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THE PAMPHLET LIBKAKY 
 
 Edited by Abthur Waugh 
 
 EELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS 
 
RELIGIOUS PAMPHLETS 
 
 SELECTED AND ARRANGED 
 
 By the Rev. PERCY DEARMER, M.A. 
 
 WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES 
 
 % 
 
 LONDON 
 KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO, 
 
 1898 
 
PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 TO 
 
 'THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY ' 
 
 The object of The Pamphlet Library is to set 
 before readers who are interested in the literary 
 and constitutional history of our country the 
 text of those pamphlets or tractates which, 
 besides possessing the only saving qualities 
 of distinction and style, have also exercised 
 a striking influence upon the current of events. 
 At present five volumes are in contemplation, 
 dealing respectively with pamphlets of political, 
 literary, religious, and dramatic significance, 
 and the editors who have undertaken them 
 have regulated their choice primarily by two 
 considerations. Each pamphlet, it has been 
 held, should have high literary qualities, and 
 should also mark a distinct change or develop- 
 ment of taste or standpoint. Unfortunately, 
 the pamphleteer of the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth centuries was not always as brief 
 as he was effective, and the restrictions of 
 space have obliged the omission of some 
 
6 PREFATORY NOTE 
 
 polemical articles which might possibly have 
 been included with advantage. It is hoped, 
 however, that by means of excerpt and footnote 
 no pamphlet of the first importance has been 
 altogether neglected; and the editors of the 
 various volumes explain in their introductions 
 the reason and the limit of their selections. 
 Concerning the value of the Pamphlet and 
 the expediency of its recension, Dr Johnson 
 himself will be found discoursing with preg- 
 nancy and wit in Mr Ernest Rhys's collection of 
 Literary Pamphlets, and his strenuous sentences 
 are more than sufficient argument in favour of 
 the present enterprise. For, indeed, Reform 
 is the child of Controversy, and the most 
 effectual arrows in the quiver of Controversy 
 are those of a country's Press. Before the day 
 of the clamouring newspaper, the Pamphlet 
 was the leader of popular taste, so that in a 
 study of these fugitive pieces we may see the 
 features of an Age, as in a glass, may mark its 
 expression, and understand its tendency. As 
 some such footnote to history the following 
 papers have been collected. How far they 
 may prove of value it rests with others to 
 decide. 
 
 A. W. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PREFACE TO THE PAMPHLET LIBRARY . . 5 
 
 INTRODUCTION ... .9 
 
 I. JOHN "WICLIF . . . .45 
 
 Septum Hereses 
 
 q II. SIMON fish . . . .55 
 
 Supplicacyon for the Beggers 
 
 D III. JOHN KNOX . . . .80 
 
 Monstruous Regiment of Women 
 
 IV. THOMAS CARTWR1GHT . . .84 
 
 Second Admonition to the Parliament 
 
 V. MARTIN MARPRELATE . . Ill 
 
 HJpitome h 
 
 VI. TOM NASH AND JOHN LYLY . . 142 
 
 Pappe with an Hatchet 
 Almond for a Parrat 
 
 VLT. ROBERT PARSONS ,SJ. . . . 152 
 
 Reasons why Catholiques refuse to 
 goe to Church 
 
 VIII. "WILLIAM PRYNNE . . ., . 181 
 
 Looking-Glassefor Lordly Prelates 
 
 IX. JOHN BASTWICK .... 189 
 
 The Letany 
 
 X. RICHARD BAXTER .... 200 
 
 One Sheet for the Ministry 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 XI. GEORGE FOX . . ■ .215 
 
 Concerning the Rule 
 
 q XII. LORD HALIFAX . • 229 
 
 Letter to a Dissenter 
 
 XIII. DANIEL DEFOE .... 255 
 
 Shortest Way with the Dissenters 
 
 XIV. CHARLES LESLIE .... 286 
 
 The WolfStript 
 
 XV. JONATHAN SWIFT . . . 296 
 
 The Abolishing of Christianity 
 
 XVI. WILLIAM LAW \.b^~*"MSU . 323 
 
 Second Letter to the Bishop of Bangor 
 
 XVII. SYDNEY SMITH .... 352 
 
 Fifth Letter on the Subject of the 
 Catholics 
 
 O XVIII. JOHN HENRY NEWMAN . . . 373 
 
 Seventh Tract for the Times 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 Pamphlets have this in common with news- 
 papers, that they are written without much 
 thought of posterity ; and thus the vast majority 
 of them, having raised their clatter of a day, 
 pass quickly into oblivion, only to be read with 
 weariness and difficulty by the curious in after 
 years. Allusions that are lost beyond recovery, 
 jests that grin upon us without meaning, 
 triumphant arguments based upon moth-eaten 
 premisses, and acid personalities that now in- 
 jure none but their authors, these are but poor 
 reading to the most devoted of historians. 
 Yet, were there no others but these, they 
 would still be of rich value to us ; for in 
 the weakest of them, the past becomes alive 
 again and makes us its contemporaries. But, 
 fortunately, there is a small minority of 
 pamphlets, which were written in that larger 
 spirit which is always modern, and can afford 
 to defy antiquity. 
 
 The pamphlets in this collection cannot in- 
 deed all claim to belong to this latter class; 
 A 9 
 
io INTRODUCTION 
 
 for they have been chosen for their historical 
 significance, and history has not always been 
 most deeply affected by that which posterity 
 cares most to remember. Still, the greater 
 men had their say and were listened to ; 
 it has therefore been possible to draw mainly 
 from them, and to choose the larger part 
 of this collection from writers who, both for 
 literary beauty, and because they avoided the 
 transitory nothings which lesser men fix upon, 
 are worthy of our veneration to-day. If I had 
 set only a literary end in view, it would have 
 been easy to have included other pamphlets 
 from these writers, and from others of like 
 make, barring out altogether the yelping, snarl- 
 ing pack of lesser men. But it has been my 
 aim, in so far as the limits of the book per- 
 mitted, to flash the mirror along the stages of 
 modern history, giving that vivid reflection of 
 religion in its various manifestations which the 
 pamphlet so readily affords. Such an impres- 
 sion cannot, I venture to think, fail to be of 
 value in the present condition of religious con- 
 troversy, nor to encourage the growth of that 
 historic sense which has proved so useful a 
 solvent of many bitter disputations. 
 
 Pamphlets are older than printing ; they are, 
 according to Oldys, 'the eldest offspring of 
 
INTRODUCTION n 
 
 paper ' ; and religious pamphlets may well be 
 as old as religious disputation, no younger, that 
 is, than man himself. But for our purposes we 
 may well take Wiclif as the starting point of 
 the English pamphlet, since he may be said to 
 have invented English prose as a vehicle of 
 literary exposition, and was the first great 
 instance of a popular writer before the days of 
 printing. 
 
 Wiclif, in the later years of his life, turned 
 from scholastic disputants, and devoted his 
 attention to the common people; he appealed 
 in the very spirit of the pamphleteer from 
 current authority to public opinion, spreading 
 his tracts as wide as the transcriber's pen 
 would allow, and sending his 'poor priests' 
 to preach his doctrines throughout the country. 
 Of the many extant tracts wherein he set 
 down in simple nervous English the pith of 
 his ponderous Latin treatises, I have chosen 
 one which, in spite of its shortness, covers most 
 of the matters he disputed; since there is in 
 Wiclif s case no one pamphlet which attained a 
 special notoriety, and the Septem Hereses is a 
 good type of them all. 
 
 There is indeed one short essay from Wiclif s 
 pen which has a pre-eminent reputation, the 
 Wyket ; but it was delivered as a sermon, 
 
12 INTRODUCTION 
 
 and therefore could not strictly be included 
 in a collection of pamphlets. And here it may 
 be well to say that as for many years the pulpit 
 continued to be used for pamphleteering pur- 
 poses, I have had to omit some notable pam- 
 phlets because of the accident of their delivery 
 at Paul's Cross. I need only mention as an 
 example of this Latimer's sermon on The 
 Plough, which, preached at St Paul's in 1549, 
 had been printed and reprinted seven times 
 before the century was out. 
 
 If Wiclif was a man of many books Simon 
 Fish was a man of few; but of these one 
 was the Supplicacyon of Beggars. It was of 
 such importance at the time that Oldys says 
 that the Reformation itself 'has been much 
 ascribed to one little pamphlet only, which a 
 certain Lawyer of Gray's Inn, obliged to fly 
 into Germany (for having acted in a Play 
 which incensed Cardinal Wolsey) composed 
 there, and conveyed by Means of the Lady 
 Anne Bullen, to the Perusal of King Harry, 
 at the beginning of the said Rupture, and how 
 the copies thereof were strewed about, at the 
 King's Procession to Westminster (the first 
 example, as some think, of that Kind of 
 Appeal to the Public)/ Wiclif s pamphlets 
 had been honestly one-sided, but that of Fish 
 
INTRODUCTION 13 
 
 was maliciously so. Nevertheless it amused 
 Henry VIII. and did its work ; the answer which 
 Sir Thomas More composed, A Supplicacyon of 
 Soulys being, as so often happened with subse- 
 quent Church rejoinders, too big a cudgel to 
 crush so small a foe. The excellence of the 
 Supplicacyon was that it exactly expressed in 
 a humorous form the prevailing discontent at 
 the richness and slackness of the Church ; and 
 it nerved men for the attack that was to follow. 
 From the Supplicacyon of Beggars, which 
 heralds the religious break-up of Henry's 
 reign, we pass to John Knox's Monstruous 
 Regiment of Women, for the sake of the vivid 
 picture in its peroration of the horror which 
 the Marian persecutions raised in the hearts 
 of those who heard of them from their safe 
 places of exile. We have nothing to do with 
 the main thesis of Knox's diatribe, which is 
 that ' to promote a woman to bear rule, superi- 
 ority, dominion, or empire above any realm is 
 repugnant to nature, contrary to God, and, 
 finally, it is the subversion of good order, of 
 all equity and justice ' ; but the denunciation 
 of that * cursed Jesabel of England/ on whose 
 account the pamphlet was written, strikes the 
 first note of the indignation, both loud and 
 deep, which did more than anything else to 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 make and keep England Protestant. Mary 
 wrought far more harm than her father to the 
 faith she loved; and her memory made the 
 English people unable for three centuries calmly 
 to consider the merits of a religion which had 
 been supported by such means. 
 
 Cartwright's Admonition to Parliament marks 
 the full development of Puritanism. It now 
 takes form in definite opposition to the English 
 Church, both in ceremonies and in order. Puri- 
 tans are indeed almost entirely Nonconformists, 
 and not Separatists, and there is no idea as yet 
 of permanent division ; for such a tiling would 
 have seemed to all Protestants an intolerable 
 confession of failure, nor was it finally accepted 
 till after the Restoration. But the hope of the 
 Nonconformist Puritans was to capture the 
 Church; it was not for toleration but ascen- 
 dency that they fought. By the system of classes, 
 which was based upon Cartwright's Book of 
 Discipline of 1580, a deliberate and well-organ- 
 ised attempt was made to establish an im- 
 perium in imperio, and so to eviscerate the 
 Church system, by the introduction of a Puri- 
 tan committee of clergymen with complete 
 authority in each diocese. Cartwright was 
 thus not only the most influential teacher on 
 his side, but he gave a system and method 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 to Puritanism which it had lacked before. 
 Our extracts from the Admonition give both 
 an exposition of this system and an interest- 
 ing criticism of the order of the Church of 
 England. 
 
 But already an attack of a different kind 
 was being made against the Church of England. 
 From 1570 there was a constant flow of Puri- 
 tan tracts, which poured virulent abuse, not 
 only upon episcopacy, but upon the Bishops 
 themselves, and culminated in the famous 
 Marprelate libels of 1588-9. More than forty 
 of these strange documents Were reprinted in 
 1593 by Waldegrave, the Marprelate printer, 
 under the curious title — ' A Parte of a Register, 
 contayning sundrie memorable matters, written 
 by divers godly and learned of our time, which 
 stande for, and desire the reformation of our 
 Church, in Discipline, and Ceremonies, accord- 
 inge to the pure worde of God, and the Lawe 
 of our Lande.' 
 
 This most interesting collection, which 
 mirrors the rise of Puritanism, might well 
 be republished to-day. Here, however, we 
 can only indicate its contents. The very title 
 is full of significant phrases ; such as, the word 
 'godly/ which has already become in Puritan 
 mouths the technical term for Puritanism ; the 
 
1 6 INTRODUCTION 
 
 use of the phrase 'our Church/ since the Puri- 
 tans were still Churchmen, who were working 
 for a further 'reformation' in the Church of 
 England; the belief that the law of England 
 would be found on their side, and that the 
 law of Moses could be invoked as the final 
 £ word of God' ; and the mention of ' discipline 
 and Ceremonies' as the two salient rocks of 
 offence. Most of the pamphlets in this col- 
 lection are on these two last points : attacks 
 on prelacy in the matter of discipline ; on the 
 surplice, wedding-ring and baptismal sign of 
 the cross, 'the dregges of Poperie/ in cere- 
 monial ; and it was round them that the battle 
 raged until Puritanism had triumphed, and 
 fallen, in the next century. For its very 
 curious reasons against the Anglican ritual 
 'The Judgement of certaine godlie Preachers 
 upon the Question propounded 7 should be 
 read, while 'A Lamentable Complaint of the 
 Communaltie/ which is a small book in itself, 
 throws a valuable light on the religious and 
 social position at the time. Other tracts in 
 A Parte of a Register may be mentioned as 
 representative of the rest of the collection : — 
 ' A comfortable epistle by Mai. [Master] D. W. 
 Doctor of Divinitie ' : 'A godlie and zealous 
 letter written by Mai. Antony Gilby, about 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 anno 1570 ' : 'An examination of certayne 
 Londoners before the commissioners, about 
 anno 1567 ' : ' The Exceptions of Mai. 
 Nicholas Crane, Preacher, against subscrip- 
 tion, who died hi Newgate, anno 1588*: 
 * The unlawful practise of Prelates against 
 the godly ministers ' : ' Certayne reasons 
 against the crosse in baptisme': 'The au- 
 thoritie of the Ministers ' : ' The office of the 
 Doctor.' 
 
 Such was the character of the first Puritan 
 pamphlets; but with the appearance of the 
 Ma/rprelate Libels the attack assumes an even 
 more serious importance ; for which reason, 
 and because of the confusion that has settled 
 upon this and other Puritan controversies, it 
 deserves a rather fuller treatment in this place. 
 The controversy now becomes national. For 
 the former pamphlets had circulated only 
 among the ' godly ministers ' and their follow- 
 ing; while Dr Bridge's ponderous answer to 
 them could have attracted little notice outside 
 learned circles, had not the mysterious Martin 
 Marprelate sprung into notoriety with his 
 Epistle, which began with the ironical invita- 
 tion to 'Reade over D. John Bridges/ and 
 proceeded to vilify the Bishops with a vigour 
 unknown before. This new onslaught came 
 
1 8 INTRODUCTION 
 
 like a thunderbolt. All England was stirred. 
 All men heard what the Puritans had to say. 
 
 For the moment Martin was triumphant. 
 His boasts and threats breathe the exulting 
 confidence of one whose enemies are already 
 at his feet. And indeed the opposition to him 
 was weak enough at first. Bishop Cooper's 
 Admonition to the People of England, a 
 temperate appeal to the good feeling of 
 Englishmen, was hardly more likely than Dr 
 Bridge's Defence to be read by those who 
 chuckled over the racy invective of Marprelate. 
 
 But more redoubtable opponents than these 
 worthy verbose dignitaries were soon in the 
 field. Men whose names are still famous, 
 Tom Nash and Lyly the Euphuist, drawn by 
 so notable an opportunity of displaying their 
 wit, dashed into the fray, and by August the 
 Marprelate libels were met in kind. Hie 
 Countercuffe, Pappe with a Hatchet, An 
 Almond for a Parrot, and the rest were not 
 more nice than the scurrilities of Martin, but 
 they were wittier ; and the advent of Pasquil 
 (as Nash called himself) and his friends 
 proved a real ' couatercuffe/ from which the 
 Martinists never recovered. Penry, with all 
 his ability, was not a match for two of the 
 ablest prose- writers of Elizabethan times ; the 
 
INTRODUCTION 19 
 
 biter was mercilessly bitten, and the sou r 
 ridicule of Marprelate eclipsed by the sharper 
 lighter wit of Cuthbert Curriknave and Pasquil 
 of England. The law too was quickly set in 
 motion, the Martinist printers were hunted 
 from one country-house to another, so that 
 early in 1590 Penry had to fly to Scotland. 
 When, three years later, he suffered death on 
 other charges, there does not seem to have 
 been any general sympathy on his behalf. 
 
 It was an odd kind of Church defence 
 that came from the reckless pen of a scape- 
 grace like Tom Nash, and the age that could 
 be impressed by it must have been curiously 
 wanting in settled principles. To us there 
 seems but little serknis defence in any of the 
 * marre-Martin ' pamphlets, and so little attempt 
 to meet the constantly reiterated arguments 
 of Martin that we begin to wonder whether 
 Nash had read any of the libels he set himself 
 to answer. Martin was at least in deadly 
 earnest and the exponent of certain religious 
 convictions which, if they are obsolete to-day, 
 were of vital reality to him, and for that matter 
 to the bulk of those who took religion seriously 
 at that time. His opponents seem to be 
 actuated only by a personal dislike of the 
 uncouth Precisians, who had given them such 
 
20 INTRODUCTION 
 
 a glorious opportunity of displaying their skill 
 in thwacking and cuffing a literary combatant. 
 Clever vituperation, quips and cranks, occupy 
 them almost entirely ; they make little attempt 
 to defend the outraged characters of their 
 Fathers in God, and display no convictions more 
 definite than a general loyalty to the popular 
 Queen and the established order in Church 
 and State. It would be a 'fine tragedie,' they 
 think, if Martin were to play the part of 
 Haman, and ' he that seekes to pull down those 
 that are set in authority above him, should 
 be hoysted upon a tree above all others. 5 Yet 
 in another vein Nash could write so religious 
 a book as Christ's Tears over Jerusalem. 
 
 Scurrilous and malignant as the Martinists 
 were, they were not without excuse. They 
 had suffered grievously at the hands of the 
 erastian Bishops, under the particularly irri- 
 tating circumstances that their persecutors held 
 theological opinions nearly identical with their 
 own. The Elizabethan Bishops were at this 
 time Calvinists who had been chosen for their 
 political subserviency ; and they used the 
 power thus acquired to examine, bully, and 
 punish the 'godly' preachers in the Court of 
 High Commission. Penry himself had felt the 
 hand of Whitgift, when he was examined by 
 
INTRODUCTION 21 
 
 the Court in 1587. So great was the secular 
 power of these 'right puissante and terrible 
 priests' that even the Press was subject to 
 them for every book and pamphlet that was 
 printed. The only remedy for the Puritans 
 was a secret press, and it is known that Penry 
 managed the Marprelate printing arrangements 
 with remarkable daring and skill. Could it be 
 wondered that prelacy was for him the symbol 
 of a brutal and stupid tyranny? It was not 
 an age to distinguish between principles and 
 persons; and to him the respectable time- 
 serving prelates were 'truly the Bishops of 
 the Divell/ 'men of sinne, the Canturburie 
 Caiaphas with the rest of his anti-Christian 
 beasts, who beare his abominable marke.' The 
 Bishops were more Protestant than the Queen, 
 and Martin Marprelate was but one degree 
 more Protestant than the Bishops. He knew 
 that they were not in accord with the Catholic 
 formularies of the Church that paid them ; he 
 knew that the religious settlement was not 
 complete ; and like every Puritan he believed 
 that the goal of a complete Protestantism on 
 the basis of 'the best reformed churches' 
 would soon be reached. Yet, whenever a 
 Puritan attempted to carry the Reformation 
 another step forward, he found himself sternly 
 
22 INTRODUCTION 
 
 suppressed by Bishops who did not believe in 
 episcopacy and were Anglicans not from prin- 
 ciple but for policy. He used the only weapon 
 in his power, and he had to use it ferociously 
 to make it felt. 
 
 Since the Marprelate controversy is typical 
 of much that is characteristic in the history of 
 pamphlets, and because the principles involved 
 are still often misunderstood, it is worth while 
 to ask ourselves what was their effect ; and the 
 answer to that question may be applied to the 
 great Puritan movement of the seventeenth 
 century as well. 
 
 In the first place the Martinists did not fight 
 for freedom, except in so far as every pam- 
 phleteer desires freedom for his own opinions. 
 The history of pamphlets is naturally united 
 rather closely with that of toleration ; but it 
 is hardly honest to claim any pamphlet writer 
 as an apostle of liberty, merely because he 
 happened to represent the opinions of a 
 minority and was therefore anxious that his 
 own party should be unmolested. The growth 
 of toleration has been very slow, and the belief 
 in it confined at first to those who were per- 
 secuted. We cannot credit any sect or party 
 with its possession, except those which never 
 attained to power; we can only be certain 
 
INTRODUCTION 23 
 
 that the idea has grown painfully from age 
 to age, leaving each generation a little more 
 tolerant than that which preceded it. Crom- 
 well, for instance, was more genuinely tolerant 
 than Elizabeth, but he could not extend his 
 toleration to Anglicans and Papists; which 
 meant in fact that he was tolerant to his 
 fellow Puritans, and to them only. In the 
 sixteenth century most men believed fervently 
 in persecution. Cartwright, for instance, the 
 idol of Marprelate, gloried in it, and went out 
 of his way to say so in very strong language. 
 The Martinists in fact did not pretend to 
 want tolerance : they were fighting for some- 
 thing quite different. They claimed that their 
 church-system, the ' divine ' system of Calvin, 
 should be established by law upon the ruins 
 of the existing c human ' one ; and at that 
 time there seemed every likelihood that the 
 Anglican settlement would indeed prove to be 
 but the preliminary to a state-Calvinism. The 
 Martinists fought against tyranny, and for that 
 we are grateful to them : nevertheless, had they 
 triumphed, England would have suffered under 
 a tyranny of the 'saints/ which would have 
 caused men to look back upon the Court of 
 High Commission as the symbol of a golden 
 age. What such a tyranny could become we 
 
24 INTRODUCTION 
 
 can learn from the condition of Connecticut in 
 1650, when blasphemy, adultery, sorcery, theft 
 and disobedience to parents were punished 
 with death on the model of the Levitical code, 
 when Baptists and Quakers were scourged and 
 Papists hanged. 'Very fortunate was it for 
 England/ says the most sympathetic critic of 
 the Marprelate writings, 'that the Bishops held 
 their own, and kept these jot and tittle men 
 out of the power to compel (as by the will of 
 God) all men to think as they did/ For, had 
 they triumphed, * not a play would have been 
 permitted to be represented, still less to have 
 come to the press.' It was not then for any 
 principles they held that the Martinists helped 
 on the cause of freedom, nor for any opinions 
 in advance of their age : for their religion con- 
 sisted in a blind worship of the letter of the 
 Old Testament, which would have replaced the 
 law of Christ by that of Moses ; but because 
 they were forced to fight for their own sakes 
 against WhitgifVs organised suppression of the 
 Press, and that iniquitous secular jurisdiction 
 of the Bishops, which finally came to an end in 
 the triumph of seventeenth century Puritanism, 
 and did not reappear with the restoration of 
 the Church in 1660. 
 The effect of the Marprelate libels upon the 
 
INTRODUCTION 2$ 
 
 history of religion is also less simple than is 
 sometimes thought. They of course were one 
 of the educational factors in preparing the way 
 for the temporary ascendency of Puritanism in 
 the next century; and so far was this recog- 
 nised at the time of the Great Rebellion that 
 several of Martin's pamphlets were reprinted 
 and widely circulated. Yet their counter 
 effect upon the Church was of far more per- 
 manent importance. Appearing just at the 
 time when religion was in a state of flux and 
 even the Bishops did not know where they 
 stood, the libels divided the shifting waters of 
 opinion and clarified the whole thought of the 
 country. The gain to the Church was con- 
 siderable, for the Church had been dying of 
 indefiniteness. But in the very year of the 
 Armada, when men were least disposed to look 
 favourably on division or disloyalty, appeared 
 the Marprelate libels, which, on the one hand, 
 by shewing forth Puritanism in its most un- 
 amiable light, led men to see that it was ' not a 
 plea for toleration of non- episcopal Christianity, 
 but an attempt to enforce the Presbyterian 
 system upon the country as God's ordinance/ 
 while, on the other, they forced the Church to 
 a true setting forth of what episcopacy is. 
 Whitgift in his controversy with Cartwright, 
 
26 INTRODUCTION 
 
 Cooper in the Admonition itself, had attempted 
 to defend the Church system on grounds nearly 
 identical with those of its assailants. But 
 suddenly all was changed. Within a year of 
 the appearance of Marprelate's Epistle, on the 
 9th of February, 1589, Bancroft preached the 
 famous sermon at Paul's Cross, which pro- 
 claimed the divine right of the episcopal order, 
 and marks the turning point of the Reforma- 
 tion in England; and five years later Hooker 
 produced in his Ecclesiastical Polity the most 
 momentous book in English Church history, 
 and settled for good the Catholic basis of the 
 Church. 
 
 It has been necessary, owing to the ob- 
 scurantism of controversial historians and the 
 particular confusion which envelopes the Mar- 
 prelate controversy, to dwell thus at some 
 length upon it. The succeeding writers may 
 be dealt with more summarily. Parsons, the 
 famous Jesuit, whom I have not mentioned 
 till now, though his pamphlet is eight years 
 earlier than Marprelate, represents the Roman 
 Catholic reaction which has continued in 
 various forms to the present time. In his case 
 I have been again forced to content myself 
 with extracts ; but I have endeavoured to 
 omit only the more general arguments, and to 
 
INTRODUCTION 27 
 
 retain those which indicate the Roman Catholic 
 position, as it was at the time when English 
 Romanists were finally making up their minds 
 to abandon the Church of England. 
 
 With Hooker had come the recovery of the 
 Church ; his intellectual appeal won the think- 
 ing men of the younger generation to his side, 
 and within twenty years of his death his 
 disciples were the leaders of the Church: — 
 Andrewes, one of the greatest saints and 
 divines that Christendom has produced ; George 
 Herbert, one of its best poets and foremost too 
 among its saints ; Laud, stern disciplinarian as 
 he was, and for long the butt of controversial 
 historians, yet acknowledged now by Mr Glad- 
 stone as ' the first Primate of All England for 
 many generations who proved himself by his 
 acts to be a tolerant theologian/ 
 
 But with it all was the fatal intermixture 
 of the royal prerogative, so wantonly misused. 
 So Puritanism blazed forth again, no longer 
 appealing to the royal absolutism to put down 
 its foes, but in revolt against the monarchy 
 which had declared against it. These turbulent 
 times were the great age of pamphleteering, 
 Journals were few and poor, tracts numberless 
 and daring; every form of thought had its 
 champions, and the battle raged fiercely. The 
 
28 INTRODUCTION 
 
 people almost lived upon pamphlets, and the 
 streets were fall of what Bishop Earle called 
 'the silent traytors that affront majesty, and 
 abuse all authority, under the colour of an 
 imprimatur ' ; between the years 1640 and 
 1660 no less than thirty thousand tracts are 
 known to have been issued. The Bishop 
 wrote in 1647 that these 'ubiquitary flies have 
 of late so blistered the eares of all men that 
 they cannot endure any solid truth/ And 
 perhaps to them may be attributed the singular 
 ferocity of the struggle, the onesidedness of the 
 combatants, and the sudden revulsions of feel- 
 ing which first led people to plunge into the 
 Commonwealth, and then, in their terror at the 
 tyranny of Puritanism in arms, to seek for some 
 measure of freedom in the Restoration. 
 
 The bulk of these pamphlets were on the 
 Puritan side, the writers on the other part 
 being, even in the case of born pamphleteers 
 like Peter Heylin, too lengthy for their purpose. 
 Were not their authors often witty and amus- 
 ing the material would be unpleasant enough. 
 Turning over one envenomed libel after an- 
 other, one is tempted to say that this at any 
 rate was not Christianity. The writers are 
 earnest enough, and they are ready to suffer 
 for their beliefs; but their religion is not the 
 
INTRODUCTION 29 
 
 religion of love. Nor is there much intelligence 
 in their arguments : some, like Prynne, are 
 learned, but they one and all confine them- 
 selves to a perpetual restatement of the six- 
 teenth century objections, and that on the 
 narrowest lines ; indeed, a modern Presbyterian 
 or Independent would find almost as little as 
 the straightest Anglican in their writings that 
 he would care to adopt. No doubt the stress 
 of the times brought to the front men of an 
 intensely hard and narrow temper ; but the 
 melancholy thing is that a presumably religious 
 public, in an age which has been credited with 
 more than ordinary piety, could be found to 
 delight in them. Nor was it by any means 
 only against the Church that the Puritans 
 wrote : they poured an equal virulence into 
 each other, as the radical distinction between 
 Separatist Independents and Nonconformist 
 Presbyterians became more marked. Of Bag- 
 shaw, for instance, it is recorded by Dr Grosart 
 that nearly all his title-pages were accusations, 
 and one of his worst is against good Richard 
 Baxter himself. It runs thus — A Review 
 and Conclusion of the Antidote against Mr 
 Baxters Palliated Cure of Church Divi- 
 sions. Wherein Mr Baxters late Repentance is 
 examined, All his immodest Calumnies con- 
 
30 INTRODUCTION 
 
 fated, and the Grounds of Separation further 
 Cleared. — ' Ephraim is joyned to Idols : let him 
 alone.' Nor can we clear even Baxter of 
 violence towards those who went farther than 
 he, as our extract from the Sheet for the 
 Ministry proves. But Baxter lived to grow 
 sick of the polemical air which everyone then 
 had to breathe. 'The older I grew/ he wrote 
 afterwards, c the smaller stress I laid on those 
 controversies and curiosities (though still my 
 intellect abhorreth confusion), as finding greater 
 uncertainties in them than I at first discerned, 
 and finding less usefulness where there is 
 greater uncertainty.' 
 
 A few more titles may be worth quoting, 
 since they give a vivid impression of their 
 author's intention. Burton, another of those 
 who had suffered in the pillory, very soon after 
 Laud's execution issued a pamphlet entitled 
 4 The Grand Imposter unmasked, or a Detection 
 of the Notorious Hypocrisie and Desperate 
 Impiety of the late Archbishop (so styled) of 
 Canterbury cunningly couched in that written 
 Copy which he read on the Scaffold at his 
 Execution.' And Burton was a brother clergy- 
 man of the same Church as Laud ! Some of the 
 tracts bore titles that seem curiously irreverent 
 to modern ears, as Burton's Jesu-Worship con- 
 
INTRODUCTION 31 
 
 futed, which was nothing worse than an argu- 
 ment against bowing at the holy Name. 
 Prynne was always happy in this long-for- 
 gotten art; as for instance his Lord Bishops 
 none of the Lord's Bishops, or A Gagge for 
 Long-Hair 9 d Rattle-Heads, or ' The Quakers 
 Unmasked, and clearly detected to be but the 
 spawn of Romish Frogs, Jesuites and Franciscan 
 Freers, sent from Rome to seduce the intoxi- 
 cated giddy-headed English Nation. 5 Prynne, 
 who was always in hot water with some one, 
 assailed Milton and Lilburne (a prolific pam- 
 phleteer himself) and even his fellow-sufferer 
 Burton, and fought the Commonwealth as 
 steadily as he had fought the Bishops; he 
 also wrote against the Papists, the Jews, 
 and the Independents, as in c Independency, Ex- 
 amined, Unmask'd and Refuted, 1644/ His 
 chief anti-episcopal pamphlet bears the delight- 
 ful title — ( The Unbishoping of Timothy and 
 Titus, or A Briefe elaborate Discourse, prooving 
 Timothy to be no Bishop (much lesse a sole or 
 Diocaesan Bishop) of Ephesus, nor Titus of 
 Crete; and that the power of ordination, or 
 imposition of hands, belongs jure divino to 
 Presbyters as well as to Bishops, and not to 
 Bishops onely.' Could the matter be put 
 better? Such pamphlets must have carried 
 
32 INTRODUCTION 
 
 conviction even to those who were too lazy 
 to read beyond the title-page. 
 
 Besides an extract from another production 
 of Prynne, I have given the reader a taste of 
 Bastwick, who for a peculiar excellence in 
 scurrility is not surpassed even by his fellow 
 heroes of the pillory. The Litany is interesting 
 too as having been the immediate cause of 
 landing him in the Star Chamber. As for 
 these men, Prynne, Burton, and Bastwick, 
 it is certainly no matter of wonder that their 
 writings got them into trouble. But the unwise 
 policy of the King in mating martyrs of them 
 did more for the cause of constitutionalism 
 than all the sheets they had written. 
 
 Into the midst of all this wrangling over 
 every letter of Scripture, every detail of cere- 
 monial, came the great protest of George Fox, 
 crying upon men to give up externalism, and 
 to follow the light within. The truth which 
 the Quakers enunciated was just what the age 
 had forgotten; but unfortunately these men, 
 soon to become famous for their peaceableness, 
 began not less violently than the rest : indeed 
 their strong belief in personal inspiration led 
 them to a conviction of their own infallibility, 
 which did not make them modest or temperate 
 disputants. The large literature of Quaker 
 
INTRODUCTION 33 
 
 controversy is, if less sparkling, hardly more 
 charitable than that which immediately pre- 
 ceded it ; though, it must be confessed, these 
 devoted prophets had some cause for bitterness 
 against the religious world. Fox I have quoted 
 as the fountain-head and most reliable guide 
 to the great principle of his society, and a title- 
 page of Whitehead for the glimpse he gives 
 us of the controversy which raged around the 
 movement. Penn and Fisher I pass over with 
 reluctance ; for Penn's Battledore is an interest- 
 ing defence of the use of Thee and Thou, while 
 his Sandy Foundation Shaken is valuable for 
 its attack on the horrible creed of Calvin, and 
 the tritheism resulting therefrom ; and Fisher's 
 Scorned Quaker's Account presents a most vivid 
 picture of his rushing into Parliament and there 
 delivering his message. 
 
 One great name I have omitted from this 
 collection because it is so amply represented 
 in the companion volumes. Milton was greater 
 as a literary and political than as a religious 
 pamphleteer ; and, as it was hardly possible to 
 include his works in all the volumes of this 
 series, I have thought it better that the re- 
 ligious volume, already so overcrowded, should 
 be the one to suffer. It has been easier to 
 make this sacrifice because none of Milton's 
 
34 INTRODUCTION 
 
 religious pamphlets quite do him justice. His 
 Hirelings, Reasons of Church Government, and 
 Prelatical Episcopacy are almost too long to 
 be called pamphlets at all, while his True Re- 
 ligion, Heresy, Schism and Toleration, called 
 forth by the Declaration of Indulgence of 
 1672, presents nothing more creditable than 
 an argument against extending toleration to 
 Roman Catholics. 
 
 The name of Milton suggests the reflection 
 that some great poems have been really pam- 
 phlets in verse ; much of Milton's controversial 
 writing was summed up in the splendid lines of 
 Lycidas, which begin — 
 
 'How well could I have spared for thee, young swain, 
 Enow of such as, for their bellies' sake, 
 Creep, and intrude, and climb into the fold ! ' 
 
 But Dryden was the great example of a pam- 
 phleteer in verse. His Religio Laid, which is 
 a defence of the English Church, and the better 
 known apology for that of Rome, The Hind 
 and the Panther, are both of them great pam- 
 phlets as well as great poems. And the Re- 
 ligio Laid has this further distinction, that it 
 rises quite out of the level of contemporary 
 religious controversy, in its broad and genial 
 temper and its desire to include even the 
 heathen in the love and mercy of God. 
 
INTRODUCTION 35 
 
 With the Restoration Puritanism in its old 
 sense is dead. It had been tried and found 
 intolerable by the English people : it no longer 
 attempts to capture the Church organisation, 
 but in a milder and more religious form 
 becomes known as Dissent. The word Non- 
 conformist, which had been always used to 
 describe a Churchman who objected to some 
 of the Church ceremonies and doctrines, gives 
 place to the word which presupposes an 
 organisation dissenting and distinct from the 
 National Church. The Act of Uniformity 
 draws very definitely the final line of cleavage, 
 and men like Baxter are forced to resign their 
 cures, some, like him, to continue to communi- 
 cate at their parish churches as 'noncon- 
 formist ministers but conformist parishioners/ 
 the greater number to renounce all communion 
 whatever. England is now definitely divided 
 into separate religious bodies, and this, with the 
 Romanising policy of James II., reopens in its 
 acutest form the problem of toleration. In 
 Lord Halifax's Letter to a Dissenter we have 
 the Protestant aspect of the question presented 
 in one of the most skilful and influential 
 pamphlets ever written. 
 
 Throughout this period, however, Dissent 
 steadily declined, and the interest of re- 
 
36 INTRODUCTION 
 
 ligious controversy is henceforward on the side 
 of the Church. The lessening of Dissent as an 
 interest opposed to the Church was still in pro- 
 gress when Mosheim wrote in 1740, though 
 Calvinistic ideas were at that time on the 
 increase among Churchmen ; and, if we except 
 the Methodist Revival — which was a Church 
 movement so long as it was a genuine revival, 
 from 1739 till John Wesley's death in 1791— 
 there is no further religious movement of im- 
 portance on that side. 
 
 Our next two pamphlets, therefore, written 
 by Charles Leslie and Defoe at the beginning 
 of the eighteenth century, represent the Church 
 on the one side in the hey-day of popularity 
 and Dissent on the other as depressed and in 
 danger of persecution. Defoe's immortal satire, 
 The Shortest Wwy with Dissenters, so subtle 
 and restrained as to deceive its victims into 
 the belief that it was written by one of them- 
 selves, is a worthy exposure of the narrowness 
 and intolerance which were the curse of High 
 Churchmen ; though at the same time it helps 
 one to understand the causes which led to that 
 intolerance, so thoroughly does Defoe present 
 his enemies 5 case. Charles Leslie, the Non- 
 juror, one of the ablest and most active of 
 pamphleteers, was a typical example of these 
 
INTRODUCTION 37 
 
 Churchmen who united to great learning and 
 piety a curious inability to understand or 
 appreciate the position of other men. This 
 narrowness, with the incurable political bias 
 that possessed them, caused the succession 
 of Ken and Sancroft to die out, and the 
 flourishing churchmanship of Queen Anne's 
 reign to give place to the unexampled apathy 
 of the Hanoverian age. The Wolf Strict 
 shows how closely akin was the theology which 
 immediately preceded the Hanoverian period 
 to that of the Catholic Revival which marked 
 its close. 
 
 Very different to both these men was Swift, 
 the prince of pamphleteers. Yet, in spite of 
 his failure to realise many of the Christian 
 virtues, Swift's churchmanship amounted to a 
 genuine passion, without being, as his bio- 
 grapher tells us, 'either intolerant or tantivy.' 
 His Argument against the Abolishing of 
 Christianity brings us face to face with the 
 Deistic movement, which, though it died out 
 before the middle of the century, yet had a 
 curiously lasting effect upon religion in England 
 by virtue of the utilitarian spirit which it 
 helped to engender among the leading Christian 
 apologists, of which spirit Swift's humorous 
 Argument might almost seem to be a deliberate 
 
38 INTRODUCTION 
 
 parody. The leading Deists, Toland, Collins, 
 Tindal, were controversialists on too large a 
 scale for our purpose here. 
 
 Of the Latitudinarian movement I have only 
 quoted a section of William Law's brilliant 
 answer to Bishop Hoadly, since the rest of 
 the dreary Bangorian Controversy would hardly 
 be tolerable to modern readers. Law's three 
 answers to the Bishop are, according to their 
 latest editor, Canon Gore, among the dozen 
 best pamphleiis ever written for wit, brilliancy 
 and force; and moreover Hoadly himself did 
 not venture to reply to them. Law, therefore, 
 apart from his great name, deserves a place in 
 this collection ; and his inclusion gives us a 
 statement of the typically Anglican position 
 without which this collection might seem to 
 give undue prominence to the exponents of 
 other creeds. 
 
 Law is also important for other reasons. He 
 is a representative of the mystics, without 
 whom no picture of religious history would be 
 complete. He is a link between the Catholic 
 school of Hooker, Andrewes, Jeremy Taylor 
 and Ken, and that of the Oxford Movement, 
 enforcing for instance the doctrine of the 
 apostolic succession, which appeared so fresh and 
 startling when pressed anew in that seventh of 
 
INTRODUCTION 39 
 
 the Tracts for the Times with which I con- 
 clude this collection. He was also far ahead 
 of his times in breadth of view ; his exposition 
 of the Atonement, for instance, in the Spirit of 
 Love, Spirit of Prayer and Appeal to all that 
 Doubt, might have come from the writers of 
 Lux Mundi. 
 
 Law represents, moreover, the best type of 
 pamphleteer that religious controversy has pro- 
 duced. A Latitudinarian himself in a higher 
 sense of that ill-used word, he had the deepest 
 sympathy with those who were outside his 
 communion, saying once that he would like the 
 truth no less because Ignatius Loyola, or John 
 Bunyan, or George Fox were very zealous for 
 it. Who else could have written such words 
 at that time ? Or who else could have said in 
 an age, when controversy was still deformed 
 by virulent personalities, that ' by the grace of 
 God he would never have any personal con- 
 tention with anyone ' ? To those words he 
 kept faithful in the face of great provocation, 
 and therefore he deserves a place of peculiar 
 honour in the strangely assorted crowd of 
 pamphleteers. 
 
 With this gentle voice that cried in the 
 prosaic wilderness of the Hanoverian period 
 we might well leave the subject of religious 
 
40 INTRODUCTION 
 
 pamphlets ; for their ascendency now began to 
 wane before the gathering force of journalism. 
 But, passing over the Methodist and the 
 Evangelical revivals, which are distinguished 
 rather by 'tracts' than by pamphlets, two 
 great names arrest our attention; the one 
 marking the tardy completion of the great idea 
 of toleration, the other leading the way in the 
 great religious movement of our own times ; 
 Sydney Smith, the Anglican, who wrote in 
 defence of the persecuted Roman Catholics, 
 and Newman, the convert to Rome, who led 
 the way in the Anglican Revival. The one 
 brings to its end the long chapter of militant 
 Protestantism, as Wiclif had begun it; the 
 other and earlier writer rings the death knell 
 of that spirit of intolerance which had accom- 
 panied the struggle. Sydney Smith, devoid of 
 any sympathy with Catholic principles, yet by' 
 the force of his generous wit, and in sheer pity 
 for those whom he did not understand, prepares 
 the way for the recovery of the Roman Church. 
 Toleration has come at last, toleration not only 
 for Puritans and Papists, but for all ; and that 
 which even Milton could not grasp has passed 
 into the common heritage of Englishmen. 
 
 Thus does the long list of religious pam- 
 phleteers carry us through the various stages 
 
INTRODUCTION 41 
 
 of the shifting and bitter struggle. Many whom 
 I would have liked to include I have been 
 compelled to omit ; and of these, besides those 
 already mentioned, I would here name two, 
 which I left out with special reluctance, John 
 Wesley's Plain Account of the People called 
 Methodists, and Whately's Historic Doubts. 
 
 The value of the pamphlet to the student 
 of history, and of that product of history which 
 we call contemporary thought, is, I am con- 
 vinced, far greater than is generally imagined. 
 Most of us get our ideas of the past and its 
 present developments through the refracting 
 medium of modern writers, and some of us 
 have not yet escaped from the thraldom of 
 Macaulay; at the best we are apt to judge 
 the past by the lives of a few great leaders. 
 But the peculiar usefulness of the pamphlet 
 is that it gives us a picture of the popular 
 mind. It presents the claims of the various 
 movements which struggled for supremacy, 
 not refined for an intellectual aristocracy, 
 but as they had to be made to the average 
 man of the world. Pamphlets thus reveal to us 
 not only the mind of their writers, but the mind 
 of the public for whom they were written. 
 Already we have passed out of the 'drum 
 and trumpet' notion of history, already we 
 
42 INTRODUCTION 
 
 have ceased to interpret the history of a 
 people by the record of its kings, but we still 
 attach undue importance to the lives of its 
 leaders. And hero-worship, though a useful 
 and pleasant recreation, does not reveal to 
 us the passions, thoughts, aspirations and 
 prejudices of a people. Historians tell us 
 of certain causes which produced certain 
 revolutions ; but we want to know what 
 caused those causes. We want to know the 
 social life of the people and what they were 
 thinking about, the talk and sermons and 
 books and pamphlets which set things moving. 
 And, if the talk and the sermons cannot be 
 recovered, while the books are too bulky for 
 all but a few specialists, the pamphlets, which 
 had a still greater popular appeal, can easily 
 be put within our reach. Indeed, when we 
 look, we find these pamphlets preparing the 
 way for each great movement, as thought 
 germinates among the people. Before the 
 Reformation, we see Wiclif sowing the seed; 
 before even the autocratic Tudor dared to 
 attack the clergy, Fish is setting men a-talking 
 in the streets; and before the Church revival 
 of our own day, there were the Tracts for the 
 Times. For it is the people who settle the 
 course of history, the people who can read 
 
INTRODUCTION 43 
 
 pamphlets and newspapers, or can hear them 
 read ; it is the people in the end who have to 
 decide, even under a Tudor regime, by their 
 acquiescence, their support, or their rebellion. 
 It is the man in the street, as he trudges to his 
 work with the written word in his pocket, who 
 spreads that subtle atmosphere which forms 
 the policy of kings and statesmen ; and it is 
 the writer that can persuade him to listen who 
 creates the atmosphere. Nor has it ever been 
 otherwise ; for the people have always been in 
 a majority, even when they chose to sell their 
 power for a measure of protection and peace. 
 
 But the pamphlet has now melted into the 
 journal, the monthly review, or cheaply printed 
 book ; and those which are still printed for the 
 propagation of young causes (though far more 
 powerful than is commonly thought) are written 
 more for friends than for enemies, since the 
 public no longer buys broadsheets of the hawker 
 in the streets. The writing thereof is almost 
 a lost art, and what we have gained in sobriety 
 we have lost in r£cy directness. For the old 
 writers of those breezy libels at least said what 
 they meant, though often they seem to us to 
 have said more than it was well to say. And the 
 historian of future times can hardly have such 
 ready material as the pamphlet affords to us ; 
 
44 INTRODUCTION 
 
 for our newspapers are neither so concentrated 
 nor so permanent as those earlier 'paper 
 lanthorns/ and our reviews are not so popular. 
 The value to us of pamphlets is that they give 
 the spirit of the movements they proclaim just 
 as it really was ; not refined for the expert, 
 nor yet scamped for the newsvendor, but 
 condensed so as to win the general approval, 
 or acidified so as to bite their way into that 
 brazen conscience which is the hope and the 
 despair of the reformer. Thus in the pamphlet 
 we can read the populace. If they loved 
 pungent English prose, and preferred any 
 excesses to mere invertebrate apathy we may 
 take what heart of grace we can of our respecta- 
 bility ; if they sometimes bit asunder their own 
 tongues with very wrath, we may yet remember 
 that there were always men who could say with 
 Richard Baxter, ' While we wrangle here in the 
 dark, we are dying, and passing to the world 
 that will decide all controversies ; and the 
 safest passage thither is by peaceable holiness/ 
 
 Percy Dearmer. 
 
I 
 
 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 [Wiclif (c. 1320-1384) did not become a pam- 
 phleteer till near the close of his life, about 1379, 
 though his great work Be Dominio had appeared 
 twenty years before. His translation of the Bible, 
 which was begun about the same time and finished 
 1383-4, was an even more important sign of his 
 appeal to the people, while Langland's Piers the 
 Plowman (1380), and in part the Peasant Revolt of 
 1381, showed that others had been busy spreading 
 his famous doctrine of Dominion. He is the first 
 of English prose-writers, and his prose takes the 
 form of pamphlets and sermons, besides his English 
 Bible. The most famous of his tracts, The Wpket, 
 is a sermon on the Eucharist, and therefore cannot 
 legitimately be included in a collection of pamph- 
 lets. Besides Septem Hereses, many others have 
 come down to us, among them The Church and her 
 Members, which is too long for our purpose, and 
 Vita Sacerdotwm, which deals mainly with the evil 
 of private property among the clergy. Of Wiclif s 
 writings against the Eriars Mr T. Arnold, the 
 Editor of the Oxford edition, gives us the warning 
 — " That the portrait which Wyclif draws of his 
 adversaries is an entirely fair and truthful one 
 cannot seem probable to any reasonable man. 
 William of Wykeham, the model prelate of those 
 times, was not a saint, but he certainly was still 
 
46 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 less that monster of simony, hypocrisy, pride, and 
 sensuality which the imagination of Wyclif creates 
 as the normal character of an English Bishop. 
 And in spite of abuses, the same is true of the 
 monks and friars." The writings of Wyclif and 
 the Lollards ought, he says, to be taken in connec- 
 tion with the great apogloetic reply of Thomas of 
 Walden, the Doctrinale Fidei. Walden however is 
 not far from Wyclif s narrowness of vision ; for, if 
 Wyclif cannot discern a virtue in the friars, Walden 
 is unable to discover a fault in them. 
 
 SEPTEM HERESES 
 
 Contra Septem Peticiones. 1 
 
 For fals men multiplien mony bokes of the 
 Chirche, nowe reendynge by leve, 2 and nowe 
 clowtyng heresies, therfore men schulden be 
 ware of these two perilles, that fals men 
 pynchyn in the Pater noster. Thai say furst, 
 that speciale prayere aplied by hor prelatis is 
 better then generate. As, one Famulorum 3 
 saide of a frere is better then a Pater noster, 
 with other thinges even ; ffor tho Pater noster 
 is moste generate, and the Famulorum moste 
 special, of alle the prayers that God heris. But 
 
 1 Seven heresies against the seven petitions in the Lord's 
 prayer. The tract is divided into seven sections, each 
 dealing with one petition. 
 
 2 rending belief. 
 
 3 The name given to the Commemoration of the living 
 in the Canon of the Mass, — Memento Domine famulorum 
 famularumque tuarum, etc. 
 
JOHN WICLIF 47 
 
 we schul beleve that no prayer is worthe, but 
 in als muche as God hym selfe hens hit, and 
 applies this prayere to profite of the man. 
 Lord! whether God hym selfe wolde gladlier 
 here the preyere that a false man hade con- 
 treved to hym, then the generale preyere that 
 he hym selfe made? Wele I wote that this 
 preyere is ful of witte and charite, and con- 
 ceves x alle the gode that a man schuld aske of 
 God. Hit is one to say thus, and to heghen 
 Anticriste over oure Lorde Jesus Criste, that 
 is oure alle fader. The generalte of this 
 preyere lettes not oure Lord God to here 
 syngulere personys, aftur thei ben worthi. 
 
 Secunda Heresis. 
 
 The secunde heresie of the secunde askyng 2 
 sais, that these prelatis are hedes of Gods 
 rewme, 3 for thei ben hedus of holy Chirche by 
 vertue of prelacie. Ande these freres bene 
 men of holy Chirche, that wole here be glad- 
 liere hedes of holy Chirche then othen comyne 4 
 men. Lord! sithen God and iche membre 
 of his Chirche bene weddid togedre, as oure 
 bileve sais, whether ony of these prestus schul 
 be dampned in helle ? Wele I wote that none 
 schal be dampned but devellis ; ande if ony of 
 
 1 comprises. a petition. 3 realm. * common. 
 
48 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 these devellis were capteyne of his Chirche, 
 then God and the devell were weddid to- 
 gedre. But as oure bileve sais that ther is no 
 comynynge with Crist and Belial, then thai ben 
 not weddid. Herfore schal we trowe, as holy 
 men taught of two thowsande yere byfore that 
 Sathanas was bounden. that holy Chirche is of 
 thos that God has ordeyned to dwelle with 
 hym in blisse, of what state so thai be, prestes 
 or seculeres, lordis or comyners, ladies or pore 
 wymmen, that endles loven God. And so some 
 partie of the Chirche regnes above in heven, 
 and summe slepis in purgatorie, and summe 
 feyghttes 1 here in erthe. But at the day of 
 dome schulle alle be gedrid 2 togedir, and regne 
 in heven with hor spouse, oure Lord Jesus 
 Crist. So if that prelatis or freris or seculers 
 sewe 3 not Criste in manere of hor lyvynge, thai 
 were never Cristis spouse, ne membris of his 
 Chirche. 
 
 Tertia Heresis. 
 
 Ye thrid heresie of the thridde askyng sais, 
 that thai knowe the wille of oure Lord God 
 to bringe a soule to heven by manere of hor 
 preyyng. But certis we schul trowe, That God 
 may not be moved but as he has ordeyned 
 
 1 fights. 2 gathered. 3 sue, follow. 
 
JOHN WICLIF 49 
 
 bifore the worlde was made ; and aftur a man 
 deserves while he lyves here schal he be re- 
 wardid aftur his lyife, outher in blisse other 
 in peyne, notwithstondynge oure preyere. But 
 wel I wote that God may helpe soulis in pur- 
 gatorie, and make horn schortliere to dwelle 
 therinne, after that thei have made horn worthi 
 for the tyme that thei have lyved here. But 
 we schal understonde that God acceptis the 
 lyfe that men lyven here wele, ande approves 
 hit for soulis, and theraftur hit is medefulle for 
 soules that bene in purgatorye. Ande if we 
 knowe not the privete of God, yit nevertholes 
 we wote that hit is fully rightwysenes, that 
 prayer of a man that God hath ordeyned to 
 blisse is more worthye then a thowsande of 
 horn that schal be dampned, Ffor the furst is 
 Gods childe, and ordeyned to have his blis, the 
 secund is the fendus childe. And pray he never 
 so muche, he getes not the blisse of heven, for 
 he makes hym not worthi Ande this faithe 
 shulde move men not to selle hor prayers, but 
 iche man life bisili, iche aftur the lawe of God ; 
 ffor aftur that a man deserves in his owne 
 persoyne schal he be rewardid, in heven or in 
 helle. But gode lyve of a man may helpe hym 
 that lyves with hym, to amende his owne lyfe, 
 and so come to blisse. And so private almes 
 
50 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 done syngulerlyche, that Crist hymself taught 
 not, dos littel gode or none to donor of siche 
 almes for to come to heven. 
 
 QtJARTA HERESIS. 
 
 The ferthe heresie of the ferthe askynge says, 
 that the sacrid ooste 1 is no maner of brede, 
 but outher 2 nought, or accident withouten 
 ony sogett, 3 and so worse then stones or ony 
 other body. 4 And when ony suche men asken 
 the sacrid ooste, thai gyven horn worse then 
 stones, as thai falsly feynen. Ffor this were 
 ageynes holy writte, as Crist hymself sais. 
 Lordus and prelatus con not distroye this 
 heresie, outher for hor negligence, or for tho 
 wiles of Anticrist. Lord ! if these grete lordus 
 wold gif these prestis no gode, ne freris, bifore 
 thai schewid her bileve in this poynt, and 
 groundid hit in Gods law ! and so thai myght 
 come to bileve, and knowe these fals heretikis. 
 We have offt tymes saide that this sacrid ooste 
 
 1 host. - either. ° subject. 
 
 4 Wiclif was constant in affirming the Real Presence in 
 the strongest language, as here that the Host is 'very 
 God's Body ' : his objection to the current theory of tran- 
 substantiation was, like that theory itself, purely meta- 
 physical. He himself used the word Transubstantiation, 
 but attacked the current theory on the technical ground 
 that ' accidents s could not exist without » substance in 
 which to inhere. 
 
JOHN WICLIF 51 
 
 is verrey Goddis body and verrey breede, 1 
 for so sais holy writte, and seyntes of Crist 
 thowsandis. 
 
 QtTINTA Heresis. 
 
 The fyfft heresie, contened of the fyfft 
 askynge, says, that prestis have powere to 
 assoyle 2 men of synne, whom ever the pope 
 lymytes, at his owne wille. Ande absolucions 
 and indulgencis bothe fallen in mannes chaffare 
 by byynge and sellynge ; and so men may 
 lightly for money be assoyled bothe of peyne 
 and of synne, be thai never so synnefal. But 
 oure bileve techis us, that no synne is forgyven 
 but if God hymself forgif furste of alle. Ande 
 if his trewe vicare acorde to Gods wille, he may 
 assoyle of synne as vicary of his God. But 
 if he discorde from juggement of his God, he 
 assoyles not, boste he never so muche. Ande 
 herfore hit is nedeful that a preste have two 
 keyes, of powere and of cunnyng, 3 to acorde to 
 Gods wille. Ffor if he want this connyng he 
 nouther byndes ne assoyles; ne hit is not 
 byleve that ne he may erre in this. Ande 
 
 1 bread. Wiclif s theory, as here expressed, worked 
 out more fully in his treatises, was that which came to 
 be known as con substantiation. Luther adopted it, but 
 it never took any hold in England. 
 
 2 absolve. 3 wisdom. 
 
52 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 amonge alle heresies or blasphemyes in oure 
 Chirche, this is one the moste that men bene 
 deceyved inne. And if a man speke herof by 
 the law of God, he schal be prisoned, or done 
 to deth as an heretike. 
 
 Sexta Hebesis. 
 
 The sexte heresie, contened of the sexte 
 askyng, sais, that men of private religioun bene 
 more thikk saved then men that kepe trewly 
 comyne Cristus religione : ffor, as thai say, thai 
 have helpe of hor owne brether, specially in 
 houre of hor deth, of body and of soule, and so 
 bene not lad in to fendus 1 temptacioun. But 
 oure bileve techis us that comyn Cristus re- 
 ligioun passes al religioun of these newe ordris. 
 Lorde ! whedur we schuld trowe that Benet 
 and Doniinik, or Ffraunces, schuld passe the 
 wisedome of Criste ? Or whedur hit be wise- 
 dome to obeysche to siche prelatis, and bye the 
 wille of Crist, that is God and thine abbot. 
 Wele I wote that the Chirche was rewlud by 
 Cristis ordynaunce, bifore these ordris coomen 
 inne, better then hit was sithen. Ande so, 
 sithen these religiouse dyen in this false triste, 
 and have lyved in ypocrisie for the more parte 
 of hore lyve, hit semes that suche gone prively 
 
 1 fiend's. 
 
JOHN WICLIF 53 
 
 til helle, and so be led in to fendus temptacioun, 
 for thai ben hardid in errour of hor private 
 ordris. And herfore clepid Crist Nichodeme 
 fro the ordre of Phariseus, savyng hym and 
 destroy yng of hit, Withouten doute tho ordy- 
 naunce that Crist hym selfe ordeyned, if hit 
 were holden clene, hit were the beste of other ; 
 ffor therby is ilke degre myght iche man be 
 saved. Ffor then wolde charite growe more, 
 and envie be more distroyed. Thre membris 
 of the Chirche, as prestis, knyghttus, and 
 laboreris, wolden be sufficient withouten more 
 diversite. God kepe his Chirche. Amen. 
 
 Septima Heresis. 
 
 The sevent heresie and the last, that is con- 
 tened of the sevent askyng, sais, that if we 
 wirke by counsel of these newe ordris that 
 leven 1 the ordynaunce of Criste, we schal 
 redely 2 be saved. And herby bene men lad in 
 to fendus temptacioun, and wrappid with synne 
 ageyne the Holy Goste ; and this is the werste 
 synne that ever may falle to ony man. Wele I 
 wote that freris wold not here this publischt in 
 the pepul, for fallyng of hor ordre. But sithen 
 it is not groundid in bileve, he is not on Gods 
 halve that lettis hit for freris. Ande we schulde 
 1 leave. 2 of necessity. 
 
54 JOHN WICLIF 
 
 trow that foundyng of abbays and frerus and 
 lettys mon 1 that ne thai mowe 2 falle in the last 
 synne. And herfore alle maner of men schuld 
 know Cristis ordynaunce, and travaile therfore 
 that hit were clenly kept ; for hit is moste light, 
 most profitable, and moste medeful. Lord ! 
 if al the peple in Yngelonde traveyled in alle 
 cuntreyes, and falsed the kyngis wille movyng 
 to discordis agheynes the pes of the rewme, 3 
 who wolde not say that suche a peple were 
 perilouse in Yngelonde ? mykel more if newe 
 religious be skaterad in Cristendame, and 
 gabben 4 on the wille of Criste that is oure 
 kynge, and moven not to pes and acorde as 
 Crist and his apostilles did. What wonder is 
 hit, thou batellis and other perillus come, that 
 Crist has bifore saide? God kep his Chirche 
 fro fals ypocrites and ungroundid newe statis, 5 
 not foundid in Crystes lawe. Wele I wote that 
 many say that monye of horn are seyntus ; but 
 nowther is this bileve, ne groundid in resone. 
 Omnis plantacio quam non plantavit pater 
 meus, eradicabitur, dicit Dominus in evangelio 
 Johannis. 
 
 1 Something appears to be omitted here. 2 must. 
 3 peace of the realm. 4 scoff. 5 states of life. 
 
II 
 
 SIMON FISH 
 
 [Simon Fish, who died of the plague in 1531, was 
 a member of Oxford University and Gray's Inn, 
 which he entered about 1525. Having taken part 
 in a play which held Cardinal Wolsey up to 
 ridicule, he fled into the Low Countries. But he 
 soon came back to London, where he acted as agent 
 for the sale of Tyndal's New Testament. Foxe, the 
 martyrologist, gives two contradictory stories of 
 the way in which the Supplicacyon came before the 
 king. The more probable of these states that it 
 was brought to Henry by two London merchants 
 who read it to him aloud. When they had done, 
 the king, after a moment's silence, said : ' If a man 
 should pull down an old stone wall, and begin at 
 the lower part, the upper part thereof might 
 chance to fall upon his head,' meaning that Fish's 
 proposal for dealing with the religious houses was 
 hazardous advice until the royal supremacy had 
 been established. Foxe says that copies of the 
 libel were ' strawne abroade in the streetes of 
 London,' at the meeting of Parliament and there- 
 fore probably with the connivance of someone in 
 authority. The cardinal, he says, set about dili- 
 gently to gather them up that they should not 
 come into the king's hands : but, hearing that the 
 king had received one or two copies, he went to 
 him saying, ' If it please your grace here are 
 divers seditious persons which have scattered 
 
 55 
 
$6 SIMON FISH 
 
 abroad bookes conteyning manifest errors and 
 heresies,' and desiring his grace to beware of them. 
 ' Wherefore the king, putting his hand to his 
 bosome, tooke out one of the bookes and delivered 
 it unto the Cardinall." 
 
 The scene is dramatic enough. But it must be 
 remembered that, four years before the Suppli- 
 cacyon, began to whet the royal appetite, Wolsey 
 had himself suppressed monasteries at Oxford and 
 elsewhere, and that with the express authority of 
 two Papal bulls, nor was Wolsey's action without 
 ample precedent. 
 
 The Supplicacyon became the model for a series of 
 pamphlets couched in the same form, three of which 
 have been edited by Dr Furnivall with the Beggars 
 in the Early English Text Society Series. Fish's 
 pamphlet pretends to be a petition from the beggars, 
 complaining that they have been robbed of their 
 alms by the superior begging of the friars ; it then 
 proceeds to a general denunciation of all the clergy. 
 
 Sir Thomas More wrote in reply The Supplicacyon 
 of Soulys, which is a folio. In it More makes one 
 of the souls in Purgatory say of Fish that, ' He is 
 named and boasted among us by the evil angel of 
 his, our and your ghostly enemy, the devil ; which 
 as soon as he had set him at work with that per- 
 nicious book, ceased not to come hither, and boast 
 among us: but with" his enmious and envious 
 laughter, gnashing the teeth and grinning, he told 
 us that his people [the Eeformers] had, by the 
 advice and counsel of him [the Devil], and of some 
 heretics almost as evil as he, made such a book for 
 beggars, that it should make us beg long ere we 
 got aught.' 
 
 On the general question of clerical immorality, it 
 may be admitted that, among the hosts of men in 
 orders, there were many who found the vow of 
 
SIMON FISH 57 
 
 celibacy too great a strain. Such laxity could not 
 have been uncommon at this time, for Wolsey 
 himself was the father of a family, as were many 
 of the Popes, nor does the public conscience seem 
 to have been offended at this. A little later we 
 find Cardinal Pole admitting that the enforcement 
 of celibacy on all the clergy was a mistake. As for 
 the charges of immorality and corruption against 
 the monasteries, it may safely be stated that 
 historians no longer consider them borne out by 
 the evidence which recent research has collected. 
 Their wealth, too, was popularly supposed to be 
 much greater than it was. Fish's errors in this 
 matter are alluded to in the notes.] 
 
 A SUPPLICACYON FOR THE BBGGERS 
 To the King Oure Sotjereygne Lorde 
 
 Most lamentably compleyneth theyre wofull 
 mysery unto youre highnes youre poore daily 
 bedemen the wretched hidous monstres (on 
 whome scarcely for horror any yie dare loke) 
 the foule unhappy sorte of lepres, and other 
 sore people, nedy, impotent, blinde, lame, and 
 sike, that live onely by almesse, howe that 
 theyre nombre is daily so sore encreased that 
 all the almesse of all the weldisposed people 
 of this youre realme is not half ynough for to 
 susteine theim, but that for verey constreint 
 they die for hunger. And this most pestilent 
 mischief is comen uppon youre saide poore 
 
58 SIMON FISH 
 
 beedmen by the reason that there is yn the 
 tymes of youre noble predecessours passed 
 craftily crept ynto this your realme an other 
 sorte (not of impotent but) of strong puissaunt 
 and counterfeit holy, and ydell beggers and 
 vacabundes whiche syns the tyme of theyre first 
 entre by all the craft and wilinesse of Satan 
 are nowe encreased under your sight not onely 
 into a great nombre, but also ynto a kingdome. 
 These are (not the herdes, 1 but the ravinous 
 wolves going in herdes clothing devouring 
 the flocke) the Bishoppes, Abbottes, Priours, 
 Deacons, Archedeacons, Sufiraganes, Prestes, 
 Monkes, Chanons, Freres, Pardoners, and Som- 
 ners. 2 And who is abill to nombre this idell 
 ravinous sort whiche (setting all laboure a side) 
 have begged so importunately that they have 
 gotten ynto theyre hondes more then the therd 
 part of all youre Realme. The goodliest lord- 
 shippes, maners, londes, and territories, are 
 theyrs. Besides this they have the tenth part 
 of all the corne, medowe, pasture, grasse, wolle, 
 coltes, calves, lambes, pigges, gese, and chikens. 
 Over and bisides the tenth part of every ser- 
 vauntes wages the tenth part of the wolle, 
 
 1 Shepherds. 
 
 2 The Summoner or Apparitor was the officer employed 
 to cite parties before the ecclesiastical courts, 
 
SIMON FISH 59 
 
 milke, hony, waxe, chese, and butter. Ye 1 
 and they loke so narowly uppon theyre prov- 
 fittes that the poore wifVes must be countable 
 to theym of every tenth eg or elles she gettith 
 not her ryghtes at ester shalbe taken as an 
 heretike. hereto have they theire foure offering 
 daies. whate money pull they yn by probates 
 of testamentes, privy tithes, and by mennes 
 offeringes to theyre pilgremages, and at theyre 
 first masses? Every man and childe that is 
 buried must pay sumwhat for masses and 
 diriges 2 to be song for him or elles they will 
 accuse the dedes 3 frendes and executours of 
 heresie. whate money get they by mortuaries, 4 
 by hearing of confessions (and yet they wil kepe 
 therof no counceyle) by halowing of churches 
 altares superaltares chapelles and belles, by 
 cursing of men and absolving theim agein for 
 money ? what a multitude of money gather the 
 pardoners in a yere ? Howe moche money get 
 the Somners by extorcion yn a yere, by assestyng 
 the people to the commissaries court and after- 
 ward releasing th 5 apparaunce for money? 
 Finally, the infinite nombre of begging freres 
 
 1 Yea. 
 
 2 Dirges, from Dirige in conspectu tuo viam meam in v. 8 
 of Psalm v., the first of the Dirge Psalms. 3 dead's. 
 
 4 A mortuary was a gift left by a dying man to his parish 
 church. s t k ei 
 
60 SIMON FISH 
 
 whate get they yn a yere ? Here if it please 
 your grace to marke ye shall se a thing farre 
 out of ioynt. There are withyn youre realme of 
 Englond, lii. thousand parisshe churches. 1 And 
 this stonding that there be but tenne hous- 
 houldes yn every parisshe yet are there five 
 hundreth thousand and twenty thousand hous- 
 houldes. And of every of these houshouldes 
 hath every of the five ordres of freres a peny a 
 quarter for every ordre, that is for all the five 
 ordres five pens a quarter for every house. That 
 is for all the five ordres xx.d> a yere of every 
 house. Summa five hundreth thousand and 
 twenty thousand quarters of angels. 
 
 That is cclx. thousand half angels. Summa 
 cxxx. thousand angels. Summa totalis xliii. 
 thousand poundes and cccxxxiii.li. vi.s. viii.d. 
 sterling, wherof not foure hundreth veres passed 2 
 they had not one peny. Oh grevous and 
 j>eynfull exactions thus yerely to be paied. 
 from the whiche the people of your nobill pre- 
 decessours the kinges of the auncient Britons 
 ever stode fre. And this wil they have or 
 els they wil procure him that will not give 
 
 1 ' That is one plain lie to begin with,' is More'a com- 
 ment. Fish counts every hamlet as a parish ; and then 
 argues that if each ' parish ' has on an average ten house- 
 holds, and each household gives one penny per quarter to 
 each of the five mendicant orders, then £43,333, 6s. 8d. is 
 given annually to the Friars alone. 2 years ago. 
 
SIMON FISH 6 1 
 
 it theim to be taken as an heretike. whate 
 tiraunt ever oppressed the people like this cruell 
 and vengeable generacion ? whate subiectes 
 shall be abill to helpe theire prince that be 
 after this facion yerely polled? whate good 
 christen people can be abill to socoure us pore 
 lepres blinde sore, and lame, that be thus 
 yerely oppressed ? Is it any merveille that 
 youre people so compleine of povertie? Is it 
 any merveile that the taxes fiftenes and sub- 
 sidies that your grace most tenderly of great 
 compassion hath taken emong your people to 
 defend theim from the thretened ruine of theire 
 comon welth have bin so sloughtfully, ye pain- 
 fully levied? Seeing that almost the utmost 
 peny that mought have bin levied hath ben 
 gathered bifore yerely by this ravinous cruell 
 and insatiabill generacion. The danes nether 
 the saxons yn the time of the auncient Britons 
 shulde never have ben abill to have brought 
 theire armies from so farre hither ynto your 
 lond to have conquered it if they had had at 
 that time suche a sort of idell glotons to finde 
 at home. The nobill king Arthur had never 
 ben abill to have caried his armie to the fote 
 of the mountaines to resist the coming downe 
 of lucius the Emperoure if suche verely 1 exac- 
 
 1 yearly. 
 
6i SIMON FISH 
 
 tion had ben taken of his people. The grekes 
 had never ben abill to have so long continued 
 at the siege of Troie if they had had at home 
 suche an idell sort of cormorauntes to finde. 
 The auncient Romains had never ben abil to 
 have put all the hole worlde under theyre 
 obeisaunce if theyre people had byn thus yerely 
 oppressed. The Turke nowe yn youre tyme 
 shulde never be abill to get so moche grounde 
 of cristendome if he had yn his empire suche 
 a sort of locustes to devoure his substance. 
 Ley then these sommes to the forseid therd 
 part of the possessions of the realme that ye 
 may se whether it drawe nighe unto the halfe 
 of the hole substaunce of the realme or not, 
 so shall ye finde that it draweth ferre above. 1 
 Nowe let us then compare the nombre of this 
 unkind idell sort unto the nombre of the laye 
 people and we shall se whether it be in- 
 differently shifted or not that they shuld 
 have half. 
 
 Compare theim to the nombre of men, so are 
 
 1 The monasteries came to own about one third of the 
 land, and one third of the tithe, of England. The losers on 
 the tithe were of course the parishes : as for the land, the 
 monks were very good landlords. The total value of 
 all ecclesiastical and monastic property, including the uni- 
 versities was given by the Valor Ecclesiasticus (the State 
 return of 1535) as £320,280, 10s. Of this only about one 
 half was monastic property. 
 
SIMON FISH 63 
 
 they not the .C. person. 1 Compare theim to 
 men wimen and children, then are they not 
 the CCCC. parson 2 yn nombre. One part 
 therfore yn foure hundreth partes devided 
 were to moche for theim except they did 
 laboure. whate an unequal burthen is it that 
 they have halfe with the multitude and are not 
 the .CCCC. parson of theire nombre ? whate 
 tongue is abill to tell that ever there was eny 
 comon welth so sore oppressed sins the worlde 
 first began ? 
 
 H And whate do al these gredy sort of sturdy 
 idell holy theves with these yerely exactions 
 that they take of the people ? Truely nothing 
 but exempt theim silves from th obedience of 
 your grace. 3 Nothing but translate all rule 
 power lordishippe auctorite obedience and 
 dignite from your grace unto theim. Nothing 
 but that all your subiectes shulde fall ynto 
 disobedience and rebellion ageinst your grace 
 and be under theim. As they did unto your 
 nobill predecessour king John : 4 whiche 
 forbicause that he wolde have punisshed 
 certeyn traytours that had conspired with 
 
 1 One person in a hundred. 3 One person in 400. 
 
 3 Fish's appeal throughout to Tudor despotism is sig- 
 nificant. 
 
 4 The absolutist Fish even denounces Magna Carta. 
 
64 SIMON FISH 
 
 the frenche king to have deposed him from 
 his crowne and dignite (emong the whiche a 
 clerke called Stephen x whome afterward 
 ageinst the kinges will the Pope made 
 Bisshoppe of Caunterbury was one) enterdited 
 his Lond. 2 For the whiche mater your most 
 nobill realme wrongfully (alas for shame) hath 
 stond tributary (not unto any kind temporall 
 prince, but unto a cruell develisshe bloudsupper 
 dronken in the bloude of the sayntes and 
 marters of christ) eversins. Here were an holy 
 sort of prelates that thus cruelly coude punisshe 
 suche a rightuous kinge, all his realme, and 
 succession for doing right. 
 
 1 Here were a charitable sort of holy men 
 that coude thus enterdite an hole realme, and 
 plucke awey th obedience of the people from 
 theyre naturall liege lorde and kinge, for none 
 other cause but for his rightuousnesse. Here 
 were a blissed sort not of meke herdes but of 
 bloudsuppers that coude set the frenche king 
 uppon suche a rightuous prince to cause hym 
 to lose his crowne and dignite to make effdsion 
 
 1 The noble Stephen Langton, who led the revolt against 
 King John and forced the Great Charter from him. 
 Langton had been appointed to the archiepiscopal see 
 by Pope Innocent III. 
 
 2 Land. Innocent put England under an interdict on 
 John's attempting to exclude Langton from the see. The 
 * nobiU ' John then became the Pope's vassal. 
 
SIMON FISH 65 
 
 of the bloude of his people, oneles this good 
 and blissed king of greate compassion, more 
 fearing and lamenting the sheding of the bloud 
 of his people then the losse of his crowne and 
 dignite agaynst all right and conscience had 
 submitted him silf unto theym. case most 
 horrible that ever so nobill a king Realme, 
 and succession shulde thus be made to stoupe 
 to suche a sort of bloodsuppers. where was 
 his swerde, power, crowne, and dignite become 
 wherby he mought have done iustice yn this 
 maner? where was their obedience become 
 that shuld have byn subiect under his highe 
 power yn this mater? Ye where was the 
 obedience of all his subiects become that for 
 mainteinaunce of the comon welth shulde have 
 holpen him manfully to have resisted these 
 bloudsuppers to the shedinge of theyre bloude ? 
 was not all to gither by theyre polyce translated 
 from this good king unto theim. Ye and what 
 do they more? Truely nothing but applie 
 theym silves by all the sleyghtes they may have 
 to do with every mannes wife, every marines 
 doughter and every mannes mayde that cuk- 
 koldrie and baudrie shulde reigne over all 
 emong your subiectes, that no man shulde 
 knowe his owne childe that theyre bastardes 
 might enherite the possessions of every man 
 
66 SIMON FISH 
 
 to put the right begotten children clere beside 
 theire inheritaunce yn subversion of all estates 
 and godly ordre. These be they that by theire 
 absteyning from mariage do let the generation 
 of the people wher by all the realme at length 
 if it shulde be continued shall be made desert 
 and inhabitable. 1 
 
 IF These be they that have made an hundreth 
 thousand ydell hores yn your realme whiche 
 wolde have gotten theyre lyving honestly, yn 
 the swete of theyre faces had not theyre 
 superfluous rychesse illected theym to unclene 
 lust and ydelnesse. These be they that corrupt 
 the hole generation of mankind yn your realme, 
 that catche the pokkes of one woman, and bere 
 theym to an other, that be brent wyth one 
 woman, and bere it to an other, that catche 
 the lepry of one woman, and bere it to an 
 other, ye some one of theym shall bost emong 
 his felawes that he hath medled with an 
 hundreth wymen. These be they that when 
 they have ones drawen mennes wives to such 
 incontinency spende awey theire husbondes 
 goodes make the wimen to runne awey from 
 theire husbondes, ye, rynne awey them silves 
 both with wif and goods, bring both man 
 
 1 The apparent contradiction between this sentence 
 and the last is noted by More 
 
SIMON FISH 67 
 
 wife and children to ydelnesse theft and 
 beggeri. 
 
 If Ye who is abill to nombre the greate and 
 brode botomles occean see full of evilles that 
 this mischevous and sinful generacion may 
 laufully bring uppon us unponisshed, where is 
 youre swerde, power, crowne, and dignitie, 
 become that shuld punisshe (by punisshement 
 of deth even as other men are punisshed) the 
 felonies, rapes, murdres, and treasons committed 
 by this sinfull generacion? where is theire 
 obedience become that shulde be under your 
 hyghe power yn this mater? ys not all to 
 gither translated and exempt from your grace 
 unto theim? yes truely. whate an infinite 
 nombre of people might have ben encreased to 
 have peopled the realme if these sort of folke 
 had ben maried like other men. what breche 
 of matrimonie is there brought yn by theim? 
 suche truely as was never sins the worlde began 
 emong the hole multitude of the hethen. 
 
 If who is she that wil set her hondes to get 
 .iii.d. a day and may have at lest .xx.d. a day to 
 slepe an houre with a frere, a monke, or a prest ? 
 what is he that wolde laboure for a grote a 
 day and may have at lest .xii.d. a day to be 
 baude to a prest, a monke, or a frere ? whate 
 a sort are there of theime that mari prestes 
 
68 SIMON FISH 
 
 sovereigne ladies but to cloke the prestes yn- 
 continency and that they may have a living of 
 the prest theime silves for theire laboure? 
 Howe many thousandes doth suche lubricite 
 bring to beggery theft and idelnesse which 
 shuld have kept theire good name and have set 
 theim silves to worke had not ben this excesse 
 treasure of the spiritualtie ? ? whate honest 
 man dare take any man or woman yn his service 
 that hath ben at suche a scole with a spiritual 
 man ? Oh the grevous shipwrak of the comen 
 welth, whiche yn auncient time bifore the 
 coming yn of these ravinous wolves was so 
 prosperous : that then there were but fewe 
 theves : ye theft was at that tyme so rare that 
 Cesar was not compellid to make penalte of 
 deth uppon felony as your grace may well 
 perceyve yn his institutes. There was also at 
 that tyme but fewe pore people and yet they 
 did not begge but there was given theim 
 ynough unaxed, for there was at that time 
 none of these ravinous wolves to axe it 
 from theim as it apperith yn the actes of th 
 appostles. 1 Is it any merveill though there 
 
 1 The reference, seemingly, is to Acts iv. 32-35. But 
 the fact that there was not then any that lacked is attri- 
 buted in Acts iv. to the communism of these early 
 Christians, which communism was in Fish's time, after 
 all, practised by monks and by monks alone. The monks 
 
SIMON FISH 69 
 
 be nowe so many beggers, theves, and ydell 
 people ? Nay truely. 
 
 IT whate remedy : make lawes ageynst theim. 
 I am yn donbt whether ye be able : Are they 
 not stronger in your owne parliament house 
 then your silfe ? whate a nombre of Bisshopes, 
 abbotes, and priours are lordes of your parlia- 
 ment? are not all the lerned men in your 
 realme in fee with theim to speake yn your 
 parliament house for theim ageinst your 
 crowne, dignitie, and comen welth of your 
 realme a fewe of youre owne lerned counsell 
 onely excepted ? whate lawe can be made 
 ageinst theim that may be advaylable ? who is 
 he (though he be greved never so sore) for the 
 murdre of his auncestre ravisshement of his 
 wyfe, of his doughter, robbery, trespas, 
 maiheme, 1 dette, or eny other offence dare ley 
 it theyre charge by any wey of accion, and if he 
 do then is he by and by by theyre wilynesse 
 accused of heresie. ye they will so handle him 
 or he passe that except he will bere a fagot for 
 theyre pleasure he shal be excommunicate and 
 then be all his accions dasshed. So captyve 
 are your lawes unto theym that no man that 
 
 were still the great relievers of the poor ; though the 
 Friars had lost their early fervour and become for the 
 most part mere religious tramps. 
 1 Maiming. 
 
70 SIMON FISH 
 
 they lyst to excommunicat may be admitted 
 to sue any accion in any of your courtes. If 
 eny man yn your sessions dare be so hardy to 
 endyte a prest of eny suche cryme he hath or 
 the yere go out suche a yoke of heresye leyd in 
 his necke that it maketh him wisshe that he 
 had not done it. Your grace may se whate a 
 worke there is in London, howe the bisshoppe 
 rageth for endyting of certayn curates of ex- 
 torcion and incontinency the last yere in the 
 warmoll quest. 1 Had not Richard hunne 2 
 
 1 The warmoll, or warnmall quest was held in the city 
 once a year to redress vice. Quest = Inquest. 
 
 2 Richard Hunne, a merchant tailor of the City, refused 
 to give a mortuary for an infant child that had died in 
 the parish of St Mary Malfellow, whereupon the priest of 
 the parish cited Hunne in the spiritual court of London. 
 Hunne took the bold step of issuing a writ of praemunire 
 against the priest on the ground that the spiritual court 
 was under the foreign jurisdiction of the legate. The 
 clergy were furious ; and, as the best way of crushing 
 Hunne, they apprehended him on a charge of heresy. 
 He submitted as to the heresy, and offered to do penance ; 
 but he would not drop his action against the parson. 
 Whereupon he was remanded to the Lollard's Tower, and 
 two days afterwards was found there, hanged in his own 
 silken girdle. The case created much excitement. At the 
 inquest a verdict of wilful murder was returned against 
 Horsey, the Chancellor of the Bishop of London. The 
 Bishop appealed to Wolsey, and though the proceedings 
 could not be stopped, he got Horsey off, as Fish complains 
 further on, with a, payment of £600. The miserable 
 church- officials proceeded with the charge of heresy 
 against the dead body of Hunne, and it was dug up and 
 burned two weeks after his death. 
 
SIMON FISH 71 
 
 commenced accyon of premunire ageinst a prest 
 he had bin yet a lyve and none heretik at all 
 but an honest man. 
 
 U Dyd not dyvers of your noble progenitours 
 seynge theyre crowne and dignite runne ynto 
 ruyne and to be thus craftely translated ynto 
 the hondes of this myschevous generacyon 
 whiche the statute of mortmayne 1 was one? 
 to the intent that after that tyme they shulde 
 have no more gyven unto theim. But whate 
 avayled it ? have they not gotten ynto theyre 
 hondes more londes sins then eny duke in 
 ynglond hath, the statute notwithstonding ? 
 Ye have they not for all that translated ynto 
 theyre hondes from your grace half your kyng- 
 dome thoroughly? The hole name as reason 
 is for the auncientie of your kingdome whiche 
 was bifore theyrs and out of the whiche theyrs 
 is growen onely abiding with your grace ? and 
 of one kyngdome made tweyne : the spirituall 
 kingdome (as they call it) for they wyll be 
 named first, And your temporall kingdome, 
 
 1 The Statute of Mortmain (1279) was enacted to prevent 
 any more lands passing into the hands of the Church, 
 except by special licence of the king. Church-lands owed 
 no military service to the king; while the overlord lost 
 all chance of recovering such lands by escheat, since there 
 could be no failure of heirs in a corporation. Magna 
 Carta had already forbidden lands to be given to religious 
 houses — in spite of the ' rightuous ' King John. 
 
72 SIMON FISH 
 
 And whiche of these, ii. kingdomes suppose ye 
 is like to overgrowe the other, ye to put the 
 other clere out of memory ? Truely the king- 
 dome of the bloudsuppers for to theym is given 
 daily out of your kingdome. And that that 
 is ones gyven theim comith never from theim 
 agein. Suche lawes have they that none of 
 theim may nether gyve nor sell nothing. 
 
 whate lawe can be made so stronge ageinst 
 theim that they other with money or elles with 
 other policy will not breake and set at nought ? 
 whate kingdome can endure that ever gyvith 
 thus from him and receyveth nothing agein ? 
 O howe all the substaunce of your Realme 
 forthwith your swerde, power, crowne, dignite, 
 and obedience of your people, rynneth hedlong 
 ynto the insaciabill whyrlepole of these gredi 
 goulafres l to be swalowed and devoured. 
 
 U Nether have they eny other coloure to 
 gather these yerely exaccions ynto theyre 
 hondes but that they sey they pray for us to 
 God to delyver our soules out of the paynes of 
 purgatori without whose prayer they sey or at 
 lest without the popes pardon we coude never 
 be delivered thens whiche if it be true then is 
 it good reason that we gyve theim all these 
 thinges all were it C. times as moche, But 
 1 Gulphs, from 0. Fr., Goulfre. 
 
SIMON FISH 73 
 
 there be many men of greate litterature and 
 iudgement that for the love they have unto 
 the trouth and unto the comen welth have 
 not feared to put theim silf ynto the greatest 
 infamie that may be, in abiection of all the 
 world, ye in perill of deth to declare theyre 
 oppinion in this mather whiche is that there is 
 no purgatory but that it is a thing invented 
 by the covitousnesse of the spiritualtie onely 
 to translate all kingdomes from other princes 
 unto theim and that there is not one word 
 spoken of hit in al holy scripture. They sey 
 also that if there were a purgatory, And also if 
 that the pope with his pardons for money may 
 deliver one soule thens : he may deliver him 
 aswel without money, if he may deliver one, he 
 may deliver a thousand : yf he may deliver a 
 thousand he may deliver theim all, and so destroy 
 purgatory. And then is he a cruell tyraunt with- 
 out all charite if he kepe theim there in pryson 
 and in paine till men will give him money. 
 
 Lyke wyse saie they of all the hole sort of 
 the spiritueltie that if they will not pray for 
 no man but for theim that gyve theim money 
 they are tyrauntes and lakke charite, and suffer 
 those soules to be punisshed and payned un- 
 cheritably for lacke of theyre prayers. These 
 .sort of folkes they call heretikes, these they 
 
 E 
 
74 SIMON FISH 
 
 burne, these they rage ageinst, put to open 
 shame and mate theim bere fagottes. But 
 whether they be heretikes or no, well I wote 
 that this purgatory and the Popes pardons is 
 all the cause of translacion of your kingdome 
 so fast into their hondes wherfore it is mani- 
 fest it can not be of christ, for he gave more 
 to the temporall kingdome, he hym silfe paid 
 tribute to Cesar he toke nothing from hym 
 but taught that the highe powers shulde be 
 always obeid ye he him silf (although he 
 were most fre lorde of all and innocent) was 
 obedient unto the highe powers unto deth. 
 This is the great scabbe why they will not let 
 the newe testament go a brode yn your moder 
 tong lest men espie that they by theyre cloked 
 ypochrisi do translate thus fast your kingdome 
 into theyre hondes, that they are not obedient 
 unto your highe power, that they are cruell, 
 unclene, unmerciful, and ypochrites, that thei 
 seke not the honour of Christ but their owne, 
 that remission of sinnes are not given by the 
 popes pardon, but by Christ, for the sure 
 feith and trust that we have in him. Here 
 may your grace well perceyve that except ye 
 suffer theyre ypocrisie to be disclosed all is 
 like to runne ynto theire hondes and as long 
 as it is covered so long shall it seme to every 
 
SIMON FISH 75 
 
 man to be a greate and ympiete not to gyve 
 theim. For this I am sure your grace thinketh 
 (as the truth is) I am as good as my father, 
 whye may I not aswell gyve theim as moche 
 as my father did. And of this mynd I am 
 sure are all the loordes knightes squirs gentil- 
 men and yemen in englond, ye and untill it be 
 disclosed all your peoole 1 will thinke that 
 your statute of mortmayne was never made 
 with no good conscience seing that it taketh 
 away the liberte of your people in that they 
 may not as lawfully by 2 theire soules out of 
 purgatory by gyving to the spiritualte as their 
 predecessours did in tymes passed. 
 
 H "Wherfore if ye will eschewe the ruyne of 
 your crowne and dignitie let their ypocrisye be 
 uttered and that shalbe more spedfull in this 
 mater then all the lawes that may be made be 
 they never so stronge. For to make a lawe for 
 to punisshe eny offender except it were more fit 
 to give other men an ensample to beware to 
 committe suche like offence, whate shuld yt 
 avayle. Did not doctour Alyn 3 most pre- 
 
 1 People. 2 Buy. 
 
 3 Wolsey's Chaplain. * By the said power Legantine, 
 he [Wolsey] kept also general visitations through the 
 Realme, sending Doct. John Allein, his Chaplein, riding 
 in his gown of Velvet, and with a great traine to visite 
 all religious houses. 9 (Foxe, p. 260, 3rd ed.) 
 
76 SIMON FISH 
 
 sumptuously nowe yn your tyme ageynst all 
 this allegiaunce all that ever he coude to pull 
 from you the knowledge of suche plees as 
 long 1 unto your hyghe courtes unto an other 
 court in derogacion of your crowne and 
 dignite? Did not also doctor Horsey 2 and 
 his complices most heynously as all the world 
 knoweth murdre in pryson that honest 
 marchaunt Richard hunne ? For that he sued 
 your writ of premuuere against a prest that 
 wrongfully held him in pie 3 in a spirituall 
 court for a mater wherof the knowlege belonged 
 unto your hyghe courtes. And whate punisshe- 
 ment was there done that eny man may take 
 example of to be ware of lyke offence ? Truely 
 none but that the one payd five hundreth 
 poundes (as it is said to the bildinge of your 
 sterre chamber) and when that payment was 
 ones passed the capteyns of his kingdome 
 (because he faught so manfully ageynst your 
 crowne and dignitie) have heped to him 
 benefice upon benefice so that he is rewarded 
 tenne tymes as moche. The other as it is seid 
 payde sixe hundreth poundes for him and his 
 complices whiche forbicause that he had lyke 
 
 1 Belong. 
 
 2 The Chancellor of the Bishop of London. See for 
 the Hunne affair, note on p. 70. 
 
 3 Plea. 
 
SIMON FISH 77 
 
 wyse faught so manfully ageynst your crowne 
 and dignite was ymmediatly (as he had 
 opteyned your most gracyous pardon) promoted 
 by the capiteynes of his kingdome with benefice 
 upon benefice to the value of .iiii. tymes as 
 moche. who can take example of this punisshe- 
 ment to be ware of suche like offence ? who is 
 he of theyre kingdome that will not rather 
 take courage to committe lyke offence seying 
 the promocions that fill 1 to this 2 men for 
 theyre so offending. So weke and blunt is 
 your swerde to strike at one of the offenders of 
 this croked and pervers generacyon. 
 
 IF And this is by the reason that the chief 
 instrument of youre lawe ye the chief of your 
 counsell and he whiche hath youre swerde in 
 his hond to whome also all the other instru- 
 mentes are obedient is alweys a spirituell man 
 whiche hath ever suche an inordinate love 
 unto his owne kingdome that he will mainteyn 
 that, though all the temporall kingdoms and 
 comonwelth of the worlde shulde therfore 
 utterly be undone, Here leve we out the 
 gretest mater of all lest that we declaring suche 
 an horrible carayn of evyll ageinst the ministres 
 of iniquite shulde seme to declare the one 
 onely faute or rather the ignoraunce of oure 
 
 1 fell. a these. 
 
78 SIMON FISH 
 
 best beloved ministre of rightousnesse whiche 
 is to be hid till he may be lerned by these small 
 enormitees that we have spoken of to knowe it 
 pleynly him silf. But whate remedy to releve 
 us your poore sike lame and sore bedemen ? 
 To make many hospitals for the relief of the 
 poore people? Nay truely. The mos the 
 worse, for ever the fatte of the hole foundacion 
 hangeth on the prestes berdes. Dyvers of your 
 noble predecessours kinges of this realme have 
 gyven londes to monasteries to give a certein 
 somrae of money yerely to the poore people 
 wherof for the aunciente of the tyme they give 
 never one peny, They have lyke wyse given to 
 them to have a certeyn masses said daily for 
 theim wherof they sey never one. If the 
 Abbot of Westminster shulde sing every day as 
 many masses for his founders as he is bounde 
 to do by his foundacion. M. monkes were to 
 fewe. wherfore if your grace will bilde a sure 
 hospitall that never shall faile to releve us all 
 your poore bedemen, so take from theim all 
 these thynges. Set these sturdy lobies a brode 
 in the world to get theim wives of theire owne, 
 to get theire living with their laboure in the 
 swete of theire faces according to the com- 
 maundement of god. Gene. hi. to gyve other 
 idell people by theire example occasion to go 
 
SIMON FISH 79 
 
 to laboure. Tye these holy idell theves to the 
 cartes to be whipped naked about every market 
 towne til they will fall to laboure that they by 
 theyre importunate begging take not away the 
 almesse that the good christen people wolde 
 give unto us sore impotent miserable people 
 your bedemen. Then shall aswell the nombre 
 of oure forsaid monstruous sort as of the 
 baudes, hores, theves, and idell people decreace. 
 Then shall these great yerely exaccions cease. 
 Then shall not youre swerde, power, crowne, 
 dignite, and obedience of your people, be trans- 
 lated from you. Then shall you have full 
 obedience of your people. Then shall the idell 
 people be set to worke. Then shall matrimony 
 be moche better kept. Then shal the genera- 
 tion of your people be encreased, Then shall 
 your comons encrease in richnesse. Then shall 
 the gospell be preached. Then shall none 
 begge oure almesse from us. Then shal we 
 have ynough and more then shall suffice us, 
 whiche shall be the best hospitall that ever was 
 founded for us. Then shall we daily pray to 
 god for your most noble estate long to endure. 
 
 Domine salvum fac regem. 
 
Ill 
 
 JOHN KNOX 
 
 [This short extract is the concluding passage 
 of one of the six tracts published by Knox in 
 1558. 
 
 Knox, whose general views on the subject are 
 amusingly dealt with in R. L. Stevenson's well- 
 known essay, was led to write this pamphlet 
 against feminine rule, by the difficulties of the time. 
 The fate of Protestantism seemed to lie in the 
 hands of five women ; Catherine de Medici, Queen 
 of France ; Marie of Guise, Queen Eegent of Scot- 
 land ; her daughter Mary, afterwards Queen of 
 Scots ; Mary Queen of England, and the Princess 
 Elizabeth. Of these, all were strong opponents 
 of Protestantism, except the last, who was in 
 confinement at the time and of little account. 
 As it happened, before the year was out, 
 the death of Mary and the accession of Eliza- 
 beth made Knox's argument singularly unfortunate. 
 It had at least proved Knox's courage ; and fierce 
 and unlovely as his character was, it was truly 
 said of him, that he never feared the face of 
 man. An answer, to which reference will be found 
 on p. 119, was written by Aylmer, afterwards 
 Bishop of London, in 1559, that is, after Elizabeth's 
 accession.] 
 
JOHN KNOX 8 1 
 
 From 
 < THE FIRST BLAST OF THE TRUMPET 
 AGAINST THE MONSTRUOUS 
 REGIMENT OF WOMEN: 1558. 
 
 Cursed Jesabel of England, with the pesti- 
 lent and detestable generation of papistes, 
 make no litle bragge and boast, that they have 
 triumphed not only against Wyet, but also 
 against all such as have entreprised any thing 
 against them or their procedinges. But let her 
 and them consider, that yet they have not 
 prevailed against god, his throne is more high, 
 than the length of their homes be able to 
 reache. And let them further consider, that 
 in the beginning of their bloodie reigne, the 
 harvest of their iniquitie was not comen to full 
 maturitie and ripenes. No, it was so grene, so 
 secret I meane, so covered, and so hid with 
 hypocrisie that some men (even the servantes 
 of God) thoght it not impossible, but that 
 wolves might be changed in to lambes, and 
 also that the vipere might remove her naturel 
 venom. But God, who doth revele in his time 
 apointed the secretes of hartes, and that will 
 have his iudgementes iustified even by the 
 verie wicked, hath now geven open testimonie 
 of her and their beastlie crueltie. For man 
 
82 JOHN KNOX 
 
 and woman, learned and unlearned, nobles and 
 men of baser sorte, aged fathers and tendre 
 damiselles, and finailie the bones of the dead, 
 aswell women as men have tasted of their 
 tyrannie, so that now not onlie the blood of 
 father Latimer, of the milde man of God the 
 bishop of Cantorburie, of learned and discrete 
 Ridley, of innocent ladie Jane dudley, and 
 many godlie and worthie preachers, that can 
 not be forgotten, such as fier hath consumed, 
 and the sworde of tyrannie moste unjvstlie 
 hath shed, doth call for vengeance in the eares 
 of the Lord God of hostes : but also the sobbes 
 and teares of the poore oppressed, the 
 groninges of the angeles, the watch men of the 
 Lord, yea and everie earthlie creature abused 
 by their tyrannie do continuallie crie and call 
 for the hastie execution of the same. 1 I feare 
 not to say, that the day of vengeance, whiche 
 shall apprehend that horrible monstre Jesabel 
 of England, and suche as maintein her 
 monstruous crueltie, is alredie apointed in the 
 counsel of the Eternall; and I verelie beleve 
 that it is so nigh, that she shall not reigne so 
 
 1 Yet Knox himself advised the Scottish Parliament of 
 1560 to make a third offence in celebrating Mass punish- 
 able by death. 
 
 2 By Nov. 17 of the year when this was written Mary 
 Tudor was dead, and with her the system of which she 
 had been the centre. 
 
JOHN KNOX 83 
 
 long in tyrannie, 2 as hitherto she hath done, 
 when God shall declare him selfe to be her 
 ennemie, when he shall poure furth contempt 
 upon her, according to her crueltie, and shal 
 kindle the hartes of such, as somtimes did 
 favor her with deadly hatred against her, that 
 they may execute his iudgementes. And 
 therfore let such as assist her, take hede what 
 they do. For assuredlie her empire and reigne 
 is a wall without foundation: I meane the 
 same of the authoritie of all women. It hath 
 bene underpropped this blind time that is past, 
 with the foolishnes of people, and with the 
 wicked lawes of ignorant and tyrannous 
 princes. But the fier of Goddes worde is 
 alredie laide to those rotten proppes (I include 
 the Popes lawe with the rest) and presentlie 
 they burn, albeit we espie not the flame : when 
 they are consumed, (as shortlie they will be, for 
 stuble and drie timbre can not long indure the 
 fier) that rotten wall, the usurped and uniust 
 empire of women, shall fall by it self in despit 
 of all men, to the destruction of so manie, as 
 shall labor to uphold it. And therfore let all 
 man be advertised, for the trumpet hath ones 
 blowen. 
 
IV 
 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 [Thomas Cartwright (1535-1603), became intimate 
 at Geneva with Beza, the uncompromising successor 
 of Calvin. In 1570 he returned to England, and 
 was elected Margaret Professor of Divinity at 
 Cambridge and Fellow of Trinity. His lectures 
 there brought him under suspicion of heresy, and 
 he persuaded all the fellows and scholars of his 
 college to refuse to wear the surplice. On his 
 refusing to retract he was, in 1570, deprived of his 
 professorship by Whitgift, then Vice-Chancellor of 
 the University and Master of Trinity. He did not, 
 however, at once separate from the Church, there 
 being yet hope that the English Church might give 
 up Catholicism for Calvinism. In the Parliament 
 of 1571 a, definite attempt was made to effect this 
 by a proposal to substitute a Protestant confession 
 of faith for the Thirty-nine Articles and to omit 
 the office for the consecration of bishops. The 
 Parliament defeated this, and passed instead a 
 statute making subscription to the Articles obliga- 
 tory, whereupon some hundred clergymen were 
 deprived for refusing to subscribe. In 1572 two 
 bills were again brought in by Wentworth for 
 Calvinising the Church ; but the Queen interfered, 
 and refused to allow any bill respecting religion to 
 be received till it had been approved by Convoca- 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 85 
 
 tion. This called forth * An Admonition to 
 Parliament, 1572/ in the same year. 
 
 It was drawn up by Field, a minister, assisted by 
 Wilcox, and was revised by some others. It 
 attacked episcopacy with much severity, offered a 
 scheme for a Presbyterian Church, and petitioned 
 Parliament for a discipline more consonant with 
 the Word of God and the reformed Churches. 
 On October 12th, the authors were committed to 
 Newgate, but the Admonition was allowed to be 
 printed. 
 
 The imprisonment of Field and Wilcox caused 
 Cartwright to write his Second Admonition, from 
 which the following extracts are taken. Cart- 
 wright also wrote, ' AnExhortation to the Bishops 
 to deal brotherly with their Brethren,' and an- 
 other, * Exhortation to the Bishops to answer the 
 Admonition.' The Bishops appointed Whitgift 
 to reply with 'An Answeare to a certain Libel 
 entitled an Admonition to the Parliament," which 
 was revised before publication by Archbishop 
 Parker and others. Cartwright in 1573 retorted 
 with ' A Keplye to an Answere made by Dr Whit- 
 gifte againste the Admonition to the Parliament.' 
 Whitgift then published ' The Defence of the 
 Aunswere to the Admonition against the Replye of 
 T, C, 1574.' Kext year appeared 'The Second 
 Keplie,' and in 1577 'The Best of the Second 
 Replie of Thomas Cartwright agaynst Master 
 Doctor Vuhitgifts Second Ansvuer touching the 
 Church Discipline,' which ended the controversy. 
 
 In spite of Marprelate's exultation (p. 118) at 
 Cartwright's having the last word, we find 
 Whitaker, a very competent and impartial judge, 
 speaking contemptuously of Cartwright's share in 
 the controversy. In opinions there was little differ- 
 ence between the two disputants : Whitgift (p. 127) 
 
86 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 asserted that Christ had left the external polity of 
 the Church entirely an open question ; and in fact 
 his real difference with Cartwright was that he was 
 more latitudinarian. 
 
 Cartwright was by far the most learned and 
 respected of the Puritan divines, he enjoyed too 
 the protection of Leicester. He was imprisoned 
 in 1584 and 1590, but was treated indulgently, and 
 ended his days at Warwick, where, according to 
 Harrington, he grew rich, and was honoured by 
 his party as a patriarch. Cartwright was in many 
 ways the real Father of Puritanism ; his Book of 
 Discipline (1580) was to the Puritans very much 
 what the Prayer Book was to Churchmen. Of the 
 two main extracts which we give, the first is an 
 early specimen of those criticisms of the Prayer 
 Book which were continued in such profusion 
 throughout the next century. Curiously wooden 
 as most of Cartwright's objections must appear to 
 modern readers, he at least had the insight to 
 recognise that the Church services were Catholic in 
 their whole nature, a fact to which custom blinded 
 many succeeding generations of Churchmen. Of 
 the whole Vestiarian controversy, Aubrey Moore 
 says that from the first the real question it con- 
 cealed was, ' Is the English Church to retain a real 
 episcopacy, and defend its continuity with the 
 Church of St Augustine, or is it to become a 
 Presbyterian sect 1 ' Of our concluding extract it 
 is important to observe that it marks a new phase. 
 With Cartwright, Puritanism has become con- 
 sciously Presbyterian. The year 1573 saw the first 
 Presbytery in England.] 
 
 Note. — The notes in italics are Cartwright's own 
 marginal headings and scriptural references. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 87 
 
 From 
 
 A SECOND ADMONITION TO THE 
 
 PAELIAMENT 
 
 Now to the matter, I say, that we are so 
 scarce come to the outward face of a Church 
 rightly reformed, that although some truth bee 
 taught by some Preachers, yet no Preacher 
 may without great danger of the lawes, utter 
 all truth comprised in the booke of God. It is 
 so circumscribed and wrapt within the compasse 
 of such Statutes, such Penalties, such Iniunc- 
 tions, such Advertisements, 1 such Articles, such 
 Canons, such sober Caveats, and such manifold 
 Pamphlets, that in manner it doth but peepe 
 out from behind the screen. The lawes of the 
 Land, the booke of Common-prayer, the Queens 
 Iniunctions, the Commissioners Advertisements, 
 the Bishops late Canons, Lindwoods Provincials, 
 every Bishops Articles in his Diocesse, my Lord 
 of Canturburies sober Caveats, in his Licences 
 to Preachers, and his high Court of Prerogative, 
 or grave fatherly faculties, these together, or 
 the worst of them (as some of them be too bad) 
 may not be broken or offended against, but with 
 more danger then to offend against the Bible. 
 To these subscribing and subscribing again, and 
 
 1 The Advertisements was the name of an important 
 book of discipline issued by Archbishop Parker in 1566. 
 
88 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 the third subscribing, are required : for these, 
 Preachers, and others, are endited, are fined, 
 are prisoned, are excommunicated, are banished, 
 and have worse things threatened them : And 
 the Bible that must have no further scope, 
 then by these it is assigned. Is this to professe 
 Gods word ? is this a reformation ? He that 
 could not abide strange fire in the old Law, but 
 burnt them that used it, what will he do to us 
 in the new Law, that erect a new and strange 
 Course, or Word, to rule his Church by? 1 What 
 did the Pope but so ? he did suffer Gods Word 
 to have a course as farre as it pleased him, so 
 that he might have the whole authority above 
 it ; so did the Popish Church : But we say 
 the Word is above the Church, 2 then surely it 
 is above the English Church, and above all these 
 bookes afore rehearsed. If it be so, why are 
 they not over-ruled by it, and not it by them ? 
 
 As for the Convocation house, I told you 
 before what it was, and what may be looked 
 for at their hands, and somewhat more shall be 
 said of it hereafter. If that were said for the 
 Bible, which is said for the book of Common 
 praier, and which God saith in his law for 3 
 
 1 1 Lev. x. 12. 2 £Jph. ii. 20. 3 Dent. iv. 2. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 89 
 
 his word, then were the dealing upright and 
 good. Now if they meane, by [not repugnant] 
 that it is consonant in all and every the 
 contents thereof with the word of God, that 
 can they never prove. But could they prove 
 that, yet they snare the Church of God between 
 that book and other books, which they obtrude 
 with straight charge to be observed ; which 
 books do differ among themselves : as the book 
 of Common Praier, and the Iniunctions about 
 wafers : the booke of Common prayer and the 
 advertisements about the Church vestures : the 
 Canons against the pontifical, in not ordering 
 of Ministers sine titulo, the Preface of the last 
 book of Homilies, and of the last new Bible, 
 against the book of Common Praier in the 
 maner of reading of the Scriptures. 1 And in 
 many things the Bishops articles in their 
 severall Diocesses differ from this book, as 
 about the standing of the Communion table, and 
 fetching the dead to Church, and such like: 
 but the Court of faculties, that for marrying 
 without asking the banes, and many moe 
 things differeth from it and all other their 
 books, but chiefely from Gods Bible. What 
 say we to this case ? we are neither free to 
 follow the Bible, nor out of doubt what to do 
 1 Thus shall they be perplexed, that follow mens heads. 
 F 
 
oo THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 by these books : but to follow God and his 
 Word we are so free, that we are by the 
 Apostle forbidden to become servants 1 of men. 
 If this be true, as who can deny it ? then is it 
 your part to rid our Church of these shrewd 
 encumbrances. And whereas it was meant to 
 bridle Papists, make direct lawes against them. 2 
 Further, whereas our Church yet misseth of 
 the right course of the Scriptures in our 
 reformation, let your learned men be driven to 
 draw a platforme out of Gods booke (where it 
 is described at full) according to his will in the 
 same revealed, and the examples of the best 
 Churches beyond the Seas, as Geneva, France, 
 etc. 
 
 Shall I examine their other orders, that were 
 definite ? but yet for the booke of Common- 
 prayer, 3 which of all other must not be touched, 
 because they have gotten the State so to beare 
 it out: Even for the very States sake, for the 
 Princes sake, for the Churches sake, and for 
 conscience sake, hee hath but a bad conscience 
 that in this time will hold his peace, and not 
 speake it for feare of trouble, knowing that 
 
 1 1 Got. vii. 23. 2 Direct lawes against Papists. 
 
 3 Book of common praier. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 91 
 
 there are such intolerable abuses in it, as it is 
 plaine there are. 
 
 First I say, that if it were praying, and that 
 there were never an ill word, nor sentence in 
 all the prayers, 1 yet to appoint it to be used, or 
 so to use it as Papists did their mattens and 
 even-song, for a set service to God, though the 
 words bee good, the use is naught. The words 
 of the first chapter after Saint John be good, but 
 to be put in a Tablet of gold, for a soveraigne 
 thing to be worne, that use is superstitious 
 and naught, and so is the use of this service : 
 for the order must be kept, and that being 
 done, they have served God. And if they al- 
 ledge that that use was not meant, and that it 
 is an abuse, I say and can prove it, that if it 
 be an abuse, it is so settled it will not be re- 
 formed, till there be a reformation of prayer. 
 Againe, where learned they to multiply up 
 many prayers of one effect, so many times, 
 Glory be to the Father, so many times, Hie 
 Lord be with you, so many times, Let us pray. 
 Whence learned they all those needlesse repeti- 
 tions? Is it not the Popish Gloria Patri 2 ; 
 their Dominus vobiscum B 1 Their Oremus^% 
 Lord have mercy upon us, Christ have mercy 
 
 1 An intollerable abuse of praise. 
 
 a Gloria patri. % Dominus vdbiscum. 4 Oremus. 
 
92 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 upon, is it not Kyrie eleeson, 1 Christe eleeson : 
 their many Pater nosters, 2 why use they them ? 
 but as though they were at their beads. The 
 words be good, so were they when they were 
 in Latine, but the use is naught : forbidden by 
 our Saviour : You when you pray use not vaine 
 repetitions as the Heathen do, saith hee. And 
 then the Collect for the day to be used at end 
 of Mattens, what shall I call it ? And afore the 
 Epistle and Gospell, 3 as they call it. The book 
 is such a peece of worke as it is strange wee 
 will use it ; besides I cannot account it praying, 
 as they use it commonly, but onely reading or 
 saying of prayers, 4 even as a childe that learneth 
 to reade, if his lesson be a prayer, he readeth a 
 prayer, he doth not pray, even so is it commonly 
 a saying, and reading prayers and not praying, 
 the childe putteth off his cap as well as the 
 Minister. For though they have many guises, 
 now to kneele, and now to stand, these be of 
 course, and not of any pricke of conscience, or 
 peircing of the heart most commonly. One hee 
 kneeleth on his knees, and this way he looketh, 
 and that way hee looketh, another he kneeleth 
 
 1 Kyrie eleeson. 2 Many Pater nosters. 
 
 3 Matt. vi. 7. 
 
 4 Beading praters no praying. In praying many guises 
 taken up, and used, rather of custome, then of reason, and 
 knowledge or conscience. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 93 
 
 himselfe asleepe, another kneeleth with such 
 devotion, that hee is so farre in talke, that he 
 forgetteth to arise till his knees ake, or his talke 
 endeth, or service is done. And why is all 
 this? but that there is no such praying as 
 should touch the heart. And therefore another 
 hath so little feeling of the common prayer, that 
 he bringeth a booke of his owne, and though 
 he sit, when they sit, stand when they stand, 
 kneele when they kneele, he may pause some- 
 time also, but most of all he intendeth his own 
 booke, is this praying ? God grant us to feele 
 our lackes better then this, and to take a better 
 order then this for prayer, it is and will be all 
 naught else, Againe the Psalmes be all read 
 in forme of prayer, 1 they be not all prayers, 
 the people seldome marke them, and sometime 
 when they marke them, they thinke^some of 
 them strange geare, and all for that they are 
 but onely read, and scarse read oftentimes. It 
 is a very simple shift that you use to shift it 
 with a homily, to expound darke places of 
 Scripture, for they be darkly expounded that 
 be expounded, and many places more darke 
 then you rehearse any, which are not once 
 touched. Simple and homely geare in divers 
 Homilies there is. There is none other helpe 
 1 Beading of Psalmes. 
 
94 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 I can tell you, but plaine Preaching which is 
 Gods plaine order. What reason to sing the 
 Chapters of Scriptures, 1 and yet so they may 
 in a plaine tune. Are all the prayers that are 
 used, agreeable to the Scriptures ? To let passe 
 the Benedictus, 2 where I would know how I 
 might say in my prayer : For thou childe shall 
 be called the Prophet of the highest ? And the 
 Magnificat, 3 where I would know how any 
 man, yea, or woman either, might say the 
 tenure of these very words : For hee hath re- 
 garded the low degree of his handmaid, for 
 behold from henceforth all generations shall call 
 me blessed ? marke this well, and you can never 
 answer it well, but that it is a palpable folly, 
 and vaine praying. To let these passe, I would 
 know in what Canonicall Scripture they find this 
 prayer: all yee workes of the Lord? and what 
 they meane when they say, Anemias, Azariasf 
 and Misael, praise the Lord? which part of 
 prayer is not according to the Scripture, if all 
 the rest be, but the whole thankes giving is 
 Apocriphall, and yet these men that are named, 
 were then alive, and said it themselves, if it 
 were truely their prayer, and it belongeth not 
 to us to speake to them now, that are dead, 
 
 1 Singing of chapters. 3 Benedictus. 
 
 3 Magnificat. 4 Ananias, Azarias. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 95 
 
 and why to them more then to the Virgin 
 Mary, Peter or Paul, etc. 1 Let him that 
 speaketh, speake as the word of God, saith the 
 Apostle. 2 With what truth can we say that 
 one Collect which is appointed to be said from 
 the Nativity to New-yeares day? which is, 
 that upon the Nativity day I must say, That 
 Christ vouchsafed this da/y to bee borne, and 
 when I reade it another day, I must say, Hee 
 vouchsafed this day to bee borne, and the next 
 day againe, This day. Surely I lie one of the 
 daies, and such a prayer is at Whitsuntide 
 appointed. I would know whereupon they 
 ground their Collect appointed for the service 
 of 8. Bartholomew 3 (for we have Saints and 
 Angels, and All-hallowes service, which the 
 first Treastises speake of) I would I say know 
 whereon they ground that Collect? wherein 
 they pray that they may follow Bartholomews 
 Sermons, seeing there is never a Sermon of his 
 extant, and so we shall follow we wot not 
 what ? or that they pray that the Church may 
 Preach as he did, when as they neither have 
 his Sermons, nor yet the whole Church may 
 Preach, but the Ministers of the Church onely. 
 
 1 1 Pet. iv. 11. 
 
 2 Collects at the feast of the Nativity, and WTiUsunti<%e. 
 
 3 A collect on Bartholomew day. 
 
96 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 Is this praying ? God forgive us it is a wicked 
 pratling. By what Scriptures have they Lent 
 service : * Ashwednesday service ? Three Col- 
 lects for that day ? There is also 2 a Commuta- 
 tion 3 grounded upon great reason, if that be 
 well marked, which the Priest (forsooth) must 
 say at the entrance into the matter, that is : 
 what a peece of discipline was in former times 
 kept about the holy time of Lent, which untill 
 it be restored, would be supplyed with this 
 Jewish order. But what place of Scripture 
 doth induce them to reduce this ceremony ? or 
 what place of Scripture would warrant such a 
 peece of Discipline, as there they seeme very 
 desirous to have restored ? as who should say 
 such devices of observances for daies and times 
 were profitable or sufferable in Christs Church. 4 
 Let them endevour to commend God his 
 Discipline, which should be all the daies and 
 times of our life exercised in Christs Church ; 
 let them require that, I would know what 
 there is in Athanasius Creed, 5 that that must 
 be upon high daies (as they terme them) rather 
 then the Apostles Creed ? I would know why 
 Venite 6 may not serve at Easter, as it must 
 
 1 Service/or Lent, Ash Wednesday, etc. 
 
 2 nDeut. xxvii. 13, 14. 3 A Commination. 
 
 1 Gal. iv. 9, 10, 11. 6 AtJianaaius Creed. 6 Venite, 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 97 
 
 all the yeare afore, and after follow Dominie 
 labia ? it is surely a strange thing to see the 
 fansies that this booke is full of. I overpasse 
 the dry Communion (as they call it), the 
 Epistle, the Gospell, the Offertory, and because 
 they have in the former Treatises touched 
 many things of the Sacraments, of Matrimonie, 
 of Confirmation, and so of the rest, I the more 
 willingly skip over many things else, saying 
 shortly that the Sacraments are wickedly 
 mangled and prophaned. But as for Confirma- 
 tion, 1 as it hath no ground out of the Scriptures 
 at all, so I would have their prayer marked, 
 how they reckon up the sevenfold graces as the 
 Papists did, neither more nor lesse, where they 
 have one grace more then the ii. of Esay 
 hath, which they allude unto. And againe, 
 they have farre fewer then are mentioned in 
 the rest of the Scriptures. Lord, to see these 
 very folies, may not this book be altered neither 
 in matter or manner ? Surely, then have you 
 a mannerly sort of Ministers 2 that straine 
 curtesie to forbeare to lie, and to forbeare 
 superstition, when they seeme to present them- 
 selves before the Lord, which can worse like 
 such service then you can to forbeare it. 3 I 
 
 1 Confirmation. 2 A mannerly sort of Ministers: 
 
 3 Jerem. vi. 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21. 
 
98 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 have thus much further examined the orders 
 
 that these men use in prayer, beside the 
 
 generall observation, that they allow prayer 
 
 in publique place without a Sermon, which 
 
 is rightly prohibited in Churches reformed. 
 
 Would the word of God thus negligently, thus 
 
 fantastically, prophanely and heathemshly be 
 
 Preached ? or the Sacraments bee so wickedly, 
 
 without examination at the supper, or sincerity 
 
 in Baptisme, bee so (I say) wickedly ministred ? 
 
 would prayers be made either that were so 
 
 foolish, or so superstitious, or so false, or the 
 
 best of them so undevoutely, if there were such 
 
 right orders as were in the Churches planted 
 
 by the Apostles, as is in the best reformed 
 
 Churches, and ought to be in ours ? What 
 
 though these men be, and will be taken so 
 
 learned, so right, that they need learne of none 
 
 other, are not these their orders ? do they not 
 
 maintaine them ? do they not persecute them 
 
 that speake against them ? and yet I pray you 
 
 are they not starke naught? yea, and so are 
 
 divers of them, not onely for their bribing and 
 
 corruption, and their arrogancy, their tyranny, 
 
 but for flat heresie in the Sacraments ; and 
 
 some be suspected of the heresie of Pelagius. 1 
 
 1 The Pelagians denied the hereditary transmission of 
 the sin of Adam, and held that a man could be saved by 
 his own natural strength. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 99 
 
 For the first, that is concerning the Sacra- 
 ment, the Bishops 1 are notoriously known 
 which erre in it, and for free-will, one onely 
 they are suspected, but others also. And 
 indeed the booke of the Articles 2 of Christian 
 Religion speaketh very dangerously of falling 
 from grace, which is to be reformed, because it 
 too much enclineth to their errour ; other things 
 there are maintained by some of them which 
 are not agreeable with the Scripture ; Namely^ 
 the false interpretation of this clause in our 
 Creede (Hee descended into hell) which is 
 expressly set down contrary to the Scriptures, 
 in the Creed 3 made in Meeter in these words : 
 His spirit did after this descend into the lower 
 parts, to them that long in darkenesse were the 
 true light of their hearts. If they can warrant 
 this out of the Scriptures, then lAmbus Patrumf 
 and within a while Purgatory will be found out 
 there. And yet this must be priviledged, and 
 divers such like matters, disagreeing with the 
 Scriptures, as in the humble suite of a sinner 5 
 
 1 Bishops themselves, some of them in heresies, and some 
 suspected. 
 
 2 The booke of Articles of Christian Religion. 
 
 3 The Creed in meeter. 
 
 4 The 'Bosom of Abraham,' where were kept the 
 souls of the saints of the old dispensation. Christ is 
 held to have descended to Limbus, and emptied it, after 
 the Crucifixion. 5 The humble suite of a sinner. 
 
ioo THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 it is said, That the Saints and Angels see 
 Christs bloudy wounds as yet; and in their 
 last great Bible 1 in the first Edition of it, 
 such a sight of blasphemous pictures of God 
 the Father, as what they deserve for it, I will 
 referre them to none other iudge then their 
 own note upon the 15 verse of the fourth 
 of Deuteronomie, Wee hold I wot not what 
 heresies that speake against their pride and 
 traditions, but they that expresly speake and 
 do against the Scriptures, hold nothing I trow 
 but verities. But let these guides weigh the 
 Scripture, which saith, you straine a gnat and 
 swalloio down a Camel. 2 
 
 Well now, seeing we have thus far weighed, 
 partly Gods orders for the ministers election, 
 for their exercises, and for their equalitie, that 
 it is better then our L. Bishops, for the con- 
 tinuing of sound religion, and that the order of 
 Bishops is contrary to the Scriptures, and that 
 they make and maintaine with cruelty against 
 the Scriptures many wicked orders, let us now 
 come to the other part, which is of the govern- 
 ment of the Church, to see how that standeth 
 by the Scriptures. I have already made men- 
 tion of a Consistorie, 3 which were to be had in 
 
 1 The last great bible. The Bishops' Bible, 1568. 
 
 2 Matt, xxiii. 24. 3 Consistorie whereof it consisteth. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 101 
 
 every congregation. That consisteth first of 
 the ministers * of the same congregation, as the 
 guides and mouth of the rest, to direct them by 
 the scriptures, and to speake at their appoint- 
 ment, that which shall be consented upon 
 amongst them all, because of their gifles, and 
 place amongst them, which maketh them more 
 fit for those purposes. The assistants 2 are they, 
 whom the parish shall consent upon and chuse, 
 for their good iudgement in religion and godli- 
 nesse, which they know they be of, whereby 
 they are meete for that office using the advise 
 of their ministers therein cheefely, 3 and having 
 an eye to a prescript forme drawn out of the 
 Scriptures, at the appointment of the Prince 
 and state, by the godly learned men of this 
 realme, because of the rawnesse of this people 
 yet, and also using earnest prayers, with fast- 
 ing, as in the choise of the minister, and having 
 made their choise thereafter, they shall publish 
 their agreement in their parish, and after a 
 sermon by their minister, at their appointment, 4 
 and uppon their consent the minister may lay 
 his hands uppon every of them, to testifie to 
 
 1 The Ministers first in it. 
 
 2 Who the Assistants mxist bee. 
 
 3 How the Assistants must be chosen. 
 
 4 Wherefore this Consistory serveth. 
 
102 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 them their admission. This consistorie is for 
 that onely congregation, and must do that 
 which they do iointly in any common cause of 
 the Church. And these are to employ them- 
 selves and to be employed by that congrega- 
 tion, upon the necessary urgent affaires of the 
 same Church. These are they in that Church 
 to whom our Saviour coram andeth them that 
 have twise, 1 or oftner admonished an offender, 
 and he heareth them not, to utter such an 
 offender ; when he saith, Tel the Church. 
 These are they, whose last admonition he of 
 that Church, or they which regard not, shall 
 be taken as a publicane or heathen. These 
 are they, that shall admonish all such in the 
 Congregation, as they know to live with offence 
 to the Church, or as be presented to them, 
 by good testimonie of their offence committed. 
 These be they, which shall excommunicate the 
 stubborne, making the whole Church privie to 
 their doings, and shall upon repentance, take 
 order for the receiving such an one in again, 
 making open profession of his or their repent- 
 ance, to the satisfying of the Congregation. 
 Yet ever so must they excommunicate, and 
 receive the excommunicate in againe, that they 
 require the assent of their whole congregation, 2 
 1 Matt, xviii. 17. 2 Assent of their whole congregation. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 103 
 
 shewing the greevousnesse of his fact, and how 
 they have proceeded with him by admonition, 
 and his contempt, which they shall do, both 
 because their upright dealing may appeare to 
 the whole Church, and because they may not 
 usurpe authoritie over the whole Church, 
 whereby we might caste out the tyrannie of 
 the Bishops, and bring in a new tyranie of 
 theirs, who are appointed by good order, to 
 have the examination of matters, and the rest 
 of dealing, in the name of the whole con- 
 gregation. Neverthelesse, what they do well, 
 the congregation cannot alter, neither shall the 
 Congregation put them, or any of them out, 
 but upon iust cause proved, either in that 
 consistorie or in some one of the counsels, 
 and the cause accepted for sufficient, Neither 
 may they, or any of them leave to deale in 
 that turne, except they can shew good cause 
 to that consistorie, and it to be approved by 
 them, with the consent of the whole Congrega- 
 tion, and good liking. For neither must they 
 lightly be brought into suspition, nor they 
 must not lightly cast of so waighty a calling, 
 and function of such importance, no more then 
 the ministers may. 1 They also shall examine 
 
 1 1 Tim. v. 19. 
 
io4 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 all disordered ceremonies 1 used in place of 
 prayer, and abolish those which they find evill, 
 or unprofitable, and bring in such orders, as 
 their congregation shall have need of, so they 
 be few, and apparent, necessary both for edify- 
 ing, and profite and decent order : prooving it 
 plainely to the whole Church that it is so. 2 
 And in like sort shall they suffer no lewd 
 customes 3 to remaine in their parish, either 
 in games, or otherwise, but having conferred 
 of such things amongst themselves, then shall 
 admonish him or them brotherly, that he or 
 they, use them not any more, as unseeming to 
 Christian men to use the like, or if they be 
 common, they shall give open admonition, 
 and it shall be left. In all these things, and 
 in all things of the Church, they shall not 
 meddle with the civil magistrates office, 4 nor 
 with any other punishment but admonition, 
 and excommunication of the obstinate. Yet 
 this they must doe, that hee which hath lived 
 with offence to that congregation although he 
 hath suffred the punishment of the law for 
 his offence against it, yet he shall by them 
 be admonished, to satisfie the congregation to 
 
 1 Disordered ceremonies. 
 
 2 Necessary orders. 3 Lewd customes. 
 
 4 They may not meddle with the civill Magistrates office. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 105 
 
 whom he hath given offence, and amongst 
 whom he dwelleth. As for example : he that 
 hath usurie 1 prooved against him, so that he 
 loose his principall for taking above ten in 
 the hundred, yet shall he also for committing 
 so hainous offence against God, and his Church, 
 to the very ill example of others, not be 
 allowed to the Sacraments, untill he shew 
 himselfe repentant for the fault, and study to 
 satisfie the Congregation so offended by him. 
 These shall receive the information of the 
 Deacons, 2 for the releefe of the poore, and their 
 accounts for that which they shall lay out that 
 way, and of their diligence in visiting them, 
 that the congregations may by the Consistorie 
 be certified of all things concerning the pore, 
 both that there may be made provision accord- 
 ingly and that the provision made, may be 
 well husbanded, and the poore may by the 
 Deacons be visited, comforted, and releeved 
 according to their lack. Lastly, one or more 
 of these assistants, with one of the ministers, 
 and a Deacon or Deacons shall be those, that 
 shall at their Churches charges meete at the 
 provinciall Councel, or national, if there be 
 
 1 Usii/ry, 
 
 2 Information and accounts of the Deacons. 
 
106 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 any businesse that concerneth their Church. 1 
 Especially, one of the ministers shall not faile, 
 and one of these assistance, to be parties in 
 any generall cause of all the Churches that 
 may be dealt in there, whether it be concern- 
 ing doctrine, or manners. Now a word or two 
 of Excommunication, and Deacons, because I 
 have made mention of them, and then I will 
 shew upon what scriptures these orders are 
 grounded, and compare them with those which 
 we use, and some certaine matters incident 
 to these, and then draw to an end by Gods 
 grace. Excommunication 2 may not be used, 
 but after sundry brotherly and sharpe admoni- 
 tions too, and great occasions, offences, and 
 contempts shewed as the scripture is plaine. 
 And in these cases they are by the persons, 
 and order afore, not shut out of the Church 
 doores, 3 but out of the Church of God, and 
 communion and fellowship of the Saints, they 
 are delivered to Satan, and to be esteemed, 
 and to be no more taken for Christian men, 
 till they repent, then Heathens or Turks are, 
 save that, as they may be allowed, yea and 
 procured if it may be, to come to heare 
 
 1 Who should repaire to the Counsels for the Churches 
 affaires. 
 
 2 Of Excommunication. 
 
 3 Shutting out of the Church door. 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 107 
 
 sermons, so also they may be conferred with 
 by the brethren, to bring them to repentance. 
 But they shall not be allowed to the sacra- 
 ment, the pledge of Christ his league with his 
 Church, until by repentance they may be ad- 
 mitted as afore is said, into the fellowship of 
 the Church againe. Neither shall any brother, 
 or sister, use his or their companie, but to 
 admonish them, and exhort them to repent- 
 ance, or as he or she may the heathens com- 
 panie, for their necessarie affaires in the world, 
 as they may have dealing together : or as a 
 wife, which may not depart from her husband 
 if he will abide with her, 1 and yet shee 
 may be admitted to the fellowship of the 
 congregation, if shee contemne not the doing 
 of the Church, 2 but do her uttermost to 
 call her husband home. In like case, if it 
 were the wife that were excommunicated, he 
 should be admited, and not she. Shortly to 
 say: Excommunication 3 is a fearefull thing 
 as it is prescribed by the Scriptures, and 
 used by the Churches of Christ reformed 
 accordingly. No punishment to it in this 
 
 1 1 Cor. v. 9, 10. 2 1 Cor. vii. 12, 13. 
 
 3 No punishment so grevous in this world as excom- 
 munication. Some sharp punishment must bee provided by 
 the Civill Magistrate for such as contemne excommunica- 
 tion, but with lesse charge then a Significavit. 
 
108 THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 world, but onely hell eternally: for lie that 
 is in it, either he hath his conscience seered 
 with a hote iron, I meane it is brawned, and 
 he hath no feeling, or else he cannot be 
 without a hell in his conscience : for he is out 
 of the fellowship of the Saints, he cannot 
 claime to be of Christs Body, nor that his 
 promises and mercy belong to him, if he seek 
 not to be received by repentance into the 
 Congregation of Christ againe, nor he may not 
 have that comforable pledge of Christ his 
 Supper in fruition with the Church, till his 
 repentance be accepted by that Church. 
 Neither may any other Church receive him till 
 hee have satisfied that Church : but the 
 Minister and Consistory of that Church 
 whereto he newly repaireth, shall enquire from 
 whence he came, and have testimony from 
 thence, and not admit him no more then the 
 other Church: or if otherwise, to answer it 
 at some Conference, or Councell Provinciall 
 or Nationall, And beside, the Civill Magis- 
 trate (the nurse and Foster-father of the 
 Church) shall do well to provide some 
 sharpe punishment for those that contemne 
 this censure and discipline of the Church, 
 for no doubt it is in the degree of blas- 
 phemie, of a Heathen our Saviour saith, that 
 
THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 109 
 
 renounceth God and Christ, and thus much 
 of that. 
 
 A Deacon 1 is an officer of the Church 
 for the behoofe of the poore, chosen to this 
 office by the Congregation, by such meanes as 
 afore is prescribed in the choice of Elders, by 
 advice and consent, being a noted man for 
 godly iudgement, and faithfulnesse, as it is 
 plaine out of the Scriptures that such an one 
 he should be. His office is to visite the poore 
 indeed, to looke diligently what they lack, and 
 how many they be, and what be their names, 
 and to certifie the Consistory : or such a 
 number in one parish they may be, that they 
 shall need a generall contribution, and then the 
 Deacon or Deacons with those of the Con- 
 sistory afore named, may certifie the Councell 
 Provinciall, that a provision may be levied for 
 the sustentation of those poore, which provision 
 shall be delivered into the Deacons hands, to 
 be distributed and turned to the behoofe of 
 that poore, and to give an account of that they 
 distribute, and the rest in their hands to their 
 owne Consistory, for that which is collected 
 there ; or they, and those of the Consistory as 
 afore, to certefie it to the Councell provinciall, 
 for the generall contribution, how it is truly 
 1 What a Deacon is. Acts vi. 3. 
 
no THOMAS CARTWRIGHT 
 
 imployed. This office howsoever Papistry hath 
 converted it or perverted it, is an office need- 
 full, and commanded to the Church of God, used 
 by the Jewes before the comming of Christ, 1 
 Christ himself using in his small company to 
 have one to beare provision for the poore: 
 the Apostles tooke it up in the Church of 
 Jerusalem. The Apostle Paul not onely 
 maketh mention of that office to the Romans, 
 shewing thereby that it was there; 2 but he 
 and Timothy saluteth them, writing to the 
 Phillippians, shewing thereby that they were of 
 great accompt. And writing to Timothy, he 
 prescribeth their election what it should be, to 
 direct not onely the choice of them, but to 
 commend the use of them to the Church. a 
 And therefore such there must be procured in 
 this English Church, as at this day there is in 
 Reformed Churches. 
 
 1 Luke, xxi. 4; Joh. xiii. 29. 2 Acts vi. 13. 
 
 3 Phil i. 1 ; 1 Tim. iii. 8. 
 
THE MARPRBLATE LIBELS 
 
 [The immediate causes which led to the Marprelate 
 controversy were these : — Archbishop Whitgift, in 
 1583, met the attempt of Cartwright and Travers 
 to establish their 'Book of Discipline/ by com- 
 pelling subscription to three articles : (1) The Royal 
 Supremacy, (2) The Book of Common Prayer, (3) 
 The Articles of 1562. The Puritans now based 
 their hopes on the Parliament of 1584, and with 
 this end in view, The Practice of Prelates was 
 published by Tyndal. It was the first of the series 
 which reached its last term in the Marprelate libels, 
 and was scarcely less coarse than they. The 
 attempt of 1584 was a failure ; and, when it was 
 renewed in 1586, the House refused to allow the 
 Bill to be introduced. From this time the flow of 
 Puritan tracts, which had begun about 1570, in- 
 creased both in number and violence ; and, in 1587 
 Dr John Bridges wrote his Defence in answer to 
 them. This led next year (1588) to the first of the 
 Marprelate tracts the Epistle, which we here in 
 part reproduce. The Epitome followed very shortly 
 after ; and in 1589 nearly all the other tracts were 
 issued. Bishop Cooper's Admonition came out early 
 in that year, and the Queen's Proclamation against 
 certain seditious and schism atical books and libels 
 is dated February 13, 1589 (N.S.). 
 
U2 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 Tlteses Martinianae, or Martin Juniar is dated 
 July 22 nd ; the Just Censure and Reproof e of Martin 
 Senior, July 29th. In August a press that Penry 
 had set up in Manchester was seized, at the 
 instigation of the Earl of Derby, while printing 
 More worke for Cooper, but, nothing daunted, 
 Penry continued his printing operations elsewhere. 
 
 The attack of the anti-Martinists began in the 
 same month with ' A Countercuffe, given to Martin 
 Junior by the venturous, hardie and renowned 
 Pasquill of England, Caviliero/ which is dated 
 August 8th. Next followed Pappe with an Hatchet. 
 The Return of Pasquil is dated October 20th, and 
 close upon this An Almond for a Parrat appeared. 
 In the winter a final squib was fired, ' Martins 
 Months minde that is, a certaine Report and true 
 Description of Death and Funeralls of olde Martin 
 Marre-prelate, the great Makebate of England and 
 Father of the Factions, contayning the cause of his 
 death, the manner of his buriall, and the right 
 copies both of his will and such epitaphs,' etc. 
 
 On the Martinist side the Protestatyon of Martin 
 Marprelate appeared in September, and the answer 
 to Bishop Cooper's Admonition, called Hay any 
 Worke for Cooper, seems from internal evidence to 
 have been published in the Winter of 1589. ' Ha' 
 ye any work for John Cooper ' was one of the cries 
 of London at the time ; and Martin had recognised 
 the good Bishop in the initials ' T. C.,' which had 
 appeared on the Admonition. In January 29th, 
 1590 (N.S.), Penry's house was searched, but he was 
 not arrested. Shortly afterwards, however, the 
 mayor was directed to apprehend him as a traitor. 
 He hid himself, and escaped to Scotland, having 
 first issued his defiant ( Appellation of John Penri 
 unto the Highe court of Parliament.' In Scotland 
 he preached openly ; and issued a ' Treatise ' in 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS rig 
 
 favour of reformation, the answer to which, The 
 First Parte of Pasquils Apologie, brought the 
 Marprelate controversy to an end in the same 
 year 1590. Two years later, September 1592, the 
 excitement having subsided, Penry had the rashness 
 to leave Edinburgh for London, where he presented 
 an address to the Queen, which began, 'Madam, 
 you are not so much any adversary to us poor men, 
 as unto Jesus Christ and the commonwealth of his 
 Kingdom . ' In March 1593, he was arrested, 
 charged with inciting to rebellion and insurrection, 
 on the evidence not of his printed works but of 
 MS. notes found in his possession, and executed in 
 May. He was born in 1559, and thus was twenty- 
 nine when the Epistle was produced. 
 
 The authorship of the Martinist pamphlets is 
 shrouded in some mystery. But it is at least 
 certain that John Penry the Welshman was the 
 prime mover in the matter, and the manager of the 
 secret press. He was probably the original Martin, 
 though the names of Barrow, John Udall, Job 
 Throckmorton and Fenner have also been suggested ; 
 but Penry was not the only writer on that side, as 
 might be gathered from An Almond for a Parrot 
 quoted below. We may accept Mr Arber's conclu- 
 sion (' Introd. Sketch of the Marpr. Cont.' 1880) that 
 Penry was the principal writer, assisted by Throck- 
 morton, a Puritan country gentleman, and with 
 the use of some memoranda of John Udall, who 
 himself disliked this method of controversy. 
 
 The Epistle was secretly printed by Penry and 
 Waldegrave in Mistress Crane's country-house at 
 East Moulesey, in Surrey, about Michaelmas 15S8. 
 Waldegrave was engaged to superintend the 
 technical arrangements : Penry corrected the 
 proofs, and paid the two compositors. About a 
 fifth part of it is here reproduced as a fair specimen 
 
ii4 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 of the whole. In fact, both in this and his other 
 pamphlets, Martin harped pretty much on the same 
 string.] 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE S 'EPISTLE: 
 Oh read over D. John Bridges, for it 
 
 IS A WORTHY WORKE 
 
 . 1 
 
 Or an epitome of the 
 
 fyrste booke of that right worshipfull vo- 
 
 lume, written against the Puritans, in the defence 
 
 of the noble cleargie, by as worshipfull a prieste, John 
 
 Bridges, Presbyter, Priest or elder, doctor of Divillitie, 
 
 and Deane of Sarum. Wherein the arguments 
 
 of the puritans are wisely prevented, that 
 
 when they come to answere M. Doctor, 
 
 they must needes say something 
 
 that hath beene spoken. 
 
 Compiled for the behoofe and overthrow 
 
 of the Parsons, Fyckers, and Currats, that have lernt 
 
 their Catechismes, and are past grace : By the 
 
 reverend and worthie Martin Marprelate 
 
 gentleman, and dedicated to the 
 
 Confocationhouse. 
 
 The Epitome is not yet published, but it shall 
 
 be when the Bishops are at convenient leysure to 
 
 view the same. In the meanetime, let them 
 
 be content with this learned Epistle. 
 
 1 Pp. 1-8. Dr John Bridges was Dean of Salisbury in 
 1587, when he wrote a large 4to of 1,401 pages called 
 ' A Defence of the Government established in the 
 Church of England,' etc. This is the book here sarcastic- 
 ally recommended. Bridges became Bishop of Oxford in 
 1603. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 115 
 
 Printed oversea, in Europe, within two fur- 
 
 longs of a Bounsing Priest, at the cost and 
 
 charges of M. Marprelate, gentleman. 
 
 To the 
 
 Right Puisante, and terrible Priests, 
 
 my cleargie masters of the Confocat ion-house, 
 
 whether fickers general!, worshipfull Paltripolitane, 
 
 or any other of the holy league of subscription : 
 
 this worke I recommend unto them with all my heart, with 
 
 a desire to see them all so provided for one day, 
 
 as I would wish, which I promise them 
 
 shall not at all be to their hurt. 
 
 Right poysond, persecuting and terrible 
 priests, the theame of mine Epistle, unto your 
 venerable master-domes, is of two parts (and 
 the Epitome of our brother Bridges his booke, 
 shall come out speedily). First, most pitifully 
 complayning, Martin Marprelate, &c. Secondly, 
 may it please your good worships, &c. 
 
 Most pitifully complayning therefore, you are 
 to understand, that D. Bridges hath written 
 in your defence, a most senceless book, and I 
 cannot very often at one breath come to a full 
 point, when I read the same. 
 
 Againe, may it please you to give me leave 
 to play the Duns for the nonce as well as he, 
 otherwise dealing with master doctors booke, I 
 cannot keepe decorum personoe. And may it 
 please you, if I be too absurd in any place 
 (either in this Epistle, or that Epitome) to ride 
 
n6 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 to Sarum, and thanke his Deanship for it. 
 Because I could not deal with his book 
 commendablie according to order, unless I 
 should be sometimes tediously dunsticall and 
 absurd. For I have heard som cleargie men 
 say, that M. Bridges was a verie patch and a 
 duns, when he was in Cambridg. And some 
 say, saving your reverence that are Bb. 1 that 
 he is as very a knave, and enemy unto the 
 sinceritie of religion, as any popish prelate in 
 Rome. But the patche can doe the cause of 
 sinceritie no hurt. Naye, he hath in this booke 
 wonderfully graced the same by writing against 
 it. For I have hard some say, that whosoever 
 will read his booke, shall as evidently see 
 the goodnes of the cause of reformation, and 
 the poore poore, poore nakednes of your 
 government, as almost in reading all master 
 Cartwright's workes. This was a very great 
 oversight in his grace of Cant. 2 to suffer such 
 a booke to come out. For besides that an 
 Archb. is very weakely defended by masse 
 Deane, he hath also by this meanes provoked 
 many to write against his gracious fatherhood, 
 who perhaps never ment to take pen in hand. 
 And brother Bridges, mark what Martin tels 
 you, you will shortly I hope have twenty fistes 
 
 1 Bishops. 2 Canterbury : see p. 127, note. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 117 
 
 about your eares more the your own. Take 
 heed of writing against Puritanes while you 
 live, yet they say that his grace woulde not 
 have the booke to be published, and if you 
 marke, you shall not find seene and allowed in 
 the title of the booke. Well fare old mother 
 experience yet, the burnt childe dreads the fire : 
 his grace will cary to his grave I warrant you, 
 the blowes which M. Cartwright gave him in 
 this cause : and therefore no marvell though he 
 was loth to have any other so banged as he 
 himselfe was to his woe. Others say that John 
 Cant, oversawe every proofe. If he did, then 
 he oversaw many a foule salecisme, many 
 a senceles period, and far more slanders. 
 Slanders my friends ? I thinke so. For what 
 will you say, if our brother Bridges, and our 
 cosen Cosins, with manye others, have had 
 their grace of the Bb. ad practicandum 
 in Flanders? Howe could their govern- 
 ment stand, unles they should slander 
 their brethren, and make her Maiestie be- 
 leeve, that the Church gouernment prescribed 
 in the worde, would overthrow her regi- 
 ment, if it were received in our Church, and 
 that the seekers of reformation, are a sort 
 of Malcontents, and enemies unto the state. 
 Item may it please your worthy worshipps, 
 
n8 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 to receive this courteously to favour at my 
 hand, without choller or laughing. For my L. 1 
 of Winchester is very chollericke and peevish, 
 so are his betters at Lambeth, and D. Cosins 
 hath a very good grace in iesting, 2 and I woulde 
 he had a little more grace, and a handful or 
 two more of learning, against he answer the 
 Abstract next. Nay beleeve me, it is inough 
 for him to answere the Counterpoyson. 3 And 
 I am none of the malicious sectaries, whereof 
 John of London 4 spake the last Lent, 1588, 
 in his letters written to the Archdeacon of 
 Essex, to forbid publike fastes. Ha, ha, D. 
 Copcot are ye there, why do not you answere 
 the confutation of your sermon at Pauls crosse? 
 It is a shame for your grace John of Cant, 
 that Cartwrights 5 bookes have been now a 
 
 1 Lord. 
 
 2 The allusion is to the ' Abstract of certain Acts of 
 Parliament of certain Injunctions,' &c, published in 
 1584, to which Dr Cosins replied by authority of Arch- 
 bishop Whitgift the same year. 
 
 3 Republished in A Parte of a Register. 
 * John Aylmer, Bishop of London. 
 
 5 See In trod, note to Cartwright's Admonition. As 
 a matter of fact Whitgift did reply to the Admonition, 
 and, on Cartwright's writing a rejoinder, replied again, 
 but when Cartwright produced a further Replie no one 
 answered him. Hence the complaint. But a controversie 
 had to end somewhere, even in the sixteenth century. 
 This boast of victory was answered in Almond for a 
 Paratt thus : * Therefore first I would know of sweete 
 M. sauce malapert whether he would have the care of the 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 119 
 
 dozen yeares almost unanswered : you first 
 provoked him to write and you first have 
 received the foyle. If you can answer those 
 books, why do you suffer the Puritans to insult 
 and reioyce at your silence. If you cannot, 
 why are you an Archb. He hath prooved 
 the calling to be unlawfull and Antichristian. 
 You dare not stand to the defence of it. Now 
 most pitifully complayneth, M. Marprelate, 
 desireth you either to aunswere what hathe 
 beene written against the gracelesnes of your 
 Archbishoprick, or to give over the same, and 
 to be a meanes that no byshop in the land, be 
 a Lord any more. I hope one day her Maiestie 
 will either see that the L. Bb. proove their 
 calling lawfull by the word, or as John of 
 London prophesied saying, come downe you 
 bishopps from your thousands, and content you 
 with your hundreds, let your diet be pristlike 
 and not princelik, &c, quoth John Elmar in 
 his Harborow of faithful subiects. 1 But I 
 
 Commonwealth . . resigned to the retorting of T. C. 
 his unreverent railings. ' The gravity and mildness of the 
 one, it continues, could not stoop to the jangling levity of 
 the other ; and ' as there is nothing more unseemly then 
 to aunswere the froward, so there is nothing more profit- 
 able then scilence to such as are provokt.' See also p. 85. 
 1 Bishop Aylmer's An Harborowe for Faithfull and 
 Trewe Subiectes against the late blowne Blaste conceminge the 
 Government of Wemen was a reply to John Knox's 'First 
 
120 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 pray you B. John dissolve this one question 
 to your brother Martin : if this prophesie of 
 yours come to passe in your dayes, who shal 
 be B. of London ? And will you not sweare 
 as commonly you do, like a lewd swag, and 
 say, by my faith, by my faith my masters, this 
 geare goeth hard with us. Nowe may it please 
 your grace with y e rest of your worships, to 
 procure that the Puritans may one day have 
 a free disputation with you, about y e contro- 
 versies of the Church, and if you be not set at 
 a flat non plus, and quite over throwen, ile be a 
 Lord B. my selfe : looke to your selves, I thinke 
 you have not long to raigne. Amen. And take 
 heed brethren of your reverend and learned 
 brother, Martin Marprelate. For he meaneth 
 in these reasons following I can tell you, to 
 prove that you ought not to be maintained 
 by the authoritie of the Magistrate, in any 
 Christian commonwealth : Martin is a shrewd 
 fellow, and reasoneth thus. Those that are 
 pettie popes and pettie Antichrists, ought not 
 to be maintained in anie Christian common- 
 Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of 
 Women,' q.v. Aylmer comes in for a good deal of abuse 
 at Marprelate's hands, for he was an active member of 
 the High Commission Court, and it was through him 
 that Cartwright was imprisoned in 1584 ; but in theology 
 he differed little from his victims, for the ffarborowe is 
 full of extreme Puritan opinions. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 121 
 
 wealth. But everie Lord B. in England, as 
 for ilsample, John of Cant., John of London, 
 John Excetor, John Rochester, Thomas of 
 Winchester. The B. of Lincolne, of Worcester, 
 of Peterborow, and to be briefe, all the Bb. in 
 England, Wales, and Ireland, are pettie popes, 
 and pettie Antichristes. 1 Therefore no Lord B. 
 (now I pray thee good Martin speake out, if 
 ever thou diddest speake out, that hir Maiestie 
 and the counsell may heare thee) is to be toller- 
 ated in any christian commonwelth : and there- 
 fore neither John of Cant. John of London, &c, 
 are to be tollerated in any christian common- 
 wealth. What say you now brother Bridges is 
 it good writing against Puritanes. Can you 
 denie any part of your learned brother Martin 
 his syllogisme. 2 We denie your minor M. Mar- 
 prelate say the Bb. and their associats. Yea 
 my learned masters, are you good at that? what 
 do you brethren ? say me that againe ? do you 
 denie my minor ? And that be all you can say, 
 to denie L. Bb. to be pettie popes, turne me 
 loose to the priests in y fc point, for I am olde 
 suersvie at the proofe of such matters, ile 
 
 1 What malapert knaves are these that cannot be content 
 to stand by and here, but they must teach a gentleman how 
 to speahe. 
 
 2 Looke the doctors booke, page 107, line 20 ; and page 
 113, line 13. 
 
 H 
 
122 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 presently marre the fashion of their Lord- 
 ships. 
 
 They are pettie popes, and pettie Antichrists, 
 whosoever usurpe the authority of pastors 
 over them, who by the ordinance of God, are 
 to bee under no pastors. For none but Anti- 
 christian popes and popelings ever claimed this 
 authoritie unto themselves, especiallie when it 
 was gainsaid, and accounted Antichristian, 
 generally by the most Churches in the world. 
 But our L. bishops usurpe authoritie over 
 those, who by the ordinance of God, are to be 
 under no pastors, and that in such an age, 
 as wherein this authoritie is gainsaid, and 
 accounted Antichristian, generally by all the 
 Churches in the world for y e most part. 
 Therefore our L. Bb. what sayest thou man, 
 our L. bishopps, (I say) as John of Canterburie, 
 Thomas of Winchester (I will spare John of 
 London for this time, for it may be he is at 
 boules, 1 and it is a pitie to trouble my good 
 brother, lest he should sweare too bad) my 
 reverend prelate of Lichfielde, 2 with the rest 
 of that swinishe rable, are pettie Antichrists, 
 pettie popes, proud prelates, intolerable with- 
 
 1 The game. 
 
 2 M. Marprelate you put more than the question in the 
 conclusion of your syllogisme. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 123 
 
 standers of reformation, enemies of the gospell, 
 and most covetous wretched priests. This is a 
 pretie matter, y fc standers by, must be so busie 
 in other mens games : why sawceboxes must 
 you be pratling ? you are as mannrely as 
 bishops, in medling with that you have nothing 
 to doe, as they do in taking upon them civill 
 offices. I thinke for any maners either they or 
 you have, that you were brought up in 
 Bridewell. But it is well that since you last 
 interrupted me (for now this is the second 
 time) you seeme to have lernt your Cato de 
 moribus in that you keepe your selves on the 
 margent. Woulde you be answered? Then 
 you must know, that I have set downe 
 nothing but the trueth in the conclusion, 
 and the syllogismes are mine owne, I may 
 do what I will with them, and thus holde 
 you content. But what say you my horned 
 masters of the Confocation house? you denie 
 my minor againe I know. And thus I proove 
 it. First 
 
 That our Prelates usurpe their authorities 
 
 They usurpe their authoritie, who violently 
 and unlawfully, retaine those under their 
 government, that both woulde and ought (if 
 they might) to shake of that yoke wherewith 
 
124 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 they are kept under. But our Lord bishops 
 retaine such (namely other pastors) and unlaw- 
 fully under their yoke, who both woulde and 
 ought to reiect the same. For all the pastors 
 in the land, that deserve the names of pastors, 
 are against their wil under the bishops iurisdic- 
 tions. And they are unlawfully detained by 
 them, because no pastor can be lawfully kept 
 under the pastoral (I meane not the civill) 
 authoritie of any one man. Therfore our Bb. 
 and proud popish, presumptuous, profane, 
 paultrie, pestilent and pernicious prelates, 
 bishop of Hereforde and all : are first usurpers 
 to beginne the matter withall. 
 Secondly 
 
 Our Prelates claime this authoritie over those, 
 who by the ordinance of God, are to be 
 under no Pastors. 
 
 That is, they claime pastorall authoritie over 
 other ministers and pastors, who by the 
 ordinaunce of God, are appointed to be 
 pastors and shepheards to feede others, and 
 not sheep, or such as are to have shepheards, 
 by whom they are to be fedd and overseene : 
 which authoritie the bishops claime unto 
 themselves. For they say that they are 
 pastors of al the pastors within their dioces. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 125 
 
 And take this of M. Marprelates worde, that 
 there is no pastor of pastors, but he is a pope. 
 For who but a pope will claime this authoritie. 
 Thirdly, 
 
 This authoritie of our L. Bb. in England, is 
 accounted Antichristian of the most 
 Churches in the worlde. 
 
 As of the Heluetian, the Scottish, French, 
 Bohemian, and the Churches of the low 
 countries, the Churches of Polonia, Denmarke, 
 within the dominions of the Count Palatine, 
 of the Churches in Saxonie, and Swevia, &c. 
 which you shall see evidently proved in the 
 Harmonie of the Confessions of all those 
 Churches, Section the eleventh. Which Har- 
 monie, was translated and printed by that 
 puritan Cambridg printer, Thomas Thomas. 1 
 And although the booke came out by publike 
 authoritie, yet by your leave the Bishops have 
 called them in, as things against their state. 
 And trust me, his grace will owe that puritane 
 printer as good as turne, as hee paide unto 
 
 1 Thomas Thomas was an M.A. of King's College, and 
 the author of a Dictionary (1588) ; he was licensed printer 
 to the University in 1582. When the translation of the 
 Harmony was being printed, 1586, Whitgift ordered 
 the Vice- Chancellors and Heads to stop it : but it was 
 published the same year, with * alowed by publique 
 authoritie ' in the title-page. 
 
126 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 Robert Walde-grave for his sawciness in print- 
 ing my frend and deare brother Diotrephes his 
 Dialogue. 1 Well frend Thomas I warne you 
 before hand, look to your selfe. 
 
 Well nowe to mine eloquence, for I can doe 
 it I tell you. Who made the porter of his gate 
 a dumb minister ? Dumbe John of London. 2 
 Who abuseth her Maiesties subiects, in urging 
 them to subscribe contrary to lawe ? John of 
 London. Who abuseth the high commission, 
 as much as any? John London, (and D. 
 Stanop to), Whoe bound an Essex minister, in 
 £200 to weare the surplice on Easter day last ? 
 John London. Who hath cut downe the 
 Elmes at Fulham ? 3 John London. Who is a 
 carnall defender of the breache of the Sabboth 
 in all the places of his abode ? John London. 
 Who forbiddeth men to humble themselves in 
 fasting and prayer before the Lorde, and then 
 
 1 This famous dialogue is called ' The State of the 
 Church of England laide open in a Conference between 
 Diotrephes a Byshoppe, Tertullus a Papiste, Demetrius 
 a Usurer, Pandochus an Inne-keeper, and Paul a preacher 
 of the Word of God.' See A Parte of a Register. 
 
 2 Aylmer had been tutor to Lady Jane Grey, and was a 
 zealous reformer in Edward VI. 's reign. It was he who, by 
 his sermon against dress, drew from Elizabeth the threat 
 that ' If he held more discourse of such matters, she 
 would fit him for heaven ; but he should walk thither 
 without a staff, and leave his mantle behind him.' 
 
 3 lie make you weary of it dumbe John, except you leave 
 persecuting. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 127 
 
 can say unto the preachers, now you were best 
 to tell the people, that we forbidd fastes? 
 John London. Who goeth to bowles upon the 
 Sabboth? Dumbe dunsticall John of good 
 London, hath done all this. 
 
 Now may it please you to examine my 
 worthines your brother Martin, and see 
 whether I saide not true in the storie of Gyles 
 Wiggington, where I have set downe, y fc the 
 preaching of the word is an heresie, which his 
 grace x doth mortally abhorre and persecute, I 
 can proove it without doubt. And first that 
 he persecuteth the preaching of the worde 
 (whether it be an heresie or not) both in the 
 preacher and the hearer : the articles of sub- 
 scription, the silencing of so many learned and 
 worthy preachers do evidently shew, and if 
 you doubt hereof, let my worshipp understand 
 thereof, and in my next treatize, I shal prove 
 the matter to be cleare with a witnes, and I 
 hope to your smal commendations, that will 
 
 1 "Whitgif t. In apite of his undoubted severity, Mosheim 
 says of him that he was ' disinterested, consistent, 
 single-minded, liberal, and discerning above most men. 
 His great natural blemish was hastiness of temper. This, 
 however, he corrected by a spirit so thoroughly con- 
 siderate and forgiving that his friends rather apprehended 
 from him undue levity.' But 'when principle was at 
 stake he would make no compromise.' He was an 
 extreme Calvinist, and, in 1595, drew up the famous, or 
 infamous, Lambeth Articles. See also p. 85-6. 
 
128 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 deny such a cleare point. On the other side, 
 that he accounteth preaching to be an heresie, 
 I am now to insist on the proofe of that poynt. 
 But first you must know, that he did not 
 account simple preaching to be an heresie, but 
 to holde that preaching is the onely ordinary 
 meanes to saluation, this he accounteth as an 
 heresie, this he mortally condemned. The case 
 thus stoode, John Penrie the welsheman (I 
 thinke his grace and my brother London, would 
 be better acquain 1 with him and they could 
 tell howe) about the beginning of Lent, 1587, 
 offered a supplication and a booke to the 
 Parliament, entreating that some order might 
 be taken, for calling his countrie unto the 
 knowledge of God. For his bolde attempt, he 
 was called before his grace with others of the 
 high commission, as Thomas of Winchester, 
 John London, &c. After that his grace had 
 eased his stomacke in calling him boy, knave, 
 varlet, slanderer, libeller, lewde boy, lewd 
 slanderer, &c, (this is true, for I have seene the 
 notes of their conference 2 ) at the length a poynt 
 of his booke began to be examined, where non- 
 residents are thought intolerable. Here the 
 Lorde of good London asked M. Penrie, what 
 
 1 [ted]. 
 
 2 They were reprinted in A Parte of a, Register. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 129 
 
 he could say against that kind of cattell, 
 aunswere was made that they were odious in the 
 sight of God and man, because as much as in 
 them lie, they bereave the people over whom 
 they thrust themselves, of the ordinarie meanes 
 of salvation, which was the word preached. 
 John London demaunded whether preaching 
 was the onely meanes to salvation ? Penrie 
 answered, that it was the onely ordinarie 
 meanes, although the Lorde was not so tyed 
 unto it, but that hee could extraordinarily use 
 other meanes. That preaching was the onely 
 ordinary meanes, he confirmed it by those 
 places of Scripture, Rom. x. 14, 1 Cor. i. 21, 
 Ephes. i. 13. This point being a long time 
 canvassed, at the length his worship of 
 Winchester rose up, and mildly after his 
 manner, brast forth into these words. I assure 
 you my Lords, it is an execrable heresie : An 
 heresie (quoth John Penry) I thanke God that 
 ever I knewe that heresie ; It is such an heresie, 
 that I will by the grace of God, sooner leave 
 my life then I will leave it. What sir, (quoth 
 the Archb.) I tell thee it is an heresie, and thou 
 shalt recant it as an heresie? Naye (quoth 
 Penrie) never so long as I live godwilling. I 
 will leave this storie for shame, I am weary to 
 hear your grace so absurd. What say you to 
 
130 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 this geare my masters of the confocation house ? 
 we shal have shortly a good religion in England 
 among the bishops ? if Paule be sayd of them 
 to write an heresie. 
 
 But lest you should thinke, that he hath not 
 as good a gift in speaking against his con- 
 science, as my L. of Cant, is endued with : 
 you are to understand, that both in that 
 sermon of his, and in another which he 
 preached at the court the same Lent, he pro- 
 tested before God, and the congregation where 
 he stood, 1 y* there was not in the world at thi& 
 day : nay there had not bin since the Apostles 
 time, such a flourishing estate of the Church, 
 as we have now in England. Is it any mar- 
 vaile that we have so many swine, dumbe 
 dogs, nonresidents, with their iournemen the 
 hedge priests, so many lewd livers, as theeves, 
 murtherers, adulterers, drunkards, cormorants, 
 raschals, so many ignorant and atheistical 
 dolts, so many covetous popish Bb. in our 
 ministry : and so many and so monstrous cor- 
 ruptions in our Church, and yet likely to have 
 no redresse : Seeing our impudent, shamelesse, 
 and wainscote faced bishops, like beasts, con- 
 trary to the knowledge of all men, and against 
 
 1 A flattering hypocrit. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 131 
 
 their own consciences, dare in the eares of her 
 Maiestie, affirme all to be well, where there is 
 nothing but sores and blisters, yea where the 
 grief is even deadly at the heart. Nay saies 
 my L. of Winchester (like a monstrous hypo- 
 crite, for he is a very duns, not able to defende 
 an argument, but till he come to the pinch, 
 he will cog and face it out, for his face is 
 made of seasoned wainscot, and wil lie as fast 
 as a dog can trot) I have said it, I doe say it, 
 and I have said it. And say I, you shall one 
 day answere it (without repentance) for abus- 
 ing the Church of God and her Maiestie in 
 this sort. I would wish you leave this 
 villanie, and the rest of your divellishe 
 practises against God his saintes, lest you 
 answer it where your pievish and chollerick 
 simplicitie will not excuse you. I am 
 ashamed to think that the Churche of Eng- 
 land shoulde have these wretches for the 
 eyes thereof, that woulde have the people 
 content themselves with bare reading onely, 
 and holde that they may be saved thereby 
 ordinarily. 
 
132 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 Conditions of Peace to he inviolablie kept for 
 ever, betweene the reverend and worthy 
 master Martin Marprelate gentleman on 
 the onepartie, and the reverend fathers his 
 brethren, the Lord bishops of this landed 
 
 1. In primis, the said Lord Bb. must 
 promise and observe, without fraud or col- 
 lusion, and that as much as in them lyeth, 
 they labor to promote the preaching of the 
 worde in every part of this land. 
 
 2. That hereafter they admitt none unto the 
 ministerie, but such as shalbe knowen, both 
 for their godlinesse and learning, to be fit for 
 the ministerie, and not these neyther without 
 cure, unlesse they be Colledge ministers of 
 eyther of the Universities, and in no case they 
 suffer any to be nonresidents : and that they 
 suffer M. Cartwrightes answere to the Rhemish 
 Testament to be published. 
 
 1 It is not merely in jest that Marprelate proposes 
 these conditions. The Puritans, it must be remembered, 
 were perfectly confident of success ; indeed, among some 
 papers seized by the Archbishop's officers in this very 
 year, 1588, we find evidence that they had already begun 
 to allot the spoil, and to discuss, ' how, when all the 
 Church's revenues that there were should be converted 
 to maintain their presbyteries, her Majesty should be 
 recompensed for her first-fruits and tenths, for that they 
 would pay none, as being unlawful.' (Strype's Life of 
 Whitgift, 292.) 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 133 
 
 3. That neyther they nor their servants, vz. 
 their Archdeacons, Chancellors, nor any other 
 of the high commission, which serve their vile 
 affections, urge any to subscribe contrary to 
 the statute 13. Eliza, and that they suspend 
 or silence none, but such, as either for their 
 false doctrine, or evill life, shall show them- 
 selves, to be unworthy the places of ministers : 
 so that none be suspended or silenced, eyther 
 for speaking (when their text giveth them 
 occasion) against the corruptions of the Church, 
 for refusing to weare the surplice, cap, tippet, 1 
 &c, or omitting the corruptions of the book of 
 common prayers, as churching of women, the 
 crosse in baptisme, the ring in marriage, &c. 
 
 4. That none be molested by them or any 
 their aforesaid servants, for this my booke, 
 for not kneeling at the communion, or for 
 resorting on the Saboth (if they have not 
 preachers of their owne) to heare the word 
 preached, and to receive the Sacraments. 
 
 5. Lastly, that never hereafter they profane 
 excommunication as they have done, by ex- 
 communicating alone in their chambers, and 
 that for trifles : yes before mens causes be 
 heard. That they never forbid publike fasts, 
 molest either preacher, or hearer, for being 
 
 1 Now generally known as the black scarf. 
 
134 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 present at such assemblies. Briefly, that they 
 never slander the cause of reformation, or the 
 furtherers thereof, in terming the cause of the 
 name of Anabaptisterie, schisme, &c., and the 
 men puritans, and enemies to the state. 
 
 These be the conditions, which you brethren 
 bishops, shalbe bound to keepe inviolably on 
 your behalfe. And I your brother Martin on 
 the other side, do faithfully promise upon the 
 performaunce of the premisses by you, never to 
 make any more of your knavery knowne unto 
 the worlde. And howbeit that I have before 
 threatened my brother Bridges, in the cause 
 of his superior priest, and your Antichristian 
 callings : notwithstanding, I will write no more 
 of your dealings, unles you violate the former 
 conditions. The conditions you see, are so 
 reasonable, I might binde you to give over 
 your places which are Antichristian : but I 
 doe not, lest men shoulde thinke me to quarrell, 
 and seeke occasions for the nonce to fall out 
 with my brethren. Therefore I require no 
 more but such things as all the worlde will 
 thinke you unworthy to live, if you grant them 
 not. And this I doe the rather, because you 
 should not, according to your olde fashion, say 
 yt m y worship doth for mallice lay open your 
 infirmities : nay I have published not one of 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 135 
 
 your secret falts, what you have not blushed 
 to commit in the face of the sun, and in the 
 iustifing whereof you yet stand, these things 
 onely have I published. The best servants of 
 God I know, have their infirmities. But none 
 of them will stand in the maintenance of their 
 corruptions as you do, and that to the dis- 
 honour of God and the ruine of his Church. 
 You must either amend, or shortly you will 
 bring our church to ruine : therefore it is 
 time that your dealings were better looked 
 unto. 
 
 You will go about I know, to prove my 
 booke to be a libell, but I have prevented you 
 of y fc advantage in lawe, both in bringing in 
 nothing but matters of fact, whiche may easily 
 be prooved, if you dare denie them : and also 
 in setting my name to my booke. Well I 
 offer you peace upon the former conditions, if 
 you will keepe them, but if you violate them 
 either in whole or in part (for why should you 
 breake anye one of them) then your learned 
 brother Martin doth proclaime open war against 
 you, and entendeth to worke your woe 2 
 maner of wayes as followeth. First I will 
 watch you at every halfe turne, and whatso- 
 ever you do amisse, I will presently publish 
 it : you shall not call one honest man before 
 
136 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 you, but I will get his examination x (and you 
 thinke I shall knowe nothing of the oppression 
 of your tenants by your briberie, &c.) and 
 publish it, if you deal not according to the 
 former conditions. To this purpose I wil 
 place a young Martin 2 in everie diocesse, which 
 may take notice of you practizes. Do you 
 think that you shalbe suffred any longer, to 
 break the law of God, and to tyrannize over 
 his people her Maiesties subiects, and no man 
 tell you of it ? No, I warrant you. And rather 
 then I will be disappointed of my purpose, 
 I will place a Martin in everie parish. In part 
 of Suffolk and Essex, I thinke I were best to 
 have 2 in a parishe. I hope in time they 
 shalbe as worthie Martins as their father is, 
 every one of them able to mar a prelate. Marke 
 what wil be the issue of these things, if you 
 still keep your olde byas. I knowe you would 
 not have your dealings so knowne unto the 
 
 1 I.e. his cross-examination at the hands of the Com- 
 missioners. Some of these were published in the well- 
 known collection of tracts A Parte of a Register, They 
 naturally formed a useful kind of minor martyrology. 
 
 2 The Puritans, soon after 1580, began to hold frequent 
 provincial assemblies. At one of these, in London, 1588, 
 it was agreed * that the oppressions offered to others, 
 and especially to the Ministers, by the Bishops and the 
 Bishop's officers, and by their courts should be gathered 
 and registered.' Strype observes that this is according to 
 the ( young Martin ' threat. 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 137 
 
 worlde, as I and my sonnes will blase them. 
 Secondly, al the books that I have in store 
 already of your doings, shalbe published upon 
 the breache of the former covenants or any 
 of them. 
 
 Men when commonly they dedicate bookes 
 unto any, enter into commendations of those 
 unto whom they write. But I care not an I 
 owe you my cleargie masters a commenda- 
 tions, and pay you when you better deserve 
 it. In stead thereof, I will give you 
 some good counsel and advice, which if you 
 followe, I assure you it will be the better 
 for you. 
 
 First I would advise you as before I have 
 said, to set at libertie all the preachers that 
 you have restrained from preaching : otherwise 
 it shalbe the worse for you, my reason is this. 
 The people are altogether discontented for 
 want of teachers. Some of them alreadie 
 runne into corners, and more are like, because 
 you keepe the meanes of knowledge from 
 them. Running into corners will breed Ana- 
 baptistrie, Anabaptistrie will allienate the 
 heartes of the subiects from their lawfull 
 governour. And you are the cause hereof. 
 And wil not her Maiestie then think you, 
 require the hearts of her subiectes at your 
 
138 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 handes, when she shal understand that they 
 are alienated (as God forbid they should) from 
 her by your means? Yes I warrant you. 
 And if they should put up a supplication unto 
 her highnesse, that their preachers might be 
 restored unto them, I doubt not but they 
 should be heard. I can tell you she tendreth 
 the estate of her people, and will not dis- 
 courage their hearts, in casting of their suits, 
 to maynetaine your pride and covetousnesse : 
 you were then better to set the preachers at 
 libertie, then to suffer your cruelty and evill 
 dealing to be made known unto her. For so 
 they shall be sure I doubt not to prevaile in 
 their suit, and you to go by the worse. And 
 try if her Maiestie be not shortly mooved in 
 this suit. To it my masters roundly, you that 
 meane to deale herein, and on my life you set 
 the prelats in such a quandare, as they shal not 
 know wher to stand. Now M. Prelates I will 
 give you some more counsell, follow it. Re- 
 pent cleargie men, and especially bishopps, 
 preach sayth Bb. and sweare no more by it, 
 give over your Lordly callings : reform your 
 families and your children : They are the 
 patterne of loosenesse, withstand not the 
 knowen truth no longer : you have seduced 
 her Maiestie and her people. Praye her 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 139 
 
 Maiestie to forgive you, and the Lord first to 
 put away your sinnes. Your government is 
 Antichristian, decieve the Lord no longer 
 thereby : you wil grow from evil to worse 
 unlesse betimes you return. You are now 
 worse then you were 29 yeeres ago : write no 
 more against the cause of reformation : your 
 ungodlinesse is made more manifest by your 
 writings : And because you cannot answer 
 what hath bene written against you, yeeld unto 
 the trueth. If you should write, deal syllo- 
 gistically : For you shame your selves, when 
 you use any continued speach, because your 
 stile is so rude and barbarous. Raile no more 
 in the pulpitt against good men, you do more 
 hurt to your selves, and your owne desperat 
 cause, in one of your rayling sermons, then you 
 could in speaking for reformation. For everie 
 man that hath any light of religion in him will 
 examine your groundes, which being found 
 ridiculous (as they are) will be decided, and 
 your cause made odious. Abuse not the high 
 commission as you do, against the best subiects. 
 The commission it selfe was ordained for very 
 good purposes, but it is most horriblie abused 
 by you, and turned cleane contrarie to the 
 ende wherefore it was ordayned. Helpe the 
 poore people to the meanes of their salvation, 
 
140 THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 that perish in their ignorance : make restitution 
 unto your tenants, and such as from whome 
 you have wrongfully extorted any thing : 
 Usui'pe no longer, the authoritie of making of 
 ministers and excommunication : Let poore 
 men be no more molested in your ungodly 
 courts : Studie more then you doe, and preache 
 oftener: Favor nonresidents and papists no 
 longer: labor to cleanse y e ministery of the 
 swarms of ignorant guides, wherewith it hath 
 bin defiled : Make conscience of breaking the 
 Sabboth, by bowling and tabling: Be ring- 
 leaders of prophanenes no longer unto the 
 people : Take no more bribes : Leave your 
 Symonie : Favor learning more then you doe, 
 and especially godly learning : Stretch your 
 credit if you have any to the furtherance 
 of the gospell : You have ioyned the pro- 
 phanation of the magistracie, to the cor- 
 ruption of the ministerie : Leave this sinne. 
 All in a word, become good christians, and 
 so you shall become good subiects, and 
 leave your tyrannic And I would advise 
 you, let me here no more of your evill 
 dealing. 
 
 Given at my Castle between two Wales, 
 neither foure dayes from penilesse benche, nor 
 yet at the West ende of Shrofftide : but the 
 
THE MARPRELATE LIBELS 141 
 
 foureteenth yeare at the least, of the age of 
 Charing crosse, within a yeare of Mid- 
 sommer, betweene twelve and twelve of the 
 clocke. 
 
 Anno pontificates vestri Quinto, and I hope 
 ultimo of all Englishe Popes. 
 
 By your learned and worthie brother, 
 
 MARTIN MARPRELATE. 
 
VI 
 
 THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 [Very short extracts will suffice to give the reader 
 a notion as to the kind of trouncing which Nash 
 and his friends found so successful against the 
 Martinist writers. The exact authorship is difficult 
 to fix, since on this side also the controversy was 
 anonymous. It is however pretty certain that 
 Nash set the ball rolling with A Cotmtercufe, 
 and wrote most of the pamphlets himself, and that 
 the others were written by his intimate friends, 
 Lyly among them. Gabriel Harvey, Nash's malig- 
 nant and life-long enemy, wrote in 1590 that Lyly 
 was the author of Pappe ; while Anthony a Wood, 
 Collins the historian, and I. D'Israeli attribute 
 Almond to him. Maskell ('Marprelate Contro- 
 versy/ 1845), also, on grounds of style, attributes 
 this tract to Lyly ; and certainly it is so superior 
 both in style and in the cogency of its argument to 
 the rest as to suggest a different authorship to that 
 of Nash. At all events Lyly was closely associated 
 with Nash during the controversy, and wrote 
 either Pappe or Almond. 'Pasquil'was a nom de 
 plume of Nash ; he therefore wrote also The Peturn 
 o/Pasquilj and the last libel of all, written in 1590, 
 TJie First Part of PasquiVs Apologie. 
 
 Lyly (1554 M606) is best known, because of his 
 142 
 
THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 143 
 
 Euphues, to modern readers ; Nash, however, 
 enjoyed a literary position little inferior to him, 
 and shares with Defoe the distinction of being the 
 father of the modern novel. All that he accom- 
 plished was before he was 34, for he died at that 
 age in 1601 ; and during the latter part of his life 
 he was much occupied by the long controversy 
 with Gabriel Harvey, which was a legacy of the 
 Marprelate dispute. For Plaine Percevall, the last 
 retort on the Puritan side, was by Gabriel's brother, 
 Richard Harvey the astrologer ; it was a feeble 
 attempt at compromise, but attacked with some 
 violence the former tracts of Nash and Lyly, 
 especially Pappe. The paper war which followed, 
 including Nash's Save with you to Saffron Walden, 
 and Gabriel's Trimming of Thomas Nash, was 
 continued with extraordinary ferocity, especially 
 on the part of Harvey. 
 
 One more of the anti-Martinist libels of 1589 
 remains to be mentioned, the Jlont/ie's Minde. It 
 contains a dedication to 'Pasquin,' i.e. Pasquil, 
 and is therefore probably not by Nash, but by 
 some intimate friend. In wit and point it is one 
 of the best in the controversy, and contains a refer- 
 ence to the new 'Golden Legend' of the Puritans 
 which Nash often promised, but never executed ; 
 Pasquil will have a good subject in these new 
 saints, the writer says, and proceeds to an enumera- 
 tion of the seven deadly sins, and the cardinal 
 virtues ; ' But for the three Theological Vertues,' 
 he concludes, ' they excell, of all that ever I heard 
 of : — Faith, for I doubt me whether they bee of 
 anie. Sope which is to see the overthrowe of all. 
 And Charitie, for they detest and damne all but 
 themselves.' 
 
 In the opinion of the next generation it was to 
 Nash that the discomfiture of the Martinists was 
 
i 4 4 THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 chiefly due. Isaac Walton, for instance, wrote in 
 his ' Life of Hooker ' that Nash's merry wit had 
 'made some sport and such a discovery of [the 
 Martinist's] absurdities as — which is strange — he 
 put a greater stop to these malicious pamphlets 
 than a much wiser man had been able.' In Nash's 
 favour it must be remembered that he was 
 only twenty-two at the time of the Marprelate 
 controversy.] 
 
 From 
 
 PAPPE WITH AF HATCHET} 
 
 Alias, 
 
 A figge for my God sonne. 
 
 Or 
 
 Cracke me this nut. 
 
 Or 
 
 A Qonntrie citffe, that is a sound boxe of the 
 
 eare, for the idiot Martin to hold his peace, 
 
 seeing the patch will take no 
 
 warning. 
 
 Written by one that dares call a dog, a dog, 
 
 and made to prevent Martins dog daies. 
 
 Imprinted by John Anoke, and John Astile, for the 
 
 Bay live of Withernam, cum privilegio perennita- 
 
 tis t and are to bee sold at the signe of the 
 
 crab tree cudgell in thwack- 
 
 coate lane. 
 
 A sentence. 
 Martin hangs fit for my mowing. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 Martin, wee are now following after thee 
 
 with hue and crie, and are hard at thy heeles ; 
 
 1 To give pap with a hatchet was a proverbial expres- 
 sion for doing a kind thing in an unkind manner. 
 
THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 145 
 
 if thou turne backe to blade it, wee doubt not 
 but three honest men shall bee able to beate 
 sixe theeves. Weele teach thee to commit 
 sacriledge, and to robbe the Church of xxiiii. 
 Bishops at a blowe. Doost thinke that wee 
 are not men Martin, and have great men to 
 defend us which write ? Yes, although with 
 thy seditious cloase, thou would'st perswade 
 her Maiestie, that most of the Gentlemen of 
 account and men of honour, were by us 
 thought Puritanes. No, it is your poore 
 Johns, 1 that with your painted consciences 
 have coloured the religion of divers, spreading 
 through the veynes of the Commonwealth 
 like poyson, the doggednes of your devotions ; 
 which entring in like the smoothnes of oyle 
 into the flesh, fretteth in time like quicksilver 
 into the bones. 
 
 When children play with their meate, tis a 
 signe their bellies are full, and it must be 
 taken from them ; but if they tread it under 
 their feete, they ought to be ierkt. The 
 Gospell hath made us wantons, wee dallie 
 with ceremonies, dispute of circumstances,, not 
 remembring that the Papists have been making 
 roddes for us this thirtie yeares ; wee shall bee 
 
 1 Poor John is a coarse kind of fish, and is used here 
 by metonymy for a poor fellow. 
 
146 THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 swing'd by them, or worse by Martin, if 
 Martins be worse. Never if it, for they bee 
 worse with a witnesse, and let the divell be 
 witnesse. Wee are so nice, that the Cap is 
 a beame in our Church, the booke of Common 
 Praier a milstone, the Pater noster is not well 
 pend by Christ. Well, either religion is but 
 policie, or policie scarce religious. 
 
 If a Gentleman riding by the way with 
 twentie men, a number of theeves should by 
 devise or force binde all his servants ; the 
 good Justice of Peace would thinke he should 
 be robd. When Martinists rancke robbers of 
 the Church shall binde the legges and armes 
 of the Church, me thinkes the supreme head 
 of the Church should looke pale. 
 
 They that pull downe the bells of a steeple, 
 and say it is conscience, will blow up the 
 chauncell to make it the quintessence of 
 conscience. Bir Ladie, this is a good settled 
 speech, a Divine might have seemed to have 
 said so much. sir, I am nor al tales, and 
 riddles, and rimes, and restes, thats but my 
 Liripoope, 1 if Martin knock the bone he shall 
 find marrow, and if he looke for none, we'le 
 
 1 That is, a humour put on, an assumed character. 
 The liripoope or liripipe, was the clerical tippet, or scarf ; 
 it was also used of a scarf in ordinary dress. 
 
THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 147 
 
 knock the bone on his pate, and bring him on 
 his marie bones. 
 
 From 
 
 AN ALMOND FOR A PARRAT, 1 
 
 Or 
 
 Cutbert Curry-knaves 
 
 Almes. 
 
 Fit for the knave Martin, and the 
 
 rest of those impudent Beggers, that 
 
 can not be content to stay their stomakes 
 
 with a Benefice, but they will needes 
 
 breake their fastes with 
 
 our Bishops. 
 
 Rimarum sum plemts. 
 
 Therefore beware (gentle Reader) you 
 
 catch not the hicket 2 with laughing. 
 
 Imprinted at a Place, not far re from a 
 
 Place, by the Assignes of Signior Some-body and 
 
 are to be sold at his shoppe in Trouble-knave 
 
 Street, at the signe of the 
 
 Standish. 
 
 To leave his nativitie 3 to the Church porch, 
 where the parish found him, and come to his 
 
 1 * An almond for a parrot ' was a proverbial phrase 
 for a stopper to the mouth, equivalent to 'a sop to 
 Cerberus.' 2 Hiccup. 
 
 3 What follows is a personal attack on Penry, already 
 suspected of being Martin Marprelate. 
 
T48 THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 riper yeres, that now had learnd Puerilis, of 
 the poore mans boy, and nere as pretily entred 
 in Ave Marie English, as any parish clarke in 
 those parts. I am to tel you how laudibly he 
 behaved himselfe in Peterhouse, during the 
 time of his subsistership. First therfore he 
 began with his religion at his first comming 
 thether, Hoc scitote viri, that he was as arrant 
 a papist as ever came out of Wales. I tell 
 you /. a P. 1 in those daies, would have run a 
 false gallop over his beades with anie man in 
 England, and helpt the Priest for a shift to 
 saie Masse at high midnight, which is need 
 were, I doubt not but he would do at this 
 houre. It was not for nothing my masters, 
 that he so be-baited his betters, for shewing 
 the people the relique of our Ladies smock in 
 his sermon, and open detecting of all their 
 other blind superstition. Say what you will, 
 he is a close lad, and can carrie a ring in his 
 mouth, though all the world see it not : what 
 though hee now dissemble with the time, and 
 disguise his Spanish heart in a Precisians 2 
 habit. May not he hereafter prove a necessarie 
 member in conspiracies common wealth, and 
 advantage the holy league as much in this 
 meanes of sedition, as all Philips power by 
 1 John a Penry. 2 Puritan's. 
 
THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 149 
 
 invasion. Simple English men, that cannot 
 see into pollicie before it supprise your peace, 
 nor interrupt the ambition of trechery, before 
 it hath besieged your prosperitie. Doe you 
 beholde whiles innovations bud, and do not 
 you feare lest your children and family be 
 poisoned with the fruit. 
 
 But you fond men, as in garments so in 
 government continually affecting new fashions, 
 thinke no man can be saved y fc hath not bin 
 at Geneva. Your beleefe forsooth must be of 
 that Scottish kinde, and your Bibles of the 
 primitive print, else your consciences God wot, 
 are not of the cannonical cut, nor your opinions 
 of the Apostles stamp. Pen with Pan, hath 
 contended with Appollo, and you lyke Midasses, 
 have overprised his musick. Good God, y fc a 
 Welch harpe should inchant so many English 
 harts to their confusion, especially having nere 
 a string belonging to it, but a treble. Had a 
 syren sung, and I drownd in attending her 
 descante. I would have bequeathed my bane 
 to her beautie, but when Cerberus shall barke 
 and I turne back to listen, then let me perish 
 without pittie, in the delight of my living 
 destruction. Deceit hath tooke up his seat in 
 
ISO THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 
 
 a dunce, and you thinke him a saint, because 
 he comes not in the shape of a devil. We 
 know M. Pen. intus et in cute, first for a papist, 
 then for a Brownist, next for an Anabaptist, 
 and last for y e blasphemous Martin, whose 
 spirite is the concrete compound of all these 
 unpardonable heresies. 
 
 If the dogge Martin barke againe, He hold 
 him tugge for two or three courses, and then 
 beware my blacke booke you were best, for I 
 have not halfe emboweld my register. Amend, 
 amend, and glorie no more in your hipocrisie, 
 least your pride and vaine glory betray our 
 prosperitie to our enimies, and procure the 
 Lords vengeance to dwell in the gates of our 
 citie. The simple are abused, the ignorant 
 deluded, the Gods truth most pitifully per- 
 verted, and thou art that most wretched 
 seducer, that under wolves raiment devourest 
 widowes houses. Visions are ceast, and all 
 extraordinarie revelation ended, although a 
 good fellow in Cambridge, hearing all thinges 
 might be obtained by prayer, prayed two dayes 
 and two nights for visions : wherefore broach 
 no more heresies under colour of inspiration : 
 if thou doest, thou art like to heare of me by 
 
THE ANTI-MARPRELATE LIBELS 151 
 
 the next Carrier. And so bon nute 1 to your 
 
 Noddishippe. 
 
 Yours to command as your owne 
 
 for two or three cudgellings at all times. 
 
 CUTBERT CURRIKNAVE 
 
 the younger. 
 
 Martin's Epitaph. 
 
 (From ' A Monthe's Minde.') 
 Hie jacet, ut pinus, 
 Nee Caesar, nee Ninus, 
 Nee magnus Godwinus, 
 Nee Petrus, nee Linus, 
 Nee plus nee minus 
 Quam clandestinus, 
 Miser ille Martinus, 
 Videte singuli. 
 
 O vos Martinistae, 
 Et vos Brounistae, 
 Et Famililonistae, 
 Et Anabaptistae, 
 Et omnes sectistae, 
 Et Machivelistae, 
 Et Atheistae, 
 Quorum dux fuit iste, 
 Lugete singuli. 
 
 1 Good-night. 
 
VII 
 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 [Robert Parsons, or Persons (1546 - 1610), after 
 being a fellow of Balliol College, Oxford, where he 
 had serious quarrels with the master, went abroad, 
 and joined the Church of Rome in 1574, and in the 
 following year entered upon his noviciate as a 
 Jesuit. In 1580 Father Parsons was sent back to 
 England disguised as a soldier in a buff coat : he 
 went about the country, made many important 
 converts, and set up a secret printing-press at East 
 Ham near London. It was here that the Brief 
 Discours was printed in the same year. The press 
 was very active for a time, producing among other 
 books the Decern Rationes of Campian ; but in July 
 1581 Campian was captured, and Parsons had to 
 escape to Normandy. He became a great political 
 intriguer, and continually pressed Philip of Spain 
 to invade England, his Spanish policy being the 
 cause of a split among the English Roman Catholics. 
 But he withstood all the attacks of the secular 
 priests, and ended his days at the English College 
 in Rome, of which he had been Rector thirteen 
 years. Parsons was an extraordinarily able and 
 active man, and the embodiment of all that the 
 word Jesuit is supposed to mean : a born intriguer, 
 with unusual diplomatic gifts and opportunities, 
 lie was devoted to his cause and blameless in private 
 life. His Booh of Christian Exercise was so famous as 
 to have been edited (with ' corruptions ' omitted) by 
 152 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 153 
 
 Bunny an Anglican, who dedicated it to the Arch- 
 bishop of York in 1584. His Memorial of the Re- 
 formation was also re-edited by an Anglican, Gee a 
 chaplain to James IL, as a warning against Jesuitry. 
 At the time when Parsons issued the Brief Dis- 
 covers from his Press at East Ham, the laws against 
 Papists were being enforced with great severity. 
 Proclamations had been made against all who 
 harboured priests, and the country was full of 
 spies. In December several priests were captured 
 and tortured, and the prisons were filled with 
 Romanist recusants. In January 1581 a session 
 of Parliament was convoked 'to find a remedy 
 for the poison of the Jesuits ' ; and the Act of 
 March 18th made it treason to be reconciled to 
 the Roman Church, or to be absolved by a priest, 
 while it largely increased the fines for recusancy. 
 There was therefore every inducement for a Roman- 
 ist to cloak his religion by outward conformity; 
 and a Roman, secular priest, Dr Alban Langdale, 
 issued an anonymous tract in favour of the lawful- 
 ness of going to church as an outward act of obedi- 
 ence. Thereupon Parsons produced the Brief 
 Discours, under the pseudonym of John Howlet : 
 boldly prefacing it with an epistle dedicatory to 
 Queen Elizabeth.] 
 
 From 
 'A BRIEF DISCOURS 
 contayning certayne Reasons why Catholiques 
 refuse to goe to Church/ 1580. 
 
 The Answer of a Vertuous and Lerned 
 Man to A Gentleman in England, towching 
 the late imprisonment of Catholiques ther. 
 
 K 
 
154 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 The Vew of your late letters (my dere and 
 worshipful frind) brought unto me some sorowe 
 and much comfort. The sorowe proceeded 
 of the wofi.il and aflicted case of my pore 
 countrie so pityfullye set downe by youre 
 penn unto myne eye, wherin (as you writ) so 
 many greate Gentlemen of worshipp are im- 
 prisoned for there conscience and relygion of 
 late, so many good howses broken up, so 
 mani hows holders dispersed and fled away, 
 so many yonge Gentlemen and servantes un- 
 provided, 1 so many pore people destitute, so 
 many wyves discoyned from there husbandes, 
 so many children berefte of ther parentes, 
 suche fleeinge, suche runninge, such shuttinge 
 up in prisons, such pitifull abidinge hunger, 
 thirst, and cold in prison, as you describe, 
 dolefull for us to heare heere, but more rufull 
 for you to behold ther, and all this for different 
 opinions in religion, a miserie not accustomed to 
 fal in our fathers dayes, upon that noble realme. 
 But as these were causes of some sorow, 
 so was it no meane comforte unto me, to 
 consider that in these wicked and loosse times 
 of ours, wherein there is no feelinge or sence 
 of vertue leaffce, but all men enwrapped in 
 the love of Godes professed enemie the world, 
 1 A pitifull description of England at this daye. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 155 
 
 followinge with all force, and full sayle, the 
 vanities and ambition of the same : that their 
 should be fownde in Ingland so many gentle- 
 men both for their yeares, livinges, and other 
 liabilities, 1 as fit to be as vayne as the reste, 
 yet so precyse in matters of religion, and so 
 respective to their consciences, as that they 
 wil prefer their soul before ther body, and gods 
 cause before theyr owne ease, na that they 
 will rather venture both body and goodes, lyfe, 
 landes, libertye and all, then they wil doe any 
 thinge contrary to theyr consciences whereby 
 they must be iudged at the last daye. This 
 is suche a thing, as it must nedes bring com- 
 forte to all men, and can iustly greve none, 
 excepte the common enemy the devil him selfe. 
 For as for strangers, they must needes be 
 edefied therewith : as for Inglish men, they 
 must needes be incoraged therby. And as for 
 the Princes hir selfe, shee cannot but be com- 
 forted therein, assuringe hir selfe that yf these 
 men doe sticke so firmly unto theyr con- 
 sciences and fayth sworne unto God in theyr 
 othe of baptisme : then wil they as firmely 
 for the same conscience, stik unto hir Maiestie, 
 if occasion should serve, in keepinge theyre 
 secondary faythe and allegeance, sworne unto 
 
 1 A rare matter of comfort. 
 
156 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 hir Highnes as to the substitute of God. 
 Their adversaries also aad persecutors, it can 
 not in any reason mistyke, for that the con- 
 trarye religion were to have them as constant 
 and faithful in that, if it were possible to win 
 them to the same. 
 
 But notwithstanding, seeing you wryte that 
 ther is both great dislyke, and displesure also 
 takes of it, as though their constancie were 
 obstinacie, and their conscience meere will : 
 (which most of all greeveth (as you wryte) 
 their obedient and well meaninge mindes) 
 albeit otherwise the pressure it self be so 
 heavie as the burden therof is sore and 
 grievous to beare : for these causes, and for 
 the geevinge of some more lyght to the whol 
 matter, I wil (as you seeme to desire) most 
 briefly towch three things in this letter, 
 wherby I doubt not but that you shall ac- 
 compte your selfe fullye and sufficientlye 
 answered. 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 The Seventh Reason. 
 
 The Seventh Reason, why a Catholick may 
 not yeld to come the protestantes churches is, 
 because the service which they use, is nought x 
 and dishonerable to God, and therfore, no man 
 
 1 doughty servyce. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 157 
 
 can come to it, or heare it, or seme to alow of 
 it by his presence, without great offence to 
 God. Nether is it sufficient to say (as 
 commonly they use to say to beguile simple 
 people withal) that it is the Scripture, taken 
 out of the Gospels, Epistles, Psalmes, and the 
 like. For by that argument, the Jewes service 
 were good at this daye, which is taken out 
 of the ould Testement : and al heretiques ser- 
 vice that ever was, semed to be nothing but 
 Scriptures. 1 For, as S. Austen in divers 
 places noteth, it was alwayes y fc fashion of 
 heretiks to have Scripture in their mouthe, 
 and to cleve only to Scriptures, and to refuse 
 traditions as inventions of men. And we 
 reade of the arian heretiques, 2 how they were 
 wont to singe Psalmes in the stretes of Con- 
 stantinople, therby to allure the people to 
 them, And yet we may not say, that their 
 service was good : like as we cannot say that 
 the devils talke was good with Christ 3 albeit 
 it were decked with allegation of scripture, 
 and other sweete words. Although therfore 
 their service be ful of scripture, 4 it is noe good 
 argument that it is therfore infallible good. 
 
 1 Aug. to 6. cont. Max li. I. initio and iter. vers. si. 
 
 2 Al heretiques vaunte Scripture. 
 
 3 Math. iv. 4 Bier, in ca. 408. Ose. 
 
158 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 For as S. Jerome sayeth of al Hereticks, What 
 soever they speake, or thincke that they doe 
 speake in the prayse of God, it is the howling 
 of woolves, and the bellowinge noyse of madde 
 bullocks : The reason wherof is that, which the 
 scholler of the Apostles S. Ignatius 1 sayeth. 
 No man can cal him good, or saye he doth 
 wel, iliat doth mingle evil with good. Wher- 
 fore S. Augustine sayeth of the Donatistes, 
 schismatickes, and Heretickes, of his tyme, 
 that albeit they did sounde out Alleluia 2 with 
 as lusty a voyce as the Catholickes did, and in 
 many things else did agree in Service with 
 them (more then now the Protestants doe with 
 us) yet their service was impious, and avayled 
 them nothing. 3 And a litle after, upon the 
 wordes of God, uttered by the Prophete, 
 sayinge In manye things they were with me, 4 
 &c. S. Austin sayeth thus. God granteth that 
 Heretyckes in many thinges are with Mm, as 
 in Sacramentes, Cerimonies, and the lyke: But 
 yet for all that they are not with me (saieth 
 God) in al thinges. For in that they are in 
 schisme, they are not with me : in that they are 
 in heresie, they are not with me : and therfore, 
 
 ] Ignat. ep. 2. 2 Aug. iiips. 54. 
 
 3 A little evil marreth a gret deal of good. 
 
 4 In psal. 54. . 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 159 
 
 for these few things in the which t/tey are not 
 with me, thos other many thmges in the which 
 they are with me, shal profit tliem nothing. To 
 come nerer to our purpose, their owne Apostle, 
 and second Elias (as they cal him) Luther, 1 
 condemneth al their whole service, for the 
 denying onely of the real presence, saying. The 
 Sacramentaries doe in mine heleeve in God the 
 father, in God the sonne, and in the holye 
 Ghost, 2, and in Christ our Savyour: al this 
 doth avayle them nothinge, seeynge they doe 
 denye this one Article, as false, of the reall 
 presence. Where as Christe doth saye, This is 
 my body. Loe heere this Prophet with the 
 same spirite wherewith he condemneth the 
 Popes, he condemneth the Protestants, why 
 should we beleeve him more in the one, then 
 in the other ? 
 
 But now to shew wherein the Protestants 
 service 3 is evil, it were sufficient to say, that 
 it is devised of them selves, and altogether 
 different from al the service of Christendome 
 besids : and therefore not to be receaved 
 by Catholickes, with whom they deale too 
 chyldishelye, when they say, their service 
 
 1 LtUhers opinion of our Protestantes service. 
 
 2 Cop. dial. 6. ca. 15. 
 
 3 Where in the Protestants service is evil, inparticuler. 
 
160 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 differeth in nothing from the ould Catholicke 
 service, but onelye because it is in English : * 
 therby thinckinge to make the simple people, 
 to have the lesse scruple to come to it. The 
 which how false it is, it shal appeare by that 
 which I wil saye hereafter. I myghte also 
 bringe the opinion of all the hotter sorte of 
 Protestantes, called the Puritayns, who in 
 wrytinge, sermons, and private speache, doe 
 utteiiye condemne, 2 the service whiche nowe 
 Protestantes have, and thereupon doe refrayne 
 from it, as much as Catholicks, But I wil geve 
 more particuler reasons, as foloweth. 
 
 First the scripture is read there in false and 
 shameles translations, 3 contayning manifest and 
 wilful corruptions, to drawe it to their owne 
 purposes, as hath bene shewed in particuler, 
 by manye learned men in their worckes: and 
 is lyke to be (shortly) more playnlye by the 
 grace of God. As for example, throughe out 
 the scripture, where Idoles are forbidden, they 
 translate it Images, as in Sainte John they 
 reade. Children keepe your selves from 
 Images.* 
 
 AMiereas the scripture sayeth Idoles. And 
 
 1 Devysed by them selves different from y' rest, 
 
 2 Condemned by y Purilains. 
 
 3 False translations of xcripture. 4 1 Joh. v. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 161 
 
 this is, to make simple men beleeve, that 
 Idoles and Images are al one, which is absurde. 
 For then, where Moyses sayethe : That God 
 made man accordinge to his owne Image. 1 
 We should consequently say: God made man 
 accordinge to hys owne Idole. Againe, where 
 in contrarie maner S. Paule sayeth. That a 
 covetous man maketh his mony his Idole. 2 We 
 shoulde saye, that he maketh it, his Image. 
 The which howe foolishe it is, everye man 
 seethe, and it can not stancle with anye sence 
 of the Scripture. The like absurde transla- 
 tions they have, in infinite other thinges, 
 which I cannot stande to rehearse. Let some 
 man reade the latter ende of the xv. chapter 
 of the second booke of the Machabies, 3 where 
 he shal see what labour their Inglishe trans- 
 latour taketh to shifle over the woordes of the 
 Scripture, which talk of oblations and prayers 
 for the dead : and by that one place, let everye 
 man iudge of his fidehtie in the reste. 4 For 
 I am sure, that if a Boye should soe corrupte 
 Tullies epistles, in translatinge them in a 
 Grammer Scoole, he should be breeched for 
 his labour. The Scripture therefore, being read 
 there, in false translations, it muste needes 
 
 1 Gen. i. 3. 2 Ephe. v. 3 2 Macha. 12. 
 
 4 See the Englishe Byble dedycated to Kynge Henry. 
 
1 62 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 seeme to be false, which is blasphemie against 
 the holy Ghost the indyter of them. Soe that by 
 this, it appeareth, that, that part of their service 
 which they pretende to be Scripture, is no 
 Scripture, because it is by the malice of the in- 
 terpretour false, the whiche Scripture can not be. 
 Secondly, the service that Christians ought 
 only to goe to, should be sayd, as also the 
 Sacramentes administred, by Priestes 1 and such 
 as have receyved the Sacrament of holy orders, 
 as al the general Councels and Fathers of the 
 Churche, shewe unto us. 2 And S. Paule when 
 he saythe. That no man may take unto him 
 this honour, but he that is called as Aaron 
 was. Wherfore the same Paul adviseth the 
 Bishope Timothie, not to geve this dignytie 
 unto any man but upon grete consideration, 
 saying. Doe not laye thy handes rashlye uppon 
 any man. But nowe that ether all, or the 
 moste parte of mynisters of Englande, 3 be 
 meere laye men, and noe priestes, 4 and conse- 
 quentlye have noe authoritie in these thinges, 
 it is evidente for manye causes : 5 as wel for 
 
 1 Sayd by lay men. 
 
 2 Ig. ad Hier GkrL li. 3 and 6 de Sacer. and horn. 60 
 Hier. ep. ad Helio. andep. 85 ad JSua. Ambro. in Epkes. 4. 
 
 3 Heb. v. 
 
 4 1 Tim. v. I.e. not ordained according to the medieval 
 rite. 
 
 5 Con. 4. Gar. can. 6 and Concil. Laod. can. 24. Igna. ep. 
 ad Anti. Arco. ca. 3. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 163 
 
 that they have not receaved the under Orders, 
 which they should have done before Priest- 
 hoode, (as appeareth by the auncyent Councel 
 of Carthage, wherein Saint Augustine was 
 himselfe) and by al the Fathers bothe before 
 and since : as allso because they are not or- 
 dayned by such a Bishoppe and Preist, as 
 the Catholicke Church hath put in in that 
 aucthoritye : 1 which admitteth noe man for 
 Bishoppe, which is not ordeyned by imposition 
 of three or two Catholicke Bishoppes handes 
 at the least. Of al which thinges none are to 
 be founde amongest the Protestantes. 
 
 Thyrdlye, their service is nought, because 
 they have divers false, and blasphemous thinges 
 therein : 2 and that which is yet worse, they soe 
 place those things, as they may seeme to the 
 simple, to be verye Scrypture. As for example, 
 In the end of a certayne Geneva Psalme. 3 
 They praye to God to keepe them, from Pope, 
 Turcke, and Papistrye, which is blasphemous/ 
 First, for ioyninge the supreme minister and 
 substytute of Christ, with the knowen and 
 
 1 Can. Ap. 1 and 2 and 68. 
 
 2 Falsehoode and blasphemie in iher service, 
 
 3 This is a rather crooked argument of Parsons ; as the 
 * Geneva Psalme ' had nothing to do with the Church of 
 England, while the petition against the Pope in the Litany 
 had been struck out as early as 1559. 
 
 4 In the ende of their Genera Pmltcr. 
 
164 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 professed enemye of Ohriste, and speaking soe 
 contumelyouslye of him, of whom al antiquitye 
 in Christ his Church, hath thought, and spoken 
 so reverently, callinge him. 1 The hygh Preist 
 of the Church. The Bishoppe of the Universal 
 Church. The Pastor of the Church. The iudg 
 of matters of faith. The repnrger of heresies. 
 The examiner of all bishopps causes. And 
 finallye the great Preist, in obeying whom all 
 Unitye consisteth, and by disobeyinge of ivhom, 
 all Heresies and Schismes aryse. 
 
 Secondlye, it is blasphemous, for that they 
 praye to be delyvered from Papistrye : mean- 
 inge thereby, the Catholique and onelye trewe 
 religion, by the which all men are to be saved. 
 Thirdlye, because they singe it, and make other 
 simple men to singe it, in the beginning of 
 sermons, and otherwise : as though it were 
 scripture it selfe, and one of Davids psalmes. 
 
 Fourthyle, albeit the Protestantes service 
 had not al this evil in it,' 3 as it hath : yet were 
 it nought, because it hath not in it, those good 
 things which Christian service should have. 
 For service inaye be evil, as wel for having too 
 
 1 Gyp. de aim. pre. and Ghr. II. 2. de Set. Cyp. ep. 46. 
 Chr. U. 2. de sa Inno. ep. 93. ap. Au. and Leo. ep. 84. 
 Sy Alex. 4 apud Atha. Theod. h\ 2 hist. ca. 4 Cy. ep. 55. 
 
 2 Lacke of necessary e thinges which it should have in it. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 165 
 
 litle, as for having to much. As the service 
 of the Arrians was, for singing, Glorie to the 
 Father, and not singinge the same to the 
 Sonne : And as if a man shoulde recyte his 
 Creede, and leave out one article (as in effecte 
 the Protestantes doe the article of discention 
 into hel) al the whole Creede were nought 
 thereby. Nowe, how many thinges doe want 
 in the Protestantes service, which should be 
 in Christian service, it were to longe in every 
 poynte to rehearse : yet wil I (for examples 
 sake) name two or three thinges. First there- 
 fore, they have lefte out the cheefest, and 
 heyghest thinges of al : which is the blessed 
 Sacrifice of Christ his Bodye and Bloud 
 appoynted by Christ, 1 to be offered up everye 
 day for thankes gevinge to God, for obtayninge 
 of grace, and avoiding of al evil, and for the 
 remission of sinnes both of quicke and dead : 
 as with one consent the Fathers of the 
 Primative Church doe affirme. The which 
 Sacrifice being away, noe Christian service can 
 be sayed to be there : For so much as, for 
 this cause were ordayned preists, nether can 
 there any be called Preist but in respecte of 
 
 1 Dion. Ariop. hier ca. 3 Tgn. cp. ad Smyrn. Justin, 
 died, tri pho. Ter. li de orat. Au. li. 20. contr. Faust, ca. 
 23 Ghry. horn. 17. ad Heb. Gre. li. 4. di. ca. 57. 
 
166 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 this Sacrifice : 1 Also in respect of this sacrifice 
 were Christian Churches called temples, for 
 this Sacrifice were made Aulters : for an 
 Aulter is the place of Sacrifice, even as an 
 armorye is the place where armour is. For 
 this Sacrifice was Preistes apparell made : 
 Vestments, Sensors, Frankensence, and the 
 lyke, in the Prymatyve Church. Whereof all 
 the Fathers, Councells, and historyes doe 
 speake so muche. 
 
 The second thinge, which the Protestants 
 service leaveth out, 2 is noe lesse then six, 3 of 
 the seven Sacramentes, which the Catholique 
 service of God doth use : (for as for their 
 communion it can be no Sacrament as they doe 
 use it.) The commoditie of which Sacraments, 
 in the Churche saint Augustine saythe. 4 That 
 It is greater, thea can be expressed, and ther- 
 fore the contetnpte of them is nolesse then 
 sacriledge, because {saythe he) that, can not be 
 
 i Hiero. cp. 1. ad. Helio, Chiy. li. 2. de Sacerd. Cyp. 
 i' p. 54. and li. 1. ep. 2. Au. ser. 25 2. de tempo. Optat. 
 li. 6. cont. Dona. Au. in psa. 113. conci. 2 and Posid. in vita, 
 Au. ca, 24. 
 
 2 Goncil.flor and constat sesio. 15. 
 
 3 Six Sacraments. At the time when Parsons wrote. 
 1580, it was probably true that Penance and Extreme 
 Unction were in abeyance, but, besides Baptism and the 
 Communion, Confirmation, Matrimony and Holy Orders 
 were of course administered. 
 
 4 Aug. U. 19. cont. faust. cap. 11 and 16. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 167 
 
 contemned without imjrietie, without the helpe 
 of which, no man can have pietie. And for 
 this cause in an other place he saith. 1 That 
 the contemnours of visible Sacraments, can by 
 no menes, invisibfa/e be sanctified. The thirde 
 thing that the Protestants service leaveth out, 
 is, all the ceremonies 2 of the Catholique 
 Churche, of the which the ould auncient Fathers 
 and Councels doe saye these three things. 3 
 First, that they are to be had in greate 
 reverence, and to be contemned of no man. 
 Secondlye, that they are to be learned by 
 tradition, and that manye of them are receaved 
 by the tradition of the Apostles. Lastlye, that 
 they whiche doe ether condemne, despise, or 
 wilfullye omyt these cerimonies, are excomuni- 
 cated. I myghte here adde manye other 
 thinges, as leavinge out prayers for the dead, 
 being (as the Fathers holde) one of the cheefest 
 functions of a Priest. Also for having their 
 service in an other order and language than y e 
 univarsal church useth : But this is sufficient. 
 
 1 Aug. m levit. que 84. 2 Ceremonies, 
 
 3 Terlulia. de corona. Bas. li. de ep. 5. cap. 27. Epipha. 
 
 heresi 71. Condi trid ca. 7- and 13. Cip. cp. 66. Ckri. ho. 
 
 41. vide Aug. li 2. Doct crist Cyp. ser. de ora, dom. Isodo. 
 
 li. de. div. off. Concil. Tol. 4. cap. 2. Bed. li. hist, capit. 
 
 1. In whiche authors you shal see in what tonge service 
 
 was in their dayes in all countries. 
 
1 68 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 For if they leave out of their service, both 
 Sacryfice, Sacraments, and all ecclesiasticall 
 cerymonies : I know not what good thing 
 they have lefte, besides a fewe bare woordes of 
 Scripture, evil translated, and woorse applyed, 
 which they reade there, Seinge therfore their 
 service is such, it is a sufficient cause to make 
 al Catholiques to avoyde it. 
 
 The Eyght Reason. 
 
 The Eyght Reason of refusal which maye 
 now be yielded, why a Catholyque maye not 
 come to the Protestantes Churches, 1 is, because 
 by going thither, he shal lose al the benefit of 
 his owne religion, nether shal he take any 
 more commoditye thereby, then if he were not 
 of that religion at al. This is a very greate, 
 wayghtie, and most sufficient reason to be 
 yelded by Catholiques in Englande to their 
 Princes for their refusal of comminge to 
 Churche, and such a one as beinge sufficiently 
 conceyved by her Maiestie, cannot but satysfie 
 her Highnes, and greatlye drawe her to com- 
 passion of the pyttifull case 2 of soe manye 
 thousands of her lovinge subiectes, whoe 
 beinge, as I have sayde Catholiques in hartes 
 
 1 Loosing the benefit of Gatkolique, religion. 
 
 2 A pityfttl necessitie. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 169 
 
 by goinge to Protestantes Churches, must 
 needes bee brought ether to flat athisme, that 
 is, to leave of all conscience, and to care for 
 no relygion at all, (as manye thousand seeme 
 to be resolved to doe :) or els, to lyve in 
 contynuall torment of mynde, and almoste 
 desperation, considering that by their goinge 
 to these Churches, they lose utterlye all use 
 and practise of theyr owne relygion, being 
 helde as schism atiques, and excomunicate 
 persons of the same: and their case such, 
 that if they shoulde dye in the same state, 
 they were sure to receave no parte of benefit 
 of that relygion no more then if they had bene 
 protestantes. The which, what a danger it is, 
 all true Christian men doe both knowe, and 
 feare. 
 
 But yet, that the simpler sorte, maye better 
 understande it, and the wyser, better consider 
 of it : I wil in particuler repeate some of the 
 abovesayde dommages. 
 
 First therfore a Catholique, by going to the 
 Protestants Churches, looseth all participation 
 of that blessed Sacrifice, 1 of the bodye and 
 blood of oure Saviour, appoynted by the sayde 
 Saviour (as I have shewed before) to be offered 
 
 1 The louse of partycipation of the Sacrifice how great a 
 losse. 
 
170 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 up daylye in the oblation of the Masse, for the 
 commodite of the whole worlde, quick and 
 dead : and for that cause (as the godlye 
 and learned, saynt John Chrisostome sayth. 1 ) 
 Called the common Sacrifice of the who le 
 world. The which action of offering of this 
 sacred Hoste, (the Sonne of God to his Father,) 
 is of such dignitye, excellencie, and merit, not 
 only to the Priest, but also to the standers by 
 assisting him : as all the other good woorkes 
 which a man can doe in his lyfe, are not to be 
 compared with it, seeing that the verye Angels 2 
 of heaven doe come downe at that tyme, to 
 adore (after the consecration) that sacred Bodye, 
 and to offer the same up with us, to God the 
 father for the whole world. As al the holy 
 Fathers of the primative Churche dyd bothe 
 beleve and teach. 3 Of the which, it shalbe 
 enough at this tyme, to aledge one or two. 
 Saynt Gregorie therfore the first, saythe thus. 
 What faythfull man can doute but that in the 
 verye houre of immolation or sacryfice, the 
 heavens doe open at the Priestes voyce, and that 
 the quires of Angels, be present tJiere, in that 
 misterie of Jesus Christ ? 4 And saynt Chrisos- 
 
 1 Chrys. horn. 47. in ep. 1. ad cor. 
 
 2 The Angels present at the elevation. 
 
 3 Gre. 1%. 4. di al. ca2J. 58. 
 
 4 Chris, lib. 6. de sacerdo. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 171 
 
 tome, handeling the same, saythe. At that 
 tyme, (the tyme of consecration in the Masse) 
 the Angels stande by the Priest ? and the uni- 
 versall orders of the celestiall powers, doe crye 
 out, and the place nygh to the aulter, is full of 
 quires of Angels in the honour of him whoe 
 is there sacrifised. And immediatlye after, he 
 telleth two visions of holye men, 1 whose eyes 
 were by the power of God (as he sayeth) 
 opened, and they in those visions sawe the 
 Angels presente at the time of consecration. 
 And in an other place, he yet more at large 
 erplycateth the same, sayinge. 2 At that tyme 
 deere brother (at the time of consecration and 
 elevation) not onlye men do geve out that dread- 
 ful cry, (saying, we adore the Lord) etc. but 
 also the Angels doe bowe their knees to our 
 Lord, and the Archangels doe beseche him : for 
 they accounte that a fitt time* having that 
 sacred oblation in their favour. And therfor 
 as men are wont to move Princes the more, yf 
 they beare olive bowes in their handes : (because 
 by bearinge that kinde of wood they bring into 
 the Princes mindes mercye and gentlenes:) so, 
 the Angels at that time, (houlding out in their 
 
 1 Two visions of the presence 0/ Angels at the masse. 
 
 2 Ghry, ho. 3. cont. Ano. 
 
 3 A Jit Similitude of S. Chrisostome. 
 
172 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 hands, the verye self same bodye of our Lord) 1 
 they doe entreate for al mankinde, as thoughe 
 they saide, We do entreate Lord, for the 
 men of the worlde, whom thow hast so looved, 
 that for their salvation thou wast content to 
 dye, and in the Crosse, to breathe out thyne 
 owne soide. For these men we make siqiplica- 
 tion,for the which thou hast geeven thy owne 
 bloud : for these men we proyy, for the which 
 thou hast sacrificed this bodye of thyne. If this 
 be soe, then the hearinge of Masse, is not onelye 
 worth the venturynge of an hundred Marckes, 2 
 or five monethes imprisonment, but also of an 
 hundrede thousande lyves, if a man could loose 
 everye one for that cause sixe tymes. And an 
 hundred tymes miserable is that man, which for 
 anye worldlye respecte doth depryve him selfe 
 of soe greate a benifite, as the participation 
 of this sacrifice is. Secondlye, they loose by 
 goeynge to Church, the fruite and grace of sixe 
 Sacramentes : 3 as the grace of Confirmation by 
 the Bishoppe, whereby the Holye Ghoste was 
 geeven in the Prymatyve Church, (as Saynte 
 Luke sayeth) * and now in our tyme, as Saynte 
 
 1 What playner testimony can there be then this. 
 
 2 The hearinge of a Masse how well worthe u. hundred 
 markes. 
 
 3 The losse ofy e grace o/"6. Sacraments what a losse. 
 
 4 Act 8 and 19. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 173 
 
 Cypryan proveth, are bestowed uppon us by 
 the same, the seven gyftes of the holye Ghoste. 
 Set out by Esaye the Prophet in his eleventhe 
 chapter. 1 They loose also the grace of Priest- 
 hood, soe greatlye commended by S. Paul to 
 Tymothye, 2 when he chargeth him soe earnestlye, 
 not to neglect the sayd grace. Also the grace 
 of Matrimony, which S. Paul soe much extol- 
 leth, 3 when he calleth this sacrament, a great 
 sacrament. Also the grace of extreme Unction, 
 which is soe great, as S. James sayeth, 4 besids 
 the healing many times of the bodye, it also 
 remitteth the sicke mans sinnes : And so in 
 lyke manner the grace of the other two sacra- 
 ments, of Penance, and the Aulter, whereof I 
 wil say a word or two immediately. Al thes 
 graces they loose, being cut of (by their going 
 to the Protestants churches) from these sacra- 
 ments, which are nothing else, but conduits of 
 grace. The which losse, of what valew it is, 5 
 a man may gesse by that, which al devines 
 with on accord doe prove, y e on droppe of 
 grace is more worth, then al y e world esteemed 
 in it selfe besids. Thirdly, they loose by going 
 to church al the benifit of y e keies of the 
 
 1 Cypr. It, de, unci, chris. Esa. 11. 
 
 2 2 Timo. i. 3 Ephes. v. 
 
 4 Jaco. 5. 5 The valew of grace. 
 
174 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 church, 1 or of the auctority of binding and 
 loosing of sinns, graunted by Christ to y e gover- 
 nors of the same Church. For the explication 
 of the which, we must understand, that Christ 
 having newlye made the mariage betweert his 
 deere spouse and him selfe, (I meane the 
 Church) : and havinge now sealed the same, 
 with his owne bloud : and being inforced to 
 depart from the said new maried spouse of his, 
 towching his visible presence for a time : he 
 devised how to shew unto her, how greatly he 
 loved her, and to leave some notable pledge 
 and testimony of his singuler great affection to- 
 wardes her. The which he finally resolved, could 
 be by noe other meanes better expressed, then if 
 he should leave al his aucthoritie with her, the 
 which he had receaved of his Father, which 
 making publyque proclamation to all the w T orld, 
 that What so ever she should forgeve in earthe, 
 towchyng sinne, the same should be forgeven in 
 heaven: 2 and what soever sinne, the Churche 
 should retaine or not forgeve in earth the same 
 should never be forgeven in heaven? And 
 againe : that with what authoritye God his 
 Father sent him, with the same he sent her 
 
 1 What the benefyte of the heyes of the Church is. 
 
 2 Joan. 20. 
 
 3 A proclamation of the tribunal for sinn in earth. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 175 
 
 gouvemours, the Apostles, and theyr successors.' 1 
 And againe : he that should not here and obey 
 the Church, should be accounted as a heathen 
 and publicane. 2 By the which speeches of 
 Christ, 3 our fore fathers have alwayes under- 
 stoode, that Christe gave unto the Churche a 
 visible tribunal seate in earth, for the forgeving 
 or retayning of sinnes, unto the which al Chris- 
 tians must resorte by submission and humble 
 confession of their sinnes/ if they thinke ever 
 to receave forgevenes of the same at Christes 
 hys handes in heaven. For soe we read, that 
 in the primative Churche they confessed their 
 sinnes unto the Apostels : of whom saynt Luke 
 writeth thus. Manye of the faythful came (to 
 the Apostles) confessing and reveling their ovme 
 uctes. 5 And three hundred yeres after that, S. 
 Austen testefieth of his time, saying. Doe you 
 suche penance, as is wont to be done in the 
 Church, that the Church may praye for you. 6 
 Let no man saye, I doe it secretly, I doe it with 
 God alone, God which hath to pardon me, 
 knoweth wel how that I doe repent in my hart. 
 
 3 Joan. 6. " Mat. 18. 
 
 3 Aug. ho. 49 et, 50. and ho 41. ibid. dp. li. 1. ep. 2. 
 
 4 Arab. lib. 1. ca. 2. de Pae. and inpsa. 38. Atha. serm. 
 cont, her. Chris, lib. 3 de facer. Hil. in. ca. 18. Mat, 
 
 5 Hie. in cap 18 Mat. Actor. 19. 
 
 6 Aug. horn. 41. 49. 50. cap 10. 11. 16. ex 50. how. 
 
176 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 What therfore, with out cause was it sayde {to 
 the Priestes) that which you loose in earth, shal 
 be loosed in heaven: 1 therfore in vayne were the 
 keyes geven to the Church ? And in an other 
 place againe more neerlye touching the humour 
 of our men now a dayes, he sayth. 2 There are 
 some which thinke it sufficient for their salva- 
 tion, if they doe confesse their sinnes only to 
 God, to whom nothing is hidden, and to whom 
 no mans conscience is unknown. For they will 
 not, or els they are ashamed, or els they dis~ 
 dayne, to shew them selves unto the Priestes, 
 whom not withstanding God (by Moyses his 
 lawegever) did apoint to discerne or iudge be- 
 tweene leprye, and leprye? But I would not 
 that thou shouldest be deceaved, with that 
 opinion, in such sort, that thou shouldest ether 
 by noughty shame, or obstinate disdayne, re- 
 frayn to confesse,^ before the substitute, or 
 Vicegerent of our Lord. For, whom our Lord 
 did not disdayne to make his substitute, his 
 iudgemente must thou be contente also to stande 
 to. Tins benifit therefore of the keyes of the 
 Church, and of receaving remission of their 
 sinnes by the same, (which Catholickes doe 
 thin eke to be the greatest benifit of their re- 
 
 1 Joan, 20. 2 Aug. li. 2. de Visita. ivfir. Cap. 4. 
 
 3 Leu. 13. 14. 4 The necessity of Confession. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 177 
 
 ligion) do they loose, that goe to the Protestants 
 Churches, besids al the good instructions, whole- 
 some councels, and vertuous admonitions, which 
 Catholickes doe receave in confession, at their 
 ghostly fathers hands, then the which things, 
 they finde nothinge more forcible to bring them 
 to good lyfe: especially, if they frequente it 
 often, as al zelous Catholickes in the worlde 
 nowe doe. 
 
 Fourthlye, they loose the infinite benefite of 
 receving the blessed sacrament l of the aulter, 
 (the pretious Body and Bloud of Christ) being 
 the foode of our soules, and as Christ sayeth. 
 The bread that came dowue from heven to geve 
 lyfe unto the world : 2 To the worthye eating of 
 which heavenly bread, Christ promiseth infinite 
 reward, saying. 3 He that eateth my flesh and 
 drinketh my bloud, hath lyfe everlasting, and 
 I wil rayse him againe at the last day. And 
 agayne : 4 He that eateth me, shal lyve through 
 me. Upon which promises of Christ, our for- 
 fathers of the Primative church, have alwayes 
 most earnestlye exhorted al men, to the often 
 receavinge of this blessed sacrament, alleaging 
 
 1 The losse of not receaving the blessed Sacrament. 
 
 2 Joan. 6. 3 Ibidem. 
 
 * Vide Civil, lib. 3. in Joan. cap. 37. Basil, ad. Cesar. 
 patric. Amb. lib. 5. de Sacra, ca. 4. Chris, horn. 61. ad. 
 po}>. Antioch. 
 
178 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 innumerable commodities of y e same, and prov- 
 ing by experience, that the frequenting of this 
 Sacrament, is the cheefeste meanes to come to 
 al grace, zeale, feelinge, and lyfe in spiritual 
 matters. And on the contrarye parte, that the 
 abstayninge from the same, is the right way to 
 al spiritual miserye, and for the soule of man 
 to wyther away, drye up, and starve : even as 
 the plant dothe, that lacketh moysture. The 
 which we see nowe by experience, in manye a 
 thousand, who for lacke of the foode, of this 
 blessed Fountayne of grace, are as dead, in al 
 spiritual cogitations, and deedes, as a starved 
 stake in the hedge, 1 from bearing of flowers : 
 and their myndes so overgrowen, with the 
 rancke weedes of Carnalitye, that there is noe 
 difference betwirte them, and a brute bullocke : 
 for, as much the one foloweth his passions, as 
 the other. Whereby we see, what a losse it is, 
 to depryve them selves from the use of this 
 Sacrament. 
 
 Fiftlye, they loose al the merit of their 
 good deedes what soever. 2 For as S. Gregorie 
 sayeth, Even as, none receaved their pern/ in the 
 Gospel, but they onely which had labored within 
 
 1 The state of a carnal man. 
 
 J The losse of al merite for good worhes. Mat. 20. 
 Greg. li. 35. Mar. ca. 5. 
 
ROBERT PARSONS 179 
 
 the compasse of the Vineyarde : soe no man shal 
 receave any reward, for any good deede of his, 
 except he hare donne it, within the unitye of 
 the Church. So that, if a man should doe 
 never so many good deedes, geve never so 
 manye almes, 1 nay, as S. Cyprian proveth 
 if a man should suffer never so many thinges 
 for Christ, yea death it selfe, yet if he were 
 out of the unity of the Catholick Church, 
 he shal have no rewarde therefore. And not 
 onely this, but if a man be in anye mortal 
 sinne 2 what soever, as long as he abydeth in the 
 same without repentance, and confession, al 
 devines hould, that he looseth the rewarde of 
 al his good deedes. And the reason is, because 
 noe worke can be meritorious of it selfe, but 
 onely by reson of the grace from whence it 
 proceedeth : but by everye mortal sinne which 
 a man committeth, he looseth grace, and much 
 more by goeinge out of the unitye of the 
 Church. And therefore, in such men until they 
 repente, there can be noe hope of anye reward 
 for any good woorke Avhich they shall doe. 
 
 Sixthely, they lose the benefit of Commun- 
 ion of Saintes, 3 which we protest to beleeve 
 in our Creede. That is, they have no parte of 
 
 1 Cip. de sim. prel. Chri. ho, 11. ad. Ephes. 
 ' ! Vi. D. Tho. 1. 2. and oes DD. 15. qu. 119. 
 
 3 The losse of the communion of Saintes. 
 
180 ROBERT PARSONS 
 
 the Sacrifices, oblations, prayers, fastinges 7 
 almes, and other good woorks, done within the 
 Catholique Church, which all other Catholiques 
 have. Finallye, they being cut of, and devided 
 from the unitie of the other members, 1 they 
 take parte of no influence, whiche commeth 
 from the head to the bodye, that is, from 
 Christ to the Churche : nomore, then a mans 
 hande once cut of, doth take blood, norishment, 
 spirit, or lyfe, from the arme, from which it is 
 now separated, as most learnedly S. Austen 
 dothe discourse. 2 Wherfore they must needes 
 wither awaye, and make drye wood for hell 
 fyre : and as good for them it were, in effect, 
 to be of anye other relygion, as of that, whereof 
 they take not one iote of commoditye. And to 
 all these miseryes they are driven, onely by 
 going to the protestants Churches. 
 
 1 Note this similitude. 
 
 2 Aug. epist. 50. ad Boni factum. 
 
VIII 
 
 WILLIAM PRYNNE 
 
 [This remarkable man, a pamphleteer to the 
 marrow of his bones, was born in 1600, and was 
 by profession a barrister. For forty-two years he 
 was a writer, during which time he is said by 
 Oldys to have published 160 pamphlets, besides 
 several large folios and quartos, a matter of forty 
 volumes in all. Anthony a Wood reckoned that 
 he must have composed at the rate of a sheet a 
 day from the time he reached man's estate. His 
 Ilistriomastix cost him his ears in 1634. In 1637 
 he was pilloried again, this time in the company 
 of Bastwick and Burton, all of them having pro- 
 duced scurrilous pamphlets against the Church. 
 Their punishment evoked an extraordinary amount 
 of popular sympathy by the cruelty of the sentence 
 and the courage and wit of the sufferers. Prynne 
 was imprisoned for life in Jersey, but his party 
 soon got the upper hand, and when the Long 
 Parliament met in 1640 Prynne was released. He 
 was malignantly active in the prosecution of Laud ; 
 but he opposed the King's trial, and was expelled 
 from Parliament by Pride's Purge in 1648 and im- 
 prisoned. He continued to be a thorn in the 
 Protector's side, and was in 1650 imprisoned for* 
 three years without a trial ; he forced his way 
 back into the House in 1659 and 1660, and asserted 
 the rights of Charles II. with the greatest boldness, 
 
1 82 WILLIAM PRYNNE 
 
 claiming that writs should be issued in the King's 
 name. In the discussions on the punishment of 
 the Regicides he was one of their severest 
 opponents, and did all he could do limit the Act 
 of Indemnity. He ended his days in the confi- 
 dence of Charles II., as Keeper of the Records, 
 where the young Anthony a Wood found him re- 
 ceiving visitors with ' old-fashion compliments 
 such as were used in the reign of James I.' 
 
 From 
 A LOOKING-GLASSE 
 
 For all Lordly Prelates. 
 
 There is nothing now more rife in the motithes 
 of many great domineering Lordly Prelates, 
 then, that their Lordly Episcopall Jurisdiction, 
 Pompe and Soveraignty, is of divine Institution, 
 and that their Sacred Lordships, are undoubted ', 
 Sonnes, Successors, heires of Christ, and his 
 Apostles. Which men might well *enough 
 believe, did not their lives and actions most 
 apparently contradict these their ambicious 
 windy words ; But if men may judge of a Tree 
 by the fruits, (as our Saviour concludes they 
 may, Math. vii. 16) or of men's true Fathers, and 
 Pedigrees by their works (as hee also resolves 
 John viii. 44.) I hope these arrogant lofty Pre- 
 
WILLIAM PRYNNE 183 
 
 lates, will not be offended with me, if I make 
 it apparent to them (and others) by their fruites 
 and workes, that they are so farre from being 
 the Sons of Successors of Christ and his 
 Apostles, or of divine Institution, that, they are 
 of their Father the Dwell {for his workes and 
 lusts they doe) the successors from the Jewish 
 high Priests, who crucified our Saviour, Per- 
 secuted, silenced, imprisoned, excommunicated 
 his Apostles, And so, of Diabolicall ordination, 
 not Divine. 
 
 This I shall plainely and briefely demonstrate, 
 in two distinct Parallers. The first, betweene 
 the Divell and Lordly Prelates. The second, 
 betweene the Jewish high Priests and them. 
 
 The 1. Parallel betweene the Divell and 
 Lordly Prelates. 
 
 I. First, the Divell (for his condition and 
 quality) is an Apostate Angell, who kept not 
 his first estate and mansion, and abode not 
 in the truth, Jude vi v John viii. 44. Such are 
 all Lordly Prelates and Bishops, both by their 
 own exposition of Rev. ii. 1, 5, 6. 1 Where 
 
 1 William Bishop of Rochester his first Sermon before 
 K. James at Hampton Court, Sept, 21, 1606. B. Downham 
 his consecration Sermon and the defence thereof: with 
 B. Bancrofts Sermon and others. B. Montague in his 
 Appeale to Cesar B. White in Brabounce's Censure. 
 
184 WILLIAM PRYNNE 
 
 they interpret, the Apostate AttgM of the CImrch 
 of Ephesus, to bee the Lord Bishop of that 
 Church alledging this text as the principall Scrip- 
 ture, to prove their Hierarchie of Divine Institu- 
 tion ; and by common experience : For as Lord 
 Bishops are fallen from the pietie, holinesse, 
 humility, poverty, zeale, meeknesse, laborious- 
 nesse, heavenly mindednesse, charity, and 
 equallity with other Ministers, that was in the 
 true Christian Bishops of the Primitive Church 
 and now openly avow the Popish and Arminian 
 Doctrine of Tlie Totall and Final! Apostacy of 
 the Saints from grace. 1 So most of them being 
 made Lord Bishops, (to prove this doctrine of 
 Apostacy true by their practise) fall away from 
 the pietie, zeale, holinesse, meekenesse, diligence, 
 frequency in preaching, and most other vertues 
 which they had or used in verity or pretence, 
 before they were made Bishops (in case they 
 had any vertue or goodnesse in them before, of 
 which too many of them were never guiltie,) 
 and become farre worse Christians, farre greater 
 Persecutors and enemies to God, his truth, his 
 
 1 The Calvinists taught that the Predestinate could never 
 fall from grace, while 'those who are not predestinated 
 to salvation shall he necessarily damned for their sins.' 
 The Arminians, who were deeply opposed to Calvinism, 
 held all the bishoprics and places of trust in the Church 
 at this time, with Laud at their head. 
 
WILLIAM PRYNNE 185 
 
 people, and more unholy, covetous, lasie, vicious 
 in their lives than ever they were before ; as all 
 histories and experience manifest, beyond all 
 contradiction. 
 
 And how many of our present Lord Prelates 
 are turned open Apostates from the established 
 doctrine and discipline of this Church of Eng- 
 land to Poperie, Arminianisme and Romish 
 superstition, and all the zeale, the honesty, the 
 piety and goodnesse they had or seemed onely 
 to have before they were Lord Bishops, I leave 
 to every mans experience to determine, some of 
 the best of them being so strangely warped of 
 late, that it made a great Popish learned Lord 
 confesse openly at the Table this last summer, 
 That if ever hee altered his Belegion, hee would 
 turne Puritan; for Puritans (saith hee) are 
 constant to their owne Religion and Tenets, 
 but the Bishops so fable and wavering with the 
 times, that wee know not where to have them, 
 such Apostate Angels are they. 
 
 Secondly, The Divell is an uncleane spirit, 
 void of holinesse, full of all filthinesse and 
 impiety, and is hardly cast out of those he once 
 possesseth, Math. x. 1, 6, 12, 43. Mark i. 23, 
 26, 27, c. v. 2, 8, c. vii. 25. Luke iv. 33, 36, c. 
 vi. 18. Actsym.7. Such are most Lordly Prelates 
 in all respects ; witnesse their uncleane, pro- 
 
 M 
 
1 86 WILLIAM PRYNNE 
 
 fane, voluptuous, impious, godlesse lives wnd 
 actions in all ages. 1 Of which all histories 
 stincke and surfet; to omit the present filthi- 
 nesse of many of them : And how hard they are 
 to be cast out where once they get but footing, 
 our owne histories and instant experience too 
 well demonstrate. 
 
 This greate Red Dragon, (the Divell) stoode 
 before the Woman (the Church) which was 
 reddy to be delivered of a man-childe, for to 
 devoure her Childe (her spirituall regenerate 
 Children) as soone as it was borne. Rev, xii. 
 4, 5. Thus those Lordly Prelates doe ; No 
 sooner can the Church be reddy to be delivered 
 of a man-childe, of a godly faithfull Pastor, new 
 Minister, or zealous Christian, but these great 
 redd scarlet Dragons, (who can suffer dumbe 
 Dogges, deboist, 2 licentious, dissolute drunken, 
 scandalous Ministers, and supersticious Pope- 
 lings to sit still and doe what they list, without 
 danger or countroll) are at hand (like Pharoah, 
 and the divell) to devoure, silence, suppresse, 
 persecute, and destroy them as soone as they 
 are borne, or beginne but once publiquely to 
 appeare in the world ; as experience too well 
 
 1 Balaeus and Platina devitis Pontificum. Godwins 
 catalogue of Bishops : The Acts of English Votaries by 
 Bale Gentivr. Mag. 4. to 13. c. 7. and 10. 
 
 * Debauched. 
 
WILLIAM PRYNNE 187 
 
 testifieth in most places, where a godly Minister 
 or Christian can no sooner shew his head or 
 beginne to doe God faithfull service, but they 
 presently lay trappes and snares to hamper, or 
 send Apparitors, Pursevants, with such other 
 Hellish Furies, to seize upon them, that so their 
 Lordships may swallow them all up at a bit ; 
 Yea if any good Booke shall beginne to peepe 
 out against their tyranny, Prelacy, and Innova- 
 tions, Howses, Shipps, Studdies, Trunks and 
 Cabinets must be broken up and ransacked for 
 them : Such ravenous redd Furies Dragons are 
 they, and such open wide sepulchres are their 
 devouring throates to swallow downe all things 
 that any way make against them. 
 
 Hell and everlasting torments are prepared 
 for the divell and his Angels, reserved now in 
 chaines of darknesse unto the Iudgment of the 
 great day, when they shall be all cast in to the 
 lake that burneth with fire and brimstone for 
 ever : Math, xxv. 41. 2 Pet. ii. 4. hide vi. 
 Bevel xx. 20. So are they prepared likewise 
 for all proud Lordly, persecuting, 1 unpreaching, 
 
 1 Ok that a man had but the view of hell ; (saith Father 
 Latymer in his Sermons,) Hee should see on one side of it a 
 row of unpreaching Prelates in their square caps asfarre 
 as betweene this and Dover, I warrant you, as farre as 
 betweene this and Dover. 
 
1 88 WILLIAM PRYNNE 
 
 oppressing, tyrannizing Prelates, who suppresse 
 the preaching and progresse of the Gospell, with 
 the Preachers, Ministers, and Professors of it, 
 and hate them to the death : And if there be 
 any place or torments in Hell, hotter, deeper, 
 greater, or more insupportable, horrid, and 
 loathsome then other, Certainly that shall be 
 reserved for these ungodly Lord Bishops and 
 false Prophets ; who shall have the same con- 
 demnation and torments inflicted on them as 
 the divell himselfe shall undergoe. 1 Tim. iii. 
 6, 7. Rev. xx. 10. that our proud perse- 
 cuting Lording Prelates would now at last 
 consider this, o that they would repent and 
 amend in time before they fall downe headlong 
 quick into Hell ; Some of them (as their late 
 actions manifest to all the world) being growne 
 as insolent, as impudent, as desperate professed 
 publique enemies to purity, piety, holynes the 
 syncere preaching and Preachers of Gods word 
 and power of Religion, as the very divell him- 
 selfe ; and some of them (I feare) worse then 
 any divells. For first all the divells beleeve 
 Gods threats, word, Iudgments, and tremble at 
 them, James ii. 19, but they (as their athe- 
 isticall, unjust, unconscionable, tyrannicall lives 
 and actions proclayme to all men,) doe neither 
 beleeve, nor tremble at them. 
 
IX 
 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 [Bastwick, a physician, was born in 1593, and 
 died 1654. He got into prison in 1635 for a 
 work entitled Flagellum Pontificis, and while in 
 the Gatehouse he wrote the Letany, for which in 
 1637 he was sentenced with Prynne and Burton to 
 a fine of £5000, the pillory, the loss of his ears, 
 and imprisonment for life. Like Prynne, he was 
 released by the Long Parliament. Like Prynne, 
 too, he was a rigid Presbyterian, and wrote very 
 bitterly against the Independents. Bastwick is 
 almost unrivalled^for scurrility and has a, curious 
 knack of using strange words, to illustrate which 
 talent two short extracts are given at the end. 
 We have also quoted two title pages of the Letany 
 (for it is in four parts) to illustrate an art which 
 is now unfortunately a lost one.] 
 
 From 
 THE LETANY 
 
 of 
 
 John Bastwick, 
 
 Doctor of Phisicke, 
 
 Being now full of Devotion, as well in respect of the 
 
 common calamities of plague and pestilence ; as also 
 
 of his owne particular miserie : lying at this instant in Limbo 
 
 Patruiii. Set downe in Two Letters to Mr Aqidla Wykes, 
 
 keeper of the Gatehouse, his good Angell. 
 
 In which 
 
 There is an universall challenge to the whole World, 
 
 To prove the parity of Ministers, to be jure divino. 
 
 Also 
 
 A full demonstration, that the Bishops are neither Christ?, nor the 
 
190 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 Apostles Successors, but enemies of Christ and his Kingdome, 
 
 and of the Kings most excellent Majesties prerogative Royall. 
 
 All which heeundertaketh to makegood before KingandCounsoll, 
 
 with the hazard of otherwise being made a prey to their 
 
 insatiable indignation. 
 
 A Booke very usefull, and 'profitable for all good Christians 
 
 To read, for the stirring up of devotion in tftem likewise. 
 
 Proverb, chap. 25. vers. 2. 
 
 It is the glory of God to conceale a thing, but the IbOnour of the King 
 
 is to search out a matter. 
 
 Printed 
 
 By the speciall procurement, and for the especial! use of our 
 
 English Prelats in the yeare of Remembrance, Anno 1637. 
 
 I cannot deny but Dick Shorts petulancy and 
 boldnesse exceedingly moved me, and whereas, 
 he sent me word, that the pillars of our church 
 supported him, / replyed that they were the 
 caterpillars of the Church, and so they are, for 
 they devoure the Church of God, and eate up his 
 people like bread. And howsoever they glory in 
 the name of Church, and stile themselves with 
 that dignity, excluding all others from that 
 title, by the name of laicks : yet I boldly 
 averre, they are so far from being the Church, 
 as they are not so much as the rubbish of that 
 glorious fabricke : for they persecute, destroy, 
 and ruine the true Church of Christ, and afflict 
 and weary his members continually : and for 
 that end, have their sworne servants through 
 the kingdome, to give them information, 
 against both Minister and people, that are of 
 
JOHN BASTWICK 191 
 
 a more godly and strict life, and that desire in 
 the purity of his Ordinance, to serve y e Lord, I 
 pray looke through all parishes, and you shall 
 see (as I sayd) they have their servants in 
 them: and such as they encourage by rewards, 
 to informe against them, that feare the all- 
 mighty, and set their faces, towards the 
 heavenly Jerusalem. 
 
 The sextin and the Church-wardens and 
 Sidemen, they are the Prelats servants and 
 slaves principally and ex officio, and they first 
 looke to the Minister, whether he bee a diligent 
 observer of all the fopperyes of conformity; 1 
 and all additional jackenaps trickes and Pop- 
 ish abominations, and profane fooleryes, the 
 Bishops, by their Canons and articles impose 
 upon him. And if he be fayling in the least, 
 though it be without offence to any, or 
 contempt, but out of meere conscience. Let 
 him be never so holy, so learned, so diligent in 
 his Cure : nay let him doe never so much good, 
 
 1 Such as * capping, ducking, standing, and kneeling,' 
 as he complains in another part of the Letany, But more 
 obnoxious ritual was common at this time ; for, besides 
 the surplice, scarf and academic cap which were much 
 disliked by the Puritans, copes and lighted candles were 
 used, and we happen to know, from a list of Bishop 
 Andrewes 1 altar furniture which has come down to us, 
 that he also used incense, wafer-bread, coloured altar- 
 cloths and chalice-veils, &c. 
 
192 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 both by his example and ministry, he is ipso 
 facto throw ne into a thousand perplexities ; and 
 tossed from one Court to another, till they have 
 quite exhausted him, and then they turns him 
 out, from house, and home, and send him 
 abegging. Nay, which is yet to be taken 
 notice of, if he be a diligent preacher, and a 
 vigilant watchman, it is enough to ensnare him, 
 and if they have no iust qarrel, they will faine 
 articles against him, and ex officio, prosecute 
 him and by rertue of their office they will 
 pillage and rob his Study first (as they did by 
 me) and take away all his papers and writings, 
 to see if they can get any advantage against 
 him out of them, and then upon one triviall 
 occasion or other, or if he will not cut his 
 owne throat by his answer, they forthwith 
 suspend him saying he is refractory to authority 
 and that he hath not answered fully enough, 
 and after upon refusall of farther answer (which 
 is the best declining of eminent misery and 
 danger) they elect him out of his living and 
 honest imployments, 1 pretending it was because 
 of his contempt, when there was none. Againe 
 on the other side, if he ioyne issue and the sute 
 
 3 The persecution to which the puritans were subjected 
 at this time was the principal cause in niajdng young 
 Richard Baxter go over to their side. 
 
JOHN BASTWICK 193 
 
 be brought to an hearing, the man depending 
 uppon the goodnes of his cause, and knowing 
 the integrity of his owne heart. Then comes 
 forth DOCTOR SATAN, the accuser of the 
 bretheren, otherwise called the KINGS 
 ADVOCATE, who appearing before the re- 
 noivned Metropolitans, that poule x and share 
 all Christs sheep, and the other reverend sheep- 
 sharers , he exceedingly with many invectives 
 and contumelyes aggravates all the famed 
 articles against him, whom he never knew 
 nor saw before, and many times most 
 affectionately urgeth, for want of soldier 2 
 grounds, the multiplicity of the Articles, 
 when not withstanding they have made 
 them all themselves, and in such a 
 numerosity, that they might catch him in 
 one or other of them, and it is easy with them 
 to make a two or three hundred of them, it is 
 their trade to be traducers, that cursed occupa- 
 tion. But this I acknowledge is principally 
 done, both by the advocate, and Iudges, when 
 they can prove nothing against him, and then 
 indeed the advocate flyes to the dressar and 
 desires that right horrible board to take into 
 more serious consideration, that how soever 
 there be no apparent proof of any of the 
 
 1 Poll. 2 Solider. 
 
194 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 articles against him, yet the number and 
 multitude of the articles, do sufficiently argue 
 he is a sublime puritan : and therefore it 
 would be very dangerous, to the church, for 
 such an one, to have any publick place in the 
 ministry ; uppon which supposition he humbly 
 entreats them to exercise the autority of the 
 keyes, and to thrust out so dangerous and 
 unprofitable a member. After them the Pre- 
 varicator hath done his part of speech : 
 he leaveth the definitive sentence, to these 
 grave, antient, and musty Seniors, who after 
 they have well mumbled him with the stumps 
 of their old taunts reviling reproches, and 
 with language no ivay beseeming gravity, nor 
 Christs successors: after I say they have 
 wearied him as a poore lamb among a 
 company of wolves, then imposing upon one 
 shoulder a great bag of round costs and upon 
 the other a good fine to pay them all well, 
 then in mere conscience they thrust him 
 out of the Synagouge and make him goe 
 seeke his Living in some other Country. 
 And of these passages tve have dayly experi- 
 ence. And by such Avicked inventions as 
 these, they have rooted out and undone, almost 
 all, the faithfull, pious and diligent Ministers 
 in the kingdome, and such as made conscience 
 
JOHN BASTWICK 195 
 
 of their actions, and that did carefully instruct 
 the people in the wayes of God, both pub- 
 lickly and privately, and stirred up others by 
 life and doctrine so to doe, and to all this 
 their wickednes, they raile against them to 
 Kings and Nobles. 
 
 And in those good Pastors and ministers 
 places — they have installed, foysted in and put 
 PRIESTS SECUNDUM ORDINEM DIA- 
 BOLI for the must part, such a generation of 
 vipers of proud ungratefull idle wicked and 
 illiterate asses, 1 and such profane scornes of 
 all piety and goodnes, and so beastly lascivious, 
 and lecherous, as no prety wench can keepe her 
 honesty for them, and men of such conversa- 
 tion for the generality of them as they are 
 not fit for civill society, and fellowes so 
 treacherous and perfideous, as no man can be 
 secure in their company, and to speake the 
 truth spyes in the familyes of all the Nobility 
 and gentry where they reade prayers to give 
 Intelligence against them ; withall, so braul- 
 
 1 Bastwick had some justification for writing thus. 
 There were a good many drunken and immoral clergy- 
 men in the country ; and in some places the Puritans 
 alone kept religion alive. But the Laudian clergy whom 
 he hated were good and zealous men : the bad clergy 
 were men of no principles, who had been admitted 
 because of the dearth of priests. 
 
196 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 ing and contentious, as upon every pety 
 occasion, they sue their parishioners in one 
 Court or other ; especially, if they be honest 
 men, they then trounce them in their spirituall 
 Courts to death, and this to drill them up in 
 the law. As for the Gospell and preaching, 
 they never knew what it was, nor never loved 
 it, as by their lives and maners is evidently 
 manifest. For they will doe any thing, and 
 be of any religion for living and gaine : they 
 looke not, what Ood commands or forbids : 
 for they are pretily ignorant of that, but what 
 the Bishops, and the times require and inioyne 
 and such as these would the Prelats have 
 every where ivhich are fittest for their devillish 
 purposes. 
 
 If God sayes, Six days thou shalt labour and 
 doe all that thou hast to do, but the Seventh is 
 the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, in it thou 
 shalt do no maner of worke &c. If the Prelats 
 say to the contrary, and affirme that that 
 commandement is now abrogated, and all 
 though it were not, yet onely the laborious 
 works of their ordinary calling are forbidden, 
 and not recreations, and corporall exercises of 
 pleasure: 1 and therefore command and bid 
 
 1 The Book of Sports permitted the use of lawful 
 recreations on Sunday after Church time. Dancing, 
 
JOHN BASTWICK 197 
 
 their Priests, to publish this to the people, that 
 they may know their liberty, for the prof ana- 
 tion of the Lords day, and the shamefull break- 
 ing of this divine precept, those Master Sir 
 Johns, will incontinently doe it. Yea if it 
 were to teach them, to breake all Gods com- 
 mandements at once, and to cast away and 
 abandon all piety and goodnes they are fit 
 for this purpose. If it bring game they will 
 doe any thing, be it never so wicked: for it is 
 their calling. If God sayes, thou shalt not 
 make to thy selfe any graven image or the 
 likenes of any thing that is in Heaven above or 
 in the earth beneath, thou shalt not bow downe 
 to it nor worship it, &c, If the Prelats say, 
 notwithstanding, I will have you make you an 
 Altar, and worship and fall downe to it, 1 or at 
 least to worship the Communion table, or a 
 peece of bread, and make the people doe so 
 too. They then are for these imployments 
 likewise. If saint Paul and the other Apostles 
 
 archery, maypoles, leaping were declared 'lawful,' bub 
 bear-baiting, bowling, and interludes were declared un- 
 lawful ; and only those who had been to church were 
 allowed to join in the sports. The Booh was issued by 
 James L, in 1618; but Charles reissued it in 1633, and 
 enforced the reading of it in Churches. The Long 
 Parliament ordered all copies of it to be burnt. 
 
 1 Laud enforced the practice, enjoined by the Canons 
 of 1604, of bowing to the altar. 
 
198 JOHN BASTWICK 
 
 give Timothy and Titus, and all other Ministers 
 a strict charge, to preach the word in season 
 and out of season, and inioyne them, as they 
 love the Lord Jesus Christ, and will answer it 
 at his glorious appearing, that they diligently 
 feed their flocks, &c. If the Prelats say to the 
 contrary, and bid away with these preachments, 
 there is too much of them already. They will 
 most devoutly and dextrously obey it, and 
 never preach at all: or if at any time they 
 breake silence, it were better they held their 
 peace, so full of ignorance, vanity and super- 
 stition their discourses are stuffed withall, as 
 it brings a nauciousnes to the hearers. And all 
 this you know to be true. I pray what thinke 
 you now of your great Masters ? Tell mee in 
 good sooth, do you thinke your Prelats are the 
 Church of God, and those holy Fathers you 
 
 thought they were ? 
 
 * * * * * 
 
 The Answer 
 
 of 
 
 John Bastwick, 
 
 Doctor of Phisicke, 
 
 To the exceptions made against his 
 
 Letany by A learned Gentleman, 
 
 which is 
 
 Annexed to the Letany it selfe, as Articles super addi- 
 
 tionall against the 
 
 Prelats. 
 
 In the which there is, A full, demonstration and proof of the 
 
 Reall Absence of Christ in theSacrament of the LordsSupper, 
 
JOHN BASTWICK 199 
 
 ivhich the vanity and impiety of the Consecration of 
 
 Temples Churches and Chappies, 
 
 Also 
 
 The necessity of the perpetuall motion and circulation 
 
 of worship if men be bound to bow the knees 
 
 at the name of Jesus. 
 
 This is to follow the Letany as A second part thereof. 
 
 Printed 
 
 In the yeare of Remembrance, Anno 1637. 
 
 ' They L are exorbitantly luxurious, temulent, 2 
 inordinatly proud, and excessively ingerdious and 
 exacting : and of such deboshedness 3 of lives and 
 maners, and so brutish and unnaturall, as the very 
 sinnes of Sodome and the Old World are revived 
 againe amongst them. Ebriety, venery, fullnes of 
 bread, and idleness are the least sins of that 
 convocation and accounted among them but 
 peccadiglios, yea a theame and matter of ludibry : 4 
 Greater cruelty, extortion, rapine, robbery and 
 bribery (to say nothing of devillary, atheisme and 
 popery), I know no where. 
 
 'Fcr the Church is now as full of ceremonyes 
 as a Dog is full of fleas. At the entrance, in the 
 middle at the going out every where one meets 
 with ceremonies. ... To speak the truth, such a 
 multitude of trumperyes and grollish ceremonyes 
 are brought in by the Prelats, as all the substance 
 of religion is thrust out, I meane true godlinesse, 
 piety and charity, all which they have excluded 
 and overthrowne with their baggatelle inventions/ 
 
 1 The Bishops' officers. 2 Drunk. 
 
 3 Debauchedness. 4 Mockery. 
 
X 
 
 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 [Baxter (1615-1691), the author of the SaMs 
 Best, and founder of popular religious literature 
 in the modern sense, was born in Shropshire, 
 where the clergy were miserably inefficient and 
 largely dissolute. In 1640 he was curate at Bridg- 
 north, and in 1641 began his great work at Kidder- 
 minster, which from being a very ungodly place 
 became a wonderful centre of piety and fervour. 
 Here he remained through the civil war, where he 
 acted as chaplain to one of Cromwell's regiments, 
 and did not leave it finally till 1660, when he came 
 to London. He had a considerable share in bring- 
 ing back Charles II., and preached at St Margaret's, 
 Westminster, before the House of Commons on the 
 day before Parliament voted the Restoration. He 
 refused the offer of the Bishopric of Hereford, and 
 after taking part in the abortive Savoy Conference, 
 he gave up his ministry in the Church of England 
 on the passing of the Act of Uniformity 1662, though 
 he always held his orders to be indefeasible, and 
 continued to communicate in his Parish Church. 
 He was imprisoned by Judge Jeffries in 1684 for 
 a year and a half, but was treated well while in 
 prison. He continued to work hard at his writing, 
 and occasionally preached as opportunity offered, 
 living a quiet and holy life, as a ' nonconformist 
 minister but a conformist parishioner.' 
 
 His literary activity was enormous ; over 160 
 treatises are said to have come from his pen, many 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 201 
 
 of them large volumes, and many pamphlets, tracts 
 and " sheets." Everything he wrote found a 
 ready sale, and since lie died there has never been 
 a time when something of his was not in print ; 
 nor has there been any difference of opinion as to 
 the purity and beauty of his style, and the depth 
 of his religion. But in spite of his popularity he 
 stood very much alone and did not belong to any 
 of the political and religious parties, active though 
 he was in both spheres. He was strongly opposed 
 to the Independents, nor can he be correctly 
 described as a Presbyterian, merely because he 
 believed that Presbyterian orders were valid. He 
 was a non-conformist, in the true and logical sense 
 of the word, a Churchman (a "Catholic" as he 
 often described himself on his title-pages) who 
 could not conform to the use of the cross in 
 baptism, and other points, and desired the further 
 amendment of the liturgy. As the Sheet for the 
 Ministry shows, he held firmly to an authorised 
 ministry ; defending that of the Commonwealth, 
 in a companion tract, the Second Sheet, on the 
 ground that it was mainly composed either of 
 men episcopally ordained like himself or of those 
 who had received Presbyterian orders.] 
 
 ONE SHEET FOR THE MINISTRY, 
 
 Against the Malignants of all Sorts. 
 1657. 
 
 As man's first felicity was attended with the 
 malice of the Serpent, so is the wonderful work 
 of his Restauration. The promise of Recon- 
 ciliation by the seed of the woman, is joyned 
 with a proclamation of open War with the 
 N 
 
202 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 Serpent and his seed. The enemity was 
 hottest in the Devil and his seed against Christ 
 himself, who bare and overcame it, and is 
 become the Captain of our Salvation, that his 
 Church may overcome by his Cross, and 
 Strength, and Conduct; The next degree of 
 malice is against his Officers : the most 
 eminent, the General Officers had the hottest 
 assault : and his ordinary Officers bear the 
 next : That we shall be hated of all men for 
 the Name of Christ {Mat x. 22) is still 
 verified to our experience. Not only the 
 openly prophane abhor us for our work-sake, 
 but half-hearted professors that turn from the 
 truth, do presently turn Malignants against the 
 Ministry ; and many weak ones that are better 
 minded, are dangerously seduced into a guilt of 
 the sedition. To all these I here proclaim in 
 the name and word of the Lord, Numb. xvi. 
 26. [Depart I pray you from the tents of these 
 wicked men, and touch nothing of theirs, lest ye 
 be consumed in all their sins.] Which I shall 
 now open to you. 
 
 1. The office of the Ministry is an undoubted 
 Ordinance of God, to continue in the Church to 
 the end of the world. No man can pretend 
 that they ceased with the Apostles ; for it is 
 Gods will that ordinary fixed Presbyters shall 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 203 
 
 be ordained in every Church, Acts xiv. 23. Tit. 
 i. 5. 1 Tim. iii. 1. 2 Tim. ii. 2. And Pastors 
 and Teachers are appointed for the perfecting 
 of the Saints, for the work of the Ministry, and 
 edifying of the body of Christ ; till we all come 
 to a perfect man, Ephes. iv. 11, 12, 13. A 
 Ministry authorized to Disciple the Nations, 
 baptize and teach them, is instituted by Christ 
 as King and Saviour, and have his Promise to 
 be with them alway to the end of the world, 
 Matth. xxviii. 18, 19, 20. The same necessity 
 and work continueth ; still souls are born and 
 bred in darkness ; and how shall they be 
 saved without believing, or believe without 
 hearing, or hear without preaching, or we 
 preach without sending? Rom. x. 13, 14, 15. 
 There is a clearer word in the Gospel for the 
 Ministry then the Magistracy ; though enough 
 for both. Our own call I shall speak of anon. 
 
 2. These Malignants 1 set themselves against 
 the Principal members of the Body of Christ, 
 that are in it as the eyes and hands to the 
 natural body, 1 Cor. xii. 16, 19, 27, 29. 
 
 1 The word Malignants was first used by the Parliament 
 of Charles I.'s evil advisers ; then it came to a mean all who 
 sided with the King against the Parliament. But here 
 Baxter uses it to describe those sects that were against 
 the ministry established under the Commonwealth, such 
 as "Quakers, Seekers, Papists," and Anabaptists. 
 
2o 4 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 Ephes. iv. 11, 15. The Ministers of Christ, and 
 Stewards of the mysteries of God, 1 Cor. iv. 1. 
 The Over seers of the flock that is purchased 
 with Christs blood, Acts xx. 28. They are 
 the chief members, 1. in Office ; 2. Ordinarily 
 in gifts for edification of the body : 3. And in 
 Grace. Now a wound in the stomack or liver 
 is more mortal to the body, than in the hand : 
 and the loss of an eye or hand is worse then 
 the loss of an ear. 
 
 3. These Malignants are therefore princi- 
 pally enemies to the Church it self. They 
 take on them to be only against the Ministers, 
 but it will prove most against the people and 
 whole Church. If they smite the Shepherds, 
 the sheep will be scattered. How can they 
 more surely ruin Christs Family, then by cast- 
 ing out the Stewards that must Rule, and give 
 the children their meat in due season, even milk 
 to the babes, and stronger meat to them of full 
 age, Heb. v. 12, 13, 14, Luke xii. 42. Mat xxiv. 
 45. What readier way to mine the Schools of 
 Christ, then by casting out the Teachers that 
 he hath appointed under him ? Or to ruine his 
 Kingdom, then to reject his Officers? Or to 
 wrong the body, then to cut off the hands, and 
 pull out the eyes, or to destroy the principal 
 parts : Was it not Ministers that planted the 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 205 
 
 Churches, and converted the world, and have 
 ever born off the assaults of enemies ? Where 
 was there ever Church on earth that con- 
 tinued without a Minister? The great 
 Kingdom of Nubia fell from Christianity for 
 want of Preachers. The Nations that have the 
 weakest and fewest Ministers, have the least of 
 Christianity : and those that have the most 
 and ablest Ministers, have the most flourishing 
 state of Religion. All over the world the 
 church doth rise or fall with the Ministry : Cut 
 down the Pillars, and the building falls. He is 
 blind that sees not what would become of the 
 Church, were it not for the Ministry. Who 
 should teach the ignorant, or rebuke the ob- 
 stinate, explain the word of truth, and stop the 
 mouths of proud gain-sayers? Whatwork would 
 heresies, and division, and prophanness make, 
 if these banks were cut down ? When all that 
 can be done is still too little. It must needs 
 therefore be meet enmity against the Church 
 that makes men malignant against the Ministry. 
 4. The design of the maligners of the Ministry 
 is plainly against the Gospel and Christianity it 
 self. They take the readiest way in the world 
 to bring in Heathenism, Infidelity and Atheism, 
 which Christianity hath so far bandished. For 
 it is the Ministry that Christ useth to bring in 
 
2o6 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 light, and drive and keep out this damnable 
 darkness, Acts xxvi. 17, 18. [I send thee to open 
 their eyes and turn them from darkness to 
 light, &c] Why are so many Nations Infidels, 
 Mahometans and Idolaters, but for want of 
 Ministers to preach the Gospel to them? These 
 Malignants therefore would take down the Sun 
 and banish Christianity out of the world. 
 
 5. And they hinder the conversion of 
 
 particular souls, and so are the cruellest 
 
 wretches on earth. Though an Angel must be 
 
 sent to Cornelius, it is not to be instead of a 
 
 Preacher, but to send him to a Preacher, Acts 
 
 x. Though Christ would wonderfully appear 
 
 to Saul, it is to send him to Ananias for 
 
 instruction, Acts ix. Though the Jaylor must 
 
 feel an Earth-quake, and see miracles, it is but 
 
 to prepare him for the Ministers words, Acts 
 
 xvi. Philip must be carried by an Angel to 
 
 expound to an Eunuch the word that must 
 
 convert him. The Ministry is Gods instituted 
 
 settled way, by which he will convert and save 
 
 the world, as truly as the light is the natural 
 
 way by which he will corporally enlighten 
 
 them, Acts ii. 18. 1 Tim. iv. 16. Matth. v. 14. 
 
 Bom. x. 14. Do you think so many souls 
 
 w ould be converted if the Ministry were down ? 
 
 Do you not see that the very contempt of 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 207 
 
 them, that the scorns of the ungodly, and 
 opposition of Malignant Apostates have 
 occasioned, doth hinder most of the ignorant 
 and prophane from receiving the saving benefit 
 of the Gospel? How many millions of souls 
 would these wretches sweep away to hell, if 
 they had their will ? While thousands are in 
 damnation for want of the lights, they would 
 take it from you, that you might go there also. 
 Do you not understand the meaning of these 
 words against Christs Ministers ? Why the 
 meaning is this : They make a motion to the 
 people of the Lord, to go to Hell with one 
 consent, and to hate those that are appointed 
 to keep them out of it. They would take the 
 bread of life from your mouthes. They are 
 attempting an hundred times more cruelty on 
 you, then Herod on the Jews when he killed 
 the children, or the Irish that murdered the 
 Protestants by thousands ; as the soul is of 
 greater worth then the body. 
 
 6. The Malignants against the Ministry are 
 the flat enemies of Christ himself, and so he 
 will take them and use them. He that would 
 root out the inferiour Magistrates, is an enemy 
 to the Soveraign ; and he that is against the 
 Officers of the Army, is an enemy to the 
 General : Christ never intended to stay 
 
208 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 visibly on earth, and to Teach and Rule the 
 world immediately in person ; but he that is 
 the King will Rule by his Officers ; and he that 
 is Prophet will Teach us by his Officers ; and 
 therefore he hath plainly told us [He* that 
 heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth 
 you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, 
 despiseth him that sent me. Luke x. 16.] 
 fearful case of miserable Malignants ! Durst 
 thou despise the Lord thy Maker and 
 Redeemer, if he appeared to thee in his glory ! 
 to whom the Sun it self is as darkness, and all 
 the world as dust and nothing. Remember 
 when thou next speaketh against his Officers, 
 or hearest others speak against them, that their 
 words are spoken against the face of Christ, 
 and of the Father. I would not be found in 
 the case of one of these Malignants, when 
 Christ shall come to judge his enemies, for a 
 thousand worlds. He that hath said, [Touch 
 not mine annointed, and do my Prophets no 
 harm; and hath rebuked Kings for their sokes, 
 Psalm cv. 15.] Will devide all those that 
 would break his bands, and will break them as 
 with a rod of iron and dash them in pieces as a 
 potters vessel. Psalm ii. iii. iv. ix. And as he hath 
 told them plainly, [who so despiseth the Word 
 shall be destroyed, Prov. xiii. 13.] And [He that 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 209 
 
 despiseth, despiseth not man but God, 1 Thes. iv. 
 8.] So he that told us that it shall be easier 
 for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judge- 
 ment, then for such, Mat. x. 15. Many a 
 thousand prouder enemies then you hath Christ 
 broken, and look to your selves, for your day is 
 coming. If you had but stumbled on this stone, 
 it would have broken you in pieces; but seeing 
 you will strive against it, it will fall on you, 
 and grinde you to powder, Matth. xx. 44. And 
 then you shall see that he hath made them his 
 Embassadors, will bear them out, and say, [In 
 as much as you did it to those, you did it to 
 me.] And you shall then say, Blessed are they 
 that trust in him. 
 
 7- It is apparent that these enemies of the 
 Ministers, are playing the Papists game. 
 Because the just disgrace of their Ministry, was 
 the ruin of their Kingdom ; and therefore they 
 hope to win of us at the same game. They 
 know that if the people were brought into a 
 hatred or suspition of their guides, they might 
 the easier be won to them. They tell us 
 in their writings, that not one of ten of our 
 people but taketh his faith on trust from their 
 Teachers; and therefore take them off from 
 them, and they will fall : but they delude them- 
 selves in this : For though the ungodly among 
 
210 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 us have no true faith of their own, and the 
 godly must lean on the hand of their supporters, 
 yet there is in them a living principle ; and we 
 do not as the Papist priests, teach our people to 
 see with our eyes, and no matter for their own : 
 but we help to clear their own eye-sight. Doubt 
 not but the most of the sects in the Land that 
 rail against the Ministry, are knowingly or 
 ignorantly the Agents of the Papists. For the 
 principal work of a Papist is to cry down the 
 Ministry, and the Scripture, and to set all they 
 can on the same work. 
 
 8. These sects that are against the Ministry 
 do all the same work as the Drunkards, Whore- 
 mongers, Covetous, and all ungodly persons in 
 our Parish do : And therefore it seems they 
 are guided by the same spirit. It is the work 
 of Drunkards and all these wicked wretches to 
 hate, and despise, and revile the Ministers, and 
 to teach others to say as they. And just so do 
 Quakers, Seekers, Papists and all other Malig- 
 nants reproach the same Ministers : And yet 
 the blind wretches will not see the same Spirit 
 moveth them. 
 
 9. It is apparent that it is the Devils game 
 they play, and his interest and Kingdom which 
 they promote. Who fights against Christs 
 Officers and Army, but the General of the 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 211 
 
 contrary Army ? What greater Service could 
 all the World do for the Devil then to cast out 
 the Ministers of Christ ? And what more 
 would the Devil himself desire, to set up his 
 Kingdom and suppress the Church ? Wretches ! 
 you shall shortly see your master, and he shall 
 P a y you your wages contrary to your expecta- 
 tion. Eead Gods Word to a Malignant, Acts 
 xiii. 10. 1 
 
 10. These enemies do reproach as faithful a 
 Ministry as the world enjoyeth, and their 
 malice hath so little footing, as that the result 
 must be their own shame. Among the Papists 
 indeed there are Mass-priests that can but read 
 a Mass, whose office is to turn a piece of bread 
 into a God ; And yet these the Malignants 
 either let alone, or liken us to them. The 
 Greeks, and Ethiopians, and most of the 
 Christian world, would have a Ministry that 
 seldom or never preach to them, but read 
 Common-prayer and Homilies. The most of 
 Protestant Churches have a learned Ministry 
 that is so taken up with Controversies ; that 
 they are much less in the powerful preaching 
 and practice of godliness : Above all Nations 
 under heaven, the English are set upon Practical 
 
 1 St Paul's words to Elymas the Sorcerer, — " full of 
 all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, &c." 
 
212 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 Divinity and Holiness ; and yet even they are 
 by Malignity chosen out for reproach. Alas, 
 scandals in the Ministry, (as drunkenness, 
 swearing, &c.) among other Nations are but 
 too common : but in England Magistrates and 
 Ministers combine against them. Ministers are 
 still spurring on the Magistrates to cast out the 
 insufficient, negligent and scandalous ; and 
 desire and use more severity with men of their 
 own profession, then with Magistrates or any 
 others in the Land. In nothing are they more 
 zealous then to sweep out all the remnant of 
 the scandalous. And for themselves, they are 
 devoted to the work of the Lord, and think 
 nothing too much that they are able to perform, 
 but preach in season and out of season, with all 
 long-suffering and doctrine ; and yet Malignants 
 make them their reproach. 
 
 11. It is abundance of Pride and Impudency, 
 that these Malignant enemies are guilty of. 
 They are most of them persons of lamentable 
 ignorance ; and yet they dare revile at the 
 Teachers, and think themselves wise enough to 
 rebuke and teach them : Many of them are men 
 of wicked lives ; and yet they can tell the 
 world how bad the ministers are. A Kailer, a 
 Drunkard, a Covetous Worlding, an Ignorant 
 Sott, is the likest person to fall upon the 
 
RICHARD BAXTER 213 
 
 Minister ; and the Owl will call the Lark a 
 night-bird. Alas, when we come to try them, 
 what dark wretches do we find them ! and 
 should be glad if they were but teachable. 
 And yet they have learnt the Devils first 
 lesson, to despise their Teachers. 
 
 12. And what barbarous ingratitude are 
 these Malignant enemies of the Ministry guilty 
 of ! For whom do we watch, but for them and 
 others ? Can they be so blind as to think a 
 painful Minister doth make it his design to seek 
 himself, or to look after great matters in the 
 world ? Would not the time, and labour, and 
 cost that they are at in the Schools and 
 Universities have fitted them for a more gain- 
 ful trade ? Do not Lawyers, Physicians, &c., 
 live a far easier, and in the world a more 
 honourable plentiful life? Have not the 
 Ministers themselves been the principal 
 Instruments of taking down Bishops, Deans 
 and Chapters, Arch-deacons, Prebends, and all 
 means of preferment ? And what have they got 
 by it ? or ever endeavoured ? Speak malice, 
 and spare not. Is it any thing but what they 
 had before ? even the maintenance due to their 
 particular charge. Unthankful wretches! It 
 is for your sakes and souls that they study, and 
 pray, and watch, and fast, and exhort, and 
 
2i 4 RICHARD BAXTER 
 
 labour, to the consuming of their strength ; and 
 when they have done, are made the Drunkards 
 song, and the scorn of all the wicked of the 
 Countrey ; and when they spend and are spent, 
 the more they love, the less they are beloved. 
 In the times of this greatest prosperity of the 
 Church, they live under constant hatred and 
 scorn, from those that they would save, and 
 will not let alone in sin. And what do they 
 endure all this for but Gods honour and your 
 salvation? Would we be Ministers for any 
 lower ends ? Let shame from God and man be 
 on the face of such a Minister! I profess, 
 were it not for the belief of the greatness and 
 necessity, and excellency of the truths that I 
 am to preach, and for the will of God and the 
 good of souls, I would be a Plow-man, or the 
 meanest Trade, if not a Sweep-Chimney, rather 
 then a Minister. Must we break our health, 
 and lay by all our worldly interest, for you, 
 even for you, and think not our lives and 
 labours too good or too dear to further your 
 salvation, and must we by you, even by you, be 
 reproached after all ? God will be judge 
 between you and us, whether this be not 
 inhumane ingratitude, and whether we deserve 
 it at your hands. 
 
XI 
 . GEORGE FOX 
 
 [The founder of the Society of Friends was born 
 1624. He felt a special call in 1643, and shortly 
 afterwards began to form his Society, whose mem- 
 bers were first called Quakers in 1650. He spent 
 his life in itinerant preaching ; after visiting 
 nearly every corner of England, as well as Holland 
 and America, and suffering imprisonment eight 
 times, he died in 1691. He soon saw the import- 
 ance of pamphlet writing, and wrote many himself, 
 his followers being the most prolific and earnest, 
 not to say violent, of pamphleteers. It is hardly 
 necessary to point out the great significance of the 
 Quakerprotest against the formalism and bibliolatry 
 of the seventeenth Century. The tract here given is 
 chosen for its insistance on the central Quaker 
 doctrine of the sufficiency of the light within — 
 a kind of sublime anarchism, which led by reaction 
 into the depreciation of " enthusiasm " in the next 
 century (pp. 273, 292). We find Law lamenting at 
 the beginning of that utilitarian age that "even 
 the most worthy and pious among the clergy of 
 the Established Church are afraid to assert the 
 sufficiency of the Divine Light, because the 
 Quakers, who have broken off from the Church 
 have made this doctrine their corner-stone." If 
 Fox had been able to reform the Church from 
 within, the history of the Hanoverian age might 
 
 215 
 
216 GEORGE FOX 
 
 have been very different to what it was. The 
 tract Concerning the Rule is taken from a series 
 Concerning Revelation, Propliecy, Measure and the 
 Rule, and the Inspiration and sufficiency of the 
 Spirit, published in 1676.] 
 
 CONCERNING THE RULE 
 
 Now mark you Professors of the Letters, that 
 say, The Scripture is your Rule; Was not 
 Circumcision of the Letter of the Scripture? 
 and yet the Apostle saith, It avails nothing, 
 but a New Creature: and that which the 
 Apostle rejoyced in, was the Cross of Christ, 
 in which he was crucified to the World, and 
 the World to him. And is not the Cross of 
 Christ the Power of God? And as many 
 as walk according to this Rule, and rejoyce 
 in it (to wit) the Cross of Christ, and 
 the New Creature ? I say, as many as 
 walk according to this Rule, Peace be upon 
 them, and Mercy, and upon the Israel of 
 God. For the Apostle saith, The Cross of 
 Christ is the Power of God; so that the 
 Rule of the New Creature in Christ he sets 
 forth to be the Rule. And you that have 
 the Form of Godliness, and deny the Power 
 thereof, and the having the Spirit that gave 
 it forth now in your days, and call it your 
 
GEORGE FOX 217 
 
 Rule, and yet walk quite contrary to it, are 
 to be turned away from; yet not turn away 
 from the Scriptures, but from you, that walk 
 contrary to them, and the Spirit that gave 
 them forth. 
 
 And the Apostle saith in Phil, iii. 16. 
 Nevertheless m that whereunto we are come, 
 let us proceed by one Rule, that we may mind 
 one thing; for he had told them with Weeping 
 of such as were Enemies to the Cross of 
 Christ, whose End is Damnation, whose God 
 is their Belly, and glory in their Shame, who 
 mind earthly things. 
 
 Now were not they Enemies to the Rule 
 then, which was the Cross of Christ, the 
 Power of God? And what was this Rule 
 they were to walk by? Was it not that 
 which God had distributed to them, the 
 Spirit of God ? For these, whose Belly was 
 their God, and gloried in their Shame, and 
 minded earthly things, whose End was Damna- 
 tion; these were a kind of Christians, which 
 its to be feared there is too many such now, 
 which were Enemies to the Cross of Christ, 
 which is the Power of God, which were to 
 be turned away from : And was not the Grace 
 of God, which God said should be sufficient 
 for Paul, and his Strength made perfect in 
 
218 GEORGE FOX 
 
 his Weakness ; was not this Grace and 
 Strength a sufficient Rule for Paul ? 
 
 And doth not the Apostle say, Let Christ 
 Rule in your Hearts by Faith, who shall rule 
 all Nations with a Rod of Iron ? So is not 
 he a sufficient Rule in the Heart by Faith, 
 and a sufficient Rule to rule all Nations, 
 Rev, xii. 5, yea, and sufficient to rule the 
 Heathen, Rev. xix. 15? 
 
 And doth not Christ say, / will send you the 
 Spirit of Truth, which shall lead you into all 
 Truth, and bring to your Remembrance the 
 Words I have spoken unto you ? 
 
 Is not this Spirit a sufficient Rule, that leads 
 into all Truth? 
 
 And in Neh. ix. The Lord gave his good 
 Spirit to the People, his good Spirit to 
 instruct them, and they rebelled against it. 
 
 And were not they reproved for so doing ? 
 and was not that a sufficient Rule? and are 
 not they the Sons of God that are led by the 
 Spirit of God? and is not that a sufficient 
 Rule to lead and guide ? 
 
 And the Lord saith, He that hath the Son, 
 hath Life. 
 
 And is not here a sufficient Rule ? 
 And John said, These things I have written 
 unto you, concerning them that decewe you ; but 
 
GEORGE FOX 219 
 
 the Anointing which you have received of him, 
 dwelleth in you; and you need not that any 
 man teach you, but as the same Anointing 
 teacheth you of all things, and is true, and is no 
 Lye. 
 
 And is not this a sufficient Rule, this Teacher, 
 that people might see the Deceivers, and shun 
 them? 
 
 And the Lord saith, / will put my Laws in 
 your Minds, and write them in your Hearts ; 
 and I will be their God, and they shall be my 
 people ; and they shall not teach every man his 
 Neighbour and every man his Brother, saying, 
 Know the Lord ; for all shall know me from 
 the least of them to the greatest of them : and is 
 not this Law and New Covenant a sufficient 
 Rule to know God by ? And was not the 
 Holy Ghost a sufficient Rule, that led Moses 
 and the Prophets to give forth the Scriptures ? 
 And was not the Holy Ghost a sufficient Rule 
 that led the Disciples and Apostles of Jesus 
 Christ into all Truth, and see the fulfilling of 
 the Law and Prophets in Christ, and brought 
 to their Memories the Words that Christ spoke, 
 and afterwards to record them ? and is not the 
 same Holy Ghost a sufficient Rule for all Chris- 
 tians now to know God, and Christ, and the 
 Scriptures, and lead them all into the Truth of 
 
220 GEORGE FOX 
 
 them; in which Holy Ghost they must pray 
 in, and have their Fellowship, seeing no man 
 knows the things of God without the Spirit 
 of God, which searcheth all things, and they 
 are spiritually discerned, and the natural man 
 perceives them not, they are Foolishness to 
 him ; and how can they be his Rule, when 
 they are Foolishness to him, as in 1 Cor. ii. 
 
 And what Rule had Abel, and Enoch, and 
 Noah, and Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and 
 Moses, before Scriptures were given forth? 
 did not they walk by Faith, which was the 
 Gift! of God, yea, and to be perfect ? was not 
 Abraham commanded to walk before him; 
 and be perfect, which Perfection you cannot 
 attain unto by your Rule, the Letter, and 
 walking in the oldness of the Letter ; for you 
 must serve God in the Newness of Life, and 
 not in the Oldness of the Letter, Bom. vii. 6. 
 For the Letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth 
 Life, 2 Cor. iii. 6. And also, was not that 
 Faith a sufficient Rule for all the Old Fathers 
 to walk by? and must not we walk in the 
 steps of the Faith of our Father Abraham, 
 Bom. iv. 12. 
 
 And the Apostle saith, But he is a Jew 
 who is one within, and the Circumcision is 
 of the Heart, in the Spirit, and not in the 
 
GEORGE FOX 221 
 
 Letter, whose Praise is not of men, but of 
 God. 
 
 So, is not he a Christian who is one with- 
 in, in the Heart (and not the Letter) whose 
 Praise is of God, and not of men, seeing that 
 many may have the Form of Godliness, but 
 deny the Ppwer thereof, which are to be 
 turned away from : And may not such say 
 they are Christians, as the Jews said they 
 were Jews, and were not, but the Synagogue 
 of Satan? 
 
 And the Apostle said, Henceforth know we 
 no man after the Flesh, yea, though we have 
 known Christ after the Flesh, yet henceforth 
 know we him so no more, 2 Cor. v. 16. 
 
 And their Fellowship stood in the Spirit, 
 and they were to know Christ and one an- 
 other in the Spirit, and to keep the Unity 
 of the Spirit, which is the Bond of Peace, 
 yea, even of the Prince of Princes Peace : 
 but they that deny the having of that Spirit 
 the Apostles were in, know not Christ, nor 
 the Fellowship of the Saints, nor the Prince 
 of Princes Peace. 
 
 And the Apostle saith in Bom. xv. 18., For 
 I dare not speak of anything which Christ 
 hath not wrought by me, to make the Gentiles 
 obedient by Word and Deed. Now mark, 
 
222 GEORGE FOX 
 
 did not he keep to the Measure of the Rule 
 which Christ had wrought in him ? 
 
 Now, come all ye Priests and Professors in 
 Christendom, and try your selves by the Scrip- 
 tures, which you say is your Rule ; how dare 
 you speak any thing, to make People obedient 
 in Word and Deed, that Christ hath not 
 wrought in you or by you ? Are not you 
 boasting of other men's Lines and Labours, 
 that other men have made ready for your 
 Hands ? Do not you want the Fear of God 
 in your Hearts, as was in the Apostles, who 
 durst not speak any thing but what Christ 
 had wrought by them to make People 
 obedient by Word and Deed ? Ought not 
 the Apostle here to be your Example? and 
 then Christ would have the Glory of that 
 which he works by you in People and in 
 you, and your own Wills would be laid in 
 the dust. And therefore, is not all that 
 which you speak to people, that which 
 Christ hath not wrought in you and by 
 you, like the False Prophets, using your 
 Tongues, and the False Apostles boast of 
 other mens Lines. 
 
 And the Apostle saith in Romans in. 24. 
 And we are justified freely by his Grace, 
 through the Bedemptiou that is in Christ Jesus. 
 
GEORGE FOX 223 
 
 And in Romans iv. 12, 16. But unto them 
 also that walk in the steps of the Faith of our 
 Father Abraham. And is not this a Rule 
 sufficient ? 
 
 And in Romans viii. 1, 2. Now there is no 
 Condemnation to them which are in Christ 
 Jesus, who walk not after the Flesh, but after 
 the Spirit; for the Law of the Spirit of Life, 
 which is in Christ Jesus, hath made me free 
 from the Law of Sin and Death. 
 
 Now, is not this Spirit a sufficient Rule to 
 walk by ? But you that say it is not the Rule, 
 do not you remain under Condemnation, under 
 the Law of Sin and Death, pleading for it, and 
 not for Freedom by the Law of the Spirit in 
 Christ on this side the Grave. 
 
 And further, the Apostle saith, But if ye 
 Mortifie the Deeds of the Flesh by the Spirit, 
 ye shall live. Therefore is not this Spirit a 
 sufficient Rule to walk by? 
 
 And in 2 Cor. v. the Apostle saith, For we 
 walk by Faith, and not by Sight. [Mark, not 
 by Sight]. The Church was not to walk by 
 Sight, but by Faith, which Christ is the Author 
 of ; and is not this sufficient ? And who walk 
 by Faith, they walk in the Steps of the Faith 
 of our Father Abraham, his Faith, which was 
 before Scriptures were written ? and is not this 
 
224 GEORGE FOX 
 
 a sufficient Kule for all the faithful, which is 
 testified of in the Scripture, and was before 
 Scripture was written ; and which Scripture is 
 to be believed, and fulfilled, and practised, &c. 
 
 And Ephes. ii. 8. By Grace are ye saved, 
 through Faith, and not of your selves, it is the 
 Gift of God. So is not that sufficient to walk 
 by, which saves ? 
 
 And in 1 John i. 7. If we walk in the 
 Light, as he is in the Light, we have Fellowship 
 one with another, and the Blood of Jesus 
 Christ, the Son of God, cleanses us from all 
 Sin. 
 
 So is not this Light sufficient to preserve the 
 Fellowship, by walking in it? and is there 
 any Cleansing from all Sin by the Blood of 
 Jesus Christ, but first they must walk in the 
 Light ? There may be a talking of the Blood 
 of Christ, and pleading for the Body of Sin and 
 Death, and Imperfections to the Grave ; so that 
 only talking of the Blood of Christ will do them 
 little good, and pleading for their Body of Sin 
 and Death, and Imperfections to the Grave; 
 that there they may be all buried in the Pit 
 together, where there is no Repentance in the 
 Grave, and give a man Ten or Twenty Shillings 
 to preach them a Funeral Sermon : And as it 
 is in Hebr. ix. 27. It is appointed unto all 
 
GEORGE FOX 225 
 
 men, that they should once dye, and after that 
 come to Judgment And therefore consider and 
 mark this, and quench not the Spirit which 
 God hath given you to profit withal ; and do 
 not resist the Holy Ghost, which Christ hath 
 sent to lead you into all Truth, and to reprove 
 you ; and hate not the Light which Christ hath 
 enlightened you withal, that you may believe in 
 it, and walk in it, that you may become 
 Children of the Light, lest it be your Con- 
 demnation : For is not the Light sufficient to 
 lead you, and guide you, and rule you, and to 
 give you the Knowledge of the Glory of God 
 in the Face of Christ Jesus ? And is not that 
 the Treasure which the Saints had in their 
 earthen Vessels, that the Excellency of the 
 Power might be of God, and not of us, 2 Cor. 
 iv. And rebel not against the Spirit, which 
 God hath given you to instruct you, and to 
 know the things of God by and that in the 
 spirit you may have Fellowship with the 
 Saints : For if you rebel against his Good 
 Spirit, what are all your Fellowships good for ? 
 and is not God's Spirit sufficient ? doth not 
 Christ say, It is the Spirit of the Father, that 
 speaks in you ? and is not that sufficient to 
 rule and to guide, and to serve and worship 
 God in, in Spirit and Truth. 
 
226 GEORGE FOX 
 
 And did not the Apostle say in Bom. i. 9, 
 that he served God in the Spirit. And is it not 
 the Duty of all Christians, to serve God in the 
 Spirit? And is not that a sufficient Rule 
 that will teach them to know how to serve God 
 (to wit, his holy spirit) by which Spirit they 
 may know God, and Christ, and the Scriptures, 
 and know one another in the Spirit, and in it 
 have Fellowship, and so keep the Unity of the 
 Spirit, the Bond of Peace, yea, the Bond of the 
 Prince of Princes, King of Kings, and Lord of 
 Lords Peace, which none can take away from 
 them? 
 
 And doth not Christ say, They that worship 
 the Father, must worship Mm in Spirit and in 
 Truth ? And is not that a sufficient Rule, to 
 worship him in, the Grace of God, which brings 
 Salvation, which teacheth the Saints? is not 
 this a sufficient Rule to teach and to establish 
 the Heart, and season thy Words, and bring 
 Salvation. 
 
 And the Apostle saith, Bom. viii. 26. Like- 
 wise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities. So 
 is not the Spirit sufficient, that helps Peoples 
 Infirmities ? And the Spirit it self makes 
 Intercession. 
 
 And in Gal. v. 16. / say, walk in the Spirit, 
 and ye shall not fulfil the Lusts of the Flesh. 
 
GEORGE FOX 227 
 
 And is not this a sufficient Rule for People to 
 walk by ? 
 
 And the Apostle saith in Gal. ii. 19, 20. 
 For I through the Law am dead to the Law, 
 that I might live unto God ; I am crucified with 
 Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ 
 liveth in me ; and the Life that I now live in 
 the Flesh, I live by the Faith of the Son of God, 
 who loved me, and gave himself for me. [Mark] 
 This should be every Christian's Life and 
 Living. 
 
 Worcester Prison, the 
 
 9th day of the 11th GEORGE FOX. 
 
 Moneth, 1674. 
 
 For obeying the Command of Christ and the 
 Apostle James his Doctrine, who say, Swear not 
 at all, Mat. v. Jam. v. 
 
 [Title-page of a pamphlet by Whiteltead the Quaker, 
 which only contains 26 pages.] 
 
 The 
 
 Path of the Just Cleared ; 
 
 and 
 
 Cruelty and Tyranny laid Open. 
 
 Or a few Words to you Priests 
 
 and Magistrates of this nation 
 
 (who say we deny the Scriptures, and that we are 
 
 Antichrists and Deceivers, and that we deny the 
 
 Word of God.) 
 
228 GEORGE FOX 
 
 Wherein your Oppression and Tyranny is laid 
 Open, which by you is unjustly acted against the 
 Servants of the Living God, who by the World 
 which hate the Light of Christ, are in Derision 
 called Quakers. 
 
 Wherein also is something declared both to 
 Judge and Justices so called, concerning Contempt 
 of Authority. 
 
 Also the Ground and Cause of the Imprisonment 
 of George Whitehead and John Harwood, who are 
 Sufferers for the Innocent Truth's sake, in the Goal 
 of Bury in Suffolk. 
 
 Also a Copy of a Paper, which a Servant of the 
 Lord, called Richard Clayton, was moved to set 
 upon a Steeple-house Door at Bury in Suffolk, for 
 which he was caused to be whipped by one Thomas 
 Waldegrave, Justice of Peace in the said County. 
 
 But though hand joy n in hand, the wicked shall not 
 be unpunished ; but the Seed of the Righteous shall be 
 delivered. Prov. xi. 21. 
 
 From the Spirit of the Living God in me, whose 
 name in the flesh is George Whitehead, who for 
 Sion's sake cannot hold my peace, but testifie 
 against her Oppressors : who am a Sufferer as 
 aforesaid, the 4 day of the 7 month, 1655. 
 
 Also a Paper against the Sin of Idleness, which 
 we declare against, and live out of ; and are dili- 
 gent serving the Lord, though that sin be cast 
 upon us, yet it we deny, with all other sins and 
 ungodlinesses, which is contrary to the Gospel of 
 Christ. 
 
 London, Printed for Giles Colvert, at the Black- 
 Spread-Eagle, near the West End of Paul's, 1655. 
 
XII 
 
 HALIFAX 
 
 [George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (c. 1630-1695) 
 was one of the first statesmen of his time, and his 
 pamphlets entitle him to a place among English 
 classics. Raised to the peerage for his assistance 
 in bringing about the Restoration, he had been 
 dismissed from the Lord Presidency of the Council 
 two years before the appearance of the Letter to a 
 Dissenter, for his strenuous opposition to the repeal 
 of the Test Act. Two years afterwards it was 
 he who was chosen to present the Crown to 
 William III. 
 
 James II. in 1687 issued the Declaration of 
 Indulgence, the object of which was to remove all 
 the disabilities under which Roman Catholics 
 suffered. In order to win support for his measure 
 the King included in the Declaration all moderate 
 Presbyterians and Quakers. The balance of power 
 thus lay with the Dissenters. If they were tempted 
 by the promise of toleration to side with the King, 
 he would probably have been strong enough to 
 carry his way. The Dissenters, who had been 
 treated with especial severity since the fall of 
 Shaftesbury in 1681, suddenly found themselves 
 courted on all sides : at first some of them wavered, 
 but in the end their fear and hatred of Romanism 
 
 22g 
 
230 HALIFAX 
 
 overcame all else, and they sided with the Church 
 and the people against James' toleration. Halifax's 
 Letter had a large share in this result. Its effect 
 was immense ; over 20,000 copies were circulated 
 by the post, and thus it told in every corner of the 
 Kingdom. Twenty-four answers were published 
 to the Letter, " but the town pronounced that they 
 were all bad." The Government was greatly irritated 
 at the success of the tract, and spared no pains to 
 discover its author. Some fancied they recognised 
 the style of Sir William Temple. "But in truth," 
 says Macaulay, "that amplitude and acuteness of 
 intellect, that vivacity of fancy, that terse and 
 energetic style, that placid dignity, half courtly 
 half philosophical, which the utmost excitement of 
 conflict could not for a moment derange, belonged 
 to Halifax, and to Halifax alone." 
 
 "In this masterly little tract," continues Mac- 
 aulay, " all the arguments which could convince a, 
 nonconformist that it was his duty and his interest 
 to prefer an alliance with the Church to an alliance 
 with the Court, were condensed into the smallest 
 compass, arranged in the most perspicuous order, 
 illustrated with lively wit, and enforced by an 
 eloquence earnest indeed, yet never in its utmost 
 vehemence trangressing the limits of exact good 
 sense and good breeding." Mackintosh, in his 
 History of the Revolution^ calls it the most perfect 
 model of a political tract. "Although its whole 
 argument," he says, "unbroken by diversion to 
 general topics, is brought exclusively to bear with 
 concentrated force upon the question, the parties, 
 and the moment, it cannot be read after an interval 
 of a century and a half without admiration of its 
 acuteness, address, terseness, and poignancy."] 
 
HALIFAX 231 
 
 A 
 
 LETTER 
 
 TO A 
 
 DISSENTER, 
 
 upon occasion of 
 
 His Majesties 
 
 Late Gracious 
 
 Declaration 
 
 of 
 Indulgence. 
 
 London : 
 Printed for G. H. 1687. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Since Addresses are in fashion, give 
 me leave to mate one to you. This is neither 
 the effect of Fear, Interest, or Resentment ; 
 therefore you may be sure it is sincere : and 
 for that reason it may expect to be kindly 
 received. Whether it will have power enough 
 to Convince, dependeth upon the Reasons, 
 of which you are to judge ; and upon your 
 preparation of Mind, to be persuaded by 
 Truth, whenever it appeareth to you. It 
 ought not to be the less welcom, for coming 
 from a friendly hand, one whose kindness to 
 you is not lessened by difference of Opinion, 
 
232 HALIFAX 
 
 and who will not let his thoughts for the 
 Publick be so tyed or confined to this or that 
 Sub-division of Protestants, as to stifle the 
 Charity, which besides all other Arguments, 
 is at this time become necessary to preserve 
 us. 
 
 I am neither surprized nor provoked, to 
 see that in the condition you were put into 
 by the Laws, and the ill circumstances you lay 
 under, by having the Exclusion and Rebellion 
 laid to your Charge, you were desirous to 
 make your selves less uneasie and obnoxious 
 to Authority. Men who are sore, run to the 
 nearest Remedy with too much haste, to con- 
 sider all the consequences : Grains of allowance 
 are to be given, where Nature giveth such 
 strong Influences. When to men under suffer- 
 ings it offereth Ease, the present Pain will 
 hardly allow time to examine the Remedies ; 
 and the strongest Reason can hardly gain a 
 fair Audience from our Mind, whilst so pos- 
 sessed, till the smart is a little allayed. 
 
 I do not know whether the warmth that 
 naturally belongeth to new Friendship's, may 
 not make it a harder task for me to perswade 
 you. It is like telling Lovers, in the beginning 
 of their Joys, that they will in a little time 
 have an end. Such an unwelcome style doth 
 
HALIFAX 233 
 
 not easily find credit : but I will suppose you 
 are not so far gone in your new Passion, but 
 that you will hear still ; and therefore I am 
 under the less discouragement, when I oifer to 
 your consideration two things. The first is, 
 the cause you have to suspect your new 
 Friends. The second, the Duty incumbent 
 upon you, in Christianity and Prudence, not 
 to hazard the publick safety, neither by desire 
 or Ease, nor of Revenge- 
 To the first : Consider that notwithstanding 
 the smooth Language which is now put on to 
 engage you, these new Friends did not make 
 you their Choice, but their Refuge : They have 
 ever made their first Courtships to the Church 
 of England, and when they were rejected there, 
 they made their Application to you in the 
 second place. The Instances of this, might 
 be given in all times. I do not repeat them, 
 because whatsoever is unnecessary, must be 
 tedious, the truth of this Assertion being so 
 plain, as not to admit a dispute. You cannot 
 therefore reasonably flatter your selves, that 
 there is any Inclination to you. They never 
 pretended to allow you any Quarter, but to 
 usher in Liberty for themselves under that 
 shelter. I refer you to Mr Coleman's Letters, 
 and to the Journals of Parliament, where you 
 p 
 
234 HALIFAX 
 
 may be convinced, if you can be so mistaken, 
 as to doubt ; nay, at this very hour, they can 
 hardly forbear, in the height of their Courtship, 
 to let fall hard words of you. So little is 
 Nature to be restrained ; it will start out 
 sometimes, disdaining to submit to the Usurpa- 
 tion of Art and Interest. 
 
 This alliance, between Liberty and Infalli- 
 bility, is bringing together the Two most 
 contrary things that are in the World. The 
 Church of Rome doth not onely dislike the 
 allowing Liberty, but by its Principles it can- 
 not do it. Wine is not more expresly for- 
 bidden to the Mahometans, then giving Here- 
 ticks Liberty is to Papists : They are no more 
 able to make good their Vows to you, then 
 men married before, and their wife alive, can 
 conform their Contract with another. The 
 Continuance of their kindness, would be a 
 habit of Sin, of which they are to repent, 
 and their Absolution is to be had upon no 
 other terms, than their Promise to destroy 
 you. You are therefore to be hugged now, 
 onely that you may be the better squeezed 
 at another time. There must be something 
 Extraordinary, when the Church of Rome 
 setteth up Bills; and offereth Plaisters, for 
 tender consciences ; By all that hath hitherto 
 
HALIFAX 235 
 
 appeared, her skill in chirurgery lyeth chiefly 
 in a quick Hand, to cut off Limbs ; but she 
 is the worst at Healing, of any that ever pre- 
 tended to it. 
 
 To come so quick from another extream, is 
 such an unnatural motion, that you ought to 
 be upon your guard ; the other day you were 
 Sons of Belial, Now, you are Angels of -Light 
 This is a violent change, and it will be fit for 
 you to pause upon it, before you believe it : 
 If your features are not altered, neither is their 
 opinion of you, what ever may be pretended*. 
 Do you believe less than you did, that there is 
 Idolatry in the Church of Borne ? sure you do 
 not. See then, how they treat both in Words 
 and writing, those who entertain that opinion. 
 Conclude from hence, how inconsistant their 
 favour is with this single Article, except they 
 give you a Dispensation for this too, and by a 
 Non Obstante, secure you that they will not 
 think the worse of you. 
 
 Think a little how dangerous it is to build 
 upon a Foundation of Paradoxes. Popery 
 now is the only friend to Liberty, and the 
 known enemy to Persecution : The men of 
 Taunton and Tiverton, 1 are above all other 
 
 1 These towns had been Centres of Monmouth's rebellion 
 in 1685. 
 
236 HALIFAX 
 
 eminent for Loyalty. The Quakers from being 
 declared by the Papists not to be Christians, 
 are now made Favourites 1 and taken into their 
 particular Protection ; they are on a sudden 
 grown the most Accomplished men of the 
 Kingdom, in good Breeding, and give Thanks 
 with the best Grace, in double refined 
 Language. So that I should not wonder, 
 though a man of that Perswasion, in spite of 
 his Hat, should be Master of the Ceremonies. 
 Not to say harsher words, these are such very 
 new things, that it is impossible not to suspend 
 our belief, till by a little more Experience we 
 may be inform'd whether they are Realities 
 or Apparitions : We have been under shame- 
 ful mistakes, if these Opinions are true ; but for 
 the present, we are apt to be incredulous ; 
 except we could be convinced, that the Priests 
 words in this Case too, are able to make such a 
 sudden, and effectual change ; and that their 
 Power is not limited to the Sacrament, but 
 that it extendeth to alter the nature of all 
 other things, as often as they are so disposed. 
 
 Let me now speak of the Instruments of 
 your Friendship, and then leave you to judge, 
 whether they do not afford matter of Suspi- 
 tion. No Sharpness is to be mingled where 
 
 1 Penn is here attacked under a very thin disguise. 
 
HALIFAX 237 
 
 Healing only is intended ; so nothing will be 
 said to expose particular men, how strong 
 soever the Temptation may be, or how clear 
 the Proofs to make it out. A word or two 
 in general, for your better caution, shall suffice : 
 Suppose then, for Argument's sake, that the 
 Mediators of this new Alliance, should be such 
 as have been formerly employed in Treaties of 
 the same kinde, and there detected to have 
 Acted by Order, and to have been Impowered 
 to give Encouragements and Rewards. Would 
 not this be an argument to suspect them ? 
 
 If they should plainly be under Engagements 
 to one side, their Arguments to the other, ought 
 to be received accordingly ; their fair Pretences 
 are to be looked upon as a part of their Com- 
 mission, which may not improbably give them 
 a Dispensation in the case of Truth, when it 
 may bring a prejudice upon the Service of those 
 by whom they are employed. 
 
 If there should be men who having formerly 
 had Means and Authority to perswade by 
 Secular Arguments, have in pursuance of that 
 Power, sprinkled Money amongst the Dissent- 
 ing Ministers ; and if those very men should 
 now have the same Authority, practice the 
 same Methods, and Disburse, where they can- 
 not otherwise perswade : It seemeth to me to 
 
238 HALIFAX 
 
 be rather an Evidence than a Presumption of 
 the Deceit. 
 
 If there should be Ministers amongst you, 
 who by having fallen under Temptations of this 
 kinde, are in some sort engaged to continue their 
 Frailty, by the awe they are in lest it should 
 be exposed : The perswasions of these unfortun- 
 ate men must sure have the less force, and their 
 Arguments, though never so specious, are to be 
 suspected, when they come from men who have 
 Mortgaged themselves to severe Creditors that 
 expect a rigorous observation of the Contract, 
 let it be never so unwarrantable. 
 
 If these, or any others, should at this time 
 Preach up Anger and Vengeance against the 
 Church of England; may it not without In- 
 justice be suspected, that a thing so plainly out 
 of season, springeth rather from Corruption 
 than Mistake ; and that those who act this 
 Cholerick part, do not believe themselves, 
 but onely pursue higher Directions, endeavour 
 to make good that part of their Contract 
 which obligeth them, upon a Forfeiture, to make 
 use of their inflaming Eloquence ? They 
 might apprehend then 1 Wages would be re- 
 trenched if they should be Moderate : And 
 therefore whilst Violence is their Interest, 
 those who have not the same Arguments, 
 
HALIFAX 239 
 
 have no reason to follow such a Partial 
 Example. 
 
 If there should be men who by the load of 
 their Crimes, against the Government have been 
 bowed down to comply with it against their 
 Conscience ; who by incurring the want of a 
 pardon, have drawn upon themselves the 
 necessity of an intire Resignation : Such men 
 are to be lamented, but not to be believed. 
 Nay, they themselves, when they have dis- 
 charged their Unwelcome Task, will be in- 
 wardly glad that their forced Endeavours do 
 not succeed, and are pleased when men resist 
 their Insinuations; which are far from being 
 Voluntary or Sincere, but are Squeezed out 
 of them by the weight of their being so 
 Obnoxious. 
 
 If in the height of this great dearness by 
 comparing things, it should happen, that at 
 this instant, there is much a surer Friendship 
 with those who are so far from allowing 
 Liberty, that they allow no Living to a Pro- 
 testant under them. Let the Scene lie in what 
 part of the World it will, the Argument will 
 come home, and sure it will afford sufficient 
 ground to suspect. Apparent Contradictions 
 must strike us ; neither Nature nor Reason can 
 digest them : Self-Flattery, and the desire to 
 
240 HALIFAX 
 
 Deceive our selves, to gratifie a present Appe- 
 tite, with all their Power, which is Great, can- 
 not get the better of such broad Conviction, as 
 some things carry along with them. Will you 
 call these vain and empty Suspitions ? have you 
 been at all times so void of Fears and Jealousies 
 as to justifie your being so unreasonably Valiant 
 in having none upon this occasion ? Such an 
 extraordinary Courage at this unseasonable 
 time, to say no more, is too dangerous a Virtue 
 to be commended. 
 
 If then for these and a thousand other 
 Reasons, there is cause to suspect, sure your 
 new Friends are not to Dictate to you, or 
 advise you ; for instance, The Addresses that 
 fly abroad every week; and Murther us with 
 another to the same; the first Draughts are 
 made by those who are not very proper to be 
 Secretaries to the Protestant Religion ; and it 
 is your part onely to Write them out fairer again. 
 Strange ! that you who have been formerly so 
 much against Set Forms, should now be content 
 the Priests should Indite for you. The nature 
 of Thanks is an unavoidable consequence of 
 being Pleased or Obliged; they grow in the 
 Heart and from thence shew themselves either 
 in Looks, Speech, Writing, or Action : No man 
 was ever Thankful because he was bid to be so, 
 
HALIFAX 241 
 
 but because he had, or thought he had some 
 Reason for it. If then there is cause in this 
 Case to pay such Extravagant Acknowledg- 
 ments, they will flow naturally, without taking 
 such pains to procure them ; and it is unkindly 
 done to Tire all the Post-Horses with carrying 
 Circular Letters to solicit that which would be 
 done without any trouble or constraint : If it is 
 really in it self such a Favour, what needeth 
 so much pressing men to be Thankful, and with 
 such eager circumstances, that where Per- 
 swasions cannot delude, Threatenings are em- 
 ployed to fright them into a Compliance? 
 Thanks must be voluntary, not only uncon- 
 strained, but unsollicited, else they are either 
 Trifles or Snares, they either signifie nothing, or 
 a great deal more than is intended by those 
 that give them. If an Interference should be 
 made, That whosoever Thanketh the King for 
 his Declaration, is by that engaged to Iustifie 
 it in point of Law ; it is a greater Stride than, 
 I presume, all those care to make who are 
 perswaded to Address : If it shall be supposed, 
 that all the Thankers will be Repealers of 
 the TEST, whenever a Parliament shall Meet. 
 Such an Expectation is better prevented before, 
 than disappointed afterwards ; and the surest 
 way to avoid the lying under such a Scandal, is 
 
242 HALIFAX 
 
 not to do anything that may give a colour 
 to the Mistake: These Bespoken Thanks are 
 little less improper than Love Letters that were 
 Sollicited by the Lady to whom they are to be 
 Directed : so, that besides the little ground 
 there is to give them, the manner of getting 
 them, doth extreamly lessen their Value. It 
 might be wished that you would have sup- 
 pressed your impatience, and have been content 
 for the sake of Religion, to enjoy it within your 
 selves, without the Liberty of a publick Exer- 
 cise, till a Parliament had allowed it ; but since 
 that could not be, and that the Artifices of 
 some amongst you have made use of the Well- 
 meant Zeal of the Generality to draw them into 
 this Mistake; I am so far from blaming you 
 with that sharpness which, perhaps, the Matter 
 in strictness would bear, that I am ready to err 
 on the side of the more gentle construction. 
 
 There is a great difference between enjoying 
 quietly the advantages of an Act irregularly 
 done by others, and the going about to support 
 it against the Laws in being : The Law is so 
 Sacred, that no Trespass against it is to be 
 Defended ; yet Frailties may in some measure 
 be Excused, when they cannot be Justified. 
 The desire of enjoying a Liberty from which 
 men have been so long restrained, may be 
 
HALIFAX 243 
 
 a Temptation that their Reason is not at all 
 times able to resist. If in such a case, some 
 Objections are left over, indifferent men will 
 be more inclined to lament the Occasion, than 
 to fall too hard upon the Fault, whilst it is 
 covered with the Apology of a good Intention ; 
 but where to rescue your selves from the 
 Severity of one Law, you give a Blow to all 
 the Laws, by which your Religion and Liberty 
 are to be protected; and instead of silently 
 receiving the benefit of this Indulgence, you 
 set up for Advocates to support it, you become 
 voluntary Aggressors, and looke like Counsel 
 retained by the Prerogative against your old 
 Friend Magna Charta, who hath done nothing 
 to deserve her falling thus under your Dis- 
 pleasure. 
 
 If the case then should be, that the Price 
 expected from you for this Liberty, is giving up 
 your Right in the Laws, sure you will think 
 twice, before you go any further in such a 
 losing Bargain. After giving Thanks for the 
 breach of one Law, you lose the Right of 
 Complaining of the breach of all the rest; 
 you will not very well know how to defend 
 your selves, when you are pressed ; and having 
 given up the Question, when it was for your 
 advantage, you cannot recall it, when it shall 
 
244 HALIFAX 
 
 be to your prejudice. If you will set up at one 
 time a Power to help you, which at another 
 time by parity of Reason shall be made use of 
 to destroy you, you will neither be pitied, nor 
 relieved against a Mischief you draw upon 
 your selves, by being so unreasonably thankful. 
 It is like calling in Auxiliaries to help, who are 
 strong enough to subdue you : In such a case 
 your Complaints will come too late to be heard, 
 and your Sufferings will raise Mirth instead of 
 Compassion. 
 
 If you think, for your excuse, to expound 
 your Thanks so as to restrain them to this 
 particular case, others, for their ends, will 
 extend them further ; and in these differing 
 Interpretations, that which is back'd by 
 Authority will be the most likely to prevail; 
 especially when by the advantage you have 
 given them, they have in truth the better of 
 the Argument, and that the Inferences from 
 your own Concessions are very strong, and 
 express against you. This is so far from being 
 a groundless Supposition, that there was a 
 late instance of it, the last Session of Parlia- 
 ment, in the House of Lords, where the first 
 Thanks, though things of course, were inter- 
 preted to be the Approbation of the King's 
 whole Speech, and a Restraint from the further 
 
HALIFAX 245 
 
 Examination of any part of it, though never 
 so much disliked; and it was with difficulty 
 obtained, not to be excluded from the liberty 
 of objecting to this mighty Prerogative of Dis- 
 pensing meerly by this innocent and usual piece 
 of good Manners, by which no such thing could 
 possibly be intended. 1 
 
 This sheweth, that some bounds are to be put 
 to your good Breeding, and that the Constitu- 
 tion of England is too valuable a thing to be 
 ventured upon a Complement. Now that you 
 have for some time enjoyed the benefit of the 
 End, it is time for you to look into the Danger 
 of the Means : The same Reason that made 
 you desirous to get Liberty, must make you 
 solicitous to preserve it: so that the next 
 thought will naturally be, not to engage your 
 self beyond Retreat, and to agree so far with 
 the Principles of all Religions, as not to rely 
 upon a Deathbed Repentance. 
 
 There are certain Periods of time, which 
 being once past, make all Cautions ineffectual, 
 and all Remedies desperate. Our Understand- 
 ings are apt to be hurried on by the first heats ; 
 which, if not restrained in time, do not give 
 
 1 Halifax himself spoke against the repeal of the Test 
 Act on this occasion (1686), and both houses were at 
 once prorogued. 
 
246 HALIFAX 
 
 us leave to look back, till it is too late. 
 Consider this in the Case of your Anger against 
 the Church of England, and take warning by 
 their Mistake in the same kind, when after the 
 late King's Restoration, they preserved so long 
 the bitter taste of your rough usage to them in 
 other times, that it made them forget their 
 Interest, and sacrifice it to their Revenge. 
 
 Either you will blame this Proceeding in 
 them, and for that reason not follow it, or if 
 you allow it, you have no reason to be offended 
 with them ; so that you must either dismiss your 
 Anger, or lose your Excuse ; except you should 
 argue more partially than will be supposed of 
 Men of your Morality and Understanding. 
 
 If you had now to do with those Rigid 
 Prelates, who made it a Matter of Conscience 
 to give you the least Indulgence, but kept you 
 at an uncharitable distance, and even to your 
 more reasonable Scruples continued and ex- 
 orable, the Argument might be fairer on your 
 side, but since the common Danger hath so 
 laid open that Mistake, that all the former 
 Haughtiness towards you is for ever ex- 
 tinguish'd, and that it hath turned the Spirit of 
 Persecution, into a Spirit of Peace, Charity and 
 Condescension; shall this happy Change only 
 affect the Church of England ? And are you 
 
HALIFAX 247 
 
 so in love with Separation, as not to be moved 
 by this Example? It ought to be followed, 
 were there no other reason than that it is a 
 Vertue ; but when besides that, it is become 
 necessary to your preservation, it is impossible 
 to fail the having its Effect upon you. 
 
 If it should be said, that the Church of 
 England, is never Humble, but when she is out 
 of Power, and therefore loseth the Right of 
 being Believed when she pretendeth to it ; the 
 Answer is, first, it would be an uncharitable 
 Objection, and very much miss-timed? an 
 unseasonable Triumph, not only ungenerous, 
 but unsafe : So that in these respects it cannot 
 be urged, without Scandal, even though it 
 could be said with Truth. Secondly, This is not 
 so in Fact, and the Argument must fall, being 
 built upon a false Foundation; for whatever 
 may be told you, at this very hour, and in the 
 heat and glare of your present Sun-shine, the 
 Church of England can in a moment bring 
 Clouds again ; and turn the Royal Thunder 
 upon your Heads, blow you off the Stage with 
 a Breath, if she would give but a Smile or a 
 kind Word ; the least Glimpse of her Comply- 
 ance, would throw you back into the state of 
 Suffering, and draw upon you all the Arrears of 
 Severity, which have accrued during the time 
 
248 HALIFAX 
 
 of this kindness to you, and yet the Church of 
 England, with all her Faults, will not allow her 
 self to be rescued by such unjustifiable means, 
 but chuseth to bear the weight of Power, rather 
 than lie under the burthen of being Criminal. 
 
 It cannot be said, that she is unprovoked ; 
 Books and Letters come out every day, to call 
 for Answers, yet she will not be stirred. From 
 the supposed Authors and the Stile one would 
 swear they were Undertakers, and had made a 
 Contract to fall out with the Church of Eng- 
 land. There are Lashes in every Address, 
 Challenges to draw the Pen in every Pamphlet; 
 in short, the fairest occasions in the World 
 given to quarrel ; but she wisely distinguished 
 between the Body of Dissenters, whom she will 
 suppose to Act, as they do, with no ill intent ; 
 and these small Skirmishers pickt and sent out 
 to Picqueer, 1 and to begin a Fray amongst the 
 Protestants, for the entertainment, as well as 
 the advantage of the Church of Rome. 
 
 This Conduct is so good, that it will be 
 Scandalous not to Applaud it. It is not equal 
 dealing, to blame our Adversaries for doing ill, 
 and not commend them when they do well. 
 
 To hate them because they Persecuted, and 
 not to be reconciled to them when they are 
 1 To skirmish. 
 
HALIFAX 249 
 
 ready to Suffer, rather than receive all the 
 Advantages that can be gained by a Criminal 
 Complyance, is a Principle no sort of Christians 
 can own, since it would give an Objection to 
 them never to be answered. 
 
 Think a little, who they were that promoted 
 your former Persecutions, and then consider 
 how it will loot to be angry with the Instru- 
 ments, and at the same time to make a League 
 with the Authors of your Sufferings. 
 
 Have you enough considered what will be 
 expected from you ? Are you ready to stand in 
 every Borough by a Virtue of a Conge d'eslire, 
 and instead of Election, be satisfied if you are 
 returned ? 
 
 Will you in Parliament, justifie the Dispens- 
 ing Power, with all its consequences, and repeal 
 the Test, by which you will make way for the 
 Repeal of all the Laws, that were made to 
 preserve your Religion, and to Enact others 
 that shall destroy it ? 
 
 Are you disposed to change the Liberty of 
 Debate into the Merit of Obedience, and to be 
 made Instruments to Repeal or Enact Laws, 
 when the Roman Consistory are Lords of the 
 Articles, 
 
 Are you so linked with your new Friends, as 
 to reject any Indulgence a Parliament shall 
 Q 
 
250 HALIFAX 
 
 offer you, if it shall not be so Comprehensive as 
 to include the Papists in it ? 
 
 Consider that the implyed Conditions of your 
 new Treaty are no less, than that you are to do 
 every thing you are desired, without examining, 
 and that for this pretended Liberty of Con- 
 science, your real Freedom is to be Sacrificed : 
 Your former Faults hang like Chains still about 
 you, you are let loose only upon Bayl ; the first 
 Act of Non-compliance, sendeth you to jayl 
 again. 
 
 You may see that the Papists themselves, do 
 not rely upon the Legality of this Power, which 
 you are to Justine, since they being so very 
 earnest to get it Established by a Law, and the 
 doing such very hard things in order, as they 
 think to obtain it, is a clear Evidence, that they 
 do not think, that the single Power of the 
 Crown is in this Case a good Foundation ; 
 especially when this is done under a Prince, so 
 very tender to all the Rights of Soveraignty, 
 that he would think it a diminution to his Pre- 
 rogative, where he conceiveth it strong enough 
 to go alone, to call in the Legislative help to 
 strengthen and support it. 
 
 You have formerly blamed the Church of 
 England, and not without reason, for going so 
 far as they did in their Compliance ; and yet as 
 
HALIFAX 251 
 
 soon as they stopped, you see they are not only 
 Deserted, but Prosecuted : Conclude then from 
 this Example, that you must either break off 
 your Friendship, or resolve to have no Bounds 
 in it. If they do not succeed in their Design, 
 they will leave you first ; if they do, you must 
 either leave them, when it will be too late for 
 your Safety, or else after the squeaziness of 
 starting at a Surplice, you must be forced to 
 swallow Transubstantiation. 
 
 Remember that the other day those of the 
 Church of England were Trimmers for endur- 
 ing you, and now by a sudden Turn, you are 
 becoming the Favourites ; do not deceive your 
 selves, it is not the Nature of lasting Plants 
 thus to shoot up in a Night ; you may look gay 
 and green for a little time, but you want a Root 
 to give you a continuance. It is not so long 
 since, as to be forgotten, that the Maxim was, 
 It is impossible for a Dissenter, not to be a 
 REBEL. Consider at this time in France, 
 even the new Converts are so far from being 
 Imployed, that they are Disarmed : their sud- 
 den Change maketh them still to be distrusted, 
 notwithstanding that they are Reconciled : 
 What are you to expect then from your 
 dear Friends to whom, whenever they shall 
 think fit to throw you off again, you have 
 
252 HALIFAX 
 
 in other times given such Arguments for their 
 excuse. 
 
 Besides all this, you Act very unskilfully 
 against your visible Interest, if you throw away 
 the advantages, of which you can hardly fail in 
 the next probable Revolution. 1 Things tend 
 naturally to what you would have, if you would 
 let them alone, and not by an unreasonable Activ- 
 ity lose the Influences of your good Star, which 
 promiseth you every thing that is prosperous. 
 
 The Church of England convinced of its 
 Errour in being Severe to you ; the Parliament, 
 when ever it meeteth, sure to be Gentle to you ; 
 the next Heir 2 bred in the Country which you 
 have so often Quoted for a Pattern of Indulg- 
 ence ; a general Agreement of all thinking 
 Men, that we must no more cut our selves off 
 from the Protestants abroad, but rather inlarge 
 the Foundations upon which we are to build 
 our Defences against the Common Enemy ; so 
 that in Truth, all things seem to conspire to 
 give you ease and satisfaction, if by too much 
 hast to anticipate your good Fortune, you do 
 not destroy it. 
 
 1 This bold prophecy waited but two years for its fulfil- 
 ment, when William III. Becured the Toleration Act of 
 1689. 
 
 2 Mary, who had married William of Orange in 1677, 
 ai)d lived with him in Holland. 
 
HALIFAX 253 
 
 The Protestants have but one Article of 
 Human Strength, to oppose the Power which 
 is now against them, and that is, not to lose the 
 advantage of their numbers, by being so unwary 
 as to let themselves be divided. 
 
 We all agree in our Duty to our Prince, our 
 Objections to his Belief, do not hinder us from 
 seeing his Vertues ; and our not complying with 
 his Religion, hath no effect upon our Allegiance; 
 we are not to be Laughed out of our Passive 
 Obedience, and the Doctrine of Non-Resistance, 
 though even those who perhaps owe the best 
 part of their Security to that Principle, are apt 
 to make a Jest of it. 
 
 So that if we give no advantage by the 
 fatal mistake of misapplying our Anger, by the 
 natural course of things, this Danger will pass 
 away like a shower of Hail; fair weather 
 will succeed, as lowering as the sky now 
 looketh, and all by this plain and easie 
 Receipt. Let us be still, quiet and undivided, 
 firm at the same time to our Religion, our 
 Loyalty, and our Laws, and so long as we 
 continue this method, it is next to impossible, 
 that the odds of two hundred to one should 
 lose the Bett; except the Church of Borne, 
 which hath been so long barren of Miracles, 
 should now in her declining Age, be brought 
 
254 HALIFAX 
 
 to Bed of One that would out-do the best 
 she can brag of in her Legend. 
 
 To conclude, the short Question will be, 
 Whether you will jojn with those who must 
 in the end run the same Fate with you. If 
 Protestants of all sorts, in their Behaviour 
 to one another, have been to blame, they are 
 upon the more equal terms, and for that very 
 reason it is fitter for them now to be reconciled. 
 Our Dis-union is not only a Reproach, but a 
 Danger to us ; those who believe in modern 
 Miracles, have more Right, or at least more 
 Excuse, to neglect all Secular Cautions ; but 
 for us, it is as justifiable to have no Religion, 
 as wilfully to throw away the Human Means 
 of preserving it. I am, 
 Dear SIR, 
 
 Your most Affectionate 
 
 Humble Servant, 
 T. W. 
 
XIII \, 
 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 [The author of Robinson Crusoe (c. 1660-1731) 
 wrote several famous pamphlets both political and 
 religious. He also started a paper the Review, and 
 earned a not very honourable living as political 
 agent and publicist. 
 
 The immediate cause of Defoe's writing the 
 Shortest Way with the Dissenters was the bill for 
 tlie" suppression of "Occasional Conformity which 
 the ^Highflyers' introduced in 1702. The bill 
 was aimed against those Dissenters who, to avoid 
 the political Disabilities, were in the habit of occa- 
 sionally attending church ; and it was hoped by 
 the High Churchmen, who were constantly pressing 
 for legislation against the practice, that its sup- 
 pression would throw many Dissenters into ful] 
 conformity. Defoe was in^favour of the Bill, be- 
 cause he thought the loss of such half-hearted men 
 would be a gain to his party ; but, finding the rest 
 of the Dissenters suspected him for his view of the 
 master, Jie_j)ublished the Shortest^ Way in order to 
 expose the persecuting Church spirit~6Tthe time, 
 and set himself right with Jus friends. Writing, in 
 the disguise of a High Churchman he urged the 
 complete extirpation of all Dissenters. The ruse 
 was complete. For a time the pamphlet deceived 
 both friend and foe ; the extreme Tories, so far from 
 detecting the irony of Defoe's reductio ad absurdum, 
 approved it in sober earnest as a vigorous state- 
 ment of their own views, and one clergyman 
 
 355 
 
256 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 declared it to come next to the Bible in his esti- 
 mation. Defoe had to write and explain that it 
 was meant in sarcasm. Then the High-Flyers 
 were brought to their senses, and had to disavow 
 the principles thus nakedly revealed. Naturally 
 the dominant party was furious. The House of 
 Commons ordered the pamphlet to be burnt by 
 the hangman ; and in 1703 Defoe was prosecuted 
 for libelling the Church by misrepresenting its 
 principles. He was sentenced to a fine of 200 
 marks, the pillory, and imprisonment during the 
 Queen's pleasure. When he stood in the pillory on 
 the three last days of July, the people covered it 
 with flowers, formed a guard of honour, and drank 
 his health, and the Hymn to the Pillory which he 
 had written was sold in large numbers among the 
 crowd. The Occasional Conformity Bills of 1702 
 and 1706 were passed by the Tory Commons, but 
 rejected by the Lords, the Whig bishops voting 
 against it ; but in the Tory enthusiasm over the 
 Sjacheverell case the bill became law, together 
 with the "Scnism Act in 1710. The accession of 
 George L brought the Whigs again into power, and 
 both acts were finally repealed in 1718. 
 
 Many will think that Defoe really did prove too 
 much. His supple and unprincipled mind was able, 
 as we know, to throw itself into opposite causes for 
 the sake of profit, and in the Shortest Way he seems 
 to take a delight in presenting the case against his 
 , co-religionists in the strongest possible way, as if 
 he were carried away by the part he was playing. 
 " An unprincipled hack, ready to take any side of 
 any question," wrote Macaulay. " Of all writers he 
 was the most unlucky in irony. Twice he was 
 prosecuted for what he meant to be ironical ; but 
 he was so unskilful that everybody understood him 
 literally."] 
 
DANIEL DEFOE ? ' ' 257 
 
 THE 
 
 SHORTEST-WAY 
 
 WITH THE 
 
 DISSENTERS : 
 
 or 
 
 Proposals 
 
 for the 
 
 Establishment 
 
 of the 
 
 Church. 
 
 London : 
 Printed in the Year M.DCCIL 
 
 Sir Roger L'Estrange 1 tells us a Story in his 
 Collection of Fables, of the Cock and the 
 Horses. The Cock was gotten to Roost in the 
 Stable, among the Horses, and there being no 
 Racks, or other Conveniences for him, it seems, 
 he was forc'd to roost upon the Ground; the 
 Horses jostling about for room, and putting the 
 Cock in danger of his Life, he gives them this 
 grave Advice; Pray Gentlefolks let us stand 
 
 1 This remarkable pamphleteer, author, and journalist, 
 was condemned to death as a Royalist in 1644, but lived 
 to be imprisoned again by Wil. III. in 1695, and died in 
 1704, after a chequered career of 88 years. 
 
258 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 still, for fear we should tread upon one 
 another. 
 
 There are some People in the World, who 
 now they are unpearcht, and reduc'd to an 
 Equality with other People, and under strong 
 and very just apprehensions of being further 
 treated as they deserve, begin with JEsops 
 Cock, to Preach up Peace and Union, and 
 the Christian Duties of Moderation, forgetting, 
 that when they had the Power in their Hands, 
 rChose Graces were Strangers in their Gates. 
 
 It is now near Fourteen Years, 1 that the 
 Glory and Peace of the purest and most 
 flourishing Church in the World has been 
 Ecclips'd, Buffetted, and Disturb'd, by a sort of 
 Men, who God in his Providence has suffer'd to 
 insult over her, and bring her down; these 
 have been the Days of her Humiliation and 
 Tribulation : She has born with an invin- 
 cible Patience the Reproach of the Wicked, 
 and God has at last heard her Prayers, and 
 deliver'd her from the oppression of the stranger. 
 
 And now they find their Day is over, their 
 Power gone, and the Throne of this Nation 
 possest of a Royal, English, True, and ever 
 
 1 In 1689 William III. came to the throne, and passed 
 the Toleration Act which allowed to Orthodox Dissenters 
 the free exercise of their religion. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 259 
 
 Constant Member of, and Friend to the Church 
 of England. 1 Now they find that they are in 
 danger of the Church of England's just Resent- 
 ments ; now they cry out Peace, Union, For- 
 bearance, and Charity, as if the Church had 
 not too long harbour'd her Enemies under her 
 Wing, and nourish'd the viperous Brood, till 
 they hiss and fly in the Face of the Mother 
 that cherish'd them. 
 
 No Gentlemen, the Time of Mercy is past, 
 ^ov^Dwy~qf Grace is over; you shoud have 
 practS^3rPeace, and Moderation, and Charity, 
 if you expected any your selves. 
 
 We have heard none of this Lesson for Four- 
 teen Years past: We have been huff'd and 
 bully'd with your Act of Tolleration ; you have 
 told us that you are the Church established by 
 Law, as well as others; have set up your 
 Canting-Synagogues at our Church-Doors, and 
 the Church and her Members have been loaded 
 with Reproaches, with Oaths, Associations, 
 Abjurations, and what not; where has been 
 the Mercy, the Forbearance, the Charity you 
 have shewn to tender Consciences of the 
 Church of England, 2 that cou'd not take 
 
 1 Queen Anne, a staunch Churchwoman, had just come 
 to the throne. William III. , besides being Dutch, was 
 no friend of Church doctrines. 
 
 2 I.e. The Nonjurors. 
 
260 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 Oaths as fast as you made 'em ; that having 
 sworn allegiance to their lawful and rightful 
 King, cou'd not dispence with that Oath, their 
 King being still alive, and swear to your 
 new Hodge-podge of a Dutch-Government. 
 These ha' been turn'd out of their Livings, 1 
 and they and their Families left to starve ; 
 their Estates double Tax d, to carry on a War 
 they had no Hand in, and you got nothing 
 by : What Account can you give of the Multi- 
 tudes you have forc'd to comply, against their 
 Consciences, with your new sophistical Poli- 
 ticks, who like the new Converts in France, 
 Sin because they can't Starve. And now the 
 Tables are turn'd upon you, you must not be 
 Persecuted, 'tis not a Christian Spirit 
 
 You have Butcher'd one King, Depos'd 
 another King, and made a mock King of a 
 Third; and yet you cou'd have the Face to 
 expect to be employ 'd and trusted by the 
 Fourth; any body that did not know the 
 Temper of your Party, wou'd stand amaz'd 
 at the Impudence, as well as Folly, to think 
 of it. 
 
 Your Management of your Dutch Monarch, 
 
 1 Sancrof t, Ken, and four other bishops, as well as 400 
 priests, were expelled for refusing the oath of allegiance 
 to William and Mary, 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 261 
 
 whom you reduc'd to a meer King of CI ... s, 
 is enough to give any future Princes such an 
 Idea of your Principles, as to warn them 
 sufficiently from coming into your Clutches ; 
 and God be thank'd, the Queen is out of your 
 Hands, knows you, and will have a care of 
 you. 
 
 There is no doubt but the supreme Authority 
 of a Nation has in its self a Power, and a Right ,' 
 to that Power, to execute the Laws upon any 
 Part of that Nation it governs. The execu- 
 tion of the known Laws of the Land, and that 
 with but a weak and gentle Hand neither, 
 was all that the phanatical Party. of this Land 
 have ever call'd Persecution; this they have 
 magnified to a height, that the Sufferings of 
 the Hugonots in France were not to be com- 
 
 par'd with . Now to execute the known 
 
 Laws of a Nation upon those who transgress 
 them, after having first been voluntarily con- 
 senting to the making those Laws, can never 
 be call'd Persecution, but Justice : But Justice ; 
 is always Violence to the Party offending, for ; 
 eveiy Man is Innocent in his own Eyes. The ! 
 first execution of the Laws against Dissenters 
 in England, was in the Days of King James 
 the First ; and what did it amount to, truly, 
 the worst they suffer'd, was at their own re- 
 
262 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 quest, to let them go to New England?- and 
 erect a new Collony, and give them great 
 Privileges, Grants, and suitable Powers, keep 
 them under Protection, and defend them 
 against all Invaders, and receive no Taxes or 
 Revenue from them. This was the cruelty 
 of the Church of England, fatal Lenity ! 
 'Twas the ruin of that excellent Prince, King 
 Charles the First. Had King James sent all 
 the Puritans in England away to the West- 
 Indies, we had been a national unmix'd 
 Church ; the Church of England had been 
 kept undivided and entire. 
 
 To require the Lenity of the Father, they 
 take up Arms against the Son ; Conquer, 
 Pursue, Take, Imprison, and at last put to 
 Death the anointed of God, and Destroy the 
 very Being and Nature of Government, setting 
 up a sordid Impostor, who had neither Title 
 to Govern, nor Understanding to Manage, 
 but supplied that want with Power, bloody 
 and desperate Councils and Craft, without 
 Conscience. 
 
 Had not King James the First witheld the 
 full execution of the Laws ; had he given them 1 
 strict Justice, he had cleared the Nation of 
 them, and the Consequences had been plain ; 
 
 1 The Pilgrim Fathers sailed in the Mayflower in 1620. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 263 
 
 his Son had never been murther'd by them, nor 
 the Monarchy overwhelm'd ; 'twas too much 
 Mercy shewn them, was the ruin of his Pos- 
 terity, and the ruin of the Nation's Peace. One 
 would think the Dissenters should not have the 
 Face to believe that we are to be wheedl'd and 
 canted into Peace and Toleration, when they 
 know that they have once requited us with 
 a civil War, and once with an intollerable 
 and unrighteous Persecution for our former 
 Civillity. 
 
 Nay, to encourage us to be Easy with them, 
 'tis apparent, that they never had the Upper- 
 hand of the Church, but they treated her with 
 all Severity, with all the Eeproach and Con- 
 tempt as was possible : What Peace, and what 
 Mercy did they shew the Loyal Gentry of the 
 Church of England in the time of their 
 Triumphant Common-wealth ? How did they 
 put all the Gentry of England to ransom, 
 whether they were actually in Arms for the 
 King or not, making People compound for 
 their Estates, and starve their Families ? How 
 did they treat the Clergy of the Church of 
 England, sequester'd the Ministers, devour'd 
 the Patrimony of the Church, and divided the 
 Spoil, by sharing the Church-Lands among 
 their Soldiers, and turning her Clergy out to 
 
264 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 starve ; just such Measure as they have mete, 
 shou'd be measur'd to them again. 
 
 Charity and Love is the known Doctrine of 
 the Church of England, and 'tis plain she has 
 put it in practice towards the Dissenters, even 
 beyond what they ought, till she has been 
 wanting to her self, and in effect, unkind to her 
 own Sons ; particularly, in the too much Lenity 
 of King James the First, mentioned before, had 
 he so rooted the Puritans from the Face of the 
 Land, which he had an opportunity early to ha' 
 done, they had not the Power to vex the 
 Church, as since they have done. 
 
 In the Days of King Charles the Second, 
 how did the Church reward their bloody 
 Doings with Lenity and Mercy, except the 
 barbarous Regicides of the pretended Court of 
 Justice ; not a Soul suffer'd for all the Blood in 
 an unnatural War: King Charles came in all 
 Mercy and Love, cherish'd them, preferr'd 
 them, employ'd them, witheld the rigour of the 
 Law, and oftentimes, even against the Advice) 
 of his Parliament, gave them liberty of Con- 
 science ; and how did they requite him with the j 
 villainous Contrivance to Depose and Murther; 
 him and his Successor at the Bye-Plot 1 
 1 The Rye House Plot, 1683. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 265 
 
 King James, as if Mercy was the inherent 
 Quality of the Family, began his Reign with 
 unusual Favour to them : Nor could their join- 
 ing with the Duke of Monmouth against him, 
 move him to do himself Justice upon them; 
 but that mistaken Prince thought to win 
 them by Gentleness and Love, proclaimed an 
 universal Liberty to them, and rather dis- 
 countenanc'd the Church of England than 
 them ; how they requited him all the World 
 knows. 
 
 The late Reign is too fresh in the Memory 
 of all the World to need a Comment ; how 
 under Pretence of joining with the Church in 
 redressing some Grievances, they pusht things 
 to that extremity, in conjunction with some 
 mistaken Gentlemen, as to Depose the late 
 King, as if the Grievance of the Nation cou'd 
 not ha' been redress'd but by the absolute ruin 
 of the Prince: Here's an Instance of their 
 Temper, their Peace, and Charity. To what 
 height they carried themselves during the Reign 
 of a King of their own ; how they crope into 
 all Places of Trust and Profit; how they 
 insinuated into the Favour of the King, and 
 were at first preferred to the highest Places in 
 the Nation ; how they engrost the Ministry, and 
 
266 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 above all, how pitifully they managed, is too 
 plain to need any Remarks. 
 
 But particularly, their Mercy and Charity, 
 the Spirit of Union, they tell us so much of, has 
 been remarkable in Scotland, if any Man wou'd 
 see the Spirit of a Dissenter, let him look into 
 Scotland ; there they made an entire Conquest 
 of the Church, trampled down the sacred 
 Orders, and supprest the Episcopal Govern- 
 ment, with an absolute, and as they suppose, 
 irretrievable Victory, tho', 'tis possible, they 
 may find themselves mistaken: Now 'twou'd 
 be a very proper Question to ask their Im- 
 pudent Advocate, the Observator, Pray how 
 much Mercy and Favour did the Members of 
 the Episcopal Church find in Scotland, from 
 the Scotch Presbyterian-Government ; and I 
 shall undertake for the Church of England, 
 that the Dissenters shall still receive as much 
 here, tho' they deserve but little. 
 
 In a small Treatise of the Sufferings of 
 the Episcopal Clergy in Scotland, 'twill appear, 
 what Usage they met with, how they not only 
 lost their Livings, but in several Places 
 . were plunder'd and abus'd in their Persons ; 
 the Ministers that cou'd not conform, turn'd 
 out, with numerous Families, and no Mainten- 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 267 
 
 ance, and hardly Charity enough left to relieve 
 them with a bit of Bread ; and the Cruelties of 
 the Party are innumerable, and not to be 
 attempted in this short Piece. 
 
 And now to prevent the distant Cloud which 
 they perceiv'd to hang over their Heads from 
 England ; with a true Presbyterian Policy, they 
 put in for a union of Nations, that England 
 might unite their Church with the Kirk of 
 Scotland, and their Presbyterian Members sit 
 in our House of Commons, and their Assembly 
 of Scotch canting Long-Cloaks in our Convoca- 
 tion; what might ha' been, if our Phanatick 
 Whiggish-States-men had continu'd, God only 
 knows ; but we hope we are out of fear of that 
 now. 
 
 3 Tis alledg'd by some of the Faction, and they 
 began to Bully us with it ; that if we won't 
 unite with them, they will not settle the Crown 
 with us again, but when her Majesty dies, will 
 chuse a King for themselves. 
 
 If we won't, we must make them, and 'tis 
 not the first time we have let them know that 
 we are able : The Crowns of these Kingdoms 
 have not so far disowned the right of Succes- 
 sion, but they may retrieve it again, and if 
 Scotland thinks to come off from a Successive 
 to an Elective State of Government, England 
 
268 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 has not promised not to assist the right Heir, 
 and put them into possession, without any 
 regard to their ridiculous Settlements. 
 
 These are the Gentlemen, these their ways 
 of treating the Church, both at home and 
 abroad. Now let us examine the Reasons 
 they pretend to give why we shou'd be 
 favourable to them, why we should continue 
 and tollerate them among us. 
 
 First, They are very Numerous, they say, 
 they are a great Part of the Nation, and we 
 cannot suppress them. 
 
 To this may be answer'd. I. They are 
 not so Numerous as the Protestants in France, 
 and yet the French King 1 effectually clear'd 
 the Nation of them at once, and we don't 
 find he misses them at home. 
 
 But I am not of the Opinion they are so 
 Numerous as is pretended; their Party is 
 more Numerous than their Persons, and those 
 mistaken People of the Church, who are misled 
 and deluded by their wheedling Artifices, to 
 join with them, make their Party the greater; 
 
 1 Louis XIV. , by the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, 
 in 1685. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 269 
 
 but those will open their Eyes, when the 
 Government shall set heartily about the work, 
 and come off from them, as some Animals, 
 which they say, always desert a House when 
 'tis likely to fall. 
 
 2dfoj. The more Numerous, the more Dan- 
 gerous, and therefore the more need to sup- 
 press them; and God has suffered us to bear 
 them as Goads in our sides, for not utterly 
 extinguishing them long ago. 
 
 3dly. If we are to allow them, only be- 
 cause we cannot suppress them, then it ought 
 to be tried whether we can or no; and I 
 am of Opinion 'tis easy to be done, and cou'd 
 prescribe Ways and Means, if it were proper, 
 but I doubt not but the Government will find 
 effectual Methods for the rooting the Con- 
 tagion from the Face of this Land. 
 
 Another Argument they use, which is this, 
 that 'tis a time of War, and we have need to 
 unite against the common Enemy. 
 
 We answer, this common Enemy had been 
 no Enemy, if they had not made him so ; 1 he 
 was quiet, in peace, and no way disturbed, or 
 
 1 The French War of 1689-1697 came about through 
 the Accession of Wil. III. The next War began in 1702. 
 
270 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 encroach' d upon us, and we know no reason 
 we had to quarrel with him. 
 
 But further, We make no question but we 
 are able to deal with this common Enemy 
 without their help; but why must we unite 
 with them because of the Enemy, will they 
 go over to the Enemy, if we do not prevent 
 
 j it by a union with them . We are very 
 
 well contented they shou'd ; and make no 
 question, we shall be ready to deal with them 
 and the common Enemy too, and better with- 
 out them than with them. 
 
 Besides, if we have a common Enemy, there 
 is the more need to be secure against our 
 private Enemies; if there is one common 
 Enemy, we have the less need to have an 
 Enemy in our Bowels. 
 
 'Twas a great Argument some People used 
 against suppressing the Old-Money, that 'twas 
 a time of War, and 'twas too great a Risque 
 for the Nation to run, if we shou'd not master 
 it, we shou'd be undone ; and yet the Sequel 
 prov'd the Hazard was not so great, but it 
 might be mastered ; and the Success was 
 answerable. The suppressing the Dissenters 
 is not a harder Work, nor a Work of less 
 necessity to the Publick; we can never enjoy 
 a settled uninterrupted Union and Tranquility 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 271 
 
 in this Nation, till the Spirit of Whiggisme, 
 Faction, and Schism is melted down like the 
 Old-Money. 
 
 To talk of the Difficulty, is to Frighten our 
 selves with Chimaeras and Notions of a Power- 
 ful Party, which are indeed a Party without 
 Power; Difficulties often appear greater at a 
 distance, than when they are search'd into with 
 Judgment, and distinguish'd from the Vapours 
 and Shadows that attend them. 
 
 We are not to be frightened with it; this 
 I Age is wiser than that, by all our own Experi- 
 1 ence, and theire's too ; King Cha/rles the First, 
 \ had early supprest this Party, if he had took 
 more deliberate Measures. In short, 'tis not 
 worth arguing, to talk of their Arms, their 
 \monmouths, and Shaftesburys, and Argiles are 
 gone, their Dutch-Saiwtuary is at an end, 
 Heaven has made way for their Destruction, 
 and if we do not close with the Divine occa- 
 sion, we are to blame our selves, and may 
 remember that we had once an opportunity to 
 serve the Church of England, by extirpating 
 her implacable Enemies, and having let slip the 
 Minute that Heaven presented, may experi- 
 mentally Complain, Post est Occasio Calvo. 
 
 Here are some popular Objections in the 
 Way. 
 
272 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 As first, The Queen has promis'd them, to 
 continue them in their tollerated Liberty ; and 
 has told us she will be a religious Observer of 
 her Word. 
 
 What her Majesty will do we cannot help, 
 but what, as the Head of the Church, she 
 ought to do, is another Case : Her Majesty has 
 promised to Protect and Defend the Church of 
 Englamd, and if she cannot effectually do that 
 without the Destruction of the Dissenters, she 
 must of course dispence with one Promise to 
 comply with another. But to answer this Cavil 
 more effectually : Her Majesty did never 
 promise to maintain the Tolleration, to the 
 Destruction of the Church ; but it is upon sup- 
 position that it may be compatible with the 
 well being and safety of the Church, which she 
 had declared she would take especial Care of: 
 Now if these two Interests clash, 'tis plain her 
 Majesties Intentions are to Uphold, Protect, 
 Defend, and Establish the Church, and this we 
 conceive is impossible. 
 
 Perhaps it may be said, That the Church is 
 in no immediate Danger from the Dissenters, 
 and therefore 'tis time enough : But this is a 
 weak Answer. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 273 
 
 For first, If a Danger be real, the Distance 
 of it is no Argument against, but rather a Spur 
 to quicken us to prevention, lest it be too late 
 hereafter. 
 
 And 2dly, Here is the Opportunity, and the 
 only one perhaps that ever the Church had to 
 secure her self, and destroy her Enemies. 
 
 The Representatives of the Nation have now 
 an Opportunity, the Time is come which all 
 good Men ha' wish'd for, that the Gentlemen 
 of England may serve the Church of England ; 
 now they are protected and encouraged by a 
 Church of Englamd Queen. 
 
 What will ye do for your Sister in the Day 
 that she shall be spoken for. 
 
 If ever you will establish the best Christian 
 Church in the World. 
 
 If ever you will suppress the Spirit of 
 Enthusiasm. 1 
 
 If ever you will free the Nation from the 
 
 viperous Brood that have so long suck'd the 
 
 Blood of their Mother. , 
 
 \ If you will leave your Posterity free from 
 
 Faction and Rebellion, this is the time. 
 
 \ This is the time to pull up this heretical 
 
 1 ' Enthusiasm ' was the great bugbear of the 
 Eighteenth Century statesmen and ecclesiastics, — with 
 what result to the Church we are painfully familiar. 
 See p. 215. 
 
274 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 Weed of Sedition, that has so long disturbed the 
 Peace of our Church, and poisoned the good 
 Corn. 
 
 But, says another Hot and Cold Objector, 
 this is renewing Fire and Faggot, reviving the 
 Act De Heret. Comburendo: 1 This will be 
 Cruelty in its Nature, and Barbarous to all the 
 World. 
 
 I answer, 'Tis Cruelty to kill a Snake or a 
 Toad in cold Blood, but the Poyson of their 
 Nature makes it a Charity to our Neighbours, 
 to destroy those Creatures, not for any personal 
 Injury receiv'd, but for prevention ; not for the , 
 Evil they have done, but the Evil they may do./ 
 
 Serpents, Toads, Vipers, &c, are noxious to 
 the Body, and poison the sensitive Life ; these 
 poyson the Soul, corrupt our Posterity, ensnare 
 our Children, destroy the Vitals of our Happy- 
 ness, our future Felicity, and contaminate the 
 whole Mass. 
 
 Shall any Law be given to such wild 
 Creatures: Some Beasts are for Sport, and 
 
 1 The Act Be Haeretico Comburendo was passed in 1401. 
 On the accession of Elizabeth the law was modified, but 
 etill men were burnt for heresy in her reign and that of 
 James I. The death-punishment for heresy was not 
 abolished till the reign of Charles II. , in 1677. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 275 
 
 the Huntsmen give them advantages of Ground; 
 but some are knock'd on Head by all possible 
 ways of Violence and Surprize. 
 
 I do not prescribe Fire and Fagot, but as 
 Scipio said of Carthage, Dilenda est Ca/rthago ; 
 they are to be rooted out of this Nation, if ever 
 we will live in Peace, serve God, or enjoy our 
 own : As for the Manner, I leave it to those 
 Hands who have a right to execute God's 
 Justice on the Nation's and the Church's 
 Enemies. 
 
 But if we must be frighted from this Justice, 
 under the specious Pretences, and odious Sense 
 of Cruelty, nothing will be effected : 'Twill 
 be more Barbarous and Cruel to our own 
 Children, and dear Posterity, when they shall 
 reproach their Fathers, as we do ours, and 
 tell us, 'You had an Opportunity to root 
 out this cursed Kace from the World, under 
 the Favour and Protection of a true English 
 Queen; and out of your foolish Pity you 
 spared them, because, forsooth, you would not 
 be Cruel, and now our Church is supprest and 
 persecuted, our Religion trampl'd under Foot, 
 our Estates plundred, our Persons imprisoned 
 and dragg'd to Jails, Gibbets, and Scaffolds; 
 your sparing this Amalakite Race is our De- 
 
276 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 struction, your Mercy to them proves Cruelty 
 to your poor Posterity. 
 
 How just will such Reflections be, when our 
 Posterity shall fall under the merciless Clutches 
 of this uncharitable Generation, when our 
 Church shall be' swallow'd up in Schism, 
 Faction, Enthusiasme, and Confusion ; when our 
 Government shall be devolv'd upon Foreigners, 
 and our Monarchy dwindled into a Republick. 
 
 'Twou'd be more rational for us, if we must 
 spare this Generation, to summon our own to 
 a general Massacre, and as we have brought 
 them into the World Free, send them out so, 
 and not betray them to Destruction by our 
 supine negligence, and then cry it is Mercy. 
 
 Moses was a merciful meek Man, and yet 
 with what Fury did he run thro' the Camp, 
 and cut the Throats of Three and thirty 
 thousand of his dear Israelites, that were 
 fallen into Idolatry ; what was the reason ? 
 't\vas Mercy to the rest, to make these be 
 Examples, to prevent the Destruction of the 
 whole Army. 
 
 How many Millions of future Souls we save 
 from Infection and Delusion, if the present Race 
 of poison'd Spirits were purg'd from the Face of 
 the Land. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 277 
 
 Tis vain to trifle in this matter, the light 
 foolish handling of them by Mulcts, Fines, &c., 
 'tis their Glory and their Advantage; if the 
 Gallows instead of the Counter, and the 
 Gallows instead of the Fines, were the Reward 
 of going to a Conventicle, to preach or hear, 
 there wou'd not be so many Sufferers, the 
 Spirit of Martyrdom is over; they that will 
 go to Church to be chosen Sheriffs and 
 Mayors, would go to forty Churches rather 
 than be Hang'd. 
 
 If one severe Law were made, and punctually 
 executed, that who ever was found at a Con- 
 venticle, shou'd be Banish'd the Nation, and 
 the Preacher be Hang'd, we shou'd soon see an 
 end of the Tale, they wou'd all come to Church ; 
 and one Age wou'd make us all One again. 
 
 To talk of 5s. a Month for not coming 
 
 ; to the Sacrament, and Is. per Week for 
 
 1 not coming to Church, this is such a way of 
 
 . converting People as never was known, this ' 
 
 is selling them a Liberty to transgress for so 
 
 much Money : If it be not a Crime, why don't 
 
 we give them full Licence ? And if it be, no 
 
 Price ought to compound for the committing it, 
 
 for that is selling a Liberty to People to sin 
 
 against God and the Government. 
 
278 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 If it be a Crime of the highest Consequence, 
 both against the Peace and Welfare of the 
 Nation, the Glory of God, the Good of the 
 Church, and the Happyness of the Soul, 
 let us rank it among capital Offences, and 
 let it receive a Punishment in proportion 
 to it. 
 
 We Hang Men for Trifles, and Banish them 
 for things not worth naming, but an Offence 
 against God and the Church, against the 
 Welfare of the World, and the Dignity of 
 Religion, shall be bought off for 5s. This 
 is such a shame to a Christian Government, 
 
 that 'tis with regret I transmit it to Posterity. , 
 
 f 
 
 If Men sin against God, affront his Or- 
 dinances, rebell against his Church, and disobey 
 the Precepts of their Superiors, let them suffer 
 as such capital Crimes deserve, so will Re- 
 ligion flourish, and this divided Nation be 
 once again united. 
 
 And yet the Title of Barbarous and Cruel 
 will soon be taken off from this Law too. I 
 am not supposing that all the Dissenters in 
 Engkmd shou'd be Hang'd or Banished, but 
 as in cases of Rebellions and Insurrections, 
 if a few of the Ring-leaders suffer, the Multi- 
 tude are dismist, so a few obstinate People 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 279 
 
 being made Examples there's no doubt but 
 the Severity of the Law would find a stop in 
 the Compliance of the Multitude. 
 
 To make the reasonableness of this matter 
 out of question, and more unanswerably plain, 
 let us examine for what it is that this Nation 
 is divided into Parties and Factions, and let 
 us see how they can justify a Separation, or 
 we of the Church of England can justify our 
 bearing the Insults and Inconveniences of the 
 Party. 
 
 / 
 
 One of their leading Pastors, and a Man of 
 as much Learning as most among them, in his 
 Answer to a Pamphlet, entituled, A Enquiry 
 into the occasional Conformity, hath these 
 words, p. 27. Do the Religion of the Church 
 and the Meeting-houses make two Religions ? 
 Wherein do they differ ? The Substance of the 
 same Religion is common to them both; and 
 The Modes and Accidents are the things in 
 which only they differ. P. 28. Tliirty nine 
 Articles are given us for the summary of our 
 Religion, Thirty six contain the Substance of 
 it, wherein we agree; Three the additional 
 Appendices, about which we have some differ- 
 ences. 
 
 Now, if as by their own acknowledgment, the 
 
280 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 Church of England is a true Church, and the 
 Difference between them is only a few Modes 
 and Accidents, why shou'd we expect that 
 they will suffer Gallows and Gallies, corporeal 
 Punishment and Banishment for these Trifles, 
 there is no question but they will be wiser; 
 even their own Principles won't bear them 
 out in it, they will certainly comply with the 
 Laws, and with Reason, and tho' at the first, 
 Severity may seem hard, the next Age will 
 feel nothing of it ; the Contagion will be rooted 
 out ; the Disease being cur'd, there will be 
 no need of the Operation, but if they should 
 venture to transgress, and fall into the Pit, 
 all the World must condemn their Obstinacy, 
 as being without Ground from their own 
 Principles. 
 
 Thus the Pretence of Cruelty will be taken 
 off, and the Party actually supprest, and the 
 Disquiets they have so often brought upon the 
 Nation, prevented. 
 
 Their Numbers and their Wealth, makes 
 them Haughty, and that is so far from being 
 an Argument to perswade us to forbear them, 
 that 'tis a Warning to us, without any more 
 delay, to reconcile them to the Unity of the 
 Church, or remove them from us. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 281 
 
 At present, Heaven be prais'd, they are 
 not so Formidable as they have been, 1 and 'tis 
 our own fault if ever we suffer them to be 
 so; Providence, and the Church of England, 
 seems to join in this particular, that now the 
 Destroyers of the Nations Peace may be over- 
 turn'd, and to this end the present Opportunity 
 seems to be put into our Hands. 
 
 To this end her present Majesty seems 
 reserv'd to enjoy the Crown, That the Eccle- 
 siastick as well as Civil Rights of the Nation 
 may be restor'd by her Hand. 
 
 To this end the Face of Affairs have receiv'd 
 such a Turn in the process of a few Months, 
 as never has been before ; and leading Men of 
 the Nation, the universal Cry of the People, the 
 unanimous Request of the Clergy, agree in this, 
 that the Deliverance of our Church is at hand. 
 
 For this end has^Providence given us such 
 a Parliament, such a Convocation, such a 
 Gentry, and such^a Queen as we never had 
 before. 
 
 And what may be the Consequences of a 
 Neglect of such Opportunities ? The Succession 
 of the Crown has but a dark Prospect, 2 another 
 
 1 Dissent steadily declined after the Restoration. 
 3 All Anne's children had died before she ascended the 
 throne. 
 
 S 
 
282 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 Dutch Turn may make the Hopes of it ridi- 
 culous, and the Practice impossible : Be the 
 House of our future Princes never so well 
 inclin'd, they will be Foreigners ; and many 
 Years will be spent in suiting the Genius of 
 Strangers to the Crown, and to the Interests 
 of the Nation ; and how many Ages it may be 
 before the English Throne be fill'd with so 
 much Zeal and Candour, so much Tenderness, 
 and hearty Affection to the Church, as we see 
 it now cover'd with, who can imagine. 
 
 'Tis high time then for the Friends of the 
 Church of England, to think of Building 
 up, and Establishing her, in such a manner, 
 that she may be no more Invaded by 
 Foreigners, nor Divided by Factions, Schisms, 
 and Error. 
 
 If this cou'd be done by gentle and easy 
 Methods, I shou'd be glad, but the Wound 
 is coroded, the Vitals begin to mortifie, and 
 nothing but Amputation of Members can com- 
 pleat the Cure; all the ways of Tenderness 
 and Compassion, all perswasive Arguments 
 have been made use of in vain. 
 
 The Humour of the Dissenters has so 
 encreas'd among the People, that they hold 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 283 
 
 the Church in Defiance, and the House of 
 God is an Abomination among them: Nay, 
 they have brought up their Posterity in such 
 pre-possest Aversions to our Holy Religion, 
 that the ignorant Mob think we are all 
 Idolaters, and Worshippers of Baal; and 
 account it is a Sin to come within the Walls 
 of our Churches. 
 
 The primitive Christians were not more shie 
 of a Heathen-Temple, or of Meat offer d to 
 Idols, nor the Jews of Swine's-Flesh, than 
 some of our Dissenters are of the Church, and 
 the Divine Service solemnized therein. 
 
 This Obstinacy must be rooted out with the 
 Profession of it, while the Generation are left 
 at liberty daily to affront God Almighty, and 
 Dishonour his Holy Worship, we are wanting 
 in our Duty to God, and our Mother the 
 Church of England. 
 
 How can we answer it to God, to the 
 Church, and to our Posterity, to leave them 
 entangled with Fanaticisme, Error, and 
 Obstinacy, in the Bowels of the Nation; to 
 leave them an Enemy in their Streets, and 
 in time may involve them in the same Crimes, 
 and endanger the utter Extirpation of Religion 
 in the Nation. 
 
284 DANIEL DEFOE 
 
 What's the Difference betwixt this, and 
 being subjected to the Power of the Church 
 of Rome, from whence we have reform'd ? If 
 one be an extreme on one Hand, and one on 
 another, 'tis equally destructive to the Truth, 
 to have Errors settled among us, let them 
 be of what Nature they will. 
 
 Both are Enemies of our Church, and of our 
 Peace, and why shou'd it not be as criminal 
 to admit an Enthusiast as a Jesuit? Why 
 shou'd the Papist with his Seven Sacraments 
 be worse than the Quaker with no Sacraments 
 at all ? Why shou'd Religious-houses be more 
 
 intollerable than Meeting-houses Alas the 
 
 Church of England ! What with Popery on 
 one Hand, and Schismaticks on the other ; 
 how has she been Crucify'd between two 
 Thieves. 
 
 Now let us Crucifie the Thieves. Let her 
 Foundations be establish'd upon the Destruc- 
 tion of her Enemies: The Doors of Mercy 
 being always open to the returning Part of 
 the deluded People : Let the Obstinate be 
 ruTd with the Rod of Iron. 
 
 Let all true Sons of so Holy an Oppressed 
 Mother, exasperated by her Afflictions, harden 
 their Hearts against those who have oppress'd 
 her. 
 
DANIEL DEFOE 285 
 
 And may God Almighty put it into the 
 Hearts of all the Friends of Truth, to lift up 
 a Standard against Pride and Antichrist, that 
 the Posterity of the Sons of Error moyy be 
 rooted out from the Face of this Land for 
 ever. — 
 
XIV 
 
 CHARLES LESLIE 
 
 [Charles Leslie the Nonjuror (1650-1722), one of 
 the ablest and most prolific of pamphleteers, dis- 
 tinguished himself by his controversies with the 
 Quakers {Snake in the Grass, <kc.) and Deists {Short 
 and Easy Method with the Deists), and indeed with 
 most other people who disagreed with him. He 
 also wrote several larger books both on political 
 and religious subjects. He was suspended for re- 
 fusing the oath of allegiance at the Kevolution. 
 In 1710 a warrant was issued for his arrest, and 
 next year he escaped to the Court of St Germains, 
 but returned soon as £ Mr White' : in 1713 he went 
 again to the Pretender. The Non-jurors clung 
 fondly to the hope that the Pretender would change 
 his religion, and Leslie was commissioned by them 
 to win him over to the English Church. Had 
 Leslie succeeded there is little doubt but that 
 England would have welcomed a Stuart king on 
 the death of Anne. 
 
 Leslie was warmly praised by Swift, and Dr 
 Johnson said of him that he was ' a reasoner who 
 was not to be reasoned against.' He is an inter- 
 esting type of the extreme political High Church- 
 man wbom /( Defoe parodied in the Shortest Way and 
 answered in the C/iallenge of Peace.] 
 286 
 
CHARLES LESLIE 287 
 
 FROM 
 
 ! 'THE WOLF STRIPT 
 of His Shepherd's Cloathing.' 
 By One Call'd an High-Church-Man 
 1704. 
 
 A Character of the High and the Low-Church- 
 Men. \ 
 
 ( No Man thinks it a Disparagement to be 
 High, that is, Zealous in any good thing, in 
 our Duty to God, in our Love to our Countrey, 
 or to our Friend. To be called, Low, that is 
 Indifferent in such things, is the greatest Be- 
 flection we can put upon any Body. How 
 then can the Name of a Low-Church-man be 
 Honourable, when the Name of a Low-Friend 
 is so contemptible? To have a Low Regard 
 for the Church, or to wish her Low ! In what 
 Sense can this be Justified? Or the other 
 Condemned, of being an High-Church-man ? 
 When Love begins to run Low, then comes 
 Indifferency, and generally after that an 
 Aversion ! *\ 
 
 But how can we Love one, and Hate another, 
 for the self same thing ? To cry out upon the 
 Papists, and yet Justine the Dissenters for the 
 same Doctrines? To have no Mercy upon 
 James Lainez, the General of the Jesuits for 
 
 £- 
 
288 CHARLES LESLIE 
 
 his Speech at the Council of Trent, against 
 the Divine Right of Episcopacy : (And yet to 
 Justifie the Dissenters, and make it the Hon- 
 ourable Character of a Low-Church-Man, to 
 repeat over his Arguments ? The Presbyterians 
 have borrowed all their Arguments against 
 Episcopacy from the Jesuits and the Regulars, 1 
 of the Church of Rome, who are nothing else 
 but Popish Presbyterians; and the Presby- 
 terians are Protestant Jesuits. For what is 
 Presbytery, but Presbyters without Bishops? 
 And such are the Regulars. \ 
 
 This is as to the Church. Then for the 
 State, the Deposing Doctrine, and placing the 
 Power in the People, is but the Spittle of the 
 Papists and Jesuits, which our Whigs and 
 Dissenters have Liclct up (which is well ob- 
 served by the Lord Bishop of Sarum, See here- 
 after), p. 55. Concerning their Agreement in 
 this, and many other Popish Doctrines, see 
 Lysimachus Nicanor, Printed 1640. In answer 
 to the many Treasonable Pamphlets then spread 
 abroad, as Preparatives for the Rebellion that 
 did follow. And when the like Pamphlets came 
 Abroad again, in the years 1681, and 1682, to 
 
 1 Regulars are members of the religious orders. Leslie 
 means that those orders, and especially the Jesuits, have 
 been prone to establish an imperium in imperio, dominat- 
 ing the Bishops, and even the Pope himself. 
 
CHARLES LESLIE 289 
 
 make way for the Bye-house Conspiracy (as 
 hereafter is Observ'd) then this of their Agree- 
 ment with the Papists in these Treasonable 
 Tenets was again expos'd, as by Dugdale 1 in 
 his Short View of the late Trouble in England, 
 Printed, 1651, p. 16, 17, &c, by Dr Pelting 
 in his Apostat Protestant, 2 Printed 1682, and 
 Reprinted 1683. And by others, in Answer to 
 these Wicked Pamphlets sent forth to sow 
 Sedition. And have not been Repkfd to by 
 the Dissenters, for they Cannot. It is Matter 
 of Fact, as Plain as the Sun at Noon-Day/ 
 Yet all this hinders not their re-printing the 
 same their Hellish Doctrines, now at this time, 
 more vehemently, and in greater Numbers than 
 ever. For what End, may be guess'd at by 
 what follows. Principles produce Practises, 
 as the Cause does its Effect. 
 
 Yet there is a Difference to be made, as of 
 different Soils, which produce not the same 
 Crop, tho' sow'd with the same Seed. Some are 
 Evil Natures, which drink in the Diabolical 
 Seed with Greediness ; and bring forth Fruit of 
 Blood, Massacre, and all Wickedness. Others 
 
 1 Sir William, author of the Monastieon. The Short 
 View is a vehement and one-sided book. 
 
 2 The Apostat was called forth by the reprinting of the 
 Jesuit Parsons' Conference about the Succession of the 
 Crown. It is an attack on the Exclusion Bill. 
 
290 CHARLES LESLIE 
 
 again are of Good and Gentle Natures, who 
 may be drawn in by Company, Education, or 
 Weakness of Judgment, not fore-seeing the 
 Consequence of such Principles, and carry'd 
 away with the Fair Pretences and Specious 
 Colours that are put upon them. But when 
 they come to see the Dismal Effects, are struck 
 with Horrour, and give back ! And then are 
 Prosecuted by their own Party worse than 
 their open and avow'd Enemies. See here- 
 after. 
 
 These are men for whom we have great 
 Tenderness and Compassion, and endeavour to 
 pluck them out of the Fire, by a Fair and Free 
 Representation of the Fallacies of those Prin- 
 ciples they have Imbib'd ! And of the former 
 wicked Practises of that Faction, in which they 
 are Engag'd, and never yet fail'd to Execute, 
 when it was in their Power. 
 
 This is the Method which the High-Church- 
 Men do use, towards reclaiming of these well- 
 meaning, but mis-led People. And this is the 
 Reason why that Opprobrious Name (as some 
 think it) is given to them, because they Repre- 
 sent things Highly, that is, Fully true. They 
 Abate not, nor Moderate, nor Mollifie, that is, 
 
 they will not Lye. First, to strengthen the 
 
 Hands of the Wicked and Designing of the 
 
CHARLES LESLIE 291 
 
 Faction; and to put us from off our Guard 
 against them : And, in the next Place, to give 
 the as yet Innocent and Deluded among them, 
 a less Abhorrent Notion of them, and to sow 
 Pillows under their Arms; which is the Method 
 taken by the Low-Cliurch to Reclaim them ! 
 And this they call Moderation. 
 
 But they go farther. They Re-present the 
 Dissenters as a Conscientious and Loyal People, 
 that have no ill Designs either against the 
 Church or the Monarchy, 
 
 On the other hand, they draw such a Picture 
 of the High-Church, as to Fright all Mankind 
 from Coming near them ! They make them the 
 most Profligate Villains that ever the Earth 
 bore, Men of Debauch'd Consciences, of the 
 Grossest Im-Moralities, &c., as you will see in 
 what follows, p. 17, 18. 
 
 They Profess themselves Ready to joyn with 
 the Dissenters in Confederacy against the High- 
 Church, that is, They have done it already ! 
 
 fThey think Episcopacy an Indifferent thing, 
 and only a State-point amongst Us. 
 
 They have no Notion of God's having 
 Appointed any Order of Man to Represent 
 Him, to Transact betwixt Him, and the People, 
 to Sign and Seal His Covenants with them, and 
 to Bless in His Name. Or, they think, that 
 
292 CHARLES LESLIE 
 
 any One may take this Honour to Himself, or 
 be Impower'd thereunto by the People, by any 
 the Vilest of them ! They think that this can 
 be Conferr'd without Episcopal Ordination, 
 which has been from the Apostles Days the 
 Way of the Whole Earth ; And the first who 
 Broach'd the Contrary, Aerius an Ambitious 
 Presbyter, in the Fourth Century, was Con- 
 demn'd as an Heretick. Whose Heresie is Now 
 Reviv'd amongst Us. 
 
 They think the Christian Priesthood is not, 
 so Sacred a thing as was that of the LeviticaL 
 And that the Sin of Korah cannot be Re-Acted 
 under the Gospel, tho' St Jude Speaks of those 
 who Perish in it ; And all the Fathers after 
 who wrote of Schism.*- 
 
 ( They have Reduc'd every thing in the Church, 
 both as to her Government, Lyturgie, and all 
 Holy Offices, all Outward Institutions, to a 
 wild Enthusiasm^- to what they call the Life 
 of God in the Soul, to the QUAKER Light 
 Within, to all the Extravagancies of the 
 POPISH Mysticks.) 
 
 They have left no one Stone upon another 
 in the Church, as an Outward Visible Society. 
 
 ^ * ' Enthusisam * does not here bear the modern sense 
 of zeal, but it is nearer to the literal meaning (en. theos), 
 and may be rendered ' the fanaticism inspired by a belief 
 in the God within one ' (p. 215). \ 
 
CHARLES LESLIE 293 
 
 Which cannot be without Government. And 
 that fix'd and Settled. Where the Govern- 
 ment is Praecarious, that Society must be in 
 a Tottering Condition. But these Men make 
 nothing of Christianity but a Sect, like that 
 of an Epicurean, a Stoick, or an Academick 
 among the Philosophers, to which there go's 
 no More than to be of this or that Opinion; 
 and they might Change from One to Another, 
 ten times a Day, or, as a Man may Change his 
 Lawyer or Physician, without any Hazard or 
 Penalty; So this Book of Moderation says 
 (as you will see hereafter) a Man may Change 
 Churches, and go from One to Another, Pro- 
 vided only that Christianity be Taught, that 
 is indeed, They know nothing of a Church, as 
 a Society, with Authority of Admitting or Ex- 
 cluding ; for who can Excommunicate me from 
 my own Thoughts ! And if I Believe the 
 General Doctrines of Christianity, I am of 
 the Church, in these Mens Opinion, tho' I 
 stand Excommunicated from all the Churches 
 in the World, and that for my open Contempt 
 of their Authority, and setting up what Schis- 
 matical Congregations I please, in Opposition 
 to them ; and thinking that I and my Fellows 
 can Constitute a Church by our selves, as well 
 as any of them. 
 
294 CHARLES LESLIE 
 
 These are the Men of Moderation ! Of 
 Large Thoughts ! Of Universal Comprehen- 
 sive Charity! 
 
 But if any one Talks of the Church, of any 
 Authority Committed to Her by Christ, of any 
 Govemours or Government Settl'd by Him, the 
 Deduc'd through the whole Christian World, 
 all the way down from the Days of the Apostles ; 
 or speaks of any Schism made against this 
 Church, or Disobedience to her, all such are 
 call'd High-Church- Men, Incendiaries, Enemies 
 to Peace and Union, and not fit to Live upon 
 the Earth ! And as such they are Treated in 
 this Book of Moderation. 
 
 (But the High-Church, notwithstanding of 
 all the Scandals cast upon them, are far from 
 the Men they are Represented to be; there 
 are None more Desirous of the Reeoncilation 
 of the Dissenters, because None are so Sen- 
 sible of the Dangerous State that they are in, 
 by their Schism from Episcopacy, which is, 
 from the Catholick-Church, of all Ages. And 
 they would go as far as Possible to Purchase 
 their Union with the Church upon any Terms 
 that wou'd not Throw our selves out of it with 
 them ; that wou'd Leave any Notion of a 
 Church in being. And it is the Labours of 
 the High-Church which have, with the Good 
 
CHARLES LESLIE 295 
 
 Blessing of God, brought over so many' of 
 them to the Church, by Representing their 
 Errors to them. But Soothing them where 
 they are, is not the Way to do it. It is the 
 greatest Hindrance can be to them, by making 
 them Believe that they are in a Safe Condition ; 
 why then shou'd they Change? Indeed the 
 Apparent Designs of the Low Church are to 
 bring Us to Them, not Them to Us. ) 
 
XV 
 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 [Swift was born 1667, and died 1745 ; he was of 
 English extraction, though born and educated in 
 Dublin. As a pamphleteer it may be said of him 
 that no man exercised more influence by this kind 
 of writing than he ; and, as he was our greatest 
 satirist, so he was our greatest pamphleteer. It 
 need only be added here that the popular idea of 
 his irreligion is without foundation. Like other 
 wits he was often misunderstood ; but it is known 
 that he made himself a little oratory in the Deanery 
 at Dublin, and made considerable use of it for 
 private devotion. To him also belongs the credit 
 of having first aroused public attention to the 
 absence of churches in the new parts of London, 
 * where a single minister with one or two curates 
 has the care sometimes of 20,000 souls incumbent 
 on him,' and 'five parts out of six of the people 
 are absolutely hindered from hearing divine ser- 
 vice. 5 ] 
 
 AN ARGUMENT to prove, that 
 
 THE ABOLISHING OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 in England, May, as Things now stand, be 
 
 attended with some Inconveniences, and 
 
 perhaps not produce those many Good 
 
 Effects proposed thereby. 
 
 London, 1708. 
 
 296 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 297 
 
 I am very sensible what a Weakness and Pre- 
 sumption it is, to reason against the general 
 Humour and Disposition of the World. I 
 remember it was with great Justice, and a due 
 Regard to the Freedom both of the Publick 
 and the Press, forbidden upon several Penalties 
 to Write, or Discourse, or lay Wagers against 
 
 the 1 even before it was confirmed by 
 
 Parliament, because that was look'd upon as 
 a Design, to oppose the Current of the People ; 
 which, besides the Folly of it, is a manifest 
 Breach of the Fundamental Law, that makes 
 this Majority of Opinion the Voice of God. In 
 like manner, and for the very same Reasons, 
 it may perhaps be neither safe nor prudent 
 to argue against the Abolishing of Christianity ; 
 at a Juncture, when all Parties seem so unani- 
 mously determined upon the Point, as we 
 cannot but allow from their Actions, Discourse^ 
 and their Writings. However, I know not how, 
 whether from the Affectation of Singularity, or 
 the Perverseness of Human Nature, but so it 
 unhappily falls out, that I cannot be entirely 
 of this Opinion. Nay, though I were sure an 
 Order were issued out for my immediate Prose- 
 cution by the Attorney-General, I should still 
 confess, that in the present Posture of our 
 1 Union is the missing word. 
 T 
 
298 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Affairs at home or abroad, I do not yet see 
 the absolute Necessity of extirpating the Chris- 
 tian Religion from among us. 
 
 This, perhaps, may appear too great a Para- 
 dox, even for our wise and paradoxical Age 
 to endure ; therefore I shall handle it with all 
 Tenderness, and with the utmost Deference to 
 that great and profound Majority which is of 
 another Sentiment. 
 
 And yet the Curious may please to observe, 
 how much the Genius of a Nation is liable to 
 alter in half an Age. I have heard it affirmed 
 for certain by some very old People, that the 
 contrary Opinion was, even in their Memories, 
 as much in Vogue as the other is now ; and, 
 That a Project for the Abolishing of Christi- 
 anity would then have appeared as singular, and 
 been thought so absurd, as it would beat this 
 Time, to Write or Discourse in its Defence. 
 
 Therefore I freely own, That all Appear- 
 ances are against me. The System of the 
 Gospel, after the Fate of other Systems, is 
 generally antiquated and exploded; and the 
 Mass or Body of the Common People, among 
 whom it seems to have had its latest Credit, 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 299 
 
 are now grown as much ashamed of it as their 
 Betters. Opinions, like Fashions, always de- 
 scending from those of Quality to the Middle 
 Sort, and from thence to the Vulgar, where 
 at length they are dropt and vanish. 1 
 
 But here I would not be mistaken, and 
 must therefore be so bold as to borrow a 
 Distinction from the Writers on the other 
 side, when they make a Difference betwixt 
 Nominal and Real Trinitarians. I hope no 
 Reader imagines me so weak to stand up in 
 the Defence of Real Christianity, such as used in 
 Primitive Times (if we may believe the Authors 
 of those Ages) to have an Influence upon Mens 
 Belief and Actions : To offer at the Restoring 
 of That would indeed be a wild Project ; 
 it would be to digg up Foundations, to 
 destroy at one Blow all the Wit, and half the 
 Learning of the Kingdom ; to break the entire 
 
 1 Swift hardly exaggerates the unbelief of his age. 
 Compare the famous passage in Bishop Butler's Adver- 
 tisement to the Analogy twenty years later (1736). e Ib 
 is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted, by 
 many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a 
 subject of inquiry ; but that it is now at length discovered 
 to be fictitious, 5 &e. Archbishop Wake and Bishop 
 Warburton spoke quite as strongly about the general 
 unfidelity ; while Voltaire wrote that there was only just 
 enough religion left in England to distinguish Tories who 
 had little from Whigs who had less. 
 
300 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Frame and Constitution of Things, to ruin 
 Trade, extinguish Arts and Sciences, with the 
 Professors of them; in short, to turn our 
 Courts, Exchanges, and Shops, into Desarts; 
 and would be full as absurd as the Proposal 
 of Horace where he advises the Romans, all 
 in a Body, to leave their City, and seek a 
 new Seat in some remote Part of the World, 
 by way of a Cure for the Corruption of their 
 Manners. 
 
 Therefore I think this Caution was in it 
 self altogether unnecessary (which I have 
 inserted only to prevent all Possibility of 
 Cavilling) since every candid Reader will easily 
 understand my Discourse to be intended only 
 in Defence of Nominal Christianity, the other 
 having been for some time wholly laid aside by 
 general Consent, as utterly inconsistent with 
 all our present Schemes of Wealth and Power. 
 
 But why we should therefore cast off the 
 Name and Title of Christians, although the 
 general Opinion and Resolution be so Violent 
 for it, I confess I cannot (with Submission) 
 apprehend the Consequence necessary. How- 
 ever, since the Undertakers propose such 
 Wonderful Advantages to the Nation by this 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 301 
 
 Proj ect, and advance many plausable Ob- 
 jections against the Systems of Christianity, 
 I shall briefly consider the Strength of both, 
 fairly allow them their greatest Weight, and 
 offer such Answers as I think most reasonable. 
 After which I will beg leave to shew what 
 Inconveniences may possibly happen by such 
 an Innovation, in the present Posture of our 
 Affairs. 
 
 First, One great Advantage proposed by 
 the abolishing of Christianity is, That it would 
 very much enlarge and establish Liberty of 
 Conscience, that great Bulwark of our Nation, 
 and of the Protestant Religion, which is still 
 too much limited by Priest-craft, notwithstand- 
 ing all the good Intentions of the Legislature, 
 as we have lately found by a Severe Instance. 
 For it is confidently reported, that two Young 
 Gentlemen of real Hopes, bright Wit, and 
 profound Judgment, who 1 upon a thorough 
 Examination of Causes and Effects, and by 
 the meer Force of natural Abilities, without 
 the least Tincture of Learning, having made 
 a Discovery, that there was no God, and 
 generously communicating their Thoughts for 
 the Good of the Publick; were some time 
 
 1 The Who is redundant. 
 
302 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 ago, by an unparallelled Severity, and upon I 
 know not what obsolete Law, broke for Blas- 
 phemy. And as it hath been wisely observed, 
 if Prosecution once begins, no Man alive knows 
 how far it may reach, or where it will end. 
 
 In answer to all which, with Deference to 
 wiser Judgments, I think this rather shews 
 the Necessity of a Nominal Religion among 
 us. Great Wits love to be free with the 
 highest Objects ; and if they cannot be allowed 
 a God to revile or renounce, they will speak 
 Evil of Dignities, abuse the Government, and 
 reflect upon the Ministry, which I am sure 
 few will deny to be of much more pernicious 
 Consequence, according to the Saying of 
 Tiberius, Deorum Offensa Diis curce. As to 
 the particular Fact related, I think it is not 
 fair to argue from one Instance, perhaps 
 another cannot be produced, yet (to the Com- 
 fort of all those who may be apprehensive 
 of Persecution) Blasphemy we know is freely 
 spoke a Million of Times in every Coffee-House 
 and Tavern, or where-ever else good Company 
 meet. It must be allowed indeed, that to 
 Break an English Free-born Officer only for 
 Blasphemy, was, to speak the gentlest of such 
 an Action, a very high strain of absolute 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 303 
 
 Power. Little can be said in Excuse for the 
 General ; Perhaps he was afraid it might give 
 Offence to the Allies, among whom, for ought 
 we know, it may be the Custom of the Country 
 to believe a God. But if he argued, as some 
 have done, upon a mistaken Principle, that an 
 Officer who is guilty of speaking blasphemy, 
 may some time or other proceed so far as to 
 raise a Mutiny, the Consequence is by no 
 means to be admitted; For, surely, the com- 
 mander of an English Army is like to be but 
 ill obeyed, whose Soldiers fear and reverence 
 him as little as they do a Deity. 
 
 It is further objected against the Gospel- 
 System, that it obliges Men to the Belief 
 of Things too difficult for free Thinkers, and 
 such as have shook off the Prejudices that 
 usually cling to a confined Education. To 
 which I answer, that Men should be cautious 
 how they raise Objections which reflect upon 
 the Wisdom of the Nation. Is not Every 
 Body freely allowed whatever he pleases, and 
 to publish his Belief to the World whenever 
 he thinks fit, especially if it serves to strengthen 
 the Party which is in the Right ? Would any 
 indifferent Foreigner, who should read the 
 Trumpery lately written by Asgill, Tindatt, 
 
304 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Toland, Cowwrd, 1 and Forty more, imagine the 
 Gospel to be our Rule of Faith, and to be 
 confirmed by Parliaments? Does any Man 
 either Believe, or say he believes, or desire to 
 have it thought that he says he Believes, one 
 Syllable of the Matter ? and is any Man worse 
 received upon that Score ? or does he find his 
 Want of Nominal Faith a Disadvantage to 
 him in the Pursuit of any Civil or Military 
 Employment ? What if there be an old dormant 
 Statute or two against him, are they not now 
 obsolete, to a degree, that Empson and Dudley 2, 
 themselves, if they were now alive, would 
 find it impossible to put them in Execution. 
 
 It is likewise urged, that there are, by Com- 
 putation, in this Kingdom, above Ten thousand 
 Parsons whose Revenues added to those of 
 my Lords and Bishops, would suffice to main- 
 tain at least Two hundred Young Gentle- 
 men of Wit and Pleasure, and Free-thinking 
 
 1 Tindall and Toland, the Deist writers, made a great 
 assault against revealed religion about the end of the 
 XVII. Century. Toland died in 1696, Tindall in 1730; 
 and before the middle of the Century Deism itself had 
 died out. Asgill, born 1738, was an eccentric writer, 
 much praised for his style by Coleridge, who wrote a 
 famous book to prove that Death was not obligatory on 
 Christians. Coward (d. 1725) was a physician, who 
 wrote heretical books about the immortality of the soul. 
 
 2 The extortionate agents of Henry VII. 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 305 
 
 Enemies to Priest-craft, narrow Principles, 
 Pedantry, and Prejudices, who might be an 
 Ornament to the Court and Town : And then, 
 again, so great a Number of able [bodied] 
 Divines might be a Recruit to our Fleet and 
 Armies. This indeed appears to be a Con- 
 sideration of some Weight : But then, on the 
 other side, several Things deserve to be con- 
 sidered likewise: As, First, Whether it may 
 not be thought necessary that in certain Tracts 
 of Country, like what we call Parishes, there 
 should be one Man at least, of Abilities, to 
 Read and Write. Then it seems a wrong 
 Computation, that the Revenues of the Church 
 throughout this Island would be large enough 
 to maintain Two hundred Young Gentlemen, 
 or even half that Number, after the present 
 refined way of Living, that is, to allow each 
 of them such a Rent, as in the modern Form 
 of Speech, would make them Easy. But still 
 there is in this Project a greater Mischief 
 behind; And we ought to beware of the 
 Woman's Folly, who killed the Hen that every 
 Morning laid her a Golden Egg. For, pray 
 what would become of the Race of Men in 
 the next Age, if we had nothing to trust to 
 besides the Scrophulous, consumptive Pro- 
 ductions, furnished by our Men of Wit and 
 
306 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Pleasure, when having squandered away their 
 Vigour, Health, and Estates, they are forced 
 by some disagreeable Marriage to piece up 
 their broken Fortunes, and entail Rottenness 
 and Politeness on their Posterity ? Now, here 
 are Ten Thousand Persons, reduced by the 
 wise Regulations of Henry the Eighth, to the 
 Necessity of a low Dyet, and moderate Exer- 
 cise, who are the only great Restorers of our 
 Breed, without which the Nation would in an 
 Age or two become but one great Hospital. 
 
 Another Advantage proposed by the 
 Abolishing of Christianity is the clear Gain 
 of one Day in Seven, which is now entirely 
 lost, and consequently the Kingdom one 
 Seventh less considerable in Trade, Business, 
 and Pleasure ; besides the Loss to the 
 Publick of so many Stately Structures, now 
 in the Hands of the Clergy, which might 
 be converted into Play-Houses, Exchanges, 
 Market - Houses, common Dormitories, and 
 other Publick Edifices. 
 
 I Hope I shall be forgiven a hard Word, 
 if I call this a perfect Cavil. I readily own, 
 there hath been an old Custom Time out of 
 Mind, for People to assemble in the Churches 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 307 
 
 every Sunday, and that Shops are still fre- 
 quently shut, in order as it is conceived, to 
 preserve the Memory of that Antient Practice ; 
 but how this can prove a Hinderance to Busi- 
 ness or Pleasure, is hard to imagine. What 
 if the Men of Pleasure are forced one Day in 
 the Week to Game at Home instead of the 
 Chocolate-House? Are not the Taverns and 
 Coffee-Houses open? Can there be a more 
 convenient Season for taking a Dose of 
 Physick? Are fewer Claps got upon Sun- 
 days than other Days ? Is not that the chief 
 Day for Traders to sum up the Accounts of 
 the Week, and for Lawyers to prepare their 
 Briefs? But I would fain know, how it can 
 be pretended that the Churches are misapplied. 
 Where are more Appointments and Rendez- 
 vouses of Gallantry? Where more care to 
 appear in the foremost Box with greater 
 Advantage of Dress? Where more Meetings 
 for Business? Where more Bargains driven 
 of all Sorts ? and, Where so many Con- 
 veniencies or Incitements to Sleep ? 
 
 There is one Advantage greater than any 
 of the fore-going, proposed by the Abolishing 
 of Christianity, That it will utterly extinguish 
 Parties among us, by removing those Factious 
 
308 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Distinctions of High and Low Church, of 
 Whig and Tory, Presbytericm and Church of 
 England, which are now so many mutual 
 Clogs upon Publick Proceedings, and are apt 
 to prefer the gratifying themselves or depress- 
 ing their Adversaries, before the most im- 
 portant Interest of the State. 
 
 I confess, if it were certain, That so great 
 an Advantage would redound to the Nation 
 by this Expedient, I would submit and be 
 silent : But will any Man say, That if the 
 Words, Whoring, Drinking, Cheating, Lying, 
 Stealing, were by Act of Parliament ejected 
 out of the English Tongue and Dictionaries, 
 we should all awake next Morning Chaste and 
 Temperate, Honest and Just, and Lovers of 
 Truth. Is this a fair Consequence? Or if 
 the Physician would forbid us to pronounce 
 the Words Pox, Gout, Rheumatism, and Stone, 
 would that Expedient serve, like so many 
 TaUsmans, to destroy the Diseases them- 
 selves? Are Party and Faction rooted in 
 Mens Hearts no deeper than Phrases borrowed 
 from Religion, or founded upon no firmer 
 Principles? And is our Language so poor, 
 that we cannot find other Terms to express 
 them ? Are Envy, Pride, Avarice, and 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 309 
 
 Ambition, such ill Nomenclators, that they 
 cannot furnish Appellations for their Owners? 
 Will not Heydukes and Mamalukes, Man- 
 darins and Patshaws, or any other Words, 
 formed at Pleasure, serve to distinguish those, 
 who are in the Ministry, from others who 
 would be in it if they could? What, for 
 instance, is easier than to vary the Form of 
 Speech, and instead of the word Church, 
 make it a question in Politicks, Whether the 
 Monument be in Danger? 1 Because Reli- 
 gion was nearest at hand to furnish a few 
 convenient Phrases, is our Invention so 
 barren, we can find no others ? Suppose for 
 Argument Sake, That the Tories favoured 
 Margarita, 2 the Whigs Mrs Tofts, and the 
 Trimmers Valentine; Would not Margari- 
 tians, Tqftians, and Valentinians, be very 
 tolerable Marks of Distinction? The Prasini 
 and Venetis, Two most Virulent Factions in 
 Italy, began (if I remember right) by a Dis- 
 tinction of Colours in Ribbons, which we 
 might do, with as good a Grace, about the 
 
 1 * The Church in Danger ' was a common political cry 
 in the earlier part of the XVIII. Century. It had 
 enormous power, as e.g. in the Sacheverell episode, 1710. 
 
 2 Francisca Margherita de TEpine, Mrs Tofts, and 
 the alto Valentino Urbini were three famous opera 
 singers of the day. 
 
310 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 Dignity of the Blve and the Green ; which 
 may serve as properly to divide the Court, 
 the Parliament, and the Kingdom between 
 them, as any Terms of Art whatsoever, 
 borrowed from Religion. And therefore I 
 think there is little Force in this Objection 
 against Christianity or Prospect of so great 
 an Advantage as is proposed in the abolishing 
 of it. 
 
 5 Tis again objected, as a very absurd, 
 ridiculous Custom, that a Set of Men should 
 be suffered, much less employed and hired, 
 to bawl one Day in Seven against the Law- 
 fulness of those Methods most in use towards 
 the Pursuit of Greatness, Riches, and Pleasure, 
 which are the constant Practice of all Men 
 alive on the other Six. But this Objection 
 is, I think, a little unworthy so refined an 
 Age as ours. Let us argue this Matter calmly : 
 I appeal to the Breast of any polite Free- 
 Thinker, whether in the Pursuit of gratifying 
 a predominant Passion, he hath not always 
 felt a wonderful Incitement, by reflecting it 
 was a Thing forbidden : And therefore we 
 see, in order to cultivate this Test, the 
 Wisdom of the Nation hath taken special 
 Care, that the Ladies should be furnished with 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 311 
 
 Prohibited Silks, and the Men with Pro- 
 hibited Wine : And indeed it were to be 
 wished, that some other Prohibitions were 
 promoted, in order to improve the Pleasures 
 of the Town, which for want of such Expedi- 
 ence begin already, as I am told, to flag and 
 grow languid, giving way daily to cruel Inroads 
 from the Spleen. 
 
 'Tis likewise proposed as a great Advantage 
 to the Publick, that if we once discard the 
 System of the Gospel, all Religion will of 
 Course be banished for ever, and consequently 
 along with it, those grievous Prejudices of 
 Education, which under the Names of Virtue, 
 Conscience, Honour, Justice, and the like, are 
 so apt to disturb the Peace of Human Minds, 
 and the Notions whereof are so hard to be 
 eradicated by right Reason or Free-Thinking, 
 sometimes during the whole Course of our 
 Lives. 
 
 Here first I observe how difficult it is to get 
 rid of a Phrase which the World is once grown 
 fond of, though the Occasion that first pro- 
 duced it, be entirely taken away. For some 
 Years past, if a Man had but an ill-favoured 
 Nose, the deep Thinkers of the Age would 
 
312 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 some way or other contrive to impute the 
 Cause to the Prejudice of his Education. 
 From this Fountain were said to be derived 
 all our foolish Notions of Justice, Piety, Love 
 of our Country, all our Opinions of God, or a 
 Future State, of Heaven, Hell, and the like. 
 And there might formerly perhaps have been 
 some Pretence for this Charge. But, so effec- 
 tual Care hath been since taken to remove 
 those Prejudices, by an entire Change in the 
 Methods of Education, (that with Honour I 
 mention it to our polite Innovators) the Young 
 Gentlemen, who are now on the Scene, seem 
 to have not the least Tincture left of those 
 Infusions, or String of those Needs, and by 
 consequence the Reason for Abolishing 
 Nominal Christianity, upon that Pretext, is 
 wholly ceased. 
 
 For the rest, it may perhaps admit a Con- 
 troversy, whether the Banishing all Notions of 
 Religion whatsoever, would be convenient for 
 the Vulgar. Not that I am in the least of 
 Opinion with those who hold Religion to have 
 been the Invention of Politicians, to keep the 
 lower Part of the World in Awe by the Fear 
 of Invisible Powers ; unless Mankind were 
 then very different from what it is now : For I 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 313 
 
 look upon the Mass or Body of our People 
 here in England, to be as Free-Thinkers, that is 
 to say, as stanch Unbelievers, as any of the 
 highest Rank. But I conceive some scattered 
 Notions about a Superiour Power, to be of 
 singular Use for the Common People, as furnish- 
 ing excellent Materials to keep Children quiet, 
 when they grow peevish, and providing Topicks 
 of Amusement in a tedious Winter Night. 
 
 Lastly, It is proposed as a singular Advan- 
 tage, that the Abolishing of Christianity will 
 very much contribute to the Uniting of Pro- 
 testants, by enlarging the Terms of Com- 
 munion so as to take in all Sorts of Dissenters, 
 who are now shut out of the Pale upon Account 
 of a few Ceremonies, which all Sides confess 
 to be Things indifferent : That this alone will 
 effectually answer the great Ends of a Scheme 
 for a Comprehension, by opening a large 
 noble Gate, at which all Bodies may enter; 
 whereas the Chaffering with Dissenters, and 
 dodging about this or the other Ceremony, is 
 but like opening a few Wickets, and leaving 
 them at jarr, by which no more than one 
 can get in at a Time, and that, not without 
 stooping, and sideling, and squeezing his 
 Body. 
 
 u 
 
3 14 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 To all this I answer. That there is one 
 darling Inclination of Mankind, which usually 
 affects to be a Retainer to Religion, though she 
 be neither its Parent, its God-mother, nor its 
 Friend ; I mean, the Spirit of Opposition, that 
 lived long before Christianity, and can easily 
 subsist without it. Let us, for instance, examine 
 wherein the Opposition of Sectaries among us 
 consist ; we shall find Christianity to have no 
 Share in it at all. Does the Gospel any where 
 prescribe a starched, squeezed Countenance, a 
 stiff formal Gate, a Singularity of Manners and 
 Habits, or any affected Forms and Modes of 
 Speech, different from the reasonable Part of 
 Mankind ? Yet, if Christianity did not lend 
 its Name, to stand in the Gap, and to employ or 
 divert these Humours, they must of Necessity 
 be spent in Contraventions to the Laws of the 
 Land, and Disturbance of the Publick Peace. 
 There is a Portion of Enthusiasm assigned to 
 every Nation, which if it hath not proper 
 Objects to work on, will burst out, and set all 
 into a Flame. If the Quiet of a State can be 
 bought by only flinging Men a few Ceremonies 
 to devour, it is a Purchase no wise man would 
 refuse. Let the Mastiffs amuse themselves 
 about a Sheeps-Skin stuffed with Hay, pro- 
 vided it will keep them from Worrying the 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 315 
 
 Flock. The Institution of Convents abroad, 
 seems in one Point a Strain of great Wisdom, 
 there being few Irregularities in humane Pas- 
 sions, which may not have recourse to vent 
 themselves in some of those Orders, which are 
 so many Retreats for the Speculative, the 
 Melancholy, the Proud, the Silent, the Politick, 
 and the Morose, to spend themselves, and 
 evaporate the Noxious Particles; for each of 
 whom we in this Island are forced to provide 
 a several Sect of Religion, to keep them quiet ; 
 and whenever Christianity shall be abolished, 
 the Legislature must find some other Expedient 
 to employ and entertain them. For what 
 imports it how large a Gate you open, if 
 there will be always left a Number, who 
 place a Pride and a Merit in not coming 
 in? 
 
 Having thus considered the most important 
 Objections against Christianity, and the chief 
 Advantages proposed by the Abolishing 
 thereof; I shall now with equal Deference and 
 Submission to wiser Judgments, as before, 
 proceed to mention a few Inconveniencies that 
 may happen, if the Gospel should be repealed ; 
 which perhaps the Projectors may not have 
 sufficiently considered. 
 
3i6 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 And first, I am very sensible how much the 
 gentlemen of Wit and Pleasure are apt to 
 murmur, and be choqued at the sight of so 
 many daggle-tailed Parsons, that happen to fall 
 in their Way, and offend their Eyes ; but at the 
 same time these wise Reformers do not consider, 
 what an Advantage and Felicity it is, for great 
 Wits to be always provided with Objects of 
 Scorn and Contempt, in order to exercise and 
 improve their Talents, and divert their Spleen 
 from falling on each other or on themselves, 
 especially when all this may be done without 
 the least imaginable Danger to their Persons. 
 
 And to urge another Argument of a parallel 
 Nature. If Christianity were once abolished, 
 how could the Free-Thinkers, the Strong 
 Reasoners, and the men of profound Learning, 
 be able to find another Subject so calculated in 
 all Points, whereon to display their Abilities ? 
 What wonderful Productions of Wit should we 
 be deprived of, from those whose Genius, by 
 continual Practice, hath been wholly turned 
 upon Raillery and Invectives against Religion, 
 and would therefore never be able to shine or 
 distinguish themselves upon any other Subject ? 
 We are daily complaining of the great Decline 
 of Wit among us, and would we take away the 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 317 
 
 greatest, perhaps the only Topick we have left ? 
 Who would ever have suspected Asgill for a 
 Wit, or Toland for a Philosopher, if the inex- 
 haustible Stock of Christianity had not been at 
 hand to provide them with Materials ? What 
 other Subject through all Art or Nature could 
 have produced Tindall for a profound Author, 
 or furnished him with Readers ? It is the 
 Wise Choice of the Subject that alone adorns 
 and distinguishes the Writer. For had a 
 Hundred such Pens as these been employed on 
 the side of Religion, they would have immedi- 
 ately sunk into Silence and Oblivion. 
 
 Nor do I think it wholly groundless, or my 
 Fears altogether imaginary, that the Abolishing 
 of Christianity may perhaps bring the Church 
 in Danger, or at least put the Senate to the 
 Trouble of another Securing Vote. I desire I 
 may not be mistaken ; I am far from presuming 
 to affirm, or to think, that the Church is in 
 Danger at present, or as Things now stand ; 
 but we know not how soon it may be so, when 
 the Christian Religion is repealed. As plausible 
 as this Project seems, there may be a danger- 
 ous Design lurk under it ; Nothing can be 
 more notorious than that the Atheists, Deists , 
 Socinians, Anti-Trinitarians, and other Sub- 
 
318 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 divisions of Free-Thinkers, are Persons of little 
 Zeal for the present Ecclesiastical Establish- 
 ment : Their declared Opinion is for repealidjk 
 the Sacramental Test ; they are very indifferent 
 with regard to Ceremonies ; nor do they hold 
 the Jus Divinum of Episcopacy. Therefore 
 they may be intended as one Politick Step 
 towards altering the Constitution of the 
 Church Established, and setting up Presbytery 
 in the stead, which I leave to be further con- 
 sidered by those at the Helm. 
 
 In the last Place, I think nothing can be 
 more plain than, that by this Expedient, we 
 shall run into the Evil we chiefly pretend to 
 avoid ; and that the Abolishment of the 
 Christian Keligion, will be the readiest Course 
 we can take to introduce Popery. And I am 
 the more inclined to this Opinion, because we 
 know it has been the constant Practice of the 
 Jesuits to send over Emissaries, with Instruc- 
 tions to personate themselves Members of the 
 several prevailing Sects amongst us. So it is 
 recorded, that they have at sundry Times 
 appeared in the Guise of Presbyterians, Ana- 
 baptists, Independents and Quakers, according 
 as any of these were most in Credit ; so, since 
 the Fashion hath been taken up of exploding 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 319 
 
 Religion, the Popish Missionaries have not 
 been wanting to mix with the Free-Thinkers ; 
 among whom, Tolcmd, the great Oracle of the 
 Anti-Christians, is an Irish Priest, the Son of 
 an Irish Priest; and the most learned and 
 ingenious Author of a Book called the Bights 
 of the Christian Chwrch, was in a proper 
 Juncture reconciled to the Romish Faith, whose 
 true Son, as appears by a hundred Passages 
 in his Treatise, he still continues. Perhaps I 
 could add some others to the Number; but 
 the Fact is beyond Dispute and the Reasoning 
 they proceed by is right : For supposing Chris- 
 tianity to be extinguished, the People will never 
 be at Ease till they find out some other Method 
 of Worship ; which will as infallibly produce 
 Superstition, as this will end in Popery. 
 
 And therefore, if notwithstanding all I have 
 said, it still be thought necessary to have a Bill 
 brought in for repealing Christianity ; I would 
 humbly offer an Amendment; that instead of 
 the Word, Christianity, may be put Religion in 
 general, which I conceive will much better 
 answer all the good Ends proposed by the 
 Projectors of it. For, as long as we leave in 
 being, a God and his Providence, with all the 
 necessary Consequences which curious and 
 
320 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 inquisitive Men will be apt to draw from such 
 Premisses, we do not strike at the Root of the 
 Evil, though we should ever so effectually 
 annihilate the present Scheme of the Gospel. 
 For, of what use is Freedom of Thought, if it 
 will not produce Freedom of Action, which is 
 the sole End, how remote soever in Appear- 
 ance, of all Objections against Christianity? 
 And therefore, the Free-Thinkers consider it as 
 a sort of Edifice, wherein all the Parts have 
 such a mutual Dependence on each other, that 
 if you happen to pull out one single nail, the 
 whole Fabrick must falP to the Ground. This 
 was happily exprest by him who had heard of 
 a Text brought for proof of the Trinity, which 
 in an antient Manuscript was differently read ; 
 He thereupon immediately took the Hint, and 
 by a sudden Deduction of a long Sories, 1 most 
 Logically concluded ; Why, if it be as you say, 
 I may safely Whore and Drink on, and defy 
 the Parson. From which, and many the like 
 Instances easy to be produced, I think nothing 
 can be more manifest, than that the Quarrel is 
 not against any particular Points of hard 
 digestion in the Christian System, but against 
 Religion in general, which by laying Re- 
 straints on human Nature, is supposed the 
 1 Sorites . 
 
JONATHAN SWIFT 321 
 
 great Enemy to the Freedom of Thought and 
 Action. 
 
 Upon the whole, if it shall still be thought 
 for the Benefit of Church and State, that 
 Christianity be abolished ; I conceive however, 
 it may be more convenient to defer Execution 
 to a time of Peace, and not Venture in this 
 Conjuncture to disoblige our Allies, who as 
 it fall out, are all Christians, and many of 
 them by the Prejudices of their Education so 
 bigotted, as to place a sort of Pride in the 
 Appellation. If upon being rejected by them, 
 we are to trust to an Alliance with the Twrk, 
 we shall find our selves much deceived: For, 
 as he is too remote, and generally engaged 
 in War with the Persian Emperor, so his 
 People would be more Scandalized at our 
 Infidelity, than our Christian Neighbours. 
 For they are not only strict Observers of 
 Religious Worship; but what is worse, 
 believe a God, which is more than is required 
 of us even while we preserve the Name of 
 Christians. 
 
 To conclude, Whatever some may think 
 of the great Advantages to Trade by this 
 favourite Scheme, I do very much apprehend, 
 
322 JONATHAN SWIFT 
 
 that in Six Months time after the Act is 
 past for the Extirpation of the Gospel the 
 Bank, and East-India Stock, may fall at 
 least One per Cent. And since that is Fifty 
 times more than ever the Wisdom of our Age 
 thought fit to venture for the Preservation 
 of Christianity, there is no Reason we should 
 be at so great a Loss meerly for the sake 
 of destroying it. 
 
XVI 
 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 [The author of the Serious Call lived from 1686- 
 1761, and the Letters to the Bishop of Bangor were 
 the first works he published. They were called 
 forth by the famous controversy on the opinions of 
 Benjamin Hoadly, Bishop of Bangor, which is 
 known as the Bangorian Controversy. Hoadly 
 had given expression, in a sermon preached before 
 the King, March 31, 1717, to extreme Latitudinarian 
 opinions, and the fury of churchmen descended at 
 once upon him. In the dispute which followed 
 there was a prodigious number of pamphlets, nearly 
 200 in all, written by 53 different writers. The 
 result of the controversy was most unfortunate for 
 the Church ; for the Court, siding with the Bishop, 
 had recource to a characteristic act of Whig 
 tyranny, and suppressed Convocation, destroying 
 for a century and a half the representative voice 
 of the Church. 
 
 Law's Letters to Hoadly are by far the most 
 brilliant and lasting product of the dispute ; they 
 constitute also, says Canon Gore, an ad hominem 
 argument of a Socratic kind which deserves study 
 for its own sake. The cross-examination of the 
 Bishop, he continues, 'is beyond question, a 
 brilliant specimen of vigorous and racy rhetoric, 
 put at the disposal of a clear-headed logic and a 
 keen sense of the bearing of principles in all direc- 
 tions — it is such a specimen of rhetoric put at the 
 service of close thought and intense feeling as a 
 man may enjoy simply as an example of legitimate 
 controversy, simply as an example of the play of 
 
 323 
 
324 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 mind, of the sort of intellectual cross-examination 
 of which popular teachers of all sorts stand in such 
 constant need/ Kedoubtable controversialist as 
 Hoadly was, he never ventured to reply to Law, 
 and we find Sherlock ironically congratulating the 
 Bishop that he has had * discretion enough to let 
 some things go unanswered, and particularly Mr 
 Law's two letters, a writer so considerable that 
 I know but one good reason why he does not 
 answer him.* Hoadly made himself very accept- 
 able to the Court by his opinions, and did much 
 political writing for his Whig patrons ; he was re- 
 warded by four bishoprics in succession — Bangor, 
 Hereford, Salisbury, and Winchester. Bangor, 
 which gives its name to the controversy, he never 
 once visited, but retained during his episcopate his 
 two livings in London. 
 
 Law led a quiet uneventful life, being a tutor to 
 Gibbon, grandfather of the historian, for some time ; 
 his last twenty years were spent at Thrapston 
 with Mrs Hutcheson and Miss Gibbon, in devotion, 
 study, almsgiving, and seclusion.] 
 
 From 
 
 <A SECOND LETTER TO THE BISHOP 
 
 OF BANGOR/ 
 
 By William Law, M.A., London, 1717. 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 A Just Concern for Truth, and the First 
 Principles of the Christian Religion, was the 
 only Motive that engag'd me in the Examina- 
 tion of your Lordship's Doctrines in a Former 
 Letter to your Lordship. And the same 
 
WILLIAM LAW 325 
 
 Motive, I hope, will be thought a sufficient 
 Apology for my presuming to give your 
 Lordship the Trouble of a Second Letter. 
 
 Amongst the Vain Contemptible Things, 
 whereof your Lordship would create an Ab- 
 horrence in the Layity, are, the Trifles and 
 Niceties of Authoritative Benedictions, Absolu- 
 tions, Excommunications?- Again, you say, 
 that to expect the Grace of God from any 
 
 Hands, but his own, is to affront him . 2 
 
 And that all depends upon God and ourselves ; 
 That Human Benedictions, Human Absolu- 
 tions, Human Excommunications, have nothing 
 to do with the Favour of God? 
 
 It is evident from these Maxims (for your 
 Lordship asserts them as such) that whatever 
 Institutions are observed in any Christian 
 Society upon this Supposition, that thereby 
 Grace is conferr'd thro' Human Hands, or by 
 the Ministry of the Clergy, such Institutions 
 ought to be condemned, and are condemned by 
 your Lordship, as trifling, useless, and affront- 
 ing to God. 
 
 There is an Institution, my Lord, in the yet 
 Establish'd Church of England, which we call 
 
 1 Preservative, p. 98. 2 P. 89. 3 P. 101. 
 
326 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 Confirmation : It is founded upon the express 
 Words of Scripture, Primitive Observance and 
 the Universal Practice of all succeeding Ages 
 in the Church. The Design of this Institution 
 is, that it should be a Means of conferring 
 Grace, by the Prayer and Imposition of the 
 Bishops Hands on those who have been already 
 Baptized. But yet against all this Authority, 
 both Divine and Human, and the express 
 Order of our own Church, your Lordship 
 teaches the Layity, that all Human Bene- 
 dictions are useless niceties ; and that to expect 
 God's Grace from any Hands but his own, is 
 to affront him. 
 
 If so, my Lord, what shall we say in Defence 
 of the Apostles ? We read (Acts viii. 14) that 
 when Philip the Deacon had baptiz'd the 
 Samaritans, the Apostles sent Peter and John, 
 to them, who having pray'd, and laid their 
 Hands on them, they received the Holy Ghost, 
 who before was fallen upon none of them; only 
 they were baptized in the Name of the Lord 
 
 My Lord, several things are here out of 
 Question ; First, That something else, even in 
 the Apostolical Times, was necessary, besides 
 Baptism, in order to qualifie Persons to become 
 
WILLIAM LAW 327 
 
 compleat Members of the Body, or Partakers 
 of the Grace of Christ. They had been bap- 
 tized, yet did not receive the Holy Ghost, till the 
 Apostles Hands were laid upon them. 2ndly, 
 That God's Graces are not only conferred by 
 means oiHumcm Hands; but of some particular 
 Hands, and not others. 3dly, That this Office 
 was so strictly appropriated to the Apostles, or 
 Chief Governours of the Church, that it could 
 not be perform'd by Inspir'd Men, tho' empower'd 
 to work Miracles, who were of an inferiour 
 Order ; as Philip the Deacon. 4thly, That the 
 Power of the Apostles for the Performance 
 of this Ordinance, was intirely owing to their 
 superiour Degree in the Ministry; and not to 
 any extraordinary Gifts they were endow'd 
 with: For then Philip might have perform'd 
 it ; who was not wanting in those Gifts, being 
 himself an Evangelist, and Worker of Miracles : 
 Which is a Demonstration, that his In- 
 capacity arose from his inferiour Degree in the 
 Ministry. 
 
 And now, my Lord, are all Human Bene- 
 dictions Niceties and Trifles ? Are the means 
 of God's Grace in his own Hands alone ? Is 
 it wicked, and affronting to God, to suppose 
 the contrary? How then comes Peter and 
 
328 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 John to confer the Holy Ghost by the Imposi- 
 tion of their Hands ? How comes it, that they 
 appropriate this office to themselves? Is the 
 Dispensation of God's Grace in his own Hands 
 alone ? And yet can it be dispensed to us by 
 the Ministry of some Persons, and not by that 
 of others ? 
 
 Were the Apostles so wicked, as to dis- 
 tinguish themselves by a Pretence to vain 
 Powers, which God had reserv'd to himself? 
 And which your Lordship supposes from the 
 Title of your Preservative, that it is incon- 
 sistent with Common Sense, to imagine that 
 God would, or could have communicated to 
 Men. 
 
 Had any of your Lordship's well-instructed 
 Layity liv'd in the Apostles Days, with what 
 Indignation must they have rejected this sens- 
 less Chimerical Claim of the Apostles ? They 
 must have said, Why do you, Peter or John, 
 pretend to this Blasphemous Power? Whilst 
 we believe the Gospel, we cannot expect the 
 Grace of God from any Hands but his own. 
 You give us the Holy Ghost? You confer 
 the Grace of God ! Is it not impious to think, 
 that He should make our Improvement in Grace 
 
WILLIAM LAW 329 
 
 depend upon your Ministry ; or hang our Sal- 
 vation upon any particular Order of Clergy- 
 men ? We know, that God is Just, and Good, 
 and True, and that all depends upon Him and 
 ourselves ; and that Human Benedictions are 
 trifles. Therefore whether you Peter, or you 
 Philip, or both, or neither of you lay your 
 Hands upon us, we are neither better nor 
 worse; but just in the same State of Grace 
 as we were before. 
 
 This Representation, has not one Syllable 
 in it, but what is founded in your Lordship's 
 Doctrine, and perfectly agreeable to it. 
 
 The late most Pious and Learned Bishop 
 Beveridge has these remarkable Words upon 
 Confirmation : ' How any Bishops in our Age 
 dare neglect so considerable a Part of their 
 Office, I know not ; but fear, they will have no 
 good Account to give of it, when they come to 
 stand before God's Tribunal.' x 
 
 But we may justly, and therefore I hope, 
 with Decency, ask your Lordship, how you dare 
 perform this Part of your Office? For you 
 
 1 First Volume of Sermons * On the True Nature of the 
 Christian Church.' Serm. I. 
 
330 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 have condemn'd it as Trifling and Wicked ; as 
 Trifling, because it is an Human Benediction ; 
 as Wicked, because it supposes Grace conferr'd 
 by the Hands of the Bishop. If therefore any 
 baptiz'd Persons should come to your Lordship 
 for Confirmation, if you are sincere in what you 
 have deliver'd, your Lordship ought, I humbly 
 conceive, to make them this Declaration : 
 
 ' My Friends, for the sake of Decency and 
 Order, I have taken upon me the Episcopal 
 Character; and, according to Custom, which 
 has long prevailed against Common Sence, am 
 now to lay my Hands upon you : But, I beseech 
 you, as you have any Regard to the Truth of 
 the Gospel, or to the Honour of God, not to 
 imagine, there is any thing in this Action, more 
 than an useless empty Ceremony : For if you 
 expect to have any Spiritual Advantage from 
 Human Benedictions, or to receive Grace from 
 the Imposition of a Bishop's Hands, you affront 
 God, and in effect, renounce Christianity.' 
 
 Pray, my Lord, consider that Passage in 
 the Scripture, where the Apostle speaks of 
 Leading the Principles of the Doctrine of 
 Christ, and going on unto Perfection ; not lay- 
 ing again the Foundation of Repentamce from 
 
WILLIAM LAW 331 
 
 dead Works, of Faith towards God, of the 
 Doctrine of Baptisms, and of Laying on of 
 Hands, and of the Resurrection of the Dead, 
 and of eternal Judgment, (Heb. vi. 12). 
 
 My Lord, here it is undeniably plain; that 
 this Laying on of Hands (which is with us 
 called Confirmation) is so fundamental a Part 
 of Christ's Religion, that it is called one of the 
 First Principles of the Doctrine of Christ ; and 
 is placed amongst us such primary Truths, as 
 the Resurrection of the Dead, and of Eternal 
 Judgment. 
 
 St Cyprian speaking of this Apostolical 
 Imposition of Hands, says, The same is now 
 praetis'd with us ; they who hare been baptiz'd 
 in the Church, a/re brought to the Presidents of 
 the Church, that by our Prayer and Imposition 
 of Ha/nds, they may receive the Holy Chost, and 
 be consummated with the Lord's Seal. 
 
 And must we yet believe, that all Human 
 Benedictions are Dreams, and the Imposition 
 of Human Hands trifling and useless ; and that 
 to expect God's Graces from them, is to affront 
 him ? Tho' the Scriptures expressly teach us, 
 that God confers his Grace by means of certain 
 
332 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 particular Human Hands, and not of others ; 
 tho' they tell us, this Human Benediction, this 
 Laying on of Hands, is one of the first Prin- 
 ciples of the Religion of Christ, and as much a 
 Foundation Doctrine as the Resurrection of the 
 Dead, and Eternal Judgment; and tho' every 
 Age since that of the Apostles, has strictly 
 observ'd it as such, and the Authority of our 
 own Church still requires the Observance of it ? 
 
 I come now, my Lord, to another Sacred and 
 Divine Institution of Christ's Church, which 
 stands expos'd and condemn'd by your Lord- 
 ship's Doctrine ; and that is, the Ordination of 
 the Christian Clergy ; where, by means of an 
 Human Benediction, and the Imposition of the 
 Bishop's Hands, the Holy Ghost is supposed to 
 be conferr'd on Persons towards consecrating 
 them for the Work of the Ministry. 
 
 We find it constantly taught by the Scrip- 
 tures, that all Ecclesiastical Authority, and the 
 Graces whereby the Clergy are qualified and 
 enabl'd to exercise their Functions to the 
 Benefit of the Church, are the Gifts and Graces 
 of the Holy Spirit. Thus the Apostle exhorts 
 the Elders to take heed unto the Flock, over 
 which the Holy Ghost hath made them Over- 
 
WILLIAM LAW 333 
 
 seers, (Eph. iv. 7). But how, my Lord, had the 
 Holy Ghost made them Overseers, but by the 
 Laying on of the Apostles Hands ? They were 
 not immediately call'd by the Holy Ghost ; but 
 being consecrated by such Human Hands as 
 had been authorized to that purpose, they were 
 as truly call'd by him, and sanctified with Grace 
 for that Employment, as if they had receiv'd 
 an immediate or miraculous Commission. So 
 again, St Paul puts Timothy in mind, to stir 
 up the Gift of God that was in him, by laying 
 on of his Hands, (2 Tim. ii. 6). 
 
 And now, my Lord, if Human Benedictions 
 be such idle Dreams and Trifles; if it be 
 affronting to God, to expect his Graces from 
 them, or through Human Hands; do we not 
 plainly want new Scriptures ? Must we not 
 give up the Apostles as Furious High-Church 
 Prelates, who aspir'd to presumptuous Claims, 
 and talk'd of conferring the Graces of God 
 by their own Hands ? Was not this Doctrine 
 as strange and unaccountable then, as at pre- 
 sent? Was it not as inconsistent with the 
 Attributes and Sovereignty of God at that 
 time, to have his Graces pass through other 
 Hands than his own, as in any succeeding 
 Age ? Nay, my Lord, where shall we find 
 
334 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 any Fathers or Councils, in the Primitive 
 Church, but who own'd and asserted these 
 Powers? They that were so ready to part 
 with their Lives, rather than do the least 
 Dishonour to God, or the Christian Name, 
 yet were all guilty of this horrid Blasphemy, 
 in imagining that they were to bless in God's 
 Name; and that by the Benediction and 
 Laying on of the Bishops Hands, the Graces 
 of the Holy Ghost could be conferred on any 
 Persons. 
 
 Agreeable to the Sence of Scripture and 
 Antiquity, our Church uses this Form of 
 Ordination : The Bishop laying his Hands 
 on the Persons Head, saith, Receive the 
 Holy Ghost, for the Office and Work of a 
 Priest in the Church of God, committed unto 
 thee, by the Imposition of our Hands. From 
 this Form, it is plain, First, that our Church 
 holds, that the Reception of the Holy Ghost 
 is necessary to constitute a Person a Christian 
 Priest. 2<%, That the Holy Ghost is con- 
 fer'd through Human Hamds. 3dly, That it 
 is by the Hands of a Bishop that the Holy 
 Ghost is confer'd. 
 
 If therefore your Lordship is right in your 
 
WILLIAM LAW 335 
 
 Doctrine, the Church of Englcmd is evidently 
 most corrupt. For if it be dishonourable and 
 affronting to God, to expect his Grace from 
 any Human Hands ; it must of necessity be 
 dishonourable and affronting to him, for a 
 Bishop to pretend to confer it by his Hands. 
 And can that Church be any ways defended, 
 that has established such an Iniquity by Law, 
 and made the Form of it so necessary ? How 
 can your Lordship answer it to your Layity, 
 for taking the Character or Power of a Bishop 
 from such a Form of Words ? You tell them, 
 it is affronting to God, to expect his Grace from 
 Human Hands; yet to qualifie your self for 
 a Bishoprick, you let Human Hands be laid 
 on you, after a manner which directly supposes 
 you thereby receive the Holy Ghost! It is 
 wicked in them to expect it from Human 
 Hands? And is it less so in your Lordship, 
 to pretend to receive it from Human Hands ? 
 He that believes, it is affronting to God, to 
 expect his Grace from Human Hands, must 
 likewise believe, that our Form of Ordination, 
 which promises the Holy Ghost by the Bishop's 
 Hands, must be also affronting to God. Cer- 
 tainly, he cannot be said to be very jealous of 
 the Honour of God, who will submit himself 
 to be made a Bishop by a Form of Words 
 
336 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 derogatory, upon his own Principles, to God's 
 Honour. 
 
 Suppose your Lordship was to have been 
 consecrated to the Office of a Bishop by these 
 Words ; Take thou Power to sustain all 
 things in Being given thee by my Hands. 
 I suppose, your Lordship would think it in- 
 tirely Unlawful to submit to the Form of 
 such an Ordination. But, my Lord, receive 
 thou the Holy Ghost, &c, is as impious a 
 Form, according to your Lordship's Doctrine, 
 and equally injurious to the Eternal Power 
 and Godhead, as the other. For if the Grace 
 of God can only be had from his own Hands, 
 would it not be as innocent in the Bishop 
 to say, Receive thou Power to sustain a 11 
 things in Being, as to say, Receive the Holy 
 Ghost, by the Imposition of my Hands? 
 And would not a Compliance with either 
 Form be equally unlawful ? According to 
 your Doctrine, in each of them God's Prero- 
 gative is equally invaded ; and therefore the 
 Guilt must be the same. 
 
 It may also well be wonder'd, how your 
 Lordship can accept of a Character, which is, 
 or ought to be chiefly distinguish'd by the 
 
WILLIAM LAW 337 
 
 Exercise of that Power which you disclaim, 
 as in the Offices of Confirmation and Or- 
 dination. For, my Lord, where can be the 
 Sincerity of saying. Receive the Holy Ghost 
 by the Imposition of our Hands, when you 
 declare it affronting to God, to expect it from 
 any Hands but his own? Suppose your 
 Lordship had been preaching to the Layity 
 against owning any Authority in the Virgin 
 Mary; and yet should acquiesce in the Con- 
 ditions of being made a Bishop in her Name, 
 and by recognizing her Power: Could such 
 a Submission be consistent with Sincerity? 
 Here you forbid the Layity to expect God's 
 Grace from any Hands but his; yet not only 
 accept of an Office, upon Supposition of the 
 contrary Doctrine ; but oblige your self, accord- 
 ing to the Sence of the Church wherein you 
 are ordain'd a Bishop, to act frequently in 
 direct Opposition to your own Principles. 
 
 So that, I think, it is undeniably plain, that 
 you have at once, my Lord, by these Doctrines 
 condemn'd the Scriptures, the Apostles, their 
 martyr'd Successors, the Church of England 
 and your own Conduct ; and have herby given 
 us some reason (tho 5 I wish, there were no 
 Occasion to mention it) to suspect, whether 
 
338 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 you, who allow of no other Church, but what 
 is founded in Sincerity, are your self, really 
 a Member of any Church. 
 
 I shall now proceed to say something upon 
 the Consecration of the Lord's Supper ; which 
 is as much expos'd as a Trifle, by your Lord- 
 ship's Doctrine, as the other Institutions. St 
 Paul says, The Cup of Blessing which we 
 bless, is it not the Communion of the Blood of 
 Christ ? My Lord, is not this Cup still to be 
 bless'd? Must there not therefore be such a 
 thing as an Human Benediction? And are 
 Human Benedictions to be all despis'd, though 
 by them the Bread and Wine become Means 
 of Grace, and are made the Spiritual Nourish- 
 ment of our Souls ? Can any one bless this 
 Cup ? If not, then there is a Difference 
 between Human Benedictions : Some are 
 authorized by God, and their Blessing is 
 effectual ; whilst others, only are vain and pre- 
 sumptuous. If the Prayer over the Elements, 
 and the Consecration, be only a Trifle and a 
 Dream ; and it be offensive to God, to expect 
 they are converted into Means of Grace by an 
 Human Benediction; why then did St Paul 
 pretend to bless them ? Why did he make it 
 the Privilege of the Church ? Or, why do wo 
 
WILLIAM LAW 339 
 
 keep up the same Solemnity? But if it be 
 to be bless'd only by God's Ministers, then 
 how can your Lordship answer it to God, for 
 ridiculing and abusing Human Benedictions ; 
 and telling the World, that a particular Order 
 of the Clergy are not of any necessity, nor can 
 be of any Advantage to them. For if the 
 Sacrament can only be bless'd by God's 
 Ministers ; then such Ministers are as necessary, 
 as the Sacraments themselves. 
 
 St Paul says, the Cup must be bless'd : If 
 you say, any one may bless it, then, though 
 you contemn the Benedictions of the Clergy, 
 you allow of them by every body else : If 
 every body cannot bless it; then, you must 
 confess, that the Benedictions of some Persons 
 are effectual, where others are not. 
 
 My Lord, the great Sin against the Holy 
 Ghost, was the Denial of his Operation in 
 the Ministry of our Saviour. And how near 
 does your Lordship come to it, in denying the 
 Operation of that same Spirit, in the Ministers 
 whom Christ hath sent? They are employed 
 in the same Work that he was. He left his 
 Authority with them ; and promis'd, that 
 the Holy Spirit should remain with them 
 
340 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 to the End of the World; that whatsoever 
 they should bind on Earth, should be bound 
 in Heaven ; and whatsoever they should 
 loose on Earth, should be loosed in Heaven; 
 that whatsoever despises them, despises Him, 
 and Him that sent him. And yet your 
 Lordship tells us, we need not to trouble our 
 Heads about any particular Sort of Clergy; 
 that all is to be transacted betwixt God and 
 our selves; that Human Benedictions are in- 
 significant Trifles. 
 
 But pray, what Proof has your Lordship for 
 all this ? Have you any Scripture for it ? Has 
 God any where declar'd, that no Men on Earth 
 have any Authority to bless in his Name? 
 Has he any where said, that it is a wicked, 
 presumptuous Thing for any one to pretend to 
 it? Has he any where told us, that it is 
 inconsistent with his Honour, to bestow his 
 Graces by Human Hands ? Has he any where 
 told us, that he has no Ministers, no Em- 
 bassadors on Earth ; but that all his Gifts 
 and Graces are to be receiv'd immediately from 
 his own Hands ? Have you any Antiquity, 
 Fathers or Councils on your side ? No : The 
 whole Tenour of Scripture, the whole Current 
 of Tradition is against you. Your Novel 
 
WILLIAM LAW 341 
 
 Doctrine has only this, to recommend it to 
 the Libertines of the Age, who universally give 
 unto it, that it never was the Opinion of any 
 Church, or Church-man. It is your Lordship's 
 proper Assertion, That we offend God in expect- 
 ing his Graces from any Hands but his own. 
 
 Now it's strange, that God should be offended 
 with his own Methods ; or that your Lordship 
 should find us out a Way of pleasing him, 
 more suitable to his Nature and Attributes, 
 than what he has taught us in the Scriptures. 
 I call them his own Methods : For what else 
 is the whole Jewish Dispensation, but a 
 Method of God's Providence; where his 
 Blessings and Judgments were dispens'd by 
 Human Hands ? What is the Christian Re- 
 ligion but a Method of Salvation, where the 
 chief Means of Grace are offer'd and dispens'd 
 
 by Human Hands ? 
 
 ***** 
 
 From the Places of Scripture above men- 
 tioned, it is evident; and indeed, from the 
 whole Tenour of Sacred Writ, that it may 
 consist with the Goodness and Justice of God, 
 to depute Men to act in his Name, and be 
 ministerial towards the Salvation of others; 
 and to lay a Necessity upon his Creatures of 
 
342 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 qualifying themselves for his Favour, and re- 
 ceiving his Graces by the Hands and Interven- 
 tion of mere Men. 
 
 But, my Lord, if there be now any Set of 
 Men upon Earth, that are more peculiarly 
 God's Ministers, than Others ; and thro' whose 
 Administrations, Prayers, and Benedictions, 
 God will accept of returning Sinners, and 
 receive them to Grace ; you have done all you 
 can, to prejudice People against them : You 
 have taught the Layity, that all is to be 
 transacted between God and themselves; and 
 that they need not value any particular sort of 
 Clergy in the World. 
 
 I leave it to the Great Judge and Searcher 
 of Hearts, to judge, from what Principles, or 
 upon what Motives, your Lordship has been 
 induc'd to teach these things : But must de- 
 clare, that for my own part, if I had the 
 greatest Hatred to Christianity, I should think, 
 it could not be more express'd, than by teaching 
 what your Lordship has publickly taught. If 
 I could rejoice in the Misery and Ruin of 
 Sinners, I should think it sufficient Matter of 
 Triumph, to drive them from the Ministers of 
 God, and to put them upon inventing new 
 
WILLIAM LAW 343 
 
 Schemes of saving themselves, instead of sub- 
 mitting to the ordinary Methods of Salvation 
 appointed by God. 
 
 It will not follow from any thing I have 
 said, that the Layity have lost their Christian 
 Liberty ; or that no body can be sav'd, but 
 whom the Clergy please to save; that they 
 have the arbitrary Disposal of Happiness to 
 Mankind. Was Abimeleck's Happiness in the 
 Disposition of Abraham, because he was to be 
 received by means of Abraham's Intercession ? 
 Or could Job damn Eliphaz, because he was to 
 mediate for him, and procure his Reconciliation 
 to God? 
 
 Neither, my Lord, do the Christian Clergy 
 pretend to this despotick Empire over their 
 Flocks : They don't assume to themselves a 
 Power to damn the Innocent, or to save the 
 Guilty : But they assert a sober and just Right 
 to reconcile Men to God; and to act in his 
 Name, in restoring them to his Favour. They 
 received their Commission from those whom 
 Christ sent with full Authority to send others, 
 and with a Promise that he would be with 
 them to the End of the World. From this, they 
 conclude, that they have his Authority; and 
 
344 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 that in consequence of it, their Administrations 
 are necessary, and effectual to the Salvation of 
 Mankind ; and that none can despise Them, but 
 who despise Him that sent them ; and are as 
 surely out of the Covenant of Grace, when they 
 leave such his Pastors, as when they openly 
 despise, or omit to receive his Sacraments. 
 
 And what is there in this Doctrine, my Lord, 
 to terrifie the Consciences of the Layity ? What 
 is there here, to bring the prophane Scandal of 
 Priestcraft upon the Clergy ? Could it be any 
 ground of AbimelecJcs hating Abraham, because 
 that Abraham was to reconcile him to God? 
 Could Eliphaz justly have any Prejudice 
 against Job, because God would hear Job's 
 Intercession for him? Why then, my Lord, 
 must the Christian Priesthood be so horrid and 
 hateful an Institution, because the Design of it 
 is to restore Men to the Grace and Favour of 
 God ? Why must we be so abus'd and insulted, 
 for being sent upon the Errand of Salvation, 
 and made Ministers of eternal Happiness to our 
 Brethren ? There is a Woe due to us if we 
 preach not the Gospel ; or neglect those 
 ministerial Offices that Christ has entrusted to 
 us. We are to watch for their Souls, as those 
 who are to give an Account. Why then must 
 
WILLIAM LAW 345 
 
 we be treated as arrogant Priests, or Popishly 
 affected, for pretending to have any thing to do, 
 in the Discharge of onr Ministry, with the Sal- 
 vation of Men ? Why must we be reproach'd 
 with Blasphemous Claims, and Absurd Seme- 
 less Powers, for assuming to bless in God's 
 Name ; or thinking our Administrations more 
 effectual, than the Office of a common Layman ? 
 
 But further, to what purpose does your 
 Lordship except against these Powers in the 
 Clergy, from their common Frailties and In- 
 firmities with the rest of Mankind ? Was not 
 Abraham, and Job, and the Jewish Priests, 
 Men of like Passions with us ? Did not our 
 Saviour command the Jews to apply to their 
 Priests, notwithstanding their Personal Faults, 
 because they sat in Moses's Chair? Did not 
 the Apostles assure their Followers, that They 
 were Men of like Passions with them? But 
 did they therefore disclaim their Mission, or 
 Apostolical Authority ? Did they teach that 
 their National Infirmities made them less the 
 Ministers of God, or less necessary to the 
 Salvation of Men ? Their Personal Defects 
 did not make them depart from the Claim of 
 those Powers they were invested with; or 
 desert their Ministry : But indeed, gave St 
 
346 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 Paul Occasion to say, We ha/ve this Treasure in 
 Earthen Vessels (i.e. this Authority committed 
 to mere men) that the Excellency of it may be 
 of God, a/nd not of Men. The Apostle happens to 
 differ very much from your Lordship : He says, 
 such weak Instruments were made use of, that 
 the Glory might redound to God : Your Lord- 
 ship says, to suppose such Instruments to be 
 of any Benefit to us, is to lessen the Sovereignty 
 of God, and in Consequence, his Glory. 
 
 Your Lordship imagines, you have suffi- 
 ciently destroyed the Sacerdotal Powers, by 
 shewing, that the Clergy are only Men, and 
 subject to the common Frailties of Mankind. 
 My Lord, we own the Charge ; and don't claim 
 any Sacerdotal Powers from our Personal 
 Abilities, or to acquire any Glory to our selves. 
 But, weak as we are, we are God's Ministers ; 
 and if we are either afraid or asham'd of our 
 Duty, we must perish in the Guilt. But is a 
 Prophet therefore proud, because he insists 
 upon the Authority of his mission? Cannot 
 a Mortal be God's Messenger, and employed 
 in his Affairs; but he must be insolent and 
 assuming, for having the Resolution to own 
 it ? If we are to be reprov'd, for pretending 
 to be God's Ministers, because we are but 
 
WILLIAM LAW 347 
 
 Men, the Reproach will fall upon Providence ; 
 since it has pleas'd God chiefly to transact 
 his Affairs with Mankind by the Ministry of 
 their Brethren. 
 
 Your Lordship has not one Word from 
 Scripture against these Sacerdotal Powers ; 
 no Proof, that Christ has not sent Men to be 
 Effectual Administrators of his Graces : You 
 only assert, that there can be no such Ministers, 
 because they are mere Men. 
 
 Now, my Lord, I must beg leave to say, that 
 if the Natural Weakness of Men makes them 
 incapable of being the Instruments of convey- 
 ing Grace to their Brethren; if the Clergy 
 cannot be of any Use or Necessity to their 
 Flocks, for this Reason; Then it undeniably 
 follows, that there can be no positive Institu- 
 tions in the Christian Religion, that can procure 
 any Spiritual Advantages to the Members of 
 it ; then the Sacraments can be no longer any 
 Means of Grace. For, I hope, no one thinks, 
 that Bread and Wine have any Natural Force 
 or Efficacy, to convey Grace to the Soul. The 
 Water in Baptism has the common Qualities 
 of Water, and is Destitute of any intrinsick 
 Power to cleanse the Soul, or purine from 
 
348 WILLIAM LAW 
 
 Sin. But your Lordship will not say, be- 
 cause it has only the common Nature of 
 Water, that therefore it cannot be a Means of 
 Grace. Why then may not the Clergy tho' they 
 have the common Nature of Men, be constituted 
 by God, to convey his Graces, and to be minis- 
 terial to the Salvation of their Brethren ? 
 Can God consecrate inanimate Things to 
 Spiritual Purposes, and make them the Means 
 of Eternal Happiness ? And is Man the only 
 Creature that he can't make subservient to 
 his Designs ? The only Being, who is too Weak 
 for an Omnipotent God to render effectual 
 towards attaining the Ends of his Grace ? 
 
 Is it just and reasonable, to reject and 
 despise the Ministry and Benedictions of Men, 
 because they are Men like our selves? And 
 is it not as reasonable, to despise the sprink- 
 ling of Water, a Creature below us, a sense- 
 less and inanimate Creature. 
 
 Your Lordship therefore, must either find 
 us some other Reason for rejecting the Neces- 
 sity of Human Administrations, than because 
 they are Human; or else give up the Sacra- 
 ments, and all Positive Institutions along with 
 them. 
 
WILLIAM LAW 349 
 
 Surely, your Lordship must have a mighty 
 Opinion of Naaman the Syrian; who, when 
 the Prophet bid him go wash in Jordan seven 
 times, to the end he might be clean from his 
 Leprosie, very wisely remonstrated, Are not 
 Abana and Pharpar, Rivers of Damascus, better 
 than all the Waters of Israel. 
 
 This, my Lord, discover'd Naaman's great 
 Liberty of Mind ; and 'tis much this has not 
 been produc'd before, as an Argument of his 
 being a Free-Thinker. He took the Water 
 of Jordan to be only Water ; as your Lord- 
 ship justly observes a Clergyman to be only 
 a Man : And if you had been with him, you 
 could have inform'd him, that the washing 
 seven times was a mere Nicety and Trifle of 
 the Prophet ; and that since it is God alone 
 who can work miraculous Cures, we ought 
 not to think, that they depend upon any ex- 
 ternal Means, or any stated Number of repeat- 
 ing them. 
 
 This, my Lord, is the true Scope and Spirit 
 of your Argument : If the Syrian was right 
 in despising the Water of Jordan, because it 
 was only Water ; your Lordship may be right 
 in despising any particular Order of Clergy ; 
 
35o WILLIAM LAW 
 
 because they are but Men. Your Lordship 
 is certainly as right, or as wrong, as he was. 
 
 And now, my Lord, let the common Sence 
 of Mankind here judge, whether, if the Clergy 
 are to be esteem'd as having no Authority, 
 because they are mere Men; it does not 
 plainly follow, that every thing else, every 
 Institution that has not some natural Force 
 and Power to produce the Effects designed 
 by it, is not also to be rejected as equally 
 Trifling and Ineffectual. 
 
 The Sum of the matter is this : It appears 
 from many express Facts, and indeed, from the 
 whole Series of God's Providence, that it is not 
 only consistent with his Attributes; but also 
 agreeable to his ordinary Methods of dealing 
 with Mankind, that he should substitute Men 
 to act in his Name, and be Authoritatively 
 employ'd in conferring his Graces and Favours 
 upon Mankind. It appears, that your Lord- 
 ship's Argument against the authoritative Ad- 
 ministrations of the Christian Clergy, does not 
 only contradict those Facts, and condemn 
 the ordinary Method of God's Dispensations; 
 but likewise proves the Sacraments, and 
 every positive Institution of Christianity, to 
 
WILLIAM LAW 351 
 
 be ineffectual, and as mere Dreams and 
 Trifles, as the several Offices cmd Orders of 
 the Clergy. 
 
 This, I hope, will be esteem'd a sufficient 
 Confutation of your Lordship's Doctrine, by 
 all who have any true Regard or Zeal for 
 the Christian Religion; and only expect to 
 be sav'd by the Methods of Divine Grace 
 propos'd in the Gospel 
 
XVII 
 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 [Born in 1771, ordained in 1794, Sydney Smith 
 soon went to Edinburgh, where he started the great 
 Review ; after five years he came to London and 
 drew great audiences to his sermons and lectures. 
 It was here in 1807 that he wrote the Letters of 
 Peter Plymley. After seventeen years' duty in 
 Yorkshire and Somerset he was made in 1831 
 Canon of St. Paul's, though he continued to ' live 
 in the country ' part of the year till he died, 1845. 
 
 Of the Plymley Letters, Lord John Russell, who 
 knew Smith intimately, said that they bore the 
 greatest likeness to his conversation of anything 
 that he wrote. ' His powers of fun were at the same 
 time united with the strongest and most practical 
 common sense. So that while he laughed away 
 seriousness at one minute, he destroyed in the 
 next some rooted prejudice which had braved for 
 a thousand years the battle of reason and the 
 breeze of ridicule. ... It may be averred for 
 certain that in this style he has never been 
 equalled, and I do not suppose he will ever be 
 surpassed/ The cause of Catholic Emancipation 
 is well explained in the Letter which is here re- 
 printed, and further explanation is given in the 
 notes. Here it may suffice to say that, besides 
 the Test Act of 1673, and the oppression in- 
 herited from Queen Elizabeth, various iniquitous 
 statutes against the Romanists had been passed by 
 William III., which were annulled by the Acts of 
 35= 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 353 
 
 1778 and 1793. In Ireland their condition was still 
 worse ; their public worship was proscribed, and 
 they were deprived of the guardianship of their 
 children : the Act of 1791 modified their hardships, 
 and Pitt tried in 1799, when the Act of Union was 
 in contemplation, to admit Irish Roman Catholics 
 to the United Parliament. George III. was how- 
 ever stubbornly opposed to all Catholic Relief. 
 The Whig ministry of 1806 resigned next year 
 because the king demanded a written promise 
 that no further concessions would be proposed for 
 Catholics. Thereupon a new ministry was formed 
 under Perceval and the Duke of Portland, and 
 Sydney Smith wrote the Letters of Peter Plymley 
 against Perceval and his associates. Smith said 
 afterwards of these Letters that 'they had an 
 immense circulation at the time, and I think above 
 20,000 copies |were sold.' The Catholic Relief Bill 
 was finally passed in 1829 by Peel and Wellington.] 
 
 From 
 
 < LETTERS ON THE SUBJECT OF THE 
 
 CATHOLICS, 
 
 To my Brother Abraham who lives in the 
 Country.' By Peter Plymley. 
 
 Letter V 
 Dear Abraham, 
 
 I never met a parson in my life who 
 did not consider the Corporation and Test 
 Acts as the great bulwarks of the Church; 1 
 
 1 The Corporation Act (1661) forced all officers of 
 corporations, and the Test Act (1673) forced all hold- 
 ing any office of profit or trust under the Crown, to 
 
354 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 and yet it is now just 64 years since bills of 
 indemnity to destroy their penal effects, or, 
 in other words, to repeal them, have been 
 passed annually as a matter of course. These 
 bulwarks, without which no clergyman thinks 
 he could sleep with his accustomed soundness, 
 have actually not been in existence since any 
 man now living has taken holy orders. Every 
 year the indemnity act pardons past breaches 
 of these two laws, and prevents any fresh 
 actions of informers from coming to a con- 
 clusion before the period for the next in- 
 demnity bill arrives; so that these penalties, 
 by which alone the Church remains in exist- 
 ence, have not had one moment's operation 
 
 for 64 years. You will say, the Legislature 
 
 during the whole of this period, has reserved 
 to itself the discretion of suspending, or not 
 suspending. But had not the Legisla- 
 ture the right of re-enacting, if it was 
 necessary? And now when you have kept 
 
 receive the Sacrament according to the Anglican rite, 
 and to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy. 
 The Test Act, being primarily directed against the 
 Romanists, added a declaration against transubstantia- 
 tion. Gradually the Protestant Nonconformists began 
 to hold office without complying with the Act at all, 
 and from 1727 acts of indemnity were passed each year 
 to cover such breaches of the law. The Test and Cor- 
 poration Acts were not repealed till 1828. 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 355 
 
 the rod over these people (with the most 
 scandalous abuse of all principle) for 64 years, 
 and not found it necessary to strike once, is 
 not that the best of all reasons why the rod 
 
 should be laid aside ? You talk to me 
 
 of a very valuable hedge running across your 
 fields, which you would not part with on any 
 account. I go down, expecting to find a limit 
 impervious to cattle, and highly useful for 
 the preservation of property ; but to my utter 
 astonishment, I find that the hedge was cut 
 down half a century ago, and that every 
 year the shoots are clipped the moment they 
 appear above ground : it appears, upon farther 
 inquiry, that the hedge never ought to have 
 existed at all ; that it originated in the malice 
 of antiquated quarrels, and was cut down 
 because it subjected you to vast inconvenience, 
 and broke up your intercourse with a country 
 absolutely necessary to your existence. If the 
 remains of this hedge serve only to keep up 
 an irritation in your neighbours, and to re- 
 mind them of the feuds of former times, good 
 nature and good sense teach you that you 
 ought to grub it up, and cast it into the oven. 
 This is the exact state of these two laws ; and 
 yet it is made a great argument against con- 
 cession to the Catholics, that it involves their 
 
356 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 repeal ; which is to say, do not make me relin- 
 quish a folly that will lead to my ruin ; because, 
 if you do, I must give up other follies ten times 
 greater, though more innocent than this. 
 
 I confess, with all our bulwarks and hedges, 
 it mortifies me to the very quick, to contrast 
 with our matchless stupidity and inimitable 
 folly, the conduct of Bonaparte upon the 
 subj ect of religious persecution. At the 
 moment when we are tearing the crucifixes 
 from the necks of the Catholics, and prepos- 
 terously expressing hopes of their conversion ; 
 at that moment this man is assembling the 
 very Jews at Paris, and endeavouring to give 
 them stability and importance. I shall never 
 be reconciled to mending shoes in America ; 
 but I see it must be my lot, and I will then 
 take a dreadful revenge upon Mr Perceval, 
 if I catch him preaching within ten miles of 
 me. I cannot for the soul of me conceive 
 whence this man has gained his notions of 
 Christianity: he has the most evangelical 
 charity for errors in arithmetic, and the most 
 inveterate malice against errors in con- 
 science. While he rages against those whom 
 in the true spirit of the Gospel he ought to 
 indulge, he forgets the only instance of severity 
 which that Gospel contains, and leaves the 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 357 
 
 jobbers, and contractors, and money-changers 
 at their seats, without a single stripe. 
 
 You cannot imagine, you say, that England 
 will ever be ruined and conquered; and for 
 no other reason that I can find, but because 
 it seems so very odd it should be ruined and 
 conquered. Alas ! so reasoned, in their time, 
 the Austrian, Russian, and Prussian Plymleys. 
 
 But the English are brave ; so were 
 
 all these nations. You might get together 
 an hundred thousand men individually brave; 
 but without generals capable of commanding 
 such a machine, it would be as useless as a 
 first-rate man of war manned by Oxford clergy- 
 men, or Parisian shopkeepers. I do not say 
 this to the disparagement of English officers : 
 they have had no means of acquiring ex- 
 perience ; but I do say it to create alarm ; 
 for we do not appear to me to be half alarmed 
 enough, or to entertain that sense of our 
 danger which leads to the most obvious 
 means of self-defence. As for the spirit of 
 the peasantry, in making a gallant defence 
 behind hedge-rows, and through plate racks 
 and hencoops, highly as I think of their 
 bravery, I do not know any nation in Europe 
 so likely to be struck with panic as the 
 English ; and this from their total acquaintance 
 
358 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 with sciences of war. Old wheat and beans 
 blazing for twenty miles round ; cart mares 
 shot ; sows of Lord Somerville's breed run- 
 ning wild over the country ; the minister of 
 the parish wounded sorely in his hinder parts ; 
 Mrs Plymley in fits ; all these scenes of war an 
 Austrian or a Russian has seen three or four 
 times over ; but it is now three centuries since 
 an English pig has fallen in a fair battle 
 upon English ground, or a farm house been 
 rifled, or a clergyman's wife been subjected 
 to any other proposals of love, than the 
 connubial endearments of her sleek and 
 orthodox mate. The old edition of Plutarch's 
 Lives, which lies in the corner of your 
 parlour window, has contributed to work 
 you up to the most romantic expectations 
 of our Roman behaviour. You are per- 
 suaded that Lord Amherst will defend 
 Kew-Bridge like Codes ; that some maid 
 of honour will break away from her cap- 
 tivity, and swim over the Thames; that the 
 Duke of York 1 will burn his capitulating 
 hand ; and little Mr Sturges Bourne 2 give 
 
 1 He was a singularly incompetent officer. As Com- 
 mander in Chief he made a disgraceful convention with 
 the French in 1799. 
 
 2 A friend of Canning, and member of two administra- 
 tions under him. 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 359 
 
 forty years purchase for Moulsham - Hall, 
 while the French are encamped upon it. 
 I hope we shall witness all this, if the 
 French do come ; but in the mean time, I 
 am so enchanted with the ordinary English 
 behaviour of these invaluable persons, that 
 I earnestly pray no opportunity may be given 
 them for Roman valour, and for those very 
 un-Roman pensions, which they would all, 
 of course, take especial care to claim in con- 
 sequence. But whatever was our conduct, 
 if every ploughman was as great a hero as 
 he who was called from his oxen to save 
 Rome from her enemies, I should still say, 
 that at such a crisis you want the affections 
 of all your subjects in both islands : there 
 is no spirit which you must alienate, no 
 heart you must avert, every man must feel 
 he has a country, and that there is an 
 urgent and pressing cause why he should 
 expose himself to death. 
 
 The effects of penal laws, in matters of 
 religion, are never confined to those limits in 
 which the legislature intended they should be 
 placed : it is not only that I am excluded from 
 certain offices and dignities because I am a 
 Catholic, but the exclusion carries with it a 
 certain stigma, which degrades me in the eyes 
 
360 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 of the monopolizing sect, and the very name of 
 my religion becomes odious. These effects are 
 so very striking in England, that I solemnly 
 believe blue and red baboons to be more 
 popular here than Catholics and Presbyterians ; 
 they are more understood, and there is a 
 greater disposition to do something for them. 
 When a country squire hears of an ape, his 
 first feeling is to give it nuts and apples ; when 
 he hears of a Dissenter, his immediate impulse 
 is to commit it to the county jail, to shave its 
 head, to alter its customary food, and to have 
 it privately whipped. This is no caricature, 
 but an accurate picture of national feelings, as 
 they degrade and endanger us at this very 
 moment. The Irish Catholic gentleman 
 *would bear his legal disabilities with greater 
 temper, if these were all he had to bear — if 
 they did not enable every Protestant cheese- 
 monger and tide-waiter to treat him with con- 
 tempt. He is branded on the forehead with a 
 red-hot iron, and treated like a spiritual felon, 
 because, in the highest of all considerations he 
 is led by the noblest of all guides, his own 
 disinterested conscience. 
 
 Why are nonsense and cruelty a bit the 
 better because they are enacted ? If Provi- 
 dence, which gives wine and oil, had blest us 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 361 
 
 with that tolerant spirit which makes the 
 countenance more pleasant and the heart more 
 glad than these can do ; if our Statute Book 
 had never been defiled with such infamous 
 laws, the sepulchral Spencer Perceval would 
 have been hauled through the dirtiest horse- 
 pond in Hampstead, had he ventured to pro- 
 pose them. But now persecution is good, 
 because it exists; every law which originated 
 in ignorance and malice, and gratifies the 
 passions from whence it sprang, we call the 
 wisdom of our ancestors ; when such laws are 
 repealed, they will be cruelty and madness ; till 
 they are repealed, they are policy and caution. 
 
 I was somewhat amused with the imputation 
 brought against the Catholics by the University 
 of Oxford, that they are enemies to liberty. I 
 immediately turned to my History of England, 
 and marked as an historical error that passage, 
 in which it is recorded, that, in the reign of 
 Queen Anne, the famous decree of the Uni- 
 versity of Oxford, respecting passive obedience, 
 was ordered, by the House of Lords, to be 
 burnt by the hands of the common hangman, 
 as contrary to the liberty of the subject, and 
 the law of the land. Nevertheless, I wish, 
 whatever be the modesty of those who impute, 
 that the imputation was a little more true than 
 z 
 
362 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 it is ; the Catholic cause would not be quite so 
 desperate with the present Administration. I 
 fear, however, that the hatred to liberty in 
 these poor devoted wretches may 'ere long 
 appear more doubtful than it is at present to 
 the Vice-Chancellor and his Clergy, inflamed, 
 as they doubtless are, with classical examples 
 of republican virtue, and panting, as they 
 always have been, to reduce the power of the 
 
 Crown within narrower and safer limits. 
 
 What mistaken zeal, to attempt to connect one 
 religion with freedom, and another with slavery. 
 Who laid the foundations of English liberty? 
 What was the mixed religion of Switzerland ? 
 What has the Protestant religion done for 
 liberty in Denmark, in Sweden, throughout the 
 North of Germany, and in Prussia? The 
 purest religion in the world, in my humble 
 opinion, is the religion of the Church of Eng- 
 land : for its preservation (so far as it is exer- 
 cised without intruding upon the liberties of 
 others), I am ready at this moment to venture 
 my present life, and but through that religion 
 I have no hopes of any other ; yet I am not 
 forced to be silly because I am pious ; nor will 
 I ever join in eulogiums on my faith, which 
 every man of common reading and common 
 sense can so easily refute. 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 363 
 
 You have either done too much for the 
 Catholics (worthy Abraham), or too little ; if 
 you had intended to refuse them political 
 power, you should have refused them civil 
 rights. After you had enabled them to acquire 
 property, after you had conceded to them all 
 that you did concede in 78 and 93, 1 the rest is 
 wholly out of your power : you may chuse 
 whether you will give the rest in an honourable 
 or a disgraceful mode, but it is utterly out of 
 your power to withhold it. 
 
 In the last year, land to the amount of eight 
 hundred thousand pounds was purchased by 
 the Catholics in Ireland. Do you think it pos- 
 sible to be-Perceval, and be-Canning, 2 and be- 
 Castlereagh such a body of men as this out of 
 their common rights, and their common sense ? 
 Mr George Canning may laugh and joke at the 
 
 1 The Act of 1778, which led to the Gordon Riots, 
 passed almost unanimously through both Houses ; it 
 allowed R. Catholics to hold property in land, and re- 
 moved the taint of felony from their spiritual instructors. 
 That of 1793 allowed freedom of education, and the 
 practice of the law to them. 
 
 2 This is hardly fair on Canning. He had already 
 (1799) laboured hard for Catholic Emancipation in Ire- 
 land, and left the Government with Pitt on the King's 
 refusing his consent. When Smith wrote these lines 
 (1807), Canning was, it is true, in office with Perceval and 
 Castlereagh, but he soon resigned ; and he worked strenu- 
 ouslyjiill the day of his death for Catholic Emancipation. 
 
364 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 idea of Protestant bailiffs ravishing Catholic 
 ladies, under the 9th clause of the sun-set bill ; 
 but if some better remedy is not applied to the 
 distractions of Ireland than the jocularity of 
 Mr Canning, they will soon put an end to his 
 pension, and to the pension of those ' near and 
 dear relatives/ for whose eating, drinking, 
 washing, and clothing, every man in the united 
 kingdoms now pays his two pence or three 
 pence a year. You may call these observations 
 coarse, if you please ; but I have no idea that 
 the Sophias and Carolines of any man breath- 
 ing, are to eat national veal, to drink public tea 
 and to wear Treasury ribbons, and then that 
 we are to be told that it is coarse to animadvert 
 upon this pitiful and eleemosynary splendour. 
 If this is right, why not mention it ? If it is 
 wrong, why should not he who enjoys the ease 
 of supporting his sisters in this manner bear the 
 shame of it? Every body seems hitherto to 
 have spared a man, who never spares any 
 body. 
 
 As for the e ormous wax candles, and super- 
 stitious mumme^es, and painted jackets of 
 the Catholic priests, I fear them not. Tell 
 me that the World will return again under 
 the influence of the small-pox ; that Lord 
 Castlereagh will hereafter oppose the power 
 
SYDNEY SMITH $6$ 
 
 of the Court; that Lord Howick 1 and Mr 
 Grattan 2 will do each of them a mean and 
 dishonourable action ; that any body who has 
 heard Lord Redesdale speak once, will know- 
 ingly and willingly hear him again ; that Lord 
 Eldon has assented to the fact of two and two 
 making four, without shedding tears, or ex- 
 pressing the smallest doubt or scruple ; tell 
 me any other thing absurd or incredible, but 
 — for the love of common sense, let me hear 
 no more of the danger to be apprehended 
 from the general diffusion of popery. It is 
 too absurd to be reasoned upon ; every man 
 feels it is nonsense when he hears it stated, 
 and so does every man while he is stating it. 
 I cannot imagine why the friends to the 
 Church Establishment should entertain such 
 an horror of seeing the doors of Parliament 
 flung open to the Catholics, and view so pas- 
 sively the enjoyment of that right by the Pres- 
 byterians, and by every other species of Dis- 
 senter. In their Tenets, in their church govern- 
 ments, in the nature of their endowment, the 
 Dissenters are infinitely more distant from the 
 Church of England than the Catholics are ; 
 
 1 Afterwards Earl Grey. 
 
 2 Himself a Protestant, Grattan strove passionately for 
 Catholic Emancipation. 
 
366 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 yet the Dissenters have never been excluded 
 from Parliament. There are 45 members in 
 one house, and 16 in the other, who always 
 are Dissenters. There is no law which would 
 prevent every member of the Lords and Com- 
 mons from being Dissenters. The Catholics 
 could not bring into Parliament half the 
 number of the Scotch members ; and yet one 
 exclusion is of such immense importance, be- 
 cause it has taken place; and the other no 
 human being thinks of, because no one is 
 accustomed to it. I have often thought, if 
 the wisdom of our ancestors had excluded all 
 persons with red hair from the House of 
 Commons, of the throes and convulsions it 
 would occasion to restore them to their natural 
 rights. What mobs and riots would it pro- 
 duce? To what infinite abuse and obloquy 
 would the capillary patriot be exposed; what 
 wormwood would distil from Mr Perceval, 
 what froth would drop from Mr Canning ; 
 how (I will not say my, but our Lord 
 Hawkesbury, 1 for he belongs to us all) how 
 
 1 Afterwards 2nd Earl of Liverpool. Barring the year 
 1806 he was continually in office from 1793 to his last 
 illness in 1827. He was a man of immense prejudices, 
 and always prominent in his opposition to Catholic 
 Emancipation. He practically secured the appointment 
 of the Portland and Perceval administration on this 
 question. 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 367 
 
 our Lord Hawkesbury would work away about 
 the hair of King William and Lord Somers, 
 and the authors of the great and glorious 
 Revolution; how Lord Eldon would appeal 
 to the Deity, and his own virtues ; and to 
 the hair of his children: some would say 
 that red-haired men were superstitious; some 
 would prove they were atheists; they would 
 be petitioned against as the friends of slavery, 
 and the advocates of revolt ; in short, such a 
 corrupter of the heart and the understanding 
 is the spirit of persecution, that these un- 
 fortunate people (conspired against by their 
 fellow subjects of every complexion), if they 
 did not emigrate to countries where hair of 
 another colour was persecuted, would be driven 
 to the falsehood of perukes, or the hypocrisy 
 of the Tricosian fluid. 
 
 As for the dangers of the Church (in spite 
 of the staggering events which have lately 
 taken place) I have not yet entirely lost my 
 confidence in the power of common sense, 
 and I believe the Church to be in no danger 
 at all; but if it is, that danger is not from 
 the Catholics, but from the Methodists, and 
 from that patent Christianity which has been 
 for some time manufacturing at Clapham, 1 to 
 1 The 'Clapham Sect.' 
 
368 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 the prejudice of the old and admirable article 
 prepared by the Church. I would counsel my 
 Lords the Bishops to keep their eyes upon 
 that holy village, and its hallowed vicinity; 
 they will find there a zeal in making con- 
 verts, far superior to anything which exists 
 among the Catholics ; a contempt for the great 
 mass of English clergy, much more rooted 
 and profound ; and a regular fund to purchase 
 livings for those groaning and garrulous gentle- 
 men, whom they denominate (by a standing 
 sarcasm against the regular Church) Gospel 
 preachers and Vital clergymen. I am too 
 firm a believer in the general propriety and 
 respectability of the English clergy, to believe 
 they have much to fear either from old non- 
 sense, or from new; but if the Church must 
 be supposed to be in danger, I prefer that 
 nonsense which is grown half venerable from 
 time, the force of which I have already tried 
 and baffled, which at least has some excuse 
 in the dark and ignorant ages in which it 
 originated. The religious enthusiasm manu- 
 factured by living men before my own eyes, 
 disgusts my understanding as much, influences 
 my imagination not at all, and excites my 
 apprehensions much more. 
 
 I may have seemed to you to treat the 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 369 
 
 situation of public affairs with some degree 
 of levity ; but I feel it deeply, and with 
 nightly and daily anguish; because I know 
 Ireland ; I have known it all my life ; I love 
 it, and I foresee the crisis to which it will 
 soon be exposed. Who can doubt but that 
 Ireland will experience ultimately from France 
 a treatment, to which the conduct they have 
 experienced from England is the love of a 
 parent, or a brother? Who can doubt but 
 that five years after he has got hold of the 
 country, Ireland will be tossed away by 
 Bonaparte as a present to some one of his 
 ruffian generals, who will knock the head 
 of Mr Keogh against the head of Cardinal 
 Troy, shoot twenty of the most noisy block- 
 heads of the Roman persuasion, wash his 
 pug-dogs in holy water, and confiscate the 
 salt butter of the Milesian Republic to the 
 last tub. But what matters this? or who 
 is wise enough in Ireland to heed it? or 
 when had common sense much influence with 
 the poor dear Irish? Mr Perceval does not 
 know the Irish; but I know them, and I 
 know that, at every rash and mad hazard, 
 they will break the Union, revenge their 
 wounded pride, and their insulted religion, 
 and fling themselves into the open arms of 
 
37o SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 France, sure of dying in the embrace. And 
 now what means have you of guarding against 
 this coming evil, upon which the future happi- 
 ness or misery of every Englishman depends? 
 Have you a single ally in the whole world? 
 Is there a vulnerable point in the French 
 Empire, where the astonishing resources of 
 that people can be attracted and employed? 
 Have you a ministry wise enough to com- 
 prehend the danger, manly enough to believe 
 unpleasant intelligence, honest enough to state 
 their apprehensions at the peril of their places ? 
 Is there any where the slightest disposition to 
 join any measure of love, or conciliation, or 
 hope, with that dreadful bill which the dis- 
 tractions of Ireland have rendered necessary? 
 At the very moment that the last Monarchy 
 in Europe has fallen, are we not governed by 
 a man of pleasantry, and a man of theology ? x 
 In the six hundredth year of our empire over 
 Ireland, have we any memorial of antient kind- 
 ness to refer to? Any people, any zeal, any 
 country on which we can depend ? Have 
 we any hope, but in the winds of heaven, 
 and the tides of the sea? any prayer to 
 prefer to the Irish but that they should for- 
 get and forgive their oppressors, who, in 
 1 Canning and Perceval. 
 
SYDNEY SMITH 371 
 
 the very moment that they are calling upon 
 them for their exertions, solemnly assure them 
 that the oppression shall still remain ? 
 
 Abraham, farewell! If I have tired you, 
 remember how often you have tired me, and 
 others. I do not think we really differ in 
 politics so much as you suppose; or at least, 
 if we do, that difference is in the means, and 
 not in the end. We both love the Constitu- 
 tion, respect the King, and abhor the French. 
 But though you love the Constitution, you 
 would perpetuate the abuses which have been 
 ingrafted upon it; though you respect the 
 King, you would confirm his scruples against 
 the Catholics; though you abhor the French, 
 you would open to them the conquest of 
 Ireland. My method of respecting my 
 Sovereign, is by protecting his honour, his 
 empire, and his lasting happiness; I evince 
 my love of the Constitution, by making it 
 the guardian of all men's rights, and the source 
 of their freedom ; and I prove my abhorrence 
 of the French, by uniting against them the 
 disciples of every Church in the only re- 
 maining nation in Europe. As for the men 
 of whom I have been compelled in this age 
 of mediocrity to say so much, they cannot 
 of themselves be worth a moment's considera- 
 
372 SYDNEY SMITH 
 
 tion, to you, to me, or to any body. In 
 a year after their death, they will be for- 
 gotten as completely as if they had never 
 been; and are now of no further import- 
 ance, than as they are the mere vehicles of 
 carrying into effect the common - place and 
 mischievous prejudices of the times in which 
 they live. 
 
XVIII 
 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 [Cardinal Newman was born 1801, fellow of Oriel 
 1822, and Vicar of St Mary's in 1828 ; in 1845 he 
 joined the Roman Church, and died in 1890. 
 
 The short tract here given was published only 
 three months after Keble had preached the sermon 
 on National Apostacy (July 1833), which Newman 
 considered the starting point of the Oxford Move- 
 ment. It thus represents the Movement in its first 
 beginnings, and on a characteristic side. Newman 
 had begun the Tracts * out of my own head ' in 
 September 1833, and it was with Newman that they 
 ended in the storm of Tract Ninety. The Tracts 
 began as leaflets, and came to be books : we have 
 had to be content with a specimen of the earlier 
 kind.] 
 
 From ' Tracts for the Times * ; by Members 
 of the University of Oxford. Vol. I. for 
 1833-4. 
 
 Oct. 29, 1833. No. 7.— Price Id. 
 
 THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH 
 APOSTOLICAL. 
 
 There are many persons at the present day, 
 who, from not having turned their minds to the 
 
 373 
 
374 J° HN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 subject, think they are Churchmen in the sense 
 in which the early Christians were, merely 
 because they are Episcopalians. The extent of 
 their Churchmanship is, to consider that 
 Episcopacy is the best form of Ecclesiastical 
 Polity ; and again, that it originated with the 
 Apostles. I am far from implying, that to go 
 thus far is nothing ; or is not an evidence, (for 
 it is,) of a reverent and sober temper of mind ; 
 still the view is defective. It is defective, 
 because the expediency of a system, though a 
 very cogent, is not the highest line of argu- 
 ment that may be taken in its defence: and 
 because an opponent may deny the fact of 
 the Apostolicity of Episcopacy, and so involve 
 its maintainer in an argument. Doubtless the 
 more clear and simple principle for a Church- 
 man to hold, is that of a Ministerial Suc- 
 cession ; which is undeniable as a fact, while it 
 is most reasonable as a doctrine, and sufficiently 
 countenanced in Scripture for its practical 
 reception. Of this, Episcopacy, i.e. Superin- 
 tendence, is but an accident; though, for the 
 sake of conciseness, it is often spoken of by us 
 as synonymous with it. It shall be the object 
 of the following Tract to insist upon this higher 
 characteristic of our Church. 
 
 My position then is this ; — that the Apostles 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 375 
 
 appointed successors to their ministerial office, 
 and the latter in turn appointed others, and so 
 on to the present day ; — and further, that the 
 Apostles and their Successors have in every 
 age committed portions of their power and 
 authority to others, who thus become their 
 delegates, and in a measure their representa- 
 tives, and are called Priests and Deacons. The 
 result is an Episcopal system, because of the 
 practice of delegation; but we may conceive 
 their keeping their powers altogether to them- 
 selves, and in the same proportion in which 
 this was done, would the Church polity cease 
 to be Episcopalian. We may conceive the 
 Order of Apostolic Vicars, (so to call it,) in- 
 creased, till one of them was placed in every 
 village, and took the office of parish Priest. I 
 do not say such a measure would be justifiable 
 or pious; — doubtless it would be a departure 
 from the rule of antiquity — but it is conceiv- 
 able ; and it is useful to conceive it, in order to 
 form a clear notion of the Essence of the Church 
 System, and the defective state of those 
 Christian Societies which are separate from the 
 Church Catholic. It is a common answer made 
 to those who are called High Churchmen, to 
 say, that i if God had intended the form of 
 Church Government to be of great consequence, 
 
376 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 He would have worded His will in this matter 
 more clearly in Scripture/ Now enough has 
 already been said to show the irrelevancy of 
 such a remark. We need not deny to the 
 Church the abstract right, (however we may 
 question the propriety,) of altering its own con- 
 stitution. It is not merely because Episcopacy 
 is a better or more scriptural form than Presby- 
 terianism, (true as this may be in itself,) that 
 Episcopalians are right, and Presbyterians are 
 wrong ; but because the Presbyterian Ministers 
 have assumed a power, which was never 
 intrusted to them. They have presumed to 
 exercise the power of ordination, and to 
 perpetuate a succession of ministers, without 
 having received a commission to do so. This 
 is the plain fact that condemns them ; and is a 
 standing condemnation, from which they can- 
 not escape, except by artificers of argument, 
 which will serve equally to protect the self- 
 authorised teacher of religion. If they may 
 ordain without being sent to do so, others may 
 teach and preach without being sent. They 
 hold a middle position, which is untenable as 
 destroying itself ; for if Christians can do with- 
 out Bishops, (i.e. Commissioned Ordainers,) they 
 may do without Commissioned Ministers, (Le. 
 the Priests and Deacons). If an imposition of 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 377 
 
 hands is necessary to convey one gift, why 
 should it not be to convey another ? 
 
 1. As to the fact of the Apostolical Suc- 
 cession, i.e. that our present Bishops are the 
 heirs and representatives of the Apostles by 
 successive transmission of the prerogative of 
 being so, this is too notorious to require 
 proof. Every link in the chain is known 
 from St Peter to our present Metropolitans. 
 Here then I only ask, looking at this plain 
 fact by itself, is there not something of a 
 divine providence in it ? can we conceive 
 that this Succession has been preserved, all 
 over the world, amid many revolutions, 
 through many centuries, for nothing? Is it 
 wise or pious to despise or neglect a gift 
 thus transmitted to us in matter of fact, 
 even if Scripture did not touch upon the 
 subject ? 
 
 2. Next, consider how natural is the 
 doctrine of a Succession. When an in- 
 dividual comes to me, claiming to speak in 
 the name of the Most High, it is natural to 
 ask him for his authority. If he replies, 
 that we are all bound to instruct each other, 
 this reply is intelligible, but in the very form 
 of it excludes the notion of a ministerial 
 order, Le. a class of persons set apart from 
 2 a 
 
378 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 others for religious offices. If he appeals 
 to some miraculous gift, this too is in- 
 telligible, and only unsatisfactory when the 
 alleged gift is proved to be a fiction. No 
 other answer can be given, except a reference 
 to some person, who has given him license 
 to exercise ministerial functions; then follows 
 the question, how that individual gained his 
 authority to do so. In the case of the 
 Catholic Church, the person referred to, i.e. 
 the Bishop, has received it from a predecessor, 
 and he from another, and so on, till we arrive 
 at the Apostles themselves, and thence our 
 Lord and Saviour. It is superfluous to dwell 
 on so plain a principle, which in matters of 
 this world we act upon daily. 
 
 3. Lastly, the argument from Scripture is 
 surely quite clear to those, who honestly wish 
 direction for practice. Christ promised He 
 would be with His Apostles always, as 
 ministers of His religion, even unto the end 
 of the world. In one sense the Apostles 
 were to be alive, till He came again ; but 
 they all died at the natural time. Does it 
 not follow, that there are those now alive who 
 represent them? Now who were the most 
 probable representatives of them in the genera- 
 tion next their death? They surely, whom 
 
JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 379 
 
 they have ordained to succeed them in the 
 ministerial work. If any persons could be 
 said to have Christ's power and presence, 
 and the gifts of ruling and ordaining, of 
 teaching, of binding and loosing, (and com- 
 paring together the various Scriptures on the 
 subject, all these seem included in His pro- 
 mise to be with the Church always,) surely 
 those, on whom the Apostles laid their hands, 
 were they. And so in the next age, if any 
 were representatives of the first representa- 
 tives, they must be the next generation of 
 Bishops, and so on. Nor does it materially 
 alter the argument, though we suppose the 
 blessing upon Ministerial Offices made, not 
 to the Apostles, but to the whole body of 
 Disciples ; i.e. the Church. For, even if it 
 be the Church that has the power of ordina- 
 tion committed to it, still it exercises it 
 through the Bishops as its organs; and the 
 question recurs, how has the Presbytery in 
 this or that country obtained the power? 
 The Church certainly has from the first com- 
 mitted it to the Bishops, and has never 
 resumed it; and the Bishops have no where 
 committed it to the Presbytery, who there- 
 fore cannot be in possession of it. 
 
 However, it is merely for argument sake 
 
380 JOHN HENRY NEWMAN 
 
 that I make this allowance, as to the mean- 
 ing of the text in Matt, xxviii. ; for our 
 Lord's promise of His presence * unto the 
 end of the world/ was made to the Apostles, 
 by themselves. At the same time, let it be 
 observed what force is added to the argu- 
 ment for the Apostolical Succession, by the 
 acknowledged existence in Scripture of the 
 doctrine of a standing Church, or permanent 
 Body Corporate for spiritual purposes. For, 
 if Scripture has formed all Christians into 
 one continuous community through all ages, 
 (which I do not here prove,) it is but 
 according to the same analogy, that the 
 Ministerial Office should be vested in an 
 Order, propagated from age to age, on a 
 principle of Succession. And, if we proceed 
 to considerations of utility and expedience, it 
 is plain, that, according to our notions, it 
 is more necessary that a Minister should be 
 perpetuated by a fixed law, than that the 
 community of Christians should be, which 
 can scarcely be considered to be vested with 
 any powers, such as to require the visible 
 authority which a Succession supplies. 
 
 TUBKBULL AHD SPEAKS, PBIHTEES, EDINBURGH.