance of the priesthood, being lavished on ecclesiastical structures, because the Church held almost all the knowl- edge and controlled a large share of the wealth. Here, however, another power was coming to the front. The merchants and manufacturers were generous enough * Motley's "Dutch Eepublic," i. 86, 551 ; "The Arts in the Middle Ages," La Croix, p. 377, etc. The first architecture from Germany was probably Komanesque. The true Gothic came from the Nor- mans in France. 130 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA towards the Church, but they soon passed beyond the stage where they thought it entitled to all their treas- ures. Hence, even in these early days, secular archi- tecture, one of the best measures of the wealth and refinement of a nation, had attained to great importance, covering the land Avith town -halls and other public buildings, which are still the delight and wonder of the artist.* England, at an early period, had her cathedrals built mainly under foreign influences ; but we look there in vain for any sign of devotion to art in any other public structures, until we come to comparatively modern days. When now we descend to the dwellings of the people, the contrast is no less marked. At a time when the pri^ vate houses in England were of the most primitive char- acter, differing, as to the middle classes, but little from those described by Tacitus in his "Germania" fifteen centuries before, the cities of the ]!Tether]ands were studded over with private palaces of marble.-)- Even in the thirteenth century the principal Flemish towns contained Turkish baths, their streets were paved and kept in good order, while the houses of the wealthy * " Burgher opulence and energy are grandly and vigorously ex- pressed in the secular buildings of these towns. For example, we have the 'Hall of the Cloth-makers,' now the Town Hall of Ypres, 1200-1364; Town Hall at Bruges, begun 1384; Council House at Bruges, 1377; Council House at Brussels, 1401-55 ; the still more magnificont Town Hall at Louvain, belonging to the second half of the fifteenth century; and that at Oudenarde, built in 1537-30." — Liibke's "History of Art,", ii. 34-37. t In what is known in history as the " Spanish Fury," in 1576, the Spaniards destroyed in Antwerp alone "at least five hundred pal- aces, mostly of marble and hammered stone." — Motley's " Dutch Republic," iii. 115. OIL-PAINTING IN THE NETHERLANDS 131 burghers were built of stone and supplied with chim- neys.* Nor was the contrast with the English dwellings confined to their external appearance alone. Entering those of the Netherlanders, one would have seen them filled with paintings, tapestry, linen, brass, and costly furniture, such as could be found in no other quarter of the globe. Albert Diirer visited the country in 1520. It seems by his " Journal " that although he had lived in Italy, he was lost in wonder and delight at the mag- nificent buildings, the costly furniture, the artistic orna- ments, the rich clothing, and the general display of wealth and splendor which he found in the Low Coun- tries.f If architecture was at first the result of a German and then of a Norman or French impulse, its junior, painting, was probably due to the influence of Italy, although exerted through the medium of the German cities on the Ehine. Here, however, the pupil more than * Hutton's " Van Arteveld." t The picture of John Arnolfini and his wife, one of the treasures in the National Gallery at London, painted by Jan Van Eyck, who was born about 1380, shows a Flemish interior which is very sugges- tive. The subjects are a well-to-do merchant and his wife standing in their bedroom holding hands. The furniture consists of a hand- some bedstead, with an upright carved chair by the side, and a carved bench along the wall. Bight opposite the spectator is a con- vex mirror set in a frame adorned with little medallion paintings. In the centre of the room hangs a fine bronze chandelier, and be- yond is a glazed window with an orange on the sill. The painting is signed "Jan Van Eyck was here," and no certificate could be stronger as to the veracity of its details. See Conway's "Early Flemish Artists," p. 149. In a later chapter we shall see how Eng- lish houses were constructed and furnished, even in the days of Elizabeth. 123 THE PTJEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEEICA repaid the master. The earliest dawn of the art in modern Europe, as shown in fresco and distemper, is found on the southern side of the Alps; but modern painting in oil, the art which glows on the canvas of a Kaphael, a Titian, or a Eembrandt, had its origin in the Netherlands. Most authorities, from the days of Vasari, have credited the discovery of oil-painting to the broth- ers Van Eyck, who painted at The Hague, Ghent, and Bruges, during the latter part of the fourteenth and the early part of the fifteenth century. This, perhaps, is not exactly correct, for oil was used in this country long before their era. Nor were they the first artists of the Netherlands in point of time. For centuries the churches had been filled with paintings which seem to have pos- sessed considerable merit.* The moist climate, however, has worked destruction to most of the wall productions, on which the reputation of the early artists was based, so that we can judge of them only from contemporane- ous reports.f But there was something besides the climate. The churches of Italy, with their wide walls and broad roof spaces, afforded scope for fresco decoration which was wanting in the structures of a Gothic type, with their arches, pillars, and groined roofs. Hence the Nether- land paintings were of a different class, being smaller and mostly executed on wooden panels. The ground- work of the panel was prepared with a thin coating of fine plaster, and upon this coating the colors were laid, * In 1143, a fire consumed the principal churches in Utrecht and destroyed "a number of magnificent paintings." — Davies's "Hol- land," i. 41. t We have a few excellent Flemish wall paintings, and some meri- torious panel pictures of the fourteenth century. Conway, p. 136. THE VAN ETCK BEOTHEES AND THEIE WOEKS 123 being mixed with the white of an egg or the juice of unripe figs. Oil was employed, but its use was attended with great disadvantages. It was diflficult to lay the colors finely with it, and they took a long time to dry. For this reason it was never used in the finished part of the work, but only for large masses of drapery and the like. The great objection to this process lay in the fact, not then discovered to its fuU extent, however, that in time the whole mass flaked off, leaving nothing but the bare surface of the panel. To the Van Eyck brothers is due the credit of remedying this defect. They mixed some substance, probably resin, with boiled oil, and found that they now had a medium which dried with- out exposure to the sun, and with which the finest and most delicate work could be accomplished. Using this substance, the plaster on the panel was interpenetrated with the varnish, and the whole wrought so finely to- gether that at last the surface became like enamel, and it is generally next to impossible to detect the traces of the brush.* The discovery of the Yan Eycks not only gave paintings a finer character, but made them sub- stantially indestructible by time. It was carried to Italy by the artists from that country, who in great numbers were then studying in the Netherlands, and a century later was brought to completion in the studios of Venice under the hands of Titian and his feUows. The Van Eyck brothers are, however, entitled to much greater honor than that of discovering a new process in art. They were the crowning figures in a school which had been in existence for two or three centuries at least, and they were the greatest painters of the age.f Together * Conway's "Early Flemish Artists," pp. 116-119. t " Their era," says Liibke, " is so glorious, so untrammelled and 134 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAKD, AND AUSRICA they painted the world-renowned picture of the "Ado- ration of the Lamb," at St. Bavon's Church, in Ghent. The finest part of this grand work is attributed to the elder brother, Hubert, who was born in 1366 ; but tne remainder, conceded to the younger, is also of extraor- dinary merit. Looking at this picture, and at the later paintings of the younger brother, we feel that we have come into a new world of art. Here are no longer mere personified qualities or abstractions, as among the Ital- ians, but real human beings, men painted as they looked on earth. Hence we have in Jan Tan Eyck the origi- nator of the modern school of portrait-painters, in which Flanders and Holland were to lead the world. But there is something more about these pictures. Viewing the paintings which precede this era, we find as a back- ground for the figures nothing but a plain surface or a mass of gilt. In the '■ Adoration of the Lamb," we see for the first time a fine landscape as a background.* This innovation also marks an epoch. Thenceforth the painters of the Low Countries abjured their gilt; the background becomes from year to year more important, until Joachim Patinier, bom in 1490, makes it the prom- inent feature of his pictures, and becomes the founder of the modern Xorthern school of landscape painting.t Thus we find that painting follows, among this peo- ple, the same course as its elder sister, arehitecture. Li Fi-ance it was said that only what was executed for the Chureh or king was art.* This was true of most coun- magaificent, that the corresponding period in Italy scarcely bears comparison with if — "History of Art," ii. 420-429. Conwav's " Early Flemish Artists ;" Eastlake's •' History of Oil -Painting ;"' Taine's "Art in the Xetherlands," eta * Ctonway, p. 271. t Lubke, IL 452. X Grimm's '■ life of Michael Angelo,'' ii. 53. CHAEACTEK OF XKTHKRLiXD AST 125 tries. It. however, ceased to be true in the Xetheriands at an early date. We have seen how it was with archi- tecture. Even in the churches, it has been objected that the pure Gothic design was somewhat sacrificed to the convenience of the worshippers. These people believed that churches were designed for man, and thev there- fore made them comfc»tabIe for the masses: they be- lieved that art was for everv-day use, and so apphed it to their town-halls and dwellings, and made it the com- panion of the fireside. It is this homehke quality which distinguishes the great picttires of the Dutch and Flem- ish schools. In other lands the artists revelled in vis- ions of imaginary loveliness, choosing as subjects scenes in which youth and Ivauty usually play the leading paits^ The 2s etherlanders loved alx>Te all things verity, and transferred to the «\nvas what they saw aroimd them. They valued character and intellect above mere beauty of form, and so preferred as subjects for their portraits faces which tell a story. As a rule, these faces are not handsome, but they belong to men who look as if they had lived and had accomplisheil something in the world.* For a time, after the death of the Tan Eyoks and their inmiediate successors. ItaUan art took the lead, smd nnforttmately many of the Xetherland painters wasted their lives in the vain attempt to woA i^ainst thar nature bv an imitation of this foreign school. Still. o"- there floorii^ted in the Low Countries, during the whole o of the fift^inth and sixteenth centuries, a gieat number "^ ''Plato \ras quite i^fat in makiiig the BeaatiM the splendfH' of tlie Tme. and this wiHild he now the best d^mtion of Flemish and Datch painting." — Gamhetta, in an nnpabUshed letter fiom Bras- ses, IST-a, Luidon Timet, July Sth, 1889. 126 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEKICA of artists whose works would take high rank but for the marvellous productions of Italy during the same period. At last came the mighty struggle with Spain, which gave independence to the seven northern provinces. Great as were the political and religious consequences of this struggle, no less marked were its results on art. The people learned their strength, became entirely self-reli- ant, gained intellectual as well as political independence, developed, perfected, and enlai'ged the schools founded by the Van Eycks two centuries before, put away for- ever saints and Madonnas, and astounded as they de- lighted the world with portraits, landscapes, marine views, pictures of flowers, fruit, cattle, sheep, horses, in- teriors of all descriptions — in fact, representations of ev- erything in nature or in life that could instruct, elevate, arouse, or cheer mankind. Such a period of exaltation comes but rarely to a nation. It came to England after the destruction of the Spanish Armada, and gave to the world the literature which has made the Elizabethan age so famous. There it culminated in poetry, for the Englishmen of that day were poetical and imaginative. In the Netherlands it culminated in painting, because the people were artistic. How the artistic element permeated all classes of so- ciety is shown by the beauty of their products in every department of the mechanical arts. Little has come down to us of the old Flemish jewelry, but it is spoken of as perhaps the finest goldsmith's work of which we have a record.* In the manufacture of fine furniture they were unexcelled, and their laces, silks, brocades, carpets, and rugs had a world-wide reputation. First among all these manufactured products stood the tapes- * Conway, p. 85. WOOD-KSGRAVING AND PRINTING INVESTED 127 tries woven on the looms of Flanders. These have never been equalled for beauty or for finished workmanship. Numbers of them still survive, some with tints almost as fresh as when they were woven four or five centuries ago. Xothlng could bear higher witness not only to the technical perfection, but to the artistic spirit as well, which in this case ennobled manufactures.* The story of the development of art in the Xether- lands is an interesting one, as bearing on the prog- ress of society and the expansion of the idea that there was a community outside the priesthood and nobUity. Architecture first becomes secularized; next painting steps down from the clouds and sits by the hearthstone of the burgher ; then the artist displays his skill on the furniture, the ornaments, and the dress of these merchants and manufacturers. Finally comes the step which leads off into an undiscovered and untried ocean. The common people, those who cannot afford to pay for oil-paintings, want pictures for their houses. The demand creates the supply. The ingenious Xetherland- ers discover that from blocks they can reproduce on pa- per pictures in black and white, and wood - engraving is invented.f From the Low Countries the invention * Lubke, ii. 452. Rapliael's celebrated cartoons for the Sistine Chapel were sent to Arras to be woven. t According to La Croix, " The Arts in the Middle Ages," p. 488, wood-engraving originated in Holland, during the latter part of the fonrteenth century. One of the earliest specimens now extant exists at Brussels, and is claimed to hare been executed at Malines in 1418. Some authorities, however, assert that this is antedated, and that an engraving done in Suabia in 1433 is the first well-authenticated spedmen now in existence. Linton's " Masters of Wood-Engrav- ings." 138 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA rapidly spreads through Europe, meeting with favor es- pecially in Germany, where the population had in some sections many of the same characteristics.* Following wood-engraving, and as its natural supple- ment, came the printing of books from blocks. This originated from the desire of popularizing knowledge as engravingfwas popularizing art. Some of the early specimens are rude enough, but in others the work is exquisite of finish. The letters were cut on a single block of wood, and then this block was used to print from, in the same manner as the stereotype plate of modern times. The next step was to substitute mova- ble type for the solid piece of wood, and we have the printing-press, which has revolutionized the world. Ger- many, on the present evidence, will never concede the honor of this invention to a Hollander, but its germ lay in the block books to which Holland lays unquestioned claim. It was, in truth, but following to its legitimate conclusions the lessons of the architects who built the exquisite town- halls, the artists who painted portraits and landscapes, and the engravers who reproduced pict- ures from their blocks — that beauty and truth are for the masses, and not alone for a chosen few. In addition to painting, there was another department * How wide-spread was the love of art in the Netherlands is shown by the fact that when Albert Diirer visits the country in the sixteenth century he pays his expenses in part by selling his engravings, the small ones being retailed at prices which brought them within the means of the humblest workman. See his " Joui'nal." It is also interesting to notice, in this connection, that while Rem- brandt at a later day received large prices for his paintings, he also made money from his etchings, which he carried to great peifec- tion. MUSIC IN THE NETHERLANDS 129 of art in which the Netherlanders stood supreme. As musicians they, for nearly two hundred years, had no rival. Other people cultivate music ; to them it seems an instinct.* "What is known as the Netherland School is divided into four epochs. It begins with William Dufay, of Hainault, who was a tenor singer in the Sis- tine Chapel from 1380 to 1432, and whose masses are still preserved at Rome. The next great master was John Okeghem, of East Flanders. He began to be cele- brated about 1470, and has been called the " patriarch of music," being the inventor of the canon, and in gen- eral of artificial counterpoint. The school reached its zenith in the fourth epoch with Adrian Willaert, who was born at Bruges in 1490 and died in 1562. During this period, covering nearly two centuries, the Nether- lands furnished all the courts of Europe not only with singers, but with Qomposers and performers of instru- mental music. They founded in I^aples the first musi- cal conservatory of the world, and another in Venice at about the same time. It was also to their influence and example that the renowned school of Eome owed its ex- istence.f With the Reformation, all this came to a speedy end. The higher class of music was, until the days of the modern opera, reserved almost entirely for religious purposes. It was not easy to secularize it, and when, af- ter many years, the time came for doing so, the people of the Low Countries had lost their former supremacy. Still, they have never lost their love for music. To-day, the great musical endowment of an ability to sing in parts is encountered even among the populace : the coal- * See Taine's "Art in the Netherlands.'' t Bitter's " History of Music," pp. 75, 87, 108 ; " Encyclopgedia Britannica," article " Music." I.— 9 130 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA miners organize choral societies; the laborers in Ant- werp and Brussels, and the ship-calkers and sailors of Amsterdam, sing in chorus and in true time while at worji, and in the street on returning home at night.* Here we may close this chapter, and with it our gen- eral view of the material and artistic side of the Nether- land prosperity and progress. The result is a striking one, in view of the little attention which, until a recent date, has been paid to this people by the historians of other nations. They took no great part in wars ; since the dissolution of the Batavian Legion they had neither made nor unmade emperors ; but before the middle of the sixteenth century they had conquered almost all the fields of industry and art. When the people of England were just beginning their wonderful career of modern progress, these men across the Channel stood foremost of the world in agriculture, manufactures, com- merce, engraving, and music, while they had only parted temporarily with the crown of painting, which, adding that of learning, they were to resume after Holland had won her independence. * Taine's "Art in the Netherlands," p. 58. CHAPTER II THE NETHERLANDS BEFORE THE WAR WITH SPAIN THE GUILDS, THE TOWISTS, THE STATE, EDUCATION, EELIGIOJST, AND MORALS In the preceding chapter I have attempted a brief sketch of the rapid advance made by the Netherlanders in the industrial pursuits and in the arts, down to the middle of the sixteenth century. The important ques- tion now arises, What was the effect of this material prosperity and devotion to art on the love of liberty and the rehgious spirit which we should look for in this peo- ple, as an inheritance from their Germanic ancestors ? This question is of interest from many points of view. Thoughtftil men in all ages have been more or less in- chned to accept their civilization under protest. So much is said of its enervating influence, and such stress is laid upon the virtues of the early heroes who lodged in huts and devoured raw flesh for food, that men have sometimes asked, is it not better that we should return to a state of nature if we wish to keep bright the flame of liberty? In its religious aspect the subject is still more important. Many of the English Puritans were as intolerant as any of their opponents, looked down on art, suspected, if they did not despise, refinement of manners, and seemed bent on weeding joy and beauty out of life, as if their seeds had been implanted by the arch-enemy of man. These men, in many respects such 133 THE PDEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA unworthy professors of a gospel of love, are sometimes held up as examples of earnestness in rehgion, the theory that they were superior in this respect to other people of their time, and that their descendants have degener- ated from their early virtues, underlying much of Eng- lish and American history as written in some quarters. The efifect of this teaching must be pernicious in its tendency, unless the proper corrective be applied. The men and women of the present generation are coming to use the world in which they live, and to enjoy its beauty and its gladness. .The young, often more ear- nestly thoughtful than their elders, accept the pleasures of life, but, with the grim visages of their vaunted an- cestors before them, are inclined at times to feel that joy is somehow sinful, and must be paid for in the end. Looking only at the history of England, seeing the ex- cesses against which Puritanism was there a protest, dwelling on the virtues of our ancestors and not sharply enough distinguishing their faults, all this is natural enough. It seems, indeed, as if the typical English Puri- tan, as described by some writers, with his long* sad face, suspicion of joy and beauty, narrowness of mind, and in- tolerance of the beliefs of others, was the embodiment of earnestness itself, and that his descendants, so far as they differ from him, are moving down to a lower plane.* A broader view of history, however, will dispel this delu- sion, and nowhere can a better corrective be found than in the story of the Netherlands. Here were a people with largely the same blood as the * See Carlyle's " Cromwell," and other writings of the same school. Carlyle, it may be noticed, habitually speaks of the Hollanders as " low-minded Dutchmen," because they did not sympathize with all the excesses of the English Puritans. DUTCH AND ENGLISH PURITANISM 133 English, and with the same inherited traits of charac- ter, but educated under very different conditions. "When now we consider their earnestness for civil and religious liberty, the record of the two nations can scarcely be compared. Some of the English Puritans fled across the Atlantic from a slight religious persecution, and founded a IS'ew England. Others remained at home, fought their king in a few pitched battles, and established a common- wealth, which in eleven years went to pieces, simply because the people were unfitted for self-government. The Puritans of Holland battled for their liberties dur- ing four fifths of a century, facing not alone the bravest and best-trained soldiers of the age, but flames, the gib- bet, flood, siege, pestilence, and famine. Every atrocity that religious fanaticism could invent, every horror that ever followed in the train of war, swept over and deso- lated their land. To speak in the same breath of the hardships or sufferings of the English Puritan, as if they served to explain his unlovely traits of character, seems almost puerile. Out from this war of eighty years' duration emerged a republic, for two centuries the greatest in the world — a republic which was the instructor of the world in art, and whose corner-stone was religious toleration for all mankind. Its people had endured everything for civil liberty and for the Protestant religion; but they wore no long, sad faces, nor did they, either at home or in Amer- ica, put men to death for differing from them in relig- ion. In view of their story, the pernicious theory that earnestness in religion or devotion to the principles of self-government makes men joyless, haters of art, or per- secutors of their fellows should be consigned to the abysmal darkness whence it came. Such a doctrine is one of the most striking illustrations of the cant of history. 134 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA The English Puritans, both at home and in America, exhibited great quaUties, for which they should receive all honor ; but they also exhibited defects, so glaring as, in the minds of many persons, almost to obscure their virtues. The defects, however, as we shall see hereafter, sprang from the condition of English society under which its Puritanism was developed. To charge them to the age, as if all the world were in the same condition, is ani offence against historic truth ; but that offence is light compared with the crime of charging them to religion or. to the love of republican institutions. Let us now glance at the form of government estab- lished in the Netherlands prior to the great revolt from Spain, then at the condition of the people in relation to education, religion, and morals. This is necessary to an understanding of the nature and results of that wonder- ful struggle, and a comprehension of the mode in which the Dutch Puritans became the instructors of their Eng- lish brethren. In 1555, the Emperor Charles Y., broken by the gout and wearied of the cares of state, retired to private life. Before entering the monastery in which he was to pass the remainder of his days, he turned over to his son and heir almost all the vast possessions which, wielded by his sturdy arm and directed by his genius, had made him the foremost monarch of the age. His successor, Philip II. of Spain, became by this cession king of all the Spanish kingdoms and of both the Sicilies — " Absolute Domina- tor," according to the high-flown language of the day, in Asia, Africa, and America — Duke of Milan and of both the Burgundies, and hereditary sovereign of the seven- teen provinces of the Netherlands. The last was the richest and fairest jewel in his crown. Of the :pve mill- ions poured annually into the royal treasury, two came THE NETHERLAND PROVINCES 135 from these provinces, while only half a million came from Spain, and a like sum from Mexico and Peru.* The seventeen provinces at this time composing the Netherlands were so many separate states. Each had an hereditary ruler, called a duke, marquis, count, or baron — titles which centuries before had been held by different persons. 'Now one person held them all, but still each state maintained its individuality and had its own government, as the American colonies had theirs before the Revolution. As the King of England ap- pointed governors for the American colonies, so in the Netherlands the superior lord, now Philip of Spain, ap- pointed governors, or stadtholders, to represent his sover- eignty in the various provinces, and a regent to control the whole. "Within the provinces, again, were the cities and towns, each of which had its separate charter, some of them so liberal as to make them virtual republics.y The population of ah. the provinces was estimated at three millions.:]: Three millions of people, according to Motley, the most industrious, the most prosperous, per- haps the most intelligent, under the sun. § The southern states, which in the end remained at- tached to Spain, were at this time the more populous and wealthy. Those in the north, however, were rap- * Motley, i. 112. t In the seventeen provinces were 208 walled cities, 150 chartered towns, and 6300 villages. Motley, i. 91. J About one fourth as large as at present. All estimates of popu- lation in the days before a regular census was taken are, however, vague and only approximate. Tliat of England at this time is fixed by Green at from*five to six millions, while Macaulay places it no higher a century later. Prof. Thorold Rogers, probably the best authority,, estimates the population of England in the reign of Eliz- abeth at only two millions and a half Time, March, 1890. § Motley, i. 90. 136 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA idly stepping to the front, and the long war which they Avere about to wage with Spain established their pre- eminence in all departments. Holland, in particular, had founded an industry of surpassing value. In 141 4, a humble fisherman, Jacob Beukelszoon, of Biervliet, in Zeeland, by one of the practical inventions of which his people were to give so many to the world, had opened up in the sea a mine of wealth richer than all the mines of Mexico or Peru. It was simply a novel and easy method, still in use, of drying and packing fish. Two years later the first large herring seine was manufactured.* Thence- forth the fisheries of Holland, at a time when almost all the world abstained from meat in Lent and on ev- ery "Wednesday and Friday, became of vast importance. ]^ot only did they bring into .the country an endless stream of gold, but they nurtured the brave and skilful seamen who aided so much in building up the great re- public, t Half a century after this invention, Philip of Burgundy, writing to the pope, said that " Plolland and Zeeland were inhabited by a brave and warlike people, who have never been conquered by their neighbors, and who prosecuted their commerce on every sea." :]: * Davies's " Holland," i. 195. Authorities cliifer as to this claim of Beukelszoon, there being no proof in the records that he was the in- ventor of the process, which, however, originated in Biervliet about his time. Rogers's " Story of Holland," p. 27. Of more importance is the statement that the great impulse to the fisheries of Holland was due to the fact that about 1425 the herring fli-st began to spawn in the German Ocean. " The Hansa Towns," by Helen Zimmern, p. 49. + It should be mentioned to the honor of Charles V. that, being in 1550 at Biervliet, where Beukelszoon was buried, he visited the grave and ordered a magnificent monument to be erected to the memory of the man who had rendered so signal a service to his country. Ed- inburgli Review, July, 1830, p. 419. X " La Richesse de la Holland," i. 26. THE WALLED TOWNS IN THE MIDDLE AGES 137 Such was the general condition of the !N"etherlands when by the abdication of Charles V. they passed to his successor. That successor never understood the people committed to his rule, knew nothing of their spirit, and .could not comprehend why they so insisted on their civil and religious rights. Throughout the rest of Europe, the feudal tyranny having passed away, the monarchs Avere absorbing all the power. Such was the case in neighboring France, in Spain, where Phihp was born and lived, and in England, where he found a wife. Why should he not govern these provinces in the same manner as the other parts of his dominions ? That he could not, he discovered before his death. To under- stand why he could not, we must look at the institutions of the country with some care. There was a time in the early history of the Nether- lands when liberty was in danger. The ancient Ger- manic freedom was protected chiefly by poverty and isolation ; but when men began to cultivate the land, trade with one another, and lay up wealth, these warders went off guard. Had this people then been devoted to agriculture alone, the results would probably have been as disastrous as in other parts of Europe. But here commerce and manufactures came to the rescue, and built up the walled towns which were for ages the cita- dels of freedom. The growth of these towns, and the municipal institutions there developed, form the principal feature of Netherland history. In most other countries the towns were mere aggregations of individuals, with privileges, customs, and chartered rights more or less defined, but subject to the general government, and comparatively early falling under national control. Here, on the other hand, when once established, they grew steadily in power and independence, until in the end they 138 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA became almost little republics, levying their own taxes, electing their own magistrates, and making their own laws. It is not necessary for our purpose, nor would it be an easy task, to trace the origin of these towns and show the methods of their growth. "Within the present cen- tury considerable attention has been paid to these sub- jects, but much yet remains to be accomplished. All that has been discovered, however, tends more and more to prove the influence of Kome, in this as in other mat- ters, upon the institutions of the Netherlands.* The city of Bruges is perhaps typical of the later towns of the Netherlands, and its origin suggestive of * Savigny, in his " History of Roman Law in the Middle Ages,'' and Raynouard, in his " Histoire de Droit Municipal," have traced the continuance of municipal institutions in some ten French cities from the age of the Roman Empire to the twelfth century, when the for- mal charters of communities first appear. Hallam, speaking of the French cities of the eleventh century, says : "We must here distinguish the cities of Flanders and Holland, which obtained their independence much earlier ; in fact, their self-government goes back beyond any as- signable date. They appear to have sprung from a distinct source, but still from the great reservoir of Roman institutions. The cities on the Rhine retained more of tlieir ancient organization than we find in Northern France. The Roman language, says Thierry, had here perished, the institutions survived. At Cologne we find, from age to age, a corporation of citizens exactly resembling the curia, and wliose members set up hereditary pretensions to a Roman de- scent ; we find there p. particular tribunal for the cesdo ionorum, a part of Roman law unknown to the old jurisprudence of Germany, as to that of the feudal system. In the twelfth century the free con- stitution of Cologne passed for ancient. From Cologne and Treves municipal rights spread to the Rhenisli cities of less remote origin, and readied the great communities of Flanders and Brabant." — Hal- lam's " Middle Ages," vol. i. chap. ii. note 18, ed. 1878. BBUQES AND ITS ORIGIN— A MODERN TOWN 139 the mode in which such communities arose. Charlemagne planted several thousand Saxon colonists on the west coast of Flanders, partly to repel the incursions of the Northmen, and partly to serve as hostages for the orderly conduct of their kinsmen beyond the eastern borders of his empire. He also appointed a foreatier, whose duty it was to enforce obedience to the laws, collect imposts, and preserve the royal forests. This arrangement was of brief duration. In the reign of Charles the Bald, about 860, a rude Flemish chieftain, Baldwin of the Iron Arm, ran away with the king's daughter, Judith, but after many vicissitudes was taken into favor. Flanders was erected into a county to be held as a fief of France, and conferred on the bold Baldwin, with the title of Markgraf, or Warden of the Marches. He then built a castle, commanding a bridge over the little river Keye, with a chapel to receive certain relics of St. Donatus, sent to him by the Archbishop of Eheims. Outside the walls he erected houses for the reception of merchants and itinerant traders, and laid out a place of meeting for freemen. Thus a small town arose under the castle walls, which took the name of Brugge, from the bridge to which it primarily owed its existence. This toll-house on the river, for such it really was, developed into the city of Bruges, which in the tenth century had a large commerce, and in the thirteenth was the commercial capital of Europe.* Bruges was, however, a modern town. It grew up on a trade already established, for the country had mer- chants, and commerce from which toll could be col- lected. Its advantages were those of situation ; these, and not its antiquity, gave it prominence. Other cities * Hutton's " Van Arteveld," chap. i. 140 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA in the interior are older, and it is through them that the ideas of Eome were handed down, which, mingled with the traditions of the German race, built up the little republics that studded the whole surface of the land. The distinguishing feature of all these municipalities, that which more than any other gave them strength, was the system by which the citizens were divided into guilds. The birthplace of this institution is disputed; one party claiming that it is of Germanic origin, the other that it was derived from Eome. Perhaps both are right in part. The early Germans were accustomed to form associations for mutual protection against acci- dents by fire or water and similar misadventures. These unions were called Minne, or Friendships. Hence the word Minnesingers of later days. After a time the name of Minne passed into that of Ghilde, meaning a feast at the common expense. Each ghilde was placed under the patronage of some departed hero or demi-god, and was managed by officers elected by the members, social equality lying at its foundation.* "With the introduc- tion of Christianity the demi-god was replaced by a saint, but the clergy frowned on the associations, which led to much intemperance. Such was the origin of the guilds of the Middle Ages, according to some authori- ties, and for those of a social and charitable nature we need look no further. But the guilds which were of chief importance, those which characterized the cities of the Netherlands, were associations among members of the same trade for industrial purposes, and these seem rather to have come from Eome. The Eomans exercised the right of association from a * Hutton's "Van Arteveld," chap. i. THE GUILDS-THEIR OBIGIN 141 very early time, and it is asserted that Numa encouraged the formation of craft-guilds, of which Plutarch enumer- ates nine. Exercised voluntarily under the republic, the right became somewhat curtailed under the empire, and the collegia, as they were called, were limited by im- perial decree.* Yet they became very numerous, not only in Kome, but throughout the rest of the empire, especially in the East, in Italy, and in Gaul. Many of these associations were organized for good-fellowship, some for religious purposes, others to provide for burial, but the most important were those formed for trade and manufactures. Thus we find at Naples in the sixth cen- tury a soapmakers' guild, and in the ISTetherlands at the same period one for making salt. In Rome, the collegia were mostly confined to the poorer classes, but in the provinces they numbered among their members not only wealthy tradesmen,. but also nobles. All chose their own officers, made their own laws, and paid contribu- tions to a common fund.f The Germanic guilds and the Eoman collegia were thus much alike ; and in one or the other, or in both com- bined, we see the original of many of the institutions of the Middle Ages and of later times. Out of the Germanic guilds; formed for mutual protection, insurance, and social purposes, grew the Anglo-Saxon hundreds, where each member was responsible for the actions of all the others. From the same source came the social guilds which before the Eeformation were so numerous in Eng- land, there being over nine hundred in the county of * Trajan was much opposed to them. See " Letters of the Younger Pliny," X. 34. t For a short account of the Eoman guilds, see " Encyclopaedia Britannica," article " Guild," and authorities cited. 143 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMKKICA JSTorfolk alone. In the Netherlands these old Germanic associations seem gradually to have assumed the govern- ment of the towns. However, when this came about, they had lost their ancient name, and were no longer called guilds, but communes, embracing all who were entitled to gather together in the public place when the town bell rang out the summons. Thenceforth, the name guild was limited to the trade or manufacturing associations, which seem to have had more of a Eoman origin. On being admitted a member of his craft-guild, each workman took an oath to uphold divine worship, and to serve his count loyally and with all his might. For misconduct he was liable to punishment, while he was entitled to a pension after a certain term of honorable service. Within the guild, there reigned the most perfect equality, each member being part of a machine. "Wages and prices were regulated by the deacon or head man. Hours of labor were precisely defined, so that no em- ployer could steal a march on a competitor. Among the weavers, all the wool was bought by the guild and distributed on terms of strict impartiality. In each workshop the number of looms was limited, and no em- ployer was allowed to lure away the workmen of another. A master workman, as a rule, could not employ more than three journeymen at a time. A citizen of another town had great difficulty in getting into a craft-guild, unless it could be shown that extra hands were really needed. The competition aimed at was that of trade against trade, town against town, province against province, the Low Countries against the world, and not that of indi- vidual against his fellow. With all these restrictions upon liberty of action, the most extreme care was used to secure efficiency among the members of each guild. THE GUILDS, THEIR NUMBER AND INFLUENCE 143 A long and arduous apprenticeship was required before a man could become a workman. Every mistake was punished with a fine, and any glaring violation of mo- rality or infringement of the law by expulsion from the order. Each of these trades-companies had its own chapel, and generally its own hospital, as well as its herberg, or house of call, in which were preserved its charters and other public documents. The members made their own internal laws, and discussed collectively all matters re- lating to their common interests. Each association was presided over by a deacon, or deken, elected by the mem- bers, but rarely from among their ranks. Each had its own tribunal, from whose decision there was no appeal. Thus the guilds formed little republics within the com- munes or towns, greatly curtailing individual freedom of action, but giving a strength of co-operation much needed in the rude age of feudal tyranny. By the fourteenth century they had become so numerous that we find fifty- two at Bruges and fifty-nine at Ghent.* In the nineteenth century, with its hurry and bustle, the anxiety of every man to make more money than his neighbor, and the blind admiration of accumulated wealth, the guild system of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries seems like a peaceful dream. The competition of modern times, the outgrowth of the ideas of individ- ual freedom inherited from our Germanic ancestors, has, perhaps, made life easier to live, but has taken away much of the charm of living. These craftsmen of the Middle Ages were trained to do good work, for love of * Hutton's "Van Arteveld," chap. v. They existed in all the towns. In 1367 there were over forty in Dordrecht. Geddes's "John De Witt," i. 14. 144 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA it, from pride in their handicraft, and not' from a desire for great wages that in time would enable them to rise in the social scale. It was honor enough to be a good workman, and that reputation secured all the comforts of existence. The same spirit extended through all classes, and has always characterized the ISTetherlanders. They are shrewd enough at a bargain, are industrious and fru- gal, but they have never displayed the feverish anxiety to get riches which is the curse of England and America. Their merchants and manufacturers have always taken time to cultivate literature, science, the arts, and, above all, the domestic virtues. In the days when the guilds were in their glory there was much less distinction be- tween the rich and the poor than exists at present. The guild -houses were something like our modern clubs, where all the members stand on terms of equality. There the younger workmen, accompanied by their wives, met their seniors and employers ; there they en- tertained strangers of their own craft, exchanged ideas, and developed a sentiment of comradeship which, while it gave strength to their order, also gave a feeling of contentment which is unfortunately rare in modern life.* Albert Diirer has left a charming account of the re- ception given him in 1520 by the Painters' Guild at Antwerp. " On Sunday," says he, " the painters invited * Probably no reader needs to be reminded liow the modern world, reacting from the doctrines of the "Manchester School," with its motto, " The race to the swift, and the devil take the hindmost," is turning back towards the guild system of the Middle Ages. Our trades-unions, which, with all their imperfections, have been of ines- timable value to the working classes, mark a step in this direction. In addition is the modern legislation in Germany for the pensioning of old faithful workmen, and that proposed in England for their in- surance. ALBERT DUREE AND THE PAINTERS' GUILD OF ANTWERP 145 me to their guild-hall with my wife and maid-servant. They had a quantity of silver plate, and costly furniture, and most expensive food. All their wives were with them, and as I was led in to the table, every one stood up in a row on either side, as if they had been bringing in some great lord. Among them were men of very high standing, all of whom behaved with great respect and kindness towards me." While at table, the syn- dic of the magistrates came in and gave four cans of wine, saying that they sent it to do him honor. Next came Master Peter, the town carpenter, with a present of two cans of wine. " "When we had been making mer- ry together up to a late hour of the night, they accom- panied us home in honor with lanterns, and prayed me to rely confidently on their good -will. So I thanked them, and lay down to sleep." * For the most part each guild inhabited a separate quarter of the town, and over every quarter two officers Avere appointed by the burgomasters, whose duty it vras to keep a list of all men in their districts capable of bearing arms, to see that their arms were in readiness, and to assemble them at the order of the magistrates, or upon the ringing of the great town bell. Over all these officers were placed two, three, or four captains of the burgher guards. "When the town bell rang, every citi- zen was bound to obey the summons, at any hour of the day or night. When called out to service within the walls, the several guilds acted under their own banner ; but in defence of the state they were accustomed to march under the standard of the town, and dressed in the city livery. As they were under constant drill, had their anns always ready, and were thoroughly organized. * Albert Durer's "Journal." I— 10 146 TUB PDEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA it was the work of an incredibly short space of time to man the walls and put a city in a posture of defence.* The towns Avere surrounded by walls, ramparts, and moats, and entered through massive gates with portcul- lis and drawbridge. Within, the streets were narrow and tortuous, to lessen the advantage of cavalry, archers, and crossbow-men. Many of the houses boasted of a cir- cular tower, the upper floor of which, reached only by a ladder, afforded a temporary retreat to the household when pursued by a victorious enemy, foreign or domes- tic.f Thus protected, and with a population every mem- ber of which was trained to the use of arms, liberty found a refuge during the centuries in which most civil rights were elsewhere crushed under the iron heel of force. Without the walls, however, the city militia could, as a rule, make little stand against the cavalry and heavy men at arms of the feudal barons. Yet, early in the fourteenth century, when Flanders was a fief of France, the Low Countries taught the world a lesson which was never entirely forgotten. Philip the Fair, having im- prisoned the Count of Flanders, determined to deprive the Flemish cities of their chartered rights, and to rule there as he ruled at home. The result was an upris- ing of the burghers, who, in 1302, under the walls of Courtrai, met the French army in a pitched battle. On the one side were the picked knights, the flower of the French nobility ; on the other a collection of traders and artisans, merchants, weavers, and butchers. But in the marshy ground about the city the heavy men at arms became a mob, and fell like cattle before the long pikes of their antagonists. So great was the slaughter of belted * Davies's " Holland," i. 80. t Hutton's " Van Arteveld," chap. v. THE CHARTERED TOWNS 147 knights that Flemish chronicles call this the " Day of the Golden Spurs." For the first time the feudal sys- tem had broken down on the field of battle. The gla- mour was gone. In the marshes of the Netherlands a new force had been developed, which, though often tem- porarily overpowered, was to grow in strength until the final struggle with the whole might of Spain.* Next above the guilds stood the organization which they looked up to as the author of their being and the protector of their privileges — the chartered city or town. Many of these towns were old, with prescriptive rights of long continuance; but it was not until the twelfth century that they began to receive the written char- ters which formally defined and guaranteed their lib- erties. These charters were granted by the counts or lords of the various provinces, were sometimes gained by force, oftener bought with hard-earned gold, but al- ways guarded with the most jealous care. Although differing in details, these instruments were in their main features much alike through all the seventeen provinces. They conferred the power to make municipal ordinances and regulations for the conduct of trade, to levy taxes, administer justice in all civil cases, and to punish the lower grades of crime. Even the right to inflict capi- tal punishment was given to some of the more favored towns. In few, if any of them, however, was there an approach to a democracy in later times. That had passed away with the advance of wealth, the rich mer- chants and manufacturers who secured the charters hav- ing generally absorbed the power originally lodged in the whole body of freemen.t Still, oiBces were held for * Hutton's " Van Arteveld," chap. iii. t Liege, however, as late as the fifteenth century elected its magis- 148 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA short terms, and in Holland special regulations were in force by which no two members of the government could be within a certain degree of consanguinity ; thus pre- venting the whole authority from being lodged in the hands of a few families^ as happened in the cities of Italy, especially those of Genoa and Florence.* Antwerp may be taken as a type of the large towns of the lower provinces, and its form of government il- lustrates the amount of freedom secured there in the middle of the sixteenth century. At that time it had outstripped Bruges, and had become the commercial cap- ital of the world. Next to Paris it was the largest city in Europe. In its superb exchange five thousand mer- chants were daily congregated. At its wharves twenty- five hundred vessels often lay at once, and five hundred went and came in a single day. Guicciardini says that the city contained ten thousand carts constantly em- ployed in carrying merchandise to and from the neigh- boring country, besides hundreds of wagons for pas- sengers, and five hundred coaches used by people of distinction.! Among its inhabitants were one hundred and twenty-four goldsmiths who acted as bankers. X trates annuiilly by universal suffrage, all male citizens above the age of sixteen liaving the right to vote, and being eligible to office. Kirk's "Charles the Bold," i. 839. * Davies's "Holland," i. 89. t In 1564, about the time of the appearance of Guicciardini's book, the first coach was introduced into England, being imported from Holland for the use of Queen Elizabeth. Nathan Drake's " Shake- speare and his Times," p. 415. It caused great astonishment among the islanders. Some said it was "a great sea-shell brought from China;" others, " that it was a temple in which cannibals worshipped the devil." I Many of the merchants were possessed of enormous wealth. The Fuggers, a German family with headquarters at Augsburg, but with ANTWERP AND ITS GOVERNMENT 149 The sovereign was simply " Marquis of Antwerp," and was sworn to govern according to the ancient charters and laws. He was represented by a stadtholder as an executive oiiicer. There were four bodies or estates of the city which managed its affairs. First, the senate, half of whose members were renewed annually, being appointed by the stadtholder from a quadruple number nominated by the senate itself and by the deacons of the guilds ; second, the board of ancients or ex-senators ; third, twenty - six ward-masters, selected by the senate from a triple number on nomination by the wards; fourth, fifty-four deans of the guilds, also selected by a branch house at Antwerp, furnish tlie most notable example of the vast fortunes accumulated on the Continent by manufactures and commerce during the Middle Ages. Antony, one of the two broth- ers, who died just before this time, left six million gold crowns, be- sides jewels and other valuable property, and landed possessions in all parts of Europe and in both tlie Indies. It was of him that the Emperor Charles V., when viewing the royal treasures at Paris, ex- claimed: "There is at Augsburg a linen-weaver who could pay as much as this with his own gold." Of him also the story is told that, receiving on one occasion a visit from the emperor, he heated the halls of his princely dwelling with cinnamon-wood, and kindled the Are with bonds for an immense sum, representing money bor- rowed from him by his royal guest. In wealth the Puggers were the Rothschilds of their time, while in political influence they far surpassed this modern family. Both brothers were ennobled by Charles, and in 1619 forty-seven counts and countesses were num- bered among their descendants. Later on some of them became princes of the empire, and in the beginning of this century their landed estates covered about four hundred and forty square miles. Like the other Continental merchants of their time, Antony and his brother Eaimond were liberal patrons of literature and the arts. Their houses were filled with rare paintings and costly books ; they supported artists and musicians, and founded hospitals, schools, and charitable institutions almost without number. 150 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND^ ENGLAND, AND AMERICA the senate from a triple number of candidates presented by their constituents. These four branches divided be- tween them most of the functions of the government. The senate sat as an appellate court, and also appointed two burgomasters, two pensionaries or legal counsellors, and all lesser magistrates and oflBoials of the city. The chief duty of the ward-masters was to enroll, muster, and train the militia. The deans of the guilds examined can- didates for admission to the guilds, and settled disputes among the members. The four bodies, when assembled together, constituted the general court, legislature, or common council of the city ; but no tax could be imposed except with the consent of all four branches, voting sep- arately.* As the guilds had long before this time passed under the control of the wealthy members, and as the suffrage was confined to a limited class, the government was essentially aristocratic, but it was free from most of the evils of an hereditary aristocracy. All the mem- bers, except the ex-senators, went back after a short term of service to their constituents — like themselves engaged in industrial pursuits — and thus felt the sense of direct accountability. They would also naturally feel unwilling, while in office, to pass laws injurious to the common good, of which they were so soon to expe- rience the ill effects. In Holland, and in the northern provinces generally, the form of town government was somewhat simpler. The senate was composed of two, three, or four burgo- masters, and a certain number of schepens, or sheriffs, generally seven. Together these officers administered the affairs of the town, but the schepens sitting alone formed a civil and criminal court. The sovereign was * Motley, i. 84. HOLLAND AND THE EURAL DISTEICTS 151 represented by an official called a schout, whom he ap- pointed, but sometimes from three candidates named by the senate. A Great Council of the citizens, possessing certain property qualifications, met annually, and chose eight or nine " Good Men ;" these in turn elected the bur- gomasters and the candidates, from whom the schout, as representative of his master, selected the schepens.* The municipal government and the privileges of the towns extended over a certain space outside the walls, which was constantly extended by favor or purchase from the sovereign. Beyond these limits lay the open country with its rural population, forming the domains of the nobles and abbeys, and governed by bailiffs, whose office was analogous to that of the city schout. Here, especially in the southern provinces, there was much less liberty than within the towns. And yet serf- dom was abolished in Flanders in the thirteenth cen- tury, and the condition of the peasant would, in one re- spect at least, compare favorably with that of a person of the same class to-day. He was an hereditary tenant, and could not be evicted from his little plot of land, nor subjected to an annual or capricious increase of rent; neither could he be compelled to pay for the results of improvements which he had made himself.f Some of the village communities obtained charters from their lordS( but they had not the strength to oppose force with force when their charters were violated, and they * Davies, " Holland," i. 80, etc. t Hutton's " Van Arteveld," chap. vi. This system, worthy of at- tention from persons interested in the history of Ireland, still prevails in Groningen, and to it the great prosperity of the farmers of that state is generally attributed. " Holland and its People," De Amicis, p. 386. In England serfdom lingered on until the reign of Elizabeth, and, perhaps, a little later. Gneist, ii. 329. 152 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA were continually subject to the tyranny of their power- ful neighbors in the towns. As the cities grew in wealth, strength, and impor- tance, they acquired rights beyond those of mere local self-government, for we see them sending deputies to the states or legislatures of the separate provinces ; thus forming with the nobles, and the clergy in some cases, the parliamentary power of the nation. When this right was first acquired by the municipalities does not seem to be established, but Ave find it fully settled in Flanders as early as 1286.* It probably arose from the custom of consulting with them upon matters relating to war or foreign alliances, questions in which they were par- ticularly interested, and as to which their support would be essential to the sovereign. Thus the treaty which the Count of Holland made with Edward I. of Eng- land in 1281 was guaranteed by the towns. Shortly afterwards, the towns of Holland, large and small, are seen sending their deputies to the assembly of the states, to consider questions of taxation ; but by the fif- teenth century this privilege was substantially, and by the next century wholly, confined to the six principal cities of Dordrecht, Harlem, Delft, Leyden, Amsterdam, and Gouda.f As it would be useless to discuss the organization of all the provincial states, we may confine our view to that of Holland, which is the most important for our purposes. Here the clergy had no representation. The six towns sent deputies elected by their senates, each town, however, whatever its population, having but one * Motley, i. 37. Nine years before an English Parliament, t Davies's " Holland," i. 83 ; Motley, i. 37. In the seventeenth cen- tury it was extended to twelve other towns. THE LEGISLATURE OR STATES OP HOLLAND 153 vote. Tlie nobles also sent deputies, but they had only one vote conjointly. Thus the towns stood against the nobles as six to one, forming a great contrast to the early English parliaments. No measure could be adopt- ed, nor any tax imposed, without the consent of each of the seven bodies represented ; and if any new question arose as to which they were uninstructed, the deputies were obliged to postpone decision until after consulta- tion with their principals. In times of peace no partic- ular evil resulted from this extreme states-rights doc- trine, but in times of war it became a fertile source of weakness, irresolution, and delay. The powers exer- cised by the states were of course a shifting quantity, expanding under Aveak rulers, and shrinking under pow- erful and arbitrary ones. The most essential, however, that of levying taxes, no sovereign of Holland ever vent- ured to dispute before the time of Philip II. of Spain.* It appears to have been competent for any town to call an assembly, but the more common practice was to peti- tion the count or his council to do so, and he usually convoked them at The Hague, or at some other place in which he was residing. Although the nobles had but one vote in the assem- bly, there was another body in which they had great power. This was the council of state, or supreme court, formed of the chief members of the nobility, selected by the counts. The council of state assisted the count in the administration of public affairs, guaranteed all trea- ties with foreign powers, and in its judicial capacity took cognizance of capital offences, both in the towns, unless otherwise provided by their charters, and in the open country. To this court, usually presided over by the * Davies's " Holland," i. 86. 154 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA count in person, lay an appeal in civil causes from all the inferior courts of the province.* Such, in outline, was the general form of government in the countship of Holland, and that of the other states was much the same in character, although, as I shall show in another place, the system in some of the states still farther north was much more democratic. How essentially it differed from that in England, and how it affected the colonists of America, we shall see hereafter. The seventeen provinces were, as already stated, origi- nally separate and distinct nationalities, lordships, and fiefs ; but in the course of time, beginning in 1384, by marriage, purchase, or conquest, all except three gravi- tated to the House of Burgundy, f Still, each state al- ways retained its separate existence, with its individual rights and privileges, its own assembly and council of state, and its own stadtholder, who, appointed by the sovereign, acted as his representative. In 1477, Charles the Eold, whose fiery passions, chiv- alric daring, and wild ambition had for ten years be- wildered Europe, fell in battle by an unknown hand, leaving but one child, a daughter, Mary, twenty years of age. Louis XI. was on the throne of France, and at once seized the opportunity to take possession of the Duchy of Burgundy, as a lapsed fief, and to lay claim to all the Netherlands. The Duchess Mary was at Ghent, and, under the advice of her guardians, called a grand congress of all the fourteen provinces then belonging to the House of Burgundy, to consider ways and means to resist the French aggressions. This was an important event, for it was the first meeting of the States-General, * Davies's " Holland," i. 83. t Kirk's " Charles the Bold," i. 50. THE STATES-GENERAL AND THE CHAETER OF HOLLAND 155 or General Congress of the Netherlands, -which played so great a part in all the subsequent history of the Low- Countries. It was also important in another aspect. Under the rule of Charles the Eold, as well as under that of his father, Philip the Good, many inroads had been made on the ancient prescriptive rights of the various states. The time had now come to retrieve the past and secure the future, and the keen-witted deputies summoned to the general assembly were not slow to improve their opportunity. The States - General were called together to grant subsidies for the war with France. The depu- ties expressed a willingness to render every service in their power, but demanded that their grievances should be first redressed. The duchess reluctantly gave way, and the result was a formal charter for the separate provinces, written, sealed, and sanctioned by the oath of the sovereign and her guardians.* The charter granted to Holland, called the " Groot Privilegie," or " Great Privilege," is worthy of particular attention. Its chief provisions were the following : The duchess should not marry without the consent of the nobles and the states ; she should bestow the offices of the country on natives only, no person being allowed to hold two at the same time, and none to be let out to farm. The Council of Holland was thenceforth to consist of eight members besides the stadtholder — six Hollanders and two Zeelanders— and no cause of which the municipal courts had jurisdiction was to be brought before it ex- * Motley, in various places, speaks of the old chartered rights of the provinees. As matter of fact, few, if any of them, had charters before this time. Their rights, unlike those of the cities, rested in prescription. 156 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA cept by way of appeal. The right de non evocando, or exemption from prosecution out of their province, was to be preserved to all the inhabitants inviolate. The towns might hold assemblies with each other or with the states, where and as often as they judged necessary. No new tolls or other burdens should be enforced with- out the consent of the states, and the freedom of trade and commerce should be maintained.* Neither the duchess nor her successors should declare war, offensive or defensive, without the consent of the states ; and in case they did so, no one should be bound to serve. No commands of the sovereign should prevail against the privileges of the towns. The Dutch language should be used in all decrees and letters-patent. No coin should be struck, nor any alteration made in the standard of * How carefully and wisely the Netlieilantlers maintained the free- dom of trade can be seen from an incident which occurred so far back as the reign of Edward I. of England. That monarch, in a letter addressed to Robert, Earl of Flanders, states that he has learned of an active intercourse carried on between the Scotch and the Flemings ; and as the Scotch had taken part with Robert Bruce, who was in rebellion against him and excommunicated by the pope, he begged that the earl would put a stop to this intercourse, and exclude the Scotch from his dominions. Tlie earl's answer was full of expres- sions of respect for the English king, whom he desired to please, but he said frankly, as to the main question : " Wu must not conceal it from your majesty that our country of Flanders is open to all the world, where every person finds a free admission. Nor can we take away this privilege from persons concerned in commerce with- out bringing ruin and destruction upon our country. If the Scotch go to our ports, and our subjects go to theirs, it is neither the inten- tion of ourselves nor our subjects to encourage tliem in tlieir error, but only to carry on our traffic, without taking any part with them." — Rymer's "Foedera,"iii. ^71, quoted Edinburgh Bevieic, July, 1830, p. 421. THE MAGNA CHAETA OP HOLLAND AND THE DUTCH EEPUBLIC 157 money, without the approbation of the states. The towns should not be forced to contribute to any petition for money, unless they had first consented to it, and the petition should be presented to the states by the sover- eign in person.* This was a pretty broad instrument for the fifteenth century, when freedom was being throttled all over the rest of Europe. The duchess, to be sure, afterwards de- clared it invalid, as obtained from her when a minor, and her successors repudiated it and disregarded many of its obligations, treating it as the kings of England had treated Magna Charta. But to the people it stood as a memento of the past and a prophecy of the future. They claimed that its provisions were not novel, but that it only summed up the privileges which they pos- sessed before the dukes of Burgundy attempted to in- troduce the despotic system which prevailed in France.f The Lady JVlary marries the son of the Emperor of Germany, and thus the Netherlands pass to the House of Austria, and so down to Charles V., Avho acquires the three remaining provinces, including democratic Fries- land.:}: In 1548, seven years before the abdication of his father, Philip II. visited the country to receive the homage of his future subjects, and to exchange oaths of mutual fidelity. As he passed from state to state the people swore fealty to their coming sovereign, and he in return swore to respect their various rights and privi- leges. In Holland he took an oath " well and truly to * Davies, i. 384, etc. t Grotins, " De Antiq. Reip. Bat." cap. v. I Grattan. Froissart, who wrote about 1380, said tliat the Frisians were a very unreasonable race for not recognizing tlie authority of the great lords. 158 THE PUKITAN IN HOLMND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA maintain all the privileges and freedom of the nobles, cities, communities, subjects — lay and clerical — of the province of Holland and West Friesland, to them grant- ed by my ancestors, counts and countesses of Holland ; and, moreover, their customs, traditions, usages, and rights which they now have and use." * His father and grand- father had sworn to maintain only the limited privi- leges admitted by the usurping House of Burgundy, but he bound himself to maintain all ever granted by any of his predecessors. They, however, had been rather better than their promises — for, in the main, they had respected all the privileges of the states and cities — but he proved much worse than his. The right of self-tax- ation he, for the first time, attempted to set aside. The result was revolution : the people demanded all their privileges, and the Magna Charta of Holland became the foundation of the Dutch Republic. Passing now from the question of the civil govern- ment, and reserving for another place a discussion of some features in the legal system of the country, let us next look at the subject of education in the Netherlands. Here we shall see why the Reformation made such rapid advances among this people ; and when we add a view of the state of public and private morals, we shall be able to understand the character of the Dutch Puritan, and why it was that little Holland became for so many years the bulwark of Protestantism as well as the ref- uge of religious and civil liberty in Europe. When learning began to revive after the long sleep of the Middle Ages, Italy experienced the first impulse. Next came Germany and the contiguous provinces of the Low Countries. The force of the movement in * Motley, i. 135. SCHOOLS IN THE NETHERLANDS 159 these regions is shown by an event of great importance, not always noticed by historians. In 1400, there was established at Deventer, in the northeastern province of the Netherlands, an association or brotherhood, usuallv called Brethren of the Life in Common. In their strict lives, partial community of goods, industry in manual labor, fervent devotion, and tendency to mysticism, they bore some resemblance to the modern Moravians. But they were strikingly distinguished from the members of this sect by their earnest cultivation of knowledge, which was encouraged among themselves and promoted among others by schools, both for primary and advanced edu- cation. In 1430 the Brethren had established forty-five branches, and by 1460 more than thrice that number. They were scattered through different parts of Germany and the Low Countries, each with its school subordinate to the head college at Deventer * It was in these schools, in the middle of the fifteenth century, that a few Germans and Netherlanders were, as Hallara says,- roused to acquire that extensive knowl- edge of the ancient languages which Italy as yet exclu- sively possessed. Their names should never be omitted in any remembrance of the revival of letters ; for great was their influence upon subsequent times. Chief among these men were Wessels, of Groningen, " one of those who contributed most steadily to the purification of * " Their schools were," saj-s Eickhorn, " the first genuine nurseries of literature in Germany, so fiir as it depended on the knowledge of languages; and in them was first taught the Latin, and, in process of time, the Greek and Eastern tongues." Groningen had also a school (St. Edward's) of considerable merit, while at Zwoll, not far distant, was another, over which Thomas S, Keinpis is said to have presided. Hallam's " Introduction to the Literature of Europe," i. 85 ; Baudry's "European Library," Paris, 1839. 160 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA religion;" Hegius, of Deventer, under whom Erasmus obtained his early education, and who probably was the first man to print Greek north of the Alps ; Dringeberg, who founded a good school in Alsace ; and Longius, who presided over one at Miinster.* Thanks to the influence of these pioneers in learning, education had made great progress among the Nether- landers by the middle of the sixteenth century. They could not, to be sure, as yet rival the science and culture of Italy, but even in some of the upper branches they were taking high rank. Already Erasmus, of Eotterdam, the greatest scholar of the age, had filled all Europe with his fame. Vesalius, of Brussels, physician to Charles V. and Philip II., was dissecting the human body and pro- ducing the first comprehensive and systematic view of anatomy.f Sainte Aldegonde was one of the most accomplished men of the age. He spoke and wrote Latin, Spanish, Italian, French, German, and Flemish. He composed poignant Greek epigrams, translated the Psalms from Hebrew into Flemish verse for the use of the Keformed Church, was a profound lawyer and theo- logian, an eloquent orator, a skilful diplomatist, and a writer of European celebrity.:]: William of Orange him- self was no mean scholar. He also spoke and wrote with facility Latin, French, German, Flemish, and Span- ish. Apart from these, there was a host of other men * Hallam, i. 142. t " Vesalius, a uative of Brussels, has been termed the founder of human anatomy, and his great work, ' De Humani Corporis Fabrica,' is even yet a splendid monument of art as ■well as science. It is said, although probably incorrectly, that the figures were designed by Titian." — Whewell's "Hist, of the Inductive Sciences," iii. 394; Hallam, i. 364. { Motley's " United Netherlands," i. 146. PHENOMENAL EDUCATION OF THE MASSES 161 of varied accomplishments, many of them of deep and extensive learning. Still, the country -was not, at this time, distinguished for the great scholarship which, half a century later, was to make the new republic the home of philosophy and science, as well as of the arts. The foundations of this edifice, however, were already laid in the almost univer- sal education of the people. About a century before this period printing from movable type had been invent- ed. That the Hollanders were the inventors may well be doubted ; but, however this may be, no other nation ever put the invention to better use. They began at the bottom, and, placing the spelling-book and reader in the hands of every child, at a time when the mass of the Eng- lish nation was wholly illiterate,* gave to all classes an elementary education. The extent to which the inhab- itants of the cities had profited by these advantages, before the outbreak of the war with Spain, may well seem phenomenal even at the present day. Motley, writing of Antwerp in the middle of the sixteenth cen- tury, says " it was difScult to find a child of sufficient age who could not write and speak at least two languages." f But this phenomenal education was not confined to the cities. Guicciardini, in describing the people of Holland at this time, tells us that many of the nobles living a retired life devoted themselves wholly to literature, and even the peasants were able to read and write well.:]: In all the principal cities of the Netherlands were to be found the so-called Guilds of Rhetoric. These were associations of mechanics and artisans, who amused them- selves with concerts, dramatic exhibitions, and the rep- * Nathan Drake, " Shakespeare and his Times," p. 210, etc. .t Motley, i. 84. t Davies's " Holland," i. 487. I.— 11 163 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA resentation of allegories, where some moral truth was set forth decked out in all the splendor of costume that art could devise and wealth supply. These performances constituted the chief amusement of the people, and they were always more or less instructive. Certainly their existence throws much light upon the general intelli- gence. It would have been strange indeed if, in such a soil, the Eeformation had not taken deep and early root. In fact, heresy was a very old story in the Netherlands^ From the middle of the twelfth century all the sects which had arisen to combat or correct the abuses of Eome had flourished there. Nowhere was their per- secution more relentless, and nowhere was it less suc- cessful. With the invention of printing, the old forces working against the Church took on a new life. The cheapening of books led to the rapid multiplication of the Scriptures, and, what was of more importance, their publication in the common tongue. Prior to this time the idea had prevailed that the Bible was only for the learned, and so was to be kept in a language which none others could understand. Throwing it open to the peo- ple meant a religious revolution. In this, the greatest of all steps leading to the Eefor- mation, Holland took a leading part by printing at Delft, in 1477, a Dutch version trans]. ix. THE EDUCATORS AND CONFESSORS OP CATHOLIC EUROPE 415 tiou of mankind. They took no money for a mass; they refused to confess a woman unless in the presence of a brother priest ; they practised and enforced upon their pupils strict chastity of life ; and they never sacri- ficed the interests of their order to any consideration of selfish ease. Unlike the members of the old monastic organizations, they wore no peculiar garb, but dressed like the ordinary clergy, or, when deemed advisable, even adopted the costume of the country in which they lived. No time was spent by them in idle ceremonies, but they devoted themselves to an active life as preach- ers, teachers, and confessors. Eecognizing the spirit of the age, instead of disparaging science they took a lead- ing part in its development. They cultivated literature, and won high renown as scholars — oratory, and became the first preachers in the Church. But their greatest pre-eminence was attained in the province of education. Knowing that as the twig is bent the tree will be inclined, they devoted their chief energies to the training of the young. All over Catho- lic Europe they established schools, in which the instruc- tion was entirely free. Reversing the old traditions un- der which teachers and scholars were natural enemies, they won the love and confidence of their pupils, bind- ing them by chains of affection which no time could weaken. Preparatory schools took up children in their infancy, and, thence they were transferred to colleges which turned them out as finished scholars, in everything except the power of thinking for themselves in matters of religion. The system which they established was a vast machine for enrolling and disciplining an army of civilians, sworn to obey the orders of their leader, and that leader they looked up to as God's representative on earth. 416 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA While thus training the rising generation, they did not, however, neglect those who had already reached ma- turity. Here their chief influence was exerted through the confessional. Rigid in their own' lives, they gained the respect and confidence of the sincere. These formed their early followers. But as time rolled on, after the death of Loyola, it was charged, and perhaps not un- justly, that for others they made religion comfortable. In a sense very different from that intended by the great apostle, they became all things to all men ; not to save the men, but to build up the power of their order. To their own members, however, no relaxation of discipline was shown, and no body of soldiers, working together or as single scouts, ever showed more clearly what dis- cipline and intensity of purpose can accomplish. When they were first organized Loyola had nine companions; in sixteen years the nine had grown to a thousand ; by the end of the century they numbered over ten times as many. They then had obtained the chief direction of the education of youth in every Catholic country of Eu- rope. They had become the confessors of almost all its monarchs, and of almost every person eminent for rank or power, thus holding in their keeping the secrets of governments and of individuals without number.* Such was the all-powerful organization which sprang up to fight the battles of Catholicism against the Eefor- mation. In after-years it became one of the curses of * Robertson's " Cliarles V." Bacon, who knew of what he spoke, pays the Jesuits the high tribute of having " enterprised to reform tlie discipline and manners of the Church of Rome," and, with Luther and the divines of the Protestant Church, " awaked to tlieir great honor and succour all human learning."— Bacon's " Filum Laby- rinthi." THE JESUITS SUSTAIN THE PAPAL AUTHORITY 417 the world, and among Protestants the name Jesuit is often synonymous with the atrocious doctrine that the end justifies the means. There is no danger that the crimes or the pernicious influence exerted by some of the members of this order will ever be overlooked. Still, it is not consistent with historic truth, while paint- ing their dark side to conceal their virtues, or to deny the great services which they have rendered to human- ity. Too much of this has been done in the heat of controversy, while the opposite rule has been applied to the Protestant reformers, and especially to our own ancestors, English and American. This mode of deal- ing with the characters of the dead is sometimes, ap- parently, considered to be in the interest of patriotism or rehgion. It is very difficult, however, to reconcile it with morality, except by adopting the principle imputed to the Jesuits, which mankind unite in holding up to ex- ecration. One thing is very certain, no one can under- stand the religious history of the sixteenth century, in which the Company of Jesus came into existence, who fails to recognize the honesty and devotion to principle which actuated the great majority of its members. When the order arose, the papacy was confronted by enemies from within as well as from without. Protes- tantism was sweeping over Europe and carrying every- thing before it. The Jesuits, by proclaiming the prin- ciple of reform within the Church, stayed its tide and confined it within its present narrow limits. But they did much more than this for the pope himself. Many of the Catholic rulers and a number of the bishops were disposed to dispute the authority of the head of the Church. Every one knows how readily the people of England Accepted their king in place of the pope of Eome, and the feeling which led to this action was not I.— 2Y 418 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA unknown in other lands. A number of the French Spanish prelates asserted that an oecumenical cou could control the holy see, and claimed that they ' a commission from Heaven, independent of the p At the Council of Trent, which settled some of t^ questions, the representative of the Jesuits, speakin the name of the whole fraternity, proclaimed that government of the faithful had been committed Christ to the pope alone ; that in him all sacerdotal thority was concentrated ; and that through him ( priests and bishops derived their divine authority.* was largely owing to the efforts of the Jesuits thi formal decree of this famous Council established jurisdiction of the pope as an article of Catholic f£ leaving the question of his infallibility in matters doctrine to be settled by future generations. Thus the Catholic Church stood fully committee the theory of the papal jurisdiction, and, abandoi the defensive, entered upon an aggressive policy. I it crushed out heresy in Italy and Spain, how it cur the Keformation in Germany, and throttled it in Fra are familiar stories. How the Jesuits carried their : sionary work to Asia, Africa, and the New "World, have already noticed. We have also seen somethirij the death-struggle going on in the Netherlands. In crusade which the Church was carrying on, to win l the recusants and to gain new converts, England c last. It had been purely Catholic until the days Henry the Kef ormer ; it had been again nominally C olic for a brief period under Queen Mary; it was i nominally Protestant under Queen Elizabeth; in i it was in some respects almost a pure missionary £ * Macaulay's " England," ii. 54, and authorities cited. TRAINING CATHOLIC MISSIONARIES FOR ENGLAND 419 This the papal authorities recognized after a few years' experience, and they set about its cultivation with sys- tem and deliberation. The great obstacle in England to a religious awaken- ing of any kind laj"^ in the general ignorance of the people, including the clergy. The priests of the old Church who remained at home had little education, and those of the new establishment were mostly in the same condition. The first thing, therefore, to be done by the Catholics, if they wished to gain the advantage of their adversaries, was to educate preachers who would ex- pound anew to these islanders the doctrines which their fathers had accepted without question. This work was begun in 1568 by the establishment at Douay, in what is now Belgium, of a college for the education of Eng- lish Catholics. It was founded under the auspices of Philip II., and was conducted by a number of profess- ors from Oxford, who had taught in that university during the reign of Mary, but who had fled to the Con- tinent to avoid the persecution of Elizabeth. During the rule of Eequesens in the Low Countries it was re- moved to Eheims, and in 15Y9 it was supplemented by another college, founded at Eome by Pope Greg- ory XIII. The pupils instructed at these institutions, which were wholly free both as to board and educa- tion, stood pledged to return to England and preach the doctrines of the old religion. The enterprise flourished from the outset. Three years after its opening, the college at Douay contained one hundred and fifty pupils. Three years later, in 1574, these missionaries began crossing the Channel to revive the drooping faith of their compatriots. In four years more, the Spanish minister at London was able to write to Philip that there were a hundred of these 430 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA young priests disguised as laymen, doing missionary work in England. Their success was marked and im- mediate. The Catholic gentry, inspired by their fer- vor, began to pluck up courage ; they refused to attend the Anglican service, as required by law, and some open- ly avowed their ancient faith. The government soon became alarmed. In 1578 Parliament was convened, and passed a law making the landing of these semi- nary priests, or the harboring of them, treason, and in November of the same year one of their number, Cuth- bert Mayne, was tried and executed. Still, these young men, although full of zeal and burn- ing with enthusiasm, formed but a skirmish line; be- hind them stood a body of trained warriors, ^nxious to battle, and, if need be, die, for their rehgion. The lat- ter belonged to the Company of Jesus, which had taken into its ranks the ablest and most promising of the Eng- lish refugees. Chief among them were Edmund Cam- pian and Robert Parsons, both of whom had been fel- lows of Oxford. Campian, who was born in 1540, was the more brilliant of the two. At the age of twenty he had delivered an oration at Amy Eobsart's funeral, at twenty-six he had gained great favor in the eyes of Elizabeth by the skill with which he had disputed be- fore her when she visited the university. The next year, although a Catholic at heart, he Avas ordained a deacon in the English Church, but this step was followed by deep spiritual anguish. He left Oxford, lived for a time in Ireland, writing an interesting sketch of the condition, of that country, and finally passed over to the Continent and settled in the university at Kheims. There he was rec- ognized as an eloquent preacher and learned theologian. Parsons, some five years younger, was less of a preacher, but cool, clear-headed, and sagacious as a leader. THE JESUIT MISSION TO ENGLAND 431 , "When, in 1580, the pope decided to send a band of Jesuits to England to complete the work of re-establish- ing the Eomish Church, Parsons and Campian were se- lected to head the mission. Proceeding to Rome, they received the papal blessing, and thence set out with seven companions, Oxford graduates and Jesuits like themselves, to encounter their expected martyrdom. Singly and in disguise they crossed the Channel, meet- ing with a welcome which must have raised their wild- est hopes. Campian had been instructed to abstain en- tirely from politics, and devote himself solely to the work of conversion. He went at once to London, then the very stronghold of English Protestantism, and di- rectly after his arrival preached to a vast audience in a hall hired for him in the middle of the city. "Warned of his intended arrest, he then fled into the country, and his companions dispersed to carry their teachings into every county of the kingdom. To them the field seemed white for the harvest. Young men flocked to them with all the fervor of youth, the old came for- ward offering to lay down the remnant of their lives for the holy cause. The ignorance and looseness of living among the ministers of the Established Church excited their just indignation, while they were cheered and encouraged by hearing that the honesty of a Catho- lic had passed into a proverb.* "Within a few months * Campian's letter to the general of the Jesuits. Froude, xi. 346. The Church of Rome, thanks to the efforts of the Jesuits, had at this time been largely purged of the scandals which had brought about the Reformation. The tables were now turned, in England at least, and the Catholics could retort on the Protestants much of what had been denounced in them half a century before. Hallam, writing of this period, says : " After the Council of Trent had effected such considerable reforms in the Catholic discipline, it seemed a sort of 422 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA after their arrival, Father Allen, the head of the college at Eheims, triumphantly announced that there were twenty thousand more Catholics in England than a year before. This exultation was, however, of short life. The Jesuits landed on the English shores in June, 1580. By December, Walsingham, Elizabeth's great secretary, whose spies were everywhere, had most of the original party under lock and key. Then followed the rack and the headsman's axe. Parsons escaped to the Continent, and Campian eluded arrest for six months more ; but he, too, was taken the next July, and, in December, after bearing the extremity of torture, met the death of a martyr with the constancy which became a member of his order. But this did not end the movement. The pope had shown sagacity in sending to England as missionaries only native-born Englishmen, and those mostly in the flush of manhood. Their fervor was infectious, for no one could doubt the sincerity of convictions which they were at all times ready to seal with their blood, and here, as elsewhere, extreme persecution only bred new converts. After the death of Campian, Jesuits and seminary priests flocked in by tens and twenties, so that in three years, as it was reported, there were five hundred in the kingdom.* Unquestionably a consider- able number of the people loved the old Church, with its gorgeous ceremonial appealing directly to the senses, and its articles of faith hallowed by the traditions of reproach to the Protestant Church of England that she retained all the dispensations, the exemptions, the pluralities, which had been deemed the peculiar corruptions of the worst times of popery.'' — " Const. Hist," i. 194. * Froude, xi. 648. ITS EARLY SUCCESS— THE PEOPLE OPEN TO CONVICTION 433 centuries; -while the great majority were indifferent, and so open to conviction.* Men in dwelling upon the past are inclined to retain only their pleasurable recol- lections. "When these young priests, themselves pure of life and devoted wholly to the Church, opened their crusade, the abuses of the former system were largely forgotten, while its beauties and benefactions were well remembered. Taking all the conditions together, there is noth- ing strange about the early successes of the Jesuits in their effort to bring England back to the ancient faith, or in the fact that they fully believed in the ultimate * The question of the proportion of Catholics to Pi-otestants in England during the reign of Elizabeth is one as to wliich author- ities differ widely, and which, from its nature, never can be de- termined. Fronde thinks that the Catholics were in a very large majority ; on the other hand, Hallam estimates the Protestants to have made up two thirds of the nation, while Lingard is of opinion that in the middle of the reign the two parties were about equally divided. Such estimates, founded merely on the opinions of mod- ern writers as to the general predispositions of the people, are of very little significance. As Macaulay has well said, the important question is, how many of the nation had made up their minds on either side and were willing to run any risks for their opinions ? The history of the times shows conclusively that these were very few. Cardinal Bentivoglio, who was papal nuncio at Brussels from 1607 to 1616, estimated the number of earnest Catholics in England during that period at about one thirtieth of the nation. The people who would without scruple become Catliolic if the Catholic religion were established, he estimated at four fifths of the nation. "With this estimate Macaulay concurs, and he expresses the opinion that at the accession of Elizabeth not one twentieth of the people liad any earnest convictions in either direction. Essay on Nares's "Me- moirs of Burleigh." The great problem of the time, therefore, was the determination of the question which party should develop and in- crease so as to control the State. 424 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA triumph of their cause. But there were obstacles in their path which proved insuperable. In the first place, the religious question could not be separated from the political one. Campian and his as- sociates might preach only the doctrines of a Church, which, freed from its abuses, appealed to some of the noblest elements in human nature. But back of them stood a power to which they had sworn unquestioning obedience — a power that claimed the right of deposing monarchs, and was now coming to be recognized as the foe of the national existence. Most of her troubles Elizabeth had brought upon herself, but thej'' were no less real on that account. Already she had been excom- municated by the pope. Across the Channel, the Guises were plotting for the release of Mary Stuart, and Phihp of Spain was being goaded into action by the aggres- sions of the British pirates. What was going on in Ire- land and Scotland, where the pope was also at work, will be shown in a later chapter. When the peaceful missionaries had prepared the way, a foreign invasion would make short work of English nationality. All this is apparent enough to the modern historian, as it was to the English statesmen of the time, who set out with ruthless ferocity to crush the Catholic revival. But the love of nationality, on which they relied, would have availed little against religious zeal had there not been another party in the State, made up of men as ear- nest, as devoted, and as zealous as the Catholics them- selves. These were the Puritans. To Elizabeth they were much more obnoxious than the papists ever were, and yet but for them she never would have died peacefully upon the throne. It was largely through their labors that her ministers were enabled to stay the tide of the returning Catholicism which threatened to ingulf the land. It was THE ENGLISH PURITANS— THEIR PLACE IN HISTORY 425 with their development that England was again brought into close relations with the civilization of the Old World, imbibing new ideas of civil liberty, and receiving an im- pulse which has carried her to the forefront among na- tions. Later on, they founded New England, giving an impress to the character of untold millions across the ocean. . Thus affecting two continents, the Puritans of England have played a part in the world's history which makes the subject of their origin and growth one of un- failing interest. , From the death of Cromwell until within a compara- tively recent time, it was the fashion among British writers to ridicule the English Puritans, just as it has been the fashion to ridicule the Hollanders. The Cava- liers, who went down before them in battle, and who saw the Commonwealth raise England to a leading place in European politics, hated, but had an intense respect for, Cromwell and his Ironsides. It was not until after the Eestoration, when the Stuarts had bemired the fame and honor of England, that the great virtues of the Puri- tans seemed to be forgotten, and men thought only of their faults and of those external peculiarities which are so easily caricatured and satirized.* The prejudice against them after the Eestoration was not universal, however, for, as in the case of the Hollanders, men were always found to do them honor. ISTotable among these * The English Puritans antedated Shakespeare, and during his life played an important part in politics ; yet the great dramatist, unlike some of his petty followers, never regarded tliem as objects of ridi- cule. We find in his pages almost every type of knave and buffoon, but no snivelling, canting, Puritanical hypocrite or rogue, such as more modern writers have depicted. In fact, although in common nse, the word Puritan occurs but a very few times in Shakespeare's plays, and then scarcely in an offensive sense. 426 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA men was Hume, the apologist of the Stuarts and the champion of the Tory party. Speaking of the-arbitrary nature of Elizabeth's govern- ment, and of the fact that her most violent assaults on the freedom of the people attracted not the least atten- tion from contemporaneous writers, Hume remarks : "So absolute, indeed, was the authority of the crown that the precious spark of libertj'^ had been kindled and was preserved by the Puritans alone ; and it Avas to this sect, whose principles appear so frivolous and habits so ridic- ulous, that the English owe the whole freedom of their Constitution." * Again, discussing the same question in another place, he says : " It was only during the next generation that the noble principles of liberty took root, and, spreading themselves under the shelter of Pu- ritanical absurdities, became fashionable among the peo- ple." + Such ideas were not fashionable in England when Hume's history was written. As he relates in his auto- biography, he " was assailed by one cry of reproach, dis- approbation, and even detestation," from every side and from every party. The Tories were indignant that any credit should be given to the Puritans, and the Whigs were no less indignant at the suggestion that English liberty began with the growth of Puritanism ; for they had always claimed that the Stuarts had attempted to deprive the people of long- settled, well-established rights.:]: Hallam, in his "Constitutional History," questions \ * "History of England," chap. xl. t Idem, Appendix, vol. iii. J How the High-cliurchmen hated the Puritans is shown in al- most every page of Strype's "Annals," written in the early part of the eighteenth century. DESPOTIC NATUKE OF ELIZABETH'S RULE 437 some of the conclusions of Hume, and takes that author severely to task for comparing the government of Eng- land during the reign of Elizabeth with the governments of Eussia and Turkey. But Hallam himself is one of the best witnesses to the almost despotic character of Elizabeth's rule. Even more fully than Hume himself, he shows how the laws were constantly set aside by royal proclamations ; how the courts of justice were mere instruments of tyranny; how trade was shackled by monopolies in every quarter ; how imports and exports were taxed by the crown alone ; how Parliament was prevented from discussing questions of Church or State, and how its members who attempted to raise forbidden questions were silenced by imprisonment. But, he says, liberty was not dead, because the House of Commons ex- ercised some rights: it insisted on being the judge of the election of its own members ; its members were exempt from arrest on civil process ; and it claimed the right of punishment for contempt. These privileges, all novel, were to become important in the future, but they were of little value at the time. Elizabeth packed the House by the creation of sixty-two new boroughs, and was will- ing to let its members play at Parliament, so long as they did nothing to interfere with her prerogative. But Hallam says further that Parliament was not wholly sub- servient, for, from time to time, voices were raised there against the tyranny of the crown, and that these voices became more numerous as the years rolled on. This is true. They were the voices of the men who, according to Hume, kindled the precious spark of liberty in des- potic times. After all, so far as relates to the influence of the Puri- tans, these authors differ but slightly. Hume says that they kindled and preserved the spark ; Hallam says that 428 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA they became "the depositaries of the sacred fire" and " revived the smouldering embers."* But whatever may have been the relation of the Puri- tans to the sacred fire of liberty, certain it is that, with- in the period of a few years, they worked a revolution in English thought and action which is one of the re- markable phenomena of modern times, and, standing by itself, incapable of comprehension.f New ideas were in- * " Const. Hist.," i. 331. t Macaulay, the champion of the Whigs, writing nearly a century after Hume, says, in regard to the arbitrary rule of Elizabeth : "It has often been alleged, as an excuse for the misgovernmeut of her successors, that they only followed her example ; that precedents might be found in the transactions of her reign for persecuting the Puritans, for levying money without the sanction of the House of Commons, for confining men without bringing them to trial, for in- terfering with the liberty of parliamentary debate. All this may be true. But it is no good plea for her successors, and for this plain reason, that they were her successors. She governed one generation, they governed another; and between the two generations there was almost as little in common as between the people of two diiferent countries." Upon the causes of this transformation, however, Ma- caulay, like other English writers, throws but little light. Essay on Nares's "Memoirs of Burleigh." In this essay, Macaulay also calls in question some of the conclusions of Hume regarding the despotic character of Elizabeth's government. He does not dispute the facts, but argues that her rule could not have been despotic, for had it been so her subjects would have risen against her in successful revolution. This argument, however, proves too much ; for, tried by such a test, no monarch could be called a despot, except one who had been de- posed by his subjects. As for the affection entertained for Elizabeth by the English, it is sufficient to remark that no monarch, in life and after death, was ever more loved by his people than was Philip II. by the Spaniards. This does not prove that Philip respected any principles of constitutional liberty, but that his Spanish subjects cared nothing for such principles. He was loved by his people be- cause he upheld the papacy, and tried to extend the power of NOVELTY OF PURITAN PHINCIPLES 429 troduced, and new principles were developed by them, which for a time controlled the nation and left their im- print on the national character, although at no time were they accepted by the body of the people. It was the very novelty of their principles that made the Puri- tans, when they came into power, so obnoxious to the majority of Englishmen, and that for many after-genera- tions made their name a by-word and reproach. At the restoration of the Stuarts, England seemed to have done with them forever. But, although the prejudice against the name continued, many of their reforms survived, and a few years of the old tyranny were suflBcient to breed a new revolution and effect the reinstatement of still more of the Puritan principles in civil matters. These principles have never been adopted in England as fully as in the United States, Avhere they underlie all the institutions ; but as the English form of government has become more democratic, the tide has turned, and to-day the name of Puritan is a title of honor. Yet, with this change of sentiment, there has been little change in the mode of writing English history in one im- portant point. Whether the Puritan is looked upon as kindling the flame, or as reviving the smouldering em- bers of liberty, England is still represented as the fountain from which have poured forth all the fertilizing streams which have enriched the modern world. One class of writers gives the Puritan the credit of originality ; the other endows him with a knowledge of early English in- Spain; in the same way, Elizabeth was loved by her people because she was believed to oppose the papacy, and did extend the power of England. In this connection it may be noticed that Good Queen Bess was no more the idol of her people than was her father, Bluff King Hal, under whom, certainly, there was little liberty. 430 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA stitutions, only unfolded to us by the patient research modern investigators. Each ignores all the foreign fluences which at this crucial period shaped the fut of the English people. But, in fact, the ideas and pi ciples of the Puritans in civil as well as religious n ters were not indigenous to English soil. They were the main not only novel in England, but also of fore growth, and, being transplanted, they took root but sk ly, and after a brief efflorescence lived, for a time, bu sickly life. Where they came from and how they w brought to England are interesting questions, involv: an examination of the development of English Purit ism on lines quite different from those usually follow The accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England, November 17th, 1558, was hailed with joy by all clas in the nation, except the few fanatical bigots who 1 sympathized with the bloody persecutions of her sis Mary. The Protestants saw in the young queen a dauj ter of the marriage which had brought about a sepa tion from the Church of Eome, and upon that fact, a upon her Protestant education, based their hopes of 1 future. The Catholics knew that she had professed th creed during the reign just ended, and felt assured tl she had none of the bigotry which would endanger th personal safety, even if she went back to her earl faith. All had heard of her as a young princess studious habits, who had borne imprisonnient with emplary patience, looking every inch a queen, and ; with manners modest and affable.* * Signor Soranzo, the Venetian ambassador, writing home in II four years earlier, -when Elizabeth was twenty-one, says : " Such an of dignified majesty pervades all her actions that no one can fai judge her a queen. She is a good Greek and Latin scholar, a ELIZABETH'S ACCESSION— THE RELIGIOUS FUTURE 431 The first act of the queen was the selection of Sir 'William Cecil, the famous Lord Burghley, as her chief t^ecretary and confidential adviser. Cecil had been the siecretary of her brother Edward, but after his death had conformed to the Catholic religion, as Elizabeth had done ; although Mary had looked upon his conversion with distrust, and refused to give him any public office. He had always been friendly to Elizabeth, and she never showed greater wisdom than in choosing him for her leading councillor. What was to be the religion of the State no one knew at first, and the conduct of the queen left the question doubtful. She attended mass, she bur- ied her sister Avith all the solemnities of the Catholic ritual, and ordered prayers to be said for the soul of Charles V., who had just died. On the other hand, she released all the prisoners confined for their rehgion by her sister, allowed the Protestant exiles to return from the Continent, and when the Bishop of Carlisle was about to say mass in the royal chapel, she gave orders that the Host should not be elevated in her presence.* At about the same time a proclamation was issued forbidding all preaching in the kingdom. Evidently some intelligence was aAvaited before a final decision could be reached. It came, and it determined the religious history of England. Immediately upon the death of Mary, messengers had been despatched to the different courts of Europe to an- besides her native tongue, she speaks Latin, French, Spanish, and Italian ienissimo ; and her manners are very modest and affable." Raw don Brown's "Calendar State Papers," 1554,.from "Venetian Archives;" quoted in a charming little book, " English Lands, Let- ters, and Kings, from Celt to Tudor," by Donald G. Mitchell (New York), p. 309. Scores of witnesses testify as to what her manners became when she had been a few years upon the throne. * Lingard's " History of England " (Philadelphia, 1837), vii. 305. 433 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA nounce the succession of Elizabeth. It was known t the French king would not recognize her title, for Dauphin had married Mary Stuart, who claimed the E lish crown. But Philip of Spain was the natural ene of France ; he had always professed a friendship for sister-in-law, and now that he was a widower he oSe her his hand. Such a marriage, however, required a ( pensation from the pope. Unfortunately for the Cath( cause, the papal throne was occupied by a pontiff (P lY.), who was over eighty years old, narrow-minded, e under the influence of France. When, therefore, the E lish ambassador announced the accession of Elizabe the pope replied that he was unable to comprehend i hereditary right of one who was not born in lawful w lock ; that the Queen of Scots claimed the crown as i nearest legitimate descendant of Henry YII. ; but thai Elizabeth was willing to submit the controversy to arbitration, she should receive from him every indulge] which justice could allow.* "With such a rebuff from Eome, which cut off all ho] of a Spanish marriage, and with an adverse claimant the crown, who was a Catholic and supported by 1 power of France, nothing remained to Elizabeth, wh ever her inclinations, except to announce herself ai Protestant queen. Still, secrecy was maintained ui arrangements could be completed for assembling a n Parliament. A commission was privately set at w( * LiDgard, vii. 204 ; Creighton's " Age of Elizabeth " (New Y( 1885), p. 46. Paul died in the succeeding August, 1559. His i cesser, Pius IV., was a man of very different ideas. He sent a nui to England, offering, it is said, to approve of the Book of Comi Prayer, provided only that the English Church would submit to papal supremacy. But the offer came too late. The nuncio was even allowed to enter England. Creighton, p. 50. PAULIAMKNT RECONSTRUCTS THE ENGLISH CHURCH 433 to revise the Prayer-book of Edward YI. Some of the old bishops were imprisoned, and four or five new Prot- estant peers created so as to control the upper House. The lower House was filled in the usual manner. During the reign of Mary, the sheriffs had been instructed to see that only good Catholics were returned as members. Now they were instructed to have a choice made from a list of candidates furnished by the court.* On January 15th, 1559, Elizabeth was formally crowned, one of the old bishops consenting to officiate, using the rites of the Catholic Church. On January 25th the new Par- liament began its session. Of the bishops, only ten were in attendance and voting ; of the sixty-one peers, thirty were conspicuous by their absence. f The lower House was made up of court nominees, distinguished for their zeal in the cause of Protestantism. The Parliament, thus constituted, in a session of three months, reconstructed the English Church, which, with little change, has continued on the basis then established until the present day. The packed members of the lower House knew nothing of the vacillation of the queen. They were decided in their opposition to the Church of Rome, and had no question of her entire sympathy. As English- men, they had the traditional reverence for the crown ^vhich would lead them to pass almost any measure which came to them with the royal recommendation. Proceed- ing in a few days to give to the crown the first-fruits (that is, the first year's income of all church livings) and tenths (that is, one tenth of all incomes thereafter), they began by enacting two statutes, ivhich are of great importance as affecting all the subsequent history of the Puritans. * Strype's ''Annals," i. 83; Lingarcl, vii. 206, citiug "Clarendon Papers." t Froude, vii. 41. L— 28 434 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEEICA The first of these statutes is commonly called " The Act of Supremacy." By its provisions the sovereign was declared to be the supreme governor of the Church. She was authorized to nominate all bishops, to control the ecclesiastical state and persons by juridical visitation, to correct all manner of heresies, schisms, offences, con- tempts, and enormities in the Church ; and these powers of visitation and correction she was authorized to dele- gate to commissioners of her own selection. All per- sons in the State holding benefices or offices were re- quired to take the oath of supremacy, avowing " the queen to be the only supreme governor within the realm, as well in all spiritual or ecclesiastical causes and things as temporal." Any one affirming the authority, within the realm, of any foreign power, spiritual or ec- clesiastical, was, for the first offence, to forfeit all his goods ; for the second, to incur the penalties of a praem- unire ; and for the third, to be punished as a traitor.* The second act revived the Book of Common Prayer of the time of Edward VI., with some alterations and additions. It provided that any minister who should refuse to use it, who should use any other rites and forms than those therein set down, or who should speak in its derogation, should, for the first offence, forfeit the profits of his benefice for a year, and be imprisoned for six months without bail ; for the second, lose his bene- fice and be imprisoned for a year ; and for the third, be imprisoned for life. Any persons not in order who should thus offend, or use public prayers in any other than the prescribed form, were for the first and second offence to be severely fined, and for the third to forfeit all their property and suffer imprisonment for Mfe. Per- * 1 Eliz. cap. 1. PROTESTANT EXILES UNDEK QUEEN MAET 435 sons absenting themselves from church on Sundays or holydays, without excuse, were to forfeit twelve pence for each ofifence. The ceremonies of the Church and the dress of the clergy were to be as in the time of Edward ; but the queen, with the advice of her commissioners or of the archbishop, and without the concurrence of/Par- liament or even the body of the clergy, Avas authorized to ordain further rites and ceremonies without limit.* Such were the famous ecclesiastical acts by which, in the first year of Elizabeth's reign, the Established Church was reorganized. They were aimed at the Catholics, and passed the upper House only by small majorities and after bitter opposition. Under their provisions, all the bishops except one lost their places; but of the clergy at large, numbering several thou- sands, less than two hundred refused to take the oath, and forfeited their livings.f Of the Puritans, whose name had not yet come into existence, little thought was taken. No one dreamed of what a scourge Parlia- ment was placing in the hands of a queen who seemed so modest and afPable in her demeanor. How she used it against those who were, at first, most exultant, we shall shortly see. During the persecutions under Queen Mary, the most eminent of the Protestants, lay and clerical, had taken refuge in various cities of Germany and Switzerland.;]: In each country they found Protestantism in the ascend- ant, but under very different forms. The Lutherans of Germany had abjured the pope, but had practically * 1 Eliz. cap. 3. t Hallam, Froude, Camden, etc. Lingard says that tlie Catholic writers malce the number much greater, but ho does not give any figures. I According to Neal, tbey were about eight hundred in number. 436 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA transferred his authority to the temporal princes. The secular rulers gained by the change, for their subjects no longer recognized a divided allegiance. The tem- poral and spiritual power of the pope was gone, but it was succeeded by the divine right of kings.* Calvin- ism, on the other hand, was republican in its character. The minister selected by the people was above king or noble. He might be a despot himself, but he had been chosen by the congregation, and acknowledged no supe- rior except the King of Kings. The hereditary mon- archs of the world were not mistaken in regarding the Calvinists as their natural foes. In their forms of worship the difference between these two great sects was equally marked. Luther had re- tained much of the ceremonial of the Eomish Church. Crucifixes and images, tapers and priestly vestments, even for a time the elevation of the Host and the Latin mass-book, continued in the Lutheran churches.f On the other hand, the followers of Calvin had adopted the simplest form of worship. They attempted to put away everything which, in their eyes, seemed to stand between man and his Creator. Their ministers appealed not to the senses, but to the reason, and hence the sermon formed the chief feature of their service. The more liberal among them regarded the question of stated forms of prayers, and peculiar vestments for the clergy, as mat- ters of indifference ; but, in the main, they were by a natural reaction opposed to everything which savored of the papacy. In England, during the reign of Ed- * Tile Lutheran churches were governed by consistories appoint- ed by the princes or other civil powers. " American Presbyterian- ism," Briggs, p. 2. t Hallam's " Const. Hist.," i. 176. THE EXILES EETUKN TO ENGLAND 437 ward VI., the tendency of the Eeformation, under an influence from Geneva, had been towards Calvinism. The preachers who fled to the Continent, under his suc- cessor, had, therefore, a predisposition in that direction. The reception accorded them in their various asylums made it more decided. In Germany, among the Luther- ans, they were neglected and frequently insulted, while by the Calvinists of Switzerland they were received with open arms.* Upon the accession of Elizabeth the exiles returned to England with high hopes for the future. They rep- resented the learning and the eloquence of the Church. They had suffered for their religion, and naturally ex- pected recognition ; but, what was of higher moment, they looked to see the Reformation take great strides under the young queen, who had always been regarded as a Protestant at heart. The personal recognition came at once to many of them, for, though the exiles were Calvinists almost to a man, they generally received pre- ferment, since there were at the time no others to fill the higher places in the Church. The people, too, so far as they cared about such questions, seemed to be in accord with their opinions. So intense an antagonism had been aroused by the persecutions carried on in the reign of Mary that most of the earnest men of the king, dom inclined strongly in the opposite direction. In truth, but for one obstacle it is probable that the Eefor- mation in England would have assumed a form that might have postponed for many years the appearance of the Puritans as a distinct party in the Church of State. That obstacle was the queen her§plf . * Hallam, i. 176. CHAPTER IX ENGLISH PUKITANISM QUEEN ELIZABETH AND THE PUEITANS— 1558-1585 Theee are fe^Y historical personages who have received so much attention from writers, friendly and unfriendly, as Queen Elizabeth, and fewer still whose actions and character, until a recent da}'', have been so little under- stood. About this there is nothing remarkable, in view of her position as an unmarried queen, her place in the royal succession, the inaccessibility of many documents relating to the transactions of her reign, and the roman- tic conceptions generally prevailing as to the condition of English society when she was on the throne. These causes have Jed to numerous fictions regarding her con- duct in civil matters, but such fictions can hardly be compared with those which have been woven about her conduct in religious matters. Some writers have gone so far as to style her "The Defender of European Prot- estantism." "Whether she deserves this or any oth- er title of honor connected with the Eeformation will appear from her actions towards her own Church, and that of the struggling Protestants upon the Continent. Elizabeth was what may be called a political Protes- tant, of the type common among the Lutheran princes of Germany. She was resolute not to admit the papal supremacy — so long, at least, as it meant peril to her throne — but not so averse to the doctrines abjured by RELIGIOUS INCLINATIONS OP ELIZABETH 439 the Protestants. For example, she beheved in transub- stantiation, reproving a divine who preached against the real presence, and is said to have read prayers to the Virgin.* She wished to retain images and crucifixes in the churches, and, although this point was abandoned, she retained the crucifix and lighted tapers in her own chapel. The marriage of the clergy she always opposed. It was forbidden by a law enacted in the previous reign, to the repeal of which her consent could never be ob- tained. Hence, until after her death, nothing but an ilhcit connection existed, in the eyes of the law, be- tween the ministers of the Established Church and their so-called wives.-j- As to the ceremonial of the Church, she was inflexibly opposed to the simplicity advocated by a majority of the earnest reformers. In her own chapel, and in some of the cathedrals, the service was so splendid that foreigners could only distinguish it from that of the Church of Rome by the use of the English language instead of Latin.;]: It was upon the point of ceremonials that the first controversy arose within the Church. The queen in- sisted that all the clergy should retain the vestments worn by the former priests. They were also to use the sign of the cross in baptism, the ring in marriage, and to administer the communion to the congregation when kneeling.§ A large body of the new clergy objected to these forms, as relics of superstition, external symbols which tended to keep alive recollections of the old faith, preparing the way ^f or its future restoration. To these * Strype's "Annals," eel. 1834, i. 3. t Hallam, i. 178. t Neal. § The use of tlie ring in marriage was a pure pagan rite borrowed from ancient Rome. ' 440 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA men the question seemed one of vital importance. T found nothing in the Scriptures to warrant the enfc ment of these ceremonies, and deemed their imposi by the civil power a violation of the right of conscie Many others regarded them as matters of indiflfere and, in order to have harmony within the Church, w have consented to give them up. Most of the leai divines took this view of the question, and, despitt the influence of the crown, a resolution favoring abolition of the objectionable usages was lost in the vocation of the clergy, in 1562, by only a single vot But although the queen insisted on the old cereir al, many of the Established clergy refused complia Some wore the habits, others laid them aside ; some \ a square cap, some a round cap, some a hat ; some i the sign of the cross in baptism, others did not ; v, communicants received the sacrament kneeling, siti or standing, as the minister saw fit. This went on several years while the nation was settling down its new conditions. During this period the word Puritan was coin It was not at first a term of reproach, as it came ti in later years, but was applied to men high in sta who sought the purest form of worship, what i themselves called the " religio purissima." :j: They remained within the Church ; they sought no separal They only asked that in matters which their oppon * Hallani, i. 180. ' Strype'S "Annals," i. 505. Jewel, one o most eminent of the bishops at this time (1362), iu his private ( spondence, speaks of the Church ceremonies as " scenic appara " fooleries," and " relics of the Amorites." Works, viii. 123, 13 t About 1564. Fuller's " Church History," ix. 60. I See letter from De Silva, the Spanish ambassador, to F July 2, 1568, quoted Froude, ix. 326. THE PURITANS COMB INTO EXISTENCE— THEIR PERSECUTION 441 regarded as non-essential their consciences might remain free. Nothing but persecution, largely instigated by a Spanish influence, alienated them from the Church, drove some into separate establishments, and finally made them a political party in the State. Well had it been for England if these extremities had been avoided.* The persecution was begun by Parker, the Arch- bishop of Canterbury. Parker himself had been a Puritan for two years after Elizabeth ascended the throne,f but he now professed new opinions, and ex- hibited that bitterness against his old associates which so often accompanies a change of parties. In 1565, he summoned before the Ecclesiastical Commission — a court established by the queen under the Act of Suprem- acy of 1559, and over which he presided — two of the eminent scholars of the time. The first, Samson, a Marian exile, who had refused a bishopric because of the obnoxious ceremonials, was dean of Christ Church ; the other, Humphrey, was president of Magdalen College, Oxford. X Both were pronounced non-conformists, but one example was deemed sufficient. Samson, still refus- ing to wear the ordained vestments, was sent to prison for a time and deprived of his deanery.g This exam- ple, however, produced no effect, and Parker decided on a broader measure. All the clergymen of London were summoned before him and called upon for a prom- ise to comply with the legal ceremonial. Thirty-seven out of ninety-eight refused to give the promise, and were * Hallam. t Hallam, i. 177. I In 1563, Oxford contained only three Protestant preachers, and they were all Puritans. Keal. § Humphrey subsequently conformed. Strype's "Annals," ii. 451. 443 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMBEICA in consequence suspended from the ministry and de- prived of their livings. These, unfortunately, according to Hallam, as vi^as the case in all this reign, were the most conspicuous both for their general character and their talent in preaching.* Among the clergymen who about this time were cited before Parker was a man that deserves more than a passing notice, for he probably did more for the cause of Protestantism in England than any other single person. This was John Foxe, the martyrologist. A grave, learned, and laborious divine, he had gone into exile during the Marian persecution, and had passed his time abroad in writing a history of the martyrs of the Church, especially those who had suffered for reUgion during the reigns of Henry YIII. and his daughter Mary. His work was first published abroad in Latin, in the year 1559, for the benefit of foreigners. In 1563, he published an English translation with a dedication to Queen Elizabeth. Its value was at once appreciated, and an order was issued directing copies of the book to be placed in the churches for public perusal, in the same way that the English Bible had been placed there in the early days of the Keformation. When we recollect that until the appearance of the " Pilgrim's Progress," in the next century, the common people had almost no reading matter except the Bible and Foxe's " Book of Martyrs," we can understand the deep impression that this book produced, and how much it served to mould the national character. Those who could read found there full details of all the atrocities committed on the Protestant Ee- formers : the illiterate could see the rude illustrations of the various instruments of torture, the rack, the gridiron, * Hallam, i. 185. FOXE'S BOOK OF MARTYRS— TREATMENT OP ITS AUTHOR 443 the boiling oil, and then the holy martyrs breathing out their souls amid the flames.* Take now a people just awakening to a new intellect- ual and religious life ; let several generations of them, from childhood to old age, pore over such a book as this, and its stories become traditions, as indelible and almost as potent as songs and customs on_ a nation's life. All the fiendish acts there narrated were the work of the Church of Kome, for no hint was given of any other side of the story. No wonder that among the masses, aside from any religious sentiment or convic- tion, there grew up a horror and detestation of the pope and the Komish Church which have not entirely lost their force even after three centuries of Protestant dom- ination. The influence of this feeling on the English people can hardly be exaggerated. The country squires who came to the parliaments of Elizabeth, as a rule, probably cared little for religion ; but they were united in their hatred of the papal power, and this hatred, al- ways coupled with a dread, became more intense as time went on. After the dispersion of the Spanish Armada, much of the fear of a direct attack from abroad passed away, and there arose that exultant spirit of national in- dependence which Shakespeare puts into the words of an English king : " Thou canst not, cardinal, devise a name So slight, unworthy, and ridiculous, To charge me to an answer, as the pope. Tell him this tale, and from the mouth of England Add thus mucli more : that no Italian priest Shall titlie or toll in our dominions." King John, act iii. sc. 1. * In 1583, an enlarged edition appeared. In 1610, it was illus- trated with copper cuts. Strype's " Annals," iii. 501. 444 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AnD AMERICA Yet the hatred and the underlying dread of the Cath- ohcs still remained. Throughout the next century the English squire might know nothing of politics or theol- ogy; but, whether he sided with or against the king, it was a part of his creed to hate the pope, and nothing but this antagonism led to the ultimate downfall of the Stuarts. Other causes combined to produce this result, but certainly not the least important was Foxe's " Book of Martyrs," which could be found in every Protestant mansion-house, occupying, next to the Eible, the place of honor. Such was the book, but its author was a Puritan. Elizabeth professed an esteem for him, but did as little in his behalf as she did for Ascham, her Puritan tutor, to whom her reputation for learning owes so much.* Having conscientious scruples about wearing the vest- ments prescribed by law, Foxe vainly sought a position in the Church, until at length, reduced to very great poverty, he obtained a petty place in the Salisbury Ca- thedral. Cited before the Ecclesiastical Commission in 1565, and asked to subscribe to the Prayer-book, he took a Greek Testament from his pocket and said he would subscribe to that. When they offered him the canons he refused, saying, " I have nothing in the Church but a prebend, and much good it may do you if you take it from me." It was not thought safe to deal harshly with a man to whom the whole Protestant world looked up, and he was permitted to go in peace, holding on to his little oflBce until his death.f * Ascbam lived on a small pension granted by Henry VIII. and renewed by Mary, and a lease of a farm granted by the latter. Elizabeth gave him nothing, and, but for this lease, liis wife and children would have been left beggars at his death. Ascham's " Scbolemaster," Mayor's ed., 1863, pp. 203, 203. tNeal. MILES COVERDALE-PERSECUTION EXPANDED 445 Another of the lights of the Eeformation fared more harshly. This was Miles Coverdale, whose translation of the Bible into English, printed at Antwerp in 1535, was the first that was published in the English language. He was a learned man, a graduate of Cambridge, and a celebrated preacher. During the reign of Edward he was made Bishop of Exeter. Upon the accession of Mary, he was imprisoned, and narrowly escaped the flames, being saved only by the intercession of the King of Denmark, in whose country he took refuge. Return- ing to England, he assisted at the consecration of EHza- beth's first Archbishop of Canterbury, but, being a Puri- tan and scrupling at the vestments, could for some time obtain no preferment. At last, in 1563, being now old and poor, the Bishop of London, who himself inclined towards Puritanism, took compassion on him and gave him a small church near London Bridge. Here he preached quietly for two years, but, not coming up to the required conformity, was obhged to relinquish his parish in the eighty-first year of his age. Thus, as Neal says, his gray hairs were brought down with sorrow to the grave.* The persecution of the Puritans up to this point, al- though opposed to the principles of a wise and liberal- minded policy, might be extenuated upon the legal ground that ministers within an estabhshed church should conform to its requirements. The next meas- ures, however, were of a different character, and for them there is no such palliation. "When the Puritan clergymen of London were driven from their churches, in 1565, many of their followers went with them and established separate associations. * Neal, i. 108. 446 THE PUKITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMBUICA They created no disorder, but quietly came together in private houses or public halls, sang their hymns, and listened to the Bible and the sermons of their ministers. Certainly here was no grave offence against the law in a Protestant community. It would seem, so long as these gatherings were orderly, and nothing was said or intended against the government, that well-meaning, conscientious citizens might claim a simple toleration of their particular form of worship. Not so thought the queen or her archbishop. In 1567, a congregation thus worshipping in a London hall was arrested by the sher- iff, and its members, to the number of about one hun- dred, hauled up before the bishop. The only charge against them was that of worshipping God under forms not prescribed by law ; of this they were found guilty, and twenty-four men and seven women were sent to Bridewell for a year.* It is an interesting fact, and it illustrates what Hume says, in contrast with some modern writers, as to the al- most absolute power of the crown, that in these early coercive proceedings the queen and her archbishop had almost no sympathizers among the men prominent in Church and State. The Bishops of Norwich and Dur- ham were openly on the side of the Puritans ; the Bishop of London and the Archbishop of York inclined towards them ; while in the council the Earls of Leicester, Bed- ford, Huntingdon, and Norwich (the chief Protestant nobles), Bacon, the Lord Keeper, "Walsingham, Sadler, and KnoUys, were either their friends or thought that severity Avas being pressed too far.f Trouble evidently was brewing for England as well as for the cause of the * Neal. Hallam says that only fourteen or fifteen were sent to prison. t Hullam's " Const. Hist.," i. 186. OPPOSITION OF THE COUNCIL— ELIZABETH'S POSITION 447 Eeformation at large. About this time, as we have al- ready seen, Alva began his butchery in the Netherlands ; Mary of Scotland became a prisoner, and the focus of conspiracy ; Elizabeth was excommunicated by the pope; the Catholic college was founded at Douay ; and the Northern earls rose in rebellion. The sagacious council- lors of the queen thought this an ill-chosen crisis for driving to extremities the most faithful and devoted of her subjects. They urged that her true policy lay in an open, active support of the struggling Protestants abroad, and in a reformation of the Church at home, so as to make it a real and not a fictitious Protestant es- tablishment. The fact that Elizabeth never would accept their ad- vice, even after Cecil joined them ; that she carried out a vacillating foreign policy, while at home she op- posed all innovations, trying to keep the Church as near as possible to the old model, the people ignorant, and the clergy subservient, forms an historical problem which has excited much discussion. The subject is an important one, for much that was unlovely in the later Puritanism of England was due simply to the actions of the queen. Many writers, looking only at the final re- sult, give her credit for a sagacity far surpassing that of all the able statesmen by whom she was surrounded. They argue that had she gone too fast or too far, she would have alienated the great mass of her Catholic subjects and brought peril to her throne ; that she kept her finger on the nation's pulse, and understood its beat- ings better than such men as "Walsingham or Cecil ; that what the country needed was peace; that her policy se- cured it, and that this proves her wisdom.* But this is * Of this school, Green is a prominent leader. \ 448 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA arguing after the event. Such reasoning ignores the facts that time and again she was saved from ruin in her own despite ; that nothing but a succession of what some of her advisers called miracles, and others called happy accidents, kept her on the throne ; and that all her dangers came from the men whom she favored, while her safety lay in those whom she persecuted and discour- aged. The problem of determining what motives actu- ated her conduct seems capable of a simpler solution than that of endowing her with superhuman prescience. Elizabeth, as is well known, was without any religious convictions ; but such sentiment or underlying supersti- tious instincts as she had inclined her to the Church of Kome. Her love of its gorgeous ceremonial shows the sentiment ; her belief in the real presence, her adoration of the crucifix, and prayers to the Virgin when in peril show the innate superstition. These facts alone would not be sufficient to explain her policy, but they throw some light upon it. Add now another factor, and the question becomes much clearer. Throughout the early years of her reign, the Hugue- nots in France and the Eeformers in the Netherlands were struggling for their existence. They alone, the Protestants of Germany being listless, stood as a bul- wark against the returning wave of Continental Cathol- icism. Incapable herself of comprehending their high religious motives, disliking them as rebels, and having no sympathy with their belief, Elizabeth always under- rated their power and looked forward to their ultimate defeat. Entertaining this conviction, herself inclined to Catholicism, most of her personal favorites being adher- ents of the old faith,* and the great majority of the na- * Froude, xi. 18. ELIZABETH'S SCHEMES FOE RECONCILIATION WITH EOME 449 tion having no convictions, what would be more natural than that she should always have had in view her own future reconciUation with the Church of Eome ? The final collapse of the Spanish attempts on England in 1588, followed by an exultant outburst of national feel- ing which showed the weakness of Catholicism, together with the almost synchronous success of the Protestants in Holland and of Henry of Navarre in France, changed the current of European history ; but if we seek for the motives which, in the main, controlled Elizabeth until that time, looking for an explanation of her foreign poli- cy, and her treatment of the Catholics and Puritans at home, we have here what seems a very simple clue. Upon many subjects she showed more than a feminine vacillation, and her attachment to devious courses was something phenomenal ; but to one object she was con- stant : nothing should be done, while she could prevent it, to place England, beyond the pale, so that if it were to her personal advantage the restoration of the old re- ligion would be impossible. This theory of Elizabeth's religious policy has much direct evidence in its support, apart from that of her public actions which it alone explains. The latter, of course, were matters of common knowledge ; but many facts relating to her private opinions and negotiations were unknown even to her council, and of many others the writers of her time were ignorant. Hence they, and the historians who have followed in their track, often thought her vacillating when she was really constant to one purpose. Froude first spread before the public many of the letters written by the Spanish ambassadors at London to Philip of Spain, which give to his history of this period so great a value. These Spaniards were, at times, her confidants, and their accounts of her private I.— 29 450 THE PUKITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMEUICA declarations show the general consistency of her con- duct. Philip himself, with all his means of informa- tion, always believed that she would be reconciled with Kome. Even after the pope's bull, he refused to recog- nize her excommunication.* The first Parliament which met after her accession enacted laws very hostile to the Catholics ; but she was then in a peculiar position, the pope having refused to recognize her title to the throne. The next year she told the Spanish ambassador that she was as good a. Catholic as he was, and that she had been compelled to act as she had done.f Froude, on the authority of Cecil and Kil- ligrew, thinks that she was then wavering.;}: In 1561, when she was desirous of marrying Dudley, made Earl of Leicester in 1564, the Spanish ambassador was in- formed by Sir Henry Sidney that if the marriage could be brought about through the influence of Philip, the Catholic religion should be restored. Undoubtedly, Sid- ney spoke with the authority of the queen. The scheme fell through because the Catholic nobles would not con- sent to a marriage with a man whom they regarded as an upstart.il In 1564, Elizabeth repeated to the Spanish ambassador, De Silva, what she had said about religion to. his predecessor.! In 1566, the pope offered to recog- nize the legitimacy of Elizabeth, by reversing the former decree relating to the divorce of her father, if she would re-establish the Eomish Church. Thus one great obsta- cle would have been removed. At this time Parliament * Froude, vii. 13, xi. 26. t Idem, vii. 251. | Idem, p. 253. II Froude, vii. 316. It was the continued opposition of the Catholic nobles to his union with the queen that ultimately led Dudley to be- come a prominent friend of the Puritans. Froude, ix. 181. § Idem, yiii. 105. ELIZABETH SHIELDS THE CATHOLICS, PERSECUTES THE PURITANS 451 was anxious to make further reforms in the Church. Under the advice of De Silva, Elizabeth interfered, and all action was prevented.* In 1573, and again in 1578, she told the Spanish ambassador that she held the Cath- olic creed herself, and that her dififerences with her Cath- olic subjects were merely political.f In 1576, she threat- ened to make war on the Prince of Orange, and this meant ultimate reconciliation with Kome.:]: These il- lustrations might be largely multiplied. It may be said that they are only evidence of her duplicity ; but they show what she had in mind, and illuminate her public acts, which, read in their light, make all her religious policy consistent. Although during the early years of Elizabeth's reign, before the appearance of *the Jesuits, a persecution of the Catholics was carried on, this persecution, it must be remembered, was mild in its character, and due to peculiar circumstances. The Parliaments were largely Puritan in inclination, and passed laws to which, at first, perhaps she did not venture to refuse assent — and possi- bly they were her own suggestions — as, the pope having denied her title to the crown, she would have been left without any party in the State unless she had allied her- self with the Reformers. Later on, when more firmly seated on the throne, she forbade Parliament to interfere in matters of religion, and barred its interference by fre- quent dissolutions. It must also be remembered that all the opprobrium of enforcing measures of severity against the Catholics she put upon the members of her council, who believed that the Protestantism of the kingdom should be more pronounced. These men accepted the responsibility, for, had the old religion been re-estab- * Froude, viii. 339. t Idem, xi. 34, 127. f Mem, xi..63. 453 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA lished, they, as well-known Protestants, would have been the first victims of the reaction. They were thus consult- ing their own safety as well as what they considered the public welfare.* But EHzabeth could always say with plausibihty that she hajl been forced to play the role of a persecutoi-, and that her heart was never in the work. Whenever it was consistent with her own safety, she showed indulgence to the Catholics. Thousands of the old priests were allowed to remain in their livings by an outward conformity to the ritual of the Established Church. It was only the practice of their own form of worship which was pun- ishable by law, and she saw to it that the laws were, as to them, never pressed beyond the letter.f But with the Puritans it was very different. They claimed, and with apparent justice, that the laws were always strained for their oppression, not by the civil powers, but by the queen and her Ecclesiastical Commission. As head of the Church, Elizabeth had authority to change the ceremo- nial, within certain limits ; but she never used her power to relieve their tender consciences, nor would she con- sent that they should have relief from Parliament. JSTor Avas this all. The sagacious statesmen who sur- rounded Elizabeth believed that the Eeformation in England should be pressed to its legitimate conclusion. Merely abjuring the supremacy of the pope, and chang- ing the form of religion by statutory enactment, were, to their minds, insuiScient. The old abuses of the Church * When Philip organized the Armada, he made out a list of the English statesmen to be hanged after the victory. Froude, xii. 148. t Although the saying of mass in private houses was forbidden by law, it was winked at for twenty years after Elizabeth's accession. Froude, xi; 360. CORRUPTION IX THE CHURCH 453 should be done away with, the all-prevailing corruption should be rooted out, and, to accomplish these ends, men of high character and of unblemished life should be se- lected to control the new establishment. No such coun- sels met the approval of the queen. She wished subservi- ent tools ; and if her bishops were men whose private or official conduct could not bear examination, they would be the more readUy controlled, and the more easily turned over to Eome. A few illustrations will show their character. Parker, her favorite Archbishop of Canterbury, left an enormous fortune, which he had accumulated duridg eighteen years of office by the most wholesale corrup- tion. Among other things, he established a fixed tariff for the sale of benefices in his gift, regulated according to their value and the age of the applicant. The sales were not confined to adults, for even boys under four- teen were allowed to become purchasers, provided they would pay an increased price.* At about the time of Parker's death, in 15Y6, Hatton, the new favorite of the queen, cast longing eyes upon some property belonging to the Bishop of Ely. That prelate refused to give it up, even after receiving the famous letter in which Eliza- beth, with an oath, threatened to unfrock him. He was brought to terms, however, by a summons before the Privy Council, and a notification from Lord North of what would be proved against him. He was to be charged, so the queen directed, with the grossest mal- versation in office, plundering the Church lands, selling the lead and brick from its houses, dealing dishonestly in leases, and exacting illegal charges from the ministers in his diocese. This threat was sufficient ; the bishop suc- * Fronde, xi. 100. 454 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA * cumbed, and we hear no more of his prosecution or re- moval.* Nor were these cases at all exceptional. As we study the records of the time, one of their most striking feat- ures is the wide -spread corruption among the bishops of the Established Church. Liable to removal or sus- pension at the pleasure of the crown, they took care to provide for themselves and their families by selling the church timber, making long leases of the ecclesiastical lands, and in every possible manner despoiling their sees of the little property left to them by the early E.e- formers.f * Froude, xi. 33. + The following are a few illustrations taken from Strype's " An- nals," the writings of a High-churchman, which bear out the gen- eral statements of Hallam, Froude, and others, to some of which I have referred in a former chapter. In 1585, Bishop Scambler was transferred from Peterborough to Norwich. He found that his pre- decessor had not only disposed of the judicial offices of the see by a patent, but had just before his departure made many unprecedented leases of the episcopal property. But Scambler's successor in Peter- borough found that the same thing had been done in that diocese, the see having been impoverished by spoliations. The same year wit- nessed the death of the Bishop of Chichester. He died a bankrupt, having sold off the church timber until there was hardly sufficient left for firewood. These cases occurred in one year, and are men- tioned in one page of Strype's " Annals," iii. 331. See also p. 467 for an account of the mode in which the Welsh bishoprics were " fleeced by the respective bishops;" also p. 463, as to the see of Durham. The bishop of the latter diocese not only despoiled the church property, but was controlled by a brother, his chancellor, " a bad man addicted to covetousness and uncleanness. He was to be bribed by money to pass over crimes presented and complained of." Ayl- mer. Bishop of London, cut down and sold his timber until pre- vented by an injunction. " When he grew old, and reflected that a large sum of money would be due from his family for dilapida- now THE BISHOPS OBTAINED THEIR OFFICES 455 In 1585, when six bishoprics were vacant, a corre- spondence passed between Lord Burghley and Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury, which shows the general character of the men whom Elizabeth selected for ecclesiastical preferment. Says the Lord Treasurer: " There are to be new bishops placed in the six vacant chairs. I wish — but I cannot hope it — that the Church may take that good thereby that it hath need of. Your Grace must pardon me ; for I see such worldliness in many that were otherwise affected before they came to cathedral churches, that I fear the places alter the men." To which "Whitgift replied: " It is not the chair that maketh the alteration, if any there be, but the un- lawful means of coming by it. ... I doubt not but as good men, even at this day, possess some of these chairs as ever did in any age ; although I will not justify all, nor yet many of them."* Bishops who had bought their seats, as is here plainly intimated, could hardly be ex- pected to refrain from repaying themselves by plunder- ing their sees. Had Elizabeth been actuated by a de- sire to bring the Established Church into contempt, so that its downfall would be mourned by no one, she certainly could have chosen no better mode of accom- plishing her purpose than that of selecting such men to represent its principles.t tions of the palace at Fulham, etc., he actually proposed to sell his bishopric to Bancroft (Strype's ' Aylmer,' p. 169). The latter, how- ever, waited for his death, and had over £4000 awarded to him ; but the crafty old man having laid out his money in land, this sum was never paid."— Hallam, i. 306. At this time land in England could not be taken for debt. * Strype's " Whitgift," pp. 171, 173. No one who knows anything of Whitgift's character would ever suspect him of libelling the Church. t During the session of Parliament, in 1581, when the nation was 456 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA But, after allj the bishops were simply following the lessons taught them by the queen. She was the great despoiler of the Church. All through her reign, we find her not only demanding from the bishops the sur- render of portions of the property of their sees for the benefit of some needy favorite — and she thus robbed even the universities themselves* — but she issued nu- merous commissions, under which keen and unscrupu- lous adventurers sought out flaws in ecclesiastical titles, recovering the* property for the crown and receiving as their compensation a portion of the spoils, f Besides this, although the regular revenues of the sees were very smaU, averaging only about a thousand pounds per an- num, they were so diminished by the exactions of the queen and her courtiers, that in many cases the incum- bents, without dishonesty, would have found it impos- sible to live. One illustration of the extent of these exactions will suffice to show their character. In 1583, the Bishop of Winchester, who held one of the richest sees in the kingdom, was complained of for spending so little money as to bring his office into disrepute. In answer to the charge he sent Lord Burghley a state- ment showing his income and expenditures. His net income was about £2800. Of this he paid to the queen, in first-fruits, tenths, subsidies, and benevolences, about £1900 ; to Leicester, £100 ; in annuities granted by his predecessors, " wherein Sir Francis "Walsingham's fee is contained," £218; leaving for himself, after paying alarmed by the Catholic revival which the Jesuits had awakened, one member gave voice to the public opinion in saying : " "Were there any honesty in these prelates, in whom honesty should most be found, we should not be in our present trouble." — Froude, xi. 360. * Strype, iii. 54. t Idem, passim. ILLITERACY OF THE CLERGY 457 salaries and alms to the poor, just one seventh of the net income.* This system was almost as profitable to the queen as the one under which she kept a diocese vacant for years, receiving all the income.f But there was something more than corruption in the Church. The mass of the clergy were so illiterate that, even had they been pure of life, they could have done little to elevate the people or win respect for the new establishment. This evil, too, was felt in its full force by the statesmen who tried in vain to influence the queen. They realized the fact that Protestantism * Strype, iii. Appendix, p. 58. t She thus kept the diocese of Ely vacant for eighteen years after the death of Cox. Hall, p. 117. Strype, in this connection, gives a curious letter written to the queen by Sir John Puckering, the Lord Keeper — that is, the acting Chancellor — which shows how bishoprics and their property were disposed of. Sir John desired a lease of some land belonging to the vacant bishopric of Ely, and proposed, about 1595, that the office should be filled in order to carry out his wishes. The lease, he said, would benefit him, without expense to her majesty, since the property did not belong to the crown. As to filling the see, although she would thereby lose the income, this would be made up from first-fruits, tenths, and subsidies; which, if an old man were selected for the place, would soon be payable again. In addition, by changing around some of the other old bishops, she could make a profit of several thousand pounds. Strype, iv. 247. Under a statute passed in the first year of her reign, to which reference has been made before (see p. 433), every bishop and every clergyman paid the queen at once, or in two or three annual payments, a sum equal to a year's income on his first appointment to a charge. These payments, called first- fruits, became due again on every change of diocese or parish, and to them was added a tenth of the annual income thereafter. The system had, therefore, a money value to the crown, which was per- haps no small recommendation in the eyes of a frugal monarch like Elizabeth. 458 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA must ultimately rest on general intelligence, and that the so-called reformation of the Church would prove an iUusive snare, unless the people were taught to under- stand its meaning. But to do this teachers were needed very different from those who occupied the English pul- pits. It was this conviction that led men like Burghley and Bacon, perhaps having little religion themselves, to advocate the cause of the Puritans. The English Puritans, like their brethren in Holland and Scotland, believed in education, and it is their crown- ing glory. They might be narrow-minded and intoler- ant ; had they been otherwise, they would have been false- to their age and race. But wherever we find them, either in England or America, we find in their possession the school-book and the Bible. They wished, and they final- ly insisted, that others should believe as they did, for they could not conceive that any other belief was possible. They did not, however, desire a blind acceptance ; they demanded a conscientious conviction of the truth, found- ed on a knowledge of their doctrines. Education, there- fore, was their watchword. If you would get rid of the tares and have a crop, you must plough up the ground and sow your seed. The religious crop which the present generation is reaping would surprise these men of three centuries ago ; but even the most radical thinker of to-day must give them credit for insisting on the cultivation of the soil. But it was not the Puritans alone who, in the time of Elizabeth, desired religious instruction for the people. All the churchmen who were earnest in their belief felt the same desire. They argued that the true mode of extirpating popery, then the vital question for the nation, was by showing up its errors. They therefore advocated the general preaching and discussion of the ELIZABETH OPPOSES RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION 459 doctrines of the Keformation.* The queen, however, would have no such preaching or discussion. If we can judge from her actions, she wished for no new crop, but desired that the old tares should go to seed. She en- couraged the study of the classics, she gave some little countenance to poetry ; but of the education of the masses, or of the discussion of religious questions, she entirely disapproved. "Was this sagacity on her part, such as some historians have attributed to her, surpassing that of the ablest statesmen and most earnest churchmen of her times ? Was it from any love of the Eeformation that she de- sired to keep the people ignorant of reUgious truths ? It has been said that she did not wish to stir up a religious turmoil, that she feared its effects upon her Catholic subjects, and that she desired to give -the people time to forget the old faith and accustom themselves to the new belief. Does this explain her conduct ? There might be something in such a theory had she filled the minis- try with men of even reputable lives. But nothing is left of it when we recall the character of the clergy during the first half of her reign. Bakers, butchers, cooks, and stablemen, wholly illiterate, drunken and hcentious,t seem hardly fitting instruments for advanc- ing such a broad-minded religious policy. In fact, they alienated the few earnest old Catholics, instead of rec- onciling them to the new establishment. One thing is very clear. Elizabeth understood full well the effects of educating a people in the doctrines of the Eeformation. In 1578, Philip of Spain offered to his rebellious subjects in the JS'etherlands the fuU resto- ration of their civil rights provided they Avould return to * Hallam, i. 300. t Idem, i. 303. Nathan Drake, p. 44. 460 THE PUKITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA the Church of Kome. The English queen used all her influence to have these overtures accepted. She prom- ised, cajoled, and threatened, but all in vain. The relig- ious question, which she pronounced of no importance, proved an insuperable obstacle. Walsingham, one of her wisest advisers, writing at this time to Burghley, said in regard to the Protestants of the Low. Countries : " That which her majesty seems most to mislike of, which is the progress of religion being well considered, is the thing which shall breed their greatest strength." * But for their intense Protestantism, it would have been easy enough to turn the Hollanders back to peace and Moth- er Church. The queen disliked it, for the very reason which recommended it to "Walsingham, that it stood in the way of reconciliation with the pope. When, in op- position to the counsels of all the men about her, whose patriotism and wisdom are undisputed, she persistent- ly sought to suppress the growth of a corresponding spirit in England, is it not reasonable to suppose that we have here the leading motive which controlled her policy ? Although Elizabeth found little sympathy from her council in the persecutions which she and her archbishop were carrying on against the Puritans, she had always one person to spur her on. This was the Spanish am- bassador, with whom her relations for many years were of the most intimate character. He had no fear of the emasculated Protestantism which he saw represented in the Established Church ; what he dreaded, for the cause of Eome and Spain, was the aggressive spirit of the Puritans. "Writing to Philip in 1568, he said : " Those who call * Froude, xi. 137. THE SPANISH ADVISEES OF ELIZABETH 461 themselves of the religio purissima go on increasing. They are the same as Calvinists, and they are styled Puritans because they allow no ceremonies nor any forms save those w^hich are authorized by the bare letter of the Gospel. They Avill not come to the churches which are used by the rest, nor will they allow their minister to wear any marked or separate dress. Some of them have been taken up, but they have no fear of prison, and offer themselves to arrest of their own ac- cord." The Protestants of England, he went on to say, were of many opinions, being unable to agree on any point. There was their folly, if they only saw it. He suspected that a party in the council would like to bring the queen over to their mind, so that all the Protestants . in the kingdom might be united. If agreed, it would give them strength both at home and abroad. This he regarded as " a serious misfortune," and he therefore had warned the queen against these "libertines," pointing out the danger from them to herself and princes gener- ally. " Libertines I called them, for revolt against au- thority in all forms is their true principle." She had been advised, he said, to give up the Confession of Augs- burg — Lutheranism — and take to this other form, but he urged her not to be misled.* This advice was very sound from a Spanish stand- point ; but, although the queen accepted and acted on it, one may well doubt whether the national enemy was the wisest counsellor for England. Fortunate it was for Elizabeth that these " libertines," as the Spaniard called them, were cast in an heroic mould. They might be harried from their homes and reduced to poverty ; they might be consigned to prison, to the rack, * Be Silva to Philip, July 3d, 1568, Troude, ix. 337. 463 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA or to the gallows ; but, whatever their individual wrongs, nothing could ever impel them to give aid to their coun- try's foe, nor, while the Reformed religion was in danger, drive them into rebellion against the Protestant monarch of a Protestant State. The year 1570 marks the close of the first distinct pe- riod in the history of English Puritanism. Elizabeth had now been eleven years upon the throne. During all that time the earnest men who desired a simpler form of worship had sought it within the Established Church. They had not questioned the supremacy of the queen, nor the authority of the bishops in religious matters ; all that they asked for was liberty, in their parishes, to dis- pense with the wearing of vestments and the practice of ceremonies which they considered sinful. This had been denied them. They next sought to worship in a mode which they considered Scriptural, peaceably in sep- arate congregations, and these had been broken up by force, the worshippers being visited by the punishment reserved for felons. It would have been strange, indeed, if at length some bold minds had not begun to question the system which, calling itself Protestant, bore such fruits. Others there probably were before his time, but the. man whose figure stands out most boldly on the historic page, as marking this new departure, was Thomas Cart- wright, Margaret Professor of Divinity at Cambridge. He had entered that university in 1550 ; during the Marian persecution he left it to study law in London, and returning on the accession of Elizabeth, had been made a feUow. Sickened for a time with English the- ology, he went over to Geneva in 1564, and drank in the air of pure Calvinism. Eeturning to Cambridge, which inclined to Puritanism, he had been made professor of CARTWRIGHT AND HIS PEOPOSBD REFOltMS 463 divinity. He was now, although but thirty-five years of age, a profound scholar, and, what was more, a man of genius ; narrow-minded in some directions, but with the ability, within his limitations, to see straight and think clear, and with the courage to express his convictions. To his mind, the time had come to throw off shams, and denounce the intrinsic falsity as well as the inci- dental corruption of the religious machinery which he saw around him. The farce should be done away with of selecting bishops through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but always at the dictation of the queen.* The title bishop might be retained, Cartwright thought, but he should be reduced to his apostolic function of preaching the Gospel, while the deacon took care of the poor ; both, however, to be selected by the Church, and not by the civil authorities. Ministers or bishops * The system which Cartwright denounced and ridiculed three centuries ago still prevails in England. When a bishop is to be chosen, the deans and prebends of the cathedral meet to fill the vacancy, under an authorization from the queen, which, however, names the person to be selected. They enter upon their work with grave religious ceremonies, solemnly beseeching the Holy Ghost to aid them in their choice. Prayers being concluded, it is invariably found that under a spiritual guidance they have selected the person named in their conge cPelire. Emerson's "English Traits," chap. " Religion." One can understand the theory of the papacy, where the pope, as successor of St. Peter, claims a divine authority to name bishops ; but the practice of the English Church would be ludicrous but for its element of blasphemy. Under the papal system the Al- mighty is supposed to make selections through his representative the pope ; under the English system, the queen makes the selection thraugh the Almighty, who is, in theory, her agent and subordinate. Among a people possessing strong religious convictions, or even en- dowed with a keen sense of humor, such a mummery would be im- possible. See also Proude, xii. 578. 464 THR PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA should not be licensed to preach anywhere, but each should have charge of a particular congregation. Fi- nally, every church should be governed by its own min- ister and presbyters, but subject to the opinions of the other churches with which it communicated.* Here were some of the doctrines of the Presbyterian Church, an organization much at variance with the Eng- lish establishment. Still, Cartwright at first taught them with caution and moderation, lecturing only to his class- es in divinity, and counselling no open schism. When complained of to the court, Cecil wrote back that he saw nothing improper in his conduct, the professor appearing simply to have been giving to his pupils the results of his own studies of the New Testament.f But Cartwright's offence went far beyond an attack upon the theoretical organization of the Church. He openly assailed its glaring abuses, and that was unpar- donable. Pluralities and non-residences he denounced as impious, and the Spiritual Courts " as damnable, dev- ilish, and detestable." "Poor men," he said, "did toil and travel, and princes and doctors licked up all." He maintained that " those who held of&ces should do the duties of those offices ; that high places in the common- wealth belonged to merit, and that those who without merit were introduced into authority were thieves and robbers." The heads of the Houses at Cambridge could not stand his lectures, and he was suspended from his professorship. Still, the pulpit was open to him, and there his influence became greater than before. The students flocked to hear his sermons, and were carried away by his eloquence. One day he preached against * Briggs's " American Presbyterianism,'' p. 41, and Appendix, p. 1. t Froude, x. llff. CAETWKIQHT'S DEFECTS, VIKTUES, AND INFLUENCE 465 the vestments, the next day all but three of the Trinity- students appeared without the surplice. This was too much. He was novf, being deprived of his fellowship, expelled from the university, and in 1574 fled to the Continent, to escape imprisonment, remaining there until 1585. In later years, when mellowed by time and affected by a long residence in the Netherlands, Cartwright put off much of his early acerbity of speech. But it is prob- ably true that at this period he developed an intolerance equal to that which he encountered. He resented what he thought was persecution, and waged with his per- secutors a war of pamphlets, in which the language, according to the custom of the time, was far from apos- tolic. Heresy he would have punished with death, for the Bible, as he read it, so commanded. Had Ids sys- tem been carried out to its logical conclusions, the coun- try would have groaned under an ecclesiastical instead of a civil tyranny, for he claimed that the Church should rule the State. But his defects were those of his age and race ; his earnestness^ his purity of life, hatred of wrong-doing, contempt of wealth, and courage of con- viction were all his own, and those of the stern men of thought and action -who were in time to give a new life to England. The teachings of the eloquent Cambridge professor mark an epoch in the history of EngUsh Puritanism ; but they were not generally accepted, and, in fact, bore fruit quite slowly.* The Reformers still clung to the Estab- lished Church, and tried to do their work under its shad- ows.f Expelled from their livings for nonconformity, * Green lays too much stress upon them in excusing the acts of Elizabeth. t Cartwright himself was always opposed to any separation from I.— 30 466 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA they obtained employment as preachers from the reg- ular incumbents, too lazy or too ignorant to preach themselves, or they took refuge in the families of the country squires, where, as teachers, they exercised a pow- erful and lasting influence. The upper classes among the laity who cared anything about religion were, in the main, divided between the adherents of the old faith and those who, siding with the Puritans, wished the Eeformation to be carried further.* Catholics being forbidden by law to sit in the House of Commons, the Puritans had a majority in that body during the whole reign of Elizabeth, and but for the overwhelming influ- ence of the crown would have introduced great reforms in the Established Church. In 1571, they presented an address to the queen, point- ing out some of the glaring abuses which ought to be corrected. They said : " Great numbers are admitted ministers that are infamous in their lives, and among those that are of ability their gifts in many places are useless by reason of pluralities and non-residency, where- by infinite numbers of your majesty's subjects are like to perish for lack of knowledge. By means of this, to- gether with the common blasphemy of the Lord's name, the most wicked licentiousness of life, the abuse of ex- communication, the commutation of penance, the great number of atheists, schismatics daily springing up, and the increase of papists, the Protestant religion is in im- minent peril." t But Elizabeth was unmoved. She did not believe in freedom of speech upon any subject. She lectured her Parliaments for discussing religious ques- tlie establisliment. He believed in controlling, and not leaving it as the Brownists did. Briggs, p. 43. * Hallam, i. 193. t Neal. FUTILE ATTEMPTS TO EDUCATE THE CLERGY 467 tions, which she, as head of the Church, should alone decide, and usually managed to stifle debate in the Lower House, by imprisoning the recalcitrant members, or to throttle legislation through the lords and bishops. We have seen in the preceding pages something of the ignorance which prevailed among the regular clergy. It is creditable to several of the bishops of the Church that, about 1571, a movement was started to correct this evil. This was a religious exercise called " proph- esying." The clergy of a diocese were divided into classes or associations, under a moderator appointed by the bishop, and met once a fortnight to discuss particu- lar texts of Scripture. A sermon was first preached, to which the public were admitted, and after their disper- sion the members of the association debated the subject, the moderator finally summing up their arguments and pronouncing his determination. Such an exercise, at a time when books were few and costly and learning was at a very low ebb, might have been productive of much good. It began in Norwich, next to London the fore- most stronghold of Puritanism, and rapidly extended through the kingdom. But Parker, the archbishop, told the queen that these associations, where the chief top- ics discussed were the errors of papacy and the doc- trines of the Eeformation, were no better than semina- ries of Puritanism. He argued that the more opposed the people were to the papacy the more they would incline to the non-conformists, and that these exercises tended to make them so inquisitive that they would not submit to the orders of their superiors as they should.* These arguments met the cordial approval of the queen, who gave stringent orders that the prophesying should * Neal; Hallara, i. 300. 468 TUB PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA be suppressed. It took several years to put it down completely, for some of the bishops made a stout resist- ance ; but the queen triumphed in the end, her clergy being left as ignorant as she could well desire.* Meantime, the work of weeding out the Puritans went on more vigorously than ever. Their books were sup- pressed, their preachers silenced, their private meetings broken up, and even plain citizens for listening to their sermons were dragged before the High Commission upon any refusal to conform.-j- These were the severities prac- tised upon those who, agreeing with the Church authori- ties in matters of doctrine, differed from them only upon questions of form. For out-and-out heretics, those who denied the doctrines of the Church, a different fate was reserved. We have seen how William of Orange protected the Anabaptists of Holland when some of the men about him would have refused them civil rights. About 1575, twenty-seven of this sect, refugees from the Continent, * Hallam, i. 201, 203 ; Neal. Even Strype, who attempts to jus- tify everything clone by Elizabeth, admits the benefits derived from prophesying. He says : " This was practised, to the great benefit and improvement of the clergy, many of whom in those times were ignorant, both in Scripture and divinity."— Strype's " Annals of the Reformation," ii. 313. The only excuse which the queen offered for suppressing this educational system was that it had'been abused in the diocese of Norwich, by the discussion of ceremonial questions. But the Bishop of Norwich showed that this charge was unfounded. Idem. It is a fact not without interest that Cornwall, the county in which, according to Neal, not a minister could preach a sermon, furnished to Parliament the two brothers Paul and Peter Went- worth, who throughout the reign of Elizabeth stood up, almost alone, for freedom of speech in religious matters. They appreciated fully the results of the royal policy. t Hallam, i. 197. ANABAPTISTS BURNED AT THE STAKE— 1575 469 were apprehended in a private house in London, where they had assembled for worship. Tried before the Bish- ops' Court for heresy, in holding blasphemous opinions as to the nature of Christ's body — believing that he brought it with him from heaven — four recanted, but eleven of the number were convicted and sentenced to be burned. One of these, a woman, gave way and was pardoned, and nine of the others had their sentences commuted to perpetual banishment. The eleventh, with one of the first four who had relapsed, was reserved for the stake. Great efforts were made to save their lives, every one admitting their inoffensiveness. The Dutch congrega- tion interceded for them, and Foxe, the martyrologist, petitioned the queen in their behalf. But Elizabeth had for the time made friends with Spain, and was bent on showing that she had no sympathy with heresy. An ex- ample was needed to show her sincerity, and she proved inexorable. On the 22d of July, 1575, the two unhappy foreigners, who had sought England as an asylum from persecution, and whose only imputed crime was an error of theological belief, were publicly burned alive, min- gling their ashes with those of the many other martyrs who have made the soil of Smithfield sacred ground.* In the year which witnessed this tragedy, Parker, the persecuting Archbishop of Canterbury, died, and was succeeded by Grindal, a man of a very different type. He was not unfriendly to the Puritans, and was an ear- nest believer in the education of the clergy, and in sup- plying the pulpits with men capable of preaching. But his actual rule was very brief. The queen strenuously objected to his encouragement of prophesying, as well as to the number of preaching ministers whom he licensed, * Neal, p. 186 ; Froude, xi. 43. 470 TUE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA and, upon his refusing to give way, suspended him from office, the suspension lasting until shortly before his death, in 1583.* Owing partly to his influence, partly to the fact that most of the old non-conforming clergy had been silenced, and perhaps still more to fears incited by the Jesuits, who about this time began their active campaign in England, the Puritans seem to have been but little disturbed for several years, although, in 1581, some acts were passed by Parliament which, aimed pri- marily at the Catholics, bore heavily upon the non-con- formists in later days.f - But upon the death of Grindal a prelate took his place who was well qualified to carry out all the wishes of the queen. This was John Whitgift, a man who did more to develop the aggressive Puritanism of later years, with its outgrowth of independent sects, than any other per- son except Elizabeth herself. Whitgift had been Master of Trinity College when Cartwright was its Professor of Divinity. He was ignorant, probably not even know- ing Greek;:]: was as narrow-minded as he was ignorant, but full of zeal for the establishment. He had been chiefly instrumental in driving Cartwright from Cam- bridge, and had been subsequently distinguished for some violent pamphlets against the Puritans. As a re- ward for these services he was made Bishop of "Worces- ter. Now, Elizabeth had determined that, while " she would suppress the papistical religion so that it should * Hallain's " Const. Hist.," i. 201. In the opinion of Elizabeth, two or three preacliers in a county were euougli. t One of these acts imposed a fine of twenty pounds per month for not attending the Established Church. Another made it felony, punfshable with death, to libel the queen. t Hallam's " Const. Hist.," i. 203. ARCHBISHOP WHITGIFT TO BOOT OUT PURITANISM 471 not grow, she would root out Puritanism and the favor- ers thereof."* For the latter purpose she could have chosen no better instrument than her " little black par- son," as she used to call him. f As for the Catholics, they were so pleased with his work that Throgmorton, who was executed for conspiracy in the following year, called him " the meetest bishop in the realm ;" and, about the same time, Mary Stuart exultingly exclaimed : "Nothing is lacking, but only the setting-up of the mass again." ^ Whitgift began his official duties with great vigor. He was appointed archbishop in September, 1583 ; in Octo- ber he issued orders for the enforcement of religious dis- cipline throughout the realm. One of these orders pro- hibited all preaching, reading, or catechising in private houses, whereto any not of the same family shall resort, " seeing the same was never permitted as lawful under any Christian magistrate." As all public gatherings had been suppressed before, it was now intended to prevent the assembling of neighbors to read the Bible or for any religious services. This order, however, was aimed only at private individuals ; the others which accompanied it were directed at the clergy. They were all to subscribe a declaration, in writing, that the Book of Common * Strype's " Whitgift, Annals," iv. 243. We shall see iu later chapters something of the dangers which at this particular time threatened England from abroad. They served to arouse the cour- age of the nation at large, but seem to have turned the thoughts of Elizabeth more than ever to the idea of reconciliation with Rome. The suppression of the Puritans was a necessary step in this direc- tion. t Fronde, x. 116, 117 ; Hallam, i. 303. t Bobert Seal, Clerk of the Council, to Whitgift, May 7th, 1584; Strype's " Whitgift," App. book iii. No. 6. 472 THB PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Prayer contained nothing contrary to the Word of God, and a promise that they -would use its Form of Prayer and no other ; also an approval of the Thirty-nine Arti- cles, set out by the queen's authority in 1562, and a declaration that all such articles were agreeable to the "Word of God. In addition, it was provided that no one should exercise ecclesiastical functions unless he had been admitted to holy orders according to the manner of the Church of England.* It would have been diiHcult even for Whitgift, in his ignorance of law, to have framed a document more full of illegal exactions than was this. The statutes of the realm required the use of the Book of Common Prayer, but did not require any such declaration or promise as it demanded. Neither did they require such an acceptance of the Thirty-nine Articles. When a bill for the latter purpose was brought into Parliament, it was amended so as to provide simply for a subscription to " all the Ar- ticles of Eehgion which only concern the confession of the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacra- ments." f As for ordination according to the " manner of the Church of England," the very statute which re- quired a qualified subscription to the Articles admitted, by implication, the validity of other ordination. Hun- dreds of old priests were still in their livings who had never been reordained, and many Protestants were preaching who had been ordained only in Scotland or upon the Continent.;]: * Strype's "Whitgift," pp. 114, 117. 1 13 Eliz. cap. xil. sec. 1. I The -woi-ds of the statute are : " That every person, under the de- gree of bishop, -who doth or shall pretend to be a piiest or minister of God's holy Word and Sacraments, by reason of any other form of HARRYING THE PURITANS 473 The primate did not intend by these orders to trouble the Catholics : they could be reached when necessary by special statutes. He was bent on rooting out the Puri- tans, especially those who had been ordained abroad. Ministers suspected of non-conforming tendencies were brought before him and the other bishops by the score. They offered to subscribe to the Articles and to the Prayer-book, so far as the law required subscription. They showed that the Prayer-book then in use contained additions not ratified by Parliament ; that its noVel state- ment that " children being baptized have all things nec- essary to their salvation, and be undoubtedly saved," was, in their opinion, contrary to the Word of God, and there- fore they refused to say the contrary. But Whitgift cared as little for the law as his royal mistress. In most cases he would take nothing but an unconditional sub- mission. This was refused by many, and hundreds of parishes were left without a preacher.* But even this was not sufficient for the queen and her archbishop. The Act of Supremacy, passed in 1559, institution, consecration, or ordering than the form set forth by Parliament," etc., " shall . . . subscribe to all the Articles of Religion which only concern the true Christian faith and the doctrine of the Sacraments, . . . upon pain of being ipso facto deprived, and his eccle- siastical promotions vofd as if he were naturally dead." — 13 Eliz. cap. xii. sec. 1. See the whole subject of the illegality of these or- ders ably discussed in "The Puritans and Queen Elizabeth," by Sam- uel Hopkins, of Massachusetts, vol. ii. chaps, xiii. and xiv. The form of this book has, perhaps, obscured its real value as the work of a painstaking, conscientious scholar. * According to Keal, chap, vii., in six counties alone — Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, Essex, Kent, and Lincolnshire — two hundred and thirty-three ministers were suspended, of whom some were allowed time for reconsideratiou, but forty-nine were absolutely deprived at once. 474 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA which vested all ecclesiastical jurisdiction irr the crown, empowered the queen to execute it by commissioners, in such manner and for such time as she should direct. Under this act several commissions had been created, sitting for limited periods, but with constantly aug- mented authority. 'Now, however, at the suggestion of Whitgift, a permanent commission was established which, under the name of the High Commission Court, continued its obnoxious life until hacked down by the Long Parliament. This court was created on the 9th of December, 1583. It consisted of forty-four commis- sioners, twelve of whom were bishops, some privy-coun- cillors, and the rest partly clergymen and partly civil- ians. To any three, one being a bishop, power was given to punish all persons absenting themselves from church in violation of the statutes; to visit and reform heresies and schisms according to law ; to deprive all beneficed persons holding any doctrines contrary to the Thirty-nine Articles; to punish incest, adulteries, and all offences of the kind; to examine all suspected per- sons on their oaths ; and to punish all who should re- fuse to appear before them, or to obey their orders, by spiritual censure, or by discretionary fine or imprison- ment.* In nothing did this Commission fall behind Alva's famous Council of Blood, created fifteen years before, except in the power of punishing by death ; and in the condition of the English prisons of that day even this power was indirectly granted, for the jail-fever was as fatal as the axe of the executioner. Of its origin, the unimpassioned Hallam says, "the primary model was the Inquisition itself." f * Hallam, i. 304. t Idem. THE ENGLISH INQUISITION AND ITS RESULTS 475 Furnished with such an engine, Whitgift was not slow in putting it to use. In view of the provision which allowed the examination of suspected persons under their own oaths, he proceeded to frame a set of twenty-four interrogatories, to be administered to all persons supposed to be inclined to non-conformity. In May, 1584, all was ready, and the tribunal began its ses- sions. The suspected clergymen, mostly young men, as "Whitgift said, were summoned before the court. They were not shown the interrogatories, nor advised of what charge was made against them. First, they were sworn to tell the truth ; then the questioning began, the ' at- tempt being made to discover whether they had ever omitted the ring in marriage, the cross in baptism, the wearing of the surplice, or any of the prayers of the Church; whether they doubted any of its articles ; and, finally, the victim was interrogated as to his future intentions.* Eeports of what was going on came to the ears of Lord Burghley in July. He then sent for the inter- rogatories, and read them for the first time. He was far from being a Puritan himself — in fact, he had been very friendly to the archbishop — but now he could not restrain his indignation. Throwing aside his custo- mary diplomatic caution, he sat down and in an ear- nest letter told Whitgift very plainly what he thought of his proceedings.f But little did Whitgift care for * Strype's " Whitgift," Appendix. t " Tour twenty-four jirticles," lie said, " I find so curiously penned, so full of branches and circumstances, as I think the Inquisitors of Spain use not so many questions to comprehend and to trap their preys. ... I desire the peace of the Church. I desire concord. and unity in the exercise of our religion. I favor no sensual and wilful recusants. But I conclude that, according to my simple judgment, 476 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Burghlej'-, or even for the whole council, which remon- strated against his action. He had his commission and behind him stood the queen. Behind her stood the acts of Parliament which without her consent could not be repealed. How the work resulted is shown in a petition which came up to the council from the county of Essex. Our ministers having been taken away, it said, " we have none left but such as we can prove unfit for the office. They are altogether ignorant, having been either popish priests, or shiftless men thrust in upon the ministry when they knew not how else to live — serving-men and the basest of all sorts ; and, Avhat is most lamentable, as they are men of no gifts, so they are of no common honesty, but rioters, dicers, drunkards, and such like, of offensive lives." * Incited by this petition, the coun- cil made an examination for itself, and, on the 20th of September, 1584, sent to his Grace of Canterbury and to the Lord Bishop of London a letter signed by Burgh- ley, Howard, Shrewsbury, Crofts, Warwick, Hatton, Leicester, and Walsingham. This was no Puritan doc- ument, but an oificial statement, made by Protestants and Catholics conjointly, of the condition in which they found the Church, not in Essex alone, but throughout the kingdom. As to this particular county, there was enclosed a list of learned and zealous ministers deprived and suspended, and another list "of persons having cures, being far unmeet for any ofiices in the Church." this kind of proceeding is too much savoring of the Romish Inqui- sition ; and is rather a device to seek for offenders than to reform any. This is not the charitable instruction that I thought was in- tended."— July 1st, 1584, Strype's " Whitgift," App, book iii. No. 9. * Neal. ATLMEE, BISHOP OF LONDON, AND HIS WORK 477 " Against all these sorts of lewd, evil, unprofitable, and corrupt members, we hear of no inquisitions, nor any kind of proceeding to the reformation of these horrible offences in the Church ; but yet of great diligence, yea, and extremity, used against those that are known dili- gent preachers. . . . We do hear daily of the like in generality in many other places." * In Aylmer, Bishop of London, within whose diocese was the county of Essex, the archbishop had a worthy coadjutor. He was one of the prelates whose official dis- honesty reflected the greatest discredit upon the Church-f But, whatever his faults as a man, no one could ques- tion his zeal against the non-conformists. In 1584, he suspended thirty-eight clergymen in Essex alone — men earnest in Christian work and of unblemished life — for refusing to wear the surplice. As he was absent from the city when the council's communication was re- ceived, the archbishop replied that he could not make full answer to it ; that he hoped the information to be in most parts unjust ; that if the ministers were as re- ported, they were worthy of grievous punishment, and that he would not be slack therein ; but he added — in- nocently revealing the character of his commission — that none, or few, had been presented for any such misde- meanors. ^ Nothing upon the record shows that anything was * Strype's " Whitgift," pp. 166, 167. f " The violence of Aylmer's temper was not redeemed by many virtues; it is impossible to exonerate his character from the impu- tations of covetousness, and of plundering the revenues of his see — faults very prevalent among the bishops of that period." — Hallam, i. 205. t Strype's " Whitgift," pp. 167, 168. 478 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA done after the return of Aylmer ;* but the action of this prelate in the succeeding year tells what he thought of such complaints as those which came up from the factious Puritans of his diocese. Thomas Carew, a minister of Hatfield, in the county of Essex, had angered the bishop by informing him that in his county, " within the compass of sixteen miles, were twenty-two non-resident ministers, and thirty who were insuflScient for their office and of scandalous lives, while at the same time there were nineteen who were silenced for refusing subscription." In 1685, he was hauled up before the High Commission. A clergyman who would thus criticise the action of his superiors must naturally belong to the suspected party, and for such men the famous interrogatories had been prepared by Whitgift. Being offered the oath preliminary to his examination, he, as many others did before and after him, refused to take it, on the ground that under the law of England from the time of Magna Charta no man could be compelled to criminate himself. For this contempt he was committed to prison without bail, and the bishop sent down another minister to take his place. The patron of the living objected to this interference with his legal rights, and declined to recognize the new incumbent. He, too, was sent to prison, and the bishop remained master of the field. Very soon, however, Mr. Carew's successor was detected in adultery, and the parishioners presented a request for his removal and the reinstatement of their former clergyman. Aylmer replied that "for all the livings he had he would not * Hopkins, ii. 436. RELIGIOUS FORMS MORE IMPORTANT THAN MORALITY 479 deprive a poor man of his living for the fact of adul- tery." * This incident, occurring in the centre of English civili- zation, furnishes a suggestive illustration of the conflict which was going on within the English Church. On the one side stood a people asking for religious teach- ing; on the other, a hierarchy discouraging aU such teaching, and teUing the nation that even morality Avas of no importance when compared with forms and cere- monies. The Puritans, as developed in later days, have been often reviled and ridiculed for attempting to find a rule of life in what they regarded as the law of God laid down in the Old Testament. Few persons to-day will hold them blameworthy for believing that obedience to the Decalogue was of more vital importance than the wearing of a surplice or the use of the cross in baptism. Here, for the present, we may leave this class of non- conformists. We have seen a little of the mode in which Ehzabeth and her prelates dealt with these men, who then alone went by the name of Puritans — men who had no thought of leaving the Established Church, but who for nearly thirty years had been struggling for some liberty of worship under the protection of the law. Time and again they had appealed to Parliament for redress, and time and again bold members had stood up in the House of Commons to plead their cause, only to be sent to the Tower for calling in question th^ spirit- ual supremacy of the crown. Still, the repressive meas- ures of the government were comparatively mild until Whitgift came upon the scene. He told Burghley, in 1584, that "not severity, but lenity, hath bred this * Brdok's "Lives of tlie Puritans," ii. 160, citing MSS. Register, pp. 653, 654 ; Hopkins, iii. 33. 480 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENQLAND, AND AMERXCl schism in the Church," * and he evidently expected that a different pohcy would heal the .breach. Perhaps he was right; perhaps, too, if he had been dealing only with Englishmen, undisturbed by any foreign influence, his policy of repression by fine and imprisonment, which was carried on systematically throughout the kingdom, might have proved effectual, and England might have been purged of Puritanism. But for some years England had not been left to her- self to work out her problems alone, as in preceding centuries. We have seen how the Catholics from the Continent were affecting one part of the community, inculcating a spirit of resistance to authority little known before among the middle classes. On the Prot- estant side there was also a direct foreign influence at work, which was even more powerful, although little noticed by historians. In the next chapter we shall see something of its character ; and, later on, something of its results in the development of a new class of reform- ers very different from the early Puritans. * Strype's " Wliitgift," p. 173. CHAPTER X ENGLISH PURITANISM Thus far, in considering the foreign influences which affected the Puritanism of England during the early days of Elizabeth, we have confined our view mainly to the theological stream which flowed directly from the great fountain-head of Calvinism at Geneva. This stream colored aU the theology of the island, and so every writer who has treated of this period has been compelled to recognize its presence. But creeds are only lifeless words. The metaphysical doctrines which the Marian exiles brought back from Switzerland, un- like discoveries in science or the arts, were in themselves of little value. Posterity owes to these men a greait debt of gratitude for their devotion to what they con- sidered truth. Many of them, in addition to their theo- logical teachings, did a noble work in trying to reform the morals of their native land. But, unless outside in- fluences had reinforced their efforts, the labors of these early reformers would have passed away, and left but a faint impression. Certain it is, that the wave of Protes- tantism which came into England with the accession of EUzabeth affords no adequate explanation of the course of subsequent events, which were even more remarkable in the.State than in the Church. Nothing in the development of English Puritanism is I.— 31 482 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA more suggestive than the change which came over its character in the space of a comparatively few years. In its'early days it dwelt among the learned, and to a con- siderable extent among the powerful and wealthy ; in the next century, it had shifted its abode almost entirely to the dwellings of the middle classes and the poor. In this particular, the movement was somewhat peculiar. Early Christianity began at the bottom and worked up- wards, so have most religious revivals since that time.* Such has been the growth of the Quakers, the Baptists, and the more modern Methodists. But Puritanism in England began at the top and worked downwards. For years after Elizabeth ascended the throne, some of the most prominent statesmen, many of the most learned bishops, and almost all of the most distinguished divines, were Beformers or Puritans, who, even if they outward- ly conformed, yet advocated changes in the discipline and ceremonial of the establishment. These men, and others like them, laid down the doctrines of the Angli- can Church on lines so strictly Calvinistic that John Knox, or even Calvin himself, could have found little in them of which to disapprove. But in a few years all this was changed. During the reign of Elizabeth's immediate successor the old Calvin- istic theology fell into disfavor ; under Charles I. it was entirely repudiated by the ambitious divines of the Church who sought high preferment.f Meantime, the men who wished to reform the discipline or service of the Church were no longer found among the magnates * I do not now speak of the so-called religious movements, ■which were really political, as was much of the Protestantism in France and the Lutheranism of Germany. t Macaulay, i. 74 ; Buckle, Amer. ed., 1864, i. 611. DECLINE OF PURITANISM AMONG THE UPPER CLASSES 483 of the land. Prelate vied with courtier in proclaiming the doctrine that Episcopacy was ordained of God, and that the only fault in its servive was too great a simplicity. The theology of Calvin had worked downwards, and so had the demand for a simpler form of worship. To be sure, there were still non-conforming ministers of educa- tion, scholars, bred at the universities, with all the learn- ing and culture of the time, but the majority of the Puri- tans were taken from a different class. The men who dethroned their king, and who, under the Common- wealth, made the name of England respected wherever a European tongue was spoken, sprang from the loins of the common people. Look over the list of the famous soldiers, sailors, and civilians of that time, and we find not men of lofty lineage, but, for the greater part, small landed proprietors, brewers, bakers, tailors, merchants, even cobblers, tinkers, draymen, and body servants.* The Koundhead, whose appearance and language are famihar to every reader, was a very different character, externally regarded, from the courtly and scholarly Ke- formers of the early days of Elizabeth. The latter rep- resent English Puritanism of the third quarter of the sixteenth century; the -former show what it had become in the second quarter of the seventeenth. The causes of this change seem worthy of more consideration than they have generally received. How Puritanism almost died out among the wealthy and the learned of England can be readily understood. As we have seen, the exiles who returned from the Con- tinent upon the accession of Elizabeth represented most of the learning of the realm. They were numerous * See Buckle, i. 474, for an extended account of the origin and pursuits of the men prominent in the Commonwealth. 484 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA enough — some eight hundred having fled from the per- secutions of Mary — to have produced, under favorable conditions, a marked effect. Almost to a man they de- sired a reformation of the Church, far beyond the point to which it had been carried under Henry or his son Ed- ward. Parliament favored them, for the nation had still ringing in its ears the agonizing cries of the martyrs as the flames blazed up at Smithfield. Had the queen been also their ally, and had she filled the pulpits with men of the same stamp, England would have been made Prot- estant in fact as well as in name, the abuses of the crown would have been gradually corrected, and with general education, as in Scotland and Holland, the people would have been elevated to a higher plane. There might in the process have been disorder, as men then- and ever since have affected to believe, but postponement only brought on the tempest, which, in the next century, swept the land, because a reformation, culminating in the divine right of kings and the celestial origin of the Established Church, was in truth little more than a mon- strous sham. But Ehzabeth, advised by Spain and backed by her Catholic favorites, was strong enough to prevent any open change. Still, there was a silent revolution to be dreaded, one which might come about if the people were instructed in religious questions. To prevent this also her measures seemed well directed. The men who were intellectually inchned to schemes of Church reforms, but who had no intensity of conviction, were easily disposed of. Some of them were placed in bishoprics, others in lucrative livings. They soon discovered that if they Avere to hold on to the good things of this life they must obey the wishes of the queen. The lesson was learned, and the zeal of many was abated forever. Eather than RESULTS OF ELIZABETH'S PERSECUTION 485 surrender their comfortable surroundings, they were con- tent to swim with the current, and let the Eeformation take care of itself. The new men coming into the min- istry saw that the path to preferment lay, not through scholarship, eloquence, or piety, but through the practice of the courtier's arts. They, too, learned their lesson, and the second generation was little vexed by reformers in the high places of the Church.* But there was ai^other class, much more difBcult to deal with — men who could neither be bribed nor flat- tered into silence. It is easy enough to-day, when forms and ceremonies have lost much of their power, to speak of them as narrow-minded, because they would not wear the old priestly robes, nor use rites which kept alive the recollections of the ancient Church. They were wiser than their modern critics and understood their age. They sought a separation from the papacy as complete as that which the Israelites effected when they placed a sea and a wilderness between themselves and the Egyp- tians. Elizabeth also took in the situation as well. She was determined that there should be no such separation. The ships of her reforms were too valuable to be burned; they might be useful for a return voyage to Eome. The zealots who persisted in thwarting her plans could be dealt with in only one manner. They must be sup- pressed at any cost. Mary had attempted to crush out heresy by force, but such a general persecution as she had carried on, even if possible, would have defeated its object. Elizabeth com- mitted no such blunder. The stake and the axe make * The reforms proposed at the accession of James I., by about one ninth of the clergy, were opposed by the whole bench of bishops and both the universities. 486 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA picturesque sufferers. It is the blood of the martyrs that in all ages has been the seed of a Church. A canonized saint appeals to the popular imagination. His ashes re- quire neither food nor raiment ; they ask for nothing but a little earth, sympathy, pity, tears, remembrance. But a living martyr, made to suffer for his opinions, oc- cupies a very different position. He requires a continued, substantial support, and, however fervent may be the first feelings in his behalf, to carry on a work of charity for years calls for something more than sympathy or pity ; it presupposes in a people a depth of religious conviction little known among the English masses of the sixteenth century. "When, therefore, Elizabeth drove the reforming di- vines from their livings, forbade their formation of sepa- rate congregations, and left tbem to wander about the country as itinerant preachers and schoolmasters, while she also, in the main, frowned upon the men in civil life who upheld their doctrines, she adopted the most effect- ive form of persecution which could be practised on her people. It was pursued systematically and persistently for many years. In time its results became very marked in one direction. When the Marian exiles died off they left few successors among the scholars of the land. "We hear little more of deep learning among the Puritans, or of Puritanism among the upper classes. Keform was no longer fashionable. But although the policy of Elizabeth explains how Puritanism died out among the prelates of the Church, and how it came to leave the habitations of the wise and great, it does not explain how it came to dwell among the lowly, and why it spread in spite of persecution. These are different and more important questions. The teaching of a Calvinistic theology by the Genevan ex- EAELT IMMIGRATION FROM THE NETEERLANDS 487 iles is not an adequate explanation, for the teachers were too few in number to have produced the acknowledged result, and the people were in no condition to be affected by religious dogmas. In truth, when we consider the general condition of the people, the wonder is that Puri- tanism, as a religious and political force, was not entirely crushed out in England while Elizabeth was on the throne. It had little lodgment among the masses. They had, to be sure, the remembrance of the persecution under Mary, but that remembrance became fainter year by year. Yery few of them could read, and every at- tempt was made to keep them ignorant. Left to them- selves, unaffected by any influence from abroad, except that which we have already noticed, it is probable that, even if they had not returned to Catholicism, we should hear nothing of the movement which in the next century gave birth to the Commonwealth. If now we leave England and cross the Chanriel to the Netherlands, we shall perhaps discover the origin of the leading foreign influence which kept alive the spirit of English Puritanism, and which ultimately shaped its character. As we have seen in a former chapter, the Keformation in the Low Countries began at the bottom, among the artisans in the cities, and the tillers of the soil in the rural districts. Quite early there began to pour into England a little stream of these enlightened and relig- ious workmen. The regions to which they were always attracted were the low, swampy lands on the eastern coast, which reminded them of home. There they built their dikes, dug out canals, and gave to a district in Lin- colnshire the name of Holland. They swarmed into Ifoff oik, and laid the foundations of the weaving indus- try, which made Norwich the second city in the king- 488 THE PUniTAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA dom. When Wyclif arose, in the fourteenth century, to preach the doctrines of a reformed faith, he found most of his adherents among these weavers. In fact, during the persecution of the Lollards more persons suffered death at the stake in Norfolk than in all the other coun- ties of England put together.* In a few years after "Wyclif's death the Lollard preachers were suppressed, and their sect disappeared from public view. But in the low districts on the eastern coast, where the Netherland- ers had settled, the reforming spirit still survived. So late as 1520, Longland, bishop of Lincoln, reported that LoUardism was especially vigorous and obstinate in his diocese, where more than two hundred heretics were once brought before him in the course of a single vis- itation.f "When, a century and a half after the death of Wy- clif, Charles V. began his persecution of the Protestants in the Netherlands, which was intensified under his suc- cessor, the little stream of emigration from across the Channel swelled into a mighty river. In 1560, it was estimated that England contained 10,000 refugees from Flanders, with their ministers and preachers, and in 1562 the number had increased to over 30,000.:]: How many came over in the next few years cannot be accurately determined, but Davies, upon the best foreign authorities, estimates that before the termination of Alva's rule over one hundred thousand heads of families had left the * Roger's " Story of Hollancl," p. 51. t " The Beginnings of New England," John Fiske, p. 63. Most of the victims of Bloody Mary came also from the manufacturing districts of the South and East. Green, "History of the English People," vol. ii. book vi. chap. ii. I Reports of the Spanish Ambassador, Froude, vii. 270, 413. NETHEELAND EEPUGBES IN ENGLAND UNDER ALVA'S EULB 489 Netherlands, a majority of whom found a home in Eng- land.* A census taken by the lord-mayor of London in 1568, the year after Alva's arrival in the Netherlands, shows that of 6704 foreigners then in the city and its vi- cinity, 5225 were from the Low Countries.f Elizabeth did not encourage their remaining in London, where, at a later day, they flocked in such numbers as to attract the notice of the Spanish ambassador, and so dispersed the new-comers through the country.;}: In the first quarter of the next century, London, in a population compara- tively small, numbering probably not 130,000 inhabitants, contained not fewer than 10,000 foreigners.§ In 1571, there were in Norwich alone, by actual count, 3925 Dutch and Walloons.! In 1587, the number had risen to 4679, making a majority of the population.^ They located by thousands in the Cinque Ports — that is, Dover, Sand- wich, Hastings, Komney, and Hythe.** In Sandwich * Davies's " Holland," 1. 567. Green puts the number in England at over 50,000. " Hist, of the English People," tol. ii. book vi. chap. v. t Sti7pe's " Annals," vol. iv. Supplement, p. 1. I Idem, ii. 387. § Nicholas's " Pedigree of the English People," p. 538. This author says that they were mostly Huguenots, but at that time the great French emigration had not taken place. The Walloons from the Netherlands were often called Huguenots in England, as in Canter- bury for example, and this probably causes the confusion. We are told by the Due de Sully, the great French minister, that when he visited Canterbury, in 1603, he found that two thirds of the inhabit- ants were Netherland refugees. To this circumstance he attributed the superior civilization and refinement of manners which he no- ticed in that city. " Works," tome iv. lib. xiv. p. 217. II Blomefield's "Hist, of County Norfolk," iii. 283, 391, quoted in Dexter's " Congregationalism," p. 73. 1 Southerden Burn, p. 69. ** Green's " Hist, of the English People," vol. ii. book vi. chap. v. 490 THB PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA there were 351 Netherland families in 1582* So late as 1645, after Laud had driven great numbers away, there were YOO communicants in the Dutch Church at Colchester, 500 in Sandwich, and 900 in the Walloon Church at Canterbury.! These are but scatter- ing statistics, gathered at a time when the census was unknown in England, but they are suggestive. The exiles were settled all through the southern and east- ern counties, not only in the towns, but in the rural dis- tricts.:}: These men were not theologians, like the English divines who about the same time returned from their ex- ile upon the Continent. Probably few, if any of them, except their ministers, had been educated at a univer- sity. They took no part in public affairs, and their ad- vent raised riot the slightest ripple upon the sea of poli- tics. In fact, but for its effect upon the material pros- perity of the nation, it may be doubted whether this in- flux of foreign artisans would have been deemed worthy of the notice of historians. The effect in this direction, however, was very marked, for with the arrival of these Netherlanders there opens the first chapter in the in- dustrial history of modern England. In contrast with the Pilgrim Fathers, who in the next century found the struggle for existence so severe in Leyden, each of these refugees was the master of some handicraft. The people among whom they set- * " Even in its present decay Sandwich is quaint and Flemish." — Goadby's " England of Shakespeare," p. 38. t Southerden Bum, p. 41. I " The prevailing name of Walker is distinct evidence of a large Flemish settlement in Lancashire and Yorkshire." — Goadby's "Eng- land," p. 37. INSTKUCTOKS OF ENGLAND IN MANUFAOTUHES, ETC. 491 tied knew almost nothing of manufactures, except the weaving of some coarse grades of cloth, and in agricul- ture they were little more advanced. These foreigners first revealed to them the possibilities of the mechanical arts. In London, they made window glass, pins and needles, beaver hats, gloves, and fine furniture ; in Col- chester, baize, needles, and parchment ; in Honiton, and elsewhere in Devonshire, Flemish lace; in Mortlake, arras ; in Fulham, tapestry ; in Maidstone, linen thread ; in Sheflield, steel and iron ; and in Sandwich, Leeds, and JS'orwich, baize, serges, flannels, silks, and bombazines.* Others again showed the English fishermen the art of curing herring, the English farmer how to cultivate his land, how to raise vegetables for the table, grasses and roots for the subsistence of his cattle during winter. Even their wives taught women how to starch their clothing. Later on came another class of emigrants, made up of the merchants of the Netherlands, by whom com- merce had for centuries been cultivated as a science. After the fall of Antwerp and the banishment of her Protestant population, it was estimated that a third of her traders were to be seen on the London Ex- * Goadby's " Eogland of Shakespeare," p. 38. Soutlierden Biirn,pp. 4, 195, 197, 303, 305, 308, 353, etc. When Elizabeth visited Sand- wich, in 1573, a hundred or more of children, Dutch and English, standing on a scaifold erected on the wall of the school-house yard, showed the manner of spinning fine yarn, much to the delight of her majesty and the nobility and ladies. Burn, p. 307. When she visited Norwich, in 1578, there were among other shows and pag- eants, the "artisan strangers' pageant," representing seven looms weaving worsted, russels, darnix (diaper linen), mackado, lace, caffa, and fringes, with various other devices. Blomefleld, cited Bum, p. 69. 492 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA change.* Under these teachers the English slowly learned that agriculture, manufactures, and commerce are a surer and more enduring source of wealth than wool-raising and piracy. It took many years to learn this lesson, .but in the end the pupil proved worthy of the master. These results of a Netherland influence upon England are universally conceded. They cannot be denied, for the proof is too direct ; they cannot be overlooked, for the teachings of these foreigners lie at the foundation of that material prosperity in which her people take such pride. But this influence extended far beyond a first lesson in the industrial arts. The mere introduc- tion of manufactures, commerce, and a system of scien- tific agriculture would have availed little to the na- tion but for the awakening of the religions and moral principles which accompanied their introduction. It was Protestant England that ultimately controlled the ocean and the markets of the world, colonized America, and girded the earth with an empire. These Nether- landers helped to make her Protestant, and thus laid a lasting basis for her wealth; but at the same time they did even a greater work than this, for in helping to make her Protestant they also helped to make her free. How the religious influence was exerted can be read- ily understood if we only keep in mind the conditions of the problem. No people on earth have a higher order of virtues than the English middle classes. They have a courage which never falters, an earnestness of purpose which brooks no obstacles, a love of justice and fair play, a devotion to home and country, and an instinctive moral- * Green's '-'Hist, of the English People," vol. ii. book vi, chap. v. THEIR RELIGIOUS WORK IN ENGLAND 403 ity and real belief ia a Higher Power which are not so common among the Latin races. These are national traits of character; they existed three centuries ago — some of them, to be sure, in a rudimentary form — but all enveloped in an intellectual and religious darkness, the density of which, in view of the progress made by the nation since that time, it is very difficult for one now to realize. The masses, however much they might wish for light, had almost no schools to which they could send their children, almost no preachers for their own instruction in morality and religion. Among such a people, these Netherlanders settled down and made their homes. They came from a land where education was universal. Each man brought his Bible, which he could read for himself and neighbors. Earnestness they had, for they came not to better their condition, but simply to find religious freedom. They were not pau- pers seeking alms, they were independent and self-sup- porting, coming from a country where beggars were un- known. Their daily life was a sermon on the Christian virtues of industry, temperance, and chastity.* Never has the world beheld another missionary work on such a scale as this, nor one where the condi- tions were all so favorable. Modern churches send out teachers to convert the heathen, but such teach- ers labor under almost insuperable disadvantages. If they seek out savage tribes, an abysmal gulf of igno- rance and barbarism stands between them, which it seems impossible to bridge. If they go to India or * When Archbishop Parker visited Sandwich in 1563, he wrote to a friend that the Butch and Walloons there were very godly on the Sabbath day, and busy in their work on the week day. Strype's " Parker," fol. 139. 494 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMBEICA China, the so-called heathen, from their thousands of years of civilization, look down with something like contempt on their semi-civilized instructors. In each quarter the difference is too great between the teacher and the scholar. But no such gulf separated the Neth- erlanders from the English. The distance in civilization between them was very marked, to be sure, but it was a difference in degree and not in kind. The people were of much the same race, and by nature fitted for the same pursuits. Their languages, too, were so much alike that it was almost as easy for an Englishman to understand a Dutchman as to understand a native of some distant county of his own island.* In view of these facts, one can readily appreciate the influence which was exerted upon the people of their adopted land by these refugees, who numbered proba- bly from fifty to seventy-five thousand heads of families. Elizabeth disliked their religious opinions, and had no sympathy with them as rebels against their sovereign. But she had the sagacity to foresee the material advan- tages of their presence, and on this account made to them concessions which were denied to the native-born Puritans. They were permitted freedom of worship in their own congregations, ministered to by their own preachers. Each artisan was by law required to take at least one English apprentice. These apprentices be- * Meteren, the historian, who lived many years in London, called the English language " broken Dutch." Motley's " United Kether- lands," i. 308. During tlie reign of Elizabeth, the militia summoned from different parts of tlie island found it difficult to understand even the word of command given by officers from districts other than their own. Goadby's " England of Shakespeare," p. 83. The resemblance of the Dutch to the English was even more marked three centuries ago than it is to-day. INFLUENCE IN THE CIVIL FIELD— IDEAS OF LIBERTY 495 came members of the family, according to the good custom of the time, and were subjected to a home relig- ious training. Distributed in little colonies, through the southern and eastern sections of the island, each congre- gation and each family thus became a centre, from which spread out ever-widening waves of moral, intellectual, and religious light. London and Norwich, in which the Netherlanders made their most important settlements, were the chief strongholds of English Puritanism. From the latter city went out the first Brownist or Separatist colony to Holland. It was in the adjoining county of Lincoln that the Pilgrim Fathers organized their early congre- gation, and the same section furnished the great body of the Puritans who settled Ifew England and gave it its distinctive character. The low districts about the Hum- ber and the "Wash, reclaimed from the ocean by the Hol- landers, were always hot-beds of non-conformity ; here was the original Boston ; near by was Cambridge, the home of Puritanism, commemorated across the sea in a new Cambridge, the seat of Harvard College, while Ox- ford, far removed, was High Church, if not papistical. Nor was the influence of these exiles confined to the religious field. They came from a land filled with cit- ies which, until the days of Alva, had been the home of civil liberty ; where trade was unshackled by monop- olies or arbitrary impositions; where justice was im- partially administered, imprisonment by royal warrant unknown, the pardon of criminals for money unheard of ; where liberty of debate in their legislatures was un- questioned, and where taxes had been imposed only with the consent of the governed. They came to a land where almost every right was trampled under foot; where civil liberty, if it ever existed, was little more 496 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA than a dim tradition. How their influence must have been exerted can be readily imagined. So early as 1559, Cecil remarked that "those who depend on the making of cloths are of worse condition to be quietly governed than the husbandmen." * This was in the infancy of English manufactures. As time went on, the task of government became less easy. The opposition to the arbitrary power of the crown grew * Froude, viii. 443. Cardinal Wolsey learned this lesson earlier. In 1535, Henry VIII. aimed his most deadly blow at English liberty. In defiance of law and without the intervention of Parliament, he appointed commissioners with instructions to collect the sixth part of all the property in the kingdom, payable in money, plate, or jewels, according to the last valuation. The wealthy classes were mostly cowed into submission, but the artisans of Suffolk, men liv- ing by the manufacture of coarse cloth, rose in open rebellion. Their armed protest proved effectual, and the obnoxious measure was abandoned. Of this event Hallara says, " If Wolsey, therefore, could have procured the acquiescence of the nation under this yoke, there would probably have been an end of Parliaments for all ordinary purposes. But the courage and love of freedom natural to the Eng- lish Commons, speaking in the hoarse voice of tumult, thougli very ill supported by their superiors, preserved us in so great a peril." — " Constitutional Hist.," i. 36. Knight adds, " The despot now learned that his absolute rule was to have some limit. But for the artisans of Suffolk, England at this period would probably have passed into the condition of Prance, where the abuse of the royal power had long deprived the people of their rights."— " Popular Hist, of England," ii. 303. John Winthrop, the first governor of Massachusetts, went from Suffolk County. It is an interesting fact that both of his grandfathers, paternal and maternal, were cloth- iers, a name then applied to capitalists who employed men to weave cloth for them in their own little workshops. " Life and Letters of John Winthrop," by Kobert C. Winthrop, i. 17, 47. Suffolk, like Norfolk, was a favorite home of the Netherland refugees, who fol- lowed their trades in its small villages. SHOWN IN UPKISINS AGAINST THE STUARTS 497 with the development of the industrial classes. The tiller of the soil, as Irish history has shown, can exist even when denied almost every human right. But man- ufactures and commerce require the air of freedom. When Elizabeth introduced the Netherland artisans into England, she was moved only by material considera- tions. She sought a share of the wealth that had made the Low Countries the treasury of the world. The wealth came, but with it the ideas and spirit that in the next century bred a revolution. But we are not left to mere conjecture as to the eflfects of the Netherland influence upon the develop- ment of civil liberty in England. "We shall see more in the succeeding pages of the close connection between the two countries, and of the mode in which ideas famil- iar to the one poured into the other, where they were unknown or forgotten ; it is sufficient now to point out some suggestive facts in connection with the settlements of the early Netherland refugees. When the civil war broke out in England, a war in which the insurgents demanded the civil rights long established in the Nether- lands, and in the Netherlands alone, the army of the king was recruited mainly from the northern and west- ern counties, while that of the Parliament was recruited from the eastern and southern counties, in which the Netherlanders had settled. The facts are no less signifi- cant in relation to the nativity of the great men of the Commonwealth, and of those who succeeded them as apostles of liberty. Oliver Cromwell came from fenny Huntingdonshire, and raised his famous Ironsides in the eastern counties. Ireton, his son-in-law, who stood next to him in military and civil ability, was born in the coun- ty of* Nottingham. John Hampden was of a Bucking- hamshire family, but his mother was a Cromwell. Fair- I.— 33 498 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMBKICA fax was born in Yorkshire. Sir Harry Vane and Alger- non Sidney were born in Kent, Lord 'William Eussell and John Bunyan in Bedford, another fen district of the East.* Such were some of the results of the presence in Eng- land of this peaceful army from the Netherlands, which crossed the Channel before the days of the Spanish Armada. That historians should, in the main, have dis- cussed only the industrial side of this story, is no wise remarkable. The influence exerted by these foreigners upon the religion and politics of their adopted land was noiseless in its action and slow in bearing fruit. It appears in no act of Parliament, and can be measured * Masson, in his "Life and Times of Milton," ii. 435, gives some tables showing the geographical distribution of the royalists and parliamentarians, as above stated, whicli make an instructive study in connection with the settlements of the Netherlanders the century before. The author remarks that his tables show some curious eth- nological facts, but what they are he does not even intimate. Since these pages were written John Fiske has published a very interesting book on the "Beginnings of New England," in which he calls attention to the facts stated by Masson, but neither author sug- gests any explanation of the geographical distribution of the Cav- aliers and Puritans. Mr. Fiske estimates that two thirds of the Puritan settlers of New England came from the Eastern counties of England, and another third from the coast counties of the South- west, Devonshire, Dorset, and Somerset (pp. 63, 63). John Souther- den Burn, in his "History of the Protestant Refugees in England" (London, 1846), gives an account of Dutch and "Walloon churches, nearly twenty in number, established in England during the six- teenth century; in London, Canterbury, Sandwich, Norwich, South- ampton, Glastonbury, Rye, Winchelsea, Colchester, Yarmouth, Maid- stone, Dover, Stamford, and Thetford. This list evidently does not make up the JiiU number, as the record of many may have disap- peared, but the reader will find here the names of six towns repro- duced by the early colonists of America, while all of them are in districts which furnished New England with its settlers. BROAD INFLUENCE OF THE NETHEELAND EEFUGBES 499 by no statistics showing its money value. "Why should the chronicler of courts and factions, wars and political intrigues, or even the student of literature, take note of its existence ? * Still, this influence was no less real, and it throws light on much of the subsequent history of England : the ex- tent to which the Bible came to be read among the working people in some sections of the country ; the de- velopment in the same quarter of an intense moral and religious fervor ; and the demand for equality before the law, which came to the surface when Parliament or- ganized its army. In time, these Netherlanders, like the foreigners who had preceded them, were absorbed into the mass of the population, or went back to their old homes. The remorseless and demoralizing factory system was developed, taking the place of the little workshops in the private dwellings ; an aristocracy of wealth arose to supplement and reinforce that of birth ; the small freeholds were swallowed up by the vast es- tates ; the English yeoman and the Netherland artisan disappeared together. These changes have been momen- tous in their effects upon the national character, but they were brought about after the settlement of America, and come only indirectly within the scope of the present work. It is important, however, to bear in mind that a * In the Introduction to liis "Etymological Dictionary," Prof. Walter W. Skeat, of Cambridge, refers very briefly to the great but unacknowledged influence of the Dutch upon English history, dat- ing from the time of Edward III., and particularly noticeable in the days of Elizabeth. His remarks, however, are only suggestive of an unexplored field of research to which he claims to have first called attention, having probably been attracted to it by the number of Dutch words in the English language, while there are very few of modern German origin. 500 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA great change has taken place in the last two centuries and a half; and that the English Puritans, the course of whose development we are attempting to trace, the men who founded 'New England and marched to victory under Cromwell, bore little resemblance to the machine- like beings who have succeeded them in the factory and field. If the presence in England of these Netherland ref- ugees had produced no other effects than those already noticed, their immigration would be one of the memor- able events of history. Certainly no body of men, seek- ing an asylum in distress, ever brought such gifts to repay their benefactors. But there was another result of their presence, more immediate and therefore more striking. The great struggle for civil liberty in England, to which Puritanism gave birth, did not fairly open until after Elizabeth had passed away, friendless and un- lamented. It ultimately settled the question between a despotic and a constitutional form of government for the English nation. Meantime, however, another question had to be determined — whether, when foes on all sides were plotting its destruction, there would remain such a thing as an English nation at all. It is customary to point to the destruction of the Spanish Armada as the event which decided that issue. But the cause of Eng- lish Catholicism, the foe of the national existence, was dead before Philip's fleet ever set sail from home. Nothing was needed except to give it a fitting burial. That it certainly received when the doomed Spanish ships went down before the elements. No monarch, not even the greatest conqueror falling on the field of battle, could ask for a nobler resting-place than the ocean, or a funeral train more majestic than that which THE WAE IN THE NETHERLANDS AS AN OBJECT-LESSON 501 followed, even into its grave, the Lost Cause of the six- teenth century. The contest, in which English Catholicism as a polit- ical power disappeared forever, was carried on partly by land and partly by sea during the first twenty-five years of Elizabeth's reign. It was to some extent, as we have seen, a theological warfare, but, after all, dog- mas played but a small part in its settlement. Prot- estantism won the victory because the English people came to believe that the Spaniards, who to them repre- sented the papacy, were tyrannical, treacherous, cruel, and, what perhaps influenced them not the least, the natural enemies of their material prosperity. To estab- lish such a belief, something was needed besides the lofty teachings of the Puritan divines, or the exemplary lives of the Netherland refugees. That want was mainly supplied by the drama acted in the Netherlands, where Spain, although unconscious of the fact, was fighting for her life. It required some education to read the Bible and to comprehend the dif- ference between the conflicting creeds, but here was a series of object-lessons which the most illiterate could- understand. The exhibition during the reign of Mary had taught the people much ; but that lesson was on a petty scale, and was brief, in its duration. This was a tragedy that went on year after year, and was to con- tinue for more than the. lifetime of a man as allot- ted by the Psalmist. Its victims, instead of being counted by the score, were numbered by the tens of thousands. Time softened the recollections of the Marian perse- cution. The ignorance, corruption, and immorality in the Established Church turned many men from a Eefor- mation which could bear such fruits. In the northern 603 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA and western counties, the reaction in favor of the old faith was very marked when the Jesuits and seminary- priests began their missionary labors. But nothing ever thus affected the population of the southern and eastern counties. They knew too well what was meant by a Catholic restoration. Their towns were filled with in- telligent, truthful men, every one of whom was a living witness to tales of horror, compared with which the worst atrocities described in Foxe's " Book of Martyrs " almost dwindled into insignificance. A few years ago an American scholar exhumed the old records and laid this story before the world. Its narration, even on the cold printed page, stirs a fever in the veins of the prac- tical, unimpassioned man of the nineteenth century. Let the reader now try to imagine what was the effect upon the English people, when, by the fireside and in the market-place, this tale was told by thousands of men, women, and children, who themselves had seen the scaf- folds running with blood, the flames blazing up around the stake, the sacking of towns, the violation of mothers, and the indiscriminate massacre of the white-haired • grandfather and the helpless babe. It was not necessary that the auditors should possess any deep religious convictions to be affected by such re- citals. They belonged to a race who were then among the most romantic and poetical that the world has ever known. Everything in their lives had tended to develop these characteristics. In summer, the landsmen watched their sheep, surrounded by goblins and fairies, attendant spirits always bred in the imaginations of men engaged in such pursuits. In the long winter days, they had little to do except to indulge in the rudest of sports, tempered in the evening by the songs of their minstrels, who were pre-eminently a national institution, forerun- IMPRESSIONABLE NATURE Off THE ENGLISH PEOPLE 503 ners of the host of singing birds that gave us the poetry of the Elizabethan age.* The men who lived on the sea-coast were even more governed by their feelings and imagination. Navigation is to-day a matter of science. Vessels are propelled and steered by machinery. Every course is laid down on a chart, every harbor has been sounded, every market has been studied. Three hundred years ago, to the British sailor the Tvorld, outside a very narrow range, was an unexplored domain. It was a fairy region in which nothing was impossible, little improbable. For such a people Shakespeare wrote his plays. To them the witches of " Macbeth," the ghost in " Hamlet," the "men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders," were as real as any of the persons who lived about them. These Elizabethan Englishmen, with their poetical and chival- ric instincts, were as impressiona,ble as children, and as easily affected by anything which outraged their sense of justice, provided they themselves were not the ag- gressors. In addition to this, they had the l6ve of ad- venture which has alwa,ys marked the race. It was impossible that such men should be unaffected by such a war as was going on before their very eyes. The first class in the community, moved to take an ac- tive part in the struggle, was, as might be expected, not composed of the religious or even the sober-minded ele- * Guizot's " Shakespeare," pp. 38, 40. lu 1315, the Royal Coun- cil, being desirous to suppress vagabondage, forbade all persons ex- cept minstrels to stop at the houses of prelates, earls, and barons to eat or drink ; nor might there enter on each day, into such houses, "more than three or four minstrels of honor," unless the proprietor himself invited a larger number. In the days of Elizabeth the min- strels had fallen into some disrepute, but they had left their impress on the national character. Drake, p. 370. 504 THE PUEITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA ment. It was made up of the men whom civil convul- sions usually bring to the surface, the scum of society, broken-down adventurers, who, having gambled away all else, have nothing left but their lives for stakes. How they took to the sea, and by their piracies reflected dis- credit on the English name, we have seen in a former chapter. Those who, at the outset, crossed over to the Netherlands and offered their services to the insurgents for the war by land, were of much the same character. Some did good service in the siege of Harlem, forming part of the heroic garrison which Avas massacred at its capture. But the majority were of a different stamp, being willing to fight on the side which gave the larger pay. So dangerous was the treachery among them that, in 1573, the Prince of Orange, unable to distinguish friend from foe, determined to send them all home, and they were accordingly dismissed.* Five years elapsed before it was deemed safe to re- enlist anyaijore Enghsh troops. In the interval, a de- cided change had taken place in public feeling. Eliza- beth was pursuing her accustomed system of vacillation. If the patriots gained a victory she inclined to give them aid ; but in their misfortunes, when assistance was most needed, she always professed herself the friend of Spain. It was not so, however, with her councillors, Burghley and "Walsingham. They saw that in the success of the Netherland revolt lay the safety of England, and they encouraged in its behalf the Puritan sentiment, which was slowly developing into fanaticism. The corsairs on the sea Avere extending their field of operations. From * Froude, xi. 33. Some of these volunteers exhibited the ferocity in the Netherlands whioli their countrymen had shown in Ireland. Froude, x. 393. ENGLISH SOLDIKES IN THE NETHERLANDS 305 plundering defenceless merchant-men, they were reach- ing out to strike the guarded treasure-ships, and even to invade the sacred colonies of Spain. When unsuc- cessful, they learned, at the hands of the Inquisition, what the peaceful, unhappy Netherlanders had endured for years. Their tales of suffering confirmed those of the refugees, who, with fifty thousand tongues, were pro- claiming the atrocities of Spain. In 1578, just after the provinces of Holland and Zee- land had driven out the foreign invaders, Elizabeth, on ample security, loaned the insurgent states a hundred thousand pounds, and furnished them with five thousand troops to be supported at their own charge. Sir John JSTorris was in command, a man who had already shown in Ireland the ferocity of the English nature, but who was an able soldier, incorruptible, and devoted solely to the cause which he espoused. Thenceforth, and until the termination of the war, there poured into the Low Countries a constant stream of English soldiers. Not only did they do heroic service in the field, but they knit more closely than before the ties by which the two coun- tries were united. In the end, the army of Prince Mau- rice was to become the military training-school of Eu- rope, but that was after the death of William of Orange, when his son had developed into the greatest general of the age. Now, however, the English and the peaceful Hollanders were just learning the art of war, and the former, bred to out-door martial sports, naturally proved the readiest scholars. Again, as in times long past, they were fighting on Continental soil ; and at Rymenant in 1578,* at Steenwyk in 1581,t and under the walls of * Froude, xi. 146. t Motley's » Dutch Republic," iii. 500. 506 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA Ghent, in 1582,* the Enghsh soldiers, led by the gal- lant Norris, proved that they had not lost the ances- tral courage which won the victories of Cressy and Agincourt. It was under these combined influences, working from within and from without, that an intense spirit of na- tionality was growing up in England, which, added to a developing Puritanism, left but a hopeless future to those who looked for a Catholic revival. Still, for many years, Elizabeth was little moved, and nothing could in- duce her to an open alliance with the Eeformers. She went on intriguing now with France, and then again with Spain ; lending a little money to the Netherlanders, and shortly afterwards demanding its immediate repay- ment ; sending troops, and then recalling them in anger ; ever seeking to save herself, no matter what became either of her allies or of the Protestant religion. But from the time that the Jesuits and seminary priests en- tered upon their invasion of the kingdom, even her eyes began to open, although, as will be seen hereafter, the effect which external danger produced upon her was very different from that which it produced upon the na- tion itself. The first outside light came from Ireland. That ill- fated satrapy had been conquered by Henry II., in the twelfth century, under a bull from the pope, who claimed jurisdiction over it as an isle of the sea. It was de- scribed as almost a heathen land, and the professed ob- jects of the English were to Christianize and civilize its people. How these objects have been carried out, dur- ing the past six centuries, the world knows by heart. Ireland is a small field, but it is one in which the worst * Froude, xi. 596. CATHOLIC UPRISING IN IRELAND 5&7 side of the English nature has been thoroughly dis- played. Everything has been attempted for the con- querors, nothing for the conquered. The result has been a constant slow fever of discontent, broken only by inter- mittent revolutions. During the reign of Elizabeth the revolutions seemed chronic, for, added to all former grievances, was finally the attempt to take away the old religion, the sole remaining link which bound the island to its famous past, when it re-Christianized its neighbor. We have already seen something of the fe- rocity developed in the earlier Irish wars. It was now to be exhibited on a broader scale, since a religious ele- ment was added. For years, Philip had been urged to attack England from the side of Ireland, but he had persistently refused. He hoped that Elizabeth Avould be reconciled with Home, and, even though she died a nominal Protestant, her next heir was still alive, and that heir was a professed Catholic. Under these circumstances, he felt loath to provoke an open warfare. But, in 1580, Francis Drake was returning home from his piratical circuit of the globe, English soldiers were pouring into the Nether- lands by thousands, and it began to dawn on the slow- witted Philip that the war which he was trying to avoid had already opened. He 'therefore consented to the fit- ting-out in his port of several vessels, which carried eight hundred troops, mostly Italians furnished by the pope, to aid some Irish insurgents. They landed in Ire- land, in September, 1580, just after the Jesuits Parsons and Oampian had entered on their missionary work in England. All England was aroused, and volunteers flocked forward — among them being Walter Ealeigh and Edmund Spenser the poet — to defend the cause of Eng- lish nationality and the Protestant religion. 508 THE PURITAN IN HOLLAND, ENGLAND, AND AMERICA * The open hostilities were not of long duration, for they continued only about a year. Then the rebels broke up into little bands of wandering outlaws, to be hunted down and slaughtered like wild beasts. The work of extermination lasted for two years more. "When it ended, the province of Munster was substantially de- populated, and the remainder of the island reduced to al- most utter barbarism.* On neither side was mercy shown or quarter given on account of age or sex. Among the Irish this was to be expected, for they were semi-sav- ages fighting for their homes. But to understand the conduct of the English, we must remember that to them the Irish were more than savages — they were Papists, children of a Church which, to the average English- man, was beginning to represent the embodiment of all iniquity. The men who consigned to indiscriminate slaughter the half-naked kern, with his defenceless wife and nursing babe, thought they Avere doing the work of God. In the Old Testament they found such les- sons, and for the Gospel of Peace they were as yet un- prepared. The stories of the Irish massacres which followed the Reformation make a sad tale to read, but, apart from their bearing on other questions, they form an important chapter in the history of English Puritanism. Each re- turning soldier came back with a new hatred of the Cath- olics, aroused, perhaps, more by the injuries which he had inflicted than by those which he had suffered, but no less bitter on that account. In addition, there was many an English soldier lying in an unknown Irish grave, * Froude, xi. 252-387. See also Lecky's "England in the Eigh- teenth Century," ii. 104, etc., for an account of the English atrocities, surpassing anything perpetrated by Alva in the Netherlands. ENGLISH PROTESTANTISM GAINING FORCE 509 whose kinsmen cried out for vengeance on all Papists. Thus from two quarters, the Netherlands and Ireland, the current of Protestantism in England was gaining force. As for Elizabeth, she was slowly learning that, even in her unavowed warfare, there were blows to be received as well as to be given. How this lesson was to be impressed upon her from other directions will be shown in the next chapters. END OF VOL, I.