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 Short, Thomas Vowler, 1790 
 1872. 
 
 The history of the Church 
 Enaland to., the. revol^ytion 
 
I 
 
Digitized by 
 
 the Internet Archive 
 
 
 
 
 in 2014 
 
 
 
 
 https://archive.org/details/historyofchurcho00shor_1 
 
THE HISTORY 
 
 CHURCH or ENGLAND 
 
 THE REVOLUTION, 1688. 
 
 BY THOMAS VOWLER SHORT, D.D. 
 
 BISHOP OF SODOH AND MAN. 
 
 riBST AMERICAN FROM THE THIRD ENGLISH EDITION. 
 
 NEW-YORK; 
 
 STANFORD AND SWORDS, 
 
 139 BROADWAY. 
 
 1847. 
 
PREFACE, 
 
 The best excuse which can be made for the publication of a work such 
 as that which is now offered to the world, is the plain statement of the reasons 
 which originally led to its composition, and of the objects which the author had 
 in view when he commenced the task. And if, when the undertaking is 
 accomplished, the same reasons still exist either in part or whole ; if his labours 
 be calculated to supply a want which in any measure continues to be felt, he 
 must trust that the kindness of the public will excuse that vanity which induces 
 him to hope that his exertions may in some degree contribute to supply a 
 desideratum among the elementary works of our country. 
 
 The author of the present sketch discovered, after he had been admitted into 
 orders, that the knowledge of English ecclesiastical history which he possessed 
 was very deficient. It was a point concerning which information was not to be 
 readily obtained, but in which he felt that he ought to have made diligent search 
 during the professional preparation of himself, on which every educated man, 
 who is engaged in the instruction of others, is peculiarly bound to enter ; he was 
 distressed, that his knowledge of the sects among the philosophers of Athens 
 was greater than his information on questions which affect the Church of 
 England ; and he determined to devote a considerable portion of those few hours 
 which a laborious employment left at his disposal to the study of the history of 
 our own church. 
 
 His pursuits were chiefly directed to those particulars which at the same time 
 might supply him with real knowledge in his own profession ; and he was 
 disposed to hasten over periods which could furnish little but an acquaintance 
 with facts, and an insight into ecclesiastical abuses. The circumstances in 
 which he was placed furnished him with an abundance of books ; but this very 
 fact made him more sensible of the need of some guide to direct him in the 
 selection of them ; and notwithstanding the kind assistance provided by a large 
 number of clerical friends, he found a diversity of advice, which perplexed 
 rather than facilitated his progress. He sought in vain for a general history of 
 the Church of England, which might furnish him with a map of his intended 
 
 iii 
 
iv 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 journey ; for those which exist are rather large surveys than maps ; in which 
 the general features are laid down on so extensive a scale, that they never 
 exhibit a commodious view of the whole. 
 
 He determined, therefore, to draw up a sketch for himself, to lay down the 
 great landmarks as distinctly as he could, and to fill up the details in such a 
 manner as circumstances would allow. And conceiving that his own map, with 
 all its imperfections, might be useful to others, he constantly framed it as he 
 proceeded, thinking that, when his task was accomplished, it might either remain 
 as a private memorial of his own studies, or be given to the public when the 
 academical labours of the author were at an end, in case no work of the same 
 description should previously supply the wants of individuals situated as he had 
 been. When this period had arrived, and he hardly felt satisfied with the 
 publications which had appeared, he ventured to print the present volumes. 
 Mr. Southey's Book of the Church hardly satisfied him.' Mr. Carwithen has 
 given a very faithful description of the country through which he has passed, 
 but he has not sufficiently pointed out the more striking features to which the 
 attention of the traveller must be directed, if he wishes to obtain an idea of the 
 whole territory. Many of the other writers who might here be mentioned have 
 examined only a part of the history of our church, and are perhaps liable to 
 other objections. 
 
 A larger work than the present would probably have been better suited to a 
 greater variety of readers ; a small one, if it be wisely composed, will seek the 
 immediate benefit of one class only, and trust to the chance, that whatever is 
 useful to one description of persons can hardly prove uninteresting to others. 
 The professed object of these pages is to facilitate the studies of young men who 
 are preparing themselves for the offices of the Church, through their academical 
 pursuits. 
 
 The careful perusal of two small volumes'" may prevent them from being 
 ignorant on those points on which general information is ordinarily expected : 
 and prepare the way for more extensive studies, by furnishing them with the 
 means of arranging systematically the knowledge which they shall otherwise 
 acquire. 
 
 If such a book had fallen into the hands of the author twenty years agone, his 
 labours might have been more profitably directed in the same course ; for there 
 is a certain quantity of knowledge necessarj-^ on every subject, before we shall 
 proceed effectually to the acquisition of more ; and it often happens that the 
 want of this is not supplied, till the more active duties of life prevent the 
 
 ' Dr. Short begs leave in this edition to apologize to Mr. Southey for expressions used in the first, 
 which ought never to have been printed, and which are, for that reason, now omitted ; especially as 
 the new edition of Mr. Southey's work has obviated the want of references, to which allusion is 
 there made. 
 
 2 The first edition was printed in two volumes. 
 
PREFACE. T 
 
 clergyman from taking advantage of those channels of information which would 
 otherwise have been open to him. 
 
 In the execution of this work, there is hardly enough of detail to satisfy the 
 inquisitive ; but while it assists him in his pursuits, it may prevent the idle from 
 being totally ignorant on ecclesiastical history ; it is with this view that the 
 author has directed his particular attention to those points which constitute the 
 history of the Church of England as it is at present established, to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, for instance, the translations of the Bible, and the Prayer Book. 
 
 It is probable that feelings of personal kindness may induce some individuals, 
 who are possessed of a greater knowledge on ecclesiastical history, to favour 
 these volumes with a reading ; and they may wonder that the studies in which 
 he has been engaged have not convinced the writer of the imperfections of his 
 work, and the objections which may be raised against the attempt to crowd the 
 whole history of our church into two small volumes. In extenuation of his 
 defects, he would only plead the difficulty of the task, and beg them to examine 
 the question on its right grounds. The work was composed when the author 
 had an abundance of books, and but little time to use them ; and has been 
 prepared for the press in a small country village, where he has the command of 
 his time, but of no library save his own private one. If, therefore, he had 
 extended the limits of his work, the attempt must have been made under many 
 disadvantages, of which they only can be fully aware who have once possessed 
 a free admission into large libraries, of which they have been subsequently 
 deprived. An occasional access to libraries is extremely useful for purposes of 
 reference and collation ; but he who collects materials for history must search 
 among a variety of books which the hand of time has consigned to oblivion, and 
 which are frequently unworthy of the attention of the general reader ; and no 
 one can do this who is not resident among public libraries ; nor can it be 
 regarded in any light less serious than a national calamity, that the necessary 
 labours of those who reside in the universities almost preclude the possibility of 
 their deriving any extensive advantages from the treasures which are preserved 
 around them. 
 
 In despair, therefore, of accomplishing any thing more worthy of the subject, 
 yet hoping that his present labours may not have been totally thrown away, he 
 commits himself to the kindness of his friends and readers, with a full conviction 
 that none of them are more fully aware of the deficiencies of these volumes than 
 himself. With regard to actual mistakes, he presumes that many may be 
 discovered, arising partly from the extensive range of history which he has been 
 forced to embrace, while the reader will criticise that portion with which he is 
 best acquainted ; he will ask, therefore, for a fair indulgence from those who 
 have never engaged in such a task, nothing doubting that he who knows the 
 difficulty of avoiding such errors, from experience, will use that forbearance 
 which the case requires. 
 
 (2) b 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 Some persons may object that the opponents of the Establishment are 
 occasionally depicted in too favourable colours, and the defects of our common 
 parent held up to view with less cautious respect than becomes a dutiful son of the 
 Church of England. Let such remember, in the spirit of meekness, that there 
 is a higher body to which we belong, and that the Church of England is no 
 further our mother than as she proves herself a church of Christ. If such a 
 charge be reasonably substantiated, no one will be more ready to find that he 
 has been deceived than the writer of these pages ; he has always endeavoured 
 to search for the truth, and he hopes that in this pursuit he may never grow 
 weary. To say that the Church of England is imperfect in constitution and 
 practice, is only to say that she was partly framed by human beings, and is 
 administered by men : but to pray that her maladministrations may be corrected 
 by her friends, and her deficiencies supplied by those who understand her 
 constitution, is the petition of one who, while he admires the Church of 
 England, believes that neither communities nor individuals are infallible. 
 
 And if the perusal of these volumes shall be accompanied with a portion of 
 that amusement which their composition has afforded the author ; if they shall 
 contribute to excite in the breast of others that love and admiration for our 
 church which their preparation has confirmed in the heart of the writer, their 
 publication will fully answer the desires of one who believes that the best 
 reformation of the Church of England would be to reduce her in practice to what 
 she is in theory ; who believes that her doctrines are such, that he who ventures 
 his eternal safety to her guidance is taking a secure path; and that the 
 framework of her establishment is that Avhich, under God's providence, is best 
 suited, in the present state of the Christian world, to preserve and disseminate 
 our holy faith among the various branches of society. 
 
 Kings Worthy, 
 Jlpril, 1832. 
 
AJ)VEIITISEMENT TO THE SECOND EDITION. 
 
 The circumstances of the Author of this Sketch are so changed since he 
 wrote it, that they will sufficiently account for his reprinting the work with little 
 or no alteration. The Rector of Bloomsbury ought to be engaged in other 
 tasks than that of writing ecclesiastical history. The public have taken off the 
 first edition, as rapidly as could have been expected, considering its extent and 
 the nature of the work ; and in offering a second in a cheaper form, the Author 
 has consulted the convenience of those for whose use it was originally designed ; 
 in this edition he has corrected such errors as his friends have kindly pointed out 
 to him, and he places it before students in Theology, with the hope that it may 
 assist them in becoming acquainted with the history of the Church of England ; 
 and that they may derive as much practical advantage from this pursuit, as he 
 has obtained from it, in all the different circumstances to which his clerical duties 
 have called him. 
 
 Rectory, St. George's, Bloomsburt, 
 ^pril, 1838. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 % 1. Gekebal outline of the history of the Bri- 
 tish church before the Saxon invasion. 
 
 2. England early converted to Christianity ; 
 possibly by St. Paul : other traditions 
 without any foundation. 
 
 3. KingLucius. Earlypersecutions; the Dio- 
 clesian. St. Alban. Constantius Chlorus. 
 Conslantine puts an end to persecution. 
 
 4. British bishops at early councils ; Aries, 
 Nice, Sardica, Ariminum. 
 
 6. Pelagian heresy. Germanus, Lupus, and 
 Severus. Schools established. Illutus and 
 Dubritius; Banchor; Gallican liturgy. 
 
 6. Saxons converted by St. Augustin ; Ethel- 
 bert, Britha. Gregory I. instrumental in 
 this event. 
 
 7. Augustin, archbishop of England. Chris- 
 tian festivals accommodated to the hea- 
 then feasts. Ecclesiastical establishment. 
 Union with the British church attempted. 
 Easter ; Roman method of keeping it 
 adopted by Oswi. 
 
 8. Theodore made archbishop. Adrian. Pa- 
 rish churches established. Bishoprics 
 divided. Wilfred appeals to the pope. 
 Sussex converted. 
 
 9. Wilfred's appeal to Rome; superiority of 
 Rome over Saxon England. Council of 
 Cloveshoo. 
 
 T). Union of the heptarchy. The Danes at- 
 tack monasteries. Ethelwulph's grant to 
 the church : tithes had been previously 
 mentioned: they are sometimes spoken 
 of as due by divine right. 
 
 11. Alfred educates England; he translates 
 many books into Saxon ; his general in- 
 formation ; establishes a school for his 
 son; foreign kings educated in England; 
 sends an embassy to the Syrian Indians. 
 
 12. Odo and Dunstan. The Danes incorpo- 
 rated with the English. Wealth of the 
 church. 
 
 13. Imperfection of this sketch ; materials de- 
 fective ; the subject one of curiosity rather 
 than utility. Errors of the church of 
 Rome generally those of human nature. 
 
 14. Debt due to Rome ; probable date of the 
 perversions of doctrine, and their intro- 
 duction into England. 
 
 15. Prayers for the dead ; in early use ; his- 
 tory of the doctrine of purgatory; com- 
 mon to many religions ; prayers for the 
 dead not necessarily connected with it. 
 Traces of the doctrine among the Anglo- 
 Saxons. Popular notions of it in the time 
 of Bede and Alcuin. 
 
 . 6. Transubstantiation. Waterland's account 
 
 of the history of it; probably not received 
 by the Anglo-Saxons. Elfric's homily. 
 Bertram. 
 
 17. Mass; believed to be a sacrifice for the 
 living and dead. 
 
 18. Pictures and images. The decrees of the 
 second council of Nice rejected by the 
 British church. Image worship esta- 
 blished in England before Alfred's time. 
 Prayers addressed to saints about the 
 same period. The doctrine of the Saxon 
 church. 
 
 19. Relics; natural respect for them; sent by 
 Gregory to Augustin, The devotions paid 
 at the tombs of the archbishops of Can- 
 terbury produce disputes about the bodies 
 of the primates. 
 
 20. Pilgrimages ; early made by the English 
 to Jerusalem and Rome. Many Saxon 
 kings visit Rome. Abuses arising from 
 pilgrimages; the Penitential Canons en- 
 join them. 
 
 21. Confession; penance. Difference between 
 the churches of Rome and England with 
 regard to auricular confession. Penances 
 ordinarily imposed. Commutation of pe- 
 nance. 
 
 22. Celibacy of the clergy. The council of 
 Nice endeavoured to impose it. Custom 
 of the Greek church. Early established 
 in England; but generally evaded. Evils 
 arising from it. 
 
 23. Early ecclesiastical establishments. Mo- 
 nastic establishments useful at first; fa- 
 vourable to civilization ; attacked by the 
 Danes. Most of the clergy married dur- 
 ing these times of disturbance; depend- 
 ence on the apostolic see arising from 
 celibacy. Holy water. Service in Latin. 
 Lights in churches. Lord's Prayer, Creed, 
 and Gospel, explained to the people. 
 
 24. Progress of errors in the church of Eng- 
 land. Purgatory and transubstantiation 
 first believed, and then made profitable to 
 the priesthood. Errors introduced into 
 the Anglo-Saxon church by degrees from 
 Rome. 
 
 25. How far the errors of the church destroyed 
 Christianity. When errors in doctrine 
 destroy the hopes of salvation. Evil ten- 
 dency of errors in faith. 
 
 26. Inadequate view of the atonement. Cor- 
 rect faith in the Trinity. Expressions 
 marking false notions of good works. 
 The Anglo-Saxon church much corrupted 
 in doctrines, and the way prepared for 
 greater errors. 
 
 6 3 ix 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER II. p. 17. 
 
 61. There existed a continual struggle be- 
 tween the church and state. We must 
 regard churchmen as advocating the 
 rights of their order. 
 
 53. William I. was possessed of full power 
 over the church. Ecclesiastical property 
 subjected to civil service. Most of the 
 English clergy ejected. Papal legates 
 introduced into England. The ecclesi- 
 astical courts separated from the civil. 
 
 53. The influence of Rome arose from the 
 vices of our kings. The clergy a balance 
 between the crown and aristocracy, and 
 beneficial to the lower orders. Rome in- 
 terfered to support the just rights of the 
 church, and so gained power. Anselm 
 and William II. 
 
 54. Anselm appeals to Rome illegally. Wil- 
 liam admits the authority of the pope, and 
 the legate confirms Anselm, who never- 
 theless flies from England. Investitures. 
 
 55. Henry recalls Anselm ; the dispute be- 
 tween them compromised. Celibacy of 
 the clergy insisted on in vain. 
 
 56. Stephen increases the power of the pope 
 by his injustice. The bishop of Win- 
 chester summons the king before him. 
 Perjury promoted by dispensations. The 
 miseries of England. 
 
 57. Henry II. accepts a grant of Ireland from 
 tlie pope. Beckel. Exemption of eccle- 
 siastics from civil j urisdiction. Constitu- 
 tions of Clarendon. Becket is persecuted, 
 and flies. 
 
 58. He is received by the court of France and 
 the pope; Henry very violent; Becket 
 equally so ; an outward reconciliation is 
 made in vain. 
 
 59. Becket murdered ; miracles at his tomb. 
 Henry submissive to the church. Beck- 
 et's character. 
 
 60. Heresy first punished, 1160. Gerhard and 
 his followers, their opinions uncertain. 
 
 61. Interference of Rome. Convent at Hack- 
 ington; at Lambeth. Tax imposed on 
 the clergy by the pope. 
 
 62. John. Dispute about the election of an 
 archbishop of Canterbury ; Stephen Lang- 
 ton appointed by the pope. England laid 
 under an interdict, and John excommuni- 
 cated. 
 
 63. Philip of France proceeds to depose John ; 
 the barons discontented; John submits to 
 the pope. The pope adverse to Magna 
 Charta. The council of the Lateran de- 
 clares iransubstantiation to be a tenet of 
 the church. 
 
 64. Papal power. Further exactions from the 
 clergy refused. 
 
 65. Greathead opposes the papal usurpations ; 
 esteems the pope antichrist. 
 
 66. Edward I. Increased power of the clergy. 
 Statutes for trying clerks by a jury, and 
 ijfUiagrtmain. Heavy taxes imposed on 
 the clergy. The bull to free ecclesiastical 
 property from taxation was inefficacious. 
 
 67. Growth of the papal power. 
 
 68. Disputes between the crown and die 
 church on temporal rights drove the 
 church into the arms of Rome, and then 
 induced the crown to submit to the au- 
 thority of the pope. 
 
 69. The church taxes itself; the oppression 
 of the crown induces churchmen to ac- 
 quire temporal power, which could alone 
 defend their property. 
 
 70. Source of the power of Rome ; a centre 
 of combination for churchmen, and of 
 defence against the oppression of the 
 crown. The vices of Rome its only 
 weakness. 
 
 CHAPTER in. p. 26. 
 
 101. Abuses must become galling to the peo- 
 ple before they create any great anxiety 
 to remove them. 
 
 102. Political abuses connected with the 
 church of Rome; attempts to limit the 
 papal power, not to destroy it ; injustice 
 of the exclusive jurisdiction of the 
 clergy. 
 
 103. Wealth taken out of the kingdom ; papal 
 provisions. Foreigners holding prefer- 
 ments. Annates ; clergy taxed by the 
 pope. Peter's pence ; bribes for aiding 
 suitors ; papal oflicers spies. The right 
 of sanctuary injurious to the country. 
 
 104. Statutes to restrain the papal power. 
 Mortmain; impolicy of the enactment 
 Provisors. Prsemunire. 
 
 105. Moral abuses; corruptions of the court 
 ofRome. Pride and luxurj- of the clergy; 
 celibacy ; worldly employments ; igno- 
 rance ; mendicant orders. 
 
 106. Doctrinal errors of the church of Rome. 
 Idolatry ; pilgrimages ; pardons ; tran- 
 substantiation. 
 
 107. Small hopes of reformation from Rome 
 itself; inadequacy of canons; dispensa- 
 tions profitable to Rome. 
 
 108. Wiclif distinguished at Oxford ; writes 
 against the covetousness of the court of 
 Rome. 
 
 109. Expelled from the wardenship of Can- 
 terbury Hall ; an enemy to the friars ; 
 disputes on the arrears claimed by the 
 pope ; takes the degree of D. D. ; reads 
 lectures. 
 
 110. Compromise with the pope about provi- 
 sions. Peter's pence redemanded ; Wic- 
 lif declares them not to be due ; offends 
 the pope and clergy. 
 
 111. Wiclif brought before S. Sudbury, in St. 
 Paul's ; his doctrines approved in Ox- 
 ford ; Wiclif brought before the archbi- 
 shop at Lambeth ; sends in a declaration 
 of faith on certain points. 
 
 112. He labours under a severe fever; the 
 friars visit him; translates the Scrip- 
 tures ; opposes Iransubstantiation ; sum- 
 moned before commissioners in Oxford; 
 leaves the university; reported to have 
 recanted. 
 
CONT 
 
 113. Prepares his mind for martyrdom. Sta- 
 tute against heretics; dies of the palsy. 
 
 114. His great learning and good qualities; 
 opposes the temporal power and the doc- 
 trines of Rome; both these are endan- 
 gered by his preaching. 
 
 115. Opinions of Wiclif adverse to the papal 
 supremacy. 
 
 116. He asserts the duty of the laity to take 
 away church property which is misused. 
 Celibacy ; vows taken early in life a 
 great snare. The Scriptures his ultimate 
 standard. 
 
 117. He differs from the church of England 
 with regard to purgatory ; and deems 
 episcopacy not a distinct order. 
 
 U8. Seven Sacraments. Baptism. Confirma- 
 tion not confined to bishops. Absolution 
 and confession. Matrimony. Pilgrim- 
 ages. Images. 
 
 119. Transubstantiation. The first formal de- 
 termination on it in England. He held 
 sound doctrines with regard to the atone- 
 ment and sanctification. 
 
 120. The Lollards numerous. Poor priests. 
 His doctrines promote disturbances. Ox- 
 ford friendly to his doctrines, gives him 
 letters testimonial. 
 
 121. Proclamation against the Lollards ; their 
 petition. Henry IV. grants power to the 
 church. Statute De haretko romburendo. 
 
 122. William Sawtrey burnt ; succession of 
 martyrs; their examinations, chiefly on 
 transubstantiation, and submission to the 
 church. 
 
 123. Lord Cobham had joined Henry IV. In 
 ihS reign of Henry V. he diffuses the doc- 
 trines of Wiclif. Henry tries to convince 
 him of his error. 
 
 124. He is brought to trial; his examination 
 resembles that of Thorpe ; their answers 
 correspond with the opinions of Wiclif. 
 Lord Cobham escapes; he denies a ficti- 
 tious recantation which had been pub- 
 lished; he is hung in St. Giles's field. 
 
 125. A previous disturbance had taken place 
 there ; with which Lord Cobham had 
 probably no connection. 
 
 126. Pecock promotes the Reformation by ex- 
 cusing Romish errors, and analyzing 
 what was innocent in them ; he is made 
 bishop of St. Asaph and Chichester; and 
 deprived of his preferments. 
 
 127. He offended by supporting the papal power 
 on sound principles, and thus actually be- 
 traying its weakness. Images. Pilgrim- 
 
 128. Defends the supremacy, and a variety 
 of religious orders, but blames the abuses 
 into which they had run. 
 
 129. The Bible the standard of his faith; his 
 opinions not far from those of Wiclif; 
 possessed of no great talents. 
 
 130. A continued succession of martyrs. De- 
 pravity of the religious orders. 
 
 131. Summary of the history. Reasons why 
 power is given to the ministers of the 
 gospel. Misused by the church of Rome. 
 
 ENTS. xi 
 
 132. The establishment still useful as apoli- 
 tical engine. The papacy a check to the 
 crown. Importance of ecclesiastical ap- 
 pointments ; the right to them is disputed 
 between the lower clergy, the pope, and 
 the king. 
 
 133. This competition arose from the value 
 of preferments. Bishoprics at first elec- 
 tive ; when they became valuable, they 
 were sought by the king, and the court 
 of Rome stepped in to defend the clergy, 
 and to take the appointment into her own 
 hands. 
 
 134. The wrong appointments of each party 
 destroyed the benefit of tne establish- 
 ment; and as this arose from the wealth 
 of the preferment, the reformers inveighed 
 against this. 
 
 135. Real dilliculty of the question : consider- 
 able power then necessary to defend the 
 property of the church, which was useful 
 in promoting peace and civilization ; this 
 power abused, and a reformation abso- 
 lutely necessary. Bishoprics appointed 
 to by the crown. Wiclif and his followers 
 inveigh against any temporal power in 
 the hands of churchmen. 
 
 136. Offices of state in the hands of church- 
 men. Exclusive jurisdiction. Papal 
 power dependent on false doctrines, and 
 these attacked by Wiclif. His transla- 
 tion of the Bible showed the people the 
 truth, and persecution directed their at- 
 tention to it. 
 
 137. Steps towards a reformation. Wealth 
 of the clergy observed and reprobated. 
 The existence of an English translation, 
 of tracts, and preachers who were ready 
 to suffer. Many persons of rank con- 
 vinced. Wiclif foresaw the final effecl 
 of truth. We must look up through the 
 instruments to the great Artificer. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. p. 42. 
 
 151. Causes of the Reformation: discussion, 
 extension of knowledge. Bill subjecting 
 all robbers to the civil power. A preacher 
 inveighs against it. 
 
 152. Hunne dies iri prison. Coroner's ver- 
 dict of murder against the chancellor. 
 Hunne's body burnt. The king supports 
 the civil power. 
 
 153. Compromise about Horsey, the chancel- 
 lor. Irritation of the people. Imprudence 
 of the clergy. 
 
 154. Vices of the clergy. Wolsey. 
 
 155. Wolsey, history of. Fox introduces him 
 to Henry VIII. His rise. Influence over 
 Henry. His honesty unnecessarily ques- 
 tioned. 
 
 156. Wolsey spoils Henry ; his good qualities 
 and faults. 
 
 157. Henry's book against Luther. Greek 
 literature ; patronized by Henry and Wol- 
 sey. The study cf fhe Scriptures. The 
 cardinal's college. Colet leads lectures 
 in St. Paul's ; accused of heresy. Igno- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 ranee of the clergy. Gospel of Nicode- 
 mus set up at Canterbury. Printing. 
 
 . The divorce ; causes of it. Henry vm. 
 protests against the marriage. He fears 
 the curse of dying childless. Wolsey ac- 
 cused of insinuating scruples into the 
 king's mind by means of Longland. 
 Henry probably entertained them before 
 his love for Anne Boleyn. 
 
 . Proposals made to Clement VII. Cam- 
 pegio sent to England ; he brings a bull 
 with him, which he afterwards burns ; he 
 causes delays, and at last postpones the 
 decision. 
 
 . The cause transferred to Rome. Wol- 
 sey's fall; he is unjustly treated. 
 
 . Wolsey submits, goes to York, and dies ; 
 his character ; a good minister ; weak 
 after his fall. 
 
 . The decision of the question of the di- 
 vorce referred to the Universities ; those 
 of England and France declare the mar- 
 riage illegal. 
 
 . Decisions against the marriage. Cle- 
 ment still deceitful. The clergy in Eng- 
 land comply with the wishes of the king, 
 through fear, and with difficulty acknow- 
 ledge his supremacy. 
 
 . The parliament object to the power of 
 the clergy. First-fruits taken from the 
 pope. Cranmer, archbishop of Canter- 
 bury; his objection to the oaths to the 
 
 to appear by proxy. Difficulty of arguing 
 against the papal dispensation before the 
 pope. The delay of a messenger hastens 
 the decision. 
 
 166. Laws against the pope. Supremacy of 
 the king. The power of bishops' courts 
 curtailed. Succession. Oath of supre- 
 macy. 
 
 167. More and Fisher sent to the Tower. The 
 Maid of Kent. 
 
 168. Character of Sir Thomas More ; and his 
 death. 
 
 169. Character of Fisher ; his death. Marga- 
 ret professorships. 
 
 170. The clergy are hated; the causes of this. 
 Persecutions : Bilney, Byfield, Tewksbu- 
 ry, Bainham, Tracy, Harding, Hewett, 
 Frith. Purgatory attacked. 
 
 171. Supplication of Beggars. Practice of 
 prelates. 
 
 172. The papal supremacy not more arbitrary 
 than that of Henry. The Scriptures, and 
 the discussion of religious questions. 
 
 173. The effects of persecution; of burning 
 the Scriptures. Story of Tonstal. 
 
 174. Review of the Reformation. Character 
 of those who were chiefly instrumental in 
 producing it ; Henry, Wolsey, Sir Tho- 
 mas More, Clement. 
 
 CHAPTER V. p. 54. 
 SOI. The church of England must be dated 
 from the divorce. The clergy irritate the 
 
 king. Franciscans executed. Visitation 
 of the church. Inhibition sent to the 
 bishops ; their ecclesiastical authority 
 restored to them by a commission from 
 the king. The bishops raise no opposi- 
 tion. 
 
 202. The king's object in dissolving monaste- 
 ries. Cranmer's instructions given to the 
 visitors. Voluntary surrenders. All mo- 
 nasteries under 200/. per annum given to 
 the king. Number of these foundations ; 
 they bring little profit to the crown. 
 
 203. Execution of Anne Boleyn ; her inno- 
 cence. Divorce. Cranmer. Henry re- 
 conciled to Mary. 
 
 204. Henry marries Jane Seymour. Act of 
 Succession. Acts of parliament against 
 the pope's authority. 
 
 205. Convocation. Alesse argues against the 
 five sacraments. Parties now formed in 
 the church. Articles put forth. 
 
 206. Abstract of the Articles. 
 
 207. Proclamation of the clergy in favour of 
 real reform. 
 
 208. General council assembled at Mantua. 
 Henry is summoned to appear. The 
 convocation and king reject the sum- 
 mons. Cardinal Pole writes against the 
 king. 
 
 209. Surrender of monasteries ; distress occar 
 sioned thereby. Some religious houses 
 re-founded. Pilgrimage of grace. King's 
 letter to the bishops. 
 
 210. Northern rebellion suppressed. Many 
 executed. 
 
 211. The suppression of monasteries hastened 
 by this ; a new visitation appointed ; dis- 
 orders discovered in many of them ; ex- 
 ceptions. 
 
 212. Surrenders; small benefit derived to the 
 crown. Shrines, &c., destroyed. 
 
 213. Bishops' book and king's book. 
 
 314. New line of policy adopted by Gardiner. 
 Corporal presence in the sacrament. Dif- 
 ficulty with regard to the Lutheran states 
 The sacramentaries. 
 
 215. Lambert; brought before Cranmer ; ap- 
 peals to the king; his trial; the event of 
 it; he is burnt, with very great sufiering. 
 
 216. Proclamation against the marriage of the 
 clergy. Cranmer screened. 
 
 217. The king angry with the Protestants 
 because they refused to grant him all 
 the church property. The Six Articles ; 
 Cranmer argues against them; the penal- 
 ties imposed by them severe. 
 
 218. Act for the suppression of monasteries; 
 for the erection of new bishoprics ; to 
 sanction the king's proclamations. Cran- 
 mer little affected by the law of the Six 
 Articles. Latimer and Shaxton resign 
 their sees. Proclamation for printing 
 the Bible. 
 
 219. Henry marries Anne of Cleves. Fall of 
 Cromwell; Cranmer speaks for him ; he 
 is condemned by an act of attainder. 
 
 220. Cromwell's character. 
 
 221. Henry divorced from Anne of Cleves; she 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 resides in England. He marries Catha- 
 rine Howard. Powerofthe Roman Catho- 
 lics. Martyrdom of Barnes. Observation 
 of Lord Herbert on persecution. 
 
 222. Proclamation in favour of the Bible. Ex- 
 ecution of the queen; an attempt to sup- 
 press the Bible; the examination of the 
 translation referred to the universities. 
 
 223. Injunctions put forth by Bishop Bonner; 
 preaching forbidden. Homilies published. 
 Writing sermons. An act of parliament 
 for and against the reformers as to burn- 
 ing heretics and reading the Bible; great 
 power granted by it to the king. "The 
 Necessary Doctrine" published. 
 
 224. Catharine Parr. Persecution at Wind- 
 sor. Plot against Cranmcr; his forgiving 
 temper. Litany put forth in English ; 
 with other prayers. 
 
 225. Reformers advanced to the bench. Cha- 
 pels and chantries 'given to the king; 
 alarm of the universities. The king's 
 judicious speech about religion; his per- 
 secuting conduct. Shaxton. Anne As- 
 kew burnt; hersupposed connection with 
 the court. 
 
 226. Cranmer's danger; the ill conduct of the 
 council towards him. Danger of the 
 queen ; she becomes acquainted with it, 
 and parries the blow. 
 
 227. Lord Surrey's execution. Danger of 
 attainders. Number of persons executed 
 during the reign, Henry's character ; he 
 was ungrateful to his servants, but well 
 served; he was selfish. 
 
 228. He was possessed of considerable natu- 
 ral talents and virtues, but these were all 
 spoilt by want of restraint over himself; 
 cruel; liberal-minded when not irritated ; 
 with all his vices a great instrument in 
 the hands of Providence, which worked 
 good out of evil. 
 
 229. The papal power thrown down by opi- 
 nion as well as law. The people taught 
 to think for themselves. The clergy 
 plundered, and deprived of the means of 
 acquiring wealth by the attack which 
 had been made on the doctrine of purga- 
 tory. The Bible dispersed, and children 
 instructed. 
 
 230. Corporal presence still held. Celibacy. 
 The service in Latin. Ecclesiastical 
 courts. Auricular confession ; evils of it. 
 
 231. The influence of the Reformation in Ger- 
 many not considerable during this reign. 
 
 232. The Protestants write to England and 
 France. Henry answers them. He sends 
 ambassadors to Smalcalde and Bruns- 
 wick. Agents sent to London. The 
 points to which they object. The act of 
 the Six Articles puts an end to the whole 
 discussion. 
 
 APPENDIX A. TO CHAPTER V. p. 70. 
 
 ON THE DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES. 
 
 S-ll. The question to be examined. Whether 
 the transfer of property aided the Refor- 
 mation, and whether it was beneficial. 
 (3) 
 
 242. Monasteries originally rich, and useful 
 as places where the arts of peace wer-? 
 securely exercised. 
 
 243. The Danes restore monasteries. Benefit 
 of the right of asylum. 
 
 244. Lay fiefs a premium on war ; ecclesias- 
 tical foundations on peace, and therefore 
 practically beneficial. 
 
 245. Architecture, literature, and trade pro- 
 moted by them. 
 
 246. By degrees they become less useful. 
 
 247. Monasteries favoured by the people, 
 because they supported the younger 
 branches of the nobility and gentry ; and 
 were good landlords and charitable to 
 the poor. Celibacy directed the exer- 
 tions of every churchman to the exten- 
 sion of his order. 
 
 248. The monastic establishments would hard- 
 ly have been thrown down without some 
 external force; this was provided in the 
 rapacity of Henry. The doctrine of pur- 
 gatory examined. Many plans for the 
 application of the wealth of the dissolved 
 foundations. 
 
 249. Henry's plans ; construction of harbours. 
 Bacon's; a seminary for diplomacy. 
 
 250. Impropriations continued, a great evilt 
 
 251. Question as to the application of the 
 church revenues. Education promoted 
 by assisting those who are already pos- 
 sessed of the means of instruction. Uni- 
 versity wanted in the north of England. 
 
 252. Lands of corporate bodies are compara- 
 tively unproductive. Activity in educa- 
 tion promoted by competition. 
 
 253. Evils and hardships immediately arising 
 from the dissolution of monasteries. 
 
 254. It is wonderful how easily the property 
 was taken away from the monasteries • 
 it ultimately fell into the hands of the 
 industrious. 
 
 255. At the time the transfer was most inju- 
 rious. 
 
 256. Destruction of property and libraries 
 loss to history. 
 
 257. Many persons thrown out of employ- 
 ment; there were then too many agricul- 
 tural labourers. 
 
 258. Amount of the transfer of properly; the 
 efl!(;cts of it injurious at the time. 
 
 259. The ultimate results beneficial. Benef/.s 
 of a church establishment. The laity 
 chiefly instrumental in bad appointments. 
 
 APPENDIX B. TO CHAPTER V. p. 79. 
 
 noCTIlINES PUEVALENT AT THE END OF THE 
 BEIGN OF HENnr Till. 
 
 271. Three treatises put forth by authority. 
 The doctrines contained in these retro- 
 grade. 
 
 272. The articles inserted in the Institution. 
 Points in which the Erudition had ad- 
 vanced towards the doctrines of our 
 church. The order of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles convenient for examining these 
 doctrines. Arrangement of the tracts 
 themselves. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 273. Witn regard tc the Trinity, the church 
 of England agrees with that of Rome. 
 
 274. With regard to the standard of faith, the 
 difference is greater in appearance than 
 in reality. The Decalogue admitted ; ex- 
 ception of the fourth commandment. 
 
 275. Original sin. Freewill. Justification by 
 faith. Good works. Works done before 
 justification; and of supererogation. 
 
 276. Christ alone without sin. Hepentance. 
 Predestination. Universality of redemp- 
 tion. Salvation through Christ alone. 
 These doctrines not so distinctly laid 
 down as in the Thirty-nine Articles. 
 
 277. Articles relating to the church. Errors 
 of Rome not slated. Diversity of rites 
 does not destroy nnity. Purgatory, mass- 
 es, and exequies. Images. Invocation 
 of saints. 
 
 278. Seven sacraments ; difference with re- 
 gard to different sacraments. Baptism ; 
 penance ; and the Lord's supper. The 
 other four not equally necessary. The 
 difference as to the manner in which the 
 church of England holds these is merely 
 concerning the name. In baptism the 
 chrism retained. 
 
 279. Penance or repentance ; the sacramental 
 partof it consists in absolution. Doctrines 
 of the churches of England and Rome ; 
 that of the Erudition nearer (he church of 
 Rome; danger of this doctrine. Orders; 
 two only mentioned in Scripture, different 
 from either the church of England or 
 Rome. Confinnation. Extreme unction. 
 
 280. Transnbslantiation. Matrimony. Celi- 
 bacy of the clergy. 
 
 281. Traditions and ceremonies. The king's 
 supremacy. 
 
 2S2. In doctrinal points the Erudition made 
 small progress. Differences between the 
 two churches. Papal infaliibility the 
 curse of Rome. 
 
 283. Points of difference between the Institu- 
 tion and Erudition. Transubstantiation ; 
 ceremonies : justification by faith ; in 
 which the latter had gone back as to its 
 doctrines. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. p. 85. 
 
 301. Lord Hartford made Protector. Cranmer 
 retiring in his disposition. Wriothesley 
 injadicions ; this circumstance favour- 
 able to the Reformation. 
 
 .'5C3. The common people hasty in refonning; 
 some persons reprimanded for it. Cran- 
 rcer anxious to destroy images. Gardi- 
 ner writes in lavour of them. 
 
 303. Henry VFII. left money for masses and 
 obits; the progress of opinion not rapid; 
 delayed by giving preferments to monks 
 who had been turned out from monaste- 
 ries. Poverty of benefices a hinderance 
 to the gospel. 
 
 304. Opponents to reformation strong. Cran- 
 mer uses civil authority against them. 
 Visitation for ecclesiastical matters. 
 
 Images which had been abused to false 
 devotion, to be taken down. 
 
 305. First book of Homilies published. Eras- 
 mus' Paraphrase to be set up in every 
 church. Petition for the dead altered. 
 Injunctions sent forth. 
 
 306. The reformers strengthened by the suc- 
 cess in Scotland. Severity used towards 
 opponents. Bonner and Gardiner sent to 
 prison. Mary remonstrates, and objects 
 to any alteralioDs during her brother's 
 minority. 
 
 307. The parliament repeal the severe laws. 
 Communion in both kinds granted the 
 laity. Private masses forbidden. Laws 
 about bishops and their courts. Chan- 
 tries given to the crown ; alarm about 
 colleges. 
 
 308. Images removed. Proclamation against 
 innovating. Communion examined; ques- 
 tions proposed; many superstitious no- 
 tions still retained. 
 
 309. Communion Service published. Auri- 
 cular confession left optional ; the evils 
 arising from confession have made Pro- 
 testants neglect it. These arose from the 
 corruption of the early customs of the 
 church. The church of England recom- 
 mends it, bnt neglects it. 
 
 310. Gardiner imprisoned for refusing to 
 preach according to notes given him 
 from court. Cranmer's Catechism. 
 
 311. Bill for the marriage of the clergy. The 
 law of God does not enjoin celibacy, and 
 the imposing it is injurious to morals. 
 The secular clergy boun 1 by no oath. 
 
 312. Psalm singing. Fish enjoined to be eaten 
 on fast days, to suppon the fisheries. Sir 
 Thomas Seymour, the admiral, executed. 
 
 313. Ecclesiastical visitation. Examination of 
 points of faith. Transubstantiation. Con- 
 substantiation. Doctrine of the church of 
 England. 
 
 314. Disputations in Oxford and Cambridge 
 on transubstantiation. 
 
 315. .Anabaptists, confusion about them; a 
 commission appointed against them. 
 Joan Bocher burnt. Edward tinwilling 
 to sign the warrant ; Cranmer urges him. 
 George Van Pare bnnit. 
 
 316. The new Litursy drawn up with great 
 moderation. Wisdom of having the old 
 prayers in Latin; an odd argument in its 
 favour. 
 
 317. Infant baptism and predestination the 
 causes of differences in the church. Dis- 
 solute morals prevalent. Labourers out 
 of employment. Risings in Norfolk and 
 Devonshire. The demands of the rebels, 
 
 318. Bonner deprived of his bishopric for not 
 preaching as he was directed. 
 
 319. The fail of Protector Somerset. The earl 
 of Warwick (duke of NorihumberlaDd) 
 joins the reformers. Old service books 
 destroyed. Ordination service prepared. 
 Heath sent to prison. 
 
 320. Gardiner detained in prison, and deprived 
 of his bisiiopric. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Hooper entertains scruples about the 
 dresses ; Cranmer, Ridley, and Bucer 
 argue against him. The question of con- 
 formity. 
 
 Common prayer reviewed. Prayers for 
 the dead, exorcisms, &c., objected to by 
 Bucer; his book given to Edward VI. 
 Edward's own book. 
 
 Ridley made bishop of London ; his visit- 
 ation. Altars changed into communion 
 tables. Preaching on week-days stopped. 
 
 Many foreign Protestants fly into Eng- 
 land. John a Lasco the superintendent 
 of the churches in London. Many learned 
 men received by Cranmer; his plan of a 
 Protestant union. 
 
 The Forty-two Articles prepared ; no 
 grounds for deeming them a compromise 
 of opinions. 
 
 Common Prayer altered. Six king's 
 preachers appointed and sent through 
 the countrj'. 
 
 Mary's chaplain imprisoned for saying 
 mass ; she will listen to no arguments on 
 the subject. 
 
 Execution of the Protector. His death 
 attributed to the duke of Northumberland. 
 Means taken to injure him in the opinion 
 of his nephew. 
 
 Acts of parliament. Liturgy; holidays; 
 fasting ; eating fish ; marriage of the 
 clergy. The parliament dissolved. 
 
 Commission for reforming ecclesiastical 
 courts. Poverty of the church. Degrad- 
 ing employments of the clergy. See 
 of Gloucester suppressed from poverty. 
 Spoliation still carried on. 
 
 See of Durham divided by act of parlia- 
 ment. The palatinate given to the duke 
 of Northumberland, and Tonstal deprived 
 for misprision of treason. The larger 
 Catechism (Ponet's) authorized. 
 
 Edward's foundation : St. Bartholomew's 
 hospital, Christ's hospital, and Bridewell. 
 
 The duke of Northumberland persuades 
 Edward VL to leave the crown to Lady 
 Jane Grey ; the crown lawyers unwilling 
 to draw the deed ; Cranmer unwilling to 
 sign it ; Judge Hales refuses. 
 
 Edward near his death ; his character, by 
 Cardan. Cranmer's and Ridley's speech 
 
 to Cheke. 
 
 State of the church of England. The 
 lower orders not generally fond of the 
 Reformation ; the upper orders bribed to 
 approve of it; the clergy adverse to it. 
 Morals depraved by the transfer of pro- 
 perty, and the destruction of the power 
 of the ecclesiastical courts. 
 
 Erastianism of the church of England. 
 The question discussed, whether the re- 
 ligion of our church be a parliamentary 
 one. Too great temporal power of the 
 church of Rome produced a reaction. 
 , The power opposed to reformation con- 
 siderable; danger of delay from the state 
 of the king. Opinions of Cranmer very 
 Erastian. 
 
 338. Churchmen drew up the reforms; the 
 parliament or king sanctioned them. The 
 alterations must depend on their own 
 merits. 
 
 339. The commissions granted to the bishops 
 destroyed the nature of a ministry. The 
 bishops generally entertained opinions at 
 variance with them, and their acts must 
 be valid. This does not decide whether 
 Cranmer were wise in his proceedings. 
 
 340. There was not only need of reformation, 
 but of restraining innovators; and the 
 exertion of the temporal power was pro- 
 bably alone adequate to both these ends. 
 It cast out superstition and preserved 
 episcopacy, and the decent ceremonies 
 of religion. 
 
 341. Our standards drawn from Lutheran 
 sources. Melancthon invited to Eng- 
 land, and consulted with regard to the 
 Articles of 1530 ; many of the Forty-two 
 Articles borrowed from him ; article on 
 consubstantiation. Services formed from 
 Lutheran sources. 
 
 342. The documents of our church not origi- 
 nal ; wisely borrowed from other sources. 
 She altered as little as she could; and 
 where she was forced to alter, borrowed 
 from previous reformers. This the wisest 
 plan of proceeding. 
 
 CHAPTER VIL p. 106. 
 
 351. The religious opinions of Mary unfavour- 
 able to her cause. Some persons doubt 
 as to Edward's power of leaving the 
 crown by will. Lady Jane Grey. 
 
 352. Mary proclaimed queen ; her error in 
 promising more than she could perform, 
 or perhaps meant to do. 
 
 353. Gardiner chancellor; his prudence in 
 wishing to bring matters connected with 
 religion to the state in which Henry VIII. 
 left them ; afraid of Pole. Precipitancy 
 of the Roman Catholics. Bonner rein- 
 stated in his see. 
 
 354. Prohibition of preaching. Restoration 
 of the deprived bishops. Mary hostile to 
 her Protestant friends ; many Protestants 
 fly beyond sea. The bishops prepare for 
 persecution. 
 
 355. The parliament repeals the acts of Ed- 
 ward. Lady Jane Grey attainted; Cran- 
 mer comprehended in the bill. 
 
 356. Cardinal Pole legate ; his arrival delayed 
 by the advice of Gardiner. The idea of 
 any personal attachment on the part of 
 Mary unfounded. The parliament unfa- 
 vourable to the Spanish alliance and to 
 the papal supremacy. 
 
 357. The convocation attacks the Common 
 Prayer and Catechism. Six Protestants 
 advocate the cause of the Reformation ; 
 their arguments borne down by clamour. 
 
 358. Public disputations useless ; a remark 
 of W^eston. The supposed infallibility 
 of Rome incompatible with free discus- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xvi 
 
 359. Dislike to the Spanish match. Wyat's 
 rebellion. Mary strensjthened by it. Lady 
 Jane Grey executed. Severity in the other 
 executions. 
 
 360. Anti-reformation. The married clergy 
 are ejected. Bishoprics void. Haste in 
 these proceedings. 
 
 361. Abrogation of oaths. Disputation at Ox- 
 ford. Patience of the sufferers. 
 
 362. The prisoners at Oxford appeal to hea- 
 ven; those in London decline a disputa- 
 tion ; declaration of faith published by 
 them. 
 
 363. The marriage of the queen produced no 
 respite to the reformers. Revenge mixed 
 with persecution. The evil temper on 
 both sides. 
 
 364. Reconciliation with Rome. Attainder of 
 cardinal Pole reversed; his arrival in 
 England; he inveighs against those who 
 detained church property; bull of Paul 
 IV. against them. Gardiner's policy. 
 
 365. Discussion with regard to persecution. 
 Gardiner's sufferings; his book on the 
 divorce republished. A sort of inquisi- 
 tion established. 
 
 366. Persecution; little effect produced by it ; 
 general feeling against it. Philip and 
 Alphonsus oppose it. Mary soured by 
 Philip's neglect. 
 
 367. Steps for detecting heretics ; torture em- 
 ployed. Thanks given to those who 
 sanctioned persecution. Many fly or 
 apostatize. Disputes in Germany. Trou- 
 bles at Frankfort. 
 
 368. Pole adverse to persecution ; overruled 
 by Gardiner. Gardiner's death and cha- 
 racter. 
 
 369. Foundations of Mary; her sincerity in 
 this. Reforms passed in convocation. 
 Pole intends to publish the remodelled 
 Institution of a Christian Man, and a New 
 Testament. 
 
 370. Cranmer burnt; his degradation by Bon- 
 ner and Thirlby ; his fall ; reflections on 
 it; his condemnation after recanting for- 
 tunate for him ; his character; what our 
 church owes to him. 
 
 371. More persecutions. Ministers every- 
 where found to carry on their task. 
 Housekeepers ordered to keep their ap- 
 prentices from burnings. Books brought 
 from abroad ; dissensions there. 
 
 372. Cardinal Pole consecrated archbishop 
 of Canterbury. Mary establishes reli- 
 gious houses ; destroys documents unfa- 
 vourable lo her friends. 
 
 373. Visitation of the universities; they dis- 
 turb the bones of reformers. Commis- 
 sion granted to Bonner. Pole unable to 
 restrain persecution. 
 
 374. Paul IV. enraged at Pole; takes away 
 his legatine powers. Peto refused ad- 
 mission into England. Loss of Calais. 
 Money granted by parliament. More per- 
 secutions ; numbers who suffered during 
 the reign; people forbidden to pray for 
 the sufferers. 
 
 375. Death of Mary; her character; sincere; 
 morose. Death of Pole ; his character. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. p. 118. 
 
 401. The varied prospects of Elizabeth on 
 ascending the throne. Fears from the 
 Roman Catholics. Errors of the late 
 reign. 
 
 402. Prudence of her conduct. She sends to 
 Philip, to Rome. Paul IV. refuses to ac- 
 knowledge her as queen ; a step injurious 
 lo the Roman Catholics of England. She 
 strives to unite all her subjects. A com- 
 mittee appointed to examine the church 
 services; some prayers allowed in Eng- 
 lish. Preaching forbidden. Her personal 
 deportment conciliating. 
 
 403. Coronation performed by Oglethorp ; the 
 other bishops refuse to assist. Parlia- 
 ment. The supremacy is restored to the 
 queen without the name. Oath of supre- 
 macy imposed, with severe penalties in 
 case of refusal. 
 
 404. Tenths and first-fruits restored to the 
 crown. Power of exchanging property 
 between vacant bishoprics and the crown: 
 the evil of this. 
 
 405. Act of Uniformity. Disputation held in 
 Westminster Abbey ; the confusion which 
 ended it is due to the Roman Catholic 
 bishops ; points disputed. Objections of 
 the bishops to any discussion before the 
 laity. 
 
 406. The convocation is adverse to reform. In- 
 junctions set forth. Declaration concern- 
 ing the supremacy. High commission 
 established. 
 
 407. Ejection of the Roman Catholic clergy. 
 Appearance of combinaiion among the 
 bishops ; they were treated generally with 
 moderation. Heath. Bonner dies in 
 prison. One hundred and eighty-nine 
 clergymen ejected, many of them holding 
 high preferments ; the conciliatory mea- 
 sures of the queen. 
 
 408. Abuse of images inquired into; opinions 
 of the queen on this point. She retains 
 a crucifix in her chapel. W^rong in her 
 temporizing. 
 
 409. Bishoprics filled up. Difficulty of con- 
 secrating the new bishops. Parker, arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury, consecrated. The 
 story of the Nag's Head consecration. 
 
 410. Defective state of the clergy. Inade- 
 quate persons ordained. Poverty of the 
 church. Its causes. 
 
 411. The bishops employed in their dioceses, 
 and in preparing reforms. Jewel's apo- 
 logy published. 
 
 412. Act concerning the oath of supremacy; 
 injurious tendency of it The Thirty- 
 eight articles published. Noel's Cate- 
 chism. Second book of Homilies. 
 
 413. Review of the Reformation. Fundament- 
 als of Christianity more clearly esta- 
 blished. The rejection of transubstan- 
 tiation enforces the personal responsi 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 bility of each indiviilual Christian. The 
 clergy the guides, not the judges of their 
 brethren. Fallibility of the church. Po- 
 litical state of the clergy altered by their 
 marriages, and their diminished wealth. 
 Poverty of the bishops. Evils arising 
 from the Reformation. Spoliation ; sub- 
 jection of the church to the state; waiil 
 of ecclesiastical discipline; neglect of 
 the means of religious improvement; con- 
 fession ; fasting; want of restraint over 
 the flock in the clergy. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. p. 128. 
 
 414. The peace of th? church disturbed hv 
 disputes about tritles. The church of 
 Rome used too many ceremonies; the 
 foreign reformers too few; their opinions 
 adopted by the exiled English. 
 
 415. The question of dresses. When may 
 the subject refuse to obey i. When should 
 the government press uniformity 1 What 
 is the duty of an ecclesiastical officer ! 
 May it not be his duty to obey himself, 
 without pressing others? 
 
 416. The actof uniformity enjoined ihedresses 
 of the first Prayer Book of Edward VI. 
 Elizabeth presses unifinniiv; (ibjfrtioiis 
 to the cap and surplice; most ol'tlie cler- 
 gy comply; Sampson and Humphrey re- 
 fuse; they are deprived. 
 
 417. Difficulty of judging on such (juestions. 
 Greater indulgence might probably have 
 been used with advantage. 
 
 418. Opinion of Jewel, who disliked the 
 dresses, vet conformed. Sandys averse 
 to them. Griiulal complied against his 
 good-will. P irkerlmd t-n n-n ai lu-d doi.bts. 
 Whitgift had petitiuiK'd against them. 
 
 419. Foreigners advise siilunission. Thp 
 Scotch church wrote in tivoLir of the 
 nonconformists. 
 
 420. Elizabeth very peremptory. Parker irri- 
 tated, and not well supported by the court; 
 the (lifficullies of his situation. 
 
 421. The puritans resisted the civil power 
 vested in the hamls of the bishops : and 
 the struggle by degrees became partly po- 
 liiical. 
 
 422. Boih parlies in llie wr .ii^. Parlcri ii rt 
 suited to concession, which was ii first 
 easy. He was harsh in comparison with 
 Grindal, and unconciliaiing towards the 
 London clergy. 
 
 423. Ohjeciions of the puritans. Book of 
 Comm(m Prayer. Church music. Disci- 
 pline of the church. Bishops, and the 
 non-election of ministers. Scarcity of 
 minisif rs. \nn-; .-snlcnce. 
 
 424. Baptism sign of the cross; 
 answer .i ! [lonsors. Lay ban- 
 tism. (.'l;iii In.iL, ni women. Cathedral 
 service. 
 
 425. Discipline. Eaiscopaoy, either totally 
 objected to, or disliked, from the wpilth 
 and power of the bishops. The preshy- 
 tery possessed of no spiritual power. 
 
 Civil liberty connected with the ques 
 lion. 
 
 426. Ordination without election. Want of 
 parochial discipline. 'J'he church had 
 neither the power possessed by the church 
 of Rome, nor the iiilluence which was in 
 the hands of the presbytery. Principles 
 of spiritual jurisdiction. The want of 
 power in the inferior clergy the real cause 
 of complaint. 
 
 427. Prophesy ings ; manner of carrying them 
 on; the queen adverse to them; useful 
 in themselves, but liable to abuse. She 
 pillaged the church by means of an act 
 which cnaliled her lo exchange lands 
 
 
 
 428. Kcclesiastical commission; us power 
 indefinite and oppressive. Commission- 
 ers of concealments. The church of 
 Norwich in danger. 
 
 429. Impolicy of Elizabeth in this. Insecu- 
 rity of property. The queen wasteful of 
 the property of the church and crown. 
 The clergy improvident. She paid her 
 courtiers by this means, because she 
 would not apply to parliament. 
 
 430. Poverty of the church. The crown pil- 
 laged the higher clergy, and they the 
 lower. Lay patrons were often guilty of 
 siinoniacal contracts. Loss of fees and 
 personal tithes. (") Question of church 
 property. 
 
 431. 'i'he church in need of quiet. The peo- 
 ple ignorant. The low church wished to 
 innovate ; the high church were negligent 
 and covetous. 
 
 432. Open rupture caused by a proclamation 
 sanctioning the adverlisemeiits. Thirty- 
 S'-ven Loiicloii clei gv pje<;ted ; they form 
 separate congregations, and adopt the 
 service ofGeneva. Many conform, though 
 they dislike the English service. 
 
 433. Many nonconformists at Cambridge. 
 (;artwri^ht opposed by Whitgift; he is 
 silenced and vacates his fellowship. The 
 admonition to parliament. 
 
 434. Convocation. Ecclesiastical law dis- 
 cussed. Canons made, but not ratified. 
 
 435. This question before the commons. Re- 
 fnrmiilm l.niuit Knlcxiiisliranim printed; 
 the idscussiuii (■oiu'i'riiing church mat- 
 ters suppressed by the queen; her skill 
 in resiraining the growing power of the 
 House ; a second attempt of the House. 
 Law requiring subscription to the Thirty- 
 nine .Articles. Concerning the age of 
 priests and deacons. That no lease of 
 church property be good for more than 
 twenty-one years, and about letting tithes, 
 
 436. The universities incorporated. Poor 
 laws estahlished. 
 
 437. Roman Catholics; they generally con- 
 formed till the bull of Pius V. Felton 
 ailixes it lo the palace of the bishop of 
 Loiulon. Severe acts against the Roman 
 Catholics. 
 
 438. Maine executed. Foreign seminaries. 
 Persons and Campian. 
 
 C 
 
xviii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 439. The unjustifiable treatment of Roman 
 Catholics arose from the injudicious zeal 
 of themselves and their leaders. Asso- 
 ciation formed to revenge the queen's 
 death. Elizabeth to blame in not mar- 
 rying. 
 
 440. Treatment of the Roman Catholics ; the 
 abstract justice of it discussed. The 
 principles on which Pius excommuni- 
 cated Elizabeth incompatible with civil 
 society. 
 
 441. How far a missionary priest was impli- 
 cated in this. Persons and Campian. 
 The modification of the bull a fallacy. 
 
 442. Foreign Roman Catholic courts rendered 
 conciliation almost impossible ; the case 
 a pitiable one on both sides; causes of it. 
 Political character of the Reformation. 
 
 443. The political tyranny of Rome aided the 
 Reformation. The infallibility of the 
 church leads to persecution. 
 
 444. Comparison of the executions under 
 Mary and Elizabeth. 
 
 445. Injustice of legal proceedings during this 
 reign. All parties were ready to perse- 
 cute. Sampson. Bacon. Puritans. 
 
 446. Presbytery established at Wandsworth. 
 Mutual animosity. Birchet. Prophesy- 
 ings put down in the diocese of Norwich. 
 The queen the real cause of severe mea- 
 sures. Death and character of Parker. 
 
 447. Grindal offends the queen by patronizing 
 prophesyings ; writes to her. The bish- 
 ops ordered to suppress prophesyings. 
 Grindal is confined to his palace, and ten- 
 ders his resignation ; the convocation pe- 
 tition in his favour. 
 
 448. Character of Grindal; he conformed, 
 though opposed to the dresses, but would 
 not compel others to conform. Eliza- 
 beth's conduct unwise. Discipline over- 
 turned. The puritans are increased. Pe- 
 tition of the parliament to diminish the 
 power of the bishops. 
 
 449. What the treatment of the puritans should 
 have been. Dissent was then totally pro- 
 hibited. If they had been borne with for 
 a time, many would have come over, 
 and the feeling of opposition to the civil 
 government would have been avoided. 
 Elizabeth tried to suppress sermons. 
 Conformity should have been required 
 of those who were entering into orders, 
 and education promoted; the growth of 
 civil liberty would not then have endan- 
 gered the church. 
 
 CHAPTER X. p. 151. 
 
 450. Whitgift, archbishop of Canterbury, strict 
 in enforcing uniformity and requiring 
 subscription to the three Articles ; the 
 ministers of Kent and Suffolk apply to 
 the council ; the archbishop proceeds 
 with vigour. 
 
 451. Inquisitorial Articles, c.r o^cio mero dis- 
 pute as to their legality; Lord Burleigh 
 dislikes them. Discussions carried on 
 
 in presence of some of the court Many 
 considerable persons hostile to the pro- 
 ceedings of the church. Lord Leicester, 
 Beal, and Sir F. Knowles. Jrticuli pro 
 clero. 
 
 452. Objects of the puritans ; a preaching mi- 
 nistry ; they would attack choirs and 
 impropriations. The introduction of the 
 presbytery ; of new ecclesiastical laws. 
 The whole stopped by the queen. 
 
 453. Parliament. Actsforsecuring thequeen's 
 person, and against Jesuits and seminary 
 priests; the first levelled against Mary 
 queen of Scots. Forces sent into Hol- 
 land. 
 
 4.54. Travers and Hooker, dispute between 
 them. Hooker writes his Ecclesiastical 
 Polity. Travers silenced. (') Presbyte- 
 rian orders. 
 
 455. Babington's conspiracy. Mary q. "en of 
 Scots tried and executed. The injustice 
 of this proceeding. 
 
 456. A bill brought in to alter the whole ec- 
 clesiastical laws. Some members sent 
 to the Tower. Firmness of the queen. 
 Judicious acts of convocation. 
 
 457. Spanish Armada. The good condnct of 
 the Roman Catholics. Much blame due 
 to Allen and Persons. Wryghl and others 
 maintain loyal opinions. 
 
 458. Martin Marprelale. The press taken. 
 Many puritans in trouble; they refuse to 
 take the oath ex officio nuro. A party 
 formed to change the constitution of the 
 church. Cartwright hardly dealt with. 
 (') The nature of the oath ex officio mero. 
 
 459. No government could safely allow the 
 proceedings of the puritans ; but unne- 
 cessary severity was used towards them. 
 Eusebius Pagit. Bishops much hated; 
 mismanagement on their part. 
 
 460. Argument in favour of episcopacj'. The 
 question of episcopacy not settled in the 
 New Testament; settled early in eccle- 
 siastical history. A very strong moral 
 proof in favour of it. 
 
 461. Treatment of the libellers. The outrages 
 of enthusiasts not properly chargeable on 
 the puritans. The satires of Tom Nash 
 useful. 
 
 462. Severe laws against puritans and Roman 
 Catholics; some executions of priests; 
 the Roman Catholics themselves the 
 cause of these persecutions. Dispute 
 between the Jesuits and seculars. De- 
 claration of loyalty from the seculars. 
 
 The number of Roman Catholics who 
 suffered. 
 
 463. Disputes at Cambridge on Predestina- 
 tion. Barret recants. The question dis- 
 cussed at Lambeth. 
 
 464. The Lambeth Articles; the dogmatical 
 language of them failed to produce peace 
 or conviction in Cambridge or elsewhere 
 Baro opposes them. ( ) Whether they 
 were forbidden by authority. 
 
 465. Greater peace in the church caused by 
 the growing age of the queen and arch- 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 xix 
 
 bishop. The moderation of the House of 
 Commons. 
 
 466. The puritans became more moderate. 
 Browne. Cartwright repents of his vio- 
 lence. The writings of Hooker and Ban- 
 croft. Character of Cartwright. Good 
 effects of moderation. 
 
 ^7. Character of Elizabeth; her selfishness; 
 love of money and of power; treatment 
 of Roman Catholics and puritans. 
 
 468. In herself she was disposed to favour the 
 Roman Catholics ; their conduct offended 
 and alarmed Protestants; she hated the 
 puritans ; was friendly to education ; but 
 very peremptory about church matters, 
 in consequence of which Grindal remon- 
 strated with her. Her own disinclination 
 to marriage made her dislike it in others, 
 and particularly in the clergy. (^) Mar- 
 riage of the clergy. 
 
 469. Elizabeth was very religious, but an ene- 
 my to free and impartial discussion ; she 
 proved herself a great monarch. 
 
 470. Death of Elizabeth; the earliest account 
 of it; her melancholy; partakes of the 
 offices of religion ; dies quietly. 
 
 471. Little progress had been made in essen- 
 tials in the church; the puritans most to 
 blame, though they had not been treated 
 wisely. Difliculties against which the 
 bishops had to strive. Many of the 
 bishops very unfit men. Sad state of the 
 universities. 
 
 APPENDIX C. TO CHAPTER X. p. 167. 
 
 HISTOnX OF THE THIRTT-NINE ABTICLES. 
 
 481. The Forty-two first published in 1543; 
 their title; appended to a short cate- 
 chism; the history of their composition 
 uncertain. 
 
 482. The committee for reforming ecclesiasti- 
 cal laws appointed, 1549. Cranmer di- 
 rected to frame the Articles; they were 
 submitted to Cecil and Cheke, as well as 
 to others; Ridley is supposed to have as- 
 sisted him. 
 
 483. Whence did Cranmer draw the Articles? 
 The Augsburg Confession ; papers of 
 the committee of doctrines, 1540; from 
 his own researches ; and from Luther 
 and Melancthon. 
 
 484. The Forty-two Articles not sanctioned 
 by convocation; few of the clergy sub- 
 senhed them. 
 
 485. Ai tjclcs examined ia 1562. Parker pre- 
 pares them for the convocation: t^ey 
 alter them; the Thirty-eight printed. 'A 
 bill concerning subscription to the Arti- 
 cles brought into the commons; stopped 
 by the queen in the lords; in 15J|^1 Eli- 
 zabeth allows the bill to pass. The sub- 
 scription limited to the articles of ftiith 
 and the sacraments. The Thirty-nme 
 reviewed by the convocation; subscribed, 
 and printed. ' ~" 
 
 486. Controverted ci|iuse in the twentieth arti- 
 cle ; testimonies concerning it; the ques- 
 
 tion agitated in the examination of Laud, 
 1637. 
 
 487. Idea of the author with regard to the con- 
 troverted clause. Jewel publishes the 
 Articles. 
 
 488. Laud not to blame about the twentieth 
 article. The subscription at present dates 
 from the canons of 1604. Parker and the 
 bishops did not authorize this clause, 
 
 CHAPTER XL p. 173. 
 iNTnoDucTonir observations. 
 
 491. Necessity of exainining the Reformation 
 in Scotland. Benefit of gradual reform. 
 The Reformation had been long preparing 
 in England, and advanced very slowly. 
 
 492. A combination of circumstances contri- 
 buted to the Reformation in England, and 
 tended to moderate its proceedings. 
 
 493. The light of the Reformation was much 
 later before it broke in on Scotland. 
 Deaths of Hamilton and Campbell. Fur- 
 ther persecutions. Avarice of the nobi- 
 lity. Combination between the crown 
 and the clergy. Cardinal Beaton. Po- 
 litical circumstances of England and 
 Scotland. Wishart burnt. 
 
 494. Murder of Beaton. The castle of Su 
 Andrew's reduced by the French. The 
 English interest connected with the re- 
 formers; interests of these two countries. 
 Hostility of the reformers to the govern- 
 ment. The Congregation formed. Use 
 of the Common Prayer. 
 
 495. Mill burnt. Arrival of Knox; his natu- 
 ral impetuosity. Destruction of monas- 
 teries. The Reformation established. 
 Political difference between the churches 
 of England and Scotland. 
 
 496. Faults of Knox; his sternness did not 
 convince those whom he reproved, and 
 was dangerous to the minister himself. 
 Advantages of mildness. 
 
 497. Political tendencies of the Reformation 
 in Scotland ; founded on resistance ; dan- 
 ger of this ground; moderation might 
 have produced the same effect. 
 
 498. Its moderation an argument in favour 
 of the church of England. The prefer- 
 ence to be given to this church over that 
 of Scotland. The feelings which arose 
 from the difference in the constitution of 
 the two churches, productive of consider- 
 able effect in the subsequent history. 
 
 CHAPTER XH. p. 178. 
 
 5Q1. Tranquil succession of James. Dr. Ne- 
 ville congratulates the king from the 
 Church of England. A favourable im- 
 pression produced by James. 
 
 502. The puritans eager for reform. The 
 Millenary petition ; the contents of it. 
 The difficulties in reform. The bishops 
 directed to make inquiries. James anx- 
 ious for information. 
 
 603. The summons to the conference held out 
 
XX 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 no prospect of a free discussion. Alarms 
 of tlie hierarchy. Divines consulted. 
 
 504. Conference at Hamptnn-court. Confirm- 
 ation. Absolution. Baptism. 
 
 605. Oljjectioiis of the puritans to the Thirty- 
 nine Articles; 10th, 17th; it is desired 
 that the Lambeth articles may be intro- 
 duced. 
 
 506. Confirmation ; always performed by bish- 
 ops. Mure objections to iiome of the Ar- 
 ticles. 
 
 507. Catechism. Sabbath. New translation 
 of the Bible. Popish books. Petition for 
 a preaching; and praying ministry. Les- 
 sons from the Apocrypha. 
 
 508. Cross in baptism. Questions proposed 
 to the children. Surplice. Marriage ser- 
 vice. Churching of women. Ecclesias- 
 tical censures. Prophesyings. 
 
 509. The bishops return their answers. The 
 king speaks in favour of oaths cx offirio. 
 Adulation offered to his foolish vanity. 
 The scruples of the nonconformists those 
 of weak men. They request indulgence 
 for certain ministers, and offend the king. 
 The superior wisdom of the king himself 
 
 510. Barlow's account of the conference; so 
 favourable to the episcopal party, that it 
 has been attacked without reason. 
 
 5n. Galiowav's account in reality confirma- 
 tory of Barlow's. (') Bancroft's and 
 Galloway's accounts. 
 
 512. Convocation. Canons ; they are binding 
 on the clergy. Translation of the Bible. 
 Prayer Book. 
 
 513. James deprives himself of the power of 
 alienating church lands. The puritans 
 and Roman Catholics offended at the fa- 
 vour shown to the church. 
 
 514. The powder-plot; discovered by means 
 of a letter; Koman (Catholics implicated; 
 Oldcorn and Garnett executed ; the mira- 
 cle of the straw; the church of Rome by 
 its unwise conduct implicated its own 
 members. 
 
 515. Penal laws. Penalties for not receiving 
 the sacrament; for refusing the oath of 
 allegiance ; for reconciling persons to the 
 church of Rome. Disqualifications im- 
 posed (Ui the Roman Catholics; obliged 
 to conform to the services of the church 
 of England. 
 
 516. The oath of allegiance, not wisely drawn 
 up; Paul V. forbids Roman Catholics to 
 take it; Blackwcll takes it, and is excom- 
 municated for so doing. Laws put in j 
 foice against papists; irapoficy of so j 
 
 517. .Jaiii"=s's plnn of a college at Chelsea for 
 
 ciiiiiin iM - 1 . 1 - ' i\ inity ; not much required, 
 
 518. .1 ;i - 1. r. about theological ques- I 
 linii>; I ■..;ir:i(lus Vorstius at Ley- | 
 den. Burns Lr-gate and Wightman. It 
 was determined that there should be no 
 more public executions. The wisdom of 
 concealing intolerance. 
 
 519. Growing respect for the Sabbath ; the 
 
 point made a party question. James pub- 
 lishes the Book of Sports ; many clergy- 
 men offended at it. 
 
 520. Synod of Dort; delegates sent from Eng- 
 land ; injustice towards the remonstrants ; 
 the five points. Moderation of the church 
 of England. 
 
 521. The king favours the Roman Catholics, 
 on account of the Spanish match. Recu- 
 sants released. Abbot inveighs against 
 toleration. Violent sermons. James pub- 
 lishes a letter concerning preaching, re- 
 straining the subjects of discourses, and 
 limiting the licenses ; it produced no good 
 efl"ect. 
 
 522. Necessity of discussing politics, from 
 their connection with the church ; this 
 will be done by examining the character 
 of James. 
 
 523. James too weak a man to make a good 
 king; he possessed intellect, bat no firm- 
 ness, and was not true to his word. 
 
 524. His ideas in church and state govern- 
 ment were very extravagant, and his 
 want of wisdom in talking about them 
 created suspicions in his subjects. The 
 puritan party was esteemed hostile to the 
 government in both. 
 
 525. The Reformation made men think for 
 themselves, and they began to do so in 
 state as well as church matters. 
 
 526. Elizabeth was arbitrary but powerful, 
 and consulted the good of the country. 
 James, who was a,w,sial£ .>u«fi, and knew 
 not how to govern, was guided by favour- 
 ites ; he hated presbytery; but had 
 abused the church of England till he 
 came to this country. 
 
 527. He disliked the temporal supremacy of 
 Rome, but was otherwise favourable to 
 the Roman Catholics, and yet he perse- 
 cuted them; indistinctness on the ques- 
 tion of the Roman Catholics; ill treat- 
 ment of them ; their own ill conduct. 
 Lnpolicy of the court in combining under 
 the name of puritans all i^'ho in any way 
 opposed the couit. James a bad and 
 weak man. ' ""itw.au. 
 
 APPENDIX D. TO CHAPTER XIL p. 194. 
 
 HISTOnT OF THE TBASSLATIOS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 531. Four periods to be examined. The va- 
 riety of readings and alterations in the 
 same version. 
 
 532. All the English versions are taken from 
 each other. 
 
 533. Early Saxon versions; Hampole's; Wic- 
 lif's; his method of translating; (<) the 
 idea of a previous translation incorrect. 
 
 534. Tyndale's translation of the New Testa- 
 ment, Pentateuch, and Jonas. Joye makes 
 alterations in the (ext. 
 
 535. Covcrdale's Bible dedicated to Henry 
 VIII. ; he was not well suited to the task. 
 Matthew's Bible formed from the two 
 former. 
 
 536. Cranmer's Bible the same as Matthew's. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Taverners. An attempt at correcting 
 the translation, which failed. 
 
 537. Geneva Bible; persons engaged in it; 
 notes objected to by .lames I. 
 
 538. Bishops' Bible, or Parker's Bible ; tables 
 affixed to it ; marriage table. 
 
 539. Rhemes and Douay Bible taken from the 
 Vulgate. 
 
 540. Authorized version; undertaken incon- 
 sequence of some observations at Hamp- 
 ton-court; the persons engaged; rules 
 laid down for them ; great care used. 
 Question about a new translation. Arch- 
 bishop Neucorae. 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. p. 199. 
 
 551. The government of the state influenced 
 the affairs of the church, from the sta- 
 tions which many churchmen held in the 
 administration. 
 
 552. Montague attacked by the commons. 
 Mainwairing fined by them. Both of 
 them made bishops. 
 
 553. Laud urges the clergy to promote forced 
 loans; the clergy thus invested with an 
 office little suited to their character, and 
 made parties to arbitrary proceedings, in 
 the ideas of the people. 
 
 554. Churchmen admitted into the privy-coun- 
 cil, Star Chamber, and High Commission 
 Courts. The foundation and proceedings 
 of the Star Chamber ; its illegal extension ; 
 severity of its punishments. 
 
 555. Court of High Commission. The people 
 angry at the dissolution of so many par- 
 liaments. Williams and Abbot treated 
 severely ; Abbot's real fault. 
 
 556. Feoffees of impropriations ; they act 
 without any legal authority; accused of 
 perverting the charity to wrong purposes ; 
 exchequered, and the property forfeited 
 to the crown. Laud ought to have ma- 
 nages! the charity himself. 
 
 557. Arminianism generally prevails ; parti- 
 cularly among those in authority in the 
 church. Declaration prefixed to the 
 Thirty-nine Articles. Bishop Davenant 
 censured. Preachers at Oxford expelled. 
 These acts create a hostility against the 
 court and church. 
 
 558. The Sabbatarian controversy. The laxity 
 prevalent in Roman Catholic countries 
 had been continued in the reigns of James 
 and Elizabeth. Disputes as to the name, 
 the time of its continuance, the day of 
 celebrating it, and the manner of observ- 
 ing it ; faults on both sides. (2) Austeri- 
 ties of some preachers. 
 
 559. Richardson suppresses wakes, &c., in 
 Somersetshire ; he is brought before the 
 privy council. The Book of Sports re- 
 published; enjoined to be read. The 
 conduct of different clergymen. 
 
 560. Sabbatarian question discussed; diffi- 
 culty of the question; folly of the 
 court; and the ill effect of this on the 
 church. 
 
 (-1) 
 
 561. The proclamation might have done much 
 good, if judiciously drawn up. 
 
 562. Severity against Prynne, Bastwick, and 
 Burton: irritation produced by it; they 
 are brought back in triumph. Odium 
 thrown on the bishops. 
 
 563. Severity used towards Williams. Injus- 
 tice towards Osbolston ; his libel against 
 Laud. These circumstances prove the 
 insecurity of the government. 
 
 564. Scotch Liturgy. Hostility to bishops in 
 Scotland. Alienation of church property ; 
 Elizabeth fostered this. James had gra- 
 dually obtained some power for the bish- 
 ops, and when he came to England en- 
 deavoured to unite the two churches. 
 
 565. The steps by which James endeavoured 
 to establish episcopacy. Assembly of 
 St. Andrew's, and of Perth ; articles of 
 Perth. 
 
 566. The presbyterians petition Charles I. 
 Lord Balmiranoch condemned to death. 
 The causes which contributed to render 
 episcopacy unpopular. Imprudence of 
 Charles. Bad state of the government. 
 
 567. Charles prepares to send down the Scotch 
 Liturgy ; drawn up by Weederburn. Ca- 
 nons sent down under a proclamation; 
 the impolicy of this. The advisers of 
 these measures quite inadequate to the 
 task. 
 
 568. Tumults arising from the use of the Li- 
 turgy ; no one was anxious to suppress 
 them. Hamilton the king's commissioner 
 at Glasgow. The general assembly re- 
 scind all that had been done. The cove- 
 nant signed in Edinburgh, and a civil 
 war begun, in which the king was unsuc- 
 cessful. 
 
 569. The same process was going on in Eng- 
 land. Laud and the bishops were alien- 
 ating the minds of the people by severity, 
 and by enforcing ceremonies ; the ab- 
 surdity of this conduct. 
 
 570. Canons framed ; the questic nable nature 
 of their authority ; the absurdity of them 
 at such a moment ; their enactments ; the 
 et ccplern oath ; the clergy directed to en- 
 force them; their injurious effects with 
 regard to the clergy. They would have 
 made the clergy promoters of the illegal 
 acts of the crown. 
 
 571. An outline of the state of the country; 
 necessity of reform. The power of the 
 king ill defined. The court o; ecclesias- 
 tical commission prejudiced the nation 
 against bishops. Laud attemp'pd to de- 
 fend corruptions, and his opponents were 
 forced to attack the whole of^ the existing 
 state of things. The impolicy of Laud 
 consisted in alieiiating the modera' "party. 
 The struggle was in the state, and epis- 
 copacy was disliked as an engine of state. 
 
 572. Long Parliament. Committees on . hurch 
 matters. The crimes objected to clergy- 
 men. The injustice of these proceedings. 
 
 573. Attacks on the civil power of the church. 
 Property cannot be retained wiihoui pow- 
 
 c2 
 
xxii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 er. Attacks made against the votes of 
 the bishops. They sign a protest, and 
 are unjustly sent to the Tower. Bishop 
 Hall's Hard Measure. The Star Cham- 
 ber and Ecclesiastical Commission sup- 
 pressed. 
 
 574. The first steps tended to curtail the power 
 of the bishops. When the war broke out, 
 the loyalty of the clergy forced the par- 
 liament to destroy them as individuals ; 
 but it was on account of the aid from 
 Scotland that the House favoured the 
 presbytery. 
 
 575. Causes of the war; the existence of real 
 abuses, and the unwillingness of the 
 court to reform them till it was too late. 
 
 576. Outline of the war. Edgehill. The 
 king gains possession of Oxford. Battle 
 of Brentford. 
 
 577. The parliament take Reading. Sir R. 
 HoptoQ takes Bristol. The king loses 
 time in besieging Gloucester. The siege 
 raised, and the first battle of Newbury 
 fought. 
 
 578. Advance of the Scotch army. The co- 
 venant forced upon England. Battle of 
 Marston Moor; York surrenders. The 
 army of Essex surrenders at Fowey. Se- 
 cond battle of Newbury. 
 
 579. Faults and advantages of either party. 
 The royalists were gallant and vicious. 
 The puritans were outwardly religious, 
 regular, and covetous of plunder. 
 
 580. Essex anxious to become the arbitrator 
 of the war. The self-denying ordinance. 
 Cromwell continued in his command. 
 Fairfax, general; his merits. Cromwell 
 the secret contriver of these plans ; his 
 talents in forming his array. (') The 
 classes of persons who composed the two 
 armies. 
 
 581. Campaign of Fairfax. Battle of Naseby. 
 Reduction of the west. Charles surren- 
 ders to the Scotch. Oxford surrenders. 
 The royalists destroyed by their own dis- 
 sensions, arising from want of firmness 
 in the king. 
 
 582. Misery of England. The injustice of 
 the parliament towards Laud and Lord 
 Strafford. Charles much to blame in giv- 
 ing up the latter. Difficulty of drawing 
 Laud's character. 
 
 583. Character of Laud. His objects good; 
 his method of pursuing them unsound ; 
 difficulty of the times. Laud advanced 
 churchmen to defend the church ; and in- 
 creased the hatred of the people towards 
 him ; he so favoured Arminianism as to 
 make the Calvinists his enemies ; he en- 
 forced ceremonies, and engaged the reli- 
 gious feelings of the country against him. 
 As a minister he made the law bend to 
 his wishes. 
 
 584. Many charges brought against him were 
 groundless ; he was guilty, but not of 
 treason ; he was not a hero ; his defence 
 pusillanimous ; his greatness in his afflic- 
 tions. 
 
 585. The church and state were now thrown 
 down, and it was necessary to reconstruct 
 some form of government. Archbishop 
 Usher's plan of combining episcopacy 
 with the presbytery. The assembly of 
 divines called. Their constitution, and 
 numbers. 
 
 586. Episcopalians, presbylerians, and inde- 
 pendents. The Presbyterians soon be- 
 came the predominatmg faction, chiefly 
 through the introduction of the covenant. 
 
 587. Principles of the presbylerians. Repub- 
 lican tendency of this form of govern- 
 ment. Much more tyrannical over the 
 laity than the episcopal. 
 
 588. Independents. Their principles subver- 
 sive of all church government. Friends 
 of religious liberty, supported by the po- 
 litics of Cromwell. Eraslians ; they made 
 the church entirely political. 
 
 589. Alteration of the Thirty-nine Articles. 
 The principles of church government 
 discussed. The divine right of presby- 
 tery not established. Eraslianism pre- 
 vails. Ordination placed m the hands 
 of the assembly. 
 
 590. Works of the assembly. Directory; 
 points in which it essentially difiers from 
 the church of England. Indefinite rules 
 about ordination. The doctrine of pre- 
 destination brought forward prominently. 
 
 591. Constitution of the presbytenan church. 
 The ministers and elders have the judi- 
 cial power vested in them. The differ- 
 ence in this respect in the episcopal 
 church. Deacons. (•) Cause of the 
 power in the presbyterj-. 
 
 592. The presbytery established in London 
 and Lancashire only, and always under 
 control of parliament; objections raised 
 to this restraint. The claim of the jus 
 divinum for the presbytery; it was super- 
 seded by independency. 
 
 593. Independency destroys all church disci- 
 pline ; the army friendly to it. The chief 
 officers, who were also preachers, dis- 
 dained spiritual control ; and the politics 
 of the army disliked the republican ten- 
 dency of the presbytery. Independency 
 established in Wales. 
 
 594. The object of the independents was 
 liberty of conscience; the army joined 
 them, and the presbyterians joined the 
 republicans. Escape of the king; the 
 object of allowing this. All tended to 
 destroy the king. 
 
 595. The presbyterians might have saved 
 Charles, if he would have joined ihem. 
 His disputation with Henderson, and firm 
 adherence to episcopacy. The soundness 
 of his arguments. At Newport the king 
 was assisted by several divines; but 
 his reasoning at Newcastle was safer. 
 (") Episcopal power. 
 
 596. Character of Charles. The people of 
 England had determined to pay no taxes 
 save those which they had imposed on 
 themselves, and the court wotild not 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 concede this. Laud tried to induce the 
 church to maintain the government, but 
 he had offended many of the lower 
 clers;y. 
 
 597. Great want of confidence in the court. 
 The concessions, when granted to force, 
 were to be supported by further demands ; 
 and these were necessarily grounded on 
 the insincerity of Charles. Evidence 
 against him as to this point. The real 
 ditficulty consisted in his weakness of 
 mind ; when he had lost his crown, he 
 became dignified in his misfortunes; his 
 virtues. 
 
 598. Sufferings of the clergy. Many puritans 
 driven to join the parliament. The royal- 
 ists ejected on very small grounds, and 
 without any formal proceedings. Accu- 
 .sations made against them ; ejected for 
 refusing to take the covenant. The par- 
 liament most unjust in this proceeding. 
 One-fifth of the value of their prefer- 
 ments granted to their families. Number 
 ejected. 
 
 599. Cambridge. An order for respecting the 
 property of the university disregarded. 
 The earl uf Manchester reforms it, and 
 ejects many members. 
 
 600. Oxford ; of great assistance to the king 
 during the war. Commissioners sent 
 there to reform it. Their authority de- 
 spised till supported by soldiers. " Rea- 
 sons why the university could not assent 
 to the covenant." The suffering royal- 
 ists aided the Restoration. The uni- 
 versity filled up. The value of such es- 
 tablishments. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. p. 23J. 
 
 GOl. Thehistory of all popular revolutions the 
 same. Reform only safe in the hands of 
 the upper orders. The power at the end 
 of the war was in the hands of the army, 
 and they chose to retain it. 
 
 602. Cromwell conquers Ireland; goes to 
 Scotland, gains the battle of Dunbar. 
 Charles crowned at Scone. Battle of 
 Worcester. 
 
 603. Crimwell, by threatening the country 
 with the prospect of anarchy, from the 
 insufficiency of his parliamenis, assumes 
 the protectorship. (') Instrument of go- 
 vernment. 
 
 604. The principle of his government; he 
 attaches eminent persons to him; seeks 
 for fit men for all situations. Justice. 
 The protector of Protestants. 
 
 605. Character of Cromwell ; honest and 
 patriotic at first. His own interest led 
 him to wish for the death of the king ; he 
 became entangled in political plans, and 
 lost his honesty; he was severe, but 
 never bloodthirsty ; his treatment of the 
 royalists. 
 
 606. The presbyterians had generally estab- 
 lished themselves in livings ; but they 
 could not control the power which they 
 
 had raised. The government found them 
 ill suited to its views, and ejected them 
 by means of the Engagement. The 
 presbylerian ministry fond of temporal 
 power. 
 
 607. The independents raised the standard of 
 religious liberty against the presbyte- 
 rians ; and when some of the presby- 
 terians communicated with the Scotch, 
 Mr. Love was executed ; their power as 
 a church was never established. 
 
 608. Propagation of the gospel in Wales, the 
 work of the independents; the ministers 
 were here invested with no ministerial 
 authority, and were mere licensed and 
 paid teachers. 
 
 609. The assembly formed the first bond of 
 church government, and afterwards the 
 Triers ; they were vested with great 
 power, and used it very arbitrarily, and 
 as a political engine. Oliver Cromwell's 
 declaration against the royalist clergy. 
 
 610. Cromwell was a friend to toleration, 
 which was granted to those who held 
 " the fundamentals of Christianity ;" ques- 
 tion as to the meaning of this expression. 
 He would have tolerated Roman Catho- 
 lics and Jews, but objections arose from 
 different quarters. 
 
 611. The effects of the usurpation on morals; 
 the accounts are very various. 
 
 612. Baxter's ministry at Kidderminster; he 
 was elected lecturer, and afterwards took 
 the sequestration of the living ; he gather- 
 ed a church in his own parish, and ex- 
 ercised discipline there. Associations 
 formed among ministers, and not con- 
 fined to any party. 
 
 613. Objections to Baxter's plans. Separation 
 between the godly and ungodly. Meetings 
 of the clergy ; then more wanted perhaps 
 than at present. 
 
 614. Strictness of the independents as to ad- 
 mission into church union ; they composed 
 a confession of faith nearly resembling 
 that of the Assembly ; their internal 
 government democratic. The presby- 
 terians publish directions about cate- 
 chising. 
 
 615. Walton and Clarendon give a sad ac- 
 count of the stale of morality. Some 
 ministers of the church of England con- 
 tinued their ministr)-. Sanderson and 
 Bull. Skinner, bishop of Oxford, ordained 
 many. 
 
 616. The episcopalians spent their time in 
 sufferings and patient study, and thus as- 
 sisted the Restoration. Cromwell was 
 practically not cruel. Many resided with 
 their friends. Oriental literature flou- 
 rished. 
 
 617. The features of religious fanaticism are 
 generally the same everywhere. Forms 
 had been regarded too much, and they 
 were now laid aside altogether. 
 
 618. Fox. The conurct of the quakers ex- 
 posed them to panishment, which was 
 often cruelly inflicted, but the fault was 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 chiefly their own : these quakers unlike 
 those of the present day. 
 
 619. Anabaptists. Antinomians. Familists. 
 Fifth-monarchy men. Confusion pro- 
 duced by these differences and a want of 
 toleration. Morality injured by it. 
 
 620. Laws against immorality very severe; 
 concerning the Sabbath, uncleanness, and 
 plays. 
 
 621. Laws against heretics. James Naylor 
 punished. Fry expelled the House. Bid- 
 die tried for Socinianism. Corruptions 
 produced by the war. 
 
 622. Marriage made a civil contract; the 
 wisdom of this. 
 
 623. Difficulty about the succession of bish- 
 ops ; many methods of obviating it con- 
 trived, but rendered unnecessary by the 
 Restoration. 
 
 624. Causes of the Restoration. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. p. 246. 
 
 650. The presbyterians instrumental in re- 
 storing the king ; they provided no safe- 
 guards for their own form of govern- 
 ment, thinking themselves too strong to 
 be in danger. 
 
 651. The term presbylerian explained; they 
 were not anti-episcopalians, but wished 
 to confine the power of the bishop within 
 narrow limits. 
 
 652. Charles II. was very civil to the presby- 
 terians. He refuses to omit the cere- 
 monies of the church. There was no 
 real coalition between the puritans and 
 the court. 
 
 653. The convention parliament contained 
 many presbyterians; its acts prudent, 
 which, however, were liable to be ques- 
 tioned, and several of the members were 
 not chosen according to the writs ; it is 
 dissolved. 
 
 554. Dilficulties attending the Restoration ; 
 the army is unwilling to be disbanded; 
 some officers suspect that they had been 
 made the tools of Monk ; little money. 
 
 655. The old and new royalists, each de- 
 spising the other, and each importunate 
 to obtain preferment from the king. 
 
 656. State of the church. The presbyterians 
 were unfriendly to the government of the 
 bishops, who were now restored. The 
 reversion of all church lands and livings 
 created a vast transfer of property. Fel- 
 lowships restored; some innocent per- 
 sons ejected. 
 
 657. Episcopacy objected to. The presby- 
 tery sought the jurisdiction over their 
 parishes; this the real point at issue. 
 
 658. The bishops feared that their power 
 would be taken away, and they tried to 
 show that no alterations were necessary, 
 and would make no concessions to the 
 presbytery. 
 
 659. The presbyterians wanted to show the 
 necessity of changes, but were afraid to 
 ask toe :jiuch, for feat of oflfending their 
 
 own party, and dividing among them- 
 selves; and equally unwilling to ask too 
 little, lest the bishops should say, that 
 there was no cause for separation from 
 the church. 
 
 660. Origin of the Savoy conference. The 
 king's declaration from Breda had raised 
 the hopes of the presbyterians, who pre 
 sented a petition objecting to 
 
 661. The discipline of the church, the Liturgy, 
 and ceremonies; and prayed for altera- 
 tions. 
 
 662. The bishops answered, that many of the 
 evils complained of with regard to dis- 
 cipline were remedied by law. That ob- 
 jectionable points in the Liturgy might 
 be altered, and that the ceremonies were 
 innocent. 
 
 663. The nonconformists were induced to 
 proceed, by a promise from the king that 
 he would put forth a declaration to mo- 
 derate between the contending parties. 
 When this was shown to the noncon- 
 formists, Baxter drew up a violent paper, 
 which was never presented. 
 
 664. Many alterations are introduced into the 
 declaration by the nonconformists. A 
 discussion at Worcester House. The 
 Presbyterians unwilling to tolerate others. 
 
 665. The king's declaration; it contains 
 ample concessions as to the power of 
 presbyters, the Liturgy, and ceremonies ; 
 and prays all to conform as far as they 
 
 666. Sir Matthew Hale attempts to convert 
 the declaration into a law, which is 
 thrown out. Bishoprics offered to some 
 of the nonconformists ; Baxter refuses 
 one ; his reasons. 
 
 667. The commission for the Savoy confer- 
 ence; they were to review the Liturgy, 
 and draw up additional forms. 
 
 668. The bishops demanded at once all the 
 objections of the nonconformists. A com- 
 mittee formed for all the alterations. 
 Baxter undertakes the additional forms. 
 
 669. Baxter's liturgy. The imprudence of 
 drawing it up ; his object and plan. The 
 faults of the work. 
 
 670. The objections to the Liturgy presented. 
 Baxter's petition for peace ; the want of 
 moderation in it. 
 
 671. They object to the Common Prayer ge- 
 nerally, to the ceremonies, and discipline ; 
 particulars in which they requested altera- 
 tion. 
 
 672. The answer of the bishops was moderate 
 and sound ; but not conciliatory. Three 
 of the promised concessions were never 
 really made. 
 
 673. Answer of the nonconformists. They 
 agree to carry on a disputation. Bishop 
 Cosins desires the nonconformists to dis- 
 tinguish between what was sinful and 
 what was inexpedient in the Commoo 
 Prayer. Baxter's answer. 
 
 674. Inutility of the disputation. The time of 
 the commission elapses through delays 
 
CONT 
 
 created perhaps on purpose. No good 
 results from the conference. 
 
 675. The nonconformists present an address 
 to the king. Baxter was much to blame 
 in the whole transaction. 
 
 676. The concessions might have been more 
 numerous, but the great question turned 
 on discipline. 
 
 677. The question of discipline is one of great 
 difficulty- The difference between dis- 
 cipline and government. Church govern- 
 ment a mixture of the two. 
 
 678. Discipline over the laity. A conscien- 
 tious minister may now admonish ; it is 
 doubtful whether further power would 
 increase his sinritual utility. 
 
 679. The nonconformists present a petition, 
 and state their readiness to suffer pa- 
 tiently the penalties affixed to noncon- 
 formity. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. p. a61. 
 
 701. Little good to be expected from confer- 
 ences. The best method of attempting 
 alterations. Convocation. Review of the 
 Liturgy. Alteralidn of thecanons. Articles 
 of visitation. Consecration of churches. 
 Grammar. Subsidy, the last raised by 
 the clergy; how this change was effected, 
 and its consequences. 
 
 702. Act of uniformity. Its object different 
 from that of Elizabeth. The practical 
 tendency of the latter Avas, to make all 
 conform ; of the act now made, to eject 
 as many nonconformists as possible. 
 
 703. A church must exclude from the mi- 
 nistry those who will not conform to its 
 rules; but on this occasion moderation 
 might have been used, for so great a 
 change of property was an evil; and 
 much good might have been done by 
 augmenting small livings. (^) Augmenta- 
 tion of small livings. 
 
 704. Ejection of the nonconforming clergy 
 discussed. The country generally un- 
 favourable to them, which gave a full 
 power to the church of treating them as 
 they pleased. 
 
 705. Moderate measures would probably have 
 retained many nonconformists in the 
 church ; but this was not the object of the 
 superior clergy. A saying of Sheldon. 
 
 706. The injustice of ejecting those who had 
 obeyed a government de facto, and of 
 making no provision for them. 
 
 707. If they had proceeded on the act of Eli- 
 zabeth, they vvould have divided the 
 party. The Prayer Book published very 
 near St. Bartholomew's day; and that 
 day selected in order to deprive the 
 ejected clergy of the tithes of the year. 
 
 708. Political feelings mixed up with these 
 measures. The governing party were 
 uncertain as to the continuance of their 
 power. The papists promoted these dis- 
 sensions. 
 
 ENTS. xxT 
 
 709. Charles not unfriendly to toleration ; he 
 tries to soften matters ; his declaration. 
 
 710. Two thousand ministers ejected; who 
 thus evinced their sincerity. Reordina- 
 tion the chief difficulty. The delicacy of 
 the question. Bramhall's and Overall's 
 conduct about this: it is unfortunate that 
 nothing of this sort was adopted. (') On 
 reordination. 
 
 711. Severities exercised on the nonconform- 
 ists. The Church of England tries to 
 defend herself by exclusive laws. 
 
 712. Corporation act. Select vestry act. 
 
 713. First conventicle act. Second. 
 
 714. Five-mile act ; passed while the noncon- 
 formists were particularly exerting them- 
 selves during the plague. 
 
 715. Attempts at a comprehension. Lord 
 Keeper Bridgman. The king's declara- 
 tion for toleration. Repeal of a law 
 against nonconformists; omitted by the 
 clerk of the crown. Unconstitutional 
 vote of the commons. 
 
 716. The severity against dissenters prepared 
 the minds of the people for toleration. 
 
 717. The conduct of the nonconformists un- 
 justifiable ; they destroyed the unity of the 
 church for their own prejudices ; the laws 
 were impolitic in comprehending them 
 all under one class. 
 
 718. Letters of foreign reformers. The non- 
 conformists wished for certain alterations, 
 and because these were not granted, they 
 caused a schism in the church. Both 
 parties became guilty, and taught other 
 people moderation. 
 
 719. Latitudinarians. The name first given 
 at Cambridge. Men whose moderation 
 displeased everybMly. The term applied 
 indistinctly. 
 
 720. Laws against Roman Catholics. They 
 are excluded from all offices, and from 
 sitting in Parliament. The duke of York 
 excepted. The inutility of all enactments 
 with regard to Charles II. 
 
 721. Plots; Oates'. The evidence question- 
 able. There was probably a general 
 attempt to bring in the Roman Catholic 
 religion, but no design to murder the 
 king. The severity against Oates in the 
 next reign proves nothing. 
 
 722. Dangerfield's plot. There was no safety 
 from the law, which was converted into 
 a means of oppressing the subject. 
 
 723. The danger which threatened the church 
 was that to which the state was likewise 
 exposed: viz., the introduction of the 
 Roman Catholic religion by means of 
 arbitrary power. The high and low 
 church party joined in repelling this. 
 The court regarded the question as one 
 of politics. The country looked upon it 
 generally as a religious one. 
 
 724. Attempts of Charles to establish the di.s- 
 pensing power. The country adverse to 
 toleration ; and justly alarmed at the con- 
 duct of the crown. 
 
 725. The nonconformists not worthy of praise 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 for refusing toleration, -which must have 
 been extended to Roman Catholics. The 
 exclusion of the Roman Catholics from 
 civil offices not inconsistent with tolera- 
 tion, but can only be defended on the plea 
 of necessity. 
 736. The civil history of the reign disgraceful. 
 
 727. The plague. Many of the clergy fly ; 
 their places were quickly filled by the 
 nonconforming divines. Reformation of 
 morals promoted by it. Athens and 
 London. 
 
 728. Fire of London. The nonconforming 
 ministers deprived of the charity which 
 they had obtained from the city. The 
 mutual criminations. The nonconform- 
 ists establish meetings. Several influen- 
 tial members of the establishment parti- 
 cularly useful. Violence of the noncon- 
 formists. 
 
 729. Dissent and hostility to the government 
 creates a reaction among churchmen, 
 who adopt extravagant notions of govern- 
 ment. The Oxford decree framed by Dr. 
 Jane. 
 
 730. Lord Clarendon friendly to the republi- 
 cans ; hostile to the church. Why ? Bur- 
 net's reason. In reality the presbyterians 
 were unfit to govern. The chancellor 
 trusted to severity, and the adoption of it 
 convinced men of the necessity of tolera- 
 tion. 
 
 731. Lord Clarendon supported measures of 
 which he did not approve; his own opi- 
 nions therefore are uncertain. The feel- 
 ings of the country fostered persecution. 
 The nonconformists would have perse- 
 cuted in their turn. The church certainly 
 to blame. 
 
 732. Profligacy of Charles IL ; he sought 
 ease ; and arbitrary power was no further 
 dear to him than as it procured him free- 
 dom. His talents considerable ; infamous 
 for being willing to enslave England to 
 France. 
 
 733. Profligacy fostered by religious dissen- 
 sions. Fanaticism was followed by hy- 
 pocrisy, by proliigacy, by religious dis- 
 cord ; ijut God raised up deliverance from 
 our very misfortunes. 
 
 APPENDIX E. p. 273. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COMPILATIOV OF THE COM- 
 MON PBArErt BOOK. 
 
 741. The Common Prayer Bonk was compiled 
 from the services of the Roman church. 
 The King's Primer published 1.545, con- 
 tainins the litany and prayers; republish- 
 ed by Edward, and Elizabeth. 
 
 742. The service for the communion after the 
 mass ; the first part in Latin, the second 
 in English, 1548. Great moderation with 
 regard to auricular ccmfession. 
 
 743. The whole service in English, 1549; 
 this differs much from the present Liturgy, 
 and may be deemed a connecting link 
 
 between the missal and the Prayer Book. 
 (') Diflerences from the present Liturgy. 
 
 744. The prudence with which it was drawn 
 up. An ordination service composed and 
 published, 1550. 
 
 745. Review of the Liturgy, 1552. Second of 
 Edward VI. Bucer and Peter Martyr 
 consulted. It differs little from the pre- 
 sent (') Alterations between the Li- 
 turgy of 1549—1552. 
 
 746. Liturgy of Elizabeth, 1560; a few altera- 
 tions from that of the second of Edward 
 VL (') Alterations, 1552—1560. 
 
 747. .^Iterations introduced by proclamation, 
 1604. (') Alterations, 1560—1604. 
 
 748. Changes made while Laud was arch- 
 bishop. ('^Changes then made. (^)Scotch 
 Liturgy. 
 
 749. Alterations made by the convocation, 
 1661. The work had been prepared, and 
 was quickly carried through the house. 
 This IS the present Liturgy. (. ) Altera- 
 tions now made. 
 
 750. Service for the consecration of churches; 
 often attempted, but never authorized; 
 drawn up by Bishop Andrews. Four 
 political services, for jVov. 5, Jan. 30, 
 May 29, and the .\ccession. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIL p. 285. 
 
 751. The contest decided in 1688 was a poli- 
 tical one. James's arbitrary notions ; his 
 very conversion to Romanism, political. 
 
 752. He aimed at arbitrary power, and pre- 
 ferred the principles of Romanism, be- 
 cause they are better suited to it than 
 those of the church of England. His 
 sentiments about the bill of exclusion. 
 
 753. The Protestants had driven the Roman 
 Catholics into his arms ; at his accession 
 he promised to support the church of 
 England ^ and he fancied that a party in 
 the church would support hi> plans. 
 
 754. The first acts of James were arbitrary. 
 A large revenue was settled upon him ; 
 he was blinded as to the real state of 
 things, partly by the success with which 
 his arms were crowned. His cruelty. 
 
 755. James's cruelty was his own. No one 
 can entertain any great respect for the 
 religious principles of so vicious a man. 
 
 756. In order to check theoppositionof church- 
 men, James forbade preaching on contro- 
 versial subjects, and threatened to make 
 a new valor for tenths and first-fruits. 
 The church active in the popish contro- 
 vers}-. James appoints an ecclesiastical 
 commission. 
 
 757. The commission furnished with ample 
 powers for reforming ecclesiastical bo- 
 dies, schools, and universities. Compton 
 suspended for not suspending Sharp. 
 
 758. James, wishing to curb the church, issues 
 a declaration for liberty of conscience, 
 which totally repealed all the penal laws. 
 In this he invaded privateproperty.though 
 he disclaimed the right of doing so. 
 
CONT 
 
 759. He attempts to form a parliament favour- 
 able to his views, by unwise means. He 
 attempts to influence the judges most ille- 
 gally. The dispensing power tried in the 
 case of Sir Edward Hales. 
 
 760. The suflerings of the dissenters; the 
 court tried to divide ihem from the 
 church, but their moderation prevented 
 this. 
 
 761. James begins by attacking the universi- 
 ties. Stale of Oxt'ord. Roman Catholic 
 heads of houses. He commands Magda- 
 len college to elect Farmer for their pre- 
 sident; and upon their continued refusal, 
 Hough and twenty-five fellows were eject- 
 ed. S. Parker and B. Giffard successive 
 presidents. 
 
 762. James's view of the question. The uni- 
 versity of Cambridge refuses a degree to 
 a Roman Catholic. The vice-chancellor 
 ejected. A similarly illegal attempt is 
 made at the Charter-house. 
 
 763. James makes Petre a privy-counsellor, 
 and sends Lord Castlemain to Rome. 
 
 * These acts attributed to Lord Sunder- 
 land. (') Vicars apostolic. 
 
 764. James not friendly lo the power of Rome. 
 The pope and his other friends recom- 
 mend caution. The pope's nuncio re- 
 ceived at Windsor, and consecrated at 
 St. James's. 
 
 765. James sees the growing spirit of opposi- 
 tion, and Iries lo gain a parliament favour- 
 able to his views, and to abolish the test; 
 he converses with many persons on his 
 progress, and uses violent methods to- 
 wards corporations ; but became more 
 and more mistrusted. 
 
 766. He relies on his army, and introduces 
 Roman Catholics into it. Mr. Johnson 
 punished severely for an address to the 
 army. 
 
 767. When every one was offended at him, 
 James republishes his declaration for 
 liberty of conscience. The clergy are 
 directed lo read it in their churches. 
 
 768. The difficulty in which the clergy were 
 placed. The bishops come forward and 
 present a petition. Few clergymen read 
 the declaration. Four bishops enjoin it. 
 
 769. The bishops sent to the Tower. The ex- 
 citement aiuong the people. 
 
 770. Trial of the bishops. Question of the dis- 
 pensing power. Opinion of the judges. 
 They are acquitted. Joy of the people 
 and army. 
 
 771. James hopes to remedy his folly by firm- 
 ness. Dismisses the two judge's who had 
 favoured the bishops. The ecclesiastical 
 commission exerted. The good conduct 
 of the dissenters. Sancroft attempts a 
 comprehension. His plan. 
 
 772. Progress of the revolution. The alarm 
 of James made him retrace his steps 
 when it was too late. 
 
 773. He consults the bishops, and follows their 
 advice to no purpose. 
 
 774. The bishops refuaed to sign a declaration 
 
 ENTS. xxm 
 
 of abhorrence with regard to the conduct 
 of the prince of Orange. This refusal 
 probably saved episcopacy in England. 
 
 775. The bishops advise him to call a free 
 parliament. He determines to try the 
 army ; discovers his mistake, and at- 
 tempts a flight into France ; he is de- 
 tained, returns to London, and again flies. 
 
 776. Character of James ; his talents; want- 
 ing in honesty ; an excellent man of busi- 
 ness ; his views with regard to trade and 
 liberty of conscience; his false notions 
 of government. 
 
 777. His great object was to establish arbi- 
 trary power, and for this purpose he 
 wished to introduce the Roman Catholic 
 religion ; he always esteemed all persons 
 who differed from his opinions as hostile 
 to him, and fell into the hands of foolish 
 and dishonest advisers. 
 
 77S. He possessed no real religion while he was 
 king, and opposed the church of Rome; 
 received the banished Protestants. He 
 was very deceitful in his promises about 
 the church of England. Dishonest and 
 unwise. 
 
 779. The birth of the prince made the country 
 look to itself for deliverance. No ground 
 for the supposed illegitimacy of the child. 
 
 780. The present struggle of a mixed nature. 
 It was mostly political, but the people re- 
 garded it as a religious one. 
 
 781. Conduct of the clergy. Accused by the 
 Roman Catholics and nonconformists of 
 preaching passive obedience, till they 
 had deceived the king. This might have 
 been the case with some, but many of 
 them exhibited their opinions openly. 
 Glorious conduct of the distinguished 
 churchmen. 
 
 CHAPTER XVm. p. 300. 
 
 801. The oaths of supremacy and allegiance 
 altered and imposed. The nonjuring 
 bishops. The impolicy of imposing the 
 oath. 
 
 802. Inutility of many oaths. General oaths 
 sometimes useful. Frequency of oaths 
 disgraceful to us. 
 
 803. The friends and supporters of the Revo- 
 lution sufl"ered by it. Power given to 
 William to grant incomes to some of 
 the clergy; never used. The deprived 
 bishops continue the succession of bish- 
 ops among themselves. 
 
 804. The principles upon which they did this. 
 They possessed a power which the civil 
 authority could not take away, and which 
 therefore they continued to exercise. Dif- 
 ference between their case and that of the 
 Scotch bishops. Diflicnlty of praying for 
 William and Mary. 
 
 805. The question of the propriety of the con- 
 duct of these bishops. The Revolution 
 is not to be justified on permanent prin- 
 ciples, but is one of those cases which 
 are not provided for in the Bible. The non- 
 
XXV iii 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 juringbishops are not to be blamed; their 
 subsequent conduct created a schism, and 
 is unjustifiable. 
 . Toleration act passes. A commission 
 granted for preparing alterations in the 
 Liturgy, and reforming the discipline of 
 the church ; some of the members refuse 
 to act. (•) The names of the commis- 
 sioners. 
 
 . Intended alterations in the Liturgj-. 
 
 . Prideaux's expectations from this con- 
 vocation. Dcsirfern/a in the Liturgy. Form 
 of family prayer; disuse of it arising 
 from the circumstances of the times. 
 (^) The American Prayer Book, 1790. 
 
 . The temper of the lower house of Con- 
 vocation. Dr. Jane elected prolocutor; 
 the causes of this; his speech. The dis- 
 pute about the address. The session dis- 
 continued. The clergy blamed. 
 
 . If alterations had been made, the non- 
 jurors would have had more apparent 
 reason for calling themselves the old 
 church, and of charging the others with 
 creating divisions. IS'o good to be ex- 
 pected from a compreliension ; yet all 
 reasonable objections might as well be 
 obviated. 
 
 . The church of England was now esta- 
 blished by law, as it stands at present; a 
 summary of its history; it ceased to be 
 Roman Catholic under Henry VIIL ; it 
 became Protestant by law under Ed- 
 ward VI.; but hardly fixed in the hearts 
 of the people. 
 
 . Under Mary Romanism was restored, 
 but by no means with full power; she 
 persecuted from principle, and her per- 
 secutions convinced the people of the 
 evils of popery. 
 
 . Elizabeth loved ceremonies, and hated 
 puritanism ; and by her severities united 
 those who opposed'either the government 
 of the church or state. 
 
 , These evils were augmented under James, 
 
 and his weakness and impolicj strength- 
 ened his enemies. 
 
 815. Laud increased the tyranny of, and the 
 opposition to, the Star Chamber and Ec- 
 clesiastical Commission. The canons 
 contributed to make the ruling part of the 
 clergy disliked, and the exclusive con- 
 duct of Laud drove many more into the 
 ranks of the enemies of the church. 
 
 816. At the Restoration some power was given 
 back to the bishops' courts; but the per- 
 secution which was exercised arose from 
 the House of Commons, and at last cdd- 
 vinced the country of the nece;sity of 
 toleration. 
 
 817. The church of England is an authorized 
 and paid establishment, but not an exclu- 
 sive one ; and is bound to endeavour to 
 benefit the country. Such an ecclesias- 
 tical society was instituted by Christiani- 
 ty, but has been modified by the law of 
 the land. 
 
 818. Evils arising from the connection be- 
 tween the church and stale. Wrong 
 appointments in the church. Worldly- 
 mindedness in the clergy. Destruclion 
 of spiritual governm'ent; and of ecclesi- 
 astical discipline. 
 
 819. The blessings of the church as a moral 
 police, and a teacher of Christianity. 
 
 APPENDIX F. p. 310. 
 
 Bainham's conference with Latimer. The 
 death of Cranmer. L. Saunders, bis 
 conduct with regard to his child and 
 wife; his letter about his shirt Tyo 
 dale's letter to Frith, relating the firmness 
 of his wife. 
 
 CsRoyoLOGiCAL Tables, p. 317. 
 
 Gesealogical Tables, p, 329. 
 
 LsDEX, p. 333. 
 
A 
 
 SKETCH OE THE HISTOHY 
 
 OP 
 
 THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TO THE NORMAN CONQUEST. 
 
 1. Outline of the history of the British church. 2. Evidence in favour of St. Paul's having preached 
 in Britain. Other traditions without foundation. 3. King Lucius. St. Albaii. Constanline puts 
 an end to persecution. 4. British bisliops at various councils, .t. Pelagianisni. Schools. Galli- 
 can liturgy. 6. Conversion of the Sa.\oiis. 7. Auguslin; his proceedings. 8. Progress of the 
 conversion of the Saxons. Wilfrid. 9. Roman supremacy. 10. Danes. Tithes. 11. Alfred. 
 1-2. Odo. Dunstan. Wealth of the churfcli. I'.i. Ini|)crlection of this sketch. 14. Origin of the 
 errors of the church of Rome. 15. Prayer for the dead. Purgatory. l(i. Transubstantiation. 
 17. Mass. 18. Image worship. 19. Relics. 20. Pilgrimages. 21. Confession and penance. 
 22. Celibacy of the Clergy. 23. History of ecclesiastical establishments. 24. Progress of error. 
 25. Real danger of erroneous opinions. 26. Inadequate views of Christianity among the Saxons. 
 
 The early history of the British 
 church, if it be regarded as a question 
 of curiosity, may well claim the atten- 
 tion of those who delight in such re- 
 searclies; but to him who seeks only 
 for truths which may prove useful in 
 the formation of his own o]nnions, any 
 considerable investigation into the re- 
 cords which are left us, can offer little 
 beyond labour, accompanied with very 
 trifling hopes of reward. The particii- 
 lars which are to be gleaned from otir 
 uncertain and unsupported histories, 
 may be briefly comprehended undi-r 
 the following heads. The island was 
 early blessed by the dissemination 
 of Christianity, possibly through the 
 preaching of St. Paul ; and before the 
 end of the second century the country 
 had generally received the gospel. 
 Episcopacy was from the first esta- 
 blished among us, and the British 
 church partook in the persecutions and 
 heresies which agitated the rest of the 
 Christian community, and appears to 
 have had much connection with Gaul; 
 but neither of these churches paid any 
 
 further deference to Rome than that 
 which the younger sister ought to con- 
 cede to her elder. The flourishing 
 condition of this church was first de- 
 stroyed by heresy and vice, and then 
 oppressed and overwhelmed by the 
 arrival of the heathen Saxon, who in 
 his turn became the civilized convert of 
 the faith which he had once persecuted. 
 
 § 2. With regard to the details of 
 these events, it will perhaps be deemed 
 sufficient if the reader be referred to 
 those authorities where he will find all 
 the satisfaction which can be obtained, 
 while only such particulars are men- 
 tioned as seem from their importance 
 to merit our ftirther attention. Euse- 
 bius asserts,' that some of the apostles 
 preached the gospel in the British isles. ' 
 Thcodorct confirms this ;^ and else- 
 where, after having mentioned Spain, 
 
 ^Siillingfleet's Orig. Brit. 3fi. 
 
 UKfia, hi rr T'V 'Irf^Tii' <p^.wai x'fmv, Kai ercpovs VTrlp TOV 
 ilxcavdv T:ap:\OLiv Ijri ra; KaSoKjiti^ai lifiErrai'tKtii vijaovi, 
 &c. &c. Euseb. Dem. Evang. lib. iii. c. 7, p. 112. 
 Paris, 1(;28. 
 
 A 1 
 
2 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 says that St. Paul brought salvation to 
 the isles which lie in the ocean. * These 
 testimonies of the fourth and fifth cen- 
 turies are supported by an expression 
 of Clement of Rome, who wrote Letoro 
 the end of the first, and who re lates 
 that St. Paul preached ri!rh(0ousu.>-s 
 through the whole world.' and in so 
 doing went to tlie lumo.st bonnds of tiic 
 West.^ li thr.--e words are to be tida r. 
 in their literal sense, liitlo doubt can 
 remain that this kin::dom was converted 
 to Christianity by the apostle to the 
 Gentiles ; yet such deductions must al- 
 ways be regarded with suspicion : and, 
 though we may not hesitate m believ- 
 ing that our holy faith was planted m 
 these islands at a period not far distant 
 from the lirst [ireachmgof Christianity,* 
 we shall hardly assign to this event a 
 date so early as the reign of Tiberius, 
 as'som;' authors liave done,- tr- :; ini - 
 understundinij' ;i i -.i- -ivc ni > 
 
 ' and P 
 
 &c. In Psalm, cxvi. 
 
 p. S. O.M , 
 
 ■1 'l'crri;lin 
 On.Mi 1) 
 
 ^ In \ , 1 1 
 1 tl, 1, ,1 cl 1 
 
 
 e'it,' 1 .imI 11 
 111 qili'lil < 
 
 ■iim nhiirn nniv r .- ••. 
 
 
 et a\ix genu: 
 
 rt 'uT 11 " ' 1 
 
 
 
 wiia-inoruni in:i ■■ . •- i 
 
 
 CniriFtr vrro 
 
 subdlm. &.O. T..-I., 
 
 
 Juilrros. p. 
 
 Virtus D(i, 
 orbe nostro i 
 ms Horn. vi. 
 
 2. Pmis. li.:^!. 
 iinl s,lv 1 1 ill 
 I 1 
 
 111 Llir:,i:v ' 
 
 ■ans. 1740. 
 
 t ; , ; .1:10 adveiituni 
 „ m ? Qinn 
 Qiiinl 1 uv ,mfl( lis? 
 ■clesias. qua' miuicli litinies 
 :uni la^tina rlarnat ad Uomi- 
 :st hoiiornm secundum tines 
 
 Quando enini 
 ChrisU in iiiiiiis 
 do terra i\t 
 Nunc vero propter 
 tenent. universa tern 
 num Israel, et capax 
 suos. P. 370. II. in Ezech. iv. 
 
 5 StiUingfleet, 4. 
 
 6 Accoraing to tne GreeK menoiogies, Simon 
 Zelotes suffered martyrdom in Britain. See 
 Cave's Apost. p. 151. 
 
 ' StilliDgfleet, 45. 
 
 I destitute of any ancient testimony ; and 
 that in favour of St. Peter is of a very 
 late date. The fable about Joseph of Ari- 
 inatlira,** and his having founded Glas- 
 tonlinry Abbey," would have been un- 
 vi iirthy oi notice, had not Glueen Eliza- 
 li' ili and Archbishop Parker'" ventured 
 to claim iiim as the first preacher of 
 ( hrMianity in England; but the ab- 
 suri.!i\- oj the v>'hole story is fully esta- 
 bli P t 11 ngfleet." 
 
 ^ .;. .■lanv Lnghsh writers refer the 
 conviTsiuii of this country to the reign 
 of King Lucius,'-" of whoija the old 
 book ot Llandaflf says, that he sent 
 Eluaniis and Mcdwinus to Eleutherius, 
 the twelfth bishoo of Rome, requesting 
 that he mi::lit be made a Christian 
 ihroun;h his instruction ; and that, on 
 the return of these messengers, Lucius 
 and the chief of the Britons were bap- 
 1 1 ' ' r 1 1 rM, d for the 
 ■o many 
 1 ifted on 
 ['..<■ ■','■:],- 1 :'.;stence of 
 : the Avhole tale, has, 
 ison, been questioned. 
 ' ' 1 aiice o( his sending am- 
 adors to request instruction corre- 
 ' i»h v. ith the supposition already 
 made, that the country had before re- 
 ceived the truths of Christianity; and 
 the disaoreement between the two rela- 
 II nit' 1 111] rtant, as it amounts 
 v.e suppose that 
 ■ ' , :ian n iiL'ion was now first 
 . cr that, having made but 
 vss. since Its first foundation, 
 r' ionned and renewed ; and 
 .11" '.'.a.ni ot ni!V siiiEcient testimoBy 
 nuis; j.recluiie the i.;.-a of deciding this 
 I I lu 1 V 1 u n.'vcrlludess as- 
 some, as an tin,'a;;nted fact, that Chris- 
 iai!iit\' was oiablished here very gene- 
 ;aiiv li' foro tlie end of the second cen- 
 tarv:" lor Tertullian says," that the 
 KinL'ilom of Christ was advanced in 
 (.Tuul and Britain, and that Christ was 
 solemnly worshipped by the inhabitants. 
 From this tune we meet with little con- 
 cerning the British churches till we 
 learn that England was not free from 
 
 * It IS curious that, at ihe council of Basil, the 
 English bishops chimed precedence on the ground 
 of the conversion oi Britain by Joseph. Fuller, 
 IV. 180. 
 
 9 Slrype's An. i. 218. '» Parker, i. 139. 
 " Orig. Brit. 6, &c. Orig. Brit. 66. 
 1' Orig. Brit. 50. " TertuU. c. Jud. ch. 7. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 3 
 
 the trials to which Christianity was sub- 
 jected during the third century, and the 
 fate of Julius, Aaron, and St. Alban,* 
 who has transferred his name to Veru- 
 lamium,'^ where ho sulfered, proves that 
 the Diocletian persecution extended 
 thus far into tlie provinces which were 
 subject to the Roman power. 
 
 Constant ius ChlOrus, when he was 
 declared emperor, put an end to these 
 persecutions ; and upon his death, 
 which took place at York" in the year 
 following, his son Constantino the Great 
 began his reign, in which it pleased God 
 that most of the outward miseries of 
 his Christian servants should terminate. 
 (a. d. 307.) 
 
 § 4. The British church seems to 
 have flourished at this period ;' for, at 
 the council of Aries,* there wen- tlin'c 
 English bishops present ; ami it iiioy hr 
 observed, that the mnnm r in wliich lh;U 
 council communicated iis canons to the 
 bisho]i of Rome, pro v. s that the repre- 
 sentatives of tlic eliiu-rhes there assem- 
 bled esi>'(>hii'd tlii'iiisi'l\TS quite inde- 
 pendent of his (iiiihorily.* 
 
 It seems ]irobabh> that there were 
 English bishojis at the council of Nice' 
 in Bithynia,^ but the subscriptions pre- 
 served are so imperfect, that no names 
 of British bishops can be distinguished. 
 Their presence, however, at Sardica" 
 
 ' St. All)an, the first British martyr, had served 
 in the Roman army, and, on his return, havinfr 
 been converted to Chrisiiaimv, was put to dtaih. 
 A monastcrv was nl:rr\va«l.- raised to Ins humair 
 bv OHH. kiiis ol n la. 
 '2 .Stillinoilcet, 70. = Ibid. 71. 
 
 ^ TliC conned ol Aries was assemMed 1-'., < - ;- 
 staniine against the Donatists, w ho had la', ii 
 scliism on arcount of the election of a In , , 
 Canhasre. 'i'he canons of it may be iuiiiid m 
 Collier, i. 26. 
 
 5 Stillingfleet, 84. 
 
 6 The council of Nice was assembled by Con- 
 staniine against the Arians, 325. The anathema 
 of it is, "I'he catholic and apostolic church ana- 
 thematizes all who say, that there was a time when 
 the Son did not exist, that he had no existence 
 previous to his birth, and that he was created out 
 of nothing; or who say that he was formed or 
 changed from another substance or essence, or 
 that he is capable of change :" see Pearson on 
 the Creed, p. 134. This council did not make 
 the Nicene Creed as it now stands, which was 
 published at the first council of Constantinople, 
 381 ; it settled that Easter should be held the first 
 Sunday after the Iburteenth day of the ecclesias- 
 tical new moon. The doctrines of Arius seem to 
 have made some progress in England. 
 
 ' Stillingfleet, 89. 
 
 ' This council was assembled at Sardica in 
 between the Arians and 
 more 
 
 Thrace, 347, to judge between the Ariant 
 Athanasiua: see Collier, i. 30. &c., where 
 
 and Ariminum,^ is more clearly esta- 
 blished ;'" and it is related, with regard 
 to this latter council, that the British 
 bishops generally refused to receive the 
 allowance made to them from the empe- 
 ror, wliile thr(,'e of them only accepted 
 it; a proof at once of the number and 
 wealth of the British bishops who were 
 there. 
 
 , § .5. The introduction of Pelagian- 
 ism," which took place about the same 
 time, filled tiie church with tumult and 
 distraction. The opinions connected 
 with this heresy were generally diffused 
 in England ; and so strongly were its 
 advocates fortified with arguments, or 
 so weakly were they opposed, that the 
 British divini'S, fimliiiL;' themselves un- 
 eimal to the task of convincing their 
 hcr-'lieal ail wi'sari' 'S, wrvr twice forced 
 to call' ' ill the a.- sistaiice of Germanus, 
 a Galilean bishop." lie was accompa- 
 nied in his lirst visit by Lupus, and in 
 his second by Severus, and on each oc- 
 casion successfully refuted the errors 
 of his opponents. As the best means 
 of putting an effectual stop to these 
 heresies, St. German seems to have at- 
 tempted to introduce into the island the 
 study of sound learning and theology 
 and his disciples, lUutus and Dubritius, 
 established schools fainous in tiieir gene- 
 ration. The monastery of Banchor,*^ 
 near Chester, was probably a seminary 
 
 arguments against the right of appeals to the pope 
 mav be loiuid. 
 
 'J".s;,,llinL'lb-et, 135. ^ '» Fuller, 24. 
 
 a The I'elagian heresy had its origin from Mor- 
 I'an, will) IS L'laaaally called a Welchnian, but 
 ;n>i!in!il\- .s.,aii-, c. a native Irishman. 
 
 ' . . r ■ I - ; I lis name in the old liritish 
 .1 . I . - I i..irn, and Inuii hence is de- 
 iivi d Ills I l.i-siral a]iiirUalion. He was of con- 
 siderable rank, and possessed much learning and 
 natural genius; his life was exemplary. He tra- 
 velled to Rome, and from thence to Africa, and 
 died somewhere in the East. (See Collier, i. 41.) 
 He denied the doctrine of original sin, and the 
 necessity of grace, and asserted that man could 
 attain to pertection. His opinions were opposed 
 by St. Augustin, bishop of Plippo, and condemned 
 in the person of Ccelestius, his disciple, at coun- 
 cils held at Carthage and Milevum in the year 
 416 : no less than thirty councils are said to have 
 been held concerning them. As the doctrines of 
 Pelawius are of such a character that every man's 
 own neart will naturally suggest them, unless he 
 be guided by the grace of God, we need not won- 
 der at their general reception. Pelagius taught 
 and gave a name to that to which all of us are of 
 ourselves disposed — " self-reliance in spiritual 
 things." 
 
 " StilUngfleet, 187. 
 
 "Ibid. 194. "Ibid. 189.. 
 
 « Ibid. 204. >• Ibid. 805. 
 
4 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. 1 
 
 of this description, rather than one 
 formed after the model introdviced from 
 Egypt,' in which the monks were bred 
 up to labour, and in ignorance ; forBede, 
 who is not generalh' favourable to Bri- 
 tish cstablishmenls, confesses that it was 
 furnished with learned men at the com- 
 ing of Augustin into England. 
 
 These bishops are said to have brought 
 with them into the British churches'^ 
 the use of the Gallican liturgj',^ which 
 was derived probably from St. John, 
 through Polycarp and Irrnaus. The 
 principal differences^ between this and 
 the Roman liturgy^ are stated to be fi)l- 
 lowed in the Common Prayer Book of 
 our church ; so that the reformers, when 
 they translated and made selections from 
 the services of the church of Rome, 
 really reduced back the form of prayers 
 to a nearer conformity to our more an- 
 cient liturgies. 
 
 § 6. The arrival of the heathen Sax- 
 ons overturned the ecclesiastical as well 
 as civil government, and their barbarity 
 spread such devastation through tlie 
 land, that Christianity was contined to 
 those mountainous districts where the 
 Britons still retained their liberty. But 
 the records of these times furnish little 
 more than the mere detail of uninterest- 
 ing events. 
 
 Christianity was again introduced into 
 England, now become Saxon, by the 
 arrival of St. Augustin, in 5!)G. The 
 comparative tranquillity which had for 
 
 ■ The first monks were persons who. in sohtude, 
 and afterwards in private houses of ihen- own, led 
 more pious and retired lives than iheir neighbours. 
 The wild fancies of certain visionaries who esta- 
 blished themselves in Egypt can hardly be ac- 
 counted the origin of the later institutions of this 
 sort. Such instances of fanaticism and ignorance, 
 often combined with some portion of knavery, 
 are common to all periods and religions, and 
 amon^ Christians might have tended ^to pervert 
 the mmds of those who aspired after the highest 
 degrees of sanctity. Individuals first dedicated 
 themselves to the service of God in this manner: 
 societies were afterwards formed, wlio lived under 
 a head or abbot, and conlormcd to certain rules. 
 They were originally mere laymen, but subse- 
 quently many of them were adopted among the 
 clergy, and rose to the highest offices in the church. 
 
 2 Stillingfleet, 216. 
 t " Johnson's Can., Pref xv., who doubts of this. 
 
 * These consisted in a confession of sins, where- 
 with the service began ; in proper prefaces, which 
 were introduced for certain days before the conse- 
 cration of the elements ; in several expressions 
 which mark that the doctrine of transubstantiation 
 had not then been received ; and in the attention 
 to singing paid in the Roman church. 
 
 ' StilUngfleet, 232. 
 
 some time prevailed throughout the 
 island, and the marriage of Ethelbert, 
 king of Kent, with Britha, daughter of 
 Charibert, king of Paris, had prepared 
 the country for its reception. She was 
 allowed the free exercise of her religion; 
 and her chaplain, a French bishop, had 
 openly performed the ceremonies of the 
 church, thus softening down that ani- 
 mosity towards Christianity, which a 
 bloody struggle against its professors 
 had excited in the minds of the Saxons. 
 Nor, in .^peakitig of their conversion, 
 must A\e neglect to take into account 
 the growing di.ssatisfaction which hea- 
 thens, as they advance in civilization, 
 must always feel towards their former 
 superstitions, even when they continue 
 to observe them ; a disgust which the 
 Saxons seem frequently to have dis- 
 played." Gregory I, came to the pa- 
 pacy in 590, and soon put into execution 
 a determination which he had formed 
 while in a private station. He had been 
 struck with the personal beauty of some 
 English slaves whom he happened to 
 see at Rome, and made the resolution 
 of trying to convert their fellow-coun- 
 trymen ; an attempt which he would 
 have begun in his own person, if cir 
 cumstances had not prevented him. I» 
 was in order to fulfil this benevolent 
 design, that he afterwards despatched 
 St. Augustin with forty monks, who, 
 having obtained interpreters in France, 
 landed in Kent, and was permitted to 
 settle in Canterbury, and to undertake 
 the conversion of the inhabitants. 
 
 § 7. The success of these mission- 
 aries was so great that Augustin was 
 consecrated archbishop of England, by 
 the archbishop of Aries, and more ec- 
 clesiastics were sent to his assistance, 
 accompanied with presents of books,'' 
 
 6 Turner, i. 231. 
 
 ' ^Vanley has given a catalogue of the books 
 sent by Gregory. These were — 1. A Bible, 
 adorned with some leaves of a purple and rose 
 colour, in two volumes. 2. The Psalter of St. 
 Augustin, with the Creed, Paler Nosier, and 
 several Latin hymns. 3. Two copies of the Gos- 
 pels, with the Ten Canons of Eusebius prefixed ; 
 one of which Elstob believed to be in the Bod- 
 leian library, and the other at Cambridge, p. 42. 
 4. Another' Psalter, whh hymns. 5. A volume 
 containing legends on the sufferings of the apos- 
 tles, with a picture of our Saviour in silver, in a 
 posture of blessing. 6. Another volume on the 
 martyrs, which had on the outside a glory, silver 
 gilt, set round with crystals and beryls. 7. An 
 Exposition of the Epistles and Gospels, which 
 had on the cover a large beryl surrounded with 
 
ciiAP. i.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 5 
 
 and other articles of which they misfht 
 stand in need ; and among these, relics 
 were not forgotten. They received at 
 tlio same time orders from Rome, which 
 directed them to accommodate, as much 
 as possible, the Ic.viivals of the church 
 to the seasons ol' heathen amusement 
 
 i lr-i,isiii-a| (■siah!i>hinciit, which was to 
 mI iw,. ar('hlii>ho|)s, each liaving 
 inuhT hiiu twelve sutiVagans, was also 
 traiisiuitted to them, but seems never to 
 have been adopted. '-' 
 
 Augustin before his death,' wliich 
 took place about (!().'>, tried to bring the 
 churches of the British into unity witli 
 that over which he presiiled, and insist- 
 ed on three concessions only.' 'I'hat 
 they should keep Easier at llie Roman 
 time, should use tlie fonus of that 
 church in baptizini^, and preach lo the 
 Sa.xons. His etForts, liowever, u-ere 
 unavailing, and he was rejected for a 
 supposed want of apostolical humility, 
 though he is said to have ])erformed a 
 miracle iu attestation of his ministry. 
 The point at issui' se(>ms really to have 
 
 (if Canterhurv, < 
 tion nf \'italuui the ihe 
 which he was ill. lured 
 d.'alh of W'i.jliail, wh, 
 
 used the Roman method of computing.' 
 (a. d. (»(j4.) 
 
 § 8. In (i(58, Theodore, a native of 
 Tarsus in C'ilicia," was consecrated arch- 
 bishop of ( 'anterhury, on the nomina- 
 Pope ; a step 
 I take on the 
 A'lin, with most of 
 
 ^ llr^ll■,)yed by the 
 
 lieie III' bad been 
 'lii^ecrated. 'I'lieo- 
 eable lo the British 
 iiiL;- which he, and 
 introduced, and is 
 said t(i have ailvancedtbe establishment 
 of pari^h churches, by allowing founders 
 to become the jiastors of them. He di- 
 vided also some of the larger bishop- 
 rics, which, as they were then generally 
 co-<'xteiisive with the kingdoms to wiiich 
 they behinged, were frequently enor- 
 mous ill ])oiiit of size. Wilfrid, arch- 
 bishop of York, whose diocese compre- 
 
 plague at ll.u 
 sent in onh r t 
 dore \vas very 
 church liv the 
 his friend Ad 
 
 been, whether the 1 
 submit to August 
 question about th 
 Easter was also .li> 
 of Whitby,^' wlier; 
 favour of the Ron 
 
 ritisli jirelates should 
 1 and Rome. • The 
 time of observing 
 •ussed in the council 
 ( >.swi decided it in 
 an method, because 
 
 both parties agreed that St. Peter kept 
 the keys of heaven, and that he had 
 
 i)f keeping Easter 
 i-cinimui]iiy. The 
 iliii^' lo the Jewish 
 m oi liiat lunation 
 
 lI i .|iiin()\, vvlietlier 
 
 , \'Mer, l,l-l,e|, uf 
 
 t.M-M, ,!„„;.. 'll.ry 
 
 ae, and 
 I red on 
 
 crystals. Angiisliii nlse liroii:;lii Cn - 
 toral Care, which Alli. I I ' ' i ~ 
 p. 39— 43; and Waiil n - i 
 is taken from 'i'lioma- n mk a 
 
 Augusiin's Abl)ey. in iln iiiiie ul lli ni 
 also Cave, Hist. Lit. p. 131. 'I'uiner's 
 i. 332. 
 
 ' This eircumstance may acfonnt for 
 tion of many Saxon nann's in in uii vs 
 with religion. Thus Yule, ili.' el, I 
 Christmas, is derived from Julo, a S av 
 the winter solstice; and Easter Irem I 
 Eostre. who was worsliipppil wii li |ir uli 
 in April. Lent signilies spniii.'. i rniii 
 Tiw, Woden, Thunro, KriL'a, aiiil S; 
 derived the nanirs nt ihr ..I ilir \> 
 
 Turner's A.-S . 'I:', .-'(iprr-r !ri 
 
 borrowed Inini ' • , i: /, - 
 
 comes from a - i '. i 
 
 216, 13; Dr„r . . I :, a .i, . 
 
 by the Gaul~, O, I: '</„>-<. a la m;,.. 
 mon, and .Y.vti/,<. a iiialiL'a ilmv wlie 
 
 Pocus and Old 
 of Hocus Pciiai-., 
 eat corpus, is lian 
 
 2 Lingard, An. 
 Eng. iii. 194. 
 
 3 Collier, i 75. 
 » ColUer, i. 95. 
 
 ■anon 
 3 this 
 
 (' day 
 
 Mas' Lite ..1 iMiddlelen, i 2'.>\, note 1. 
 j Newman's History of Ariaiiism, p. 14. 
 ' Collier, 100. 
 
 A3 
 
 CVrl,, of 
 
 . and de- 
 England 
 r as the 
 isisted in 
 It to have 
 L'lity.four 
 arieenth, 
 fuller, p. 
 MM of the 
 
 (1. 'rhe 
 ■ another 
 1,1 m Le 
 
 Hoe also 
 
6 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap, I. 
 
 bended all Northumbria, or that part of 
 England which lies north of the Hum- 
 ter, opposed the division of his see, and 
 appealed to the pope. The decision of 
 Agatho was in his favour, but it jirofitrd 
 him little, for Egfrcd iinprisoiicil Inm 
 upon his rctiini, and about a \ i .-ir ;;lti :■. 
 upon his ri_l'':..-c. wliirli ' .1; , . il 
 
 thrOUirh die inirrcr,-- h :ll of . : 1- 
 
 bess of CuliliiiLihiiiii, li.- i'rr;ic!ii'il m ilir 
 kingdom of Sussi_x, wli;cli luiil not be- 
 fore received t'ln-i<:i:nii!y.' This so 
 restored him to tiie raMiiwdl Theodore, 
 and Airrril, Ivum- o iXuiiliumberland, 
 that lie recovered llie sees nf Hexham 
 and Yorlcj.bul was expelled, and 
 
 again gained a favourable decision from 
 the pope: Alfred, however, would not 
 allow liim to enter Ids dominions, and 
 it was not till after the death of that 
 prince, and of his immediate successor, 
 that Wilfrid was in his old a-e reinstated 
 in a part of his jiri i-i nen;-. 
 
 § y. The history o|' Wii.rid has at- 
 tracted much more uoiice than it seems 
 intrinsically to merit, on account of the 
 discussions which it involves with re- 
 gard to the appeal to Iiome. But the 
 question is one of curiosity, and really 
 of very little importance." That the' 
 
 1 The 
 romplrl" 
 
 of til.' llrptn 
 
 to in..ir , , 
 prolMLIyi;; 
 and wei c u' 
 of mm p.v- 
 thcynnlur.!:-, 
 
 exalted ami i . . , i. , it- 
 try. VV, I s.: . r.t-.l", ' ' 
 
 and is not iIh' i :ii "\ i' : . linnir c-ul liy 
 
 the condiii'l ot itlc ni nus-i.ii:;ine< ! 
 
 2 The whole question of ilie authority exercised 
 by Rome over Saxon England is one of great dif- 
 
 church of Rome did, at an early period, 
 try to extend its power where it could, 
 is beyond all doubt ; that it did in after 
 times obtain a spiritual supremacy in 
 Emiland is equally unquestionable. The 
 lojiiian < atholic, by proving the early 
 il el ihese encroachments, touches 
 le ; ( l oad principles which guided 
 o e , ; ,1, in throwing off all foreign 
 aiiiiioi liy ; and the Protestant can never 
 prove, by denying these points, that the 
 pope did not afterwards possess the su- 
 preme power over the English church: 
 while both incur the danger of neglect- 
 ing the pursuit of truth, in endeavour- 
 ing to establish their own opinions. 
 
 These observations^ ^Pply with no 
 less strength to the discussions about 
 the council of Cloveshoo, in 747, in 
 which, though there seems no direct 
 acknowledgment of the papal supre- 
 macy, yet since it was called in conse- 
 quence of the letters of Zachary, there 
 is every ajijjearance of at least a great 
 deference to the bishop of Rome. Inett* 
 and Henry^ try to prove the indepea- 
 dence of our church by a comparison 
 of one of the canons with that of a sy- 
 nod held at Mentz, and transmitted to 
 *'iiihbert by Boniface: but were the 
 '■' ■ nod as they esteem it, what 
 ould it answer? We shall 
 to prove that our forefathers 
 -I ants, even if they had not 
 admitted the authority of the 
 lie. We shall not allow of 
 <<i\iL\- canons there established, or 
 : r our prayers and psalms to be said 
 Latin, though "a man may devoutly 
 
 y, and on the dilTerent sides of which con- 
 
 i's (iiaTTictri.rillv opposite way be drawn. 
 ! ii • r Irom Saxon England to 
 
 idmission of its established 
 ; 'i ctful deference to its au- 
 is made archbishop of Can- 
 : ilian, and the Canons of 
 I up under the influence of 
 lion's Canons, 765, prsef.) 
 e^'idcnce that the judicial 
 Kome was no; admitted, 
 ; Britain exercised an cccle- 
 . ir dominions. Th.it is, the 
 III Lnirland amoiinied not to 
 
 ei 11 from the church of Rome, 
 
 I iiifhiciioc was infitniely less than 
 irds liccamc. A proposition which 
 , IV l-c :i»rrii i! of most other Chris- 
 d See Lingard'3 
 
 \ii ' e, -I I ! ii i .; .-oames, Bainplon 
 
 I ' , s.iiii III. ,i,ni iiic ;.,ii.-;rations; Henry's 
 Ui-e f:a-laiKi.iii. 
 •> I.mgard. note, i. 4S4. * Inett, i. 177. 
 
 " Henry, m. ii-.y. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 7 
 
 apply the intentions of his own heart to 
 the things which are at present to he 
 asked of Ood, and fix thein there to the 
 best of his power."' 
 
 § 10. 'I'lie union of the several king- 
 doms of the Ilei;t;irchy would ])Voli;dily 
 ]i:ive been beni^tii'nl i" i)u^'iT>is of 
 Christianity, iuiJ ili ' mutci'iI ing 
 
 inroads of the 1 ' : i i;an cinni- 
 
 uTbalanced th: . 'i ii' -e 
 
 . ' , : ; 1 ilu' Cliris- 
 i'l,.' Mr;,|ni,aer; and, 
 , .1 ' , ■ '.\calili of llif country 
 . s generally contained in the monas- 
 t it s, their savage attacks were chiefly 
 
 ( irected ^gainst these establishments, 
 
 which possessed most of the learning, 
 
 and miich of the civilization which was 
 
 left in England. 
 
 (a.d. 85.5.') Ethelwu: 
 
 Alfrcd,before his journ^ 
 
 a grant of a tenth of alJ i 
 
 or liberated the'-tenlh i 
 
 sessitirvg from every m , nl 
 
 contribution. It i : / . : 
 
 the nature of I'l ■ ■ ii 
 
 gefieraliy been i . i > i i ,i' - 
 
 to tithes, but as i ■ ■ 
 
 long before, tlicre nin ' 
 
 been :i r'^''T:;iitiit - ' i ' 
 
 th^'V ■ ■ 
 
 to 
 
 O-.i ■ . . 
 Edward' 
 bably di- r 
 liam Rul 
 troduced 
 and ther ' : 
 mentionril. 
 
 duo. Wiien lli u 
 
 occurs in the ex • it 
 
 in 710, directions : 
 
 disposal of them; ami 
 
 collections of canons \' i 
 
 trodnce the mention of :.i i 
 
 same manner. 
 
 Someof the early fathers of ihc clmi c'i 
 spnf: . •• M .In- by divin.' ri-rlit." 
 
 exist II, i il;:' r,,;i:;iry was ronvcHctl to 
 Christianily, it will be i\\il[r sniiicirnt 
 to state that they apiieai- to have been 
 
 ' JohnfOii's Can. 7)7, 27. = Turner, i. 480. 
 3 Johnson's Can. lOCA, S. e. 
 1 1bid. 740, sect. 4, 5. ^ n^ij. io64, 9. 
 
 6 Bingham's Ant. ii. 27G, 281. 
 
 collected elsewhere, before the end of 
 the fourth century. And the numerous 
 
 laws with regard to their payment, while 
 they cstablij;h the right, ])rove that there 
 was even then a ditliculty of coUectiil^ 
 them. 
 
 § 11. Tlie groat ben. fit which Alfred 
 conf. rrod on Ins counlry, beyond the 
 military tabnil wliicli he displayed in 
 liis war.s with ih:- i >;uics, consisted in 
 the inlioduction of literature and the 
 ostablislunent of hnv.s. TJie inroads of 
 these northern hordes had overturned 
 all ill ' i' l: i;M - w lii' Ii : a i'/lit educate the 
 inha' 1 the attention 
 
 of t: '.■>, rather than 
 
 pear; . ; . > ii churchmen 
 
 had biasiiiic so I'j !)..r..iii. ill It iV'W under- 
 stood ilii' -.-rv iiss \i I 111' \- used, or 
 " I : ii! I fsii-r. ■ Thcdilii- 
 ■ ' i-'ii .MIrod bad to 
 MS l„. hud to dis- 
 !■ , r I lls ; ' . lucralure, and 
 > tsach iiimself 
 . ■ a lime \vhen 
 . , wla a ,,,nst of 
 
 his own 
 even to 
 
 tiaxons, he 
 sons and si 
 
 ss, ,.,rmerly 
 . W Jirn he 
 uffsl around 
 s all the lite- 
 hiid. and his 
 IS.- 11 inch his 
 sl^ m know- 
 ,v n,n,-ible to 
 ][■ own anccs- 
 s.iin tongue 
 n ,1 :, and to 
 suslated 
 ■ of his 
 I ; to the 
 I rul les- 
 for Our 
 . .Ji hted to 
 I, !.io. in the 
 1 l]r,le: and 
 n his hi-hor 
 
 ];.-si,l 
 
 i'as:.ralof* !r 
 appi'ars to have been einiiloyisj ,m dif- 
 ferent works and translations, and his 
 gmiiM-al knowledge set'nis to have ex- 
 tcnibsl to nmny other sul)jects, as nrchi- 
 O'Cliirc, ship-ljuihllnL:;, and jewelry.* 
 i'^ir ihe education ol'his son Etbelweard, 
 he establislied a public school, in which 
 the young nobility were brought up, 
 
 'Turner, ii. 8, &c. 
 9 Ibid. ii. 146. 
 
 'Ibid. ii. 22. 
 
8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 together with the heir of the crown ; and 
 so greatly did this and his other institu- 
 tions raise llie character of England for 
 civilization, tliat Athelstan had the credit 
 of educating in our island three kings of 
 foreign countries, Alan of Bretagne, 
 Louis of France, and Haco of Norway-' 
 Nor must it be forgotten that Alfred 
 sent an enilias.sy to tiie Syrian Chris- 
 tians of India,- whose very existence 
 has only been re-ascertained by modern 
 communications. 
 
 § 12. The darkness Avhich followed 
 the reign of Athelstan was broken by two 
 men who succeeded each other in the 
 see of Canterliury. (.)do and Dunstan, 
 with their real zeal lor Christianity, 
 joined a great desire of exii nding tin.' 
 influence of the church with which their 
 own power was intimately blended. 
 Their histories, however, have been 
 written by such over-zealous advocates, 
 that till')' have rendered even the good 
 they dill suspected, through the multi- 
 tude id' iiiirack's attributed to them. 
 Modern historians have taken an oppo- 
 site direction; and the conduct of Dun- 
 stan, with regard to Edwi and Elgiva, 
 has, witliout much foundation, been 
 worked up into a pathetic tale ; while, 
 on the other hand, the monks, who were 
 the only historians, had good reason for 
 praising one who everywhere ejected 
 the canons.' and ]daccd the more newly 
 estaltlislied wnlei's in their monasteries. 
 The I lanes avitc, according to the policy 
 of Alfred, gradually incorporated into 
 the religion as well as civil tjnvernnient 
 of the country; and the kin^s of that 
 nation appear not to have lieeu behind- 
 hand in enrirliiny the chundi : so that 
 at the death of Edward llie Confessor, 
 one-third of the land in England is sup- 
 posed to have been in the hands of 
 ecclesiastical bodies.* 
 
 § 1:5. The sketch here given will pro- 
 bably to most readers appear exci'ed- 
 ingly defective,* and tlie only fair apo- 
 logy which can be offered, must be 
 sought for by regarding the writer, or 
 the subject-matter of his writings. With 
 respect to the first of these two, he is 
 fully aware of liis own inadequacy to 
 
 = A murh nieir (nil .ii:e may he I.kiikI in Hen- 
 ry's History of F.ncliiml ; Liiiuiird's A nclo-Saxoii 
 Church; or Turner's Uistoiy of the Anglo-Sax- 
 
 enter on the earlier part of the history 
 of the English church, and confesses 
 most readily that all his acquaintance 
 with it is derived from secondary sources. 
 Should any one think that this portion 
 of the work ought rather to have been 
 omitted altogether, than to have beea 
 thus treated, the writer, while he per- 
 fectly agrees with the better informed 
 reader, begs him to consider, that this 
 book is intended for those who do not 
 possess much knowledge of these sub- 
 jects, and to remember, in his excuse, 
 that few men are able to cope with anti- 
 quarian diificulties, and to enter on the 
 discussion of subjects which are inte- 
 resting in the present day. With regard 
 to the subject-matter, it must be acknow- 
 ledged that we possess little or no ac- 
 quaintance with British history, and that 
 the true history of our Saxon church is 
 still, in great measure, a desideratum in 
 the catalogue of English authors. . No 
 Roman Catholic writer can hope to satis- 
 fy a Protestant, when the real question 
 is as to the introduction of those errors 
 which the member of the church of Eng- 
 land imputes to the other ; and the requi- 
 sites for forming an author suited to the 
 task are so numerous, that we must 
 wish, rather than hope, that such an in- 
 dividual may be found. The whole of 
 the history of the British church has 
 been exhausted by Stillingfleet in his 
 ( )ri£,Miies Britannicffi; and to any one 
 who will examine that work, it will be 
 apparent how little is known, and how 
 unimportant that little is; that is, unim- 
 ]iortant as far as the present state of the 
 world is concerned. The man who ia 
 fully acquainted with the history of the 
 Reformation may see more clearly what 
 is takinof place, or may happen, among 
 l^oinan Catholic nations of our own 
 days ; he who has studied the events 
 « hich occurred in the reign of Charles 
 I. will be able to estimate more fully 
 the present state of England and of 
 those countries with which she is con- 
 nected ; hut he who successfully wades 
 through the whole church history of 
 England, and its ecclesiastical affairs, 
 to the middle of the thirteenth century, 
 will find little more than a continued 
 chain of contrivances, by which man- 
 kind have set aside the law of heaven 
 through their own traditions, and sub- 
 stituted the commandments of men for 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH 0 
 
 F ENGLAND. 
 
 9 
 
 those of God. There are indeed some 
 bright exceptions; and the lesson to be 
 learnt even from such perversions is a 
 useful one; for this fault is by no means 
 condnod to the church of Rome; it ex- 
 ists in human nature; and the blame 
 which proj)erly attacln's to the church 
 of Rome is, that in the dark periods she 
 fostered this evil propensity; and when 
 kno\vledji;o had dispelh-d the mist, for 
 the sake of upholdnio- hov own infalli- 
 bility, she refused to reject those cus- 
 toms and tenets, which, however under- 
 stood and received by the well-informed 
 part of society, can hardly be free from 
 evil amonq- the mass of the community. 
 
 § 1 1. The aboriginal Briton may 
 question liie amount of the debt of gra- 
 titude which he owes to the church of 
 Rome for his conversion ; the English- 
 man, who derives his blood from Saxon 
 veins, will be ungrateful if he be not 
 ready to confess the debt which Chris- 
 tian Europe owes to Rome; and to pro- 
 fess, that whenever she shall cast off 
 those inventions of men, which now 
 cause a separation between us, we shall 
 gladly pay her such honours as are due 
 to the country which was instrumental 
 in bringing us within the pale of the 
 universal church of Jesus Christ. In 
 the mean season, it may be instructive 
 to point out the probable periods at 
 which each of these differences were 
 introduced among the Saxons, and to 
 give some short historical notice with 
 regard to the origin of some of them, a 
 subject which may be omitted by the 
 general reader if he find it uninteresting. 
 
 The errors of the church of Rome 
 generally originated from feelings in 
 themselves innocent, if not laudable, 
 but perverted by the admixture of hu- 
 man passions and inventions. 
 
 § 15. To pray for the dead was the 
 dictate of human nature, and the prac- 
 tice of the early church;' and no rea- 
 sonable Christian will blame Dr. John- 
 son" for the cautious manner in which 
 he mentions his mother in his prayers; 
 but in the hands of the church of Rome 
 this feeling was soon directed to the 
 unscriptural object of delivering the 
 souls cf departed friends from purgi- 
 tory, and the practice converted into a 
 source of profit to the priesthood. The 
 
 ' Bingham's Ant. vi. 671. = Works, xii. 445. 
 2 
 
 history of this doctrine of purgatory is 
 as follows :^ — " About the middle of the 
 third century, Origen, among other Pla- 
 tonic conceits, vented this : That the 
 faithful (the apostles themselves not ex- 
 cepted) would, at the day of judgment, 
 pass through a purgatorial fire," to en- 
 dure a longer or a shorter time, accord- 
 ing to their imperfections. "In this con- 
 ceit, directly contrary to many express 
 texts of Scripture," he was followed by 
 some great men in the church; — and 
 "St. Augustin began to doubt whether 
 this imagined purgation were not to be 
 made in the interval between death and 
 the resurrection, at least as to the souls 
 of the more imperfect Christians. To- 
 wards the end of the fifth century Pope 
 Gregory undertook to assert this pro- 
 blem; — four hundred years after, Pope 
 John the Eighteenth, or, as some say, 
 the Nineteenth, instituted a holyday, 
 wherein he required all men to pray for 
 the souls in purgatory; at length the 
 cabal at Florence, 1439, turned the 
 dream into an article of fahh." The 
 doctrine of a purgatory, of some sort, 
 has been entertained by heathens, Mo- 
 hammedans, and Jews, but there is no 
 necessary connection between praying 
 for the dead, and the belief in purga- 
 tory.* The Greek church, for instance, 
 prays for the dead, without admitting 
 any idea of purgatory. Prayers and 
 oblations for the dead were probably 
 established in England from the first,^ 
 and a short form of prayer to that effect 
 is inserted in the canons of Cloveshoo;^ 
 with regard to the latter doctrine, the 
 Saxon homilists generally refer to the 
 awards of a final judgment,' though 
 traditional notices exist, in which there 
 appears to be at first an indistinct, but 
 afterwards more clear reference to pur- 
 gatory.* Bede seems to have enter- 
 tained an idea of the same sort: and 
 
 s Bull's .Serm. iii. Works, i. 76. 
 
 < Bingham, vi. 688. 
 
 5 Johnson's Can. pref. xix. 
 
 5 Lord, according to the greatness of thy mercy, 
 grant rest to his soul, and for thine infinite pity 
 vouchsafe to him the joys of eternal light with thy 
 saints. Johnson's Can. 747, 37. 
 
 ' .^oames, 349, 16, 324. 
 
 ' There are also many places of punishment, 
 Lingard, Ang.-Sax. Church, 255, (21,) in which 
 souls suffer in proportion to their guilt, before the 
 general judgment, and in which some are so far 
 purified, as not to be hurt by the fire of the last 
 day. See also Soaraes, Bamp. p. 344. 10, 12. 
 
10 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 Alcuin, in common with many others, 
 supposed that the general conflagration 
 of the world would form a purgatorial 
 fire, through which the souls which 
 escaped unsinged would pass into the 
 abodes of bliss. But later writers, and 
 among the rest Allri'il, adopted the po- 
 pular notions of 1 - aiory,- wiiich were 
 still very (liirerciit Iroi:! tin' opinions on 
 that subject, established as articles of 
 faith by the councils of Florence and 
 Trent. ^ Departed souls betw'cen death 
 anil ihi'ir iinni jutli^nicnt were divided 
 into four di.-tinct plaros; the perfect 
 ^\•ere conveyL d to heaven ; the less pure 
 to paradise; the impure, who died in 
 peniicnce, were consigned to purgato- 
 rial flanirs ; and the impenitent to liell." 
 
 § 10. With r.-gard lo the doctrine of 
 transulistantiaiion, the opinions of ihe 
 early lathers concerning it luav ■ ''i n 
 in AVaterland ;■' and his acco 
 history of this tenet is thus - 
 note r'''" In the year 7b7,theM e: n-i iiiu- 
 cil of Nice began with a rash dro i-mi- 
 nation, that the sacred symbols are not 
 figures or inuiges at all, but the very body 
 and blood. About s:}l, Paschasius Rad- 
 bertus carried it further, even to transub- 
 stantiatioii, or sonn wliat very lilce to it. 
 The name of tran-ub^iantiaiion is ^ l - 
 posed to have come in ulioiit a.d. 1 ! 
 first mentioned by Ilildrliorlus Cn; - 
 manoiisis of that 'time. (p. i . 
 
 Benedict.) A.D. I'il."), the doct rinr \, 
 made an articb' of failli by the Lalrr^r:: 
 council, under Innocent llie Thiril."" 
 How far this doctrine was admitlod i ' 
 the Ancdo-Saxon chiircli is di-cas.-i"! ' 
 Limrard,- who slnnvs that tlir can;: 
 Bede, and Eubi-rt, use ex])n sr i n 
 which a member of the church of 
 England would not use ; but these pro- 
 bably a l-'rotestant might have adopted, 
 if the question had never been contro- 
 verted. 13ede, however, introduces 
 language \\lncb no one wlio believed 
 the ilorti'ln:' nC I raiisiibM a nt iation* could, 
 have ailiiiiitrd. ]i;n tii-nl irly the words 
 of St. Aui;-nstin, ipioti d in our twenty- 
 ninth article; ami tho testimonies of 
 Rabanus Maurus, and Joannes Scotus 
 Erigena, whose tenets were proba- 
 bly derived from the English school 
 
 of theology, give us every reason for 
 concluding that this doctrine never 
 gained a footing in England before the 
 conquest. Lingard maintains that the 
 language of Elfric' is borrowed from 
 Bertram,'" to which a Roman Catholic 
 would not object, but which Archbishop 
 Parker deemed so favourable to the 
 opinion entertained by Protestants, that 
 he published it as conveying a meaning 
 corresponding nearly with the doctrines 
 of the church of England. 
 
 § 17. Private or solitary mass" was 
 unknown in the early church," and for 
 the first nino hundred years there is no 
 form of ordaining priests, to offer mass 
 for the and the dead;" but Bede 
 
 and Alcuin appear to have esteemed 
 the sacrifice beneficial for the living,'* 
 Bede even for the dead. The same 
 "pinfcn is expressed by Elfric in his 
 iiion and in tlie canons of Edgar, 
 the practice of saying mass, as an 
 '•j;;'s operutuin,^^ seems clearly to have 
 been established.'' As the custom of 
 paying adoration to the host, and the 
 denial of the cup to the laky,'" did not 
 
 > Soarnes, 325. ^ Ibid. 302. » ibid. 328. 
 * On all these qiipstions see also Usher's An- 
 swer to a Jesuit's Challenge. 
 sWorkg, viii. 235. « Ibid. vii. 182. 
 
 'Note N, 492. sSoames, 399, 4, and 406, 5. 
 
 ' Elfric says, (Johnson's Canons, 957, ^37.j 
 " lln i-c 1 is Christ's body not corporally, but spi- 
 !i ■! the body in %vhich he suffered, but 
 
 I which he spake, when he blessed 
 wiie for housel, one night before his 
 '. -aid of the bread blessed, This is my 
 i-ain of the wine blessed. This is my 
 ; shed for many for the forgivcntss 
 See also a sermon of bus primed !iy 
 \y hi i-hop Parker, underlhe liile ot'a 
 ; ,iiity ;" (Fox's Martyrs, vii. 
 
 am, was a monk of Corbey 
 :,: : middle of the ninth ccnlury ; 
 : li t. Df Carport f t Satistiine Domini. 
 ! English, 3d edit. Lond. lt)£6, see 
 
 i'.. Tlie word mi.'.fn, or mass, was originally 
 a general name for every part of the divine service. 
 (Binghajn, Ant. v. 9, fcc.) Its signification is the 
 same as Ihe -word missio. and it was the form used 
 in the Latin church. " lie missa est," at the dis- 
 mission of the catechumens first, and then of the 
 whole assembly afterwards. Baronius (sub anno 
 34, ^ 51' dcrivrs it from the Hebrew. It iiow 
 dent. ' : :;i;rr the bread and wine into 
 
 the I : Christ, and offering that as 
 
 an ' I r the quick and dead. 
 
 I 1. '3 Ibid. i. 255. 
 
 'U.r _ ;ro 1,' .'IS. '5 p. 29. 
 
 "'.luhii-on's Can. 9f>0, ^ 35. 
 V IT. It is there ordered, " that the priest never 
 celebrate mass alone, (sect. 35.) without some one 
 to make responses for him," (sect. 37.) " That 
 he never celebrate more than thrice in one day,"' 
 (seel. 40.) or " whhout eating the housel, or con- 
 secrated elements." 
 
 '^In Peckham's Constitutions. 1281, it is order- 
 ed that the laiiy (Johnson's Can. sect. 1) be told 
 that the wine which is given to them is not the 
 sacrament, but mere wme, to be drunk for the 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 II 
 
 begin till the twelfth century,' it would 
 be unnecessary to search for the usage 
 of the Anglo-Saxons with regard to 
 these i)oinls. 
 
 § IS. No ))itlur(^s or images' were al- 
 lowed in (_'lii-istiiiii chuvfhes for the first 
 three hundred years, and there is a posi- 
 tive decree against ihem in the council of 
 Elvira, oOo.^ Pictures wt^re introduced 
 during tlu' I'm n'li i-' 
 wen' no r- 
 
 fred,' we may presume that it was esta- 
 blished before that time, though there 
 does not appear to have been much zeal 
 for it till after the ('onrjui-st. As the 
 
 fiourcsiirthc V'iieiu .\hn-y"'iiiul the saints 
 wrrr auioiiv' llir iii'si wliicli Were intro- 
 lio hisiiirv III' the intiTcessional 
 
 ducod, I 
 worship 
 conr.fcti 
 
 nor sUiUi ■ 
 that the v> v,: . 
 692, since at that 
 to exhibit* the Sa', 
 of a lamb, or in ai 
 human. When, 
 council of Con. 
 which ;338 bisli.i 
 second council ol 
 the worship of in 
 Fjankforti P^ris, ' 
 unanimously in < 
 cree," though it \\ 
 There is cood rr 
 image worship diu 
 land fill the middle 
 
 •.r Tnuii 
 , lauvrv, 
 
 a-aTd 
 
 he de- 
 Rome. 
 :e that 
 1 *Eng- 
 
 nth century 
 
 of the 
 
 but from the omission of the second 
 commandment" in the laws of Al 
 
 more easy .- . ^ : , . ■ > , , 
 IMS. called ^ 
 tlie coronal 1' 
 keeping ot ih . . 
 
 curious direci.jii \:, I' , , , ;, ,:m 
 
 '• Osculo aulcrn paci i i- jii,, 
 
 descciidentes re.x et n , it a -ir 
 
 denies hiiDiiIiter ad : < njiui^ r 
 
 gancuiiicm Dommi o ; imn vc 
 
 cpiscopi iiiisfsam cell i : mI),,.|.ip 
 
 a rcge recepio, mini, : in 
 
 (I preirume the wiiir m . . , , 
 
 lioncm sacramonii Abl.as \, 
 
 vcl is qui vicem ejus pro temp •• 
 
 lum est, dc calico lapideo de i' 
 
 'j Ills appears lo have been 
 
 in ilie prciirress of withdravPi ■ 
 
 nial M as canonically eancliom 
 
 Coi-Mancc. 
 
 ' IJiiiiliam's Ant. vi, ' ;:' : 
 
 'Il.iil. :>-)0. MI. 
 
 SB. 
 tlie 
 
 Ba.: ; 
 
 cop- 
 
 lolhc 
 
 ih lllr 
 ilh it 
 
 the 
 
 balily closely 
 and contem- 
 Benedict 
 \'ir2:in Mary 
 1 SI rvices for 
 iinjjiy a ba- 
 ll 'nee of the 
 lied to him, 
 Cealchythe, 
 
 Cream 
 saints, 
 tercedi 
 Mary, 
 saint.s.' 
 
 Canons 
 
 r.' "irdeyed to be used in the con 
 11 if places of worship." The 
 ' Tlieodulf place the doctrine 
 1 church of that time in the 
 ill.'" 'I'hc layman is there 
 liiai ■'havinn- v/orshipped his 
 r only, let liiiu call upon the 
 and |May lliat they would in- 
 fer liiiu to Ciod ; first to Saint 
 and afterwards to all God's 
 
 Mind that thou hallow the rcsling day. 
 ')U fi.x days, and on the seventh, rest 
 '1. r,;.,l ihv =nn, :i,i,l ihy daughter, and 
 • • ' ■ ' •! !in<l Ihy working 
 
 '.■ ii lull ihv doors : 
 ::i.' iiravcns and 
 •• I'. ' '-'l ci • ..Hires I hat in them 
 roic'il hiiii.'fil on the hcvciiih day; and 
 the Lord hallowed it. 
 Honor thy lather and thy moihcr whom 
 gave (hue, liiat iliou bo ii long liver on 
 
 ^lay 
 
 thou. 
 
 ■rc-h 
 
 iiui iiiini i,il-e witness against thy 
 ' ihoii iie.i ihv 111 ighhour's inhcrit- 
 
 L'llt. 
 
 I llou not gulden gods, or silveren." 
 
 Iso printi-d in .Tohn 
 
 of 
 
 &<■. I ii.'.-.' ■•11.. I 1,1 ,.111. ,v i„ ihc .-anie elleci. i 
 Allred'.s version is as ioUows; it stands prefi.xed 
 10 his laws : — I 
 "I. The Lord was speakinj these words to' 
 Moyses, and thus savih ; cMs) I nni the Lord 
 thy God. I led thoe oui lioin .7.:^ipis' land, and 
 from their slavery. Love tlum nut oilirr strange 
 Gods over me. 
 
 " IL Utter thou not my name in vain : for thou 
 beesi not guiltless with me, il tliou in vain utter- 
 est my name. 
 
 the worship of 
 Ilijiory ol the 
 
 lievc, ::- ., I. . .. j I., , -laiits as 
 
 perVCrle,! l.\ i;,,l,i;,ii l a. I;, ,[;,.... Callio- 
 
 lies would a.^sen that iliey prayed I; fan' the 
 image, and not fo it ; and that they reiiiiesled the 
 prayer of the saint in heaven as iS^i. Paul did that 
 of the faithhil on earth : but the Protestant, while 
 he believes that to pay any religious respect to an 
 image is a breach of the Second Commandment, 
 (Exod. XX. 4 — 6,) even if it do not amount to ido- 
 
13 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 § 19. Closely connected with this 
 subject is the religious veneration which 
 was paid to relics. Respect for every 
 thing which has belonged to those whom 
 we admire, is so consistent witii rigiit 
 feeling, that, from the very earliest pe- 
 riod, great regard and attention must 
 naturally have been paid by Christians 
 to the mortal remains of such persons 
 as had gone before them in the Lord ; 
 but nothing resembling worship was 
 used towards such relics,' till after the 
 time of St. Augustin. The line be- 
 tween religious veneration and worship 
 is so nice, that from the earliest days 
 perhaps some individuals offended in 
 this particular ; and we find that our 
 Saxon forefathers were early led to re- 
 gard such remains with more than due 
 reverence, through the attention which 
 was paid to them by their first teachers. 
 Gregory, among the presents which he 
 sent to "Augustin, soon after his arrival 
 in England, transmitted certain relics. 
 And in the eighth century, the number 
 of persons who were anxious to pay 
 their devotions^ near the bodies of the 
 previous archbishops of Canterbury, 
 deposited in the church of St. Peter and 
 St. Paul, induced Cuthbert, before 759, 
 to direct that his own remains should 
 be buried in the cathedral church. This 
 question produced a vehement alterca- 
 
 lalry, may feel convinced in his own mind that 
 many uneducated persons are guilty of the actual 
 sin in the worship which is paid to the brass image 
 of St. Pelcr, in St. Fclcr's, Rome. Nor is it easy 
 to comprehend how reference can he made to 
 any thing hut the image, when a rivalry is sup- 
 posed to exist between different images of the 
 Virgin or of the same saint : or how a college can 
 be dedicated to St. Mary of Winton, unless some 
 peculiar sanctity be attached to the image, which 
 can alone possess a local existence. God must 
 judge of the question ; but it is a heavy charge to 
 have caused even one weak brother to offend. — It 
 may he remarked, too. that to request the inter- 
 cession of the dead, is founded on no authority of 
 Scripture, and contrary to the custom of the pri- 
 mitive church. Bingham's Ant. v. p. Ift. The 
 first form in which the adoration of saints (Soanies. 
 Bamp. Lect. 21G, .5) was introduced into the An- 
 glo-Saxon church seems to have been a prayer to 
 God, that his servants on earth might he licncfitod 
 by the intercession of his saints in heaven, (c. g.) 
 " Da nobis Domine quaesumus, beati Siephani 
 protomarlyris intercessione adjuvari, ut qui pro 
 Buis exoravit lapidatoribus, pro siiis inlercedcie 
 dignetur veneratoribus, per Jes. Xt. D. N." A 
 trace of this is to be found in the subsequent form 
 of " Oret pro nobis," but before the C'onque.-i it 
 had got to the equivocal " Or," and to the dis- 
 tinct (220) " Ora" and "Orate," in which the 
 prayer was addressed to the saint. (221.) 
 > Bingham's Ant. x. 113. ^ Lingard, 262. 
 
 tion between the monks, who claimed 
 the body, and the clergy of the cathe- 
 dral who detained it. 
 
 § 20. Under the same head must be 
 ranked the abuse of pilgrimages; for 
 while Icept within the bounds of reason, 
 and referred only to the effect upon the 
 mind of the person visiting the scenes 
 of Chri.'^tian history, little objection can 
 be raised against them. It appears that 
 pilgriiniiges to Jerusalem had become 
 common ainong the English in the 
 , fourth century, and, from the objections 
 [ which St. Jerom makes with re.trard to 
 them,'' that a superstitious value had 
 been attached to such journeys under- 
 taken with a religious view; but in 
 after-times Rome becaine an object of 
 easier ajiproach, and afforded more nu- 
 merous attractions. Ethelwulf* went 
 there in H.'j.'j with great magnificence 
 and splendid presents, and in his jour- 
 ney was accoHiptuiied by his son Alfred, 
 then a boy. It i:^ not perhaps too much 
 to presume, tiiat the future greatness 
 of this monarch was promoted by this 
 early visit to a more polished stale of 
 society, nor need we refer the journeys 
 of seven other British kings, who each 
 sought the metropolis of Christian Eu- 
 rope, to mere blind superstition, or view 
 their conduct in a very different light 
 from that in which we should reirard 
 the coining to London of some heathen 
 monarch, who iiad derived his know- 
 ledge of Christianity from an English 
 missionary. The frequency, however, 
 of these pilgrimages was a great evil. 
 Boniface, in his letter to Cuthbert, 747,* 
 speaks of English women, who, having 
 set out on a religious errand, had dis- 
 graced the character of pilgrims by 
 their licentious conduct in almost every 
 city in Europe. Pilcfrimages are often 
 ordered in the penitential canons,'' and 
 in extreme cases the penanee is im- 
 posed of a perpetual wandering from one 
 place of religious resort to another, in 
 which the penitent was never to remain 
 two ninbts in tlie same residence.' 
 
 § 21. With regard to confession and 
 ]ienance. the tenets of the churches of 
 England and Rome differ in these re 
 spects. Both hold that, without con 
 fession to God, and sincere repentance, 
 
 3 Usher, Ant. Brit. 109. p. < Lineard, \39. 
 5 Johnson's Can. pref. 747. « Ibid. 740, 963. 
 ' Ibid. 963, i 64. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 13 
 
 there is no forgiveness of sins ; but they 
 differ as to the necessity of confessing 
 to a priest, and of obtaining absolution 
 from him. The church of England, in 
 cases of gross sins, whore the conscience 
 is troubled, advises its members to con- 
 fess their sins to a jiriest, and has en- 
 joined a form of absolution. The 
 church of Rome denies that there is 
 any hope of pardon from God, except 
 through confrssion, and the absolution 
 of a i)riest. The I'rotcstaiit minister is 
 the adviser of his penitent, the Rotnan 
 Catholic assumes too the character of 
 his judge ; and in this, the rttle of our 
 church corresponds with the practice 
 of the priiniiiM' ('hristians during the 
 four first criiimit's.' The directions 
 given in Theodulf's capitula'' resemble 
 much more tlie custom of the church 
 of England than that of Rome, enjoin- 
 ing confession to God, and recommend- 
 ing confession to a priest, on the ground 
 of the advice to be received from him ; 
 nor would there remain any doubt of 
 the agreement of the Anglo-Saxon 
 church with that of England, were it 
 not for the ruh^s laid down among the 
 directions given concerning discipline, 
 in which the penance'' is spoken of as a 
 satisfaction for sin.* The penances 
 generally imposed are fasting, wander- 
 ing, laying aside arms and external 
 
 ' Ringliam's Ant. vi. 871, vm. 117, 130; Bur- 
 ton, 11. and m. cent. 338. 
 2 .Johnson, 9'.)1, 30. 
 
 2 One dillicully wilh regard lo tins question be- 
 tween the Protestant and Roman ( atlmhr' ari.ses 
 from the word ;)(rHi/(«fi(j. whic h a Konian ( atho- 
 lic would translate " penanc e, m ns si eoiniai v 
 or theological sense; whereas tlir l.iirk is irra- 
 mm. or repentance. "Repent \( . lor ilie I.iii't- 
 dom ot heaven is at hand,' by I" iiii,' translated 
 ihroiiijh the Latin, is rendered " Do penance, tor 
 the.' S^c. The fruit of rejieiitance, for which a 
 Protestant minister would look, is a proof of the 
 sorrow ol heart in the pcniieni . rxprrs„„.r „s,.lf in 
 
 tanlv 
 godly ' 
 
 •ard 
 
 time i s;: 
 
 si. Il 
 
 II lilt to un- 
 iiiiless the 
 the same 
 
 al of Theo- 
 
 Itser'ii^ fur al-o i-i r.iiirladr that ronlcssinii was 
 necessanlv loimal with it. i liose lavil laws which 
 conhrni the |ie;iaiices imposed by the ehurrli 
 prove nothing lo the point ; (.Tohnson, R77. 1 ; 
 925, 7;) for iri each case the otlence is of snch a 
 nature as misjht he known without any private 
 confession. See, on the whole of this question, 
 Soames, Bamp. Lcct. V. and the illustrations. 
 * Jolinson, 9G3, s. 57, 58. 
 
 'pomp, a change of clothes,' not allow- 
 ing iron to come near the nails or hair. 
 " Much of the satisfaction of sin," says 
 the Canon," "inay be redeemed by 
 alms-deeds ;" an olisi'rvalion which is 
 rolluwcil liy ;i loiiL,r ticcount of the com- 
 mutation of pi'intiice, Avhereby a rich 
 man may buy oil" the penances imposed 
 
 jon him by rinding other persons who 
 will join with him in his fasting, and 
 thus lighten the severity of the disci- 
 pline by dividing it among a greater 
 number. It should be observed, how- 
 ever, that this is strictly forbidden in 
 747;^ and Dttnstan imposed, and Edgar 
 sttbmitted to, a seven years' penance, 
 of not wearing his crown, as a punish- 
 ment for deflouring a nun. 
 
 § 22. The question of the celibacy of 
 the clergy is one which involves this 
 difficulty, that it is not clear, even now, 
 Avhethi'r the church of Rome esteem it 
 till apiistoliral tradition or an ecclesias- 
 tical luAv;'' /. r. whether it cannot, or 
 can, be di.spriisril with liy the authority 
 of the church. A I 'i nii-sUmt Avonld say, 
 that no chnrcli eaii possi'ss the right of 
 depriving a priest of his orders, in con- 
 serptence of iiis marrying, because such 
 a step would not be sanctioned by Scrip- 
 ture ; but the laws of a Roman ( 'alho- 
 lic country must have the sttine aulhor- 
 ity to deprive him of his preferment, as 
 the law of England has to say that a 
 married priest shall not continue to hold 
 his fellowship. The early practice of 
 the Christian church was clearly m fa- 
 vour of the marriage of the clergy." 
 No vow of celibacy was required of 
 them at their ordination, for the three 
 first centuries, and many were married. 
 At the council ol Nice, '}2'y,'" it was in 
 vain endcttvouri'il to impose this re- 
 straint upon chiivehmen ; but it seems 
 to have lierii uiiiisnal lor clergymen to 
 iiKtrr\' atlcr onliiiaiinn." Tho custom 
 ol the I irei'lc cliiireh'-^ was sattledatthe 
 council ot 'I'rullo, (;i)2, in which it was 
 ordained, that bi.shops only should sepa- 
 rate theinsi'lves Iroin tlieir -wives, while 
 all other orders were allowt^d to dwell 
 with tliem ; and the church of Rome 
 \vas rebuked for the contrary law. The 
 
 = Johnson, !)f>3, fi4. « Ibid. 67. 
 
 ' Ibid. 747, 27 ; 9li3, post, 77. 
 
 ^ .liirieu's Council of Trent, 487. 
 
 3 Bingham, ii. 152. "> Ibid. l.">5. 
 
 " Ibid. 156. " Ibid. 158. 
 
 B 
 
14 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. I. 
 
 answers of Gregory to Augustin imply, 
 that the regulations of the Roman church 
 had heen made in England' from the 
 very first. ^ The Canons of Ecgbright, 
 of Elfric ; the Penitential Canons of 
 Edgar, Tlieodulf's Capitnla ; the (.'anons 
 of Eanhain, and the laws of (Jaiiiitc, all 
 imply that this was the law (if ih" 
 church; nnd the only tr- i inidtiA- wlii'-h 
 seetns to favour the coi:! : . ■ ' i 
 ar2;iiiiiciit appears to I i a 
 
 misinterpretation.'* Biii . . . lit 
 
 have been the law, the pi ;iri i-c r lu- 
 to have been diametrically opp'i-ih'. ;h 
 least after the Danish invasion: ainl tin 
 severity threatened in iiii ilic laicr ca- 
 nons proves thr (iiili.-r.'^ \' ni' . iirniTiiij 
 this unscrij)tiir:ii i' :i. 'i'lw icm- 
 
 pcr of iniiiil <reii'T:ii>'>i !••. n j- p, .-ity 
 clearly mar!..--! liy "'her ••:) . ■ \.ic\i 
 ordain that un WMmaii .--!•. ..ifi ■ •<•!) 
 
 the altar whilo mass A\'a> sayti 
 that no woroan, not evi n a 
 should live ill the liraisr ; ' , 
 
 lest the vi-il-. Ml .,;1„ ,■ wmi.j, u ;,!,., 
 tempt hill, in Ml,. Tl, . MMio--!:. as t,, 
 
 this p(ii,,t fnriiib the chi;'!' r.'atiir/ ill thr 
 later histery of the Anirl-.-Sa ■■:(.,, .-l.tirrh : 
 but the question is far in., ,-y[r\) -\v 
 be fully discussed A\-iihin our liiuits. 
 
 though a brief outline of it may be 
 useful. 
 
 § 2'i. The earliest erch siastiral esta- 
 bli>llinenls ceiisislial of llie liishnp ;uid 
 his clerks, who lived in,;,.,!; ;,- ,,ii a pro- 
 perty CDUimon In i !; '• •• • 1 niauairfd 
 by the bishop. ' _(u-i.iii al 
 
 by a rule or raa alhal 
 nm/^ 'i. , . . , Si-! mi' 
 
 l-.'i':' ■ I, , . 
 I(,i7. 
 
 "niiv 'n\ tlir iiS- !h'„ ■ 
 
 or,/,,,. , r.r; / ';, 'l i . 
 
 chiir :■ ■ ■ 
 Kli;i.- ,: 
 
 ami Li I'l :< . , , • ■ • . 
 
 in<r. fuh-.r. ,,S,;i4 rl; a. in ;.l ilaiis r-.U'r «i' 
 
 Gud's null's. ■l ls~. I, ... I, i|„. i nv ..i i;.s;!.nshr. 
 Tlic lour la--t Mi.l. 1- Nv. ;.' am c:,,Tcd. nad those 
 in tliem lui^lit maiay. I.v.,,) 
 
 3 The thu-ly-lillh' scctui!; of llio Iiuvs of the 
 Northumliriiin piiepis ordains: " If a prir«:t dis- 
 miss one wito. and talie anoilirr. let Inn, lie aiia- 
 tliema." (''."lO. 3.t.) 'I'lie probable meaning of 
 wliich is, " If a priest, with a view to ordination, 
 has given np one wife, and then taUcn another 
 afterwards ;" which is the very sin spoken of in 
 the canons of Eanham, and the Penitential Ca 
 nons. (1009, 2; 963, 40.) 
 
 « Johnson's Can. 960, 44. 
 
 • Ibid. 994, 12. 
 
 ] Christianity into the district surround- 
 
 1 ing the cathedral church called for the 
 erection of more places of worship, 
 parish churches were gradually esta- 
 blished, the services in which were sup- 
 plied by some member of the general 
 snelety ; and when benefices distinct 
 also in their property were founded, the 
 secular clergy, under the direction of 
 the bishop, rose by degrees into exist- 
 ence. But besides these, there was a 
 class of persons, originally not strictly 
 speaking ecclesiastics, but who after a 
 lime generally became so, living to- 
 iis'thcr under more strict regulations 
 than the canons, and guided by some 
 peculiar rule, in England generally that 
 ni St. l]enedict. There can be little 
 
 1 duubt that, in the earlier stages of soci- 
 ety, monastic institutions were of very 
 : ! • ;.t utility. They formed- an inde- 
 iident landlord, anxious for peace, 
 able and willing to introduce im- 
 nvcments. They contained and fos- 
 |er. d the little learning which existed 
 ill the countrJ^ They encouraged the 
 
 iaiis of architecture and its adjuncts,* 
 nil , n,!,iis]^e(i manufactures; thus 
 l iaiia- :\ middle class of men, whose 
 cnuiliniaiion might afford a salutary 
 check to the power of the crown or the 
 aristocracy. No person suffered so 
 much by the irruption of the Danes as 
 the inhabitants of monasteries. They 
 were possessed of wealth, without anj' 
 means of defending it, and their destruc- 
 n n became general. During these pe- 
 ri ds of confusion, the mass of the 
 ' ' r'jy appear to have become married ; 
 I win 11 peace was re-established, the 
 la r clero-y, who were friendly to the 
 s ail see, as Dunstan and his col- 
 iii s Oswald and Ethelwold, pro- 
 ' i! itli nil activity to eject the 
 . and re-establish the 
 .'lid not be forgotten, 
 1 . , avETued, at the council 
 
 of Trent," that the principal reason why 
 priests are forbidden to marry is, that it 
 is plain that married priests will, through 
 their affection to their wives and fami- 
 lies, and the ties thus formed with their 
 countries, lose that dependence on tht 
 
 ^ The illuminators of MSS. in this country 
 were, in the end of the tenth century, surpassed 
 by none but those of the Greek school. ArchK- 
 ologia, vol. xxiv. p. 26. 
 
 ' Fr. Paul, 635. 
 
Chap. I.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 1ft 
 
 apostolic see which constituted the 
 strength of the ecclesiastical hierarchy. 
 
 It may be observed, that the use of 
 holy water' is enjoined, and the burn- 
 ing of lights^ in churches, and that the 
 service was performed in the Latin lan- 
 guage ; that priests are directed to 
 preach -every Sinuliiy, and to explain 
 the Lord's I'lMyr-. tii^' Creed, and the 
 
 Gospel, to the |.rn|il,'. 
 
 § -il. If. th-ii. il 1m. iisked, wllelll.T 
 the doctrinrs .il' ili:' ,\ le^lo-Sr.xon cliiii-cli 
 corresponded more neai'l\- to those of 
 tlie chin-eh of IJome or of England, it 
 will be impossible to return an answer, 
 wilhont inquiring how far the tenets of 
 the Koman Catholic of that period 
 agreed with the decisions of the coun- 
 cil of Trent : and in all probability it 
 would be fevMil I lint ilie il illl T. 'uce be- 
 tween the citMerin- ,s i>\' llie cimrch of 
 Rome, at dillerent penUds, \\as much 
 greater than that wliicli exi>ted between 
 the Anglo-Saxon churcli and the ciiurch 
 of Rome of the stiine date. The pro- 
 gress of error can never be very rapid, 
 and the concbisions of the council of 
 Trent must liavi' required a growth of 
 many vi m''s. f'aie'ies are tirst con verted 
 into opiiii iii.s by the authority of those 
 who have eiiti'riained them, and inte- 
 rest adopts opinions which have been 
 once admitted, to .sanction unwarrant- 
 able denian.ls. It v/as ihiis that a Ixdief 
 in ])iii'!'alii|-y wa-. lirst i-"eeive(l, and then 
 b?canie the origin of many ecclesiasti- 
 cal foundations : it was thus that the 
 priesthood first persuaded men to be- 
 lieve in transnlistantiation. and then con- 
 vert ■ ' ' ; - ' :>'aas of ari,r,,,riil iiv^ 
 thei,- ,,■! <\\--u]iV.. ss eniieM- 
 
 rhlL,- ••. ' . .. ,>r.'-i'lti!lie!ire on lliose 
 
 to v.-hoai this po.viT of W'-rkasg i per- 
 petual miracle wa.s coniini ! ■(!. W.eli 
 this view of the subject, it is piobabje 
 that we slmald lindth? chiircli of IJouie 
 of that day nearer to thi> jiresent doc- 
 trines of the church of Enoland than 
 the decrees of the council of Trent are. 
 And as the Anudo-Saxon church was, 
 from its situatiiju and distance from 
 Rome, not likidy to receive every new 
 invention as it was framed, we might 
 expect that her tenets would be nearer 
 our own, not only than those entertained 
 by Rome now, but than those which 
 
 I were then maintained in Italy. And 
 
 this is precisely the conclusion to which 
 the previous examination has arrived, 
 
 as far as it has gone. 
 I § 23. But if it be asked, how far these 
 erroneous views had drawn our fore- 
 fathers from the vital principles of 
 
 Christianity, tlie question must require 
 tlie <;i-rai( st ea.inion, even in one who 
 was tlioriinulily versed in the subject; 
 must be ans-,vered as a matter of opinion, 
 rather than as a point of history ; and 
 ought only to be discussed, because the 
 ' great use of history is to teach us, 
 I through the example of others, the dan- 
 gers to which we are ourselves exposed. 
 And lir-a it may be premised, that it is 
 net thi' abstract Ijelief in erroneous doc- 
 trines v.liieh jierverts the faith of the 
 Christian, but the tendency which such 
 errors lia\ e to undermine the essentials 
 of our ridigion. lie who believes in 
 the existence of a purgatory, may still 
 seek for salvation, and an 'escape from 
 every future punishment, through his 
 Savionr's blood ; it is onlv wheii he 
 
 ne other means 
 a of purgatory 
 I)' liis faith in 
 may believe in 
 still receive the 
 
 ' Johnson's Can. 816, ^ 2 ; 960, ^ 43. 
 a Ibid. 960, 42. 
 
 learns to confide in s'l 
 of safety, that tlie i(b 
 will practically deMr 
 Christ. The ( 'In-isiiai 
 transubstantiation, and 
 elenumts with humble reliance on the 
 great sacrifice made once for all ; but 
 when he believes that the providing of 
 masses can benefit his own soul, or that 
 of others, he begins to lose sight of the 
 atonement, and to sovk for a new means 
 of reconciliation. 'I'lu're is, perhaps, no 
 Ti'ason why an individiud holding wrong 
 • Miiiiions (if tins sort may not trust in 
 !li ' saiiii' K'lek on w hich our faith is 
 leilli, but the tendency of such opinions 
 i I" lead those who entertain them from 
 IS I'. jiig on God, who is the Giver, to 
 ri lyinq- on the means which God has 
 ajipointed whereby we partake of his 
 ;nl'ts. 
 
 § 'ZC>. And this probably we shall find 
 to have been the ease among the Anglo- 
 Saxons; for a \-ery inadequate view of 
 the atonement seems to pervade many 
 of the documents of their faith which 
 have come down to us. When the 
 great features of Christianity are di- 
 rectly brought forward, they are per- 
 fectly correct; some of the prayers, for 
 instance, given by Turner,' mark great 
 
 490, 491. 
 
16 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chxp. I. 
 
 piety and most correct views of the Tri- 
 nity, the atonement, and sanctification. 
 So in the homily on the Catholic faith 
 it is said,* "The holy Father created 
 and made mankind through his Son, 
 and he desires through the same to re- 
 deem us from hell punishment, when 
 we were utterly undone;" hut then the 
 same homily adds, towards the cnd,= 
 "Come then, let us turn that eternal 
 life with God, through this belief, and 
 through good deservings expressions 
 which a believer in the eleventh article 
 would never have used. In another, 
 the writer speaks of redeeming trans- 
 gressions by almsgiving:^ upon the 
 death of a bishop, alms are directed to 
 be given out of his property, and his 
 slaves to be set free, "that by this means 
 he may deserve to receive the fruit of 
 retribution for his labours, and also for- 
 giveness of sins. Alwyn, founder of 
 Ramsay, desired the monks to pray for 
 him,"' "and to ])lace their merits in ba- 
 lance against his defects;" and a monk 
 prays for Edgar, ° "that his good deeds 
 
 ' .Soanics, Bamp. Lect. G3. ^ Ibid. 65. 
 3 Turner, iii. 476. Johnson's Can. 81G, 10. 
 5 Lingard, 251. « Ibid. 278. 
 
 may overbalance his evil deeds, and 
 shield his soul at the last day." More 
 examples of the same sort might be 
 found, if the Penitential Canons were 
 consulted; but these are quite sufficient 
 to prove that the fruit of unorthodox 
 doctrines had grown up with the admis- 
 sion of those opinions; and though we 
 may bring forward the Anglo-Saxon 
 church as not having admitted all the 
 errors of Rome, yet when we would de- 
 fend ourselves from the attacks of our 
 enemies, we must at once fall back upon 
 the Bible, and profess ourselveB ready 
 to amend whatever part of our faith or 
 practice does not correspond with the 
 lively oracles of God. They possessed 
 the fiible in their native language, yet 
 they admitted the traditions of men, and 
 were perverted so far as not to place 
 their faith and confidence entirely in 
 their Redeemer's blood. The}- buried 
 their faith under a mass of unauthorized 
 observances, and partially lost sight of 
 that which is chiefly valuable in the 
 Gospel. There were many errors which 
 had not yet been introduced, but the 
 way was fully prejiared for their ad- 
 mission. 
 
Chap. 11.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 17 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM THE CONQUEST, 1066, TO THE PREACHING OF WICLIF, 1356. 
 
 51. View to be taken of the Church history of this period. 52. William I. 53. Growth of the power 
 of Rome. 54. William Rutus and Anselm. 55. Henry; celibacy of the clergy. 56. Stephen. 
 57. Henry II. 5^. Beckol. .5!). Death ami cliaracler of Becket. 60. The first heretics punished 
 in Kn^land. (il. ImcifiTciii-.: ol Rome uiih Ilimlaml. &2. John. G3. Deposed by the Pope. 
 64. Uunrylll. i,:>. Rul.crl Cn ailu ad, r,i!,lio|) ut Luuuln. (ifi. Edward I. 67. Growth of the 
 pa|)al power, tlt^. 'I'hc conicsl was a tt inpniai one. 6'J. I'lie Church tuxes itself. 70. Strength 
 and weakness of the Roman power. 
 
 § 51. The church history of tliis pe- 
 riotl can be viewed in no other light than 
 as a continual struggle between the ec- 
 clesiastical and civil power; and there 
 Mill be little else to record than the 
 methods by which the mitre triumphed 
 ow'i the crown, and the crown invaded 
 li ' rights and property of the church. 
 I i will not perhaps be necessary to 
 much of the steps by which the er- 
 1 ijiicous doctrines of the church of Rome 
 gradually overspread that of England ; 
 for the seeds of these innovations were 
 abundantly sown before the Conquest, 
 and the introduction of foreign ecclesi- 
 astics, connected closely with papal po- 
 licy, would effectually tend to foster 
 their growth. The history of the papal 
 errors in England would not differ from 
 that of the same errors in Italy, and we 
 shall hereafter have to regard them as 
 the causes of the Reformation. 
 
 In estimating the character of such 
 events, or of the individuals engaged in 
 them, we shall hardly arrive at a correct 
 view of the subject, if we form our ideas 
 oa the standard of present opinions. If 
 Anselm and Becket be regarded as 
 champions in the cause of ec ■le^i:lsl ica! 
 prerogative, as advocatinii tiie priv ili l;('s 
 of the church against the arliitrary ihd- 
 ceedings of the crown, we shall perhaps 
 form a different judgment of their con- 
 duct from that which must result from 
 viewing them as ministers of the Gospel. 
 Thcircause unfortunately was little con- 
 nected Avith that of Christianity; yet 
 their firmness, and the manner in which 
 they conducted that cause, may excite 
 our admiration of them as men. 
 
 § 52. \Villia:ii tlie ( '(iii(|ueror, though 
 he invaded liliii^litihl melev the sanction 
 of a papal grant, nrvcrilK'less main- 
 tained the authority l>el(iii^iiig to the 
 crown, and proved that lie was the head 
 of ecclesiastical as well as civil power 
 3 
 
 in his kingdom, by subjecting all church 
 property to the services which were de- 
 manded from other lands. This had 
 become absolutely necessary ; for it is 
 said, that according to Doomsdpy book, 
 seven-fifteenths of the kingdom were in 
 the hands of spiritual persons, who had 
 heretofore furnished scarcely any thing 
 for the support of the state. As a fur- 
 ther proof of his supremacy, he forbade 
 churchmen, unless they had previously 
 obtained his permission, to Icp^e the 
 kingdom — to acknowledge any one as 
 pope — to publish letters from lloine — 
 to excommunicate any persons con- 
 nected with himself — to hold councils, 
 or make canons. 
 
 Most of the larger preferments were 
 now transferred into the hands of Nor- 
 mans, who had accompanied the inva- 
 sion, and inuch tyranny seems to have 
 been used towards the chief members 
 of the English church, many of whom 
 were exptdled from their benefices, or 
 frightened into involuntary resignations. 
 William ejected them by means of le- 
 gates from Pope Alexander IE., whose 
 admission introduced an authority into 
 j the kingdom, of which he himself was 
 little afraid, however dangerous it might 
 prove to a successor; for he rejected 
 the demands of homan-e made by Gre- 
 gory VII., and would allow that Peter's 
 pence should be sent to Rome on no 
 otlier n-round than as a benefaction. In 
 separating, too, the ecclesiastical and 
 civil rotnts, he made an alteration of 
 which he did for<'i;ee the extent, for this 
 step greatly assisted the clergy in esta- 
 blishing their claim to a separate juris- 
 diction.' 
 
 ' 111 Saxon limes, the .-iherifr or earl had pro- 
 ilii 1 HVf iiiment of the county; but the 
 ' ' . iiys nssoeiaied with him in judicial 
 
 'II, . , 1;, y tofjctlier went a circuit twice 
 ii-V .ii , IiiiIiIiiil; ni every hundred a court called 
 tlie 'ruiuii. In ecclesiastical matters, the bishop 
 b3 
 
18 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. U. 
 
 § 53. William had little reason to 
 dread the power of the Vatican, first, 
 because that formidable authority was 
 not yet fully established ; but, second- 
 ly, because he made himself strong- at 
 home, and confined his tyranny' to 
 those whom he had conquered ; where- 
 as the injustice of his successors being- 
 directed against men who ought to have 
 furnished them with support, rendered 
 the interference of the pope a benefit to 
 a portion of their subjects. For it must 
 never be forgotten that the influence of 
 Rome generally owed its origin and ex- 
 tent to the vices and oppressions of the 
 kings who were in their turn the victims 
 of it. The property of the bishopric 
 was a benefit to society. The church 
 in those days formed a balance between 
 the crown and aristocracy, of which the 
 weight would, under ordinary circum- 
 stances, be generally tlirown into the 
 scale of peace, and on the siile of the 
 middle and lower orders. 'J'be eli-ction 
 to the see was vested in the chapter or 
 monastery, and the appointment of a 
 bishop furnished the church, and all 
 who held under it or were connected 
 with its interests, with a person of sue b 
 a station in society as migbt be able to 
 defend their cause ao-ainst the a^-prrs- 
 sion of the mditary baron or his de- 
 pendents. ^Vhen therefore the crown 
 approjiriated to itsell the temporahties 
 of the bisliopric. by keepmg it void for 
 a season, a va't number of persons were 
 deprived of the advantages which tlit^' 
 naturally looked for from their ecch-^i- 
 
 sat as and tho shcrill as>isti-d liim l.v iii- 
 
 ll I I 1 I , ^ n Ml fl lirt 
 
 \.' ■ ■ ■ . . mil] I III- bihhop 
 
 arclidc'iiriiii I , 
 
 secular jk-i . . ! 
 
 of souls, liJ. 1 , - ■ ,1 - 
 
 before lllf l.i-lioj.. n< -n. l; ! • . . ., i , 
 point, and lio ilicre di'cidrii . ■ ■ ; ■ ran- 
 
 ons and the episcopal law : :' . . , •, fused 
 to obey the summons ol ilif i i i.- : i l.e e\- 
 communicaled. and the a-M-!::ii( . ..i ilii- l inf;; or 
 the sherift called iii : and thai im la\ man whatever 
 should nitromit any matter which laopcrlv be- 
 longed to the bishops court. Aiinilijcd from 
 Reeve s History ot Enfciisli Law, [i. i, and t4. 
 
 ' J here is one inslance ol tyranny w ith which 
 tlie nieinory of W illiam I. is L'cnerallv loaded, 
 which It may be allowed an inhahuant of Hamp- 
 shire to refuie. He is oidmanlv accused ot de- 
 populating a large tract of counirv lor the purpose 
 of forming the New Forest, I he .soil, however, 
 m this district is such, that it could never have 
 been much inhabited, and the act, however arbi- 
 trary, could not have produced any real distress. 
 
 astical superior. No ecclesiastical au- 
 thority in England was adequate to 
 cope with this evil, for the power of 
 the crown was more than sufficient to 
 oppress any individual bishop; but in 
 times of difficulty, the discontent of a 
 large body of the native subjects gave 
 great strength to any foreign authority 
 wliich advocated the cause of the suf- 
 ferers. A patriotic churchman, with 
 llie full conviction of the evils arising 
 from such oppression, exercised over 
 the body to which he belonged, might 
 fly to any tribunal which could furnish 
 him with assistance ; and most certainly 
 the court of Rome would never have 
 acquired that power which was after- 
 wards so misused, if the coinmence- 
 iiieiit of its exercise had not been really 
 useful to many persons labouring un- 
 der oppression. William Rufus kept 
 lite see of Canterbury vacant above 
 four years, and when, through com- 
 punction of conscience, arising from 
 sickness, he had nominated Anselm to 
 the primacy, the warm yet just remon- 
 strances of the archbishop created at 
 first an unpleasantness, and at last an 
 open rupture, between himself and the 
 king. Anselm properly exhorted him 
 to fill up all vacant preferments, and 
 admonished his sovereign, that though 
 ( lod had made him the protector of the 
 church, he had not constituted him the 
 proprietor of it." 
 
 ^ iyl. By a laAv of William I., every 
 churchman was forbidden to leave the 
 IviiiL'd'im, or to acknowledge any one 
 lis pope without the permission of the 
 kiiiff ; and he had prevented Lancfranc 
 and Ihomas from going to Rome to 
 receive the pall. Yet Anselm (lOO-i) 
 -tiiinrht to do so while at variance with 
 \\ illiam II., and even consulted the 
 I 'shops at the council of Rockingham 
 whether his obedience to Urban, whom 
 Rufus had not recognised as pope, were 
 compatible with his obedience to the 
 king ; declaring at the same time the 
 reluctance which he had felt towards 
 
 Before the Conquest, the lemporalilies during 
 a vacancy had licen placed in the hands of the 
 dioco-an dr archbishop of the province. Under 
 ihc C onqncror. ihey had been sequestered in the 
 hands of churchmen, who were forced to account 
 lor the proceeds; but Rufus kept them in his 
 own, or let them out to fann for his profit. At 
 his death he was enjoying the income of one arch- 
 bishopric, four bishoprics, and eleven abbeys. 
 Ling. Hist. li. 134. 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 19 
 
 accepting the station which he now 
 held, and his determination to obey the 
 successor of St. Peter. 
 
 William, with that folly which often 
 marks the conduct of those who are de- 
 termined to gratify their own wishes 
 without regarding the consequences, 
 agreed to acknon-ledge Urban as pope, 
 provided he on his part would depose 
 Anselm. A legate was accordingly 
 sent from Rome, who, when he had 
 been received and procured the ac- 
 knowledgment of his master, confirmed 
 Anselm in his see, as a dutiful son of 
 the church. Considering the circum- 
 stances under which he was placed, we 
 cannot wonder at the attachment of the 
 primate to Rome ; but at the moment 
 it proved but of little benefit to him ; 
 for he was forced to avoid the immedi- 
 ate anger of his sovereign by flying 
 into France, from whence he proceed- 
 ed into Italy; and when the pope made 
 an application for his return, William 
 answered, that Anselm, in leaving the 
 kingdom, had justly incurred those jie- 
 nalties under which he was suffering, 
 and that the pope was wrong in advo- 
 cating his cause. During his stay at 
 Rome, he gained himself great credit at 
 two councils which were held by Urban, 
 in the last of which the canon against 
 lay investitufes was established.* 
 
 ' Investiture was a ceremony pprformcd bv 
 giving a staff and ring to the bisliop elect, wliieli 
 put him into possession of the spiritualiiies. a? 
 homage did of the temporalities. (^leirni v \']].. 
 who began to pave the way l'> iiiiiv:i il 
 
 monarchy whicli in subsoqtieiil iiii i !, i 
 nearly obtained (a. d. 1071), I ■ 
 
 under pain of exconiniimiraii Ml. ; ••' - ..i 
 
 invpslitiire, the object ol m'; 't ■ i v 
 break off as much as pn-- 1 iM .ni n.r.i. • - 
 tween ecclesiastics and ill 
 
 importance ofthe rerennMU' rnii-;-!, d m ili.' ir.il 
 power it gave with rospeet to the noiiiinaiion, 
 since it conferred, on the. parly pos.'^cs.sed of the 
 right, a sort of power of annulling the eleeiion. 
 In the frequent instances which we liave of dis- 
 puted elections to the .■see of Canterbury, the 
 monks cLunic'l to themselves the sole choice, and 
 the court of Rome supported them against tlie 
 suffragan bishops of the diocese, who demanded 
 a share in the election. But the crown also 
 claimed its influence, which in the 12th article of 
 the Constitutions of Clarendon is thus expressed. 
 Having declared thai vacant preferments shall be 
 in the king's hands, it proceeds, " Et cum ven- 
 tum fuerit ad eons\dcndum ecclesiam, debet Do- 
 minus rex mandare poliores pcrsonas ecclesiie," 
 {send his mandate to the chief parsons of the 
 church. Johnson's Canons, 1164, 12,) "et in 
 capella ipsius regis debet fieri electio, assensu 
 ipsius regis et consilio personarum regni, quas ad 
 hoc faciendum advocaverit." The person elect 
 
 § 55. The difficulties inseparable from 
 the beginning of a reign, founded on an 
 unjust title, made Henry I. seek for 
 popularity by the recall of Anselm; but 
 one of the first acts of the archbishop 
 was the refusal of homage founded on 
 the before-named canon. The necessi- 
 ties of the king produced a truce, but 
 the absurd demands of Pascal 11. soon 
 put an end to every appearance of 
 peace ; Henry declaring that no sub- 
 ject should remain in England who 
 refused to do homage, while Anselm 
 withdrew to his province, and defied all 
 earthly power. In a council held at 
 Winchester, it was determined to refer 
 the matter to the pope ; but the con- 
 duct of Pascal was so deceitful, that the 
 accounts brought back by the envoys 
 of the king and archbishop were at total 
 variance witli each other. Anselm him- 
 self soon after went to Rome at the 
 request of Henry, when a decree of the 
 papal chair seemed to put an end to 
 all hopes of reconciliation. At length, 
 however, Henry was induced by the 
 threat of excommunication to submit to 
 a compromise, and to give up the right 
 of investiture, the church at the same 
 time allowing its members to do homage 
 for the temporalities. 
 
 In endeavouring to promote the liber- 
 ty of ecclesiastical elections, Anselm 
 might have been acting on sound prin- 
 ciples; but the earnestness with which 
 he insisted that the archbishop of York 
 should acknowledge the superiority of 
 the see of Canterbury, was so closely 
 connected with his own prerogative, 
 that it suggests the idea that much of 
 liis conduct owed its origin to spiritual 
 pride. As an advocate for the papal 
 authority, he of course insisted on the 
 celibacy of the clergy, which was one 
 ofthe most powerful engines by which 
 this foreign jurisdiction was supported. 
 The repeated canons against the mar- 
 riage of the clergy prove how difficult 
 it was to enforce this restraint ; and 
 there is a letter sent from the pope to 
 Anselm, in 1107, allowing him to or- 
 dain and advance the sons of clergy- 
 
 the power of investiture as well as right of ho- 
 mage, the real nomination would practically have 
 been in his hands; and unfortunately many royal 
 appointments were little better than sales of the 
 preferments. 
 
20 HISTORY OF THE [Chap. IL 
 
 men, "because the greatest and best ill effects of exalting the hierarchy, and 
 part of the priesthood in England con- that at the hands of a favourite, whose 
 
 sisted of such persons. 
 
 § 56. The papal power continued to 
 
 aid he had expected in repressing them. 
 Thomas Becket was born in London, 
 
 extend itself by making- use of every ad- educated at Oxford, Paris, and Bologna, 
 vantage which the weakness and vices and by the influence of Theobald was 
 made chancellor of England, (1158.) 
 Upon the death of that prelate he was 
 appointed his successor in the see of 
 Canterbury, though only in deacon's 
 orders, and notwithstanding the remon- 
 strances of many of the king's friends, 
 who endeavotired to dissuade him from 
 putting so much power into the hands 
 of one who, with ambitious views, pos- 
 sessed talents which would render him 
 formidable. The courtier, now con- 
 verted into an ecclesiastic, assumed a 
 severity of conduct corresponding with 
 his station, and discarded that levity for 
 which he had been before conspicuous. 
 The point on which the interests of the 
 archbishop and the king first came into 
 competition, regarded the punishment 
 of ecclesiastical persons guilty of noto- 
 rious crimes, of which unfortunately, 
 at that time, there were too many ex- 
 amples. 
 
 This question was discussed in a 
 council at Westminster, (1103,) and 
 Becket and the other bishops agreed to 
 observe the customs of the realm such 
 as they existed in the time of Henry 
 I., but added the clause of " sa^-ing their 
 order," a reservation which virtually 
 maintained that no clerk, though de"- 
 grailed, should be subjected to the civil 
 power, for the same offence for which 
 he had been deprived of his orders ; 
 and this upon the principle that a man 
 shall not be twice punislied for the same 
 crime. When the Constitutions of Cla- 
 rendon^ were drawn up, Becket at first, 
 
 of our sovereigns afforded. Thus after 
 the usurpation of Stephen, wliirh was 
 sanctioned by Rome, Albcricus, Inslmp 
 of Ostia, held a synod at WestiniusliT, 
 where he promulgated canons on the 
 sole authority of the pope, and inter- 
 fered in the election of Theobald to the 
 see of Canterbury. So again Stephen, 
 by faithlessly seizing the persons of 
 Roger, bishop of Sarum, and his ne- 
 phew the bishop of Lincoln, at Oxford, 
 paved the way to an act of unjustifiable 
 audacity on the part of his own brother, 
 the bishop of Winchester, who sum- 
 moned him to answer for his conduct, 
 (a. d. 1139,) and then arrocfating to the 
 clercy the right of appointing kings, 
 declared in favour of Matilda and her 
 son. The facility with wliich oaths and 
 declarations were then made and bro- 
 ken, while perjury was almost sanc- 
 tioned by the dispensations of Rome 
 and her emissaries, is one of the many 
 proofs which might be produced, that 
 the cause of the church was far from 
 being that of God.' The papal power 
 was the only one which was advanced 
 by the miseries of England during this 
 period. Her king was deprived of his 
 patronage, and of the fidelity of his 
 subjects, while the clergy were sub- 
 jected to a foreign legate, celibacy was 
 more strongly insisted on, and most of 
 their causes were ultimately carried to 
 Rome ; by degrees, too, many abbrys 
 were freed from episcopal jurisdiction, 
 holding directly from the see of Rome, 
 and forming ecclesiastical garrisons 
 prepared for its defence. 
 
 § .57. Henr}^ II. found the power of 
 the church greatly augmented during 
 the reign of Stephen, and though a 
 wise prince, he contributed to extend 
 that jurisdiction over the whole world 
 which was arrogated by the court of j 
 Rome, when he accepted a grant of 
 Ireland from the pope. Few monarchs, 
 however, have more severely felt the 
 
 'Fuller says, " Dealing with oaths as seamen 
 do with the points of the compass, (iii. p. 25, § 29,) 
 saying them forwards and backwards." 
 
 2 They were established at Clarendon, near Sa- 
 lisbury, and are in number sixteen. (Johnson's Ca- 
 nons. 11G4.) Their oliject is to preserve the rights 
 of the crown. (2, 14.) To prevent appeals from be- 
 ing made to any foreign court. (4, 8.) To restrain 
 the cnrrying of causes into ecclesiastical courts, 
 (1, I.').) and the exercise of an undue (5) or inqui- 
 sitorial power (6) in those courts, while their just 
 rigliis were preserved by the aid of temporal au- 
 thority. (10, 13.) To regulate ecclesiastical elec- 
 tions, so that the appointment might not fall into 
 the hands of the pope. (12.) To subject eccle- 
 siastical property to civil service, (11.) and church- 
 men to the jurisdiction of the ordinary courts of 
 law, so far that it might be known what cogni- 
 sance was claimed by the ecclesiastical power, 
 and how the offending parties were punished. 
 (3. 9.) To screen persons connected with the king 
 
Ohap.II.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 21 
 
 (1164,) with much reluctance, promised | 
 to observe them, and tci t;nliniil lo what- 
 ever else was the law in time of Ilmry 
 I. ; but he subse(|in'ni ly dliiaincd a dis- 
 pensation from his oaih. AN'hcii be had | 
 attempted to leave ihc Kiiiijiloiu, audi 
 was driven back by contrary winds, a ' 
 violent' persecution was be^iin aijaiiist 
 him in a parliament held at Northamp- 
 ton. He had violated those laws which 
 he had before sworn to observe, and 
 was justly liable to punishment ; but it 
 was not of this that they accused him; 
 he was suud under frivolous, if not 
 false pretences, and at last ordered to 
 give in an account of the moneys re- 
 ceived by him while chancellor. The 
 day after this unreasonable demand, he 
 entered the hall in his pontificals, ob- 
 served a dignified conduct towards his 
 
 the 
 
 opponents, and when threatened by 
 Earl of' Leicester, declared that all 
 claims on him had been discliarg-ed 
 when he was made archbishop, and ap- 
 pealed to God and the p(5pe. The mwt 
 night he set off in disguise, and retired 
 to France, 
 
 § 58. The reception of Becket at the 
 French court was much more favoura- 
 ble than that which the ambassadors of 
 the king of England experienced ; and 
 'the same difTrence was observable at 
 Sens, where the pontiff then resided. 
 The Constitutions of Clarendon were 
 immediately condemned by the po[ie, 
 and the cause of Becket was taken up 
 as his own. The violence of Henry 
 now broke out in an unjustifiable per- 
 secution of the friends ol' the archbishop, 
 whom he stripped of all their [iroperty, 
 sending them over to their patron, with 
 the view of increasing his misery by 
 the sufT'rings of those connected with 
 him. In this, as well as the former 
 persecution, the passions of tlie king 
 made him lose the advantage which his 
 cause possessed, and he must have been 
 regarded as a tyrant, even while assert- 
 ing his own legitimate rights. 
 
 Becket's anger would have inclined 
 him to proceed immediately to the ex- 
 communication of H 'lirv ; but, tlirough 
 the interference of the king of France, 
 the thunders of the church were hurled 
 
 from the imtnedin'e influence of prclpsiasticnl cen- 
 Burea, (7.) and to prevent ihp "rdinniion of ?lives, 
 unless with the consent of their masters. (16.) I 
 
 against his ministers alone. Several 
 attempts at reconciliation proved abor- 
 tive ; anil, in 117(1, when the court of 
 Rome seemed to be more favourable 
 towards Henry, the rage of the pri- 
 mate became excessive. These circum- 
 stances, however, appear to have expe- 
 dited the cause of jteace, for terms 
 were soon after agreed on. The meet- 
 ing which took ])lace at Fretville dis- 
 plays the gentlemanly feeling of the 
 king, and the revengeful pride of 
 Becket : lie refused to forgive his op- 
 ponents in any but general terms ; and 
 the intention of these salvos was soon 
 apparent ; for before he landed in Eng- 
 land, he excommunicated those bishops 
 who had taken any leading part against 
 him, and thus declared war at the mo- 
 ment when he should have been the 
 messenger of peace. 
 
 § 5!). Some angry expressions which 
 dropped from Henry when the excom- 
 municated bishops came to implore his 
 protection, produced the murder of the 
 primate. The tide of opinion now ran 
 against the supposed author of this hor- 
 rid deed; but the king made his [teace 
 with Rome by solemnly disavow ine; any 
 knowledge of, or participation in the 
 murder. St. Thomas became a most 
 powerful advocate with Heaven ; and 
 the miracles performed at his shrine 
 would be incredible, if the force of ima- 
 gination, in curing the most inveterate 
 disorders, had not been proved by the 
 quackery of modern times. Henry 
 himself paid honour to him when dead, 
 and subjected his own person to great 
 severities at his tomb. Louis too, with 
 more consistimcy, visited his bones, and 
 sought to olttain the heavenly aid of him 
 whom he had protected on earth. Of 
 ihe cleverness and decision of Becket's 
 character th(>re can be no doubt; but it 
 seems equally unquestionable that his ^ 
 obji^ct was personal ambition ; he died 
 a martyr to the cause of the advance- 
 ment of his own ecclesiastical jjovver. 
 The violence of his letters to the court 
 of Home, ami the vindictive persi'cution 
 of his enemies, show most forcibly how 
 far he was from that serenity which the 
 disinterestedness of a good cause can 
 alone insnire. 
 
 § ()!). It was during this period (J 1(50) 
 that the first punishment for heresy took 
 place in England. About thirty Ger- 
 
23 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 mans, unaer a teacher named Gerhard, 
 appeared in this country. They were 
 examined before a synod at Oxford, 
 burnt in the forehead, and turned out 
 to perish in the fields. They made no 
 proselytes, excepting one woman ; and, 
 as the only account of their tenets 
 which remains to us is derived from 
 those who punished them, no fair judg- 
 ment can be passed on the opinions 
 which they entertained. They are said 
 to have rejected the use of the sacra- 
 ments of baptism and the Lord's sup- 
 per, to have been adverse to marriage, 
 and to have gloried in their suffer- 
 ings.' 
 
 § 61. The manner in which the court 
 of Rome interfered with the concerns 
 of this kingdom cannot be more strongly 
 illustrated than by a quarrel which hap- 
 pened in 118(3, when Archbishop Bald- 
 win attempted to build a convent at 
 Hackington, near Canterbury. The 
 monks of the metropolitan church saw 
 that any other archiepiscopal establish- 
 ment was likely to interfere with their 
 right of electing to the see ; and indeed 
 the object in the erection of this reli- 
 gious house seems to have been to dimi- 
 nish their power. They appealed there- 
 fore to Rome, and the pope insisted on 
 the destruction of the intended esta- 
 blishment, which was accomplished in 
 1189; and so far did this jealousy ex- 
 tend, that when Hubert, in 119t), at- 
 tempted to found a society of canons 
 at Lambeth, and offered cvitv safen:uard 
 which oaths could give, that they should 
 not interfere with the election, thr 
 monks of Canterbury still resisted ; and 
 the see of Rome too well knew her own 
 interest, not to advocate the cause of 
 those who were always ready to fitrht 
 her battles against any other authority. 
 
 In 1200, Innocent HI. took the bold 
 step of imposing a tax of one-fortieth 
 on all ecclesiastical revenues, for the 
 purpose of a crusade ; to which it was 
 never fully applied, says Uiceto, unless 
 the church of Rome has renoimced her 
 innate rajjacity. 
 
 § 62. It was, however, in the reign 
 of John that the papal authority rose 
 to its greatest height : the first act of 
 encroachment was the appointment of 
 Stephen Langton to the see of Canter- 
 
 > Collier's Ecc. Hist. i. 347. 
 
 bury. On the death of Hubert, the 
 
 monks, to make sure of their privilege, 
 hastily elected Reginald, and dismissed 
 him secretly to Rome, to obtain his in- 
 vestiture ; but, contrary to a promise 
 which he had given them, he disclosed 
 tlie news of his election in Flanders, 
 and brought the anger of the king on 
 those who had been instrumental to it. 
 Upon this the monks, out of revenge, 
 elected another primate, and the ques- 
 tion was referred to Rome. The suf- 
 fragan bishops of the diocese, too, sent 
 in their claim : but this was immediately- 
 rejected ; and the pope, having annulled 
 both the elections of the monks, com- 
 pelled such of their members as were 
 then at Rome to proceed. to a fresh elec- 
 tion, absolving them from all the pro- 
 mises to the contrary which they had 
 made in England. Stephen Langton, 
 in whose favour these steps were taken, 
 was by birth an Englishman, had re- 
 ceived his education at Paris, and had 
 subsequently been made a cardinal. 
 The intemperate warmth of the British 
 monarch was met by the haughty firm- 
 ness of Innocent, who first laid the coun- 
 try under an interdict, and then excom- 
 municated John. But so little real efTect 
 had these spiritual weapons, that the 
 only two successful expeditions which 
 John made, against Wales and Ireland, 
 took place during this very period. 
 
 § 6:3. In 1212, the pope proceeded to 
 depose John, and to free his subjects 
 from their oaths of allegiance ; and in 
 1213, committed the execution of this 
 act to Philip of France. The secret 
 cabals of his discontented barons, whose 
 defection rendered all his prospects of 
 defence uncertain, coupled with the 
 I threat of a foreign invasion, forced the 
 j pusillanimous John to surrender his 
 j kingdom : and on ]\Iay 15, 121.S, at 
 j Dover, Pandulf restored the crown, 
 j which was laid at his feet ; a tribute of 
 ; a thousand marks was imposed, and the 
 legate, having obtained the object of 
 his church, forbade Philip to proceed 
 in the invasion, and neglected the inte- 
 rest of even those English churchmen 
 who had suffered in the cause. So much 
 did the pope now consider England as 
 his own, that when, in 1215, the barons 
 comptdled John to sign the charter, the 
 pope espoused the cause of the king 
 with such earnestness, that he suspended 
 
Chap. H.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 23 
 
 Langton for the part which he had taken 
 in favour of liberty. 
 
 In this year the council of St. John 
 Lateran was held, which authoritatively 
 declared transubstanliation to be a tenet | 
 of the church. 
 
 § 04. The papal power had probably 
 reached its greatest height by the sur- 
 render which John made of his crown; 
 but its exactions and practical effects 
 we're by no means diminished under the 
 weak reign of Henry III. A vast num- 
 ber of the benefices in England were 
 filled by Italians, who resided out of the 
 kingdom, and impoverished it by the 
 sums which were thus withdrawn. But 
 to what source could the oppressed ia- 
 habitanis look for relief? Thoy were 
 little likely to obtain it from Rome itself, 
 and the inadequacy of any such attempt 
 they themselves experienced when the 
 barons made a remonstrance to the coun- 
 cil of Lyons, (1215;) for the pontiff 
 amused them with drluys, till their pa- 
 tience was exhausted, ;iiul their return 
 to England was the next year followed 
 by a further exaction of one-half of the 
 revenues of the non-re.sid(.'nt clergy, and 
 a third of the rest. But this demand 
 was loo great to be complied with, and 
 the prudence of the court of Rome per- 
 ceived the danger of pressing it. 
 
 § do. It was not, however, from the 
 barons alone that the op|>osition to the 
 cotirt of Rome arose," for Robert Gross- 
 teste, or Grcatheail,--' bishop of Lincoln, 
 ventured to lift his feeble voice against 
 corruptions which he justly designated 
 as antichristian. Innocent IV. had 
 named his nephe\v, Frederic de Lava- 
 nia, then a child, to a canonry in the 
 church of Lincoln ; but the remon- 
 strances of the bisho]) wore so strong, 
 that though they (lr:'\v from the pope a 
 torrent of abuse, he wisely gave way 
 to the more prudent advice of some of 
 his cardinals, and did not follow up the 
 question. The good bishop died soon 
 
 2 S . : ' ..: ' iiosstesle by Pegsre. 4lo. He 
 wa^ . : I ' , ' I I iliu rarly p;iri i>l his hfc he 
 resiiji'il 111 ' ixliii'l. iind h'cturcd there to the black 
 frjars. VVhrii rWvu-d l.ishop of Lincoln, 1-235, he 
 was much assisted hy the friars in his opisL-opal 
 duties, strongly enforced (hsciplit;e, and endea- 
 voured to reform abuses, defended tlie rights of 
 the church and liinirdom against papal encroach- 
 ments, though he always submitted to the author- 
 ity of Rome; about llrl, lie put forth a sermon 
 at Lyons, inveighing bitterly against the corrup- 
 tions of the court ol Rome. 
 
 after, and on his deathbed endeavoured 
 to convince his friend, John of St. Giles, 
 that the pope was antichrist ; and it 
 should be remembered, that he was one 
 of the most learned men of his day. 
 
 § 66. The chief points in which the 
 English clergy had encroached on the 
 civil power consisted in their growing 
 wealth, and the freedom from temporal 
 jurisdiction which they claimed. A 
 partial remedy was provided first by a 
 statute which passed in 1275, allowing 
 a clerk to be tried by a jury before he 
 was delivered over to his ordinary, and 
 the Statute of Mortmain, 1279, made 
 the king's consent necessary for any 
 transfer of property to an ecclesiastical 
 body; but when Edward I. had esta- 
 blished his power, he soon exerted it 
 over the ecclesiastical portion of his 
 subjects. 
 
 In 1292, he demanded one-half of the 
 revenues of the church, in addition to 
 many other exactions which he had 
 already made, and frightened the clergy 
 into submission. Robert Winchelsey, 
 then archbishop of Canterbury, in hopes 
 of putting a stop to these proceedings, 
 which seem in truth to have been very 
 tyrtmnical, obtained a bull from the 
 pojic, which prohibited princes from 
 taxing church property; but the ineffi- 
 cacy of this was soon proved ; for Ed- 
 ward excluded from the protection of 
 the laws those ecclesiastics who refused 
 obedience to his demands, and directed 
 his civil officers to seize all the actual 
 property of clergymen. This soon 
 brought the question to a close, and 
 obliged the churchmen to submit. 
 
 The ecclesiastical history which lies 
 between this period and the first preach- 
 ing of Wiclif is marked by Ihtle pecu- 
 liarity ; and the civil power, as might 
 be expected, during the active reigns of 
 the two Edwards, seems to have been 
 gaining ground. But the immediate 
 vices of the clergy, and the fundamen- 
 tal errors existing in the ecclesiastical 
 system, which formed the real cause of 
 the attacks of Wiclif, and which are 
 indeed the only church history of this 
 period, shall be detailed by way of pre- 
 face to the account given of this great 
 author of the Reformation. There are, 
 however, some few general observa- 
 tions, which may be introduced with 
 advantage into this part of our history. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. II. 
 
 § 07. In tracing the extension of the 
 papal dominion in this kingdom, much 
 more must be attributed to the vices of 
 the British kings than to any other 
 cause. The comparative weakness of 
 the popes before the Conquest had pre- 
 vented them from interfering so much 
 with the affairs of Britain ; but as Rome 
 became strong, she advanced her claims, 
 and established them, whenever her in- 
 terests could be mixed up with the cor- 
 rection of the real grievances existing 
 in church or state. The unjust usurpa- 
 tion of William I. was sanctioned by 
 the pope, and this same king introduced 
 legates to execute his tyranny; but his 
 injustice consisted in favouring the Nor- 
 man clergy, and not in robbing the 
 church as a body ; and William Rufus 
 might liave kept himself as independent 
 as his father, had not his invasion of 
 church jiroperty compelled Anselm to 
 fly to Rome for protection. The quar- 
 rel about investiture was really one as 
 to the power which it gave the king of 
 selling Ills preferments. Had not Henry 
 so disposed of the benefices which be- 
 came vacant, the interest of the clergy 
 of Enijlarid would have coincided with 
 that of the king ; his own avarice cre- 
 ated the opposition which was raised 
 against him ; and in this vice he was so 
 shameless, that when he had been in- 
 vested ^vith authority to restrain the 
 marriage of the clergy, he used it by 
 selling them licenses which dispensed 
 with the restraint. It was not till Ste- 
 phen had most unjustly seized on the 
 castles of Roger, bishop of Sarum. and 
 his nephews, that his own brother Hen- 
 ry, the papal legate, ventured to sum- 
 mon the king before an ecclesiastical tri- 
 bunal ; and Stephen, himself an usurper, 
 appealed to the pope against his own 
 tishops. John was incapable of con- 
 tending with Rome, because he had first 
 lost the confidence and love of his sub- 
 jects. And the same thing occurred 
 during the reigns of more powerful 
 monarchs. Edward I. imposed a tax 
 of one-tenth on ecclesiastical property, 
 through Pope Nicholas IV., and after- 
 wards exacted larger sums from the 
 clergy, till they in their turn obtained 
 a bull which forbade the transfer of any 
 ecclesiastical revenues to lay purposes, 
 without the concurrence of the holy see. 
 
 § 68. Most of the contests which 
 
 took place concerned the property of 
 the church, and might more justly be 
 viewed as questions of civil right than 
 as belonging to ecclesiastical matters. 
 The church is a body corporate, with 
 spiritual functions, but possessed of 
 temporal rights ; the injustice gene- 
 rally arose with regard to the tempo- 
 ralities, ordinarily with respect to the 
 appointments; and as the ecclesiastical 
 body had no other means of defending 
 its own rights, than by spiritual thun- 
 ders, the invasion of a right purely 
 temporal in its nature became a ques- 
 tion of spiritual power, from the way 
 in which the contest was carried on.* 
 The king kept a bishopric or abbey 
 vacant, and let the temporalities out to 
 farm. The church was injured by the 
 want of a head, but the injustice was 
 such as might have been remedied 
 without any appeal to a foreign power, 
 if the barons had maintained the rights 
 of the church ; but when the church 
 found no other remedy, her members 
 were forced to seek for aid from any 
 source which could afford it to them, 
 and so put themselves under the pro- 
 tection of Rome. And that see usu- 
 ally showed itself eager to support the 
 weaker party, till the stronger submit- 
 ted to acknowledge the authority of its 
 decisions, but exhibited no objection to 
 subject the church to the crown, pro- 
 vided the crown was subservient to 
 Rome. 
 
 § 69. So again with regard to the right 
 of taxation, the church had always pos- 
 sessed the privilege of imposing taxes 
 upon her members, but the necessities 
 of Edward I. induced him to demand a 
 contribution of one-fifth of their mova- 
 bles from the clergy; and Winchelsey, 
 then archbishop of Canterbury, (1296,) 
 obtained a bull prohibiting princes to 
 levy, and churchmen to pay, any taxes 
 imposed without the permission of the 
 Roman see. Edward reduced the clergy 
 to submission by putting them out of the 
 protection of the law, as they would 
 contribute nothing to the support of the 
 government ; but his conduct was cer- 
 tainly very tyrannical. The papal bull 
 
 ' See the Constitutions of Boniface, in John- 
 son's Canons. 1261, which, though they were 
 never established as law, yet mark strongly the 
 violence and folly of ihose who then wbhed to 
 legislate as friends of the church. 
 
Chap. II.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 claimed a power over the crown, to 
 which there could be no just preten- 
 sion, but such a claim could hardly 
 deprive the clergy of the right of tax- 
 ing themselves. The question was not 
 whether or no they should pay taxes, 
 but as to the authority which should 
 impose such taxes. This proceeding 
 of the king was an infringement of 
 their civil rights; and had in its nature 
 a tendency to weaken the dependence 
 of the church on the crown, and to 
 transfer the allegiance of the heart of 
 the churchman from his king to the 
 pope ; and the frequency of political 
 disturbances and personal insecurity 
 induced the wealthy members of the 
 church to prepare every means of de- 
 fence within their power ; so that if 
 we regard the higher clergy in their 
 manner of life, and their proceedings 
 against the crown, they resembled lay- 
 men rather than ministers of the gos- 
 pel. There were many instances when 
 they engaged personally in war, and 
 their castles were often as strong, their 
 retainers as numerous and warlike, as 
 those of any temporal lord ; and the 
 history of the churchmen of this period 
 can hardly be reckoned as belonging 
 to ecclesiastical history, any further 
 than as it records the temporal wealth 
 and power with which they were then 
 invested. 
 
 § 70. In order to discover the source 
 of that political influence which was 
 possessed by Rome, we must look at 
 the elements of which society was 
 then composed. The king was the 
 monarch of a military oligarchy, whose 
 power mainly depended on the mili- 
 tary strength which he possessed ; and, 
 therefore, chiefly on his own personal 
 character, and the manner in which he 
 used the resources of the crown. The 
 church was a confederacy of corpora- 
 tions, sole and aggregate, whose very 
 existence depended on opinion, and 
 whose real strength consisted in com- 
 bination, and in cultivating the arts of 
 peace and civilization. Rome, pos- 
 sessed of many advantages in other 
 respects, formed a centre of combina- 
 tion for the church, and the folly and 
 injustice of the crown and of the ba- 
 rons would have rendered Rome and 
 the church invincible, had not those 
 vices, which are, humanly speaking, 
 inseparable from power and wealth, 
 destroyed the illusion of public opinion, 
 and prevented churchmen from being 
 able to trust in each other. The vices 
 of monarchs and of nations first made 
 the pope a king of kings ; and the vices 
 of Rome and her servants destroyed a 
 power which no other human force 
 could have subdued. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Crap. m. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 FROM WICLIF, 1356, TO HENRY VIII., 1509. 
 
 101. Men wish to remedy abuses when they affect themselves. 102. Political abuses; separate 
 jurisdiction of the clergy. 103. Money drained out of the kingdom. 104. Laws to restrain the 
 papal power. lO.i. Moral abuses ; the mendicant orders. 106. Doctrinal abuses ; pardons ; tran- 
 subsianiiaiion. 107. Little prospect of redress ; inuiiliiy of canons. 108. Wiclif a leader in the 
 Refurniaiion. 109. His enniiiy to ihe iriars. 110. He defends the crown against the papal power. 
 111. Aiiackcd by the papal auihoriiy, bui defended. 112. Driven from Oxiord. 113. Summoned 
 to Home, but dies. 114. His lalenis and opposition to Roine. 115. Opinions of Wiclif; papal 
 supremacy. 116. Church property; celibacy. 117. Purgatory; episcopacy. 118. Seven sacra- 
 ments. 119. 'J'raiisubstantiation ; on justification and sanctification. 120. Wiclif 's followers. 
 121. Enactments ol Henry IV. in favour of persecution. 122. Wilham Sawtrey, martyr. 123. 
 Lord Cobham. 124. His execution. 125. Pretended rebellion of Lord Cobham. 126. Pecock. 
 127. His excuse for images and pilgrimages. 128. Papal supremacy and monastic orders. 129. 
 The Bible; celibacy; fasting. 130. Continued persecution. 131. Summary of the history ; origin 
 of ecclesiastical power. 132. Competitors for the nomination to preferments. 133. Oriffin of the 
 claim of each. 134. Each seek their own advantage, in consequence of the wealth of the prefer- 
 ment. 135. Advantages and disadvantages of wealth to the church. 136. Civil offices in the hands 
 of churchmen ; these evils were destroyed when they came to be examinetL 137. Many steps 
 'made towards reformation, but an Almighty hand was still wanting. 
 
 § 101. The period which we are about 
 to e.\ainine is often regarded with less 
 attention perhaps than it deserves, since 
 it must contain traces of those steps 
 which eventually led to the Reforma- 
 tion. The opinions of a people like 
 ourselves are not changed in a mo- 
 ment, or at the mere mandate of a 
 court ; parties must have been long 
 nearly balanced, or the party weakest 
 in political influence must really be the 
 favourite of the nation, before a rapid 
 transition can alter the religion of a 
 country. The prejudices of the multi- 
 tude generally coincide with whatever 
 they have found established, till cir- 
 cumstances induce them to suppose 
 that some pressure under which they 
 are labouring may be removed. The 
 discovery of an abuse by no means dis- 
 poses the generality of mankind to seek 
 a remedy ; but they are easily excited 
 to desire the reform of abuses which 
 affect themselves, or when any other 
 causes of suffering dispose them to wish 
 for a change. 
 
 Before, therefore, we enter on the 
 history of Wiclif and his followers, it 
 may be useful to devote a few pages to 
 a short account of the abuses which 
 existed in the church about this time. 
 We will begin with those of a political 
 nature. 
 
 § 102. The general extension of the 
 papal authority had so blinded the eyes 
 of mankind, with regard to that species 
 of anomaly in civil government which 
 has since been designated under the 
 
 name of imperium in imperio, that 
 though there were frequent complaints 
 of the pope's interfering too much with 
 the affairs of this country, yet no one 
 seems to have claimed that total exclu- 
 sion of foreign jurisdiction, which is 
 now generally admitted as necessary 
 to constitute an independent kingdom. 
 There were many attempts to limit the 
 exclusive jurisdiction which the church 
 exercised over its own members, and 
 which was in reality subversive of the 
 equitable administration of justice. If 
 a priest were guilty of the most heinous 
 offences, he could only be punished by 
 ecclesiastical censures ; and the com- 
 mission of rape, murder, or robbery, 
 was visited by confinement in a bishop's 
 prison, in which the appearance of ca- 
 nonical severity was rendered ineffect- 
 ual by the ease with which a dispensa- 
 tion from any canon might be obtained. 
 
 § 103. These evils, however, did not 
 affect the mass of the people, and though 
 injurious to society, were confined with- 
 in a compass comparatively small ; while ^ 
 the quantity of money' taken out of the 
 kingdom by means of the ecclesiastical 
 hierarchy was felt by all, and could not 
 fail to attract the notice of the most un- 
 informed political economist. The great 
 source of this abuse was the power 
 exercised by the pope of granting pre- 
 ferments by means of provisions or ex- 
 pective graces, by w^hich he appointed 
 
 ' In 1376, the sum paid to the pope was five 
 times as much as that paid to the king. Cotton's 
 Abridgment, 128 ; Lewis's Wiclif, 34. 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 27 
 
 a successor* to any benefice, whether in 
 his own gift or no, before it became va- 
 cant, and thus took the patronage of all 
 countries into his hands. This opened 
 a door to a variety of other abuses; 
 hungry foreigners w rvc introduced into 
 the richest otfices,'' who, while they en- 
 joyed their incomes abroad, thought little 
 of the spiritual care of their" flocks, or 
 the temporal hardships to which the ex- 
 actions of greedy stewards necessarily 
 exposed them. At the same time an 
 additional revenue was produced to the 
 papal throne by means of bribery, and 
 the exactment of annates or lirst-fruits, 
 which were a tax of one year's income 
 levied on preferments when they be- 
 came vacant. It was originally paid on 
 those benefices only which were in the 
 gift of the pope ; as therefore his pa- 
 tronage was extended, he enlarged at 
 the same time this branch of his income, 
 and the indefinite power thus exerted 
 enabled him, as circumstances arose, to 
 advance his prerogative.' The pope 
 claimed to himself the right of taxing 
 beneficed churchmen according to the 
 value of their preferments, and the tal- 
 lage amounted generally to a twentieth, 
 sometimes to a tenth, or larger propor- 
 tion. This method of raising money 
 was introduced at the time of the cru- 
 sades, but subsequently extended to 
 other wars, in which the interests of the 
 church of Rome were concerned. This 
 revenue was occasionally granted to the 
 king, though ultimately appropriated to 
 the pope. The sum, too, collected as 
 Peter's-pence* was considerable, and the 
 
 ' Lewis's Pecock, 21. 
 
 2 Fox, A. & M. i. 489. Lewis's Wiclif, 35. 
 
 " The annates were liy tlie reformers consi- 
 dered as bril)es, (see <> 201, n.) and it is probable 
 that at first lliey very niiiuh resembled them. It 
 is uncertain when the custom originated, but tlieir 
 date seems earlier than that generally assigned ; 
 they were objected to as illoiial and oppressive 
 before 1250, and at the council of Vienne, 1315, 
 proposals were made for their discontinuance, 
 which were opposed by Clement V. It is not ex- 
 traordinary that uncertainty should prevail with 
 respect to iliom, for they were an irregular de- 
 mand, spilled by the pope's chamber, and often 
 exceeded two or three years' income. Lewis's 
 Pecock, p. 41). They were declared illegal by the 
 council of Constance. 'I'he pope did not obtain 
 them for himself in England, till after the reign 
 of Edward L 
 
 * Peter's-pence was an annual tribute of one 
 penny paid at Rome out of every family, at the 
 feast of St. Peter. It was granted by Ina, (740,) 
 partly as alms, and partly in recompense for a 
 house erected in Rome for English pilgrims. It 
 
 fees paid to the pope's officers for aid- 
 ing suitors in their causes, or expediting 
 ecclesiastical business with the church 
 of Rome, tended to swell the total amount 
 which was drained from the pockets of 
 our ancestors, and rendered the minds 
 of all men alive to every argument lend- 
 ing to show the unsoundness of a system 
 of which they personally felt the galling 
 effects. The officers who thus impo- 
 verished the kingdom were injurious in 
 another point of view ; they not only 
 formed, as it were, a papal army within 
 the country, but furnished information 
 to Rome^ of every thing which was trans- 
 acted, thus providing that court with the 
 means of continuing the slavery to 
 which England was reduced.^ The 
 prerogative of sanctuary^ had become 
 exceedingly injurious to morality and 
 the police ; for the perpetrators of every 
 species of crime, who could reach one 
 of these places of refuge, were free from 
 immediate danger, and reserved for the 
 commission of fresh enormities, when- 
 ever their pursuers relaxed in their ex- 
 ertions to bring them to punishment. 
 Wealth, then, and authority, as well as 
 almost every species of knowledge, were 
 in the hands of those most interested in 
 the continuance of abuses, so that all 
 external influence seemed combined to 
 perpetuate these evils. 
 
 § 104. There are, however, three 
 laws, by which it was attempted to re- 
 strain the power of the church, passed 
 not far from this period. 
 
 (a. d. 1279.) The Statute of Mort- 
 main^ tried to prevent bodies corporate 
 from acquiring any lands or tenements, 
 since the services and other profits due 
 from them to the superior lord were 
 thereby taken away, because escheats, 
 &c., could never accrue, as the body 
 never died. But this enactment was 
 variously eluded ; and the number of 
 
 was paid generally till the 25th of Henry VIII. 
 Burn's Eccl. Law. 
 5 Lewis's Wiclif, 35. 
 
 ^ It is perhaps worthy of remark, that as the 
 popes, from Clement V., 1305, to Gregory XL, 
 1378, (Vaughan's Wicliffe, i. 281,) were all 
 Frenchmen, and resided at Avignon, as well as 
 Clement VII. and Benedict XIII. to 1409, this 
 wealth and power was thrown into the hands of a 
 nation engaged in political rivalry with England, 
 and that tlierefore the eyes of the people of this 
 country must have been peculiarly open to this 
 abuse during the life of Wichf. 
 
 ' Lewis's Wichf, 38. 
 
 8 Burn's Justice; Tomlin'sLaw Diet. 
 
28 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. HI. 
 
 subsequent laws on the subject prove 
 how inadequate human institutions are 
 to counteract the interests of those who 
 are possessed of power. Some persons 
 may question the justice of such an en- 
 actment, some persons its wisdom ; but 
 the tendency which all bodies corporate 
 have to accumulate property clearly 
 points out the necessity of some species 
 of restraint, though it appears very 
 doubtful whether this be the wisest me- 
 thod of imposing it. Strict justice and 
 sound policy seem always to go hand in 
 hand ; and as it is hard to prevent arry 
 individual who has acquired wealth 
 from applying his property as he pleases, 
 it would perhaps be wiser to allow bo- 
 dies corporate to alienate, under certain 
 restrictions, than to endeavour to pre- 
 vent them from acquiring. The laws 
 which obstruct the alienation and trans- 
 fer of property are those which are most 
 injurious in England. 
 
 (a. d. 1843.) The statute against pro- 
 visions forbade any one, under the pain 
 of forfeiture, to receive or execute any 
 letters of provisions for preferments ; 
 but as this law practically carried all 
 questions dependent on it before the 
 tribunals of the court of Rome, to which 
 the party aggrieved naturally applied 
 for redress, it was enacted by the sta- 
 tute of prremunire,* (a. d. 1853,) that' 
 whoever drew out of the country a plea 
 which belonged to the king's court- 
 should be outlawed, after a warning of 
 two months. Of the justice and wis- 
 dom of these laws there can be little 
 doubt. 
 
 § 105. Had the members of the esta- 
 blishment which was thus privileged, 
 and for whose support these large sums 
 were expended, been themselves irre- 
 proachable in their conduct, it would 
 have obviated one great source of scan- 
 dal ; but so far was this from being the 
 case, that, during part of this time, no- 
 thing could be more corrupt than the 
 
 ' The exact derivation of the word is uncertain. 
 Some take it to proceed from the defence it gives 
 the crown against the encroachments of foreign 
 powers : others from framonere, which has been 
 barbarously turned into ■pramunire ; in which 
 sense it is certainly sometimes used. The term 
 pTtBrnunire is either taken for the writ, or the 
 offence for which the writ is granted. It was 
 twice renewed by Edward III. 27, 28 ; by Rich- 
 ard II. 12.13,16-, Henry IV. 2. Abridged from 
 Blount's Law Dictionary. 
 ^ 2 Edward III. 25. 
 
 papal court while its emissaries in 
 England did all they could to irritate 
 those whom they pillaged. The pride 
 and luxury of the higher ecclesiastics 
 were excessive ; they vied with tempo- 
 ral lords in all the vanities of life, and 
 men who had forsworn the world were 
 on their journeys often seen accompa- 
 nied by fourscore richly mounted at- 
 tendants. Celibacy, which was strictly 
 imposed by the ordinances of the 
 church, led the clergy into divers snares 
 and temptations and the canons against 
 incontincncy are so numerous, that their 
 very number proves their inefRcaey. 
 Those who had the cure of souls not 
 only rreglected their duty with regard 
 to preaching and instructing the com- 
 mon people, but most of the higher sta- 
 tions in the state were held by church- 
 men ;■• many filled menial offices in the 
 establishments of their patrons ; and 
 their ignorance was frequently so ex- 
 cessive, that numbei-s of them were un- 
 acquainted with the Ten Command- 
 ments, and could hardly pronounce 
 correctly the words for the performance 
 of the sacraments. These causes gave 
 rise to the mendicant orders, who in- 
 fested the church chiefly in the thir- 
 teenth century. They pretended to an 
 extraordinary call from God to reform 
 'the world, and correct the faults of the 
 secular clergy. To this end they pui 
 on a mighty show of zeal for the good 
 of men's souls, and of contempt of 
 the world : accused the secular clergy 
 of famishing the souls of men, calling 
 them dumb dogs and cursed hirelings ; 
 maintained that evangelical poverty 
 became the ministers of the gospel; 
 that it was unlawful for them to possess 
 any thing, or to retain propriety in any 
 worldly goods. As for the public or- 
 ders of the church, they would not be 
 tied to them, alleging that themselves 
 being wholly spiritual, could not be 
 obliged to any carnal ordinances. They 
 broke in everj^where upon the paro- 
 chial clergy ; usurped their office ; in 
 all populous and rich places, set up 
 altars of their own ; withdrew the peo- 
 ple from communion with their parish 
 priest ; would scarce allow the hopes 
 of salvation to any but their own disci- 
 
 ' F. Petrarchs Epist. sine tit. hb. p. 797, 807. 
 4 Vaughan i. 298. 
 
Chap. HI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 39 
 
 pies, whom they bewitched with great 
 pretences of sanctity, and assiduity in 
 preaching. These artifices had raised 
 their reputation and interest so high in 
 a few years, that they wanted very lit- 
 tle to ruin the secular clergy, and there- 
 with the church. But in less than an 
 age the cheat of these impostors became 
 pianifest to all men. They procured 
 to their societies incredible riches ; built 
 to themselves stately palaces ; infinitely 
 surpassed the viciousness of which they 
 had themselves (perhaps unjustly) ac- 
 cused the secular clergy ; and long be- 
 fore the Reformation became the most 
 infamous and contemptible part of the 
 church of Rome.' 
 
 § lOfi. Nor were the doctrines of this 
 
 fieriod less exceptionable than the po- 
 itical or private characters of the 
 churchmen. Idolatry had become ex- 
 cessive, the people neglected the weight- 
 ier matters of the law, and placed their 
 hopes of acceptance with God on pil- 
 grimages," which were esteemed the 
 more meritorious in proportion to the 
 difficulties which were to be encoun- 
 tered on the way. Another method by 
 which the beguiled multitude hoped to 
 obtain for themselves the favour of 
 Heaven, consisted in their purchasing 
 an absolution for their sins from the 
 chief minister of the church, who 
 claimed to himself the power of bind- 
 ing and loosing, without reference to 
 the conduct of those who made them- 
 selves the objects of these papal remis- 
 sions ; not that the infallible head of 
 the Christian community could act con- 
 trary to the ordinances of God, but that 
 tile Almighty woulil ratify his servant's 
 dt"rree, whatever might be its nature. 
 Thi> doctrine of transubstantiatioii must 
 not hiM'i' be omitted, which subse([ucntly 
 formed so ordinary a subject of perse- 
 cution. It was asserted that, under the 
 form of the bread and wine, the very 
 samQ body of Christ was presented 
 which liad been bdrn of Mary, and had 
 suffered on th" ri-oss, and that the ele- 
 ments, after consecration, no longer re- 
 tained their material substance ; while 
 it was added, that he who would not 
 believe this, Avould have disbelieved 
 Christ to be the Son of God, had he 
 
 seen him in the form of a crucified ser- 
 vant. 
 
 § 107. These numerous abuses,^ 
 much as they mu«t have injured the 
 commonalty, and offended those who 
 from their situation were most capable 
 of judging of their destructive tendency, 
 seemed to admit of no remedy, since 
 the interests of the parties concerned 
 appeared to be so much at variance 
 with each other. Whatever might be 
 the wish of her conscientious members, 
 the church of Rome was little likely to 
 reform abuses productive of so many 
 temporal advantages to herself. If any 
 thing wete conceded to the remon- 
 strances of the prince or people, it was 
 as readily withdrawn when occasion 
 admitted of its resumption. Severity 
 in the canon law becomes nugatory, 
 whenever the power of dispensing with 
 it is lodged in the hands of the same 
 body against whose irregularities it was 
 framed ; and tliat balance of mutual 
 advantage, which mixed establishinents 
 enjoy, cannot exist in conjimction with 
 such an anomaly ; in fact, the profit on 
 the dispensation seems sometimes to 
 have been one object in framing par- 
 ticular canons.* 
 
 ^ As an abstract of the more offensive aljiises 
 (Fox, Acts and Mon. i. 4o._!) about this time, the 
 Complaint of the Fl.)ii 'bni;in niav be ronsnheil: 
 lis aiillior IS nol kn< w t:. Ii !)> iii'^ wvli r, Imii I 
 account ol llie um I • :.. •,; !, i •. . ami a 
 statement ol ib( < ' ■ ■ : . ^ I ( -la- 
 
 ment : It coin|j|aiii- ihii iir i h . ■ t,i,.;ii awav 
 
 I he honour due to ("ui: ilm ,i ■ ilar r:aile-sion 
 
 IS not ol divme institution, ami Icails m iimch evil. 
 It objects to ilie spiie, em 
 miiidedm-ss nl ibi> pnr-'s 
 
 \r. and ua.rldly. 
 iiaii-ai-al pray- 
 ad ot learhinn; ; 
 
 1 liuildings"im) 
 k, and to their 
 uld do so ; to their m- 
 
 > Henry Wharton's Defence of Pluralities, 9, 
 10, A. D. 1692. 
 » Wordsworth, E. B. i. 165. 
 
 to then- i: 
 evil m the 1,11 ; 
 ases. \-c.. aii>l im 
 
 preventing others _ 
 
 justice, in not punishms the clergv as other per- 
 sons ; to their settni!? ii|) ilie canon law and pope s 
 decrees abnvr ilii' III (,1111: loilinv laijmsito- 
 rial maiiiM : ••' ; ■ • \ .- •<■ > . Ii. i-; hhcs the 
 pope s ui;' ■ , ' - I r, ; i. - in inding 
 people III I. : : I I •.. A .ir ■•.•u lalsely, 
 and to I'h I:- I :ii ; ^ ill!, !■ .i - : h.' repro- 
 bates llir - l i ■ a il Ml I- : -- : calls 
 C hrisl III. •.. , .- Il' ; I , I ;i . I. • • i vil ones ; 
 asserts ii;,.i .la |.'[ i. a >i. i,: i -i. aaii iias no 
 power (ivi r puruaimv: iln ian- inaniase to be 
 honourable to all. and c nmpmsaiions tor whore- 
 dom in the clergv abominable : and ends with a 
 prayer for deliverance Irom such teachers. 
 
 Clement V.. by way ol favour to Archbishop 
 Reynolds. 1313, gave hnn power to grant the fol- 
 lowing dispensations. I o dispense with his own 
 visitations, which might bo pcrlormed by proxy j 
 to absolve one hundred excoiiiniunicated persons j 
 to grant one hundred days absolution, for liearing 
 c 2 
 
30 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap, IH. 
 
 § 108. Against these abuses did 
 Wiclif stand forward as tiie champion 
 of Christianity.' We must not indeed 
 esteem him to have been first in the 
 glorious path ; for in his writings he 
 often refers to Grcathead and Fitz- 
 ralph but lie took so conspicuous a 
 lead in the contest, that he may well 
 be deemed one of the grandsires of 
 the Reformation. His first work was 
 against the covetousness of the court 
 of Rome ; it was published in 13.56, 
 and denominated " The last Age of the 
 Church."^ lie was at this time about 
 thirty-two years of age, and had ren- 
 dered himself conspicuous in the uni- 
 versity of Oxford by his learning, and 
 the freedom of discussion in which he 
 indulged. He had originally belonged 
 to Ctueen's college, but was subse- 
 quently eb'Cted to a fellowship of Mer- 
 ton, which then enjoyed considerable 
 celebrity as a college. The subject 
 was well chosen ; covetousness is a 
 vice so open to observation, and so 
 palpably contrary to the precepts of the 
 gospel, that though its existence proved 
 nothing in reality against the doctrines 
 of the church, the discussion jiropared 
 men's minds to doulit v> lietlier infalli- 
 bility of belief belongi'd to a body 
 which was obvion.-ly deficient in prac- 
 tice. Had the church of Rome herself 
 undertalccn the reformation of those 
 abuses, which lier members must have 
 deplored as strongly as the I'rotestaiit, 
 it is far from impossibh' tliat uni- >c]i-.i- 
 ration from hernii!:;ht iu'ver \i::vi' tuKrii 
 place ; but the providence of (_>oil, v. lio 
 ordains all ihincrs for the best, made the 
 examination of her conduct the means 
 of drt.Ttiii- the errors of li.'r cn-ed. 
 In r.ii)."). AVii'lif-" w p.s ap|Miiuti il \i-arden 
 of (';Mi!eri)ury-hall, by .^iiiioii de Islip, 
 archbi,-hop of Canterbury, but was the 
 
 liiin |ii(i\fti ; If 
 forty pri' ' '" 
 
 Illir;lll ilni.s 
 
 2 For (Hvai 
 ralpl. wasnlur 
 
 irdniii one hundred bastards ; to 
 
 iMi,r- 'n linid jiiTlcrnic'tils ; afid 
 • M ■ -, Tl:.' ^ivcrily of a 
 
 - , ) h' lii -A l:h li ihc pope 
 
 niissary or chanri I'l r -I ■! ' ■ n' i-lm 
 
 of Armagh, Irom \ ' ' Ai 
 
 machanus. A lion i ' :i 
 
 elusions against ^ i Imu 
 rent VI.; he died in liuiii.^lHnLiit. 1 ux'i Act 
 and Men. i. 4fi4, &c. 
 
 . 3 Lewis's Wiclif, 3. * Ibid. 13. 
 
 next year expelled by Langham, who 
 had succeeded to the aichiepiscopal 
 chair. 
 
 § 109. This expulsion arose from the 
 enmity of the ecclesiastics regular, who 
 formed a part of that society, and who 
 were favoured by the new archbishop. 
 Wiclif indeed had long shown himself 
 a great enemy^ to the friars, who were 
 then very numerous in and about Ox- 
 ford, and who had rendered themselves 
 obnoxious to the university by their 
 endeavours to draw away the students 
 from the colleges into their own esta- 
 lishments ; and an additional stimulus 
 was now given to this general dislike 
 by the political circumstances of the 
 kingdom ; for though his immediate 
 opponent was a monk, and not a friar, 
 j yet, as the resistance was against the 
 court of Rome, to which both orders 
 were equally allied, the animosity may 
 be esteemed to have been common to 
 both. In 1365, a demand Avas made 
 by Urban V. of the arrears of the tri- 
 bute conferred by John on the papacy, 
 and which had not been paid for many 
 years. The question had been referred 
 by Edward to the parliament ; but, as 
 the opinions of the hierarchy were dif- 
 ferent from those of the rest of the 
 kingdom, the refusal which this demand 
 had there met with was questioned by 
 nmny ecclesiastics, and among the rest, 
 by some of the regular clergy resident 
 in Oxford ; and against one of these 
 Wiclif publicly advocated the cause of 
 ill'' king, and maintained the soundness 
 of the answer returned by the parlia- 
 ment : viz., "that as neither John nor 
 any other king had power to dispose of 
 his kingdom, without the consent of 
 parliament, no subsequent monarch 
 could be bound by any such transfer, 
 in itself originally illegal."" Although^ 
 his labours were not confined to the 
 university, vet Oxford appears to have 
 been the chief seat of his residence 
 and exertions, where, in 1372, he pro- 
 i fessed divinity ; i. e., took his degree 
 I of n. D., giving lectures and holding 
 disputations;' in these he frequently 
 
 !,r«is-s Wiclif, 2-3, &c. 
 ' ! id. App. No. 30, p. 349. 
 " W I' lit is frequently called professor of divini- 
 ly, w hich arises, I believe, from a mistake cod- 
 j earning university customs. In theory, every 
 D. D. is S. T. P. " sanctae theologia professor " 
 and all the divinity exercises consist in teaching 
 
Chap. HI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 31 
 
 inveighed against the errors of the 
 church of Rome ; and his diligence 
 and zeal were crowned with ample suc- 
 cess; for his audiences were most nu- 
 merous, and his opinions received with 
 marked approbation. 
 
 § 1 10. In 1374, Edward issued a com- 
 mission to his bishops,' in order to as- 
 certain what preferments were in the 
 hands of foreigners ; and in consequence 
 of their report, a meeting took place at 
 Bruges between the pope's nuncios 
 and certain ambassadors from England, 
 of whom Wiclif was one : this honour 
 he probably obtained in consequence 
 of his having before advocated the spi- 
 ritual liberty of the kingdom. It was 
 here after a time settled, that the pope 
 should not in future use provisions, nor 
 the king present to benefices, by Quare 
 impedit.'' On his return, in lUTtJ, Wic- 
 lif obtained the rectory of Lutterworth, 
 and the prebend of Aust, in the colle- 
 giate church of Westbury. During the 
 reign of Edward III. the payment of 
 Peter's-pcnoe appears to liave been dis- 
 continued ; but when Richard II. came 
 to the throne, it was re-demanded; and 
 the question, having been debated in 
 the first parliament of that reign,^ was 
 referred to Wiclif, who maintained, that 
 as an alms, or charitable donation, it 
 might be lawful for the kingdom to sus- 
 pend the payment which had been ori- 
 ginally made as a free gift. For it was 
 one of Wiclif's favourite maxims, on 
 which he often reasoned in public, as 
 well as exercised his pen, that the civil 
 power, the original donor of ecclesias- 
 tical property, ini'jht. whi ii tli-- wralili 
 so bestowed iis; |.--sl\- m- i,ijiiri<ni>ly 
 lavished, rescind ii.s (lnn.ii inn, and re- 
 sume its rights. This doctrinr, to^clher 
 with his opposition to tli<- ]ii>\\cr (if bind- 
 ing and loosing, rcnderrd him obnox- 
 ious to the papal displeasure, while his 
 continual strictures upon the infamous 
 
 theology. At tliis time, doctors were really 
 teachers. 
 
 ' I,evvis's Wirlif. App. No. 30, p. 3?.. 
 
 2 Qi/arf impc fi! ■<.- .i w r-' ilrf Ik ^ tor litrn who 
 has purcliiised an : , ,. , i I: -i w hn ili^. 
 
 turbs him in ilir i ■ c ..v.-.m, i,v pir- 
 senliriK a rIcrU i In i - w in :i lin' diiii-.'li i.s voul 
 Blouiit'.s Law Din. m von. Tim kni^ in ihis case 
 must jiave phiced himsnlf in ihe siiuation of one 
 claiming the riglit of advowson, and liave issued 
 a corresponding writ, and by liis superior power 
 have enforced the admission of his clerk. 
 
 ' Lewis's Wiclif, 55. 
 
 lives of ecclesiastical dignitaries ex- 
 posed him to the personal hatred of 
 many powerful churchmen. 
 
 § 111. In 1377, Gregory XL* issued 
 several bulls, by which Simon Sudbury, 
 archbishop of Canterbury, and William 
 Courtney, then bishop of London, were 
 appointed papal commissioners to try 
 Wiclif on certain points brought against 
 him. A bull to the same effect had 
 previously been sent to the university 
 of Oxford ; but his tenets had taken 
 such deep root in that place, that it pro- 
 duced little effect.^ Before these com- 
 missioners he appeared in St. Paul's; 
 but the presence of John of Gaunt, duke 
 of Lancaster, and H. Percy, earl mar- 
 shal, caused so great a tumult in the 
 assembly, that no proceedings were en- 
 tered into ; and a similar confusion 
 arising from the presence of the mob, 
 together with a message from the queen- 
 mother, (Jane, daughter of Edmond, 
 earl of Kent,) produced the same con- 
 clusion to a subsequent session held at 
 Lambeth. Aljout this time Wiclif sent 
 in a declaration of his faith on certain 
 points, contained in eighteen articles,^ 
 of which the substance will be given 
 under the head of his opinions. 
 
 § 112. (a. d. 1378.) The death of 
 Gregory put an end to the commission, 
 and no formal decree was issued against 
 Wiclif; but his health suffered much 
 from anxiety and fatigue ; and during 
 the next year he was nearly brought to 
 the grave by a severe fever under which 
 he laboured in Oxford.' On this occa- 
 sion his old enemies, the friars, in com- 
 jKuiy \vith the aldermen of the city, paid 
 liini a visit, and, after professions of 
 K iiidiicss, exhorted him to do them such 
 ' justice as remained within the power 
 of a dying man, for the many injuries 
 which their society had experienced 
 from him. Upon this, he ordered him- 
 self to be raised in his bed, and ex- 
 claimed aloud, "I shall not die, but live, 
 and declare the evil deeds of the friars !" 
 On his recovery, he continued to preach 
 ' against the same opinions which he had 
 before attacked, and began his transla- 
 tion of the Scriptures into English ; and 
 though this excited considerable oppo- 
 sition, yet his controverting the favour- 
 I ite doctrine of transubstantiation^ raised 
 
 1 Lewis's Wiclif, 56. » Ibid. 54. 
 
 6 Ibid. 59. 7 Ibid. 32. 8 Jbid. 90. 
 
33 HISTORY 
 
 a much more formidable storm against | 
 him, which, in the following year, 1382, 1 
 ended in his being forced to remove 1 
 from Oxford to Lutterworth. The par- j 
 ticulars of this persecution are reported 
 in so contradictory a manner by differ- 
 ent authors, that it is difficult to deter- } 
 mine what portion of credit should be | 
 attached to each. It appears that his 
 friend, the duke of Lancaster,' however 
 he might approve of his arguments 
 against the papal supremacy, was un- 
 willing that any innovations should be 
 made in the received opinion about the 
 sacrament ; so that Wiclif, on this occa- 
 sion, must have stood alone.'' He is 
 reported to have recanted all his hereti- 
 cal tenets, which were certainly con- 
 demned, and the students of the univer- 
 sity forbidden to attend lectures where 
 the objectionable doctrines about the 
 sacraments were professed. 
 
 It is manifest, nt the same time, that 
 there was no great readiness on the part 
 of the university to obey this archiepis- 
 copal mandate, tlioui,rh \V'iclif and some 
 of his more immediate followers were 
 ultimately silenced and expelled. 
 
 § Some of the errors which are 
 imputed to him are so obviously absurd,^ 
 that he must have given his testimony 
 against them as readily as his persecu- 
 tors, while the recantations which are 
 preserved are merely qualifications of 
 his own o])inions. and professed for the 
 purpose of obviating false reports con- 
 cerning his faith; and Mr. Vaughan* 
 has clearly shown that he had prepared 
 his own mind for extremities, even at 
 the time that he proceeded with all out- 
 ward moderation. 
 
 This became now every day the more 
 necessary; for the number of his fol- 
 lowers was daily drawing the attention 
 of the churcli, and the bishops W 'rt; 
 arming themselves witii the civil powi-r 
 to rejiress innovations. Tn K^V^." tlie 
 statute was rn:irti'd which directed she- 
 riffs to iinj"-i-nii i:in.'raiit jM'ep.ciicrs till 
 they shciulil juMii'v theinsclves to the 
 church; a law whicli would have af- 
 forded ever)' faciliiv to jKM'secntion, had 
 not the complaint wliich Wiclif pre- 
 
 1 Lewis's Wiclif, 99. 
 
 2 Knyghlon, x. Scrip, col. 2C47. 
 
 3 One of these is, Item, that God ought to obey 
 the devil. Lewis, 107, art. 7. 
 
 . ■< ii. 129. 6 Fox, i. 503. 
 
 OF THE [Chap, in. 
 
 sented to the commons induced them 
 to disclaim the authority of the enact- 
 ment altogether.' His rest, however, 
 in this world was of short continuance ; 
 he experienced a fit of the palsy before 
 he got to Lutterworth. When cited by 
 Urban to appear before him, he was 
 obliged to plead his infirmity, and a re- 
 turn of his disease carried him off in 
 1384.' The disorder attacked him dur- 
 ing the time of divine service in his 
 parish ; he fell down, and became 
 speechless ; and this circumstance has 
 not failed to attract the notice of his 
 enemies, who have recorded the event.* 
 § 114. In estimating the value of the 
 labours of Wiclif, we should not forget 
 that he was distinguished in his own 
 day, as much for his learning and elo- 
 quence as for his opposition to the court 
 of Rome ; and that his enemies, among 
 the calumnies with which they have 
 loaded his memorjs confess that they 
 could not help ad.miring the various 
 talents which he possessed.^ The tem- 
 poral question of the papal supremacy 
 furnished him with ready hearers among 
 the powerful in the nation ; and oppo- 
 sition to the encroachments of the 
 church of Rome enabled those who 
 called its spiritual opinions in question 
 to enter on a more impartial investiga- 
 tion. At the same time we must remem- 
 ber, that the persecutors and adversaries 
 of Wiclif were not induced to exert 
 themselves merely for the sake of up- 
 
 6 Vaiighan, ii, 126. It has been questioned 
 whether it were ever enacted by parliameni. (Fox, 
 i. 502.) or only inserted in the rolls by Braibrook, 
 liishop of London, (Collier, i. 616 ;) but it stands 
 in the statute book, and is not repealed the next 
 year. Burning was probably the punishment for 
 ill rosy by common law. This law was to author- 
 ize ihe phcriir to detain the heretic; and the sta- 
 tiiic. ed Hen. IV. c, 15, gave the bishop the 
 1' i\MT nf sending to the slicriff a heretic who 
 wMiiM nut a'ijurcorwho had relapsed, without 
 :ni\' :ipvli( ;iiii'ii 10 the crown. It is probable that 
 ilii' :i liiril luming was authorized long before this. 
 ■ l.<.wis-s \V. 1-22. 
 
 ^ Os nempe quod contra Deum et sanclos ejus, 
 sive sanctam ecclesiani, ingemia Iccutum fuerat, 
 a loco sue niiserabiliier distorium horrendum cer- 
 ; nentibus spectaculum exhiliebat. Lingua efTeeta 
 ' niula confiiendi vel testandi copiam denegabat, 
 &c. &c. Walsingham, Hist. Ang. 312. 
 
 ^ In philosophia nulli repuiabarur secundus, in 
 scholasticis disciplinis incomparabilis. Hie max- 
 ime nitebatur aliorum ingenia subtilitale scientis 
 et profunditate ingenii sui iranscendere et ab opi- 
 nionibus eorum variare. — Potens erat et validus 
 in disputationibus super cteteros, et in argumentis 
 nulli credebatur secundus. Henricus de Knygh- 
 ton, 2664. Lewis, xxiii. 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 33 
 
 holding the doctrines which gave so I 
 much offence, but that the political ' 
 power which they possessed virtually i 
 depended on the submission which was 
 paid to their decisions. Ho who con- 
 troverted the one, was of course ready 
 to free himself from the other, and was 
 ■punished when in iheir power as an 
 enemy to the papal throne. 
 
 § 1 1.5. It becomes our next business 
 to consider the opinions which Wiclif 
 entertained ; and in so doing, it will be 
 desirable to follow the same division as 
 has been already adopted, with refer- 
 ence to the abuses in the church : with 
 regard to those which are obvious, it 
 will be unnecessary to state his senti- 
 ments ; customs which promoted the 
 cause of vice and immorality were of 
 course his aversion ; and wc will con- 
 fine ourselves, therefore, to tliose points, 
 about which different ideas might con- 
 scientiously be entertained. 
 
 He denied entirely the supremacy of 
 the pope,' maintaining the authority of 
 the king and the civil power, and at- 
 tacked the clergy for refusing to pay 
 taxes, unless authorized by the church 
 of Rome, as if they were subject to a 
 distinct jurisdiction only; thus proving 
 his correct notion of the subjection of 
 all orders to the political head of their 
 country ; while at the same time his 
 answer about Petcr's-pence as strono ly 
 proves his firm conviction, that the state 
 was independent of any e.xternal jjower. 
 
 § IIG. He was a constant and vehe- 
 ment opponent to the begging friars,* 
 reproving their vices and wealthy po- 
 verty; and so far in this particular did 
 he go, that he has been stau-d to have 
 denied to the church the right of pos- 
 sessing any temporal ])roperty ; where- 
 as his opinion sciMus tn have iiecn this, 
 that if the church did not use the Avealth 
 committed to her care, discriH'tly. and 
 to the purposes for which it was given, 
 the laity, as original donors, might re- 
 sume their grants; nay, that it became 
 the duty of temporal lords to deprive 
 the clergy of possessions which were 
 not rightly applied.^ 
 
 1 Lewis's Wiclif. 1.54. 2 Iliid. 22, &c. 
 
 3 Lewis, 387, art. Ki. " Licet regibus in casilius 
 limitatis a jure, auferre temporalia a viris eccle.si- 
 asticis, ipsis habitiialiler abutenlibus ;" see al.'so p. 
 66, 73, 145. Vaughan's Wic. ii. 4. This ques- 
 tion is frequently confused, because the limitations 
 are neglected. Civil society is established for the 
 5 
 
 I He did not approve of the constrained 
 ' celibacy of the clergy, by which they 
 ifell into divers tempttitions and sins; 
 
 i especially when, by the infltience of 
 parents, their vows were made at an 
 early period of life, while the parties so 
 promising were not aware of their own 
 weakness, and were subsequently re- 
 newed, through fear of poverty, or of 
 disobliging their. '•uperiors. "For mar- 
 riage," says he, "is expressly allowed 
 to priests under the old covenant, and 
 not forbidden under the new thus 
 grounding his ideas on the word of God 
 alone, which he seems to have admitted 
 as the only ultimate standard.^ 
 
 § 117- His doctrines, therefore, found- 
 ed on the same principle, correspond in 
 most points with those of our church, 
 though in some very material particu- 
 lars he manifestly differs from us. 
 
 He admitted, for instance, the belief 
 in j)urgatory, and seems to have es- 
 teemed the praying for souls in it to be 
 useful, though sometimes accompanied 
 with such errors as made it less de- 
 
 He rejected episcopacy'' as a distinct 
 order in the church, affirming, that in 
 the apostles' time the two orders of 
 priests and deacons were sufficient, and 
 that the numerous distinctions which 
 
 prrscrvaiioii of priipcrty : when, therefore, any 
 ii'LMiliUiiiiis wiih regard to property really inler- 
 
 ii ir Willi lii, iires-ervalion of it, the body politic 
 inii-i liavi lih- right of changing the tenure. The 
 nnhi IS ilii' siinie, whether lodged in a body ror- 
 poraic, as the church, or an individual landholder; 
 iiut the regulations which pertain to the posses- 
 sions of such a body as the church are much more 
 likely to require modiricatioiis than those which 
 retor to ihw properly of an individual. The laity 
 have a joint interest in the prcii)crty of the church, 
 liaving as much riglii to the .spiritual services of 
 . Iini i lniHMi :u the churchmen have to the tempo- 
 r ■ ' - '1 'i :i |)n t'erments. And a wise govern- 
 
 invidi'sthat theclaimsof all parties 
 ii ^ ' 1 . il. will interfere as little as possible 
 wi li irLiiinl In the tenure itself Yet cases may 
 ni l ui in V. Inch it may become necessary to legis- 
 late (,ir both. 
 M.cwis, l(,3. m\d. 3R0, 18. <^Ih]d. Ifil. 
 ' >rr >! Iiiii. b. Great confusion is apt to arise, 
 
 iii ... I :il:V'ihcdmWei'ceofccdcl^^ 
 iaii!. Ill 111- same or ditl'erent orders. In the 
 cliiii i li III I iiiL'liind there are three ord( 's. bishops, 
 pricMs, and deacons. In the church of Scotland 
 there are only two, priests and deacons. In the 
 church of Rome, with which we agree as to epis- 
 copacy, there are four degrees of bishops. The 
 pope, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops; all of 
 whom are bisliops. The church of England ad- 
 mits of only the two latter of these. Deans, arch- 
 deacons, chancellors, &c., are all priests holding 
 difTerent offices. The moderator of the church 
 
34 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap, III. 
 
 existed were the inventions of men, and 
 served but to augment their worklly 
 pride.* 
 
 § 118. These two points have Lci ri 
 mentioned, as those alone in which ]]'_■ 
 differed very materially from the church 
 of England; for though heujiht'^ 
 
 § 119. But the great offence for 
 \\ hich, as we have seen, he was visited 
 i.viih considerable persecution in his lat- 
 ter days, was the opposition which he 
 .-liow cci to the received doctrine of tran- 
 •-isbstantialion. In this he asserted that 
 the elements did after consecration con- 
 
 seven sacraments,- he did so in such a j tinue to possess their original natures 
 sense as to render the dispute about of bread and wme ; and the decree with 
 of n-ords. lie ! which this delivery of his opinion was 
 absolutclv 111'- lollijwod in Oxford, =* is probably the first 
 
 them almost a matte 
 esteemed baptism' r 
 cessurv, but presumed not to say lh:;t 
 a child dvm'j; willioiit it liU'-'ht nr;; ],.■ 
 saved; m cases of n.Te.-'<.-)iv. he ;-('eies 
 to have allowed that the nte min-iit b( 
 performed by a lay jiersou. I he views 
 which he entertained with regard to the 
 luerarchy, rendered it impossible that 
 conlirinatioiv should be essentially or 
 niicessarily confined to the bishops, and 
 he considered many of the ceremonies 
 
 then 11 
 
 thou '"hi ih.at ; 
 Utih tin [ I 1 
 M,ht <i| ( ,,(' 
 He rejected th 
 and ifoiiic^illy 
 was very iiiic 
 one soul to r - 
 he mi£;-lit so 
 Thoucli he ad 
 fession'' to a p 
 yet he are-ui'd 
 absolute ilece; 
 that It was le 
 meiit till ihe tii 
 
 and exti-.'!!!" 1 
 
 nug-atiiry and 
 ah.soliition w 
 
 )1 110 IIS 
 
 nilted 
 
 coivtri 
 .11 d 
 
 utility 
 
 \ 1 1 tiiin h L 1 
 sity of It, and ai 
 rer en |oi!ied as a 
 1" oi lunocent 111. 
 
 m 
 
 certr 
 
 not I 
 cd t<: 
 Pdgi 
 
 tniiiial determination of the church of 
 LeeJ'ind m the case, "so that this 
 '1' iiiinri of transubstantiation, which 
 ! : leeht so many to the Stake, had not 
 with us a 140 years' prescription before 
 Martin Luther. 
 
 In consequence of an expression used 
 by Aielancthon,"' an idea has prevaikid 
 ihet '\\ iclii was unsound'" as to his be- 
 le. t in the doctrines of justification by 
 He lei h. and sanctiucation by the Holy ■ 
 .-j iiit, the very fundamentals of Chris- 
 !rA\ui\-. And this notion has been in- 
 lodiiced mto the Church History of 
 dr. Milner. But the continuance of 
 ;his mistake itself partly arises from the 
 leii'iiaiice witli repard to the doctrines 
 e ihi' cluiichof R' Hie, which is so com- 
 eioii , n.en-- Protesiants. That church 
 lee ( rl;;; ! these fundamentals with 
 \:;iiees -111 ' rs~titioRs, among which the 
 .-iiiiple may easily be bewildered ; 'but 
 me hunible Roman Catholic will tell 
 his i-'rotestaut friend, that he has no 
 h'li es len ei the mercy of God through 
 . and the assistance of the 
 : although he may occa- 
 -!e:i;.|i\- , ct to be made partaker of 
 these olessmgs by means not derived 
 throuo-h the Holy Scriptures, and to 
 wiiu ii the Protestant would object. 
 \ i :!, however, is most distinct in his 
 M iinions -vvuh regard to both these 
 MvcuMK's. He directs his hearers to 
 looi: up to Chvivt and be saved," and 
 to seek the aid oi the Holy Spirit, to 
 raise un even good thoughts in their 
 hearts. 
 
 ^ 120. The opposition which had been 
 
 moiiy. Exueme L i 
 3]>t.wis. li;j. 
 f^Ibid. 171. 
 8 Lewis. 171. 
 ■'Ibid. 
 
 'DinloLT. iv. ch. 23. p. 13!). 
 s Ibid. 379. 14. w Ibid. 173. 
 inbid. 176. "311,^^.175. 
 
 ni.f-wis. 3!'! : Wilk. Tons. iii. 170. 
 : ■ WorJsu-onh s E. B. i. 49. n.; Sir R. Twis- 
 ,i.ii's Iii?t. \"md. 193. 4. 
 
 r ( Wis. HO. "\aughan, ii. 359. 
 
 '■ aiiLdian. ii. 356.7. 
 
 ' ■ 1 here is an abstract of the opinions of Wiclif 
 m Allix s Histoiv of the Albigenses, p. 252, ch. 
 Kxn-.. and a miich longer one m Vaughan, ii. ch. 
 viii., besides that in Lewis, ch. vuL 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 35 
 
 raised against Wiclif was calculated 
 rather to give notoriety to his doctrines, 
 tli.iii to silence those who advocated the 
 cans.' of reformation; and the effect of 
 his preaching was so widely spread, 
 thai Knyghton affirms that above one- 
 ha I f of the people of Enjrland were Lol- 
 lards ;' a declaration which muit be re- 
 ceived under limitations, as^ the term 
 might be applied to any one who did 
 not assent to all the decisions of the 
 Roman Catholic clergy; and it is pro- 
 bable that the inhabitants of this country 
 had so far attended to the arguments of 
 the reformer, as to begin to exercise 
 their own thoughts on religious subjects. 
 Many of the ecclesiastical followers of 
 Wiciif refused to accept of benefices,- 
 on account of the unscriptural Com- 
 pliances to their patrons which the ac- 
 ceptance of such preferments entailed 
 upon them, and travelled through the 
 country diffusing the doctrines of Cliris- 
 tianit}'. They were known under thi^ 
 name of poor priests, ami preached in 
 markets and other places \vhere th^'v 
 could attract the largest audiences. Tlieir 
 exertions were often supposed tn create 
 a licentious freedom among the com- 
 monahy, which was probably, in some 
 measure, the case, as there is a luuch 
 closer connection between civil aud re- 
 ligious liberty than is generally sup- 
 posed; nor is it to be questioned that 
 many of those who received the spirit- 
 ual tenets of Wiclif,' and who possessed 
 considerable power, wen- reaily to de- 
 fend him with the arm of (h/sli. Thi- 
 University of Oxford bi'caiiie so tiiiLi'i'il 
 with his opinions, that, in it w as 
 
 subjected to the visitation of Ai-cl)hishM|) 
 Arundel, notwithslaadina- the niniosiunn 
 shown to the admissi')n of any extei nal 
 jurisdiction. Upon this orcasinn the 
 commissioners selected tili^ conclu- 
 sions,* which were <leclared erroneous. 
 
 ' The name is probably not derived from \V;il- 
 fer I/olliarl, nor Irom Loliiim, cockle, but from a 
 German word liiUett, (to sing with a low voice,) 
 and the vyell linown termination hen!, {we say in 
 EnL'tish to lull asleep.) As therefore a begharcl 
 is one who prays, so a Lollard is one who fre- 
 quently praises God with a sonjj. Lay-brethren, 
 ainong the monks, were formerly called Lollard- 
 brethren ; and the terms hralDird and Inllard arc 
 frec|iienily used indiseriminalely. .See Mosheim's 
 Ecol. Hist. iii. 355, (n). The modern word "cant- 
 ins" may illustrate the same idea. 
 
 ^ Vausrhan, ii. 1%. 
 
 ' Lewis, 220. 
 
 < The works of Wiclif, from which these were 
 
 and deserving of censure, and trans- 
 mitted them to the convocation then as- 
 sembled in St. Paul's; but these coer- 
 cive measures seein not to have pro- 
 duced much effect, or to have eradi- 
 cated the ri'gard justly borne to Wiclif 
 by those who had imbibed his senti- 
 ments; for letters le>,tiinoiiial of his 
 general good chariicier and ]iropriety 
 of behaviour, were subsefiuently given, 
 and sealed with the university seal, in 
 140(i.^ 
 
 § VZ\ . '"File slorin of persecution which 
 Wiclif hail <'srape(l by death, and which 
 some of his I'nllowers avdiih'd hy recan- 
 tations, still conliii'ied to lower, though 
 its vloleiiee. was not I'elt lill the next 
 reiQii. In l;!ss'' an ini)itisitorial com- 
 mission was issued, enjoining strict 
 search to be made after ihose who held 
 hi'retical opinions ; but the exertions of 
 the Lollards do not appear to have 
 abated, or to have been confined to 
 preacbino-. and the gradual dissemina- 
 tion 1)1' thrir tenets; for, beginning to 
 !'(■( 1 theii- (iwn strength in the' countrj^, 
 tle'v nut (inly satirized the clergy, (a. d. 
 
 but presented a petition to the 
 parliament,' in which many severe ani- 
 madversions were passed on evils exist- 
 ing in the church. The circumstances 
 under which Henry IV. caine to the 
 throne rendered it necessary for him to 
 strengthen his interests with every spe- 
 cies of ally, and there was no method 
 by which the su pport of the church could 
 1)i> q-ained so easil\-, as by a-sisting the 
 bishops in tlieir s-verities a-jaiiist the 
 Lollards, to Avhich cause we may pro- 
 liablv Irar^' the enactment of the sta- 
 tute ao a iiisl tliem." (a. D. 1400.) This 
 law, after forliidding all unlicensed 
 pireachino." autlmrizes the bishop to 
 arrest, and detain in jii ison, any one sus- 
 pected of preaching or spreading un- 
 sound doctrines, with regard to the sa- 
 craments, ^r the authority of the church, 
 till they shall proceed to their purga- 
 
 taken, are very numerous, amounting, tracts and 
 all, to nearly 300. Lewis gives a catalogue of 
 them, with observations, in ch. ix. p. 179; a list 
 of them may be found also in Vauglian. 
 
 5 The tuithenticity of these letters has been 
 doubted ; the question is fairly discussed, and the 
 document given in Lewis, 20.'^, and App. No. 28, 
 p. 343 ; see also Collier's Ecel. Hist. C24, i. The 
 opinions of Wiclif were condeinned in convocation, 
 in 1410. Collier, 62'J, &c. 
 
 6 Collier, i. 590. ' Lewis App. No. 27, 337. 
 8 See §113 6. sColUer, i. 614. 
 
36 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Ill, 
 
 tion, or abjure their errors; in default 
 of which he is allowed to hand them 
 over immediately to the secular power, 
 which shall forthwith " do them to be 
 burnt." If what has been before said 
 be correct, this act merely took away 
 from the ciown the power of refusing 
 the writ tic lurrelico comburendo, wliich it 
 had previously exercised, and thus gave 
 the church the full privilege of inflict- 
 ing death on those who differed from 
 her, or who refused to pay submission 
 to the supremacy which she claimed. 
 
 § VirZ. William Sawtrey,' a London 
 clergyman, was the first among the fol- 
 lowers of Wiclif who suffered martyr- 
 dom; he was brought to the stake by 
 Archbishop Arundel, because he refused 
 to worship the cross, and denied that 
 the bread in the sacrament was transub- 
 stantiated. 
 
 There is an almost uninterrupted suc- 
 cession of martyrs and confessors from 
 this time to the period of the Reforma- 
 tion, excepting when the ineffectual 
 struggles of the English in France, or 
 domestic convulsions, produced a fe- 
 verish tranquillity to the professors of 
 the true faith. In the examination of 
 these persons, of which several remain 
 to us in their original forms, written 
 when they took place, or soon after, a 
 considerable similarity prevails. The 
 questions on which condemnation was 
 pronounced, though they vary, ordina- 
 rily turn upon transubstantiation, or sub- 
 mission to the authority of the church. 
 
 § 123. The most illustrious of these 
 sufferers, whose private virtues as well 
 as public character rendered his punish- 
 ment a great object with the upholders 
 of the papacy, was Sir John Oldcastle, 
 Lord Cobham f he had acquired his 
 rank by marrying the daughter and 
 heiress of that nobleman, and seems to 
 have shown himself, at all times, a firm 
 opponent to the usurpations^nd power 
 of Rome. When the ill conduct of 
 Richard II. had paved the way to the 
 throne for Henry IV., Lord Cobham 
 early joined a standard which was at 
 first ostensibly unfurled in the cause of 
 justice. Henry rewarded his services 
 with his confidence, and, in 1407, he 
 was appointed to a command in an army 
 
 1 Fox's A. and M. i. 58C. 
 ' Gilpin's Lives of the Reformers, Lond. 1819. 
 Christian Knowledge edit. 
 
 destined for France, which, in conjunc- 
 tion with the Duke of Burgundy, raised 
 the siege of Paris. 
 
 Immediately after the coronation of 
 Henry V., Archbishop Arundel pre- 
 pared to exterminate heresy, which was 
 every day becoming more prevalent 
 throughout the kingdom ; and Lord 
 Cobham was universally marked out 
 as its upholder, as not only counte- 
 nancing it in his own person, by enter- 
 taining unsound opinions on fundament- 
 al doctrines,^ b.ut by sending preachers 
 into the dioceses of London, Rochester, 
 and Hereford. When application was 
 made to Henry, to allow of the prose- 
 cution of this nobleman, he desired that 
 the process might be delayed till he had 
 himself laboured at his conversion ; but 
 the firmness of Lord Cobham so ex- 
 asperated the monarch, that he deli- 
 vered him over to the ecclesiastical tri- 
 bunal. 
 
 § 124. Of this trial we have a parti- 
 cular account written by John Bale,* 
 afterwards bishop of Ossory, and first 
 published in 1544. The points of exa- 
 mination coincide very much with those 
 of William Thorpe' in 1407, of which, 
 too, we have a history, probably written 
 by himself; and it is impossible not to 
 admire the Christian spirit of the author 
 exhibited in this work, so little imitated 
 by Bale, who is far too acrimonious 
 against the errors which he combats. 
 They were both required to give their 
 opinions concerning confession to a 
 priest, the use of images, pilgrimages, 
 and oaths; but transubstantiation was 
 the great rock of offence, and submis- 
 I sion to holy church the touchstone of 
 their sincerity. ° The answers in both 
 I these cases differ so little from the opi- 
 j nions of Wiclif, that it is hardly neces- 
 j sary to state them at length ; upon their 
 refusal to abide by the decisions of the 
 church, both Avere remanded to prison. 
 It is not known' what ultimately became 
 of Thorpe, but he probably died in con- 
 finement. Lord Cobham made his 
 
 3 Bale, 22. 
 
 < A Brefe Chronycle conccrnynge the Examy- 
 nacyon and Death of the Blessed Martyr of 
 Christ, Syr Johan Oldecastell, the Lorde Cob- 
 ham. By Johan Bale. Printed, 1544. Re- 
 printed, 1729. 
 
 5 Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. Ill, vol. i. from 
 Fox. i. 602. 
 
 6 Bale, 71. Wordsworth, 203. ' Wordsw. 2U. 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 37 
 
 escape from the Tower, and fled into 
 Wales,' where he remained concealed 
 four years ; duritio- liis confinement, a 
 pretended recantation was [)ublished, in 
 which it was declared that he submitted 
 to the authority of the church ; hut his 
 friends, who informed him of this pro- 
 ceeding, allixed in many conspicuous 
 places a letter addressed to them for this 
 purpose, in which he expresses his con- 
 tinuance in the same opinions wiiich he 
 had maintained before his judges. He 
 was at K'ngih discovered, and sent back 
 by Lord I'ow is; and on his arrival in 
 London was burnt in St. Giles's Fields,' 
 hanging on a gallows, to which he was 
 : fastened by chains. 
 
 I § 125. This spot was chosen for his 
 I execution on account of an afiair wiiich 
 1 had taken place there abovit Christmas, 
 141:?, immediately after his escape from 
 the Tower. Henry V. was at Eltham^ 
 when news was brought him at supper 
 that a body of Lollards were assembled, 
 I to the number of twenty thousand, in 
 St. Giles's Fields, under the command 
 [of Lord Cobham. Following the dic- 
 tates of his own courage, the king col- 
 [lectcd such forces as his household 
 Would supply, and hastened to disperse 
 I the rioters, whom he easily overthrew, 
 and took many prisoners, most of whom 
 I were afterwards executed, by being 
 hanged and burnt; and a statute was 
 soon after made, in a]iarliament lield at 
 Leicester, granting every aid from the 
 temporal arm to the persecutors of I^ol- 
 lardy. This tale is so variously vejire- 
 sented that it is difficult to arrive at the 
 truth. That an assembly of Lollards 
 took place seems nnrpiestioiial)l(> ; but 
 there is no probabiliiy that it was very 
 numerous, or bi adrd by Lord I'obhaiii, 
 or that its objects were such as are at- 
 tributed to it ; atid the evident tendency 
 which such a story must liave had, to 
 inflame the mind of the king against 
 these unfortunate men, furnishes us 
 vi^ith a sufficient reason why this colour- 
 ing should have been given to the cir- 
 jcumstances; while {hr admission of the 
 I correctness of tbe tale iiivolv(<s an in- 
 consistency and folly in the sutierers, 
 for which no adequate cause can be 
 assigned. 
 
 > Gilpin, 80. 2 Bale, 96. 
 
 ' Gilpin, 81, &c. 
 
 § 12(!. Another promoter of the Re- 
 formation," who, though not a martyr, 
 was a confessor in its cause, was Regi- 
 nahl I'ecock. By tranquil opposition 
 to the more zealous followers of Wiclif, 
 aiul by grounding his arguments on 
 sound reason in the interpretation of 
 the word of God, he contributed much 
 to the furtherance of the Reformation. 
 He was born abotit 1390, became fellow 
 of Oriel, Oxford, 1117 ; about 1 12.5, he 
 left the university, and went to court, 
 under the ])roti'Ction of Humphrey, 
 duke of ( Jlouci'ster, and in 1 14-1 became 
 bishop of St. Asaph, which preferment 
 he probably obtained through bribery,^ 
 by means of a papal provision ; for he 
 defends such a metliod of becoming 
 possessed of a benefice, on the plea 
 that all ecclesiastical property belong- 
 ing originally to the head of the 
 church,'' the pojie may at his option re- 
 sume any part of it for his own use. In 
 1419, he published his "Repressor of 
 overmuch blaming the Clergy,"' and 
 the year afterwards was translated to 
 Chichester, where he published his 
 treatise on Faith. His moderation, and 
 the low authority which he allowed to 
 the church, together with some expres- 
 sions against the French war, which 
 might be unpleasant to the court, seem 
 to have raised him up enemies among 
 all orders in the state. In 1457, he was 
 expelled from the House of Lords,** and 
 the next year deprived of his bishopric, 
 though he abj\iri>d his errors at Lam- 
 beth and Paul's Cross. He subse- 
 quently obtained a bull of restitution 
 from the pope, which proved prejudi- 
 cial to his interests ; for by so doing he 
 became liable to a pra'munire, and sub- 
 jected himself to tlie anger of the 
 throne : he retired to Thorney Abbey, 
 in Cambridgeshire ; but of the exact 
 date of his death nothing is known. 
 
 4 I>rw,..'s T,,r.-orPec»cU. 
 
 ^ 'I Ins linlici y ini^'ht hnve been nothing but the 
 piiviMriii el ;iiiii:\ics (ir li rsi - 1 rii II s ; see « 103'. 
 A II-. ir M'hiii- iii:"i, wjiii niliiiiiicil the pDpe's 
 II 'I'' I I''- . ■ ' , I I:' J- - :>/ |i;iv lus first- 
 
 li'i' I ' ■ '• ' V ' . i yei a zeal- 
 
 en - e 1. ■ -•,.1.1,(1 ( 111! I l.i~ , ;y. The ques- 
 
 iiiin well III ir illy III 11 1 nil ilie iiilliirnce wliicll such 
 payineni had ni lirei-ui nii; ihe t;raiil of the bene- 
 fir-e ; and. in order to jiidue of ilie <)nesiion cor- 
 rectly, we nin.-<i t'o hark lo the iiuhvidual case of 
 Peco<'U, of which we luiow nollung. 
 
 <^ T.ewis's Lite of I'ecock, 42. 
 
 ' Ibid. 44. 8 Ibid. 143. 
 
 D 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 § 127. His real offence was the me- 
 thod in which he defended the doctrines 
 of the church; for when he had ad- 
 vanced what nii'^rht be fairly said in fa- 
 vour of its tenets, he acknowledijed its 
 accidental defects, and betrayed the 
 weakness of a cause which could not be 
 supported, unless other authority \v( re 
 admitted than such as can he derived 
 from the Scriptures. 'He denied not 
 the errors which the use of images pro- 
 duced, but esteemed them remrd iulde 
 evils, while he thouoht that the li'_:iir( s 
 themselves were useful in iii>tnu i mi,'- 
 the unlearned, and remiuiliiiii' all <_'liri^- 
 tians of the events which they de- 
 scribed; he wished tlifnlure that such 
 false representations of the Deity as 
 existed should be removed, and more 
 correct ones substituted in their place. 
 It was on the same jirincipJe that he 
 advocated the cause of pilt^'rimag'es.^ 
 To visit a sjiot where some martyr liad 
 suffered, or sojne event connected with 
 religion had occurred, could not fail to 
 excite a lively renlemlwance ; while, for 
 the convenience of those who frequented 
 such places, the erection of a church or 
 convent was judicious and praisewor- 
 thy. He argued that the prayers offered 
 at such shrines or iiiiai;!'^ wrre ad- 
 dressed to the person repiesciiicil, while 
 the lively impression, excited in the 
 mind of the devotee, served to render 
 these acts of adoration more stroiii: and 
 availing; but it should be mna rk^ 'il, ' 
 that he says nothing of iinlul-ciic' - 
 granted in consequence of [hIl; riniaL;t'>, 
 and advises people not to spend their 
 time in them,' but rather to read and 
 to hear the word of (_->od. 
 
 § 12>i. In defending the pa.ial -upiv- 
 macy, he used the well-kiinw n t. 
 "Thou art Peter," &c.. aiil allMU,,] 
 that the pope was ]iossi'>-ril of an hnr- 
 ity equal to that of an apD-iK-. ilioiii^li 
 he would not admit that 1h' ini-lii all r 
 any institution of < 'lirisi. With n'L^anl 
 to the religious orders," bis iqiinioii \\ a-. 
 that their variety i)n)nioliMl aciiviiv; 
 
 that, if these mrh had imi I n (riai>. 
 
 they might have been ^omrlhln■,r wor.-f : 
 that their <]re>-si-.s. wen- !•. r.-uiiiid ihein 
 of their vows: ihai \\\ ir \><^<-'-^<\nns\ 
 were dedicated to ( ;od"s servici', and, 
 
 ' Lewis,61,77. ^ Ibid. 69. 3 70. 
 
 * Ibid. 78. s Ibid. 94. « Ibid. 95, &,c. 
 
 [Chap. HI. 
 
 like the wealth of churches, might have 
 been employed to less profitable uses; 
 while such institutions formed a retreat 
 for the sons of noble families, and were 
 at h ast a fault less offensive to the Al- 
 mighty than negligence of his honour. 
 He li-. c ly expresses his disapprobation 
 of many abuses which had been intro- 
 duced, but argues on the general ground 
 that they were at liberty to impose on 
 themselves any laws they chose, in ex- 
 tenuation of some absurd regulations 
 w hich had been adopted among certain 
 of th'' religious orders.^ 
 
 § I'i:). He considered the Bible' as 
 the foundation of his faith, and advised 
 the laity to study it, conceiving that 
 no man should be punished for heresy, 
 till the error of his opinions had been 
 clearly shown him ; and in this respect 
 he deemed the power of the church to be 
 declaratory, rather than to consist in de- 
 fining and decreeing points of faith ; 
 he allowed of the marriage of the cler- 
 gy,* and disapproved of the ecclesias- 
 tical laws about fasting.'" Thus little 
 did many of his opinions differ from 
 those of ^Viclif, while the milder rea- 
 soning which he used, together with 
 the advantage possessed by him, in ad- 
 vocating the established order of things, 
 contributed much to spread his senti- 
 ments, and to induce his countrymen 
 to examine the grounds of their reli- 
 gion. Under these circumstances, it is 
 nM_\von(ler that he became an object of 
 hati i i] 10 a body which he endeavoured 
 to ri I'orm ; but it is not easy to per- 
 ceive the source of the dislike which 
 was shown him b)' the temporal lords, 
 unless indeed we take into considera- 
 tion the general influence of the clergy,'* 
 and the facility with which prejudice is 
 cunv.'ved. He does not appear to have 
 |Hi->, -sed any very superior talents, or 
 lo have been calculated for a martyr : 
 yet ( iod can work by weak instruments 
 as surely as by those which appear to 
 lie strong, and to Him be the glory. 
 
 § l:}0. The troublous times which 
 succeeded this period, furnish but little 
 tuatter for the ecclesiastical historian, 
 
 ' r.ewis. 100. Ibid. 198. 
 
 9 Ihid- iOS. '»ll>id. 209. 
 
 " In lb" lirs! parliament of Edward IV., the 
 temporal lords amounted to ibiriy-five. ihe spirit- 
 ual t i f ir y-Pisfhl. This is probably the real solu- 
 tion of the difficulty. Henry's Hist. Eng. x. 280, 
 and 65. 
 
ClIAP. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 39 
 
 to whom the ground is barren till 
 we begin to ajjproach the era of the 
 ]\efonnation. The advocates of perse- 
 cution ceased not to endeavour to era- 
 dicate all opinions contrary to their own, 
 and the suff.'rings of their victims be- 
 r,::iie more and more efficacious in the 
 l)roi)agationof the reformed tenets, while 
 tip' vices of tlie cleryy were calculated 
 til substantiate and conlirin the accusa- 
 tions of their enemies. In 1 1!)0, Inno- 
 ri'ut VIII. sent an epistle to Archbishop 
 M Tion, directing him to reform the 
 'ious orders; and tiie pastoral Ict- 
 ' Idressed by the nii.'t ropolitan to the 
 I of St. Alban's,' I'urnishes a sad 
 re of the depravity which reigned 
 111 their walls. They are accused 
 . !;iaiiy crimes, and charged with turn- 
 ing out the modest women from two 
 nunneries under their jurisdiction, and 
 of substituting in their room females of 
 the worst characters. In one cas,., a 
 married vvonian, whose hiisbaml \i\;s siill 
 alive, had been made i)riores.s of l^ray, 
 for the purpose of keeping up an adul- 
 terous connection with one of the 
 monks of St. Alban's. - Fox gives a 
 detailed account of nearly twenty in- 
 dividuals who were burnt for heresy, 
 between the death of Lord Cobhani and 
 150a, when Henry VIII. ascended tlii> 
 throne ; and this fact will greatly ac- 
 count for the facility with which the 
 doctrines of the Hefontiatioii, when 
 published, gained a rapid admission 
 into this country. 
 
 § 131. In taking a summary view of 
 the history of the church nj) to the pe- 
 riod alwHichwe have ari i\ eil.we must 
 regard the ecclesia^t leal . Mali!i>hriient 
 both as' a civil engine ami as a spiritual 
 body. The reason why the state 
 allowed any temporal wealth or an 
 ity to be granted to the church, beyontl 
 the mere sup])ort of tliM.e w ho are en- 
 gaged in the offices ol i-,'lijioii. depends 
 on the well-grounded [iveMiniption, that 
 educated men, acting under the sanc- 
 tions of religion, are peculiarly likely 
 to exert the influence which tln^y thus 
 possess, in the promotion of civil order 
 and sound morality, and by this means 
 to benefit the body politic; and we may 
 presume that God has ordained that it 
 
 I shall be so, in order that, as the preach- 
 
 j ing of the first followers of Christ was 
 supj)orted by a Divine authority, which 
 euaijled them occasionally to work mira- 
 cles, so the instructions imparled by the 
 minister of (Sod's w uiil, in the ])resent 
 day, should be aided and facilitated by 
 the support of earthly power. This 
 position is so sound in itself, that the 
 only question on which a reasonable 
 doubt can remain is, as to whether this 
 power should be lod^.'.! ni tlie hands of 
 the ecclesiastic liinisell', or only fur- 
 nished in his aid by the civil magistrate, 
 ljut ill the jieriods of which we have 
 been examining the history, the power 
 in question was vested in the ecclesias- 
 tic; and by degrees he was found to 
 exert it for the agiirandizement of his 
 own order, and to become a rival of the 
 crown and aristocracy. There can be 
 no doubt, therefore, that the jiower ori- 
 ■_^inally 'p l anted for spiritual objects had 
 I'eeii lilt rly misused, and converted to 
 an end for which it was not at first des- 
 tined. 
 
 § 133. It does not, however, follow, 
 that the authority thus created was use- 
 less as a civil engine; and the very 
 acquisition of such an inlliience, de- 
 pendent solely on opinion, must lead to 
 i!ii> ])resuniption that much benefit 
 accrued from its existence. We have 
 iM'T'ire s-Tii tliat the power of the pa- 
 pacy -.w.i-r li-nui ill,, iiipisiice of the 
 c.o-. ii ; and that a- ll:-' interference of 
 a foreign power. exr|-tcd in the cause 
 of justice, made the people al lirst look 
 up to its supiioit. so the ]ii)licv of the 
 crown afterwards indm-ed tlio kiier fre- 
 qiienily to join with the pop.', in op- 
 pressing the church and plnndenng its 
 propiTty. Each party sought its own 
 iiimirdiati' advantage, -without consult- 
 ing the interests, s}iiritiial or temporal, 
 of those committed to its care. In this 
 state of things, the ritrht of appointing 
 to ecclesiastical benefices was of the 
 utmost iinporiance; and far this privi- 
 lege there were in fact three competi- 
 tors. The lower clergy souii'ht to elect 
 those who were destined to irovern 
 them ; the pope, or higher cler<,'y, de- 
 sired to apjioint them; and the king 
 was anxious that the nomination should 
 be vested in himself. The same com- 
 petitors must exist in every church esta- 
 blishment, and disputes will necessarily 
 
40 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. HI. 
 
 arise, whenever the situations in the 
 church are invested with such temporal 
 advantages as render the acquisition of 
 them an object of solicitude. 
 
 § 1:}:}. Whrn the hinlu r stations con- 
 ferred nothing but sj)iritual su[!(' riority, 
 attended with" toiuporal diinculli; s and 
 danger, the appoinluicnt was safely 
 lodged in the hands of the lower clergy, 
 who had no inducements to (dect an}' 
 but the fittest governors ; while the 
 subordinate places were filled by men 
 ■who derived their authority from their 
 ecclesiastical superior, or the election 
 of the people, with the charge of whom 
 they were intrusted, liishofirics, there- 
 fore, were filled by the election of the 
 clergy belonging to th<> see; and as the 
 eslabiishment of parish [iriests rendered 
 the number of eh'ctors too large, they 
 were chosen by the members of the ca- 
 thedral church alone. Hut when the 
 bishopric was endowed with a temporal 
 estate, and men might wish to become 
 bishops without desiring a spiritual of- 
 fice, the king was anxious to jiromote 
 his own friends ; and sound ])olicy in- 
 duced him to jilace this newlv esta- 
 blished temporal power in hands which 
 might render it serviceable to his govern- 
 ment. This created a disj)ute betwe'en 
 the crown and the chapter; and the 
 king; very frequently dtqirived the chap- 
 ter of its just rights, and turned the 
 revenues of the church into the pockets 
 of his favourites or himself. If the 
 church establishment Avere of any bene- 
 fit to the nation, the nation was injured 
 by this injustice; and the churcliman. 
 oppressed by the king, and mialile to 
 obtain redress from the aristocracy, 
 sought it froui the pope. Here, then, 
 the see of Rome claimed a right to con- 
 sult the u'eiieral benefit of Christendom, 
 by ap])ointing proper jiersons to the 
 more exalted situatiojis. and pretended 
 to manage the temporal wt-allh of the 
 church, for the ad\ antage of the whole 
 Christian body prditic. 
 
 § 'I'he ajipointment might safely 
 have been conuiiitted to any one of the 
 three iiarties, if they had acted up to 
 the i)reten>ions on uhich they claimed 
 it; but as each in their practice deemed 
 the ecclesiastical oliice a iiu're temporal 
 property, the persons so appointed, and 
 the rest of the community, regarded 
 the matter in no other light ; and when 
 
 they looked for spiritual guides, they 
 could find nothing but lordly governors. 
 The clergy, when they elected, sought 
 their own immediate interests ; and the 
 prospect of future elections made the 
 community, to whom the church be- 
 lon<,n-d, subject to eternal cabals. The 
 kiiiL'" neglected the interests of the 
 cliur(h, and made the preferment a 
 reward for a courtier, or a means of en- 
 richini: hims(df ; and the pope generally 
 noiniiiated a foreigner, who utterly dis- 
 regarded the cure of souls. It was the 
 wealth and importance of the situations 
 which induced each of these three par- 
 ties to overlook the good of the people, 
 and against this, therefore, the attacks 
 of the first reformers were naturally 
 directed ; and the grossness of the 
 abuse, which was everywhere exposed 
 to their view, induced them to run into 
 the extreme of denying that any tem- 
 {>oral wealth should be assigned perma- 
 nently for the support of the ministers 
 of religion. 
 
 § 1:3.5. No question can be attended 
 with greater real difficulty than the as- 
 certaining the proper quantity of tem- 
 ]x)ral wealth which ought to be assigned 
 to an ecclesiastical body, in order to 
 make it as efficient as possible ; for as 
 any quantity, however great, may be 
 used to the advantage of the state, so 
 poverty will hardly insure the existence 
 of those virtues which renderthe church- 
 man beneficial to society, in a political 
 point of view. A small quantity of 
 wealth and power would only have ex- 
 posed the churchman of this period to 
 the rapacity of the court and nobles; 
 and the very safety of civilized society 
 depended, in some measure, on the 
 ability of the church to maintain its 
 rights ; for, however barbarous the 
 church was at that time, the king and 
 liis lords were generally worse ; but 
 there can be no doubt that the height 
 to which the church power had now- 
 risen rendered the members of that body 
 totally unfit for spiritual duties, and 
 made a reformation absolutely neces- 
 sary. The time was come, when either 
 their wealth and power must be taken 
 from the clergy, or Christianity would 
 be destroyed b)^ those who were her 
 appointed guardians. And the attacks 
 of the poor priests were formidable to 
 the priesthood, because they were 
 
Chap. III.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 41 
 
 ■backed by truth. The bishoprics had 
 now become places of such vast im- 
 portance, in a political point of view, 
 that the appointment could only be 
 safely lodged in the crown; and by de- 
 grees this arrangement took place ; the 
 chapter generally elected by the advice 
 of the court, and the pope sanctioned 
 the election by nominating the same 
 man ; but Wiclif and his followers, who 
 saw the spiritnal evils of such an order 
 of things, without regarding the difii- 
 I cultics which attended any other system, 
 Iprevented, perhaps, moderate people 
 I'from listening to their advice, when 
 Ithey beheld their doctrines coupled with 
 js.uch extreme measures of reform, 
 i § 136. Another abuse of the same 
 'sort existed in this circumstance, that 
 !most of the important situations in the 
 state were monopolized by churchmen. 
 From their superior education, they 
 were probably better suited to the per- 
 formance of many civil duties than any 
 iof tiieir contemporaries, and there are 
 1 frequent complaints of their engrossing 
 'offices of every description. This aug- 
 mented the evil before complained of, 
 and tended to withdraw the clergy from 
 their peculiar duties; but in this case, 
 the jarring interests of the laity would 
 generally provide a remedy, as well as 
 counteract the injustice of that exclu- 
 sive jurisdiction which the church 
 claimed over her own members. Both 
 these abuses might tend, perhaps, to 
 delay the progress of civilization, but 
 jin the end they were sure to be over- 
 come by it. With regard to the other, 
 the temporal wealth of the clergy, while 
 the corruption of the doctrines of Chris- 
 tianity prevailed, there seemed no limit 
 to its extent ; for there is no reason why 
 an ecclesiastical dominion might not 
 have been established in any or all the 
 kingdoms of Europe, as well as in the 
 papal states. Every event, therefore, 
 which drew the attention of the people, 
 and led them to examine the doctrines 
 of Christianity, or the conduct of the 
 jclergy, assisted in loosening the fetters 
 |by which the minds of the nation were 
 held captive. And it is in this point 
 that our gratitude is peculiarly due to 
 Wiclif and his poor priests. The trans- 
 lation of the Scriptures, and the tracts 
 which he wrote, dwelling on the vices 
 of the clergy, and enforcing the lead- 
 
 ing features of Christianity, instructed 
 many, who in their turn became teach- 
 ers, and excited inquiry. While the 
 barbarous severities, with which the 
 clergy punished those who differed 
 from them, must have attracted the no- 
 tice of every one, and disposed them to 
 regard the church with no very friendly 
 feeling. 
 
 § 1:37. The steps then towards a re- 
 formation which had been made were 
 many, though they were little observed, 
 perhaps, by the majority of the most in- 
 telligent among the clergy. The wealth 
 of the clergy and the secular nature of 
 their pursuits were observed, and called 
 forth the animadversions of those who 
 wished to remedy existing abuses, and 
 who were not friendly to the established 
 hierarchy. The Scriptures had been 
 translated, and were read, not to any 
 great extent indeed, but they were read, 
 and might be procured in English. 
 There were many individuals ready to 
 propagate the truths of the gospel, and 
 to undergo the greatest sufferings in the 
 cause which they had espoused, and 
 these not only men of education, but 
 many of them possessed of power and 
 rank. The dawn of reformation was still, 
 as far as human eye could distinguish, 
 far distant ; there was still much to be 
 encountered and borne ; but the eye of 
 faith in Wiclif clearly foresaw, that 
 Christianity must be restored to its just 
 authority. Perhaps, in examining the 
 steps which led to the Reformation, too 
 much stress is sometimes laid on the 
 individuals who stood forward in the 
 cause ; and their succession, and the 
 connexion between those who succeeded 
 each other, is traced with a minuteness 
 which tends rather to cloud the truth 
 than to place it in the clearest light. 
 Let any one study the word of God while 
 he beholds the systems of error and 
 knavery which have been pretended to 
 be built upon it, and the necessity of 
 reformation will need no other light 
 than that which Providence has furnish- 
 ed. Greathead and Fitzralph, Wiclif 
 and Pecock, Sawtrey and Lord Cob- 
 ham, may have advanced the Reforma- 
 tion among us ; but he who will behold 
 the truth must look beyond these instru- 
 ments to their great Artificer. The 
 flame which was kindled among the 
 Albigenses, and in the valleys of Pied- 
 
42 
 
 mont, may have lent its brightness to 
 dispel the thick darkness which enve- 
 loped us; but we shall fail to derive its 
 greatest advantage from the study of 
 ecclesiastical history, if we turn not our 
 
 [Chap. IV 
 
 eyes to that brightness which no human 
 device can extinguish, and look not up 
 to the true church of Christ, built upon 
 the Rock of truth, against which the 
 gates of hell shall never prevail. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 FROM THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VIII., 1509, TO THE END OF THE DH'ORCE OF 
 THE QUEEN, ^ND THE SEPARATION FROM ROME, 1534. 
 
 151. E. rl 
 
 to I lie II 
 157. 'I I 
 Pro-n . 
 fpi-rr,! , 
 
 of ( '-1111 
 
 V2. Hu 
 
 the d 
 
 E fit: CIS of persi 
 
 muiderrd. 1.53. Impolicy of the clergy with regard 
 
 . I.'),"). \\ olj^ey. his rise. 15G. He spoils Henry VIII. 
 J ihi Kcl.jniiiiuon. 158. Origin of the divorce. 159. 
 < lall. li.l. Conduct after it. 162. The divorce re- 
 - iii ihe universities. 164. Cranmer raade archbishop 
 
 iii.iniage. Final rupture with Rome, 166. '1 he par- 
 xl I i^her. 168. Character ol More. 169. Character 
 
 ui ion of beggars. Practice of prelates. 172. Effects 
 
 174. Review of the Reformation. 
 
 § 151. The events which were most 
 instrumental in producing the Refor- 
 mation in England belong rather to tin- 
 civil than tiie eccle.siastical historian : 
 for though the spirit of reform was 
 amply spread throuo;hout the people, 
 yet, unless other circiuiistances had tend- 
 ed to promote a change, and to weaken 
 the power of the church, it is probable 
 that this body might still have been 
 able to su])press tlmsi' iiinovaiions \A liicli 
 sapped the fouiidiitidns un wliich the 
 superstructure of its wealth and author- 
 ity was raised. Whatever contributed 
 to weaken the influence of the eccle- 
 siastical body, gave at the same time a 
 great. 'r freedom of discussion to the 
 laity ; and tlie extension of knowleil<rc 
 at onci' paved the way to truth, and de- 
 prived tile clergy of that branch of 
 power whicli consisted in their being 
 almost the only de)iositories of every 
 species of information.' 
 
 The first event which bears on these 
 points was a bill which passed the com- 
 mons in 1513, subjecting all robbers and 
 murderers to the civil power, and which, 
 in order that it might get through the 
 lords, had two provisos attached to it : 
 first, that bishops, priests, and deacons- 
 
 1 Burnet, i. 
 
 2 It is hardly.perhaps necessary to observe, that 
 8ub-dpacnns and the four inferior orders were sub- 
 jected to the effects of it. As the greater part ol 
 this and the following cltnpler are abridged from 
 Burnet's History of the Reformation, of which 
 there are many editions, and to which reference 
 
 should be exempted from it ; and, se- 
 condly, that it should remain in force 
 during this parliament only- At the 
 termination of that period, the clergy 
 
 i were not satisfied that the bill should 
 expire with the authority from which it 
 sprung ; but some little time afterwards, 
 a preacher, at Paul's CrosSj vehemently 
 reprobated the idea of subjecting any 
 ecclesiastics to the jurisdiction of the 
 ciiiiiiiion courts of law; and this question 
 was afterwards discussed before the 
 kiiiLT. who ultimately determined to sup- 
 
 j port his own authority over all his sub- 
 
 I jects. 
 
 i § 152. While this point was in agita- 
 tion, an event occurred which not only 
 ti'iuied to irritate the minds of the peo- 
 ple generally on this subject, but to 
 throw the balance verv much against 
 the clergy in the opinion of the nation, < 
 Hunne, a respectable citizen of London, 
 (a. d. 1514,) was put into the ecclesiasti- 
 cal court, for not paying certain fees to 
 the priest of his parish, and was sub- 
 sequently impolitic enough to sue the 
 priest in a praemunire. Such indiscre- 
 tion naturally suggested the idea to his 
 spiritual opponents, that he must be 
 tinged with heretical pravity, and he 
 was consequently confined in the Lol- 
 lards' Tower, where , he was soon after 
 
 may be made without any difficulty. I shall omit 
 the mention of the page in which the event oc- 
 curs, and merely quote the book in which it is to 
 be found. 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 43 
 
 found hanging. The coroner's jury I 
 ; which sat on the body brought in a ver- 
 I diet of wilful murder against Horsey | 
 the chancellor, and other ecclesiastical 
 officers ; who, on the other hand, de- 
 clared that he had put an end to him- 
 self. The persecution of this unfortu- 
 nate man did not tcniiinaie here; for 
 after having been tried for his hetero- 
 dox opinions, and coudemned, the mur- 
 dered body was exposed to the flames. 
 The convocation, too, vehemently at- 
 tacked Dr. Standish, who, though a 
 churchman, had ventured to advocate 
 the cause of the civil power, and to de- 
 clare that a breach of the common law, 
 perpetrated by an ecclesiastic, should 
 be punished by the civil authority : in 
 this case, however, their malice was ob- 
 viated by the support of the king, who 
 had been convinced by Dr. Veysey, 
 that the immunities claimed by the 
 clergy had no more foundation in Scrip- 
 ture than in reason. 
 
 § 153. After a considerable struggle 
 the parties came to a sort of compro- 
 mise ; Horsey was brought before the 
 Court of King's Bench, and the_ attor- 
 ney-general did not proceed against him ; 
 the question, indeed, seemed brought 
 to a quiet termination ; but nothing 
 could tranquillize the minds of the peo- 
 ple of London, whose hatred to the 
 clergy became so excessive, that one 
 of the arguments by which the bishops 
 tried to prevail on the king not to sufTer 
 Horsey to be brought before a jury 
 was, that they could expect no justice 
 from mep who were so vehemently 
 prejudiced against them. The clergy 
 themselves must have lost much in the 
 good opinion of the people in general, 
 by the obstinate" manm-r in which they 
 advocated so odious a cause. They 
 seemed determined to join themselves 
 to crimes of which tliey must have 
 disajiproved in their hearts ; and in 
 coupling their own immunities with 
 the outrages of some of their members, 
 they extended to I he whole body that 
 general detestation which would other- 
 wise have justly fallen on the indivi- 
 duals in fault. This proceeding of the 
 clergy, in withdrawing the cause of 
 Horsey into their own courts from be- 
 fore a lay tribunal, might have arisen 
 from mistaken principles ; but the ec- 
 clesiastical power should then have 
 
 I proceeded to punish his enormities 
 with due severity ; whereas Horsey 
 I seems not only to have escaped, but to 
 have been rewarded for his crime.' 
 
 § 1,51. Such conduct could not fail 
 to make the people entertain a low 
 opinion of the justice of the plea itself, 
 when the exercise of it, in the present 
 instance, was so palpably iniijuitous, 
 and naturally inclined them to listen to 
 arguments in opposition to a claim 
 which they had already learned to dis- 
 like. Nor were the political power or 
 the ordinary lives of the ecclesiastical 
 body likely to counteract among the 
 nobility the injurious influence of those 
 feelinijs which pervaded the common- 
 alty. We have an authentic account 
 of the domestic economy of the greatest 
 churchman of this period,^ whose esta- 
 blishment vied with, and even sur- 
 passed, that of most of the princes of 
 Europe, and whose sole administration 
 of public affairs must have been very 
 grating to men who deemed themselves 
 entitled to a share, at least, if not to the 
 whole of the concerns of government. 
 
 § 1.55. Cardinal Wolsey was the son 
 of poor but honest parents, and owed 
 his extraordinary rise to his talents as 
 much as to fortune. He was chaplain 
 to Henry VII., and employed by him 
 in some important transactions, much 
 to the satisfaction of that monarch. 
 When he was first introduced to Hen- 
 ry VIII., by Fox, bishop of Winchester, 
 he was one of the king's chaplains, and 
 about forty years of age. The imme- 
 diate object of that prelate was proba- 
 bly to raise up a rival to Lord Surrey; 
 and the choice was so well made, that 
 it soon became evident to all, that the 
 new favourite would rapidly surpass 
 his patron in the affections of the king. 
 He was successively made bishop of 
 Lincnin, archbishop of York, and held, 
 besides these, the see of Tourney in 
 France. He was soon afterwards cre- 
 ated cardinal, and legate a latere by 
 Leo X., and his own sovereign ad- 
 vanced him to the chancellorship of 
 England, and allowed him successively 
 to hold the sees of Durham and Win- 
 chester. The influence which he pos- 
 sessed over Henry was founded on a 
 
 ' Supplication of Beggars. B^ox, ii. 233. 
 Cavendish's Life of Wolsey. Wordsworth's 
 Eccl. Biog. vol. i. 
 
44 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IV, 
 
 profound knowledg-e of the character 
 of the king, and the determination of 
 making every thing give way to the 
 one object of pleasing his master. 
 Henry was naturally fond of amuse- 
 ment, and Wolsey easily persuaded 
 him to devote himself to its pursuit ; 
 well aware that the administration of 
 business must thus fall into the hands 
 of the favourite. In these two objects, 
 the cardinal seems to have been inde- 
 fatigable : he led the monarch on from 
 one pageant to another, and exerted 
 himself so actively in managing the 
 affairs of the country, that no transac- 
 tions of importance should seem to be 
 neglected. Of his talents as a states- 
 man there can be no doubt ; but his 
 honesty has been questioned ; and he 
 has been accused of having consulted 
 his own interests and pique against 
 Charles V. in the later affairs of his ad- 
 ministration. He had indeed no great 
 reason to be pleased with the emperor, 
 who had probably promised assistance, 
 and held out hopes, wliich he never 
 intended to realize ; but we need not 
 seek for secret reasons in a matter 
 which admits of an easier solution ; 
 the personal anger of Catharine, and 
 of her family, will sufficiently account 
 for the existence of such reports, with- 
 out taking into account that degree of 
 odium which an exalted station gene- 
 rally draws upon itself ; while the true 
 policy of England' will satisfactorily 
 answer any arguments which may be 
 drawn from the proceedings of the 
 court of Henry, when under the im- 
 mediate direction of the cardinal. 
 
 § 156. The anxiety with which Wol- 
 sey sought the popedom w'as excessive ; 
 and in his eagerness to obtain it, he was 
 perhaps betrayed into some steps which 
 were hardly consistent with the inte- 
 rests of his country ; but it should be 
 remembered, that Henry was scarcely 
 less anxious than himself, and no one 
 can greatly blame a minister who dili- 
 gently promotes the earnest desires of 
 his master, even when his own advance- 
 ment is the object of their pursuit. The 
 readiness with which Wolsey complied 
 with all the wishes of the king, and the 
 pains which he took to please him, pro- 
 duced a very injurious effect on the 
 
 Burnet, part iii. 14. 
 
 mind of that monarch himself. Henry 
 possessed by nature considerable abili-, 
 ties, and his education had been care- 
 fully attended to, so that no young 
 jirince ever came to the throne with 
 greater prospects of fulfilling the fond 
 expectations of his people. These flat- 
 tering appearances, however, were in 
 a great degree destroyed by that want 
 of restraint^ of w^hich he was the con- 
 tinual victim. Henry, for instance, was 
 by temper and education inclined to 
 show the most profound reverence for 
 the church of Rome; yet even in this, 
 his self-will hurried him to contribute 
 to the overthrow of an authority which 
 he had himself defended.^ 
 
 § 157. The literary character of the 
 monarch, as well as of the favourite, 
 considerably promoted the advance- 
 ment of sound learning in the king- 
 dom;* both were munificent patrons, 
 but the cardinal in particular, if his 
 plans had been brought to perfection, 
 would have left a standing and s))]en- 
 did monument of his greatness and his 
 wisdom.' Greek literature^ was now 
 beginning to flourish, and the study of 
 the Scriptures became a favourite pur- 
 suit with those who engaged in it; the. 
 first patrons, therefore, of these learned 
 
 2 Cavend. Wols. 543. 
 
 ^ In l.'>21. U( ni \ iMi!.!:shed a work against Lu- 
 ther, ut uliu h ilii mil- IS. •• Assertio Scptem Sa- 
 cranienlnruiii. ailv(r.=iis Afarlin. Lulherum. aedita 
 ab invictis.'siiiio Anglia; et Franciae Rege et Domi- 
 no HibernicE Henrico ejus Nominis Octavo." 4to. 
 It was printed by Pynson. Lond. 1521 ; it exists 
 in MS. in the Vatican, and has been reprinted. 
 Antwerp. 1522; Rome. 1543. The reprint, Lug- 
 duni, 15G1, contains Henry's answer to Luther, 
 and a preface. (See Strype's Mem. i. 51.) When 
 presented to Leo X.-. it obtained for the king of 
 England the title of Defender of the Faith, which 
 had been previously borne by several of the kings 
 of England. — Burnet, i. 
 
 < .'^trype's Mem. i. 52. 
 
 * His plan for the foundation of Cardinal's Col- 
 lese. now Christ Church, Oxford, was as follows. 
 —Lord Herbert's Life of Henry VHL p. 146. 
 
 A dean and subdean. 
 
 4S,Xrcrnr:'i=''''o'^-ngagedi„s,udy. 
 13 chaplains, 
 
 12 singing men, >-for the service of the chapel. 
 
 Iti choristers, 3 
 
 Public profcs.iors of the college and of the uni- 
 versily ; of divinity, canon law, civil law, me- 
 dicine, liberal arts, and hterae humaniores. 
 
 Private lecturers or tutors, to read lectures in 
 philosophy, logic, sophistry, (rhetoric,) and 
 iiterae humaniores. 
 
 4 censores morum et erudiiionis. 
 
 3 bursars, together with inferior ofEcers, in to- 
 tal numbers 1S6. 
 
 6 Knight's LifeofColet, 13. 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 45 
 
 bodies, who promoted its advancement, I 
 though the firm friends of thu papacy, ! 
 were, in fact, preparing the public mind 
 for the reception of the Reformation.' 
 Thus Colet, too, who was a liberal pro- 
 moter of the study of the Greek lan- 
 guage, when he became dean of St. 
 Paul's, read public lectures'* in that 
 cathedral on the epistles.^ In this work 
 he was fre(iuently assisted by many of 
 his learned friends, and carefully pro- 
 vided that the church should never be 
 without a sermon on the Sunday. 
 These iiin()\ aii()ns quickly brought him 
 under the f^uspicion of heresy; but 
 Archbishop Warham dismissed the 
 charges brought against him ; and he 
 continued to preside over that body 
 which he so richly benefited and 
 adorned. The enemies of innovation 
 thus quickly perceived the tendency 
 of these proceedings, but the more en- 
 lightened members of the establishment 
 could not overlook the necessity of 
 endeavouring to introduce some im- 
 provements ; for such was the general 
 ignorance of the Scriptures at this pe- 
 riod, that, as Erasmus tells us, the sptt- 
 rious gospel of Nicodemus' was st-t up 
 in the cathedral of Canterbury ; and it 
 was a rare thing to find a New Testa- 
 ment in any church. The re-establish- 
 ment of sound learning was the only 
 human remedy to such evils ; and the 
 art of printing, while it promoted most 
 effectually this object, jjroduced per- 
 haps in this country its most beneficial 
 efl'ects in disseminating the opinions of 
 the more enlightened among the mass 
 of society. 5 The kingdom was thus 
 prepared to take advantage of those 
 external events which Providence was 
 
 ' It is worthy of remark, (Fuller, v. 170,) that 
 the chief of those who for ilirir liiliMiis or iiltain- 
 mciils were invited from ( 'aml-i to lu conir 
 members of the cardinal's ■■"In -r m i i w t vi^ 
 
 Bubseijueiitly cast into pii.-iHi .m ih. Mi^iuc um ol 
 heresy. Frith siiflered man ynloin ; V„\ was tu- 
 tor to Edward V'l. and was an exile ; 'I'yndatc, 
 Tavenier, and Goodman, protnoted the transla- 
 tion of the Dihle. 'l lie offer was mndr to Cran- 
 mer. but he refused it. (Sirype's (/rnnmer, p. :!.) 
 
 2 Stalliinl n-ul Irr-urrs on the Scnpi.uvs in 
 Caml)rkl-r, i:.Jl, iSnvpr's Mmi^ i, 71., hiii,.. 
 the first who .-ub.-iiiuird ihr i,..vt lor the sen- 
 tences. IjaiiiiK r was one of his hearers. 
 
 " Knight's Life of Colet, .')!(, &e. 
 Ibid. Gi. Erasm. Perigriiiat. Rel. ergo. 
 
 6 It is observed by Henry, (in Hist. Eng. xii. 
 28G,) tliat the early growth of English literature, 
 and the perfection of our language, is greatly 
 owing to the popular nature of the first produc- 
 
 [ about to bring forward, and in which 
 j the instruments were blindly working 
 to produce an end the most opposite to 
 their individual wishes." Henry VIII., 
 thu public advocate of the papacy, and 
 who had been honoured with the title 
 of Defender of the Faith, was to be- 
 come the chief means of humbling the 
 papal power; while Wolsey, and the 
 other patrons of learning, were opening 
 the eyes of the world to those abuses, 
 of which no one exhibited a stronger 
 instance than the cardinal himself.' It 
 may, perhaps, be asserted with truth, 
 that no one of these caitses wottld by 
 itself have brought about so important 
 a change, but each contributed par- 
 tially to this end, and their combination 
 produced it. 
 
 § The event which put all these 
 springs in motion was tiie divorce.* 
 Catharine of Spain had been previously 
 married to Arthur, the elder brother of 
 Henry, and the marriage had in all 
 probability been consutninated ; yet, 
 on the di ath of tlie young prince of 
 Wales, Henry VH., iiiiwilliug to send 
 back the infanta tiiiil \i<-r dowry, had 
 betrothed her to h'ls srcmid son. In 
 order to accoinplif li this object, he had 
 obtained a bull from Rome ; but it ap- 
 pears that he had himself afterwards 
 repented of the transaction, and that 
 Henry VIII.. when he became fourteen 
 years of age, made a protestation against 
 the connection, lliough when he ascend- 
 ed the throne he was nevertheless per- 
 suaded \^ some of the council to marry 
 his brother's Avidow. 
 
 (a. D. 1.537.) The king and queen 
 had now lived together for eighteen 
 years ; she had borne him several child- 
 ren, all of whom, cxce])t Mary, had 
 been tak'en ofl" by early deaths ; and 
 the mind of Henry became scrupulous 
 as to the legality of the connection, and 
 
 lions of the British press; so that while foreign 
 printers we re adv;ini-inr! the study of the classics, 
 our own were rendering' their native tongue pure 
 and riassii-al. 
 
 There were at this time many persons brouglit 
 brlore the ecclesiastical courts lor lieresy, parli- 
 i nliii lv ni Essex and London. (Sirype's Mem. i. 
 U.t, &r.) ^ ; 
 
 ' No man perceived the necessity of reforming 
 abuses more strongly tluin W'oU. \ : f.-^irvpe's 
 Mem. i. 72;) he instituted a i;rnrr:.l li ^antine 
 visitation for that purpose in I'^JJ-'Jl, in wliudi he 
 was supported by Fox ; but liis purposes came 
 to nothing. 
 
 8 Burnet, book ii. 
 
46 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. TV. 
 
 alarmed lest the threatcnings of the 
 Jewish law should he accomplished in 
 his dyiri"; chiklless.' WoLse}', on the 
 other hand, w:is accused l)y the friends 
 of (Catharine of liaving- sn^^ro-ested these 
 doubts to the niiiHl of liis soveriMcni. 
 and it was said that lie did so h\- )u;";iii-; 
 of Longland, the kind's coulrssnr: nor 
 did his enemies scruple to assert, th;U 
 it was through his secret influence that 
 the French ambassadors c|uestioncd the 
 legitimacy of Mary, when her marriage 
 with the duke of ( )rli'aiis was in agita- 
 tion. ° These cli:irL:es, liowi; ver, appear 
 to be unfounded ; and it is even pro- 
 bal)l.. that rlie srruide r.l„,„t the ninr- 
 rlag-e had stron-ly alf'Cled the nnnd ..f 
 Ilenry Ijefore liis nfl'ectinim were fixed 
 on Anne Boie\ ii ; hut neither of these 
 points is of much real importance at 
 present, thoueli tie \- hav:' been dis- 
 cussed as the character ef the Hefor- 
 nia'iun (le]ieiidrd en the principles 
 A\-hirh ariuiiird lli .^e ^\•i^h whom it 
 orieiii;ii"d. (If the ^ir.r<^itv of Ilen- 
 rv"s reie; jnu--rrun|e.. and the real ten- 
 d '.-ne^s nC his c, . , e-r u m r e, there can 
 )e>w remain no ei'eal difn'rence of opi- 
 uien; i!'all these pa ;■: iculars were esta- 
 hlished in his fiiveui'. it would probably 
 produce iH) great change in our senti- 
 ments concerning him. 
 
 § 1.5!). The lirst iiroposals for the di- 
 vorce \vere made to the court of Rimie 
 while ( "h'lnent ^ 1[. was a close prisoner 
 in the hands of the imperialists, so that 
 thoui,'-|i his ears were open to the re- 
 rpiests of the English inesser(i!-ers. yet. 
 Idl he: rseape. n nhine- wa^ dene in fur- 
 Iherane.. ef the fme-s desire ; and he- 
 fu-e this line' t'l ' niatt'U- had Certamlv 
 so far a lva,a 1. ilia! ih- dissolution of 
 
 oh 
 
 li 
 
 .0 En: 
 
 le-ate. 
 
 rected not to show to any one hut the 
 kin-; f.r Clement had still the o-r;^atest 
 reiison to dread a new rupture with the 
 emperor, which any appearance of 
 readiness on his part in forwarding 
 
 iLev. xx. 21. 
 
 2 Burnet, i. Cavend. Wols. 428. 
 
 1 the divorce, might have produced ; and 
 ! he seems to have been in the greatest 
 alarm till this bull was committed to the 
 flames, since the policy which he adopted 
 was of that intricate nature which such 
 a disclosure would have considerably- 
 disconcerted. Campegio made no haste 
 01 a jourm'y from which he expected 
 to leap little profit and much unplea- 
 santness, and after many delays arrived 
 in this country, where, notwithstanding 
 I the urgent solicitations of Wolsey, he 
 ' strictly adhered to his instructions con- 
 cerning the bull. These causes so re- 
 tarded all proceedings, that the court 
 was not opened till May 31, 1529; and 
 after some other delays, arising from 
 the refusal of the queen to appear a 
 second time before the legates, and her 
 appeal to Rome, Campegio, at the mo- 
 ment when every one expected the sen- 
 tence to be pronounced, adjourned the 
 court from July 23 to October 1, as 
 being vacation time in the Roman 
 courts. 
 
 ^ 160. In so doing he -was probably 
 aware of an avocation of the cause to 
 Rome, which had taken place a few 
 days* before the adjournment. The 
 king, it may be supposed, was much 
 irritated at this doulde dealing on the 
 part of Clement, but he exhibited no 
 outward marks of his displeasure, and 
 even received the cardinals with appa- 
 rent cordiality;' but the interview at 
 Orantham was the last which Wolsey 
 
 j enjoyed. He was soon after deprived 
 
 'of his chancellorship, and subjected to 
 a iir;emunire. The treatment which he 
 iiew exjierienced was most cruel and 
 unjust ; for the leofantine office, which 
 
 was the pretended cround of this at- 
 tack", had been exercised with the con- 
 sent ami approbation of the king ; and 
 if in com]diance with the wishes of his 
 master he had been guilty of some un- 
 justifiable conduct, yet surel}- no act of 
 which he was ever accused could be 
 mere unjustifiable than the condemna- 
 tion to which he was exposed; and 
 even in point of compliance he seems 
 otii n to have tried to check* the mad- 
 
 ! luess of Henry's proceedings ; nor could 
 it he exjiected that the minister of such 
 a tyrant could be very independent in 
 his conduct. 
 
 ' Cavend. Wols. 442, et passim. * Ibid. 543 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 101. Wolsey quietljr submitted to 
 every severity, hoping by such compli- 
 ance to soften down tlie feelings of his 
 master, who^^e favour he expected to 
 hao>'e re£|:iini'il, couM he diirc have been 
 readmitii'd into his prcsi iitc. This, 
 wever, was previ'iilcd by tlie watch- 
 ful zeal of his enemies at court, who 
 from his long prosperity had become 
 very numerous, and at the head of 
 whom we must not forget to mention 
 the lady who had now possession of 
 the monarch's affections: he was sent, 
 therefore, to his diocese of York', where 
 he appears to have given universal 
 satisfaction but he was subsef[uently 
 removed on the charge of high treason, 
 and died at Leicester Abbey in his way 
 to London. His pride and ambition 
 were neither apostolical nor C hristian ; 
 but they are the vices of human nature, 
 md were peculiarly those to which he 
 ivas most exposed. For them he is 
 smenabld to the tribunal of God, and 
 ibt to that earihlv jiowcm' Avhich had 
 d him into tbcm, ami to which powi^r 
 le was in all npjioai-ann' faithful to the 
 ast; and tliero must littve been some- 
 hing fundaini iitallr oood in a man 
 vho coulil so attarh his srrvants to his 
 lerson.- The laii-r iiiM'rvi.'ws between 
 hem and their iiia-N r nn- (inito pathe- 
 ic ; and the resiicct shown to him in 
 he north, during the whole of his dis- 
 grace, speaks more highly of his gene- 
 1 conduct^ than volumes of pane- 
 ^ync, while the testimony of an iniqui- 
 ous bill, which was brought in soon 
 sftor, for cancelling- the kiiin's private 
 iebts,* proves most str":vjl\- tlv n-odd- 
 icss of a minister who i niil 1 lair-- li,,. 
 ountry into such a state of >.ius[)cnty 
 IS is described in the preamble. After 
 lis fall, he showed the greatest signs 
 )f weakness and childish clinging to 
 he hopes of reobtaining the royal fa- 
 'our;^ but on this object alone he had 
 )laced his affer t ions ; so that in review- 
 ng his life ono cannoi h-lo laoiiriifull v 
 ■egrstting that lio lu' \Tr sor\-cd liis Cnd 
 vith half the zoal h.' sorved his kino-; 
 JUt whilo we l-av.' Iho siinicf to the 
 nercy of the .VlmiLihly, we must not 
 >verlook the human greatness and su- 
 )eriority of the man. 
 
 ' Burnet, p. iii. 2 Cavend. Wols. 456. 
 
 ' Cavend. Wols. 495, &c. i Burnet, i. 
 s Cavend. Wols. 450, &c. 
 
 I § 162. All progress in the divorce 
 
 j was now vciidcri'd nearly hopeless ; the 
 , canso liad l.ooii removed by a papal 
 ■ avociii loii into lial\-. and notwilhstand- 
 ino- the proiiii-rs wliicli wove eoiuinu- 
 allv -ivrn to Enn-lish ambassadors, 
 little ex|.rclaliMH nuilil bo .oiLMlained 
 that justice would iie (dilaiiied in a [ilace 
 where so many eonlliclmi;- inleresis must 
 delay the tiiial decision. The question 
 was freed from this dilemma" by the 
 sagacity of Cranmer," who, when his 
 ojnnion was accidentally asked in pri- 
 vate, suggested the idea of settling the 
 dispute by reference to the opinions 
 rect'ived from the several universities ; 
 and Henry no sooner heard of the \i\an, 
 than he ailopted it. The means taken 
 in order to [)rocure a favourable answer 
 must probably forever remain a secret ; 
 but there ajipears to have been little or 
 no briliriy used, in comparison with 
 what is generally r-presented. In Ox- 
 ford and ( 'amhridLje, it is lik(dy that 
 f'a^•our and inlliienee ^vl■re I'Xerted. and 
 
 considered as a |)ariy qnesiion ; lull the 
 inter<'sti'd prejudices of the ecclesias- 
 tical members of those societies were 
 as ca}ial)le of \x'arping the ojunions of 
 the judges against the cause, as any 
 court interest could have tended to pro- 
 mote it. 
 
 In the Sorbonne, tbounh the royal 
 influence was doubtless exerted in fa- 
 vour of the divorce," yet the conduct of 
 tliat body was certainly ojien to the 
 chari^e of favouring the other side, 
 tliroiigb llie force of iiarly feidiii-: nor 
 mn..| It be |oru(,ttcn, that trulli is as 
 mecli nliseiired liy [irejiidice a-' Ijy :uiy 
 oilier ra;i>e ; ami we cannot iloiibt, that 
 the blimle>t churchman must liave seen 
 the teml iicy of such an appeal from 
 the aiiiliorily rd' the pope to tlie opinions 
 of the learned. In England, it could 
 be DO secret that Anne would probably 
 favour tlie reformers ; and what cir- 
 cumstance could have coiuluced more 
 siroiioly to dispose the mass of the 
 
 ■S. 'e, ni,l>wuiil,'s Eccl. Biog. iii. 437, 3, 
 will re ii IS u iih s.inic appi oranre of reason attri- 
 biiied railier lu Wolsi y ; Imf atier all, the car- 
 dinal may pre viously liavc consulted the universi- 
 ties, and f'raiimer have merely said, We shall 
 never receive any decision, except through the 
 universiiies. 
 
 8 Burnet, p. iii. 
 
48 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 clergy to promote the interests of Ca- 
 tharine ? 
 
 § 163. There is no reason to suppose 
 that the influence exercised in France 
 or England preponderated much on 
 either side ; in both, there was the in- 
 terest of the court balanced against that 
 of the church ; yet in each of these 
 countries it was decided, that a mar- 
 riage with a brother's widow was con- 
 trary to the law of God, and therefore 
 null from the beginning.' The same 
 and corresponding answers were ob- 
 tained from many other universities and 
 learned individuals. The Protestant 
 divines generally coincid(.>d in main- 
 taining the illegality of the former mar- 
 riage, but were some of them doubtful 
 as to the propriety of a new connection. 
 In order to enforce these decisions with 
 their full weight on the mind of Cle- 
 ment, a letter was addressed to him 
 from England, which was signed by 
 those cliiefly who were immediately 
 connected with the king; yet the fears 
 by which the mind of tlie pojic was 
 biassed, made him continue that system 
 of deceit which he imd carried on from 
 the beginning. The ready comj)liance 
 of the clergy in tins country may partly 
 be accounted for, in consequence of 
 their then lying under an unjust prae- 
 munire, for having acknowledged the 
 legantine power of Wolsey. which Hen- 
 ry had personally authorized. In order 
 to buy off this. (l.")"-50,) the convocation 
 consented to a considerable subsidy: 
 and in the bill whicli granted it, the 
 king's supremacy was asserted : it was, 
 however, with much ditiiculty that this 
 clause was ])a.-scd, and so little with the 
 good-will of the Lower House, that after 
 the acknowledgment a ju'oviso was in- 
 serted, qtunUutn per Chrisli /< grvH. licef. 
 
 § lG-1. The parliament at the same 
 time objected to the constitutions framed 
 by the clergy," which fell heavily on 
 the laity, with regard to mortuaries, 
 probate of wills, &c. ; and in a later 
 
 1 The reader will fiii.l ;i .liirrroiu arf,ninl .ifil.r 
 matier given in l.n L'anl, vi. -J-'l. Thr ui-rii--i..n 
 is imporlani as tir as llir i harartiTs nl ilir nulivi- 
 duals concerned are at is.-~uc, but ul liille cuiisc- 
 qncnce as to the question generally. Henry may 
 appear more or le?s guiliy ; but his gnill afleets 
 not the Reformaiion. 'J'lie Roman Catholic may 
 reject him, but Protestants will hardly claim him 
 as their own. 
 
 2 Strype's Mem. i. 19S. 
 
 session, (1532,) made complaints against 
 the manner in which the ecclesiastical 
 courts examined and tried delinquents; 
 for when brought before them on no 
 definite charges, and without accusers, 
 they had no alternative but to abjure 
 opinions which possibly they had never 
 held, or to be proceeded against as here- 
 tics. But in consequence of some of- 
 fence which the king conceived against 
 the House, for rejecting a bill about 
 wards, this motion was not carried into 
 a law till Ib'H. This session was also 
 marked by the enactment of a law 
 against annates, by which all persons 
 were forbidden to pay their first-fruits 
 to the see of Rome. These steps were 
 probably taken merely to alarm that 
 court; for though Henry was deter- 
 mined to proceed, whatever might be 
 the consequence, yet at this time he bad 
 jirobably no wish to produce an open 
 ru])ture. In this autumn, (1532,) his 
 marriage was solemnized with Anne Bo- 
 leyn, and upon the death of Warham, 
 (August,) the archbishopric was ofl^ered 
 to Cranmer, whose modesty, as well 
 unwillingness to take the oaths to the 
 poj)e, delayed for some time his conse- 
 cration. These obstacles, however, were 
 both overcome, (March 30, 1533,) and 
 he was contented to swear true obe- 
 dience to the pope, with the salvo of a 
 protestation that his so doing should 
 not affect the duty which he owed to 
 his God, his king, or country. 
 
 § 165. The first act of his primacy 
 was the declaration of the sentence of 
 divorce, in conformity to the decision 
 of convocation :^ which act at this mo- 
 ment seemed rather misplaced ; for the 
 
 3 The texts of Scripture which bear on this 
 question are Gen. xxxviii. 8, Deut. xxv. 5, which 
 direct the brother of a man who died without an 
 hiirto raise up children to his brother; Levit. 
 xviii. If), which forbids a man to marry his bro- 
 thi r's wife ; 18, or two sistfrs; and Levit. xx.21, 
 which threatens, that in that case they shall die 
 childless; from whenre it would appear, that the 
 niarriasre was illegal, except for the purpose of ■ 
 preventing the extincTton of a Jewish family. By 
 ihc present law of England, the marriage might 
 lie set aside during the lives of both parties, "ad 
 rilorniandos mores," but if not so set aside, it 
 would be afterwards good in law, and thechildren 
 legitimate. Calvin attempted to reconcile the dif- 
 ference between Deut. xxv. 5, and Levit. xviii. 16, 
 by interpreting the word brother as a near kinsman, 
 an extension of which it will undoubtedly adrnit, 
 as in the instance of Boaz and Rmh ; but to which 
 it cannot be confined, when Gen. xxxviii. 8, and 
 1 the case erf the seven brethren mentioned in tht 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 49 
 
 marriage with Catharine must have 
 either been from the beginning illegal, 
 and a formal divorce therefore unneces- 
 sary, or the connection with Anne Avas 
 nothing less than bigamy. The king 
 himself continued, to the very last, 
 anxious to preserve terms with Rome, 
 and even sent messengers to justify his 
 conduct. One great source of delay 
 in the process in Italy had arisen from 
 the refusal of Henry to appear in per- 
 son, or by proxy, when summoned be- 
 fore the pope ; an act of submission 
 which he declared to be contrary to the 
 rights of an independent prince, and 
 esteemed a species of personal indig- 
 nity. At the same time the discussion 
 was involved in greater difficulty, be- 
 cause the strength of the argument in 
 favour of the illegality of the marriage 
 depended on the total inadequacy of 
 any papal dispensation to set aside the 
 law of marriage established from the 
 word of God, and this argument the 
 pope would not allow to be brought 
 forward in his presence. Yet all this 
 might have been overlooked, and peace 
 have been preserved by mutual con- 
 cessions, had not the imperial faction 
 hurried on the pope to give a decision 
 on the case, when he found that a mes- 
 senger who was expected from England 
 did not arrive. The French and Eng- 
 lish authorities who were in Rome 
 (1531) had made strong remonstrances 
 against such precipitation, and urged 
 the possibility of the messenger's hav- 
 ing been accidentally delayed ; but this 
 prudent advice was offered in vain ; and 
 the messenger who brought the neces- 
 jsary concessions (March 23) was met 
 on his arrival by the rejoicings of the 
 j imperialists, who were exulting in the 
 [victory which their cause had gained.^ 
 Reconciliation was now too late, and 
 the apparent indignity with which his 
 
 ospels, are considered. Second edition. This 
 as been since changed, and the marriage is now, 
 
 ipso facto, void. 
 
 ' The correctness of this account, which is taken 
 , from Burnet, is controverted hy Lingard, (vi. 267, 
 ;n. 153,) on the ground that the royal assent was 
 j granted March aOlh to the bill which set aside the 
 
 authority of the pope, when nothing could pos- 
 ; sibly have been known of the decision given on 
 , the 23d. Henry had probably made up his mind 
 , to reject the authority of the pope before this, yet 
 , he might wish for the sanction of the court of 
 I Rome, with regard to his marriage, and have j 
 I thought that the intimidation produced by these 
 
 bilU brought into parliament might not have been | 
 
 sincere endeavours after peace had been 
 treated, rendered Henry more deter- 
 mined than ever to do away with the 
 papal authority within the precincts of 
 his dominions. 
 
 § 1(50. The parliament was in every 
 way willing to promote the views of 
 Henry in oj)position to the church of 
 Rome, for it had already abrogated the 
 papal supremacy, and established that 
 of the king.» (a. d. 1534.) Its other 
 acts were, one concerning the punish 
 ment of heretics, in which the inquisi 
 torial power of the bishops' courts was 
 destroyed, inasmuch as they could now 
 only proceed in open court, and by wit- 
 nesses; and it was ordained that none 
 were to be troubled for any of the pope's 
 laws or canons :^ another, relating to the 
 succession, in which the children of the 
 
 uninflueniial in promotinga favourable issue. We 
 can hardly expect consistency of conduct from 
 such a man as Henry. 
 
 2 The nature of the supremacy which Hen- 
 ry Vin. claimed to himself is distinctly marked 
 in Tonsial's Letter to Pole. (Burnet, p. iii. Re- 
 cords, No. 52.) He states, That no man knew 
 better than the king the difference between the 
 duties of a Christian prince and spiritual persons. 
 That he pretended not to the cure of souls, but to 
 that authority which, while it vindicated his king- 
 dom from a foreign and usurped power, would 
 compel all persons within his dominions to con- 
 form to the laws of God. 
 
 ^ The canon and civil law are by Blackstona 
 (Inlrodiict. ^ 3, iii.) ranked among the leges non 
 scriptm, because they are received in England 
 from custom, and not from any intrinsic author- 
 ity of their own : a point expressly declared in 
 the statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21. 
 
 By the term civil law is generally understood 
 the municipal law of the Roman empire, as ar- 
 ranged from the confused mass of laws, edicts, and 
 imperial decrees ; first, by private lawyers, then 
 by Theodosius, a. p. 438; and, lastly, by Justi- 
 nian, about 533. The Corpus Juris Civilis, as 
 compiled under his auspices, consists of, — 
 
 1. The Institutes, which contain the elements 
 or first principles of the Roman law, in four books. 
 
 2. The Digests, or Pandects, in fifty books; 
 containing the opinions and writings of eminent 
 lawyers, digested in a systematic method. 
 
 3. A new Code, or Collection of Iinperial Con- 
 stitutions, in twelve books ; the lapse of a whole 
 century having rendered the former code of Theo- 
 dosius imperfect. 
 
 4. The Novels, or New Constitutions, posterior 
 in time to the other books, and amounting to a 
 Supplement to the Code ; containing new decrees 
 of successive emperors, as new questions hap- 
 pened to arise. 
 
 It was these which were found about 1130, at 
 Amalfi, in Italy. 
 
 The canon law is a body of Roman ecclesiasti- 
 cal law relative to such matters as that church 
 either has, or pretends to have, the proper juris- 
 diction over. The Corpus Juris Canonici was 
 compiled from the opinions of the Latin fathers, 
 the decrees of general councils, and the decretal 
 epistles and bulla of the holy see, by Gratian, an 
 
50 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 king, by Anne Bolcyn, were declared 
 heirs to the throne ; at the same time, 
 those who oppugned this bill were ad- 
 judged traitors to the king; and an 
 oath was framed for its observance, in 
 which a clause was inserted, that tin- 
 party swearing would bear Iruf fuilh to 
 no foreign authority or potentate, and 
 deem any oath, previously sworn to that 
 efTect, as of no avail. 
 
 § 107. This law was passed in a ses- 
 sion during the sprinp-, (a. d. l'):' !,) and 
 though the oath was n.-adily taken by 
 the majoritj' of the nation. Sir Thomas 
 More and Fisher, bishop of Rochester, 
 refused to do so, and wore in conse- 
 quence committed to the Tower. F'isher 
 seems to liave been a good inriii. and a 
 sincere jiapist, and was at tliis time very 
 old and infirm ; Init lie liad not conducted 
 himself with any great w isdom or pru- 
 dence with respect to the maid of Kent. 
 Elizabeth Barton had pretended to re- 
 velations concerning the king's death, 
 and, like many itnpostors, half-deceiv- 
 ing, half-deceived, had become the tool 
 of some designing priests, who preach- 
 ed her up as a prophetess, and foretold 
 the destruction of Ilenr^y. She and 
 some of her accomplices were afterwards 
 hanged, and then made a confession of 
 the cheat ; for w liich slie justly blamed 
 her spiritual guides, whn fostered the 
 imposition. Fisher had to a certain de- 
 gree promoted these proceedings by his 
 countenance, and probalily believed in 
 her inspiration. Sir Thomas More, 
 however, had placed no confidence in 
 her predictions. 
 
 It had originallv been in contempla- 
 
 Italian nienk. al)n> 
 sequent aiMii Imh-j ; 
 
 1. Pen-, ':, (;,:,'Mrl, 
 
 2. 1). , , . ' , i , . ■;, IX. 
 
 3. 1,1' , , : : I < ;x.;alium, and llie Cle- 
 
 4. Tlie E.xMavagants of Jolm XXII. and his 
 successors. 
 
 Besides these pontifical laws, there are national 
 canong established in synods held under the author- 
 ity of a Roman legate, and provincial canons 
 established by synods held in the provinces of 
 Canterbury or York. 
 
 By the statute 'J.^. Hon. VIIT. r. xix. and 2 Eliz. 
 C.i., it Wasenartr,! ■! v ;-. , -v .l,ould ho .>{ 
 the canon law; : ' - < , r, \m w sIkmiM 1ip 
 
 made, all canoi-.*. - iinlniaiicrs. and 
 
 synodals provincial. ]■< iiiL' 'iieu aliraily niadf, and 
 not repugnant to the law of the land, or the kmii's 
 prerogative, should siill be used and r.\( i iili d. 
 And as no such review has yet liceii prrttcu d, 
 upon this statute now depends the authority of the 
 canon law in England. 
 
 tion to comprehend both these distin- 
 guished individuals in the bill of attain- 
 der by which the other persons suffered; 
 but the declarations of Sir Thomas 
 More,' and the fear of bringing the ques- 
 tion before the House of Lords, saved him. 
 from this unmerited imputation,'' while 
 Fisher's name was inserted in the bill, 
 though no proceedings Avere instituted 
 against him. Both these men were 
 therefore the objects of the displeasure 
 of the court when the affair of the oath 
 took place ; and More, seeing from the 
 first that he could expect no mercy, 
 made up his mind to suffer ; for he was 
 well aware of the importance which 
 would be attached to the refusal of a 
 : man of his own high character, and of 
 I the effect which such an example must 
 have in discrediting the party of his op- 
 ponents. He is justly considered by 
 the church of Rome as a martyr to her 
 cause, and every one must allow him 
 the credit of having laid down his life in 
 firmly maintaining his sincere oj^inions. 
 
 § 1(5H. His character is singularly 
 splendid. He had raised himself b)'^ his 
 honi .-t e.xertions as a lawyer, and in 
 l.")'.^:! was elected Speaker of the House 
 nf ( Dniiiiiins, where he was distinguish- 
 vd fjr his opposition to the illegal 
 iitteiiipts of the king's ministers. On 
 one occasion, upon the demand of a 
 supjily. Cardinal Wolsey wished to have 
 received an answer before he left the 
 house, but the members preserved an 
 obstinate silence, till at last their speak- 
 er, on his knees, with many compli- 
 ments,'' so urged the privilege of the 
 body, that the cardinal hastily retired in 
 great anger. Upon the disgrace of 
 Wolsey, More was made lord chancel- 
 lor, being the first layman who ever 
 arrived at that honour, and in this exalted 
 station retained the same unblemished 
 fame which had raised him to it. It is 
 extraordinary that one who had in his 
 writings expressed such liberal notions* 
 
 ' Wordsworth's l). B. ii. 174. 2 Burnet, i. 
 
 ' Wordsworth's E. B. ii. 77. 
 The Utopians allowed of no persecution for 
 religious tcnois. 264, and their priests had no tem- 
 poral power. 1 ut merely animadverted upon the 
 ( Vil doers, and. if necessary, excommunicated 
 ihcm, 27,1. PirT. More's Utopia, Han. 1613. 
 l -'ino. He denies ever having cau.scd heretics to 
 lie licaten or ill treated, beyond being confined. 
 (Works, p. 901.) But this must be taken in a 
 verv qualified sense. See Fox and Strype's Mem. 
 i. 3i0, &,c. 
 
Chap. IV,] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 51 
 
 should have hccn himself a persecutor; 
 but he gloried in withstanding heretics 
 by his pen and power, and the blindness 
 of the times prevented him from seeing 
 the practical advantage of that liberty 
 of which ho understood the theory. lie 
 was tried on the act passed November, 
 15".M, which made those who refused to 
 take the oath relative to the succession 
 liable to the penalties of treason, con- 
 tained in the former bill. When con- 
 demned, he received his sentence with 
 that placid serenity which had always 
 marked his life. He prayed that as St. 
 Stephen and St. Paul were now blessed 
 saints, though one had been present, and 
 consented to the death of th(> oth r, sn 
 lie in like manner, and his iiiiL;hi 
 hereafter meet in heaven, to ihcir ever- 
 lasting salvation.' His playful disposi- 
 tion attended him to the scaffold, and he 
 died in full hopes of a blessed eternity, 
 with a pleasantry upon his lips. (l.}:}5.) 
 The death of this wise and good man 
 leaves an indelible stain on tlie charac- 
 ter of Henry, who, out of self-will ami 
 pique, suffered his faillilul servant to be 
 murdered by the hands of an execution- 
 er. Had the writer of Utopia acted 
 up to his professions and opinions, he 
 must have proved a merciful and un- 
 persecuting papist, if he had not become 
 a Protestant ; and this was certainly the 
 character of More after he ceased to be 
 chancellor; for though so fixed in his 
 sentiments, that he was ready to die for 
 them, yet he never blnmcd those who 
 acted on different ])vinci|)li's. His ap- 
 parent obstinacy ini'^lit possibly have 
 arisen from his not rightly nnili-rstand- 
 in<j; the nature of the kiiip 's supremacy- 
 He had viewed the popi' as his spiritual 
 father, and when the title of supreme 
 head of the church was transferred to 
 Henry, he felt that thisspecies of author- 
 ity could not be vested in a temporal 
 prince. He would have been willing 
 
 • This account is taken from a Life of Sir T. 
 More, published in Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. ii. 
 213, in which many interesting particulars of this 
 
 food man are recorded. He is there stated to 
 ave been tried in Westminster-hall, and con- 
 demned on the testimony of Rich, tlic king's so- 
 licitor. If these anecdotes be correct, which I 
 much doubt, they add much to the injustice of his 
 death. But under the second bill there was no 
 necdssity for any witnesses at all. It was by that 
 sot treason not to take the oath, which he refused 
 to do. He was beheaded July 6th, 1535. 
 
 to swear to the succession," had the pre- 
 amble which restricted the papal author- 
 ity liciMi .s('par;iic'(l I'rom it; and Cran- 
 mi'v' was anxiijus that this concession 
 should have been mtiilo to the senti- 
 ments of Wore, (as wi.dl as to those of 
 Fisher, who denied not that the king 
 and parliament had a right to nominate 
 a successor to the throne ;) but he had 
 to deal witJi a monarch who ill brooked 
 opposition,'' and who, after the death of 
 the chancellor, acknowledged the ex- 
 cellence of a servant whom his cruelty 
 had destroyed. 
 
 § It)!). Fisher was detained in prison 
 above a twelvemonth, and treated with 
 a severity which nothing can excuse; 
 for at the age of fourscore he was actu- 
 ally ill want of both clothes and fire.' 
 The same act of parliament under which 
 More suffered, terminated his misery, 
 in consequence of liis speaking against 
 tile supremacy. The execution took 
 place June 22, lo'.J.j.'^ He was a learn- 
 ed and devout man ; and it is more than 
 probable ilial to liim the two universi- 
 ties owe the louiidaiion of the Margaret 
 professorships of divinity, which were 
 established by the king's grandmother, 
 Margaret, countess of Richmond, to 
 whoin he was confessor; the colleges 
 of St. John's and Christ's Cambridge 
 are of the same foundation. The coun- 
 tenance which he gave to the maid of 
 Kent may render the soundness of his 
 judgment very dubious; and even the 
 severities used by him towards those 
 who differed from him in opinion may 
 be attributed to sincere, though mis- 
 taken motives ; nor can we fail to 
 respect the man who Avould never ex- 
 change his small bishopric of Rochester 
 for more valuable preferment, or, to use 
 his own expression, desert his first wife 
 because she was poor. 
 
 § 170. The clergy at this time seem 
 to have become the objects of the hatred 
 of their fellow-citizens ; nor can this 
 surprise us, if we consider, not only the 
 cruelty which was exercised towards 
 heretics, but the liability under which 
 every one lay of being called before 
 the bishops' courts, a tribunal of which 
 the authority was almost unlimited, till 
 
 2 Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. ii. n7.' 
 
 ' Strype's Cranmer, i. 39. * Words, ii. 223. 
 
 5 Fuller, 192, 5 12. 6 jbid. 203, &c. 
 
53 
 
 HISTORV OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IV. 
 
 the passing of the bill for punishing 
 heretics.' 
 
 The limits of the work will hardly 
 allow us to enter on any detailed ac- 
 count of those who suffered in the 
 cause ; and as an abridgment of the 
 history of their deaths must destroy all 
 those minute traits which peculiarly 
 interest and improve us in the history 
 of martyrs, we must content ourselves 
 with a mere notice of some of them. 
 Bilney, a clergyman of Cambridge ; 
 Byfield, a monk ; and Tewkesbury, a 
 citizen of London, were severally burnt 
 as relapsed heretics." Bainham, a law- 
 yer, was first whipped and tortured, and 
 afterwards consigned to the flames.^ 
 The body of William Tracy was dug up 
 and burnt, because in making his will he 
 Jiad consigned his soul to Christ, with- 
 out mentioning the saints or purgato- 
 ry. Harding, Hewett, and Frith were 
 subsequently also burnt. Frith was a 
 young man of considerable note, who, 
 from his character for learning and 
 piety, was removed from Cambridge 
 to the cardinal's college in Oxford. 
 He wrote a book against the corporal 
 presence, which was answered by Sir 
 Thomas More ; and while in confine- 
 ment, and without books, he replied 
 to his opponent. He had, moreover, 
 impugned the doctrine of purgatory, 
 against which the attacks had of late 
 become frequent ; for it is obvious that 
 they M'ho controverted the papal su- 
 premacy must either be prepared to 
 destroy this appalling weapon of super- 
 stition, or have been contented to find 
 themselves deserted by the mass of so- 
 ciety, who would hardly bear patiently 
 the thunders of the Vatican, Avhile they 
 were labouring under the dread of those 
 penal fires from which the pope could 
 free them. 
 
 § 171. "In the Supplication of the 
 Beggars,' a witty production by Simon 
 Fish, of Gray's Inn, the source of the 
 Romish superstitions is stated to be the 
 belief in purgatory ; and the remedy 
 
 ' See ^ 166. 
 
 2 Fox, ii. 211, &c. &c. Burnet, i. 
 
 ' There are some interesting particulars record- 
 ed of a visit paid by Latimer to Bainham, the 
 night before the execution, his anxiety about his 
 wife, and Latimer's consolation. Strype's Eccl. 
 Mem. V. 372. 
 
 4 Fox, ii. 229, &c. Burnet, i. 
 
 ' This work is printed at length in Fox. 
 
 which the author recommends is not 
 the enactment of new laws, but the dis- 
 closing of the hypocrisy of its votaries. 
 The church, he argues, has been able 
 by power or policy to obviate the effects 
 of all laws, but that, by going to the 
 root of the error, the evil might be 
 easily eradicated. The other attacks 
 are directed against the obvious vices 
 of the clergy, which are very fully de- 
 scribed. This work, by some accident, 
 found its way into the hands of the king 
 himself; but the wit which it contained 
 saved the author from any harm. An- 
 other work, of nearly the same date, 
 but which is a very superior produc- 
 tion, is denominated the Practice of 
 Prelates.^ In it the tyranny of the 
 clergy is strongly painted. They are 
 described as possessing in all their es- 
 tablishments jails and instruments of 
 torture. He who was once whhin their 
 keeping was never allowed to escape, 
 lest he should convey to the world un- 
 seasonable reports of what he had there 
 seen. The papal supremacy is attacked 
 on the same grounds of Scripture as 
 would now be employed, and with much 
 perspicuity ; the existence of purgatory- 
 is denied. It is stated, that in the uni- 
 versities they were net permitted to 
 study the word of God, till their minds 
 had been perverted with some years' 
 previous study, with which they were 
 "clere shutt out of the understandinge 
 of Scripture ;" that auricular confession 
 was made the tool of political intrigue ; 
 and that Wolsey used Longland as a 
 spy and instrument about the king. 
 The reasoning is generally correct and 
 sound, though there are some points 
 in which we should hardly now aeree 
 with the writer ; but the spirit of the 
 book is excellent, and the address, to- 
 wards the end of the preface, to the 
 true servants of Christ, not to resist, but 
 to endure persecution, is quite aposto- 
 lical. 
 
 § 172. Such writings, when viewed 
 in combination with the condition of 
 public affairs, prove that the seeds of 
 the Reformation were now securely 
 sown. But there was still the utmost 
 need of the fostering hand of God, to 
 
 ^ The Practice of Papistical Prelates, made by 
 William Tyndale, 1530, edited by Fox in Tyn- 
 dale's Works, foL 1573, reprinted in the works of 
 the reformers. 
 
Chap. IV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 53 
 
 secure what he had planted, against 
 the rude assaults of superstition, and 
 the vices incident to human nature. 
 The papal supremacy was indeed sup- 
 pressed, so that men might safely ex- 
 ercise their powers of reasoning, in 
 disproving the grounds on which that 
 authority was built. But the supre- 
 macy of Henry was little better, in 
 point of freedom of discussion ; for he 
 by no means allowed to others that 
 liberty of seeking the truth, which cir- 
 :umstances had induced him personally 
 to adopt ; but these great events, by 
 sxciting an universal sensation, had 
 ;aught the people to reason for them- 
 selves, and to ground their own belief 
 on the dictates of holy writ;' and the 
 [liscussions arising from the attacks of 
 l.heir enemies made it necessary for the 
 ;;hurch of Rome to argue, as well as to 
 junish ; and in this species of encoun- 
 er, the superior abilities of even Sir 
 Thomas More could not conceal the 
 .veakness of the cause. 
 
 § 173. Many of the remedies, too, to 
 vhich the friends of the established re- 
 igion had recourse, convinced men 
 hat their spiritual guides were not the 
 ninisters of good-will and peace ; and 
 he very necessity of rigorous persecu- 
 ion, while it proves the unsoundness 
 )f the cause, iias always the tendency 
 )f more widely diffusing the tenets 
 igainst which it is directed. How, 
 noreover, can the world imagine, that 
 he doctrines of Christ form the belief 
 )f men who were ever anxious to de- 
 stroy copies of the Scriptures ? A 
 'ery ludicrous instance of the inutility 
 )i' surh attein))ts is related of Tonstal, 
 )ishop of London, who, when in Flan- 
 It rs. took some pains to procure for 
 he llaines as many of Tyndale's New 
 rcsiainents as he could. Tyndale was 
 ;war;> of some errors in the first edi- 
 inn, and gladly therefore allowed the 
 lislnip to purchase all the copies which 
 '.■err left, for the purpose of finding the 
 leci'.ssary means for publishing a se- 
 ond, and more correct one. These, 
 
 ' Ii was nn oliscrvalimi of IJuncrt Whiicift, al)- 
 lOt of ilic bhck canons, at VVcMow, neiir (iriins- 
 ■y, in Liriciiliislilrc, iiiiil uiiric lo tliu aiclibishop. 
 
 jr thai lie hail read llic wliole Scriptures over and 
 « 'ver, but could never find therein that iheir reli- 
 
 ):ion was founded by Gnd. W ordsvvorih's Ecel. 
 Jiog. iv. 316. Whiigifi's Life, by Sir G. Paule. 
 
 which were thus bought, were carried 
 into England, and burnt in Cheapside ; 
 and when Constantine, who had assist- 
 ed Tyndale, had brought over a large 
 supply of the new edition, he was seized 
 and examined before Sir Thomas More, 
 who was particularly eager to discover 
 those who had enabled them to under- 
 take so expensive a work, and promised 
 to show kindness in case this informa- 
 tion were readily comntiunicated. The 
 discovery that Tonstal had most effect- 
 ually befriended the publication, natu- 
 rally excited a great laugh. 
 
 § 174. In reviewing the Reformation 
 at this point of its history, the English 
 Protestant cannot withhold the tribute 
 of thanksgiving to the Author of all 
 good, from whom this deliverance 
 sprung, nor fail to remark its progress, 
 so contrary to the expectations of hu- 
 man foresight. He will observe, that 
 the chief mover of the Reformation, in 
 this country, was a king brought up 
 with a high respect and admiration for 
 those doctrines which were combated 
 by the reformers ; who had personally 
 embarked in their defence, and ac- 
 quired the title of Defender of the 
 Faith ; which, ^ if the vicar of Croydon 
 may be believed, he valued more than 
 London, and twenty miles about it, and 
 who retained his predilection for most 
 of his opinions even to the end of his 
 life : that one of the greatest patrons of 
 literature from which the Reformation 
 gained very important assistance, by 
 enabling men to examine the basis on 
 which the papal fabric was constructed, 
 with his dying breath urged the king 
 to beware of, and to reduce the Luther- 
 ans and that he again, who by his 
 writings and severe activity fanned the 
 flame of discussion which ultimately 
 convinced the nation, laid down his life 
 an honoured victim to that cause, which 
 he had greatly, though unwillingly, 
 contributed to overthrow: that the cha- 
 racter of the pope who, by his intem- 
 perate and illegal haste in pronouncing 
 the decision, had inade the breach in- 
 curable, was marked by caution rather 
 than heat, so that he had before been 
 particularly careful to avoid coming to 
 
 2 Praclyce of Prelates, fol. K. 4. Strype's 
 Mem. i. 62. 
 5 Cav. Wolsey, 543. 
 
 e2 
 
54 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 extremities ; and that the separation 
 ultimately took place in consequence 
 of the accidental delay of a messenger: 
 who can observe all this, and not ac- 
 knowledge the shortsighted policy of 
 earthly designs and prospects ; and, if 
 he rejoice in the Reformation which 
 
 these events produced, can fail to thank 
 that almighty Power which setteth 
 at naught the wisdom and prudence 
 of man, and governeth the w^orld ac- 
 cording to those laws Avhich most 
 surely promote the interests of his 
 creatures ! 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM THE DIVORCE OF HENRY VHI. TO THE END OF HIS REIGN, 1534 1547. 
 
 201. The commencement of the church of England ; the authority of it vested in the crown ; eccle- 
 siastical commission. 202. Visiiation of monasteries ; causes of the dissolution of them. 203. 
 Death of Anne Boleyn. 204. Bill of succession. 205. Convocation. Parties. 206. First docu- 
 ment of the church of England. 207. Proclamation for reformation. 208. Henry summoned to 
 Mantua by the pope. 20y. Pilgrimage of grai-e. 210. Reduced. 211. Dissolution of monaste- 
 ries. 212. Surrenders of monasteries. 213. The Institution published. 214. The sacramentaries 
 persecuted. 215. John Lambert tried and burnt. 216. Proclamation against the marriage of 
 priests. 217. Law of the Six Articles. 218. Acts of parliament. 219. Anne of Clevea ; Crom- 
 well's fall. 220. His character. 221. Divorce, and marriage with Catharine Howard; persecu- 
 tions. 222. Execution of Catharine Howard. 223. Bonner's injunctions; acts of parliament. 
 224. Persecution at Windsor ; English litany. 225. Anne Askew burnt. 226. Cranmer and the 
 queen in danger. 227. CruL'lty of Henry. 228. His character. 229. Points gained in the Refor- 
 mation. 230. Evils still requiring reform. 231. Effect of the Reformation in Germany very 
 small. 232. Intercourse between Henry and the German reformers. 
 
 §201. The existence of the church 
 of England as a distinct body, and her 
 final separation from Rome,* may be 
 dated from the period of the divorce. 
 In the remaining part of this reign, 
 we shall trace her progress towards her 
 present matured state, and observe the 
 numerous difficulties which she en- 
 countered on the way. 
 
 ' The act which immediately caused the sepa- 
 ration was the bull of Paul III. published in 
 1538; (Burnet, p. i. b. iii. Rec. No. 9;) but the 
 authority of the pope in England had been before 
 done away with by the act (25 Henry VIII. c. 
 20) which forbade the procuring bulls or breves 
 from Rome, or the payment of first-fruits or 
 tenths. (Sec ^ 103 and K) These payments had 
 gradually grown up with the encroachments of 
 the papal see. (.^ee Lingard, iv. 198.) The ori- 
 gin of first-fniils has been referred to the presents 
 which were made at consecraiiDii or unlinaiion ; 
 and which, as they were regulnud by the value 
 of the benefice, insensibly gi-ew to \ie rated at 
 one year's income. On this suppdsiiion they 
 would have been paid by ilx' infi ruir < l. isv of the 
 diocese to the bishop, and by tlir lusbop liinisell 
 to the pope, which seems gcnciallv tci Imve bci n 
 the case. In England, Paiidulpli.' when bi~li..|' 
 of Norwich, (1222— 122b.) is snid to have ( x- 
 acted, or to have obtained through the pope ihi.- 
 tax from his clergv. on the pica ol the cnrnin- 
 brances with which lie found liini^ell biirdincd. 
 The amount of the siims paid lor first-lruit< wa- 
 
 yearly value of all benefices e.xaiird by tin- pope 
 from the clergy, a lithe of the ti'lie, in imiiation 
 of the same proportion paid by the Leviies to the 
 liigh-priest. These were in England sanctioned 
 
 In looking back at the events recorded 
 in the last chapter, it is impossible to 
 suppose that the steps towards reforma- 
 tion should have been acceptable to the 
 great mass of the clergy, whose privi- 
 leges were directly attacked ; and the 
 opposition of some of them, and secret 
 practices of others, irritated Henry to 
 
 by law, (20 Edw. 1,) when Pope Nicholas IV. 
 granted them for six years to Edward I., under 
 the pretence of his undertaking a crusade; but 
 they had been long before paid, and indeed granted 
 by Innoceent IV. to Henry III., in 1253, for 
 three years. The sums so due had been levied 
 first by a valuation made in 1254, under the direc- 
 tion of Walter, bishop of Norwich, and therefore 
 called sometimes the Norwich Taxation, and 
 sometimes Pope Innocent's valor ; but upon the 
 fresh grant made to Edward I. a new valuation 
 took place, (12S8 — 1292.) which is generally deno- 
 minated Pope Nicholas's valuation, and is still 
 used in estimating the value of livings in some 
 colleges; a third valuation of a pan of the pro- 
 vince of York took place in 1318, in consequence 
 of the invasion of the Scotch, entitled Nova Tax- 
 atio. By the 26th Henry VIII. c. 3. the first- 
 fiiiiis and tenths were tioth transferred to the 
 nnwn. and a new valuation was made by com- 
 inw>,i,in< ijiucd by the king under an act of par- 
 bani' lit. It lias been questioned whether from 
 ilie words of this act the crown has a right to 
 frame a new valuation. See ^ 7.56 The words 
 are, " that ihc chancellor for the lime being shall 
 have power to direct commissions" for makin" 
 the valua'ion ; but the meaning of the act itself 
 does not apnear to look forward lo above one va- 
 luation. This is called the valuation of the lAer 
 regis or king's book. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 55 
 
 exercise a severity wliich nothing can 
 excuse. The bishops and universities 
 readily took the oath of liie king's su- 
 premacy, (l.^;}*'),) which met with little 
 resistance, except from the Franciscan 
 friars.' It was this refusal, or the dis- 
 covery of the secret proceedings of the 
 monks, which produced the general 
 visitation of monasteries ; for the car- 
 ryino- on of which, as well as of other 
 reforms, Cromwell was created first 
 viciii-i:^eneral, and afterwards lord vice- 
 1 ht. One of the first points which 
 I'ler the cognisance of this newly 
 ! power, was with regard to the 
 nty from which the bishops de- 
 lieir right of ecclesiastical juris- 
 I. The Roman church cstcenied 
 I ins us communicated from Clirist 
 through his vicar the pope, an idea 
 which must give the bishops of Rome 
 an influence over all the countries in 
 Christendom, for which there is not the 
 slightest foundation in Scripture ; and 
 Henry, therefore, wishing to put an 
 end to this error, now suspended all the 
 bishops from the use of their episcopal 
 authority, during the visitation which 
 he purposed to institute ; and after a 
 time the power of exercising it was re- 
 stored by a commission to the following 
 effect, which was granted to each of 
 them on their petitioning for it : " Since 
 all authority, civil and ecclesiastical, 
 flows from the crown, and since Crom- 
 well, to whom the ecclesiastical part 
 has been committed, is so occupied that 
 he cannot fully exercise it, we commit 
 to you the license of ordaining, proving 
 wills, and using other i i < i;- iii-m ul ju- 
 risdiction, Resides {\w.-r iIuhvs \\-liirli 
 are committecTto you by((oJ in holy 
 ScHpIur^ ; and^we allow you to hold 
 this authority during our pleasure, as 
 you must answer to God and to us." 
 It must be confessed that this commis- 
 sion seems rather to outstep the limits 
 of that authority which God has com- 
 mitted to the civil magistrate but in 
 
 ' See an account of the cruel execution of seve- 
 ral of these in Strype's Mom. i. 302, &c. 
 
 ' The original documents may l)e seen in Col- 
 lier, vol. ii. Rec. No. 31, 41. and Burnet, vol. i. 
 •Rec. iii. No. 14, and vol. ii. Rec. No. 2, Strype's 
 Crannier, 1050. The di.scussion is one of much 
 difficulty. The authority in question must have 
 flowed either from the pope, the king, or the 
 word of God ; and as there is no direct injunction 
 
 this case there was no opposition raised 
 on the part of the bishops, excepting 
 by Gardiner,'' and when the suspension 
 was taken off, they continued to per- 
 form the u.stial duties of their office; 
 for the \'i.sit:iiion was really directed 
 agiiitist the monasteries. 
 
 § 20^. The king was probably in- 
 fluenced in this measure by the prospect 
 of plundering these wealthy bodies, de- 
 signing, perhaps, to have expended the 
 money so raised in the construction of 
 harbours, and the erection of new bishop- 
 rics ; while Cranmer was equally eager 
 for their dissolution, being fully aware 
 that these establishments formed the 
 great bulwarks of the church of Rome, 
 and hoping that their property, turned 
 into a new channel, would substantially 
 advance the cause of learning and reli- 
 gion. The instructions^ given to the 
 commissioners directed them to examine 
 into the statutes of the several religious 
 houses, and the manner in which they 
 
 on the subject in the Scriptures, as the authority 
 of the pope was laid aside, the bishop could claim 
 liii risiit ol jurisdiction from the crown only. The 
 dillic-uliy, however, consists in confusini; things in 
 themselves dislinct ; the ministers of God's word 
 must derive from him such authority as shall ena- 
 ble them lo carry on a Christian church, inde- 
 pendent of the civil magistrate; for there is no 
 ri ason why such a body may not exist in a hea- 
 then cimalry ; hut it does not necessarily follow 
 ihit the snnie entire power must belong to them, 
 " hen (lie ci iinient shall have become Chria- 
 iian. The riL'lii of ordination, for instance, must 
 belonix t(i ilic clmrch independently of the civil 
 power; but a t'Inisiian fiovernment may still 
 tissign linnts lo the exercise of it. It is no in- 
 rriiisemciit of the riuht of ordaining, to prevent a 
 hislic.p tVcuii ailniillini; candidates nriless llicy pos- 
 >i ss ci-riani quahlicalions. Tlie law ciinnot say 
 I liiii ihc person so ordtiined shall noi he a priest, 
 hiii li.al he shall not hold clench pi. lcrnimi , and 
 at 111.' same time it may pnni-h ihe ln^hop for 
 breakmi; the law of the land. The pmvi i ,l. wills, 
 live, must belong to the cui! ncinisiiaic alone; 
 and a court of conscience, or ecch siasi i. al court, 
 seems to be founded partly on the law of God, 
 and partly on that of man. If all ecclesiastical 
 power were cotifined to ecSSsiastieal matters, 
 the difliciilty would cease to exist. But this can 
 hardly be the case; the magistrate ought, .£er- 
 Tjaps, to govern the temporal eoneeriis of^tlTe 
 church entirely; but for his own convenience, 
 and for the benefit of society, he has committed 
 some portion of this power to churchmen, who 
 exercise a mixed authority, derived from (Jod, in 
 part directly, in part through the civil magistrate. 
 Much information on this subject may he found 
 in the opinions delivered by the commissioners, 
 1540. See Burnet, Hist. Ref. i. B. iii. Rec. xxi. 
 qu. 9, &c. 
 
 3 Strype's Mem. i. 331. 
 
 ^ Burnet, P. i. Rec. B. iii. No. 1. 
 
56 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 were observed ; to inquire into the lives 
 of the members ; to enjoin the observ- 
 ance of certain general rules ; and to 
 see that the king's supremacy was duly- 
 admitted. 
 
 Great abominations seem to have been 
 discovered in some societies, which, to- 
 gether with the prospect of avoiding a 
 storm now ready to fall on their heads, 
 induced several convents to resign their 
 charters ; and in the session of parlia- 
 ment at the beginning of the next year, 
 an act was passed which dissolved all 
 monasteries of which the annvial income 
 was under 200/. (a. d. 1530.) 
 
 It is possible that greater abuses might 
 have prevailed in these less extensive 
 establishments, and that such laxity was 
 produced by the freedom which a small 
 number of persons must enjoy, when 
 placed under their own superintendence; 
 but it was easy to perceive that this 
 alienation was but a step to the total dis- 
 solution of the monastic orders, and that 
 the same avarice which had swallowed 
 up the weaker bodies was only restrain- 
 ed from destroying the stronger by the 
 want of power. The whole number of 
 monasteries which was included under 
 this bill was much increased by the 
 manner in which their estates were let; 
 for from the system of fines,* the annual 
 income was generally reduced far be- 
 
 ' When an estate is let in this manner, it is done 
 by the loUowiiig process. The property is sold for 
 a certain number of years, (at present, according 
 to the laws regulating church property generally, 
 for twp.nty-one years,) and the fine or purchase- 
 money so paid belongs to the owner for the time 
 beinfr. But when seven years have elapsed, the 
 purchaser of the properly is allowed to renesv his 
 lease, or to repurchase the property fur seven 
 fresh years, to be reckoned at the end of the 
 fourteen years for which he is now possessed of it. 
 This, by calculation, is worth from one and a 
 quarter to one and a half year's income ; and the 
 original lessor, or the owner for the time being, is 
 induced to grant such a fresh lease, from the im- 
 mediate want of money, or from the uncertainly 
 of his own life ; since, if he were himself to die 
 during the fourteen years, he would get nothing, 
 and the whole benefit would accrue to his succes- 
 sor. 'I hus an estate worth 100/. per annum might 
 originally have I'ccn sold lor iis then value, and 
 •when .seven years w ( i. r.v|iiii il ilu> lea,=e might be 
 renewed lor l-'5/. nr IM'! . ni;ikiii!x an average an- 
 nual income of Ironi |s/. lo Jj/. instead of lOOZ. 
 The same process taUes place when the properly 
 islet on lives. The estate is then originally sold 
 for so long a lime as three particular persons, 
 whose names are inserted in the lease, shall either 
 of them live ; and when one of these dies, the 
 holder of the property pays a fine, to be allowed 
 
 low the real value of their property. 
 These foundations are said to have 
 amounted to the number of 375,' and to 
 , have yielded an income of 30,000/. per 
 j annum, besides a large sum arising from 
 ! plate and jewels ; but the mass of this 
 I wealth was quickly dissipated. And 
 notwithstanding the erection of a court 
 [ for the express purpose of augmenting 
 the king's revenue,^ comparatively little 
 advantage arose to the crown from these 
 attacks on the property of the subject. 
 
 § 203. The cause of the Reformation* 
 met with a serious blow in the death of 
 Anne Boleyn, who had uniformly exert- 
 ed her influence in its favour, and was 
 probably very instrumental in promot- 
 ing the translation of the Bible now 
 going forward. She had undoubtedly 
 been guilty of indiscretion in the inti- 
 macy which she had used towards some 
 of her male attendants ; but her real 
 crime consisted in her no longer pos- 
 sessing the love of Henry, who had 
 transferred his affections to Lady J. Sey- 
 
 to renew the bargain, and to substitute some fresh 
 life in lieu of the one deceased. In former times 
 much of the property of the kingdom was held on 
 this tenure ; but in modern days most private 
 land-owners have allowed these leases to run out, 
 and have relet their estates at annual rents ; but 
 almost all the properly of corporate bodies is still 
 so leased. From which circumstance it is easy 
 to see why the real income is much less than the 
 nominal properly. The original sale generally 
 took place beyond the memory of man ; and the 
 bishop, the chapter, or the college cannot afford lo 
 run the risk of the loss of the immediate fine, in 
 the hopes of an advantage which their successors 
 may probably reap ; so that virtually most church 
 property is mortgaged for fourteen years, in Eng- 
 land ; and in Ireland, (from the custom of renew- 
 ing every year, instead of every seven years,) for 
 twenty years. In most of such leases, however, 
 there is also an annual rent reserved : — Thus, if 
 on estate be worth 150?. per annum, the fine shall 
 be set as if it were worth 1001. and the tenant be 
 bound to pay 50/. annually for the support of the 
 establishment. In estimating, therefore, the va- 
 lues of the oroperty of these monasteries, the re- 
 served renjB may probably have alone entered imo 
 the calcul/ilion, and the fine have been overlooked, 
 
 ' as not forming a part of the income. 
 
 j ' Fuller, vi. 312. 
 
 ' The court of augmentations was established 
 27ih Henry VIII. (Fuller, vi. 348.) by act of par- 
 liament, consisting of a chancellor, and many othei 
 officers with high salaries, amounting to 7,249/. 
 10s. 3d. They were appointed to survey and go- 
 vern the property which fell into the hands of the 
 crown, by the dissolution of monasteries; but as 
 many of the estates were soon sold through the 
 necessities of the king, the court was found to be 
 unnecessarily expensive, was discontinued, and 
 finally dissolved, 1° Mariae, 1553. 
 * Burnet, i. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 67 
 
 mour ; and one of the strongest argu- 
 ments in favour of her innocence con- 
 sists in the nature of the court before 
 which she was arraigned, and of the 
 charges which were separately brought 
 against her. She was first condemned 
 for adultery, and then divorced on ac- 
 ccimu of a pre-contract of marriage, 
 w hu h proved her never to have been 
 tli( wife of the king. The evidence of 
 li I miilt would not have admitted of 
 li iiii; brought forward openly, and she 
 was tried in secret, condemned, and 
 executed in the Tower, May 19. 
 
 Her marriage with the king was dis- 
 s I'd by a decision in the archbishop's 
 and is said by Burnet to have 
 annulled in consequence of a pre- 
 ict between her and Lord Percy, 
 1 the queen acknowledged. The 
 of this proceeding was to render 
 incess Elizabeth illegitimate ; but 
 ipposed that Anne was induced to 
 I the existence of such a bar to the 
 111 iiage, in hopes of conciliating the 
 luMiur of the royal father towards her 
 chilli ; and it is probable, that her con- 
 duct in her last moments was influenced 
 by the same views.' Blame has been 
 attached to Cranmer for his compliance 
 in this instance ; but upon the admission 
 of the pre-contract, he had only to pro- 
 nounce the sentence of the canon law ; 
 while the Reformation has been loaded 
 with the obloquy attending the presumed 
 guilt of its patrons — as if the cause 
 must be bad which had been promoted 
 by such unworthy instruments. For 
 Henry, little can be said in excuse ; yet 
 he always treated Elizabeth with kind- 
 ness ; and Mary was now reconciled to 
 him upon acknowledging the king's su- 
 premacy, renouncing the papal usurpa- 
 tions, and giving up all advantage which 
 might personally arise to her from the 
 jurisdiction of Rome. 
 
 ' Lingard, who wishes to establish the guilt of 
 the queen, supposes that the previous criminal con- 
 nection of Henry with Mary, the elder sister of 
 Anne, formed the ground of the separation. No 
 reason is assigned for the divorce in the original re- 
 cord of it ; see Wilkins, Con. iii. 801 ; but the letter 
 of the earl of Northumberland, May 13, in which 
 he denies the existence of any pre-contract, at least 
 proves that there was an idea of proceeding against 
 ner on this ground, and so strengthens the account 
 given by Burnet. See also Cavendish's Life of 
 Wolsev; Wordsw. Ecc. Biog. i. 363; Lord Her- 
 bert's Life, p. 195, comp. hist. 
 
 8 
 
 § 204. On the day after the execution 
 of Anne, Henry married Jane, the 
 daughter of Sir John Seymour ; and in 
 the parliament which met on the 8th 
 of June, the act of succession passed, 
 which, after conferring the inheritance 
 of the crown on the children of the pre- 
 sent marriage, left the king, in case there 
 were none, at liberty to bestow the 
 throne on whomsoever he pleased, 
 either by letters patent or by his will. 
 Nothing can more strongly mark the 
 absolute sway which this monarch main- 
 tained over the parliament, than a power 
 so vested in an individual ; while the 
 policy of the transaction equally de- 
 mands our notice, for he kept both his 
 daughters entirely dependent upon him- 
 self; and by enabling Mary to succeed 
 to the kingdom, paved the way towards 
 a reconciliation with the emperor, and 
 through him, with the court of Rome, if 
 any future circumstances should dispose 
 him to entertain the wish of doing so. 
 It seems, indeed, that some overtures 
 were about this time made by the pope ; 
 but two acts of parliament rendered the 
 attempt perfectly nugatory ; for the first 
 subjected to a prjemunire all emissaries 
 of the papacy ; the second destroyed all 
 grants held under bulls, which were 
 declared null and void ; and those whose 
 property was on this tenure were di- 
 rected to bring the grants into Chancery, 
 in order that they might be renewed by 
 the archbishop of Canterbury, acting for 
 the king. 
 
 § 20.5. Whatever importance may be 
 attached to the acts of this session of par- 
 liament, those of the convocation demand 
 at least an equal portion of our attention. 
 Alexander Alesse, aScotch reformer, had 
 fled his country not long after the per- 
 secution of Patrick Hamilton ; and hav- 
 ing been kindly received into Crom- 
 well's house, was here introduced to 
 the English clergy by the lord vicegerent 
 himself. When his opinion was re- 
 quested, he argued strongly in favour 
 of rejecting the five sacraments, and 
 was answered by Stokesley, bishop 
 of London, who exhibited much learn- 
 ing in the canon law; but Cranmer 
 gave a satisfactory reply to his argu- 
 ments, by adducing the authority of 
 the word of God, and enforcing its 
 superiority. 
 
58 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V 
 
 The parties into which the church 
 was now divided were led by the two 
 
 CRANMrn. arrhhp. of Canterbury. 
 
 C;,,M.,,,. H, l.i.l..pnl Ely. 
 ."^11 ■ ! . . .| . ' .1 Sarum. 
 L-\ 1 1 mI Worcester. 
 
 FmX. I'i-li. llrrHord. 
 
 HiLsEv, Oi.-liop ol Rochester. 
 Barlow, bishop ol St. David's. 
 
 After much discussion, certain arti- 
 cles, which had been submitted to them 
 by tlie liing^, were agreed upon, and 
 published by the royal authority ; and 
 as they may be deemed the first docu- 
 ment of the faith of the church of Eng- 
 land, they cannot be esteemed unworthy 
 of peculiar notice ; their general outline 
 is as follows — 
 
 § 2()(i. The Bible and the three creeds 
 are laid down as the basis of our faith. 
 Baptism is declared to be absolutely 
 necessary ; that is, that children dying 
 unbaptized cannot be saved. 
 
 Penance, that is, repentance, is a sa- 
 crament, and necessary. 
 
 Confession to a priest is necessary 
 and effectual. 
 
 The corporal presence is necessary 
 to be believed. 
 
 Though justification depend on the 
 merits of Christ, yet good works are 
 necessary in order to obtain eternal life. 
 
 With regard to ceremonies, it was 
 ordered, that images should be retained 
 as e.\ani|iles to the people, but idolatry, 
 and the abuse of theiii, was to be guard- 
 ed against. Saints were to be honoured 
 as examples of life and advancers of 
 our ])rayers ; and they were to be ad- 
 dressed with this view, but not wor- 
 shipped. Many ceremonies, such as 
 the tise of holy ^^•ater, ashes, palms, 
 &c., were to be retained as typical 
 signs ; and praying for the dead was 
 enjoined, though the existence of pur- 
 gatory is questioned. It should be ob- 
 served, too, that no mention is here 
 made of the other four sacraments, 
 
 1 'I hey are printed in the Formularies ot Faiih. 
 Oxford, 18-25, « 271, a, and in Burnet and Fuller 
 They mnsi be considered as a compromise of 
 opitnors between the two parties, rather than as 
 expressing the entire sentiments of eiiher. It is 
 indeed obvious, that the doctrines of the Refor- 
 mation had not at this tiino made any great pro- 
 gress ; for in a protestation of the Lower House, 
 consisting of 67 articles, {Fuller, v. 208, « 28,) 
 there is hardly a point in which the churches of 
 Rome and England differ, in which the tenets of 
 the latter are not reprobated. 
 
 I archbishops, and may be ranged in the 
 I following order : — 
 
 ! Lee, archbishop of York. 
 
 I Stokesley, bishop of London, 
 
 j ToNSTAL, bishop of Durham. 
 
 ! Gardiner, bishop of Winchester. 
 
 Lo.vGLA.VD, bishop of Lincoln. 
 
 < Sherburn, bishop of Chichester. 
 
 * Kite, bishop of Carlisle. 
 
 j though the use of them is inculcated 
 ' in several of the doctrinal works which 
 were subsequently published during this 
 reign. A royal proclamation was issued 
 immediately after the publication of 
 these articles, of which the following is 
 an abstract. 
 
 § 207. Thomas Cromwell, lord vice- 
 gerent, directs the clergy " to observe 
 all the laws which have been made 
 against the papal supremacy, and to 
 instruct their flocks, at least four times 
 in the year, that the king under God is 
 the supreme head of the church. To 
 explain to the people the articles con- 
 cerning faith and ceremonies, which 
 had been lately put forth ; and to per- 
 suade their parishioners to observe the 
 ordinance for abolishing many of the 
 holydays during harvest. To discoun- 
 tenance superstition, and preach that 
 obedience to God's commandments, and 
 works of charity, were more acceptable 
 than pilgrimages and the worshipping 
 of relics. They were to set up Bibles 
 in Latin and English in their churches, 
 and encourage the people to read them ; 
 to see that the children within their cures 
 were brought up honestly and religious- 
 ly, and to teach them the Lord's Prayer, 
 the Ten Commandments, and the Creed, 
 in the mother-tongue. Wherever the 
 incumbent was non-resident, he was to 
 appoint a proper curate ; and all the 
 clergy are directed to lead decent and 
 sober lives. Non-residents, on prefer- 
 ments worth twenty pounds, are to give 
 one-fortieth of their stipend to the poor 
 of the parish. Incumbents of prefer- 
 ments worth a hundred pounds per 
 annum are to keep a scholar at the 
 university ; and so on for every hun- 
 dred pounds: and in case of dilapi- 
 dated buildings, one-fifth of the income 
 was to be expended on repairs. We 
 cannot help observing the sound sense 
 and propriety of these injunctions. 
 
 ! Burnet, P. i. B. iii. Rec. No. 7. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 59 
 
 § 208. During the progress of the Re- 
 formation, many appeals had been made 
 to a general council ; and Paul III., 
 wishing to sanction his proceedings un- 
 der tile appearance of such an authori- j 
 ty, yd iiiiviii'_;- no (l(-sirc that it sliould ; 
 
 Vtr lllllc|)<Muli'lll nf ihr IllilucnCO of tho 1 
 
 jKipal ihioiir, assoiiililcil nue at Mantua. 
 Bolbre this trilMiiial, Henry was cited 
 to appear; but whiMi information of this 
 was brouijht to liio convocation by Fox, 
 bishoj) of Hereford, tliat assembly pro- 
 tested against till- measure, as more 
 likely to i^iaiify ambition and malice 
 than to satisfy the ends of justice and 
 tnuh. 'riii> idne-i published his 
 
 reasons against it, showinq- the absurdi- 
 tv of expecting a fair trial, when the 
 I'ope, one of the parties, was to sit as 
 judge, and the court itself was so situ- 
 ated, that no Englishman could safely 
 make his appearance at it. Reginald 
 Pole, who was now resident at Padua, 
 attacked the king in his writings; and 
 his book J)r C/iione Ecclesi.witica, ends 
 by comparing Henry to Nebuchadnez- 
 zar, an(l praying the ejnperor to direct 
 his arms against so heretical a Chris- 
 tian, rather than against the Turks. 
 
 § 209. Some progress was made dur- 
 ing this summer in the dissolution of 
 monasteries; for, besides those founda- 
 tions which the liberality of parliament 
 had already bestowed on the king, many 
 abbots made voluntary surrenders of the 
 establishments under their charge, to the 
 commissioners of the augmentation of- 
 fice, in ho]ies of obtaining better terms 
 and larger allowances for themselves; 
 entertaining little doubts, that the ra- 
 pacity which had swallowed up the 
 smaller, would soon extend itself over 
 all such ecclesiastical bodies. Many 
 persons were thus deprived of all 
 means of sulisistence ; for, besides their 
 actual retainers, monasteries were in 
 the habit of feeding a large portion of 
 the neighbourinq- poor, while the num- 
 berof actual members ejected must have 
 been considi>rable. It is not wonderful, 
 then, that persons influenced by passion, 
 as well as urged by necessity, should 
 endeavour to raise disquiet against a 
 government with which they had so lit- 
 tle reason to be contented. The court 
 had indeed used some methods for 
 
 ' Sleidan's Hist. Ref. 231. 
 
 obviating these causes of complaint; 
 thirty-one religious houses had been 
 refoimded, and much of the forfeited 
 lands had l)een sold at very easy rates 
 to the neiqhbonring gentry; but these 
 innovations had jiroduced a general dis- 
 content, and llieir etlects were quickly 
 manifested by a rebellion in Lincoln- 
 shire, which was, however, soon quiet- 
 ed by the conciliatory measures of the 
 duke of Suffolk. This was followed 
 by a much more formidable rising in 
 the north ; and the insurrection, from 
 the religious turn which was given to 
 it, and from their standards, consisting 
 of representations of the five wounds 
 of Christ, and of the cross, was deno- 
 minated the pilgrimage of grace. As 
 this event had been produced in great 
 measure by the clergy, the king issued 
 a strong letter to his bishops,^ enjoining 
 the use of zeal and discretion in their 
 own preaching, and ordering them to 
 publish the articles already set forth; 
 they were also directed to take care 
 that the inferior clergy did the same, 
 and were not to allow any one within 
 their dioceses to preach out of his own 
 church, for whose honesty and judg- 
 ment they could not answer. 
 
 § 210. The direction of the military 
 operations was committed to the duke 
 of Norfolk, who, when he joined the 
 earl of Shrewsbury, found the rebels 
 so strong and desperate that it was ne- 
 cessary to adopt the greatest caution. 
 They were under the command of a 
 gentleiuan of the name of Aske, who 
 was well calculated for his office, and 
 numbered among their ranks the arch- 
 bishop of York, and Lord Darcy, who 
 having been made prisoners at the cap- 
 ture of Pomfret Castle, had taken the 
 oath of the party, viz., that their object 
 was to preserve the king from low-born 
 and pernicious counsellors, and to re- 
 establish true religion. The rebels had 
 already taken Hull and York, and ad- 
 vanced as far as Doncaster; but their 
 further progress was stopped by the 
 prudence of the duke of jNorfolk, who, 
 after many delays and much inter- 
 course, obtained for them a general 
 pardon, (a. d. 1!5;37.) Yet discontent 
 soon manifested itself again, and break- 
 ing out in a fresh northern rebellion, it 
 
 Addenda, ix. 360, vol. i. Burnet. 
 
60 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 was easily put down by the forces still 
 under the command of the duke of 1 
 Norfolk and Lord Shrewsbury, and ' 
 the chief offenders were executed ; j 
 amongst which number were com- 
 prehended Lords Darcy and Hussey, 
 Aske, many gentlemen of considera- 
 tion, and six abbots.' 
 
 § 211. The suspicion that this rebel- 
 lion had owed its origin and support 
 chiefly to the encouragement of the 
 clergy, undoubtedly hastened the sup- 
 pression of religious houses ; but their 
 general dissolution arose from other 
 causes, and would probably have taken 
 place, had these events never occurred. 
 In order to prepare the way for this 
 fresh attack on church property, a new 
 visitation was set on foot, and the dis- 
 orders discovered in these establish- 
 ments were thrown open to the world ; 
 for, as the visitors were charged with 
 receiving bribes, * they found it neces- 
 sary to quiet unpleasant reports con- 
 cerning their own ill conduct, by pub- 
 lishing such scandalous stories of the 
 parties visited as fell within their obser- 
 vation. 
 
 The vicious lives and conversations 
 of " the religious," as they were deno- 
 minated,' were too notorious not to call 
 forth the indignant animadversions of 
 their enemies ; and, as might have been 
 expected, the guilt of individuals en- 
 tailed a great degree of infamy on the 
 body in general. We have, however, 
 so many authentic documents of their 
 gross profligacy and superstitious kna- 
 very, that little doubt can be enter- 
 tained of either their guilt or the benefit 
 which morals have received by the sup- 
 pression of monasteries.* But there 
 were several exceptions to this exten- 
 
 > Fuller, 313. 
 
 2 There seems to be good grounds for this accu- 
 sation ; we have several offers of bribes to Crom- 
 well himself; when Latimer wrote to him to pray 
 that the priory of Malvern might be spared, he 
 offered five hundred marks for the king's favour, 
 and two hundred for that of the vicegerent. 
 (Strype's Mem. i. 399.) So Sir Thomas Eliot 
 offers him the first-fruits of such lands as should 
 be granted. (Ibid. 405.) See also Burnet, vol. 
 i. 224, fol.,8vo. 407. 
 
 3 Strype's Ecc. Mem. i. ch. 35. Fuller,316,&,c. 
 * The Roman Catholics, on the other hand, 
 
 accuse the visitors of great iniquity in their pro- 
 ceedings; of having first corrupted and then pu- 
 nished the nuns whom they had debauched, and 
 of having brought untrue accusations against those 
 who had resiBted their solicitations. (Fuller, 
 315.) 
 
 sive condemnation and in many of 
 the convents visited by the commission- 
 ers, not only were real devotion and 
 sound morality found to exist, but the 
 liberal hospitality and charitable mu- 
 nificence of the members merited for 
 them that love which was felt towards 
 the monastic orders by a large portion 
 of the community, particularly by the 
 common people. 
 
 § 212. Many abbots now tendered 
 their resignations, influenced by various 
 motives, as either their fears of the king 
 predominated, or as they entertained 
 views favourable to the Reformation ; 
 while others hoped, by conciliating the 
 good-will of the ruling powers, to ob- 
 tain for their societies new and more 
 useful foundations. The benefit de- 
 rived to the crown by these resignations 
 fell infinitely below the amount at 
 which it might probably have been 
 calculated ; for in many cases the esta- 
 blishments were found to be in a very 
 dilapidated state. The several mem- 
 bers of such foundations, foreseeing 
 what was likely to happen, had been 
 providing for the storm ; and while 
 they consulted their own personal in- 
 terests, had neglected the common pro- 
 perty of which they expected so soon 
 to be deprived. Several abbots were 
 attainted of treason, for having con- 
 verted the plate of their convents to the 
 use of the rebels in the north, and on 
 their conviction their abbeys were de- 
 clared forfeited to the king. To most 
 of the ecclesiastical persons now ejected 
 annuities were assigned out of the reve- 
 nues, which varied according to the 
 nature of the foundations and the me- 
 rits of the individuals. Religious frauds 
 were in many places destroyed, shrines 
 defaced, and relics taken away ; so that 
 the most effectual methods were adopted 
 in order to wean the minds of the peo- 
 ple from such superstitions. 
 
 §213. "The Bishops' Book," or 
 " The Godly and Pious Institution of a 
 Christian Man," was now first pub- 
 lished it was afterwards printed in a 
 more perfect form in 1543, when it was 
 denominated "The Necessary Doctrine 
 and Erudition for any Christian Man," 
 and, as put forth by royal authority, 
 was called "The King's Book," and 
 
 5 Strype's Ecc. Mem. 393. 
 « Strype's Ecc. Mem. i. 465. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 61 
 
 since the two together form the chief 
 documents from which the authorized 
 opinions of the church of England dur- 
 ing this reign can be derived, it will be 
 necessary to examine them in detail ; 
 and the subject will more c'onveniently 
 be deferred to the end of the chapter." 
 
 § 214. Thus far every thing seems 
 to have favoured the Reformation ; but 
 a new line of policy, which was adopted 
 by Gardiner and the other friends of 
 popery, appears to have created an al- 
 teration in the sentiments of the king, 
 and thus to have given a considerable 
 advantage to the cause which they ad- 
 vocated. This party had generally ex- 
 hibited great outward compliance with 
 the opinions and wishes of Henry; and 
 by enlisting his vanity on their side, 
 they now worked the ruin of many of 
 their opponents, and provoked him to 
 exercise much cruelty towards them. 
 Among the reformers generally, there 
 was no point on which the minds of 
 many were so little settled as concern- 
 ing the nature of "presence," by which 
 our Saviour's body is said to be present 
 in the elements. Henry, in his book 
 i against Luther, of which he was par- 
 i ticularly proud, had maintained the 
 doctrine of the "corporal presence," 
 and all the public acts of the church of 
 England had declared for the same 
 opinion. The subject itself is one of 
 extreme delicacy, and the political re- 
 lations of the kingdom rendered addi- 
 tional caution necessary ; for if any 
 person had been persecuted for tenets 
 which they held in common with the 
 L,utherans, this circumstance might 
 have subjected the king to the remon- 
 strances and anger of the princes of 
 ( ii rinany ; but towards the sacrament- 
 al ii-s- he was fettered by none of these 
 scruples; and they might be attacked 
 under the vain expectation of reducing 
 
 ' 1 1 may not be amiss to remark, that there 
 wrrr iwo books known by each of these names. 
 A ill ( laration against the papal supremacy in 
 l.'. ii., in consequence of Pole's Book on Ecclesi- 
 asMciil Union, is called also the Bishop's Book, 
 anil one published in 1533, De Differentia Regiae 
 et Ecclesiasiicae Potestatis, the King's. (Strype's 
 Cranmer, 75, vol. i.) 
 
 There is, too, considerable confusion about this 
 book in Burnet, who is generally ignorant con- 
 cerning printed books, and makes a confusion be- 
 tween the Institution and Erudition. 
 
 See Appendix, B. 
 
 2 The sacramentaries denied the corporal pre- 
 sence of Christ in the eucharist. (See ^ 313.) 
 
 all men to the same opinions in religion, 
 or in order to vindicate the infallibility 
 of that supremacy of which he de- 
 prived the pope, by assuming it as his 
 own prerogative. 
 
 § 215. (a. d. 1.538.) John Lambert,' 
 while chaplain to the English company 
 at Antwerp, had, by his acquaintance 
 with Frith and Tyndale, advanced in 
 those religious opinions which he had 
 originally derived from Bilney. Sir 
 Thomas More had directed the Ant- 
 werp merchants to dismiss him from 
 their service ; and, on his return to 
 England, he escaped persecution only 
 by the death of Archbishop Warham. 
 lie now kept a school in London, and 
 having advanced some opinions con- 
 cerning the corporal presence, in con- 
 sequence of a sermon preached by Dr. 
 Taylor, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, 
 he was brought before Cranmer, and 
 unfortunately appealed to the king. 
 Gardiner seized the opportunity, which 
 was thus afforded him, of exasperating 
 the royal theologian against heterodox 
 opinions, and a public trial was ap- 
 pointed to take place in Westminster 
 Hall. It requires but little sagacity to 
 determine how a disputation carried on 
 between persons so differently circum- 
 stanced was likely to terminate. On 
 the one side sat the king, surrounded 
 with his bishops, at once disputants and 
 judges ; on the other, an heretical 
 schoolmaster, supported only by a con- 
 viction of the truth, and reasoning on a 
 to])ic wherein the learned have differed, 
 and concerning which pious Christians 
 have disagreed. The poor man was 
 after a time silenced, and on this con- 
 viction sentenced to be burnt.* At the 
 
 ' His real name was Nicholson ; he adopted 
 this for the sake of concealment, in consequence 
 of having been before in trouble about religion. 
 (Strype's Cranmer, i. 92.) 
 
 Cranmer, unfortunately, on this occasion ar- 
 gued against Lambert in favour of the corporal 
 presence. He was at this time a believer in tran- 
 substantiation, an error which he did not reject 
 till 1546, in consequence of a conference with 
 Ridley. (Strype's Cranmer, i. 96.) It has been 
 asserted that Cranmer successively held the doc- 
 trines of the Romanist, the Lutheran, and the 
 Calvinist, on this point. (Laurence, Bampt. 
 Lect. 16 and 202, 10.) But this he positively 
 denied in his examination before Martin, (Fox.) 
 The mistake probably arose from his publishing 
 the Catechism of Justus Jonas in English, in 
 1548, which might be supposed to contain the 
 opinions of the Lutherans. (Oxford edit. 208.) 
 But the point is there treated of so generally, that 
 
62 HISTORY 
 
 execution, m Smithfield, after his legs 
 were consumed, his body remained 
 alive, and was at length put into 
 the fire by the halbcrts of the civil 
 officers, -wlulc hjs last words were, 
 "None but Christ, none but Christ." 
 The kniir was as much pleased with 
 the affiur as the party who duly mac(- 
 nihed it ; and they now began to obtain 
 a considerable influence at court. 
 
 § 210. One of the first elh'Cls of their 
 success' was the issuing a proclamation 
 which reprobated the marriage ol priests 
 without "a comnmn consent of his high- 
 ness and the realm," and proliibiied 
 those who ventured to mn.rrv, or rc^tain 
 their wives openly, from tin' pcrlorm- 
 ance of any ^acred oliici', under pain of 
 losing all their rce le.-iM>tica! privileges ; 
 but we may ous^rve that the document 
 was so \vord('d as to scii'en ( ranmer 
 from air; !]■<:!■:'■]■. w liose wife was at this 
 time li\ I I vriih Inin ; while it 
 
 held Qiii 111 ' [.I ' ( . CI oi a cliangi.' in the 
 lawrespectniL;- ihe celibacy ot the c]eri; \' : 
 and Bishop Ponet, or whoever di-e \v as 
 the author of the Defence ol Pric-is 
 Marriage, assures us, thai tlie king in- 
 tended to grant this liberty, but was hin- 
 dered by the advice of certain counsel- 
 lors, -who pretended that his sanction to 
 such an innovation would occasion 
 oflence among the peoide. 
 
 § 217. !t is not iinprobalilo that the 
 unw illiu II \l il t d 1 till I'ldt 
 tant party" to allow the king to dispose 
 of all the church iiro]Hrly, might have 
 contributed to inereii ;e his inclination in 
 favour of their opponents : lor, in a com- 
 mittee ol the parliament' which now sat, 
 (a. d. 1539,) the parties were so ba- 1 
 lanced, that neiiher side could hope to 
 carry nuuieis ei.itirely according to therr 
 wishes; and alter eleven days' useless 
 discus-ion. the duke of Norfolk, the great 
 patron ol the papal opinions, proposed 
 for their consideration Six Articles, to 
 the followm? rfFrct:— 
 
 1st, "''I hat 111 tht,' sacrament of the 
 altar, after the consi'cration, there re- 
 
 thoiich llir I.ti'li.'r.ii! il<M il me -pi-c r,i.„. niain- 
 tmncd. VI iifiilii-r ll>r liilur i>;r::, < vxcil be 
 much oflfi.ilril m " ■ >- ■ n\>-> . ^ 
 
 1 .SUM I 1' 
 
 3 In this paiiuii,, - V , ,| ,0 the 
 
 mitred abbots ; n u • >.«n - ' •• ■■I"' s'svs 
 (Mem I D4^)ihii 1 I \ _inud i 
 
 in convocation, and decide d iii the sainu manner. 
 Speed, 780, 31 Henry \ III. c. 4. 1 
 
 OF THE [Chap. V. 
 
 maineth no substance of bread and wine, 
 but under these forms the natural body 
 and blood of Christ are present. 
 
 2d, That communion, m both kinds. 
 IS not necessary to salvation to all per- 
 sons, by tire law of God ; but that both 
 the flesh and blood of Christ are togethei 
 m each of the kinds. 
 
 :?d. That priests, after the order of 
 priesthood, may not marry by the law 
 of God. 
 
 4th, That vows of chastity ought to 
 be observed by the law of God. 
 
 5th, That the use of private masses 
 ought to be continued, which, as it is 
 agreeable to God's law, so men receive 
 great benefit thereby. 
 
 Cth, That auricular confession is ex- 
 pedient and necessary, and ought to be 
 retained in the church. 
 
 C ranmer argued against the admis- 
 sion ol them with all the eloquence and 
 lorce of which he was possessed ; but 
 the king himself publicly advocated 
 thi.'ir adoption, and spoke m their favour,* 
 so ihat the enemies of ihe Reformation 
 were tiiialh' successful, and the law of 
 the fMX Articles passed. The penalties 
 aflixed by this bill were cruel and 
 severe. IJe vrho vx rote or spoke against 
 the tirst of these articles was to be pu- 
 nished by being burnt: if he contro- 
 verted any of tlie others, by perpetual 
 iniprisoninent ; but il the opposition 
 were a\-i1ihI. and lie preached against 
 them, lie was liable to be condemned 
 to death, 'ihe punishment affixed to 
 the iion-oliservance of religious chastity 
 v.as, ioY the first oflence, the loss of 
 111 lu'lice, as well as goods and chattels; 
 j fur the second, death. This clause was 
 said to have been inserted by Cromwell, 
 that the severity of the act might be felt 
 by both parties. 
 
 § 21b. Another act passed for the 
 sujipression of all monasteries; and 
 though, m this session, eighteen abbots 
 v.-ere present in the House of Lords, yet 
 no protestation was recorded. The 
 object of this bill was, m reality, to 
 legalize the previous surrenders, and no 
 additional steps were taken in conse- 
 quence of It. This was followed by 
 one for the erection of more bishoprics,^ 
 
 ^ .^trvpe's Cranmer, i. 104. 
 " N. B. Westminster was erected, 1540; Ches 
 icr, Gloucester, Oxiord, Peterborough, 1541 
 Bristol in 1542. Henry had many plans for erect 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 63 
 
 and another, which gave to the king's 
 proclamations, under certain limitations, 
 the force of law. 
 
 It is extraordinary that the proceed- 
 ings which folloA\-e(l ilic' passiiio- the act 
 Df the Six Anicl.'s .ill^ricl Cianmrr ill 
 a very trifling- A-. '^rrf, Uninuli In- had 
 openly opposed [hem, and ai the king's 
 iesire had written a treatise against 
 tliem : yet such was the love and conli- 
 dence which Henry entertained towards 
 the archbishop, that he wonlil never 
 £;ven receive an accusation against hini. 
 The archbishop sent his wife into (ler- 
 inany jirivaiely. and continued in the 
 perfonnanrc ed his eccb'siaslieal duties. 
 He disliked several of the arlich^s, and 
 ibhorred the scverUy of the act ; but liis 
 opinions were not now dianietrically 
 :ontrary to the first artirle, and he com- 
 plied. LatiuK-r and Shaxton, on the 
 Jther hand, esteemed it contradictory to 
 he word of God, and conscientiously 
 ■esigned their sees. 
 
 One point, however, was gained to 
 he cause of the Reformation : a pro-' 
 damation was issued for the printing 
 )f the Bible, which at the same time 
 illowed the free use of it lo inilividnals. 
 
 § 219. The death of Jane Seymour 
 lad left the king a widower in October 
 14, 1537; and though the birth of Ed- 
 'vard had provided him with an heir to 
 [he crown, it was not ]irobable that a 
 ■nan of his temperament should remain 
 ong ill this solitary condition. He had 
 leard much of the beauty of Anne of 
 Jleves; and Cromwell was well pleased 
 0 promote a match which was so 
 ikely to prove beneficial to the cause 
 )f the Reformation. When the klne- 
 md the minister were both in favour ol 
 he marrian-e. it is natural that advan- 
 ageous reports conci'rniii!j' rxryy thing 
 ;onnect!'d with it >honld iu'edoiuinate, 
 md tliat the charms of a future ipieen 
 hould be described in favourable co- 
 ours. Tlie disap])ointiirent, therefore, 
 .f Henry was the ^n-eater, when he be- 
 laid his destined bride ; and thou^'h he 
 vas married lo her, 'ian. (ith, l.'jiO,) 
 ^et this consort seems never to have 
 )Ossessed the sliglitest portion of his 
 ifTection. The fall of Cromwell was 
 )robahly owing to this circumstance ; 
 
 ng more. (Mum. ii. No. lOli.) One sclicme is 
 ;iven in Strype, wherem the number amounts to 
 wenty. 
 
 for though the outward appearance of 
 favour was continued, and though he 
 sat in this parliament as lord vicegerent, 
 yet on June I'ith he was arrested by. 
 the dulce of Norfolk, and sent to the 
 'i'ower. His fate was instantly decided ; 
 Cor few wished to save him; and no 
 one, excepting Cranmer, ventured to 
 plead his cause. He was condemned 
 by an attainder, on some very extraor- 
 dinary evidence of having threatened 
 the king's life, and the sentence was put 
 in execution on July 28. 
 
 § Thus fell one great instrument 
 of the Reformation,' whose talents had 
 raised him to the highest station attain- 
 I able by a subject, and whose fall was 
 iHore owing to the changeful disposition 
 ! of his master, than to any fault of his 
 own. His exaltation from the lowest 
 rank of life had ex])osed him to the envy 
 and hatred of the noble and powerful, 
 while the jiapal party looked on him as 
 the n-reat enemy of tlieir cause. De- 
 pri\-eil, therefore, through this unfor- 
 tunate marriage, of the favour of the 
 king, on which alone he could depend 
 for support, and particularly obnoxious 
 to those towards whom the affections of 
 Henry were at this moment directed, he 
 felt the unjust force of an attainder, 
 \\-here he was unable to answer for him- 
 si'lf, and of which unfortunately he had 
 introduced the precedent.^ Nothing of 
 any serious nature was laid to his 
 charge ; from wlience it may fairly be 
 inferred that no such evidence could be 
 j adduced ; for had it existed, there was 
 j nothing to hinder its production. His 
 great merit, independent of his own 
 inilustryand abilities, consisted in bring- 
 ing- forward men on account of their 
 talent rather than interest.^ 
 I (j •J-21. 'i'his was the first step towards 
 j tile dissolution of the objectionable mar- 
 ria;.'!', which was afterwards brought 
 liefore the convocation, and annulled 
 on the j)lea, that the king's consent to 
 it had not been inward and full, a circum- 
 stance wliich was absolutely required 
 to make the sacrament complete, and 
 upon the further ground that the mar- 
 riage had never been consummated. 
 This decision, however absurd in itself, 
 seems to have perfectly satisfied the 
 princess, who was contented to be treated 
 
 ' riurnet, i. 2 See ^ 227. 
 
 5 Strype, Ecc. Mem. i. 562. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 as a sister, and to reside in England j wherever the Bible is in the hands of 
 on a pension of three thousand pounds , the mass of the people, their teachers 
 a year. She wrote to her brother, the cannot long impose on them the doc- 
 duke of Cleves, signifying her full con- ' trines of men instead of the coramand- 
 
 currence in all these proceedings. j 
 The king was married immediately 
 
 ments of God. 
 (a. d. 1M2. 
 
 The discovery of the 
 
 after to Catharine Howard ; an event i former ill life of the queen led to the 
 which gave additional power to the , attainder of herself and her accom- 
 papal cause, for she was niece to the plices ; and an enactment was made,* 
 duke of Norfolk, whom every one re- not more remarkable for its severity 
 garded as the chief patron of that party. , than folly ; as if laws could provide for 
 Add to which, that those Protestants, | female chastity, while the conduct of 
 who had previously shared the favour 
 of this variable monarch, were now in 
 too much danger for themselves to come 
 forward in the defence of others, so that 
 the attainder of Barnes for heresy passed 
 without any opposition, and he was 
 burnt in Smitlifield, without even know- 
 ing the grounds on which he was con- 
 demned. He had indeed preached at 
 St. Paul's Cross against Gardiner; but 
 this offence had apparently been for- 
 given ; and Barnes, as Avell as Jerome 
 and Gerard, who suffered with him, had, 
 after a conference with the king, re- 
 nounced errors which they probably 
 never entertained. But this could not 
 save them ; the spirit of persecution was 
 now let loose, and its effects were felt 
 by many of the advocates of the gospel. 
 
 It is the observation of Lord Her- 
 bert,* that "these punishments did but 
 advance their religion;" and "it was 
 thought they had some assistance from 
 above, it being impossible, otherwise, 
 that they should so rejoice in the midst 
 of their torments, and triumph over the 
 most cruel death." The cruelty of the 
 king, however, was not confined to the 
 reformers ; on the same day an equal 
 number of Roman Catholics were exe- 
 cuted for denying the supremacy. 
 
 § 322. (a. d. 1541.) No one had now 
 any very material influence over the 
 mind of Henry ; and the cause of the 
 Reformation met with different success, 
 according to accidental circumstances, 
 and the changing opinions of the king. 
 In May the Bible was printed, and or- 
 dered to be set up in all churches. 
 This was not in itself any very import- 
 ant step, for the same injunction had 
 been before made ; but every procla- 
 mation of this sort increased the facility 
 of access to the word of God : and 
 
 the other sex tended to overthrow the 
 bulwarks of the sacred institution of 
 marriage. 
 
 An attempt was made in convoca- 
 tion to suppress the English Bible, 
 against which great objections were 
 raised, on the grounds of its incorrect- 
 ness ; and Gardiner presented a list of 
 words which did not aJmit of transla- 
 tion.^ But Cranmer,, knowing that the 
 correction of inaccuracies would pro- 
 ceed but slowly, in the hands of those 
 who were adverse to the general distri- 
 bution of any translation at all, used his 
 influence with the king ; and, to the 
 great displeasure of the clergy, the 
 examination of the Bible was referred 
 to the universities. 
 
 § 223. In the injunctions which were 
 now set forth by Bonner for the diocese 
 of London,* and which probably corre- 
 spond with those of other bishops at 
 the same period, there are many good 
 directions given to the clergy, with re- 
 spect to their own lives, and the per- 
 formance of the pastoral duties ; and 
 they are particularly forbidden to allow 
 any one to preach in their cures, who 
 had not been licensed by the bishop or 
 the king.^ The evil which might thus 
 have arisen to their flocks from the 
 want of preachers was obviated, as far 
 
 liife of King Henry, p. 226. 
 
 2 It was enacted, that if the king were about to 
 marry a woman whom he esteemed a maid, and 
 she, not being so. did not reveal it, that she should 
 be adjudged guilty of treason ; and that any other' 
 persons, who were conscious of the same, and 
 concealed it, should be esteemed guilty of mispri- 
 sion of treason. 
 
 ' They consist of about one hundred, of which 
 the great mass are perfectly capable of being 
 translated without any loss of meaning. In some 
 few cases, the original words are retained in our 
 present translation; as Tetrarch, Synagogue, 
 Gentile, Pagan, Parable, &c. See Fuller, Ch. 
 Hist. p. 238; Lewis, 145, &c. 
 4 Burnet, P. i. B. iii. Coll. No. 26. 
 6 Ibid. i. 317, fol., 575, 8vo. 
 
Chap. V,] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 as possible, by a set of homilies now 
 published ; a useful step in a period 
 of so much irritation, and calculated to 
 calm the angry passions, which so 
 greally injured the cause of true reli- 
 gion.' During these troublous times, 
 sucli of the clergy as were licensed to 
 preach were so frequently attacked on 
 account of their expressions, that many 
 adopted the custom of writing their ser- 
 mons, which has since generally pre- 
 vailed. 
 
 (a. d. I'A'i.) An act was passed dur- 
 ing the early part of this year, of a 
 I very mixed and heterogeneous charac- 
 I ter, which is said by Burnet'^ to have 
 been framed bj-^Cranmer, and yet had 
 a tendency to suppress the use of the 
 Bible. It contains internal evidence 
 of the conflicting interests and divided 
 power which belonged to the two par- 
 ties in the kingdom, and strongly marks 
 the distracted state of religion at this 
 period. It favoured the Protestant, by 
 ordaining that spiritual persons should 
 not be burnt for heresy till after the third 
 conviction ; that lay persons should in 
 that case be subjected only to the loss 
 of their goods and chattels, and to per- 
 petual imprisonment ; and that all par- 
 ties, when accused, should possess the 
 privilege of vindicating themselves by 
 witnesses. On the other hand, Tyn- 
 dale's translation of the Old and New 
 Testament^ was prohibited, and as 
 there was no Bible printed which did 
 not contain some part of this version, 
 it was almost impossible for any one to 
 jbe free from danger, if he possessed a 
 printed copy of the Scriptures. At the 
 I same time, the free use of the Bible 
 itself was confined to persons of a cer- 
 tain rank, while others were restricted 
 to the Primer, and such other books as 
 had been or should be set forth by his 
 majesty since 1540. Two provisoes, 
 however, did in reality confer on the 
 king the power of doing what he 
 
 ' Of these there is an imperfect copy in the 
 Bodleian; the title is, "The Epistles and Gos- 
 pels, with a hrief postel upon the same, &c." It 
 is recognised by Richard Taverner, and printed. 
 cum privihgio, by Richard Bankes. The copy 
 in Lord Spencer's library has the dale of 1540, 
 but the title appears not to be exactly the same. 
 
 ^ It should, however, be observed, that Btirnet 
 is, with regard to this act, more than ordinarily 
 inaccurate. Burnet, i. 321, fol., 583, 8vo. Lewis, 
 148. 
 
 ' Lewis, 148. 
 
 9 
 
 pleased ; for the Act of the Six Articles 
 was declared to be still in force, and 
 the king was permitted to alter any 
 part of this act. Subsequent events 
 soon proved how insufficient these en- 
 actments were, as a safeguard against 
 the bigotry of the bishops, and the re- 
 ligious tyranny of the throne. 
 
 This was followed by another more 
 important step,* the revision and re- 
 publication of the Institution of a Chris- 
 tian Man, which now appeared under 
 the title of The Necessary Doctrine and 
 Erudition of any Christian Man, and 
 was denominated the King's^ Book, as 
 being put forth by royal authority. 
 
 § 224. Catharine Parr, whom the 
 king married in July, was a secret 
 friend of the new doctrines ; but her 
 influence was not sufficient to guard 
 some unfortunate men against a perse- 
 cution which took place at Windsor," 
 where there existed a small society of 
 favourers of the Reformation. Four 
 of them were brought before a jury, 
 composed of tenants of tiie church, and 
 being convicted of heresy, on frivolous 
 pretences, three of them were burnt. 
 In consequence of some evidence which 
 transpired at this trial, a plot was formed 
 against certain members of the royal 
 household ; but the framers of it were 
 convicted of perjury, and sufl^ered for 
 that crime. These accusations did not 
 end here ; for Cranmer himself was se- 
 cretly attacked ;^ and Henry, who bore 
 him a sincere love, suffered the project 
 to be carried so far as to discover the 
 authors of this accusation against the 
 archbishop : and they were many of 
 them persons to whom his grace had 
 shown much kindness; yet he took no 
 further notice of their ingratitude than 
 to require of them repentance and a 
 confession of their fault;* for no one 
 was ever better acquainted with the 
 precepts or practice of forgiving inju- 
 ries than Cranmer. 
 
 (a. d. 1.544.) Before the expedition 
 against France in which Boulogne was 
 taken, a litany in English had been 
 published, which corresponds with our 
 present one in almost every particular, 
 except that the invocation of saints and 
 
 1 Strype's Ecc. Mem. i. 584. 
 
 5 See Appendix B, § 271, &c. 
 
 « Fox, ii. 468. ' Strype's Cranmer, i. c. xxvi. 
 
 8 Strype, 174. 
 
 F 3 
 
66 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V, 
 
 angels was still retained, and there was 
 a petition against the tyranny of the 
 pope. To this work, psalms and pri- 
 vate devotions were added ; and in the 
 preface the utility of private prayer in the 
 mother-tongue is particularly insisted 
 on. The correct notion also of Christ's 
 presence in the sacrament of the Lord's 
 Supper, seems to be delivered, in an 
 explanation of the Lord's Prayer, as a 
 paraphrase to the fourth petition.' In 
 the following year, (1.^45,) a collection 
 of prayers was published, which was 
 formed by the new queen herself. 
 
 § 225. Several reformers were about 
 this time advanced to the bench, so that 
 the party among the heads of the 
 church, ^v'hich was more immediately 
 connected with Cranmer, acquired con- 
 siderable strength. Ilolgate was made 
 archbishop of York, Kitching supplied 
 his place at LlandafT, Heath was trans- 
 lated to Worcester, Holbeach became 
 bishop of Rochester, Sampson went to 
 Litchfield and Coventry, and Day suc- 
 ceeded him at Chichester. 
 
 In the parliament of this year, all 
 chapels, chantries, and fraternities were 
 given to the king, under which titles 
 the universities conceived that they 
 might possibly be comprehended ; but 
 on a representation made to the king, 
 he confirmed them in their privileges. 
 The answer which the king made to 
 the speaker, when he presented these 
 bills, breathes nothing but good sense 
 and moderation ; advising the people to 
 lay aside that virulence which had been 
 shown on religions subjects, exhorting 
 them to live peaceably, to further and 
 advance all useful instruction, to have 
 chari'y one towards another, and to 
 love and serve God. After such ex- 
 pressions as these, it is wonderful that, 
 in the next year, (1.>1(),) the same man 
 should exercise a violent and unjust 
 persecution against fellow-creatures, 
 
 • The words are," The lively bread of the bless- 
 ed body of our Savioar Jesu Christ, and the sacred 
 cup of the precious and blessed hlood which was 
 shed for us on the cross ;" noi as he is in heaven, 
 but as he was on the cross, and therefore as a type 
 or memorial of a past event. (Burnet, i. 331, fol., 
 8vo. 600; iii. 118, fol., 8vo. 283.) Strype says he 
 never saw the book ; and Burnet's account of 
 books must always be taken with great caution. 
 I do not know whence the words are taken. 
 They do not occur in Marshall's or any other 
 Primer that I am acquainted with ; nor in the 
 Bishop's or King's Book. 
 
 who were at least harmless, however 
 erroneous in their opinions he might 
 esteem them. Shaxton had been for 
 some time a prisoner in the counter in 
 j Bread street, and was accused of hav- 
 ing; denied the corporal presence; for 
 this he was condemned to the stake ; 
 but he confessed his error, recanted, 
 and preached a sermon at the execu- 
 tion of Aime Askew, who was soon 
 after burnt in Smithfield. It was sus- 
 pected that this gentlewoman was fa- 
 voured by certain ladies at court, with 
 many of whom she was acquainted ; 
 so that Chancellor Wriothesly, who was 
 a vehement persecutor of the reform- 
 ers, hoped to have obtained some infor- 
 mation from her with reference to this 
 point ; but having endured the rack,' 
 which the chancellor is said to have 
 inflicted on her himself, she confessed 
 nothing, and suffered with three others, 
 under the act of the Six Articles. 
 
 § 22'J. On this occasion, too, the same 
 attack was directed against Cranmer 
 and Henry, to try how far the malice 
 of his enemies would go, allowed him 
 to be summoned before the council, 
 having beforehand provided him with 
 his own signet, in order that he might 
 appeal to the royal judgment. When 
 he was about to be brought before this 
 prejudiced tribunal, he was treated 
 with so much disrespect, that though 
 a member of the council which was to 
 examine him, he was suffered to remain 
 .*ome time standing in the lobby among 
 the footmen and messengers. For this 
 disgraceful piece of neglect, Henry 
 very severely rebuked his council, and 
 strongly testified the affection which he 
 bore towards his most faithful servant. 
 The queen also was in very immi- 
 nent peril from a conspiracy formed 
 against her; her prudence, and a for- 
 tunate discovery with respect to the 
 plot, enabled her to preserve herself. 
 Gardiner had spoken to her prejudice, 
 in consequence of her frequently dis- 
 puting on religious topics with the 
 king; and when he had excited the 
 suspicions of his majesty, Henri' agreed 
 that she should be apprehended and 
 examined ; which were but other names 
 under which total ruin was concealed. 
 
 2 Fox. ii. 488. 
 
 ^ N. B. — Strype, xxviii. places this two years 
 earher. See § 224. 
 
^HAP. v.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 67 
 
 3y the carelessness of the chancellor, 
 he queen became possessed of a paper 
 ontainins^ an account of these projected 
 teps. She soon after introduced the 
 ubject of divinity, while in conversa- 
 ion with her husband ; and when he 
 liinted at lier having opinions of her own, 
 :he parried the blow, and said that if, 
 ri conversation, she had assumed more 
 ipon herself than became her sex and 
 tation, it was but to entice him to a 
 ubject on which she obtained so much 
 nforination. 
 
 § 2Z7. The execution of the earl of 
 Surrey (Jan. 19, 1547) may be con- 
 idered as the last act of this reign ; for 
 liough the attainder of the duke of 
 'Jorfolk was subsequent, yet the death 
 if the king (Jan. 27) himself prevented 
 he execution of tlie sentence. It was 
 emarkable at once for cruelty and in- 
 ustice, and affords another instance of 
 he danger of admitting a trial, where 
 he parties are not suffered to confront 
 he witnesses who are brought against 
 hem. This evil example was set in 
 he case of those who were attainted 
 ;ith the marchioness of Exeter and 
 ountess of Salisbury ; in which case 
 .'romwell consulted the judges, who 
 nswered, That it was a dangerous 
 iuestion : that the parliament, which 
 jhould be an example to other courts, 
 jught carefully to observe the strictest 
 ustice ; but that as it was itsrlf su- 
 • reme, whatever it decided must be the 
 jiw : the precedent was followed in 
 [lany other cases, and Cromwell him- 
 Mf fell by it. The number of persons 
 •ho were executed in this reign was 
 lery considerable for, independent 
 f those who fell in the cause of reli- 
 ion, the king himself w-as sanguinary 
 )wards those who were about him ; 
 nd, excepting in the case of Cramner, 
 e seems to have instantly forgotten the 
 irvices of men on whom he had be- 
 ,Qwed his confidence ; and no sooner 
 
 ' And for teslimonirs in tliis kind, some urge 
 vo queens, one cardinal (in prnrinclu, al least) 
 • two; (for Pole \va>^ conJenincd, thoiitrli ab- 
 int ;) dukes, marq iiscs, carls, and earls' sons, 
 velve ; barons and knigliis, eighteen ; aMiots, 
 •iors, monks, and priests, seventy-seven ; of the 
 lOre. common sort, between one religion and an- 
 her, hiiffe muliitndes. (Lord Herbert's Life of 
 enry VIIL 267.) The countess of Salisbury 
 as mother to Cardinal Pole ; and her execution, 
 vo years after her attainder, has left an indelible 
 sm on ibe character of Henry. 
 
 did they become the objects of suspi- 
 cion, than they experienced the selfish 
 severity of their master. He appears 
 indeed to have been sensible of the 
 merits of his ministers, and few kings 
 have been more fortunate in this par- 
 ticular; but the good opinion which he 
 entertained of them was no security 
 against a change in his affections, and 
 this was generally followed by perse- 
 cution from their political opponents, 
 and ended in a tragical fall. 
 
 § 228. Henry possessed considerable 
 natural abilities, and these had been 
 improved by study; so that, in point of 
 understanding, few monarchs seem to 
 have been better calculated for the per- 
 formance of an important part ; the 
 sentiments of his heart appear to have 
 been originally noble and generous, yet 
 all these qualities were destroyed or 
 rendered pernicious, by the want of 
 self-restraint, of which he was the vic- 
 tim. Possessed of power at an early 
 age, and unfettered by any constitu- 
 tional restrictions, he soon found that 
 his own will was law ; and where this 
 point was or might be questioned, he 
 bore down all semblance of opposition 
 b}' the severity of his measures.'' Wol- 
 sey was the early minister of his plea- 
 sures, as well as the guide of his po- 
 litical conduct ; and the secret by which 
 he ruled his self-willed pupil was by 
 making him unable to govern himself. 
 The flattery of applauding churchmen 
 prevented him from being contented 
 with the character of a learned theolo- 
 gian, to which he had much claim, and 
 transformed him into a bigoted dog- 
 matist. And yet to the last he pos- 
 sessed great liberality of sentiment, 
 where he was not irritated by having 
 his vanity offended ; but whenever he 
 was contradicted in matters of religion, 
 or when his own desires were thwarted, 
 he became ungovernable and cruel ; on 
 such occasions he overruled justice, and 
 proved himself a capricious tyrant, in 
 spite of all the estimable qualities with 
 which nature had bountifully supplied 
 him. But even his very vices were by 
 the providence of God made the instru- 
 
 2 If it be asked how Henry became possessed 
 of power to do this, it must be remembered that 
 the crown and the church had destroyed the 
 power of the aristocracy, BO that when the church 
 was humbled, the king stood alone. 
 
68 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V 
 
 ments of beneficial results: his desire 
 to divorce Catharine destroyed the pa- 
 pal power in Eng^land : his tyranny and 
 the influence which he exercised over 
 his subjects, enabled him to dissolve 
 the monastic establishments ; a power 
 which must have impeded every step 
 towards reformation, had they been 
 continued in existence ; and with re- 
 gard to their destruction, if he had been 
 troubled with a very scrupulous con- 
 science, he would never have resorted 
 to the means by which he accomplished 
 this stupendous work. Had all the 
 property thus taken from the patrimony 
 of the church been vested in the crown, 
 it would have rendered it independent 
 of parliamentary grants, and have fur- 
 nished the means of continuing a t)-- 
 ranny as injurious, perhaps, to the 
 country as that of a foreign power, 
 balanced by the royal authority ; but 
 the profusion of the king, and the ra- 
 pacity of his court, entirely freed the 
 country from any danger on this head, 
 and ultimately threw the wealth which 
 their forefathers had so grossly misap- 
 plied, into the hands of individuals, 
 who are the safest guardians of the 
 public property. 
 
 § 229. It may be convenient, in this 
 part of the history, to mark the points 
 which had been gained in the Reforma- 
 tion, as well as to enumerate such par- 
 ticulars as still wanted alteration. 
 
 The power of the papacy in England 
 was for the time annihilated, not merely 
 by legislative enactments — for acts of 
 parliament had always proved inade- 
 quate to curb an authority which set 
 law at defiance — not merely by taking 
 away the wealth of the supporters of so 
 monstrous a scheme of oppression, but 
 by breaking the charm which had given 
 energy to the whole, by weakening the 
 force on which this machine depended 
 for its motion. The superstitions of the 
 church of Rome had been attacked in 
 their very origin, and many of the more 
 gross of her idolatries had been put 
 down by the civil power; but the me- 
 thod which had been most successfully 
 adopted, was that of allowing the people 
 to think and judge for themselves. The 
 Bible and the three Creeds had been 
 declared to be the rule of faith ; the use 
 of the Bible had been granted to the 
 people, and they were directed to read 
 
 the word of God, and to learn from it 
 their duty towards Him and their neigh- 
 bour. The wealth of the monastic or- 
 ders was taken from the former posses- 
 sors most unjustly ; but they were legi- 
 timately deprived of the real source of 
 their riches, when the notion of purga- 
 tory was discountenanced, and when in 
 the instructions delivered to the people 
 no mention was made of this doctrine, 
 from whence the influence of the church 
 of Rome is derived. The translation 
 of the Bible was authorized by the go- 
 vernment ; copies of it were distributed 
 throughout the kingdom ; and the lita- 
 ny was published in the mother-tongue. 
 The people had now, then, the means 
 of instruction ; and to the rising gene- 
 ration these blessings were insured by 
 the injunction, that the children in every 
 parish should be instructed in the Ten 
 Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, 
 and the Belief, and that these element- 
 ary subjects should be fully explained 
 to them by their spiritual guides. 
 
 § 230. But the act of the Six Articles 
 was still in force. Still was it a capital 
 offence to deny the corporal presence 
 of Christ in the Lord's Supper : the cup 
 was still denied to the laity ; an unne- 
 cessary and compulsatory restraint was 
 imposed on the marriage of the clergy; 
 and those who had taken vows of chas- 
 tity were still obliged by law to con- 
 tinue in their single state. To this, per- 
 haps, as individuals, they had no right 
 to object; but to the body politic, a 
 forced celibacy is apt to become a state 
 of real licentiousness.' The use of 
 private masses was continued, the ne- 
 cessity of auricular confession was still 
 sanctioned, and the Latin language stQl 
 used in the mass. The power of the 
 ecclesiastical courts was still continued, 
 and the nature of such tribunals was 
 most oppressive to the subject. It was 
 not that they armed themselves against 
 vice and immorality, or were formidable 
 
 ' As a confirmation of this assertion, the reader 
 may not be displeased at seeing an answer of Mr. 
 T. Lawney, to the duke of Norfolk, upon the 
 passing of the act of the Six Articles: " O. my 
 Lawney, (said his grace to his old chaplain, know- 
 ing him of old much to favour priests' matrimony,) 
 whether may priests now have wives or no? If 
 it please your grace, (rephed he,) I cannot well lell 
 whether priests may have wives or no : but well 
 I wot, and am sure of it, for all your act, that 
 wives will have priests." (Strype's Cranmer, c. 
 viii. p. 49.) 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 69 
 
 to the evil-doer; but their processes: 
 were so indefinite, that no one could 
 esteem himself secure against the sen- ^ 
 tence of such a court : and those church- 
 men who possessed any authority under 
 these jurisdictions were enabled to exer- 
 cise oppression to an unlimited amount, 
 since they could enforce by civil penal- 
 ties the spiritual decisions of the church. 
 Confession put the clergy in possession 
 of the secrets of society, and continued 
 an influence, injurious even if exercised 
 on Christian principles ; which makes 
 one man the keeper, and not the adviser 
 of another's conscience; which deprives 
 the laity of that sense of personal re- 
 sponsibility to God which a future judg- 
 ment wnll require; which makes the 
 priesthood, in their desire to guide the 
 actions of their flock, convert religion 
 into an opus operatmn, and change 
 Christianity into a system, in which the 
 unimportant devices of men are more 
 regarded than the love and the fear of 
 God — that love, which gives obedience 
 its charm, and renders our imperfect 
 performances acceptable at the throne 
 of grace. 
 
 § 2'M. It it be asked what effect the 
 Reformation in Germany had on that in 
 England, and why so little notice has 
 been taken of the events which were 
 passing there, it must be answered in 
 excuse, that the limits of the work ne- 
 cessarily confine our researches to those 
 topics which affected our own church, 
 and that the history of the foreign 
 churches scarcely came under this de- 
 nomination during the reign of Henry 
 VIII. If we except that secret influence 
 which the alterations in religion, which 
 then took place, must have had on the 
 minds of any people, who were at all 
 connected with them, these foreign 
 changes probably little retarded or ad- 
 vanced the corresponding steps, with 
 the details of which we have been en- 
 gaged. The dispute between Henry 
 and Luther had alienated the good-will 
 of the monarch from those proceedings 
 which he himself was about so soon to 
 imitate ; and the opinions concerning 
 the divorce expressed by many of the 
 German divines (viz., that though the 
 marriage were unlawful, they did not 
 approve of the divorce) had not tended 
 to conciliate him. Yet when he was 
 embarked in an opposition to the author- 
 
 ity and power of Rome, the common 
 interests of both parties naturally dis- 
 posed each of them to connect them- 
 selves with the other. 
 
 § 232. After the publication of the 
 confession of Augsburg in 1530," the 
 Protestant princes assembled at Smal- 
 calde wrote in 1531 to the kings of 
 France and England,'' with the view of 
 obviating the ill effects which false 
 reports, concerning what had been done 
 in Germany, might have produced in 
 the good opinions of these sovereigns. 
 Henry sent them a very civil and cha- 
 racteristic answer, in which he acknow- 
 ledges the necessity of some reforma- 
 tion, expresses his anxiety for it, and 
 his wish that a general council might be 
 assembled, but points out the danger of 
 admitting such violent remedies as some 
 levellers had desired to introduce. 
 
 In l.)3.'), Fox, Heath, and Barnes, 
 were sent ambassadors to Smalcalde,^ 
 where proposals were made to them by 
 the Protestant princes, that the king 
 should approve the confession of Augs- 
 burg, and become the patron or defender 
 of a league established for its support; 
 that they should endeavour to promote 
 the calling of a council, which might be 
 really free, and there advocate their 
 doctrines; that they should oppose the 
 authority of the ]iope ; should engage 
 in certain conditions of mutual defence ; 
 and when matters were more advanced, 
 should send a learned embassy to Eng- 
 land. Henry agreed to most of these 
 terms, (1530,) but was probably rather 
 disposed to receive an embassy of di- 
 vines, in order that they might alter their 
 own confession according to his ad- 
 vice, than inclined to model his own 
 faith in unison with their decisions. 
 He was, however, particularl)' anxious 
 that Melancthon might visit him in 
 England. 
 
 In March, 1538, the Protestants met 
 at Brunswick,* and Henry sent C. 
 Mount there, to learn their object in 
 meeting, and to discover whether they 
 were likely to send the embassy and 
 Melancthon. They on their part wished 
 to learn his objections to the Augsburg 
 confession, but gave a commission to 
 their agents now sent, to discuss these 
 
 ' See it in the Sylloge Confessionuni. 
 
 2 Sleidan, 145. » Strype's Mem. i. 348. 
 
 •> Lord Herbert's Life, 213. 
 
70 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 topics with the English divines. Burgrat | 
 and his colleagues had much communi- j 
 cation on the subject, and probably [ 
 agreed better with Cromwell and Cran- 
 mer than with the sentiments of the 
 king himself. The discussion was 
 ended by a letter' addressed by them to 
 Henry, in which they object to three 
 points — the denial of the cup to the laity 
 — the continuance of private masses — 
 and the celibacy of the clergy. An 
 answer was sent them in the name of 
 the king, drawn up by Tonstal, bishop 
 
 of Durham, who defends each of these 
 particulars. Melancthon wrote to Henry 
 early the next year in remonstrance, 
 and the German orators were again sent 
 to renew the conference* (1539); but 
 the act of the Six Articles was passed 
 soon after, and subsequently no real 
 progress was made in the Reformation 
 during the reign. Whatever effect, 
 therefore, might be produced by this 
 connection, in the next reign, we can 
 hardly trace any benefit arising from it 
 in the present. 
 
 DATES RELATIVE TO THE DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES. 
 
 1535. The visitation of monasteries began in October. — Burnet, 184, fol. 
 Nov. 13. The first resignations are dated this day. — Burnet, Rec. iii. No. 3. 
 
 1536. Before April 14, the act for the dissolution of the smaller monasteries 
 
 passed. — Burnet, 194, fol. 
 
 1537. A new visitation of monasteries. — Burnet, 235, fol. 
 
 1539. An act legalizing the dissolution of monasteries and granting them to the 
 
 king.— Burnet, 260, fol. 
 
 1540. ^pril 22. The knights of St. John of Jerusalem suppressed. — Burne 
 
 275, fol. 
 
 1545. Colleges and chantries given to the king. The universities are confirmed. 
 —Burnet, 338, fol. 
 
 APPENDIX A. TO CHAP. V. 
 
 ON THE DISSOLUTION OF MONASTERIES. 
 
 241. Questions to be discussed. 242. Monasteries, originally beneficial to society. 243. Benefits of 
 sanctuary. 244. Monasteries practically beneficial. 245. Architecture. Books. Trades. 246. 
 Monasteries, by degrees, become less usei'ul. 247. Are favoured by the people. The effect of 
 celibacy with respect to them. 248. Monasteries overturned by Henry's rapacity. Plans for 
 employing this wealth. 249. Education for diplomacy. 250. Impropriations. 251. General 
 education. 252. Property more valuable by distribution. 253. Evils felt at the dissolution of 
 monasteries. 254. The transfer of property ultimately produced good. 255. Much evil was pro- 
 duced at the lime. 2.50. Libraries were destroyed. 257. Labourers unemployed. 258. Amount 
 and effects of this transfer of property. 259. Tiie ultimate result, beneficial. Benefits of a church 
 establishment. 
 
 § 241. The dissolution of the monas- 
 tic establishments in this country forms 
 so striking a feature in the reformation 
 of the church, that the subject seems to 
 claim a more full and distinct discussion 
 than has been already given to it. 
 
 The whole question, perhaps, belongs 
 to the civil, rather than the ecclesiasti- 
 cal historian, as affecting in a greater 
 degree the temporal than the spiritual 
 concerns of the country; but in our 
 happy constitution the interests of the 
 
 ' Burnet, i. Addenda. No. vii. 
 
 Strype's Mem. i. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 71 
 
 church and the state are so vitally 
 blended, that any event which con- 
 siderably affects the one, cannot fail to 
 be of great importance to the other. 
 
 In this case, it is indeed possible that 
 ihe monasteries might have been re- 
 tained, and the original objects of the 
 foundations have been complied with, 
 under such modifications as were ad- 
 mitted into our colleges ; the Reforma- 
 tion might, on this supposition, have 
 jiroceeded as it did ; and the same 
 preponderance of property have been 
 retained in the hands of ecclesiasti- 
 cal persons, without preventing those 
 changes which took place in the doc- 
 trine and discipline of the church. But 
 it may bo useful to inquire what por- 
 tion of these alterations is in any way 
 due to the transfer of property itself, 
 and whether, without it, these changes 
 would have taken place at all. And, 
 again, whether, if the property had 
 been retained in mortmain, and appro- 
 priated to other general purposes, the 
 body politic would, or would not, have 
 been benefited ; in short, to see the 
 effect which monasteries had on Eng- 
 land, and to trace the political alterations 
 which their dissolution has produced. 
 
 § 243. In reviewing the earlier pe- 
 riods of our history, we shall probably 
 be compelled to admit the utility of 
 monastic societies. While the country 
 was a prey to barbarism, and the ra- 
 vages of war were continually over- 
 turning every approach to security, 
 the veneration paid to religious houses 
 must have tended to soften and human- 
 ize the mind, as well as to form a bar- 
 rier against the actual destruction of 
 property. 
 
 Among the Saxons, the introduction 
 of Christianity was accompanied by 
 these establishments, which polished 
 the rude institutions of the inhabitants 
 of England, while the religion itself 
 contributed more effectually to the same 
 end. by working on the hearts of the 
 individual converts. When, then, the 
 Danes commenced their system of 
 plunder, the monasteries, which had 
 become numerous, formed the chief 
 points against which their attacks were 
 directed. Superstitious hatred might, 
 it is true, have guided the invaders to 
 the places dedicated to the worship of 
 a God whom they despised; but the 
 
 frequent recurrence of the same sa- 
 crilege arose, more probably, from 
 avarice ; and these pirates learnt, by 
 experience, that the habitations of the 
 monks contained the riches, as well as 
 the religion of the country ; while the 
 feeble efforts which were generally 
 made in their defence promoted the 
 recurrence of the same aggressions. 
 
 § 243. The conversion of the Danes 
 to Christianity restored, in some de- 
 gree, the dilapidated monasteries, and 
 re-established them in their ancient 
 rights and privileges ; a step which 
 would hardly have been taken, unless 
 the idea of utility had been connected 
 with such foundations ; for the very 
 privileges, which afterwards became so 
 injurious to society, were then of mate- 
 rial advantage to it ; and when the want 
 of law and civilization armed the hand 
 of every man against all who offended 
 him, the reverence which was paid to 
 the rights of sanctuary provided a pow- 
 erful remedy against the violence of 
 passion.' In all this we may trace a 
 strong resemblance to the institutions 
 of the early Greeks, among whom the 
 same evils were guarded against, by 
 provisions corresponding in many re- 
 spects. The Conquest was so far from 
 rendering these safeguards unnecessa- 
 ry, that the power of the clergy, par- 
 ticularly of the monastic orders, formed 
 a most salutary check on the ferocious 
 tyranny of the barons ; and the terrors 
 with which the church was armed by 
 its property, as well as the influence of 
 the court of Rome, not only prevented 
 acts of aggression, but proved a con- 
 tinual restraint on men who needed 
 every check which might retain thera 
 within the bounds of civilized inter- 
 course, and the humanities of life. 
 
 § 244. Every lay fief, held upon the 
 tenure of military service, was, in real- 
 ity, a premium upon war. In invasion, 
 it formed the prize towards which the 
 soldier looked: in seasons of tranquilli- 
 ty, it provided the soil on which fresh 
 troops might be raised, either for the 
 defence of the kingdom or the extension 
 of conquest. AH ecclesiastical proper- 
 
 ' By Alfred's laws, it appears that asylum was 
 only afTorded in the sanctuary for a time appoint- 
 ed by law, and varying, according to the circum- 
 .stances, from three to more nights. See Johnson's 
 Canons, a. d. 877, § 2, &c. 
 
72 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 ty, on the other hand, tended to promote 
 the cuhivation of peace : it was the price 
 paid by the public to those who fostered 
 the arts, and who possessed the only 
 learnin tr of which the nation could boast. 
 The object for which such donations 
 were made, was, it is true, supersti- 
 tious, but their ordinary effects must 
 have been, in some degree, beneficial ; 
 for mankind would otherwise have 
 more quickly seen through the delu- 
 sion on which such foundations rest ; 
 and would never have continued to 
 promote establishments, which not only 
 employed a large portion of the wealth 
 of the kingdom, but of which the prac- 
 tical tendency must have been daily 
 brought before their eyes. 
 
 § 2-1.5. English architecture may be 
 said to owe its origin to ecclesiastical 
 bodies, not only because they required 
 extensive places of worship for their 
 use, and were possessed of wealth ade- 
 quate to their construction, but the de- 
 signs and execution of the work itself 
 were frequently furnished by the mem- 
 bers of monastic fraternities. The whole 
 of the book learning of the country was 
 in their hands ; and to this they added 
 those arts which are connected with or- 
 namenting MSS., artificial penmanship, 
 and minute painting and gilding for 
 illuminations. Their talents were also 
 often directed to objects of more obvi- 
 ous and immediate use ; for they fre- 
 quently superintended certain species 
 of manufactures within their walls, and 
 converted the raw materials with which 
 their lands furnished them into articles 
 ready for the market. In all this, the 
 sanctity which was attached to the reli- 
 gious body answered the great end of 
 all political institutions, the security of 
 property; and at a period when every 
 other tenure was uncertain, religion, 
 deformed as it was in many respects, 
 provided a safeguard against violence, 
 which enabled the monastic orders to 
 cultivate the substantial good of the 
 country. 
 
 § 24(). Society, in the different stages 
 through which it passes, requires 
 changes of institutions corresponding 
 with the advancement of civilization, 
 or the progress of the arts. Chartered 
 companies, for instance, may have ena- 
 bled a number of persons to engage in 
 trades, and to enter into speculations, 
 
 to which individually they might have 
 been unequal; but when the commerce 
 has long been in existence, the regula- 
 tions of such a company may become 
 injurious to the further improvement of 
 it. The same observations will apply, 
 probably, to establishments calculated 
 to foster civilization ; and thus the pre- 
 valence of the monastic orders may 
 have prevented those improvements in 
 manufactures and moral habits, which 
 their existence originally promoted. 
 As the law became strong enough to 
 protect the innocent, sanctuaries, which 
 had previously answered this purpose, 
 furnished an asylum for the guilty only, 
 and counteracted the force of legal au- 
 thority, in aid of which they had been 
 established. For a time, the arts flou- 
 rished within such foundations ; but the 
 very nature of them precluded that 
 healthful activity which constitutes the 
 wealth of a nation, and can alone con- 
 tinue to diffuse throughout a country 
 the advantages of real information. In 
 these bodies, on the contrary, the road 
 to honour and preferment was so con- 
 fined by the prejudices of the ruling 
 powers, that they contributed little to 
 the dissemination of general know- 
 ledge. The countless multitudes who, 
 by the increasing superstition of the 
 times, were admitted into the religious 
 orders, became a burden to the state, 
 inasmuch as their pursuitswere directed 
 to objects little beneficial to mankind. 
 The number of teachers who can be 
 employed to advantage must soon be 
 limited by the population of a country; 
 the services of religion are supplied by 
 a comparatively small number of func- 
 tionaries; and learning, if confined to 
 the walls of a convent, and not brought 
 forward by competition, or applied to 
 the purposes of general life, will soon 
 degenerate into trifling and superficial 
 pedantry, and be sought no further 
 than as it may deceive the vulgar. In 
 the very manufactures which were ex- 
 ercised under the superintendence of 
 the monks, the accidental advantages 
 which they possessed enabled them to 
 create monopolies; and their power 
 and influence in procuring a market 
 stood in the way of that freedom of 
 trade which is the only sure basis of 
 internal prosperity. 
 
 § 247. These establishments, then, 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 73 
 
 had in their origin been most useful 
 to the nation ; but, as the alteration of 
 circu instances made them less necessary, 
 the influence of superstition produced a 
 continued increase to their numbers,' 
 whil'' their augmented power still added 
 in an alarming degree to the extent of 
 the evil. It was in vain to expect a 
 remedy from new laws ; for the effect 
 of every enactment will invariably 
 become paralyzed, whenever it acts 
 ; against the immediate interests of the 
 rulijig part of society. The nobility 
 could not be restrained from contribut- 
 ing to the support of foundations, where 
 their children received their education, 
 I and where the younger branches of the 
 I family found a ready asylum, when the 
 I resources of the paternal estate were 
 I inadiMjjuate to their support. To the 
 ' rest of the kingdom, the power of the 
 church formed as it were a barrier 
 against the tyranny of the great ; and 
 the lands of monasteries were generally 
 let on terms so advantageous, that the 
 tenant found his duty and interest com- 
 bined in the defence of his ecclesiasti- 
 cal lord. The policy of the church of 
 Rome kept this enormous body as dis- 
 tinct as possible from the rest of the 
 nation ; and celibacy, by which this 
 end was principally effected, though it 
 exposed the clergy to various tempta- 
 tions, and lowered them in general 
 esteem, could not fail to direct all their 
 energies to the glory and augmenta- 
 
 ' The following Table will give some general 
 idea of the number of religious houses founded 
 
 in each reign. {Tanner's Notiiia, p. viii.) 
 
 Colleses 
 
 Reigned Monast, in the L'ni- 
 
 Years. Founded. p. a. vereities. 
 
 Willi im I. . . 20 45 2,25 
 
 Willi n II. . . 13 29 2,41 
 
 Hem I. . . 35 143 4,08 
 
 Step' 11 . . . 18 146 8,11 
 
 Hem II. . . 34 163 4,79 
 
 Rich id I. . . 9 52 5,77 
 
 John .... 17 81 4,76 
 
 Hem III. . . 56 211 4,78 3 
 
 Edw :dl. . . 34 107 3,01 1 
 
 Edw rd II. . . 19 42 2,21 3 
 
 Edw n d III. . 50 74 1,48 5 
 
 Rich.rd II. . . 22 21 1, 1 
 
 Honru IV. . . 13 12 0,92 
 
 Hem V V. . . 9 4 0,44 
 
 Hen. V VI. . . 38 33 0,86 5 
 
 Edw. id IV. . 22 15 0,68 1 
 Edw lid V. 
 Rich id III. . 2 
 
 Hem 7 VII. . . 23 few 2 
 Henry VIII . . 37 6 
 
 1178 
 
 27 
 
 tion of that society to which they be- 
 longed. 
 
 § 248. The ostensible plea on which 
 this property had been acquired, chiefly 
 depended on a false idea of a state of 
 purgatory ; and if the majority of the 
 clergy were sincere in such a belief, (a 
 point which we can hardly doubt,) these 
 innovations,^ which must have at once 
 alarmed the consciences and the worldly 
 interests of so large a number of per- 
 sons, could hardly have been intro- 
 duced without the application of much 
 external force. It seems probable, then, 
 that unless the rapacity of Henry and 
 his courtiers had previously scattered 
 the wealth, and thus destroyed much of 
 the worldly power of the church, the 
 Reformation would hardly have taken 
 place at this time. It was avarice 
 which led them to make this attack on 
 the property ; but, in attempting to de- 
 fend their conduct, they examined the 
 grounds on which these foundations 
 were laid, and soon found the instability 
 of a building which had neither sound 
 reason in its favour, nor the revealed 
 word of God for its support. Had this 
 step never taken place, we might still 
 have been blessed with the Reforma- 
 tion ; but it would probably have been 
 delayed, or have been effected with a 
 violence which might have swept away 
 with it many of our most valuable insti- 
 tutions. 
 
 It was the wish of many of the re- 
 formers, that the wealth of the sup- 
 pressed monasteries might have been 
 applied to some useful endowments ; 
 and the scheme is in itself so plausible, 
 that few can have thought much on the 
 history of the Reformation without hav- 
 ing sketched out some ideal plan which 
 might have employed a portion at least 
 of these large revenues. What was 
 done in this way, viz., the erection of 
 six bishoprics, and the foundation of 
 fifteen chapters,^ several hospitals, and 
 
 ''■ It may be observed, that the transfer of pro- 
 perty from one religious purpose to another was 
 not now iritroduced. (Collier, i. 650.) In 1414, 
 all alien priories not conventual were dissolved by 
 an act of parliament ; many colleges owe much 
 of their wealth to this source, before the time of 
 Wolsey, (Tanner, Notitia, xxxiii. &c.,) whose 
 liberality of foundation chiefly consisted in sup- 
 pressing monasteries to found a college to his own 
 honour. 
 
 ^ Bristol, Canterbury, Carlisle, Chester, Dur- 
 ham, Ely, Gloucester, Norwich, Peterborough, 
 G 
 
74 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 the two colleges* which are the glory 
 of our sister universities, so strongly 
 plead in favour of such an application, 
 that to maintain a contrary hypothesis 
 may seem to. be an affectation of para- 
 dox, if indeed it he not chargeable with 
 ingratitude, in one who has passed the 
 best years of his life within one of these 
 establishments, and derived from that 
 connection the means of performing 
 the greater part of that little good which 
 he has been able to do in his generation. 
 
 § 249. Henry certainly intended to 
 have supplied many of the wants of the 
 nation from this fund ; but through the 
 facility with which he granted it away, 
 he defeated his own designs.'' Some 
 of it was employed in the construction 
 and improvement of harbours; but I 
 have not been able to ascertain what 
 portion of it was thus expended. It 
 was the wish of Sir Nicholas Bacon, ^ 
 that some provision should have been 
 made for the education of youth for the 
 purposes of diplomacy, and that they 
 should thus have been prepared for 
 serving their country among foreign 
 nations. But it may well be doubted 
 whether liberal instruction on general 
 principles be not the most useful prepa- 
 ration for every line of life : and whe- 
 ther the early direction to a peculiar 
 branch of study has not the tendency 
 of confining the views of the student. 
 Be this as it may, the sum thus expended 
 would have been small, and the diffi- 
 culty of the question at issue depends 
 on the extent of the wealth so to have 
 been applied. 
 
 § 250. There is, however, one point 
 which every well-wisher to the church 
 must deplore : I mean the continuance 
 of those impropriations which had trans- 
 ferred much of the property of the se- 
 cular clerg}' into the hands of the mo- 
 nastic orders. While the society so 
 endowed furnished the parish with a 
 spiritual pastor, there was some plea for 
 the transfer of the income from the in- 
 
 Rpchesler, Westminster, Winchester, Windsor, 
 Worcester, Wolverhampton ; the annual value 
 of these was rated at less than £6000. (Speed.) 
 
 ' Trinity College, Cambridge, and Christ 
 Church, Oxford. 
 
 2 Henry, with all the wealth which passed 
 through his hands, was so improvident, that, be- 
 fore the end of his reign, he had recourse to that 
 dishonest and most impolitic measure of debasing 
 his coin. (Camden's Elizabeth, p. 49.) 
 , ' Burnet, i. 269. 
 
 dividual to the body of which he was 
 the representative ; but when the whole 
 establishment was granted to a layman, 
 the impropriation ought to have been 
 restored to the person who had the cure 
 of souls. The want of this arrangement, 
 so obviously just, has been of infinite 
 injury to the country, by renderings 
 many pieces of preferment inadequate^ 
 to support a clergyman in that rank of 
 life in which he has been placed by so- 
 ciety. This evil is now ver\' sensibly 
 diminished by the liberality of the crown, 
 and by grants from parliament; but its 
 existence has been one cause of the 
 prevalence of pluralities, while for a 
 long time it contributed to make the 
 body less respected in the eyes of the 
 world ; for it must never be forgotten 
 that mankind will judge by external 
 circumstances, that a poor establishment 
 will naturally be subject to contempt; 
 and that men who are despised will 
 often, by ceasing to respect themselves, 
 become really despicable. 
 
 § 251. But to recur to the question 
 at issue. If it be asked, whether the 
 property so seized might have been 
 employed in a way more beneficial to 
 the nation ? it must be confessed, that 
 in some points it most certainly might; 
 but as a whole, it has probably fallen 
 into hands, in which the greatest ad- 
 vantage has been derived from it. We 
 are not speaking of the justice of its 
 application, but of its ultimate utility; 
 Some of it might have been applied to 
 promote education, particularly if we 
 look to the northern parts of England; 
 but real education is more trulj^ pro- 
 moted by exciting general activity 
 through the division of property than by 
 any other means ; by assisting those 
 who are otherwise destined for learned 
 professions, and thus enabling them to 
 receive an education superior to that 
 which their own pecuniary resources! 
 would supply. Where the expense of 
 a classical education is wholl\- provided 
 for the indigent, the youth whose loti 
 was cast in a lower sphere of life is 
 
 ^ It may not be amiss here to observe, that the 
 stipend of the secular clergy was itself lessened 
 by the Reformation, as nmch of the pay of the 
 curate depended on what he obtained by saying 
 masses for the poor, and on different small fees 
 which the various offices of the church of Rome; 
 greatly multiplied. All personal tithes gradually 
 ceased to be oaid after the Reformation. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 75 
 
 forced up into an unnatural competition 
 with his superiors. For the aid of talent 
 and genius, when found among the 
 lowest ranks of life, charitable founda- 
 titfns are a national blessing ; but surely 
 in this point we abound ; and though 
 some of the wealth in (|uestion might 
 have been advantageously turned into 
 this channel, yet we are speaking of the 
 enormous revenues of the church which 
 were then dissipated, and which were 
 much larger than these objects could 
 require. In academical establishments 
 much was accomplished by Henry, so 
 that as far as the universities are con- 
 cerned, the south of England has rather 
 reason to be thankful for what has been 
 done, than to repine that this branch 
 was less extensive. This observation, 
 however, cannot be extended to the 
 northern counties ; and in these, a place 
 of academical education seems a great 
 desideratum, particularly for the clergy, 
 as the general poverty of the benefices 
 will not allow those who are candidates 
 for them to incur the ordinary expenses 
 of either of the present universities.^ 
 
 § 252. The blessings which have 
 flowed from the London hospitals seem 
 clearly to ])rove, that much might have 
 been usefully applied to similar pur- 
 poses in other parts of the kingdom ; 
 but public munificence has amply sup- 
 plied this want, and no one can doubt 
 that where such places of relief owe 
 their origin and support to subscriptions, 
 they possess a greater likelihood of pro- 
 moting the end for which they are des- 
 tined. The question does not simply 
 resolve itself into the discussion, whether 
 such and such sums might not have 
 been beneficially em])loyed in education 
 and charity ; but whether the conse- 
 quences of the distribution of property 
 have not com riK-d a laro;er sum to these 
 very piir|i(.M'^. and prnviil(>d that all the 
 money thus eiriployed should be more 
 properly apjdied. Landed property be- 
 longing to bodies corporate is generally 
 much less really productive than the 
 same quantity in the hands of an indi- 
 vidual. The temjjorary nature of the 
 tenure on both sides prevents any very 
 strenuous exertions towards improve- 
 ment ; neither are willing to forego pre- 
 
 ' This was written some time before the splen- 
 did plan of the church of Durham was published 
 to the world. 
 
 sent advantage for the sake of future 
 gain ; so that the property itself becomes 
 more valuable by the change of masters, 
 
 j while the growing wants of increasing 
 prosperity will turn as much wealth into 
 
 I the course of education and charity as 
 would have been employed in it upon 
 
 I the other scheme ; add to which, that 
 
 j the supply of an open competition is not 
 only more sure to be adequate to the 
 demand, but the very freedom of it pre- 
 vents that lethargy of repletion, under 
 which wealthy bodies are but too apt to 
 suffer. 
 
 § 253. The estates, of which the 
 church was deprived, were thrown into 
 the hands of those who could not be 
 entitled to them upon any plea ; and 
 while at the moment the nation was the 
 loser, the court favourite alone derived 
 advantage from the spoil. The poor 
 were robbed of the rude hospitality with 
 which the monasteries abounded ; they 
 were no longer provided with the same 
 number of spiritual guides, who, with 
 all their imperfections, must at least 
 have equalled in point of information 
 their lay contemporaries, and who, by- 
 being scattered through the country, 
 must have furnished employment to a 
 large portion of the lower orders. The 
 farmer lost a kind and indulgent land- 
 lord, whose place was frequently sup- 
 plied by a griping spendthrift; at the 
 hospitable board which his own farm 
 supplied, he was always a welcome 
 guest, whenever he chose to partake of 
 the liberality of the convent : the new 
 proprietor, under whom he held, was 
 occupied with the affairs of the nation 
 and the court; and was scarcely known 
 to him, but as the receiver of his hard- 
 earned rents. The higher orders, who 
 were not directly benefited by the plun- 
 der, felt the want of corrodies for their 
 old servants,'' and were often distressed 
 in providing for younger children, who 
 would have been otherwise destined for 
 the church. 
 
 § 254. With all this in their favour, 
 it seems wonderful that monasteries 
 could have been overthrown with so 
 much ease and rapidity; and for this 
 difficulty we shall hardly find a solution, 
 unless we consider the arbitrary power 
 
 2 The founder, or his representative, had ge- 
 nerally a reserved right of quartering a certain 
 number of persons on the convent. 
 
76 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 of Henry, and how much the clergy had 
 made themselves the objects of hatred 
 among the people by their vices, their 
 superstition, and their tyrannical per- 
 secutions. As it was, the change pro- 
 duced a most formidable rebellion ; and 
 if the people could have foresee!) the 
 extent of the evil which this transfer of 
 property was likely to produce, they 
 would have resisted any such alteration ; 
 but fortunately they did not : for, had 
 their resistance been effectual, the coun- 
 try would in all probability have been 
 injured as to its true interests. Those 
 who had become thus easily possessed 
 of property were in the course of time 
 forced to part with their ill-acquired 
 wealth ; and it is an observation worthy 
 of attention, that few families really 
 profited by church lands.' This effect 
 need not be attributed to the immediate 
 vengeance of Heaven, (for the land of 
 laymen may be as truly dedicated to 
 God as that of the church,) but arose 
 from this principle, that the rapacious 
 are generally prodigal ; and that however 
 property may be divided for a time, the 
 industrious and virtuous will sooner or 
 later become its possessors. And thus, 
 before the expiration of many years, 
 the spoils of the church were thrown 
 into those hands in which they would 
 produce the greatest good to the body 
 politic. 
 
 § 255. But the immediate effect was 
 not at all that of promoting the welfare 
 of this land. It was not the quiet trans- 
 fer of wealth, accompanied by activity 
 and prudence ; but the forced dissolution 
 of the right of property, and attended 
 withwasteand destruction. The tenants 
 of the monastery were in many cases 
 deprived of their leases, and the rents 
 forced up to an unprecedented height. 
 Those persons who possessed reserved 
 rents on the lands of religious houses 
 found such difficulty in obtaining their 
 rights, when the property fell into the 
 hands of the king, or a powerful subject, 
 that they were often obliged to relinquish 
 the claim ; and where, as was frequently 
 the case, the family of the founder had 
 retained legally, or by tacit consent, the 
 right of presentation to the preferments, 
 the new owners of the soil deprived 
 them of their privilege. Attempts were 
 
 ' See Spelman on Sacrilege. 
 
 indeed made to obviate these evils ; but 
 who shall be bold enough to presume 
 to set limits to violence, when the first 
 principles of justice are destroyed? Or 
 who shall check the rapacity of plunder, 
 when the rights of property are S3-stema- 
 tically disregarded? 
 
 § 250. Barbarism seems to have joined 
 hand in hand with avarice in the work 
 of destruction ; the movable parts of 
 religious houses were quickly carried 
 off and sold, and the dismantled build- 
 ing left to the pitiless ravages of time, 
 a lasting monument of how much the 
 Reformation cost us ! The contents, 
 as well as the fabric, suffered in the 
 storm ; the libraries were left to the 
 ignorant possessor of the soil, or pil- 
 laged for the sake of the parchment 
 and paper which they contained ; so 
 that the loss to English history is be- 
 yond conception ; for the monks were 
 the only historians of the times,- and in 
 almost every monastery a record was 
 kept, not only of the transactions of the 
 society, but the political events of the 
 period were regularly inserted ; and 
 when we have passed beyond, com- 
 paratively speaking, modern times, the 
 monastic chronicles form the only docu- 
 ments for history. 
 
 § 257. The improvements in agricul- 
 ture did not of course keep pace "with 
 the alteration in the state of property, 
 and the holders of large estates, in or- 
 der to obtain th<? highest rents, found it 
 necessary to convert much of their land 
 into pasture. This circumstance re- 
 duced the ancient cultivators of the soil 
 to a miserable state of precarious exist- 
 ence, and greatly promoted vagrancy 
 and disorders, for which succeeding 
 legislators in vain sought a remedy, till 
 the establishment of the poor laws, in 
 the reign of Queen Elizabeth, connect- 
 ed the prosperity of the lower orders 
 with the interests of the landlord. By 
 the dispersion of so much property, 
 many individuals were forced to earn 
 their bread by labour, who would other- 
 wise have wasted their lives in sloth 
 and inactivity ; but the mass of persons 
 who were thus driven to exertion were 
 not provided by education for cultivat- 
 ing any higher branches of even manual 
 labour, and the nation found itself over- 
 
 2 Fuller, 334. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF 
 
 ENGLAND, 
 
 77 
 
 burdened with agricultural workmen at 
 a time when the population did not 
 amount to one-half its present num- 
 bers. 
 
 § 258. We may easily conceive that 
 this must have been the case, when we 
 consider the amount of the sum trans- 
 ferred, which, according to Speed, was 
 not less than an income of one hundred 
 and fifty thousand pounds, scarcely if 
 at all below that of all the other church 
 property.^ In our own days we have 
 experienced the stagnation and distress 
 produced by the change from a state 
 of war to peace, and an alteration in 
 
 the value of money, together with the 
 want of employment which such causes 
 have occasioned, and this accompanied 
 with no violence, and taking place at a 
 moment when the diffusion of know- 
 ledge had opened every avenue for 
 adventure. We may conceive, then, 
 a forcible transfer of property, not re- 
 latively less than what the church at 
 present possess in this kingdom, at a 
 period when the employment of re- 
 sources was little understood, and when 
 the religion, with the rites of which 
 these establishments were connected, 
 was one which occupied many indi- 
 
 • There is much difficiihy in forming an accu- 
 rate estimate of the value of the property so 
 transferred; but in the absence of substantial in- 
 formation, some readers may be pleased with 
 having even an approximation to the real sum 
 
 placed before them, and will excuse the author 
 for presenting such data as are within his reach, 
 defective as they are. Speed says Henry trans- 
 ferred 161,109i. 'Js. "id. to temporal uses. 
 
 £ s. d. 
 
 According to his abstract of dissolved monasteries, they amounted lu ^ 171 qio , oj. 
 1,100 in number, and their value was, per annum, - . . 5 ^'ii^i'i * 
 
 Among these, I believe that seven cathedrals are enumerated, (Canter- "j 
 bury, Durham, Ely, Gloucester, Westminster, Winchester, Wor- J- 
 cester,) the income of which amounted to .... J 13,826 8 7J 
 
 Reducing the sum total of the suppressed monasteries to - - - 157,483 15 7^ 
 
 Subsequent foundations: 
 
 Five bishoprics: Bristol, Chester, Gloucester, Oxford, P pcq ^ 
 
 Peterborough, at the value in the king's book, 5 ^'-'^-^^ o 
 
 Westminster, at the same average .... 371 14 3^ 
 
 Sixteen chapters (the stalls) including Christ Church,) s q<o d o 
 
 Oxford, (Speed) 5 ^'■'^^ " ^ 
 
 8,172 13 114 
 
 Leaving, independent of 'R-inity Cambridge, and the London hospitals - 149,311 1 8 
 The approximation to the value of the other church preferment, at the same date, is as follows : — 
 
 8331 benefices (in Speed) £108,183 6 3 
 
 Bishoprics and stalls (at one-eighth of this) 13,522 15 0 
 
 £121,705 1 3 
 
 (The one-eighth is taken as an approximation to the present proportion.) 
 
 Mr. Nasniith, in this edition of Tanner's No- 
 titia, has given us from the Liber Regis, and other 
 sources, (Lingard, vi. Note E. p. 503,) as accurate 
 an account as can be expected of the annual reve- 
 
 No. of houses. Orders. 
 
 nue of all the monastic houses. The result is I 
 following. (N. B. This must regard the larj 
 monasteries only.) 
 
 86 Benedictines, - ^ £65,877 14 0 
 
 20 Cluniacs, 4,972 9 2^ 
 
 9 Carthusians, 2.947 15 4:^ 
 
 01 Cistercians, 18,691 12 G 
 
 73 Austins, 33,027 1 11 
 
 32 Premonstratensians, - - . . . . 4,807 14 1 
 
 25 Gilbertins, 2,421 13 9 
 
 3 Fonfevraud nuns, 825 8 6J 
 
 3 Minoresses, 5.48 10 6 
 
 1 Bridgettines, 1,731 8 9? 
 
 2 Bonhommes, 859 5 11 J 
 
 Knights hospitallers, 5,394 6 5i 
 
 Friars, 809 11 
 
 142,914 12 9i 
 30,000 0 0 
 
 930 172,914 12 9^ 
 
 (Fuller, p. 312.) 
 
 This result, drawn from sources totally different [ no very considerable error has been committed i 
 from the former, is sufficiently near to show that | the investigation. 
 
 g2 
 
78 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 viduals in its services, and those of | 
 every different rank in society, and we 
 shall be able to form some idea of the 
 evils and difficulties wkh which this 
 change was for the time attended. 
 The acts by which it was brought 
 about were undoubtedly legal, for they 
 were sanctioned by the parliament ; 
 and the supreme body in a kingdom 
 must have the right' to disj)ose of the 
 property of any of its members ; but 
 the di:^solution was carried on in opposi- 
 tion to every principle of sound policy, 
 with a spirit wliich nothing can justify, 
 and produced effects at the moment 
 highly prejudicial to society. 
 
 § 259. The ultimate result was un- 
 questionably beneficial ; for it turned 
 all this wealth from a channel in which 
 it was sivincf birth to little activit}% eitlier 
 of mind or body, into the hands of pri- 
 vate ])ossessors, who are of all people 
 the most likely to promote the pros- 
 perity of the coinmiiiiity. It is indeed 
 probable that a Inrgi r portion might 
 luive been einj)loyi'd with advantage 
 on hospitals and places of education, 
 but that this sum ought not to have 
 been considerable ; and there can be 
 little doubt that England would have 
 been richer, had the impropriations 
 bc(^n restored. = I mention this, be- 
 cause I believe that the value of a pro- 
 per provision for tlie ])arochial clergy 
 is often not undri-.-tnod, and often mis- 
 represented. TIail «-e nev(n- heard of 
 sucli an estalilisliment, and did we first 
 mei'l in some I'topian scheme with 
 
 ' The worJ riii-lil is iisctl in its e.Mn nic spiisc. 
 'I'lirv luve a imwcr \v)iii-h ro niiihinrv in Ens- 
 .•:,r.romrm!i.-i. Tli.- In^v cl..r*. un.ffrc-rmin 
 Ml,.. l u.rrs. .'.viivo .-111 ii..|ivi,lnal ol his pro. 
 
 r,i-'c. s !niii I.I .M'U it. 'I'lir .,iH>iion in iTnlil'y 'is 
 01, (• ol' pnlii'v ; I'lii scuiul policv and justice aru 
 \hc saiiir lliiuu'. it IS in tins tense llial llie par- 
 lianionl liave the di- pnsal ol ilie rcvcmics of the 
 elinrrh. 
 
 - Sre i>i r - ,ni llir i!l cfleots 
 
 I >l iiiiprM, M ;i i. i' • V, . I 1 1 I - ^peecli, 
 
 .T:iriii;ir\ i ..^ 'i , ' " - ' : \ :7 ;) and 
 
 law, nnil. i- ilu; Ih ml .-i i:rii. i |'i-(iviiliii^ lor tlie 
 Fodrer ( ' l< ri;\', iiiipi .'pi i.i: loiis are saiil lo lie radix 
 
 such a project as the following, we 
 should probably hardly imagine any- 
 thing more perfect : that in every 
 small district of the country a certain 
 quantity of property was set apart, in 
 order that some individual of the com- 
 munity, selected from any class, might 
 be educated in a superior manner, and 
 appointed to the superintendence of the 
 spiritual and temporal wants of this lit- 
 tle community ; that he was furnished 
 with a residence among them, and with 
 the means of relieving the poor; and 
 that all this was provided by a grant 
 from the landed property of the coun- 
 try, made so long ago that it existed 
 before any timure at present on record. 
 I imagine that if this plan were thus 
 offered to our notice, no one would 
 doubt of its utility or wisdom ; and if 
 in practice it be found less pure than it 
 seems in theory, if the least promising 
 of his sons be selected by the lay pro- 
 prietor to hold the family living, if large 
 preferments bo given to unworthy per- 
 sons, it should not be forgotten, that 
 directly or indirectly the laity are the 
 patrons of the great mass of preferment 
 in this country. Nor ought we to over- 
 look this fact also, that a large portion 
 of the livings of Enofland are inade- 
 quate to repay the actual expenses of 
 such a liberal education as is gene- 
 rally bestowed on the clersry of this 
 land. 
 
 It would be absurd to expect that a 
 body possessed of such power and 
 wealth as has been granted to ecclesi- 
 astical persons should be free from 
 numerous assaults, in a country where 
 free discussion on every subject is al- 
 lowed ; but it cannot be inconsistent 
 with toleration, which is the glory of 
 our church, or with charity, which cha- 
 racterizes our religion, to pray, that the 
 attacks of our enemies may induce the 
 church to remedy the evils which exist 
 among ns ; and that those who arc 
 ignorant enough to revile our establish- 
 ment, may be convinced of their error 
 by the benefits which they shall receive 
 from their spiritual guides. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 79 
 
 APPENDIX B. TO CHAP. V. 
 
 STATE OF RELIGIOUS OPINIONS IN THE CHURCH AT THE END 
 HENRY VIII. 
 
 THE REIGN OF 
 
 71. Three works published by authority. 272. The arrangement of the Thirty-nine Articles fol- 
 lowed. 273. The Trinity. 274. Standard of faith. 275, 276. Points of faith referring to indivi- 
 dual Christians. 277. Points referring to the church. 278. The Seven Sacraments. 279. Pe- 
 nance ; Orders; Confirmation; Extreme Unction. 280. Lord's Supper; Matrimony. 281. 
 Traditions ; supremacy of the king. 282. Observations. 283. Points still wanting reformation. 
 
 § 271. This abstract is made from 
 works put forth by authority, which 
 are in number three : 
 
 I. Articles devised by the Kinges 
 Highnes Majestie, to stablyshe Christen 
 quietnes and unitie amonge us — 15;$G. 
 
 II. Tile Institution of a Christian 
 Man, &c., This was dedicated 
 by the bishops to the king, and is there- 
 fore called the Bishops' 13ook. 
 
 III. A Necessary Doctrine and Eru- 
 dition for any Christian Man, set forth 
 by the King's Majesty of England, &c., 
 1513. This was addressed by the king 
 to his people, and is therefore called 
 the King's Book.' 
 
 It seems to be the generally received 
 opinion,^ that the doctrines of the 
 
 1 Tlie three have been of late printed in one 
 volume, under the direcnon of the late bishop of 
 Oxford, (Dr. Lloyd,) at the university press, and 
 are ihu-j placed within the reach of every student 
 in iheoloijy. They are entitled. Formularies of 
 Faith, put firth by authority during the reign of 
 Henry VIIT. 8vo. 0.\ford, 182,t. In these ob- 
 servations. No. n. IS called the Instuuiion. III. 
 the Erudition. In the preface to the Three Pri- 
 mers, primed 18.i4, by my late fnend Dr. burton, 
 Reg. Prof of Div. Oxi.. he shows that many 
 parts of William Marshall's Primer. have 
 been introduced into the Institution. No. II. 
 
 2 Probably, ainong those who h.id access to 
 the Scriptures, the opinions ol the reformed 
 church wbre gaininir crraiuiil. T he kina had 
 made a great and Instv polincal siep, wliirli was 
 hkely to introduce docirinal chamres, lo which he 
 had no inelinaiion. and ihcretore rcirarcd iho.^e 
 steps which ho had appareiiilv taken. (l>urnct. i. 
 274, 28(5, and Rec. No. 21. fol.) In 1540, be- 
 tween the dates ol these piii.lu; iiions. two com- 
 
 had 
 
 nation of the n i ■ > m 
 
 monies of tiie < h:; : 
 reus answers nmr. i m ;i,r ••■n. 
 number, nature, and rih .Mi v ; (- o 
 the use of Chrism ihcrem : the nai 
 tion, and the difference beiweei 
 Priests; Confession and L.xcomn 
 Extreme Unction. These contal 
 formation. The other committee drew up a Ra- 
 tionale of the Church [service. (."Slrvpe, E. M. ii. 
 Rec. No, 109.) a sort ol Explanation of the mean- 
 ing of the Ceremonies used in the church of 
 Rome, (Collier, u. 191 :) but it does not appear 
 
 of 
 
 church of England were retrograde 
 during the period in which these trea- 
 tises were written ; so that we might ex- 
 pect to find the last of the three the least 
 distant from the tenets of the Roman 
 church; and these expectations upon 
 examination are in some degree real- 
 ized. With regard to the two latter 
 works, which in all material points are 
 the same, it will be useful to specify 
 the most marked differences as we pro- 
 ceed in discussing the general contents 
 of the latter, which was the standard 
 of faith when Henry died. 
 
 § 272. The Articles themselves are 
 in a great measure inserted verbatim, 
 or nearly so, into the Institution, and 
 from thence copied into the Erudition ; 
 but in one case, in which a material 
 alteration is observable, it consists of 
 the introduction of opinions which are 
 less at variance with the doctrines of 
 our church. In the exposition of the 
 honour to be paid to saints, the Chris- 
 tian is, m the Articles, bj-ii), directed to 
 address them, as advancers of our pray- 
 ers to Christ, the only Mediator ; where- 
 as what is said m the latter tracts^ places 
 the intercession of the saints in heaven* 
 on the same irround as that of the mi- 
 nisters of Christ s church on earth.* 
 
 jm \V 
 
 ras ever made of this, (Strype in- 
 1. 5ii). that It was quashed by 
 :-'ss It served to direct those who 
 ■ration in the service book, " Por- 
 duin usum Sarum noviter impres- 
 nniis puisatum mendis. In quo 
 lo, Poiiiihci ascriptum omittitur, 
 quoe chrisiianissimo nostri R-egis 
 am. Lxcii.ssuiii Londini per Ed- 
 ■hurch, 1541." 
 
 Formularies, 14. i Ibid. 70, 237. 
 
 ^ With rcL'ard to Good "W orks, there is perhaps 
 a slicrlit alteration. (99. 372.) in which the Erudi- 
 tion is nearer to the church ot England; and an 
 expression of the ■■ merits ■ ot the saints being 
 conveved to the whole body of Christians, in the 
 Institution. (53 and 58,) which is left out in the 
 Erudition. The power of priestly absolution is 
 more strongly marked m the Institution, (98, 
 
80 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 The very dates, indeed, would lead 
 us to expect no great difference between 
 the two first worlis, though the change 
 of opinion indicated by the passing of 
 the act of the Six Articles, in 1539, 
 might direct us to look for it between 
 the Institution and the Erudition. 
 
 The order which it will be desirable 
 to adopt in the following investigation 
 is probably that of the Thirty-nine Ar- 
 ticles of our own chureh ; for the stu- 
 dent in divinity will thus more readily 
 discover the points in which we disa- 
 gree. The tract itself is arranged on 
 a totally different principle. It explains 
 successively the Greed, the Seven Sa- 
 craments, the Ten Commandments, the 
 Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, and 
 finishes with the exposition of certain 
 articles on Freewill, Justification, Good 
 Works, and the praying for souls de- 
 parted. The elementary nature of the 
 subject-matter explained prevents, on 
 many points, any great difference of 
 opinion ; and the difficulty which ne- 
 cessarily exists in marking the shades 
 of progressive alterations must be 
 pleaded in excuse, if in any particulars 
 these distinctions should appear to be 
 incorrectly laid down in the following 
 pages.' 
 
 § 27ii. I. — V. In the first division of 
 the Thirty-nine Articles, there is of 
 course no material difference, as the 
 church of Rome holds the doctrine of 
 the Trinity in common with the church 
 of England. 
 
 § 271. VI. — VIII. In the second divi- 
 sion, wherein the basis or groundwork 
 of our faith is marked out, the Erudi- 
 tion coincides, in fact, to a great degree, 
 with the church of England, though in 
 principle it differs from it most widely." 
 As a standard of faith, it admits the 
 whole body and canon of the Bible,' 
 (i. e., the Apocrypha and all,) the three 
 Creeds, the decisions of the four first 
 
 260,) and the unlearned are in the Erudilion di- 
 rected to say the Patcr-noster in their mother 
 tongue, (33.5.) There is also an e-xcellent tract 
 on Freewill in the Erudition, (359.) which does 
 not e.\ist in the other ; as to the particulars 
 wherein the Erudition had gone back towards the 
 see of Rome, see 283. 
 
 ' The doctrines of the church of England are 
 not here stated, since they may be found by con- 
 sulting the Thirly-nine Articles, which, as they 
 are printed in the Prayer Book, must be within 
 the reach of every reader. 
 
 2 Form. 5,61,237. 
 
 » Ibid. 324, 160, 210, 375. 
 
 councils, and directs that the interpreta- 
 tion of the word of God shall take 
 place according to the meaning of the 
 words of Scripture, and as the holy 
 and approved doctors of the church do 
 agreeably entreat and defend.* The 
 church of England neglects not the 
 assistance of the holy fathers in the in- 
 terpretation of Scripture : it merely re- 
 jects the authority of such interpreta- 
 tion, and receives the Creeds, not upon 
 tradition, but because they do agree 
 with the Bible. 
 
 The authority of the moral law is 
 established in the adoption of the Deca- 
 logue as a rule of conduct; and in the 
 rejection of the ceremonial ritual, all 
 Christian churches agree. There is, 
 however, one observation which is 
 worthy of attention, in which it is asserted 
 that the fourth commandment does. not 
 now pertain to Christians, though Chris- 
 tians arc bound by it to the observance 
 of the Sunday, and other holydays 
 appointed by the church.^ It is not in- 
 deed very clear what is meant to be 
 conveyed by this exposition ; for if it 
 only refers to the change in the day of 
 the week, the alteration has been ad- 
 mitted since the times of the apostles, 
 but as it now stands, it might certainly 
 be extended to a length which few 
 Christians would be willing to admit. 
 
 §275. IX.— XYIII. In the third 
 class of articles, in which points of faith 
 referring to individual Christians are 
 treated of, it will be necessary to examine 
 each separate article. 
 
 IX. The doctrine of original sin is 
 fully admitted," though the exposition 
 of it, in the Institution, is much more 
 precise and copious,' in declaring the 
 corruption of man's heart always abid- 
 ing in him. 
 
 X. Freewill' is fully explained in an 
 excellent little tract at the end of the 
 Erudition, in which the positions cor- 
 respond with our present article : I can- 
 not help recommending it to the atten- 
 tion of my readers, particularly the con- 
 cluding paragraph: "All men be also 
 to be monished, and chiefly preachers,' 
 that in this high matter, they, looking 
 on both sides, so attemper and moderate 
 themselves, that neither they so preach 
 
 * Form. 227, 61. 
 6 Ibid. 331, 363, 169. 
 8 Ibid. 359. 
 
 Ibid. 306, 142. 
 Ibid. 171. 
 ' Ibid. 362. 
 
Chap. V.] 
 
 CHURCH O 
 
 F ENGLAND. 
 
 81 
 
 the grace of God, that they take away 
 thereby freewill, nor, on the other side, 
 so extol freewill that injury be done to 
 the grace of God." 
 
 XI. Justification is attributed to the 
 free mercy and grace of God, through 
 Jesus Christ, as its final and efficient 
 cause and repentance, or penance, and 
 a lively faith, are declared to be neces- 
 sary to our receiving of the same : but 
 on this point the Institution is more 
 clear. It asserts, that the justification 
 of mankind' could not be brought to 
 pass by any works of our own, but by 
 faith in the name and power of Jesu 
 Christ, and by the gifts and graces of 
 his Holy Spirit. That our acceptance 
 hereafter will take place," not through 
 works of righteousness which we shall 
 have done, but by the only grace, good- 
 ness, and mercy of God, and by and for 
 the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. 
 
 XII. Although rather more efficacy 
 may be attributed to good works than 
 in our Article,^ yet the total inability of 
 man to do any thing pleasing to God of 
 his own power is distinctly and clearly 
 declared." 
 
 XIII. , XIV. Of works before justifi- 
 cation, and of supererogation,' nothing 
 is said ; for though it be asserted in the 
 Institution," that the graces and merits 
 of the church shall be applied to every 
 member, yet the words do not necessa- 
 rily imply any idea of supererogation. 
 In these articles, XII. — XIV., the Eru- 
 dition is the nearest to the opinions of 
 our church. 
 
 § 27(;. XV. The universal sinfulness 
 of man is frequently implied; the effi- 
 cacy of Christ's offering, as it were, 
 assumes his freedom from sin ; and the 
 Joririne itself is distinctly asserted." 
 
 XVI. The general efficacy of repent- 
 inci'. through Christ, pervades the whole 
 jf what is said on penance ; and that 
 hi' justified may fall, and rise again to 
 i! " iii'ss of life, is asserted. 
 
 X\'II. In the doctrine of predestina- 
 ion, there is a diffi^rence between the 
 ■.wo tracts : neither of them asserts it in 
 that distinct manner in which it is con- 
 
 1 Form. 368. = See ^ 283. ^ form. 36. 
 
 Mhid. GO. 99. 6 Ibid. 372. 
 
 ' They are indirectly rejected, when it is said, 
 ' Bv <nmd works we mean not the superstitious 
 .voriis of men's own invention," (F. 370,) wherein 
 nnnv called religious have trusted. 
 
 ' Form. 53. ? Ibid. 65, 67, 232. >» Ibid. 367. 
 11 
 
 tained in this article," but the Institution 
 admits the principle ; the Erudition 
 teaches it not, because it is not clearly 
 taught in Scripture and the doctors.'^ 
 The universality of the offer of grace 
 and redemption is stated,'^ so that it is 
 the fault of men themselves, that they 
 reject and resist grace. 
 
 XVIII. The article of obtaining sal- 
 vation only through Christ is implied, 
 though not asserted tolidem verbis^* 
 
 On this class of articles, then, we 
 may observe, that the doctrines here 
 established nearly resemble those of 
 our own church, though in some parti- 
 culars the propositions are not advanced 
 with that uncompromising distinctness 
 of attributing all to God's mercy, with- 
 out the intervention of man's works, 
 which a further study of the subject 
 dictated. Whatever was vitally im- 
 portant on these subjects is asserted ; 
 but the writer often seems to attribute 
 an importance to man's own co-opera- 
 tion in his justification, which he sub- 
 sequently modifies, so as to give the 
 whole glory to God;'^ yet the fear of 
 admitting Antinomian laxity, in estab- 
 lishing Christian faith, must j)lead a 
 substantial excuse for those who had 
 not yet practically learnt that good 
 works do spring out, necessarily, of a 
 true and lively faith. 
 
 § 277. In the fourth division of the 
 Articles, it will probably be advisable 
 to continue the same method of examin- 
 ing them. 
 
 XIX. — XXL The doctrines contained 
 in the nineteenth article'* are, to a cer- 
 tain degree, in accordance with those ex- 
 pressed in the Erudition, excepting that 
 the breach with the church of Rome is, 
 in the Thirty-nine Articles, distinctly 
 brought forward; whereas the framer 
 of the Erudition wished, if possible, to 
 have preserved a communion with her, 
 as far as was consistent with his ideas 
 of the truth. There is, therefore, no 
 mention of the errors of the church of 
 Rome in matters of faith ;*'' and while 
 the independence of each national church 
 is asserted, it is added, that a diversity 
 of rites does not destroy the unity of the 
 whole. The remaining positions of 
 
 " Form. 53, 52. '2 Ibid. 221. 
 
 " Ibid. 360, 365. Ibid. 36, 363. 
 
 'Mbid. 368, 371, 2. '6 Ibid. 245, 55. 
 " Ibid. 247. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 these Articles arc not touched upon ; 
 for at this time no doubt was entertained 
 of the authority of the church (i. e. the 
 king^ to ordain what she pleased, and 
 nothing- is said of general councils. 
 
 XXII. The people are directed to 
 abstain from reasoning on purgatory,' 
 inasmuch as the state of the dead is un- 
 certain, and pardons from Rome are 
 called abuses, and unequivocally re- 
 jected ; but prayers for the dead, masses 
 and exequies for the whole Christian 
 community of the quick and dead, are 
 denominated charitable works, and 
 approved of. In the remaining part of 
 the Article, the Erudition speaks a lan- 
 guage at total variance with our church. 
 Images are allowed of as books for the 
 unlearned,- and no objection is made 
 to adoration or prayer made before 
 images, provided it be addressed to God. 
 The invocation of saints, ^ that is, the 
 asldiig for their prayers, is approved of, 
 as corresponding with a request of a 
 similar nature, addressed to the minis- 
 ters of God's word,-" or a faithful Chris- 
 tian brother wlio wns still on earth. 
 
 XXIII. , XXn'. ( 'oucerning minister- 
 ing in the conij-ren ation, tli^M-e was, at 
 that time, no difference of opinion ; and 
 excepting in the translation of the litany 
 in the king's Primer, tlie use of the La- 
 tin service had mU been altered. 
 
 § 278. XXV. The Erudition still re- 
 tains the use of the seven sacraments;^ 
 but it must not be forgotten, that this 
 question is, in a great degree, merely 
 concerning the name, for, at the same 
 time, it makes a distinction as to the 
 necessity of the sacraments, and quali- 
 fies what it says about them, so as to be 
 much less distant from the church of 
 England than might be; supposed at 
 first sight.'' The three necessary sacra- 
 ments ari', Bapli-i.i, IViiance, and the 
 Lord's Supper. The other four are, as 
 divini institutions, called sacraments, 
 but are not binding, of necessity, on 
 
 ' Form. 3T.5, 211. = Ibid. 299. 137. 
 
 3 Ibid. 237, 70. ' See <S 272. 
 
 ^ This part of ihe Erudition dif!'i-rs coiisidorably 
 in point of form and arran^rnioni from the Insii- 
 liition, but the doctrines do not peein to bo ma- 
 terially ahered. According to Burnet, (Rec. 
 No. 21, book iii.) the whole subject had been 
 examined with great care by a committee of di- 
 vines, whose answers upon each head are severally 
 recorded, and strongly mark thejudicious caution 
 with which this work was carried on. 
 
 e Form. 293, 129. 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 every one. The minister of the church 
 of England would say, that baptism, 
 repentance, and the Lord's supper, were 
 necessary for all men, though he wouH 
 esteem repemance merely as a Christian 
 state of mind, and totally difl'erent from 
 the other two ; and he would acknow- 
 ledge that the other four were, when 
 divested of some superstitious non- 
 essentials, religious observances, which 
 the church of England has done well in 
 retaining among her services. Whethet 
 we denominate any or all of them sacra- 
 ments, must be allowed to be a question, 
 of human prudence. The term, pro-, 
 perly speaking, is not used in Scripture, 
 and if ^ur^r-^ptot' be applied in an eccle- 
 siastical sense, as equivalent to sacra- 
 ment, it is given to matrimony alone. 
 The question really is, whether the dif- 
 ference of being instituted by Christ 
 himself, personally, constitutes such a 
 distinction as to warrant the church in 
 affixing a separate name. In this, the 
 Erudition differs from the church of 
 England. 
 
 In baptism, the only difference which 
 exists* consists in retaining the use of 
 the chrism. 
 
 §279. It should be observed concern- 
 ing penance, or its almost equivalent 
 term, repentance,^ that the sacramental 
 part consists in the absolution given by 
 the priest ; and that absolution pro- 
 nounced authoritatively to an indivi- 
 dual, unless it be accompanied by 
 confession, or at least a declaration of 
 the grounds of confidence in the peni- 
 tent, is but a mockery of religion. 
 When, therefore, I have stated what 
 my own idea of the doctrine of the 
 church of England is on this point. :'lor 
 I believe that many men, equally e-oi' 1 
 judges of the subject, might differ from 
 me herein,) I shall proceed to point out 
 the differences which the Erudition ex- 
 hibits. 
 
 In order that sinners may be made 
 partakers of the only remedy for sin, 
 the death and merits of our Lord and ^ 
 Saviour Jesus Christ,'" the conviction 
 of sin within ourselves, and the humble 
 acknowledgment of it to God, is abso- 
 lutely necessary ; for which purpose, ■ 
 
 ' Ephes. v. 32. 
 
 f Form. 292. 127. « Ibid. 257. 
 
 Service of the Visitation of the Sick; and E»-. 
 hortation to the Lord's Supper. 
 
Chap, v.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 83 
 
 the confessini^ our tvaiiscfrcssions to 
 our breltircn, particularly 'o lln' minis- 
 ters of t!od"s word, is iVefjUfiKly "so- 
 ful ; and in cases wliero tiif mind is 
 troubled, the special declaration of 
 God's merciful patdon to the individual 
 may beneficially be made by those to 
 whom "the word of God" (/. e. "the 
 keys of the kingdom of heaven") has 
 authoritatively been intrusted. 
 
 The church of Rome wmild, I bt-lieve, 
 say, that the confession and absolution 
 were, humanly speaking, absolutely ne- 
 cessary for salvation. The medium 
 which the Erudition observes is this ; 
 contrition would send the penitent to 
 the priest,' he would confess his sins, 
 submit himself to discipline, as a part 
 of the satisfaction for them, in order to 
 show his willingness to return to God ; 
 always understanding that the real and 
 whole satisfaction dejiended on the me- 
 rits of Christ, while w hat he did himself 
 was but the fruit of a contrite heart; 
 and that upon this he would receive 
 absolution authoritatively pronounced. 
 At the same time the confession to the 
 priest is said to be commanded by the 
 church from its utility;- and the uni- 
 versal efficacy of repentance, even 
 without absolution, (in the absence of 
 a priest,) or of good works, (provided 
 there bo no time for the sinni'r to per- 
 form them,) is fully declared. 
 
 On this view of the subject, it is evi- 
 dent that the Erudition is much nearer 
 to the church of Rome than to ourselves, 
 and the point is of much more import- 
 ance than it appears at first sight ; for 
 though in practice our church juay too 
 much neglect cniifi>ssion, and the eon- 
 sequent exercise of the priestly autlinr- 
 ity, yet the opposite extreme is far 
 more dangerous, as it converts the 
 priesthood into thi> jud',"-es, not the 
 guides, of the peopb' ; sinre the undue 
 influence of the l\oman Catholic clergy 
 over their flocks does in reality hinge 
 on the necessity -of absolution in ordi- 
 nary cases. 
 
 The question concerning Orders, be- 
 tween the church of England and the 
 church of Rome, regards chiefly the 
 name, whether or no they shall be 
 called a sacrament ; but on this subject 
 there is a point which requires observa- 
 
 ' Form. 259. 2 ibid. 261. 
 
 I tion, as the Institution and Erudition 
 differ from both,^ in declaring that 
 there are only two orders mentioned 
 in Scripture, those of deacons or minis- 
 ters, and of priests or bishops ; and the 
 Institiuion " seems to speak of bishops 
 as a human appointment, in the same 
 manner as the jurisdiction of archbi- 
 shops, metropolitans, &c., over bishops, 
 is declared to be an arrangement made 
 1)y iiien : the papal supremacy is totally 
 reji^cled, and kings are exhorted to re- 
 duce it. 
 
 In Confirmation, which was still called 
 a sacrament, the use of the chrism was 
 retained.^ 
 
 Extreme unction was so called, as 
 being the last unction used by the 
 church ; the others are given at Bap- 
 tism and Confirmation ; but if we ex- 
 cej)t the anointing, nothing is said of 
 this sacrament which a Protestant might 
 not adopt with regard to our correspond- 
 inq- service, the Visitation of the Sick. 
 
 §-^-sO. XXVIII.— XXXI. The Eru- 
 dition retains the whole of the doctrine 
 of traiisabstautiatioii,'"' and the denial 
 of the cup to the laity, ft allows, too, 
 of the utility of masses^ performed for 
 the universal congregation of Christian 
 people, quick and dead. 
 
 W'itli regard to matrimony, the dif- 
 fcri'iic:" between the churches of Rome 
 and Enoland is merely as to the name. 
 We call it a religious rite, confirming 
 thi' civil contract ; they, a sacrament. 
 
 XXXII. Of the celibacy of the clergy 
 nothing is said in the Institution, and it 
 is only indirectly mentioned in the Eru- 
 dition but we must remember, that 
 in the mean time it had become a part 
 of the law of the land, b)y the enactment 
 of the act of the Six Articles. 
 
 § •i'Sl. XXXIV. The doctrine con- 
 cerning traditions and ceremonies is 
 nearly the same as ours, viz., that it is 
 
 3 Form. 231, 105. ^ Ibid. 118. 
 
 5 Ibid. I'SO, 95. 
 
 ^ In the Articles and Institution, the corporal 
 presence is spoken of in such general terms as 
 miL'ht lie used by a Lutheran as well as a Romati 
 Catliolio. {Form. p. 100.) This, however, could 
 hardly have arisen from any change of opinion, 
 but must be attributed to the obscurity of the 
 subject, or at most to a desire to draw as near as 
 possible to the Lutherans ; while the distinct as- 
 sertion of this doctrine in the Erudition may have 
 arisen from the persecution against the sacrament- 
 aries which had since taken place. Form. 263, 5. 
 
 'Form. 376. » Ibid. 293, , 
 
84 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V. 
 
 not necessnry that they should be the 
 same in every place, and that they can- 
 not be correct, if contrary to the word 
 of God.' Of the two next articles of 
 course nothing could be said, as the 
 Homilies and Ordination Service were 
 not then put forth. 
 
 XXXVII. The king's supremacj' is 
 frequently and strong-ly enforced,'^ and 
 it is curious to remark how much more 
 this is attended to in the King's Book 
 than it is in the Bishops' ; at the same 
 time the authority of the see of Rome 
 is frequently declared to be usurped. 
 In the remaining articles we do not dif- 
 fer from the church of Rome. And on 
 those subjects on which nothing is said 
 in the formularies, the mention of the 
 Articles referring to them has been 
 omitted. 
 
 § 2H'2. In estimating the steps, then, 
 which our church had advanced at this 
 period, we cannot but observe that in 
 point of doctrine very little had been 
 effected. In that class of our Articles 
 which pertain to the salvation of the in- 
 dividual, there is a very marked agree- 
 ment with the tenets of our church. 
 But it must not be forgotten, that the 
 Roman Catholic differs more from the 
 Protestant, as to the means whereby 
 the convert may be made partaker of 
 the blessings of God's grace, than as to 
 the source from which that grace and 
 mercy flow ; so that the general posi- 
 tions of both correspond much more 
 nearly than is commonly supposed. 
 The acknowledgment of the helpless- 
 ness of man, without the aid of God, is 
 common to us both ; nor do either deny 
 that there is no remission of sins, or 
 salvation, but through Jesus Christ. 
 As to the ordinary means of obtaining 
 this grace, the Erudition coincides more 
 with the church of Rome than with our- 
 selves ; and the only real point gained 
 is the denial of the papal infallibility, a 
 doctrine which prevents investigation, 
 and hangs like a dead weight on every ; 
 improvement or reform which religion ' 
 or prudence would desire to introduce. 
 It forms a barrier without an outlet, 
 but which God enabled his servants to 
 break down, through the ambition and { 
 evil passions of Henry VIII. ; and when 
 this was once done, even in those points 
 
 'Fonn.246,56. 5Ibi(i.286, 120,304,310,311. 
 
 in which the tenets of popery were 
 concerned, and in which Cranmer waa 
 prevented from expressing his genuine 
 opinions, the principle is often in fact 
 surrendered, while the name is retained, 
 and many portions of those doctrines, 
 which had been found by experience to 
 be productive of evil, are mitigated and 
 explained away. 
 
 I § 283. At the end of the fifth chapter 
 i a brief account was given of those points 
 I wherein the church still needed reform, 
 I and it may be useful here to state some 
 of the particulars in which the Reform- 
 i ation had gone backward between the 
 periods at which these two tracts were 
 published. The advances which had 
 been made may be seen § 272, and 
 note 
 
 Whh regard to transubstantiation, 
 the point introduced was the statement, 
 that "the substance of the bread and 
 wine do not remain after consecra- 
 tion a question of fact, which, like 
 the miracles performed by our Saviour, 
 must be judged by the senses. 
 
 The cup, too, was denied to the 
 laity. 
 
 The expression of praying for the 
 " quick and the dead"* is introduced; 
 there was no change, excepting in the 
 use of the words. 
 
 Many ceremonies are specified, about 
 which nothing is said in the Institution.' 
 "As the hallowing of the font, of the 
 chalice, of the corporace, of the altar, 
 and other like exorcisms and benedic- 
 tions." In speaking of justification by 
 faith, the Erudition calls God " the 
 principal cause and chief worker of this 
 justification in us,"" but " it pleaseth 
 the high wisdom of God that man" 
 shall be also "a worker by his free 
 consent and obedience to the same." 
 Expressions which are indeed after- 
 wards qualified. 
 
 To these we must add the compul- 
 satory celibacy of the clergy. 
 
 Upon the whole, then, we must con- 
 clude, that in doctrinal points the 
 church had gone backward, and that 
 the discussions which had taken place, 
 and the examinations of the several sub- 
 jects, had been outbalanced by the in- 
 fluence of the Roman Catholic party, and 
 the passions and prejudices of the king. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 85 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI., FROM 1547 TO 15.'53. 
 
 301. Lord Hartford protector. 302. Images pulled down. 303. Causes which retarded the Refor- 
 mation. 304. Royal visitation. 305. Homilies. 306. Gardiner and Bonner. 307. Acts of par- 
 liament. 308. Communion service. 309. Confession. 310. Gardiner imprisoned ; Cranmer'a 
 Catechism. 311. Celibacy of the clergy. 312. Acts of parliament; the attainder of the admiral. 
 313. Transubstantiation ; consubsiantiation ; doctrine of the church of FJnglaiid. 314. Disputation 
 on transubstantiation. 315. Anabaptists. 316. New liturgy. 317. Risings among the pi ople. 
 318. Bonner deprived. 319. Fall of the protector; Ordinaiion service. 320. (Jardiner deprived. 
 321. Hooper; non-conformity. 322. Review of the Common Prayer. 323. Ridley's visitation. 
 324. Foreign churches, and foreigners in England. 3 25. The lorty-two ariicles. 32il. King's preach- 
 ers. 327. Mary refused the use of the mass. 328. Character of the protector. 329. Acts of par- 
 liament. 330. Poverty of the church. 331. See of Durham dissolved. 332. Edward's three 
 foundations in London. 333. Lady Jane Grey. 334. Character of Edward. 335. .State of the 
 church. 33o. Erastianism of the church of England. 337. 0|)iriions of Cranmer. 338. His plan 
 of reformino; the civil power finally established the aheralions. 339. The commissions of the 
 bishops, and conduct of Cranmer. 340. He saved episcopacy. 341. Documents of the church of 
 England of Lutheran origin, 342. Wisdom with which the documents of our church were 
 drawn up. 
 
 § 30L* Edward VI., who was in his 
 tenth year, (Jan. 2S, 1547,) when the 
 death of Henry VIII. called him to the 
 throne, was by his father's will ])laced 
 under the guidance of a council, the 
 several members of which were in- 
 vested with equal powers ; but the pre- 
 ponderating influence of Edward Sey- 
 mour, earl of Hartford, and maternal 
 uncle to the king, who was created 
 duke of Somerset, soon enabled that 
 nobleman to acquire a decided supe- 
 riority over his colleagues, and to obtain 
 for himself the chief authority in the 
 kingdom, under the title of ])rotector. 
 The retiring disposition of Cranmer 
 made him less inclined to interfere in 
 temporal affairs, and Wriothesley, by 
 putting the Court of Chancery in com- 
 mission, in order that he might attend 
 to the concerns of the state, gave such 
 an advantage to his political opponents, 
 that they deprived him of the seals, 
 and granted the protector Ictiers-'pat Mit, 
 by which he afterwards ludd hi.s o fic '. 
 This circumstance was favoiirabf' in 
 the cause of the l\eforiiiali< >n , I'jr th ■ 
 political coniifClions ami interests of his 
 family, as well as his own inclinations, 
 ;led him to favour this side of the ([iies- 
 'tion, and to co-operate with Cranmer in 
 ■promoting its advancement. 
 ' § 303. The advocates of reform at 
 Ithis moment, not only had to contend 
 
 ' Burnet is, throughout thi^ chapter and the 
 next, the chief authority ; but it is unnecessary to 
 mark everv reference. 
 
 against their open enemies, the friends 
 of the old superstition, but were equally 
 endangered by the injudicious zeal of 
 their own hasty and unthinking allies ; 
 who, without waiting for authority, be- 
 gan to remove images, and make other 
 alterations, which caused an unneces- 
 sary irritation among the Roman Catho- 
 lics, and were calculated to raise up a 
 spirit of innovation in the reforming 
 multitude. Some persons, therefore, 
 who had b.-cn engaged in these transac- 
 tions. Wi re l)inii^lit before the council 
 and sevi vi'ly rrprinianded ; but no pu- 
 nishment was inllictedon them, throttgh 
 the interference of such members of 
 that board as were convinced of the 
 impropriety of retaining images in 
 places where religious worship was 
 carried on. ('ranmer, indeed, was so 
 tlioronirlilv si'iisible of the injurious 
 t'Mi b'li. y (,r this practice, that he was 
 iinxhJiis 111 iiiicc' to remove them entire- 
 ly ; anil thi- populace, probably aware 
 
 o'r the 
 
 v:MUitreii 
 stniction. 
 trary, stil 
 titility, ai 
 
 the ,lnki. 
 th;it ih,. 
 
 shes of those in authority. 
 
 0 commence the work of de- 
 Hiit (iar.liner, on the con- 
 cnntinned to maintain their 
 
 1 wrote for this purpose to 
 ol' Sniiirrsct niul Ilidley, so 
 
 disr;is-ioii ; an I whenever litis is the 
 cas", it mayalwav-s bi.' hoped that truth 
 will ultimately iirrvail. 
 
 § 3J-J. Another circumstance led to 
 the examination of masses for the dead, 
 in which the result coincided with that 
 H 
 
86 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 in the present case. Henry VIll. 
 had left considerable property to the 
 church of Windsor, for the purpose 
 of obtaining; annually for his soul a 
 certain number of masses and obits, 
 acting, in this case, as many a sinner 
 had done before him ; he practically 
 denied, by the whole tenor of his con- 
 duct, his belief in purgatory ; yet, at 
 his death, his last will testified that he 
 still retained it ; he destroyed the insti- 
 tutions which had been erected solely 
 in consequence of this superstition, and 
 so tried to persuade others that the 
 idea of it was groundless ; yet proved, 
 by his bequest, that he still entertained 
 a hope that it was true. 
 
 The progress of the Reformation, 
 however, was by no means so rapid as 
 might have been expected. The peo- 
 ple in the larger towns, indeed, Ijegan 
 by degrees to open their eyes to the 
 corruptions of the church of Rome ; 
 but when, at the dissolution of the mo- 
 nasteries, provision was made for each 
 of the monks, payable till such lime as 
 they were furnished with benefices, the 
 surest step was taken to continue the dii"- 
 fusionof the old opinions. By tliis enact- 
 ment, it became the interest of the Court 
 of Augmentations, and of those who had 
 purchased monastic i)roperty subject to 
 the payment of an income to tlie old 
 members of the previous establishment, 
 to take every means that these persons 
 might be ■ introduced into fresh prefer- 
 ments. Men, therefore, whose preju- 
 dices almost necessarily led them to 
 dislike the Reformation, were thus 
 scattered everywhere as instructors of 
 the people, and every vacant bi'iiefice. 
 to which a cure of souls was aiiarlied. 
 and which therefore was not lenaMe liy 
 a layman,' was given to som ■ rji iMnl 
 monk, and the guidance of the |)aii>li 
 committed to one who was most hlcely 
 to mislead them with regard to the Re- 
 formation. Add to which, that the 
 poverty of the church not only pre- 
 vented men of liberal education from 
 
 ' Burnet, ii. 7. says, tlint il wns nnlinary. al 
 that time, lor laynicii ai linid prcli i ai^ u\< « rhoni 
 
 cure of souls, rn'm-ior - !.•• i ■ a'! 
 
 prebends promised u, haii. n\.. nl i , i 
 
 afterwards convraa'd aiai ;i (l(:uiii\ :i [1 a, 
 rersliip. Lord Croniw, !! had l.r. n dr:,i. .d \\'r\\~. 
 Sir Thomas Smilh. «ho was in dfaa .in's orders, 
 though living as a layman, was dean i l Carlisle. 
 Slrype's Life, p. 3L 
 
 entering into holy orders, and thus cur- 
 tailed the number of ministers, but ren- 
 dered such as served the poorer pa- 
 rishes of iieces.sity friendly to doctrines* 
 from which they had derived their chief 
 stijiport: while the stock of informa 
 tion possessed by the clergy was gene- 
 rally insufficient to direct them to the 
 iruih, or point out the superstitious and 
 injurious tendency of the religious opi- 
 nions whicli they professed. 
 
 § ;!'J1. In this posture of affairs, it 
 would have been impolitic to leave the 
 cause of the Reformation to the tran- 
 ; quil efiects of increasing light and 
 i knowledge ; its adversaries were widely 
 I spread, and invested with much power 
 10 op))ose the progress of any such 
 principles of amendment ; and Cran- 
 mer, therefore, wisely determined to 
 use the authority and influence which 
 he possessed, in order to advance the 
 cause which he had so much at heart. 
 
 (September Ist.^ The act of parlia- 
 ment which had given the force of laws 
 to the proclamations of Henry VIII. had 
 continued the same prerogative to the 
 counsellors of his son, while under age, 
 and on this authority a royal visitation 
 for ecclesiastical matters was appointed. 
 In addition to the injunctions given to 
 the late visitors, curates were directed, 
 in those now published,^ to take down 
 all images which had been abused by 
 false devotion, and to avoid such customs 
 as tended to superstition ; but the people 
 « ere I'orbidden to interfere in any such 
 matter. A greater strictness in the ob- 
 I servance of the Sabbath was enjoined, 
 j and the ministry were ordered to renew 
 and increase their zeal and activity, in 
 preaching within their own churches, in 
 reading the portions of Scripture* ap- 
 pointed for the service, and in perform- 
 ing their other sacred duties. 
 
 § 305. In order to supply the defi- 
 ciency of preachers, the first book of 
 
 2 A large portion of the income of a curate de- 
 pend.s, in Roman Caihohc countries, on the fees 
 whieh are paid him for the performance of masses 
 and other riles connected with the service of the 
 
 ihur.-h. 
 
 3 S. .arrow's Collection of Articles, &r. 
 
 * III l .ili il had been ordered that a chapter out 
 of ilu- .\i w Testament should be read at morning 
 and evening service, on Sundays and bolydaya)' 
 and that, when the New Testament \ 
 ihcv .slioidd go through the Old. (Strype' 
 i, 5tO.) 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 87 
 
 homilies was published in July,' and 
 began to fix the standard of the faith of 
 the church of England as it is now 
 established. To assist the unlearned in 
 the interpretation of Scripture, it was 
 ordained that the Paraphrase of Eras- 
 mus^ should be set up in every parish 
 church: at the same time the petition 
 for the dead in the bidding prayer' was 
 altered to nearly its present form, and 
 severe penalties imposed on simoniacal 
 presentations. In the injunctions trans- 
 mitted to the bishops, they were directed 
 not only to preach themselves, but to 
 take care that their chaplains also did 
 so, and to admit none into orders who 
 were not qualified for the office, and 
 willing and able to perform their clerical 
 duties, particularly that of preaching. 
 
 § 30f5. The success which attended 
 the arms of the protector in Scotland 
 gave his party, and the friends of the 
 Reformation, such a superiority as en- 
 abled them to proceed with vigour in 
 putting these injunctions in force. We 
 can hardly now be aware of the political 
 necessity which might then have ex- 
 isted for using severity towards those 
 who did not assent to these alterations 
 and injunctions, though of the general 
 impropriety of such an attempt there 
 can be little doubt. The mass of the 
 clergy had been admitted to their bene- 
 fices as members of the church of Rome, 
 and their unwillingness, therefore, to 
 change their creed, could never form a 
 just ground for temporal punishment. 
 Bonner and Gardiner were the chief 
 objects of this persecution, the former 
 of whom was committed to the Fleet 
 prison for a short time, notwithstanding 
 the submission which was forced upon 
 him; but Gardiner remained there for 
 a longer period; and his whole con- 
 duct on this occasion exhibits him in 
 more favourable colours than at any 
 
 > Sep. HVi". 
 
 ^ The Parajihrase of Erasmus on the Cnsprls 
 and Acts was translated into English chit lly liy 
 Nicholas Ud.il, under the patronage of the ([uc en- 
 dowager, and published in 15J7 ; tin; Irnntlaii.iii 
 of the rest was printed in 1549, and again in I5i>2. 
 (Strype's Mem. II. i. 45.) 
 
 ' The bidding prayer is that used before sermon, 
 wherein the preacher directs his hearers to pray. 
 The term comes from bede, a Saxon word, signi- 
 fying a prayer, which is retained in the English 
 word, " bid." Old forms of this prayer may be 
 found in Strype's Eccl. Mem. i. Coll. No. 37 ; 
 Burnet, ii. No. 8, iii. No. 29; Collier, ii. No. .54. 
 The one in present use is in the 55ih Canon, 1603. 
 
 I other period of his history ; his letter to 
 Sir Godsave is ver_v much what the 
 [ remonstrance of a bishop should be on 
 such au occasion. He professes himself 
 ready to sutler rather than to admit any 
 J thing contrary to his conscience, and 
 I signifies his determination not to sur- 
 i rentier the liberties of the subject, with- 
 [ out petitioning against a proceeding 
 sanctioned by the regal authority alone : 
 [ his chief objection was directed against 
 the third homily, on the Salvation of 
 JVIankind, because it excluded charity 
 from the work of justification ; nor was 
 I he satisfied with the Paraphrase of Eras- 
 ! mus, of which he said, that the English 
 translation contained many additional 
 errors beyond those exhibited in the 
 Latin. A letter which he addressed to 
 the protector on his return from Scot- 
 land breathed the same strain, and com- 
 plained that he had now been detained 
 seven weeks in the Fleet prison without 
 servants or attendants, and contrary to 
 law and justice. But this was as in- 
 effectual as the last, and he remained a 
 prisoner while the parliament sat, a 
 severity which must jirobably be attri- 
 buted to th-anmer, and can hardly be 
 justified. It appears indeed to have 
 prodticed some sort of reiuonstrance 
 i'rom the Lady Mary, who always ex- 
 presseil it as her opinion, that the affairs 
 of religioti should remain in the condi- 
 tion in which her father left them, till 
 her brother was of aije to judge for him- 
 self ; a position generally ailvanced and 
 maintained by the friends of that party. 
 
 § 307. Howevt-r tyrannical these pro- 
 ceedings of the council may appear, 
 there seems no rea.son for accusing that 
 body of any design of establishing an 
 undue authority ; for the first acts which 
 were passed in the parliament assembled 
 in the autumn revoked most of the 
 severe laws enacted towards the end of 
 the last reign. In this number were 
 comprehended those concerning treason 
 and Lollanlies; that of the Six Articles, 
 as \\ c II as the particular ont^ under which 
 they htid been acting, and which gave 
 the force of law to the royal proclama- 
 tion. This was followed by another act 
 on the Communion, in which severe 
 censures were imposed on those who 
 ridiculed the mass ; but it was ordained 
 that the laity should receive in both 
 kinds, and that no private masses should 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 be celebrated ; a most important step in 
 the cause of reformation ; for it cut at 
 the root of most of the superstitions, and 
 made the people view religion as a con- 
 cern of their own, and not as an opus 
 operatum, which might be left to the 
 priest without any co-operation on the 
 part of the congregation. Some acts 
 were also passed relating to the tem- 
 poral affairs of the church. By one 
 law which now passed, it was ordained 
 that bishops should in future be ap- 
 pointed by letters patent, and not by a 
 conge d'elire,' and that all processes 
 relating to matters not purely spiritual 
 should be carried on in the name of the 
 king ; an enactment which took away 
 all controlling power from the eccle- 
 siastical courts themselves, and com- 
 pelled them to punish any neglect of 
 their orders by excommunication ; so 
 that this sacred and awful process is 
 frequtnlly degraded by being used 
 Avithout any adequate reason, and in 
 cases where there may be no moral 
 offence. The nomination of the bishops 
 virtually made little difference, as to 
 ecclesiastical appointments ; but with 
 respect to the other part of the bill, 
 either too little or too much was done. 
 No causes, not purely spiritual, should 
 have been left to the cognisance of these 
 courts, unless some temporal jiower had 
 at the same time been conceded to them ; 
 and this n.istake has created an odium 
 against these tribunals, which the church 
 cannot remedy, and which originates in 
 the heterogeneous nature of their com- 
 position. The lands belonging to chan- 
 tries were now given to the crown, 
 much against the wishes of Cranmer, 
 who ho]ied, by continuing them till the 
 king became of age, to have preserved 
 
 ' The diflerence of ihese two formsis as follows : 
 Bisliiipric-s are in theory eleclive by the several 
 chapters of the cathedral churches.^ The co7>ai 
 
 them to rliTi a li sh-.p, and namrs a given person 
 whoso rliciiiiii wnulil he agrcfalile 10 the kii'c. 
 If the cliatit, r unc i,. ri luso 'lif prr.-oii so nomi- 
 nated, till \ \\ii-:].\ II. < m ];l,-|-Mii;nirr, ;i- Iivillfrto 
 
 curtail il; • - : ' '' - : :' . i no- 
 
 minau'd -I : ^ , - lit |iis- 
 
 copal olli' -.Ml . i, . •. •> I ■ :.• 11 in the 
 king's nan. e. l)i : • , . - ^ ■ -Mrnnnl 
 
 dignity was roni' 1 1 ' i v h'ich 
 
 took plare siibsr.|n ;: , ^ > ,.; m i- does 
 the sovereipn inii ilm v. iili liir pm -ily offices, 
 any more than llie lay-p:iiidn ol a Ijvint; does with 
 the ordination of a candidate whom he 
 to it. 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 a large fund for the future benefit of the 
 poorer clergy. In the first draught of this 
 bill the words ran, "chantries, hospitals, 
 fraternities, and colleges ;" and as these 
 expressions might have been so inter- 
 preted as to take in the universities, 
 much exertion was made by those who 
 understood the value of establishments 
 for education,^ and a clause inserted to 
 prevent their being comprehended un- 
 der these general terms. 
 
 § 308. (a. d. 1.548.) The new year 
 commenced with several very important 
 steps in the reformation of religious 
 matters. Directions were issued for the 
 removal of all images, as well as the 
 suppression of many superstitious cere- 
 monies; a proclamation was made 
 against " the abuse of churches,"^ which 
 were exposed to many indignities, and 
 made the scenes of riot and confusion ; 
 and severe threats held out against those 
 who ventured to run before the civil 
 authority in the abolition of such points 
 as were still sanctioned by the law of 
 the land. In order to prepare the way 
 for the formation of the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer, a committee was ap- 
 pointed to examine the services, who, 
 on account of the pressing need of some 
 alteration in the mass, commenced with 
 the Communion Service, by proposing 
 questions on the nature of the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper, to which the 
 several members were required to send 
 in their respective answers ; and though 
 many documents of this description were 
 destroyed in the days of Q.ueen Mary, 
 yet this is preserved, and is curious, as 
 marking the care and anxiety used in 
 drawing up this necessary and inva- 
 luable work. It is printed in the Collec- 
 tion of Records of the Historj' of the Re- 
 formation. No. 25. The points in which 
 their sentiments differ from the church 
 of England are, that most of them still 
 retained a belief in transubstantiation, 
 that they approved of masses satisfac- 
 tory, and of praying for the dead, and 
 that many of them objected to the use 
 of the vulgar tongue for the whole of 
 the ceremony, though the}" consented 
 to the reading and explaining the gos- 
 pel in English. 
 
 § 309. The Communion Service, 
 
 2 Strype's Life of Smith, 29. Cheke. 
 ' Strype's Cranmer, 231. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 89 
 
 which was published on March the 
 9th,' does not essentially differ from 
 the one now in use, and in its compo- 
 sition Cranmer appears to have made 
 no unnecessary alterations, but to have 
 retained whatever was innocent in the 
 service of the mass : the work itself 
 indeed appears to be an intermediate 
 step between the old and the new 
 offices ; for such parts of it only were 
 
 I jiq-lish as more particularly related 
 general communicant ; while the 
 . ven the consecration of the ele- 
 11. Ills, was not translated. 
 
 Ill the Exhortation, read the day be- 
 loie ihe celebration of the communion," 
 ilir ]H'ople are allowed to use or to ab- 
 >!;iiii from auricular confession, and 
 \\ anu'd against entertaining; uncharita- 
 hlc opinions with regard to those who 
 ililTi rcd from themselves in this parti- 
 cular. The evils and abuses arising 
 lidiii this custom had so alienated the 
 miiids of most men from it, that it 
 \\ as readily dispensed with ; but it has 
 linn cd a misfortune to our church, that 
 ilu' tide of opinion has carried us too 
 !ar towards the opposite extreme. The 
 Scriptures never speak of confession as 
 obligatory in such a sense as the in- 
 junctions of the church of Rome had 
 ordained. Confession to a priest is no- 
 where mentioned as absolutely neces- 
 sary ; but reason, as well as the word 
 of God, strongly points out, that to ac- 
 knowledge our faults, especially to one 
 vested with spiritual authority over us, 
 must be a most effectual means of re- 
 straining us from the commission of 
 sin ; and wherever the congregation 
 has been scandalized by our transgres- 
 sions, surely a public avowal of our 
 errors must prove an obvious method 
 of making all the retribution which we 
 can, not to God, but to offended society ; 
 nor can we doubt that the Almighty 
 will accept such an outward act of hu- 
 miliation. This was in all probability 
 the whole extent of the penance of the 
 early church ; but the power with which 
 private confession invested the priest, 
 together with the profit to the ecclesias- 
 tical body with which absolution was 
 gradually accompanied, transformed 
 that which was instituted for the glory 
 of God, and the salvation of mankind, 
 
 ' Sparrow's Coll. 13. 2 Ibid. 18. 
 
 12 
 
 into an engine of papal authority. The 
 indulgences offered in the "Hours after 
 the Use of Sarum," the book of devo- 
 tions then gradually adopted in Eng- 
 land, would move at once our derision 
 and pity for an age which could admit 
 such absurdities, did not the proffered 
 pardons now hanging in foreign Roman 
 Catholic churches convince us, that the 
 spiritual safety of the people can never 
 be insured by any state of civilization, 
 whenever the Holy Scriptures are prac- 
 tically not the standard by which men 
 measure their duties, and the ground- 
 work on which they found their reli- 
 ance. 
 
 In the church of England the confes- 
 sion of particular sins is recommended 
 in the Exhortation to the Sacrament, 
 and the Visitation of the Sick ; but so 
 little are we accustomed to this most 
 scriptural duty, that these recommenda- 
 tions are frequently unknown and gene- 
 rally neglected, while scarcely a vestige 
 remains of ecclesiastical law for the re- 
 straint of vice ; and though the punish- 
 ment of many offences has been wisely 
 transferred to the courts of common 
 law, yet the laxity which prevails with 
 regard to numerous breaches of the law 
 of God may be well esteemed a defi- 
 ciency in our national duty. 
 
 § 310. About the middle of this year 
 Gardiner fell into fresh troubles. The 
 point in which he probably offended the 
 ruling powers was by denying, as far 
 as he dared, the supremacy of the coun- 
 cil. But the friends of the Reformation 
 do not seem to have acted with that spi- 
 rit of forbearance which befitted so good 
 a cause, and the want of which contri- 
 buted to excite the spirit of personal 
 hostility with which the reign of Mary 
 was disgraced, and which fell with ten- 
 fold severity on the heads of the reform- 
 ers. The protector appointed Gardiner 
 to preach before the king, and wished 
 to have compelled him to adopt in his 
 sermon certain notes written with the 
 king's own hand ; but with a proper s|)i- 
 rit of independence, the bishoji of Win- 
 chester declined taking notice of this 
 interference, and upon this he was im- 
 prisoned. About the same time Cran- 
 mer put forth his Catechism. This work 
 was translated from a German Cate- 
 chism, used in Nuremburg, through the 
 medium of a Latin version made by 
 h3 
 
90 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 Justus Jonas, and is probably due to the j 
 labours of some of the chaplains of the ; 
 archbishop. It is not improbable that 
 the Latin version was brought into Eng- 
 land by Justus Jonas the younger, when I 
 he was driven from his own country 
 through the severity with which the 
 Interim was imposed, and hospitably 
 received, among other confessors, by 
 Craniner. On this supposition we 
 may attribute the Latin version to Jus- 
 tus Jonas tlie father, a man of much 
 celebrity among the German reform- 
 ers. The English translation is gene- 
 rally made with much closeness, but in 
 some instances new matter has been 
 introduced into the text.* 
 
 §311. (Nov. 21.) In the parliament 
 which was assembled during the au- 
 tumn, a bill was brought in to enable 
 the clergy to marry ; it passed through 
 the Commons without any great oppo- 
 sition, but in the Lords met with such 
 delays, that it did not receive the royal 
 assent till the spring of the next year. 
 The question at issue was really divisi- 
 ble into two heads : first, whether any 
 law of God enjoin celibacy in the 
 clergy ; and, secondly, whether the 
 clergy were themselves bound by any 
 oath voluntarily taken, and which could 
 not be dispensed with. With regard to 
 the first of these, there is no difficulty; 
 for I believe that the church of Rome 
 pretends to no higher authority than 
 that of ancient custom, sanctioned by 
 the enactments of the church ; and 
 against this, the examples of the apos- 
 tles and the primitive church are so 
 strong, that the ecclesiastical advan- 
 tages to be derived from the celibacy 
 of the cler<Ty must form its only tenable 
 ground of support: and here the evils 
 of forcing human beings in this particu- 
 lar have been so strongly experienced 
 as to overbalance, in the opinions of 
 moderate reasoners, all the benefits 
 which may result from a single life 
 among the priesthood when undertaken 
 in a voluntary manner. With respect 
 to the second particular, it appears that 
 the secular clergy were under no vow 
 of living single ; for oven the vow of 
 chastity, which existed in the Ordina- 
 
 ' See Burlon's preface to Cranmer's Calccliism. 
 which has lieen printed togelher with the Latin of 
 Justus Jonas, Oxford, )S29. The date in the pre- 
 face of Justus Jonas's dedication is Feb. 11 1539. 
 
 tion Service of the foreign churches, 
 formed no part of that used in England ; 
 and had it been so, chastity is probably 
 more safely guarded by marriage than 
 by abstinence. At the same time, there 
 is so great a semblance of self-devotion 
 in abstaining from the innocent plea- 
 sures of life, for the sake of religion, 
 that it is no wonder if the abolition of 
 celibacy among the ministers of reli- 
 gion were frequently objected to the 
 reformers. But, on the other hand, its 
 practical results, and the judgment of 
 such men as Ponet, Parker, Ridley, 
 and Redmayne, who argued in favour 
 of the marriage of the clergy, though 
 some of them abstained from it them- 
 selves, serve strongly to convince us of 
 the superior wisdom of Almighty God, 
 who has so formed the laws by which 
 the universe is directed, that we exer- 
 cise the soundest human policy when 
 our institutions approach the nearest to 
 the dictates of his revealed word. 
 
 § 312. (Jan. 1.5, 1549.) In the act 
 which passed confirming the use of the 
 Liturgy,^ a clause was inserted which 
 allowed the use of psalms or hymns 
 taken out of the Bible, and the singing 
 of psalms became a marked characteris- 
 tic of the favourers of the Reformation : 
 many, therefore, were now translated 
 and composed ; and it is no small re- 
 flection on the poetical talent or piety 
 of our church, that the collection of 
 psalms made soon after this period has 
 been allowed to continue the best which 
 we possess in an authorized form.' 
 
 2 Strype's E. M. II. i. 136. 
 ' The authority possessed by the old version 
 depends on a clause in an aet of which the words 
 are, " Provided always that it shall be lawful for 
 all men, as well in churches, chapels, oratories, 
 or other places, to use openly any psalm or prayer 
 taken out of the Bible at any due lime, not letting 
 or omitting thereby the service or any part thereof 
 mentioned in the said book:" (2, 3 Edward VI. 
 c. i. vii.) expressions which equally apply to any 
 other version. But it may siillbe doubted, whe- 
 ther even this is not repealed by the last clause of 
 the act of uniformity of Elizabeth. The custom 
 of introducing psaliriody into the church service 
 had been for some time established among Pro- 
 testants abroad, and was early brought into Eng- 
 j land, and this act seems merely to have given 
 a legal sanction to the custom. Th. Sternhold 
 translated fifty-one psalms into metre, which were 
 ' published in 1549. and the remainder of them were 
 completed, during the reign of Mary, by John 
 Hopkins and other exiles, whose initials are gene 
 rallv affixed to them. W. W., William Whit 
 tinsrham, afterwards dean of Durham; W. K. 
 ( William Kethe ; N., Norton; M., Markant ; R 
 
w 
 
 Chap. VI.] CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Another .ict enjoined the eating of 
 fish on those clays of fasting which had 
 ! been appointed by the Roman Catholic 
 chuich. The object of this enactment 
 was declared to be the s\ipport of the 
 ! fisheries, and not any religious differ- 
 ence which existed as to the species of 
 food used ; and though we may laugh 
 at the framers of an absurd law, we 
 cannot but deplore one practical evil 
 arising from such injudicious inter- 
 ference ; for mankind have of course 
 seen through the folly of the ordinance, 
 and with its neglect have neglected also 
 the sacred duty of real fasting, which 
 is placed in so ridiculous a light. 
 
 The attainder of Sir Thomas Sey- 
 mour produced little effect on the Re- 
 formation, except by bringing some 
 degree of obloquy on two of its friends: 
 on Cranmer, for signing a death-war- 
 rant, from which it was thought that his 
 office might have screened him ; and 
 on the protector, who was unjustly said 
 to have given up his brother too easily, 
 though it appears that he had long used 
 all the means in his power to prevent 
 the catastrophe towards which the am- 
 bition of the admiral was unceasingly 
 hurrying him. 
 
 § 313. An ecclesiastical visitation was 
 appointed early in this year, in order to 
 suppress many superstitious observ- 
 ances which still continued to be used. 
 No difficulty was found in gaining out- 
 ward compliance with the commands 
 of the government ; but it was impos- 
 sible to eradicate instantaneously preju- 
 dices and customs which had long been 
 prevalent in the country, and to which 
 the vulgar, from their ignorance, had 
 attached the notion of religion. The 
 exertions of the reformers, however, 
 were not confined to these minor objects 
 alone ; steps were taken for the esta- 
 blishment of the doctrine, as well as 
 discipline of the church, which rendered 
 it necessary that the chief articles of 
 faith should be gradually examined. 
 No opinion was entertained with so 
 much earnestness, on the part of the 
 common ])eoi)le and the priesthood, as 
 
 W., Robert Wisdom; D. (qu. Dr.) Cox trans- 
 lated the Lord's Prayer. There are several other 
 initials, with the authors' names of which I am 
 unacquainted; T. C, T. B., E. G., T. N., J. P.; 
 several of these are affixed to the early editions 
 only. 
 
 91 
 
 that of transubstantiation ; its friends 
 regarded the suppression of it as depriv- 
 ing them of their chief spiritual hope, 
 and the clergy foresaw in its destruc- 
 tion the overthrow of much of their 
 authority. Without entering into a dis- 
 cussion of the question, it may perhaps 
 lead to clearness, if the several opinions 
 entertained on this subject be briefly 
 stated. 
 
 The church of Roine holds the doc- 
 trine of transubstantiation ; that is, that 
 after consecration the elements of bread 
 and wine no longer remain, but that a 
 perfect body of our Saviour is given to 
 each individual receiving the conse- 
 crated wafer, and that the same body 
 which was offered on the cross ; so that 
 a miracle is constantly repeated, of 
 which the senses of the party receiving 
 are not a test. 
 
 The Lutheran church holds the doc- 
 trine of consubstantiation that is, that 
 the body of Christ is so with the bread, 
 or in the bread, ^ that it is actually eaten 
 with the bread ; and whatsoever motion 
 or action the bread hath, the body of 
 Christ has the same ; so that the body 
 of Christ may truly be said to be borne, 
 given, received, eaten, when the bread 
 is borne, given, received, or eaten ; that 
 is. This is my hodi/. 
 
 The doctrine of the church of Eng- 
 land is, that the bread and wine are 
 outward and visible signs of the body 
 and blood of Christ, which body and 
 blood are received and eaten in a hea- 
 venly or spiritual manner by the faith- 
 ful in the Lord's Supper.^ 
 
 § 314. Cranmer wrote on the subject, 
 and was answered by Gardiner ; and 
 disputations were this year held in Ox- 
 
 ' The Lutherans are also called Ubiquitarians, 
 from maintaining the ubiquity of Christ's body. 
 Brentius is said to have first brought the doctrine 
 into especial notice, and a formulary of faith, of 
 which it forms a leading article, was composed at 
 Berg in 1577. See Broughlon's Diet, of all Re- 
 ligions. 
 
 2 Burnet, p. iii. b, IV. No. 1. 
 
 ^ It is highly probable, that soon after the con- 
 sultation of Cranmer and Ridley on the subject 
 of transubstantiation, (Todd, Intr. vii. to Cran- 
 mer on the Sacrament,) the archbishop caused an 
 English translation of the book of Bertram the 
 priest, concerning the body and blood of Christ, 
 to be published. Two editions were printed in 
 1548 and 154'J; reprints of this work are com- 
 mon. See ^ 16, It is highly satisfactory to 
 observe how entirely this author agrees with the 
 doctrines of the church of England. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 ford and Cambridge, and again in the 1 § 315. These discussions appear to 
 next at Cambridge. In the former, Dr. j have been carried on with great pro- 
 Smith chaHengcd his successor in the | priety; and it is much to be lamented 
 divinity chair, Peter Martyr, to a public I that the other proceedings of this period 
 disputation ; but, as they were not pre- were not marked with the same mode- 
 pared to argue on the same grounds — i ration. Complaints had been brought 
 the one wishing to confine the discus- to the council of the prevalence of ana- 
 sion to Scripture terms, while the other baptists, who propagated most perni- 
 
 > u:_ 1 ,1- .1,- -_j . r i 
 
 trusted to his school divinity — the mat 
 ter was deferred till the arrival of cer 
 tain commissioners from London ; and 
 in the mean season. Smith having fallen 
 into trouble, either on account of 
 tumult now raised, or on some other 
 grounds, made concessions to Cranmer, 
 and fled the kingdom. But the dispu- 
 tation subsequently took place on the 
 following heads : 
 
 In the eucharist there is no transub- 
 stantiation. 
 
 In the bread and wine Christ is not 
 corporally present. 
 
 The body and blood of Christ are 
 united to the bread and wine sacra- 
 mentally. 
 
 At Cambridge, the theses which 
 were summed up by Ridley were, 
 
 Transubstantiation cannot be proved 
 from the direct words of Scripture, nor 
 be necessarily collected from it ; nor is 
 it confirmed from the early fathers. 
 
 In the eucharist, no other sacrifice is 
 made than the remembrance of Christ's 
 death and thanksgiving. 
 
 And hero it must not be forgotten, 
 that the cause of the Reformation was 
 greatly promoted by the exertions of 
 certain learned foreigners,' who were 
 encouraged to visit England by the 
 friends and promoters of true religion ; 
 and who repaid the debt of gratitude, 
 which they incurred, by being ex- 
 tremely useful in the advancement of 
 sound learning and Christian truth. 
 Peter Alexander was first received into 
 the family of Cranmer, and then ob- 
 tained preferment from him. Fagius 
 was placed at Cambridge, where he 
 soon died, and was succeeded by Tre- 
 mellius ; and Bucer taught Divinity, 
 
 cious doctrines, and who frequently 
 combined much criminality of life with 
 their erroneous opinions ; but with this 
 sect, unfortunately, other persons were 
 often confounded, whose only fault con- 
 sisted in entertaining sentiments con- 
 cerning the efficacy of infant baptism 
 at variance with the received practice 
 of the Christian church. To check the 
 progress of these opinions, a commis- 
 sion was appointed ; and though the 
 members of it generally used kindness 
 and persuasion, yet, in the case of Joan 
 Bocher of Kent, a woman apparently 
 more fit for a mad-house than the crown 
 of martyrdom, they delivered her over 
 to the secular power, and she was burnt 
 during the next year.^ There was 
 considerable difficulty in persuading 
 Edward to consent to this severity, and 
 it was only on the strong remonstrances 
 of Cranmer that he was induced to sign 
 the warrant. The act Avas performed 
 by him with tears in his eyes, and with 
 an appeal to the archbishop, that at 
 the day of judgment he must answer 
 for having procured the signature. This 
 proceeding gave great and just offence 
 to the world, and was used as an argu- 
 ment to justify the necessity of capital 
 punishments, in matters of faith, by the 
 persecutors of the next reign ; who, in. 
 the sufTerings of the father of our Re- 
 formation, have often traced the retri- 
 bution of Divine justice on one who, 
 in these instances, as well as those dur- 
 ing the life of Henry, cannot be ex- 
 cused even by his friends. The same 
 severity was used in 1551 towards 
 George Van Pare, a Dutch anabaptist. 
 
 § 316. The event which must princi- 
 pally attract the notice of the friends of 
 
 d Cavelarius, Hebrew, at the same I the Reformation during this year is the 
 university. Peter Martyr was esta- 1 introduction of the English Liturgy, 
 blished at Oxford, as we have just seen ; ! The book now published diflered in 
 and the disputations which have been [ some respects from that which is in use 
 mentioned were in each university j at present, and the differences may be 
 maintained by these alien teachers. , ~2 ~b "t for denying that our Saviour 
 took the flesh of the Virgin Mary. (Slrype's 
 Mem. II. i. 335.) 
 
 Strype's Mem. II. i. 321, &c. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 93 
 
 found in another part of this work.' In 
 the execution of the whole production 
 much forbearance was exhibited ; no- 
 thing was changed excepting where 
 necessity dictated it ; and in matters 
 indifferent, the previous misapplication 
 of an innocent ceremony was not admit- 
 ted as a sufficient reason for rejecting 
 it altogether. One great point gained 
 by the adoption of this work consisted 
 in the rejection of a multitude of saints, 
 to whom, by degrees, all the merits of 
 our Redeemer had been transferred,^ 
 and petitions addressed, which to the 
 eye of a Protestant appear almost blas- 
 pliiMnous, when directed to a creature. 
 Tlic translation of the public services, 
 ton, was a most important step ; for the 
 use of the Latin language had probably 
 been closely connected with the con- 
 tinuance of those errors which it con- 
 cealed from the notice of the vulgar. 
 It had been originally a natural process, 
 from the admiration of the saint or mar- 
 tyr, to pray that the supplicant might 
 be enabled to imitate his virtues, and 
 I from thence, in an age of darkness, to 
 address the prayer to the beatified being 
 himself; but in the sixteenth century it 
 was an act of interest and prejudice to 
 continue the pious fraud, and of wisdom 
 to conceal the grossness of the error, 
 under the mystery of a dead language. 
 One argument used in its favour is curi- 
 ous.^ The inscription on our Saviour's 
 cross had been limited to three lan- 
 guages, and to these, therefore, the 
 service of the church ought to be con- 
 fined ; a method of arguing at present 
 not very intelligible. The book was 
 framed in 1548; the act which sanc- 
 tioned it was passed early in the spring, 
 and ordained that it should be used 
 after Whitsuntide. 
 
 § 317. The questions of infant bap- 
 tism and predestination caused no small 
 inconvenience to the church, by the di- 
 versity of opinion which they excited 
 among the friends of religion, and the 
 scandal, which the mistaken adoption 
 of the latter produced in the lives of 
 some who imagined themselves to be- 
 long to the number of the elect. In- 
 deed, a general dissoluteness of morals 
 seems to have prevailed ; for the people 
 
 ' ^ "13, 2. 2 Burnet, P. ii. No. 29. 
 
 ' Burnet, ii. 58, fol., 139, 8vo. 
 
 were at once freed from the restrictions 
 imposed by the authority of the eccle- 
 siastical courts, and had not yet reaped 
 the advantages of the moral restraint 
 of religious education, of which the 
 fruits must necessarily be slow. The 
 j oppression, too, which the transfer of 
 so large a portion of property had oc- 
 casioned, began to be severely felt. 
 The new possessors of the soil fre- 
 quently turned out the old cultivators, 
 and converted the land into pasture, 
 which was found to be much more pro- 
 fitable, from the increasing trade of the 
 kingdom in wool. The ejected labour- 
 ers, in their own minds, connected these 
 proceedings with the change in religion, 
 and risings among the people were very 
 general during the summer. Most of 
 these were easily suppressed ; but in 
 the west, and in Norfolk, they became 
 formidable. The men of Devonshire 
 and Cornwall besieged Exeter,' which 
 was with difficulty relieved by Lord 
 Russell, who completely dispersed their 
 forces, and put an end to the rebellion 
 by the execution of the ringleaders. 
 During the height of their prosperity, 
 they ventured to propose terms to the 
 government, and demanded the virtual 
 restitution of popery. To each article 
 of this document distinct answers were 
 sent by Cranmer, which are printed at 
 length by Strype, and the tenth is too 
 curious to be omitted ;■'* they insisted in 
 it, that the Bible should be called in, 
 since the clergy could not otherwise 
 easily confute heretics. 
 
 The rebels in Norfolk were dispersed, 
 after some bloodshed, by the earl of 
 Warwick ; and the protector, who had 
 from the first favoured the cause of the 
 Commons, and in so doing incurred 
 considerable odium among the nobility, 
 proclaimed a general pardon with very 
 few exceptions, though contrary to the 
 wishes of many members of the council. 
 
 §818. (Oct. 1st.) During the autumn 
 Bonner was deprived of his bishopric : 
 he had uniformly complied with the in- 
 junctions which were sent him; but as 
 he was, with good reason, suspected 
 of favouring the opposite side of the 
 
 ^ The raising of the siege of Exeter is still cele- 
 brated in that city on the fith of August, which is 
 denominated the Jesuits' day, from the leaders 
 who guided the besiegers. 
 
 * Life of Cranmer, Ap. 40. 
 
94 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 question, he was summoned before the 
 council, and ordered to preach at St. 
 Paul's Cross. The topic on which he 
 was particularly directed to dwell, was, 
 the power of the king while a minor ; 
 and he was ordered to declare that the 
 acts of the council were nowise less 
 binding than those of a monarch of 
 age. When the time of his preaching 
 had arrived, he omitted this subject en- 
 tirely, and turned his discourse to the 
 question of the corporal presence ; and 
 upon this he was cited before a com- 
 mission appointed by the king ; and 
 after much useless altercation, in which 
 he was needlessly insolent to the court, 
 he was imprisoned and deprived. The 
 excuse which he made for himself was, 
 that in consequence of his notes having 
 fallen down, he had forgotten that part 
 of his sermon in which he meant to have 
 touched on this head ; and though this 
 excuse was probably false, yet the treat- 
 ment of him cannot but appear severe, 
 even supposing the deprivation to have 
 been legal in itself. It is sometimes 
 maintained that the deprivation took 
 place in virtue of his holding his bi- 
 shopric during the king's pleasure, in 
 consequence of a commission which all 
 the bishops took out at the beginning 
 of the reign,' and in which the clause 
 durante bcncphicifo exists. This docu- 
 ment, liowever. seems merely to regard 
 the exercise of his episcopal functions, 
 and in which, certainly, he is limited to 
 the pleasure of the king ; but the words 
 can hardly extend to the bishopric it- 
 self. The sentence of deprivation, too, 
 is passed on the plea of the omission 
 in tlie sermon. 
 
 § 31!). (Oct. 11.) The fall and impri- 
 sonment of the jirotector was hailed by 
 the Roman Catholic party as the tri- 
 umph of their cause; yet their exulta- { 
 tion was of short duration ; for the earl 
 of Warwick, (afterward duke of Nor- 1 
 thumberland,) who had been the chief i 
 instrument in bringing it about, finding [ 
 the young king entirely disposed to- 1 
 wards the Reformation, immediately 
 joined that party ; and Wriolhesley, 
 earl of Southampton, baffled in all his i 
 projects, retired from court, and soon 
 after died. 
 
 (a. d. 1550.) With the view of coun- 
 
 '_Buinet, P. ii. No. 2. 
 
 j teracling an opinion which generally 
 prevailed, that the old service was now 
 to be renewed, all the books connected 
 with it were ordered to be delivered to 
 persons appointed by the king, for the 
 purpose of being destroyed ; and strict 
 injunctions were given for the regular 
 use of the Common Prayer. 
 
 A committee^ of twelve persons was 
 also appointed to prepare a new Ordi- 
 nation Service, one of whom was Heath, 
 bishop of Worcester; and upon his re- 
 fusal to consent to the proposed altera- 
 tions, he was committed to the Fleet 
 prison : so little were the principles of 
 liberty, of either conscience or person, 
 then understood. The form then adopt- 
 ed is, with very little alteration, the one 
 at present in use. In its formation, the 
 ceremonies which had by degrees been 
 introduced into the church of Rome 
 were omitted, while an addition was 
 made of certain questions addressed to 
 the candidates themselves, forming alto- 
 gether one of the most beautiful and 
 impressive services of our church. 
 
 § 320. The continuance of Gardi- 
 ner's imprisonment had for two years 
 deprived the see of Winchester of its 
 bishop, and after the fall of the protec- 
 tor, when in the fulness of his joy he 
 expected a speedy release, he found 
 himself exposed to increased severity. 
 Two sets of articles were proposed to 
 him for subscription, the latter of which 
 he refused to sign, as he did not ap- 
 prove of their contents; maintaining 
 that his signature could not be fairly 
 required while his person was not at 
 liberty ; and upon this, permission was 
 refused him to walk in certain galleries 
 in the Tower, with which he had been 
 previously indulged. In this state be 
 remained till the next year, when he 
 was deprived of his bishopric bv a com- 
 mission issned by the king, (April 18,) 
 nominally, for his obstinacy in refusing 
 to acknowledge his fault about preach- 
 ing, ^ but really on account of his attach- 
 ment to the old superstitions : for his 
 whole conduct, like that of the great- 
 est part of the friends of the church of 
 Rome, consisted in opposing the mea- 
 sures of the Reformation, till they were 
 passed into laws, and then entirely 
 complying with them ; and whatever 
 
 2 See 4 744. 3 See ^ 310. 
 
IChap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 95 
 
 tve may think of the sincerity of such 
 proceedings, no one can doubt that the 
 punishment inflicted on men so acting 
 rt-as contrary to common justice, and 
 therefore to sound and Christian policy. 
 
 § 321. A difficuUy now occurred, 
 arising from an opposite party in the 
 church ; for when Hooper was appointed 
 to the see of Gloucester, ho refused to 
 be consecrated in the episcopal habits;' 
 and though Cranmer and Ridley argued 
 against the soundness of such scruples, 
 and consulted Bucer on the subject, who, 
 as well as P. Martyr, expressed his opi- 
 nion in favour ol cDiifdrinity, yet Ilooprr 
 could not till the niwt spring he pre- 
 vailed on to give way; and even tlieii 
 he did so with a reservation tliat he 
 *li'Milil not be obliged to wear these siip- 
 1 relics of popery, except on ])nl)lic 
 MIS. The dispute was an iiiirur- 
 i , I one, being the first of a ;<eries 
 winch for many years agitated our 
 churcli ; but on a calm examination of 
 the subject, at a period when it is to be 
 'hoped that such indiffi'rent matters may 
 [be viewed without ]n-eju,lice, it must be 
 granted that, though the distinction of 
 ecclesiastical dress appears in itself to 
 be useful, yet it may seem, too, that the 
 policy of the government would have 
 been wiser had they left Hooper to his 
 own conscientious scruples, and found 
 some other divine, who, without pos- 
 sessing less sincerity, was not so strongly 
 bent on following his own opinion in 
 trifles. Obedience to general rules, in 
 points in themselves indifFerent, is of 
 more consequence, and ibe neqli^ct of it 
 ought to be considered a? a Mutt'-r of 
 conscience far more iiii portai.i , ihaii the 
 disinclination of an iinliv-idiial to the use 
 of any dress which the autlidrity of tin' 
 church has estahli.shed. Whether it 
 were judicious in those v;lio regulati'd 
 these particulars to ailopl lliis or that 
 restment, is a question which aduiits of 
 fair discussion; but wlvther an indivi- 
 dual minister is in reiiforiii to tlie orders 
 of the church, i- mm • mi w liieli a dillVr- 
 rence of senlimenl cannot i\>v a moment 
 be entertained. It may he prudent on 
 some occasions to overlook minutiae of 
 this sort ; but if the (jur-tinn he brouq-lit 
 to a point, the goveneus ami 'liixTnieil 
 
 1 Itshould be remcmbcriHl iIilii iIk i lniinri; was 
 then generally made of soini; coloured inalerial, 
 and that the cope was still used. 
 
 should remember that obedience to con- 
 stituted authority, provided that what is 
 commanded be in no wise contrary to 
 the revealed law of God, is a funda- 
 mental article of the (.'hristian code. 
 
 § S22. About the end of this year, or 
 the beginning of the next, a review was 
 made of the ( 'ommon Prayer, in which 
 Bucer was much consulted. The ob- 
 jections which he made were numerous, 
 and applied especially to the praying 
 for the dead, exorcising the devil, to 
 some of the expressions in the sacra- 
 mental service, and of the ceremonies 
 at baptisms, to the anointing the sick, 
 together with many minor points ; and 
 it is curious to observe that most of the 
 partic\ilars which he mentioned are 
 altered in our present service. At the 
 same time he wished that, a change 
 should be made in the ecclesiastical 
 habits, and many obvious deficiencies 
 supplied, as the want of frequent com- 
 munion and more active ministers. As 
 a new year's gift, he sent Edward a 
 book written by himsidf, entitK'd, "T)e 
 Regno (^'hristi (/onstitiieiido ;" in which 
 he points out many evils which stood in 
 iiei il ol' velni iiiation, and in conse(|uence 
 of which I loianany was then suffering, 
 [[e chiedy complains of tlie want of 
 ecclesiastical discipline, and urges the 
 youni,^ monarch to exert himself with 
 the clergy. This work appears to have 
 had considerable efli'ct on the king; for 
 he began a treatise of his own, on the 
 reform of abuses,^ which, though in all 
 appearance the performance of a boy, 
 abounds with many just observations. 
 
 § U|)on the deprivation of Bon- 
 
 ner, the see had continued vacant about 
 live months,' till Ridley, a man in every 
 respect suited to so great a charge, was 
 made bishop of liOndon and Westmin- 
 ster; the si'es being now consolidated, 
 and Thirlby removed to Norwich. In 
 the visitation of his diocese, the chief 
 care of Ridley* was directed against the 
 remnants of superstition, which were 
 still retained by the clergy and the 
 ()eople, aiul in whicli they had been 
 
 2 Remains ofEdwaiM \ I. r.l, fol., 9S. Svo. 
 
 ^ Bonnpr was dcpim il. 1. I'lig. Ridley 
 
 I'lli it. liiSO. Tlie visitation liefoic June 26. 
 
 I ' Sic lus injunctions in Sparrow's Collections, 
 p. '.V3. They contain many questions relative to 
 the general life and conversation of the clergy. 
 
96 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VI. 
 
 fostered, if not supported, by Bonner ; 
 as well as against unauthorized preach- 
 ing and expounding of holy writ. At 
 the same time the altars were every- 
 where converted into communion tables, 
 since the name and form probably con- 
 tTituted to the continuance of the idea 
 of an expiatory sacrifice offered by the 
 priest. This order of the bishop's was 
 during the autumn confirmed by a letter 
 from the council, and, by the same 
 authority, a slop put to the custom of 
 preaching on week-days, which had 
 been established in many parishes ; and 
 was found to be inconvenient, in conse- 
 quence of leading the people away from 
 their accustomed places of worship, and 
 excited a spirit of rivalry among the 
 preachers, which was at this moment 
 especially productive of confusion in the 
 church. 
 
 § 324. The difficulties against which 
 the Reformation had to contend on the 
 Continent' created a great influx of 
 strangers into England, and by the 
 friendly interference of C'ranmcr and 
 others, congregations were established 
 in London, under the general super- 
 intendence of John a Lasco, a Polish 
 nobleman, who had been driven from 
 his country for the sake of his religion, 
 and become a preacher of the gospel. 
 Much favour was shown them by the 
 council, and a church assigned for their 
 use, where, during this reign, they 
 greatly flourished, nothwithstanding the 
 internal feuds into which they fell. 
 A'Lasco preached before the Germans; 
 but there was also an Italian, as well as 
 a French congregation, to which several 
 immunities were granted. There was 
 a church of strangers, too, from Stras- 
 burg,'' under ^'alcrandus Pollanus, esta- 
 blished at Glastonbury, who made use 
 of a liturgy of their own, not very 
 different from that of the reformed 
 churches of France. 
 
 England also furnished an asylum to 
 many learned men, whose labours were 
 transferred to this country in conse- 
 quence of the misfortunes of their own, 
 and the liberal reception which was 
 here afforded them. This praise is 
 chiefly due to Cranmer,^ who on all 
 occasions proved a most kind patron to 
 
 ' Strype's Craniner, II. xxii. 335. 
 
 2 Strype's Mem. II. i. 378. 
 
 " Strype'8 Cramner, II. jotii. 335, &c. 
 
 those who were persecuted for religion, 
 and endeavoured to induce well edu- 
 cated friends of the Reformation to take 
 up their abode in England, by the pen- 
 sions and employments bestowed on 
 them. To this source we owe the 
 assistance which our church derived 
 from Bucer, Fagius, Peter Martyr, and 
 Ochin, who, among many others, par- 
 took of the bounty of the archbishop, 
 and became the ornaments and instruc- 
 tors of the two universities.* Cranmer 
 seems also to have entertained the hope 
 of bringing all the Protestant churches 
 to a community of faith, by forming a 
 council in England, to which deputies 
 should be sent from the rest, and who 
 might publish such articles of belief as 
 were received by all ; and for this pur- 
 pose he had some communication with 
 Melancthon and Calvin; but the trou- 
 bles with which he was himself soon 
 after oppressed put an entire stop to 
 the project. 5 
 
 § 325. (a. d. 1551.) It was in all pro- 
 bability during this year that the Re- 
 formers were employed in draAving up 
 the Forty-two articles which were pub- 
 lished the next; and though Ridley 
 might have assisted the archbishop, as 
 well as some others, yet there is every 
 reason to believe that they are really 
 the work of Cranmer, and this indeed 
 he seems to have acknowledged in an 
 examination in the reign of Mary. ^ They 
 resemble so closely the Thirty-nine Ar- 
 ticles of our church, that it will hardly 
 be worth while to state the minor differ- 
 ences which have been subsequently 
 introduced, as the subject itself must be 
 resumed in the historj^ of the reign of 
 Elizabeth." One thing, however, should 
 
 * Strype's Cran. III. xxiii. 573. xxiv. xxv. &c. 
 
 5 '] he project of estahlisliing an auilvorhaiive 
 standard of faith, by aeeiieral congress of reformed 
 divines, (Laurence's Bamp. Lect. 219.) had Ions 
 been a favourite idea with Melancihon. We find 
 him thus alluding to it in the year 1542 : " Quod 
 auteni SEepe optavi, ut aliquando amboriiate seu 
 regum, seu aliorum piorum principum, convoc^li 
 viri docti de conlroversiis omnibus libcre colloque- 
 rentur. et relinquereni posleris firmam et perspi- 
 cuam doctrinam. idem adhuc opto." Preface to 
 his Works. Epistolsr. Londin. p. 147. 
 
 The project, therefore, probably did not begin 
 with Cranmer : he corresponded with Melancthon 
 on the sul'ioct in 1548, and with Calvin in 1551 ; 
 but the difficulties were so great (hat it was aban- 
 doned, and tiie archbishop began to prepare a 
 formulary for the use of the church of England. 
 
 s Strype's Cranmer, II. xxvii. 
 
 ■> See 5> 481. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 97 
 
 be observed, that there is no historical 
 evidence to confirm an idea not unfre- 
 
 3uently entertained, viz., that they were 
 rawn up for the sake of promoting 
 peace and tranquillity, and as a com- 
 promise of opinion rather than a stand- 
 ard of faith. We shall perceive in them 
 a desire to avoid curious and unprofit- 
 able questions, as well as to leave dis- 
 puted points to the judgment of the in- 
 dividual; and undoubtedly several of 
 the articles are so framed, that conscien- 
 tious persons, holding different senti- 
 ments, may safely subscribe to them 
 but latitude of interpretation, which is 
 suited to the weak and doubtful, cannot 
 3e granted to those whose decided sen- 
 .iments are at variance with the plain 
 md grammatical sense of the formularies 
 )f our church. 
 
 § S2li. Among the next objects which 
 mgaged the attention of the governors 
 )f the church, were certain alterations 
 n the Common Prayer Book, the de- 
 ails of which are given in their proper 
 )lace.'' They consisted chiefly in the 
 imiission of superstitious rites which 
 !iad been continued in the first Liturgy. 
 The Ordination Service, too, was now 
 .dded, and the whole, thus amended, 
 iiffers very little from the one at pre- 
 ent in use. 
 
 In order that the Reformation might 
 le introduced into the hearts of the 
 iieople, as well as the institutions of the 
 hurch, six eminent preachers were 
 ppointed among his majesty's chap- 
 lins in ordinary, two of whom were 
 3 reside at court, while the other four 
 lade a progress through the country, 
 nd as far as possible supplied the want 
 f preaching clergymen, a deficiency 
 zhich was then strongly felt. 
 § 327. The use of the mass within 
 er own house had, during the whole 
 f this period, been allowed to the 
 rincess Mary, through the connivance 
 f the government and the anxious in- 
 jjrference of the emperor, but it was 
 ow determined by the council to with- 
 raw this indulgence. Edward indeed 
 ad always shown a great dislike to its 
 ontinuance, and had at one time as- 
 ented to it, at the request of Cranmer 
 nd Ridley, with tears in his eyes ; but 
 le government having now become 
 
 ' Burnet, ii. 129. 
 
 13 
 
 2 See $ 745. 
 
 more fixed, the influence of the empe- 
 ror had less weight, and they proceeded 
 against one of her chaplains for saying 
 the mass, and confined him in the 
 Tower. The chancellor, with certain 
 others, was sent to try to convince her 
 royal highness of her errors ; and she 
 appears to have been rather obstinate 
 in her unwillingness to listen to any 
 arguments on the Protestant side of the 
 question, and in refusing to hear Rid- 
 ley preach. But who can wonder that 
 a continuance of unkind treatment 
 should have confirmed the prejudices 
 and closed the ears of one who, in her 
 own person and that of her mother, had 
 suffered so much from the friends of 
 the Reformation ? Who can wonder 
 that human feelings of resentment 
 should have been mingled with a mis- 
 taken notion of her duty, and exercised 
 when power was placed in her hands ? 
 
 § 328. The fall of the duke of So- 
 merset and his execution, (a. d. 1552,) 
 produced no great effect on the Refor- 
 mation ; he had proved, during his 
 power, a firm and zealous patron of 
 those who promoted it, and his advice 
 and example had co-operated to fix the 
 love of pure and simple Christianity so 
 strongly in his nephew's mind, that his 
 loss was in this particular scarcely felt. 
 There can be little doubt of the injus- 
 tice of his condemnation, and less with 
 regard to the severity of its execution. 
 His dying speech was full of Christian 
 fortitude and resignation, and casts re- 
 flections on no one ; but the opinions 
 of the world long attributed his death 
 to the duke of Northumberland ; and 
 when in the beginning of the next 
 reign that nobleman was led to the scaf- 
 fold, he was reproached as having been 
 the author of this cruel measure. The 
 virtues of the protector, however con- 
 spicuous, were not unmingled with 
 faults. In his greatness, he was kind 
 and affable; in his misfortunes, always 
 dignified. His military undertakings 
 were generally successful ; and while 
 he exhibited himself the undaunted 
 advocate of the oppressed, he ever 
 proved that he was faithful and upright 
 in his transactions. His love for the 
 Reformation had been constant and sin- 
 cere ; but he gained far too great a por- 
 tion of church property to be deemed 
 disinterested in the share which he had 
 1 
 
98 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 in the destruction of ecclesiastical bo- 
 dies ; nor has the severity which he 
 used towards his brother escaped the 
 censure of historians. In order to 
 alienate the mind of his nephew, many 
 false representations of his criminality 
 seem to have been made, and during 
 the period after his condemnation, great 
 pains were taken to keep the attention 
 of the young king engaged in such 
 amusements as should prevent his 
 thinking on the fate of his uncle. 
 
 § 32'J. Several bills passed during 
 this session of parliament which were 
 important to the church.' One con- 
 firmed the alterations which had been 
 made in the Common Prayer Book, 
 and directed ecclesiastical persons to 
 enforce, by severe censures, the attend- 
 ance on the new service. A second 
 enjoined the observance of such holy- 
 days as were retained in the calendar, 
 and ordained that the people should 
 abstain from flesh on fast days, and the 
 Fridays and Saturdays in Lent, but 
 allowance was made for a greater laxity 
 with regard to particular cases, and it 
 was soon found that the exception be- 
 came the general rule. A third declared 
 the marriage of the clergy to be legal 
 to all intents and purposes ; for though 
 this liberty had been conceded by the 
 act passed in 1.549," yet the prejudices 
 of the people had set so decided a mark 
 on such of the clergy as took advantage 
 of this allowance, that the children had 
 been considered illegitimate : they were 
 enabled by this act to inherit according 
 to law. Another bill was brought in 
 against simoniacal contracts, but it 
 never received the royal assent ; and 
 an attempt made to attaint Tonstal, 
 bishop of Durham, was thrown out in 
 the commons, as they would not hear 
 of it, unless his accusers might be heard 
 face to face. The duke of Northum- 
 berland found this parliament so little 
 suited to his views, that he determined 
 to dissolve it, and call another. 
 
 § 330. The plan of reform for eccle- 
 siastical courts was this year renewed. 
 It had at first been put into the hands 
 of thirty-two persons, but this number 
 was now diminished to eight, who were 
 to prepare the matter for the larger 
 committee. The chief part of what 
 
 Burnet, ii, 145. 
 
 2 See ^311. 
 
 was done seems to have been the work 
 of Cranmer : it was translated into 
 Latin by Dr. Haddon and Sir John 
 Cheke ; but, during this reign, it was 
 never given to the public ; nor were 
 any steps taken towards establishing it 
 as law. In the reign of Q,ueen Eliza- 
 beth it was printed, but has remained 
 to the present day in the same unau- 
 thorized condition : the consideration 
 of it during the history of that period 
 will for many reasons be most conve- 
 nient.3 
 
 The church had been so profusely 
 robbed of its temporalities, under the 
 idea that its former wealth had pro- 
 duced the greatest part of its previous 
 corruptions, or more probably to gratify 
 the cravings of a corrupt court, that 
 its members were reduced to the great- 
 est misery, and forced to support them- 
 selves by the most degrading employ- 
 ments. They not only became tailors 
 and carpenters, but some of them kept 
 even alehouses; and under these cir- 
 cumstances it was impossible that many 
 persons should be educated for the mi- 
 nistry. ■* The church of England pro- 
 bably stands alone, in later times, as 
 exhibiting instances of ecclesiastical 
 offices unprovided with any temporal 
 su})port: some of our livings have no 
 endowments, and owe all their emolu- 
 ments to periods subsequent to the Re- 
 formation. Nor were these spoliation; 
 confined to the lower offices in the esta 
 blishment ; the bishopric of Gloucestei 
 was entirely suppressed, and Hooper 
 who had been first consecrated bishoj 
 of that see, and subsequently held th( 
 see of Worcester together with it, wa; 
 now called bishop of Worcester alone 
 and in other cases, during the vacancie: 
 of the bishoprics, their manors and pro 
 perty were frequently taken from them 
 so that to the present day nearly one 
 half of our bishoprics are left with in 
 comes scarcely adequate to the situa 
 tion in the world which is attached t( 
 the episcopal dignity.* 
 
 § 331. (a. D. 1553.) In the new par 
 liament, two-tenths and two-fifteenths 
 with one subsidy' for two years, wen 
 
 ' See ^ 435, ^ Burnet, ii. 154. 
 
 5 This evil has been remedied since the firs 
 publication of this work. 
 
 s Tenths and fifteenths were temporary aid 
 issuing out of personal property, and granted t 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 99 
 
 granted to the king ; and the clergy 
 taxed themselves six shillings in the 
 pound on their benefices. The bishop- 
 ric of Durham was at the same time 
 suppressed, and converted into two 
 sees, one of whicii was to have been 
 established at Newcastle, where a ca- 
 thedral chapter was also to have been 
 erected ; but none of these changes 
 really took place, on account of the 
 death of the king, which prevented 
 also the accomplishment of another 
 plan, by which the temporalities of that 
 see were converted into a county pala- 
 :ine, and given to the duke of Northum- 
 berland. Tonstal had previously been 
 deprived for misprision of treason, and 
 ivas detained in confinement till the 
 succession of Mary restored him to 
 iberty. 
 
 The last act of this reign connected 
 .vith the Reformation was one by which 
 he use of the larger Catechism was 
 Authorized, and schoolmasters directed 
 .0 teach it. This work was supposed 
 ,0 have been compiled by Ponet,' bishop 
 )f Winchester, and is printed in the 
 Enchiridion Theologicum. It was ori- 
 I . 
 
 he king by parliament. They were formerly 
 he real tenth or fifteenth part of all the movables 
 )elongin^ to the subject. In later times they be- 
 ;ame a h.\ed sum. A lay subsidy was usually 
 aised by commissioners appointed by the crown, 
 ind was to all intents and purposes a land ta.x. 
 
 iSlackslone, i. 309, 312. 
 
 ' Bale, do Scripioribus Britannicis, mentions 
 Ponet as the author; see the question discussed 
 n Todd's Historical and Critical Introduction to 
 he Groundwork of the Thirty-nine Articles. 
 This work corresponds in some degree in its 
 ;eneral plan with the Church Catechism which 
 
 had been published four years before, and is fol- 
 
 I owed almo.st entirely by Noel in his Catechism 
 )f 1570. With regard to the History of the Com- 
 loeition of the Church Catechism, probably Cran- 
 
 Iner, Ridley, or whoever was the author, merely 
 niroduced a few explanatory questions and an- 
 iwers before, and intermixed with, the Creed, the 
 Fen Coinmandincnts, and the Lord's Prayer, 
 
 t which had previously been published by authority, 
 
 !n English, in the King's Primer, printed 1545-6. 
 The questions and answers relating to the sacra- 
 Tients were drawn up by Dr. John Overall, and 
 
 ' nserled after the conference at Hampton Court. 
 1604.) It might naturally have been supposed 
 hat it was taken from Luther's Catechism. 1529, 
 md Cranmer's, 1518; (which in all probability is 
 ierived indirectly from Luther's;) but these are 
 not only much larger works, but make a different 
 division of the Ten Commandments. In the In- 
 stitution, 1537, King's Primer, 1545-6, Catechism, 
 1549, the Second Commandment is inserted in its 
 
 'right place ; whereas in the Primer, 1535, in Lu- 
 ther's and in Cranmer's, the Second Command- 
 ment is omitted, and the Tenth divided into two. 
 See ( 412. 
 
 ginally put forth both in English and 
 Latin, and the Forty-two articles were 
 appended to it it was sanctioned by 
 an injunction of the king's, dated May 
 20th, 15!3;}. 
 
 § 8;32. In consequence of a sermon 
 preached by Ridley before the king, in 
 which the bishop insisted on the duty 
 of relieving the poor, Edward sent for 
 him, and desired his aid in forming- 
 such institutions as would be most be- 
 neficial to the poorer branches of socie- 
 ty. Upon a consultation with the lord 
 mayor, three establishments were found- 
 ed, which are still the glory of our me- 
 tropolis. St. Bartholomew's hospital 
 was assigned for the sick, the royal 
 house of Bridewell for the correction 
 of the profligate, and the Gray Friar's 
 church in Newgate was assigned to the 
 education of orphans, under the name 
 of Christ's Hospital. Donations were 
 also made to St. Thomas' in South- 
 wark. 
 
 § ;3;J3. The commendations which are 
 deservedly bestowed on these munifi- 
 cent grants are not, unfortunately, due 
 to the later acts of this hopeful prince. 
 Lady Jane Gray was granddaughter to 
 Mary the sister of Henry VIII., who, 
 after the death of her first husband, 
 Louis XII. of France, married the duke 
 of Suffolk. This family had been placed 
 in the bill of succession of Henry VIII. 
 before that of Scotland, though sprung 
 from the younger sister ; and the duke 
 of Northumberland now persuaded Ed- 
 ward to set aside Mary and Elizabeth, 
 and leave the crown to Lady Jane, to 
 whom her own mother had demised her 
 right, and who had lately been married 
 to Guildford Dudley, the fourth son of 
 the duke. Although the love he bore 
 his cousin might have influenced him, 
 yet the fears which Edward entertained 
 as to the bigotry of Mary were the chief 
 instrument by which this step was pro- 
 moted ; but it does not appear what 
 induced him to set aside Elizabeth. 
 It was necessary to use the greatest 
 threats and persuasions, in order to in- 
 duce the crown lawyers to draw up 
 any instrument for this purpose, as they 
 declared that such a transaction would 
 amount to nothing short of treason ; but 
 they at last complied, upon the promise 
 
 2 4 481, &c. 
 
100 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VL 
 
 of a pardon under the great seal, and 
 the council set their hands to the deed. 
 Some others seem to have had great 
 scruples as to subscribing it ; but Judge 
 Hales positively refused, and Crannier 
 only conseiUed upon the earnest en- 
 treaty of the king. It is unfortunate 
 that he here wanted firmness to abide 
 by his own better judgment, which 
 might have assured him that the Al- 
 mighty is able to provide means ade- 
 quate to the accomplishment of his own 
 ends, without our adopting such mea- 
 sures as are in themselves unjustifiable. 
 
 § 334. The king's health had long 
 been declining, and on the sixth of 
 July he breathed forth his pious soul 
 in ejaculations for the religious welfare 
 of his poor country. The early age at 
 which it pleased God to take him away 
 contributed in itself to raise his charac- 
 ter in the eyes of the world ; and the 
 various commendations which are be- 
 stowed upon him might appear exag- 
 gerated, were they not supported by 
 such circumstantial evidence as pre- 
 vents us from doubting their cor- 
 rectness. The warmest panegyric of 
 Edward is derived from the pen of 
 Cardan, who, on his return from Scot- 
 land, in 1552, was introduced to that 
 monarch when he was under fifteen 
 years of age. He wrote from Italy 
 after the death of the king, and could 
 have had no object for expressing such 
 sentiments, unless he had really enter- 
 tained them. He describes Edward as 
 a miracle of prudence and wisdom, and 
 possessed of every qualification which 
 could adorn a young prince ; and re- 
 lates a conversation which he held with 
 him on the subject of comets, in which 
 the king certainly had the advantage 
 over the philosopher. He spoke Eng- 
 lish, Latin, and French, fluently; and 
 was acquainted with the Greek, Spanish, 
 and Italian languages. He possessed 
 much information on most subjects, 
 particularly on foreign and domestic 
 policy ; he kept a journal of all which 
 passed about him, and seems to have 
 been able to transact business with am- 
 bassadors, so as to fill them with the 
 greatest admiration for his abilities. 
 He was affable and courteous to all, 
 nor was his kindness confined to words ; 
 and in the severity which he was through 
 Others compelled to adopt towards here- 
 
 tics, he exhibited the greatest reluctance 
 to proceed to extremities. He has been 
 blamed for the facility with which he 
 assented to the execution of his uncle, 
 yet in all probability he was in this 
 actuated by the love of justice, as his 
 mind had been totally alienated from 
 the protector, through the malicious re- 
 presentations which were industriously 
 poured into his ears, and which insinu- 
 ated that the duke of Somerset had en- 
 tertained designs against the lives of 
 the other members of the council. The 
 character, indeed, of this king was 
 
 I founded on the only sure basis, a reli- 
 gious education, which he had the hap- 
 
 I piness of receiving under the tuition of 
 Cox and Cheke, to whose care he was 
 intrusted from the age of six years. 
 The real and sincere piety which he 
 always exhibited appears in almost 
 every action of his life; it rendered 
 him obedient and docile as a child, just 
 and exact in all his transactions ; and, 
 as he grew up to govern others as well 
 as himself, rendered him tender to the 
 wants and consciences of his fellow- 
 creatures. The only exception per- 
 haps to this consisted in the zeal which 
 he showed in trying to prevent his sis- 
 ter Mary from attending mass.' He 
 deemed the celebration of this sup- 
 posed sacrifice an act of idolatry, and 
 considered himself, therefore, bound by 
 the law of God to prevent the continu- 
 ance of it : whe-^ urged by Cranmei 
 and Ridley to con^-nt to its being tole- 
 rated in compliance with the wishes of 
 the emperor, he burst into tears, and 
 declared his willingness to lose his 
 crown and dignities in endeavouring 
 to obey the commandments of the Mos 
 High. These good men left him wit! 
 their eyes full of tears, and as the} 
 passed, the archbishop took Cheke h\ 
 the hand, and said, "'Ah! maste: 
 Cheke,'' you may be glad all the day;i 
 of your life, that you have such a scho I 
 lar.' Adding, that ' he had more diri ' 
 nity in his little finger than avc hart 
 in jour whole bodies.' More divinity 
 both in the theory and the practice too 
 and this was owing in a great measun j 
 to Cheke's instructions." i 
 
 § 335. The church of England hm 
 now in its doctrines arrived at nearl} 
 
 ' Burnet, ii. 171. « Strype'e Chek«, 178. 
 
 _i 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 101 
 
 its present state ; for the changes which 
 have subsequently taken place have cor- 
 rected some points which were amiss, 
 but scarcely deserve the name of alter- 
 ations. The real state, however, of its 
 members was far from being settled. 
 The great mass of the common people 
 were still ignorant and vicious, and had 
 received the new ordinances inasmuch 
 as they came from authority, and took 
 off restraints under which they had pre- 
 viously laboured, but they neither un- 
 derstood nor rejoiced in the doctrines 
 of the Reformation, against which their 
 [prejudices were excited.' The upper 
 ■classes had been bribed into acquies- 
 cence in these changes by the robbe- 
 iries committed on church property, in 
 .which they had been allowed to share ; 
 land though there doubtless existed 
 :man)r sincere friends of the truth, yet 
 society in general can never be expect- 
 ,ed to take any very active concern in 
 religion, beyond those interests which 
 are politically combined with it. Most 
 of the clergy had complied with what 
 had been done, from fear rather than 
 from any approbation of it, and were 
 ready to turn whenever an opportunity 
 should occur. The measures which had 
 been ordinarily adopted by the reform- 
 ers, however necessary they may have 
 appeared — and of this, in the present 
 day, we are not fully adequate to pass 
 a judgment — were much more calcu- 
 lated to procure compliance than to 
 produce conviction ; add to all which, 
 that oppression and depravity of mo- 
 rals seem to have been exceedingly 
 prevalent. This, indeed, was the na- 
 tural consequence of the forced transfer 
 of property, and the depression of the 
 I ecclesiastical courts, which in an age 
 ;of barbarous ignorance weri" indispensa- 
 ;ble to preserve the tone of morality in 
 '.the country. Had it pleased (iod to 
 I have continued the reign of Edward, 
 these evils would probably have gra- 
 dually vanished ; or had he been suc- 
 ceeded by a monarch indifferent about 
 I religion, England might quickly have 
 relapsed into its former state, and a re- 
 ; conciliation with the church of Rome 
 might have brought back many of the 
 grievances from which the kingdom 
 ihad been freed; but the ways of the 
 
 ' Strype's E. M. III. i. 167, 17, 191, 309. 
 
 Almighty are inscrutable, and He pro- 
 duced the ultimate establishment of the 
 Reformation liy other means than hu- 
 man prudence could foresee. 
 
 § ;i'.H>. It is frequently objected to the 
 church of England, that all her institu- 
 tions, as established in this reign, de- 
 pended much more on the civil magis- 
 trate than on any ecclesiastical author- 
 ity. The standard of her faith, and 
 the formularies by which her public 
 services are conducted, were so far 
 settled at this time, that though they 
 have often been reviewed, they have 
 never received any material alterations. 
 If, therefore, the religion, then admitted, 
 were, as it is sometimes called, a par- 
 liamentary religion, this stigma must 
 still be attached to our church ; and it 
 may be useful to inquire how far the 
 appellation is correct, and how far the 
 existence of this fact may be deemed in- 
 jurious to us as a spiritual body. Many 
 of the principles on which this question 
 must be decided are detailed in a note 
 on a former chapter;' and perhajis it 
 may be assumed, that matters purely 
 temporal should be directed by the. civil 
 magistrate alone ; that those wiiich are 
 purely spiritual should be left, as far as 
 possible, to the management of the 
 clergy alone, as the ministers of God, 
 and responsible to his tribunal ; and 
 that all mixed matters should depend on 
 a combination of these two species of 
 authority. Now, as almost all practical 
 questions are of a mixed nature, and as 
 we can hardly conceive any case purely 
 spiritual, exc<'pt betw(>en an individual 
 and his Maker, we shall only have 
 leariU the nature of the diflicully in 
 question, by laying down these gi'ncral 
 ]irinciples. When we look at the out- 
 ward circumstances of the case, there 
 can be little doubt thai, before the com- 
 mencement of the Reformation, far too 
 much power existed in the hands of tlie 
 church, and that the priesthood had 
 assumed an inordinate degree of civil 
 jurisdiction, under the plea of spiritual 
 government. It was natural, thrrefore, 
 for those who endeavoun^l to overt lirow 
 this anomaly, to fall into the oppo.site 
 extreme, and while they con-ibatcd the 
 misuse of such a power, to deny the 
 existence of it altogether. It were to 
 
 2 See § 201. 
 i2 
 
102 HISTORY 
 
 be wished, perhaps, that all bodies cor- 
 porate should correct themselves ; but 
 it must require much external pressure, 
 and much internal wisdom, which shall 
 enable the better members of such a 
 society to effect a general amendment. 
 There was in this case an abundance 
 of external pressure ; and though there 
 was much of internal wisdom, yet that 
 wisdom had rather been opened to a 
 few by the perusal of the Scriptures, 
 and the examination of the question, 
 than diffused through the mass by the 
 gradual extension of knowledge. 
 
 § 337. On one side therefore was the 
 truth, supported by the strength which 
 it must always possess, and favoured 
 by those Avho were placed in the highest 
 stations, both in state and church, and 
 supported by a party formidable from 
 their number, and respectable from their 
 attainments. On the other, were the 
 ignorance of the people, and their pre- 
 judices ; but this was aided by the in- 
 terested views of the clergy, who were 
 scattered through every village, and 
 possessed a force which was by no 
 means balanced by the selfishness of a 
 few courtiers, who had profited by the 
 spoliation of the church. The courtier 
 cared little for the establishment of one 
 religion or another, provided he could 
 secure his wealth ; but the village 
 pastor and his partisans were led to 
 esteem the cause which they advocated 
 as the cause of God, and formed a tre- 
 mendous phalanx, which might be di- 
 rected to the most dangerous under- 
 takings. Whoever, therefore, attempted 
 to guide the cause of the Reformation, 
 during the reign of Edward VI., must 
 either have waited for the slow deve- 
 lopement of Christian education, and 
 the falling off by death of those who 
 opposed his plans, or he must have 
 exerted an external force, which might 
 overthrow the immediate power of his 
 opponents ; and the question of em- 
 ploying the one or the other of these 
 means could hardly have admitted of 
 debate, when the health of the king and 
 the ojiinions of his successor were taken 
 into the account ; nor can we fail to 
 examine with interest the opinions of 
 Cranmer himself, as far as they bear 
 on this point. What is here stated is 
 derived from the answers which he gave 
 to such questions as were proposed to 
 
 OF THE [Chap. VI. 
 
 certain divines in 1540,* and in which 
 
 the offices and authority of the priest- 
 hood are examined : from hence it would 
 appear, that his own sentiments were 
 nearly Erastian: he seems to esteem 
 the whole of the clerical office as de- 
 pendent entirely on the civil magis- 
 trate that there was originally no dif- 
 ference between a bishop and a priest ;* 
 that the prince or the people might make 
 a priest for themselves,* for whom no 
 consecration was necessary ;^ and that 
 the power of excommunication depends 
 entirely on the civil authority committed 
 to a bishop." It may be remarked that 
 these opinions are not discoverable in 
 the formation of our church services, 
 which are almost entirely taken from 
 those of the Roman ritual, yet a trace 
 of them remains in those articles which 
 refer to the church, and among which 
 Art. XIX., XXI., and XXIII. might be 
 subscribed by any one who held opi- 
 nions purely Erastian. 
 
 § 838. With these views, therefore, 
 and placed under these circumstances, 
 we can hardly be surprised if in his pro- 
 ceedings hq leaned towards the civil 
 authority, which was in great measure 
 under his own direction. His plan of 
 proceeding generally was to intrust the 
 task of reforming any particular branch 
 of church matters to a committee of di- 
 vines appointed bj' the crown, some- 
 times on the ground of the ecclesiastical 
 supremacy, and sometimes under an 
 act of pariiament, and then to sanction 
 the result by a fresh bill, or by publish- 
 ing it under the royal authority. This 
 method of proceeding may be esteemed 
 very unconstitutional with regard to the 
 convocation ; but if the supreme author- 
 ity be lodged in the civil magistrate, in 
 him too must be vested the power of 
 finally approving or rejecting all regu- 
 lations with regard to the service of the 
 church. The Prayer Book was framed 
 by clergymen, and the act of uniformity 
 enjoined, that in those churches where 
 the ministry was supported bj' the 
 church property this service should be 
 used ; and the only real hardship seems 
 to consist in this, that those individuals 
 who disapproved of it were not allowed 
 any Christian liberty of absenting them- 
 
 ' Burnet, I. iii. Rec No. 21. 
 
 2 Qu. 9. ' Qu. 10. Qu. 11. 
 
 * Qu. 12. « Qu. IG. 
 
Chap. VI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND 
 
 103 
 
 selves from the churches, and of seek- 
 ing elsewhere a service belter suited to 
 their own opinions. To say that the 
 country would have become Moham- 
 medan,' if the court had enjoined it, is 
 to assert what can neither be proved 
 or disproved. The alterations were im- 
 posed by the civil authority, and many 
 persons received them with great un- 
 willingness ; but this might have been 
 equally the case, had they been im- 
 posed by some ecclesiastical power 
 alone, and if the support of the crown 
 had been required merely to enforce the 
 mandates of the spiritual tribunal. The 
 exertion, therefore, of a temporal power 
 cannot vitiate the enactment itself, and 
 tlic propriety or impropriety of it must 
 depi'nd on its intrinsic merits. It must 
 be acknowledged that great severity 
 and injustice were used towards some 
 chiirciimen, particularly towards Gar- 
 diner and Bonner; but this cannot in- 
 validate the orthodoxy of those changes 
 in doctrine or discipline to which they 
 as individuals objected. It is as absurd 
 for a Roman Catholic to reject the tenets 
 of the church of England because they 
 were imposed by act of parliament, as 
 it would be for a Protestant to discard 
 the truths of Christianity because they 
 have been derived to us, accompanied 
 with errors, through the church of Rome. 
 Every change introduced into the church 
 of England must receive its final sanc- 
 tion in precisely the same way : nor 
 does there appear to be any solid reason 
 why the laity, who possess a strong 
 interest in every thing connected with 
 the service of the church, should not 
 exercise an influence in its being adopt- 
 ed or rejected. 
 
 § 339. These observations, however, 
 will hardly apply to the commissions 
 which were granted to the bishops. If 
 the existence of a Christian priesthood 
 be derived from God, surely the civil 
 magistrate cannot have any other power 
 over it than that of preventing spiritual 
 authority from being applied to tempo- 
 ral purposes. It may limit the use of 
 it with regard to public ministrations ; 
 but if the authority of Cranmer were 
 entirely human; if, when he ordained 
 to the ministry, the act depended solely 
 on the commission from the king, it 
 
 ' Strype's Annals, III. ii. 368, No. 54. 
 
 seems unnecessary to reason about dif- 
 ferent forms of church government, or 
 to contend for the sacred character of 
 the ministers of the gospel, there is 
 really no such thing as a priesthood. 
 Many parts of the episcopal authority 
 are essentially derived from the crown ; 
 but there is something beyond this 
 which is derived from God ; and this 
 measure can by no means be approved 
 of, if any of the principles on which 
 we have been reasoning be admitted. 
 Granting, however, that the commis- 
 sions were totally false in the principle 
 on which they depended, this fact can- 
 not invalidate the acts of those who 
 held a real episcopal character under a 
 false idea ; and it is evident that the 
 chief part of the bishops of that period, 
 however they might be forced to act 
 under these commissions, entertained 
 opinions on the ecclesiastical functions, 
 corresponding with those which have 
 been here laid down. Nor, on the 
 other hand, supposing that the correct- 
 ness of all which was done were clearly 
 established, does it follow that the so 
 doing it was either politic or judicious ; 
 and Cranmer may not only have used 
 severity towards those who opposed 
 him, but have adopted steps which can- 
 not be justified — may have virtually 
 forced the consciences of the weak, in 
 hastily imposing on them those changes 
 which would have been adopted quietly, 
 or gradually modified, had he allowed 
 the progress of opinion to follow its 
 natural course. 
 
 § 340. In order to judge of the 
 foundation on which this charge is 
 raised, we may inquire what would 
 have been the result of such a proceed- 
 ing ? Were there no hasty spirits who 
 would have borne down, not only the 
 errors of Romish superstitions, but the 
 decencies, too, of public worship, which 
 we have derived from Rome ? Was 
 there no necessity of issuing proclama- 
 tion after proclamation against those 
 who were eager to innovate and to 
 destroy every vestige of whatever had 
 been once misused? Compare what 
 took place in Scotland with the events 
 in England. Do we owe no gratitude 
 to those who, when the tide of reforma- 
 tion seemed likely to overbear the limits 
 of moderation, endeavoured to guide 
 and direct its course by the force of legal 
 
104 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. V!. 
 
 enactments ? The active friends of 
 reformation restrained their own zeal 
 when the work was carried on by those 
 in authority ; but could Cranmer, or 
 anyone else, have successfully opposed 
 this torrent ? and can we imagine that 
 he himself would have been able to 
 introduce these more quiet alterations, 
 had he failed to exert his temporal in- 
 fluence ? The friends of the church of 
 Scotland may rejoice that no moderate 
 reformer stepped forward from amone 
 their bishops to modify the violence of 
 those who overthrew the whole of what 
 had been long established ; but the ad- 
 mirer of our episcopal church must, 
 under God, thank Cranmer that his par- 
 liamentary interference saved our apos- 
 tolic establishment from the rude hands 
 of ignorant reformers, who, in their zeal 
 for re-establishing the religion of the 
 Bible, cast off the innocence of the 
 dove and the prudence of the serpent. 
 Nothing but these rapid proceedings, 
 founded on the temporal power which 
 he possessed, and which he exerted in 
 reforming what was amiss, could have 
 prevented others from withstanding all 
 attempts at amendment, till the force 
 of the multitude had, as in Scotland, 
 thrown down what the episcopalian will 
 consider as almost the church itself. 
 So far, then, from blaming the arch- 
 bishop for his manner of reforming by 
 legislative enactments, we must con- 
 sider that the existence of our establish- 
 ment, in its present apostolical form, is 
 owing to this very circumstance. 
 
 § 341. In examining how much the 
 Reformation in England was affected 
 by the opinions entertained by the di- 
 vines of the Lutheran or Calvinistic 
 schools, it should be remembered that 
 the fame and notoriety of the reformer 
 of Geneva Avas little spread at the pe- 
 riod when the authoritative documents 
 of the church of England were pub- 
 lished, and that these productions were 
 directed against the errors of the Ro- 
 man church, rather than intended to 
 mark the differences which might ( xist 
 among Protestants. At a later pi i io l. 
 the sentiments of Calvin undoubit dly 
 affected in a great degree the opinions 
 of individual divines of our church ; 
 but the formularies which distinguish 
 us as a Christian community had no 
 reference to the theology of Geneva, 
 
 and are derived, in a great degree, from 
 the Lutherans.' 
 
 We have before seen that Kenry 
 VIII. was particularly anxious that Me- 
 lancthon should visit England ; and the 
 same proposal was made to that re- 
 former from Cranmer in the reign of 
 Edward VI. ; but this object was never 
 accomplished. He appears to have' 
 been consulted in 153.5 concerning the 
 Articles which were published during 
 the next year; and the definition of 
 justijication there given is probably 
 derived from the loci communes of this 
 author ; in the whole of these articles 
 the ideas and language of the Lutheran 
 divines have been closely followed. 
 Many of the Forty-two Articles owe 
 their origin to the same source and 
 even those which cannot be traced with 
 certainty exhibit a correspondence with 
 the general opinions of the German 
 divines. An exception, however, must 
 be made with regard to one article, in 
 which Cranmer differed totally from 
 them, and which is strongly marked by 
 the clause against consubstantiation, ot 
 ubicjuitarianism, which existed in the 
 Article on the Lord's Supper in the 
 Forty-two Articles, but which was omit- 
 ted in the reign of Elizabeth ; ' it may, 
 however, be worth remarking, that 
 Cranmer was called a Zuinglian, and 
 not a Calvinist, by Fox, as entertaining 
 this opinion. Some of the points in 
 which the Common Prayer Book differs 
 from the services of the Roman church 
 are derived from the reformed ser- 
 vice of Herman, archbishop of Co- 
 
 ' This (luesiion, as far as relates to those arti- 
 cles (jf our church which are sometinies deemed 
 Calvinistic. is most ably handled by Archbishop 
 Laurence, in his Banipton Lectures, who proves 
 ikarly that they are drawn from Lutheran 
 fimn es. Indeed, the controversy on the ptedes- 
 liiiaii in (juesiion only began in Oct. 1551; Cal- 
 vin's lirst tract was published in 1552, and the 
 riispiiie was continued for many years. Lau- 
 rence's Bump. LecU 237. 
 
 ^ See ^ -181, &c. 
 
 ' •■ For a? much as the truth of man's nature 
 r( ii'iiit.h. that the body of one and the self-same 
 mm cannot be at one rime in divers places, but 
 1(1 i-i pteds be in s'lme one certain place; thcre- 
 • 1, c lie body of Christ cannot be present, at one 
 iii.c. m many and divers places. And because (as 
 Holy .Scripture do'h teach) Christ was taken up 
 iii'o heaven, anil there shall continue unto the end 
 oi the world, a faithful man ought not cithcr_'o 
 believe, or openly to confess, the real and bodily 
 presetice (as they term it) of Christ's flesh and 
 
 Art. 29 of the XLII. ; and 28 of the XXXI 
 
C«AP, VI.] 
 
 CHURCH O 
 
 F ENGLAND, 
 
 1«8 
 
 logne,' and others owe their origin to 
 the Liturgy of Strasburg, which was 
 framed by Calvin,^ but had been modi- 
 fied before it was published in England. 
 
 § 342. If this examination of the ques- 
 tion shall surprise those who generally 
 esteem. the authoritative documents of 
 the church of England original composi- 
 tions, if it shall seem to detract from the 
 yalue which is generally attached to the 
 labours of Archbishop Cranmer and his 
 :olleagues, let it be remembered that 
 .he sacred subject on which these 
 vvorks were drawn up is the only one 
 n which originality is the worst of 
 auks. If the heathen philosopher 
 visely grounds the truth of his conclu- 
 ;ions on the fact, that they do not mate- 
 •ially difTer from the opinions of pre- 
 nous investigators, surely the Chris- 
 ian, who is employed in framing 
 irticles of faith, may reasonably de- 
 dare that he has only quitted the tenets 
 if his predecessors where he found 
 hem inconsistent with the revealed 
 vord of God. 
 
 At the commencement of the Refor- 
 nation in England, our reformers natu- 
 ally cast their eyes on two standards 
 if faith — on that of the church of Rome, 
 md that of the Lutheran churches — 
 vhich had already discarded the errors 
 if the papal court. The rule, then, 
 vhich sound reason would seem to dic- 
 ate, is, that in those points wherein the 
 :hurch of England found it necessary 
 0 differ from that of Rome, it should 
 efer to the opinions of the newly esta- 
 ilished churches, and follow them as 
 ar as they were consistent with Scrip- 
 ure ; and where that which was taught 
 ly the Lutherans appeared to be ques- 
 ionable, the church of England should 
 ither borrow the expression of its opi- 
 lions from some other reformed church, 
 r construct its own articles directly 
 rom the word of God. And this ap- 
 tears to be the plan on which these 
 ocuments in our own church were 
 ramed. In our Articles are contained 
 he great truths of Christianity, which 
 ve hold in common with the church of 
 lome ; there are many more which 
 re derived from the Lutheran church ; 
 here are some in which we differ from 
 
 ' See ^ 744, i. ^ See ^ 745, 
 
 14 
 
 both. In our public services, the greater 
 part of the Common Prayer Book is 
 taken from the Roman ritual, and some 
 portions are borrowed from the Luthe- 
 ran churches, or rather drawn up in 
 imitation of them. 
 
 It may indeed be asked, why our re- 
 formers did not at once leave the works 
 of others, which had been so generally 
 mixed up with errors ? why they did not 
 seek at once for the standard of their 
 faith, and the formularies which were 
 to guide them in their prayers, from the 
 unerring rule of the word of God ? But 
 such a question will be asked by those 
 only who are little aware of the difficul- 
 ties which attend such an undertaking. 
 Standards of faith are only necessary 
 on account of the heresies into which 
 mankind have run, and must be drawn 
 up with reference to such heresies. To 
 modify, therefore, the previous labours 
 of those who have gone before us in 
 detecting and restraining error, is not 
 only an easier and safer plan, but it is 
 one which is much more consistent with 
 Christian modesty. The word of God, 
 in this case, does not immediately fur- 
 nish the adequate means of preventing 
 errors ; for both parties often assume 
 the word of God to be with them ; and 
 the only question is as to the interpre- 
 tation which we ought to assign to it. 
 The form in which we address the 
 throne of grace is of less importance ; 
 the real question is, as to that for which 
 we ask. When, therefore, the country 
 has been used to one form, it would be 
 injudicious to change it further than the 
 errors contained in such a composition 
 absolutely demand ; and in those points 
 where alteration was necessary, true 
 wisdom would lead us to imitate what 
 has already been adopted by our Chris- 
 tian brethren, and of which they have 
 testified their approval by continuing 
 its use. 
 
 With this view of the subject, there 
 is every reason for applauding the con- 
 duct of Archbishop Cranmer, and ad- 
 miring our own standards, because they 
 so nearly resemble the works of the 
 same sort which preceded them ; and 
 to rejoice that the documents of our 
 church are not new, but amended tran- 
 scripts of those which our forerunners 
 have established. 
 
106 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. \TI. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE REIGN OF MARY I., FROM JULY 6, 1553, TO NOVEMBER 17, 1558. 
 
 351. Lady Jane Grey. 352. Mary seated on the throne; her promises. 353. Gardiner's plana. 
 354. Mary prepares to restore popery. 355. Parliament. 356. Cardinal Pole, legate, delayed oa 
 his journey towards England. 357. Convocation. 358. Disputation held in it. 3.59. Wyaii's 
 rebellion; executions. 360. Ejection of the married clergy. 361. Disputations at Oxford. 362. 
 Confession of faith of the Reformers published. 363. Marriage of the queen. 364. Reconcilialioa 
 with Rome. 365. Preparations for persecution. 366. Persecutions. 367. Disputes among the 
 Reformers in England and abroad- 368. Dea:th of Gardiner. 369. Steps in favour of the church. 
 370. Death and character of Cranmer. 371. Many others suffer. 372. Pole, archbishop of Can- 
 terbury ; documents destroyed. 373. Visitation of the universities. 374. Paul IV. enraged wilk 
 Pole ; disasters of the nation ; persecutions. 375. Deaths and characters of Mary and Pole. 
 
 § 351. The sentiments which Mary- 
 was known to entertain with regard to 
 religion induced some persons to ques- 
 tion for a short time her title to the suc- 
 cession, of the justice of which there 
 could he no real doubt. These same 
 fears had formerly induced many of the 
 council to assent to the measure adopt- 
 ed in the will of Edward, and now co- 
 operated in making them try to promote 
 this illegal settlement, and to advance 
 the ambitious plans of him who had de- 
 vised it. The absurd power granted 
 by parliament to Henry Vlli., of naming 
 his successors in his will, had rendered 
 the order of inheritance less clearly de- 
 fined in the minds of those about the 
 court, and many of them imagined that 
 the bequest of Edward was equally 
 binding in law with that of his father. 
 
 Of Lady Jane Grey,* to whom the 
 crown was now offered by her father 
 and father-in-law, the dukes of Suffolk 
 and Northumberland, the brightest ex- 
 pectations were entertained ; and her 
 only fault seems to have been, that she 
 allowed her own better judgment to be 
 influenced by the solicitations of her 
 friends. She had received a classical 
 education under the care of Dr. Ayl- 
 mer, afterwards bishop of London, and 
 taken such advantage of his instruc- 
 tions, and the philosophy of our holy 
 faith, that she was prepared for cither 
 the crown or the scaffold. 
 
 § 352. The good sense and loyalty 
 of the nation quickly rendered her case 
 desperate, while the unpopularity of the 
 duke of Northumberland contributed 
 greatly to strengthen the party of 
 
 Burnet, ii. 174. 
 
 Mary : the friends, therefore, of the 
 queen became daily more powerful, 
 were joined by the council, and she 
 was proclaimed throughout London on 
 the 19th of July. Within a few days, 
 the chief of her enemies were sent to 
 the Tower, and she remained in quiet 
 possession of the throne. The only 
 point in which she seems at this period 
 of her reign to have acted culpably was, 
 in an assurance, given by her that she 
 would force no one's religion. 
 
 This promise was made to the Suf- 
 folk men, who, being friendly to the re- 
 formed doctrines, joined her standard 
 from a sense of duty ; whereas her 
 known love to the papacy renders it pro- 
 bable, that from the first she was de- 
 termined to pursue steps which could 
 not be carried on without breaking the 
 pledge given to those who supported 
 her. The promise was repeated pub- 
 licly on the 12th of August before the 
 council, ° and on the 18th by a procla- 
 mation ; but in both these cases a tacit 
 reservation seems to be made in the 
 prospect of some alteration in the law 
 of the land. From her general con- 
 duct, we can hardly conceive her to 
 have been insincere when she made it; 
 but she must have been very weak and 
 ignorant, to suppose that the wishes of 
 her heart could be accomplished with- 
 out falsifying such a declaration. 
 
 § 353. The government was now un- 
 der the direction of Gardiner, who was 
 in many respects a politic man, and un- 
 derstood the temper of the country.' 
 His plan was to have restored every 
 
 2 Strype's Eccl. Mem. 
 ' Burnet, ii. 180. 
 
 Fox, 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 107 
 
 thing connected with religion to the 
 state in which it had been left by Hen- 
 ry VIII., and thus by degrees to have 
 brought back the kingdom to a recon- 
 ciliation with the court of Rome. This 
 scheme favoured his own jirivaie views, 
 as well as the public objects towards 
 which it was directed ; and had it been 
 temperately pursued, might have led to 
 the re-establishment of the papacy in 
 England, by slower, yet surer steps, 
 than those which were adopted; while 
 it would have freed the chancellor from 
 some alarm, which he could not but feel, 
 at the prospect of the speedy arrival of 
 Cardinal Pole, who never trusted him, 
 and who was from many circumstances 
 likely to gain an influence over the 
 queen, inconsistent with the interests of 
 Gardiner. These prospects, however, 
 of moderation, and the hopes which 
 her declarations had infused into the 
 reformers, were soon dissipated ; for 
 the early acts of the reign were strong- 
 ly marked with precipitancy as well as 
 severity.' Bonner^ proceeded to take 
 possession of his see (August 5th) with- 
 out any legal revocation of the sentence 
 by which he had been deprived ; and 
 the intemperance of Bourn, his chap- 
 lain, who preached soon after at St. 
 Paul's Cross, produced such a tumult, 
 that the life of the preacher was en- 
 dangered, and only preserved by the 
 interference of some of the Protestant 
 divines. 
 
 § 354. In consequence of this, all ser- 
 mons were prohibited till licenses had 
 been given under the great seal to such 
 persons only as were likely to spread 
 the doctrines of the church of Rome; 
 and a commission was issued for the 
 purpose of setting aside the depriva- 
 tions of those bishops who had been 
 'ejected : so that every measure seemed 
 rapidly tending to the re-establishment 
 of the ancient order of things. It be- 
 came apparent, too, that the church was 
 the object which predominated in the 
 mind of the queen, who, in promoting 
 the interests of Rome, forgot those ties 
 by which human beings are most close- 
 
 ' Mass was said in London at St. Nicholas', 
 August 21. (.Strype's Eccl. Mem. v. 34.) Moun- 
 ' tain was persecuted by -Gardiner for celebrating 
 the communion before the service had been 
 changed, p. 104. Mass was celebrated at the 
 opening of parliament, 57. 
 
 2 Strype's Eccl. Mem. v. 27. 
 
 ly connected. She used cruelty towards 
 one of the Suffolk men, who intempe- 
 rately reminded her of her promise 
 with regard to religion, and imprisoned 
 Judge Hales, who had strongly advo- 
 cated her cause against the pretensions 
 of Lady Jane Grey, because he urged 
 the magistrates in Kent to put in force 
 the laws of Edward which were still 
 unrepealed. These were but sad pros- 
 pects for the friends of the Reformation, 
 and they began to prepare themselves 
 for the struggle. The foreigners who 
 had been established in this country 
 were now dismissed ; and many of the 
 English clergy gradually fled beyond 
 sea, to preserve their lives for better 
 times, and to enjoy that liberty of con- 
 science in a distant land which they 
 could no longer hope for at home. But 
 the more exalted members of the church, 
 whose situations held them up as exam- 
 ples to their flocks, notwithstanding that 
 they were advised to fly, remained at 
 their posts, ready to serve God by suf- 
 fering in his cause, as well as to wor- 
 ship him in safety, and in the sunshine 
 which the favour of the court shed 
 around their pious exertions. Hooper 
 and Coverdale repaired before the coun- 
 cil when summoned ; and Cranmer, 
 since it was maliciously reported that 
 he was ready to concede every thing, 
 drew up a protest^ against the mass, 
 which was unfortunately circulated be- 
 fore it was finished for publication ; and 
 when he could not deny that he was 
 the author of it, he was by the council 
 committed to the Tower, on the charge 
 of high treason. 
 
 §3.55. In the parliament which was 
 assembled October 5, the marriage of 
 Henry and Catharine was confirmed, an 
 object which the queen had much at 
 heart, and which Gardiner had protnised 
 to procure ; but he of all men was the 
 least fit to be the agent in such a trans- 
 action, who had been most active in pro- 
 curing the divorce, and had been joined 
 in the commission by which the marriage 
 had been declared void. The acts of 
 the last reign relating to religion were 
 at once annulled, and severe penalties 
 imposed on those who interfered with 
 the performance of any sacred function. 
 
 ' This letter is printed at length in Strype's 
 Cranmer, 437. 
 
108 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VIL 
 
 In the act of attainder against the Lady 
 J. Grey and her husband, Cranmerwas 
 comprehended, and though his see was 
 now legally void, yet was he still re- 
 garded as archbishop, by those who 
 wished to uphold the ecclesiastical ex- 
 emptions, and to proceed against him 
 on other grounds. 
 
 § 355. In consequence of some pri- 
 vate communications between Mary and 
 the court of Rome, Cardinal Pole was 
 appointed legate, with full powers for 
 the reconciliation of the kingdom, and 
 immediately commenced his journey 
 towards England; but he was stopped 
 on the way, through the interference of 
 Gardiner, who represented to the em- 
 peror the danger of so precipitate a step, 
 which might probably prevent the mar- 
 riage between Philip and Mary, (an 
 object to which the attention of Charles 
 was now directed,) and create a fermen- 
 tation in the country, very prejudicial 
 to the interests of the queen. A suspi- 
 cion is suggested by Burnet, that she 
 herself was influenced by more tender 
 motives, in requesting that the legantine 
 commission might be intrusted to the 
 cardinal, hoping that he might obtain a 
 dispensation to marry her, as he was 
 only a deacon ; but the tale rests on 
 very slight foundation ; and had Gar- 
 diner been aware of such a wish on the 
 part of Mary, he would probably have 
 fostered an arrangement which must 
 have left the prospect of the see of Can- 
 terbury open to his own ambitious views. 
 The queen sent a messenger to the 
 legate while he remained in Germany, 
 to state the progress which she had made 
 in the cause of the church of Rome, and 
 desired him not to proceed to England 
 till further notice. The wisdom of this 
 delay was very apparent ; for the na- 
 tion was generally adverse to the two 
 measures in which the court was now 
 engaged. The parliament had conceded 
 every point with regard to religion, as 
 far as it was unconnected with politics, 
 but they were anxious that the crown 
 of England should not be deprived of 
 the spiritual supremacy which it had 
 acquired, and abominated the idea of 
 becoming an appendage to the Spanish 
 monarchy. So strong indeed was the 
 general feeling against the match with 
 Spain, that a deputation of the speaker 
 and twenty members of the House of 
 
 Commons waited on the queen to depre- 
 cate any thoughts of a marriage with a 
 foreigner : but instead of producing the 
 desired effect, the parliament itself was 
 dissolved, and the enormous sum of 
 twelve hundred thousand crowns was 
 said to have been intrusted to Gardiner 
 by Philip, in hopes that the enemies of 
 the marriage might be bought off from 
 their opposition. 
 
 § 357. In order to give freedom of 
 discussion to the convocation which was 
 now called,' an act of parliament was 
 previously passed, repealing the sta- 
 tutes of Henry VIII. which rendered 
 all persons who joined in framing ca- 
 nons without the royal permission liable 
 to a prsmunire ; a penalty which must 
 have subjected the ecclesiastical author- 
 ity to the civil power, and not only have 
 offended the prejudices of a Roman 
 Catholic, but have tended, too, to limit 
 the privileges of the church. Weston, 
 dean of Westminster, was appointed 
 prolocutor, a man much looked up to 
 on account of the firmness which he had 
 exhibited in the former reign. Its first 
 act was directed against the Common 
 Prayer, which it denominated an abo- 
 minable book, and declared to be here- 
 tical, on account of the denial of tran- 
 substantiation which it contained. The 
 same stigma was also affixed to the 
 Catechism,^ said to be set forth by order 
 of convocation. These steps produced 
 a warm discussion in the Lower House ; 
 but of the proceedings of the bishops no 
 record remains. Care had been taken 
 that among the proctors elected by the 
 clergy such men alone should be found 
 as favoured the prevailing cause, but 
 of those who sat in right of the situa- 
 tions which they held in the church,* 
 six were found bold enough to contro- 
 vert the sentiments of the ruling party, 
 and to enter into a disputation against 
 the power and numbers with which they 
 found themselves surrounded. At this 
 disputation many of the council were 
 present, from whom, during the heat of 
 1 the discussion, when the arguments of 
 the Protestants were borne down by the 
 clamour of the majority, they received 
 more liberty of expressing their senti- 
 ments than their ecclesiastical opponents 
 
 j 1 Strype's Ecc. Mem. v. 59. 2 See ^ 331. 
 
 I 3 Fox's Acts and Mon. iii. 16. 
 
Chap. VH.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 109 
 
 would have allowed ; but from the com- 
 mencement, for it lasted three days, it 
 was apparent that this bold minority 
 could entertain little hope of obtaining 
 a fair hearing ; Weston indeed declared 
 that they were assembled, not to call in 
 question the undoubted truth of tran- 
 substantiation, but to answer the ob- 
 jections of those who refused to sub- 
 scribe to this undeniable proposition. 
 And so manifest were the difficulties 
 against which the friends of the refor- 
 mation had to contend, that when they 
 were refused the assistance of Rogers 
 I and Ridley, most of the six declined 
 entering on the question, and were only 
 drawn into the debate by degrees, in 
 supporting Cheyney, who would not 
 avoid the contest under every disad- 
 vantage. 
 
 § ;i58. Discussions of this public na- 
 ture have but little effect, except per- 
 haps the evil one of warming the pas- 
 sions by connecting human vanity with 
 sacred truth ; but wo cannot fail to ad- 
 mire the bold zeal of men who ventured 
 to stem the torrent of virulence and 
 persecution, merely to convince the by- 
 standers of the goodness of their cause ; 
 and in this point of view their exertions 
 probably even now produced some good 
 effect ; for at the close, when the House 
 was asked whether sufficient answers 
 had not been given to the objections of 
 the reformers, and the clergy were 
 ready in the affirmative, the multitude 
 who stood around instantly vociferated. 
 No ! no '. The reformers had found 
 themselves treated with so little fairness, 
 that they refused to become the respond- 
 ents; and the whole argument was 
 summed up by a remark of Weston's, 
 which briefly stated the merits of the 
 controversy, "You have the word," 
 said he, "but we have the sword." An 
 observation calculated to show the 
 erroneous principles assumed by the 
 church of Rome, as well as to display 
 the cruelty of the individual. Men 
 vested with unlimited power are ge- 
 nerally the same in all communions; 
 and the friends of the papacy cannot 
 hope to be more fortunate in this respect 
 than other Christian bodies ; and wher- 
 ever the infallibility of the church is 
 asserted, then farewell to truth and to 
 every hope of obtaining it, since it be- 
 comes the duty of those vested with 
 
 authority not to enter into any dis- 
 cussions by which reformation may be 
 promoted or truth elicited, but to curb 
 with the severe mandates of autocracy 
 the idea of calling in question any of its 
 tenets ; and these words of the prolo- 
 cutor, harsh as they may appear to a 
 Protestant ear, become the language of 
 sincerity, when proceeding from the 
 mouth of a consistent Roman Catholic, 
 who allows not the possibility of salva- 
 tion beyond the limits of his own church. 
 
 §;J5'J. (a. D. 15.54.) The Spanish con- 
 nection was so much disliked by the 
 nation in general, that though the court 
 of Madrid granted terms absurdly bene- 
 ficial to the English crown, it was fol- 
 lowed by a rebellion. The ramifica- 
 tions of this plot were numerous, but 
 the discovery of one branch, which in 
 the west of England was conducted by 
 Sir Peter Carew, proved destructive to 
 the rest. He himself fled ; but the un- 
 wise duke of Suffolk just did so much 
 as to incur the crime of treason, without 
 benefiting the cause which he espoused ; 
 and the only one of the leaders who 
 made any movement in the affair was 
 Sir Thonms Wyat in Kent, whose rebel- 
 lious forces, after some trifling successes, 
 were dispersed, and he himself taken 
 prisoner at Temple Bar. The practical 
 effect of this injudicious and unwarrant- 
 able proceeding was to strengthen the 
 hands of the queen, and to give her an 
 opportunity of using severity on the 
 unfortunate Lady Jane Grey and her 
 husband. Mary behaved with great 
 courage and propriety throughout the 
 whole period of danger, and never re- 
 moved from Whitehall; nor can we 
 venture to blame her for the execution 
 of these young persons who had been 
 guilty of treason, notwithstanding the 
 palliations which may be urged in their 
 favour. And though we cannot help 
 pitying the early fate of one so young 
 and lovely, yet the Christian spirit with 
 which she died is much more calculated 
 to raise our admiration, and to excite us 
 to the imitation of such studies and pur- 
 suits as enabled a woman about seven- 
 teen years of age to meet death with 
 tranquillity and resignation. We may 
 remember, too, that she suffered for a 
 crime into which the ambition of her 
 relations had hurried her against her 
 wishes and her conscience. The duke 
 K 
 
110 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VTL 
 
 of Suffolk, Wyat, and fifty-four others ! 
 were executed, and a large number* of ' 
 the common people were forced to beg 
 their lives with halters about their necks. ' 
 Elizabeth was confined, and the pro- 
 ceedings were generally severe, parti- 
 cularly in fining the jury which had 
 acquitted Sir Nicholas Throgniorton. 
 
 § 3(i0. Strengthened by the discom- 
 fiture of this rebellion, Mary com- 
 menced the work of anti-reformation. 
 The first act was to publish articles of j 
 directions for the bishops in their pro- 
 ceedings against the friends of the op- 
 posite party ; and the chief object of 
 attack was the marriage of the clergy, 
 of which the parliamentary sanction 
 had been annulled in the general re- 
 peal of King Edward's laws. But 
 even those who quitted their wives 
 were ejected from their preferments, 
 and the whole was carried on under a 
 commission from the queen as supreme 
 head of the church, a title which she 
 did not care to assume, except to expel 
 the reformed clergy from their bene- 
 fices. The bishoprics of York, St. Da- 
 vid, Chester, and Bristol, were declared 
 void on account of the marriage of 
 those who held them ; and Lincoln, 
 Hereford, and Gloucester, on the plea 
 that they were held by royal patent, 
 upon the good behaviour of the pos- 
 sessors, a condition which it was alleged" 
 these bishops had manifestly not ful- 
 filled. 
 
 Accidental circumstances produced 
 many other vacancies, so that, with the 
 restoration of deprived bishops, there 
 was at this period an alteration of six- 
 teen out of the bench. The number of 
 priests who were now ejected, though 
 variously stated and perhaps exagge- 
 rated, was ill nil probability considera- 
 ble. The whole proceeding must be 
 regarded as arbitrary, and more tyran- 
 nical and illegal than what had been 
 done with regard to Bonner and Gar- 
 diner ; for these married priests had 
 formed the connection under the au- 
 thority of the law of the land, and 
 without violating any promise to the 
 
 ' This number is variously stated. Burnet 
 makes it 600 ; Holinshed, 400 ; Stow, 240. Gar- 
 diner is said to liave prcai lied before the queen on 
 the 11th, the day before Lady Jane's execution, 
 and to have urged her not to show mercy. 
 Strype's Ecc. Mem. v. 140, 145. 
 
 contrary made at ordination ; since it 
 appears that the oath used in England, 
 in that service, was conceived in such 
 terms as did not interfere with the 
 chastity of the marriage-bed ; yet when 
 the new act abrogated the previous 
 concession, the ahernative of compli- 
 ance was not offered, but they were at 
 once deprived of their preferments : 
 many indeed were subsequently admit- 
 ted to other benefices ; but this, though 
 it diminished the hardship, did not ob- 
 viate the evils inseparable from con- 
 siderable changes and the rapidity 
 with which this was effected unsettled 
 the minds of the people in general as 
 to the distinctions of right and wrong ; 
 an observation which applies to the 
 whole of the present alterations in 
 religion. 
 
 § 361. Every one had, during the 
 late reign, sworn to the supremacy of 
 the king. When, therefore, they now 
 found themselves obliged to renounce 
 this oath, and were absolved from it, 
 they learnt to despise the sanctity of 
 promises ; and the clergy, who should 
 have been the firmest in the observance 
 of so sacred a bond, were the first to 
 take advantage of any means by which 
 they might escape from it : and, in 
 order to conceal the baseness of their 
 conduct, introduced abundance of hy- 
 pocrisy, frequently adapting their pro- 
 fessions to the sentiments of the indi- 
 viduals whose approbation they sought. 
 But the council confined not itself to 
 these less conspicuous victims ; and 
 steps were taken to prepare the way 
 for more important proceedings. A 
 public disputation was held at Oxford 
 on April 16, in which, on three suc- 
 cessive days, Cranmer, Ridley, and 
 Latimer were exposed to the argu- 
 ments and insults of certain opponents, 
 Avho were armed with full authority 
 from convocation, and backed by the 
 applauding clamours of the ignorant 
 and prejudiced clergy and in their 
 conduct on this occasion these martyrs 
 perhaps showed as much patient en- 
 
 2 Strype's Cranmer, III. i.\. 476. 
 
 ' The previous steps taken by Gardiner, at 
 Magdalen College, (Fuller, viii. p"7,) may enable 
 us to account in some measure for the httle favour 
 which was extended to these eminent martyrs by 
 members of the university. All the friends of the 
 ■Reformation had probably been driven away, 
 (Strype's Ecc. Mem. v. 81.) 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 Ill 
 
 durance, as in the torments to which 
 they were subsequently exposed ; for 
 it may fairly be questioned whether the 
 overbearing dogmatism of such a tri- 
 bunal were not more difficult to be en- 
 countered with Christian meekness 
 than any bodily pains which could be 
 inflicted, and which were to be borne 
 as inevitable sufferings in a righteous 
 cause. 
 
 § ;i')2. To enter into the details of 
 such a transaction would exceed the 
 limits of this work, and the force of the 
 whole would be lost by such abridg- 
 ment as would be necessary. They 
 ; may be found at length in Fox, from 
 whence they are copied into Words- 
 worth's Ecclesiastical Biography: suf- 
 fice it to say, that the triumph of the 
 Roman Catholic party was, as might 
 have been anticipated, . complete, and 
 jthat the three prisoners, when con- 
 I demned by their earthly judges, ap- 
 il pealed to the righteous decision of the 
 i tribunal of heaven; upon which Wes- 
 ton declared that, if they went to heaven, 
 j he was persuaded that he should never 
 j come there. The treatment which had 
 ■ been experienced by the bishops at 
 ! Oxford induced the prisoners in Lon- 
 don to decline any public disputations. 
 In this they were probably wrong ; for 
 however little fairness' they could ex- 
 j pect, still the example and effect of 
 bearing patiently, for the cause of 
 ! truth, insults, as well as death, must 
 I always prove the sincerity of that faith 
 I on which their reliance was j)laced. In 
 order that their real belief might be 
 known, the reformers who were in 
 prison published a confi-ssion of faith 
 consisting of eight articles, ° in which 
 they declared that they received the 
 Scriptures as the word of God, that 
 they admitted the Catholic creeds of 
 the four first centuries, believed in jus- 
 tification by faith, and rejected the use 
 of the Latin tongue in the church ser- 
 vice, the invocation of saints, purgatory, 
 the mutilation of the Lord's Supper, 
 transubstantiation, and the adoration of 
 the elements, and asserted the lawful- 
 
 • One of the sirongpst evideives against the 
 sincerity of the opponents to the Protestant dispu- 
 tants is, that they deprived ibe champions of the 
 reformers of all books, or the means of preparing 
 themselves by writing or study. (Protcstatio 
 Ridleii, 53, 55. Ench. Theol.) 
 
 « Strype's Ecc. Mem. vi. 224, No. 17. 
 
 ness of marriage to every order of men : 
 on these points they offered to dispute, 
 if called on by proper authority. 
 
 § 303. The marriage of the queen, 
 though it produced a short calm for 
 those who had offended against the civil 
 power, does not appear to have ob- 
 tained the same favour for any who 
 were persecuted for religion ; and Phi- 
 lip, though he probably saved the life 
 of Elizabeth from the suspicious seve- 
 rity of her sister, and obtained the par- 
 don of several who were condemned, 
 procured for himself little kindness from 
 the English, who were justly offended 
 at the proceedings of the court, the 
 changes which were daily making in 
 religion, and the political and personal 
 connection into which the queen had 
 herself entered. These feelings were 
 not at all diminished by the vindictive 
 spirit with which Mary punished those 
 who had spread malicious reports con- 
 cerning herself ; nor did the violent 
 conduct of Bonner, during his visita- 
 tion, tend to diminish the general indig- 
 nation and disgust of the nation. The 
 Protestants vented their ill-humour in 
 deriding and ridiculing the superstitions 
 of the Romish church ; the Roman 
 Catholics exerted themselves in esta- 
 blishing the most objectionable parts 
 of their rites, regardless of the feelings 
 of men who were already exasperated, 
 and every step served but to add viru- 
 lence to the persecutions which soon 
 began to be exercised. 
 
 § 3(54. The autumn was chiefly occu- 
 pied by the steps towards a reconcilia- 
 tion with the church of Rome. One of 
 the first acts of the parliament which was 
 assembled in November was to repeal 
 the attainder of Cardinal Pole, who in 
 the mean time bad been allowed to 
 proceed to England ; and within a few 
 days after his arrival the nation was 
 absolved upon the request of the two 
 Houses, and once more received into 
 the bosom of the papal church; the 
 acts which had of late years passed 
 against the authority and jurisdiction 
 of the papacy were repealed ; and 
 every thing but the church lands re- 
 stored to tlieir former condition. The 
 convocation had made a petition that 
 this point might not be pressed, con- 
 vinced that the spoilers would never 
 surrender their prey, and, to use their 
 
112 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VU. 
 
 own words, preferring the salvation of 
 souls to their own private interests. But 
 the answer of the cardinal excited the 
 most lively fears among the "detain- 
 ers" of ecclesiastical lands, by inveigh- 
 ing strongly against such sacrilege,' 
 while from necessity he sanctioned the | 
 adoption of the laAv. As an intermedi- 
 ate step, the Statute of Mortmain was ; 
 repealed for twenty years, so that the | 
 church was enabled to receive the do- 1 
 nations which the fears or piety of the | 
 nation might be induced to bestow upon j 
 it. But the bull published by Paul IV. . 
 in the next year, which virtually an- 1 
 nulled all these acts of the legate, proved 
 how little faith can be placed in the 
 promises of a power which arrogates 
 to itself the right of absolving the sa- 
 cred tie which is established by an oath. 
 This parliament had in all probability 
 been greatly bribed, so that little oppo- 
 sition was made to the wishes of the 
 queen and clergy ; and Gardiner, what- 
 ever may be our opinion of him as a 
 man, showed considerable talents as 
 a politician. The severe acts against 
 heresy were renewed, and others passed, 
 which tended to strengthen the hands in 
 which the administration of affairs was 
 placed. 
 
 § 3G5. (a. d. 155.5.) Before the com- 
 mencement of the terrible persecution 
 with which this year was disgraced, a 
 question was agitated, as to the manner 
 in which the government should pro- 
 ceed against heretics : nor should it 
 ever be forgotten, that the side of rea- 
 son and mercy found its advocate in 
 Cardinal Pole. Gardiner, whose opi- 
 nions were at variance with these milder 
 plans, had suffered much under the reign 
 of Edward, and his politic mind showed 
 him that nothing short of the severest 
 measures could then have reduced the 
 nation to its former dejiendcnce on the 
 authority of the pope : add to which, 
 that there existed a strong feeling of 
 personal antipathy between the chan- 
 cellor and those who were now subject- 
 ed to his power ; and these evil passions 
 were strongly excited by the republica- 
 tion at Strasburg of his own book, in 
 which he had advocated the cause of the 
 
 ' He bade them consider the judgments of God, 
 which fell on Belshazzar, for his profanely using 
 the holy vessels, though they had not been taken 
 Bway by himself, but by his father. 
 
 divorce, and heaped many reproachful 
 expressions on the mother of the queen; 
 a very delicate piece of vengeance, of 
 which he could not but be very sensible. 
 
 The feast of reconciliation with the 
 church of Rome, which was established 
 by the cardinal, (Jan. 25,) was followed 
 by the persecution of men whose only 
 crime consisted in their refusing to sub- 
 scribe to doctrines which they had pre- 
 viously rejected, and from which they 
 had been zealously trying to turn away 
 their brethren. In order to give effect 
 to this step, and that the state of the re- 
 formed part of the population might be 
 correctly ascertained, it was ordered, in 
 the instructions given by Cardinal Pole, 
 that books should be kept by the bishops 
 and their officials, in which the names 
 of those who had been reconciled to 
 the church of Rome might be inserted, 
 and that processes might be instituted 
 against the rest a measure which, had 
 it been carried into effect with any ac- 
 tivity, must have constituted an inquisi- 
 tion the most formidable that was ever 
 established, inasmuch as the previous 
 state of the kingdom had induced men 
 to declare their real sentiments, and to 
 throw aside that caution which is the only 
 safeguard against inquisitorial tyranny. 
 
 § 300. It will be useless to record 
 more than the names of the chief re- 
 formers who perished in the flames, 
 (some particulars shall be added in 
 Appendix F,) for records of this de- 
 scription lose their whole force and 
 beauty by being abridged ; and if they 
 are to benefit us by their perusal, they 
 must be examined in all the details of 
 the original historians. Rogers was 
 burnt in Smithfield, Hooper at Glouces- 
 ter, Saunders at Coventry, and Taylor 
 at Hadley- Gardiner was disappointed 
 with the effect of these executions ; for 
 judging of the influence of fear from 
 himself, he had miscalculated on the 
 power of terror in the cause of religion. 
 Nothing but extreme severit}' could pos- 
 sibly have put down the flame which 
 was now kindled ; but the public exhi- 
 bition of those who so patiently suffered, 
 animated others to the struggle, and led 
 the friends of the papacy to mistrust the 
 doctrines of a church which used for its 
 support means so diabolical. 
 
 * Strype's Cranmer, 498. 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 113 
 
 The general feeling of disgust which 
 was excited by these severities,' was 
 fostered by a book in the form of a 
 petition against persecution, published 
 abroad, and sent over into this country 
 by the reformers ; and though the king 
 disclaimed any share in these proceed- 
 ings, and Alphonsus,^ a Spanish friar, 
 ventured to preach against them before 
 the court, yet no effectual stop was put 
 to them, and they were carried on 
 throughout the whole year ; during 
 whicl), four bishops, thirteen priests, 
 and fifty others, suffered at the stake. 
 The disappointment with regard to 
 Mary's expected delivery^ did not tend 
 to lessen the number of these execu- 
 tions ; for it is reported that she had 
 conceived an idea that she should never 
 be brought to bed till all the heretics 
 in prison were burnt. Their deaths, 
 however, did not procure for her the 
 relief for which she looked ; and before 
 the end of the year Philip began to neg- 
 lect her, having given up all hopes of 
 a family, the only circumstance which 
 could have procured for him an influ- 
 ence in the country, and fulfilled the 
 ambitious views with which he had 
 formed the connexion. 
 
 § ',iV)7. The steps which were taken 
 to detect and convict heretics had gone 
 very near the establishment of an in- 
 quisition ; for the justices of the peace 
 were directed to look out some well- 
 affected persons in every parish, wlio 
 might give secret information concern- 
 ing their neighbours; and the lieute- 
 nant of the Tower was ordered to allow 
 the use of torture for the discovery of 
 the truth ; and though these instru- 
 ments were probably applied to the 
 detection of civil as well as ecclesiasti- 
 cal offences, yet where, under a govern- 
 ment so earnest in the interests of the 
 church, their introduction had been 
 sanctioned, little could be wanting but 
 :he organization of a chamber of in- 
 quisitors. The numerous letters of di- 
 rections and thanks for attending the 
 
 ' Strype's Ann. i. 261. 
 
 2 As ilie subsequent conduct of Pliilip. and the 
 jcnrrnl character of Alphnnsus dc Castro, (see 
 White's Evidence against Calholicism, note G, 
 p. 251, 2d edit.) prevent us Iroin attributing this 
 measure to Christian charily, their opinion wiih 
 regard to the impobcy of these severities is at least 
 strongly marked. Strype's Ecc. Mem. v. 333. 
 
 ' Burnet, vol. iii. 174, fol. 419, 6vo. 
 15 
 
 execution of heretics, which were ad- 
 dressed to the gentry, prove that the 
 civil power, when it became the hand- 
 maid of superstitious intolerance, stood 
 in need of every support, lest the unre- 
 strained feelings of the common people 
 should have tempted them to commit 
 acts of violence against a government 
 which was turning the power intrusted 
 to it for the preservation of its subjects 
 to their destruction, both of body and 
 soul. The prisons were filled with the 
 friends of the Reformation, numbers of 
 whom were found ready to undergo any 
 sufferings in the cause on which their 
 hopes were fixed.* Many fled beyond 
 sea, and many more temporized with 
 the civil authority, by publicly attend- 
 ing mass, or entirely renouncing their 
 faith. 
 
 But the apostasy of these members is 
 not more painful than the disputes by 
 which these persecuted believers added 
 to their own sufferings. They quar- 
 relK'd on the subject of freewill and 
 [iredestination and in the discussion, 
 unfortunately, some of them fell into 
 Pelagianism : nor was the evil confined 
 to this country," but arose also among 
 the English who were scattered on the 
 (."ontinent, and broke out with disgrace- 
 ful warmth at Frankfort' and other 
 
 ^ Strype's Cranmer, 501, ii. III. xiv. 
 5 See an account of this dispute in a pamphlet 
 publisiied by Archbishop Laurcm-e. Great offence 
 was taken at some of the prisoners in the King's 
 Fiencb, for {inniinc;, (1554, 5.) and tlicy, in defend- 
 ing themselves, tnaiiilained strongly the doctrines 
 of election and reprobation, running into Antino- 
 mianism ; conipronii.«cs were made, but no solid 
 reconciliation was elTectcd. Bradford wrote a trea- 
 tise on predesliiiaiion, which be sent to Oxford, for 
 the approbation of Criinnif-r, Ridley, and Latimer. 
 The bishop of London alone answered him, but 
 did not approve of the work. The conduct of 
 sonic of iliR parlies appears to have been disgrace- 
 ful. Au'heniic Docnincnis relative to the Pre- 
 dc-iinarian Conirovcisy. Fvo. O.xlord, 1819. 
 15 .Strype's Cranmer, 507, li. III. xv. 
 ' There is a lull but prejudiced account of the 
 troubb s at Frankfort, printed 1575 ; it was re- 
 printed in K'rj, and is contained in the Phoenix, 
 vol. li. Fuller pives a large abstract of it, viii. 
 p. 25, &c. It is hiubly favourable to the non- 
 conforming party. (1551) The magistrates of 
 Frankfurt had granted the use of a church to 
 some English fugitives, provided they would com- 
 ply with a French congregation which had fled 
 there from Glastonbury. 'I'hese persons altered 
 some portion of the Cotnmon Prayer, to adapt the 
 service to that of the other church, and invited the 
 
 ] English fugitives to come and join them : this, 
 however, was refused by many, (e. g. the churches 
 at Strasburg and Zurick,) in consequence of the 
 
 I alteration of the Common Prayer. This dispute 
 
114 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VII. 
 
 places. Great objections were raised 
 against the Common Prayer Book' and 
 the Communion Service, and in this 
 part of the quarrel Knox rendered him- 
 self conspicuous. 
 
 § 308. Pole had always been averse 
 to violent persecution, but was unable 
 to show any opposition to it sufficiently 
 strong even to mitigate its severity ; for, 
 independently of the suspicions which 
 were entertained concerning his own 
 opinions, Gardiner had sent unfavour- 
 able reports of his conduct to the apos- 
 tolic chamber. The end of the latter 
 was now drawing near, and served, but 
 too late, to teacli him the vanity of pur- 
 suits unconnected with our duty. He 
 had seen the religion which he upheld 
 triumph over its opponents; he had 
 himself been restored, and raised to 
 eminence and power; he had beheld 
 his personal enemies at his feet ; and 
 contributed probably to the condemna- 
 tion of men with whom he had before 
 been connected as a brother bishop ; 
 
 continued for some time to distract the church, and 
 Knox and \V iiitnnfilmni, in order to as=ift then 
 cause, submitted a plailorni ol ihe Pravcr Ijook 
 to Calvin, who animadvened on it. as < nniaiiiinL' 
 many points which were childish and irifling; bi:i 
 their account ol ihe book is obviously unfair : ano 
 C alvin could hardly nave judged ot the ques.io i 
 from this iniperleci dui nnient. (He mirrlir. hou-- 
 ever. have seen the book helore ihis nine, ih.i'.i^'h 
 the sending the plailorm seems to inipiv the c<mi- 
 Irary.) A part ol the Geneva service was now in- 
 troduced, and m consequence ol ihe ofTt ncc taKcii 
 at this, another lorm was composed lo lie U'-'ed l(,r 
 a lime. In the mean season C ox came lo !■ raiiK- 
 lort. and alier some difficuhy cs'abnslud ihe ii^t 
 ol the Common hraver. there were prnbiiol\ 
 faulis on both sides. (Ioo7.) 1 nere was a sr. 
 cond dispute about church Gisciiiliiie. j.;r. A,-ii- 
 ley having been hrouErht helore ihe ecclesi.isn-ai 
 authorines for ren-iin:)tr stmie ot the iiniiis-crs. 
 rejected their n«rii..ri>> . ■•- i •■'.v.a panics in ilic 
 dispite II nl t 1 
 
 part, and ailciiip ' ■ ; . n. w laws lor disci- 
 pline ri II llniadic 
 wards bishop ot W iiu-hesier. was ihen pasior. and 
 after Ills ei at re i I a i o I I 
 Siaes, lie iiliiinaielv quitted lae place. 
 
 T. his church was, in lis constiiunon, under boih 
 the old and new discipline, perlecilv ••indepeti- 
 dent. It consisted ol a 'jasior. assistant elders, 
 who perlornied m turn the clerical dunes, and 
 deacons. Thev laid down their offices annually, 
 and an elecnon took p;acc, accunipamcd bv impo- 
 sition of hands. Ordinary mcmliers were adinii- 
 ted into cominunion upon making a dcclaraiion 
 offaiih, and subscribing to the form of discipline ; 
 and questions, if any objections were raised against 
 the ministers, were ullimaiely referred lo the con- 
 gregation. (Phcnnix, ii. 12.5, &c.) In the details 
 of the discipline of this church, we may see the 
 platform of what was often attempted, and ulti- 
 mately established during the usurpation. 
 
 ' Strype's Pccl. Mem, v. 406, &.c. 
 
 ! and having scarcely learnt the inutility 
 j of those measures to which he had been 
 instrumental, he, too, was called away 
 to answer before the Judge eternal, 
 (Nov. 12.) He was a shrewd, clevear 
 man, and probably much more of ^ 
 ])olitician than a churchman. The 
 treatment which he had himself re- 
 ceived may account for some of his 
 virulence, if it cannot excuse it : nor 
 does he appear to have been totally de- 
 void of kindness towards Protestants: 
 for during his prosperity he screened 
 Sir Thomas Smith and R. Ascham from 
 persecution -.^ and it must never be for- 
 gotten, that he effectually prevented this 
 country from falling under the Spanish 
 yoke at a moment when his personal 
 interests would have induced him to 
 promote a connexion with that court.* 
 The circumstance which weighs most 
 .strongly against his character is the ill 
 opinion which Cranmer ab.vays enter- 
 tained of hiin, and which would hardly 
 have been the case with one so kind- 
 hearted and forsriving as the archbishop, 
 had he not known him to have been a 
 bad man. 
 
 ^ ;,(,!). In the earlier part of the sum- 
 in< r. the tpieen had been engaged in 
 rebuildmo; the convent of Franciscans 
 at Cirecnwich ; and for the purpose of 
 enJovvino- as many religious houses as 
 .she could. <rave up all the church lands 
 vcsti'ti m tlie crown, and in the end o'f 
 the year discharired the cler<?vfrom the 
 ;^a^•ln(■nt ol tir;t-lriii!s and tenths ; anx- 
 idtis. no doubt, that the church should 
 no provided for in temporalities, as well 
 :is reformed m its discipline : for in the 
 convocation v. hich was held by Cardi- 
 nal Pole. (?\ovember ^d.^l many con- 
 stitutions were made, highly beneficial 
 to the ecclesiastical body, m preventing 
 il 1 a 1 1 1 I n I 111 1 bers, and 
 v.liicli. had i]irY 11' rn carried into full 
 execution, must have gone far to esta- 
 blish the Roinan Catholic religion, foj 
 a time at li nst. on a firm basis. FoV 
 errors and faults in practice are so 
 much more obvious to mankind in 
 general than any other species of evil, 
 that whenever strict clerical duty is ob- 
 served, the mass of the people will be 
 little likely to examine, with any seve- 
 rity, the tenets of their instructors, and 
 
 ■ Strype's Lile of Smith, 48, 50. 
 ' Burnet, ii. 208. 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 115 
 
 will take for gfranted the soundness of 
 the speculative opinions of men who 
 live with propriety. Nor were the 
 plans of reformation adopted by the 
 cardinal confined to mere discipline, 
 for he purposed to have reformed the 
 Necessary Doctrine aad Erudition of 
 any Christian Man,' and to have pub- 
 lished it, as well as a translation of the 
 New Testament, and to have established 
 cathedral schools. 
 
 § 370. (a. d. 15.}3.) One of the ear- 
 liest acts of this year was the deo-rada- 
 tion and burning of Cranmer. He had 
 been condemned on the l^th of Sep- 
 ;embi_-r preceding, and afterwards sum- 
 moned to appear before the pope while 
 iie was detained a prisoner in Oxford; 
 ind when a sufficient period had elapsed 
 ;o procure an answer from this fictitious 
 ribunal, where his condemnation took 
 ilace in consequence of his supposed 
 ;ontumacious absence, he was publicly 
 iegraded by Bonner and Thirlby, the 
 ormer of whom added the bitterness of 
 lersonal malice and reproachful words 
 ,0 an office in itself sufficiently distress- 
 ng. It was indeed peculiarly embarrass- 
 ng to Thirlby, who had always retained 
 or the archbishop that love and reve- 
 rence which a long acquaintance with 
 lis virtues had justly procured him: 
 5ut the power of inflicting such wounds 
 l^ratified the bishop of London, that most 
 ow of persecutors. The fall of which 
 his good man was subsequently guilty, 
 n signing the recantation, takes off from 
 
 ' This was done by Bonner. The title of the 
 ;vork is, A Profitable and Neressary Doctrine, 
 vilh certain Homilies adjoined tliereio, set forth 
 ly the Rev. Father in God Edinonde bishop of 
 jondoii. &LC. &c. lor the diocese of London. 1A55. 
 ■ The first part is the same work as the Erudi- 
 ion. nmlnlis mutandis: e. g. the article on con- 
 iirinalion is changed ; it lays greater stress on the 
 lecessity of being confirmed. In the explanation 
 if the Creed, all which opposes the papal supre- 
 nacy is left out, and that doctrine distinctly stated. 
 I n the Sacrament of the Altar, the doctrine of the 
 'eal presence and transtibslantiation is taught ; but 
 he Ten Commandments are still divided in the 
 'rotestant manner. The volume next contains 
 njunctions sent to his clergy. Then follow thir- 
 leen homilies, said to be done by the l)ishop and 
 [lis chaplains; Imt one or two of them agree al- 
 nost entirely with those published by CraniTier; 
 he names of Harpsfield and Pendleton are affixed 
 0 sjonie of them. There was another set of homi- 
 ies pulilished by Bonner in 155S, in number ihir- 
 y, which are totally difTerent from these, applying 
 )oculiarly to the sacraments and the doctrines of 
 he church of Rome ; they are sometimes bound 
 ip, instead of the former, with the copies of the 
 t'rofitable and Necessary Doctrine. 
 
 the whole of the glorious dignity with 
 which the closing scene of the other 
 martyrs was enlightened ; but it cannot 
 but afford a useful and consolatory les- 
 son to the Christian of the present day. 
 If one so gifted as Cranmer was inade- 
 quate to withstand the influence of kind- 
 ness and attention when used to mislead 
 him, though he had been before able to 
 view with tranquillity the prospects of 
 death ; how careful should we be against 
 the temptations of prosperity 1 If one 
 who had so fallen was subsequently en- 
 abled to meet death with such pious re- 
 signation and firmness, what confidence 
 may we place in the grace of God, whose 
 strength is perfected in weakness ! The 
 condemnation of this good man to the 
 flames, notwithstanding his recantation, 
 was to him a most fortunate occurrence ; 
 for it brought him back to that Christian 
 condition which his concession had lost; 
 but it is peculiarly unfavourable to the 
 character of Mary ; for with whatever 
 view we examine it, we can hardly help 
 suspecting that a vindictive spirit was 
 exercised, even if she be acquitted of 
 any personal animosity against one who 
 had played so conspicuous a part in the 
 divorce of her mother. Cranmer ex- 
 hibited most decidedly the influence of 
 religion on a mind naturally sensible 
 and strong. There was little brilliant in 
 his talents, or commanding in his under- 
 standing,'' yet the sound sense which he 
 possessed made him produce more effect 
 in the Reformation in this country than 
 any other person. Much of this, during 
 the reign of Edward, was owing to the 
 situation which he filled ; but few others, 
 unless they had possessed his judgment, 
 his Christian feelings, and simplicity, 
 would have been able to weather the 
 storms to which his bark was exposed 
 during the tumultuous period of the 
 reign of Henry VIII. ^ To him we 
 chiefly owe the Articles of our church. 
 
 ^ Dr. Laurence (archbishop of Cashel) gives 
 much higher commendations to the talents of 
 Cranmer, and even prefers him to Ridley ; the 
 opinion expressed in the text is taken from Bur- 
 net. Bampton Lect. p. 205, (11, 12, 13.) 
 
 3 Fuller's view of this part of his history is far 
 less favourable, (p. 371.) Cranmer " had done no 
 ill, and privately many good offices for the Pro- 
 testants, yet his cowardly compliance hitherto 
 with popery, against his conscience, cannot be ex- 
 cused ; serving the times present in his practice, 
 and waiting on a future alteration in his hopes and 
 desires." 
 
116 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. MI. 
 
 the first book of Homilies, as vrell as ! 
 much of the comj/ilation of the Com- 
 mon Prayer. To him we owe one of ; 
 the brightest examples of a primitive 
 and apostolic bishop ; and if in his early 
 days we cannot admire the zeal with 
 which he advocated the divorce, if in 
 his latter end we deplore his fall,' let 
 us remember that he was but a human 
 being like ourselves, and that the bless- 
 ings of which he was the instrument, 
 all proceed from a heavenly Source, to 
 which our gratitude is chiefly due. 
 
 § 371. These victims, however, did 
 not satisfy the friends of religious in- 
 tolerance, for the fires of persecution 
 were lighted throughout the country, 
 and the persons who suffered in them 
 were chiefly taken from the lower ranks 
 of life. Neither age nor infirmity, 
 ignorance or learning, could free those 
 who refused to submit to the dogmati- 
 cal dicta of a corrupted church from 
 the most cruel of deaths. During the 
 year, eighty-five persons of different 
 descriptions were burnt, and by their 
 constancy animated their brethren to 
 be equally firm in the same cause. 
 Notwithstanding the danger, ministers 
 were everywhere found to instruct their 
 flocks, and ready to expose themselves 
 to death for their religious opinions. 
 Nay, the very terrors of persecution 
 most strongly pleaded in favour of a 
 faith which could enable men to endure 
 them patiently ; and the government 
 was at last obliged to prevent the peo- 
 ple from expressing any signs of appro- 
 bation towards the martyrs, and to order 
 housekeepers to keep away their ap- 
 prentices from a sight Avhich might urge 
 them to violence against the execution- 
 ers, or admiration of the victims. The 
 country was supplied with books and 
 religious tracts from the reformers who 
 were beyond sea, and out of the reach 
 of personal risk, but to whose spiritual 
 welfare the calm which they enjoyed 
 was far more dangerous than the storm 
 which was raging in England ; for in- 
 stead of passing their time in mortifica- 
 
 ' The six confessions or recantations made by 
 Cranmer are curious in pointing out the imper- 
 ceptible steps by which he was led on from one 
 point to another, till he gave up and renounced 
 almost all that he had ever taught, and assented 
 directly to the errors of the church of Rome. Five 
 of these are in Strype's Ecc. Mem. v. 392, &c., 
 the other in Fox, iii. 559. 
 
 tion and prayer, to which the sufferings 
 of the reformed at home might surely 
 have directed them, they commenced 
 those disputes about the liturgy and 
 ceremonies, which have ended in di- 
 viding the Protestant church, and hum- 
 bling us in the sight of our opponents.' 
 
 § 'S72. Cardinal Pole was now raised 
 to the archiepiscopal see of Canterbury, 
 to which his consecration took place 
 the day after the martyrdom of Cran- 
 mer ; for it seems that he had some 
 scruples about entering into the bishop- 
 ric during the life of its former occupier. 
 His pall and bull of consecration had 
 long been in England ; for though the 
 pope bore no good-will towards him, 
 which indeed he soon manifested, yet 
 he had now no grounds for refusing a 
 favour which the queen so earnestly 
 desired ; since she on her part was ex- 
 erting herself in promoting the tempo* 
 ral interests of the church. She re- 
 established several religious houses, 
 particularly those which had suffered 
 for their adherence to her mother ; coa- 
 verted the chapter at Westminster into 
 a monastic foundation ; and took every 
 means to destroy the documents of the 
 former reign, which either favoured the 
 Reformation or cast disgrace on her 
 present coadjutors, by testifying theit 
 former compliance ; an act which in 
 itself is hardly justifiable, and which 
 has had the effect of obscuring the his- 
 tory of the period, and leaving on the 
 minds of those who study an impres- 
 sion as injurious to the cause which it 
 was meant to benefit, as any positive 
 testimony could have afforded. 
 
 § 373. (a.d. 1557.) The next year 
 commenced with the visitation of the 
 two universities, in which the commis- 
 sioners seem to have reformed such 
 real abuses as they met with ; though 
 one of their chief employments was to 
 dig up the bones of Bucer and Fagius 
 at Cambridge, which were burnt on 
 account of the heresy of their former 
 owners ; and those of the wife of Peter 
 Martyr at Oxford, which were buried 
 in a dung-heap, because she had died 
 excommunicated. This absurd brutum 
 fulmen was but the prelude to more 
 serious persecutions, which were car- 
 ried on with unabated vigour over the 
 
 ' See % 367, K 
 
Chap. VII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 117 
 
 kingdom. The sufferers amounted in 
 this year to seventy-nine, which num- 
 ber was probably increased by a com- 
 mission given to Bonner and twenty 
 others for the discovery of heresy and the 
 punishment of certain offences, in which 
 they were invested with all the author- 
 ity which the infliction of fine and impri- 
 sonment could afford them. This, though 
 far different from the establishment 
 3f the inquisition, was a very important 
 step towards its introduction. In all 
 hese transactions, the cardinal was pro- 
 jably not guilty of any of the severest 
 )r most cruel measures. He seems to 
 lave tried, in a quiet manner, to check 
 he vehemence of the bishop of Lon- 
 lon ; but he possessed neither firmness 
 »f character nor influence sufficient to 
 nrrest these tyrannical proceedings : he 
 iiad indeed dismissed several persons 
 a very equivocal submission; but by 
 |o doing exposed himself to the malice 
 f the pope, which broke out on the 
 ollowing occasion. 
 
 § 374. Paul IV. had persuaded Hen- 
 y II. of France to break the truce 
 /itii Spain, contrary to all good faith ; 
 nd when, after the battle of St. Q,uin- 
 :n, in which the English had assisted 
 ae forces of Philip, the pope found 
 imself exposed to the power of the 
 ■paniards by the removal of the army 
 f the duke of Guise from Italy, he 
 ented his rage on Pole, for not having 
 'revented this step of the English cabl- 
 et, withdrew his legantine powers, 
 nd summoned him to Rome to answer 
 le charges which were brought against 
 im of favouring heresy. Peto, the 
 ueen's confessor, was invested with 
 lie authority of which the archbishop 
 '■as deprived ; but Mary, justly offended j 
 'i these hasty decisions, refused to ad- 
 'lit him into the kingdom. These 
 isturbances, however, were 'juickly [ 
 rought to a conclusion, for the aLivaiii'i> 
 'f the duke of Alva on Ro:ue redncnl 
 16 pope to the necessity of a ni u!-.'. 
 ■ae of the secret articles of which \v:is 
 lie restoration of Pole. 
 ' (a. D. IS.jS.) The loss of Calais ami 
 'ruisnes, which seems to have liccii 
 'liiefly owing to the defectiv iiiiuiin r 
 li which they were sup[)lii'il, luon^hi 
 le dissatisfaction of the English na- 
 on to its summit; nor did the ditficul- 
 es, chiefly financial, with which the i 
 
 council were surrounded, suffer them 
 to adopt a rapid attack on the former 
 fortress, a step strenuously recom- 
 mended by the king. A parliament 
 was now assembled, and relieved them 
 from a part of their difficulties by a 
 grant of money, which came too late 
 t.o retrieve the errors that had been 
 committed, and on the prorogation of it 
 the bishops renewed their persecutions. 
 Thirty-nine suffered this year, making 
 the total of the victims during this reign 
 amount to two hundred and seventy. 
 Some authors' give a much larger 
 number ; but humanity shudders at 
 this ; and in a proclamation now put 
 forth, the people are forbidden even to 
 pray for the sufferers, a step in perse- 
 cution much more unchristian than 
 could have been conceived, had not 
 experience taught us how far the evil 
 passions may carry human beings, 
 when unrestrained by a sense of reli- 
 gion. Bonner himself seems to have 
 been glutted with murder, and to have 
 confined his exertions to the personal 
 castigation of his ill-fated prisoners. 
 
 § '^75. At length, however, it pleased 
 Almighty God tp put an end to these 
 cruelties by the death of Mary, who, 
 after a protracted state of declining 
 health and suffering, ended her inglo- 
 rious career on the seventeenth of No- 
 vember. With all her. faults, she must 
 be allowed the praise of sincerity : for 
 the love she bore to the Roman Catho- 
 lic religion and the papacy, induced 
 her to advance its supposed interests at 
 her own exjiense,'^ as well as that of 
 her persecuted subjects ; and her chief 
 misfortune seems to have been this, 
 that a geni\is which would have shone 
 in a nunnery was exalted to a throne. 
 Her temper, naturally sour, had been 
 
 ' I.dVil Burlei<;h reckons ii at 400. (Burnet, 
 P in. IH'.). fol. 454, 8vo.) The. wriier lo Ridley, 
 /' ( 'n II I Vnmini, Ht SOO in the two first years of 
 '\>r |H r-. ruMnii (Burnct, vol. il. 272. 658, 
 -I'M Tins was priiliably Orindal. Sirypemakes 
 ]■ J-^, VI lOrc. iV[em. 'I'lie niuiibers as 
 
 ^'ivrii annua Iv Uy Burnci amount lo 270. 
 
 I In- I Hlii)i'..iis "erf made out ol the reve- 
 
 ini- , ii! iIh i iMU M and instead ol' maklni^ a gain 
 • ■■ ' ! < I ■- I- " >- the jrcneral plan of the "Re- 
 !u, i, r !l ird noi up unto the Lord, of 
 iln' . ; Ih i' no hing. Among other do- 
 na -Im iu- si. me rectories, which were in 
 
 IrnnU 111 ilic crown, to Oxford, to repair the 
 schools; and restored the temporalities to Dur- 
 ham, which had heen taken away as a prey for 
 the duke of Northumberland. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VIIL 
 
 rendered morose by the sufferings 
 which she underwent ; and her per- 
 sonal animosity was so wrapped up 
 under the garb of religion, that she 
 probably did not distinguish between 
 the two. Had she met with more wise 
 and liberal counsellors, she might have 
 escaped much of the obloquy with 
 which her name was then and is still 
 loaded ; and had she followed the ad- 
 vice of Cardinal Pole, she would pro- 
 bably have avoided many of those 
 enormities which disgrace human na- 
 ture, and are an everlasting stigma on 
 the Christian religion. The legate 
 himself breathed his last within sixteen 
 hours of his mistress ; a man very dif- 
 ferent from those with whom he was 
 politically connected, and who sought 
 to establish the religion he professed, 
 
 I by reforming obvious abuses, and by 
 gentleness of treatment. It does not 
 appear that he always wished to ab- 
 stain from severe measures against 
 heretics ; but, as it has been before 
 observed, he could not follow the bent 
 
 ^ of his own mind ; and it is not un- 
 worthy of remark, that the only par- 
 don' issued for a heretic in this reign 
 was granted at his intercession. Many 
 Protestants had formed a very different 
 opinion concerning him, and believed 
 that he was in fact the friend of the 
 Reformation ;* but this false idea^ was 
 soon taken off; and on finding their 
 mistake, it is not wonderful that they 
 should feel exasperated against him, 
 though his conduct throughout seemi 
 to have been that of a reasonable aii4 
 sincere Roman Catholic. 
 
 CHAPTER VIIL 
 
 DURING PART OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, NOV. 17, 1558—1563. 
 
 401. Varied prospects of Elizabeth. 402. Prudence of her conduct. 403. Coronation ; parliament. 
 404. Bishoprics pillaged by the crown. 405. Conference in Wes'minster Abbey. 406. Convo- 
 cation; injunctions. 407. Ejection of the recusant clergy. 408. Court of high commission; 
 images. 409. Consecration of bishops. 410. Defective ministry arising partly trom the poverty 
 of the church. 411. Keforms; Jewel's Apology. 412. Parliament ; convocation. 413. Benefits 
 of the Reformation. Evils arising from the Relormalion. 
 
 § 401. The prospects of Elizabeth 
 upon her succession to the throne were 
 of that varied nature which give birth 
 to, as well as require, superior abilities; 
 nor would it have been easy to decide 
 whether or no the dangers which threat- 
 ened her from without were balanced 
 by the domestic advantages with which 
 her reign was commenced. Against 
 France and Scotland, her nearest neigh- 
 bours, she was engaged in open hostili- 
 ties, and the loss of Calais had so dispi- 
 rited the nation, that they were unable 
 to exert themselves for its recovery, dis- 
 satisfied as they were at the idea of 
 losing it. The army and navy which 
 she possessed were scarcely adequate 
 to the defence of her shores, and the 
 pecuniary resources of the kingdom too 
 low to afford her the means of recruit- 
 ing them with effect. The plans of 
 reformation in religion, which she had 
 determined to adopt, were likely to 
 alienate her only ally, and it was pro- 
 
 bable that no small number of the people 
 of England who adhered to the Roman 
 Catholic persuasion would entertain 
 sentiments little different from those of 
 Philip. These disadvantages were coun- 
 terpoised by the unanimity of the na- 
 tion ; for no monarch ever ascended the 
 throne with stronger expressions of 
 public opinion in their favour, or whose 
 character stood higher in the estimation 
 of all orders. The cruelties of the late 
 reign had gone far beyond the wishes 
 of most of the more violent Roman Ca- 
 tholics ; and the disgraces which had 
 attended the arms of England had ren- 
 dered the people generally dissatisfied 
 with the government : to which it may 
 be added, that Elizabeth had been the 
 victim of much personal vexation, and 
 the good conduct which she had exhi- 
 bited undtjr very trying circumstances, 
 
 ' Strvpe's Ecc. .Mem. vi. 59. 
 s Crannier 491. A pp. Ixxxii. 
 ' Ecc. Mem. v. 542. 
 
Chap, VIIL] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 119 
 
 had given her a just title to the popular- 
 ity which usually attends the oppressed. 
 
 § lOZ. The tirst acts of her reign were 
 dictated by great prudence, and she 
 seems to have been peculiary fortunate 
 as well as judicious in the selection of 
 the persons by whom these transactions 
 were chiefly directed. In the commu- 
 nications which she made to foreign 
 courts, to inform them of her succession, 
 she gratefully acknowledged the per- 
 sonal debt which she owed to Philip, 
 nor did she neglect to send a despatch 
 to the court of Rome ; but Paul IV. 
 refused to acknowledge her legitimacy, 
 and threatened to show her no favour, 
 since she had assumed without his con- 
 currence a crown which was held in fee 
 of the apostolic see ; a haughtiness of 
 proceeding which must be deemed the 
 first step to that animosity between the 
 two courts, of which the effects were so 
 severely felt by the Roman Catholics 
 of England. She seems indeed at this 
 time to have desired as much union 
 between her subjects of different per- 
 suasions as was compatible with her 
 own religious opinions and those which 
 they severally professed ; for though 
 she had always been bred up a Pro- 
 testant, and decidedly favoured that side 
 of the question, yet, in retaining twelve 
 of those who had belonged to the coun- 
 cil of Q,ueen Mary as her own privy 
 counsellors, she gave the surest pledge 
 that she had no intention of introducing 
 any very violent innovations. No one 
 could have doubted her inclination to 
 promote the cause of the Reformation, 
 since one of the first cares which occu- 
 pied her attention was the appointment 
 of a committee to examine into the ser- 
 vice of Edward VL, and to alter what- 
 ever was amiss ; yet its consultations 
 were accompanied with a marked atten- 
 tion to prudence, rather than by zeal for 
 alteration; and the same feature be- 
 longed to the other proceedings of this 
 period. The only innovation" in the 
 church service which she sanctioned on 
 her own authority consisted in allowing 
 the Ten Commandments, as well as the 
 Gospel and Epistle, to be read in the 
 vulgar tongue; and the same procla- 
 mation which enjoined this, forbade both 
 parties to preach or expound them,^ di- 
 
 recting that the adoption of the English 
 language in the public prayers should 
 be confined to the Litany, the Lord's 
 Prayer, and the Creed. This step was 
 perhaps rendered necessary by the 
 eagerness to reform which was exhi- 
 bited by certain persons desirous of en- 
 tering on controversial subjects, and 
 anxious to get rid of every thing which 
 offended them, without waiting for the 
 dilatory process of legal enactments. 
 The queen, however, potssessed far too 
 much sense to permit such tumultuary 
 alterations, and her own conduct was 
 characterized by firmness as well as 
 prudence. She began her political 
 career by trying to gain the good opi- 
 nion and affection of all her subjects ; 
 and the condescending propriety of her 
 personal manner contributed greatly to 
 produced this desired effect. She readily 
 presented herself to the eyes of all or- 
 ders, and assumed a demeanour which, 
 though rather theatrical, was very tak- 
 ing with the multitude. When, for 
 instance, she was proceeding on her 
 way to the coronation,-' (a. d. 1559,) a 
 character in one of the city pageants, 
 representing Truth, presented her with 
 an English Bible, she kissed it, and 
 with both her hands held it up, and then 
 laid it upon her breast, and greatly 
 thanking the city for that present, said 
 she would often read over that book. 
 
 § 40:}. (Jan. 15.) She was crowned 
 by Oglethorp, bishop of Carlisle, as 
 none of the other Roman Catholic bi- 
 shops would consent to take part in the 
 ceremony. ■* They foresaw the influence 
 which her reign must probably have on 
 religion; and being most of them un- 
 willing to make new changes in their 
 faith, they determined not to contribute 
 in any degree to her establishment on 
 i the throne ; a species of policy as un- 
 I sound in principle as it was injurious to 
 themselves in its effects; for unless 
 they pretended to alter the line of legal 
 succession by their noncompliance, it 
 could hardly have any other tendency 
 than that of alienating the mind of the 
 queen from their cause, and certainly 
 conveyed an idea that they wished to 
 frighten her into compliance vvith their 
 views : a step in itself unwarrantable, 
 and which argued great ignorance of 
 
 ' Strype's Annals, i. 77. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 Strype's Annals, i. 43. 
 
 * Ibid. i. 73. 
 
ISO 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Vin 
 
 her temper and disposition. Fully con- 
 scious of the difficulties with which the 
 kingdom was encompassed, she hasten- 
 ed to compose her differences with 
 foreign jjowers, in order that every faci- 
 lity might be given to the internal settle- 
 ment of the government ; and quickly 
 assembled a parliament, to frame such 
 laws as might bring back the state of 
 religion to nearly the same condition as 
 had been established in the days of her 
 brother. The first act of this session 
 restored to the crown the fullest author- 
 ity over all persons within the realm, 
 without conferring the appellation which 
 had been previously borne with it ; for 
 Elizabeth seems to have entertained 
 some scruples as to th« lawfulness of 
 assuming the title of supreme head of 
 the church, as belonging to Him only 
 who is head over all. The powers, 
 however, which were conveyed by it 
 were fully ample to answer every pur- 
 pose of reform,' and she was em- 
 powered to appoint commissioners, 
 whose jurisdiction had bounds as inde- 
 finite as the supremacy itself. An oath, 
 too, was imposed on all persons holding 
 or taking any office, and most severe 
 and unreasonable penalties affixed to 
 the refusal of it. During the whole of 
 the debate on this act, the strongest 
 opposition was shown on the part of the 
 Roman Catholic bishops, who advocated 
 the cause of civil liberty ; being na- 
 turally adverse to opinions so much at 
 variance with what they had lately pro- 
 fessed, and which were at the same 
 time likely to eject them from their pre- 
 ferments. 
 
 § 401. Nor were the temporal inte- 
 rests of the queen forgotten ; for besides 
 having the tenths and first-fruits restored 
 to her, she was allowed to take posses- 
 sion of any ecclesiastical lands or pro- 
 perty belonging to vacant sees, and to 
 transfer an equivalent from such impro- 
 priations as were vested in the crown, 
 a law which gave occasion to many ex- 
 changes seriously detrimental to the 
 bishoprics ; and it is hardly to be doubt- 
 ed, that the intention of those who 
 passed the bill corresponded with the 
 effects produced by it,'^ for who Avas 
 likely to examine scrupulously into the 
 fairness of the exchange while the prc- 
 
 1 Statutes of the Realm. ' Ibid. 
 
 ferment was vacant, and the appoint- 
 ment of the successor vested in the hands 
 of the very authority which pillaged the 
 benefice ?^ 
 
 § 405. The act of uniformity, too, 
 passed during this session, which, by- 
 restoring the use of the Common Prayer 
 Book, gave back to the laity the full 
 enjoyment of the sacrament of the 
 Eucharist under both kinds. These in- 
 novations, however, were not made 
 without keeping up at least the appear- 
 ance of free discussion ; for a disputa- 
 I tion was appointed to be held in West- 
 minster Abbey, in which tlie advocates 
 of either faith might advance the argu- 
 ments in favour of their own opinions, 
 and endeavour to refute the positions 
 of their adversaries : but though this 
 conference was commenced with all due 
 formality, yet it ended in tumult and 
 confusion, and served only to widen the 
 breach between the contending parties. 
 The failure on this occasion seems to 
 have been entirely owing to the Roman 
 Catholics ; for they refused to comply 
 with the conditions on which the debate 
 was to take place. It had been agreed 
 that each party should read their argu- 
 ments on the questions, and then give the 
 written documents to their opponents, 
 who on the next day were reciprocally 
 to answer each other, and to transfer 
 their papers. The points of discussion 
 were, 1. Whether it were contrary to 
 the word of God and the custom of the 
 primitive church, to use an unknown 
 tongue in the public service, and admi- 
 nistration of the sacraments. 2. Whether 
 every church has power to appoint rites 
 and ceremonies, or to alter them, pro- 
 vided it be done to edification. 3. Whe- 
 ther the mass could be proved by the 
 word of God to be a propitiator)' sacri- 
 fice for the dead and the living. But 
 on the first day, though Cole delivered 
 a long oration on the first question, the 
 Roman Catholics refused to give in a 
 copy of their arguments, and on the 
 second day the conference was broken 
 up, through a dispute about the order 
 of proceeding, and in consequence of 
 
 ' So well aware of the evH tendency of this law 
 were the bishops who were first consecrated, that 
 they ofTered the queen to raise for her an income 
 of a thousand marks, if she would stop these ex- 
 changes ; but their appUcation was ineffectual, 
 Strype's Grindal, 49. 
 
Chap. VUI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 121 
 
 some applause which had been given 
 io the Protestant advocates on the former 
 Dccasion. Thus ended the disputation, 
 jf which the resuU was such as might 
 aaturally have been expected from this 
 sort of exhibition, in which all the pas- 
 iions are excited by its publicity, and 
 no room left for quiet discussion; and 
 (ret it was not without its use.' The ill 
 conduct of the Roman Catholic advo- 
 ;ates turned the general opinion against 
 hem, and the Reformation made much 
 irogress in the sentiments of the nume- 
 ■ous hearers, and through them in the 
 ;ounlry at large ; for all men readily 
 ixclaimed, that the present issue was 
 )roduced by those who knew that their 
 )pinions could not stand the test of sober 
 eason ; and who, therefore, preferred 
 he dissolution of the conference, to ex- 
 libiting their own weakness ; which 
 ibservation was much favoured by what 
 vas said by the bishops of Lincoln and 
 Worcester, who objected, in toto, to 
 hus allowing the laity to become judges 
 n ecclesiastical affairs, and concerning 
 loctrines which had been before settled 
 )y the Catholic church, and were not 
 low therefore to be called in question 
 )y any but an assembly of divines ; a 
 nethod of solving the difficulty which 
 nust appear reasonable to those who 
 )elieve in an infallible church, but 
 vhich is unfortunately equally conclu- 
 ive against every species of amendment 
 ir reformation, wherein the interests of 
 ;uch a church are concerned. 
 
 § 406. The convocation had been as- 
 embled at the same time as the parlia- 
 nent,'' and certain articles which were 
 exhibited in the Lower House, and sent 
 ip to the bishops, showed the decided 
 pirit of popery by which this body 
 vas actuated, as well as the favour 
 vhich was shown to such opinions 
 ti the universities, where these ar- 
 icles had received many subscriptions. 
 
 ' There is a document in Burnet, II. iii. No. 5, 
 igtied by several of the privy council, attributing 
 he whole blame to the bishops who refused to 
 iroduce their opinions on paper. The bishops of 
 jiiicoln and Winchester were the next day com- 
 iiitted to the Tower, and the rest of the Roman 
 Catholic disputants obliged to find bail for their 
 lersonal appearance before the council as often as 
 t sat. A step which, though it may possibly be 
 lefended, on the plea of their disorderly conduct, 
 ■annot but appear severe and vexatious. See 
 5trype's Ann. i. 139. 
 
 ' Strype's Ann. i. 80. 
 
 16 
 
 These exertions, however, produced no 
 effect: 
 
 The queen's Injunctions were pub- 
 lished during this spring," which cor- 
 respond in most respects with those set 
 forth in the beginning of the reign of 
 Edward VL The chief additions to 
 them consist in regulations concerning 
 the marriage of the clergy,'' their ha- 
 bits, &c., together with an open decla- 
 ration of the supremacy, which the queen 
 claimed to herself, and to which allusion 
 is made in the thirty-second article of 
 our church.* It is here declared that 
 the queen neither does nor will challenge 
 any other authority than that which was 
 used by her father and brother ; viz., 
 the sovereignty over all persons born 
 within the realm, and the exclusion of 
 all foreign jurisdiction. These Injunc- 
 tions, as well as certain Articles of Visi- 
 tation" with respect to parishes, were 
 but preparatory steps to the establish- 
 ment of the Court of High Commission, 
 which was constituted towards the end 
 of June, and by means of which a ge- 
 neral visitation with regard to eccle- 
 siastical matters took place throughout 
 the whole kingdom. 
 
 § 407. The ninth section in the act 
 of Parliament' had enjoined all spiritual 
 persons holding preferments to take 
 the oath of supremacy under pain of 
 dtjprivation ; and this was now tendered 
 by these commissioners. All the bi- 
 shops, with the exception of one only, 
 Kitchin of Llandaff, refused so to do, 
 and were ejected from their sees, to the 
 number of fourteen. Whether they 
 now acted from conscientious motives, 
 
 3 Sparrow's Coll. 65. 
 Great scandal seems to have arisen in the 
 church, in consequence of the indiscreet marriage 
 of its ministers. (Sparrow's Coll. p. 76, ^ 29.) It 
 was therefore ordered, that no priest or deacon 
 should marry without the approbation first obtained 
 of the bishop and two justices of the peace for the 
 county, nor without the consent of the parents or 
 relatives of the woman, or of the master or mis- 
 tress with whom she was at service, in case she 
 had no relatives, (a proof of the low rank held by 
 the clergy.) The marriage of bishops was to be 
 sanctioned by the metropolitan and commissioners 
 appointed by the queen, and that of deans and 
 heads of houses by their visitors ; and in case of 
 neglecting these orders, they became incapable 
 of holding ecclesiastical benefices. I know not 
 whether these were ever acted on, but they formed 
 one of the heads of examination with the conceal- 
 ers. Strype's Ann. v. 163. See 4 428. 
 
 5 Sparrow's Coll. 81. « Ibid. 175. 
 
 ' Slat. Realm, 1 Eliz. c. 1. 
 
 L 
 
122 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VIIL 
 
 or hoped by their numbers to force the 
 queen into compliance, must, in this 
 world, at least, remain a secret ; but as 
 several' of them had previously assented 
 to the doctrine of the pre -eminence of 
 the civil power, their combination looks 
 very much like a conspiracy to support 
 each other in their refusal. The treat- 
 ment' which they experienced after their 
 deprivation was generally moderate, 
 and in several instances most kind and 
 considerate.^ Heath resided on his own 
 property in Surrey, and was several 
 times visited by the queen herself; and 
 even Bonner, notwithstanding all the 
 enormities of which he had been guilty, 
 died a natural death ; in prison, indeed, 
 for the resentment of the populace ren- 
 dered it dangerous for him to leave 
 what became a place of safety rather 
 than of confinement. The rest of the 
 clergy generally complied with the 
 changes which were established by law, 
 as, indeed, they had frequently done 
 before ; for of 9,400 beneficed men in 
 England, there were but 14 bishops, 
 6 abbots, 12 deans, 12 archdeacons, 1.5 
 heads of colleges, 50 prebendaries, and 
 80 rectors, making a total of 189, who 
 refused to take the oath of supremacy ; 
 a number which would appear very in- 
 considerable, amounting to little more 
 than one in fifty, did we not consider 
 the conciliatory steps which the queen 
 had taken to satisfy all parties, and the 
 modification of the meaning of the oath 
 which the declaration in the Injunctions 
 implied." 
 
 1 P'rvpe's Ann i. 216. 2 Ibid. 211. 
 
 3 Pep noie H. in Lingard's Hist, of Rng. vol. vii. 
 where ihe snme irealmeni is represented differ- 
 ently, .^s ii i.« difficult to defend the jiisiire of 
 these ejectments, so it is inipossil)le to deny Ihe 
 neressi'v of them. See a considerable account 
 of ihem ill Fuller, (ix. Nine sees were now 
 
 vacant, and three bishops fled beyond sea. 
 
 * '' he publication o' a form of communion to be 
 used a' funerals, and the rubric and absolution in 
 the service for the Visitation of the .''ick. (Spar- 
 row's f'nll. 201.) may be adduced as instances of 
 the general wish to conciliate exhibited by our 
 church. The Roman Catholic population had 
 been a'-ciistomed to connect the idea of a funeral 
 with a mass for the dead, and when the supers'i- 
 tious part of the cusmm was abrogated, whatever 
 was not unscriptiiral was retained ; and at the 
 moment after that in which the body of n relatiou 
 has been committed to the earth, the surviving re- 
 latives are likely to remember Him ihrouch whom 
 we all hope to rise again So again the customs 
 of the church of Home had in the minds of the 
 people rendered absolution by the priest, as it 
 were, necessary to salvation ; and if any dying 
 
 § 408. Another point into which the 
 commissioners inquired was the abuse 
 of images and, during this summer, 
 many appear to have been destroyed. 
 When Elizabeth" first came to the 
 throne, the zeal of the reformers had 
 induced them to outstep the limits of 
 the law with regard to these objects of 
 national abomination ; but the procla- 
 mation of the queen had checked the 
 spirit of unauthorized destruction. Her 
 own sentiments on this subject were, it 
 it must be owned, not very equivocally 
 displayed ; it was not in her a toleration 
 of what might be deemed innocent by 
 some, but the approval of such repre- 
 sentations as seem forbidden in Scrip- 
 ture. She allowed the rood to remain 
 in her own chapel for some time and 
 though there was something said about 
 images, in the Injunctions and Articles 
 of Visitation, yet the clergy were rather 
 ordered not to extol them, than to ca^t 
 them entirely out of places of Christian 
 worship, unless they had been super- 
 stitiously misused. In the next year,' 
 indeed, some of the new bishops, with 
 a laudable anxiety for God's service, 
 endeavoured to carry this point, by ad- 
 dressing themselves to her majesty, 
 and stating at length the argument* 
 against the continuance of this abuse; 
 and their exertions seem to have been 
 crowned with the success which they 
 so well deserved. In this case, the 
 temporizing spirit of the queen strongly 
 showed itself. She was perfectly right 
 in trying to conciliate all her subjects; 
 but as the principles of real toleration 
 were not then at all understood, she 
 rather compromised the opinions of 
 
 brother humbly and heartily desired this office, if 
 his scruples made him wish for such a declaratory 
 consolation as a fcllow-siimer could authoritatively 
 give him, a form of absolution was adjoined for 
 the purpose. 
 
 5 Strype's Ann. i. 254. ^ jbij. 090. 
 
 ' This crucifix was offensive to many of the 
 bishops; and in 1561 a disputation was held, in 
 which Parker and Cox supported its remaining — 
 Grindal and Jewel argued against it. (Burn. Kef. 
 vi. 381. No. 60, 8vo.) This seems to have had 
 little effect ; for in 1565 R. Tracy wrote 10 Secre- 
 tary Cecil, urging him to use his influence for its 
 removal. (Strype's Ann. ii. 198.) Between this 
 time and 1570, it appears to have been put out of 
 the chapel, and restored again, to the great dislike 
 of the people, (Strype's Parker, ii. 35,) and to 
 have been there when the Admonition to Parlia- 
 ment was published, 1572. (Strype's Ann. n. 
 200.) 
 
 * Strype's Ann. i. 330. 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 Chap. VUI.] 
 
 Protestants than favoured the senti- 
 ments of her other subjects ; and, in 
 endeavouring- to induce the Roman 
 Catholics to become members of the 
 church of England, she ran the risk of 
 driving from our communion the sound- 
 est friends and ablest supporters of the 
 Reformation. 
 
 § 409. The next step, which, from its 
 importance to the church, greatly oc- 
 cupied the attention of the court, was 
 the lilling up of the vacant bishoprics. 
 It so happened that, from deaths and 
 deprivations, almost all the sees were 
 at this moment unoccupied ; nor could 
 those bishops who retained their prefer- 
 ments for the present, be induced to 
 assist in the consecration of men of 
 whose opinions they did not approve. 
 But against this evil a remedy had been 
 provided by the providence of God ; 
 for there still existed several members 
 of the episcopal order, wko, having fled 
 beyond sea, and escaped the persecu- 
 tions of Mary, became the instruments 
 of continuing to our church the apos- 
 tolical succession of bishops. As much 
 evil had been produced during the reign 
 of Edward VI. by the favour which 
 some individuals holding high situations 
 in the church had shown the Roman 
 Catholic religion, it was now determined 
 to employ great caution in the selection 
 of those who were to discharge this 
 most important duty. 
 
 The character of Matthew Parker, 
 as well as the personal favour of 
 Elizabeth, marked him out as the 
 future metropolitan; but his own un- 
 willingness to accept so responsible 
 and arduous an office delayed his con- 
 secration for nearly a twelvemonth ; 
 the ceremony was at last performed, 
 on the 17th of December, in the chapel 
 at Lambeth, by Scory, who had formerly 
 held the see of Chichester, and was 
 now elected to that of Hereford; Bar- 
 low, formerly of Wells, now bishop 
 elect of Chichester ; Coverdale, bishop 
 of Exeter, who was never reappointed 
 to any see ; and Hodgkin, suffragan of 
 Bedford.' Strype has been very par- 
 
 ticular in recording every thing which 
 was done on this occasion from tho 
 most authentic documents,'^ in order to 
 refute the fable of the Nag's Head con- 
 secration which was promulgated by 
 the Roman Catholics about forty years 
 after the event had taken place when 
 it might have been supposed that all 
 direct testimony would have been lost. 
 The story is, that the bishops elect met 
 at a tavern which bore that sign, and 
 that when Oglethorp refused to conse- 
 crate them, Scory laid a Bible on each 
 of their heads, and bade them rise up 
 bishops. The tale has been refuted as 
 often as brought forward, and bears on 
 its face this difficulty : that, had this 
 account been known to the enemies of 
 the church of England, it is not likely 
 that any delicacy on their part should 
 have delayed its publication for so long 
 a period. 
 
 § 410. The other sees were most of 
 them filled up during the next year, 
 and the church began to employ itself 
 on those points in which amendment 
 was chiefly required. The state of the 
 ministry formed one of the most pro- 
 minent cares towards which the atten- 
 tion of the guardians of the establish- 
 ment were directed ; for the ignorance 
 which generally prevailed in the uni- 
 versities,-* together with the superstition 
 which reigned there, made it very diffi- 
 cult to obtain men suited to the task, or 
 capable of performing the duties to 
 which they were called ; so that the 
 necessity of the case induced many 
 bishops to ordain persons of whom they 
 entertained a good opinion with regard 
 to their religious sentiments, but who 
 
 • The legality of the English consecrations was 
 in 1568 very nearly tried before a common jury, 
 in a court of law. Home, bishop of Winchester, 
 tendered the oath of supremacy to Bonner while 
 u prisoner in the Marshalsea, and therefore 
 within his diocese ; and Bonner, among other 
 pleas, put in one which denied that Home was a 
 
 bishop at all. He had been consecrated accord- 
 ing to the service established by Edward VI. and 
 abolished by Mary, and which had never since 
 been distinctly authorized by act of parliament. 
 The point was argued, and would have been 
 brought before a jury, had not an act been passed 
 which declared all bishops, priests and deacons, 
 consecrated according to the form established, to 
 he bishops, priests, and deacons. (Fuller, ix. 80. 
 Sirype's Ann. I. ii. 2.) 
 
 2 Parker, i. 101. 3 gee ^ 623. 
 
 ^ Jewel, writing to Peter Martyr in 1559, says, 
 " Academia utraque, et ea praesertim, quam tu 
 non ita pridem doctissime atque optime coluisti, 
 miserrime nunc disjecta jacet, sine pietate, sine 
 religione, sine doctore, sine spe ulla literarum." 
 (Burnet, p. iii. No. 58.) To BuUinger, " Acade- 
 miae nostras ita affliclae sunt, ut Oxoiiiae vix duo 
 sunt, qui nobiscum sentiant ; et iUi ipsi ita abjecti 
 et fracti ut nihil possint." (Strype's Ann. No. 20, 
 vol. ii. 490.) 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 vm. 
 
 were inadequate, in point of attain- 
 ments, to so important a charge. The 
 ill effects, however, of this system was 
 soon discovered,' and in August Parker 
 wrote to Grinda!,'' desiring him not to 
 ordain any more mechanics.^ 
 
 The difficulty of finding persons who 
 might be willing to enter into the minis- 
 try, and able to fulfil the duties of it, 
 had been greatly augmented by the 
 extreme poverty to which the clergy 
 were generally reduced. This evil 
 arose chiefly from impropriations and 
 alienations, which had been carried on 
 to a dreadful extent, and which were 
 now by no means effectually prevented ; 
 but the loss of those offerings customa- 
 rily made at shrines, and of the fees 
 paid for the performance of ecclesiasti- 
 cal duties in the parish, had in no small 
 degree contributed to the same end. 
 This latter cause was particularly inju- 
 rious, since the benefices in large towns 
 chiefly depended on this source of re- 
 venue ; and those places, where the 
 efficiency of the clergyman was of the 
 most importance, had no means of sup- 
 porting the incumbent. St. Mary Ax, 
 for instance, had for some time been 
 without any minister, as its revenues 
 did not amount to five pounds,* till it 
 was united by Grindal to another pa- 
 rish. To all these causes must be 
 added the simoniacal contracts of cor- 
 rupt patrons, who sought not for those 
 who could "preach learnedly, but pay 
 largely."^ 
 
 §411. The bishops seem at first to 
 have been so fully employed about the 
 
 ' Strype's Parker, i. 180. ^ ibij. Grindal, 60. 
 
 ' Gibson (afterwards bishop of London) writes 
 to Mr. Pepys, 1696, Diary, ii. 153: " The other 
 day I met with a catalogue of the clergy of the 
 archdeaconry of Middlesex, taken in 1563, with 
 an account of each man's learning and abihties ; 
 in short, observing the strangeness of the charac- 
 ters, I ran over the whole, and, as I went along, 
 branched them under different heads, whereby 
 their several abihties in learning are there ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 " Docti Latine et Graece - 3 
 Docli - - - - 12 
 
 Mediocriter docti - - 2 
 Latine docti ... 9 
 Latine mediocriter - - 33 
 Latine parum aliquid, &c. - 42 
 Latine non docti - - 13 
 
 Indocti .... 4 
 
 " If the London clergy were thus ignorant, what 
 must we imagine the country divines were ?" 
 
 * Strype's Grindal, 78. 
 
 ' Strype's Ann. iv. 146. See also ^ 430. 
 
 ' concerns of their several dioceses, that 
 little progress was made in the public 
 and outward concerns of the church, 
 though its leading members were in all 
 probability secretly preparing what was 
 required, and deliberating on those par- 
 ticulars in which reform was principally 
 wanted. 
 
 (a. d. 1562.) These points cor»sisted 
 in the publication of certain articles of 
 faith, which might set forth, in an au- 
 thoritative manner, the belief of the 
 j church of England ; in a new transla- 
 tion or revisal of the Bible ; and the 
 establishment of a code of ecclesiastical 
 laws. 
 
 I While these things were preparing, 
 Bishop Jewel put forth his Apology for 
 
 I the Church of England, a work as re- 
 markable for the elegance of the Latin 
 in which it is written, as for the sound- 
 ness of the positions which it maintains.* 
 He there states, in a brief and oratorical 
 style, the grounds of the separation of 
 our church from that of Rome ; show- 
 ing that, in what she had done, England 
 had rather returned to the state of the 
 primitive church, than occasioned a 
 schism in the Christian family, and that 
 the innovation with which we w^re 
 charged, was merely the rejection of 
 the errors introduced by the community 
 from which we had separated.' 
 
 § 412. (January 12, a. d. 1563.) In 
 January of the next year the parliament 
 and convocation were assembled; by 
 the former, a very severe law* was 
 passed for enforcing the supremacy ; 
 and to refuse the oath, when tendered 
 a second time, was declared to be trea- 
 son ; a step which, though it might in 
 some measure seem to be defensible, in 
 consequence of the treasonable conspi- 
 racy carried on by the Poles and others, 
 with the design of bringing in Mary 
 queen of Scots, appears to be as re- 
 markable for the unsoundness of its 
 political principles, as for the cruelty 
 of its enactments.' The words of the 
 
 6 Strype's Ann. i. 424. 
 
 ' It is printed in the Enchiridion Theologicum, 
 and has been lately reprinted by the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge. It may be 
 deemed a book authorized by the church of Eng- 
 land. It was published at the command of the 
 queen, and ordered to be set up in churches. 
 Strype's Ann. III. i. 738.) 
 
 * Statutes of the Realm, c. i. 5 Eliz. 
 
 9 See « 453. 
 
Chap. Vm.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 125 
 
 oath of supremacy even during this | 
 reign, were such, that a Roman Catho- 
 lic, whatever his views in politics might 
 be, could hardly take it; so that if the 
 law were acted upon, it might bring 
 some of the most faithful of her sub- 
 jects into jeopardy of their lives ; while 
 it is evident that no laws can guard 
 against the attacks of men who are 
 urged by religious frenzy, and willing 
 to make themselves martyrs in the cause 
 of their own opinions ; a truth which 
 was fully verified throughout the whole 
 of this reign. 
 
 In the Lower House of Convocation 
 many of those questions were now agi- 
 tated which formed the groundwork of 
 the subsequent objections of the puri- 
 tans ; but as the motions founded on 
 them were never passed, the discussion 
 of the points themselves may be re- 
 served to the beginning of the next 
 chapter. 
 
 The acts of this convocation are much 
 more important. The Articles of our 
 :hurch, then consisting of thirty-eight,' 
 were published, as containing the con- 
 fession of the church of England, but 
 ihey do in reality differ very little from 
 ;he forty-two which were put forth by 
 he authority of Cranmer, in the reign 
 Df Edward VI. 
 
 (March 3.) The larger catechism,^ 
 00, revised and enlarged by Alexander 
 Noel, dean of St. Paul's,^ was approved 
 jy the Lower House of Convocation; 
 I tribute of respect which confers on it 
 I species of semi-authority, though not 
 )fficially promulgated by the church of 
 England. 
 
 The second book of Homilies'* was 
 
 I >^ee i 485. 
 
 ^ It is primed in the Enchiridion Theologicum, 
 nd is chiefly taken from Ponet's Catechism, 
 . -m, a. 
 
 3 Strype's Ann. i. 525 and 323. 
 
 * See ^ 305. The history of the composilion of 
 he Homilies is buried in so much obscurity, that 
 . short note will convey to the reader all that is 
 .novvn concernins: them. The first volume is 
 ;enerally attributed to Cranmer, Ridley, Latimer, 
 lopkins, and Becon. Burnet (Pref. to the Thirty- 
 line Articles, p. iii.) says thai Jewel was particu- 
 arly engaged in compiling the second. Archbishop 
 'arker, however, in 1.563, speaks of them as being 
 ' revised and finished, with a second part, by him 
 nd the other bishops," (Strype's Parker, i, 253,) 
 
 n expression indicating, perhaps, that they were 
 Irawn up in the reign of Edward VI., though not 
 lublished, but by no means deciding the question. 
 The language of the two books is different, and 
 here is much internal evidence of the several ho- 
 
 printed about this period,* though it 
 took some time to distribute it gene- 
 rally throughout the country. 
 
 § 41;$. As these documents together 
 form the standard and basis of our 
 present church, we may deem the Re- 
 formation to have now received its ac- 
 complishment; the changes which have 
 been since made are in their nature 
 comparatively insignificant ; so that be- 
 fore we proceed to the continuation of 
 the history, it may be useful, for a mo- 
 ment, briefly to inquire what we have 
 gained or lost by the Reformation in 
 religion. 
 
 We have learnt the fundamental truth 
 on which the whole of Christianity rests, 
 nay, which is itself Christianity ; That 
 " we are accounted righteous before God 
 only for the merit of our Lord and Sa- 
 viour Jesus Christ, by faith, and not of 
 our own works or deservings." That 
 good works, however pleasing to God, 
 
 milies having been composed by different authors. 
 The first book is probably the most valuable, and 
 the expressions used in the tbirty-filih Article, 
 " Non miims quani prior tonius homiliarum qute 
 ediite sunt tempore Edvardi Sc.xti," &c., seem 
 rather to indicate that the latter work was not 
 composed by the same authors. The homilies on 
 Salvation, Faith, and Good Works, are with rea- 
 son attributed to Cranmer. (Todd, on the Thirty- 
 nine Art. pref p, xi.) That on Adultery is by 
 Becon, and printed in the second vol. of his works. 
 The most important editions of the Homilies are 
 as follows : 
 
 First book, first edit. 1517, last of July. 
 1 Edw. VI. 
 
 Second, divided as at present, 15-19, August. 
 
 Second book, 1st, 1563, that on Wilful Rebel- 
 lion was added 1571. 
 
 Last, by authority, 1623. 
 
 " Fortunately, the variations in the difl*rent 
 editions, numerous as they are, are almost uni- 
 versally verbal or grammatical ; and il is remark- 
 able, that a book which has passed through the 
 hands of so many editors, and has been altered in 
 almost every edition, should have received so few 
 aheraiions of any importance as to doctrine. One 
 use of such collations, is to prove that the Homi- 
 lies have not been tampered with by any sect or 
 party among us, for the purpose of making them 
 express sentiments difierent from those of the ori- 
 ginal compilers." Dr. Elmsley's Preface to the 
 Homilies, with various readings, Oxf. 1B22. 
 
 When Dr. Elm.-iley was engaged in preparing 
 this edition, he kinilly promised the use of his 
 Collections for the present work, but added, that 
 there was no real information on the subject. His 
 death deprived the author of this advantage, and 
 of the advice of a friend who, to a mass of real 
 knowledge on almost every subject, joined a faci- 
 lity of communicating it, which endeared him to 
 those who were acquainted with hiin, and which 
 would not have disdained to render this sketch 
 less unworthy of perusal, by correcting its errors 
 and supplying its deficiencies. 
 
 * Strype's Ann. ii. 104. 
 
 L 2 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. VIIL 
 
 are only accepted as proofs of the faith 
 which we entertain in the mercy of 
 Heaven, and as proceeding from love 
 towards Him who hath redeemed us. 
 That acts of penitence, however sin- 
 cere, can in no sense be deemed a 
 compensation for our sin, although they 
 may prove useful to ourselves in pre- 
 venting a repetition of our crimes ; and 
 that there is no sacrifice for sin, but the 
 atonement which was once offered on 
 the cross. 
 
 The establishment of these truths vir- 
 tually got rid of the greater part of the 
 superstitious rites with which religion 
 had been overwhelmed, and she was 
 again enthroned in the heart of the true 
 believer, instead of being identified with 
 ceremonious observances. A commu- 
 nion had been substituted in lieu of the 
 mass ; and with the rejection of the 
 doctrine of transubstantiation, the laity 
 were taught that the body and blood of 
 Christ are verily and indeed taken by 
 the faithful alone in the Lord's supper; 
 the efficacy of which consists in the in- 
 stitution of Christ, and the state of their 
 own consciences, and noi in the magic 
 virtue of priestly offices. The jiorsonal 
 responsibility oi'the individual Christian 
 was clearly insisted on ; and though the 
 laity were not deprived of the comfort 
 and aid of spiritual guidance, yet that 
 inquisitorial power which the clergy 
 had exercised by means of auricular 
 confession was removed, and the ])riest- 
 hood became the directors of their flocks, 
 and not the self-constituted judges of the 
 terms on which pardon might be ob- 
 tained from the Almighty. They were 
 still the keepers of the keys of the king- 
 dom of heaven; but by the dissemina- 
 tion of the Scriptures, and the progress 
 of education, tlie ri'st of thoir bri'tliren 
 were jiermitted to guide their ov,-n foot- 
 steps towards the gates of paradise. 
 The Bible was indeed committed to 
 their ])cculiar care, but it was not with- 
 held from the hands of the people ; so 
 that though it was their especial duty 
 to lead on their fellow-servants in the 
 right ])ath, yet tliey could no longer, 
 like the lawyers of old, take away the 
 key from others, or prevent those from 
 entering in who would gladly do so. 
 All were taught to examine for them- 
 selves ; and though little toleration was 
 subsequently granted to any who ven- 
 
 tured to difTer from the queen, yet the 
 first great step towards religious liberty 
 was irrevocably made when it was au- 
 thoritatively stated,* that every assent 
 bly of human beings was liable to err, 
 even in things pertaining to God. At 
 the same time a very material diminu- 
 tion was made in the power of ihfl, 
 church, considered as a body distinct 
 from the laity, when its members were 
 ; allowed to cormect themselves to the . 
 I rest of society, by those ties of matri- 
 I mony which the law of God has left ' ' i 
 open to all : for these bands which at- ; 
 tach the individual churchman to the 1 
 ^ nearer concerns of private life, cannot i 
 I fail to weaken the interest he feels in i 
 the political welfare of the ecclesiastical 
 I body, to which alone the earthly affec- 
 I tions of the unmarried must be wedded, i 
 j The property of the church, and that , 
 I influence which is ever connected with 
 its possession, had undoubtedly in fop> \tjim 
 mer times been too great for the welfare 
 ! of the kingdom ; but the Protestant mo- ; ,U' 
 , n irchs had taken good care to prevent 
 the recurrence of this evil: nor can it if-a 
 be denied, that the poverty which sucr il^ - ■ 
 ceeded its too wealthy state was ia <| 
 many respects injurious to the cause fi " 
 of vital religion, as it neither afforded It 
 the ministers of God's word such faci- 
 iities for education as their profession u 
 required, nor gave them the means of 'r 
 keeping up their outward respectability I 
 i before their flocks. This was peculiaf" 
 j ly felt by many of the newly appointi 
 bishops, who, returning penniless fr 
 their foreign hiding-places, found ih 
 I selves on a sudden exalted into sit 
 tions from which much worldly pomfi". 
 had always been expected, and for the 
 supply of which the revenues of their 
 , preferments were totally inadequate. 
 They were forced, therefore, in their 
 ; prosperity, to exercise that patience 
 which they had long practised in the 
 j hour of misfortune ; and by the sacri- 
 ! fices which they were called on Xo 
 make, the momentous truth was daily 
 impressed on them, a truth which it 
 would be well if none of us forgot, that 
 the church establishment is intended to 
 I promote the cause of religion, and not 
 religion to advance the interests of the 
 ■ church. 
 
HAP. VIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 127 
 
 Among the abuses which had been 
 rmedied, many were as offensive to 
 le religious members of the Roman 
 atholic communion as to Protestants; 
 ir can it be denied that other evils 
 r- introduced, from which they had 
 •ell comparatively free, and which 
 mnot fail to prejudice them against 
 ,e measures which were adopted. 
 Enough has been already said of the 
 )!ili ition of church property, which 
 i-ompanicd this part of our history: 
 ■ t on the whole, probably, the present 
 venues of the church are adequate to 
 ■r n al interests, if they were reasoii- 
 >ly divided and properly distributed; 
 ui poverty is a much more safe state 
 r the church of Christ than wealth: 
 [low hardly shall a rich man enter 
 1 ) the kingdom of heaven !" 
 The subjection of the ecclesiastical 
 idv to the state, in the manner in 
 iiicli it takes place in the church of 
 nqland, must be very offensive to 
 ose whose views in this respect have 
 ■en differently directed ; and though 
 •rhaps such a constitution may be as 
 ii 'licial to society as any human ap- 
 'iiiunent can be expected to prove, 
 1 we must be blind not to perceive 
 ur; evils resulting from it. It may 
 rhaps be questionable, whether much 
 iwer over his lay brethren may be 
 fely intrusted to the minister of the 
 ospel ; yet it cannot but appear sin- 
 il:ir. that of all the different denoini- 
 n Mi^ of Christians which exist in 
 K ' ■fill, probably no one body has 
 ' ted so little spiritnal authority 
 'le hands of those who j)reside 
 (s concerns as the established 
 I, h. This is probably ritrht. as far 
 me laity are concerned: but it can- 
 i li.' right when we look at that disci- 
 in - which the church ous ht to exercise 
 ■r lis official members. All the power 
 iicii was exercised in ecclesiastical 
 liters, durin"- this and the lollowino- 
 i?ns, was m renin v a civil power, and 
 IS ollen exiM-ted iinlortunatel v for civil 
 irnoses. So that the church Irequent- 
 lurined a rallying point in political 
 ff'rences : and as the spirit of civil 
 H iiv by de£rnvs einancipat(>d the 
 in eh from the Ivranny to which it 
 i l heen reduced, it left us without 
 feciual ecclesiastical discipline. 
 In matters of faith, too, many evils \ 
 
 of the same description took place 
 The people had been taught to believe 
 that religion consisted in the perform- 
 ance of religious duties, and not in the 
 religious state of the heart, of which 
 religious actions are the natural and 
 necessary fruit ; and when the princi- 
 ples of the Reformation had pointed 
 out the inadequacy of the acts them- 
 selves to obtain the favour of God, men 
 were ready to forget that the act gene- 
 rally produces the temper, and that the 
 temper cannot really exist, unless ac- 
 companied by the act. Confession, for 
 instance, had been abused ; and when 
 men were told that it was not necessary 
 for salvation, they assumed that it did 
 not contribute to produce a humble 
 frame of mind. They were told that 
 stated fasts were an invention of men, 
 and they forgot that fasting is an insti- 
 tution sanctioned by Christ.' They 
 learnt that in many cases the Roman 
 Catholics had mistaken and neglected 
 the end of religious performances, and 
 they themselves, while keeping the eye 
 fixed on the end, neglected the means 
 whereby that end might be obtained. 
 The Roman Catholic clergy had often 
 exercised an authority over their flocks, 
 which tended to destroy the moral and 
 religious energies of the pcoj)le ; do no 
 conscientious Protestants, while they 
 deplore the want of restraint which 
 arises from actual discipline over those 
 who are placed under our spiritual care, 
 and which we are not allowed to use, 
 nevertheless neglect to introduce those 
 moral restraints which nothing but re- 
 ligious education and sound information 
 can impart ? 
 
 The extent of this subject renders it 
 
 ' ; lu ro ''an he httle doiiht that the abuse of 
 l.i-^ in2 iniont; ihe Roman Caiholp-s has produced 
 M'l iii]iinoiis rounieracuon aMioii!» I roicsianis with 
 ren-nrd to this duty: but undoiiliiedly many mem- 
 bers of tlie church of Rome submii to a very rigo- 
 rous and coiiscieniious absnnence during Lent. 
 
 I he error consists in imposinsr such rules as ne- 
 cessarily bindiMsr on Chrisiians. and in subsututing 
 one species of (oofi for another. As early as 1541, 
 (.;irdi 'IT 1, iMMv il some Cambridge students for 
 ni /I. 11 ; Ml, M rvan<-e of Lent : but in ihe be- 
 LHi i:: m ; mi ill Ehzalieih. It seetns 10 have 
 
 bo.-, v.r, -•is-riv kept. (Parker. 1. 133.) Pro- 
 
 I d 0 n f {, ISGS- 
 
 l:r/(,, ICOl, And Elizabelli herself would 
 not cat flesh during Lent, nil she had obtained a 
 dispensation to that effect from the archliishop, 
 15H7; and ihere are instances of other dispensa- 
 tions lo the same effect. (Fuller, ix. 182. Strype's 
 Whitgift, ii. 456.) 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 IX. 
 
 impossible that it should be fully de- 
 veloped; and it must be left to the me- 
 ditations of the thoughtful reader of 
 ecclesiastical history, with the brief ex- 
 pression of a hope that Roman Catholics 
 may draw nearer to Protestants in those 
 points where we surpass them, and that 
 we may draw nearer to them in those 
 particulars wherein we have been losers 
 in receding from them. 
 
 If any religious Roman Catholic be 
 unwilling to allow, that in the advan- 
 tages before enumerated we at all sur- 
 pass him, if his whole hopes of salvation 
 
 I be built on that foundation in which we 
 as Protestants trust, let us pray God 
 that neither of us may as individuals 
 be cast out through our own faults; 
 and while we acknowledge the advan- 
 tages derived to us through the church 
 of Rome, let him thank God that he, as 
 a member of that communion, has ob- 
 tained in spiritual things many benefits, 
 which he owes to the existence of the 
 Reformation ; and let us hope and 
 pray, that the dissemination of religioiu 
 knowledge may by God's m.ercy pro^l 
 
 I a blessing to all Christians. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 DURING PART OF THE REIGN OF ELIZABETH, FROM 1563 TO 
 
 tit 
 
 414. Disputes about ecclesiastical dresses. 415. The question resolved into its elements. 416. Uni- ,_ 
 formity in dress enforced ; Sampson and Humphrey. 417. Opinions concerning these poiolt. ~ 
 418. Of Jewel; Sandys; Grindal ; Parker; Whitgift. 419. Of foreign divines. 420. Condnet ' 
 of EUzabeth and Parkef. 421. Of the Puritans. 422. Parker's treatment of the Nonconformisji, t'! I 
 423. Objections of the Nonconformists. 424. Baptismal service; churchitTg of women ; maab 
 425. Church discipline. 426. Ordination; parochial discipline. 427. Prophesyinge ; alienation af 
 church property. 428. Ecclesiastical commission ; commissions of concealment. 4'29. Coiidoei jr™ 
 of Elizabeth about church property. 430. Poverty of the church ; (a) question of church proper^, wst 
 431. Early history of the reign. 432. The London clergy. 433. Cambridge ; CartwrighL fg 
 434. Convocation. 435. Ecclesiastical laws; acts of parliament. 436. Poor laws. 437. Again* 
 Roman Catholics. 438. Roman Catholic seminaries abroad ; Persons and Campran. 439. Tkt 
 treatment of the Roman Catholics, due in part to themselves. 440. Principles on which tho qu^ 1 1 .' 
 tion of the treatment of them rests. 441 Blame due to the Roman Catholics. 442. Their cob- - 
 duct ; the real causes of the evil. 443. Temporal character of the Reformation. 444. Persec* 
 tions under Mary and Elizabeth compared. 445. Injustice and intolerance of the reign. 446. Se- 
 verity towards the Nonconformists ; Archbishop Parker. 447. Grindal, Archbishop; prophcsyiMi I ' 
 stopped ; the archbishop suspended. 448. Examination of the conduct of Grindal. 449. Of:tSe 
 treatment of the Puritans. 
 
 § 414. No sooner had the external 
 enemies of Protestantism lost their 
 power to persecute in England, than 
 the spirit of discord arose within the 
 bosom of our own church ; and when 
 all essential points of reformation had 
 been established, the trifling articles of 
 dress and ceremonies produced a flame, 
 which finally ended in the teinporary 
 destruction of our church and constitu- 
 tion. In any great change of opinion, 
 among the mass of society, it is natural 
 for men to run into extremes; and 
 wherever party spirit has been preva- 
 lent, the passions are so called into 
 action, that some time is required before 
 reason can assume her comitiand ; and, 
 during such a period, the externals of 
 religion, or of party distinction, natu- 
 rally produce the greatest effect, and 
 excite the warmest' animosity. 
 , The church of Rome had abounded , 
 
 in cermonies so numerous, as to become 
 burdensome to its members ; and the 
 foreign reformers, in avoiding this ex- 
 treme, had perhaps rendered the out- 
 ward offices of religion too simple, and 
 therefore less calculated to excite all 
 those feelings among the people, which 
 may beneficially be enlisted m the cause 
 of devotion. Many of the English di- 
 vines had adopted their ideas on these 
 points from the school of Geneva, and 
 the disputes which had thence arisen, 
 and which had previously disturbed 
 the peace of the exiles in Frankfort, 
 were unfortunately now introduced into 
 England. We cannot but deplore sach 
 an event; but it forms a melancholy 
 comment on the words of St. Paul, and 
 clearly proves how little all other gifts 
 profit, if not accompanied with Chris- 
 tian charity. 
 
 §4 la. In order to get a clear view 
 
;cbap. IX.] 
 
 >f the merits of the question, it may 
 lot be amiss to resolve it into its ele- 
 -nentary principles ; for the point at 
 ssue is very complicated. It seems 
 .0 divide itself into the following heads. 
 
 There are corruptions concerning 
 .vhich the Christian, and particularly 
 hi' Christian minister, must undergo 
 inv extremity, rather than admit of 
 hvin. But it may be questioned whe- 
 ,hcr the use of an ecclesiastical dress, 
 iir of ceremonies, be one of this nature ; 
 f it be, the individual is right in not 
 oiii plying; but if it be not, then he 
 i h ) resists incurs the wrath of God 
 1 w ithstanding the commands of his 
 iiiiice, and opposing the law of the 
 
 in these, however, and other points, 
 1 which the civil magistrate has a full 
 in^lit to command, he may exert that 
 r so as to do great injury to the 
 if Christianity; and, as the sub- 
 clearly directed to obey in mat- 
 r- ludifTerent, so the magistrate is 
 omul not to be peremptory in his com- 
 laiiils, unless there be some sound 
 ■a^oii for exerting his authority. 
 'I'lii' first of these queries must re- 
 ■Iv.' its answer from the conscience of 
 w subject; the latter, from the judg- 
 in of the government; and both 
 I ' ht to rest upon the decisions of the 
 or.l of God. 
 
 lint the difficulty of this discussion 
 much increased by the complicated 
 iture of the duty of ecclesiastical 
 iiccrs, who as churchmen are bound 
 oboy the established laws, and as 
 n-crnors of the church, ought to deal 
 laritably with weak brethren, and to 
 ftfii down as much as jiossible the 
 v. rity of those laws which they are 
 lli'tl upon to execute. In case, then, 
 r laws are such as are in the opinion 
 till' individual injurious to edification, 
 ou'jh he may himself comply with 
 iMu, yet he can hardly enforce con- 
 rinity on others; and the spiritual 
 fi'iy of a man so situated will be best 
 nsulted by resigning the office with 
 hieh he was intrusted, for the Chris- 
 lu benefit of those under his control. 
 In estimating, therefore, the conduct 
 d treatment of the puritans, these 
 vrral bearings must alway be kept 
 view; and when the matter is duly 
 'predated, we shall have every cause 
 17 
 
 m 
 
 to be thankful that we live in times in 
 which toleration has nearly put a stop 
 to such discussions. 
 
 § 415. In the first year of Elizabeth, 
 the act of uniformity was passed, which 
 gave full powers to the queen with re- 
 gard to ecclesiastical concerns ; and in 
 the last clause but one it is enacted, 
 that all ornaments for churches, and 
 the ministers thereof, shall remain as 
 they were in the second year of Ed- 
 ward VI.* Proceedings, however, were 
 not commenced for some time against 
 those ministers who did not comply 
 with this part of the law, and a suffi- 
 cient period was granted to the doubt- 
 ful, had they been ready to avail them- 
 selves of it. But the evil of noncon- 
 formity seemed to gain ground by 
 delay ; and in the beginning of le565, 
 Elizabeth sent a pressing letter to Par- 
 ker, and through him to the rest of the 
 bishops, in which she enjoined them to 
 begin the work of enforcing uniformity. " 
 It can hardly be necessary in the pre- 
 sent day to prove, that outward habits 
 are to be ranked among things indiffer- 
 ent, and that the clergy, therefore, 
 ought to comply with such injunctions 
 as are given by the legal enactments 
 of the country ; but the general antipa- 
 thy exhibited in London and elsewhere 
 to the cap and surplice, prove that the 
 consciences of brethren were then 
 easily ofTended ; while the methods 
 used to remedy the disorder, show that 
 such scruples were not always treated 
 with becoming tenderness.' The ma- 
 jority of the London clergy complied 
 with the order concerning the unity of 
 apparel; but a considerable number 
 refused to do so, and were subsequently 
 deprived of their preferments. This 
 species of tacit resistance to the author- 
 ity of the crown was not confined to 
 the lower orders of the clergy, or to 
 those whose situation in life, or want 
 of education, might lead us to doubt 
 the probability of their estimating tho 
 question fairly ; but men of considera- 
 ble weight entertained scruples on the 
 subject, and some of them were even 
 exposed to the penalties of the law.* 
 
 ' That ig, according to the rubric of 1549 ; see 
 ? 743. s,.9. 
 2 Sirype's Parker, i. 309. 
 ' Strype's Grindal, 144. 
 < Strype's Parker, i. 322. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
130 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 Sampson, dean of Christ Church, and 
 Humphrey, president of Magdalen Col- 
 lege, Oxford, were cited before the 
 ecclesiastical commission, and required 
 to conform in the use of the cap and 
 surplice ; and though they wrote a 
 most submissive petition,* declaring 
 their scruples and unwillingness to com- 
 ply, because the law concerning the 
 restoration of the ceremonies of the 
 Roman church is joined with the ha- 
 zard of slavery, necessity, and supersti- 
 tion, yet no alternative was left them 
 but that of surrendering their scruples 
 or their places. 
 
 § 417. Their conduct throughout 
 seems to have been that of men of ten- 
 der consciences, not of persons obsti- 
 nately bent on following their own de- 
 vices ; yet Sampson was imprisoned 
 and deprived,^ and Humphrey, after 
 having been connived at for ten or 
 eleven years, ultimately complied with 
 the ordinances of the church. Such 
 Christian and dignified submission as 
 was exhibited by these men could not 
 be expected from all; nor, indeed, did 
 all others display it ; but that species 
 of insolent opposition to all church dis- 
 cipline, of which instances subsequently 
 occur, was of later growth, and may 
 possibly owe its origin to the severities 
 now practised. In estimating the fault 
 or the punishment of these men, our 
 judgments are liable to err, from not 
 knowing what opinions were generally 
 entertained about the dresses them- 
 selves.* In the present day, it seems 
 absurd to talk of the necessary connec- 
 tion between popery and a square cap 
 and sur])lice ; yet, where knowledge 
 was scarce, and prejudice strong, such 
 a connection existing in the minds of 
 the people might have produced infinite 
 harm. At all events, these disputes 
 among churchmen must have been very 
 injurious to the cause of real piety. It 
 may now appear probable, that greater 
 concessions to the weakness of sincere 
 brethren might have been made with 
 advantage by the stronger and the 
 sounder members of our distracted 
 
 1 Strype's Parker, iii. No. 30, i. 323. 
 
 2Ibid. i. 327. 3 Ibid. i. 368. 
 
 * These opinions are expressed at length in a 
 letter from Whiltingham, dean of Durham, to 
 Lord Leicester. (Strype's Parker, iii. 76, No. 27, 
 and i. 329, ch. .xxiii.) 
 
 church. They would have imitated 
 the true mother in the judgment of 
 Solomon, and have been ready to con- 
 cede their rights, to relinquish even the 
 justice of their cause, sooner than suf- 
 fer the object of their affections to be 
 torn asunder in the struggle ; and this 
 idea rests on the opinions expressed by 
 many individuals who were neither so 
 much implicated as to become parties 
 in the discussion, nor so far removed in 
 point of time from the events, as to be 
 unable to understand the prejudice! 
 which influenced the sincere noncon- 
 formist. 
 
 § 418. Jewel, though he conformed 
 himself, and blames those who laid toa 
 great a stress on the matter, never seenas 
 to have been pleased with the dresses, 
 and uses very strong expressions in dis- 
 approbation of them.* 
 
 Sandys," in his will of the date of 
 1588, says, when speaking of the rites 
 and ceremonies of the church, " So have 
 I ever been and presently am persuaded, 
 tiiat some of them be not so expedient 
 for this church now ; but that in the- 
 church reformed, and in all this tim^ 
 of the Gospel, wherein the seed of the 
 Gospel hath so long been sown, they 
 ma)^ better be disused by little and little 
 than more and more urged." In a pri- 
 vate letter to Peter Martyr in 1560, hi 
 expresses himself much more adverse 
 to the dresses.' 
 
 Grindal had great scruples about the 
 habits,* and wrote to Peter Martyr on 
 the subject, who advised that in his 
 private dress the bishop should cer- 
 tainly comply, but that if the public 
 ministration in it would promote the 
 
 = " De religione quod scri'jis, et veste scenica, 
 o utinam id impetrari potuisset. (Burnet, iii. tL 
 No. 57.) Nos quidem tarn bonae caussE non de* 
 fuinms. Sed illi. quibus ista taniopere placuerant, 
 credo, seqnuli sum inscitiam presbyterorum : quaa, 
 quoniam nihil ahud videbant esse, quam stipites, 
 sine ingenio. sine doctrina. sine moribus, vesle 
 sallem comica volebant populo commendari. Ntin 
 ut alantur bonse liierie, et surrogeiur seges aliqint 
 doctorum honiinum, nulla, o Deus bone, nulh 
 hoc tempore cura suscipitur. Itaque quoniani 
 vera via non possunt, istis ludicris ineptiis teneri 
 volunt ocalos multitudinis." Letter to Peter 
 Martyr, 1559. So in the next of the same date. 
 " Omnia docentur ubiqne purissime. In cereino- 
 niis et larvis passim plusculum ineptitur." No. 58. 
 
 « Strype's Whiigift. i. 548. 
 
 '"Tantum manent in ecclesia nostra vesti- 
 menia ilia papisiica, Capas inlellige, quas diu non 
 duraturas speramus." Burnet, iii. vi. No. 61. 
 
 8 Strype's Grindal, 42. 
 
I HAP. IX.] 
 
 !ea of the mass, he had better not 
 inction what was wrong by his ex- 
 nple : and that at all events he should 
 )ntinue to speak and teach against the 
 se of the habits.' In a letter to Bul- 
 iger, ISi'if), he adds, that when the 
 shops who had been exiles in Ger- 
 any could not persuade the queen and 
 irliainent to remove these habits out 
 '■ the church, though they had long 
 ideavoured it, by common consent 
 ley thought it best not to leave the 
 'mrch for some rites, which were not 
 'any, nor in themselves wicked ; espe- 
 xlly since the purity of the Gospel 
 imaitied safe and free to them. 
 ' It may fairly be presumed, that Par- 
 ! r himself entertained some doubts 
 'ncerning the points which were after- 
 'irds disputed between the puritans 
 d the high church party; for in the 
 estions prepared to be submitted to 
 nvocation in 15(53,^ probably under 
 5 own direction, and certainly exa- 
 ned by himself, there are several 
 lich manifestly imply that such a 
 Terence of opinion might prevail, 
 ley refer to the abolition of the use 
 the vestments, of private baptism ad- 
 nistered by lay persons, of organs 
 d curious singing, of the answers of 
 jnsors, &c.' And Whitgift was one 
 a number of heads of houses in Cam- 
 dge who petitioned for a greater li- 
 ise about the dresses. 
 §419. The sentiments of foreign di- 
 les may seem to deserve less atten- 
 !n,* inasmuch as they derived the great 
 .ss of their information from persons 
 I 0 were suffering in the cause of non- 
 liformity; yet surely, whatever may 
 ce been the bias of the accounts 
 ich they received, they were less 
 'ely to be prejudiced on this side than 
 I bishops were on that in which their 
 •sonal authority was concerned, which 
 I med to be resisted by all who re- 
 I'ed to comply with the injunctions of 
 t' court. These foreigners, in conjunc- 
 l i with the judicious advice which 
 i y invariably give, viz., that any thing 
 i s better than that the church should 
 I left destitute of pastors, in conse- 
 c nee of their scruples, frequently 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 131 
 
 ' Strype's Grindal, 45. 
 
 Sirype's Ann. i. 475. 
 ' Strype's Parker, i. 386, No. 39. 
 * Ibid. ii. 110. 
 
 press upon the bishops the propriety of 
 charitable concession, as far as it would 
 be admitted by the government. The 
 church of Scotland went so far as to 
 address an epistle to their brethren in 
 England,^ in which, perhaps, they press 
 the matter more strongly than it de- 
 serves ; but these concurrent testimonies 
 demonstrate one thing at least, that a 
 great stress was laid upon the question, 
 while the event proved that many mi- 
 nisters of God's word were silenced in 
 consequence of the dresses enjoined ; 
 and it may be remarked, that England 
 never became convinced of the pro- 
 priety of her ecclesiastical habits, till 
 the opponents of her decent forms had 
 power enough to cast them out of the 
 church, and to substitute their own more 
 superstitious simplicity.^ 
 
 § 420. Elizabeth herself was very 
 peremptory on the question.' She could 
 little brook resistance on any point ; but 
 when the scruple seemed so trifling, as 
 on this subject it must have appeared 
 to any one who was not under the in- 
 fluence of prejudice or passion, resist- 
 ance to her mandates assumed the sem- 
 blance of personal opposition. And 
 when Parker and the other bishops had 
 begun to execute the laws against non- 
 conformists, they must have been more 
 than men, if they could divest their 
 own minds of that personality which 
 every one must feel when engaged in a 
 controversy, in which the question really 
 is, whether he shall be able to succeed 
 in carrying his plans into execution. 
 The archbishop, indeed, who was first 
 employed in this unpleasant task,*seems 
 to have experienced more of this feeling 
 than perhaps beseemed his high station ; 
 yet the situation in which he was placed 
 renders him an object of our pity rather 
 than our blame. He probably foresaw 
 the ill effects which nonconformity 
 would bring upon the church, and pre- 
 pared to resist the torrent with the bul- 
 warks of severity and law. In this he 
 
 5 Strype's Parker, iii. 1.50, No. 51. 
 
 * Clerk, writing on the question of the habits, 
 speaks, " de fanaticis nostris Superpellicianis et 
 Galerianis," and add.<!, " ut quod tenriporis antehac 
 artibus et scientiis solet attribui, id nunc futihssi- 
 mis de lana caprina altercationibus fallitur et con- 
 sumitur." Sirype's Parker, iii. 133, No. 43. See 
 
 some e.xcellent observations about rehgious pre- 
 ...... _ i. " 
 
 See § 446, 
 
 judice by Buchanan. Pearson's Life of, i. 113. 
 ' See § 446, 
 
 8 Strype's Parker, i. 317, 389. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 found himself hardly supported as he 
 could wish by the court, where there 
 existed a strong party favourable to the 
 puritans. He perceived, perhaps, that 
 the odium of the measures which he 
 was forced to adopt was thrown on the 
 bishops, who were becoming more and 
 more the objects of general dislike 
 and lamented, with prophetic boding, 
 the conduct of some of the nobility, 
 whose favour was raising up a party 
 against the hierarchy, which would ulti- 
 mately destroy every distinction of rank. 
 
 § 421. Little can be said in favour of 
 the puritans, and those who rejected the 
 ceremonies of the church, but that they 
 were sincere in the objections which 
 they raised against the use of rites cor- 
 rupted in the church of Rome. Their 
 scruples will in these days appear tri- 
 vial, but they were not then esteemed 
 so ; as party feeling began to operate 
 on both sides, each became anxious to 
 enforce their own opinions, and in the 
 warmth of controversy the nonconfor- 
 mists seem to have forgotten that they 
 were disobeying the civil magistrate, 
 and not to have considered that the 
 bishops were only enforcing that which 
 by law they were bound to enforce. 
 The authority which the puritans with- 
 stood Was not the mere spiritual author- 
 ity which the episcopal function had 
 bestowed on their judges ; it was an 
 indefinite and ample power conferred 
 on the ecclesiastical commissioners, 
 from the supremacy vested by the par- 
 liament in the queen. It was a power 
 which the puritans may have deemed 
 unnecessary, oppressive, and little suit- 
 ed to the character of Christian bishops ; 
 but they must have known that it was 
 one which had been conferred on the 
 hierarchy by the law of the land, and by 
 the persons in whose hands the exe- 
 cutive was placed. But there are many 
 considerations which should prevent us 
 from passing any severe censure on 
 either party: the new standard of opi- 
 nion to which the disputants referred, 
 was one to which they had never been 
 accustomed ; the New Testament itself 
 is very indistinct in settling such points, 
 and to reason by analogy is a task which 
 requires much temper and experience. 
 The people, too, had been long trained 
 
 Strype's Parker, ii. 323. 
 
 to attach importance to ceremonies, and 
 though ignorant of principles, were 
 overjoyed in exercising the privilege 
 of thinking for themselves, which they 
 had just acquired. This exercise of 
 their new right was highly unaccept- 
 able to the queen, and the government 
 in some points tried to restrain it so 
 much, that the struggle by degrees 
 became one for civil as well as for reli- 
 gious liberty. 
 
 § 422. It appears, then, that neither 
 the government in enforcing conformity 
 as it did, nor the puritans in resisting it, 
 can well be justified by any sound prin- 
 ciples of Christian charity; the one 
 imposed a yoke' when it was hardly 
 necessary, the other rejected it when-rt 
 might and ought to have been borne. 
 Nothing, therefore, could be more dis- 
 tressing than the situation of a con- 
 scientious bishop at such a period. It 
 must have required a patience truly 
 Christian not to have been irritated at 
 the conduct of the nonconformists, and 
 perhaps still more of Christian courage 
 to enforce laws, when hinderances were 
 thrown in the way by the powers above, 
 and insults heaped on those in authority 
 by the party against whom the severity 
 was directed. Parker, the first metropo- 
 litan of this reign, was in many respects 
 calculated to shine with splendour in the 
 situation in which he was placed : he 
 was liberal, and ever ready to advance 
 the interests of learning or of talent ; he 
 was himself learned and studious, bat 
 his peculiar qualification seems to have 
 been a desire and faculty of systematia- 
 ing and improving every establishment 
 to which he belonged, a talent which 
 was extremely required at this period; 
 but perhaps he was not well calculated 
 to hold that even balance between con- 
 tending errors, which the difficulties of 
 the times placed more immediately in 
 
 2 It should be remembered, thai most of the re- 
 gulations with regard to the distinctive dress of 
 the clergy have gradually been given up, except- 
 ing, indeed, the surplice, and the square cap to 
 the universities. Copes and tunicles are almoet 
 forgotten; albes are confounded with surplices; 
 and the gown and cassock, with the square cap 
 and hood, are used according to the discretion of 
 the clergyman himself. It may indeed be ques- 
 tioned w-hether this has not gone too far. Perh«M 
 the interests of the church would be best consult- 
 ed, if, without adopting any distinctive habits, we 
 all dressed so that the world might from our ap- 
 pearance presume that we belonged to the minis- 
 try. 
 
 i 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 133 
 
 his hands. Before the heat of contro- 
 eersy had begun, concession was com- 
 paratively easy; without giving up the 
 ordinances of the church, a latitude of 
 3ractice might have been tolerated 
 vhich became inadmissible when the 
 question was brought to an issue. The 
 •emonstrances too of Parker might have 
 lad more influence on the queen than 
 hose of any other person, and it was 
 ler majesty who was most strenuous in 
 'nsisting on conformity: but he seems 
 uardly to have wished that his weak 
 ■rethren should be dealt with more 
 ently, for he was very peremptory in 
 is proceedings with Sampson,' though 
 e afterwards kindly wrote in his favour 
 /hen ejected from the di>anery ; and in 
 his conduct was strikingly opposed to 
 Jrindal, who entreated the dean, even 
 rhh tears in his eyes, to comply in 
 le use of the habits.'^ So again, when 
 lirly-seven of the London clergy re- 
 iseii compliance with the ecclesiastical 
 'resses, and of these some of the best 
 iiinisters, by the acknowledgment of 
 'le archbishop himself, he does not 
 ppear to have adopt.-d any conciliatory 
 l eps, or to have treated them as breth- 
 ';n in Christ. There is no reason to 
 uestion the sincerity of his motives, 
 nd his judgment was approved by 
 lany persons, (esneciully by Cox, bi- 
 'lop of Ely,^ who ho|)ed that, by re- 
 'ucing the clergy of the metropolis, 
 'll difficulty would bo obviated elsc- 
 here.^ But wb"re severity is used iii 
 ises of conscience, Christian charity is 
 "ten lost sight of, and the omission n 
 ?r takes place but at tlie certain loss 
 ' the ]iartv who neglect it. 1 he suf- 
 ri I S were de'. nu'd ron^essnrs by their 
 i,Mi Is, ai, 1 the parly of the pi'.ritaiis 
 as stv 'ngthened by their jmnish ii.'iit. 
 § tiV It must not b ? supposed that 
 I ihi' objections-* of the nonconform- 
 ts w 're conSned to the eccl 'siasticul 
 esses, or that the cap and surnlice 
 (Tc the only points against which 
 It ir animadversions were directed. 
 
 1 ^ rv.e's Parker, i. 327. 
 
 2 l iM i. ;«;8 and 430. 
 M Hi i 430. 
 
 « i'lip Ejections of wlii -h (he hpads are here set 
 may 'le seen in Burnet's PeformTion, iii. 
 0. 7!). Append,; Neal's Pnriians, i. 192: bnt 
 any are of course onii'led, and a lull relerf loe 
 ■ them would exce-d ilie presrrilied linii's of this 
 ork.as they lie scattered in various places. 
 
 The Book of Common Prayer was 
 generally attacked ; many of its cere- 
 monies, especially in Baptism, and the 
 Churching of Women, were rejected, 
 and organs and church music were 
 considered as unchristian. 
 
 The discipline of the church, too, 
 was impugned. Objections were raised 
 against episcopacy itself, as well as 
 against the lordly and temporal author- 
 ity possessed by the bishops ; while the 
 ordination of ministers, without their 
 being elected by their flocks, was ac- 
 counted antiscriptural, and the whole 
 was summed up in the want of a pres- 
 bytery. 
 
 At the same time they brought for- 
 ward many real abuses, which the 
 church could more easily deplore than 
 remedy. With regard to the scarcity 
 of preaching ministers, the blame seems 
 to belong exclusively to neither party ; 
 for though the hierarchy undoubtedly si- 
 lenced many who would have laboured 
 in this service, yet the nonconformist 
 might have easily obviated the diffi- 
 culty by accepting the ecclesiastical 
 dresses: thus Withers, at Bury, con- 
 formed, because he found his congre- 
 iration much less off"ended at the use of 
 the cap than at his own silence.^ The 
 non-r.'sidence, too, which was licensed 
 bv authority, could form no just ground 
 of separation from the church, as not 
 bi'ing essential to the establishment ; 
 an 1 th • r 'ligious conformist must have 
 viewed the neglect of a parish in the 
 same \\<jrhi in which it appeared to his 
 dissenting brethren. 
 
 § 121. In the Baptismal Service it 
 was objected, that the use of the sign 
 of the cross was superstitious, and bor- 
 •owe ! i'm.n the ehurch of Rome : as if 
 any misuse of a custom derived from 
 the priiniiive church could render its 
 nature sinful, or that the danger of mis- 
 I cnncejuion were not sufficiently guard- 
 ed aijainst, in the words of the prayer 
 wliich acco mpanies that part of the ser- 
 vice : — that the answers were made in 
 the name of the child, and not in that 
 of the sponsors; a difl^erence which at 
 all events is not very important, since 
 the very act of bringing the infant to 
 the font implies all that the words can 
 convey, viz., that the persons so admit- 
 
 5 Sirype's Parker, i. 374. 
 
 M 
 
134 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IX- 
 
 ted would tecome the servants of that 
 Lord into whose faith they were bap- 
 tized. Lay baptism, too, .fell under 
 their censure ; but it has been ques- 
 tioned whether it were ever authorized 
 by our church. It had formerly been 
 the custom for midwives to administer 
 this sacrament in cases of necessity ; 
 and as this was not distinctly forbidden, 
 the custom was continued, and thus 
 tacitly sanctioned. 1 
 
 In the Churching of Women, they 
 liked not that she should be veiled of 
 necessity, on her first appearance in the 
 congregation, or that she should always 
 be seated in the same place ; customs 
 which it is ridiculous to discuss ; and 
 which, in the process of time, have been 
 disused in most parishes, and only par- 
 tially retained in others. 
 
 The offence which was taken at or- 
 gans and church music, as practised in 
 cathedrals, was rather general ; and the 
 question of rejecting them was agitated 
 in the convocation of 1562. But if 
 these churches were served in those 
 days with as little reverence among the 
 subordinate members as is sometimes 
 now apt to be the case, it is no wonder 
 that sober-minded Christians should be 
 offended : and yet to correct such neg- 
 ligence seems a more reasonable and 
 obvious remedy, than to deprive our 
 
 ' Archbishop Sandys says, in his will, " for the 
 private baptism to be ministered by women. I take 
 neither to be prescribed nor permitted." (Strype's 
 Whitgift, i. 548.) But in the oaih administered 
 in the diocese of Canterbury, in 1567, to Eleanor 
 Pead, a midwife, is the following clause, " Also, 
 that in the ministration of the sacrament of bap- 
 tism in the time of necessity, I will use apt and 
 accustomed words of the same sacrament, that i.^ 
 to say, these words following, or the like in effi ri : 
 J christen Ihee in the name of Oie Fullicr. Ihe Son 
 and the Holy Ghost, and none o her profar e 
 words." (Strype's Annals, I. ii. 243 ) The oail 
 in such a case may have been borrowed from ih( 
 old formulary, and have been continued, wiihnu 
 being particularly attended to, for the sake ol .n 
 fee paid to some ecclesiastical officer. The que-- 
 tions asked according to the Prayer Rook of \ 
 1552, and 1560, seem to leave little doubt that ihi 
 custom was sanctioned. " By wljom was tin 
 child bapiized ? Who was present when ihe chili' 
 was baptized? Whether they called upon Cci' 
 for grace and succour in that necessity? Wi'l 
 what thing or what matter thev did l apiize iht 
 child ? Whether they think the child to be law 
 fiUy and perfectly bapiized 1" expressions v- birl- 
 hardly agree with the idea of the child's liavini; 
 been baptized by a minister, and whirh qnes'i<)ii>. 
 arc for that reason generally omitted at present 
 though they have been considerably altered in | 
 point of words. 
 
 ' Burnet, iii. vi. No. 74. | 
 
 church of a species of service which, 
 to those who are accustomed to it, is 
 the most elevating and delightful in the 
 world. 
 
 § 425. In point of discipline, the dif- 
 ferences of opinion were so numeroTis, 
 that it will be enough if we confine our- 
 selves to the prominent features of the 
 objections, without entering on the de- 
 grees in which they were held, or the 
 alterations which at different periods 
 ■grew into vogue with the nonconform- 
 ists. The chief stumbling-block was 
 episcopacy, as a distinct order in the 
 church, and the authority over the rest 
 of the ministry which this distinction 
 produced in the body corporate of the 
 establishment. Those who maintained 
 this objection might be again divided 
 into two parties ; the one was dissatis- 
 fied with episcopacy in the abstract; 
 the dissatisfaction of the other was con- 
 fined to the temporal state and civil 
 functions of the bishops ; but among 
 the mass of the nonconformists and 
 their followers, who were often very 
 ignorant on such subjects, such a dis- 
 tinction was little attended to. They 
 hated the bishops, from being taught 
 that their office was unscripturai, and 
 their proceedings unchristian ; and they 
 troubled not themselves to mark the 
 difference between the office itself and 
 the temporal authority vested in the 
 bishops of the church of England. 
 
 The alleged want of an efficient pres- 
 bytery was closely connected with this 
 question, and with the circumstance that 
 all ecclesiastical power was given ex- 
 clusively to the bishops, who were ap- 
 pointed by the crown. Most of the 
 exiles for religion, who on their return 
 formed the influential part of the church 
 of England, had been familiar with 
 establishments abroad, in which the 
 individual pastors were possessed of 
 considerable weight in the government 
 of the church and its concerns : on their 
 arrival in the land of promised rest, they 
 found that this spiritual power was in 
 no degree conferred on themselves, but 
 that they were subjected to a very pe- 
 remptory method of treatment before 
 the ecclesiastical commission, the pro- 
 j ceedings of which were quite unsup- 
 ported by the general tenor of the law 
 of the land. The seeds of civil hberty 
 I were throughout the whole struggle 
 
Chap. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 135 
 
 closely mixed up with the complaints 
 of the puritans ; and the same men who 
 had learnt to search for the truth on 
 religious subjects, and to pursue it in 
 : spite of the ))o\v ('rs of tliis world which 
 I were arrayed against it, were little likely, 
 ' from human motives, to submit to in- 
 junctions, however reasonable, which 
 • were arbitrarily imposed. 
 
 § 42o. The dispute as to the calling 
 of ministers chiefly owes its origin to 
 the same source. The warm upholders 
 of this opinion would have said that 
 ordination consisted virtually in the 
 elective call of the iflock ; that this formed 
 the essence of the appointment to the 
 nuiusiry; and that without it, all ordi- 
 iKuiiui was the invention of man, and 
 iiDi the institution of God. Its more 
 nioilerate friends would have maintained 
 tlmt the laying on of the hands of the 
 I presbytery was sufficient without the 
 [presence of a bishop, provided the mi- 
 jnistry of the person admitted were not 
 I unacceptable to the parish. Between 
 I these extremes there exist many smaller 
 varieties, many plausible errors, into 
 which all men are apt to run, when they 
 .set up their own opinions as the test 
 of right and wrong. 
 
 The absence of spiritual discipline 
 A\ a> a source of complaint with all par- 
 ties ; and the nonconformists lamented, 
 I with some show of reason, that the only 
 exercise of it which remained was con- 
 fined to non-essentials in religion, of 
 I which they themselves were the unfor- 
 I tunate victims : and it was the observa- 
 tion of one of the best wishers to the 
 ciiurch,' that ecclesiastical ofHces were 
 now misused to private gain, rather than 
 public benefit. The country had been 
 used, under the auspices of the court of 
 ■ Rome, to a strict inspection as to some 
 particulars relating to morals, at least 
 to the idea of it. In the presbyterian 
 churches, a great deal of real discipline 
 was preserved, and much actual super- 
 inti ndence exercised; but the power of 
 the church, as it now existed in Eng- 
 land, was inadequate to keep up the old 
 episcopal jurisdiction which had been 
 carried on in former days ; and from 
 I her adopting little of the presbyterian 
 I government, she wanted the discipline 
 
 ' Burleigh's Letter to Aylmer, 1579. Strype's 
 Aylmer, 188. 
 
 I of combination, with which the diflJusion 
 i of power under that system invested 
 the ministerial body. But it may fairly 
 be questioned whether this species of 
 authority be not in its nature wrong. 
 There are but two principles on which 
 punishment can ever be administered 
 with advantage : first, when severity is 
 used for the sake of the person punished ; 
 and, secondly, when it is done for the 
 sake of civil society : when the penalty 
 inflicted may reform the aggressor, or 
 prevent the recommission of the crime 
 in others, by the force of terror, and the 
 influence of example. The latter of 
 these may be fully exercised by lay 
 courts ; and though on many occasions 
 ecclesiastical discipline may further the 
 former object, yet the authority with 
 which it invests the pastor, makes him 
 as it were a judge over his brethren ; 
 and wherever temporal disability is con- 
 nected with ecclesiastical censure,' it 
 gives the minister of the gospel a cha- 
 racter which will probably injure the 
 state of his own mind, and perhaps 
 alienate the afltctions of his flock ; while 
 it cannot fail to make both parties refer 
 their conduct to the laws and institu- 
 tions of men, rather than to the com- 
 mandments of God. But it was the 
 want of power vested in the subordinate 
 ministry, which was the real cause of 
 the present dissatisfaction ; and neither 
 the policy of the queen, nor the general 
 state of the clergy, gave any great pro- 
 bability that this would be granted. 
 
 § 427. The most obvious evil which 
 existed at this time was the want of an 
 eflective ministry ; and for the sake of 
 improving the clergy, exercises were 
 established in most of the dioceses, 
 which were called prophesyings, from 
 an expression used by St. Paul.' The 
 manner of carrying them on varied in 
 difl^erent places,* but was generally as 
 follows.-^ The diocese was divided into 
 
 2 In our own church, temporal pains are at- 
 tached to spiritual punishments ; (a man, for in- 
 stance, who is excommunicated, cannot perform 
 any legal act ;) and that proper jealousy which the 
 civil courts have always exercised, lest the rights 
 of the suliject should be in any way infringed, has 
 by degrees driven churchmen from attempting to 
 put ecclesiastical censures in force, except on very 
 flagrant occasions ; so that even a clergyman 
 must have been guilty of excessive misconduct, 
 and have disgraced the church, before the bishops' 
 court can interfere for his correction. 
 
 • 1 Cor. xiv. * Strype's Ann. iii. 325, 472, 481. 
 
 s Grindal, 260. 
 
136 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. DL 
 
 convenient districts, and the clerg-y be- 
 longing to each were assembled at 
 stated periods, about once in the fort- 
 night, when, together with prayers, 
 some text of Scripture was discussed 
 by speakers appointed by the modera- 
 tor, who was himself nominated by the 
 bishop or archdeacon, and was, in some 
 dioceses, the dean rural of the deanery. 
 From the injudicious proceedings in 
 particular districts, in which subjects 
 tending rather to schism than to edifi- 
 cation were brought forward, objections 
 were raised by those in authority, and 
 the mind of the queen was prejudiced 
 against them, so that they were gene- 
 rally suppressed in 1577, though ap- 
 proved of by many persons well able to 
 judge on the question. • They formed, 
 as it were, a nucleus for the presbytery, 
 which might easily have been abused ; 
 but had they been judiciously carried 
 on, they might have supplied a defect 
 which is still strongly felt. A young 
 clergyman, who has had but little expe- 
 rience in the care of a parish, might, in 
 such a body, have found an authorized 
 guide for his own conduct on many 
 minor points, in which he hardly ven- 
 tures to apply to his archdeacon or his 
 bishop ; and by the frequent discussion 
 of such questions the priesthood would 
 become better able to perform their 
 duties, while the very act of thus as- 
 sembling would have given a spiritual 
 tone to the meetings of the clergy, the 
 present want of which must certainly 
 be deplored. There was at the time 
 less trouble in silencing the whole than 
 in remt dying or preventing these dis- 
 orders ; and the disinclination which 
 had been felt towards these prophesy- 
 ings, prevented the adoption of such 
 exercises as might have produced all 
 the good, without occasioning the evils 
 complained of. Something of this sort 
 was rendered tlie more necessary,'^ on 
 account of the scarcity of preachers 
 and educated clergymen ; but Elizabeth 
 
 ' Lord Ba'-on expresses his approbation of these 
 exercises s rongly. (Sirype's Ann. v. 480.) Sir 
 Franns Knowles, Sir Waller Mildmay, and Sir 
 Thomas Smith commended thein, to say nothing 
 of the hishops who saiiclioiied their introduction. 
 {Strype's Aim. iii.477.) 
 
 2 Whitgift says, " 1 ihinke it not amisse for the 
 ordinane to appoint some kinde of exercise for the 
 unlearned ministers, but not in that forme." 
 Strype's Whitgift, iii. 128, No. xiii. 12. 
 
 seems not to have possessed any very 
 correct views with regard to their im- 
 provement. She applied, it is true, cer- 
 tain lapsed revenues to the foundation 
 of schools, and patronized the universi- 
 ties ; but she adopted such measures 
 with respect to church property as 
 would have rendered it impossible that 
 England should have ever possessed a 
 learned ministry, had not her proceed- 
 ings been partially stopped, and subse- 
 quently, in some degree, remedied. 
 The dignified clergy were, during her 
 reign, pillaged most unmercifully ; and 
 though many a sensible and conscien- 
 tious person might have esteemed the 
 former revenues of the bishops too 
 great, yet it must be remembered that 
 high situations soon become nugatory, 
 unless they are supported by a cor- 
 responding income. She was enabled 
 to commit these depredations on the 
 establishment, by an act which passed 
 in the first year of her reign, allowing 
 her to exchange the lands of vacant 
 bishoprics for impropriated tithes ; and 
 though the crown was probably not 
 much the richer for this iniquitous bill, 
 yet the courtiers and favourites of the 
 queen made such use of it, as to render, 
 the church unable to support its mi- 
 nistry. 
 
 § 428. The great engine for the go- 
 vernment of the church, during this 
 reign, was the Court of Ecclesiastical 
 Commission. It was established under 
 the eighth clause of the Act of Suprema- 
 cy, which allowed the queen to delegate 
 her own power to persons appointed for 
 that purpose. It was composed chiefly 
 of churchmen ; but the names of some 
 of the laity were always joined with 
 them, although, as might have been ex- 
 pected, the laymen took less interest in 
 the transactions, and frequently absented 
 themselves, when offensive measures 
 were to be carried though. Its autho- 
 rity, like the queen's supremacy, was 
 indefinite and unlimited, and strongly 
 resembled that exercised by the Star 
 Chamber. The efforts of the commis- 
 sioners were first directed against non- 
 conformity, and irregularities of less im- 
 portance ; and though their severity fell 
 the heaviest on those whose scruples or 
 fancies prevented them from complying 
 with the regulations about dresses, &c., 
 yet the court soon began to be oppres- 
 
HAP. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 137 
 
 ve to the poorer clergy;' for whoever 
 
 as invested with such a power as was 
 itrusted to the members of it, was 
 labled to convert it to his own private 
 livantage, by means of bribes received 
 cm individuals exposed to prosecution, 
 - who were liable to be brought before 
 I court in which the proceedings were 
 iknown and arbitrary: and the number 
 ' commissioners, in different parts of 
 le country, allowed very unfit persons 
 
 be invested with the office. 
 
 The chief oppression," however, arose 
 icrwards from commissions of conceal- 
 I'liis, in which the queen granted a 
 irhi of appropriating to the use of par- 
 ■ular persons such property as by 
 liner confiscations belonged to the 
 own, but which had been transferred 
 to other hands. The proceedings of 
 c commissioners were often most inju- 
 Dus to honest possessors, and one con- 
 derable branch of their profit arose 
 om sums given to stay or prevent pro- 
 !sses. The value of what was at stake 
 as often enormous. The whole foun- 
 ition of the church of Norwich was at 
 le time in jeopardy of falling from the 
 irposes for which it was made, and 
 3ing converted into a private estate 
 It the officers of the crown interfered; 
 id though in danger for a considerable 
 me, it was ultimately saved, and re- 
 lunded by the queen in 1588. 
 
 § 429. The granting such commis- 
 ons is one among many impolitic acts 
 ith which the government of Elizabeth 
 
 marked. Security of person and 
 roperty is the object for which men 
 ibmit to the restraints of civil society; 
 hatever, therefore, tends to render any 
 ■nure insecure, must, in some degree, 
 nhinge the bands of society; and the 
 ■eling of the possibility of such insecu- 
 ty is almost as bad, in this respect, as 
 le reality. From -the quantity of land 
 hich had changed its possessors within 
 few years, almost every rich subject 
 lUst have held property which had once 
 elonged to ecclesiastical bodies, and his 
 tie, therefore, have been liable to be 
 alJed in question, unless his power pre- 
 jrved him from such apprehensions, 
 ler conduct, then, must appear as inju- 
 
 ' Slrype's Parker, ii. 306. 
 * Strype's Parker, ii. 224, and Annals, v, 162, 
 S8. 
 
 » Ibid. iii. 450. 
 
 18 
 
 dicious as it was unjust. The ravage 
 which was committed by Henry was the 
 wasteful prodigality of a tyrant; yet to 
 those who view the payment of the es- 
 tablishment as the means of promoting 
 religion, not as the end, the alienation 
 must appear a useful, though somewhat 
 a harsh measure. Under Edward, the 
 monarch was too weak to resist the ava- 
 rice of those who governed, and Mary 
 rather enriched than robbed the establish- 
 ment ; but Elizabeth laid her hands on 
 all that she could grasp, though, for the 
 sake of keeping up appearances, she 
 restored some small portion in founda- 
 tions connected with education. She 
 acted towards the property of the church 
 with no more prudence or forbearance 
 than she did towards that of the crown, 
 and in both seemed to look no further 
 than the lifehold interest which she pos- 
 sessed in it. The improvident leases 
 made by churchmen themselves tended 
 to impoverish the revenues of the estab- 
 lishment ; but for one case on record 
 where the clergy were to blame, several 
 might be found where the interference 
 of the court obliged them to give away, 
 in a legal form, what belonged to their 
 successors. 
 
 The queen never liked to apply for 
 money to parliament, lest the members 
 should interfere with her proceedings,* 
 but wasted the church in paying those 
 courtiers whom her parsimony prevented 
 her from rewarding otherwise.- She did 
 not begin the custom, but she ought to 
 have put a stop to it." She did not, 
 perhaps, allow it to go so far as the pu- 
 ritans wished, or satisfy the desires of 
 her courtiers, but it went to such a length 
 that England has felt it ever since. Nor 
 has the liberality of parliam^-nt, com- 
 bined with the bounty of Q,ueen \nne, 
 been yet able to render our poorer livings 
 adequate to the decent maintenance of a 
 clergyman : and were it not for the piety 
 of those who, through the possession of 
 private property, are enabled to devote 
 their talents to the service of God, by 
 entering into the ministry, a great num- 
 ber of parishes in England would be 
 destitute of an educated pastor. 
 
 * Wordsworth's Eccles. Biog. iv. 70, and 233. 
 
 s Siryiie's Grindal, 42, 49. 
 
 s Archbishop Parker, in a letter to Elizabeth 
 which he wroie from his deathbed. remotiairateB 
 wiih her on this point. (Sirype's Parker, ii. 430.) 
 u2 
 
138 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 § 430. The poverty of the church, in 
 the early part of the reign of Elizabeth, 
 was excessive not only among the 
 higher clergy, who were exposed to 
 these attacks from the court, but among 
 the lower and laborious individuals who 
 possess no dignified station, and have 
 no further worldly prospect than to pro- 
 vide bfead for themselves and their fami- 
 lies.'' At this moment, when, from being 
 allowed to marry, they required greater 
 incomes than before, the revenues of 
 the church were labouring under a great 
 depression, attributable to a combination 
 of several causes. 
 
 The wholesale alienation of church 
 property which had taken place in the 
 reign of Henry VIII., had unsettled the 
 minds of the nation with regard to all 
 tenures; might had legally been con- 
 verted into right, and all men were ready 
 to take advantage of the change.' The 
 court invaded the wealth of the higher 
 clergy,'' and they in their turn were often 
 little careful of the interests of their suc- 
 cessors,^ and sometimes raised a revenue 
 by appropriating to themselves the in- 
 come which was originally grajited for 
 the officiating incumbent."* Where the 
 law did not strictly interfere, it was not 
 very likely that lay-patrons would be 
 very scrupulous as to the person to whom 
 they committed the cure of souls ; and, to 
 use the words of the learned writer of the 
 preface to BuUinger's Decads,' " Patrons 
 now-a-days search not the universities 
 for a most fit pastor ; but they post up and 
 down the country for a most gainful 
 chapman : he that hath the biggest purse 
 to pay largely, not he that hath the best 
 gifts to preach learnedly, is presented." 
 
 . 'See ^410. 
 
 ^ Palter inhibited Grindal from holding a visita- 
 tion of the London clergy, (at which fees, procu- 
 rations, and synodals, ate paid to the bishop,) he- 
 cause ihcy had scarcely wherewiih to buy food 
 and raiment. (.=!trype's Grindal, 57.) Grindal. in 
 his letter to Elizabeth, says, (Ibid. 565,) "So 
 that at this day, in mine opinion, where one church 
 is able to yield sufficient living tor a learned 
 preacher, there are at the least seven churches 
 unable to do the same ; and in many parishes of 
 your realm, w here there be seven or eight hundred 
 sou s (the more is the piiy,) there are not eight 
 pounds a vear reserved lor a minister." (See also 
 Strype's VVhitgifi, iii. 171. No. 26.) 
 
 ' As an instance of such proceedings, see the 
 account of the visitation of the Savoy. (Strype's 
 Grindal. 236.) 
 
 * Strype's Annals, vi. 466, No. 29. 
 6 Ibid. vi. 266, No. 32, i. 
 
 • Ibid. vi. 471, No. 32, ii. T Ibid. iv. 146. 
 
 To this may be added the loss sustained 
 through the discontinuance of fees and 
 oflT^rings which were made by the laity 
 to the curates of their parishes.® Obla- 
 tions made at shrines, the profits arising 
 from pilgrimages, mortuaries, and per- 
 sonal tithes, (being the tenth of all men's 
 clear gains,) had in towns formed a con- 
 siderable source of income to the clergy; 
 these payments had now ceased ; but 
 the government had been far from intei- 
 posing to supply the deficiency.^ The 
 courtiers joined with the puritans in at- 
 tacking the church, the latter to deprew 
 its power," the former to share in the 
 spoil, and to render the clergy beggars.in 
 order that they might depend on them." 
 
 * Strype's Whitgift, iii. 171. 
 5 Strype's Grindal, 78. 
 
 Strype's Whitgift, i. 146, 147. 
 " The whole question of church property is one 
 of vast importance to the country, and is unfor- 
 tunaiely so frequently misunderstood, that it 
 prove useful to say something of the principle* Ml 
 which provision ought to be made for the clergy. 
 'I'lie payment, if rightly arranged, will redonnd 
 lo the benefit of the whole body politic. Humanly 
 speaking, labourers cannot be procured withoBt 
 hire, and their quality will correspond with tbe 
 payment which is provided for them. Now, roes 
 are paid either by consideration, or by actual ad- 
 vantages, (i. e. in a civilized country by money;) 
 and the consideration will itself depend on \h» 
 eMeem in which the profession is held, as well as io- 
 directly on the rank and fortune which are indepen- 
 dently possessed by those individuals who compote 
 it. Thus, for instance, the profession of arms H 
 honourable, and therefore the pay which is allotted 
 to officers always has been, and should be, ade- 
 quate to support the rank which they hold in so- 
 ciety ; and yet we find men of family and fortune 
 crowding into the profession for the sake of the 
 honour to be acquired in it. Compare this service 
 with the collection of customs or excise, and it 
 will be found that the same pay in money will 
 provide a very different species of person for the 
 employment. 
 
 The duty of an established clergy is to promote 
 the spiritual benefit of their brethren, and the let- 
 son why the state pays them at all, is, that the 
 spiritual and moral advancement of a country di- 
 rectly influences the prosperity of a state. Fork 
 may safely be asserted, that nothing but vice really 
 injures a kingdom, and that states fall not frOB 
 luxury, but from the vices which accompany 
 luxury. In England, for instance, an individou 
 may enjoy luxuries and conveniences unknown to 
 people of the same station in other countries of 
 modern Europe, or to the ancients ; vet the com- 
 monwealth is the richer for our comforts, and we 
 are still, comparatively speaking, far from beinea 
 vicious nation. The object, therefore, which tie 
 politician should have in view, in providing for an 
 estabhshed clergy, is to assign such a remunera- 
 tion to them as will procure a body of men whose 
 rank in life will not be likely to render them irre- 
 ligious, and whose attainments are such as to ena- 
 ble them to promote the civihzation of society in 
 general. There can be no doubt that much tem- 
 poral wealth is not suited to promote Cbristianity, 
 
:hap. IX.] 
 
 § 431. The events which took place 
 )etween the settlement of the church 
 ind the death of Parker are not in them- 
 ;elves very important or interesting ; 
 'ind since we have already taken a ge- 
 leral view of the leading features which 
 listinguished the ecclesiastical proceed- 
 ngs, a brief account of the various oc- 
 ';urrences must suffice. When the chief 
 joints were settled, as to belief and dis- 
 ;ipline, it remained only to allow mat- 
 ers to take their own course, and to 
 )bsi'rve how the laws and ordinances 
 msw ored the purposes for which they 
 veil.' intended. Activity and exertion 
 vore necessary among the clergy, in 
 an ying on their ministerial duties ; but 
 
 ind tliat wihout temporal wealth, such an educa- 
 ion cannot be procured in a civilized country as 
 ivill render the generality of teachers adequate to 
 iiireci iheir flocks. 'I'he Enghsh politician has not 
 I he dillirulty of adjusting this balance, for by the 
 ;reat mercy of God we possess an estabhshment 
 n which the clergy are by their station mixed with 
 ;very rank in society, and on the whole adequately 
 jiaid. In a scale which it has taken so many cen- 
 uries to form, and in which so much has depended 
 j )n circumstances apparently accidental , there must 
 ;xist some pieces of preferment which seem to be 
 .)3id too largely, and we know that there are many 
 •nore, in which the workman is inadequately re- 
 iTiunerated. In a constitution such as ours, the 
 I rue friends of the establishment will always have 
 he eye fixed on what can most easily be remedied , 
 )nd not on what a theorist might originally have 
 desired; such laws, therefore, as tend to support 
 jcclesiastical disciphne among the clergy them- 
 i selves, and to make us perform our duties more 
 iidequately, must be deemed beneficial, and every 
 3tep should be promoted which will provide for the 
 poorer clergy, for curates in casesof non-residence, 
 md for the incumbents in livings where the tithes 
 ire impropriated, which are perhaps at present the 
 worst paid of any species of preferment ; but he 
 must be a very bold, and ought to be a very cau- 
 tious legislator, who would venture to attack the 
 oldest tenures in this or any other country. That 
 the legislature has a right to interfere with pro- 
 perly belonging to either bodies corporate or indi- 
 viduals, be they laymen or ecclesiastics, cannot be 
 denied ; but the right is the same in one case as 
 in the other, and in both the necessity which calls 
 for such a step should be clearly proved. It is 
 always much more safe to tax the property of some 
 for the support of others, than to touch the pro- 
 perty itself If the tenths on the larger prefer- 
 ments were increased, the sums thus thrown into 
 the hands of the governors of Queen Anne's 
 bounty would gradually provide for the increase 
 of smaller livings ; nor should it be forgotten, that 
 probably one-half of the English bishoprics do not 
 amount in income to the salaries of the judges, 
 who, upon a fair estimate of the nature of their 
 offices, and the rank they rightly hold in society, 
 are by no means too highly rewarded. And that 
 even these incomes of the bishops are made up in 
 many cases of impropriations, where the main- 
 tenance, which in foroconscientiw is due to him 
 who performs the spiritual duties of the parish, is 
 taken from hira and given to another. 
 
 139 
 
 the great object was to establish through- 
 out the country the habit of observing 
 what the legislature had enacted. Jewel,* 
 in speaking of the state of the country 
 in the beginning of the reign, says, that 
 the people were very ignorant and su- 
 perstitious, but very much inclined to 
 religion ; a state in which much labour 
 was required, but in which the exertions 
 of the ministry were not likely to prove 
 unsuccessful. Few, however, seem to 
 have trod this unpretending path of spi- 
 ritual and quiet toil : the one party were 
 eager to introduce innovations incom- 
 patible with what was established, the 
 other were employed in repressing these 
 attempts, and in providing for their 
 temporal interests. The consequences 
 of this were such as might have been 
 expected, and are characterized in a 
 mournful description given by Strype, 
 which is chiefly drawn from the papers 
 of Lord Burleigh.^ " The churchmen 
 heaped up many benefices, and resided 
 upon none, neglecting their cures ; 
 many of them alienated their lands, 
 made unreasonable leases and wastes 
 of their woods, granted reversions and 
 advowsons to their wives and children, 
 or to others for their use. Churches 
 ran greatly into dilapidations and de- 
 cays, and were kept nasty, and filthy, 
 and undecent for God's worship." 
 
 § 432. The declaration of open war 
 between the high and low church parties 
 may be considered to have taken place 
 in 1566 f when the proclamation of the 
 queen gave, as it were, the sanction of 
 law to the Advertisements'" which the 
 bishops had previously put forth, and 
 they began to enforce uniformity among 
 the London clergy, (March 26.) Of 98 
 who appeared before the commissioners, 
 
 ' Burnet, iii. 207, fol., 495, 8vo. 
 
 2 Strype's Parker, ii. 204. ' Ibid. i. 427. 
 
 ^ The Advertisements are a set of canons to en- 
 force uniformity of " doctrine and preaching ; ad- 
 ministration of prayer and sacraments; certain 
 orders in ecclesiastical policy ; outward apparel of 
 persons ecclesiastical ; and promises to be made 
 by those entering on any ecclesiastical office." 
 (Sparrow's Coll. 121.) They were printed and 
 pubhshed Jan. 25th, 1565, without the royal 
 authority, by the ecclesiastical commissioners, 
 from whence, indeed, they derive their name, and 
 are not called Articles or Ordinances. (Strype's 
 Parker, i. 313.) That part which referred to 
 dress was sanctioned by the proclamation, as 
 above ; and the others seemed to have been used 
 as if they were law. (Strype's Parker, i. 319.) 
 A different copy of these is printed in Strype. 
 (Strype's Parker, iii. 84, No. 28. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
140 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap, IX. 
 
 61 complied, and 37 refused, of which j 
 number, as Parker acknowledges, "were 
 the best, and some preachers;"' and, 
 contrary to the expectation of their 
 judges, they showed reasonable quiet- 
 ness and modesty. When the three 
 months which the law allowed them for 
 consideration had elapsed, they were 
 ipso facto deprived of all their spiritual 
 promotions ; ''and in the beginning of 
 the next year began to separate from 
 the church, by carrying on private meet- 
 ings for devotions and worship, which 
 were conducted chiefly after the formula 
 of the church of Geneva. They alleged 
 as their excuse, that in the Common 
 Prayer Book, "the ceremonies of anti- 
 christ were tied to the service of God, 
 so that no man might preach and admi- 
 nister the sacraments without them." 
 The government was alarmed at such a 
 symptom of dissent, and the ecclesiasti- 
 cal commissioners were urged to exert 
 themselves. During this period of 
 schism, there were not wanting instances 
 of men, who, though they disapproved 
 of the habits, yet conformed to the esta- 
 blished law, following the suggestions 
 of Beza, who advised his friends mo- 
 destly to protest against these proceed- 
 ings,' but by no means to desert their 
 flocks for matters in themselves not un- 
 godly. 
 
 § 433. This schism of the London 
 clergy, in itself injurious to the Chris- 
 tian welfare of the state, was rendered 
 far more formidable by the appearance 
 of the same spirit in one of the cradles 
 of our church establishment, where it 
 might taint the source from which sound 
 sense and pure religion ought to flow. 
 The university of Cambridge had for 
 some time been agitated by the question 
 of the habits ; and, as was natural, the 
 younger members generally ran into 
 the novelties of the day, and discarded 
 the appointed dresses ; but at the end 
 of 1570 the flame broke forth. Thomas 
 Cartwright, B. D., Lady Margaret 
 Reader of Divinity, had been delivering 
 lectures,* in which he attacked the li- 
 turgy and episcopal government, and 
 had contributed much to promote the 
 insubordination which had manifested 
 itself. He was fellow of Trinity Col- 
 
 • Strype's Parker, i. 429. ^ Ibid. 478, ch. U. 
 
 3 Ibid. i. 483. 
 
 « Strype's Wbitgift, i. 38. 
 
 j lege, of which Whitgift was head ; and 
 perhaps from this cause Whitgift came 
 forward as the decided opponent of his 
 opinions, that the bane and antidote 
 might proceed from within the same 
 walls. ^Cartwright had been ordered 
 to retract certain opinions contrary to 
 episcopal government, which he had 
 previously maintained in six articles, 
 acknowledged and subscribed by him; 
 and after abundant delay and forbear- 
 ance on the part of the authorities, he 
 was deprived of his readership. He 
 was anxious to have maintained a public 
 disputation, but he would only do so on 
 his own terms. ° He required to know 
 beforehand his opponents and his judges, 
 meaning such judges as he himself 
 should best like ; but Whitgift, who 
 had many private discourses with him, 
 repeatedly offered to dispute with him, 
 on condition that both parties should 
 commit their arguments and positions 
 to paper ; a demand to which no rea- 
 sonable disputant could object. The 
 circumstance of being silenced by 
 authority seems to have exalted Cart- 
 wright into a confessor in the cause of 
 puritanism ; but if episcopacy were to 
 be upheld at all, no gentler steps could 
 have been adopted. If a government 
 be strong, it need not persecute or pu- 
 nish every one who impugns its form 
 or constitution ; but how can it allow 
 such a person to hold a situation of trust 
 under it, particularly one which is likely 
 to be influential in forming the senti- 
 ments of the rising generation ? "Cart- 
 wright subsequently vacated his fellow- 
 ship in Trinity College, according to 
 the statutes, (Sept. 1572,) in conse- 
 quence of not taking orders, about which 
 he felt some scruples, because he had 
 experienced no call to the ministry 
 through the invitation of some parish, 
 a point which he deemed a necessary 
 qualification ; as if to educate the upper 
 orders, and prepare young men for the 
 church, were not as suitable an office 
 for a minister of God's word as any 
 other part of the ecclesiastical duties. 
 This dispute created a kind of personal 
 struggle between Whitgift and Cart- 
 wright ; and when the one published 
 his answer to the " Admonition to Par- 
 
 rype's Whitgift, iii. 
 id. i. 42. 
 
:;hap. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 141 
 
 iament,"' (a book set forth by the puri- 
 ans, attacking the whole government 
 i)f the church, and in the composition 
 )f which Cartwright had probably a 
 considerable hand,) the other imme- 
 liately replied, and Whitgift defended 
 lis answer. As they reasoned on dif- 
 "erent principles, it is not extraordinary 
 hat the partisans of both sides should 
 deem their own champion successful: 
 ^md, as is ordinarily the case, the dis- 
 putants mutually remained of their ori- 
 ginal opinion, while the cause of truth 
 ivas promoted by discussion, though the 
 ;liarmony of the church was disturbed. 
 [ §434. (a. D. 1.571.) The proceedings 
 3f the convocation and parliament of 
 tliis year require a good deal of atten- 
 tion ; but in order to get a clear view 
 of their effects, it will be necessary to 
 divide the subjects on which the seve- 
 ral laws were enacted. 
 
 In the convocation, the Articles of 
 Religion were again subscribed ; but 
 any remarks on this event Avill more 
 properly be introduced when we enter 
 on the history of the Thirty-nine Arti- 
 cles, a subject so important as to require 
 I a distinct chapter.'' 
 
 I The establishment of a code of eccle- 
 siastical law was also brought into con- 
 sideration. In the convocation, a set 
 of canons pertaining to discipline were 
 framed, for the regulation of the officers 
 of the church, and to declare the duties 
 
 , attached to bishops, deans, archdeacons, 
 &c., as well as to prevent the evils 
 arising from non-residence, pluralities, 
 and corrupt presentations. They are 
 extant in Sparrow's Collection,' though 
 
 ' A full account of this dispute may be found 
 hy consulting the index to Strype. The prin- 
 ciples on which the argument in the Admonition 
 is conducted were, ''that we must of necessity 
 hiive I he same kind of government that was in the 
 aposiles' time, and is expressed in the Scripture, 
 and no other. The other was, that we may not, 
 in any wise, nor on any consideration, retain in 
 the church any thing that hath been used under 
 the pope." (Strype's Parker, ii. 140.) A method 
 of reasoning, in which the first part is a mere pe- 
 titio principii, the latter a fallacy. The episco- 
 palian appeals to the Scriptures in defence of his 
 form of church government, (see % 460.) and be- 
 lieves it to be that adopted by the apostles. And 
 while we acknowledge that the church of Rome has 
 preserved the vital points of Christianity, as main- 
 tained in the five first articles of our church, we 
 must allow that no misuse of subordinate matters 
 ought to prevent us from adopting them, if in them- 
 selves they are admissible. 
 
 ' % 485, dtc, » P. 223. 
 
 I they never received the sanction of the 
 queen, who thought that the authority 
 of the bishops, derived from her su- 
 premacy, was sufficient to enforce them. 
 Yet Grindal justly observed, when Par- 
 ker urged the adoption of them in the 
 province of York, that the fine words 
 of her majesty might fly away as the 
 wind, and would little serve the bishops, 
 if they were adjudged to have incurred 
 the penalties of a premunire, which 
 could only be guarded against by a 
 legal enactment of them, derived from 
 the royal approbation in scriptis. 
 
 § 4:}.5. The same subject was brought 
 forward in the House of Commons,'' and 
 reference was made to the " Reforma- 
 tio Legum Ecclesiasticarum,"^ a book 
 drawn up chiefly by Cranmer;° but 
 which was laid aside, and never legally 
 enacted, in consequence of the inter- 
 ruption occasioned by the death of Ed- 
 ward VI.'' But Elizabeth was ever 
 adverse to reformation in religion which 
 originated in any authority but her own ; 
 and though it appears that a committee 
 was appointed, yet, as they proceeded 
 to examine irrelevant questions, it served 
 but to excite the anger of the queen, 
 
 4 Strype's Parker, ii. 62. 
 
 5 Strype's Ann. iii. 93, &c. « ^ 330. 
 
 ' The title of the book is " Reformatio Legum 
 Ecclesiasiicarum, ex auctoritale 1"" R. Henrici 
 VIII. inchoala, deinde per R. Edvardum VI. 
 provecta adauctaque in hunc'modum, atijue nunc 
 ad pleniorem ipsarum reformatiunem in luoem 
 Eedita, Lohd. Day. Ap. 1571." A copious ab- 
 stract of it may be seen in Collier, Ecc. Hist. ii. 
 326, &c. It consists of fifty-one titles, besides 
 an Appendix, " De Regulis juris." The most 
 remarkable peculiarities of it are, that it makes 
 blasphemy and heresy ultimately punishable with 
 death. It is justly severe on adultefy, punishing 
 the guilty party with imprisonment and banish- 
 ment, and not allowing them to marry, a license 
 which it grants to the innocent. It directs that a 
 strict examination shall take place before institu- 
 tion, and forbids pluralities. It direct.s that the 
 dean rural shall be an annual officer appointed by 
 the bishops, and that he shall report the conduct 
 of the clergy ; that archdeacons sliall reside within 
 the limits of their jurisdiction ; that prebendaries 
 shall give public lectures in the cathedral. It ap- 
 points, besides, provincial synods and diocesan 
 synods to be annually held in Lent. It gives di- 
 rections with regard to parochial discipline, recom- 
 mends that excommunication shall be rarely 
 used, and only by the bishops ; and that impeni- 
 tent persons under excommunication shall, after 
 forty days, be handed over to the civil power, to 
 be imprisoned and fined. In each case there is 
 an appeal from the archdeacon to the bishop, then 
 to the archbishop, and lastly to the king, who 
 shall cause the question to be decided in a pro- 
 vincial synod, or before commissioners appointed 
 by the crown. See also 4 482, 
 
142 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 and a stop was put to this and several 
 other bills. It is curious to observe 
 during this reign the growing power of 
 the House, which, as it began to exert its 
 own strength, without having learnt to 
 confine the discussion to those subjects 
 which properly belonged to the cogni- 
 sance of such an assembly, was from 
 time to time checked by the arbitrary 
 mandates of the queen, who, in the 
 moment when she most dreaded its in- 
 fluence, acted towards the representa- 
 tives of the people with a sternness and 
 tyranny which would never have been ' 
 borne, unless it had been exercised by ! 
 a person of consummate skill, who 
 knew when to give way as well as 
 when to press her authority. A similar 
 attempt at remodelling the ecclesiastical 
 laws was again made during the next 
 year by Wentworth ; but her majesty 
 sent a message to the House through 
 the speaker,' (1.372,) declaring that her 
 pleasure was that from henceforth no 
 bills concerning religion should be pre- 
 ferred or read in the House, unless the 
 same were considered and liked by the 
 clergy ; and at the same time demanded 
 to see the bills in progress. All this 
 was conceded to her sovereign com- 
 mand ; and we can the less wonder 
 cither at her interference, or at the de- 
 ference which was paid to her orders, 
 when we consider that the obvious 
 tendency of these latter measures was 
 to undermine the church establishment, 
 and totally to alter its form. The ques- 
 tion in both these cases was chiefly 
 spiritual, over which the House of Com- 
 mons could, properly speaking, have 
 no control, nor ought they to have legis- 
 lated beyond the point in which the j 
 temporalities were directly or indirectly [ 
 implicated ; here they rightly exercised [ 
 their legislative power, and we have 
 during ihi.s session several lav.s which 
 apply solely to churchmen. By chap. 
 I'Z, 1:3 Eliz., such clergymen as had 
 been ordained by any other form than 
 that prescribed in the Book of Com- 
 mon Prayer were made incapable of 
 retaining their preferments, unless they 
 subscribed to the Thirty-nine Articles ; 
 which same subscription was required 
 of all who were instituted to any bene- 
 fice ; and if the benefice exceeded j 
 
 ' Strype's Parker, ii. 203. I 
 
 [Chap. DL 
 
 thirty pounds per annum, they were 
 required to have taken the degree of 
 B. D. at least in one of the universities ; 
 no one could be ordained a priest before 
 twenty-four years of age, or a deacon 
 before twenty-three ; i. e., if he were so 
 ordained, he was not a priest according 
 to the law of England, and could hold 
 no English preferment. So again, by 10 
 and 20, 13 Eliz., it is enacted that no 
 lease of ecclesiastical property shall be 
 good in law, if granted for a longer time 
 than twenty-one years, or three lives ^ 
 that tithes shall not be let, except the 
 incumbent reside on his living, or lease 
 them to a resident curate: all which 
 matters are purely temporal, though 
 they refer to ecclesiastical persons. 
 
 § 436. During this session, the uni» 
 versities were incorporated, and invested 
 with certain legal privileges, '■' and in 
 the next (1572) a provision was made 
 for the support of the poor ; which, 
 notwithstanding its misuse, and the 
 consequent objections which have been 
 raised against it, ought still to be the 
 glory of our soil ; and while we boast 
 that no one can be a slave who has 
 once touched our happy land, we may 
 rejoice that such care is taken of every 
 inhabitant, that none can be starved in 
 England without a direct breach of our 
 laws. It may not be improper to re- 
 mark, that the alteration now made in 
 the law did not at the time produce any 
 great change in the treatment of pau- 
 pers. The custom in England, as I 
 believe in all Christian countries, had 
 always been to relieve the indigent by 
 means of voluntary contributions, which 
 were here collected by churchwardens, 
 and disposed of by them. The va- 
 grant laws had, with severe penalties 
 against the idle and profligate, provided 
 for the wants of those who were really 
 distressed, and we have manj^ acts of 
 parliament which give directions with 
 regard to both these points.' (March 25, 
 1532.) One went so far as to appoint 
 that, in case of the refusal of any 
 of the parishioners to contribute, the 
 churchwarden was to apply to the 
 bishop's court, and the bishop to pro- 
 ceed against them. But 5, 14 Eliz. 
 provided for the poor by assessment 
 
 ' Statutes of the Realm. 
 'Burnet, ii. 146, fol., 354, 8vo. 
 
lAP. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 143 
 
 roughout the parish, and subjected 
 3se who refused to pay the sum as- 
 -si'd to imprisonment, upon convic- 
 n li.'fore two justices of the peace. 
 II- spirit, therefore, of this law, which 
 i^ily worthy of our admiration, is 
 in Christianity, the legal enactment 
 oiir ancestors; and it may fairly be 
 u stioned whether the imbodying it 
 i;? present form, however necessary, 
 1 it divested the relief of the poor 
 peculiar feature, and made this 
 - of charity a duty very unwill- 
 i , performed. 
 
 § I'M. But as some of the most im- 
 itiiii; laws passed during this session 
 Ci r to the Roman Catholics, it will be 
 ■tr<sary to turn our attention towards 
 '11. It is allowed on all hands, that 
 isures adopted at the commence- 
 1 the reign of Elizabeth were 
 Miory ; and they were at first met 
 :i ('orres])onding return on the part 
 til ' majority so treated. *The Ro- 
 111 < 'alholics did generally conform to 
 ■ '.\ra-ship of our church, to which, 
 Hi- h they might not have approved 
 I'M the alterations in it, they could 
 :: ■ no sound objections. For, as the 
 ' II herself wrote to the duke of An- 
 u, ill it "there was no part that had 
 ' !' i.'n, yea, that was not at that day 
 ■ 1 ill the church of Rome; and that, 
 any thing more were in ours, the same 
 ■ds part of the Holy Scriptures."-' And 
 ,ord Montacute, " a most devout fol- 
 )wer of the Romish religion, argued in 
 s favour to the court of Spain, " that 
 
 0 other religion was brought into Eng- 
 iinl than that which was consonant 
 
 1 li t!u' Holy Scriptures, and the four 
 1 i ii ruinenical councils."^ This state 
 f things continued till the publication 
 f the bull of Pius V., 1569,* which for- 
 
 I Sirvpe's Grindal. !)8. 
 
 2S(,v|.,.'s AnnaU. in. 55. 
 Camden's F:ii/.al)c!h. 11), 45. 
 
 * The bull is diiiecl Feb. 2:^, \f>C<9, and may be 
 3und in Latin and Kiiglisli in Fowlis' Popisli 
 Treasons, p. 331 ; F'nllcr, i.t. 93. only gives the 
 ranslntion: Burnet, Ret. vi. 522, No. 13, gives 
 ho Latin. 
 
 Pius IV. had.fcihcn he came to the papacy in 
 560, made attempts at a reconciliation, by means 
 >f Parpalia, and again, through the bishop of Vi- 
 erbo and .''ir N. 'I'liroginorton, ambassador in 
 France; and an anxiety was e.xpressed that the 
 :hurch ot England should send deputies to the 
 :oancil of Trent ; but the project failed. See 
 Fuller, ix. p. 68, &.C. 
 
 bade her subjects to pay any deference 
 to the commands of one whom, in the 
 .fulness of his power, he had excommu- 
 nicated ; and when Felton was found 
 bold enough to affix this document to 
 the gates of the palace of the bishop of 
 London, (1.570,) he met with a fate which 
 his mad and rebellious act justly me- 
 rited, and became the cause of number- 
 less ills to the members of his own com- 
 munion. One of its first consequences 
 was the enactment of three laws levelled 
 directly against the Roman Catholics, 
 to which allusion has been before made. 
 
 (a. d. 1571.) The first was entitled. 
 An Act whereby certain Offences be 
 made Treason.* The offences were the 
 affirming that Elizabeth was not a law- 
 ful sovereign, or that any one had a 
 better title ; that she was a heretic, 
 schismatic, or infidel ; or that the right 
 of the crown could not be determined 
 by law. 
 
 The second was against bringing in, 
 and putting in execution, bulls and other 
 in»struments of the see of Rome. It 
 made all liable to the penalties of trea- 
 son, or a prcemunire, who were directly 
 or indirectly accessory to the bringing 
 about a formal reconciliation with the 
 see of Rome, in the case of any of her 
 majesty's subjects. It did not affect 
 absolutions given at confession.* 
 
 The third, an act against fugitives 
 over the sea, imposed on them the for- 
 feit of their property, but in case of their 
 good behaviour provided for their fami- 
 lies while they were absent, and re- 
 stored them to their possessions and 
 rights a year after their return. A privi- 
 lege was extended to peers, which made 
 it necessary that they should be sent for 
 by letters under the privy seal, before 
 they incurred these penalties. 
 
 § 438. Yet these laws, however se- 
 vere, were not put in execution till six 
 years after their enactment, and five 
 after the massacre of St. Bartholomew 
 had commenced the war of extermina- 
 tion, which the Roman Catholics wished 
 to carry on against Protestants. Cuth- 
 bert Maine, a priest, was the first who 
 suffered under them, (1577;) he was 
 executed at Launceston, in Cornwall. 
 'He is described by Camden as an ob- 
 
 6 Statutes of the Realm, 13 Eliz. 1, 2, 3. 
 Butler's Catholics, i. 352. ' Eliz. 224. 
 
144 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap.DLI 
 
 stinate maintainer of the pope's power 
 against his prince. But the number of 
 sufferers was destined soon to be in- 
 creased. Their friends called them mar- 
 tyrs, their enemies branded them with 
 the appellation of traitors; and they 
 often partook strongly of the character 
 of both. *Had no succession been pro- 
 vided against the ravages of time, among 
 the Roman Catholic priesthood, the 
 stock of those who officiated in England 
 must soon have been exhausted ; but 
 this was prevented by Dr. William Al- 
 len, who for his exertions was after- 
 wards rewarded by the church of Rome 
 with a cardinal's hat. The fruits of his 
 first labours were 
 
 The English college of secular clergy 
 at Douay, 1568 : it was removed to 
 Rheims from 1578 to 1593, when it 
 returned back to Douay. This was fol- 
 lowed by the English college at Rome, 
 for the education of the secular clergy, 
 established in 1578. 
 
 A seminary at Valladolid, in Spain, 
 established for the same purpose about 
 1580. 
 
 College at Rome, about 1578, for 
 seculeu-s. 
 
 A seminary at Seville, ditto. 
 
 A sertiinary at Madrid. 
 
 If the objects of these societies had 
 been confined to the education of men 
 destined to the ministry of religion, the 
 Protestant, while he deplored this con- 
 tinued source of dissension, must have 
 admired the zeal of the man who so 
 rationally promoted the cause of his 
 party ; but these seminaries were made 
 the hotbeds of sedition. The oath^ 
 which was taken by the students in 
 Scotland, where Mary allowed them a 
 temporary place of refuge, in conse- 
 quence of certain troubles at Douay, 
 sufficiently marks the political tendency 
 of some of these institutions ; and the 
 use which the enemies of England tried 
 to make of these establishments as 
 strongly points out the danger* which 
 
 1 Butler's Caiholics, i. 309. 2 Ibid. i. 492. 
 
 ' " I, A. B., do acknowledge the ecclesiastical 
 and political power oi his holiness — And that my 
 zeal shall be for St. Peter — against all heretical 
 kings, princes, states, or powers, repugnant unto 
 the same. And although I may pretend, in case 
 of persecution, or otherwise, to be heretically dis- 
 posed, yet in soul and conscience I shall help, aid, 
 and succour the mother church," &,c. Strype's 
 Ann. iv. 337. 
 
 * Strype's Ann, v. 57. 
 
 might be apprehended from them, and 
 which indeed was partly realized by the i - 
 conduct of some of their members. In \ rf 
 January, 1581, the queen issued a pro- 
 clamation, which commanded the rek- 
 lives of children who were receiving 
 their education in foreign countries to 
 give notice to their several ordinaries, 
 and to recall them within four months j 
 and the sanguinary laws against semi- 
 narists and Jesuits were subsequently 
 put in force. Persons and Campian 
 came over into England in June, 1580, , 
 bearing with them a suspension of the! 
 bull of excommunication,* as far as Ro- |- 
 man Catholics were concerned, till the I' 
 time when the same might publicly be'; 
 executed. Persons, who was consti- 
 tuted the superior,^ " tampered so fai 
 with the papists, about deposing the i 
 queen, that some of them (I speak, says ( 
 Camden, from their own credit) thought i| 
 to deliver him into the magistrates' i 
 hand;" "and Campian wrote a chat,, 
 lenge to the church of England, by th#|t 
 publication of which the governme^jk 
 was excited to use every means for th^^ 
 apprehension. It does not appear thrt^-... 
 Campian was privy to this act of publ^jit-., 
 cation, and in consequence of the acti-itai 
 vity of pursuit which arose from 'it,\\.^ 
 Persons fled out of the kingdom; and 
 
 1 
 
 Campian, having with three others been 
 apprehended on the 1.5th of July, (1581,) \ [] 
 
 was tried for denying the queen s stt« 
 premacy, and executed in December. 
 
 § 431). (a. d. 1.584.) It appears from 
 Camden that some measures in them- 
 selves unwarrantable,* and excited by 
 the danger and jealousy of the times, 
 were used to entrap Roman Catholics; 
 and the treasons of Somerville and 
 Throgmorton, though they tended to 
 keep the flame alive, cannot be brought 
 forward as proofs of the necessity of any 
 such activity, inasmuch as the treason 
 itself probably originated in this very 
 cause : and if it were not for the con- 
 duct of the court of Rome, as well as 
 other Roman Catholic courts ; if it were 
 not for the opinion of men who were fisir 
 better able to judge of the matter than 
 ourselves, I mean the ministers of Eli- 
 zabeth ; if it were not for the undoubted 
 testimony of loj-al Roman Cathohcs of 
 
 5 Camden's Eliz. 246. « Ibid. 247. 
 
 'Strype's Ann. vi. 183, No. 6. 
 « Camden's Eliz. 294. 
 
HAP. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 145 
 
 lat period, we might fancy that the 
 ilarms about the queen's life, and the 
 insequent severity towards the mem- 
 jrs of that communion, sprang from 
 irty zeal and blind cruelty. But the 
 >pe had excited and fostered two rebel- 
 ons in Ireland ;• and Sir Richard Shel- 
 y. writing to his nephew, attributes 
 II' sntferings of her majesty's true ser- 
 uUs to the jealousies caused by the 
 ?ads of some seminaries, and unnatural 
 'ibjects abroad i'* and in a letter to Lord 
 urlcigh, in 158:3, he says, " That the 
 isi i y that all Christendom suffered for, 
 I'V the sending of these Jesuits into 
 11- hiiiJ after such sort as it was and 
 ,il 'i.'iMi used." 
 
 I II.' immediate effect of these alarms, 
 
 \ i iul the animosity excited against 
 I- Hmnan Catholics, was the formation 
 
 ail association,^ in which the members 
 ninised to pursue, even to death, any 
 I ' who was concerned in the murder 
 
 ill ' queen; for the assassination of 
 !• in ince of Orange, and the plots real 
 111 pretended against the life of Eliza- 
 'tli, had put the whole country into a 
 rrnent: and undoubtedly a Protestant 
 ' ight reasonably have dreaded an event 
 hich, by putting Mary of Scotland on 
 e throne, would have exposed the 
 lurch of England to very imminent 
 ■ril. In this particular, the conduct 
 Elizabeth herself seems liable to very 
 st censure. The uncertainty of the 
 iccession tended above all other causes 
 
 prevent the quiet settlement of the 
 ition ; for had any accident happened 
 
 her life, a thorough alteration would 
 ■obably have ensued. Her delays and 
 dliance were excusable, if we view 
 ;r merely as a woman ; but she was 
 qui'en too, and the safety of the state 
 as at stake : she ought, therefore, to 
 ive sacrificed her own fancies, to save 
 e lives of her unquiet subjects ; but 
 Ifishness was one of the strongest 
 atures of her character. 
 I § 440. In estimating the blame which 
 
 due to the government of Elizabeth, 
 ith regard to the treatment of the Ro- 
 an Catholics, the question seems to 
 volve principles of a very abstract 
 Uure, and to be by no means so clear 
 > it is generally assumed to be. A go- 
 
 'Camden'sEliz. 136, 242. 
 2 Strype's Annals, v. 198. 
 * Camden's Eliz. 300. 
 
 19 
 
 vernment must always have a right to 
 defend itself, but retaliation can only be 
 justified on the plea of future preven- 
 tion. It may be conceded by the Pro- 
 testant, that great cruelty was used 
 towards the Roman Catholics, and that 
 the line of policy pursued, whether just 
 or unjust, was very injudicious; that a 
 sincere Roman Catholic priest might 
 have acted against the statutes of Eliza- 
 beth upon mistaken principles, and pro- 
 bably that many did so. But, on the 
 other hand, it seems likely that a Pro- 
 testant at the time might fairly have 
 esteemed these laws necessary and 
 just ; and upon abstract principles of 
 justice they probably must be reckoned 
 just, though it would be difficult to esta- 
 blish their necessity. The question 
 would stand thus : the head of a body 
 politic (the church of Rome) officially 
 promulgates doctrines and assumes an 
 authority* incompatible with civil go- 
 vernment ; every one, therefore, who 
 by any act maintains that authority, 
 does virtually place himself beyond the 
 pale of civil society. We are not at 
 present discussing how such an indivi- 
 dual ought to be treated. It is obvious 
 that kindness and reason would be most 
 likely to bring him home to a sense of his 
 duty; but a government must have a 
 right to use severity, and that upon the 
 first principles of self-preservation. 
 
 §441. The question, therefore, which 
 is to be solved, is this : Whether a mis- 
 sionary Roman Catholic priest were 
 placed under these circumstances ? If 
 he brought over the bull of Pius V., he 
 was obviously guilty of treason ; and if 
 he reconciled any English subject to 
 the pope, who professed and held such 
 language as the bull maintained, it 
 would be difficult to show that he was 
 less liable to the punishment of the law. 
 And it appears equally obvious, that if, 
 in reconciling a Roman Catholic to the 
 church, he disclaimed the objectionable 
 authority of the pope, he must be, in 
 foro conscienlias, free from the penal- 
 ties incurred by a supposed act of trea- 
 son, of which the guilt was not sub- 
 stantiated by the circumstances which 
 
 Pius V. pretended to free the subjects of Eliza- 
 beth from their allegiance to her. Clement VIII. 
 granted a plenary pardon to all the followers and 
 abettors of Tyrone, as in the case of a crusade. 
 Camden's Ehz. 581. 
 
 N 
 
146 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. UL 
 
 attended it, inasmuch as it wanted the 
 essence of the treason, the objectionable 
 claim to the authority. The pope, as a 
 sovereign, had waged a noy.inoi asnovho^ 
 with the queen, a war in which no inter- 
 course could be admitted, no quarter 
 given or received. Whoever, therefore, 
 was a papist, or performed any overt 
 act in favour of the papacy, became a 
 partisan of that cause, and liable to the 
 penalty due to any prisoner in such a 
 method of warfare. The alternative is 
 a horrid one ; but he is in fault who 
 begins such a war, and no one can at- 
 tribute this blame to Elizabeth or her 
 counsellors. Persons and Campian, 
 when they came to England' and brought 
 a modification of the bull, were guilty 
 of treason, in foro conscientise. The 
 temporary suspension of the bull does 
 in reality not alter the question ; the 
 bull was to be put in force whenever 
 circumstances made it likely to be in- 
 jurious to the country. We may pity 
 men who were exposed to the necessity 
 of committing such a treasonable act, 
 if indeed they were bound in their con- 
 sciences to obey the papal authority ; 
 but we must blame the pope who sent 
 them, not the government which hanged 
 men whose acts tended to overturn its 
 authority. When the individual con- 
 victeddisclaitned the objectionable tenet, 
 he was sometimes pardoned, as in the 
 case of Rishton, Bosgrove, and Orton, 
 though others were executed whose 
 answers might have satisfied a reason- 
 able tribunal. 
 
 § 442. But in viewing the question 
 with reference only to the cruelty of it, 
 the state of danger and irritation arising 
 from various injuries must fairly and 
 fully be taken into consideration. The 
 Roman Catholics as a body were car- 
 rying on a most vehement attack against 
 Elizabeth, because she was a Protestant. 
 (1589.) The pope had excommunicated 
 her. (1.505.) France and Spain had 
 conspired for the extirpation of heresy. 
 (1572.) In France the Roman Catho- 
 lics had begun by trying to murder all 
 their Protestant countrymen.^ Spain 
 
 1 Butler's Cath. i. 365. 2 Ibid. i. 429. 
 
 ' One of the most dreadful features connected 
 with the massacre of St. Bartholomew's consists 
 in the approbation given to it by the court of 
 Rome. Gregory XIII. issued a bull for a jubilee 
 in consequence. It is curious to compare the 
 
 had given proofs of her tender mercies 
 to Protestants in the Netherlands, and 
 was preparing for the subjugation of 
 England. Her own Roman Catholic 
 subjects were excited to rebel against 
 Elizabeth ; as a body, they never at- 
 tempted to give any pledge of their fi- 
 delity ; and had such an attempt been 
 made, the mass of English Roman Ca- 
 tholics would probably have refused to 
 join in it, against the papal authority. 
 Can any one, then, in his senses, won- 
 der that no minister of Elizabeth had 
 courage enough to adopt a liberal line 
 of policy towards the Roman Catholics? 
 and if such had been adopted, and the 
 queen had been murdered, what would 
 have been the judgment of posterity on 
 such a minister ? No one possessed of 
 any feeling can fail to deplore the lot 
 of an honest Roman Catholic priest at 
 such a period ; but our pity need not be 
 confined to him alone. A conscientiom 
 minister, or even the queen herself, maj 
 well claim a share of our commiseratiooj 
 who, having the wish to treat the Ro- 
 [ man Catholics with kindness, found 
 themselves obliged to use measures 
 which nothing but absolute necessity 
 could palliate, which no necesshy per- 
 haps could justify. But it would be 
 unjust to history, if we failed to state 
 the causes of all these evils. They 
 arose from the errors of a church claim- 
 ing to itself an indefinite infallibility, in 
 which the chief menvber attempted to 
 enforce the dictates of his own will in 
 opposhion to the law of God. They 
 arose from a priesthood, who, from prin- 
 ciples of blind obedience to their su- 
 periors, dared not disclaim that author- 
 ity, when it was manifestly opposed to 
 the Bible. They arose from this cir- 
 cumstance, that both parties mixed tjp 
 religion with politics, and concealed 
 1 their own interested motives under the 
 I specious covering of the cause of God. 
 In fact, the Reformation throughout 
 i partook much more of a political na- 
 : ture than it ought to have done. 
 
 § 443. The temporal interference of 
 the church of Rome was a tyranny 
 against which the potentates of Europe 
 had as much reason to contend, as 
 
 j Prayers of the Protestants in England for these 
 1 persecutors, their conversion and salvation, with 
 I this document. Sirype's Parker, iii. 197, Nek£8, 
 I ii. 132. 
 
BAP. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 147 
 
 gainst the spiritual thraldom which it 
 retended to exercise over their minds; 
 nd by the grace of God, the struggles 
 •hich they made to free themselves 
 (■cm an earthly voice, served to deliver 
 lem from that spiritual darkness which 
 rould have coiuinlied to blind their 
 iculties, and have prevented them 
 •om beholding the light. The imme- 
 liate evil which arose from this source 
 '^as, that individuals imitated their 
 overnors, so that a warfare of exter- 
 [lination was commenced among breth- 
 pn of the same nation and kindred. 
 I'hey made Protestantism or their ad- 
 'ering to the church of Rome the tests 
 if a party zeal, which drove them into 
 In warrantable excesses; and the names 
 \( Prote.iffinf and Romanist were ren- 
 ered political badges, full as much as ' 
 ?ligious distinctions: and let history] 
 ecide which party was the most to 
 lame, in a struggle in which neither 
 an be excused. One thing, indeed, 
 lay be pleaded in favour of the church 
 f Rome, which cannot be advanced for 
 s; that if their principles be taken for 
 
 ■ ranted, and the question abstractedly 
 
 ■ iewed, they are right in persecuting, 
 whereas the Protestant can have no 
 uch justification, and his advocate has 
 nly to deny that we ever persecuted 
 
 'Dt religion. If there be no salvation 
 'xcept within the pale of the church 
 f Rome, a conscientious Romanist may 
 1 Mridness use any method of compul- 
 
 I bring the Protestant into com- i 
 
 II with himself: whereas, since 
 ■ir sincere Protestant hopes to meet 
 
 ■ lis brethren of every communion in 
 •he blessedness which shall be liereaf- 
 [er, however we may have differed on 
 
 arth; as the true Catholic, whether he 
 'le Protestant or Romanist, builds his 
 iiopes of glory on the merits of his Re- 
 :eeiner, and places his prospects of , 
 frace on the assistance of the Holy 
 ihost, we can only use the weapons [ 
 if our prayers for the enlightening of 
 lurselves and others, and bring forward 
 hose arguments with which .Scripture 
 vill furnish us ; believing that every 
 )ther method of persuasion arises from 
 he same source, and is to be traced to ! 
 , he author of all evil. If the enlight- 
 i;ned Roman Catholic disallow the con- 
 idusion which is here drawn, if he reject 
 he idea of persecution, even to pro- 1 
 
 duce salvation in the persecuted, let 
 him honestly examine the question, and 
 see whether this be not a legitimate 
 conclusion from the datum of an infal- 
 lible church, beyond the pale of which 
 there is no hope of salvation ; and then 
 let him examine the arguments by which 
 the nineteenth article of our church are 
 supported ; and may God of his mercy 
 show him and us the truth ! 
 
 § Hi. Having dwelt so long on ab- 
 stract principles, it may not be amiss to 
 say something of the persecutions in 
 Mary's days, when compared with 
 those exercised against the Roman Ca- 
 tholics under Elizabeth. We will sup- 
 pose, tlien, that by the law of the land, 
 as it stood at each of these periods, 
 either prisoner could legally have been 
 put to death, the one for being a here- 
 tic, the other because he was a seminary 
 priest. The one, * who might be a per- 
 fectly illiterate person, because when 
 examined he denied the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, a doctrine which all 
 must allow to be beyond reason, not to 
 be subject to the senses, and, when be- 
 lieved, to be a mere act of faith. The 
 other, who must be an educated man, 
 known to be brought up at a seminary 
 which held doctrines incompatible with 
 civil society, because he refused to ab- 
 jure opinions concerning the papal au- 
 thority which he conscientiously held, 
 and the entertaining of which the su- 
 preme legislature of this country had 
 decided to be a legal crime, and punish- 
 able as treason. God forbid that any 
 Christian should for a moment approve 
 of the latter; but is not comparison in- 
 admissible ? is not the practical differ- 
 ence enormous ? May it not safely be 
 asserted, that an honest man expressing 
 those sentiments Avhich are now gene- 
 rally held by Roman Catholics in Eng- 
 land would not have suffered under 
 Elizabeth ? and that a Protestant be- 
 lieving what we believe, and teaching 
 what we teach, would, if God had given 
 him grace and strength of mind enough 
 to become a martyr, have been burnt 
 under Mary ? That Roman Catholics, 
 actinor as well as the Engrlish Catholics 
 
 ' Bradford was condemned for denying the cor- 
 poral presence and iransubslantiation. So were 
 Mrs. A. Ascue, Kirby, and Roger Clarke: and 
 numberless other examples might be found 
 Strype's Ecc. Mem. III. i. 366. Fox, ii. 487 
 and 479. 
 
148 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IX. 
 
 have as a body always acted, would 
 have been treated well by the govern- 
 ment of Elizabetli, is more than can be 
 proved ; for the first principles of tole- 
 ration were then unknown, either in 
 church or state ; but toleration is a plant 
 of Protestant growth, and all true Chris- 
 tians may join in the prayer, that her I 
 branches may cover the earth. 
 
 § 445. The unjust method in which 
 the trials of Roman Catholics were con- 
 ducted is sometimes brought forward ' 
 as a charge against Elizabeth, by those 
 who advocate their cause ; but it must 
 not be forgotten, that justice was never 
 substantially administered during this 
 reign.* The influence of the powerful 
 was frequently exercised against all 
 right ; and it is not to be wondered if , 
 the Roman Catholics, in this respect, 
 were not more fortunate than their Pro- 
 testant neighbours. The charge is well 
 founded, but it should be brought against 
 the times generally. The evil was com- 
 mon, and did not particularly affect the 
 Roman Catholics. It arose from the 
 ordinary notions of the people as much 
 as from the court ; for a corrupt jury must 
 be composed of corrupt individuals, 
 whose judgment will not be tolerated, : 
 except when the feelings of a country 
 are themselves corrupted. 
 
 But before we quit this subject, we 
 should recollect that the general opi- 
 nions on persecution were totally dif- 
 ferent from what they are at present. 
 Very few of the Roman Catholic per- 
 suasion founded their hopes of convinc- 
 ing Protestants on any other basis than ; 
 that of force ; and the puVitan, while he j 
 required toleration for himself, while he 
 expected that every scruple of his own 
 should be treated with tenderness, had 
 
 ' As proofs that this was the opinion of those j 
 who lived at this time, see a letter of Overton to 
 Burleigh, where, in speaking of Leicester, he says, 
 "a nobleinan far above my power and abihty to 
 withstand ;" " mine own counsel, for fear of dis- 
 pleasure, scarce dare encounter him in my causes." 
 (Strype's Ann. vi. 207, No. 18.) Nevil expresses 
 the same idea to Lord Burleigh. (Strype's Ann. 
 vi. 459.) Lord Essex, writing to Sergeant Puck- 
 ering about a gentleman, a follower of the earl's, 
 under prosecution, treats justice as if it 
 
 no desire to extend the same allowance 
 to others. Sampson, who, of all men, 
 ought to have learnt kindness to those 
 who differed from him, through what he 
 had himself suffered,' (Dec. 31, 1.574,^ 
 wrote to Burleigh, to remonstrate with 
 him because he had been the means of 
 delivering some Roman Catholics out 
 of prison ; and urges, that if they were 
 no longer kept in durance, they should 
 at least be compelled to hear sermons 
 for their conversion. And, in 1577, Sir 
 Nicholas Bacon, in one of the last let^ 
 ters which he wrote,' speaks of severity 
 as the only means of checking the Ro- 
 man Catholics, and thereby of with- 
 standing the power of Rome. The 
 puritans complained often of their treat- 
 ment by the high church party ; but no 
 one can doubt, that they would have 
 been far less tolerant, had the power 
 of enforcing their own opinions beea 
 placed in their hands. 
 
 § 446. (a. d. 1.572.) When the laws 
 against nonconformity were at first en- 
 forced, they produced, as might have 
 been expected, a counteraction among 
 those against whom they were directed 
 Many of the clergy were deprived of 
 their preferments, and some of them 
 formed themselves into a presbytery, at 
 Wandsworth,* and under their superin- 
 tendence the Admonition to Parliament 
 was published.' The unbending spirit 
 of the one produced severity in those 
 who governed, and severity created 
 hatred and animosity, which in its turn 
 gave rise to more vigorous measures; 
 till both parties neglected the essentials 
 of religion to dispute about its externals. 
 In the next year, (June II, 1573,) «EIi- 
 zabeth issued a proclamation against the 
 puritans, and they, on their part, agreed 
 to protestations declaratory of the rea- 
 sons for their not joining in the national 
 worship. In the autumn, a madman, 
 of the name of Birchet, excited by puri- 
 
 mere piece of party favour, and simpjy threat- 
 ■ idge 
 
 one Collard, a brewer, in Canterbury, murdered 
 
 the judge. (Strype's Ann. 
 
 657.) 
 
 ply tf 
 The 
 
 son of 
 
 s poor man in open day, and got his pardon by 
 his father paying 240Z. to ChiefBaron Manwood. 
 (Strype's Ann. v. 391.) There are some persons 
 80 ignorant as to wish for the good days of Queen 
 Sess! 
 
 2 Strype's Ann. iii. 491. ' Ibid. iv. 98. 
 
 * This presbytery, which was the first esta- 
 blished in England, was for some lime conducted 
 in secret ; ana though the bishops were acquaint- 
 ed with its existence, they could not discover the 
 members who composed it, or prevent the esta- 
 blishment of similar institutions. The chief per- 
 sons engaged in it were Field and Wilcox. They 
 published their regulations, which were denomi- 
 nated the " Orders of Wandswonth." (Fuller, 
 ix. 103.) 
 
 SNeal's Pur. i. 231,243. 
 
 • Strype's Parker, iL 256, and 285. 
 
C?AP. IX.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 149 
 
 ;anic principles, stahbed Mr. Hawkins, 
 in eminent officer in the navy, mistak- 
 ing him for Mr. Hatton of the council, 
 ui event which aggravated the ill-will 
 ivhich was borne towards them ; and in 
 jrder that this opposition to authority 
 night be more effectually prevented, a 
 etter was written from the council to 
 ;ertaixi chosen commissioners in every 
 ihire, (Nov.)' exciting them to enforce 
 he orders of the proclamation. During 
 'he next summer, (a. d. 1574,) the ex- 
 !rcises of prophesy ings- were put down 
 the diocese of Norwich, (June 7,) 
 lotwithstanding some diversity of opi- 
 lion which prevailed among the coun- 
 il. These several steps served but to 
 nake the line of separation between 
 he puritans and the church moje defi- 
 litively marked, and exasperated the 
 ^ninds of both. It is not easy to deter- 
 nine how far any blame may attach to 
 Archbishop Parker, for his conduct 
 nay, in the judgment of some persons, 
 ippear to have been dictated by correct 
 Views with regard to ecclesiastical poli- 
 cy; and it is impossible to ascertain 
 .vho were the prime movers of that 
 severe compulsion, which was hardly 
 .varranted by the cause against which 
 t was directed. It is generally attri- 
 Duted to the queen herself,* who could 
 W brook any opposition to her com- 
 mands ; but the real question, as far as 
 Parker's character is concerned, is, 
 whether he approved of what was done, 
 Dr whether he only followed the direc- 
 tions of Elizabeth and her council. 
 [a. d. 1.575.) There can be no doubt 
 ihat he was a great and good man, and 
 that our church owes much to his wis- 
 dom, learning, and care ; but it is not 
 unlikely, that had he acted with the 
 same Christian forbearance and deci- 
 sion which was exhibited by his succes- 
 sor, he would have saved the country 
 from much irreligion, fanaticism, and 
 bloodshed. He was in most respects 
 peculiarly suited to his station ; but in 
 
 • Strype's Ann. iii. 384. 
 
 ' » Strype's Parker, ii. 361. 
 
 ' ' Jewell says, " Reginae certiim est, nolle flerti. 
 (1567.) Sed regina ferre nmiaiionem in reliirione, 
 hoc tempore, nullam potest." (Biiriie', vi. 445. 
 No. 84, App. 450, No. 88.) Grindnl s,-iys ofllicise 
 who would not give wiy, ".Sed cum hoc non fa- 
 ciunt nos apud serenissimam reginam ista ronien- 
 tione irritatam, nihil possumus." (Burnet, 463, 
 No. 92.) 
 
 I his intercourse and treatment of the 
 
 puritans, he was perhaps guilty of an 
 terror in judgment; he was sincere, 
 though warm, and in carrying on his 
 plans of reform, he deprived himself 
 ' of the earthly happiness of the latter 
 years of his life : he died May 17.'' 
 
 § 447. (a. d. 1.576.) One of the early 
 acts of Grindal was to reform the exer- 
 cises of prophesyings, into which some 
 disorders had occasionally crept ; and 
 for this purpose he issued orders* con- 
 cerning the manner of managing the 
 proceedings of these assemblies:^ but 
 the queen took occasion, upon his next 
 appearance at court, to declare herself 
 offended at the number of preachers, as 
 well as at these exercises, desiring him 
 to redress both. In consequence of this, 
 he wrote to her a most apostolical epistle,'' 
 (Dec. 20th,) and urged her to consider 
 the utility of such institutions, and the 
 duty of obeying the will of God, and not 
 following our own devices. This step, 
 however, did not at all coincide with the 
 methods by which Elizabeth was deter- 
 mined to govern ; and during the next 
 spring' she sent a letter to all the bishops, 
 commanding them to suppress prophe- 
 syings in their dioceses, and in .Tune se- 
 questered the archbishop, and confined 
 him to his house and thus made the 
 remainder of hi.s life inactive as to the 
 cause of the church; for though he 
 appears during the whole time to have 
 carried on the ecclesiastical business in 
 his own name, yet his influence and 
 
 * .^irype's Parker, ii. 430. 
 ° ."^irype's Gii idiil, 3-27. 
 
 ^ Tliey were to lie carried on in some church 
 appoinied by the I'isliop; and the archdeacon, or 
 some one "(a grave and learned graduate) ap- 
 p..inied by liiui, was to be the moderator. Such 
 poriic))is ol' Scripture were to lie examined and dis- 
 cu.~.-i('d as the bishop should apjioint. The laity 
 «ere never to s|ieiiU. nor any of the clergy who 
 Wfie not previously ju'lged meet to be speakers} 
 the rest ot the clergy weie lo be allowed toper- 
 form exi'n ises lielore ihe clergy in private, bu! not 
 belore the whole i ongregaiion. The speakers 
 were iintnediaiely lo I e stopped if they glanced at 
 any stale, or any person public or priva e, or said 
 
 cipline o7 the chiirc h of England ; and if they had 
 eviT been siien. ed, llic y were not to be admitted 
 agniii wiihoui a hrsh appointnierU. 
 
 * Strvpe's Grindal. ,558, No. ix. 
 8 Ibid. 342. 
 
 * Sirype's Grindid. 343. Another source of dis- 
 pleasure is hinied at by Sirype and Camden, 
 (Giindal. 440. a.;d Eli/.abe'h, 287.) arising from 
 Ills not grantinsr a dispensation to Julio, a physician 
 of Lord F.eicester's ; but the authority on which 
 
 i this story rests is questionable. 
 
 N 2 
 
150 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. DL 
 
 authority were thus rendered nugatory [ 1581 presented a petition in favour of ec- 
 at a period when every thing depended , clesiastical reform, the general tendency 
 on the favour of the court. He seems, | of which was apparently to abridge the 
 indeed, to have tendered his resignation ! power of the bishops* by making the 
 with a sincere wish for its acceptance ; I concurrence of the dean and chapter, or 
 hut Whitgift had too much right feeling ' six preachers, necessary for certain epis- 
 to allow him to enter on an office during | copal acts, such as ordaining, commuting 
 the lifetime of an incumbent, who, though ! penance, &c. Most of the articles of 
 he differed from his successor in princi- this petitiori which regard residence and 
 pies, was manifestly acting the part of pluralities have been since, wholly or 
 an honest man.' The convocation, too, ! partially, adopted, excepting indeed the 
 in 1581, showed their respect for Grindal ' fifth and sixth — that no dignitary of the 
 
 by presenting a petition in his favour, 
 drawn up by Tobie Mathews, dean of 
 Christ Church, and printed in Fuller ;^ 
 though there remains no document 
 
 church should hold more than one living 
 together with his cathedral preferment ; 
 and that no more than two such digni- 
 ies should be tenable by the same 
 
 which decidedly proves the time of his i person.' 
 restoration, yet it probably took place in I § 449. But it may not be amiss here 
 the next year. He died July 6, 1583, j to say something more of the treatment 
 and was succeeded by Whitgift, bishop i of the puritans ; for the line of policy 
 of Worcester.' j was now so decidedly taken up by the 
 
 § 448. (a. d. 1583.) The conduct of | government, that any subsequent con- 
 Grindal must always appear most exem- 1 cession must have looked like vacilla- 
 plary. He was himself adverse to the | tion of judgment, or weakness of power, 
 ecclesiastical dresses ; 3'et upon the ad- Let it be asked, then, what the treatment 
 
 vice of Peter Martyr* he conformed, and 
 exerted himself to effect the same in his 
 brethren, because he saw that the want 
 of a sufficient ministry was the greatest 
 evil which could happen to the church : 
 hut when such measures were adopted 
 as were against his conscience, he re- 
 monstrated as a Christian patriot, and 
 offered a resignation of his office, in 
 which he could not fulfil the duties re- 
 quired of him by the crown without 
 offending his God. The question of 
 
 of the puritans ought to have been ? how 
 should uniformity have been preserved, 
 without giving up episcopacy or other 
 essentials ? Before we enter on such a 
 discussion, it may be useful to consider' 
 how far the then existing law differed 
 from the present ; and how far that law 
 itself was the cause of the opposition 
 raised against it. There was then no- 
 thing which resembled toleration towards 
 Protestant dissenters : if an individual 
 were offended at any part of the service. 
 
 whether he was right in his judgment he could not absenthimself from church, 
 is totally indifferent ; but a monarch with as he would have incurred a se\-ere 
 half the sense which Elizabeth pos- 1 penalty by so doing : he had no other 
 sessed, had she not been hurried away place of worship to which he might 
 by her passions, would have treated him , retire ; for, in all probability, at first, 
 in a very different manner, even though 1 many of the puritans would have ht-en 
 she supposed him to be in the wrong : , perfectly contented with this ; and if 
 she might have accepted his resignation, j their passions had been allowed to ccol, 
 and behaved towards him with more if an opportunity of viewing our decmt 
 personal kindness. But as it was, the j forms had been given them, many might 
 ill consequences of this affair were very ; have quietly returned into the bosom of 
 apparent ; discipline was neglected,^ and | the church. Such steps, however, were 
 the puritan party so far prevailed as to little suited for the character of Elizabeth, 
 introduce many clergymen of their own 
 opinions into ecclesiastical situations, 
 notwithstanding the seeming triumph of 
 the other side : and the parliament of 
 
 1 Strvpe's Whitgift, i. 222. 
 ' Strvpe's Grindal, 403. 
 * Burnet, v. 478. 
 'Sirype's Whiigia, i. 226. 
 
 ■ FuUer, Ls. ICO. 
 
 who would as n^adily have surrendered 
 her crown as have allowed her subjects 
 to exercise their private judgments oa 
 such matters ; and the punishment of 
 death was esteemed the only remedy for 
 
 6 Srrype's Whitgif-, iii. 47, [No. 3.] 
 ' I'his has jusi iiuw (August, 1840) become the 
 law uf the land. 
 
]nAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 151 
 
 Brownists,' who denied the queen's su- 
 ireinacy in any but civil matters. He, 
 hcrefore, who could raise a scruple in 
 he mind of an individual, as to the le- 
 iritimacy of a ceremony, raised a spirit 
 )f insubordination in the breast in which 
 ' t was implanted ; and among the various 
 jpinions which prevailed, and the ele- 
 .Tients of discord which were thus dif- 
 ' used throughout the kingdom, it was 
 he public danger alone which kept the 
 ration united. ^ Sermons tended to foster 
 ■ hesc sentiments of free investigation, 
 ind Elizabeth, who clearly saw their 
 endency, instead of trying to direct them 
 o visrfui objects, and to disseminate real 
 -'In istianity, endeavoured to curtail the 
 requency of them, if not to suppress 
 hem alt"o£jether. Now had the laws 
 igainst nonconformity been made much 
 iiore easy with regard to those who 
 vvcrt' already in orders, and possessed 
 A' preferment ; had the better sort of 
 nonconformists been treated with lenity, 
 and had the government shut its eyes to 
 their failings ; had all interrogatories ex 
 officio mero' been disused, which served 
 but to imbody the nonconformists ; had 
 every means been exerted to instruct the 
 
 rising generation, and to convince them 
 practically that the dress was an indif- 
 ferent point, (for many of the noncon- 
 formists were at first weak brethren, and 
 were often rendered turbulent merely 
 by severity;) had strictness of subscrip- 
 tion been required from all who took 
 possession of benefices, and the same 
 sort of laxity allowed, which now pre- 
 vails with regard to dress ; had the go- 
 vernment and the bishops exerted their 
 first energies in reforming undoubted 
 abuses, it is probable that nonconformity 
 would not have been so closely con- 
 nected with revolutionary principles and 
 the assertion of civil rights ; and that in 
 the subsequent struggle, the church 
 might have helped to support the throne, 
 instead of proving the readiest point 
 through which the sovereign could be 
 attacked. As it was, Elizabeth supported 
 the church by her energy and talents, and 
 circumstances enabled her to triumph 
 over the rising spirits of freedom in the 
 country ; but in the hands of James and 
 Charles, the abuses real and imaginary, 
 which existed in the church, contributed 
 greatly to overthrow the monarchy. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 FROM WHITGIFt's APPOINTMENT, 1583, TO THE END OF THE REIGN, 
 
 450. Whitgift, archbishop; he requires subscription to the " Three Articles." 451. Treatment of 
 the puritans ; opposiiion to the bishops. 452. Objects of the puritans. 453. Law framed against 
 the queen of Scots. 454. Hooker and Travers. 455. Death of Mary queen of Scots. 456. At- 
 tempts at innovation ; convocation. 457. Armada ; conduct of the Roman Cathohcs. 458. Con- 
 duct of the puritans. 459. Treatment of them. 4(;o. Question of episcopacy. 461. Treatment 
 of the libellers. 4ij2. Roman Catholics. 463,464. Origin of the Laml)eih Articles. 465. Greater 
 peace in the church. 466. Change of opinion in certain puritans. 467. Character of Elizabeth. 
 468. Her treatment of the puritans and Roman Catholics. 469. Religious, but arbitrary. 470. Death 
 of Elizabeth. 471. Stale of the church. 
 
 § 450. The selection of Whitgift for 
 the metropolitan see was judicious, con- 
 sidering the line of policy with regard 
 to church matters which Elizabeth had 
 determined to adopt. The question 
 was now, whether force should compel 
 the clergy to be all of one mind about 
 indifl!erent matters ; and the present 
 archbishop was a fit instrument to de- 
 cide it according to the wishes of the 
 queen. 
 
 ' He began his administration by ex- 
 
 I • Strype's Ann. v. 269. ^ See 4 458, '. 
 
 ' Strype's Whitgift, i. 227, &.C. I in JNeal's f untans, j. 
 
 1 amining how the regulations affecting 
 recusancy and nonconformity were ob- 
 served, and addressed a circular letter 
 to his brethren the bishops, directing 
 them to take care that the articles' con- 
 cerning these matters, on which they 
 
 , had agreed, should be duly enforced. 
 
 ■* These are printed in Strype, and contain in 
 the sixth section the three Articles in the thirty- 
 I sixth canon, to which Whitgift required subscrip- 
 tion. (Whitgift, i. 229.) They had the sanction 
 of the bishops and of the queen ; but the legality 
 of requiring subscription to them may still be 
 doubted. See this part of the question discussed 
 
152 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 In his own diocese, he began at once a 
 very rigid inquiry into the state of the 
 clergy, and strictly enjoined subscrip- 
 tion to the three articles, which now 
 stand in the thirty-sixth canon. From 
 the subordinate officers, who were de- 
 puted 10 carry on this investigation,' 
 the ministers of Kent addressed them- 
 selves to the archbishop in person, who, 
 having spent two or three days in en- 
 deavouring to convince them, proceeded 
 to the suspension of such as persisted 
 in their noncompliance, while they on 
 their part appealed to the council. The 
 same step was also adopted by certain 
 ministers in Suffolk,^ who were placed 
 under the same circumstances, and in 
 whose favour some of the magistrates 
 of the county had ventured to petition.^ 
 This produced a sort of remonstrance 
 from the council, and an answer from 
 the archbishop, who was determined to 
 proceed with vigour, and to exercise 
 the powers of the ecclesiastical com- 
 mission. 
 
 § 451. The articles and interrogato- 
 ries which were issued during the 
 spring of 1584 are a strong instance 
 of the indefinite and tyrannical power 
 then exercised by the governors of the 
 church.^ They were queries ex officio 
 mcro, ]iroposed to clergymen, whose 
 only accuser was common fame, and 
 who were expected to answer on oath 
 questions which involved not only their 
 opinions on matters in which they had, 
 or might have, conformed, but the very 
 fact of their conformity and their future 
 intentions formed part of the inquiry. 
 Whitgift and the other bishops con- 
 tended, that in their proceeding in this 
 way thi-y were borne out by received 
 custo:n and the usages of other courts, 
 and that such steps were necessary, 
 when no information could be procured 
 against nonconforming and popular 
 ministers; but this circumstance, if in- 
 deed the fact were so, proved the total 
 abhorrence which the mass of the popu- 
 latien must have felt towards ecclesias- 
 tical courts, or that such nonconformity 
 could not be very frequent or considera- 
 ble, when no evidence could be obtained 
 of a fact done in the face of the whole 
 
 ' Sirype's Whitgift. i. 245. 
 
 S-rype's Ann v 264. 
 Whitgift, ■ 
 
 " .-^trype s vr imgi 
 •• Ibid. iii. 81, No. 
 
 congregation, among whom any stran- 
 ger might be present. And Burleigh, 
 who was the sound friend of the church, 
 though not an admirer of all ecclesias- 
 tical proceedings,^ characterizes these 
 articles as "so curiously penned, so full 
 of branches and circumstances, as I 
 think the inquisitors of Spain used not 
 so many questions to comprehend and 
 to trap their preyes." He strongly 
 advises a more charitable method of 
 treatment, and while he disputes not 
 the legality of what was done, he sub- 
 joins, omnia licent, yet, omnia non ex- 
 pediunt. As to the wisdom and pro- 
 priety of allowing the church to remain 
 as it was by law established,' the 
 bishops seem to have convinced several 
 of the court by two conferences held 
 with the opposite party in the presence 
 of those who entertained doubts on this 
 subject : in the latter of these, which 
 took place at Lambeth in 1585, the 
 archbishop during four hours confuted 
 and answered in a most satisfactory 
 manner their scruples and objections. 
 But the steps which he took to enforce 
 conformity, and unity of opinion, were 
 not so well received and this induced 
 him to comply with the suggestions of 
 Walsingham, who advised that incum- 
 bents already in possession of their 
 preferments should not be pressed to 
 subscribe the three articles, provided 
 they gave a written promise that they 
 would comply with the use of the Com- 
 mon Prayer. For that prudent minis- 
 ter could not shut his eyes to the grow- 
 ing dislike which the conduct of the 
 ecclesiastical courts was daily creating 
 towards the bishops and the church; 
 an enmity by no means confined to the 
 sufferers, or to the lower orders in the 
 country, but discoverable among many 
 who were possessed of considerable 
 authority. Lord Leicester was long 
 looked up to as the head of the anti- 
 episcopal party, and the archbishop 
 regarded him as a decided opponent of 
 his measures.* Mr. Beal, clerk of the 
 council, was earnest too on the subject, 
 and wrote against the examination of 
 delinquents by oath, ex officio mero, and 
 
 sgTrype's Whiigifi, iii. 106, No. ix. and Fuller, 
 ix. 156. 
 
 « Paul's Whitgift. Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. 
 iv. 343. 
 ' .'^trype's Whitgift, i. 431. 
 8 Paul's Whitgift. Wordsworth's E. B. iv. 35a 
 
 _1 
 
HAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH 0 
 
 F ENGLAND. 
 
 153 
 
 le use of torture and Sir F. Knowles 
 1 several occasions exhibited so much 
 itipathy to the bishops, that the queen 
 irbade him to meddle with the ques- 
 3n. And some of this party, in order to 
 I arm the bench, and perhaps to share 
 . the spoils of the church, tried to pro- 
 ' ote a commission, (ad melius inquircn- 
 nii.] to ascertain the real value of ec- 
 -lical property; but the exertions 
 archbishop, and other friends of 
 tiiblishment, prevented the mea- 
 ire Irom beingf carried into effect. 
 
 In the convocation which was held 
 irini^: the end of the last year, and the 
 I'ginning oi this, were promulgated the 
 rtimli pro clero in Synodo Londin. 
 I»S4,' which contain some judicious 
 gulations with regard to the essentials 
 
 ecclesiastical discipline. 
 § 452. The puritans, during the session 
 
 parliament,^ were very strenuous in 
 e cause of reform on many points in 
 hich reformation was undoubtedly 
 anted. The great object which they 
 !pt in view was to establish a preach- 
 g ministry, a desire in which they 
 ere fully met by the high church party ; 
 It their opinions did not coincide as to 
 e means by which this end was to be 
 )tained. They would have applied the 
 ims expended in choral establishments 
 
 the payment of preachers, and have 
 ansferred all ecclesiastical impropria- 
 )ns to the use of the curates of those 
 aces where the corps lay ; and would 
 'en have laid their hands on lay im- 
 •opriations, a step in which there was 
 ) great probability of their receiving 
 uch support from their friends at court, 
 he bishops looked to conformity as the 
 lief remedy for the evils which they 
 iplored, and thought that the keeping 
 3 of establishments, in which the higher 
 fices might reward a learned ministry, 
 as most likely to produce the real pros- 
 ;rity of the church. At the same time 
 was the avowed object of the reformers 
 
 introduce much of the presbyterian 
 Jvernment ; every question arising in 
 
 • Strype's Whitgift, i. 401, &c. 
 ' Sparrow's Collection, 191 . They were almost 
 itirely drawn up by Whitgift himself, as will ap- 
 ar by comparing No. xiv. and xviii. 130, 145, 
 trype's Whitgift, iii.,) but may be traced back in 
 eir origin to the lower house of convocation, in 
 iSO, who presented a draft of a similar bill to the 
 rds. (Sirype's Grindal, 587, No. xiv.) 
 ' Strype's Ann. vi. 278, No. 39. 
 
 20 
 
 a diocese or parish was to be subjected 
 to the decision of a general or provincial 
 synod, to be assembled at stated periods. 
 The revision of the Common Prayer, of 
 the Ordination Service, as well as of all 
 other rites and ceremonies, was to be 
 referred to the authority of the same 
 tribunal, and submitted to the approba- 
 tion of the queen. As far as morals 
 were concerned, they sought a severe 
 discipline, and were particularly anxious 
 to curtail the worldly pomp of the epis- 
 copal order. They requested the estab- 
 lishment of a new set of ecclesiastical 
 laws, since in the present administration 
 of those which existed several abuses 
 were to be found, particularly with 
 regard to excommunication for contu- 
 macy ; while the licenses for pluralities, 
 non-residence, and the ordination of 
 clergymen without any ministerial office, 
 were frequently exposed to strong com- 
 plaints. With regard to many of these 
 points, the laws had done almost all that 
 could be effected by legal enactments, 
 and the bishops were anxious to remedy 
 what was wanting ; but it is curious to 
 observe how many of these changes have 
 been gradually and partially introduced. 
 We must omit the introduction of the 
 presbyterian government, in which we 
 are nearly as we were ; but the want of 
 any thing of this sort depends probably 
 more on circumstances, than in any fun- 
 damental reason in the constitution of 
 our church establishment. These at- 
 tempts, however, were at the time ren- 
 dered fruitless ; for Whitgiff addressed 
 himself to the queen, urging her to stop 
 all such proceedings, and to rest the 
 discipline of the church on her own 
 supremacy, a step to which her incli- 
 nations were always sufficiently dis- 
 posed. 
 
 § 453. This parliament was strongly 
 impressed with the idea of resisting the 
 Roman Catholic party, which was at this 
 time not only powerful, but very active 
 in the world. They passed,' therefore, 
 two acts, one for the surety of the queen's 
 person, the other against Jesuits and 
 seminary priests. The first of these 
 was levelled against the unfortunate 
 Mary, queen of Scots, whose misfor- 
 tunes and hard treatment, towards the 
 
 < Strype's Whitgift, i. 391. 
 ° Statutes of the Realm, 1, 2. 
 
154 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 end of her life, rendered her an object 
 of pity, rather than of that just reproach 
 which her earh- conduct probably 
 merited. This law made any conni- 
 vance at comf assing the queen's death, 
 in any person of whatever description, 
 liable to the pains of treason. As if an 
 act of parliament could alter the nature 
 of international law, or divest murder 
 of its atrocity, by giving it the form of a 
 legal trial ;' as if any law of England 
 could establish a jurisdiction over an 
 independent princess, from which her 
 own rights had rendered her free. And 
 here it should be rtmembered, that the 
 voice of the kingdom was full as loud 
 and guilty as the wishes of the queen, 
 and that no persons were more strenuous 
 than the puritans in their endeavours to 
 bring the queen of Scots to the scaffold. 
 The second directed all seminary priests 
 and Jesuits to leave the kingdom on pain 
 of death, and imposed heavy penalties 
 on those who received or aided them. 
 The act, however, was limited to those 
 who refused to take the oath of supre- 
 macy.' 
 
 Elizabeth also soon afterwards under- 
 took the protection of the Netherlands, 
 and in the next spring sent Leicester to 
 command in Holland against the forces 
 of the Roman Catholics and Spanish 
 party. 
 
 § 454. In this year a dispute took 
 place, rendered memorable from having 
 been the origin of Hooker's excelhnt 
 treatise on Ecclesiastical Polity, a work 
 which has tended more perhaps to settle 
 the question of church government than 
 any other which ever appeared.'' Cn 
 the death of Father Alvie, master of the 
 Temple, ^reat interest was made by the 
 
 ' It should be remembered, that the oath of su- 
 premacy at tliat time did noicontaiu the objection- 
 able woid^ •• ihHi damnable doctrine and position," 
 &c. I call ihein ol jeciionable, because a sincere 
 Roman Caihi/lic. however he disapproves of the 
 doctrine of the pope's power of deposing kings, 
 will hardly like to call that doctrine damnable 
 which the head of bis church still perhaps main- 
 tains. In 35 HenrvVIII.ch.i. ?.7 the oath con- 
 tains strons expressions against the usurped power 
 of Rome ; that 1 Eliz. ch i. ^ 9, is much shortened 
 and less objectionable to a Roman Caiholic. The 
 oath ot alleL'iHiire 3 Jar. I. ch. iv. i 9, is much 
 longer, and inlroduces the clause "damnable doc- 
 trine." &c. 1 William and Mary, ch. viii. * 12, 
 the present oath was established ; so that the oath 
 of Elizabeth is, among the tour, the one which a 
 Roman Catholic would least scruple to take. 
 
 2 ;3ayue'» Vvhiigilt, i. 340. 
 
 friends of Travers to obtain this situation 
 for him.' He had long been engaged 
 in giving the evening lectures there ; 
 but Whitgift, who entertained no good .i 
 opinion of him, and doubted of his con- ■ c 
 formity, raised so decided an opposition 
 to the nomination, that the mastership 
 was procured for Hooker, by Sandys, 
 { bishop of London. The archbishop, 
 indeed, had been well acquainted with 
 Travers, who was formerly fellow of 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, and had 
 shown a strong preference for the dis- 
 cipline of Geneva, according to the 
 forms of which church he was afterwards 
 ordained at Antwerp. As the queen 
 deferred much to the opinion of the arch- 
 bishop, the appointment of Travers was 
 wholly refused, unless he could give m 
 proof that he had been ordained accord- — 
 ing to the laws of England, and would 
 subscribe to those articles which were 
 imposed by ecclesiastical and royal ao- 
 thority, as well as the Thirty-nine.* For 
 Travers refused to do any more than 
 what was enjoined by statute. He had 
 endeavoured for some time to introdtice 
 the presbyterian government into the 
 Temple,* and was supposed to be the 
 author of a book on ecclesiastical go- 
 vernment, which entirely rejected epis- 
 copacy and when Hooker came to take 
 possession of his new office. Travels 
 wished to have proposed him for the 
 approbation of the society, and upon his 
 refusal some unpleasantness had grown 
 up between them, which was increased 
 by objections raised to trifles in the ser- 
 vice, wherein the master differed from 
 the lecturer by conforming strictly to the 
 customs and laws of the church.' The 
 quarrel thus begun grew more important, 
 when Travers objected to some positions 
 contained in Hooker's sermons, and a 
 pulpit controversy arose between them, 
 in which the forenoon sermon spake 
 Canterbur\-, and the afternoon Geneva. 
 The consequence was, that Whitgift si- 
 lenced Travers,* and he appealed to the 
 
 3 Walton's Hooker, Wordsw. Ecc. Biog. iv. 245. 
 < Strype's Whitgift, i. 344. 
 
 ^ Sirype's Ann. v. 353. _ 
 ^"Disciplina Ecclesis sacra ex Dei verbo de- "* 
 scripta." This was afterwards translated and pnb- 
 lished bv Cartwrisht, " A full and plain declaratitm ' 
 of Ecclesiastical Discipline," &c. See Index to 
 Strvpe. 
 
 ' Hooker's Answer to Travers, ^ 3, 4 
 » Strype'8 Whitg. i. 474. 
 
 _ ^ .J 
 
HAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 155 
 
 luncil.* In his Supplication to the 
 )uncil, he tries to vindicate his ordina- 
 m, and license to preach, and finds 
 ult with the doctrines delivered by 
 ooker ; and as this document became 
 ibiic, the master was obliged to return 
 
 I iiiiswer, in which he vindicates him- 
 If . and states that Travers- was silenced 
 
 K aking an order of the Advertise- 
 , which forbade any minister to 
 1 the errors of other preachers 
 • I ; in private, or by sending informa- 
 >ii U) the Ecclesiastical Commission. 
 Ill irom the Supplication of Travers, 
 id ilio answers of Whitgift to his argu- 
 riiis,' there can be little doubt that his 
 n-( ])iscopal ordination was one very 
 ciiKd reason for his suspension. 
 raM rs was never reinstated, but a 
 
 II ly was raised against the master ; 
 id it was to convince them that he 
 I mmenced his immortal work of the 
 icclesiastical Polity. 
 
 ^ 455. It was towards the end of the 
 
 ' I iiivers' Supplication to the council, and 
 xikt r's Answer, are printed in the end of the 
 .xltsiasiical Poliiy. To those who are unac- 
 ' aimed with ecclesiastical law, the treatment of 
 1 -avers may seem in some degree unjust. He 
 jues that he was in orders because the statute 
 ;, 13 Eliz.) directed, that those who had been 
 dained by any other riles than those of the church 
 
 England should subscribe to the Thirty-nine 
 nicies, implying that after that act they were 
 lly eniitled to ihe advantages belonging to other 
 embers of the establishment. This applied di- 
 iclly to the Roman Catholic priesthood, and the 
 , me law prevails now. But according to the doc- 
 ne of an episcopalian church, he who was or- 
 ined without the presence of a bishop was never 
 dained at all : he wants the essence of ordina- 
 m, the laying on of the hands of the bisliop ; and 
 is law, therefore, does not apply to him. It is 
 fficult to determine the intention of the original 
 ' imers of the law. The early practice was proba- 
 y on the side of Travers, (as in the case of 
 'hitiingham, to which he appeals, and which 
 as much stronger than his own.) (Sirype's An- 
 ils, iv. 167.) The present interpretation of it is 
 itirely in favour of the archbishop. The words 
 c: " Every person under the degree of bishop, 
 hich doth or shall pretend to be a priest or minis- 
 r of God's holy word and sacraments, by reason 
 ■' any other form of institution, consecration, or 
 I'dering, than the form set forth by parliament, in 
 le time of the late king of most worthy memory, 
 ing Edward VI., or now used in the reign of our 
 losi gracious sovereign lady, before the feast of 
 le nativity of Christ next following, shall in the 
 resence of the bishop or guardian of the spirit - 
 aliiies of some one diocese, where he hath or 
 lall have ecclesiastical living, declare his assent, 
 nd subscribe to all the articles of religion, which 
 lily concern the confession of the true Christian 
 liih, and the doctrines of the sacraments com- 
 rised in abook,"&,c. &.c. (ISEliz. ch. 12.) 1571. 
 
 ' Hooker's Answer, § 17. 
 
 • Strype's Whitg. iii. 185, No. 30. 
 
 year 1586 that the conspiracy of Ba- 
 bington was discovered,* in which the 
 false principles inculcated by Roman 
 Catholic teachers urged on some young, 
 zealous, and unwary individuals to at- 
 tempt the murder of Elizabeth. They 
 met with their merited fate and were 
 executed, to the number of fourteen ; 
 but their fall implicated the royal pri- 
 soner, and the fears and suspicions of 
 the kingdom conspired to bring Mary 
 to her trial and the scaffold. This treat- 
 ! ment of the queen of Scots has been 
 ' viewed in different lights by the parti- 
 sans of opposite sides ; but one or two 
 considerations so strongly stamp its cha- 
 racter, that however legal it might have 
 been in England, it can never stand be- 
 fore the tribunal of the world. Nothing 
 could subject Mary to an English court 
 of justice, but her own injudicious sub- 
 mission to it ; and it is a fair question 
 for casuists to decide, how far any act 
 which originated from presumed force^ 
 can bind the person who submits to it. 
 At all events, the conditions of the act 
 of Parliament ought to have been com- 
 plied with,^ (1 13° Eliz.) and the testi- 
 mony of her secretaries have been con- 
 firmed by their being confronted to her: 
 but few or no criminals, in those happy 
 days, had the advantage of even-handed 
 justice. Her guilt must ever remain 
 problematical ; and however this trans- 
 action must disgrace the name of Eliza- 
 beth, it should not be forgotten that the 
 nation was full as guilty as the queen. ^ 
 The policy, too, of the measure may be 
 questioned, if indeed it can possibly be 
 politic to do wrong. 
 
 § 456. (a. d. 1.587.) The firmness of 
 the queen during the last parliament did 
 not damp the ardour for innovation ; for 
 on Feb. 27 a bill was brought forward 
 which would have abrogated all eccle- 
 siastical law, and substituted a new code 
 in its place ; but during the debate on 
 the question, whether the book which 
 contained it should be read, the house 
 adjourned, and several of the more vio- 
 lent members were afterwards com- 
 mitted to the Tower by the queen.' 
 The book,^ as appears from the draft 
 of a speech against it, would have left 
 
 * Camden's EUz. 339. ^ ibid. 352. 
 
 6 Ibid. 362. 
 
 ' Strype's Whitgift, i. 509. « Ibid. i. 48J 
 9 Ibid. iii. 186, No. 31. 
 
166 HISTORY 
 
 the minister at liberty to use what prayers 
 he chose ; would have aUered several 
 of the Thirty-nine Articles ; would have 
 taken away the patronage of livings, by 
 making them elective, and probably 
 have touched lay-impropriations ; would 
 have overthrown episcopacy and all 
 ecclesiastical distinctions ; would have 
 destroyed the supremacy, and allowed 
 the presbytery to exercise ecclesiastical 
 authority over the queen herself. All 
 this was at once stopped : but some 
 petition seems to have been presented; 
 for an answer to one is still extant,* in 
 which her majesty steadily and judi- 
 ciously expresses her opinion of the ill 
 effect of alterations, when essentials 
 were already established, and her de- 
 termination to support what the law had 
 settled. The steps which were here 
 taken were much under the influence 
 of the classes of ministers of Warwick 
 and Northampton and the proceedings 
 of these reformers seem to indicate an 
 idea, that if the civil magistrate did not 
 remedy the evils complained of,^ it be- 
 came their duty to take the redressing 
 them into their own hands. The activity 
 of the anti-episcopalians does not ne- 
 cessarily imply any remissness on the 
 part of the bishops; for in the convoca- 
 tion held at the same time with the par- 
 liament, some very good orders were 
 agreed to,* with regard to exercises to 
 he performed by such ministers as had 
 not taken the degree of M. A. ; their 
 catechising and expounding the Cate- 
 chism : and to compel all preachers to 
 deliver, every year, eight sermons at 
 least at each of their benefices. 
 ! § 457. (a. d. 1588.) The history of 
 this eventful year belongs much more 
 to the civil than the ecclesiastical histo- 
 rian ; for notwithstanding the steps 
 which were taken to urge the Roman 
 Catholics of England to unite in the at- 
 temjH at subjugating our island, it is 
 manifest that the mass of them viewed 
 the matter in its true light, and joined 
 hand and heart in the common cause, 
 wherever the government was wise 
 enough to employ their services. But 
 it should not be forgotten, when we 
 e;xamine the treatment which they re- 
 ceived at the hands of the Protestants, 
 
 ' Strype's Whitgift, i. 494. 
 
 » Ibid, i 502. 5 Ibid. i. 504. 
 
 * Ibid. iii. 194, No. 32. 
 
 1 
 
 OF THE [Chap. X 
 
 and which every well wisher to tiu 
 honour of our cause must deplore, tha 
 the men who were supposed to posses; 
 the most spiritual influence among them 
 Cardinal Allen and Father Persons 
 were exerting their utmost endeavours 
 to enslave their country. The condue j 
 of a party must ordinarily be viewec j 
 from what is done by its leaders ; anc 
 perhaps there never was a cause ac 
 cursed with injudicious leaders, as thai 
 of the English Roman Catholics. Thii 
 example, however, was by no meant 
 universally followed by the ecclesiastics ; 
 for Wryght, a priest of the college of 
 Douay,* and living therefore in a state 
 of proscription, wrote a tract for the 
 satisfaction of some Roman Catholics, 
 in which he proves that it was theil 
 duty to defend the country against the 
 invasion of Philip ; and, together with 
 the expressed opinions of several per- 
 sons of that persuasion, we have the 
 subsequent testimony of Burleigh, who 
 at the very moment in which he speaks 
 of confining them, adds, "Yet with 
 signification unto them, that the same 
 is not to be done, so much for doubt of j ' 
 any disloyal attempts by themselves, as 
 to notify to the rebels and enemies 
 abroad,"' that the expectations which 
 they had been led to form of assistance 
 in England were unfounded. 
 
 § 458. The pressure of external dan- 
 ger did not by any means free the church 
 from domestic troubles ; for the more ~ 
 violent of the puritan party had long 
 been making preparations, and now ' 
 opened a vigorous attack on the episco- 
 palians, by publishing books which re- 
 viled the whole body, as well as the in- 
 dividual members. The most noted of 
 these works was put forth under the 
 fictitious name of Martin Marprelate, 
 from which circumstance the whole class 
 of writers who pursued a similar track, 
 adopted, or were ranked under, the same 
 denomination of Martins. A proclama- 
 tion was directed against them in the 
 spring of 1589 ; and" by the activity of 
 the archbishop,* the press from which 
 these libels proceeded was taken, and 
 several of those concerned in this ua 
 christian task were by degrees disca 
 vered and punished ; but the energy 
 
 ^ Strype's Annals, vi. 583, No. 65. 
 
 « Strype's Whitgift, ii. 4. 
 
 ' Ibid. iii. 216, No. 41. » Ibid, i 601. 
 
 . .. .. I 
 
HAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 151 
 
 hich this circumstance excited unfor- 
 inately brought many of the puritans 
 ito trouble, who were not at all en- 
 aged in propagating the evil. And 
 leir own conscientious refusal to take 
 le oath ex officio mere, lest they should 
 Ills indirectly accuse themselves or 
 u'ir friends, detained them in prison 
 I- a considerable time. Cartwright 
 as confined eighteen months,* though 
 ' declared that for the last thirteen 
 ■ars he never wrote or procured any 
 ing to be printed which might in any 
 li t be offensive to her majesty and the 
 ate, ' much less had any hand, or so 
 uch as a finger, in the book under 
 Janin's name. From the proceedings 
 gainst him and others, as they are re- 
 )riled (June 2) in an authentic docu- 
 eiu containing the charges and an- 
 veis to them, given by the prisoners,^ 
 • ii seems to have been a decided 
 Illy formed for the purpose of altering 
 -• oovernment of the church. It was 
 eir wish to proceed by legal methods, 
 bile there was any hope of success 
 om them ; and it may fairly be doubt- 
 I whether the better sort had any 
 n lights of employing force ; for they 
 ■clare that to their knowledge no mi- 
 ster had any other intention than that 
 using prayer, teaching, and humble 
 ipplication to her majesty and the 
 irliament.* Yet on the other side it 
 innot be questioned, but that by hold- 
 tr assemblies, and passing resolutions 
 ; their own authorized opinions, they 
 ere taking such steps as must pro- 
 ibly lead to rebellion;^ and many of 
 le warmer partisans of the presbytery 
 anifestly intended to adopt more for- 
 blc measures. When Cartwright was 
 /ought before the star chamber^ he re- 
 iscd to take the oath, to answer all 
 lestions ex officio mero :^ and till he 
 
 ' Sirvpe'g Whitgift, ii. 88. 
 Ml.iH. iii. 231, No. 1. 
 
 /'Ibid. iii. 242, No. 4. " Ibid. iii. 258. 
 
 i^Iliid. i, 613. « See ^ 554. 
 
 ' The wliole method of proceeding ex officio men 
 
 lould no\v-a-dr\ys appear very arbiirary and un- 
 nable. Wright ihe puritan, in his answers to 
 e matters urged against him, begins, " First, he 
 osl huml)ly desired ihat it might be considered 
 
 ihetlier any man by our laws be boimd to accuse 
 mself, upon his nath, for any deed or word, much 
 '.s to declare his thoughts." (,'^frype's Ann. vi. 
 
 ':8, No. 23.) In the case of Bainbridge and 
 ihnson, it was referred to several doctors of the 
 ches, who answered, that the parties were bound 
 «n8wcr upon oath, and added : "And wc find 
 
 had done this, his judges would listen 
 to nothing which he had to advance in 
 his own favour. It is the expressed 
 opinion of some one who seemed to be 
 their counsel, " that there was no mat- 
 ter proved of any meetings or conven- 
 ticles seditiously made and executed by 
 Cartwright and his fellows."^ And the 
 judgment of Popham, the attorney- 
 general, does not speak a very different 
 language." 
 
 § 459. Whatever they might do here- 
 after, their present plan was to use per- 
 suasion ; and for this purpose they meant 
 to form a synod, to be held either at one 
 of the universities or London, where 
 assembling would not attract notice,'" 
 and to divide themselves, at other times, 
 into classes, or provincial synods. In 
 the meetings which did take place, it 
 appears that they passed certain reso- 
 lutions which tended to the subversion 
 of all episcopal discipline ; and it is not 
 unlikely that, had they been suffered to 
 continue, and acquire strength, they 
 might have been able to alter the con- 
 stitution of the church, if not of the state. 
 Such assemblies, therefore, could not be 
 allowed by a wise government ; but the 
 methods which were adopted for their 
 prevention, seem to have been calcu- 
 
 it harder in our learning to give a good reason of 
 doubt, than to yield any other resolution, though 
 there preceded in such a case neither special accu- 
 sation or denunciation." (Strype's Ann. vi. 132.) 
 The argument in favour of oaths ex officio is as 
 follows : If a man be accused before his ordinary 
 of any crime, he is not bound to impeach himself, 
 but if he be examined on account of some crime 
 which from its nature it would be difficult to prove, 
 and which nevertheless the judge ecclesiastical 
 may wish to remedy, the notoriety of fame is 
 taken for evidence against him, and he is bound 
 to clear himself by his own oath, and by that of 
 compurgators, declaring that they believe his oath 
 to be true. (Strype's Whitgift, iii. 233, No. 2.) 
 The ground of this is, that the inflictions of an 
 ecclesiastical court are by law deemed medicium 
 not pcpncp. This argument is signed by nine doc- 
 tors of civil law, and stated to be the universal 
 practice of ecclesiastical courts. In examining 
 the question, we must not overlook the feelings 
 of the times with regard to such a point. Beat, 
 clerk of the council and a puritan, would have put 
 the Roman Catholics upon their oath twice every 
 year, that they had not aided Jesuits or seminary 
 priests, they being under a bond not to do so. 
 (Strype's Whitgift, iii. 203, No. 3.5.) Morice, a 
 learned civilian, wrote a tract, in which he ob- 
 jected to the legality of the oath, (Ibid. ii. 30,) and 
 wished the matter to be referred to the learned 
 judges of the realm, which his grace liked not. 
 (Ibid. 29.) 
 
 8 Strype's Whitgift, ii. 84, « jbid. ii. 83. 
 
 ■»Ibid.ii. 6. 
 
 o 
 
158 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap.X. 
 
 lated rather to exasperate than to con- 
 vince ; and though they had the effect 
 of silencing them for the time, yet they 
 must have produced a feeling among 
 the people very unfavourable to the 
 cause which they were intended to sup- 
 port. The petition of Eusebius Pagit, 
 some time student of Christ Church, ^ 
 addressed to the lord admiral, contains a 
 pathetic remonstrance from a good and 
 peaceable Christian. He had been 
 forced to quit his preferment upon some 
 scruple with regard to the service, and 
 had continued to hold communion with 
 the church of England, because he sin- 
 cerely esteemed it to be the church of 
 God, and endeavoured to support him- 
 self by keeping school : but from this 
 last resource he was again driven ; and 
 his prayer goes not beyond the request, 
 that he might obtain some employment 
 for the support of his family which 
 might prevent him from becoming a 
 vagabond. It must have been this se- 
 verity towards the lower members of 
 the church, which so strongly exaspe- 
 rated the minds of the country against 
 bishops ; for, from the motions which 
 were annually made in parliament, and 
 the decided favour which was shown by 
 many towards the presbyterian disci- 
 pline, it is evident that the nation was 
 beginning to advocate the cause which 
 the archbishop endeavoured to suppress. 
 And it is also clear that there must have 
 been some mismanagement in the hier- 
 archy, which concentrated all the senti- 
 ments, arising from a wish for civil 
 liberty, in formidable array against 
 themselves. The arguments in favour 
 of episcopacy, if fairly advanced, are so 
 strong, that the question, when the esta- 
 blisliment was once fixed, might have 
 safi'ly been left to the force of reason, 
 while steady moderation was used to 
 prevent any very gross violations of the 
 orders of the church, and the combina- 
 nations of its interested opponents. 
 
 § 400. The ari^ument in favour of 
 episcopacy seems to stand thus : — When 
 the Reformation began, it found episco- 
 pacy established in the church of Rome, 
 and possessed of distinctive ofiices, of 
 which the power of ordination seems to 
 be the most peculiar to it.^ One party 
 
 ' Strype's Whilgift, iii. 285, No. 11. 
 ^ The dislinclive characlerisiics of a bishop, as 
 laid down by Bishop Davenant, in his beautiful 
 
 of the Reformers retained it as they 
 found it, but tried to separate it from 
 the abuses with which it had been com- 
 bined ; the other rejected it altogether, 
 and made two orders only in the church, 
 (viz. priests and deacons,) appointing 
 such superior officers as were primi 
 inter pares. The point at issue there- 
 fore is, were there three distinct orders* 
 in the primitive church ? and if so, was 
 j the right and office of ordaining pecu- 
 liar to the highest of these ? 
 
 In the apostolical history, as con- 
 tained in the New Testament, these 
 questions are not clearly answered, and 
 there is much indistinctness about the 
 names of bishop and priest or elder ; but 
 if we suppose, by way of hypothesis, 
 that there were bishops, priests, aiul 
 deacons, we shall find no statements 
 which cannot be easily reconciled wjjj^ 
 the supposition.'' V 
 
 As we proceed with ecclesiaatid|i ' 
 
 determinaiion on Diversiiy of Degrees in ihe IV 
 nisters of the Gospel, are three : 1st, That, ho4 
 ever many presbyters there may be, iherej 
 never more than one Lishop in a city : 2d, "^5 
 power of ordination ; 3d. The jurisdiction over^H 
 clergy. 'I'o these may be added, the power of 
 confirming, of consecrating churches, &:c. Indb 
 whole of this question the reader may be referred 
 to B(ngham's Antiquities, a work in which he wh» 
 seeks ior information on any ecclesiastical subject 
 may be almost sure to find it. 
 
 ^ Here, loo, there is an equivocal term in tr4 
 word "order." At the council of Trent, though 
 there was no question about episcopacy, there wm 
 a discussion as lo whether bishops were a distinct 
 order or only a different jurisdiction. (F. Paul, 557.) 
 The Saxon church was governed by bishops.^et 
 the canons declare thai there is no essential diner- 
 once between the two orders of bishops and 
 priests. (Johnson's Canons, 957, 17.) This mutt 
 always be taken into account in questions with re- 
 gard to episcopacy. See also § 117, 279. Itisnot 
 necessary to suppose that Wiclif and the Erudi- 
 tion intended to reject episcopacy, though ihey 
 denied the disiinctiicss of the orders. 1 he real 
 point at issue is. whether a person could be or- 
 dained in the primitive church without the pre- 
 sence of an apostle, or of one holding a peculiarly 
 delegated authority, !. e.. of a bishop. See Bing- 
 hamT i. p. 81. 
 
 ^ The argument concerning the name of bishop 
 is frequently mistaken. There is no doubt that 
 hriuKOTtoi is equivalent, in the New Testament, lo 
 ^ptcfJvTcpo;, and I am not aware that it is ever used 
 fur what we should call a bishop. Bui then the 
 terms used in the New Testament for bishop are 
 (iir.VroXo,-, or (I'/vcXo,-, and Clemens Romanus, th» 
 third bishop of Rome, is called an apostle by Cle- 
 mens A lexandrinus. Strom, iv. 17. The conces- 
 sion, therefore, of the use of the name iticauf 
 proves nothing. The presbyterian is forced lo gay 
 that the order equivalent to that of the aposilee 
 does not now exist in the church, which is really 
 begging the question, and lo explain ayycXas by Ihe 
 chief pastor of Ihe church. So thai the argument 
 from the names is rather in favour of episcopacy. 
 
HAP X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 159 
 
 i story, these same traces become more 
 i!cisive, till we find that at an early 
 ;riod the questions are both answered 
 the affirmative ;' and we infer, there- 
 re, that unless it can be shown that a 
 lange in this particular took place, we 
 ay presume that the same ecclesiasti- 
 il constitution existed from the time 
 ■ ■ the apostles. A presbyterian might 
 •ijue, that in the apostolical history of 
 Xew Testament there is nothing 
 liH-h militates against the hypothesis 
 til ' two orders only, at least nothing 
 hich proves the point; that St. James 
 iijht have been the chief elder, the 
 oih rator, of the church of Jerusalem ; 
 ni Timothy and Titus'^ might have 
 I'l no higher office than that of dean 
 athedral church, or archdeacon in 
 ; and that as the presbytery had 
 '. er of ordaining, they, as its su- 
 i i uitendents, were directed by St. Paul 
 11 set all things in order. But then this 
 ypothesis does not account for the in- 
 •oduction of episcopacy, without even 
 I hint from the historians that any aiter- 
 |tion in the church government was 
 'fleeted. When to this it is added, that 
 iiere never existed a church without 
 'piscopacy till the Reformation, the 
 roof seems as strong as moral proof 
 an be, that it is most probable that 
 ' piscopacy is derived from the times of 
 |he apostles. And this conclusion is 
 ' uite sufficient to guide the conduct of 
 ' sober-minded Christian.^ But to re- 
 iUrn to the history. 
 
 I 
 
 ' Ignaiii Epist. ad Smyrnaeos, ^ viii. nim; no 
 
 rwJC^TTU UK0\0')^^L^€^ a); 'IrjfTyif Xpi(7rd,- no Tii-pi* Kai rf.'j 
 M 13'iTCfUo, if roit u-oirniAm,-- roi; H d.aKo^ors irrfiinuiB'c, 
 ■s too t.ToX^i/. (Colelerii, ii. 3(j.) 
 
 Oil! £|or bru X<^i>k TOO imcKim ■, ovrc ffatrrilcii', oilre 
 yinr-' miui', &,c., meaning, perhaps, ihal with- 
 ul the ordinalion ol a bishop, at least without the 
 anction of a bishop, no minister may perform 
 ither of the two sacraments. 
 
 Ad Philadelphenos, iv. p 31. "K-' 9 
 t; C(s ETriVwJTo;. I'lfja n.i nf.ea/i "Tijiico , Kai dtaK6i/oti rofj 
 wM\oif /lai, &c. fl. A. D. 107. 
 
 ' For myself, I cannot understand how this hy- 
 lothesis can explain the words of St. Paul, (Tit. i. 
 '•) '-For this cause left I thee in Crete, thai 
 hou shouldeat set in order the things that are 
 ^aiiiMisi, and ordain elders in every city, as I had 
 I.' I 'll thee," &,c. Titus must have ha 1 a 
 • d authority very different in its nature 
 
 ii II of a moderator in a presbyterian church. 
 
 jii! oiht-r persons may see the mailer difTerently. 
 
 ^ The force of this argument will be much in- 
 creased by comparing it wiih that in favour of in- 
 ani baptism, or any other parallel case, as that 
 .he sacraments are to be administered by clergy- 
 men only, which presbytcrians allow as welTas 
 episcopalians. The elements of the argument will 
 
 § 461. The treatment of the libellers 
 themselves when discovered, was, ac- 
 cording to the system then pursued, 
 much less objectionable ; because the 
 outrageous nature of their writings ob- 
 viously pointed out to the civil magis 
 trate the necessity of adopting severity.* 
 Udal and Penry, who were the princi- 
 pal writers of some of the books which 
 attacked episcopacy,^ forfeited their 
 lives to the vengeance of insulted so- 
 ciety, by the vehemence with which 
 they abused the established govern- 
 ment. It may be more wise in a go- 
 vernment on some occasions to overlook 
 such transgressions ; but if any notice 
 be taken of them, an authority which 
 will defend itself must inflict some pu- 
 nishment on such ofl^enders. Hacket, 
 who represented our Saviour, with 
 Coppinger" and Arthington, his pro- 
 phets of mercy, and judgment, were 
 candidates rather for a mad-house, than 
 a dungeon. Greenwood and Barrow,' 
 who suffered for writing seditious books 
 and pamphlets, were on the high road 
 to introduce the horrors of anarchy 
 which the anabaptists had exhibited in 
 Germany.'* These extreme cases, how- 
 ever, cannot fairly be charged on the 
 puritans ; for though they were the na- 
 tural' fruit of the proceedings of that 
 party, yet the better sort of noncon- 
 fortnists utterly disliked what these 
 persons did,^ and were in their turns 
 exposed to the animadversions of these 
 ultra reformists, who regarded them as 
 only half reformed. It may be doubt- 
 ful, perhaps, even in these cases, whe- 
 ther gentler remedies might not have 
 been adopted with success ; but it is 
 obvious that something more than ar- 
 gument was necessary for beings who 
 made so bad a use of their reasoning 
 faculties. And the satirical productions 
 of Tom Nash,'" who answered them in 
 their own way, had probably more 
 
 in each ease be the same : that at a certain time 
 it was found existing in the church ; that history 
 states not when it began ; and that the supposition 
 of it having existed from the times of the apostles 
 is not conti;adicled, but rath( r supported by the 
 apostolic history. Moral demonstration hardly 
 admits of proof more satisfactory. 
 
 Strype's Whilgift, ii. %. - Ihid. ii. IT.";. 
 
 "Paid's Whitgift ; Wordsw. Eccl. Bio", iv. 354. 
 
 ' Strype"s Whitgift, ii. 186. 
 
 8 Paul's Whitgift, 357. ^ Ibid. 3fi2. 
 
 '"Walton's Hooker; Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. iv. 
 
160 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X 
 
 effect with the people, than either argu- 
 ment or severity. 
 
 § 462. The national alarm, excited 
 by the conduct of foreign Roman Ca- 
 tholic courts, and which proved so in- 
 jurious to those of that persuasion who 
 belonged to England, had not been ob- 
 literated by the general readiness and 
 fidelity exhibited by Roman Catholics 
 themselves during the period of danger 
 which was lately passed ; and the con- 
 tinuance of the same threatening policy 
 on the part of Spain and Italy, tended 
 to continue the same cautionary and 
 harsh measures on that of the English 
 government. The parliament of this 
 year enacted some very severe laws, 
 which affected the puritans and Roman 
 Catholics. The first subjected all above 
 the age of sixteen, who did not frequent 
 their parish church, to the penally of 
 imprisonment; and in case of their not 
 conforming after three months, thi y 
 were obliged to abjure the realm, and 
 if they returned were declared felons 
 without benefit of clergy. Their goods 
 were lost to them during their lives, 
 and their friends forbidden to harbour 
 or conceal their persons. This act 
 more particularly touched the puri- 
 tans,' whose conduct in 1588 had given 
 just offence to the country. The second 
 confined all popish recusants, who had 
 any property, to their own places of 
 residence, and imposed the penalty of 
 the loss of all their possessions, in case 
 of their removing from thence, except 
 on specified occasions ; while those who 
 were not possessed of goods to a greater 
 amount than twenty marks per annum, 
 or 40/. actual property, were forced to 
 abjure the realm ; and in default of this, 
 or in case of returning, were adjudged 
 felons without benefit of clergy. There 
 were also some executions of Roman 
 Catholics, which kept alive the flame 
 of animosity on the one part, and of 
 terror on the other ; and the law which 
 treated all priests as traitors, perhaps 
 m some cases produced the treason 
 which it was intended to prevent ; 
 while the declarations* and opinions 
 maintained by some Roman Catholics 
 created a horror and antipathy against 
 a religion, which could foster such sen- 
 timents, and allow of such expressions 
 
 ' Banerofi, Wordsw. Eccl. Biog. iv. 359. 
 2 Strype's Ann. vii. 91, No. 45. 
 
 without the strongest reprobation. Bu 
 the soothing hand of time was not de» 
 titute of its effects ; and many of th< 
 Roman Catholics began to find out foi 
 themselves the unjustifiable lengths intc 
 which their leaders would have guidec 
 them. One of them in 1597 writes U 
 Burleigh,' "that the course they rar 
 into tended, for aught he could per- 
 ceive, to the ruin of our countrj', over 
 throw of the monarchy, destruction of 
 ail the nobility, and to bring Englanc 
 into perpetual bondage of the Spa- 
 niards: they neither, as it seemed,' 
 added he, "respecting religion, (though 
 they made it their cloak,) their nativt 
 soil, nor any thing else, but their own 
 ambitious humour ; persuaded by tbii 
 means to attain to special authority and 
 government under the king of Spain.'' 
 
 In 1602, upon a quarrel between tile 
 Seculars and Jesuits,'' the former pub- 
 lished several books, in Avhich ihej 
 threw the whole blame of the persecu- 
 tion on the latter; and declared thai 
 the kindness of the queen had con- 
 tinued, till the ill conduct of the see of 
 Rome, and this part of her Roman Ca- 
 tholic subjects, had forced her to adopi 
 severe measures. And in consequence 
 of a proclamation which was now is- 
 sued,' thirteen secular priests came for- 
 ward, and made a formal declaration^ 
 of their own fidelity. Though the ef- 
 fects of these circumstances come not 
 up to our wishes, yet we may fairly 
 conclude that they were not destitute 
 of their use ; for notwithstanding the 
 invasion of Ireland by the Spaniards, 
 and the crusade which was pnbhshed 
 by Clement VIII., in favour of Tyrone, 
 yet the executions towards the end of 
 the reign appear less frequent.' 
 
 § 4(5;}. (a. d. 1595.) The church was 
 destined this year to meet with internal 
 trouble, in doctrine as well as disci- 
 pline ; and a theological question, on 
 which the two divinity professors at 
 Cambridge were at variance, became 
 the subject of discussion between the 
 
 3 Stryre's Whitgifi, ii. 369. 
 
 4 Camden's Eliz. 651. 
 
 5 Butler's Catholics, ii. 56. 
 
 « It is calculated by Milner, that 204 Roman 
 Catholics suffered death during this reign: 15 for 
 denying the queen's supremacy, 126 for the exer- 
 cise of priestly functions, and the others for being 
 reconciled to the church of Rome, or aiding oi 
 assisting priests; 90 died in prison, 105 were 
 banished. (Butler's English Catholics, L 398.) 
 
IllUP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 161 
 
 'nlearned,' whose attainments frequent- 
 / did not allow them to see even the 
 ifficulties which it involves. The opi- 
 ions of many persons in Cambridge 
 iid not correspond with what had been 
 iiught by Calvin with regard to pre- 
 estination ; and in a sermon preached 
 efore the University, William Barret, 
 ;llow of Caius college, denied the ab- 
 Dlute decree of reprobation without re- 
 pect to sin, and the certainty of faith, 
 'ffirming that Christians might fall from 
 j race. Being called upon to answer 
 ))r this supposed heterodoxy, he was 
 njoined to make a public recantation 
 rawn up by the heads themselves, 
 huh act he performed in so very 
 I'glio^ent a manner, that he was again 
 niDinoned before the authorities. Upon 
 lis he complained to the archbishop, 
 |nd when his recantation was examined, 
 I was found to contain the denial of 
 ioctrines generally received in the 
 hurch, and to be as objectionable as 
 lose opinions which he had broached ; 
 lie recanted, for instance, "that sin is 
 lie proper and primary cause of re- 
 probation.")'' In this part of the pro- 
 i-ediiig another dispute arose, as to 
 lie final jurisdiction of the university 
 vvi its own members, and when this 
 ras amicably settled, the matter was 
 iscussed in the archbishop's palace 
 i.nd the Lambeth Articles were the fruit 
 >f the conference. 
 
 f 4(54. 1. God from eternity hath pre- 
 lestinated certain men unto life,* certain 
 i.ien he hath reprobated. 
 ' 2. The moving or efficient cause of 
 predestination unto life, is not the fore- 
 I ight of faith, or of perseverance, or of 
 food works, or of any thing that is in 
 he person predestinated, but only the 
 food-will and pleasure of God. 
 ' 3. There is predetermined a certain 
 lumber of the predestinate, which can 
 leither be augmented nor diminished. 
 
 4. Those who are not predestinated to 
 ialvation shall be necessarily damned 
 or their sins. 
 
 5. A true, living, and justifying faith, 
 
 , ' Sirvpe's Wliitgift, ii. 228. 
 ■ 2 Ibid. iii. 318, No. 2>. 
 
 ' Sir Phil. Warwick, Mem. p. 86, attributes the 
 jwant of moderation visible in these articles to 
 Fletcher, bishop of London. 
 
 ♦ Fuller, Eccl. Hist. ix. 230 and Strype's Whitg. 
 280. 
 
 21 
 
 and the Spirit of God justifying, is not 
 extinguished, falleth not away, it va- 
 nisheth not away in the elect, neither 
 finally nor totally. 
 
 6. A man truly faithful, that is, such 
 a one who is endued with a justifying 
 faith, is certain, with the full assurance 
 of faith, of the remission of his sins, 
 and of his everlasting salvation in 
 Christ. 
 
 7. Saving grace is not given, is not 
 granted, is not communicated to all 
 men, by which they may be saved if 
 they will. 
 
 8. No man can come to Christ, un- 
 less it shall be given unto him, and 
 unless the Father shall draw him ; and 
 all men are not drawn by the Father 
 that they may come to the Son. 
 
 9. It is not in the will or power of 
 every one to be saved. 
 
 Whatever may be the opinion of any 
 individual reader, as to the truth of 
 these articles, it will require but little 
 powers of criticism to remark the dog- 
 matical manner in which they are ex- 
 pressed, and to observe how different 
 their tone is from the language of Scrip- 
 ture, and the articles of our church. 
 Nor can we be surprised if such a de- 
 cision failed to produce peace in the uni- 
 versity or elsewhere,^ and excited the 
 displeasure of those who cared for the 
 tranquillity of the church. One of the 
 professors, Baro, immediately opposed 
 the errors which these articles were 
 calculated to produce, and was exa- 
 mined in consequence before the heads; 
 and it was only by the quiet interference 
 of the archbishop, that this poor man, 
 who had taught divinity in Cambridge 
 for many years with no higher a stipend 
 than twenty pounds per annum, escaped 
 the loss of even this trifling pittance ; 
 and that for preaching doctrines which 
 are in perfect accordance with the arti- 
 cles of the church of England.' 
 
 5 Strype's Whitgift, ii. 296. 
 
 * Montague, in his Ajrpello ad CcBSarem, (p. 55 
 — 72,) says that these articles were forbidden by 
 public authority. And Collier asserts the same; 
 (ii. 645;) but Fuller doubts this; (ix. 231;) and 
 though perhaps Elizabeth might have commanded 
 the a'rchbishop to suppress ihein, yet as they virere 
 drawn up by no authority, but merely by some 
 bishops and divines who met at Lambeth, they 
 never were the doctrines of the church of Eng- 
 land, though they might express the opinions of 
 some of her most exalted members at that period. 
 Strype's Whitgift, ii. 290. 
 
§ 465. The advancing age of the 
 queen and the archbishop tended much 
 to soften down the asperities which pre- 
 vious events had excited between the 
 
 162 HISTORY OF THE [Chap.X. 
 
 vinced of his error, that he declared his 
 sorrow for " the unnecessary troubles 
 he had caused in the church by the 
 schism he had been the great fomenter 
 contending parties, and the government [ of ; and wished he was to begin his life 
 of Whitgift was crowned towards its 1 again, that he might testify to the world 
 latter end with more peace than had the dislike he had of his former ways."' 
 marked his early labours ; and however i The writings of Hooker and Bancroft 
 peremptory' some of his conduct may ! had, under God's providence, been very 
 appear, he was a sincere reformer of instrumental in producing this happy 
 abuses, and entirely free from many — - ■ 
 
 faults which are but too apt to degrade 
 the higher clergy in the eyes of the 
 people. In the House of Commons, 
 indeed, in 1598 and 1601, some at- 
 tempts were made to interfere with 
 ecclesiastical matters, but the objects of 
 the bills brought forward were totally 
 changed. The framers of them now 
 tried to reform real abuses Avhich ex- 
 isted in the establishment, not to destroy 
 and undermine the establishment itself. 
 ''They complained of excessive fees, 
 of delays, of unnecessary citations, 
 while grievous sins were left untouched, 
 as well as other abuses in the bishops' 
 courts. They objected to pluralities, 
 to non-residunce ; and though the au- 
 thority of the queen^ put a hasty stop 
 to these attempts, yet the attention of 
 the government was directed to the 
 subjects, and such remedies were de- 
 vised by the archbishop and his col- 
 leagues as were calculated to obviate 
 the evils for the future. 
 
 § 4G0. The quiet of the church was 
 also much promoted by the maturcr 
 judgments of those who had been 
 chiefly instrumental in causing the dis- 
 turbances. ''Robert Browne, the founder 
 of the sect called Brownisls, the first 
 body of separatists from our church, 
 became wiser as he grew older, and 
 returned once more into her bosom ; 
 and Cartwright, who had fought among 
 the foremost of the party, was so con- 
 
 ' Sir Ci. Paul speaks in such liigh terms of ihe 
 gentleness of Whitgift, in the passage where he 
 alludes to this charge, that the epithet may ap- 
 pear to have been applied rashly ; (Words. Ecc. 
 Biog. iv. 371 ;) but some of his expressions about 
 Cartwright are very warm ; (Strype"s Whitgift, i. 
 96 ;) and in giving his sentence concerning the 
 heresy of Christ's sinning, he says, " This is my 
 resolution, which I would have you and all men 
 to know. And those that shall impugn this, or 
 teach to the contrary, I will prosecute with extre- 
 mity, and to extremity;" (Strype's Whitgift, ii. 
 65 ;) words which are at least peremptory. 
 
 2 Strype's Whitgift, ii. 374. 
 
 3 Ibid. ii. 445. 4 Ibid. i. 619. 
 
 effect, and we have only to lament that 
 the question had not been more left to 
 the force of reason for its answer. 
 When the nonconformists began to pur- 
 sue a line of conduct which interfered 
 with the civil rights of the establish- 
 ment ; when they adopted such mea- 
 sures as would tend to overthrow the 
 crown, unless a timely restraint were 
 put upon them, it was absolutely neces- 
 sary that the authority of government 
 should repress their meetings ; but per- 
 haps much of the opposition to episco- 
 pacy arose from the manner in whidk 
 the judicial powers of the bishops were 
 exercised. The final repentance of 
 such a man as Cartwright is one of the 
 strongest testimonies in favour of the 
 hierarchy. He had been far from ex- 
 hibiting the worst specimen of thqoe 
 who had opposed the cause of the esta- 
 blished church ; he had possessed 
 knowledge for the investigation of 
 truth, and carried with him much zeal 
 for reformation ; he had experienced 
 some harsh treatment, and had given 
 way to a schismatic spirit in his oWn 
 proceedings ; but with him the truth 
 prevailed, and he saw his error before 
 his death ; nor is it improbable that 
 later kindness of Whitgift might hail 
 helped in producing this effect. It.il 
 possible that the diabolical spirit of 
 schism, with which some of this party 
 were infected, who, in the hopes of 
 remedying evils which they could see, 
 ran themselves into ten thousand greater 
 evils, of which no one could foresee 
 the extent, and who set at defiance 
 every law which Christianity has given 
 us for our guidance, might not have been 
 restrained without the strong hand of 
 power ; but much connivance, and 
 much more personal kindness, were 
 perfectly compatible with the severe 
 enforcement of general obedience ; and 
 
 s Strype's Whitgift, ii. 460. 
 
VP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 163 
 
 Ji the peace now produced may 
 iiiited to the previous severity, 
 success of tile line of policy 
 i;id latterly been pursued, and 
 i'|uillity which accompanied it, 
 ■ plead most strongly in favour 
 I.Mucnt measures. 
 
 4(57. (a. d. 1«0;).) The reign of Eli- 
 j -eth was now drawing to a close, after 
 l.irosperous continuance of forty-four 
 
 Jjirs, over which the disastrous trou- 
 of succeeding times have thrown 
 ■■ i'g a glow, that we frequently 
 inparative estimate of the age 
 
 I we live falsely made in favour 
 poriod of our history. Eliza- 
 
 a governor — for in this light 
 
 II fair to estimate her character 
 i<sessed of considerable talent, 
 he generally employed to the 
 JO of the state : whatever her 
 s as a woman may have been, 
 I- ted her servants more accord- 
 ■r judgment than her passions; 
 iinst of her transactions she was 
 \ ed, and consulted the good of 
 ■cts, as far as their welfare was 
 it with her own plans or ideas, 
 irded, if I may use the expres- 
 • kingdom as her private pro- 
 
 \ . :md her object was to render the 
 1' ' as good as possible. She had 
 \ a lifchold interest in the property, 
 : IS less careful, therefore, of the 
 ■I'lii- interests of her successor. 
 ; r disinclination to be controlled, 
 always unwilling to make any 
 Ml the parliament, and sacrificed 
 jicrty which belonged to the 
 wid the nation, for the sake of 
 iCT those who were about her; 
 converted to her own personal 
 je that which ought to have 
 I for the wants of posterity. 
 I" feeling gave a parsiinonious 
 auch of her conduct ;' it made 
 ■'. tiling to spend money for ne- 
 ( isary objects, and rendered her al- 
 'i.ys much inclined to receive pre- 
 ilits;^ it was this which made her 
 I'ilty of an obvious meanness in seiz- 
 r on the property of her favourite 
 i'icester' immediately on his death, in 
 der to satisfy the sum in which he 
 lis indebted to her treasury. In no 
 
 ' Strype's Smith, 140, &c. 
 2 Strype's Ann. iv. 209. 
 ' Camden's Elizabeth, 420. 
 
 j point, however, was this fault so con- 
 1 spicuous, as with regard to the church ; 
 but the instances are far too numerous 
 to be here recorded. The reader may 
 be referred to an address of Whitgift 
 to her majesty, which is given in Wal- 
 ton's Life of Hooker.* Parsimony, 
 however, was no further used than as a 
 means of enabling her to govern ; she 
 was unwilling to ask for money, lest 
 she should become indebted to those 
 who granted it. Of power, for its own 
 sake, she was peculiarly fond ; and in 
 no species of power did she take a 
 greater delight than in that which be- 
 longed to the supremacy — a point 
 which was attacked by two descrip- 
 tions of her subjects, the puritans and 
 the Roman Catholics. The treatment 
 which she wished to adopt with regard 
 to these two parties, and her decided 
 temper, are characteristically marked 
 in an observation of her own, made 
 to Malvesier, the ambassador from 
 France.-'* She told him " that she 
 would maintain the religion that she 
 w as crowned in, and that she was bap- 
 tized in : and would suppress the pa- 
 pistical religion, that it should not grow. 
 But that she would root out puritanism, 
 and the favourers thereof. And that 
 she had rather be the last of her line 
 without marriage, than Monsieur should 
 innovate or alter any thing in her re- 
 formed church." And this line of 
 policy seems to have been pursued 
 systematically on her part. 
 
 § 4fi8. Had the Roman Catholics al- 
 lowed her to follow her own designs, she 
 would probably have used little severity 
 towards them, as she was in some par- 
 ticulars certainly not adverse to them,^ 
 and on several occasions, even after 
 compulsion had begun, she exhibited an 
 unwillingness to shed blood,' and an in- 
 clination in their favour. But the preju- 
 dices of her Protestant subjects were 
 offended at an.y kindness which was 
 shown to their Roman Catholic breth- 
 
 " Wordsw. Ecel. Biog. iv. 233. 
 5 Strype's Ann. iv. 242. 
 
 ^ Elizabeth may be said to have mixed up with 
 her Protestantism many feelings favourable to 
 Roman Cathohc customs. She was fond of out- 
 ward show in religion, as was visible in the whole 
 question about the ecclesiastical dresses. She re- 
 tained the crucifi.x in her own chapel, 408 ;) she 
 was adverse to the marriage of the clergy. 
 
 ' Strype's Ann. v. 188, 197. 
 
m 
 
 ren and we can feel less surprise that 
 the unjustifiable conduct of the more 
 conspicuous members of that body 
 should hare exasperated the Protestants. 
 With regard to puritanism, which she 
 hated, the question was totally different. 
 This faction owed much of its existence 
 to a spirit of insubordination, and was 
 coupled with a strong- desire of estab- 
 lishing- the civil liberties of the subject ; 
 but its votaries carried their notions of 
 freedom into the confines of libertinism, 
 and Elizabeth was little likely to approve 
 of a system, which directed the specu- 
 lations of its followers to the strict ex- 
 amination of what the law had already 
 settled. She was a great friend to edu- 
 cation, as the surest means of eradicating 
 the power of the papacy ; but she did 
 not cleariy foresee that the dissemination 
 of knowledge was incompatible with the 
 absolute power which she wished to ex- 
 ercise. It was with the view probably 
 of checking investigation that she was 
 ever hostile to multiplying sermons, and 
 the steps which she took to put a stop 
 to prophesyings owe their origin to the 
 same cause. Indeed, the peremptory 
 manner in which she decided ecclesias- 
 tical questions fell under the rebuke of 
 Grindal,'' who told her, that church mat- 
 ters were to be settled according to the 
 will of God, not her own ; and that she 
 too was mortal, and must answer before 
 the tribunal of Christ. It was the same 
 love of power, the same objection to 
 being controlled in any way, which con- 
 tributed to prevent her from marrying ; 
 and this disinclination to the married 
 state in her own person, rendered her 
 very tyrannical on this point with regard 
 to all about her, and, combined with early 
 prejudices, made her always adverse to 
 the marriage of the clergy.^ 
 
 • Strype's Parker, iii. 83, No. 27. 
 
 2 Slrype's Grindal, 57-2, No. 9. 
 
 s Sir Simon Degge lellsus,^" That priests' chil- 
 dren, in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth, were 
 fain to be legitimated. In the first and third of 
 King Edward, all laws, statutes, and canons, 
 against the marriage of priests, were made null 
 and void. (See ^ 311, 329.) And by another 
 statute in the fifth and sixth of King Edward, it 
 was adjudged and declared, that the marriage of 
 priests was lawful, and legitimated their children, 
 and made them capable to endow their wives, and 
 to be tenants by courtesy. But these laws were 
 repealed in the first of Queen Mary, and lay re- 
 pealed all Queen Ehzabeth's days, 360,) till the 
 first of King James, and then the latter acts of 
 King Edward were revived, and made perpetual, 
 
 1 
 
 [QUF. ] t 
 
 § 469. With all this, she possessed 
 
 strong feeling of religion, was scnip' 
 lous in the observance of the outwai 
 offices of it, and from the judgment < 
 those who were best able to decide tl i « 
 question,* (as far as one human beit * 
 can form an estimate of another,) al i 
 was truly religious. There is an answm 
 of hers to the House of Commonn 
 towards the end of her reign ; whi -t* 
 marks a most conscientious sovereigi s*; 
 and the excuse for her errors, which si' r*' 
 makes towards the conclusion of it, (ri t * 
 that princes are often deceived by tl > • 
 interested advice of their servants, wl i^i 
 prevent the truth from coming to thenii ri" 
 would be valid in her favour, had n r * 
 the whole political proceedings of tt : • 
 reign placed the broad hand of authori 
 over every attempt which was made 
 remedy evils by free and impartial di 
 cussion. Her great qualities have m . 
 with so many panegyrists, that it is u 
 necessary to dilate upon them. SI 
 was perhaps the greatest monarch wl 
 ever sat on the throne of England ; b 
 the present generation has every reast 
 to congratulate itself, that the real ha 
 piness and prosperity of the subject hai 
 been more substantially consulted in oi 
 own days. 
 
 § 470. The immediate death of Eliz 
 beth was attended with some painful ci 
 cumstances, in the explanation of whk 
 various historians have amused thei 
 selves ; but the ordinary decay of natur i 
 and the sufferings of ill health, in an o « 
 woman who had always followed h ±. 
 own inclinations as much as the quee 
 
 and priests' children made legitimate." (Sirypc 
 Parker, ii. 461.) The act was unrepealed speci 
 cally, but the Injunctions of Elizabeth (% 4C 
 presume the legality of the marriage of priest ii 
 and probably she deemed it virtually repealed 
 the general terms which abrogated all the eccte 
 astical acts of Mary. It is obvious, however, ih 
 churchmen did not think so, for Archbishop Park -M 
 calls his wife Margaret Parker, alias Harleslo 
 and procured the legitimation of his children: b 
 brother was the heir of Mrs. Parker. Elizabe 
 would absolutely have forbidden the marriage i 
 the clergy, if Cecil had not interposed ; she d 
 actually forbid the residence of women with 
 cathedral closes; (Strype's Parker, i. 212 ;) »i 
 when Fletcher, newly made bishop of London, 
 1594, " married a fine lady" as his second wif 
 the queen banished him from court, " as being 
 very indecent act for an elderly clergyman. 
 (Strype's Whitgift, ii. 215.) She was equally a 
 bitrary about the marriage of other persona coi 
 nected with the court. 
 
 Burnet, Ref vi. 388, No. 63. 
 « Camden, Eliz. 635. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
i 
 
 ( AP. X.] 
 
 i •m fully adequate to account for her 
 1 pleasant condition. The earliest ac- 
 |i int of this event which is extant, and 
 ' ;ich is probably derived from the pen 
 ( some one who was present when it 
 <i k place, is as follows:' "The queen 
 1 fur three weeks been labouring 
 I disorder which strong-ly afl^'cted 
 lis, and produced a kind of stupor 
 anied with appearances of in- 
 ; she could not be induced by 
 . i ntreaties, or any contrivance, to 
 I In' effect of medicine; and there 
 1 s much difficulty in persuading her 
 t iisi' such nourishment as was neces- 
 £ V tV)r her animal support. The sleep 
 1 11- h she enjoyed was very little, and 
 t I ii.it taken in bed, but among pillows, 
 ( which she had accustomed herself 
 t recline during whole days without 
 1 vinsj;-: her intellect remained to the 
 1 1, though for three days she was un- 
 1 e to speak." Camden, too, describes 
 
 I r excessive melancholy and depres- 
 j n, and gives the generally received 
 ( inions concerning the cause of it 
 
 I I adds, " And as she had done always 
 fore, in the prime of her age, so now 
 ich more, she refused all help of 
 ysic." She was attended in h^T last 
 urs by Whitgift, Bancroft, and Wat- 
 
 . 1 her almoner, and partook with much 
 I' isl'action of the outward consolations 
 • religion. * " On March 24, she was 
 ' lied out of the prison of her earthly 
 idy, to enjoy an everlasting country in 
 aven, peaceably and quietly leaving 
 IS life, after that happy manner of de- 
 rture which Augustus wished for." 
 §471. In estimating- the state of the 
 urch at this period, when it had now 
 en established for forty years, we caii- 
 t but deplore the little progress which 
 d been made in essentials. The time 
 d been wasted in disputes about un- 
 jiportant matters, and what had been 
 Utled, stood, as far as human institu- 
 ms are concerned, on no firmer basis 
 .an such as the caprice of a monarch 
 I the prevalence of a party might have 
 'stroyed in a moment. The chief 
 ame of this seems to rest with the 
 aders of the puritanic party. There 
 
 I'Slrype's Annals, vii 521, No. 276. Slrype's 
 'hitgif., ii. 466. 
 ' CamJeii's Elizabeth, 659. 
 * Slrype's Win giti, ii. ioti. 
 ' Camden's Elizabeth, 661. 
 
 16S 
 
 were points which they wished to be 
 altered ; and for the sake of effecting 
 their purpose, they allowed themselves, 
 and by their proceedings excited others, 
 to direct their chief efforts towards non- 
 essentials. They saw that the church 
 of Christ was suffering from a want of 
 attention to the important concerns of 
 religion, and they were so far from re- 
 linquishing their prejudices, and coming 
 forward to supply the defect, that they 
 principally exerted themselves in fanning 
 the flame of discord. They were perhaps 
 unwisely dealt with ; they were certainly- 
 treated with severity : but the injudi- 
 cious conduct of their superiors could 
 never be an excuse for their relinquish- 
 ing their posts and duties, could scarcely 
 even palliate the schismatic activity 
 which many of them displayed. The 
 blame of a want of concession, and of 
 harshness of treatment, must be attri- 
 buted first to the queen,' and then to 
 Parker, Aylmer, and Whitgift ; and yet 
 great caution is necessary in speaking 
 of such men as the two archbishops 
 were, to whom our church owes so 
 much. The alteration of opinions, aris- 
 ing from the change of times, makes it 
 very difficult to estimate their conduct 
 fairly : they were both upright, con- 
 scientious men, who had to strive against 
 the jobbing dishonesty of the mass of 
 the courtiers, and against the prejudices 
 and wilfulness of the queen : they were 
 little supported by many of their brethren 
 the bishoi)s : for what with the general 
 ignorance of the times, which furnished 
 no great supply of fit men; with the 
 appointment to ecclesiastical offices from 
 interest rather than merit ; with the 
 temptations to which high situations in 
 the church expose those who fill them; 
 the government in spiritual matters 
 seems to have rested much more on the 
 individual character of the rulers, than 
 is ever to be wished. Nor can it be 
 conceak'd that the ill-conduct of the dig- 
 nified clergy themselves added much to 
 the burden which was imposed on those 
 who held the highest offices in the 
 church. Burleigh, (1575,) in writing to 
 Grindal, says," " that though he liked not 
 the unruly reprehenders of the clergy 
 at this tiiTie, yet he feared the abuse 
 of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, both by 
 
 5 See § 446. « Strype's Grindal, 281. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
166 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X 
 
 bishops and archdeacons, gave too great 
 an occasion to those stoical and irregu- 
 lar rovers to multiply their invectives 
 against the state of our clergy." And 
 in another letter to Whitgift,* when again 
 speaking of filling up preferments, that 
 " he saw such worldliness in many that 
 were otherwise affected before they 
 came to cathedral churches, that he 
 feared the places altered the men." 
 The universities contributed little to 
 remedy or obviate the danger of the 
 times the state of Oxford was deplora- 
 ble ; she was overrun with popery and 
 disorder and Cambridge, to which this 
 
 period owes so much, was, as we have 
 seen, at one moment a prey to puritan- 
 ism, at another engaged in disputes 
 which tended to any thing rather than 
 edification. 
 
 The feeling which the more attentive 
 study of these times is calculated to in- 
 spire, is the conviction of the superin- 
 tendence of Providence over the church 
 of Christ. The exertions of the best of 
 human beings are often misdirected, are 
 oftener thwarted by the evil passions^)/ 
 the interested ; and yet all things work 
 together for good to them that love 
 God. 
 
 A LIST OF THE AUTHENTIC COPIES OF THE THIRTY-NINE 
 ARTICLES, 
 
 
 Size. 
 
 By wbom primed. 
 
 Copies existing. 
 
 Lan- 
 guage. 
 
 By wnom 
 reprinted. 
 
 XLII. 
 1553. 
 
 
 Reg. Wolfe. 
 
 C. C. C. Oxf. 
 Camb., & Pub. 
 Lib. Camb. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Sparrow. 
 
 Lamb. 
 
 Burney.* 
 
 
 
 Grafton. = 
 
 Bodley 
 
 Eng. 
 
 Sparrow. 
 Burney. 
 
 XXXVIII. 
 1563. 
 
 4to. 
 
 Reg. Wolfe. 
 
 Bodley. 3 cop. 
 C. C. C. Oxford. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Burney. 
 
 No date. 
 
 8vo. 
 
 Jugg & Cawood. 
 
 Ch. Ch. Oxford. 
 
 Eng- 
 
 Lamb. 
 
 No date. 
 
 
 
 St. John's Camb. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 XXXIX. 
 1571. 
 
 4to. 
 
 Day 
 
 C. C. C. Camb. 
 Ch. Ch. Bodley. 
 
 Lat. 
 
 Lamb. 
 Sparrow. 
 
 
 
 Jugg & Cawood. 
 
 C.C.C.Camb.& 
 Pub. Lib. Camb. 
 
 Eng. 
 
 Lamb. 
 Burney. 
 
 
 
 
 St. John's & Jes. 
 
 Eng. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Cambridge. 
 
 
 ' Strype's Whitgift, i. 338. 2 ibid. i. 610. 
 ' Strype's Grindal, 196. 
 
 < The reprints to which allusion is here made, 
 are to be found in Sparrow's Collection of Articles 
 a very useful book, but so incorrectly published 
 as to be quite useless on all critical questions. 4io. 
 
 Articles of Religion, &c., printed in 1811, 1 be- 
 
 lieve by Dr. Burney, but unfortunately never 
 published. 4io. 
 
 Dr. Lamb's Historical Account of the Thiny- 
 nine Articles. Camb. 1829, 4to.,a very useful but 
 expensive work. 
 
 5 Sparrow says, John Day. The Catechism it 
 by Day. 
 
HAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 APPENDIX C. TO CHAPTER X. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. 
 
 U. The Forty-two Articles. 4«2. Probably framed by Cranmer. 483. Taken partly from the 
 Augsburg Confession. 484. Not sanctioned by convocation. 485. Parker prepares the articles 
 for convocation ; subscription required. 486. The controverted clause in the twentieth article. 
 487. Idea of the author. 488. Laud, not to blame about the article. 
 
 § 481. Although the value which 
 
 e attach to the Thirty-nine Articles 
 lUst depend on other grounds than the 
 ithoriiy to which they owe their ex- 
 
 tence, or our respect for the individu- 
 
 s by whom they were framed ; yet the 
 istoi v of their composition and the de- 
 iiis which attended the original publi- 
 itioii and revision of them, can never 
 lil to be interesting and instructive. 
 
 The Articles of our Church were first 
 ublished in the year 1553 they came 
 ;)rth under the title, "The articles 
 greed upon by the bishops and other 
 •arned and godly men, in the last con- 
 ocation at London, in the year of our 
 lOrd MDLIL, for to root out the dis- 
 ord of opinions, and establish the 
 greement of true religion ; likewise 
 ublished by the king's majesty's au- 
 lority, 15.53." They were published 
 Dgether with a short Catechism, (§ 331,) 
 nd were printed, as well as the Cate- 
 hisin, in Latin and English. They 
 rere in number forty-two, and do not 
 xactly correspond with the present 
 .^hirty-nine. The accounts which have 
 leen handed down to us of their first 
 omposition are involved in so much 
 incertainty, that what is generally re- 
 eived concerning them is more worthy 
 fthe name of tradition than of history. 
 
 § 482. The power which had been 
 iriginally granted to Henry VIIL," of 
 ippointing n committee for the forma- 
 ion of ecclesiastical laws, and of which 
 10 use was made during his reign, was 
 enewed in 1549 to Edward VL, by an 
 ict of parliament which limited its dura- 
 ion to the space of three years.' 
 
 (a. d. 1551.) The committee was ac- 
 
 ' Lamb, 3. 2 Strype's Cranmer, 388. 
 
 ' The fruit of the labours of this committee are 
 Published in the Reformatio Le^um Ecclesiaslica- 
 tim, i 435, The early sections contain the doc- 
 rines of the Thirty-nine Articles, but the words 
 used are not the same. They may indeed be 
 Jeemed an authorized expression of the meaning 
 n our articles. 
 
 tually appointed Oct. 6th, "And this 
 year the archbishop was directed to 
 draw up a book of Articles for preserv- 
 ing and maintaining peace and unity 
 of doctrine in the church; that being 
 finished, they might be set forth by 
 public authority." This he did, and 
 they were delivered " to other bishops 
 to be inspected and subscribed, I sup- 
 pose by them."* (a. d. 1552.) In the 
 May following, the archbishop was di- 
 rected by the council to send the Ar- 
 ticles, and to signify whether the same 
 were set forth by any authority ; allud- 
 ing, probably, to the power vested in 
 the commissioners by the act of 1549, 
 and which would continue in force till the 
 end of 1552. In September the arch- 
 bishop sent the book which he had now 
 set in order, by supplying what was 
 wanting, and prefixing titles to the seve- 
 ral articles, to Sir William Cecil and Sir 
 John Cheke,* desiring them to take the 
 same into their serious consideration, 
 and to present them to the king. They, 
 however, imagined that it would be 
 better for the metropolitan to offer them 
 himself; and he did so. In October a 
 letter was addressed by the council to 
 Harley, Bell, Horn, Grindal, Pern, and 
 Knox, to consider certain articles, which 
 could hardly be any other than these. 
 The archbishop received the articles 
 from the council Nov. 23d, and sent 
 them back on the 24th, expressing, at the 
 
 The first sketch of the articles was prepared 
 in the summer of 1551 ; but it seems not lo have 
 contained the whole of the articles which were 
 published in the spring of 1553. The five first, 
 the IXth, Xth, and XVIIth, were wanting; and 
 the clause in the XXVIIIth, (the XXIXth of the 
 Forty-two,) against consubstantiation, or the ubi- 
 quity of Christ's body, was added, which was 
 subsequently omitted in 1563. (Laurence's Bampt. 
 Lect. 228, and p. 39 ) These circumstances are 
 gathered from a book published at Antwerp in 
 1564, giving an account of a dispute which had 
 been held between Hooper and two of his pre- 
 bendaries, on the subject of these articles, in 1552. 
 (Strype's Cranmer, 390.) 
 « Strype's Cranmer, 391. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 same time, a wish that the bishops 
 might be empowered to require sub- 
 scription to them. All these details, 
 which form the whole which is known 
 of the composition of the Articles, 
 strongly tend to confirm the idea that 
 they were composed by Cranmer him- 
 self; and when he was examined before 
 the commissioners appointed during the 
 reign of Q,ueen Mary,' he acknowledged 
 " that they were his doings." He is 
 generally said to have made use of the 
 assistance of Bishop Ridley, and the 
 draft of them might probably have been 
 submitted to the inspection of other di- 
 vines ; but it is quite uncertain whether 
 they received any alterations from these 
 persons, or whether they were even 
 examined by them. It is indeed most 
 probable that this was the case : for in 
 the letter of Edward VI., dated June 9, 
 1553, and addressed to the bishops, 
 they are called " Certain Articles de- 
 vised and gathered with great study,* 
 and by counsel and good advice of the 
 greatest learned part of our bishops of 
 this realm, and sundry others of our cler- 
 gy ;" expressions which would hardly 
 have been used, unless more bishops 
 than Cranmer and Ridley had been 
 concerned in their preparation. 
 
 § 48:1. Whether they were composed 
 by Cranmer, or were drawn up by any 
 other hand, it ivill be curious to inquire 
 from what sources they are chiefly de- 
 rived, since it is not probable that a man 
 possessed of so much caution as marked 
 the general conduct of the archbishop, 
 would have suffered a document to be 
 prepared, which was intended to convey 
 the authoritative opinion of the church 
 of England, without consulting, and 
 perhaps imitating works of the same 
 description which had already been re- 
 ceived among the most distinguished 
 of the reformers. 
 
 (a. d. 15;}().) Whatever use he might 
 have made of the Helvetic Confession' 
 in forming his own opinions, he does 
 not appear to have introduced it into 
 the work in which he was engaged : but 
 with regard to the Confession of Augs- 
 burg, (1531), printed 1531, and repub- 
 lished with alterations 1540,) there is 
 not only a general agreement m doc- 
 
 ' Strype's Cranmer, 390, ch. xxvii. 
 2 Sirype's Mein. I[. li. 105. 
 ' See Sylloge Confes&ionum. 
 
 trine, but in many places the very 
 words of the one are transferred into 
 the other.* Several of the present ar- 
 ticles are taken from papers drawn up 
 by the committee of doctrines,^ 1540; 
 but as these do in two instances corre- 
 spond also with the Augsburg Confes- 
 sion, it is not improbable that they like- 
 wise owe their origin to the pen of the 
 archbishop himself. We may also con- 
 clude that the Xlth Article, on Justifi- 
 cation, is drawn from no other source 
 than the laborious investigations of Cran- 
 mer. In a book of his own, wherein he 
 had written out a large collection of 
 quotations from Holy Scripture as weH 
 as from different authors," he sums up 
 the argument in words corresponding, 
 in a great degree, with those of the 
 article ; and reference is made in the 
 same article to the Homily on Salvation, 
 though under a false title, which is gene- 
 rally esteemed to be the production of 
 Cranmer. With regard to the XVIIth 
 article, great uncertainty prevails con- 
 cerning the author ; yet there are some 
 passages in the works of Luther and 
 Melancthon, which, from the similarity 
 of idea, and occasionally of expression, 
 if they formed not a text on which the 
 framers of the articles commented, mighl 
 at least have been in their view when 
 engaged in the composition of it,' and 
 
 Ariiclea I. and II. of the Thirty-nine are ob- 
 viously taken from articles I. and III. of the Con- 
 fession : the first sentence of XXV., and most of 
 XXXI., agree, in above half the words which 
 iliey contain, with expressions used in the Augs- 
 burg Confession; the IXth and XVIthare princi- 
 pally derived froin the same source. Articles IV. 
 XIV. XXIII. XXVI. XXXII. XXXIV. contain 
 expressions which leave Uttle doubt in the mind 
 (hat the Augsburg Confession was famihar to the 
 person who was drawing them up. Articles XXIV. 
 and XXX. might be added to these, but they 
 were introduced by Archbishop Parker, and are 
 not in the Forty-two Articles. The article OD 
 the Holy Ghost (V.) is wanting in the Augsbuig 
 Confession, and so it is in the Forty-two. The 
 term ex opere operate occurs in the Article of the 
 Forty-two which corresponds with the present 
 XXVth, and the same term exists in the Xlllth 
 article of the Augsburg Confession. The verbal 
 correspondence is more strongly marked by com- 
 paring these coincidences with those parts of the 
 Helvetic Confession, in which the same ideas are 
 conveyed in very dissimilar language. See Apo- 
 crypha, 17; Triniiy, 20; Predestination, 34. 
 
 5 Sirype's Mem. I. ii. 442, No. 112. 
 
 6 Burnet, i. 288 fol., 522, 8vo. 
 
 ' Luther wrote his preface to the Epistle to the 
 Romans in German, and it was translated into 
 Lai in by Justus Jonas, 1523. The quotation is 
 long, but too curious to be omitted. I have to 
 
lAP. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 169 
 
 ive little doubt that it was derived 
 nil the German school of theology. 
 § 484. From the title under which 
 • Articles were originally published, 
 might be supposed that they derived 
 ;ir authority from the sanction of 
 . nvocation ; but if they were ever sub- 
 : tted to the upper house, which is very 
 ( estionable, it is indubitable that they 
 ic never brought before the lower; 
 nil' all the original mandates which 
 iKiiu, prove that they were promul- 
 j ted by a royal proclamation alone.' 
 ' leir publication, however, was so ra- 
 ] Uy followed by the re-establishment 
 J popery under Q,ueen Mary,'' that only 
 I' mall part of the clergy ever actually 
 I bscribed them. 
 
 §48.5. (a. D. J.562.) The examination 
 (' the Articles early engaged the atten- 
 (in of the church when it was re-esta- 
 l! shed in the reign of Elizabeth ; and 
 lb task of remodelling them, and of 
 !i iking such alterations as circum- 
 (Lnces, or a further view of the subject, 
 Ijght dictate, fell into the hands of 
 
 nk my friend Dr. Burton for pointing it out to 
 . (Works, Witeb. 1554, v. 100.) 
 ' El liaec eerie stabilis sentenlia et immota prae- 
 ilinaiionis necessitas summe necessaria est. 
 m imbecilles enim sumus, ut si in nostris mani- 
 5 silum esset, paucissimi aut nulli salvarenlur, 
 bolus enim omnes vinceret. Nunc cum hsc 
 bilis et certissima Dei sententia muiari non 
 isit, nec ab ulla creatura convelli, tum eerie 
 'S est nobis reliqua, landem vincendi peccati, 
 iniumvis etiam nunc in carne saeviat. 
 ' At hie curiosuli illi habenis cohibendi sunt, 
 ; antequam Christum et virtuiem crucisdiscant, 
 f ssum illam prsedestinalionis scrutantur, et num 
 edestinati sint neene, frusira investigant. Nam 
 haud dubie in confusionem conscientia aut des- 
 •ationem, sua hac inepta curiasitate ducent et 
 tripitabunt seipsos. Ta veto in ratione discen- 
 rum sacrarum rerum. sequere seriem et ordinem 
 Iradilum ab Aposlolo. 
 
 " Priraum disce eognitionem Chrisli, ut agnos- 
 
 i omnes vires luas nihil valere nisi ad peccandum. 
 !inde ut per fidem cum carne lua assidue lucie- 
 , quemadmodum, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, capite 
 cuil. Mo.x cum ad caput 8 perveneris, hoc 
 , ubi crucem et tribulaiiones experlus fueris, 
 nc mortificationem esse salutarem et repelen- 
 m, turn primum dulcescet necessitas hip.c prae- 
 stinationis, tum primum seniles in 9, 10, et 11, 
 imjiletm consulationis sit priEdeslinalio. Nam 
 
 ii tribulationem expertus sis, nisi ad porias inferi 
 quando, ut in Davide et aliis sanclis videmus, 
 ctum te senseris, non poteris banc prmdeslina- 
 mis senlenliam. sine periculo et blasphemo quo- 
 m fremitu naturie contra Deum tractare." 
 The passages from Melancthon, and another 
 )m Luther, are printed by Archbishop Lau- 
 ncc, (Bampt. Lect. notes 4 and 6. Serm. viii. 
 0, &c.) 
 
 ' Strype's Cranmer, 432. Mem. II. ii. 24, 278. 
 ' Cranmer, 422. 
 
 22 
 
 Archbishop Parker. The method which 
 was pursued in this work was as fol- 
 lows. He prepared a copy of the Ar- 
 ticles for the e.xamination of the convo- 
 cation,^ into which he introduced con- 
 siderable alterations of his own ; he 
 omitted four of those of King Edward 
 
 VI. , which formed the Xth, XVIth, 
 XlXth, and XLIst, of the Forty-two. 
 He introduced four new ones, V. XII. 
 XXIX. XXX. ; and altered, more or 
 less, seventeen of the others, II. VI. 
 
 VII. IX. X. XI. XVII. XXII. XXIV. 
 XXV. XXVII. XXVIII. XXXII. 
 XXXIV. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII.* 
 The convocation which met on January 
 11, (150;i,) made several aherations in 
 this copy prepared by Parker. They 
 omitted XL. XLI. and XLII. ; and when 
 they were printed, the XXIXth also was 
 left out; they aUered III. IX. XXI. 
 XXV. XXVIII. XXXIV., and the title 
 of XVI. The Articles so changed were 
 subscribed by the upper house of con- 
 vocation on the 2'Jth, and by the lower 
 house on the 5th of February. They 
 were printed in Latin and in English, 
 and consist of XXXVIII. 
 
 (a. d. 1566.) An attempt was after- 
 wards made to bring in a bill for uni- 
 formity of doctrine,^ by requiring the 
 clergy to subscribe the Articles of Re- 
 ligion ; it passed the commons, but was 
 stopped in the lords by the queen, who 
 deemed it an infringement on her eccle- 
 siastical supremacy. 
 
 In 1571, the same attempt was again 
 made on the part of the commons ;" and 
 Elizabeth, with that wisdom which 
 marked her whole government, with- 
 drew an opposition which would pro- 
 
 3 Lamb, 13. 
 Many of ihese alterations are taken from the 
 Wiriemberg Confession, which was composed in 
 1551, and in the following year exhibited in the 
 Council of Trent ; e. g. part of ihe Ild, the Vth, 
 Vlih, Xih, Xlih. Xllih. The anhbishnp of 
 Cashel adds ihe XXih. (Laurence's Bompton 
 Lect. 233.) I almost doubt of this. The sense ia 
 the same, not the words. The only changes 
 which are worthy of remark, from proving any 
 alteration in point of doctrine, are to he found in 
 the Vlih and the XXVIIIih. The Vlth is less 
 favourable to traditions, and draws the distinciion 
 between the canonical and apocryphal scriptures; 
 and the XXVIIIth leaves out a sentence ronira- 
 diclory of consubstantiation or ubiquilinarianism. 
 Burnet can hardly be correct in his supposition 
 that this was done to please the Roman Caiholicsi 
 Transubsianiiation is denied in the sentence be- 
 fore, which is not altered. 
 
 ' Lamb, 24. « Ibid. 35. 
 
 P 
 
170 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X. 
 
 bably have had no other effect than that 
 of entailing upon herself an ultimate 
 defeat. The Articles which the clergy 
 are by this act called upon to subscribe 
 are designated as comprised in a book- 
 imprinted, intituled, "Articles," &c. 
 butthe extent of thesubscription is again 
 limited, by their being subsequently 
 confined to those " which only concern 
 the confession of the true Christian faith, 
 and the doctrine of the sacraments" 
 comprised, &c. ; by which expressions 
 the XlXth, XXth, XXX Vth, and 
 XXXVIth are virtually excluded. In 
 the convocation which was sitting at the 
 same time, Parker commenced a review 
 of the Articles, for the purpose of sanc- 
 tioning, by the authority of convocation, 
 the Articles to which subscription should 
 be required of the clergy. When some 
 trifling alteration had been made, and 
 the XXIXth article restored, these Ar- 
 ticles, then consisting of the present 
 XXXIX, were subscribed by the upper 
 house on the eleventh of May, and after- 
 wards published under the superintend- 
 ence of Bishop Jewel,'' and the ratifica- 
 tion with which they now conclude was 
 added. But it is very extraordinary 
 that disputes have arisen, and the great- 
 est uncertainty still prevails, as to the 
 copy of the Articles which may be 
 deemed the authorized one, from this 
 period till the point was virtually settled 
 by the canons passed in the convocation 
 of 1G04. 
 
 § 486. The records of the English 
 convocations were unfortunately burnt 
 at the fire of London in 1(56G, so that it 
 is impossible to refer to the original do- 
 cuments: and the manuscript and print- 
 ed copies of them exhibit such variety 
 as tends rather to involve the question 
 in greater difficulty. 
 
 The disputed clause is that with which 
 the XXth Article now commences. 
 
 " Habet ecclesia ritus sive caeremo- 
 nias" statuendi jus, et in fidei controver- 
 siis auctoritatem ; quamvis" Ecclesise 
 non licet, &c. 
 
 ' This can be no other ihan hat pubHshed 1563, 
 by Jugg and Cawood. whir h does not contain the 
 controverted clause of the XXih Article. See ^486. 
 
 ' Bishop Jewel made several minute corrections 
 of the Articles, which may l>e seen in Lamh, p 30, ■ 
 and put the finishing hand to our present Articles. | 
 
 ' It is curious that the words sive raremnnias do , 
 not exist in Wolfe's edition of 1563, nor in the j 
 transcript from the records of convocation 1562, 1 
 
 " The church hath power to decree 
 rites and ceremonies, and authority in 
 controversies of faith ; and yet" it is not 
 lawful for the church, &c. 
 
 The testimonies concerning the au- 
 thenticity of this clause are as follows; 
 
 It is not found, 
 
 1. In the Latin manuscript signed ty 
 the archbishops and bishops in the con- 
 vocation, 15()2. 
 
 2. In the English editions of Jugg 
 and Cawood, 15G3,* 
 
 3. In the English manuscript signed 
 by the archbishop of Canterbury and 
 bishops in the convocation of 1.571. 
 
 4. In the Latin edition^ Published un- 
 of Day, 1571. . der the di- 
 
 5. In the English edi- > rection of 
 tion of Juge and Ca- Bishop 
 wood, 1571." J Jewel. 
 
 It is found, 
 
 1. In the Latin edition of Wolfe of 
 1563. 
 
 2. In one (or two ?) of the later edi- 
 tions of Jugg and Cawood of 1571. 
 
 3. And appears frequently after 1579.' 
 (a. d. 1637.) But in the examination 
 
 of Land, when the question was agi- 
 tated,^ a declaration of a notary public 
 was produced before the star chamber, 
 which testified that the clause did exist 
 in the authoritative copy of the acts of 
 the convocation, 1562, then still remain- 
 ing in St. Paul's. (See the previons 
 note.^) 
 
 § 487. If then, in order to reconciK 
 these conflicting testimonies, and ib 
 mark the grounds of his own opinion of 
 the authenticity of the clause, a writer 
 may be allowed to hazard a conjecture, 
 he must state that he believes the clause 
 to be in a certain degree genuine, and 
 to have been inserted' through that un- 
 questioned sort of supremacy which was 
 
 produced at Laud's trial. The word Jvs too is 
 translated pouier, a inethod of rendering it to which 
 many an honest puriian might readily have as- 
 sented, by allowing that the church had the power, 
 but no right. 
 * Lamb. 37. 
 
 5 Historical and Critical Essay, art. XXXIX. 
 
 6 Bennet on the Thirty-nine Articles, 167. 
 
 ' That this was done by Elizabeth may be pre- 
 sumed from the following internal evidence. The 
 clause itself is in strict correspondence with the 
 prepossessions of a child of Henry VIH. ; the 
 XXIXth article was omitted at the same times 
 and Elizabeth is well known to have been favour- 
 able to the idea of the corporal presence — witness 
 the exclusion of the rubric at the end of the Com- 
 munion Service in 1560 ; but the subscription at 
 
3hap. X.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 171 
 
 •xercised by Elizabeth in ecclesiastical 
 natters, and imagines that the discre- 
 )ancies arose from the carelessness' of 
 hose wJio ought to have compared the 
 'mtries in the records of the two houses 
 (f convocation : his conjecture then is 
 iS follows. 
 
 I In 15()2, Archbishop Parker and the 
 |)ishops sent down a copy of the Articles 
 
 o the lower house, not containing the 
 :;ontroverted clause in the XXth article, 
 )ut containing the XXIXth article. The 
 ower house then, or at least those who 
 
 opictl their records, by the direction of 
 Elizabeth, inserted the clause in the 
 'tXth, and left out the XXIXth article. 
 And the Articles so altered were pub- 
 •ished by Wolfe, 1.563, in Latin, under 
 he immediate authority of the queen 
 < lerself." And it is presumed that the 
 j^nglish editions published by Jugg and 
 bawood were edited nominally by the 
 |ueen's authority, but really from a 
 iocumeni furnished by some of the 
 oishops, ivhich was altered as to the 
 ^XlXtti, but not as to the insertion of 
 he clause in the XXth. 
 
 'it is assumed, then, that this difTer- 
 !nce was either not observed, or not 
 iiuch regarded, and that the House of 
 Commons, in 1566 and 1571, used the 
 English as the authentic copy, and that 
 
 he end (2) seems almost to leave the question 
 A-iihoiii a doubt. It is hardly necessary perhaps 
 0 siuie, that the greater part of the reasoning on 
 .bis question is due to Dr. Lamb's book. 
 
 ' As a proof of the carelessness with which per- 
 sons will assert the agreement of documents of 
 which they have no reason to suspect the discre- 
 pancy, it may be observed that Strype (Ann. I. i. 
 m.) calls the C. C. C. Camb. manuscript of 
 Parker's, "a draft of king Edward's Articles, 
 accurately writ out," whereas there are difTerences 
 amounting to eight whole articles and seventeen 
 variaiions. 
 
 I ' At the end of this edition is the following no- 
 tice; " Quibus omnibus ArticulisserenissimaPrin- 
 ceps Elizabeth, Dei gratia Anglise, Franciae, ei 
 Hiberniae, regina, fidei defensor, &c., per seipsam 
 diligenier prius lectis et examinalis regium suum 
 assciisiim praebuit." 
 ^) 485,1. 
 
 Archbishop Parker* did the same when 
 the Articles were written out, to be 
 brought before the upper house of con- 
 vocation, in the same year 1571. Thus 
 then the discrepancy was continued in 
 the records of the upper house, and in 
 the editions published under the direc- 
 tion of Bishop Jewel. And it is pro- 
 bable that the printers, when they found 
 that there was a difference, at first print- 
 ed in both forms, to supply the wishes 
 of their several customers, and after- 
 wards frequently inserted the clause,* 
 till the edition was published in Oxford, 
 when Prideaux was vice-chancellor, 
 which occasioned the discussion. 
 
 § 488. The clause then may be con- 
 sidered genuine, as far as Laud is con- 
 cerned ; for it was originally published 
 by the authority of the queen, although 
 it had probably never passed through 
 the upper house of convocation. Add 
 to which, that with regard to ecclesiasti- 
 cal affairs, the authority of the copy of 
 the XXXIX Articles must in 1634 have 
 depended on the clause in the 36th ca- 
 non of 1604, and that edition of the Ar- 
 ticles which the two houses then sub- 
 scribed ; and this was that of Day, of 
 1593, which does contain the contro- 
 verted clause. The question, therefore, 
 as far as Laud was concerned, or as far 
 as relates to our subscription in the pre- 
 sent day, seems to be set at rest ; but it 
 seems equally clear that Archbishop 
 Parker and the bishops did not mean 
 to authorize this clause in 1562 or 1571, 
 for they introduced that at the end of 
 the XXXIVth article, which contains a 
 milder assertion of the same doctrine, 
 and which appears almost a tautology 
 as the Articles stand at present. 
 
 * We must either suppose that Archbishop Par- 
 ker did this by inadvertency, or that he presumed 
 to oppose the wishes of the queen; the former 
 supposition seems the least liable to objection, aa 
 the attention of the bishops would not be drawn 
 to a question which had never been agitated. 
 
 * Lamb, 36. 
 
179 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XL 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 491. Reformation in England and Scotland compared ; gradual in England ; 492, and carried on in 
 connection with the government. 493. Rapid in Scotland, and resisted by the crown and the 
 church ; objects of Cardinal Beaton ; his persecution of Wishart ; and, 494, own death; siege of 
 St. Andrew's; the French and English take part in the contest ; iheplansof each ; the congregation 
 established; the use of the Common Prayer enjoined. 495. Arrival of Knox ; his character ; esta- 
 lishment of the Reformation ; the power by which it was established marked the character of it; 
 its political independence, and difference from the church of England in this respect. 496. The 
 fault of his principles. 497. General view of the Reformation ; opposition lo government. 
 498. Preference to be given to the Reformation in England. 
 
 § 491. It will hardly be possible to 
 understand clearly the mutual bearings 
 of the two churches, which are now 
 amicably flourishing within the same 
 island, and which have contributed 
 much to the injury of each other, with- 
 out taking a general view of the Refor- 
 mation as it had been carried on in 
 Scotland.* The events which there 
 contributed to throw down the power 
 of the church of Rome, are so totally 
 different from those which produced the 
 same effect in England, that it was 
 scarcely to be expected that the two 
 nations should regard their church in 
 the same light; and, as the conduct of 
 the mass of any people must in a great 
 measure depend on the ideas prevalent 
 among them, we shall perhaps obtain 
 the object which we have in view most 
 easily, by examining the more striking 
 features which distinguished the two 
 Reformations. The limits of this work 
 preclude the idea of entering into any 
 history of the Reformation in Scotland ; 
 but a few pages may enable us to esti- 
 mate the causes which produced that 
 marked dissimilarity between these two 
 events ; and to account, in a certain 
 degree, for the existence of prejudices 
 and opinions fundamentally different 
 from each other. 
 
 The seeds of the Reformation must 
 have been sown in every country where 
 mankind had begun to reason for them- 
 selves, and where such abuses existed 
 as could not fail to attract the notice of 
 the most careless, and to excite the re- 
 gret of all who wished well to religion. 
 But the necessity of a total change in 
 
 .' The reader is referred to Cook's History of the 
 Reformation in Scotland, and McCric's Life of 
 Knox ; more particular reference is hardly re- 
 quired concerning remarks so general as those 
 which are here made. 
 
 the whole system, the unsoundness of 
 the very foundations on which the pa- 
 pal power was built, would have been 
 discovered at very different periods by 
 different individuals or different nations, 
 and have given rise to very different 
 opinions as to the methods by which 
 the change was to be effected. All 
 truths, and particularly moral truths, 
 are likely to be disseminated lo the 
 greatest advantage when the process is 
 slow, and when the several steps are 
 gradually communicated to those most 
 interested in their admission or rejec- 
 tion. In England, the class of reform- 
 ers was numerous long before the time 
 of Luther. It is not of consequence 
 to the argument whether any of the 
 light spread throughout Germany were 
 borrowed from England ; but most cer- 
 tainly the Bible was appealed to ia 
 England as the standard of opinion long 
 before the dawn of the Reformation in 
 Germany.'' The English reformers 
 had advanced but few steps in the pro- 
 gress of the Reformation ; but these 
 points were to a certain degree est* 
 blished long before they were to be 
 brought forward as the basis of a new 
 system. Nor was the knowledge ne- 
 cessary for preparing the minds of the 
 people for the Reformation confined to 
 any small portion of society ; it was 
 generally diffused, and therefore par- 
 tially admitted, by many who were not 
 prepared to receive it entirely ; and 
 
 ^ Without referring to the time of Wiclif and 
 the prevalence of his opinions, which bad never 
 been eradicated from England, it may be remem- 
 bered, that Warham, in 1510 and 1511, com- 
 pelled many persons to recant opinions which are 
 now universally admitted among Protestants, and 
 that several persons more were condemned to 
 death. See Burnet. Instances of persons burnt 
 before 1517 may be found in Fox, vol. ii.; e.g.. 
 Sweeting and Brewster in 1511. 
 
Chap. XL] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 173 
 
 persons so affected are much more 
 likely to use moderation in their pro- 
 ceedings, than those on whom the force 
 of truth has suddenly broken in, and 
 carried off perhaps some things which 
 are valuable, as well as the errors which 
 had been before received. The worst 
 of systems, which has been long esta- 
 ' blished, must possess some advantages, 
 ; which it would be unwise to destroy 
 unnecessarily ; and the most perfect 
 may require such a perfection in those 
 who adopt it, as to render the use of it, 
 if suddenly imposed, dangerous in the 
 extreme. Every system of human af- 
 fairs must require a constant change ; 
 and that government in church or state 
 is best, which provides that the changes 
 I shall be moderated by prudence, and 
 I not received till their necessity is appa- 
 ' rent. A wise and good government 
 will endeavour to guide the opinions of 
 its subjects, a bad one will try to resist 
 them ; but, in human affairs, that nation 
 may be deemed fortunate in which 
 the government gradually follows the 
 progress of the opinions of its more 
 enlightened subjects. 
 
 § 492. In England, it was not any 
 wisdom in his plans of government 
 which induced Henry VIII. to destroy 
 the papal power ; but the providence 
 of God made the passions of the mo- 
 ' narch take the same direction as the 
 : wishes of the more enlightened of his 
 subjects. The friend of^ the Reforma- 
 tion, the moderate Roman Catholic, and 
 ' the political patriot, who regarded not 
 the interests of religion, all wished that 
 the temporal authority of the pope 
 ' should be discarded, and the prospect 
 ' of a divorce contributed to inspire the 
 king with the same desire. The same 
 
 ■ parties beheld the excessive power and 
 ' Wealth of the clergy, and they wished 
 ' therefore that this should be diminished ; 
 
 they had different objects in view, and 
 ' possessed, perhaps, different opinions 
 
 as to the method in which this alteration 
 ' should take place ; but their combined 
 i wishes coincided with the rapacity and 
 I avarice which made the king regard- 
 [ less of justice and of policy. The acts, 
 
 ■ therefore, of the government not only 
 1 agreed with the wishes of the more en- 
 lightened members of society, but pro- 
 
 ' bably opened the eyes of many who 
 were ready to observe these advantages 
 
 when placed before them. Henry did 
 
 not innovate so much as the reformers 
 would have desired, but he outstepped, 
 the wishes of the Roman Catholics. 
 He could not be said to guide the opi- 
 nions of the country, but the acts of the 
 government lay between the extremes 
 into which the parties which composed 
 it would have fallen ; and therefore the 
 Reformation, as far as it proceeded dur- 
 ing the reign of Henry, tended not only 
 to remedy actual abuses, but to render 
 the opinions of the people better pre- 
 pared for estimating or directing future 
 amendments. It left the sincere and 
 enlightened Protestant exposed to per- 
 secution ; but it had paved the way for 
 real reformation, by destroying the only 
 power which could have effectually re- 
 sisted it ; and by showing the world, 
 not only that reformation was required, 
 but that it might be carried on benefi- 
 cially. It made the friends of reform 
 cautious, and the opponents of it more 
 moderate. 
 
 § 493. The course of events which 
 took place in Scotland were at total 
 variance with these circumstances. Dr. 
 Cook begins his History of the Reforma- 
 tion in Scotland (1528) with the martyr- 
 dom of Patrick Hamilton, who had 
 derived many of his opinions from Ger- 
 many, and received them from men who 
 had already proceeded to extremities in 
 rejecting the Roman authority. The 
 greatest caution was necessary on the 
 part of one Avhose heart was bent on in- 
 troducing the truths of the Reformation 
 into his native country, in consequence 
 of the violence which even the appear- 
 ance of favour towards the doctrines of 
 the reformers excited among the clergy: 
 but all his prudence and caution were 
 rendered useless through the treachery 
 with which he was assailed ; and Camp- 
 bell, who first insinuated himself into 
 the confidence of Hamilton, and then 
 betrayed him, not only disgusted the 
 feelings of the communhy, but his own 
 subsequent fate and that of Hamilton 
 formed a striking contrast, and tended 
 to fix in the minds of the nation a dislike 
 to the persecuting, and a love for the 
 suffering portion into which the church 
 was divided. Campbell having wit- 
 nessed the burning of Hamilton was so 
 conscience struck, that he died in a state 
 of insanity or despair. This may be 
 p2 
 
174 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XL 
 
 deemed the commencement of the Re- 
 formation, and the effects of such a per- 
 secution rendered further severities more 
 and more necessary, while the political 
 circumstances of the country prevented 
 the possibility of carrying them on. 
 They were renewed, however, after five 
 years ; and Forest, a Benedictine friar, 
 was convicted of heresy by means 
 equally disgraceful as those with which 
 the condemnation of Hamilton had been 
 connected ; his private confessions to a 
 priest formed the ground of his con- 
 demnation. The persecution was by no 
 means confined to this victim; but the 
 minds of the people were excited by 
 this combination of cruelty and treach- 
 ery ; and in addition to the general 
 causes which contributed to spread the 
 Reformation, the property of the church 
 disposed the nobility to favour opinions, 
 which held out the hopes of converting 
 this superfluous wealth into a means of 
 enriching themselves. 
 
 The crown, on the other hand, could 
 not help regarding the church as the 
 easiest means by which it might hope to 
 control the aristocracy, and James V. 
 supported the clergy with the view of 
 emancipating himself from that thraldom 
 in which he was held by his barons ; 
 and to conciliate the favour of the church, 
 he suffered them to persecute the Re- 
 formers, and intrusted most of the offices 
 of the state to their administration. The 
 power of the crown was in England 
 enormous during this same period, for 
 the power of the nobility had been pre- 
 viously reduced, and the king joined 
 himself to the other branches of his sub- 
 jects in attempting to destroy the exor- 
 bitant influence of the church ; whereas 
 in Scotland the king endeavoured to 
 shelter his own weakness by calling in 
 the aid of the clergy. This was the 
 state of things when Cardinal Beaton 
 became primate ; and he entered on his 
 office with the determination of rooting 
 out heresy, and re-establishing the power 
 of the pope ; but his proceedings tended 
 only to increase the number of those 
 who became hostile in their feelings to 
 the government. The death of the king 
 and the intrigues of the cardinal had 
 nearly thrown tiie whole authority of 
 the kingdom into the hands of Beaton ; 
 but the manner in which Arran after- 
 wards attached himself to him, and the 
 
 severities which as regent and primate 
 they were together enabled to inflict, 
 united a much larger portion of the 
 nation in hostility to the legal authority 
 of the kingdom, than almost any other 
 combination of circumstances could have 
 effected. Many an enlightened and sin- 
 cere Roman Catholic might have been 
 pleased with the progress of events ia 
 England, he might have hoped that his 
 own religion would have been estab- 
 lished, while the political pretensions (/ 
 Rome were discarded. In Scotland he 
 could have expected nothing favourable 
 to it, but from the suppression of the 
 whole power of the Reformers. In 
 England, the man who wished to fre« 
 his country from papal influence, would 
 have joined himself to the king. In Scot- 
 land, this man could have entertained 
 no hope of success, but in destroying the 
 Roman Catholic church and reducing 
 the power of the crown. In Englandi 
 the higher members of the church were 
 divided between reformers and anti-re- 
 formers, and their power was nearly ba- 
 lanced. The changes, therefore, which 
 did take place in England were effected 
 by the councils of the government. In 
 Scotland, the more exalted members of 
 the church, whose opinions coincided 
 with those of the Reformation, could 
 only be safe by throwing their whole 
 influence into the hands of the party 
 which was opposed to the crown. (1546.) 
 It was not wonderful that Cardinal Bea- 
 ton should misunderstand the power 
 which religion possessed in the country, 
 or that he should hope to suppress it by 
 severity ; but it was extraordinary that 
 he should so act as to throw the whole 
 of the sticma on the church, and en- 
 danger a separation between that body 
 and the authority of the crown ; and the 
 victim whom he selected, and his own 
 dreadful fate, produced a very marked' 
 effect on the subsequent character of 
 the Reformation in Scotland. George 
 Wishart was possessed of those quahties 
 which peculiarly rendered him an object 
 of pity : he was well born, had received 
 a good education, (he had resided in 
 Cambridge, and travelled into Ger- 
 many,) while his personal qualifications 
 corresponded with his literarj- acquire- 
 ments, and he had begun to preach the 
 Gospel successfully at Dundee. His 
 apprehension, too, was accompanied 
 
u'. XL] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 176 
 
 h a certain des^ree of treachery; for 
 ill well, (the father,) when Wishart 
 
 ■ ^ surrendered into his hands, promised 
 ! answer for his safety, and his execu- 
 I II was accompanied with many irri- 
 1 \i\<j: circumstances ; it was carried on, 
 
 nly without the concurrence of the 
 iwer, but in opposition to the 
 if the regent Arran ; and the pre- 
 lio condemned him were them- 
 present when he died.' 
 !. All these circumstances con- 
 ! ' <l to create so strong a hatred 
 I ainst Beaton, that in a short time he 
 
 ■ s 1 1 cacherously murdered in his own 
 
 ; and the conspirators, retaining 
 on of the fortress, commenced 
 • II resistance to the government 
 iich the whole of the Scotch Rc- 
 •n was accompanied. The con- 
 rs who defended St. Andrew's, 
 ' advocates of the Reformation, 
 I 'J aged in open hostility against 
 v.rnment of the country; the 
 ' i w hich was shown them by Henry 
 :! ' \cited a corresponding exertion 
 I. part of the friends of the papacy, 
 i I 111- castli> was ultimately forced to 
 ni'iiili'r. ill consctjucnce of the assist- 
 ■•■ illbrded by the French to the be- 
 
 II' If, then, was a new element of 
 • (■(111 I. The crown, the clergy, and 
 I- French, were arranged against the 
 'lili'.s, the reformers, and the English; 
 
 1 the connection formed by the royal 
 
 iiil'r ;\-ith France, which introduced 
 IN , I'renchmen into places of emolu- 
 i iii and trust in Scotland, prevented 
 e p(_'ople or the nobility from being 
 .'aseJ with that alliance. It was the 
 'liry of France to reduce Scotland to 
 province, and to connect tiie rc-estab- 
 liiiii'iit of the Roman (.'atholic religion 
 It h this event. The policy of England 
 IS lo marry Edward to Mary, and to 
 I'm ilic whole island into one country; 
 h1 iim! withstanding the rough method 
 
 I iiiiiship which was exhibited at the 
 1^:1 Ml Pinkey,( l.")17,) the money which 
 iinght from England maintained 
 ' hold over the interests of many 
 
 ' ^\ i-liart had liud bn<<n of gunpowder about 
 ni; and some persons are so sensiiive roncern- 
 g llie honour of martyrs, as lo qupsiioii the 
 hrislian propriety of this. Surely it would be no 
 iputatioii on tiie firmness of a man who was 
 )out to be beheaded, that he wished the axe to 
 i sharpened. 
 
 individuals among the Scotch nation, 
 and the obvious advantage which would 
 be derived to both countries from a closer 
 intercourse contributed to give the pre- 
 ponderance to the side of the reformers. 
 
 In England, during the reign of Ed- 
 ward, the Reformation was carried on 
 chiefly by the government, which out- 
 stepped the opinions of the people. In 
 Scotland, the feelings of the people were 
 favourable to Reformation, and the only 
 hope of its final establishment was con- 
 nected in their minds with the prospect 
 of success entertained by those who 
 must be viewed as rebels. The castle 
 of St. Andrew's had been reduced, but 
 the spirit and the feelings of the people 
 could never be overcome, and from this 
 lime, to the establishment of the Re- 
 formation in 15(i0, the mind of every 
 reformer must have been more or less 
 hostile to the government. The perse- 
 cutions of Mary in England, to a certain 
 degree, produced the same effect in Scot- 
 land as was caused by them in the 
 southern part of our island ; and while 
 they alarmed the fears, they united the 
 efforts and the wishes of all who favoured 
 that cause which they were intended to 
 overpoAver. The political circumstances 
 in which the regent was placed prevented 
 her from using persecution ; but the 
 danger and fear of it at length imbodied 
 the reformers of Scotland in the Congre- 
 gation, and induced them to frame and 
 subscribe a deed of union, or bond of 
 mutual su])port, for resisting the tyranny 
 which might be exercised against the pro- 
 fessors of the true religion, (a. d. L557, 
 Dec. 3.) It is curious that one of the 
 early resolutions of this body directs the 
 use of the Common Prayer,^ probably 
 iliat of England ; so that the book which 
 troiu mismanagement became the abomi- 
 nation of every true son of the cliurch 
 of Scotland, had been originally regarded 
 in a very different "light, and perhaps 
 contributed to forAvard the Reformation 
 among the ancestors of those who sub- 
 sequently rejected it with so unnecessary 
 indignity. 
 
 § 495. Notwithstanding the strength 
 which the Protestant party had noAv 
 acquired, the Roman Catholic clergy 
 were not wise enough to discern their 
 true policy; and the cruelty which 
 
 ■■' Spotswood, 117. 
 
176 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XL *^ 
 
 was exhibited in the execution of Mill, 
 (1558,) an old minister of above eighty 
 years of age, served but to excite the 
 feelings of men, who could not fail soon 
 to learn their power, and tended to 
 consolidate a force which was sure to 
 triumph in the end. It is probable, 
 however, that the arrival of Knox gave 
 a new turn to the proceedings of the 
 reformers ; and the comparison which 
 is here instituted will be imperfect, 
 unless something is said of this person, 
 who held so conspicuous a place in the 
 subsequent transactions of Scotland. 
 
 The natural impetuosity of his cha- 
 racter, and the sufferings to which he 
 had been exposed, prepared his mind 
 for the great struggle in which he was 
 soon to be engaged, but gave to his 
 conduct the air of patriotic exertion in 
 the cause of religious and civil freedom, 
 rather than the appearance of Christian 
 endurance in the defence of truth. 
 The disturbances, and destruction of 
 the monasteries, which took place at 
 Perth, immediately after his preaching 
 there, have cast an obloquy on the 
 Scotish reformer, which he probably 
 little deserves; but whatever portion of 
 human policy there might have been in 
 destroying the buildings in which the 
 religious orders might again have as- 
 sembled, and from whence there might 
 subsequently have issued a fresh band 
 of defenders of the church of Rome, this 
 circumstance, and the consequences of it, 
 gave the Reformation here, as well as in 
 England, an appearance of destruction, 
 which must be deplored by every friend 
 of sober Christianity. The dishonesty 
 of the regent prevented the possibility 
 of a quiet settlement of the question, and 
 after mutual successes, and a variety of 
 fortunes, the death of the queen dowager, 
 and the interference of Elizabeth, paved 
 the way for the settlement of the Protest- 
 ant religion in Scotland, by the parlia- 
 ment in 15()0, and the publication of the 
 Confession of Faith'. Whatever was 
 here established, was gained from the 
 crown and the clergy by the armed 
 interference of the Protestants; and 
 though the population was convinced 
 by force of argument, the concessions 
 
 ' The Confession of Faith is printed in Calder- 
 wood's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 14; 
 the Form of Church Policy, in Spotswood's His- 
 tory, p. 152. 
 
 were obtained from the government by * 
 mere force of arms. During the whole » 
 of this contest, Knox had much influence * 
 in the civil as well as ecclesiastical trans- 
 actions, and his exertions and success 
 could not fail to give a marked character 
 to his own opinions, and to those which 
 were adopted by the church. He learnt 
 "to bind their kings with chains, and their 
 nobles with links of iron;" and seems 
 to have introduced among his followers ^ 
 the idea, not only of the independence, * 
 but of the superiority of the church, 
 over the lay government of the coun- 
 try; — a superiority nominally confined 
 indeed to spirituals, but which might 
 easily extend itself to the temporal con- 
 cerns of the kingdom. ' The Articles 
 of the church of England say, "General 
 councils may not be gathered together 
 without the commandment and will of 
 princes;" in the act of the general * 
 assembly of Scotland, August 27, 1647, i 
 approving of the Confession of Faith ' 
 set forth by the assembly of divines, 
 this point is distinctly denied ; " It being 
 also free to assemble together synodi- 
 cally, as well jtro re nala, as at the 
 ordinary times, upon delegation from 
 the churches, by the intrinsical power 
 received from Christ." Occasions may 
 arise, when it may become the duty of 
 the minister of Christ to do many things 
 contrary to the general line of his ordi- 
 nary proceedings; but these circum- 
 stances create an exception, not a law: 
 and it will be difficult to draw a line to 
 mark our duty, if the possibility of such 
 circumstances is to frame a general rule 
 for our guidance. 
 
 § 496. Of the sincerity and boldness 
 of Knox there can exist little doubt, i 
 But the Christian wisdom and prudence h 
 of his method of proceeding may rea- 
 sonably be called in question; and 
 while we admire his virtues, we may 
 avoid his faults, and examine the con- 
 sequences of them. His harshness 
 never convinced Mary, and the conduci 
 of his successors failed in reformino 
 James, v\ bile they certainly created ir 
 both these personages a great dislike tc 
 the religious principles which were 
 
 ' It tnay be remarked, that in this particular ihi 
 church of Scotland maintains a doctrine corres 
 ponding with that of the church of Rome. Tbi 
 position here taken from a document of a late 
 dale, was, I believe, always maintained by th' 
 church of Scotland. 
 
I 
 
 BAP. XL] 
 
 ipposed to sanction such conduct, 
 here may be occasions when the 
 •eacher may be called on to animad- 
 !rt on the conduct of his hearers in 
 ;;rsonal allusions; but men of that 
 i;riod must have differed much from 
 , e rest of their fellow-creatures, if they 
 lere likely to be reformed by such 
 ildresses; and the clergy who adopted 
 lich a freedom must have been pos- 
 I ssed of most extraordinary humility 
 |id self-command, if there were not 
 j:eat danger of their misusing such a 
 bense. Granting that Knox always 
 iipt in view "that he might gain the 
 liner to the Lord," we may well ques- 
 )n the wisdom of the means which he 
 lopied for doing so. To institute a 
 Miii)arison between Cranmer and Knox 
 iiiilil be an invidious as well as a diffi- 
 ili task; but while we thank God for 
 II' Ucformation which they each pro- 
 iced. we may remember that the 
 relcness of the one was as effectual as 
 le sternness of the other; that an un- 
 lielding stoicism is as much a worldly 
 i-mper as a compliant facility ; and that 
 16 character of a firm yet mild gentle- 
 iian is much nearer to that of a Chris- 
 'an patriot than the world will gene- 
 ally allow. 
 
 § 497. In examining the Reformation 
 1 Scotland as a whole, it is impossible 
 ) overlook its political tendencies, 
 .^he changes which took place in Eng- 
 'ind were moderate, because they were 
 ;uided by the government. All that 
 ould be preserved in the constitution 
 if the church remained, because the 
 lighest members of the clergy were 
 ■mployed in carrying on the alterations, 
 n Scotland, the bishops were hostile to 
 he Reformation; and the Reformation 
 vhich triumphed over the temporal 
 uithority of the country, and conquered 
 )y the sword of the flesh as well as by 
 hat of the spirit, threw down bishops, 
 rom nearly the same reasons as de- 
 stroyed episcopacy in the reign of 
 Charles I. The principle which sup- 
 ported the Reformation in Scotland was 
 a spirit of resistance to civil as much 
 as religious tyranny; and though our 
 gratitude is due to the great Disposer 
 of events when he produces good out 
 of evil, yet, under whatever name we 
 may conceal it, rebellion is rebellion. 
 He who argues in favour of resistance 
 33 
 
 177 
 
 on the ground of the ultimate necessity 
 of it, reasons on principles which can 
 hardly be denied: but before he can 
 apply his doctrine to any particular 
 case, it will be incumbent on him to 
 prove that the evil in question admitted 
 of no remedy short of the dereliction of 
 a positive law of God. He must show 
 that the patient sufferings of Cranmer, 
 and our other English reformers, did 
 not as certainly produce the Reforma 
 tion in England, as Knox and his 
 friends were the authors of that blessed 
 event to their native country. He must 
 show that the one line of conduct Avas 
 as much according to the will of God 
 as the other. To plead the necessity 
 of doing evil that good may come, is to 
 destroy a belief in the providence of 
 God: and it would probably prove 
 much sounder historical reasoning, as 
 well as sounder theology, if we were to 
 attempt to discover how men who obey 
 the spirit of the gospel triumph in their 
 meekness, rather than to endeavour to 
 demonstrate, that circumstances change 
 the nature of God's laws: how Knox 
 might have produced the Reformation 
 in Scotland by imitating Ridley or 
 Hooper, rather than by joining in direct 
 opposition to his sovereign : how in 
 later days the covenanters and parlia- 
 ment might have brought Charles I. to 
 reason, rather than have dethroned and 
 murdered him. No one would wish to 
 question the readiness of God to pardon 
 those who err in their zeal for his ser- 
 vice, or to doubt his mercy in producing 
 good effects from the worst passions of 
 mankind ; but he permits those things 
 which he does not approve, and he may 
 prosper that in which the individual 
 instruments are not working according 
 to those laws which he has. laid down. 
 
 § 498. If these views of the question 
 be correct, it follows that the temper 
 with which the Reformation in England 
 was carried on was likely to lead to a 
 more satisfactory settlement of religion 
 than that in Scotland : that the in- 
 struments, being governed by more 
 Christian principles, were more likely, 
 humanly speaking, to frame a moderate 
 and more Christian constitution of a 
 church in our own country than in that 
 of our northern neighbours : that too 
 great a deference to the temporal power 
 was more likely to form a sound Chris- 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
178 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XII 
 
 tian community than that opposition 
 to the government which marked the 
 events of Scotland. And I believe that 
 a quiet examination of the real state of 
 things at the accession of James would 
 lead us to this conclusion. With the 
 evils which have since grown up in 
 England and Scotland we have nothing 
 now to do ; but witrh this view of the 
 subject we can hardly help concluding, 
 that the alteration in the church which 
 had taken place in England was, with 
 all its imperfections, a reformation; 
 while that in Scotland bore a nearer 
 resemblance to a revolution ia the 
 church. The temper of mind created 
 by the one or the other in the breasts 
 of the individual members of society 
 must in some degree depend on the 
 tendency of the change itself; and pro- 
 
 bably this predisposition to control th< 
 power of the crown by force, which wa 
 engendered by the Reformation in Scot 
 land, contributed in a great degree t( 
 stamp its features on the events wit! 
 which we shall presently be engaged 
 but it is- only at the day of judgmen; 
 that we shall learn how far these forci- 
 ble exertions of Christians are approred 
 by Him from whom the blessings oi 
 civil government are primarily derired. 
 It is the office of the ministers of God 
 to teach their brethren what God ml 
 approve, not what he may pardon ; and 
 it is the office of the historian to point 
 out how God brings good out of eiil. 
 and to show mankind how the eril 
 might have been avoided, without re- 
 linquishing the prospect of good to, 
 which our earthly hopes are directed. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE REIGN OF JAMES I., FROM 1603 TO 1625. 
 
 501. Impression Ln favour of James. 502. Millenary petition ; objections of the purilans. 503. Pro- 
 clamation for the conference at Hampton Court. 504. First day ; Prayer Book. 505. Second d»y; 
 Articles. 506. Confirmation; Articles. 507. Catechism; lessons from the Apocrypha. 508. 
 Cross; surplice; ring; prophesyings. 509. 'i'hird day; conclusion of it. 510. Barlow's accouDl 
 of the conference. 511. Other accounts. 512. Convocation; new canons. 513. Parliament; 
 state of parlies. 514. Powder-plot. 515. Statutes against Roman Catholics. 516. Oath of alle- 
 giance ; treatment of Roman Catholics, 517. College at Chelsea. 518. Heretics; persecutioii. 
 519. Book of Sports. 520. Synod of Dort. 521. James's letter about preaching. 522. Neceswiy 
 of e.xatniriing pohlics. 523. Character of James; tolerably wise, but very weak. 524. His high 
 notions of prerogative in church and state. 525. The light of the Refonnaiion opened men's ejree 
 about politics. 526. James could not tolerate this in either church or state. 527. 'I'olerant towards' 
 Roman Catholics; the question of toleration ill understood. 
 
 § 501. The tranquil manner in which 
 James succeeded to the throne enabled 
 the most active politicians to turn their 
 full attention to ecclesiastical matters. 
 All men recognised the justice of his 
 title, and hailed the prospect of his suc- 
 cession, although the general temper 
 of the country, and the circumstance of 
 the king's having been bred up in a 
 church differing much from that of 
 England, prevented the friends of the 
 establishment from being entirely free 
 from doubts, as to the result of his 
 coming to the crown. 
 
 Dr. Neville, dean of Canterbury, was 
 commissioned in the name of the arch- 
 bishop and bishops to present their con- 
 
 fratulations to his majesty in Scotland, 
 'he answer returned by James, that he 
 would uphold the church of England as 
 
 : it was established by Queen Elizabeth, 
 : together with the anxiety which he ex- 
 1 hibited to be informed on ecclesiastical 
 subjects, and concerning the present 
 I state of the church, contributed to cre- 
 ate in the minds of those who were 
 interested in his future proceedings a 
 strong impression in his favour. 
 
 § .502. The circumstances which had 
 tended to alarm the friends of episco- 
 pacy gave life to the exertions of the 
 opposite partjs and applications of yari- 
 ous descriptions were made at court, to 
 induce the king to examine and remore 
 whatever offended the scruples of the 
 weak or the prejudices of the wilful. 
 
 With a view of advocating this 
 cause, many petitions were prepared, 
 and among the rest, one which, from 
 the supposed number of ministers who 
 
liP.xn.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 179 
 
 iscribed it, was called the Millenary, 
 I'lou^h the names never actually 
 I ounted to above seven hundred and 
 t y. This document is chiefly valua- 
 l ill presentinq- to us the most import- 
 ? points complained of by the puritan 
 The topics on which it treats 
 .' 1. Objections to the church ser- 
 . "2. Pluralities, non-residence, and 
 I ichiiig ministers, -i. The better 
 i;i''iiiince of (he parochial clergy, 
 ini'ifht be effected by restoring to 
 greater part of ecclesiastical 
 I iilons, and a sixth or seventh 
 Liy ones. 4. The redress of 
 liscipline. The three last of 
 re points on which the govern- 
 !<• church were equally eager, 
 I heir views, perhaps, did not 
 exactly with those of the re- 
 j party, since they perceived 
 liculiies which were not taken into 
 j ' rnnsideration in the sweeping com- 
 of the others. The king him- 
 \\ n,- fully alive to them, and it was 
 III- direction that Whitgiff" (June 
 li ■■ulilressed a letter to his suffra- 
 ' iijoining them to make all due 
 liiih's into the condition of their 
 with regard to the number 
 n riisants, the state of the incum- 
 ii-.niiil the value of the preferments, 
 ii' s wished for information, too, with 
 prct to the Common Prayer, and 
 iiiL;h obviously favourable to the 
 ' irch of England, he was anxious to 
 ■ive at the truth, by hearing whatever 
 ;ght be advanced against it. 
 '§ nO'i. It was with this view that he 
 ■nmoned certain divines to a confer- 
 ee at Hampton Court. Ho is accused 
 Rapin^ of insincerity in holding out 
 ; prospect of a free discussion, on the 
 ints at issue between the cliurch and 
 nconformists, which he never meant 
 realize: but if we are to judge by 
 3 public documents, no charge can 
 I less founded. In the proclamation* 
 ider which this assembly was held, he 
 ice declares his own perfect approba- 
 in of the doctrine and discipline as by 
 w established, and his conviction that 
 was agreeable to the word of God and 
 jC forms of the primitive church ; and 
 at the object which he had in view 
 
 ' Fuller, X. 22. 
 
 » Strype's Whitgift, ii. 470. 
 
 ' li. 10-,'. ■! Strype's Whitgift, i 
 
 was to reform such corruptions as had 
 been introduced by time, as well as to 
 furnish himself with information, in 
 order that he might be able to judge 
 of the enormities which were objected 
 against the ecclesiastical government 
 and the services. Much too is fre- 
 quently said of the alarm experienced 
 by the hierarchy at this period ; but 
 though they could not faij to be anxious 
 at such a moment, they neither seem to 
 have entertained any very violent fears, 
 nor to have had any grounds for them. 
 Whitgift, as he was bound, made every 
 preparation for the approaching confer- 
 ence, and particularly consulted Hut- 
 ton, archbishop of York, on several 
 important points.^ His answers were 
 partially quoted at the conference, and 
 it is not improbable that application was 
 made to other divines for their assist- 
 ance in the same manner. 
 
 § .504. The establishment was repre- 
 sented by Whitgift, archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, Bancroft, bishop of London, 
 T. Matthew of Durham, Bilson of Win- 
 chester, with five other bishops, together 
 with ten divines, who were chiefly deans. 
 The other party consisted of Reynolds, 
 president of Corpus Christi college, and 
 Dr. Sparks from Oxford, and Knew- 
 stubbs and Chaderton from Cambridge. 
 
 In the first day's conference (Jan. 14th) 
 the church party alone were admitted, 
 and the object to which the attention 
 of the meeting seems to have been di- 
 rected was to furnish his majesty with 
 information on certain points connected 
 with the question. 
 
 In the Prayer Book, it was pointed 
 out that confirmation, as used in the 
 church of England, affected not the ful- 
 ness of the sacrament of baptism, which 
 had been before administered ; and was 
 established on the authority of the 
 apostles and the custom of the primi- 
 tive church. That the absolution was 
 merely a declaration of God's pardon 
 through Christ, pronounced by an au- 
 thorized minister, and addressed, in its 
 most general forms, to the whole con- 
 gregation ; but in the Visitation of the 
 Sick, (where the expressions are appli- 
 cable to an individual, and seem to pre- 
 sume a greater authority on the part of 
 the minister,) that it was used in the 
 
 « Strype's Whitgift, iii. 392, No. 44. 
 
f 
 
 180 HISTORY 
 
 case of those only who desired such 
 consolation for the clearing and quieting 
 of their conscience. That the use of 
 private baptism' by women and laics 
 was never admitted except in cases of 
 necessity, according to the use of the 
 primitive church; and that the words 
 of the rubric were left general, as to this ! 
 particular, in order that the sacrament 
 might not be omitted on occasions 
 where no minister was present. In each 
 of these cases the decision of the meet- 
 ing was, that it should be left to the dis- 
 cretion of the bishops, whether such 
 words should not be inserted in the 
 several rubrics as would leave these 
 points no longer doubtful ; and it was 
 agreed on all hands that some other 
 coercion might be used to enforce or- 
 dinary ecclesiastical discipline, without 
 having constant recourse to the severity 
 of excommunication. 
 
 § 505, (Jan. 16.) The proceedings of 
 the second day become infinitely more 
 interesting, inasmuch as they may be 
 presumed to contain all the objections 
 to the details of the church of England, 
 in which a moderate conconformist 
 would then have desired alteration. 
 Dr. Reynolds arranged what he had to 
 bring forward under four heads: 1st, 
 of doctrinal points ; 2d, of such things 
 as pertained to the appointment of mi- 
 nisters ; 3d, to the remodelling of the 
 Common Prayer; 4th, and to church 
 government. 
 
 The particulars objected to in the 
 Articles were, that the doctrine of final 
 perseverance ought to be stated in a 
 manner more consistently with that of 
 predestination than it was in the XVIth 
 and XVIIth articles ; and it was argued, 
 that this would be effected by inserting 
 in the XVIth article, immediately fol- 
 lowing the words " after we have re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost we may depart 
 from grace," the qualification of this 
 expression in some such terms as these, 
 " yet not totally or finally ;" and it was 
 proposed that the Lamb'eth Articles" 
 should be introduced into the text of the 
 Thirty-nine. These proposed altera- 
 . tions were not received with any fa- 
 vour, and the king, in conclusion, re- 
 marked, " Mean time I wish that the 
 doctrine of predestination may be ten- 
 
 » gee ^ 424, >. s See ^ 464. 
 
 OF THE [Chap. XI] 
 
 derly handled, lest, on the one side 
 God's omnipotency be questioned b 
 impeaching the doctrine of his eterna 
 predestination, or, on the other side, 
 desperate presumption arreared by in 
 ferring the necessary certainty of pei 
 sisting in grace." 
 
 Unfortunately, during this part of th 
 discussion, Bancroft suffered himself t 
 be carried away by the violence of hi 
 temper, and attempted to put a stop t 
 the whole proceeding ; but the king k 
 proved him with much dignity and pre , 
 priety, and the argument was resumec 
 
 § 500. When the question of confii ' 
 mation was brought forward, and th 
 texts (Heb. vi. 2, Acts viii.) had bee 
 quoted, it was soon reduced into a moi 
 narrow compass by the concessions o 
 the complainants, who objected not I 
 the institution, but wished that the at 
 ministering of the rite might no long( 
 be confined to the bishops alone, sine 
 their extensive dioceses rendered thei 
 totally unable to examine the whole t '** 
 the candidates properly. As no perio ^ 
 could be assigned at which such a cu 
 tom had been admitted in the churcl i 
 the proposal was laid aside, and it Wf 
 left to be subsequently decided, whethf 
 the words, " an examination," shod 
 be introduced into the rubric before cm 
 firmation.^ 
 
 Again it was objected, that theXXID 
 article allowed a layman to preach oi 
 of the congregation, because it asserte |r ■ 
 only that it was not lawful for him tf* 
 preach " in the congregation," untg^P 
 he were duly called. That the X^^IIK 
 article called confirmation a corrupqB^p 
 lowing of the apostles. That inT^*' 
 XXXVIIth article, it was not enoug 
 to say "that the bishop of Rome had n 
 authority in this land," unless it wpi ' 
 added, " that he ought not to have any. 
 But it was of course utterly useless I 
 attempt to answer such unimportai 
 cavils. When Dr. Reynolds wishe ^ 
 that it might be inserted in the Article 
 "that the intention of the minister 
 not of the essence of the sacrament, 
 the king objected, as about the Lan 
 beth Articles, to the introduction of an 
 
 ' See Bingham's Antiquities, vol. iv. p. 38. 
 xii. ii. 3, who gives a considerable account of il 
 custom of the early church on this particular, co 
 responding with the present practice of the chore 
 of England. 
 
lAP. XII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 181 
 
 ire than was absolutely necessary into 
 • body of the Articles ; since every 
 iliiion tended to encumber the book, 
 d. by destroying its perspicuity, to 
 viate the very purpose for which they 
 •re framed. 
 
 § 507. Some objections were then 
 sod to the Catechism, because Dr. 
 id's was deemed too long, and that 
 li' Prayer Book too short ; and upon 
 L L^eslion of the king, an interme- 
 1 ]) was adopted, of adding some- 
 I the old. it is to this that we 
 explanation of the sacraments 
 hich the present Church Cate- 
 . ends.' 
 
 A II parties agreed in wishing that the 
 I'liaih might be observed with greater 
 u'ty, and that a new translation of 
 ■ l-5ii)le should be prepared. 
 Thrre was some small discussion with 
 :;;ir(l to seditious and popish books, 
 lich itrose from the permission which 
 il liecn occasionally given for their 
 troduction, in order that they might 
 answered ; but this question was 
 on dismissed, as being one of policy, 
 ther than suited to theological inquiry. 
 ' The petition of Reynolds, that learned 
 inisters might be appointed in every 
 irish, was seconded by one from Ban- 
 oft, who requested that we might have 
 praying ministry ; that the homilies 
 |ight be read till a preaching ministry 
 luld be provided; and that pripi'.s 
 ight not be made pasi;itih, ulierc 
 H'ry discontented fellow mi^-ht traduce 
 ,s superiors. These complaints serv^^ 
 ' point out the state of tlie times, but 
 ere in their nature too general to ad- 
 it of any definite remerly. 
 I With regard to the Common Prayer, 
 custom of reading lessons taken froin 
 Apocrypha was objected to ; and 
 ,ie king, with great propriety and fair- 
 ,ess, desired Dr. Reynohls to ma'-lv those 
 ^tiapters which were objection. ible. 
 , §o08. The cross in baptism, ai.d the 
 jUestions proposi^d to the children, 
 /ere complained of; but after the an- 
 . quity of the one, and the unexception- 
 able nature of the other, had been 
 I oint'^d out, and when it was sliown 
 hat the cross was not otherwise nsrd 
 han as a ceremonv, Mr. Ivnews''iii' ^ 
 earned to doubt how far the cluncli 
 
 ' See 4 747, '. 
 
 had authority to impose such a cere- 
 mony ; and his majesty declined enter- 
 ing into the question, as to how far 
 the subject is bound to obey, by quoting 
 the parliamentary words, " Le roi s'avi- 
 sera." 
 
 The wearing the surplice, the words, 
 " With my body I thee worship," and 
 the use of the ring' in the marriage- 
 service, were also mentioned, as well 
 as the churching of women ; but the 
 observations on these topics were short- 
 ly dismissed, on account of their being 
 deemed, as they really are, frivolous 
 objections. 
 
 The question, whether ecclesiastical 
 censures should be imposed by laymen, 
 was not entered into, since it had been 
 previously settled by the king and the 
 bishops ; and when Reynolds proposed 
 that certain provincial assemblies should 
 be held for the purpose of conference, 
 at which prophesyings, as they were 
 formerly called, might be established, 
 James, who had long smarted under 
 presbyterian tyranny, broke forth into 
 a lively description of the steps by 
 which the reformers of Scotland had 
 first triumphed over the bishops, and 
 then over the crown, and ended by 
 quoting his favourite apophthegm, " No 
 bishop, no king." 
 
 § (Jan. 18.) The meeting on the 
 third day can hardly be called a confer- 
 ence. It was now that the bishops 
 brought up their conclusions on certain 
 points which had been previously re- 
 ferred to their consideration, and at the 
 same time those questions which did 
 not admit of an immediate decision 
 were left for the e.xamination of com- 
 mittees. His majesty was particularly 
 eloquent in favour of oaths ex officio, 
 and made a long speech to prove their 
 utility and necessity. This topic so 
 pleased the episcopal party, that the 
 archbishop declared that the king spoke 
 by the especial assistance of (Jod's 
 Spirit, and the bishop of London re- 
 turned thanks to the Almighty for his 
 goodness in setting such a prince over 
 them — a line of compliment too well 
 received by James himself, and unfor- 
 
 - 1 IN' I'wM'Ji a ring as a marriage pledge is an 
 "I I l!i)iii:ni cusiom. (Juv. vi. 27.) 
 (_'oiivi:.iiii]m lamen, el pacUim. et sponsalia nostra 
 'I'enipest.ile paras; jamqne a tonsore magistro 
 Pecleris, et digito pignus fortasse dedisti. 
 
 a 
 
183 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XD. 
 
 tunately repeated by most of the cour- 
 tiers who were present. 
 
 It was the observation of the king, 
 that the scruples of the nonconformists 
 were mere matters of weakness, and 
 that if therefore they were honest and 
 good men, they would be easily won to 
 conformity, if not, that they were bet- 
 ter out of the church than members of 
 her ministry ; and on two occasions he 
 made use of very harsh expressions 
 concerning them, threatening to " harry 
 them out of the land," in case they 
 obeyed not, and adding, that if they 
 conformed not, " they ought to be 
 hanged." The preachers promised for 
 themselves to perform all duty towards 
 the bishops, and to join against the 
 common enemy ; but Mr. Chaderton 
 made a petition in favour of certain 
 ministers in Lancashire, that they might 
 be allowed to omit the use of the sur- 
 plice ; to which his majesty kindly 
 consented, as far as the bishop of Lon- 
 don would allow him ; for the bishops 
 were justly afraid that if any connivance 
 were shown, excepting for a limited 
 period, the effect would be to undo all 
 the good which they had promised 
 themselves from the conference. But 
 when the same request was again made 
 for certain ministers in Suffolk, by 
 Knewstubbs, the king answered the 
 petitioner sharply, and animadverted 
 with much reason on the ill conduct of 
 men who preferred their own scruples 
 to the unity of the church ; who would 
 run the risk of any difficulty which 
 might arise, rather than give up a point 
 which they had once advocated ; and 
 in whose disinclination to obey, their 
 own personal vanity was more con- 
 sulted than the good of the community. 
 During the whole of the conference 
 there is nothing more striking than the 
 superiority of the kmg himself over 
 both parties ; he not only surpassed 
 them in temper and fairness, but appa- 
 rently in learning and knowledge of 
 the subject : notwithstanding the insig- 
 nificance of the objections raised, and 
 in some cases their senseless futility, 
 he heard them with patience : wherever 
 there seemed any reason for alteration, 
 he was ready to adopt it, and the 
 bishops exhibited a great facility in as- 
 senting to his proposals. The only 
 appearance of want of judgment con- 
 
 sisted in the terms in which he threat- 
 ened the nonconformists. 
 
 § 510. The account of the conference 
 which is here given, is taken almost 
 entirely from one published by Barlow, 
 dean of Chester, who, having assisted 
 in the discussion, was deputed to write 
 the history of it,' and probably aided, in 
 the task by Whitgift. It is, however, 
 so favourable to the episcopal party, 
 that it has not failed to be attacked; 
 but, as it was published in the yeai 
 which followed the conference, and 
 was not contradicted as to its contents, 
 there seems no reason for doubting itt 
 correctness. What is said of the con-, 
 ference on the second day was exa- 
 mined and approved by many who 
 were there present, and such original 
 memoirs as have come down to us co^ 
 respond with sufficient accuracy wtth 
 what is here detailed.^ 
 
 § 511. The only authentic document 
 of which I am aware, which seems to 
 throw any discredit on this piece of 
 history, is a letter from Mr. Galloway, 
 a Scotch divine, who was present at tne 
 second day's conference, and who wrote 
 to the ministers at Edinburgh. Con- 
 cerning this letter Calderwood observes* 
 that this account is very unlike Bar- 
 low's ; yet, after a minute and careful 
 comparison of the conclusions here 
 drawn up, with those of Bancroft's 
 which are printed in Strype,* I am con- 
 
 1 Snype's U liiigili, ii. 492. 
 
 2 See a letter from T. Matthew, bishop of Dor- 
 ham, to Huiion, archbishop of York, (Sirype's 
 Whitgift, iii. 40-2. No. 45.) Strype himself fully 
 approves of it ; and Fuller, who must have been 
 a very good judge on the question, introduces it 
 iilmnsi verl a iiii' into his hisiory. '1 he original 
 pamplilet is not rare in librarii s. and has been re- 
 printed in the Phoenix and in the Churchman's 
 Remembrancer, No. iv. 
 
 ^ His.ory of the Church of Scotland, fol. 474. 
 
 "A note of such things as shall be reformei 
 in the church. 
 "1. The Absolu ion sh;ill be railed, The Abeo- 
 lution or genera! remission of sins. 
 
 •'2. I he Confirmation shall be called. The 
 Ciinfirmaiion or lurther examinanon of Children's 
 Faiih. 
 
 '•3. The Private Baptism, now by lavmen or 
 women, shall 1 e called. The Private Baptism by 
 llf ministers o- ly ; and all those questions in that 
 Rap'ism. ihat insinuate it to be done by women, 
 taken away. 
 
 I "4 'I he Apocrypha, that hath some repug- 
 I nan-v to the canni ical .'-'cripture. shall not b» 
 rend '; and o her places chosen, which ei;her are 
 expla-n'iors of Scripture, or suit best for good 
 
 I "5. 'Ihe jurisdiction of the bishops shall be 
 
tW^T XII ] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 183 
 
 I 
 
 Piced that they furnish a strong con- 1 enforced, and those on which some 
 mation of the account published by actual alteration was founded. Thus, 
 irlow. Neither Galloway nor Ban- for instance, both of them state as a 
 oft seem to make an accurate distinc- point established, that in ecclesiastical 
 'm between matters which were dis- ! censures, particularly of ministers, the 
 Used and recommended to the use of bishop should not ])roceed without the 
 eclergy, without being authoritatively assistance of the dean and chapter, or 
 
 iiiewliat limited, and to have either the dean 
 d chapter, or some grave minister assistant to 
 ;m ill ordination, suspension, degradation, &c. 
 ee 122(1 Canon.) 
 
 ,"G. The excommunication, as it is now used, 
 all be taken away both in name and nature, 
 id a writ out of the chancery, to punish the 
 inlurnacies, shall be framed. 
 "7. The kingdom of Ireland, the borders of 
 Gotland, and all Wales, to be planted with 
 ho(]|s and preachers as soon as may be. 
 • S. As many learned ministers, and mainte- 
 ni e for them, to be provided in such places of 
 i_.'I;iih1, where there is want, as may be. 
 "'J Aa few double-bencficed men and plurali- 
 ■s ;is may be ; and those that have double bene- 
 es 10 maintain preachers, and to have their liv- 
 gs as near as may be one to the other. 
 " 10. One uniform translation of the Bible to be 
 ladc, and only to be used in all the churches of 
 ngland. 
 
 "11. One Catechism to be made and used in 
 1 places. 
 
 I " 12. The Articles of Religion to be explained 
 id enlarged. And no man to teach or read 
 jainst any of them. 
 
 "13. A care had, to observe who do not re- 
 !ive ihe communion once in the year: the minis- 
 ;rs to certify the bishops, the bishops the arch- 
 [shops, the archbishops the king. 
 
 "14. An inhibition for popish books to be 
 rought over : and if any come, to be delivered 
 »o iheir hands only that are fit to have them. 
 
 " 15. The high commission to be reformed, and 
 iduced to higher causes and fewer persons ; and 
 lose of more honour and better qualities." 
 
 Calderwood's account of the matter is as fol- 
 )ws. History of the Church of Scotland, p. 474 
 
 "A conference was appointed to be holden at 
 lampton Court the fourteenth of January, be- 
 »ixt some bishops on the one side, and ministers 
 n the other. The good professors in England 
 /ere put in hope of a good beginning of reforma- 
 lon, and letters were sent by them to sundry 
 arts of the country, to take a survey of the ec- 
 lesiasiical estate, and of the grievous abuses of 
 he court ; but they were disappointed of their 
 xpectalion. Two or three were appointed of the 
 incerer side, that were not sound, and only to spy 
 ir prevaricate. Sundry reports went of the con- 
 erence, different from that relation which is set 
 orth in print by Barlow. I have therefore set 
 lown here that relation, which Mr. Patric Gal- 
 oway sent from London to the presbytery of 
 Sdinburgh, after it was revised by the king him- 
 lelf. 
 
 " Beloved brethren, after my very hearty com- 
 •nendaiions, these presents are to show you that 
 1 received two of your letters, one directed to his 
 maj. and another to myself, for the using thereof; 
 !he samine I read, [fit in orig.] closed, and three 
 daj^s before the conference delivered it unto his 
 niaj. hands, and received it back a^ain, after some 
 short speeches had upon a word of your letter, as 
 the gross corruptions of this church; which then 
 was exponed, and I assured, that all corruptions 
 
 dissonant from the word, or contrary thereto, 
 should be amended. The twelfth of Januar was 
 the day of meeting, at what time the bishops 
 called upon by his maj. were gravely desired, to 
 advise upon all the corruptions of this church, in 
 doctrine, ceremonies, and discipline ; and as they 
 will answer to God in conscience, and to his maj. 
 upon their obedience, that they sliould return the 
 third day after, which was Saturday. They re- 
 turned to his maj. and there apposed as of before, 
 it was answered, all was well. And when his 
 maj. in great fervency brought instances to the 
 contrary, they upon their knees, with great ear- 
 nestness craved that nothing should be altered, 
 lest popish recusants, punished by penal statutes 
 for their disobedience ; and the puritans punished 
 by deprivation from calling and living for noncon- 
 formity, should say, they had just cause to insult 
 upon them, as men who had travelled to bind 
 them to that, which by their own mouths now 
 was confessed to be erroneous. Always after 
 five hours' dispute had by his maj. against them, 
 and his maj. resolution for reformation intimated 
 to them, they were dismissed that day. Upon 
 the sixteenth of Januar, being Monday, the breth- 
 ren were called to his maj. only five of them be- 
 ing present, and wiih them two bishops, and six 
 or eight deans. Here his maj. craved to know of 
 them what they desired to be reformed ; but it 
 was very loosely and coldly answered. This day 
 ended after four hours talking, and Wednesday 
 the eighteenth of Januar was appointed for the 
 meeting of both the parties. Whereas before, 
 the parlies being called together, the heads were 
 repeated which his maj. would have reformed at 
 this time ; and so the whole action ended. Sundry, 
 as they favoured, gave out copies of things here 
 concluded ; whereupon myself took occasion, as 
 I was an ear and eye-witness, to set them down, 
 and presented them to his maj. who wiih his own 
 hand mended some things, and eeked other things 
 which I had omitted. Which corrected copy with 
 his own hand I have, and of it have sent you 
 herein the just transumpt word by word — and this 
 is the whole. At my own returning, which, God 
 willing, shall be shortly, ye shall know more par- 
 ticularly the rest. So till then taking my leave, 
 I commit you to the protection of the most High, 
 and your labours to the powerful blessing of 
 Christ. From London, this tenth of Februar, 
 1604. 
 
 " Your brother in the Lord to his uttermost, 
 " M. P. Galloway. 
 
 " The cause of my delay to write, was my 
 awaiting on his maj. leisure, to obtain that copy 
 spoken of before, as it is, that so I might w rite, 
 as it was allowed to stand, and to be performed." 
 
 A note of such things as shall be reformed. 
 "I. Of Doctrine. 
 " 1. That a uniform short and plain Catechism 
 be made, to he used in all churches and parishes 
 in this kingdom- There is already the ductririe 
 I of the sacraments added, in most clear and plain 
 I terms. 
 
184 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XII 
 
 some other grave ministers. The sub- 
 ject, according to Barlow, seems to 
 have been briefly mentioned by the 
 king; and it is not improbable that a 
 regulation so recommended should have 
 been at once admitted as beneficial, 
 wherever it could be adopted. It is 
 indeed incorporated in the 122d canon, 
 so that we may easily account for its 
 insertion in the two sets of conclusions 
 
 "2. Tliat a translation be made of the whole 
 Bible, as consonant as can be to the original 
 Hebrew and Greek ; and this to be set out and 
 primed without any marginal notes, and only to 
 be used in all churches ol England, in time of 
 divine service. 
 
 " 3. I hat no popish nor traitorous books be 
 suffered to be brought in this kingdom, and that 
 straight order be taken, that if they come over, 
 they be delivered or sold to none, eiiher in coun- 
 try or universities, but to such only as may make 
 good use thereof, for conlutation of the adver- 
 saries. 
 
 " II. Of the Service Book. 
 
 " 1. That to the Absolution shall be added the 
 word of pronouncing the remission of sins. 
 
 " 2. '1 hat to Confirmation shall be added the 
 word of catechising, or examination of the child- 
 ren's laiih. 
 
 "3. '1 hat the private Baptism shall be called, 
 the pnvjiie Bapiism by the ministers and curates 
 only ; and all iht-se questions that insinuate wo- 
 men iir private persons, to be altered accordingly. 
 
 "4. 1 hat such Apocrypha as have any repug- 
 nance to canonical .Scripture, shall be removed, 
 and not read ; and other places chosen for them 
 ■which may serve better, either for explanation of 
 Scriptiirf 
 and s|)tr 
 were giv 
 
 without impugning the accuracy of Bar- 
 low, who is less particular in his men- 
 tion of it. 
 
 § 512. In order to give effect to the 
 decisions of the conference at Hampton 
 Court,' thff convocation, which was 
 assembled together with the parliament, 
 was directed to frame and incorporate a 
 new body of canons. Little is known 
 in detail of the historj' of their compo- 
 
 1 good life and manners : 
 illy the greatest part of such places as 
 
 words of Marriage to be made more 
 clear. 
 
 " (i. The i-rnss in Baptism was never counted 
 any p-irt in Baptism, nor sign effective, but only 
 signiticaiive. 
 
 "in. Of Disciplim. 
 
 "1. The bishops are admonished to judge no 
 mini«:ers. without the advice and assistance of 
 some of the gravest denns and chaplains. • 
 
 " 2. That none shall have power to excommu- 
 nicate, lull only iheir bishops in their dioceses, in 
 the prpsience of these aforesaid ; and only upon 
 such wi-ii.'h'y and great causes to which they 
 shall siihscrihe. 
 
 " 3. The civil excommunication now used, is 
 declared to he a mere civil censure ; and there- 
 fore lie name of it is to be altered; and a writ 
 out ot the ( hancellary to punish the contumacy 
 shall he framed. 
 
 "4 That all bishops nominated to that effect, 
 shall set down the matters and manner of pro- 
 ceeding to be followed hereafter in ecclesiastical 
 courts, and modify their fees. 
 
 " 5. That the oath ex officio he rightly used, id 
 est, oiilv for great and public slanders. 
 
 " 6. Thai 'he bisliop.s be careful to cause the 
 ministrrs rote, in every parish of their didce^cs 
 the names of all recusants ; as also the names of 
 such as roine to church and hear preaching, but 
 reluse to communica'e every year once ; and to 
 present ih» =aine to the bishop, and the bi=hop to 
 the archbishop, and the archbishop to the king. 
 
 " 7. That the Sabbath be looked to, and better 
 kept throughout all dioceses. 
 
 " 8. That the high commission be rightly need, 
 the causes to be handled, and the manner of pro^ 
 ceeding iberem to be declared ; and that no peraoo 
 be nominated thereto, but such as are men ot 
 honour and good quaUty. 
 
 " IV. Of the Ministry. 
 
 " 1. That the reading of ministers that are of 
 age and not scandalous be provided for, and main- 
 tained by the person preferred to preach in llit 
 room, according to the valor of the living; and 
 that the unlearned and scandalous be tried, and 
 removed from these places, and learned and quaH- 
 fied be placed for them. 
 
 "2. That as many ministers as may be had 
 with convenient maintenance for them, may be 
 placed in such places where there is want o{ 
 preaching with all haste. 
 
 " 3. That learned and grave ministers be trans- 
 ported from the parts where the gospel is settled 
 and planted, to such parts of the kingdom where 
 greatest ignorance is, and greatest number of 
 recusants are. 
 
 " 4. That ministers, beneficed men, make their 
 residence upon their benefices, and feed iheir 
 flocks with preaching every Sabbath day. 
 
 " 5. That pluralists and such as presently haye 
 double benefices, make residence upon one of 
 them ; and that these their benefices be as near 
 other, as he may preach to the people of both 
 their week about ; and where they are further 
 distant, that he maintain therein a qnaUfied 
 preacher. 
 
 "V. For Schools. 
 " 1. That schools in cities, towns, and familiea, 
 throughout all this kingdom, be taught by none 
 hut such as shall be tried and approved to be 
 
 sound and upright in religion : and for that effect 
 hat the bishops, in every one of their diocesee, 
 ake order with them, displacing the corrupted, 
 
 and placing honest and sufficient in their places. 
 
 "2. That orders be taken with universities for 
 trial of masters and fellows in colleges ; and that < 
 none be suffered to have the cure of instructing i{ 
 the youth, but such as are approved for their 
 soundness in rehgion ; and that such as are stis- 
 pected, or known to be otherways affected, be 
 removed. 
 
 " 3. That the kingdom of Ireland, the borders 
 of England and Scotland, and all Wales, be 
 planted with schools and preachers, as soon as 
 may be. 
 
 " The ministers have been this long time past, 
 and shall be in all time coming, urged to subscribe 
 nothing but the three articles, which are botfc • 
 clear and reasonable." | 
 
 (Then follow the three articles in the thirty- 
 si.xih Canon.) ' 
 
 Whiigift, ii. 501. 
 
 > Fuller, z. 28. 
 
 J 
 
iHAP.xn.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 185 
 
 lition, excepting that they chiefly con- verted into expectations ; but they too 
 
 ist of a digest of old canons, to which now saw, that whatever the private 
 
 3me new ones were added. They are sentiments of the king might be, the 
 
 1 number 141, and at the present day nation was about to relax none of the 
 
 prm the basis of ecclesiastical law, as severities against them. 
 
 :ir as the clergy are concerned; for as § 514. It was the prevalence of these 
 
 ley were never ratified by act of par- opinions which induced the framers of 
 
 ament, though sanctioned by the royal the powder-plot to enter into that most 
 
 ■ssent, they are in law held not to bind diabolical conspiracy for destroying the 
 
 le laky propria vi^nre, that is, not in- hopes and prospects of the Protestant 
 smuch as they decide, but only where | part of the community; a scheme not 
 
 iiey speak the language of the previous more remarkable for its atrocity than 
 
 Many of them have been super 
 [;ded by subsequent acts of parliament ; 
 ind the hand of time, together with the 
 hange in customs, has rendered them 
 D generally neglected as a code, that 
 is much to be wished that they were 
 'jmodelled, and sanctioned by a legal 
 [nactment. The account of the trans- 
 ition of the Bible, and the alterations 
 1 the Prayer Book, will occupy a por- 
 on of distinct chapters on those sub- 
 ects. 
 
 § 513. In parliament,' the security of 
 le revenues of the establishment was 
 iffectually guarded by an act, making 
 1 11 alienations of church property to the 
 irown illegal ; a measure which marked 
 t once the weakness and the honesty 
 f the king, who fearing his own facility, 
 ;st he should concede to his courtiers 
 whatever they requested, deprived him- 
 elf of the power of doing injustice, 
 ^he parliament likewise renewed the 
 everity of former statutes against Jesu- 
 ;s, seminary priests, and recusants. 
 
 These proceedings, inasmuch as they 
 i^ere highly favourable to the church 
 f England, were proportionably dis- 
 leasing to those parties in the kingdom 
 ;ho opposed that body. The puritans 
 ad hoped for much relief and favour 
 rom a presbyterian king, but they 
 jund that their new monarch was as 
 ond of exercising his supremacy as his 
 iredecessor ; that two proclamations 
 lad already issued from the throne, to 
 nforce the laws against the noncon- 
 ormists ; and that James himself had 
 ised expressions, with regard to his 
 iwn intentions, which were far from 
 leing wise or moderate. The Roman 
 catholics had looked on him as the son 
 if Mary queen of Scots ; their wishes 
 or greater toleration had been con- 
 
 Fuller. 
 24 
 
 X. 27. 
 
 for the little probability of its final suc- 
 cess, even though the first step in this 
 dreadful tragedy had prospered. It is 
 well known that Catesby and Percy 
 formed the plan of blowing up the 
 king, lords, and commons, on their 
 assembling in parliament on the 5th of 
 November, 1605. For this purpose 
 they hired a cellar below the house, in 
 which they concealed thirty-six barrels 
 of gunpowder; but on the eve of its 
 execution a discovery was made, by 
 means of a letter sent to Lord Montea- 
 gle,' probably from his sister, Mrs. 
 Abingdon.^ The conspirators fled from 
 London, but were overtaken in arms in 
 StafTordshire, and the ringleaders slain. 
 Several others were subsequently taken 
 and executed ; and among the persons 
 whose names were connected with the 
 conspiracy are those of four individuals 
 who belonged to the society of Jesus, 
 Garnett, Oldcorn, Gerard, and Green- 
 way; the last of these, on the discovery 
 of the plot, fled beyond seas, a step 
 which, in the opinion of the world, must 
 have implicated him in the guilt of the 
 treason, if the dreadful manner in which 
 others were examined by means of tor- 
 ture had not furnished a sufficient rea- 
 son for any precautions which an inno- 
 cent man might make to avoid so 
 dreadful a species of trial. Gerard 
 was tortured, but made his escape from 
 the Tower. Oldcorn was executed for 
 concealing Garnett, Avho shared the 
 same fate. The criminality of this last 
 prisoner has been called in question by 
 members of his own church, and is 
 
 2 Butler's Roman Cath. ii. 441. Nash's Wor- 
 cestershire, i. 585. 
 
 3 Welwond.Meiii. p. 22, says, thai the letter was 
 a contrivance of James himself, who had been in- 
 formed of the conspiracy by Henry IV. of France. 
 He wished to exhibit a proof of his own sagacity 
 in the discovery of the plot. 
 
186 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XH. 
 
 pretty fully discussed by Butler,^ in his 
 History of the Roman Catholics. His 
 plea was, that all he knew of the con- 
 spiracy came from the private confession 
 of the prisoners, which as a priest he 
 was bound to conceal : but, supposing 
 this to be true, let it be remembered, 
 on the other side, that this private con- 
 fession to a priest, as well as the secrecy 
 with which it is attended, is a human 
 invention, not founded on any divine 
 command, merely a tradition of men, 
 and in this case diametrically opposed 
 to the word of God and the spirit of the 
 gospel. It seems probable that Gar- 
 nett was criminally implicated with the 
 conspirators, though there was little 
 evidence to convict him before a jury 
 of the present day. Although no one 
 can fairly charge this treason on the 
 Roman Catholics as a body, yet that 
 church, by sanctioning the absurd mi- 
 racle of the straw, ^ and beatifying the 
 man, who, whether guilty or not, suf- 
 fered as a traitor, did all that was pos- 
 sible to implicate the innocent members 
 of her communion in this horrid trans- 
 action : nor should it be forgotten, that 
 the promotion of the Roman Catholics' 
 cause was the ostensible motive on 
 which the whole was founded and car- 
 ried on. (a. d. Km.) The effects of 
 this transaction were disastrous in the 
 extreme to all in England who held 
 communion with the church of Rome. 
 No great bigotry was requisite to exas- 
 perate the minds of men against a reli- 
 gion which was supposed to sanction 
 such enormities; and the bills which 
 were brought into parliament, in conse- 
 quence of the supposed insecurity of 
 the Protestant government, strongly 
 mark the exasperation which prevailed. 
 
 § 515. By the first," Roman Catholics 
 who attended their parish churches 
 were obliged to receive the sacrament 
 once in the year, or they might be con- 
 victed under a penalty of 2;)/. for the 
 first year, 40/. for the second, and (50/. 
 for the third. Popish recusants convict 
 were to pay 20/. per month during their 
 recusancy, provided the whole sum did 
 
 ' ii. 164, &c. 
 
 2 Apii ture of Garnett was pretended to be seen 
 on a straw which had lieen sprinkled wiih his 
 bl<iod. Ii was for ihis miracle lhat he was beati- 
 fied. (Fuller. X. 40 ) 
 
 * Statutes of the Realm. 
 
 not amount to more than two-thirds of 
 their property, and the crown had the 
 choice of demanding the 20/. per month 
 or the two-thirds of their income. Bish- 
 ops, or justices of the peace, might re- 
 quire Roman Catholics to take the oath 
 of allegiance, which, if they declined, 
 they were liable to be imprisoned till 
 the assizes ; and if they continued m 
 the same refusal, were subjected to the 
 penalties of a praemunire. The act of 
 reconciling any one to the see of Rome, 
 or of being so reconciled, was declared 
 to be treason ; while to serve in a foreign 
 army without taking the oath of alle- 
 giance, or having entered into a bond 
 not to be reconciled to the pope, ren- 
 dered all who were guilty of it felons 
 in the eye of the law. Notwithstanding — 
 the severity of this, the disqualifications 
 which the next act imposed must have - 
 been much more galling. Great re- 
 wards were offered for the discovery of 
 recusants who harboured popish priesU 
 in their houses ; and a penalty of 100/. 
 was imposed on any recusant conviet 
 who appeared at court. They weie 
 under most circumstances forced to re- 
 side on their own property, and, unlew 
 exercising a trade in London, prevented 
 from coming within ten miles of tlu 
 metropolis. They were disabled from ^ 
 being barristers or attorneys, physiciaSe 
 or apothecaries ; from being officers of 
 courts, or holding commissions in the 
 army or navy : they could be advanced 
 to no employment in the commonwealth, 
 and were liable to all the legal disabili- 
 ties of excommunicated persons. They 
 were subjected to large fines and dis- 
 abilities in case they were married, Ot 
 allowed their relations to be christened 
 or buried, otherwise than according te 
 the rites of the church of England. 
 They were forbidden to send their child- 
 ren abroad for education, and none but 
 Protestants were licensed to teach ia 
 England ; the children themselves could -* 
 not inherit any property, till they had «i 
 taken the oath of allegiance ; a disquaU- • 
 fication which extended to all those who « 
 were out of the country without license, t 
 So that in every respect the Roman Ca- - 
 tholics were treated as persons hostile 
 to the government, and who could in no 
 way be trusted. The only comfort is, 
 that the severity of such laws must soon 
 render them nugatory in practice. 
 
3iup. XII.] 
 
 §616. The intention of the govern- 
 nent in imposing the oath of allegiance 
 vas undoubtedly wise and enlightened, 
 ret the form' of words was so constructed 
 hat a conscientious Roman Catholic, 
 I ntertaining every opinion which his 
 'rotestant monarch could require of 
 lim, might scruple to take it. He might 
 inccrely detest the obnoxious doctrine, 
 • tliat princes excommunicated by the 
 x'l may be deposed or murdered by 
 heir .subjects ;" yet he might still feel 
 unvilling to call that heretical and im- 
 j)ious which was the approved doctrine 
 ■f the church, which he erroneously 
 oiiked up to as the only church of 
 Millet on earth. The oath, if fairly 
 \:iiiiined, seems as much calculated to 
 I n in a weak and conscientious Roman 
 'ailiolic, and to prevent him from taking 
 I, as to bind the honest papist, who ob- 
 I ected not to it, and whose fidelity might 
 |iave been secured by terms more gene- 
 |al and less offensive. In all probabi- 
 lity, Paul V. aimed at this particular, 
 ivhen, without specifying the point of 
 iibjection, he declared that a Roman 
 .Catholic could not take the oath in 
 i[uestion, without grievous wronging of 
 ijiod's honour. The church of Rome 
 iiaturally disliked a declaration which, 
 f true, must sap the foundations of 
 iier assumed temporal power; and the 
 I'ramers of the oath, by the words which 
 I hey introduced, gave her a handle 
 vhich she might turn against any well- 
 lisposed and scrupulous Roman Catho- 
 ic who took it. Many persons indeed 
 ivho belonged to this communion seem 
 i)riginally to have done so; and when 
 j he first brief was issued which forbade 
 jt, the majority of them would not be- 
 lieve that it was genuine, till it was 
 confirmed by a second; and, after all, 
 iBlackwell,^ arch-priest of England, not 
 )nly took the oath, but persisted to his 
 lieath in asserting the legality of his 
 conduct, though in so doing he drew 
 down on himself the vengeance of the 
 ipostolic chair, which was followed by 
 ihis deprivation. 
 
 . At the same time, the laws against 
 I Roman Catholics were put in force with 
 all the activity which zeal and terror 
 could excite;* twenty-eight priests and 
 seven laymen were executed, and an 
 
 > Fuller. X. 42. 2 Butler, Rom. Cath. ii. 211. 
 • Butler, ii. 183. 
 
 187 
 
 hundred and twenty-eight priests ba- 
 nished ; while the fines upon recusancy 
 were levied with extraordinary severity. 
 However greatly we may deplore such 
 effects, we cannot be surprised at them ; 
 passion has always much more influence 
 over mankind than reason ; and the Pro- 
 testants, in their eagerness to punish 
 their supposed enemies, comprehended 
 every Roman Catholic under the same 
 ban, and drew the line of separation, not 
 between the loyal and the traitorous, 
 but exactly where it was the policy of 
 the court of Rome to have it established, 
 between those whe did, and those who 
 did not hold communion with her. 
 
 § 517. The general quietness of this 
 peaeeful reign, however beneficial to the 
 country, presents comparatively little for 
 the pen of the historian. A monarch 
 of .Tames's character was much better 
 suited to moderate the plans of others 
 than to put his own projects into execu- 
 tion ; and the same facility of temper 
 and easiness of compliance which soft- 
 ened the asperity of those with whom 
 he had to deal, rendered his own plans 
 totally unsuccessful. One of these was 
 the erection of a college at Chelsea,* for 
 the promotion of controversial divinity. 
 Its members were to form a corps pre- 
 pared to defend the church of England 
 against the assaults of the regular orders 
 among the papal clergy ; but the design 
 lived not much beyond the completion 
 of the buildings, and was destroyed for 
 want of funds and countenance. The 
 establishment itself was little required ; 
 since, if but a small portion of the higher 
 situations in our cathedral churches 
 were set apart to reward learned di- 
 vines, the wants of the establishment in 
 this respect would easily be supplied. 
 James, with all his good intentions, was 
 but a weak man, fond of meddling with 
 all matters, and particularly vain of his 
 theological acquirements, which were 
 indeed considerable. 
 
 § 518. When Conradus Vorstius was 
 appointed to the divinity chair at Ley- 
 den,* the king, who had been displeased 
 at some of his opinions which were un- 
 orthodox, not only answered them with 
 his own pen, but applied to the govern- 
 ment to deprive him of his professor- 
 ship, a step in which the states were 
 
 1 Fuller, X. 51. 'Ibid. x. 60 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
1S8 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XII. 
 
 not at all inclined to show as much 
 obedience as his majesty expected. In 
 England, the result of the same temper 
 was far more injurious : Bartholomew 
 Legate was delivered over to the secu- 
 lar arm by the bishop of London, and 
 burnt in Smithfield. The king himself 
 had often reasoned with this man, and 
 every species of kindness seems to have 
 been shown him, till the time of his 
 final condemnation ; but it was not un- 
 til the experiment had been tried here, 
 and in the case of Wightman at Litch- 
 field, that James discovered this great 
 truth, that, in matters of opinion, 
 wherever error of judgment is punished 
 rather than viciousness of life, severity 
 tends more to display to the eyes of the 
 world the appearance of honest firm- 
 ness on the part of the sufferer, than to 
 convince mankind of his guilt ; and the 
 man whose tenets would be generally 
 condemned, is, by his voluutary sub- 
 mission to death, often converted into 
 a martyr. For the future therefore it 
 was determined not to execute heretics, 
 but to allow them to waste out their 
 lives in prison ; a line of treatment dic- 
 tated by the soundest policy. Had the 
 enemies of Christianity pursued it from 
 the first, they would have destroyed 
 one of the most powerful engines by 
 which our most holy faith was spread. 
 Had it been adopted by Mary, it is 
 impossible to determine how much it 
 might have retarded the Reformation in 
 England. But God, who was pleased 
 to water his church with the blood of 
 his martyrs, has hardly yet taught man- 
 kind that erroneous opinions can only 
 be combated by truth, while ill conduct 
 must be restrained by the strong arm 
 of the law. 
 
 § 519. (a. d. 1618.) A diversity of 
 opinion had long been entertained by 
 different members of the church with 
 regard to the observance of the Sabbath- 
 day. » The party most friendly to the 
 puritans had been strenuous in their 
 endeavours to check that laxity of 
 amusements which had formerly pre- 
 
 ' During the reign of Elizabeth all sorts of 
 amusements had been entered into on the Sun- 
 day. (Strype's Annals, iii. 585.) On her recep- 
 tian at Kenilworth, 1575, "the lords and ladies 
 danced in the evening with Hvely agility." (Ibid. 
 V. 202.) There were sports at the Paris Garden ; 
 the lord mayor was presented to the queen ; plays 
 and interludes were acted. (Ibid. v. 211, 495.) 
 
 vailed throughout the country; and in 
 their so doing, they possibly went be- 
 yond what the times would bear, and 
 were occasionally guilty of some extra- 
 vagances. It was this circumstance 
 probably which created an opposition 
 on the part of those who did not coin- 
 cide with them in ecclesiastical matters, 
 and to this party the king joined him- 
 self. In his progress during the last 
 year he had observed a disposition to 
 interfere with the games of the common 
 people in Lancashire, and consequently 
 issued a proclamation in favour of liber- 
 ty on the Sabbath-day, commonly called 
 the " Book of Sports,"'' in which he 
 sanctioned a much greater license of 
 recreation than the habits of succeed- 
 ing generations have allowed. Many of 
 the most orthodox clergy disapproved' 
 of what was here done, and were in 
 considerable alarm lest the court should 
 oblige them to publish this declaration; 
 no such step, however, was taken gene- 
 rally.* 
 
 § 520. The king's attention was pro- 
 bably directed* to another object which 
 had much greater attractions for a per- 
 son of his disposition. The differences 
 of doctrine between the Calvinists and 
 Arminians were, in the United Pro- 
 vinces, mixed up with much of political 
 opinion ; so that the Calvinistic and 
 ruling party was well pleased that the 
 credit of their synod, held at Dort, 
 should be strengthened by the presence 
 of certain delegates from the church of 
 England, whose sentiments, from the 
 known bias in the mind of James, would 
 probably coincide with their own. The 
 persons selected by the king for this 
 employment were, Carleton, bishop of 
 Llandaff ; Hall, afterwards bishop of 
 Exeter, who was forced to return be- 
 fore the end of the session, from ill 
 health ; Davenant and Ward, both 
 heads of colleges in Cambridge ; Bal- 
 canquall, who represented the episco- 
 pal church of Scotland ; and Goad, who 
 
 2 See ^ 558, &-c. It is said to have been drawn 
 
 up by Bishop Mortton. 
 3 Fuller. X. 74, Sec. 
 
 It appears to have been enjoined in and abODt 
 London. Abbot refused to allow of its being read 
 at Croydon. Perhaps this appearance of opposi- 
 tion prevented James from pressing it any further. 
 (See Wilson's Life of James, p. 709, and Wel- 
 wood's note. Complete History of England.) 
 6 Fuller, X. 77. 
 
Chap. XII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 189 
 
 was substituted for Hall. The treat- 
 ment which these delegates received 
 from the states was most honourable, 
 and their presence contributed, in some 
 degree, to calm the violence of party 
 spirit ; but as the Arminian advocates 
 would not argue the question, because 
 they were not allowed to do so in their 
 own method, and were therefore con- 
 demned unheard, very little good was 
 done on the subject, and hardly any 
 other effect produced, save that its de- 
 Icisions gave one party in that country 
 ;a handle for persecuting the other. The 
 'five heads of difference are,* 1st, on pre- 
 destination and election ; 2d, the death 
 'of Christ, and the redemption obtained 
 Ithereby; 3d, on human corruption ; 4th, 
 on conversion to God, and the method 
 of it; .5th, on the final perseverance of 
 the saints. Whatever opinions the read- 
 !ers of this work may entertain on any 
 I of these abstruse topics, I am convinced 
 I that every Christian mind will agree 
 that the decisions of this synod are far 
 too peremptory, inasmuch as they de- 
 fine beyond what the revealed word of 
 God has declared. Whoever will com- 
 pare them with the corresponding arti- 
 cles of our church, will have abundant 
 reason for admiring the cautious man- 
 ner in which the same subjects are 
 there laid down, and for approving the 
 nearer approach to the spirit of the 
 Bible, which her tenets exhibit as they 
 ' are there publicly displayed.'' 
 
 §.521. (a. D. 1(522.) Towards the end 
 ' of the reign, ^ the eagerness which the 
 king felt for the Spanish match induced 
 him to show much more favour towards 
 the Roman Catholics than the majority 
 ' of his subjects approved. The con- 
 
 ' Syllr>i;e Confessionum. 
 
 ' No liiriher account is given of this synod, be- 
 cause ihe subject is fur loo extensive for a rote. 
 The opinions of the auilior on the five points are 
 primed in his sermons, preached formerly before 
 the \iiuversi!y ; but the reader is advised to form 
 his own judgment from no human standard. A 
 brief account of the proceedings of this synod is 
 given in Allport's Life of Bishop Davenani, pre- 
 fixed to Davenant on the Colossians, p. 12, &c. 
 The liest information on this history is to be found 
 in Hale's Golden Remains. The proceedings of 
 the synod were ^ery disgraceful, and they are 
 represented, perhaps, even worse than they were. 
 Brant's History of the Reformation in Holland 
 treats fully of it. What was here done had, pro- 
 bably, a considerable effect in changing the opi- 
 nions of the people of England, ana introducing 
 greater moderation. 
 
 ' Fuller, X. 100. 
 
 nection itself could not fail to be dis- 
 pleasing to the nation ; but Count 
 Gondomar, the Spanish ambassador, 
 well knew the disposition of the mo- 
 narch with whom he had to treat, and 
 was always esteemed sufficiently clever 
 to have taken every advantage of this 
 circumstance. 
 
 When James issued his directions to 
 the justices of assize, to release all re- 
 cusants confined on account of religion, 
 the opinions of his Protestant subjects 
 were hostile to a step which seemed to 
 set at defiance the laws enacted against 
 the church of Rome, and to free its 
 members from those severities which 
 the legislature had deemed necessary ; 
 but when the prince, and the most in- 
 fluential man in the kingdom, had be- 
 come, as it were, connected with the 
 political friends of the papacy, by 
 throwing themselves into the arms of 
 Spain, the alarm and irritation were 
 rendered far more general. In conse- 
 quence of this state of things. Abbot, 
 archbishop of CanterburJ^ addressed a 
 letter to the king, in which he inveighs 
 most strongly against toleration :* "By 
 your act," says he, " you labour to set 
 up that most damnable and heretical 
 doctrine of the church of Rome, the 
 whore of Babylon :" and the feelings 
 of the country soon exhibited them- 
 selves in the tone displayed in the ser- 
 mons of the generality of preachers. 
 Politics, together with the most abstruse 
 points of theology, became the ordinary 
 topics on which they dilated; and it 
 was particularly observed, that at court 
 the obedience of the subject was en- 
 forced, while the duty of the king was 
 insisted on in the country. 
 
 Such were the causes which induced 
 James to address a letter^ to the arch- 
 bishop, (Aug. 4,) accompanied with di- 
 rections concerning preaching. He 
 orders that no preachers besides bishops 
 and deans, and they only on festivals and 
 state holydays, should take occasion to 
 run into any other discourses than such 
 as may be fairly drawn from the Thirty- 
 nine Articles or the Homilies ; that their 
 evening sermons shall dwell solely on 
 the Catechism, and subjects connected 
 with it ; that abstruse points of divinity 
 should be avoided ; that the power of 
 
 * Fuller, X, 106. ^ ibid. x. 108. 
 
190 HISTORY 
 
 the prince should not be touched upon, 
 nor any attacks made on papists or puri- 
 tans ; that great caution should be used 
 in licensing preachers, particularly lec- 
 turers, who formed a new body in the 
 church, and were, in a great degree, 
 severed from the rest of the clergy ; and 
 that to these no licenses should be given 
 but through the archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, on the recommendation of the 
 bishop of the diocese. These directions, 
 however, were composed in a strain far 
 too high to answer the purpose for which 
 they were intended. Had they been 
 given as advice, the sound sense with 
 which they are written might have influ- 
 enced many.* Had the government 
 from which they issued been as strong 
 as it was weak, they might have been 
 quietly enforced, to the benefit of the 
 congregations ; as it was, they were at- 
 tacked Ijy the captious, and in some cases 
 insisted on with an undue severity, which 
 must have rendered them liable to ob- 
 jection, even in the minds of the well- 
 disposed. 
 
 § 522. The policy of the state is so 
 entirely mixed up with the history of the 
 church, that it is almost impossible to 
 understand the one, without examining 
 the other; and the field is at the same 
 time so wide, that the ecclesiastical his- 
 torian incurs considerable danger in ven- 
 turing to enter upon it ; yet he can hardly 
 render himself intelligible, unless he 
 gives, at least, a general view of those 
 portions of state politics which influ- 
 enced ecclesiastical matters. This object 
 will, perhaps, be obtained most effect- 
 ualh', if we try to examine into the 
 character of the king, and to deduce our 
 observations from his proceedings, as the 
 influence of the court was felt in every 
 part of the administration, and particu- 
 larly in the church. 
 
 § 523. James might perhaps have 
 
 ' Much of the advice of James contained great 
 good sense. Early in this century, it had become 
 the custom to put into ihe hands of youngstudents 
 in theology some epiiome, generally Calvin's 
 Institutes, from which they drew their opuiions. 
 (Words. Ecc. Biog. v. 479, note.) King James ob- 
 served the inconvenience, and prescribed a remedy, 
 by sending instructions to the universities, bearing 
 date Jan. 18, IfiUi; wherein he directs them to 
 bestow their time on the "fathers, councils, 
 schoolmen, histories, and controversies ; and not 
 to insist too long on compendiums and abbrevia- 
 tors." (Ibid. v. 343, note.) So that they might 
 begin at the fountain head, and search for primi- 
 tive truth in the primitive writers. 
 
 OF THE [Chap. XIL 
 
 proved a good king, if his weakness a 
 a man had not rendered it almost impos* 
 sible for him to perform the duties of hi» 
 station. For the obsen-ation, which is 
 in some degree applicable to all, viz.. 
 That even in the common concerns Of 
 this life, " no weak man can prove an 
 honest one," is infinitely more true,wheB- 
 applied to those who are invested with 
 supreme authority. That mental supe- 
 riority on which James always presumed, 
 and which, to a certain degree, he pos- 
 sessed, induced him to endeavour to 
 make himself the guide, and, if I may 
 use the expression, the state tutor of 
 Europe ; while his personal imbecility 
 prevented him from being able to govern 
 his own house. It was this weakness, 
 probably, which made him so insincere 
 with regard to bis word ; an evil whicb 
 is apt to become the source of an infi- 
 nitely greater degree of weakness, by 
 preventing him who is guilty of it from 
 carrying into effect even the good reso- 
 lutions which he has formed. 
 
 § 524. His own opinions, with relation 
 both to the state and to the church, were 
 peculiar, and upheld with a pedantic 
 semblance of firmness which made his 
 concessions always appear like the effect 
 of fear ; while the display of these sen- 
 timents, on occasions where they were 
 inopportunely introduced, often added 
 to the suspicions which his subjects en- 
 tertained as to the objects which he had 
 in view. In politics, he had formed so 
 high an idea of the regal prerogative, 
 that in an answer to the parliament in 
 1(510. he said,^ "That as it was blas- 
 phemy to dispute what God may do, so 
 it is sedition, in subjects, to dispute what 
 a king may do in the plenitude of his 
 power." A monarch M-ho had formed 
 such a notion, could not help wishing to 
 make himself absolute, however much - 
 he might desire to benefit his people by "s 
 the exercise of his authority; and the '" 
 party who in the state were adverse to 
 these regal pretensions, were in church 
 matters opposed also to the arbitrary 
 proceedings of the bishops' courts, and 
 frequently to the whole system of church 
 government ; so that, in the mind of the 
 king, and the general language of the 5 
 times, the term of puritan conveyed * 
 these two ideas, of dislike to the govem- 
 
 s Rapin, ii. 178. 
 
BiP. xn.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 191 
 
 ent of the church, and opposition to 
 at of the state, which are indeed more 
 oscly connected than may at first sight 
 ; supposed. 
 
 § 5;i5. The great point which the 
 'TOtestant had gained by the Reforma- 
 >n, was the establishment of the feeling 
 ■ moral responsibility in the minds of 
 ie mass of society. The Roman 
 :iil:'<lic teacher would fetter the free- 
 r the opinions of his flock, even 
 I he enforced the doctrine, that 
 ,1 i.ian is answerable for his actions; 
 r, w iih regard to actions, the duty of 
 I i- nce to superiors, as it is generally 
 I on, will often sanction a line of 
 : little approved of by the con- 
 of him who enters on it ; obe- 
 . 1. ■ ill itself is not a duty, unless it 
 ' nccording to the word of God. The 
 u ly promoters of the Reformation had 
 uqlit the people to think for them- 
 •Ivi's, by referring questions to the cri- 
 rion of their own judgments ; but they 
 ere not at all disposed to carry the 
 rincipli' to the leiifrth to which it must 
 ' cxlendi'd wlient'ver it is allowed to 
 \i<t. The crown had destroyed the 
 authority m England for nearly a 
 Mitury, but the power exercised by the 
 overument was only different from the 
 lapal interference inasmuch as it had 
 |ot the same interest to support abases, 
 i: sought to bring the church back to the 
 Ipostolic times; at least such was its 
 istensible object: and probably if we 
 jdce into consideration the change of 
 mes, and the difficulties against which 
 1 had to contend, it did. in great mea- 
 iUre, accomplish this end ; but the means 
 imployed were far from apostolic. As 
 |ie mass of the inhabitants began to be 
 |nlightened, the same process took 
 • lace with regard to politics. From 
 beginning to observe the conduct of the 
 i'ovcrnment in the state, most men ven- 
 ured to form a judgment on what was 
 :oing on, and by degrees wished to exert 
 heir own influence in the direction of 
 iffairs. 
 
 I § 526. This was, doubtless, very much 
 he case during the reign of Elizabeth ; 
 JUt, during her reign, when the more 
 ictive spirits began to pry into state 
 matters, they found a government, with 
 ill its faults, promoting the good of the 
 people ; they found a monarch wilful, 
 indeed, but anxious to benefit her siib- 
 
 ijects; they found a power above them 
 ready and able to repress every step oa 
 the part of the governed to interfere 
 with what did not belong to them ; yet 
 whenever any real difficulty occurred, 
 this same power, which they knew to be 
 most formidable, was wise enough to 
 give way before matters were brought 
 to a crisis. 
 
 When James took the helm, the whohi 
 prospect was changed; his notions of 
 the regal authority were higher than 
 those of his predecessor, yet he had no 
 prudence or self-restraint which could 
 support a force adequate to assert his 
 kingly power: his motto, Benti pacijici, 
 had but little connection with Christian 
 peace, which must be founded on justice : 
 it was but a pretext for his cowardice: 
 he acted as if he had never learned that 
 a government, in order to maintain 
 peace, must make itself feared as well 
 as respected ; and as he became the 
 laughing-stock of foreign nations, he lost 
 all due authority at home. The admi- 
 nistration of public affairs would not bear 
 to be examined ; and the king, the victim 
 of his OAvn favourites, became tyraimi- 
 cally oppressive \A-ithout d(>siring it, in 
 order to concal his own weakness and 
 the maladministration of his servants. 
 His objection to parliaments arose partly 
 from this cause, but chiefly from the 
 theoretical prejudices which he enter- 
 tained. He would look on his authority 
 in no other light than as an absolute 
 monarchy ; and when the House of 
 Commons began to talk of those privi- 
 leges which were their birthright, the 
 spi^culative autocrat and legislator could 
 eniluic it no longer. His theory of 
 ecclesiastical go\-ernment was closely 
 allied to his civil code, and in like man- 
 ner referred rather to his own interest 
 as a king than to any other standard. 
 In his youth he had found himself very 
 hardly treated by the presbytery in Scot- 
 land ; and he seems, during his whole 
 life, to have retained a strong aversion 
 from that form of church government 
 through Avhicli he had suffered so much, 
 and which iiad acted towards his mother 
 and iiimself with so little of the mild 
 spirit of Christianity ; and yet he pro- 
 fessed himself the firm friend of it,' call- 
 ing the service of the Common Prayer 
 
 ' Calderwood's History of Scotland. 
 
192 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XD. 
 
 an evil mass, said in English. No 
 sooner, however, was he seated on his 
 new throne, than he discovered his mis- 
 take, and became attached to an estab- 
 lishment which, with all its imperfec- 
 tions, is probably the most perfect which 
 ever existed in the world, and which 
 coincided more nearly with his own pre- 
 conceived notions of subordination. Of 
 his sincerity in these professions we 
 have no further reason to doubt, than 
 from his former want of candour ; and all 
 his observations concerning the church 
 are marked with much sound sense, ex- 
 cepting in some few cases, in which he 
 suffered his temper to get the better of 
 his judgment. With regard to the Ro- 
 man Catholic religion, he seems to have 
 entertained very enlightened views. 
 
 § 527. The power of dethroning and 
 punishing kings was the only tenet which 
 he deemed inadmissible in practice ; and 
 if left to follow the bent of his own in- 
 clinations, he would have allowed of a 
 toleration almost as liberal as what is 
 now enjoyed by the members of this 
 communion ; but when he came to act, 
 his insincerity to both sides was appa- 
 rent. He renewed the severe and 
 bloody laws against seminary priests, 
 Jesuits, and recusants, although in his 
 first speech to the parliament' he had 
 declared his wish to meet the Roman 
 Catholics halfway. The state of the 
 country and the feelings of the people 
 were not yet ready to admit of toleration 
 as it is now established, and James no- 
 minally gave way to the wishes of his 
 people while he was trying to act in 
 direct opposition to them. The distinc- 
 tions in the question which now seem 
 so important, were then apparently little 
 thought of. To us no two ideas seem 
 more different and separable than " the 
 being allowed the use of their religion, 
 as a religion," and "the being invested 
 with temporal power ;" yet were they 
 debarred the former, a privilege which 
 should be denied to no one ; while many 
 of the important offices in the state were 
 filled by them, and they retained their 
 legislative authority, a point concerning 
 which a difference of opinion may legi- 
 timately be entertained. They were 
 invested with power, and yet subjected 
 to such burdens as were indeed to be 
 
 > Rapin, ii. 166. 
 
 bought off without any difficulty, but 
 which could have little other effect than 
 that of making them discontented with il 
 the government and hostile to the pu- 
 ritanic party, who were as uncharitable 
 towards Roman Catholics as the worst 
 bigots of that church are towards all 
 other Christians. The conduct of some 
 of the Roman Catholics was such aj 
 must have alarmed any friends of socia! 
 order, and the whole mass were impli- iJ 
 cated in the crimes of a few. Manj 
 sincere su])porters of the monarchy wen 
 dissatisfied with the moderate treatmeni 
 which the Roman Catholics expe- 
 rienced ; and by having raised thai) 
 voices against the measures of the go 
 vernment in this particular, they were 
 connected in the eyes of the court witl 
 the puritanic party. Many more pa- ' 
 triotic spirits were frightened at the in- 
 roads which the king was apparently ii 
 making in the constitution ; and, bj 
 supporting the interests of the people 
 were confounded with such as wen 
 hostile to the church. The constitutioi 
 of the court of ecclesiastical commissior 
 enabled it to proceed in an arbitrarj. kv I 
 manner, and its proceedings assiste( ( 
 the other causes in augmenting th( '. 
 number of both these classes of persons 
 whom the impolicy of the court com 
 prehended under the general denomi 
 nation of puritans. Thus all who wen 
 eager for the liberty of the subject, al 
 who feared concession to the Romai 
 Catholics, all who hated episcopacy 
 were confounded in one common mass 
 and all had too little reason to rely oi 
 the wisdom or sincerity of James. 
 
 The king himself was probably litth 
 under the influence of any religious .- 
 feeling. He talked about religion, anc (■ 
 wrote on subjects connected with it, bu 
 he swore profusely in his ordinary con 
 versation, and was the companion oJ 
 libertinism ; while the favouritism ir 
 which he indulged made him unjust tt 
 his most faithful servants, and producec 
 a venal disposal of every office in tht 
 court:'' and yet the weakness of Jame: - 
 was probably the chief source of hif •. 
 faults, and more than overbalanced al 
 the talents which he possessed. 
 
 2 Nothing tended more to weaken the crowi ' 
 than the power which James exercised of alienat 
 ing the royal property. (Burnet's Own Tunes 
 i. 26.) 
 
 1 
 
■AP. XII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 m 
 
 DATES RELATIVE TO THE USE OF THE BIBLE IN ENGLISH. 
 
 y.W. Cromwell orders every parson to cause a Bible in Latin andEng-lish to be 
 set up in the choir for the perusal of the people. Fox, ii. 324. 
 
 338. Cromwell orders a Bible of the largest volume to be set up in every 
 church, in some place convenient for reading. Fox, ii. 325. 
 
 539. A license for printing the Bible granted to Cromwell, that all persons 
 may have the free and liberal use of it. Burnet's Records, iii. No. 15. 
 
 340. May. A king's proclamation orders a Bible of the largest volume to be 
 provided by the curate and parishioners, under a penalty of 40«. per 
 month. 
 
 541. A brief published directing the same. 
 
 543. The Bible was again suppressed. Strype's Cranmer, i. 121. Lewis, 148. 
 
 546. A proclamation against Tyndale's and Coverdale's Bible. Strype's 
 Cranmer, i. 197. 
 
 HI. Edward's injunctions directed that the whole Bible in English of the 
 largest volume should be set up in every church. Lewis, 156. 
 
 559. Elizabeth issued the same injunction. Lewis, 212. 
 
 TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 Date. Authority. 
 
 706. Adhelm, Saxon Psalms Mant's Preface. 
 
 721. Egbert's Four Gospels .... — 
 
 734. Bede's St. John's Gospel ... - Fuller's Ch. Hist. 99, p. i. 
 
 880. Alfred's Version of the Psalms - - - Ibid. i. 121, § 44. 
 
 340. Rolle's (or Hampole's) Psalms, &c. - - Lewis, p. 13. 
 
 380. Wiclif's Bible p. 19. 
 
 526. Tyndale's New Testament - - - . p. 59. 
 
 530. Pentateuch .... p. 70. 
 
 i;531. Jonas p. 73. 
 
 G. Joye, Isaiah p. 78. 
 
 534. Jer. Psal. Song of Moses ... p. 87, 88. 
 
 535. Coverdale's Bible p. 91. 
 
 .537. Matthew's Bible, (i. e. J. Rogers) ... p. 105. 
 
 1539. Great Bible, Cranmer's - - . . p. 122. 
 
 Taverner's Bible p. 130. 
 
 1.560. Geneva Bible p. 207. 
 
 1568. Bishops' Bible, (Parker's) .... p. 2,35. 
 
 1582. Rhomes New Testament .... p. 277. 
 
 1609, Douay Bible p. 286. 
 
 1611. Authoiized Version p. 306, &c. 
 
 25 
 
 R 
 
194 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. X 
 
 APPENDIX D. TO CHAP. XIL 
 
 HISTORY OF THE TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE. 
 
 531. The division of the subject ; vaiiotis readings from aherations of the text. 532. There has be 
 but one translation, which has been frequently corrected. 533. Saxon Translations: Hampole 
 Wiclif's. 534. Tyndalcs Translation. 535. Coverdale's Bihle ; Matthew's. 536. The Gri 
 Bible, or Cranmer's ; Tavcrner's. 537- Geneva Bible. 538. Bishops' or Parker's Bib 
 539. Ilhemes and Douay Translation. 540. The authorized Bible. 
 
 §531. The History of the English 
 Bible will naturally divide itself into 
 four periods : — 
 
 1. That before any printed transla- 
 tions. 
 
 2. The reign of Henry VIII. 
 
 3. From thence to the end of the 
 reign of Elizabeth ; and, 
 
 4. From thence to the publication of 
 the authorized version. 
 
 But before we enter on the history, it 
 may be observed, that there is one cir- 
 cumstance which frequently creates a 
 difficulty in examining these various 
 translations, whether in MS. or print, 
 and which has made them appear much 
 more numerous tlian they really are.' 
 The persons who transcribed the copies, 
 or who superintended the printing, seem 
 to have introduced alterations into the 
 text, without any other authority than 
 that of their own jtulgment. The va- 
 riety of readintrs exhibited in the MS. 
 Bibles of Wiclif has led Dr. James^ and 
 subsequent historians to call this cor- 
 rected version a distinct translation ; but 
 the various readings are not more nu- 
 merous than those -which might pro- 
 bably be found in different editions of 
 what is called Tyndale's New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 § 532. In speaking of the different 
 translations of the Bible, such expres- 
 sions are frequcntlj' used as would lead 
 those who are unacquainted with the 
 facts, to suppose that they formed so 
 many independent works ; but we shall 
 take a more correct view of the subject 
 in asserting, that there is but one ver- 
 
 ' The authorities followed in this abstract are 
 Lewis's History of the 'I'ranslations of the Bible, 
 reprinted 1818. Nevvcome'a Historical View of 
 the English Biblical 'I'ranslations, Dublin, 1792. 
 Many of the observations have been verified by 
 examining the different works themselves. There 
 is much useful matter in Baber's preface to his 
 reprint of Lewis's N. T. See also Cotton's Edi- 
 tions of the Bible. ^ Lewis, 43. 
 
 sion of the Protestant Bible in prii 
 altered indeed and improved by differe 
 hands, and which has received the su 
 sequent amendments of many learm 
 men, but from the first to the last the 
 has been but one actual translatio; 
 Let any one compare the earliest ai 
 the latest, and he will find a diversr 
 indeed of words, but such a similari' 
 of expression as cannot be accidents 
 Let him then look at two independe: 
 translations of the same book, of Thuc; 
 dides, for instance, by Hobbes and Smit. 
 and the difference will immediately b 
 come visible. The resemblance in tl 
 versions is so great, that it might safe) 
 be maintained that none of the autho 
 of a new one undertook the task wit! 
 out the full assistance of such preriov 
 translations as had been made. TI 
 wisdom of proceeding hy this method 
 obvious, unless there be some actu 
 error of translation, for the mere fa 
 that the version has been already r 
 ceivcd, and is familiar to the ears of tl 
 people, is a strong reason why nothic 
 should be altered. 
 
 § 533. The Saxon church seems t 
 have enjoyed at an early period tt 
 benefit of possessing the Scriptures i 
 the vulgar tongue ; for, independent v 
 many different portions translated 
 various persons, Bede is said to ha\ 
 given a Saxon version of the wholt 
 and though this statement is probabl 
 incorrect,^ yet he wrote a comment o 
 most of the books in the Bible,* an 
 translated St. John's Gospel, or at lea; 
 a part of it, immediately before h 
 death.' Alfred is said to have tran; 
 lated the Psaher,^ the whole Bible c 
 Testament, into Saxon ; but the fclec 
 tions which he made for his own us« 
 
 ' Baber, pref lix. 
 
 " Turner's Hist. Anglo-Saxons, iii. 381, 385. 
 ' Fuller, i. 99. « Turner's Arg.-Sax. iL 9i 
 
HAP.XII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 195 
 
 ppear to have been confounded with a 
 eneral translation. Elfric,' about the 
 nd of the tenth century, undertook his 
 anslation of the Scriptures from the 
 .atin ; and from the difTerent styles of 
 le Anglo-Saxon versions of the gospels, 
 ley must have been translated oftener 
 ^[lan once." Archbishop Parker, in his 
 (inxiety to prove that the proceedings of 
 Ifie Reformation were not novelties, has 
 ublished a Saxon version of the four 
 
 ; OSPCIS. 
 
 ' The oldest English translation now 
 xtant, is due to a priest of the name of 
 'lolle, who was a hermit at Hampole in 
 '^orkshire, and translated the psalms 
 nd several other canticles from the 
 'scriptures, and wrote a running com- 
 lentary on them: (he died in 1349:) 
 'nd it seems that at least parts, if not 
 11 the New Testament, were about this 
 Jieriod rendered intelligible to those who 
 inderstood only their mother tongue. 
 1 1380.) But the first person who pub- 
 ished the Bible in English was John 
 iViclif ;^ his translation is made from 
 he Vulgate, as he was unacquainted 
 vith the original languages ; but lie was 
 ' 0 desirous of translating literally, that 
 le has rendered it frequently very ob- 
 icure to those who are unacquainted 
 vith the idiom of the Latin. Notwith- 
 , Standing the opposition which was raised 
 jOthe distribution of this work, nume- 
 •QUS copies of it still remain.* 
 
 ! ' Tunier'a Aug. -Sax. iii. 472. 
 I 2 See more particulars lo ilie same effect in 
 Liingird's Anglo-Saxon Church, p. 4-23, note 4(i. 
 
 ' This account is laken from Lewis's History 
 )f ihe Translations, p. I'J. In the Life of Wiclif. 
 'JubUshed 1720, there is a considerable account of 
 lis way of proceeding;, which Mr. Lewis seems 
 mbsequenlly to have erased, as it is not in the 
 ;dition of 1820, Oxford. This states ih:il he and 
 fiis friends first fnuncd, by coUaiitif; diHerciit copies 
 >f the Bihle, the best Latin text they could, and 
 compared it with the tlebrew occasionally ; and 
 'that they did not translate word for word, hut 
 according to the sense. In the same omitted 
 paragrapn is a catalogue of the books of the Old 
 and New Testament, which distinguishes the 
 Apocrypha, that is, " withouten authoriiie ol By- 
 leve," p. 73, 1720. I know not why it was 
 omitted. 
 
 * Two editions of the New Testament of this 
 version have been published; one by Lewis, fol, 
 1731, to which his History of the English Trans- 
 . lations formed a preface. And again 4lo., 1810, 
 by H. II. Baber; this is merely a reprint of the 
 other with a preface. Mr. T. H. Horne, in the 
 Introduction to the Scriptures, ii. 238, speaks of a 
 translation older than Wiclif 's to be found in three 
 libraries in Oxford. After having examined the 
 MS. in Christ Church library, I am myself con- 
 vinced that this is not the case, and perhaps a true 
 
 § .534. The difficulty^ of multiplying 
 copies must have created a constant 
 hinderance to the general use of the 
 Scriptures, had not Providence ordained 
 that the discovery of the art of printing 
 should, as it were, open a way for the 
 reformation of the church, and materially 
 assist its progress. The first person 
 who ju-inted any part of the Bible in 
 Engli.sh, was William Tyndale. He 
 had received his education in Oxford 
 and Cambridge, and having been driven 
 into Flanders, he published, with the 
 assistance of -Tohn Frith and William 
 Roye, a translation of the New Testa- 
 ment from the ( Jreek." (153(5.) He was 
 proceeding in this task, and had printed 
 translations of the Pentateuch and the 
 prophet Jonas, when he was exalted to 
 a better world through the trial of mar- 
 tyrdom ; a crown to which both his as- 
 sociates were afterwards called. George 
 Joye, who was employed by the Dutch 
 booksellers in publishing an edition of 
 this New Testament, took the liberty of 
 malcing alterations in the text, though it 
 was srill printed under the name of 
 Tyndale ; a circumstance which caused 
 an un.^eemly dispute between them. 
 Joye himself continued the work by 
 translating Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the 
 Psalms. 
 
 § 535. But the glory of putting forth 
 the first English Bible in print, was re- 
 served for Miles Coverdale, afterwards 
 bishop of Exeter, who, in 1.5.S5, pub- 
 lished what he calls a special translation, 
 a term which has been generally con- 
 
 solulion is to bp found in «.531 ; and that this MS. 
 is a copy of Wiclif's Hible. with which liberties 
 have been taken and glosses introduced. In some 
 respects il resembles Mr. Douce's, spoken of by 
 Mr. Baber. 
 
 ^ Archbishop Usher tells u.s that, in 1429, one 
 of these Testaments cost 21. \ Sd. (170 groats,) 
 which is as much as would now buy forty Testa- 
 ments: (Lewis 25:) but this is a very inadequate 
 view of the matter. By Raignier's tables a quarter 
 of wheat, in 1425, cost 5s. Hd. (17 groats.) The 
 price of the Testament was therefore ten quarters 
 of wheat, or about 301., a sum which would pur- 
 chase at least 400. 
 
 IS This edition is by Strype called the New Tes- 
 tament translated by Hotchyn ; (that is, Tyndale ;) 
 Fuller calls him Tyndal, alias Hichins. (Memor. 
 i. 113. Fuller, v. 224. ^37.) The reason for this 
 name is as follows: Hugh, baron of Tyndale, of 
 Langley Castle, Northumberland, escaped from 
 the field of battle when the Yorkists were over- 
 come by the Lancastrians, lost his title and estate, 
 and took refuge in Gloucestershire under the as- 
 sumed name of Hutchins. Preface to the reprint 
 of the New Testament. William Tyndale was 
 the grandson of the baron. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XII 
 
 ceived to mean that it was not borrowed 
 from any other source, which is hardly 
 true, unless the expression be received 
 under great latitude of interpretation, as 
 the translation bears evident marks of 
 having been in some degree taken from 
 the former, though many expressions in 
 it are varied. The book is dedicated to 
 the king, in consequence of the direc- 
 tions which he had given for translating 
 the Scriptures, and the favour which he 
 showed towards the undertaking gene- 
 rally : for, upon the remonstrance of the 
 clergy, who objected to Tyndale's trans- 
 lation, on account of the supposed here- 
 sies which it contained, it was ordered 
 to be destroyed ; and the king directed 
 that a more correct version should be 
 formed for the use of the people. Cover- 
 dale, however, was not peculiarly suited 
 to the task, as he was unacquainted with 
 the original languages, and translated 
 from such different Latin and Dutch 
 copies as he could procure. 
 
 (a. d. 1.537.) The edition which passes 
 under the name of Matthew's, is partly 
 taken from Tyndale, partly from Cover- 
 dale ; and was put forth under this ficti- 
 tious name, probably by John Rogers, 
 who wished to conceal himself, through 
 the fear of persecution. It was of this 
 Bible that an impression of 2-500 copies 
 was burnt at Paris, in 15:}8, by the in- 
 quisition, though Francis had given 
 leave for its being nrinted there. 
 
 § 536. (a. d. 153!).) The Great Bible,' 
 published under the patronage of Cran- 
 mer, is rather another edition of that 
 called Matthew's than a new one ; and 
 has acquired the name of the archbishop 
 from a preface which he wrote to the 
 second edition, as well as from the sup- 
 port which he gave to the publication. 
 Cranmer, indeed, intended that this work 
 should undergo a thorough correction ; 
 and for that purpose, having required 
 the aid of the convocation in 1542, he 
 proceeded to apportion the several parts 
 to the different members ; but found so 
 much opposition among the bishops, 
 that he persuaded the king to refer the 
 matter to the universities, a step which 
 might have produced some good effects, 
 if the next parliament had not proved so 
 favourable to the other party as to coun- 
 
 ' It is from this version that the psalms in the 
 Prayer Book are taken, with ■»ery slight varia- 
 tions. 
 
 teract all these designs." A Bible, recog- 
 nised by Richard Tavemer, was pubisl- 
 ed also during this year, which is so 
 much altered as almost to merit the titk 
 of a new translation. He had belonged 
 to Cardinal's College, in Oxford, and 
 
 I was subsequently taken into the protec- 
 tion of Sir Thomas Cromwell, afterT^'ard^ 
 
 j earl of Essex, under whose patronage 
 
 I he executed the work. Upon the fallof 
 Cromwell, he was for a time imprisoned 
 
 I in the Tower, but speedily restored tc 
 the favour of the king. He was famoui 
 for his great knowledge of Greek. 
 
 § 537. (a. d. 1560.) The refugees as- 
 sembled at Geneva during the reign of 
 Mary, employed themselves, among 
 other useful pursuits, in forming a new 
 translation of the Bible from the origina 
 languages. The persons said to have 
 taken part in this work are Coverdale 
 Goodman, Gilby, Whittingham, Samp- 
 son, and Cole ; to these are sometimes 
 added Knox, Bodleigh, and Pullain. 
 The work, as might have been expected 
 M-as in part new and in part a revisior 
 of the old translation. Little need be 
 said to prove its excellency, since, or 
 comparing them, we should find thatlht 
 present authorized Bible differs but littk 
 from it ; and that those who engaged ir 
 the two subsequent versions, frequentlj 
 adopted expressions taken from it intc 
 their own work. There are many mai 
 ginal notes and glosses subjoined, whfcl 
 occasionally point out the political bias 
 in the minds of the composers : a cir- 
 cumstance which induced James I., dnr 
 ing the conference at Hampton Court, tc 
 say that it was the worst' of all the trans- 
 lations : one instance, among many 
 where the judgment of that monaicl 
 was overcome by his kingly prejudices 
 for it is certainly better than any befon 
 it. It was much used in private fami 
 lies, but never authoritatively introduce* 
 into the church.* The division intc 
 verses was first adopted in this Bible.* 
 
 2 See § 222. 3 Fuller, x. 14. 
 
 * N. B. It is sometimes called the Breeche; 
 Bible, from Genesis iii. 7, where Adam and Ev( 
 are said to have sewed fig-leaves together to roak( 
 themselves breeches. 
 
 5 The Old Testament was divided intosecUooi 
 and verses, marked off by points, perhaps asearh 
 as the lime of Ezra ; a method adopted for th( 
 sake of interpreting it from Hebrew into Chaldee 
 The division into chapters is of much later date 
 and was made by Hugo de Sancto Caro, or Car 
 dinaUs, who composed the first Concordance totbi 
 
HAP. XII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 197 
 
 I § 538. (a. d. li>()8.) When a new edi- 1 
 \3n of the Great Bible' was required for i 
 jie use of parish churches, in the reign 
 ■ Elizabeth, Parker was unwilling to 
 |Ut it forth again without endeavouring 
 [< correct all the errors which had been 
 : i)served in it ; and for this purpose em- 
 jloyed a certain number of divines to 
 , d him in the task of making it as per- 
 •ct as possible. As the majority of the 
 icrsons employed were bishops, the 
 I ible itself has been ordinarily denomi- 
 iited the Bishops' or Parker's Bible, and 
 : the one which formed the basis for the 
 iSt or authorized translation. The per- 
 )ns engaged in it were Alley, Davis, 
 andys, Horne,Grindal, Parkhurst,Cox, 
 nd Guest, all bishops ; besides Peerson, 
 i.eecon. Pern, Cole, and Goodman. This 
 iiay more properly be called a corrected 
 idition of the Great Bible, for nothing 
 ;'as ahered unless from the fear that it 
 light give occasion to an error. A large 
 reface is prefixed to it,° as well as several 
 ibles, one of which forms that of the 
 egrees of kindred within which matri- 
 lony is forbidden, inserted at present in 
 ur Common Prayer Book. 
 § 539. The Roman Catholics, finding 
 lat of the numerous copies of the Bible 
 3me must of necessity fall into the hands 
 f members of their communion, wisely 
 etermined to put forth a translation of 
 
 their own. The New Testament was 
 printed at Rhemes in 1582 ; the whole 
 Bible at Douay in 1009. It is made from 
 the Vulgate, and abounds with expres- 
 sions in which, from retaining the words 
 of the original, the sense is scarcely in- 
 telligible to an ordinary reader. The 
 persons who were deeply engaged in the 
 work were Cardinal Alien, (ireg. Mar- 
 tin, and R. Bristol ; "• otliers ascribe the 
 version of the New Testament to William 
 Reynold. The work was accompanied 
 by marginal notes by Tliomas Worthing- 
 ton ; and in order to recommend its adop- 
 tion, Greg. Martin published an attack 
 on the translations in general use in this 
 country, and was answered by Fulke. 
 
 § 540. In consequence of certain ob- 
 jections raised against the Bishops' Bible 
 in the Conference at Hampton Court, a 
 new translation was agreed on, and every 
 step taken which could render it worthy 
 of our church and nation. The king 
 called upon the principal divines of the 
 nation to assist in carrying on the work, 
 and invited all who had any acquaintance- 
 with the subject to lend tlioir aid with 
 regard to such texts of Scrijiture as they 
 had found to be incorrectly rendered in 
 the former translations. Tlie number 
 of persons engaged in the work itself 
 amounted to forty-seven,* who were di- 
 vided into six committees, and sat at 
 
 'ulgate. (1240.) It has been used in the Hebrew since Rab. Natlian made his Concordance, 1445. 
 tobert Stephens divided the New Testament, and his son Henry printed it so. (1551.) (Prideau.x, 
 ;onn. ii. 84, fol., i. 266 ) 
 
 ' Strype's Parker, i. 414. 2 Printed in Strype's Parker, No. 84. 3 Newcome, 89. 
 
 * The translators were divided into six classes, and were to meet at Westminster, Cambridge, and 
 )xford. (Lewis, 310.) 
 
 These met at Westminster. 
 
 Andrewes, D. of] I Barlow, D. of 
 
 Chester, 
 
 Overall, D. of St. 
 
 Paul's, 
 Sara via, 
 Gierke, 
 Layfield, 
 Leieh, 
 Burleigh, 
 Kinge, 
 Thomson, 
 Bedwell, 
 
 Lively, 
 
 Richardson, 
 
 Chaderton, 
 
 Dillingham, 
 
 Harrison, 
 
 Andrews, 
 
 Spaldinge, 
 
 Birge. 
 
 Pentateuch. 
 T'le story from lo 
 . ohua to ine nrst 
 book of the Chro- 
 nicles exclusive. 
 
 Hutchinson, 
 
 Spencer, 
 
 Fenton, 
 
 Rabbett, 
 
 Sanderson, 
 
 Dakins. 
 
 The Epistles of St. 
 Paul and the Ca- 
 nonical Epistles. 
 
 The classes at Cambridge were- 
 
 From the first of 
 Chronicles with the 
 rest of the story 
 and the Hagio. 
 grapha, viz.. Job 
 P.salnis, Proverbs 
 Cantica, EcclesiaS' 
 tes. 
 
 Duport, 
 
 Brathwaite 
 
 Radcliflb, 
 
 Ward, 
 
 Downes, 
 
 Boyse, 
 
 Warde. 
 
 The prayer of Ma- 
 ^ nasses and the rest 
 of the Apocrypha. 
 
 r2 
 
198 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XU. 
 
 Westminster and the two universities. 
 The different portions of the Bible were 
 assigned among them, but each portion 
 was, on its completion, subjected to the 
 other committees for examination ; and 
 in case of any difficulties, a final com- 
 mittee was to be formed for their discus- 
 sion. In order that the clergy so em- 
 ployed might not be unrewarded, all 
 persons possessed of any ecclesiastical 
 patronage Avere urged to bestow what- 
 ever happened to fall vacant on some of 
 the translators, and the king exhorted 
 ecclesiastical bodies to be liberal in con- 
 tributing money for the support of the 
 undertaking. The rules laid do-nn for 
 the performance of the task were judi- 
 cious. As little alteration as possible 
 was to be made in the Bishops' Bible ; 
 and whenever this did not agree with the 
 original text, recourse was to be had to 
 former translations. No notes were to 
 be affixed beyond what the literal expla- 
 nation of the Hebrew and Greek words 
 adopted into the text might require ; and 
 a few marginal references, and only a 
 few, were to be appended. The com- 
 missions were issued in 1604; the per- 
 sons appointed entered on the work 
 itself in the spring of 1607,' but the 
 Bible was not printed till 1611, so much 
 time and caution was used to prevent 
 inaccuracies. 
 
 Above two hundred years have now 
 
 I elapsed since this review of the Bible ; 
 
 I and the church has subsequently con- 
 tented itself with discovering inaccura- 
 
 j cies, without attempting to correct them. 
 The whole question of a new translation 
 is one of considerable delicacy; but the 
 opinion of Archbishop Newcome, sup- 
 ported as it is by the concurrent testi- 
 mony of nearly thirty divines of con- 
 siderable weight, together with his own 
 judicious remarks, which was given to 
 the world almost forty years ago, ought 
 not to have remained without due and 
 public attention. If prudential reasons 
 forbid the publication of a new version, 
 yet surely there could be no danger 
 in the correction of such mistakes as are 
 obvious to all men, (for some passages 
 are scarcely intelligible,) and of such 
 as are acknowledged by all who are 
 acquainted with the original languages. 
 These amendments might be introduced 
 into the margin, and sanctioned by au- 
 thority, so that they might be used at 
 the discretion of the minister ; a step 
 which would at least prepare the way 
 for their ultimate introduction into the 
 text, and show a wish to make use of 
 the growing knowledge of the country 
 for the improvement of the services of 
 the church. Our present translation is, 
 probably, the best in existence; yet this 
 circumstance need not prevent the at- 
 tempt of lessening its imperfections. 
 
 Hardinge, 
 
 Reynolds, 
 
 Holland, 
 
 Kilby, 
 
 Smith, 
 
 Brett, 
 
 Fareclowe. 
 
 ' Johnson, 97. 
 
 The four greater Pro- 
 phets with the La- 
 y mentation, and the 
 twelve lesser Pro- 
 phets. 
 
 Eavis, D. ofCh." 
 Ch. 
 
 Abbot. D. of 
 
 Winches. 
 Montague, D. of 
 
 Worces. 
 Thompson, D.of 
 
 Winds. 
 Savile, 
 Perin, 
 Ravens, 
 Uarmer. 
 
 The four Gospeto, 
 Acts of the Apos- 
 tles, Apocalypse. 
 
 lie 
 
HAP. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 199 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE REIGN OF CHAKLES I. 1635, TO 1649. 
 
 1. Causes of the fall of the church. 552. Montague; Mainwairing ; impolicy of the court. 553. 
 Forced loans promoted by the clergy. 554. Star Chamber. 555. High commission ; Williams ; 
 Abbot. 556. Feoffees of impropriations brought before the Exchequer. 557. Arminianism ; decla- 
 ration prefixed to the Thirty-nine Articles. 558. Sabbatarian controversy. 559. Book of Sports. 
 560, 561. The quesiion discussed. 562. Prynne, Bastwick, and Burton. 563. Williams; Os- 
 bolslon. 564. Scotch liturgy. 565. Episcopacy in Scotland. 566. Charles I. does not govern 
 wisely. 567. In 1637 he endeavours to introduce the Liturgy; the canons sent down previously. 
 
 I 568. Tumults in Edinburgh; the covenant framed and signed; civil war successfully carried on 
 against the government. 569. Laud; ceremonies. 570. Canons of 1640. 571. Stale of England. 
 
 ^ 572. Long Parliament. 573. Bishops deprived of their votes. 574. Destruction of the church. 
 
 '575. Causes of the war. 576 — 579. Outline of the war. 580. Self-denying ordinance; Fairfax; 
 Cromwell. 581. Their campaign. 582. Lord Strafford; Laud. 583. His character. 584. And 
 trial. 585. Usher's episcopacy ; the assembly of divines at Westminster. 586. The parties in the 
 assembly. 587. Presbyterians, their church government. 588. Independents ; Erasiians. 589. 
 
 ' Thirty-nine Articles altered ; church government ; ordination. 590. Works of the assembly, direc- 
 
 ' tory, &c. 591. Presbyterian government. 592. Set up in London and Lancashire; earnestness 
 exhibited in its favour. 593. The growth of independency. 594. Fate of the king. 595. His dis- 
 cussions on episcopacy, (') present slate of church discipline. 596, 597. Character of Charles. 
 598. Sufferings of the clergy. 599. Cambridge. 600. Oxford. 
 
 I § 551. (a. d. 1625.) In the period 
 f history on which we are about to 
 nter, it is difficult to distinguish be- 
 Hveen the portions which belong to the 
 [ivil or to the ecclesiastical historian, 
 'he interests of church and state are so 
 itimately blended that they admit of no 
 eal separation; yet the multiplicity of 
 (fairs, in this eventful reign, renders it 
 bsolutely necessary that much should 
 •e omitted, and that a decided line 
 hould be drawn between the two. 
 Urictly speaking, perhaps little can be 
 eferred to the church alone, but during 
 he whole of the earlier government of 
 jharles, churchmen not only influenced 
 lis councils to a great extent, but the 
 nfluence which they possessed tended 
 greatly to overthrow the monarchy, and 
 0 swallow up the ecclesiastical estab- 
 ishtnent in its train. The causes which 
 lad contributed to transfer to the church 
 nuch of the popular odium which was 
 lue to the civil government, not only 
 ;ontinued to exist, but some accidental 
 ;ircumstances tended to augment the 
 ;vil; it must therefore be our first object 
 .0 enter on the detail of these, that we 
 may understand how the church and 
 monarchy fell together, and how each 
 assisted in promoting the destruction of 
 the other. 
 
 § 552. Montague,' in an answer to a 
 Roman Catholic book,' had made some 
 ' Fuller, xi. 119. 
 
 ' The book which he answered was called, A 
 
 concessions which offended many Pro- 
 testants, and when attacked, had de- 
 fended himself by publishing an appeal 
 to the king, which tended only to in- 
 crease the storm. When objections 
 were raised against these books in the 
 House of Commons, the king injudi- 
 ciously advocated the cause of the 
 writer, till deterred from doing so by 
 the displeasure which this conduct 
 created among his subjects. 
 
 The necessities of the court induced 
 those who governed to have recourse 
 to many expedients for raising money, 
 and as these depended for their success 
 on the strength of the royal prerogative, 
 whatever augmented it became pecu- 
 liarly acceptable to those in authority. 
 Mainwairing,^ who was one of the 
 chaplains to the king, preached and 
 printed two sermons on this subject, 
 (lfi28,) which gave great offence to the 
 Commons, and he was severely pu- 
 nished. Montague was held to bail in 
 2000/. ; (the dissolution of the parlia- 
 ment probably prevented further pro- 
 ceedings against him;) Mainwairing 
 was fined 1000/., and declared incapable 
 of holding preferment, or of preaching 
 before the court. Yet both these men 
 
 Gag for the New Gospel ; his answer, A New 
 Gag for an Old Goose. He published also a 
 treatise on the invocation of saints, and a work 
 entitled Appello ad Ca-sarem. Collier, ii. 736, gives 
 a full account. Neal's Puritans. 
 ' Fuller, xi. 129. Collier, ii. 743. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Xm. 
 
 were subsequently made bishops. The ! of paying no taxes which they had not 
 punishments which had been thus in- 1 imposed on themselves, appeared to 
 flicted by the commons, were perhaps ! Laud to sap the foundations of govern- 
 tyrannical, but it argued in the court a j mcnt, and to give the subject an indirect 
 great contempt for the opinions of the I power over his prince ; in attempting, 
 
 nation, when the animadversions of the 
 parliament were to prove the road to 
 preferment, and naturally connected the 
 church, in the minds of the people, with 
 the party which was adverse to the civil 
 liberties of the subject. These may be 
 regarded as accidental circumstances, 
 yet they strongly mark the temper of 
 the times, and the inclination of the 
 court to convert the church into an in- 
 strument for enlarging its power, a de- 
 sign which was more strongly displayed 
 on other occasions. 
 
 § 553. When in the year 1626 the 
 court,' on the dissolution of the parlia- 
 ment, adopted the method of forced loans, 
 in order to meet the necessities of the 
 state, the king sent a circular letter to the 
 bishops, instructing them to urge their 
 clergy to show their zeal in promoting 
 these objects through their sermons 
 
 therefore, to obviate this difficulty, he 
 appealed to the people through the 
 clergy ; but in so doing, he made the 
 latter appear to the eyes of their flocks 
 to be the tools of the court. 
 
 § 554. When more churchmen were 
 admitted into the privy-council, and the 
 same individuals became members of 
 the Star Chamber and of the Court of 
 High Commission, it was not unnatural 
 that the people should connect in their 
 own minds the two latter courts, as con- 
 stituting one and the same authority, 
 and thus the odium attached to either 
 the one or the other, combined to create 
 a hatred against the church. "The 
 Star Chamber^ was a court of very an- 
 cient original, but new modelled by 
 statutes 3° Henr. VII. ch. 1, and 21' 
 Hen. VIII. ch. 20, consisting of divers 
 lords, spiritual and temporal, being privy 
 
 step which, if successful, could not fail counsellors, together with two judges 
 to give the clergy a close connection, in of the courts of common law, without 
 the eyes of the people, with the abuses the intervention of any jury. Their 
 under which so many real friends of jurisdiction extended legally over riots, 
 liberty were groaning. Laud was pro- perjury, misbehaviour of sheriffs, and 
 bably the author of the plan, as well as other notorious misdemeanors, contrary 
 employed to draw up the letter; and to the laws of the land. Yet this was 
 indeed the whole of his policy went afterwards, as Lord Clarendon informs 
 upon the idea that he was benefiting the us, stretched to the asserting of all pro- 
 church by making churchmen contri- clamations and orders of state: to the 
 bute to the direct support of the state, vindicating of illegal commissions, and 
 and thus divesting them of their spiritual grants of monopolies ; holding for ho- 
 character. Connected as church and nourable that which jjleastd, and for 
 state must be, we cannot entirely se- just that which profited ; and becoming 
 parate them ; but the very notion of a both a court of law to determine civil 
 priesthood, set apart for the service of rights, and a court of revenue to enrich 
 God, seems to imply that, as far as the treasury ; the (privy) council table 
 such a separation is possible, it should be by proclamations enjoining to the people, 
 maintained. Laud was probably an i that which was not enjoined by the 
 honest and pious man, but he seems ■ laws, and prohibiting that which was 
 not to have seen that the improvements not prohibited ; and the Star Chamber, 
 which he was sincerely anxious to i)ro- which consisted of the same persons 
 mote were incompatible with the go- in different rooms, censuring the breach 
 vernment which he endeavoured to and disobedience to those proclamations 
 support; since arbitrary authority, in by very great fines, imprisonments, and 
 either church or state, must have the corporal severities ; so that any disre- 
 tendency of corrupting those who com- spect to any acts of state, or to the per- 
 mand, and debasing those who obey, sons of statesmen, was in no time more 
 The steps by which the House of Com- penal, and the foundations of right 
 mons were inclined to assert their right never more in danger to be destroyed." 
 
 Heylin's Laud, 162. 
 
 ' Blacks 
 
 Comnienta 
 
 ch. 19. 
 
tttp. xni.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 201 
 
 iie severity frequently exercised by 
 is court must have been sufficient to 
 cite a great dislike to it, had all its 
 ts been legal ; in many cases they in- 
 ;ted the punishments of whipping, 
 anding, cutting off the ears, and slit- 
 ig the nose ; and this, not on thieves 
 d vagabonds, but on writers of poli- 
 I aland religious pamphlets,' and some- 
 nes to gratify private malice ; for the 
 ■ terest of the court was readily called 
 'to action, whenever the character of a 
 1 ivy counsellor was attacked. 
 ' §555. The Court of High Commission 
 ;id been created by the eighth clause 
 the act of supremacy and during 
 ie reign of Elizabeth, considerable cor- 
 I ptions and much oppression had ori- 
 nated from it; but when many of the 
 ity were made parties in the contest 
 )Out ceremonies, it became in several 
 oceses a source of very serious hard- 
 .ip,' and irritated the body of the 
 !ople against the whole government 
 'the church. 
 
 The faults also of Laud were, by a 
 lecies of reasoning which is not un- 
 immon, reflected on the body to which 
 belonged ; and the general anger 
 !;ainst the court, which arose from the 
 ssolution of so many parliaments, one 
 ter another, was in a great measure 
 rected against him. This dislike was 
 , creased by the treatment experienced 
 i^two churchmen, who, though high 
 ; situation, were oppressed by the 
 )urt, and subjected to the malice of 
 leir enemies. Williams, bishop of 
 incoln'' and lord keeper of the seals, 
 as deprived of this latter office from 
 18 enmity of the duke of Buckingham, 
 I. D. 1627;) and Abbott, archbishop 
 : Canterbury, suspended from exer- 
 sing any ecclesiastical functions, be- 
 luse, according to Fuller.^ he had acci- 
 jntally killed a gamekeeper some 
 ears before. He had, however, ever 
 nee continued to perform the duties 
 f his office, had been cleared from all 
 regularity by a commission which was 
 
 ' Fuller, xi. 136. 2 ^ 428. 
 
 ' Mrs. Hutchinson says, i. 129, (8vo. edit.) such 
 of the puritans" as could not flee, were tor- 
 lented in the bishops' courts ; fined, whipped, pil- 
 ricd, imprisoned and suffered to enjoy no rest, 
 ) that death was better than life to them. How- 
 'er exaggerated, this must have been in some 
 2gree true. 
 
 * Collier, ii. 735. s xi. 127. 
 
 36 
 
 formed for this purpose soon after the 
 accident took place," and no mention of 
 this reason is made in the commission 
 by which he was suspended. His real 
 offence, probably, consisted in his re- 
 fusal to license a sermon of Dr. Sib- 
 thorpe,' who had preached in favour of 
 the legality of loans. The effect of 
 these severities was, as might have been 
 expected, to create a further ill-will 
 towards the court and Laud, and a ge- 
 neral sympathy in favour of the sufferers. 
 
 § .556. (a. d. 1032.) Another cause 
 of discontent" arose' in the suppression 
 of the feoffees for impropriations. The 
 poverty of the church had induced many 
 persons to contribute money for the 
 purpose of obviating this evil, and twelve 
 feoffees were constituted for carrying 
 this pious subject into execution, which 
 was to be effected by the purchase of 
 impropriate rectories. They consisted 
 of four divines, four lawyers, and four 
 citizens, who acted without any legal 
 authority, or charter of any sort, and 
 large sums of money were raised for 
 furthering their ends. The first check 
 which was given to this society, arose 
 from a sermon' preached at Oxford in 
 1630, wherein the preacher inveighed 
 vehemently against those who managed 
 its concerns, accusing them of carrying 
 on their own political plans under the 
 mask of religion. They were said to 
 retain all the impropriations so pur- 
 chased in their own hands, and not to 
 transfer them to the livings to which 
 they had belonged ; to employ the pro- 
 ceeds in maintaining factious preachers 
 in market towns, and in supporting si- 
 lenced ministers and their families. Such 
 an establishment was liable to be turned 
 to the very worst of purposes, but, if 
 well directed, might have produced 
 much good ; and it was said that White,'" 
 one of the feoffees, privately offered 
 Laud to submit the whole to his lord- 
 ship's direction ; yet the fear of what 
 might happen induced those who di- 
 rected the ecclesiastical affairs of the 
 kingdom to bring the matter into the 
 Exchequer, where the incorporation was> 
 overthrown, the property forfeited to 
 
 » Collier, ii. 740. 
 
 ' In Collier, ii. 740, there is some account of 
 this sermon ; see too Rapin, ii. 259. 
 8 Fuller, xi. 136. » Heylin's Laud, 210. 
 
 '» Fuller, xi. 143. 
 
303 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Xin, 
 
 the crown, and the feoffees subjected 
 to such punishment as the Star Chamber 
 chose to inflict : this last part, however, 
 was never carried into effect. Had 
 Laud, by joining in this society and 
 putting himself at its head, attempted 
 to guide, instead of opposing it, the re- 
 sult might have been very beneficial to 
 the church and creditable to himself; 
 as it was, he, for the time, carried his 
 point, and violated the better feelings 
 of those who could hardly perceive the 
 danger, however real it might be ; and 
 in the end, the bitterness which was 
 thus created tended to destroy what re- 
 mained of the establishment. 
 
 § 557. Notwithstanding the counte- 
 nance which the church of England 
 had given to the decrees of the synod 
 of Dort, the opinions of the Arminians 
 so gradually prevailed among the higher 
 clergy, particularly among those who 
 had the disposal of preferment, that to 
 entertain sentiments in favour of Cal- 
 vinism was the greatest bar to the ad- 
 vancement of any clergyman. Bishop 
 Morley, when chaplain to Lord Carnar- 
 von,' was asked by a country gentle- 
 man who wished to know something 
 of their doctrine, "What the Arminians 
 held ?" " They hold," says he, " the 
 best bishoprics and deaneries in Eng- 
 land a bon mot, which sufficiently 
 shows how far party feeling was al- 
 lowed to prevail on every subject, and 
 will partially account for the bias which 
 the religious part of the community, par- 
 ticularly the lower clergy, took against 
 the equally strong prejudice of the court ; 
 and it should be remembered that there 
 is an anti-Calvinism which is as much 
 at variance with the doctrines of the 
 church of Eijgland and with Scripture as 
 the decrees of the synod of Dort can be. 
 
 (June 14, 1626.) Early in the reign 
 the king had issued a proclamation^ 
 enjoining his subjects, particularly the 
 clergy, to abstain from all innovations 
 with regard to religion ; and ih order to 
 co-operate with this injunction, (1628,) 
 a declaration* was prefixed to a new 
 
 ' Clarendon's Life, 50 or 26. 
 
 ' The fact is alluded to in the remonstrance 
 which was made to the king by the House of 
 Commons, 1628. (Collier's Hist. ii. 744.) 
 
 » Heylin's Laud, 154. 
 
 * Sparrow's Collection, 87. There is a copy of 
 tnis original edition, 1628, in Christ Church Li- 
 
 edition of the Thirty-nine Articles, in 
 which all persons were forbidden to 
 interpret them in any but the gramma- 
 tical sense ; and it is no small proof of 
 the temper of the times, that this was 
 deemed to be in favour of the Arminian 
 side of the question,^ and that the Cal- 
 vinists were about to petition against it. 
 Yet the conduct of the court did not 
 correspond with this apparent temper- 
 ance in its declarations, for when Bishop 
 Davenant^ (March, 1631) had preached 
 on the subject of predestination, and in 
 so doing offended the king, he was 
 brought before the council, and se- 
 verely reprimanded for that which, 
 according to his own answer, was done 
 in ignorance, and perfectly in accord- 
 ance with the published injunctions of 
 the court. Something of the same sort 
 took place with regard to some preach- 
 ers in Oxford, on which Fuller observes, 
 " The expulsion of these preachers ex- 
 pelled not, but increased the differences 
 in Oxford, which burnt the more for 
 blazing the less ; many complaining 
 that the sword of justice did not cut 
 indifferently on both sides, but that it 
 was more penal for some to touch, than 
 others to break the king's declaration," 
 The natural effect of all this was to ren- 
 der every one who entertained Calvin- 
 istic opinions hostile to the court, and 
 to make them connect a dislike to the 
 government of the church with the 
 hatred which they bore towards the 
 state. 
 
 § 558. The Sabbatarian controversy, 
 too, contributed to injure the cause of 
 the church in the minds of the people. 
 During the period in -which the Roman 
 Catholic religion had prevailed in this 
 country, much laxity had existed with 
 regard to the day set apart for God's 
 service, a laxity which had been con- 
 tinued during the reigns of Elizabeth 
 and James" by the practice of the court, 
 though a sentiment of disapprobation 
 against such proceedings seems gradu- 
 ally to have spread throughout the na- 
 tion. The question, indeed,' involved 
 a considerable number of heads, which 
 were variously argued, but the chief 
 difference of opinion consisted with re- 
 
 brary : the date of this publication is sometimes 
 questioned. 
 
 5 Corner's Hist. ii. 746. « Fuller, a. 138. 
 
 ' See « 519,'. s Fuller, xL 144, &c. 
 
SAP. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 203 
 
 iird to the manner in which this day 
 ight to be observed. 
 While one party admitted of no other 
 rm for its designation than that of the 
 ibbalh, this appellation was the abo- 
 ination of another ; and moderate and 
 different persons called it by the se- 
 •ral names of Sunday, Sabbath, or 
 jOrd's day. 
 
 • Its beginning and duration formed 
 ■ lOther subject of dispute ; some con- 
 led its continuance to the time occu- 
 ed by the service of the church, and 
 [ hers were as strenuous in enjoining a 
 irict observance of it from the Satur- 
 liy evening till the following night. 
 ' One party founded the institution on 
 lie sole authority of the church, others 
 tributed the change in the day to the 
 'Dpointment of the church founded on 
 iDostolic usage, while the original dedi- 
 iition of one day in seven rested on the 
 ')mmand given by the Almighty at the 
 i-eation : this contained virtually the 
 iaestion of the legality of any alteration 
 !i the day, and it appears that the 
 ■lurch of Geneva had once thought of 
 iopting Thursday as their day of rest. 
 But the point which was agitated 
 ith the greatest warmth, was as to the 
 lanner in which this day ought to be 
 eptholy. The advocates of the greatest 
 :rictness would allow of no amusements 
 ut walking, while the maintainers of 
 le contrary opinion devoted those parts 
 f the day which were not occupied by 
 aligious services to every species of 
 njoyment. The ordinary amusements' 
 1 country parishes were called church- 
 les, clerk-ales, and bid-ales, besides the 
 evels or feasts of the dedication of the 
 hurch : they were merry-makings, con- 
 isting of drinking and sports, particu- 
 irly dancing, which took place either 
 very Sunday or on particular occa- 
 ions. Such meetings necessarily led 
 
 0 disorders, and the religious part of 
 he community, in their anxiety to re- 
 press them, occasionally fell into the 
 ipposite extreme,' and in their animad- 
 
 ' Neal's Puritans, ii. 214. 
 
 " " Some preachers went so far as to maintain, 
 hat to do any work or servile business on the 
 jord's day, is as great a sin as to kill a man or to 
 ;ommit adultery; that to throw a bowl, to make 
 
 1 feast, or dress a wedding dinner on the Lord's 
 lay, is as great a sin as for a man to take a knife 
 ind cm his child's throat. That to ring more belle 
 :han one on the Lord's day, is as great a ein as to 
 wnimit murder. And I know also a town of my 
 
 versions on the unruly, became uncha- 
 ritable towards those who differed from 
 themselves, and unjustly severe on the 
 lower orders, whose excesses might pro- 
 bably have been checked without any 
 open interference in the magistracy. 
 
 § 5r)<). In Chief Justice Richard- 
 son, at the request of the magistrates in 
 Somersetshire, ■'ordered the Sunday-ales 
 and wakes to be suppressed, and direct- 
 ed that the order should be read by the 
 clergy in their several churches : an 
 interference with ecclesiastical matters 
 which the archbishop, whose influence 
 was now supreme, highly resented. 
 The judge, therefore, was brought be- 
 fore the privy council, and commanded 
 to rescind his order at the next assizes. 
 To correct this spirit of what was called 
 puritanism, the king, probably at the 
 suggestion of Laud, issued a proclama- 
 tion which is generally known by the 
 name of the Book of Sports. It con- 
 tained a proclamation' which had been 
 formerly issued by James I., and was 
 accompanied with a declaration, that 
 the king would not allow any curtailing 
 of the liberty of his poorer subjects, 
 with regard to their amusements on 
 the Sunday. The clergy were enjoined 
 to read this in their churches, a com- 
 mand which became a stumbling-block 
 to many sincere men. Some,' indeed, 
 approved of the contents, others paid 
 a partial obedience to the injunction 
 by reading the proclamation, and im- 
 mediately repeating the fourth com- 
 mandment, or preaching on the due 
 observance of the Sabbath; while others 
 utterly refused all compliance with the 
 order. Among the bishops there was 
 a great difference in the severity with 
 which they animadverted on those cler- 
 srymen who had been guilty of neglect 
 in this particular. Some deprived those 
 who persisted in their refusal; others 
 declined becoming the accusers of their 
 brethren ; while much moderation was 
 exhibited by a third class, who exer- 
 cised severity on a few only of the most 
 obstinate refusers. 
 
 acquaintance, the preachers there brought the peo- 
 ple to that pass, tliat neither baked nor roast meat 
 was to be found in all the parish for a Sunday's 
 dinner throughout the year," &c. &c. (Preface 
 to Prideaux on the Sabbath.) 
 
 ' Rushworth's Coll. ii. i. 191. 
 Rushworth's Coll. ii. i. 193, « 519. 
 
 ' Fuller, xi. 148. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XBL 
 
 § 560. The subject itself is one on 
 which so few directions are contained 
 in the Scriptures, that much latitude of 
 opinion might naturally have been ex- 
 pected with regard to it. Its name, 
 perhaps, and its exact duration, are of 
 less praciical importance ; but the na- 
 ture of the institution, and the manner 
 in which it ought to be observed, are 
 of the greatest consequence. The 
 generall}' received opinion, and that 
 which tallies best with the institutions 
 of the church of England, seems to be, 
 that the dedication of one day in seven 
 to the service of God is part of the 
 moral law ; that the change of this day 
 from Saturday to Sunday is sanctioned 
 by the custom of the apostles ; and that 
 the Christian's liberty will allow of any 
 method of keeping this day which an- 
 swers the command of abstaining from 
 work and of keeping it holy. Amuse- 
 ments in the abstract contain nothing 
 which need infringe on this holiness ; 
 yet it is obvious that some amusements 
 will so far unfit the mind for religious 
 duties, that they must be totally inad- 
 missible ; that to persons situated in 
 different spheres of life a different 
 rule may be applicable ; and that all 
 recreations which offend against the 
 religious scruples of our brethren ought 
 out of charity to be avoided. In this 
 case, therefore, it seemed an act of great 
 impolicy, to say no worse, to make the 
 clergy exhort their parishioners to join 
 in dancing, leaping, vaulting, archery, 
 and May-games; amusements Avhich 
 were little likely to promote the spirit- 
 uality of the "Sabbath employments, 
 even if we grant that they were not 
 actually wrong : and the issuing such 
 a proclamaiion must have bad the tend- 
 ency of alienating from the govern- 
 ment ihe affections of all those who had 
 any doubts on these points. The effort 
 in Somersetshire' seems to have been, 
 that the laity were petitioning to have 
 these disorders on the Sabbath put 
 down by authority, while the high 
 church party requested that these 
 amusements might remain ; a state of 
 things which, if it produced no other 
 consequence, must have raised a very 
 unfavourable impression in the breasts 
 of the people concerning their spiritual 
 guides. 
 
 1 Neal, ii. 215. 
 
 § 561. Had this proclamation con- 
 fined itself to hs proper province, — had 
 it condemned in general terms the pro- 
 fanation of the Lord's day, while it 
 forbade magistrates to punish any who 
 were not engaged in unlawful pursuits, 
 the object of the king might probably 
 have been furthered ; for on these 
 points the law, as it now stands, seems 
 to be well calculated for procuring a 
 due observance of the Sabbath. While 
 gross violations of propriety are punish- 
 able as misdemeanors, pragmatical in- 
 terference in the amusements of the 
 people is prevented by the silence of 
 the law, and every sincere observer of 
 the Sabbath is at liberty to influence by' 
 his example and advice others who are 
 less strict in their practice ; a species 
 of persuasion which is at once the most 
 effectual, and in which every step is 
 sure to be accompanied with the moral 
 improvement of those who make it.* 
 
 § 562. (a. d. 1637.) A piece of se- 
 verity' exercised on three members of 
 the learned professions, produced more 
 effect in spreading a general hatred 
 against Laud and the government than 
 the victims of this severity perhaps 
 deserved. Prynne, a common lawyer, 
 Bastwick, a physician, and Burton, a 
 clergyman, had each of them publish^ 
 pamphlets offensive to the court, and 
 when brought before the Star Chamber, 
 they severally put in pleas of such a 
 nature as were not admitted. The 
 prisoners, therefore, were convicted as 
 not making any defence, though they 
 wished to be allowed to plead for them- 
 selves, and were condemned to loae 
 their ears in the pillory, to be iitt- 
 prisoned in remote places during plea- 
 sure, and fined .5000/. each. Prynne 
 was also branded. Such a punishment 
 produced much more irritation than if 
 they had been sentenced to death; and 
 it so happened that, after having been 
 sent to Guernsey, Jersey, and Scilly, 
 they were, upon the assembling of the 
 Long Parliament, brought back in tri- 
 
 2 There are two acts of parliament during this 
 reign against profaning the Lord's day ; 1° ch- i. 
 forbids bull-baiting, bear-baiting, interludes, com- 
 mon plays, and other unlawful e-xercises and 
 pastimes ; people are forbidden lo go out of their 
 own pari.«hes for any amusements. 3" ch. ii. Car- 
 
 j riers and wagoners are forbidden to travel on tbe 
 Sunday, and butchers to kill meat. 
 
 1 > Fuller, xl. 151. Heylin's Laud, 328. 
 
Jhap. Xra.] CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 205 
 
 imph, to the disgrace of the court, 
 ^heir faults, which were great, were 
 verlooked in the indignity of their 
 lunishment; and the blame was thrown 
 n the church, because each of their 
 ibels had been directed chiefly against 
 he bishops and their government. 
 
 § 563. Williams,who was a turbulent 
 nan,' after having been deprived of the 
 iffice of lord keeper, for which he was 
 )robably unfit, had resided at his epis- 
 opal house at Bugden, where he al- 
 owed of greater freedom in talking 
 bout the government than was well 
 uited to his situation. He was indicted 
 n 1637 for betraying the king's secrets, 
 leing a privy-counsellor, a charge which 
 vas soon dropped as being frivolous ; 
 jid another brought against him, of 
 aborning and tampering with wit- 
 lesses. Whether innocent or no, he 
 ■ndeavoured to escape by offering to 
 nakc a composition with the king, in 
 vhich he was prevented by some of his 
 memies, and sentenced to pay a fine 
 if 8000/., and to be imprisoned during 
 he king's pleasure. In this transaction 
 jaud took an active part, and the 
 )ishop afterwards complained that he 
 lad not been allowed to impugn the 
 estimonies of the persons brought 
 igainst him, who, as being king's wit- 
 lesses, could not be excepted against ; 
 hat Secretary Windebank had caused 
 ill those who would have given evi- 
 lence in his favour to be imprisoned 
 inder royal warrants till the trial was 
 )ver; and that those pleas of his, which 
 he court was ashamed to set aside pub- 
 icly, were overruled in private. An- 
 )ther charge was brought against him 
 ivhile he was in the Tower, which, for 
 he severity of the punishment and the 
 ibsurdity of the crime, rivals any thing 
 recorded in history. Lambert Osbols- 
 ;on, some time student of Christ Church, 
 master of Westminster-school, and pre- 
 bendary of that church, had been much 
 favoured by Williams, who was dean 
 there, and taking part with him in his 
 enmity against Laud, he on some occa- 
 sion wrote to the bishop a letter which 
 contained the following sentence :^ 
 "The little vermin, the urchin, and 
 hocus pocus, (Laud,) is this stormy 
 
 Christmas at true and real variance 
 with the Leviathan," (Lord Treasurer 
 Weston.) This was found among 
 Williams's papers when his house was 
 searched, and the bishop was sentenced 
 to pay another fine of SOOO/. for not 
 having presented this libellous letter to 
 some justice of the peace : and Osbols- 
 ton condemned to pay 5000/., to have 
 his ears tacked to the pillory in presence 
 of his scholars, as well as to be deprived 
 of all his preferments. The personal 
 part of the sentence he escaped by 
 flight, and his sufferings made him 
 afterwards a favourite with the com- 
 mons, till the madness of their proceed- 
 ings induced him to join the king. 
 More, perhaps, has been said on this 
 point than it deserves; but it must ever 
 appear not only to affix a deep stain on 
 the character of Laud, but to furnish a 
 proof of the personal insecurity under 
 which every man must have lived; and 
 show how impossible it was that such a 
 government should continue, when a 
 prime minister could be guilty of such 
 open tyranny. 
 
 § 5f54. As the events connected with 
 the liturgy in Scotland may be said to 
 have formed the first step in ihe civil 
 war, and to have contributed much to 
 give the rebellion a turn so peculiarly 
 hostile to the church of England, it will 
 be necessary to look back into the history 
 of the Reformation in that country, and 
 to touch on some points to which no 
 previous allusion has been made, in 
 order to comprehend the whole under 
 one view. The alterations in the church, 
 which had taken |)lace in that kingdom, 
 had been carried on in opposition to 
 the bishops, who had often made them- 
 selves the instruments of the persecu- 
 tions inflicted on the friends of the 
 Reformation; a circumstance' which 
 rendered the mass of the people inimi- 
 cal to the order. The nobility, too, 
 were equally hostile to bishops, since 
 the avarice of the upper ranks had 
 contributed greatly to introduce the 
 Reformation, with the view of dispos- 
 sessing the ecclesiastical owners of 
 their property ; and the tenures, there- 
 fore, by which these possessors held 
 their newly acquired domains were 
 very doubtful. Elizabeth had fostered 
 
 -> Fuller, xi. 155. 
 » Fuller, 165. 
 
 Heylin's Laud, 343. 
 
 ' Sir P. Warwick's Mem. 98, &c. 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIIL 
 
 the animosities of the people and the 
 apprehensions of the nobles, for the 
 purpose of keeping up a party in Scot- 
 land ; and, under the nominal plan of 
 introducing a conformity between the 
 churches of the two nations, had been 
 seeking her own interests and promot- 
 ing divisions among the Scotch. The 
 general assembly had, from the first, 
 assumed to itself a considerable power, 
 independent of the government; and in 
 15G6 had decided on the adoption of 
 the Geneva discipline, which virtually 
 destroyed the spiritual authority of the 
 bishops, though they retained in some 
 measure their lands and their seats in 
 parliament. The properties, indeed, 
 and the higher situations connected 
 with the abbeys, were generally in the 
 hands of laymen, but the bishoprics 
 were still filled by ecclesiastics. The 
 authority possessed by the bishops va- 
 ried at different times, depending in a 
 great degree on the policy of the suc- 
 cessive regents and favourites of James. 
 Till 1592, the assembly had generally 
 rejected episcopal interference,' and the 
 court retained sufficient power to pre- 
 vent the legal establishment of the 
 presbytery. In that year, however, 
 this step was effected, and soon after, 
 in consequence of a tumult in Edin- 
 burgh connected with the presbyterian 
 ascendancy, the life of James was en- 
 dangered ; an event which gave him a 
 continual dislike to that form of church 
 government and a decided preference 
 to ejiiscopacy. independently of the 
 consideration of the political influence 
 which the voics of the bi:<hops furnished 
 to the court. He obtained for the 
 bishops, in 1597 and If'OO, a concession 
 of thi'ir right to sit in parliament ; but 
 this was fettered with such restrictions 
 as rendered the spiritual authority of 
 the order almost nugatory,-' and they 
 accepted what was granted, though 
 they never seem to have conformed to 
 the stipulated conditions; and when he 
 came to the throne of England he 
 formed the wish of reducing the two 
 churches to a uniformity of discipline 
 and service ; a wi^h reasonable indeed 
 in a king of (irvnl Britain, and in cor- 
 respondence with the desires of every 
 friend of the two countries, but the plan 
 
 ' Gutfary's Memoirs, 4. = Rapin, ii. 299. 
 
 was not likely to succeed unless aU 
 tempted by honourable and fair means. 
 
 § 565. (a. d. 1610.) In the assembly 
 at Glasgow' he so contrived to collect a 
 body suited to his own views, that he 
 carried all his points in favour of episco- 
 pacy, and presently set up a court of 
 ecclesiastical commission. Episcopacy, 
 therefore, now began to gain ground,* 
 and James was very careful in the se- 
 lection of the men whom he advanced, 
 consulting the older bishops, and bring- 
 ing forward such men only as were 
 suited to promote the real interests of 
 the church. It was by these steps that 
 the assembly of St. Andrew's was en- 
 abled to consult about introducing a 
 liturgy, (1617,) which some of its mem- 
 bers began to form, or rather to copy 
 from the Prayer Book of the church of 
 England ; and the assembly of Perth' to 
 establish the five points connected with 
 the rites and ceremonies of the church. 
 (1618.) James would probably have 
 gone further, had not the difficulties 
 with regard to his daughter's kingdom 
 prevented his doing any thing which 
 might embroil him at home. 
 
 §506. On the accession of Charles I,* 
 (1625,) the presbyterians addressed a 
 petition to him, but found that he wis 
 not at all disposed to comply with their 
 wishes ; the interests of the anti-episco- 
 pal cause, however, were kept up by 
 the appointment of a secret fast, which 
 was observed, at stated periods, among 
 their friends throughout the kingdom. 
 1 (16:33.) When the king visited Scot- 
 land, the)- had prepared a petition, 
 I which they purposed to have presented 
 I to him, had he not forbidden the earLof 
 Rothes to do so : and the next year, 
 Lord Balmiranoch, having this petition 
 
 3 Rapin, ii.2?9. " Guthry. 13. 
 
 ^ 'J liese ariiclcs are, from iheir number, which 
 was five, someiinies mistaken lor ihe Five Ai- 
 licles of the synod of Dort, with w liich they are 
 in no way connected. They are printed in .''potlis- 
 wood's Hist, of Scotland, p. 538; ]S'ears Puri- 
 tans, ii. 101 ; see also Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. 
 V. 298. 
 
 The 1st enjoins the posture of kneeling in re- 
 ceiving the Lord's Supper. 
 
 T he 2d allows of private communion in case 
 
 of sickness. 
 
 The 3d allows of private baptism in case of 
 danger. 
 
 The 4ih enjoins the use of catechising and con- 
 firmation. 
 
 The 5th enjoins the observation cf holydays 
 and festivals. 
 « Guthry, 7, &c. 
 
lAP. xm.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 207 
 
 ( his possession, which he imprudently 
 owed to a friend, was imprisoned, and 
 )st unjustly condemned to die,' (1634,) 
 ,ientence which, though immediately 
 
 the power with which they were in- 
 vested. The ruling party was, for the 
 time, generally the most in fault, as 
 having the greater means of doing 
 
 mitted, made him forever an enemy to j wrong ; and from 1610 to the date of 
 5 court, and induced him to combine these events, the country had been op. 
 
 th others, who saw the danger to 
 lich the lives and properties of every 
 0 must be exposed under so arbitrary 
 government, and to form plans by 
 j iich the chief authority might be trans- 
 i-red into their own hands. 
 [These circumstances had enrolled the 
 lYers of civil freedom among the ene- 
 ies of episcopacy. The prejudices of 
 (■ common people were against it, and 
 ■ lower clergy exerted their influence 
 increase this dislike ; the nobles were 
 raid that their titles to the church pro- 
 rty which they held, would be called 
 question,' and to this was added a 
 nsiderable irritation among them, par- 
 ularly in the earls of Traquair and 
 'rgyle (then Lord Lorn)^ by the ap- 
 iiintment of the archbishop of St. An- 
 ew's to the chancellorship, and the 
 jlvancement of other churchmen to high 
 vil offices. Fuik'r^ insinuates that the 
 
 I ibery which James had carried on 
 aong the leading preshyterians now 
 , ased, and that this, among other causes, 
 jmtributcd to the subsequent opposi- 
 ■)n ; and whether this were so or no, it 
 
 difficult to determine how much blame 
 :taches to Charles I. in all these pro- 
 redings. He had been much less care- 
 
 I I than his father' in appointing proper 
 I en to the several sees as they became 
 I leant, and in the selt-ctioii of those 
 I horn he chose he hail been guided 
 
 \f personal favour, as well as the hojM- 
 i 'promoting his own political ends ; and 
 
 I'obably much influenced by Laud, who j of showing their disl 
 „-:...] .1, _ 1 .... „(• „i u tented party had lonif b 
 
 pressed by the episcopalians, and their 
 opponents were in secret brooding over 
 their discontent and the prospects of 
 revenge. 
 
 § 567. (a. d. 1637.) It was at this 
 time, and under these circumstances, 
 that Charles" endeavoured to introduce 
 the new liturgy. He had originally in- 
 tended to send down the English Com- 
 mon Prayer Book, but the advice of 
 some of the Scotch bishops had induced 
 him to aher this plan, and to substitute 
 one which might belong peculiarly to 
 themselves, though it corresponded very 
 nearly with that of the church of Eng- 
 land.' This was drawn up in Scotland," 
 chiefly, in all probability, by Weeder- 
 burn, dean of the Chapel Royal, Edin- 
 burgh, but overlooked by Laud, Juxton, 
 and Wrenn. In the year 1635 certain 
 canons" had been sent down to Scotland 
 as the first step in the intended altera- 
 tions ; and these, without any other 
 sanction thaji that of a proclamation 
 from the king, directed throughout that 
 the forms of the liturgy, not then pub- 
 lislied, should be used. If the king had 
 possessed a right of imposing canons 
 and a liturgy Avithout the concurrence 
 of the church, a right quite incompati- 
 ble with tile [)olitical existence of any 
 church, this miMliod of ])roceeding wotild 
 have l)een verv impolitic, as it could 
 only iri'itat(> the nation, and prepare 
 thcia for ri'sistaiice whenever any tu- 
 muk sho\ild uive them an o|)portunity 
 The discon- 
 
 ncied that the advaiicement of church^ 
 en into the higher ofhces of state was 
 kely to benefit the causf of the church, 
 ut the great evil in Scotland was, that 
 arty was allowed to trample on law 
 id justice, so tliat men sought for 
 lower in self-d^'fence ; and when fur- 
 'ler disturbanc(\s ai'ose, neither the one 
 de nor the olhrr any nih.T prin- 
 
 iples than those df 
 
 ' Gutliry's .Mem. y. I 
 
 ' See an Abstract of ilio Acts of tlie Scotch par- i 
 amcnt wliicli affected tliis species of property, | 
 assed during this session. (Collier, ii. 75.i.) • 
 
 ' Guthry's Mem. 12, and Collier, ii. 770. 
 
 «xi. 163. 5 Ciuthry, H. \ 
 
 n in corres- 
 ])f)iiileiice with the nonconformists in 
 Kiiglaml, and they well knew the 
 strciii,rili which their friends possessed 
 in that country. The persons who 
 wci-i' chii'fly engaged'" in promoting this 
 step, with regard to the canons and 
 liturgy, were some of the Scotch bish- 
 ops who had been most lately raised to 
 
 to the utmost their office, and who, having been ad- 
 
 6 Fuller, xi. ICO. 
 
 ' See App. E. History of the Coniinon Prayer, 
 ^48.''. 
 
 8 Collier, ii. 767. » Heylin's Laud, 298. 
 '» Guthry, 14. 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Xm 
 
 vanced by interest, not dependent on 
 the older bishops, never cordially joined 
 with them, but hurried on the introduc- 
 tion of the Liturgy without foreseeing 
 the danger. Laud' had frequently urged 
 them to take care that their proceedings 
 were according to the law of Scotland, 
 which he did not pretend to understand ; 
 but they, supposing probably that the 
 power of the court and the archbishop 
 would carry them through in a point on 
 which the king's heart was much set,^ 
 and neglecting the advice of the older 
 bishops, prepared the liturgy and pro- 
 cured its adoption without any of those 
 authorized forms with which it ought 
 legally to have been received. 
 
 § 568. When, therefore, it was first 
 read at Edinburgh, (July 23,) it is not 
 wonderful that it was received with so 
 much tumult that the lives of those 
 who performed the service were endan- 
 gered, and that there was no readiness 
 on the part of the magistrates or no- 
 bility to defend the insulted prelates, or 
 to punish those who were guilty of the 
 disturbance. The enemies of episco- 
 pacy rejoiced in these failures, and the 
 mass of the nobles, and those in au- 
 thority, were not sorry to observe the 
 overthrow of a project which had been 
 carried on without their advice, by 
 churchmen, of whose exaltation into 
 civil offices they were peculiarly jea- 
 lous. Those among the lower clergy 
 who were friends to episcopacy, and 
 who probably would have shown them- 
 selves in greater numbers, if the interests 
 of the bishops had been managed with 
 any prudence, were offended that the 
 introduction of the liturgy had been 
 carried on without their advice, or the 
 forms which were necessary to render 
 it legal, and therefore little disposed to 
 befriend or sup];ort steps which were 
 thus imprudently taken. After several 
 applications had been made to London, 
 Hamilton, as commissioner from the 
 king, ultimately rescinded all that had 
 been done, convoking a general assem- 
 bly at Glasgow, and calling a parlia- 
 ment for the next spring. He is gene- 
 rally^ accused of duplicity and cunning 
 in all these transactions, and there is 
 some evidence apparently against him ; 
 
 ' Heylin's, 326. 2 Guthry, 16. 
 
 ' Guthry, 34—48—109. 
 
 but his line of policy was in realiti 
 much sounder than that of Laud, an'c 
 
 his fidelity seems adequately establishec 
 by his subsequent sufferings and death. 
 It is obvious that any friend of the cour 
 of Charles I. would have been esteemec 
 a traitor, who had given that advict 
 which we should now deem to have 
 been for the real advantage of the king 
 and the nation ; and be it remembered 
 that the marquis of Montrose,* whc 
 was undoubtedly a patriotic royalist 
 was at this time on the side of the cove- 
 nanters. This appellation was assumed 
 by those who were enemies to the Litur- 
 gy and to the arbitrarj^ power of the 
 throne, from a solemn league and cove- 
 nant^ now framed, and to which the 
 subscriptions of all those who approved 
 of the cause were affixed. Hardly any 
 steps could have tended more strongly 
 than this to mix up church politics with 
 civil : for, among the various objects 
 of the confederacy, the second was to 
 root out prelacy, i. e., church govern- 
 ment by archbishops, bishops, their 
 chancellors, commissaries, deans, deans 
 and chapters, archdeacons, and all 
 other ecclesiastical officers depending 
 on that hierarchy ; and the third, to 
 preserve the privileges of parliament 
 and the kingdom. The proceedings of 
 the assembly at Glasgow,^ (1638,) were 
 such as might have been expected. 
 The church had been tyrannized over 
 
 ■< Guthry, 32—49. ' 
 
 = N. B. — There were two covenants: the filct 
 signed by James I., 1580. and the one here men- 
 tioned. They are far from corresponding. They 
 are printed in the Confession of Faith, &c., a 
 the assembly of divines at Westminster. This 
 may be found in Fuller, xi. 201, and in many 
 other historians ; the abstract of it is as follows: 
 The preface declares the deplorable slate of reli- 
 gion in the three kingdoms to be the origin otlhis 
 act, in which, after the custom of this and olhei 
 godly nations, they enter into the following cotc- 
 
 1 1. " That they should reduce the church of 
 Encland and Ireland to the same model as that 
 
 I of Scotland. They agree — 
 
 j 2. " To extirpate popery, prelacy, and siiper- 
 stiiion, and to establish godliness. 
 
 3. " To defend the rights of parliament and the 
 liberty of the kingdom, the person and auihoriiy 
 of the king. 
 
 4. " To discover and punish all malignants, 
 hindcrers of reformation, &c. 
 
 5. " To preserve the peace of these kingdoms. 
 
 6. " To defend and assist all those who have 
 entered into the covenant. 
 
 I 7. " To humble themselves for the sins of the 
 nation, and to try to reform them." 
 J « Guthry, 41. 
 
IIP. xin.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 209 
 
 I a time, and when allowed to express 
 feelings, broke down all barriers, 
 
 , ntinued its sessions after it had been 
 
 . ;ally dissolved by the king's com- 
 ssioner, and went on to rescind at 
 
 i ce all that had been established since 
 05, i. e., episcopacy, the articles of 
 rth, the canons, and liturgy. These 
 
 I ps naturally and necessarily led to a 
 
 . il war. Leslie was appointed to the 
 mmand of the army which they le- 
 •d ; the castle of Edinburgh fell into 
 'ir hands, and the king was forced to 
 
 : at, and make peace with his rebel- 
 us subjects. 
 
 1 .5(59. The same steps had been 
 .ding silently to the same result in 
 '. igland. The power exercised by 
 i'ud not only disgusted the nobility, 
 ■ 10 might be deemed his rivals, and 
 MO found themselves supplanted by 
 1 iirchmen, but the severity exercised 
 some of the bishops on their non- 
 I iformist brethren, was likely to ren- 
 r the lower and more numerous por- 
 ' n of the members of the establish- 
 nt hostile to the government of the 
 irch, and consequently not friendly 
 that of the state which upheld it. 
 hen Laud was made archbishop,' 
 >:)3,) he pressed conformity, and at- 
 ided much to the ceremonies of the 
 I' arch, so that a preacher was censured 
 1 saying that the night was approach- 
 ; since shadows were growing so 
 : ich longer than the bodies, and cere- 
 : mies regarded more than the power 
 >' godliness. In his eagerness in this 
 :|ipect, he not only enforced those 
 i|-emonios which had been appointed, 
 ' t took great delight in increasing the 
 inber of them. He had put up a 
 iciiiK on the altar'' in Westminster 
 'liey at the coronation ; had used 
 ' isiderable pomp in the consecration 
 ' churches, adopting an office' com- 
 ised by Andrews, bishop of Win- 
 I ister, which corresponds almost en- 
 i|;ly with the service of the church of 
 '. me ; had directed the communion 
 ijiles to be surrounded with rails, and 
 I ■ communicants to approach the altar, 
 II i caused various genuflexions and 
 'livings to be used on entering and 
 
 ; Fuller, 3d. 150. ' Collier, ii. 736. 
 
 See an outline of the history of this office, 
 50. 
 
 27 
 
 leaving the church. Most of which 
 ceremonies were in themselves very 
 innocent, and it was natural, at a time 
 when the neglect of them was grow- 
 ing into fashion, that a man of Laud's 
 views should studiously observe them ; 
 but it was madness to suppose that the 
 enforcing them would cure the evil, or 
 fail to irritate and augment the disorder. 
 Pure Christianity, when placed near 
 fanaticism or formalism, will ordinarily 
 soon gain the ascendant over either the 
 one or the other; but extremes are little 
 likely to produce a cure to their oppo- 
 site evils. 
 
 § 570. Laud, however,* was not con- 
 tented with putting in force the existing 
 laws, or practising such ceremonies as 
 he himself approved ; but when, in 
 Ki 10, Charles was compelled to call a 
 parliament, which he so soon dissolved, 
 to the regret of all good men, the con- 
 vocation which was then assembled 
 ])roceeded to frame a body of canons, ani 
 continued their session beyond the ex- 
 istence of the [larliamcnt. Those ca- 
 nons were put forth to the world at a 
 moment when every one was ready to 
 cavil at the acts of legitimate authority, 
 and under circumstances which might 
 have rendered them questionable at 
 any other time, inasmuch as it was pre- 
 sumed by many, that upon the dissolu- 
 tion of the parliament its sister assem- 
 bly ceased at the same moment. The 
 convocation was in fact now changed 
 into a synod, in which capacity, to use 
 the words of Lord Clarendon,^ it " made 
 canons, which was thought it might do ; 
 and gave subsidies out of parliament, 
 and enjoined oaths, which certainly it 
 might not do ; in a word, did many 
 things, which in the best of times might 
 have been questioned, and therefore 
 were sure to be condemned in the 
 worst ; and drew the same prejudice 
 upon the whole body of the clergy, to 
 which before only some few clergymen 
 were exposed." 
 
 The canons themselves are such as 
 prove the violence of those who framed 
 them, who must have been actuated by 
 despair or fatuity to select such a time 
 for their publication. They enact' that 
 every officiating minister shall, on some 
 
 * Fuller, xi. 168. 5 Hist. i. 148. 
 
 * Sparrow's Collection. 
 
 s2 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIH 
 
 one Sunday in every quarter, insist on 
 the divine right of kings, and on their 
 prerogatives, in which the power of 
 taxing was indirectly implied. That 
 the day of the king's inauguration shall 
 be carefully observed. They were 
 very severe against papists, Socinians, 
 and all sectaries. In order to support 
 the establishment, an oath was imposed 
 against innovations, in which every ^ 
 clergyman, or person taking a degree, I 
 was to swear " that he would not con- 1 
 sent to alter the government of the 
 church by archbishops, bishops, deans, 
 archdeacons, &c. ;" a form sufficiently 
 equivocal, and which acquired for the 
 oath the name of the " et csetera oath." 
 It was ordered that the communion 
 table should stand as in the cathedral 
 church; that it should be railed in, and 
 the people approach the holy table 
 when they received ; and that on enter- 
 ing and quitting church they should do 
 obeisance. Every preacher was directed 
 to enforce in his sermons, twice every 
 year, conformity to the rites and cere- 
 monies of the church of England.^ 
 
 The effects of such a proceeding were 
 obvious. The state of the question 
 between the king and the people at this 
 moment was, whether they should be 
 governed constitutiorially by law, or by 
 the arbitrary proceedings of the court : 
 whether they should possess the right 
 of taxing themselves, or whether the 
 security of their property were to de- 
 pend on the necessities of those who 
 governed them : whether the petition of 
 rights were to be observed or no. Who- 
 ever, therefore, among the clergy had 
 followed these canons, as to their spirit, 
 must have taken a part in the great 
 question at issue, in favour of the court. 
 The words indeed of the canon are very 
 cautiously chosen, so as to assert in 
 general terms only the right of kings to 
 tribute, custom, and aid, while the pro- 
 perty of the subject is secured, a posi- 
 tion which no Christian will deny ; but 
 the question was, whether the king had 
 a right to collect that tribute as he 
 pleased, and to dispense with the laws 
 of the country. 
 
 § 571. It is difficult to give a distinct 
 
 ' Walker, in his Sufferings of the Clergy, p. 7, 
 supposes that these canons are now as much 
 binding as those of 1603 ; in this he is mistaken. 
 See * 756, or ihe Act 13" C. II., ch. 12. 
 
 view of the feelings of the country with 
 regard either to church or state, without 
 entering into a protracted discussion, 
 which must be little suited to this work; 
 but as it is impossible to understand the 
 condition of the kingdom without doing 
 so, a brief outline must be attempted. 
 Every real friend to his country, who 
 understood the circumstances under 
 which England was then placed, mast 
 have desired a reformation, both in 
 church and state. The power of die 
 king was so ill defined, that it was 
 scarcely possible for an honest man to 
 have served him without great compunc- 
 tion ; and however little Charles might 
 have wished to play the tyrant, it is dif- 
 ficult for a king to restrain his ministen, 
 f arbitrary power be once placed in' 
 their hands. Such a power indeed might 
 be easily borne by the people, were it 
 not for the ramifications to which it is 
 liable ; for a monarch, unless he be un- 
 bendingly severe on his immediate ser- 
 vants, becomes, ao-ainst his will, a tyrant 
 to every one of his subjects Avho is ei- 
 posed to the arbitraiy government of 
 those whom he trusts. The Court of Ec- 
 clesiastical Commission had frequently 
 exercised severity, and sometimes cruel- 
 ty, on those who were called before it, 
 and the people had indistinctly mixed up 
 the idea of the church government under 
 which they groaned, with episcopacy 
 and the hightT offices in the church, ft 
 was this which gave rise to the supposed 
 necessity of imposing the et cwlcra oath; 
 and the very nature "of that oath tended 
 to countenance the error. Laud and his 
 l)arty were justly alarmed at the spirit 
 of innovation which they beheld ; and in 
 their attempts to maintain what was val- 
 uable, they were too fearful to allow that 
 any part of the fabric was unsound, and 
 endeavoured to defend the whole, cor- 
 ruptions and all. The honest partj', on 
 the other side, who were anxious for the 
 correction of abuses, found that they had 
 no hopes of accomplishing their' pro- 
 jected reforms, except by breaking down 
 the barriers of what was in itself excel- 
 lent ; but which they were forced to 
 couple with the evils which they wished 
 to remedy, because the same defence 
 was thrown around both : nor can it be 
 doubted, that the enemies of the eccle- 
 siastical constitution rejoiced to perceive 
 the church thus imprudently connected 
 
( IP. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 211 
 
 ^ih the errors of the state. The three 
 fjties, therefore, in the kingdom, with 
 f'jrence to the church, were, 1, the 
 l.h church party ; 2, those who were 
 d'irous to see the church reformed, and 
 t excessivfe power of the hierarcliy 
 dninished and, 3, tliose who were 
 Bi'er to establish the presbytcrian jtq- 
 T.nment at the expense of the hit^rher 
 ojces in the church. This latter party 
 V i at first in all probability very small, 
 I political circumstances augmented 
 xiir power, and threw the preponder- 
 1 e into their hands ; but the impolicy 
 c ivhich Laud was guilty, consisted in 
 ii i! 'n<_f the moderate party, and driv- 
 ' into the interests of the enemies 
 !;ite. The same observations 
 ajijily with almost etjual truth to the 
 f itical parties which (•xist(Ml in the 
 iiVdom : and indeed llu- whole discus- 
 1 appears to belong to the slate rather 
 i I'l the church. Episcopacy, pres- 
 rv. and independency, were made 
 i ll words of parties ; but the real 
 ihroughout was a political one, 
 '. its religious aspect rather from 
 ' Miiiection with Scotland, than be- 
 - ■ I lie parties in England were con- 
 1 din:;- about the government of the 
 { irch. The political reformers attacked 
 t church, partly because a churchman 
 15 governing the country, partly be- 
 ^ 36 the feelings of the people were 
 i tated against the power of the church 
 I. an engine of oppression, and partly 
 1| ause the votes of the bishops gave a 
 I ponderance in the House of Lords to 
 ( friends of the court. The mass of 
 I country wished perhaps that the 
 ( scopal authority should be curtailed, 
 1|. there was probably no general ob- 
 ;i tion to episcopacy itself. 
 > 572. Such seems to have been the 
 I. te of parties when the Long Parliament 
 • s assembled, (Nov. 6th,) and one of 
 :1 earliest acts was to appoint a com- 
 ;|ltee of religion,'' consisting of the 
 •jiole House: this subsequentlybranched 
 
 I 
 
 Baxter says, (Life, i. 33,) " Almost all those 
 ;rwards called presbylerians were before con- 
 mists;" and, 35, "that those who were the 
 lour of the parliament, were previously con- 
 mists. It was an episcopal and Erastian par- 
 nent of conformists that took up arms in Eng- 
 id against the king;" (iii. 149;) "they knew 
 ! one presbylerian in the House of Commons." 
 I Clarendon, ii. 283. Heyhn's Laud, 503. 
 i 1 Walker's Suff. 62, 63. 
 
 off into divers sub-committees, one of 
 which took the appellation of " the com- 
 mittee for providing preaching ministers 
 and removing scandalous ones."* The 
 practical effect of these committees was 
 to intimidate the clergy, as well as to 
 bring them into disrepute ; for the mere 
 fact of being brought before a tribunal, 
 usually called " the committee of scan- 
 dalous ministers," could not fail to load 
 the obnoxious clergyman with a certain 
 degree of obloquy. The crimes which 
 were ordinarily charged on the unfortu- 
 nate delinquents who were brought be- 
 fore this mock court of justice, were with 
 regard to those ceremonies which by 
 law they were bound to observe : and 
 the reformers who were forward in main- 
 taining the sanctity of the law, when the 
 other party violated it, were guilty of the 
 same injustice when power fell, into their 
 own hands. Indeed, one great misfor- 
 tune during the whole struggle was, that 
 neither side could feel secure under the 
 protection of the laws : the royal pre- 
 rogative had first taught the people that 
 all bands were too weak to secure their 
 liberty ; and when the day of retribution 
 came, the popular faction sought to make 
 themselves safe by overturning the 
 whole power of their adversaries. 
 
 § 57;i. The chief attacks against the 
 church, during the early session of this 
 parliament, aimed at destroying its civil 
 authority ; because, when that was ef- 
 fected, no one could expect to find any 
 great difficulty in overthrowing the whole 
 fabric of the establishment. It is per- 
 haps in the abstract desirable, that men 
 peculiarly dedicated to the service of 
 God should possess as little temporal 
 power as possible, for every act wherein 
 coercive authority is used must tend to 
 destroy the influence of our spiritual 
 advice, which is the proper province of 
 the clergy: but he must be very igno- 
 rant of human nature, who supposes 
 that property can fail to confer power, 
 or that the attempt to take away the 
 power, which is alone able to defend it, 
 
 * The several chairmen of these committees, by 
 whose names they are frequently designated, 
 were, While, Corbet, Sir Robert Harlow, Sir 
 Edward Dering. 
 
 White's was probably the same as that for plun- 
 dered ministers, formed to provide for such godly 
 ministers as had suffered through the king's sol- 
 diery : it was nicknamed "the committee for 
 plundering ministers." Walker, Suff. 62 — 83, 
 
2ia HISTORY 
 
 can be made without creating an inse- 
 curity to the property itself. The attack 
 began by a general outcry against the 
 temporal power of the church ; the lord 
 keeper was ordered to leave out the 
 clergy from the commission of the 
 peace ; and a bill was brought forward, 
 though without success, to deprive the 
 bishops of their votes in the House of 
 Lords. Sir Edward Bering, indeed, pro- 
 posed one which would have destroyed 
 at once bishops, deans, and chapters ; 
 but the question was moved rather as an 
 experiment to try the House, than from 
 any idea that it would pass. The 
 clamour, however, which was raised by 
 the mob without, and the countenance 
 which they received within the House, 
 at length drove the bench to a step' 
 which led to their final exclusion ; for 
 towards the end of the year, the popu- 
 lace of London became so violent against 
 episcopacy, and threatened the lives of 
 the bishops with so much vehemence, 
 that, having been forced one night to 
 fly from the House by stealth, they met 
 together, and signed a protest against 
 any of the proceedings of the House of 
 Lords during their forcible and involun- 
 tary absence. This document was put 
 into the hands of Lord Keeper Lyttle- 
 ton,' in order to its being produced when 
 it had been approved by the king ; but 
 he unadvisedly, if no worse, brought it 
 forward at once, and the poor bishops 
 were sent to the Tower on a charge of 
 high treason ; a charge so absurd in 
 itself," that one of the lawyers friendly 
 to the parliament declared, that they 
 might as well have been accused of 
 adultery. They were there detained for 
 some time, till deprived of their votes, 
 and presently after of their property. 
 The hardship of these proceedings is 
 described in a very Christian manner by 
 Bishop Hall, in the tract here referred to. 
 Tho coercive power of the spiritual 
 courts had been before taken away by 
 the act which deprived the High Com- 
 mission Court of its authority, when its 
 sister power of the Star Chamber had 
 justly experienced the same fate. The 
 destruction of these two courts was an 
 act which well deserved the blessing of 
 
 > Fuller, xi. 186. 
 
 » Racket's Williams, ii. 178. 
 
 •Hall's Hard Measure; Wordsw. Ecc. Biog. 
 
 OF THE [CHAP.XII1 
 
 [ posterity, and we cannot but lament tha 
 j these prosperous beginnings were s( 
 soon clouded by tyranny and oppres 
 sion ; but it was by the popularity of 
 such acts that the parliament acqubec 
 its power, till the wickedness of som« 
 of the members, and the weakness of 
 the king, broke down the barriers of 
 right and wrong, and admitted all th( 
 miseries which the rebellion introduced 
 § 574. These steps met with less op 
 position than might have been expect 
 ed from a nation which, on the whole 
 seemed favourable to the church ; bu 
 it may be observed, that they extendec 
 only to the diminution of the power of 
 the hierarchy, and not to its utter de 
 struction. Many friends of episcopac) 
 might be glad to see the bishops dispos 
 sessed of their votes in the House of 
 Lords, and no friend of religion couk 
 be sorry to witness the downfall of th( 
 High Commission Court ; and this wai 
 the ultimate point which received Uk 
 sanction of the king. When the waj 
 broke out, the parliament soon fonac 
 the church, particularly the highei 
 members of the establishment, not onl) 
 faithful in their allegiance, but earnfes 
 in the cause of loyalty ; and the conse 
 quence was, that they werf^ forced U 
 destroy them as partisans of their ene 
 my ; and many more clergymen* were 
 dispossessed of their preferments as ma 
 lignants than as scandalous ministers 
 These circumstances ruined individna 
 clergymen, and weakened the body 
 but in all probability the adverse fae 
 tion would never have been able tc 
 alter the constitution, and thus to anni- 
 hilate the church of England as £ 
 church, had not the hopes* of bringing 
 over the Scotch to their cause, ulti- 
 mately induced those who were anxious 
 to carry their political objects at an; 
 rate, to consent to the establishment of 
 a presbyterian government. 
 
 § 575. It may be expected that some 
 thing should here be said of the growtl: 
 of a faction which converted the mo- 
 narchy into a republic, and a church 
 governed by bishops into a presbj^ery; 
 that some account should be given of 
 the means whereby these steps were 
 accomplished : but after having detailed 
 most of the false measures which con- 
 
 * Walker, pattim. * Clarendon's Hist. iL 117. 
 
».xin.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 213 
 
 I rted the church with the downfall of 
 t : state ; after having premised that 
 H ; government was such as no wise 
 ) .n could wish to support, while those 
 ' 10 were at the head of it resisted all 
 1 ;itimate reform springing from par- 
 J mentary discussion, it need hardly be 
 i led, that the instruments correspond- 
 1 with what might naturally have 
 1 jn expected. Factious lecturers and 
 1 -achers will never be wanting where 
 ( ■re are violent parties in the church, 
 I i reasonable causes of complaint. 
 ; magogues are the production of 
 ( ;ry country and period, but they are 
 I ly dangerous when the sober and 
 I nking part of the population are dis- 
 I itented. The strong arm of power 
 
 I y put them down for the moment. 
 
 I I a strong arm, unless supported and 
 I jrished by a healthy body politic, 
 I.I tend but to weaken the system, 
 l ough its unnatural exertions. The 
 i| ion, by observing abuses, became 
 I 'rheated and restless, and the court 
 ( -ed not feel the pulse of the public 
 1 calling a parliament, till the fever 
 '|S too violent to admit of ordinary 
 ! nedies. The concessions made by 
 I king in the different acts of parlia- 
 1 nt which he passed, might have satis- 
 I 1 the kingdom, had they been off.-red 
 I an earlier period, when they would 
 I /e been received as a favour; but 
 1 ng, as it were, torn from his grasp 
 1 the violence of the Houses, the very 
 I ility with which they were yielded 
 I dc those who had obtained them 
 I ibtful whether they were sincerely 
 I'mted; and the leaders of the coin- 
 I, ns, with the view of securing llieir 
 i n safety, demanded that the militia 
 ! )uld be intrusted to such men as they 
 nld confide in, i. e., to themselves; 
 ijl because the king wisely refused to 
 ! ign this last bulwark of the throne, 
 yy put themselves in a |)osture of de- 
 ll ice, and began the civil war. 
 
 |5 57'). As the fate of the church de- 
 Ijnded for a time on the state of the 
 'j.f, it may not be amiss to exhibit a 
 \ ef outline of its progress, particularly 
 !| the complicated nature of such a 
 i-rfare must render it difficult to ac- 
 ■:ire an accurate notion of what took 
 ice as a whole.* 
 
 I The following absirnci of the war is taken 
 'm Clarendon and Ludlow. 
 
 A. D. 1642. August 25. The royal 
 standard was raised at Nottingham,^ 
 under most unfavourable prospects; 
 but the loyally of the nation soon put 
 the king at the head of a respectable 
 force, with which he encountered the 
 earl of Essex at Edge-hill, and gained 
 a considerable advantage over him. 
 (Oct. 2;$.) This gave the royalists the 
 command of the centre of the kingdom, 
 and established their head-quarters at 
 Oxford, a town peculiarly well suited 
 for carrying on the war, as well from 
 the influence of the place itself, as the 
 associations fixed in the minds of many 
 of those who were destined to take a 
 part in the contest. It was, too, from 
 its central position, in a military point 
 of view, an acquisition of no slight im- 
 portance. His majesty afterwards ad- 
 vanced towards London, (Nov. 1;$,) and 
 was engaged for some days at Brent- 
 ford ; but the citizens, supported by the 
 remnant of Essex's army, contrived to 
 defend the ground which they hud oc- 
 cupied, and he was forced to retire to 
 Oxford, leaving a garrison at Reading. 
 
 §577. (a. D. lf)43.) In the next spring 
 the parliament were able to recover 
 Reading, but the general appearance 
 of the contest was decidedly against 
 them. In the west, vSir R. Hopton had 
 made himself master of the open coun- 
 try, and proceeded to aid the royal 
 forces in taking Bristol ; (July 25;) and 
 had not the king foolishly wasted time 
 in the siege of Gloucester, there would 
 probably have been no army sufficient- 
 ly strong to prevent his marching to 
 London. This delay, however, allowed 
 the parliament to collect a considerable 
 body of troops ; and when (Sept. 5) 
 they advanced towards the royal army, 
 the siege was raised, and the first battle 
 of Newbury (Sept. 20) subsequently 
 fought, which obliged the king, though 
 he was not beaten, to retire upon Ox- 
 ford, instead of prosecuting the cam- 
 paign. 
 
 § 578. (a. d. 1044.) In the beginning 
 of the next year the Scotch army began 
 its march southward. They had been 
 urged and invited so to do by commis- 
 sioners sent down for this express pur- 
 pose, who, on their return to London,' 
 
 2 Clarendon, i. 720. 
 
 ' Neal's Puritans, iii. 56. 
 
214 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIIL 
 
 brought back with them the solemn 
 league and covenant, which the Scotch 
 were particularly anxious to enforce on 
 their English brethren. The English 
 wished to have made a civil alliance, 
 but the presbyterians would consent to 
 no terms without the alteration of the 
 church government; and the necessi- 
 ties of the parliament induced them to 
 consent to this unreasonable proposal. 
 Up to this period, the war was in favour 
 of the king, and in the beginning of this 
 very year, the relief of Newark, (March 
 22,) by Prince Rupert, and his other 
 successes, made the general aspect con- 
 tinue so, till the loss of York, after the 
 battle of Marston Moor, (July 2,) re- 
 duced the whole of the north of Eng- 
 land under the power of the parliament. 
 The marquis of Newcastle had been 
 exerting himself in the preservation 
 of the interests of the king, not only 
 against the forces which were raised in 
 the north of England for the parliament, 
 but against the Scotch army, under Les- 
 lie, and was besieged by them in York. 
 Prince Rupert had succeeded in throw- 
 ing relief into the place, and all might 
 have done well, had he been wise 
 enough to have been contented with 
 this ; but in his hasty anxiety to gain a 
 victory, which, if won, could produce 
 little effect, he put the whole to the 
 issue of a battle, lost it, and, with it, not 
 only York, but the whole of the king's 
 interests in that part of the country. 
 This blow might have been fatal to the 
 whole cause, had it not been balanced 
 by the surrender of the forces of the 
 earl of Essex,' in the west, who. having 
 proceeded too far in that direction, was 
 cooped up at Fowey, (Sept. 2,) in Corn- 
 wall. As for himself, he was obliged 
 to retire by sea ; his cavalry cut their 
 way through the enemy, and his foot 
 were made prisoners. But even this 
 success on the part of the king was on 
 his return towards Oxford counteracted 
 by the second battle of Newbury, (Oct. 
 27,) where the earl of Manchester and 
 Waller met him ; and after a very brisk 
 encounter, in which both sides suffered 
 much, and scarcely any advantage was 
 gained by either, it became evident that 
 the royalists possessed no decided su- 
 periority over their opponents. 
 
 ' Neal's Puritans, iii. 69. 
 
 § 579. The fate of the war was eTen 
 now, in a great degree, undecided, as 
 far as fighting was concerned ; but the 
 parliament had learnt their faults, and 
 discovered the remedy for them, while 
 the evils which accompanied the army 
 of the king daily increased. The dis- 
 cipline of the troops of both parties had 
 from the first been exceedingly bad. 
 The royal army was composed of a 
 gallant band of armed and mounted 
 gentry, who at the moment when they 
 charged were every thing which a ge- 
 neral could desire ; but at other times 
 subject to very little control, and almost 
 ungovernable when they had met with 
 success, or experienced a reverse of 
 fortune. The stern severity exhibited 
 by the puritans induced the royalists to 
 despise even the form of godliness; so 
 that to be religious, and a gentleman, 
 became, in the opinion of the multitude, 
 contradictor)' terms : the chief officers 
 themselves were guilty of the grossest 
 vices, particularly of drunkenness ; and 
 the lawless proceedings of the troops 
 alienated the minds of many of tne 
 people from the royal cause ; a state of 
 things which engendered contention 
 among those who should have governed, 
 and disobedience among those who 
 should have obeyed. The soldiers. of 
 the parliament were collected chiefly 
 by the hopes of pay, and when they 
 had gained advantages in the field, they 
 were apt to turn them to their personal 
 profit, a species of fault which was much 
 more easily cured than the disorgani- 
 zation which prevailed among the other 
 parly ; while the appearance of strict 
 religion which was maintained among 
 them, answered many of the purposes 
 of military discipline. But the altera- 
 tion which now took place in the ma- 
 nagement of the interests of the parlia- 
 ment, produced an entire change in the 
 whole face of their affairs. 
 
 § 580. Essex had probably wished to 
 become the arbitrator of the war- rather 
 than to conquer the king ; he foresaw 
 that the complete success of either party 
 must lead to the destruction of the con- 
 stitution ; this produced a want of deci- 
 sion in his counsels, and led to disgrace 
 in the field, while his ill success per- 
 
 ' Life of Col. Hutchinson, i. 347. Calamy's 
 Baxter, 53. 
 
lAT. xni.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 215 
 
 ips contributed much to the facility ] 
 ith which the self-denying ordinance 
 ^ issed. The country had long been 
 ("'andalized by the interested manner in 
 hich offices were assigned to the mem- 
 i!rs of the two Houses, and the act 
 'hich received this denomination con- 
 sted in a vote which disabled all who 
 Lt In either House from holding any 
 [tuation of power or emolument. The 
 ep was on many grounds necessary, 
 ,nce the parliament was even now be- 
 [)ming intolerable from its tyranny and 
 dfishness ; but enabled those who were 
 xretly promoting their own advance- 
 lent, to remodel the army according to 
 !ieir own wishes, and to raise up a 
 jower which ultimately overcame the 
 arty which employed it. It is difficult 
 I account for the ease with which Crom- 
 ell retained his command in the army, 
 igether with his seat in the House, un- 
 ;ss indeed we conclude that he was the 
 jcret contriver of the whole : but the 
 isdom of this arrangement soon be- 
 ime evident ; for when the army in its 
 ew state took the field, it was obvious 
 lat the prospects of the royal party 
 'ere annihilated. Fairfax seems to 
 avc possessed much military talent, 
 ut to have been too honest a man to 
 nter deeply into the cabals of the re- 
 bellion ; he kept his men in order, beat 
 is enemies when he met them, and was 
 ver ready to give them, when beaten, 
 lie best terms which the interest of his 
 wn party would allow. Cromwell 
 iiras equally good as an officer, but he 
 Understood human nature, and was 
 villing to leave no stone unturned to 
 .ccomplish the object which he had 
 )robably now begun to entertain. He 
 lad clearly seen from the first that an 
 ,mbodied gentry' must easily surpass 
 ,n the field troops composed of mecha- 
 |)ics and servants; but he perceived, 
 md taught the world, that religion, 
 I inctured with fanaticism, was a more 
 jowerful motive of action than a sense 
 )f honour ; and that the love of free- 
 
 ' In tliis contest the generality of tlie nobility, 
 'nost of the knights and gentry, adhered to the 
 ling, and were followed by their tenants and the 
 J )oorer sort of people ; with the parliament were 
 he smaller part of the upper orders, and the 
 irealer of the tradesmen, freeholders, and middle 
 »rt of men, particularly in manufacturing cor- 
 (wjrations, together with those who were more 
 I precise in religion. (Calamy's Baxter, 46.) 
 
 dom, with which the yeomen of the 
 country were then inspired, was at least 
 as powerful a stimulant as the desire 
 of dominion, which animated the nobi- 
 lity and royalists. He had always shown 
 that he was no friend to half-measures, 
 and his talents had given confidence to 
 those whom this circumstance united to 
 his interests ; when, therefore, the self- 
 denying ordinance had cleared away 
 many who were looking to a compro- 
 mise, the opposite party might succeed 
 in continuing the command to one who 
 had taken no prominent part in the bu- 
 siness of the House, and who was known 
 to possess so much skill as a soldier. 
 
 § 5S1. (a. d, 1645.) The campaign 
 of Fairfax- was short and brilliant : 
 he proceeded from London in the spring, 
 threatened Oxford with a siege, but 
 soon followed the motions of the king. 
 Charles finding himself unexpectedly 
 in the neighbourhood of the enemy, it 
 was determined to risk a battle ; and 
 the precipitancy of Prince Rupert, as 
 on many other occasions, contributed to 
 lose the battle of Naseby, (June 14,) 
 a loss which destroyed all the prospects 
 of the royalists. Fairfax now proceeded 
 to the west, and rapidly reduced every 
 thing under his command. This so 
 utterly dispirited the king, who had 
 been wandering about as far as Wales, 
 and had returned to Oxford with little 
 hopes of assistance, that the next spring 
 he put himself into the hands of the 
 Scotch, and sent an order to the gover- 
 nor of Oxford to surrender the place, 
 and the war was terminated in favour 
 of the parliament. The fate of the 
 royal cause had indeed long been de- 
 cided by the mutual jealousies with 
 which this party was distracted. The 
 mass of those who composed the court 
 were contending for honours, and in- 
 dulging in mutual disputes, when the 
 enemy was preparing to swallow them 
 up ; and Charles had never energy or 
 firmness enough to take the command 
 of the whole into his own hands, or to 
 place it at the disposal of any other 
 
 2 The whole of this war is fully detailed in 
 Sprigge's Anglia Rediviva, a work which is some- 
 times attributed to Nathaniel Fiennes. It is ob- 
 served by Baxter, 'Life, p. 49,) that the commission 
 of Fairfax now omitted the words, "in defence 
 of the king's person," and so changed the cause 
 of the war. 
 
216 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. Xin. 
 
 efficient person. The headlong gallantry j 
 of Prince Rupert was of serious incon- 
 venience to the cause, but by no means 
 so injurious as the want of confidence 
 in himself, under which the king la- 
 boured, and which prevented him from 
 assuming that authority which might 
 have restrained the turbulence of his 
 party ; nor is it rash to assert, that his 
 majesty would probably have directed 
 his own counsels as well or better than 
 any other individual engaged in the con- 
 test, had he only been decided and firm. 
 
 § 582. It is difficult to conceive the 
 state of a country more wretched than 
 that of England during this period. 
 There was war raging in every corner 
 of the land; the movements of the ar- 
 mies, indeed, were comparatively con- 
 fined, but the preparations for the con- 
 test, and the bitterness of it, were spread 
 over the whole. There was much of 
 virtue marshalled on both sides, and 
 both sides were supported by a host of 
 selfish and interested partisans. The 
 first exertions of the parliament were 
 the struggles of freemen too eager to 
 vindicate their rights ; but they soon 
 outstepped the lines which freedom 
 should have dictated, and violated every 
 principle of justice in murdering Lord 
 Strafford, under the form of a bill of 
 attainder; and impeaching Laud of 
 treason, of which he was undoubtedly 
 innocent. Lord Strafford had been guilty 
 of such an exercise of arbitrary power 
 and tyranny' as might fairly have dis- 
 qualified him from holding any sub- 
 sequent command. He had himself 
 trampled on law: the lesson was easily 
 learnt by his opponents; and Charles, 
 by giving way to the unjustifiable bill 
 for his attainder, and perpetuating the 
 parliament, imbittered the remainder of 
 his own life ; and, by consigning his 
 friend and servant to the block, pre- 
 pared the scaffold for himself. The 
 case of Laud was different from that of 
 Strafford, both in his criminality and in 
 his sufferings. The difficulty of esti- 
 mating the character of Laud consists j 
 in our being unable to determine the j 
 standard by which his conduct is to be j 
 measured. If wo regard him as a j 
 Christian bishop, the picture will be in i 
 many respects sadly deficient ; to look 
 
 • See some excellent observations on this trial 
 in Phillips's State Trials. | 
 
 upon him merely as a statesman, is to 
 degrade the sacred office with which 
 he was invested ; to view him only as a 
 man, is to divest him of all that is worth 
 examining, and to pass sentence con- 
 cerning those particulars on which God 
 only is the judge. On whatever ground 
 he is placed, the opinions and the pre- 
 judices of the writer can hardly fail to 
 mix themselves up in the estimate : none 
 but a churchman could write a life of 
 Laud, and few churchmen are suffi- 
 ciently free from the same feelings as 
 prevailed in his day to form the estimate 
 fairly. A temperate life of the arch- 
 bishop would be a most valuable acqui- 
 sition to the Church History of our 
 country. 
 
 § 583. Laud was a man of an upright 
 heart and pious soul, but of too warm a 
 temper, and too positive a nature, to be 
 a good courtier, a good ruler, or perhaps 
 a good man. The great objects which he 
 had in view were such as every honest 
 man would approve ; but his method of 
 pursuing those objects produced much 
 of the misfortunes with which these un- 
 happy times were marked. The times 
 wherein he lived were fraught with the 
 utmost difficulty, and the experience of 
 past ages had given those who were 
 engaged in governing the kingdom no 
 clue which might extricate them from 
 these difficulties. The nation had ar- 
 rived at that point wherein it was neces- 
 sary that it should become free or be 
 enslaved. A powerful government, such 
 as that of Elizabeth, might have delayed 
 the catastrophe, or have thrown the 
 country backward into a lower moral 
 and intellectual condition, by riveting 
 the chains of slavery ; but an arbitrary 
 government cannot exist %viih an en- 
 lightened people, and a government 
 could hardly fail to be arbitrary, which 
 possessed two such courts as the Star 
 Chamber and the High Commission. 
 The church was attacked on all sides; 
 but it is more than probable that the 
 temporal power of the higher members 
 of it Avas the chief cause of these attacks. 
 Laud saw the danger, and in order to 
 defend the establishment, and to give it 
 strength, he tried to advance churchmen 
 into offices of power and authority. In 
 Scotland- the archbishop of St. Andrew's 
 
 2 Clarendon, i. 85—87. 
 
Jhap. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 217 
 
 f/as throug^h his means made lord chan- 
 ;ellor, and several of the bishops privy 
 counsellors ; with this view he himself 
 jecamc a commissioner of the treasury; 
 md when he had made Juxon lord 
 reasurer, he writes in his diary,* " And 
 low, if the church will not hold up them- 
 selves, under God, I can do no more." 
 The consequence was, that the church 
 became hated by the people ; and a body 
 possessed of property which is generally 
 disliked, can hardly be preserved in times 
 )f civil commotion. Laud foresaw per- 
 haps the danger to which religion would 
 be exposed, if the violent decisions of 
 ;he synod of Dort^ generally prevailed: 
 fie foresaw perhaps the tendency towards 
 the presbyterian government, which the 
 Calvinists were creating, and he en- 
 deavoured to counteract it by advancing 
 those only who were in their theological 
 sentiments opposed to this party: thereby 
 concentrating against the high church 
 all the strength of those who differed 
 from him on the five points, and who 
 could never hope to obtain any promo- 
 lion, unless the whole principles of the 
 men who had now the ascendancy were 
 overturned.^ Moderate churchmen, who 
 were suspected of favouring Calvinism, 
 were driven into the party which Laud 
 was trying to destroy, and added to its 
 strength ; and there was a further danger, 
 that every religious man would be called 
 aCalvinist, and thus forced to rank him- 
 self as hostile to the archbishop. 
 
 Laud perceived that there was a grow- 
 ing disinclination to ceremonies, and in 
 order to remedy the evil, he enforced 
 them with severity. He was an arbi- 
 trary and stout man, and he dared any 
 one to oppose his authority : and this 
 unfortunately converted unimportant 
 trifles into serious matters of dispute. 
 The nonconformists were probably the 
 more guilty of the two parties, in giving 
 importance to ceremonies ; but they who 
 punished them were certainly not wise in 
 enforcing the observance of outward 
 rites, till obedience was converted into a 
 real scruple of conscience. By a singu- 
 lar combination of these several causes, 
 it so happened, that religion appeared to 
 
 » p. 53. 25 520. 
 
 ' When a new list of chaplains was made out 
 for the court, Laud was directed to mark them 
 severally with an O or P, as being orthodox or 
 puritan. (Collier's Hist. ii. 733.) 
 
 28 
 
 be marshalled against the stability of the 
 royal government, and that men were 
 led to believe, that they were engaged 
 in the cause of God, while they were 
 taking measures which must tend to 
 throw down and destroy the authority 
 which God had given to the king. As 
 a minister of the crown, Laud beheld 
 with dismay an influence which he knew 
 not how to control, and was alarmed at 
 the growing power of the parliament ; 
 so that he did his utmost to prevent the 
 necessity of assembling any future one, 
 and justified himself in his own mind, 
 because he fancied that the king had 
 performed the whole of his duty, in 
 having sufficiently tried the temper of 
 that assembly. When, therefore, the 
 archbishop found that the parliament, if 
 assembled, insisted on the redress of 
 abuses before they would grant any 
 supplies, he exerted himself in raising 
 money by every means within his reach. 
 As his policy thus becajne arbitrary, he 
 found no lack of persons who were ready 
 to advocate and promote his plans ; and 
 it happened, as it always will happen in 
 such cases, that he imagined his forward 
 instruments to be following their own 
 zeal, while they were but observing his, 
 and trying, from interested motives, to 
 gain his favour by outstripping the 
 energy of his measures : of course such 
 supporters fled from him, when the hour 
 of difficulty arrived. In one sense his 
 proceedings were legal, for he endea- 
 voured in every case to observe the law 
 so far as to have it on his side ; but he 
 had no scruple in making the law bend 
 to his wishes. 
 
 § 584. The charges of treason which 
 were exhibited against him are too 
 absurd to merit much discussion. He 
 had doubtless tried to render the govern- 
 ment as arbitrary as he could, not to 
 overthrow the constitution ; he had en- 
 deavoured to alter the church of Scot- 
 land ; and these were sufficient reasons 
 why the people of England might dislike 
 him as a prime minister, but amounted 
 no more to treason than to any other 
 crime. Of many of the offences with 
 which he was charged, he was undoubt- 
 edly innocent ; he Avas free from the very 
 thought of bribery, and hostile to the 
 pretensions and errors of the church of 
 Rome : but because he did not wish to 
 exterminate Roman Catholics, he was 
 T 
 
218 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIII. 
 
 called a papist ; because he approved 
 of some of the ceremonies of the Roman 
 ritual, he was esteemed anxious to intro- 
 duce her peculiar tenets into the king- 
 dom. He probably' wished to effect 
 some sort of compromise with that 
 church ; a step, perhaps, little to be de- 
 sired, provided Christian charity prevail 
 between the members of the two com- 
 munions, and less to be hoped for, while 
 she maintains her claims to supremacy 
 and infallibility ; and so sensible was 
 that court of his friendly intentions'* 
 towards peace, that he was twice offered 
 a cardinal's hat. But if he were guilty 
 of ten times as much as this, it was no 
 treason. He had made himself justly 
 obnoxious to the dislike of the true 
 friends of civil and religious liberty, and 
 he was persecuted even unto death by 
 men who had learned to disregard both 
 the one and the other. He had often, 
 perhaps, perverted the course of justice ; 
 but the course of justice was never more 
 sadly perverted than when he was con- 
 signed to the block. In his conduct as 
 a man there was much of littleness, 
 much of unchristian temper. In his 
 diary there is a constant reference to 
 dreams and other portents ; and his treat- 
 ment of Williams and Osbolston,^ as well 
 as of many others, precludes the possi- 
 bility of supposing that he was not influ- 
 enced by personal feelings of revenge. 
 In his defence he generally argues that 
 the act objected to him was the common 
 decision of the council, and sometimes 
 justifies himself as having been guided 
 by the king : this method might secure 
 him against any legal punishment, but 
 could never furnish him with a fair 
 excuse, since the influence of such a 
 prime minister must have been more 
 than adequate to sway the council ; and, 
 at all events, to bring forward such a 
 defence takes from him the character of 
 a hero, with which the circumstances in 
 which he was placed might naturally 
 invest him. As it was, he did not save 
 his own life ; and had he taken up a 
 higher line of defence, had he justified 
 his general conduct, on the grounds of 
 those violences which had since verified 
 the predictions of his own foreboding 
 mind, he would have maintained a posi- 
 
 « Fuller, xi. 217. » Heylin's Laud, 253. 
 > See « 563. 
 
 I tion which sound reasoners might be- 
 lieve to be untenable, but which every 
 one must have acknowledged to have 
 been nobly taken up. After all, how- 
 ever, he was a great man, in heart and 
 intention sincerely a friend to the church, 
 and a noble patron of learning. Had he 
 fallen into other times, his character 
 might have shone as one of the brightest 
 luminaries of our countrj' ; had he pur- 
 sued a different line of policy, and en- 
 deavoured to soften down the asperities 
 of party feeling in that reformation of 
 church and state which was absolutely 
 required, he might have been held up 
 as the preserver of the establishment; 
 whereas he was, perhaps more than any 
 other individual, the secret cause of its 
 destruction. He was possessed of enor- 
 mous power, and, as he feared the popu- 
 lar nature of innovations, he threw the 
 full weight of his influence into the op- 
 posite scale, and endeavoured to prevent 
 them. He must not perhaps be regarded 
 as the enemy of real reforms,* but he did 
 not perceive that the spirit of the times 
 might be guided, but could not be con- 
 trolled ; and that reforms which proceed 
 from those in authority are almost always 
 safe, and generally beneficial ; so that 
 he continued to support abuses till the 
 whole fabric of the state was over- 
 whelmed in their ruin, and he himself 
 buried in their downfall. Laud was 
 never so great as while labouring undei 
 the oppressions of the parliament ; he 
 bore all their unjustifiable conduct (and 
 few men have been treated worse) with 
 a quiet composure, which his genuine 
 religion afforded ; and thanked God foi 
 having given him patience to enduie 
 that which his providence had laid upon 
 him. 
 
 § 585. The proceedings which have 
 been already described extended only to 
 the destruction of what had previously 
 existed in church and state. The royal 
 authority was first resisted and then 
 thrown down by the power of the sword. 
 The bishops had been first frightened 
 from sitting in the House of Lords, and 
 then, under the form of law, deprived 
 
 4 See the instructions sent forth by his advice, 
 in 1629, to bishops; and which, though they give 
 particular directions about lectures, &c., yet art 
 well calculated to reform the bishops themselves 
 They relate to residing within their sees, triennia 
 visitations, &c (Heylin's Laud, p. 199.) 
 
Chap. XHI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 919 
 
 of their votes. When the war began 
 they were declared delinquents for 
 continuing their fidelity to the king, 
 robbed of their {)roperty, and at length 
 extirpated by the same ordinance (Jan. 
 154:}) which destroyed all cathedral 
 establishments. A proposal had been 
 made by Archbishop Usher' in 1641, 
 when the first committee on church 
 affairs was formed, to constitute such a 
 species of government as should em- 
 brace the advantages possessed by 
 episcopacy as well as the presbyterian 
 form. The clergymen, churchwardens, 
 and sidesmen, were to compose a body 
 for the direction of the parish. Chore- 
 piscopi, or bishops rural, were to be 
 established in every rural deanery, 
 who should hold monthly assemblies. 
 These were tt) be subjected to the 
 power of the diocesan synod, and that 
 to the provincial or national convoca- 
 tion. This system would have given 
 the authority of a body to the discipline 
 of the church administered by them ; 
 and the bishop or his delegate would 
 in each case have been the legitimate 
 president of the several boards ; this 
 plan, however, never took effect. 
 
 The desolation which had been caused 
 by the war was peculiarly felt with 
 respect to the appointment of ministers 
 who might fill the vacant cures ; and as 
 the bishops could not attempt to supply 
 the deficiency thus created, the parlia- 
 ment were obliged to frame some sort 
 of church government which might 
 succeed the one destroyed by them. 
 They could hardly venture to interfere 
 with the affairs of the church without 
 the sanction of some sort of ecclesiasti- 
 cal authority, and they therefore had 
 recourse to a body which, from the 
 anomalous nature of its constitution, 
 was not likely to raise any very decided 
 opposition to such plans of amendment 
 as they might think fit to adopt. With 
 these views they called together the 
 general assembly of divines at West- 
 minster,' a collection of men connected 
 with the ministry, who might form a 
 council for the parliament on such sub- 
 jects pertaining to the church as might 
 
 ' Calamy's Baxter, 149. Collier, ii. 871, &c. 
 
 ' This account of the assembly of divines at 
 Westminster is almost wholly taken from Neal's 
 History of the Puritans, vol. iii. 
 
 be proposed to them by the two Houses. 
 They were not a convocation summoned 
 according to any of the forms or princi- 
 ples which regulate that body. They 
 resembled not the presbyterian synod, 
 for there was not even the semblance 
 of their being elected by their brethren ; 
 but consisted of such persons from the 
 several counties as the members of the 
 two Houses chose to congregate for 
 their own assistance in spiritual and 
 ecclesiastical matters. The clergymen 
 thus convoked amounted to about one 
 hundred and twenty, and to these thirty 
 lay members were added, consisting 
 of ten peers and twice as many com- 
 moners, who possessed an equal share 
 in the debates, and equal votes with the 
 former. Many of the members who 
 were thus called on to join a party at 
 open war with their sovereign declined 
 any connection with their proceedings; 
 but the majority, being all nominated 
 by the two Houses, lent their assistance 
 to the cause of rebellion, and the places 
 of those who did not engage in this 
 affair were quickly filled up by the 
 superadded members. They met for 
 the first time in Henry Vllth's chapel, 
 on Sunday, July 1st, 1043. 
 
 § 58(5. The members of whom this 
 body was composed may be divided 
 into three heads; the episcopalians, the 
 presbyterians, and the independents. 
 The first and last indeed formed but a 
 very small part of the numerical force 
 of the assembly, and this small number 
 was soon diminished by the secession 
 of the episcopalians, who were virtually 
 excluded by being called on to take 
 the Solemn League and Covenant ; for 
 though an alteration was made in the 
 terms of that document^ for the purpose 
 of reconciling the friends of a moderate 
 episcopacy, yet it was obvious that no 
 one who had any regard for the church 
 of England could long continue to act 
 with men who were bent upon destroy- 
 ing her sacred fabric root and branch. 
 The contest, therefore, lay between the 
 presbyterians and independents, and 
 the numerical superiority possessed by 
 the former rendered the struggle of the 
 other party hopeless from the very first ; 
 a preponderance which the coalition 
 with the Scotch exceedingly augment- 
 
220 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XID. 
 
 ed. These two parties agreed in their 
 aversion to the jurisdiction which the 
 bishops had held over them, but they 
 were little suited to any real co-opera- 
 tion. 
 
 § 587. The presbyterians maintain 
 that their discipline is derived purely 
 from the conduct of the apostles, as 
 exhibited in the word of God, and chal- 
 lenge a divine authority for their plat- 
 form, with an exclusive dogmatism, 
 which nothing but an express com- 
 mand of Omnipotence could sanction. 
 According to their hypothesis, every 
 parish forms a little republic of its own. 
 The minister and lay elders constitute 
 a body politic for its domestic govern- 
 ment ; a certain number of these, by a 
 delegated authority, compose the classi- 
 cal assembly, which, in its turn, sends 
 members to the provincial synod. 
 These are under the superintendence 
 of the national synod, and that in its 
 turn is subject to the (Ecumenical. 
 The system is well framed for giving 
 considerable energy to its decrees, and 
 for maintaining a due subordination 
 among the several bodies, but is liable 
 to great abuse by the power which is 
 thrown into the bands of the individual 
 clergyman; and had this discipline ever 
 been introduced without any of those 
 checks which could restrain its opera- 
 tion, the people of England would soon 
 have learned that the episcopal juris- 
 diction,' which they had reduced, was 
 little to be compared with the tyranny 
 of that which they had established.^ 
 
 § 588. It is less easy to give any dis- 
 tinct account of the independents, since 
 the name comprehends every species 
 of Christians who hold the same opinion 
 of the independence of each separate 
 body of Christians. According to this 
 hypothesis, wherever a congregation is 
 assembled, into which the several mem- 
 bers are admitted, and from which an 
 exclusion may take place, there will 
 exist a full and independent church, 
 neither connected with, or dependent 
 on, any other body of Christians. There 
 is perhaps in the abstract no absurdity 
 in this tenet, but the slightest knowledge 
 of human nature would show, that no- 
 thing but an immediate guidance from 
 heaven, or the perfection of the indivi- 
 
 ' Corner's Church Hist. ii. 866. 2 See § 591, \ 
 
 dual members, could keep out the gross- 
 est heresies from societies thus consti- 
 tuted : and there are perhaps few errors 
 which may not be detected among those 
 who have denominated themselves in- 
 dependents. Liberty of conscience was 
 the standard around which they rallied ; 
 and when the more sober independents 
 found this assaulted by the presbyte- 
 rians, they were forced to summon to 
 their aid the assistance of every sepa- 
 ratist, however strange his opinions 
 might be. Nor, when supported by 
 this force, would they have had any 
 probability of success, if the temporal 
 power which the presbyterians assumed 
 had not rendered their form of ecclesi- 
 astical government incompatible with 
 the dominion which Cromwell was en- 
 deavouring to establish.' 
 
 There was another faction, which, 
 though not directly advocated as a party 
 in the assembly, found very able sup- 
 porters among individuals on both sides, 
 and met with the strongest co-operation 
 from the prepossessions of the mass of 
 those who were invested with civil author- 
 ity. The Erastians were so called from 
 Thomas Erastus,' M.D., a native of Ba- 
 den, whobecame professor at Heidelberg. 
 They maintained that the clergy should 
 be possessed of no coercive power, that 
 they might persuade the vicious, and 
 try to reform the profligate, but that 
 every species of punishment, whether 
 civil or religious, should be vested in 
 the civil magistrate alone. 
 
 §589. The first task in which the 
 members of the assembly were engaged, 
 was the alteration of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles and they had proceeded as 
 far as the fifteenth, when the political 
 
 3 Fuller, xi. 213. 
 
 * The Articles in their altered state are printed 
 in the Appendix to Neal, (vol. v. p. liii.) No. 7. in 
 columns parallel with the original Articles. The 
 chief differences are. III. The " descent into hell" 
 is explained as "being under the dominion of 
 death." VI. All mention of the Apocrypha is 
 omitted. VIII. On the three Creeds, is wholly 
 omitted. IX. " Very far gone from original 
 righteousness," is changed into " wholly deprived 
 of" XI. The imputation of Christ's obedirnce 
 and satisfaction to us is introduced; and that God 
 will not forgive the impenitent. XIII. " Inspi- 
 ration of his Spirit" is rendered, " regeneration of 
 his Spirit." "They have the nature of sin" is 
 rendered, "they are sinful." N. B. This last 
 change of expression takes place in the ninth. 
 The several clauses in these Articles are accom- 
 panied with references to the texts on which they 
 are founded. 
 
Chap. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 991 
 
 connection with Scotland, and the arrival 
 of commissioners from that country, im- 
 posed the covenant upon the nation : a 
 step which created a necessity for much 
 greater changes, and turned their atten- 
 tion to the new-modelling of the whole 
 of the church government. 
 
 The most important question,' and 
 one which was agitated with the great- 
 est warmth, was respecting the nature 
 of congregations generally, as forming 
 the essential difference between the 
 
 Sresbyterians and independents. In this 
 iscussion Lightfoot and Selden joined 
 with the greatest earnestness, and 
 brought forAvard their great learning, to 
 show that the church at Jerusalem must 
 have consisted of more congregations 
 than one, and that the appeal from the 
 church of Antioch would never have 
 been made to that at Jerusalem, had 
 they esteemed themselves an independ- 
 I ent community. It is almost unneces- 
 sary to add, that the presbyterians car- 
 ried their point ; and, indeed, it is 
 difficult to conceive any national esta- 
 blishment founded on independent prin- 
 ciples. The Presbyterians'* wished that 
 the divine right of their own form of 
 church government should have been 
 officially recognised, but this absurdity 
 was obviated by a judicious motion of 
 Whitelock, which recommended it gene- 
 rally, without touching on this delicate 
 question. Whatever might have been 
 the decision of these divmes, it was pro- 
 bable that Erastian principles^ must 
 have prevailed, at least in the House of 
 Commons ; for, when the ordinance for 
 suspending ignorant and scandalous per- 
 sons from the Lord's supper was passed, 
 an appeal from the decision of the elders 
 was allowed to take place," which ulti- 
 mately fell under the cognisance of the 
 parliament ; and all members of either 
 House were, in such places as they re- 
 sided, ex officio triers of the competency 
 of the candidates for admission into the 
 offices of the church. This point was 
 ' more immediately brought into discus- 
 I sion' by the necessity of ordaining some 
 ministers, in order to fill up the vacan- 
 I cies which various circumstances had 
 I occasioned in the church. Many of the 
 j orthodox divines had been driven from 
 
 ' Lighifoot's Genuine Remains, p. xxv. 
 ' Neal'a Pur. iii. 236. ^ Ibid. iii. 240. 
 * Ibid. 246—248. 6 ibid. 126. 
 
 their cures, and the bishops, who had 
 alone power to ordain new ministers, 
 were all opposed to the proceedings of 
 the parliament. The House had at first 
 committed to the assembly an authority 
 for approving of such ministers as were 
 nominated by the patrons to the several 
 cures, but they soon found that -a much 
 more extensive supply was required ; 
 while their interest plainly pointed out 
 the wisdom of introducing their own 
 friends into situations which were likely 
 to prove so influential on the opinions 
 of the public. When, therefore, there 
 appeared much difhculty in settling 
 any thing definitely, an ordinance was 
 made, which conveyed to the assembly, 
 pro tempore, the power of ordaining. 
 The same ordinance was subsequently 
 continued for three years, and then 
 made ])erpetual. 
 
 § 590. The works which this assem- 
 bly gave to the public are the more 
 interesting, because they have been 
 retained as the authorized guide to those 
 of our countrymen who still adopt the 
 presbyterian form of church govern- 
 ment. They consist of a Directory for 
 worship and ordination; of a Confes- 
 sion of Faith ; and two Catechisms, the 
 larger and the shorter. Besides these, 
 there is a form of presbyterian church 
 government agreed upon by the assem- 
 bly, but never authorized. 
 
 The Directory, as its name ini»)orts, 
 does not itself contain a form of prayer, 
 but gives the outline of such a service 
 as every minister is left to himself to 
 frame : a method which apparently 
 offers some advantages, when the per- 
 son officiating is possessed of any very 
 peculiar talent for such compositions, 
 but even then must always make the 
 congregation depend on his abilities in 
 a way far beyond what is desirable ; but 
 in the ordinary course of things, is liable 
 to most serious objections, and must 
 virtually tend to prevent all ]iublic de- 
 votion, since either the individual will 
 relinquish the plan of extempore com- 
 position, by constantly using a ibrm of 
 his own, (and this can hardly be ex- 
 pected to be so good as one comi)osed 
 by persons selected for the purpose,) or 
 his varying expressions will be apt to 
 confuse the less enlightened part of his 
 hearers. 
 
 The points on which the Dircctory 
 t2 
 
I 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XUL 
 
 essentially' differs from the service of 
 the church of England are, that the 
 lessons are read consecutively from 
 Sunday to Sunday, and the Apocrypha 
 is entirely omitted. The use of spon- 
 sors in baptism, and of the ring in mar- 
 riage, is dispensed with ; in the visitation 
 of the sick nothing is said of confession 
 or absolution ; and the burial of the dead 
 is accompanied with no religious rite. 
 The rules about ordination are j)eculiarly 
 indefinite ; and the power vested in the 
 hands of the presbytery seemed to lie 
 open to the admission of almost any one, 
 provided he would take the covenant, 
 and could satisfy his examiners of the 
 evidence of his calling to the ministry, 
 and of the grace of God wliicli was in 
 him. It is not, indeed, stated how this 
 last particular is to be ascertained, and 
 there must always be great danger of 
 hypocrisy, when men become the wit- 
 nesses of their own qualifications on 
 points which admit of no definite proof. 
 
 The chief peculiarity of the doctrinal 
 works is the prominence with which 
 the tenet of predestination is brought 
 forward. The Confession^ of Faith of 
 the assembly, however, is not exactly 
 the same as the Articles published by 
 the parliament, for only a part of it was 
 authorized by tliem.^ 
 
 § 591. The recommendations of the 
 assembly* with regard to church govern- 
 ment, 'are imbodied in a tract which has 
 been mentioned as published among 
 their other works, and which, though 
 approved of by the church of Scotland, 
 never reci.'ived anv authority from the 
 parliauient. Accordinof to this, the offi- 
 cers of the church consist of pastors, 
 teaclu'rs, other governors, and deacons. 
 Then- seems no other difference be- 
 tu i-en the two first, than as they mark 
 out diiliTent duties of the same office. 
 Thi'v constitute the only individuals 
 who, m ordinary language, are called 
 ministers, and are invesled not only 
 
 with the power of teaching, but com- 
 bine in their persons a judicial author- 
 ity, and, in conjunction with the elders, 
 possess the right of expelling from the 
 I sacrament. It is in this that the chief 
 difference consists between the episco- 
 palian and presbyterian form of church 
 government,* with regard to discipline 
 over the laity. The minister of the 
 church of England may exclude, for 
 the time," an offending brother from 
 the sacrament ; but then he is bound 
 (within fourteen days, by the Rubric 
 introduced after the Savoy Conference^ 
 to inform the bishop, who is to proceed 
 against the offender ; so that it will be 
 necessary for the clergyman so repel- 
 ling to have good grounds for all he 
 does, and to be able to prove his charge. 
 Whereas, by the presbyterian author- 
 ity, the minister, together with the lay 
 elders, is the judge of the propriety of 
 such excommunication, and it remains 
 with the offending party to appeal to 
 the higher tribunal of a superior court, 
 of which the clergyman in question 
 may happen to be an influential mem- 
 ber ; at all events, the person expelled 
 will have to prove the original excom- 
 munication to have been wrong, and 
 be subject to the oiuos prohandi. Thusj 
 whatever might have been the tyranny 
 of bishops, the peoi>le would have 
 gained little by erecting a bishopric in 
 every parish. The other governors, or 
 lay elders, were to compose a kind of 
 council for the pastor, and are copied 
 from the institutions of the Jewish 
 church. Deacons^ were, in strict con- 
 formity with their original appointment, 
 persons selected to take care of the tem- 
 poral wants of the indigent, a sort of 
 overseers of the poor.^ 
 
 * In episcopal government the liisliop is judge; 
 presbyterian, llie minister and elders. If an 
 
 iiiulhi is used, since, under the 
 the Uireciory, llie church of 
 light he employed, except in 
 
 > The word «s 
 directions f^nveii 
 England service 
 these particulars. 
 
 2 Neal, iii. 320. 
 
 3 These works are frcfjuenily to be met with in 
 a small '2'lrno. vol. neatly printed. The .Solemn 
 League and Covenant, as well as the former cove- 
 nant, form a part of the same little book. The 
 Directory is also printed in the appcndi.x to Neal, 
 No. 8, p. Ixiii. 
 
 •• See 5 587. 
 
 episi opalian clergyman quarrel with any of 
 p;irishioners, he cannot exconnmunicaie them 
 without proving them guilty before a court, orer 
 w hirh he has no control, and which has a control 
 over him. The presbyterian may excommuni- 
 cate propria jure, and the party excommunicated 
 must appeal, and the appeal will, in each case, lie 
 to a court of which the clergyman may be a mem- 
 ber, and therefore a judge in his own cause. The 
 whole question of excommunication is one of great 
 difTiculiy. Some good may arise from it in pre- 
 venting scandal ; but very little with regard to the 
 oflendme party. See Baxter's own Life, i. 92. 
 
 ' Rubric for the Lord's Supper. 
 
 ' Acts vi. 
 
 * For further particulars concerning the presby- 
 terian discipline, see % 587, and a note in Rapin, 
 
;hap. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 333 
 
 § 592. This form of church govern- 
 nent was nowhere established except 
 (1 London and Lancashire, and was 
 lever invested with such authority as 
 is friends demanded, since an ultimate 
 ^ppeal lay to the parliament. This was 
 endered absolutely necessary from the 
 )Ower which the church would other- 
 vise have possessed, and which, had it 
 :)een allowed to exert all the civil influ- 
 •nce of which it was capable, might 
 'lave proved as tyrannical to the repub- 
 lic as it did to James L, while he was 
 iiubjected to its sway in Scotland. It 
 s curious to observe the earaestness 
 vith which its advocates attacked this 
 •estrictive check, which the parliament 
 '.vere wise enough never to take off. 
 The assembly of divines petitioned 
 igainst it; the Scotch sent commission- 
 ers and remonstrated; but the amend- 
 nents of the latter were burnt by the 
 I lands of the common hangman, and 
 '.he assembly were informed that they 
 !had incurred a praemunire, by discuss- 
 ling subjects which were not proposed 
 ;o them by the Houses, and were re- 
 
 J nested to prove, from Scripture, that 
 le authority which they claimed was 
 a /MS divimim, and clearly established 
 by the word of God. We have before 
 seen the probable argument in favour 
 of episcopacy,' which, if not perfectly 
 convincing, is at all events much 
 stronger than that for the presbytery, 
 inasmuch as the voice of all authentic 
 history concurs in establishing the fact, 
 that at an early period bishops were a 
 distinct order in the church, a point 
 which the other party can never esta- 
 blish in favour of presbyterian govern- 
 ment without them. And though these 
 queries "■(h jure divino'''^ were an- 
 swered by some individual ministers 
 assembled at Sion College, yet they 
 remained with the assembly without an 
 answer, till the whole fabric was de- 
 stroyed by the prevalence of independ- 
 ency. 
 
 §'.593. The tendency of the system 
 of the independents was such, that un- 
 der it no established religion could exist 
 in the state, since every teacher, who 
 
 it 297 ; printed also in Neal, iii. 323 ; or tlie bur- 
 den of Issacliar, primed in the Phrenix, ii. 2fiO. 
 There is a Compeiulium of the Laws of the 
 Church of Scotland, published 1830, in Edin- 
 burgh. 
 
 ' See ^ 450. * Neal, iii. 279. 
 
 was not deficient in life and good mo- 
 rals, might assemble a congregation 
 wherever he pleased ; and every so- 
 ciety, having the means of excluding 
 an offensive member from its commu- 
 nion, might be deemed a church to all 
 intents and purposes. Any member 
 of any religious community, who was 
 ejected from one society, might enrol 
 himself in another ; so that the coercive 
 discipline of the church was reduced to 
 a mere nothing. It must be remem- 
 bered that the church of England pos- 
 sesses in the bishops' courts a very 
 considerable authority for the reforma- 
 tion of manners ; that, at the period of 
 which we are speaking, this was con- 
 stantly exercised ; and that the Court 
 of High Commission, by supporting and 
 aiding the minor courts, and sometimes 
 by superseding their authority, ren- 
 dered the ecclesiastical discipline for- 
 midable, and in some cases oppressive. 
 In the presbyterian government the 
 authority was placed in lower hands, 
 but by no means diminished ; and in 
 both cases, civil pimishments were the 
 consequence of neglecting ecclesiastical 
 censures. The point at issue, then, on 
 the part of the independents was, whe- 
 ther there should be any coercive disci- 
 pline at all ; atid it was perhaps natural, 
 that an army, which had conquered the 
 king, should not quietly surrender them- 
 selves to the rule of their priests. Reli- 
 gion, real or pretended, had contributed 
 much to preserve the discipline of the 
 army ; and they who in the field guided 
 the sword of the flesh, took upon them 
 in the camp to use that of the Spirit, so 
 that almost all the good officers of the 
 parliament army became, by degrees, 
 great preachers. The presbyterian 
 form of church governtnent is very 
 rei)ublican, and it was partly from this 
 reason that the republican party in 
 the state favoured its establishment, 
 though they never allowed it to possess 
 an authority independent of themselves. 
 When the army had subdued the king, 
 the republicans wished them to lay 
 down their arms; but, in the division 
 of spoil among robbers, it is difficult to 
 say nay to him who has the power in 
 his own hands. The presbyterian mi- 
 nistry favoured the form of government 
 which was best suited to themselves, 
 and which their party deemed the legi- 
 
884 
 
 HISTQRy OF THE 
 
 timate authority of the country ; but the 
 army, with their preachers, were ready 
 to say, in spiritual as well as temporal 
 concerns, " Who shall be lord over us ?" 
 It is impossible, as it was before ob- 
 served, to state the exact nature of in- 
 dependency every separate church 
 may vary, but the principle of it is to 
 destroy the existence of any priesthood 
 at all. The presbyterian establishment 
 continued till the Restoration, though 
 it was shorn of its glory, and the bonds 
 of its union and strength were broken. 
 
 The only place where the independ- 
 ents'* had the power of establishing a 
 church government of their own was 
 in Wales ; but what was there done, 
 was accompanied with so much mani- 
 fest dishonesty, that it can be hardly 
 admitted as a specimen of their princi- 
 ples.' 
 
 § 594. Liberty of conscience was the 
 aim of the independents, who wished 
 also to subject the ministry to the power 
 of the state. They may be identified 
 with the army to a certain degree, as 
 the presbyterians became the same body 
 with the republicans ; and the struggle 
 which remained lay between these two 
 confederate bands. The king, by sur- 
 rendering himself to the Scotch, who 
 were combined with the presbyterians, 
 became indirectly the prisoner of the 
 parliament, till the army got possession 
 of him through the violent seizure of 
 his person by Cornet Joyce : both these 
 parties possessed many individuals who 
 were anxious to restore tran(]uillity by 
 re-establishing a limited monarchy; but 
 the violent partisans, who ruled their 
 several proceedings, could hardly hope 
 for safety, if the king were restored, 
 and must at all events have lost that 
 influence which they had acquired. 
 Anxious, therefore, for the destruction 
 of Charles, the difficulty which re- 
 mained consisted in the means whereby 
 this object might be effected. The his- 
 tory of his escape from Hampton Court 
 is so enveloped in obscurity, that the 
 utmost we can do is to conjecture the 
 real cause of it. The leaders of the 
 army, who had for the time treated 
 him with considerable civility, now 
 wished for his death, and for a pre- 
 
 ■ Neal, iv. 172. 
 
 2 Walker'sSufferingsof the Clergy, i. 147—169. 
 » See § 608. 
 
 text on which they might found then- 
 change of conduct towards him : for 
 this purpose they alarmed his fears, 
 and facilities for his escape were afford- 
 ed to his friends, of which they took 
 advantage ; while the general vigilancy 
 of their guards made the flight from 
 the kingdom almost impossible. It 
 was thus, perhaps, that he left Hamp- 
 ton Court without the knowledge of 
 the army, but was deceived in the 
 hopes of finding a ship ready to convey 
 him away. It was thus that he fell into 
 the hands of the governor of Carisbrook 
 castle, and was detained as a prisoner 
 till his removal for trial. It was neces- 
 sary for Cromwell that the king should 
 be removed. It was necessary for the 
 army that they should not allow the 
 king, by joining with the republican 
 party, to annihilate the influence of the 
 soldiery; and they cared perhaps less 
 for the fate of Charles than for their 
 own interests: had he escaped, they 
 would have little regarded it, providOT 
 he did not join the parliament and the 
 republicans. 
 
 § 595. The moderate republicans 
 foresaw their danger, and were anxious 
 to re-establish the king.* The Scotch 
 would have consented to his restoration, 
 because they perceived the risk they 
 ran of falling a prey to the English 
 government, whatever it might be, and 
 they were ready to adopt either loyalty 
 or rebellion, provided their own inte- 
 rests were promoted. But Charles be- 
 lieved that the episcopal government 
 of the church was the one which the 
 apostles had established, and he had 
 suffl-red too much by taking one false 
 step (the death of Lord Straflbrd*) ever 
 to adventure his soul on another act 
 which was in direct violation of his 
 principles. Had Charles consented to 
 adopt the presbyterian form of church 
 government, the party which was treat- 
 ing with him might possibly have been 
 strong enough to restore him to a nomi- 
 nal throne ; at least he had good reason 
 
 ^ Many of those who had contributed to this 
 catastrophe, now saw the leng'hs into which they 
 had been carried, and exerted themselves to hin- 
 der the event when it was too late. Forty-seven 
 of the presbyterian ministers in London presented 
 a petition to General Fairfax and his council of 
 war, wherein they boldly and plainly rebuked » 
 victorious army, and pointed out the villanjr of 
 their proceedings. (Collier, ii. 859.) 
 
 ' Life of Col. Hutchinson, ii. 156. 
 
lAP. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 • believe this, and his resistance on 
 is point obviously led to his death, 
 le decision of the king on this qucs- 
 m was by no means the effect of ob- 
 nacy, but of a thorough conviction, 
 'ising from a very perfect understand- 
 g of the argument. He was twice 
 gaged in the dispute, and it fortu- 
 .tely happens that his papers are 
 eserved. 
 
 In the first, Mr. Henderson,* who 
 IS deemed a learned and a moderate 
 esbyterian, was sent to satisfy the 
 
 ;ng's doubts, while he was prisoner in 
 
 ;e' Scotch army at Newcastle, (May 
 I— July If)th, 1()46.) The arguments 
 the king aie nearly those which are 
 
 I'fore stated, (§ 460;) the answer of 
 enderson appears to be a peiitio prin- 
 oii, and an avoiding of the question. 
 
 I here is not throughout a single argu- 
 ent on the jus divimim of presbyte- 
 
 jin ordination; (that is, an argument 
 
 I show that episcopal ordination is not 
 
 II consistent with the word of God as 
 •esbyterian ;) and this was what they 
 rtually maintained in their sermons 
 
 I hen they attacked episcopacy. The 
 I'gument really is this. The point is 
 i)t settled in Scripture, the expressions 
 "which are not contradictory to either 
 ypothesis ; the presbyterian hypothe- 
 ,s is inconsistent with ecclesiastical his- 
 [■ry: which hypothesis therefore is the 
 iiost probable ? All Henderson says 
 ,, It is not settled in Scripture. Tra- 
 jtion is inadmissible into theological 
 rgument, or the papists must carry 
 le day." Episcopacy has obviously 
 one much harm to religion ; therefore 
 ought to be cast out. Had he been 
 leading for the reform of episcopacy, 
 lis argument would have been good, 
 , therefore it ought to be reformed." 
 )ne query of the king received no an- 
 swer ;■' viz.: What warrant is tiiere in 
 iie word of God for subjects to endea- 
 our to force their king's conscience, 
 nd to make him alter laws against his 
 yill? 
 
 The discussion at Newport* (Sept. 18, 
 
 ' King Oharles I. Works. 75—90. 
 
 ' This is a position wliich the member of the 
 hurch of England would never grant. We are 
 cadyto meet the Roman Catholics on the ground 
 if tradition, when the meaning of that term is 
 ightly settled. 
 
 'Letter, i. 76. 
 
 < King Charles's Works, 612—646. 
 
 29 
 
 1648) is more fully drawn up, on the 
 side of episcopacy, inasmuch as his 
 majesty was here assisted by Usher, 
 Sanderson, Sheldon, and Duppa, where- 
 as in the other case all was done by 
 himself: the presbyterian argument is 
 well stated, but labours under the same 
 difficulty ; it avoids the real question. 
 That in favour of episcopacy is not 
 perhaps so sound as the king's at New- 
 castle ; they assert that episcopacy* 
 may be sufficiently proved from Holy 
 Scripture ; a position which a presby- 
 terian would indubitably deny ; and 
 which cannot probably be carried be- 
 yond the point that it is in no wise in- 
 consistent, but rather agrees with the 
 account there given of the church of- 
 ficers. Charles does not insist on the 
 divine right, but puts these three ques- 
 tions,' to which no answer was made : 
 1. Did Christ and his apostles appoint 
 any one form of church government? 
 3. If so, may this be changed by hu- 
 man authority ? Was this govern- 
 ment episcopal or presbyterian V 
 
 5 Letter, iii. 2, 616. 
 
 6 Letter, iii. 9, C20, and 616. 
 
 ' The whole question of episcopacy, as debated 
 by the prosbyterians. is frcciticnlly confused, from 
 not distinguishing between the order ol bishops 
 and their jurisdiction. If it be granted that 
 liishops are a distinct order, it does not follow 
 that they arc to be the sole governors in the 
 church. They arc so. perhaps, loo much in the 
 church of Euijlaiid. and the result hns been, not 
 that thoy now tyraniii/o over the interior clergy, 
 as in the early d.iys of the church of England, for 
 in llie present times the force of public opinion 
 will su(iirienily prevent this; but that ecclesiasti- 
 cal disci|>line among the clergy has been destroyed 
 by the counteraction arising ironi the risk of their 
 tyrannizing, liishops, in most cases, where a 
 clergyinr.n is concerned, arc by law the sole 
 judscs, (at least their courts are, and the world 
 does not know that a lusliop's court is not the 
 same thing as a bishop.) They are forced ihcre- 
 iore to shrink Iroin the appearance ol being un- 
 just, and they may more truly perhaps be accused 
 of not cxcrlnig the power whicli ihcy possess. In 
 many cases the expense of doing their duty is so 
 cuormons, and the difficulty of proving charges, 
 ihoiigh notorious, so great, that he must be very 
 ignorant of liuuian iiaiurc who hastily pa.sses cen- 
 sure on bishops in this particular. If a certain 
 number of clergymen, chosen independently of 
 the bishop, were app.iiiiicd as his assessors and 
 council, mnrh of the pcrsmial responsibility would 
 be taken off. and the opinion of the pulilic would 
 support ecclesiastical discipline, wliereas it is now 
 frequently arrtiyed against it on most false grounds. 
 (See some observations on this head in p. 34, 
 Church Reforin, by a Churchman.) Something 
 of this son is directed in the 31st Canon with re- 
 gard to ordinations ; though, perhaps, it has hardly 
 ever been practically adopted by any bishop. 
 Here, according to our canon, the power of a 
 
2S6 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XHl 
 
 The whole of these two discussions 
 is well worthy the attention of any one 
 who is anxious to examine into this 
 point, and will leave on the mind of 
 the reader a strong impression of the 
 goodness and sense of the king. He 
 seems to have comprehended the ques- 
 tion fully, and to have acted upon it | 
 honestly, though it cost him his crown 
 and his life. For when no concessions 
 could be obtained from him, the party , 
 who wished for his death became suffi- 
 ciently strong to perpetrate the mur- 
 
 bishop is limited ; for he ought not lo ordain with- 
 out the presence of the dean, archdeacon, and 
 two prebendaries, or at least four parsons, masters 
 of arts, and allowed preachers ; nor (35) without 
 the candidates having been previously examined 
 in the presence of at least three of ihem : a step 
 which would greatly diminish the odium of reject- 
 ing candidates for orders. The neglect of this 
 canon has not been to render bishops arbitrary in 
 rejecting candidates for orders, but to admit im- 
 proper persons into the church. In many cases 
 the freehold of a clergyman is impHraied in the 
 question of his conduct, and God forliid that any 
 man's property in England should be left un- 
 guarded ; but it is surely but fair to the flocks 
 over whom we are appointed to watch, that if we 
 neglect our duty, and can be convicted before a 
 Jury of our fellow beneficed clergymen, we 
 should be removable by law, without emailing 
 a vast expense on the bishop, who only does hi^ 
 duty in dismissing an ofiending clergyman. '1 he 
 presbyterian church obviously possesses the ad- 
 vantage in point of disiiplinc; but there is no 
 reason why these advantages should not lie trans- 
 planted into a church which shall at the satne 
 retain the apostolic order of liishops. Archliishop 
 L'sher's SSS) plan would have combined many 
 of the advantages of these two forms of govern- 
 ment ; and prolmbly the only hopes which we ran 
 reasonably entertain of ever seeing ecclesiasiical 
 discipline over the clergy efleclually re-established, 
 (which God of his great mercy gratit,) must arise 
 from adopting something of this son. A bishop, 
 who was disposed to do so. might introduce much 
 without any change of the laws : for the consti- 
 tution of our parish offices, rural deaneries, archi- 
 diaconal and episcopal visitations, are all loundcd 
 upon a principle which, while it made the bishop 
 the head and source through which the jurisdic- 
 tion of the church was derived from the throne, 
 presumed that much of this auilioriiy was exer- 
 ci.sed by the united influence of the clergy them- 
 selves, who would thus become the guardians 
 and judges of the conduct of their brethren. 
 (Herbert, in his Country Parson, ch. xix. p. G2, 
 considers visitations as clergy councils.) The 
 churchwardens and sidesmen form a sort of a 
 parish council for the clergyman; the dean-rural 
 was formerly the overseer of his deanery. The 
 visitations might answer the purposes of peculiar 
 and general assemblies of the diocese, while the 
 convocation might form a national synod. All 
 but the last might, to a certain degree, be esta- 
 blished in his own diocese by any bishop who 
 chose it. 
 
 The kingdom has, for the last two hundred 
 years, been making rapid strides in every species 
 of improvement, and a corresponding alteration in 
 the laws on every subject has taken place : during 
 
 der; and he was brought to a mod 
 trial, which exhibited his patience, hi- 
 Christianity, and the injustice of hi; 
 oppressors ; and his death sealed tht 
 testimony of his uprightness as a man. 
 
 § 590. Charles had the misfortune oi 
 being educated in apolitical school littlf 
 likely to enable him to see the line of 
 policy which it was wise for him tc 
 adopt. When the majority of the in- 
 fluential part of society have made up 
 their minds as to the necessity of anjf 
 alteration in the government, pruieill 
 
 this period, nothing has been remedied in 4hcl 
 church; a few acts of parliament have regula(f|^| 
 some of its temporal concerns, and obviated aim • 
 evils, but the clergy have never been aWowti' 
 officially to state the disadvantages under whid),| 
 as a body politic, vfe labour ; or to suggest ibe 
 methods by which these evils might probably te 
 cured ; and if the temper of the mass of cboiA-' 
 men be little suited to enter on such discn 
 as is sometimes asserted ; if there be greater! 
 
 sing the question of a 
 g the abuses under which we lal 
 the fault is attributable chiefly to those who hjlM 
 long closed our national assembly, and to ite 
 w ant of discipline which the circumstances of aw' 
 country have created. The state of the chnHh) 
 of England at present is that of a perfect toletuui^ 
 of religjous opinions, co-existent with an estabfitt- 
 nieni ; a form, under God's providence, probably' 
 the most likely to foster real Christianity ; biu 
 the temporal advantages which the establishment 
 possesses are, perhaps, more than counterbalanced 
 by the total inability of our church to regulate 
 any thing within herself, and the great want of 
 discipline over the clergy. (We must except, 
 indeed, that which public opinion has established.) 
 In those points which are regulated by nets of 
 paili.inK iit, the odium of putting them in force i( 
 ihriiwn on the bishop alone, when Irequenily 
 there IS no such necessity; while the absurd na- 
 ture of our ecclesiastical laws renders every spe- 
 cies of discipline over the laity not only nugatory, 
 but, when it is exercised, frequently unchrisliajg, 
 ridiculous, and in many cases very oppressive. In 
 all this, the fault is not in the clergy ; but, alas, 
 we bear the blame, are made obnoxious 10 re- 
 proach, for faults among ourselves which there is 
 no power to punish : and liable lo censare on ac- 
 count of laws which ought to have been abro- 
 gated long ago, but over which the clergy have 
 no control. As to ecclesiastical discipline over 
 the laity, it can hardly exist where universal dis- 
 sent is tolerated ; and it may be a great qucstftm, 
 ] w hether, in the present state of society, its re- 
 j establishment would promote the cause of vital 
 religion ; a clergyman who does his duty may 
 ! reprove in private an erring brother; may warn, 
 ' may admonish him of his faults ; and it maybe 
 j doubted w hether any other authority is wisely in- 
 trusted to us ; whether the temptation to overstej) 
 our duty, from personal considerations, may not 
 more than outweigh the probable good effect of 
 such power. As it is at present, excommunica- 
 tion bears with it such terrible civil penalties, that 
 it can hardly be used in a Christian manner. 
 With regard to discipline among ourselves, 
 there can be no doubt that it is much wanted; 
 and may God grant it us, as it shall seem good 
 I to him ! 
 
LP. XIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 ( icession maj^ disarm innovation of its 
 '. iici', may counteract its ill effects, 
 , guide the stream of opinion, 
 nothing can arrest it. The same 
 dia may thus produce fertility as it 
 j :ses, which, if left to the direction of 
 t thoughtless and wicked, who form 
 i irge portion of ev^ery society, would 
 |,re produced all the evils which the 
 ||jSt fearful could anticipate. The 
 ^'iiple of England had come to the de- 
 iion, that they had the right of taxing 
 mselves, and of being governed by 
 r.^ The friends of the court dreaded 
 idmit the first, and were unable to 
 icede the latter, unless the first were 
 jviously granted ; and Charles, hav- 
 • learnt from his father that the only 
 irce of legitimate power lay in the 
 >wn, regarded all opposition as a spe- 
 s of rebellion, and tried to govern 
 thout parliaments. A general com- 
 I'ation was formed against the court; 
 
 court was composed of many un- 
 se, of many dishonest individuals, and 
 en it came to act against the people, 
 /as inadequate to the task. A church- 
 in at the head of the ministry tried to 
 cite the church in defence of the sup- 
 sed rights of the crown, but he had 
 jviously divided that body by his en- 
 avours to promote his own theolo- 
 :al party ; and while the more digni- 
 d part of the establishment generally 
 led with the king, there was a strong 
 rty who were willing and eager to 
 ; inble the superior members of their 
 vn order, whom they regarded as their 
 ' pressors, and to destroy the Jiigher 
 ices in the church, and those prefer- 
 ■nts from the attainment of which they 
 und themselves excluded on account 
 I religious opinions, which the govern- 
 'g ascendancy deemed unorthodox. 
 ; § .597. When the first parliament of 
 •40 was assembled, good men had 
 asonably formed great hopes from its 
 pderation and prudence, and its disso- 
 tion was accompanied with the uni- 
 jrsal sorrow of the well-aflfected ; the 
 
 ' This is in fact ihe substance of the petition of 
 jhts. (Rapin, ii. 270.) It is there declared, That 
 e -right of imposing taxes belongs to the parHa- 
 ent; that this had been infringed; and that vio- 
 nce had been offered to the subject by imprison- 
 ents, the quartering of soldiers on divers coun- 
 :s, and issuing commissions of martial law. This 
 as presented in 1628, and a very general answer 
 iturned to ic 
 
 friends of the government saw no other 
 hope than in assembling another, and 
 no one could expect that such a step 
 could be free from great danger. The 
 violence of the Long Parliament soon 
 drew from the affrighted court what 
 might easily have satisfied its prede- 
 cessor; but the ease with which con- 
 cessions were made, and the warmth of 
 those who demanded them, convinced 
 all who were thus implicated, that they 
 could not trust to concessions so made, 
 or secure their own personal safety, 
 except by throwing down and trampling 
 on the crown : and the want of confi- 
 dence in the court which the country 
 entertained, enabled them to do so. 
 When subjects begin to force a govern- 
 ment, to yield is dangerous, to resist 
 often impossible, and that which, if 
 granted with a good grace, might have 
 conciliated a large portion of the king- 
 dom, became so inadequate to satisfy 
 those who had obtained it. that the very 
 concession could on their part be guard- 
 ed only by further demands. The sole 
 ground on which the conduct of the' 
 parliament can be justified, is, that they 
 could not trust the proinise and conces- 
 sions of the king; and if this could be 
 established, they had no alternative but 
 to submit their necks to the hazard of 
 the block, or to take the militia into 
 their own hands. It was so much their 
 interest that a general opinion of the 
 insincerity of Charles should prevail, 
 that the fact of its prevailing does not 
 at all prove its truth ; yet there is some 
 strong evidence against the king. He' 
 calls the advice for peace, given him 
 by the two Houses assembled in Ox- 
 ford, "the base and mutinous motions" 
 of his " mongrel parliament ;" an ex- 
 pression which, coupled with many 
 others in his letters to the queen on the 
 treaty at Uxbridge, makes it very ques- 
 tionable how he might have acted, had 
 he gained the superiority in the war. 
 Yet, after all, these may be petulant 
 terms, elicited by anger, or by tender- 
 ness to the prejudices of his wife, or he 
 might have seen more deeply into the 
 undoubted insincerity of the parliament ; 
 but it can hardly be imagined that he 
 would intentionally have violated those 
 
 2 WorkB of King Charles I., 150, No. 29. Ra- 
 pin, ii. S12. 
 
228 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XHI. 
 
 bills, to which his assent was affixed ; 
 and at all events the security of the 
 people was bettei- guarded by their 
 power of refusing illegal supplies, than 
 his safety could have been secured, had 
 the militia been in the hands of the par- 
 liament. The real danger seems to 
 have consisted in the weakness of mind 
 rather than in the dishonesty of Charles, 
 for no one could trust that a determina- 
 tion once formed might not be imme- 
 diately changed. He had listened to 
 the proposals of Strafford,' when that 
 minister advised him to establish a per- 
 fect tyranny, and had continued to trust 
 him as his adviser; he had surrendered 
 up the same man to the violence of his 
 enemies, when he ought to have de- 
 fended him ; and can we wonder that 
 the world should be induced to believe 
 that Charles was not worthy to be 
 trusted? It was probably this same 
 want of firmness and self-confidence, 
 which rendered the issue of the war so 
 disastrous ; which first ruined the disci- 
 pline of his officers, and then exposed 
 his army to defeat. His failings led to 
 a catastrophe which might probably 
 have been avoided, had he been a worse 
 man ; at least the evil day might longer 
 have been delayed. His virtues were 
 tried and exhibited by the difficulties 
 and misfortunes to which he was sub- 
 jected, and have gained him the appel- 
 lation of a martyr.^ Had he lived when 
 the constitution was more fully esta- 
 blished, he would probably have proved 
 a constitutional and good king ; had be 
 lived when the country was less pre- 
 pared to assume its share in the govern- 
 ment of itself, he might have been 
 found a better king than his father ; as 
 
 ' Ludlow's Mem. iii. 322, or third edit. 262. 
 
 2 It is perhaps unfortunate that this appellation 
 should ever have been affixed by authority. He 
 was in one sense a martyr to the defence of the 
 church of England, and in his death e.^hibited 
 strong proofs of his sincere Christianity. Nor is 
 it less to be lamented that the observance of the 
 fifth of November, the thirtieth of January, and 
 the twenty-ninth of May, has not been legally dis- 
 continued, since it can only have the effect of pro- 
 tracting animosities and continuing party feeling, 
 ■which It should be the office of a wisegovernment 
 to destroy as much as possible. The services 
 might be changed by the crown ; they are not 
 sanctioned by any act of parliament. It is curious 
 that Bancroft, who drew up the office for the thir- 
 tieth of January, uses, in a letter to his father 
 written at the time, expressions more strong than 
 any which he has introduced into the services. 
 (Life, i. 43.) 
 
 it was, his weakness lost him his crown 
 and life, while his firmness prevented 
 the church of England from being swal- 
 lowed up by fanaticism, or changed to 
 a presbyterian form ; a fate which would 
 probably have attended her, had he 
 coalesced with either the army or the 
 republicans. 
 
 In this great struggle, when the vir- 
 tues, vices, and energies of every man 
 were put to the severest test, there are 
 few whose history will bear more near 
 inspection than that of this virtuous man. 
 There were others who were wiser, 
 better, and greater, but his faults were 
 the errors of a judgment which did not 
 sufficiently rely on itself, and followed 
 the prejudices in which he had been 
 brought up, or which were instilled into 
 him by others ; his virtues were his own, 
 and the fruit of his sincere religion. 
 There is perhaps no greater proof of the 
 honesty of his intentions, than the fact' 
 that the best vindication of him which 
 his friends could publish after the Re- 
 storation, consisted in an authentic copy 
 of his letters, speeches, and public acts. 
 
 § 598. Something has been already 
 said with regard to the sufferings of the 
 clergy, who were on both sides exposed 
 to great cruehy. Those evils which the 
 friends of the parliament endured, were 
 generally the rude insults of unauthorized 
 violence. The language of the royal 
 party* had applied the name of puritan 
 to those who Avould not conform in 
 church matters, and the rabble, taking 
 up the term, comprehended under it aU 
 who were disposed to greater strictness 
 in life or preaching, and who thus became 
 the objects of popular odium, when the 
 fury of the war let loose the multitvule 
 against every one who had any thing to 
 lose. This circumstance drove many 
 persons to join the parliament, who had 
 otherwise no inclination to take any part 
 in the war. The sufferings of the royal- 
 ists arose from illegal acts of tyranny, 
 carried on under the semblance of justice, 
 ] in which the evil passions of individuals 
 were allowed to imbitter penalties in 
 themselves sufficientlj' grievous. It 
 ! must be granted that the parliament, 
 when they had recourse to arms, could 
 not in prudence allow the loyalist clergy 
 
 'Works of Charles I. 
 
 * Calamy's Baxter, 48, &.c. 
 
lAP. xni.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 229 
 
 I retain their situations as teachers, but 
 • means which they took to dispossess 
 ' -m were very unwarrantable. They 
 10 sat as judg^es' were often the pro- 
 ,)ters of the charges which they were 
 investigate, were frequently incom- 
 tent to such offices, and justly sus- 
 cted of receiving money from the 
 isoners who were brought before them, 
 well as from those who succeeded to 
 5 vacant benefices. The accusations'* 
 lich were made against the clergy 
 I !re, besides offences of a moral nature, 
 nerally the observance of ceremonies, 
 ■d malignancy; and it is wonderful 
 it in such a scrutiny no more instances 
 I vicious lives and conversations are 
 :orded.' In the cases adduced by 
 alker, some of the clergy are charged 
 th very ridiculous crimes; with de- 
 rting their cures, for instance, when 
 |e parliament had driven them away, 
 lie is blamed^ for singing a most ma- 
 ifnant psalm, another for reading^ a 
 ost malignant chapter; for walking in 
 s garden on a Sunday; because his 
 <g caught a hare on a Sunday. But 
 ben the ordinance for taking the cove- 
 int was passed, (Feb. 22, ]u44,) and 
 e use of the Directory enjoined, (Jan. 
 1645,) these two handles of ejection" 
 iperseded the necessity of any other, 
 id the task of sequestration became 
 ain. The class of witnesses who were 
 Imitted, consisting of offended parish- 
 ners or informers encouraged by the 
 itmmittee; the fact, that at first these 
 itnesses were not examined on oath, 
 ,at they were not confronted with the 
 •xused, for fear of discouraging them, 
 lat they were often receive'd without 
 ly scrutiny' — all mark a dishonesty of 
 itention on the part of the parliament, 
 hich the necessity of the case may ac- 
 )unt for, but can by no means excuse, 
 'he parliament pretended to advocate 
 iie cause of the subject, and they were 
 ailty of gross and unnecessary acts of 
 ppression. What could be more arbi- 
 ■ary than to compel men who had long 
 sed and admired the Common Prayer 
 
 ' Walker's Siitferings, SO, 90— y4. 
 ' Il.id. 97—103. 
 
 ' While, chairman of ihe rommiiice, piibhfhed 
 
 A Century of Sf-anijalous Miuistc-rs," or the ac- 
 ount of tlie hundred wor>t cases which lie could 
 sleet. I have never seen it. 
 
 * Walker. 83. * Il)id. 93. ^ n,id. joe. 
 
 ' Neal's Puritans, iii. 108. 
 
 Book, to desist from its use ? to force 
 men to take the covenant, who had been 
 bred up in episcopacy, and believed in 
 the sacred nature of its institution ? In 
 July, 1G4C,'* when there was some ap- 
 pearance that the parliament and the 
 ariny would quarrel, the ejected clergy 
 presented an inefliectual petition to the 
 king and Sir Thomas Fairfax, stating, 
 "that they have been put out of tlieir 
 freeholds by the arbitrary power of com- 
 mittees, whose proceedings have usually 
 been by no rule of any known law, but 
 by their own wills ; of whose orders no 
 record is kept, nor scarce any notes or 
 memorials whereby it may appear when, 
 by whom, or for what, your petitioners 
 are removed ;" and then recapitulating 
 some of the before-mentioned hardships. 
 
 The provision which was made for the 
 families of those who were ejected, was, 
 after sortie delay, settled at a fifth of 
 their preferment ; but this was assigned 
 with many restrictions, and frequently 
 obtained with much difficulty ;" nor does 
 it appear to have been ever extended to 
 the members of cathedral churches. 
 The want of any abstract of the pro- 
 ceedings of these committees has ren- 
 dered the task of estimating the numbers 
 of those who were ejected exceedingly 
 difficult ; but the attempt has been made 
 by Gauden, who states it as his opinion 
 that between six and seven thousand 
 clergymen were ejected. Walker's'" cal- 
 culation goes higher, but these compu- 
 tations are probably much beyond the 
 truth." 
 
 § 599. The accounts respecting the 
 universities''^ are much more ample. In 
 1612, Lord Holland obtained an order 
 from the House of Lords, which was 
 backed by one from the earl of Essex, 
 that the property of the university of 
 Cambridge should be respected : the 
 place, however, had been already ran- 
 sacked ; and subsequently, in conse- 
 quence of the loyalty exhibited by many 
 of the members, who sent assistance in 
 money and plate to the king, Oliver 
 
 8 Walker, 14.7. 9 Ihid. 100. i" Ibid. 199. 
 
 " The ground of this probability i.s, tliat (iau- 
 den's calculaiion is founded on his assertion, that 
 "one-half ihe clersy were sequestered." No 
 very ceriain datum ; and the index in Walker 
 contains only 1337 names, and some of these 
 o-ciir twice. The number 8000 is derived from 
 White, the author of the Century. 
 
 '2 Walker, 108. 
 
 u 
 
330 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. HII. 
 
 Cromwell came doAvn there, and the 
 town was converted into a garrison for 
 the seven associated counties ; a step 
 which exposed the academicians to every 
 species of minor oppression, an annoy- 
 ance which was not at all discouraged by 
 those in authority. 
 
 In January, 1643, the regulation of the 
 university was committed to the earl of 
 Manchester, and ample powers were put 
 into his hands. He commenced his 
 operations by ejecting ail who were 
 absent, and who did not appear within 
 twelve days, (a period of time too short 
 even to summon many of them,) and 
 proceeded to get rid of all whom he dis- 
 liked, by proposing to them the covenant 
 for their acceptance. It is supposed 
 that between five and six hundred were, 
 during the rebellion, ejected from this 
 university alone. In filling the vacant 
 places, statutes and oaths were disre- 
 garded, and in some cases fellowships 
 were left altogether void, while all who 
 were admitted to any situation were ex- 
 amined by the assembly. The favour 
 which was afterwards shown to Cam- 
 bridge was granted for the purpose of 
 establishing a rebellious university, since 
 the parliament had early discovered that 
 the university, as it was, would never 
 rebel. 
 
 § 600. (a. d. 1647.) Oxford, during 
 the continuance of the war, had fur- 
 nished the court with a safe and com- 
 fortable retreat ; it had been fortified in 
 1644, and surrendered not till the go- 
 vernor had received an order to that 
 effect from the king, who was then a 
 prisoner with the Scotch. The members 
 of the university and citizens had borne 
 arms in the royal cause, and the terms 
 which were obtained were at least ho- 
 nourable to her defenders ; but the day 
 of visitation at length arrived. 
 
 In order to pave the way for the com- 
 missioners,' seven divines, who were 
 friend!}' to the new order of things, were 
 sent down, and were most regular in 
 preaching at St. Mary's, while the sober 
 part of the university retired to St. 
 Mary Magdalen church. They opened 
 also a place for theological disputation, 
 which was nicknamed " the scruple- 1 
 shop," and there met with much dis- 
 turbance from one Erbury, an inde- 
 
 ' Walker's Sufferings, 122. 
 
 pendent, who silenced the presbyterian 
 divines, by asking them, " by what au- 
 thority they taught ?" for they dared not 
 confess their episcopal ordination, and 
 had no other to adduce. When the 
 commissioners of visitation were ap- 
 pointed, (May 1,) the university put forth 
 reasons why they could not assent to the 
 covenant and its appendages, a tract 
 which was chiefly drawn up by Sander- 
 son and Zouch, and printed in the ap- 
 pendix to the small edition of Walton's 
 Life of Sanderson. = It is a bold and 
 unanswerable pamphlet, and distinctly 
 tells the parliament, in respectful terms, 
 that they were " usurpers and tyrants." 
 and that " the members of the university 
 neither could nor would obey them." 
 The reception with which the commis- 
 sioners met, corresponded with this be- 
 ginning. They found their authority 
 despised and themselves ridiculed, and 
 could do nothing tiD the arrival (Sept. 
 27) of a new commission in the king's 
 name. Fell, dean of Christ Chuidi, 
 who was then vice-chancellor, and the 
 other heads, when they appeared before 
 the commissioners, demanded their an- 
 thority ; and when the commission was 
 shown, they questioned its authenticity. 
 The most obnoxious opponents, how- 
 ever, were by degrees sent prisoners to 
 London ; but the commissioners did not 
 find themselves able to eflfect their pur- 
 pose, till they were supported by a 
 guard of soldiers ; and even then Mrs. 
 Fell would not quit the deanery at Christ 
 Church, but sat still in her chair till she 
 was lifted bodily into the quadrangle. 
 The orders which were inserted by- lie 
 commissioners in the buttery-book at 
 Christ Church, were next morning found 
 to have been erased by the students, and 
 every step which they made was gained 
 merely by force. They expelled from 
 the university five hundred and forty- 
 eight inferior members' who rejected 
 their authority, and were only driven 
 out by the interference of a file of sol- 
 diers. Most of these suffered great 
 misery, and continued faithful in their 
 loyalty ; and from their numbers, and 
 the influence which educated men can- 
 not fail to possess, may probably have 
 
 2 There is a full abs-raci of it in Collier, ii. M9; 
 ii is printed at length in the 8vo. edition of Wri- 
 ton's Lives. Oxford, 1824, at the end. 
 
 3 Walker, 138. 
 
Imp. XIV. 
 
 [CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 231 
 
 reatly assisted in advancing the Resto- 
 ition. 
 
 , Many of those who filled up the 
 icancies thus created were brought 
 om Cambridge, where they had re- 
 ded since the regulation in 1043 ; 
 ut the best places fell to the lot of the 
 isitors. The university, when new- 
 lodelled, became bounteous of her 
 onours, conferring degrees on the 
 lief instruments of the rebellion, and 
 ibsequently electing Oliver Cromwell 
 5 their chancellor. It might have been 
 spected, that the persons' now intro- 
 uced into the two universities would 
 ,ave corrupted the soil so effectually 
 s to have prevented the growth of any 
 oodly plants for a long season; but 
 le Restoration found them as full of 
 |Dund learning and piety as of obedi- 
 ,nce and duty; a fact which leads us 
 ) conclude that the description of the 
 
 persons then introduced, as given oy 
 Lord Clarendon, must be much over- 
 charged. Nor must it in fairness be 
 forgotten, that the names" of Ward and 
 of Wallis were then added to our uni- 
 versity, that the Royal Society sprung 
 from her misfortunes, and that oriental 
 literature' never flourished more than 
 during the usurpation. It is by exam- 
 ining circumstances such as these that 
 we discover the real importance of 
 sound learning and of establishments 
 for religious education ; for be it ever 
 remembered, that the royal cause found 
 nowhere more determined and active 
 friends than in Christ Church; and 
 that South," when as monitor he read 
 the Latin prayers in Westminster 
 school, on the day of the execution of 
 Charles I„ prayed publicly for his 
 murdered sovereign. 
 
 CHAPTER. XIV. 
 
 THE USURPATION, 1649 — 1660. 
 
 01. Outline of the history ; the whole power was in the hands of the army. 602. Cromwell's suc- 
 cess in Ireland ; in Scotland ; treatment of Charles II. in Scotland ; advance into England, and 
 battle of Worcester. 603. Cromwell makes the people dissatisfied with the parliament, in order 
 that they may iail into his hands. 604. Government of Cromwell. 605. Character of Cromwell. 
 606. Presbyterians. 607. Independents. 608. Propagation of the gospel in Wales. 609. Church 
 government; Triers. 610. Treatment of the church of England ; Cromwell's declaration ; tolera- 
 tion; Roman Catholics; Jews. 611. State of religion; Baxter at Kidderminster. 612. Disci- 
 pline; associations. 613. Observations on these. 614. Independents; presbyterians. 615. State 
 of religion; episcopalians. 616. Treatment of them, and their general conduct ; literature. 617. 
 Sects. 618. Quakers. 619. Anabaptists; antiiiomians ; familists ; fifth-monarchy men. 620. 
 Laws about morality. 621. Heresy. 622. Marriage. 623. Succession of bishops. 624. Causes 
 of the Restoratioa 
 
 § COI. (January 31, 1649.) The his- 
 ;ory of England during the usurpation, 
 is more or less the general history of a 
 country which has thrown down legiti- 
 mate authority instead of reforming it : 
 and corresponds with every reformation 
 which has been carried on by the people 
 alone. It is a struggle for political 
 power on the part of those who have 
 been oppressed, who misuse their au- 
 thority when they have acquired it, 
 and drive the nation to wish again for 
 the government which they had previ- 
 ously cast out. The necessity of refor- 
 mation will be first visible to those who 
 suffer most by existing abuses, and the 
 
 desire of it, therefore, must spring from 
 the people ; but it can hardly produce 
 good unless it be managed by the upper 
 orders, by men who are so situated as 
 to perceive the advantage of institutions 
 which, however useful in themselves, 
 have become, from mismanagement, lia- 
 ble to serious objections. The charges 
 raised against such establishments are 
 often so peculiarly apparent to those 
 who are most injured by them, and so 
 exaggerated in their eyes, that they 
 cannot estimate the benefits which 
 might be derived from their proper use. 
 The desire of correcting real evils had, 
 in the beginning of the struggle, not 
 
 ' Clarendon, iii. 74. 
 
 ' Neal's Puritans, ui. 396. ' See 4 616. 
 
 * Life, by Curl, 3. 
 
832 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 only combined a largfe portion of the 
 most valuable individuals in the nation, 
 but had concentrated the sjood wishes 
 of the majority of those who took no 
 outward share in the contest. The 
 necessity of any war, and its commence- 
 ment, may perhaps be attributed to the 
 unwiilinirness of the court to reform 
 abuses till it was too late ; but when 
 the parliament took up arms, many 
 honest friends of liberty conscientiously 
 joined the king-. The streng^th of the 
 nation, however, still sided with their 
 representatives, and the heroic devotion 
 and gallantry of some of the royalists 
 was overpowered as much by the errors 
 and selfishness of their friends as by the 
 energies of their adversaries. When 
 the monarchy was subdued, the presby- 
 terians and moderate party wished to 
 re-establish it upon certain conditions ; 
 but the interests of those who had 
 learned their own influence and who 
 hoped to raise themselves in the general 
 ruin, prevented the adoption of any 
 moderation. The army had conquered 
 the king, and the republic was in tke 
 hands of the army, that is, of those who 
 knew how to govern and direct it. The 
 views of these persons were naturally 
 turned towards such policy as vvas likely 
 to render themselves powerful, and a 
 state of confusion was that which they 
 must have desired. 
 
 § 002. Cromwell knew that some 
 successful general must be the governor 
 of England, and he put himself at the 
 head of the Irish army, where his suc- 
 cess surpassed all that ho could have 
 himself expected. The campaign was 
 that of an experienced general at the 
 head of a veteran army, opposed by 
 men who were unskilled in war and 
 devoid of resources for carrying it on. 
 His progress was marked with extreme 
 cruelty towards the natives, and was so 
 rapid that the whole country was virtu- 
 ally reduced, when the affairs in Scot- 
 land during the next year demanded 
 the presence of the general. When 
 Fairfax refused to take the command 
 against the presbytcrians and Scotch, 
 he placed Cromwell at the head of the 
 military force of the republic, and the 
 victory at Dunbar made him formidable 
 to friends and foes. Charles II. had 
 consented to try his fortunes in Scotland 
 and to trust himself to the presbytcrians, 
 
 who would not receive him till he had 
 taken the covenant, and publicly ac- 
 knowledged the sin of his father in 
 marrying into an idolatrous family, and 
 in shedding the blood w-hich had already 
 flowed during the war. (a. d. 1650.) 
 As if the forced profession of what he 
 did not believe, and a public act which 
 made him dishonour his parents, were 
 likely to render him a good king, or 
 friendly to a body which had tyranni- 
 cally imposed these conditions upon 
 him ! but so it was, and so does selfish- 
 ness ever defeat its own ends. Had 
 the Scotch, at Dunbar, avoided an 
 engagement with Cromwell, that gene- 
 ral might probably have been obliged 
 to retire with disgrace ; but, incited by 
 their ministers, the Scotch gave up the 
 advantages which they possessed and 
 were totally defeated. (Sept. 3.) Upon 
 this, Charles retired to the north, leav- 
 ing Cromwell master of Edinburgh and 
 the south, and was crowned at Scone 
 on Jan. 1, 1051, finding himself treated 
 more like a king after this reverse of 
 fortune which oppressed his nomind 
 friends. 
 
 In the spring, the rojjal army took up 
 its position at Stirling, and when Crom- 
 well had thrown himself into their rear, 
 they marched as rapidly as they could 
 into England, where they were ulti- 
 mately defeated at Worcester. (Sept. 
 3.) The king indeed himself escaped, 
 but the royal party was entirely broken. 
 
 § 003. Cromwell was now in reality 
 the governor of England ; but before 
 he could put himself forward as invest- 
 ed with this authority, it was necessary 
 to make the army and the country dis- 
 satisfied with the Long Parliament. This 
 was far from a difficult task ; for their 
 own selfish conduct had already ren- 
 dered the act of their dissolution accept- 
 able to most parties, and the necessity 
 of increasing the navy during the war 
 with Holland, (1652,) alarmed the army 
 with the prospect of being disbanded. 
 Had Cromwell called a free parliament, 
 it is impossible to decide what might 
 have been the result ; but nothing could 
 be further from his intentions: heap- 
 pointed a parliament of his own nomi- 
 nation, whose foolish proceedings' made 
 
 ' Cromwell probably called the Barebone par- 
 liament for this very purpose. Nothing but the 
 necessity ot the case could satisfy the nation with 
 
;hap. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 233 
 
 very one more contented when the 
 lask was uhiinately thrown off, and 
 e was installed (Dec. 16, 1()5;3) as 
 'rotector of England, Scotland, and 
 reland. His successive mock-parlia- 
 lents, and his finally relinquishingf the 
 lOpe of being- king, which he had long 
 ondly cherished, mark the spirit of 
 iberty which still prevailed in the 
 ountry, and prove the opposition 
 fhich was raised against his authority, 
 nd the talent with which he conducted 
 lie government. His vigilance and 
 ctivity rendered him safe from every 
 anger but that of assassination, and 
 ! f this he was much afraid.' 
 
 § 604. The secret of his government 
 iras, that he balanced parties against 
 ach other, without offending any of 
 hem more than he could help ; and 
 tiat he chose men who were suited to 
 he situations in which he placed them, 
 nd ready to co-operate in his plans. 
 ^is object was that his government 
 hould be as strong as possible, and 
 lierefore it was his interest that it 
 hould be well conducted ; but while'' 
 bilities advanced few under him, he 
 elected those who would never ques- 
 ion his commands, and zealously pro- 
 note his welfare ; and his own welfare 
 iras closely connected with the well- 
 leing of the country. Under such a 
 aan, this plan was productive of much 
 
 is appointment ; but when they saw that this 
 arliament was obviously unequal to the task of 
 overning, and the choice seemed to lie between 
 narchy or a protector, reasonable men might pre- 
 ;r the latter. In the Barebone parliament it was 
 ut to the vote whether parish ministers should be 
 Qt down; and though the motion was thrown 
 ut, many persons might be alarmed at the dan- 
 er in which the establishment was placed. (Bax- 
 er's Life, i.70.) This was exactly what Cromwell 
 esired, that he might appear to come forward to 
 ave the nation from this dilemma. 
 
 ' The nominal constitution which was esta- 
 ilished by the instrument of government was as 
 oUows : A parliament shall be called every three 
 'ears by the protector; the first, Sept. 3, 1654. 
 ^0 parliament to be dissolved till it has been sit- 
 ing five months. Such bills as are offered to the 
 )rotector by the parliament, if not confirmed by 
 lim in twenty days, to be laws without him. His 
 ;ouncil shall not exceed twenty-one, nor be less 
 han thirteen. Immediately after the death of 
 Cromwell the council shall choose another pro- 
 ector before they rise. No protector after the 
 iresent shall be general of an army. The pro- 
 ector shall have power to make war and peace. 
 The protector and his council may make laws 
 which shall be binding on the subject during the 
 intervals of parhament. (Rapin, ii. 591 ; White- 
 lock, 571.) 
 
 ' Perfect PoUlician, 280. 
 
 30 
 
 good to the kingdom in general. He 
 noticed all persons Avho were eminent* 
 in any way, and attached them to him- 
 self by appropriate encouragement ; but 
 in his appointments his object was to 
 select the man for the situation, and 
 he was fortunately unfettered by those 
 parliamentary interferences which must 
 prevent most ministers from following 
 his example. Justice between man and 
 man was fairly administered, which was 
 far from being the case previously, and 
 England was never more respected by 
 foreign nations. Cromwell gloried in 
 being the protector of Protestants, and 
 is reported, by Bishop Burnet,^ to have 
 formed a plan of establishing a sort of 
 Protestant " propaganda" society, at 
 Chelsea, which was never carried into 
 execution. When the Vaudois* were 
 driven from their valleys by the court 
 of Turin, (a. d. 1655,) the remonstrances 
 of England to Cardinal Mazarine and 
 the duke of Savoy procured for them 
 more lenient treatment ; while a sub- 
 scription was raised which amounted, 
 in this country, to 37,000/. : so again, 
 when in a tumult at Nismes it appeared 
 that the Protestants" had been ill used, 
 his interference was so prompt and de- 
 cisive, that Cardinal Mazarine had just 
 reason to complain, though he dared 
 not refuse to comply with it. 
 
 § 605. The character of the protector, 
 as drawn by Baxter,'' is perhaps as fair 
 as any which can be found : and it must 
 be remembered, that Baxter was far 
 from being his friend. He describes 
 him as beginning his political life from 
 religious motives, and collecting around 
 him a band of men who were actuated 
 by the same principles: when, however, 
 they had shown the power of these quali- 
 ties in gaining a superiority over others, 
 they were themselves overcome by their 
 own ambition. There was much per- 
 sonal danger to those who had opposed 
 the king in arms, in case he should ever 
 recover his authority ; and they gradu- 
 ally persuaded themselves, that they 
 were seeking the good of the kingdom, 
 as well as their own, in his execution ; 
 deeming themselves, according to their 
 own false notions, called upon to use a 
 
 3 Neal, iv. 184. 
 
 ■> Own Time, i. 132. 
 
 * Neal's Puritans, iv. 129. 
 
 6 Ibid. iv. 146. ' Life, i. 98. 
 
S34 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 ower which God had put into their 
 ands. In order to accomplish this 
 end, it was necessary to destroy the in- 
 fluence of the Scotch and the presby- 
 terian party, who favoured a limited 
 monarchy : and to form a coalition with 
 those who were fit instruments for car- 
 rying these plans into execution. In 
 all these steps, Cromwell became en- 
 tangled with difficulties ; and having 
 recourse to dissimulation and art, his 
 success rendered him selfish, and swal- 
 lowed up all the virtues with which he 
 began his career. There is, however, 
 one feature in the character of this 
 usurper, which must be a palliation to 
 the worft of his faults, even to his hy- 
 pocrisy, if indeed any thing can palliate 
 this vice ; I mean his unwillingness to 
 shed blood. Surrounded as he was by 
 attempts against his life and govern- 
 ment, he kept the royalists in check, 
 without destroying them ; and though 
 politically a vehement persecutor of the 
 church of England, it is probable that 
 his antipathy arose rather from the ac- 
 tive zeal of churchmen in the cause of 
 their banished monarch, than from any 
 other reason. They were always plot- 
 ting against him, yet he sacrificed but 
 few of them ; and counterplotting by 
 means of spies for the safety of himself, 
 he contrived to save them also by the 
 same expedient.' The instances which 
 would be adduced to controvert these 
 positions, would be the decimation, and 
 the declaration forbidding any clergy- 
 man to teach or officiate ; but surely, 
 after the repeated instances which the 
 royalists had given that they could not 
 be trusted, it was not a hard measure 
 to make those who had borne arms on 
 the side of the king pay one-tenth of 
 their incomes, to secure the authority 
 which they wished to destroy. For the 
 other measure less can be pleaded, and 
 indeed nothing but necessity can at all 
 justify it ; but it was never acted upon 
 generally, or enforced with any degree 
 of rigour. 
 
 Cromwell looked upon churchmen" 
 as his mortal enemies, and treated them 
 accordingly: and he had quite sense 
 enough to perceive, that if he suffered 
 
 ' See a curious account of his good fortune in 
 procuring spies. (Clarendon's Life, ii. 14, fol., 
 25, 8vo.) 
 
 2 Walker's SuiF. C. i. 194. Clarendon, iii. 624. 
 
 them to officiate publicly, or to teach 
 and keep school, they would dissemi- 
 nate their loyal principles. The cir- 
 cumstances which preceded these acts 
 were the dissolution of the parliament, 
 which had shown such decided dislike 
 to the protector, the rising of Penrud- 
 dock in the west, and the discovery of 
 other plots against the government. 
 He now, therefore, wanted to intimidate 
 the royalists as a body, and to show 
 them that every attempt to disturb the 
 tranquillity of his government would be 
 visited on their own heads. 
 
 This character of Cromwell may to 
 some persons appear to be too favour- 
 able ; but where shall we find a usurper 
 who so much promoted the good of his 
 country? where shall we discover one 
 whose ambition was stained with n 
 little bloodshed? 
 
 § 606. The church of England during 
 this period had ceased to exist as a 
 church; many of its individual mem- 
 bers still continued their ministerial 
 functions, but the mass of benefices were 
 filled with men who, holding presby- 
 terian opinions, had been obtruded on 
 the livings by the election and appoint- 
 ment of the inhabitants, or by the inte- 
 rest of those who co-operated with the 
 existing government. The assembly 
 of divines at Westminster^ had endea- 
 voured to establish by law thejws divi- 
 mim of the presbytery, but in this they 
 were foiled ; nor does this form of church 
 government' appear to have been per- 
 manently established, except in London 
 and Lancashire, and even there to have 
 been subjected to the civil power. 
 (1648.) As a body, the presbyterians 
 were generally favourable to a limited 
 monarchy, and before the king was 
 murdered, they presented petitions to 
 Fairfax* and the army, urging them to 
 prevent this fatal act ; but having thro\vn 
 down the law, which had been made 
 for the defence of the whole people, 
 the republicans found that they had 
 forged their own chains, and were now 
 unable to throw them off. 
 
 The original idea of the parliament* 
 seems to have been to establish a pres- 
 byterian church with toleration, and to 
 commute tithes ; but the opposition 
 
 ' Walker's SuUerings, i. 32. " Ibid. i. 39. 
 5 Collier, 859. ii. § 595, *. « Ibid. ii. 861. 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 335 
 
 which the presbyterians made to the 
 proceedings of the government inclined 
 the supporters of it to more Erastian 
 measures ; and rendered them almost 
 as adverse to the presbytery as to the 
 episcopacy of the church of England. 
 The presbyterians refused to pray for 
 the government, and the government in 
 'their turn imposed the Engagement, 
 (Oct. 11, 1(549,) which fell with nearly 
 equal weight on all who were friends 
 to monarchy. Persons holding any 
 situation in either church or state were 
 obliged to subscribe an engagement,' 
 that " they would be true and faithful 
 to the commonwealth as it is now esta- 
 blished, without king or House of 
 Lords :" and many of those who in the 
 covenant had promised to defend the 
 king's person, were now ejected for re- 
 fusing what Walker'^ calls " the inde- 
 pendents' covenant." The presbyte- 
 rians had joined in throwing down the 
 church, partly, according to their fre- 
 quent complaints, because the clergy 
 were too ni\ich connected with civil 
 concerns ; but wherever they had ob- 
 tained any influence, it was evident that 
 their object was to take away temporal 
 ' power from the bishops, which they had 
 no objection to see retained by the pres- 
 bytery. Upon this plea they had ex- 
 cited the Scotch to join in the rebellion. 
 ' They had accompanied and governed 
 ' the armies, had preached and prac- 
 ' tised treason, while they vilified the old 
 establishment ; and now the same arts 
 were turned against themselves ; for 
 when it became the object of those in 
 authority to frame a new government, 
 ' as well as to throw down the old one, 
 I they found it necessary to lessen the in- 
 ' fluence of the presbytorian preachers. 
 §607. The standard of religious liber- 
 ty was raised in opposition to the pres- 
 bytery, a liberty and toleration which 
 extended to every form of worship ex- 
 ' cept those of the Roman Catholics and 
 ' the church of England; the one, be- 
 • cause they called it idolatrous ; the 
 other, because they dared not expose 
 ' the minds of the people to the operation 
 of such an engine in favour of the royal 
 family as this must have proved, had 
 ' its use been permitted. 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, i. 64. Nelson's Bull, 13. 
 2 Suff. L Ufi 
 
 The arrival of the king in Scotland 
 created much less commotion in Eng- 
 land than might have been expected; 
 for when he proceeded towards this 
 country, it was obviously as a last re- 
 source, and not at the head of a victo- 
 rious army, and few people wish to join 
 a desperate cause : but there were some 
 presbyterians in London who were tried 
 for having communicated with his 
 friends, and the government, wishing 
 to intimidate the party, suffered Mr. 
 Love,^ an active minister, to be exe- 
 cuted. (Aug. 22. 1(551.) It is curious 
 to remark the effect of this event; men 
 who were not shocked* when many of 
 the prisoners taken at Worcester were 
 sent as slaves to the West India islands, 
 deemed the commonwealth destroyed 
 when Mr. Love was beheaded ; so little 
 able are even sensible men to form a 
 correct judgment in moments of excite- 
 ment. The presbyterians may from 
 this period be said to have had no poli- 
 tical existence as a church ; they were 
 favoured more than any other body, 
 and were at once numerous and power- 
 ful, but they had no final power of ex- 
 cluding from the sacrament, or of pu- 
 nishing offenders. The bill* which did 
 away with all penal statutes against dis- 
 senters, virtually destroyed church dis- 
 cipline over the laity, and the presby- 
 terians would have been contented with 
 nothing less than a coercive power over 
 their lay brethren. ° The same step 
 took place in Scotland^ by the mere 
 authority of the general ; for Monk dis- 
 solved the presbytery of Aberdeen by 
 military force, when they were about 
 to proceed to pass sentence on the laird 
 of Drum, and he would allow of the 
 imposition of no oaths or covenants be- 
 sides those which were enjoined at 
 Westminster. 
 
 § 008. In Wales'* a method of pro- 
 ceeding was adopted very different from 
 what took place in England. Many of 
 the livings were sequestered by a bill 
 (Feb. 23, 1(549) for the propagation of 
 
 3 Neal, iv. 39. 
 
 " Calamy's Abr.65,66. Baxter's Own Life, i. 67, 
 « Neal, iv. 26. 
 
 ' The fifth and sixth provincial assembly held 
 in Sion College in May and November, 1649, as- 
 serted the jus divinum of the presbytery, and their 
 independence of the civil magistrate. (Neal, iv. 13.) 
 
 ' Collier, 866, ii. 
 
 8 Walker's Suff. i. 149, &c. 
 
236 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 the gospel in Wales, and their reve- 
 nues placed at the disposal of certain 
 commissioners, by whom itinerant mi- 
 nisters were sent over the face of the 
 country ; men generally inadequate to 
 the task, and probably often possessed 
 of livings' as well as the stipend of 100/. 
 per annum, which was allotted to them 
 for their missionary labours. There 
 seems to have been a good deal of dis- 
 honesty on all sides, and some of the 
 commissioners are asserted to have 
 amassed considerable property.^ The 
 delegated authority thus given to the 
 itinerants invested them with no minis- 
 terial function ; and as some of them 
 appear to have been laymen, in many 
 cases ignorant mechanics, they must be 
 rather deemed licensed teachers and 
 preachers than ministers. A petition^ 
 was ultimately presented to the parlia- 
 ment against them, signed by 15,00(i 
 hands, but it seems to have produced 
 little good ; this mismanagement, how- 
 ever, was so notorious, that an investi- 
 gation took place after the Restoration, 
 of which the result is unknown. 
 
 § ()09. It may be asked, how any 
 church establishment could exist at all. 
 where there were no ecclesiastical go- 
 verning authorities, and where the rights 
 of presentation to livings were so totally 
 violated ; but the parliament was not 
 inattentive to the maintenance of the 
 clergy, for, besides the continuance of 
 tithes, the money raised by the sale of 
 the bishops' lands, and of the tenths and 
 first-fruits, was assigned to commission- 
 ers to provide greater incomes for the 
 smaller livings ; and the proposed ob- 
 ject of this ordinance was, that no living 
 should be allowed to remain of less an- 
 
 ' Walker's Stiff, i. 159. 
 
 2 Neal, iv. 104, denies the mass of this state- 
 ment ; but I have ventured to follow Walker, 
 whom I find borne out in part of this statement by 
 Calamy, in his preface to the Abridgment, xii. 
 The tact is, that the plan was framed on the prin- 
 ciple of the independents, who virtually did away 
 with all ordination ; and Neal, whose principles 
 are independent, is but too apt to defend any thing 
 which coincides with his own opinions. The con- 
 tradictions in the portion of history, on which we 
 are now engaged, strongly remind the reader of 
 Bax'er's (Life. p. 135) observation, "The pro- 
 digious lies which have been published in this age 
 in matters of fact, with unblushing confidence, 
 even where thousands or multitudes of eye and 
 ear-witnesses knew all to be false, doth call men 
 to take heed what history they believe." 
 
 » Walker's Suff. i. 167. ■« Neal, iv. 13. 
 
 nual value than 100/. The assembly 
 of divines at Westminster formed at first 
 a nucleus of church government ; and 
 Cromwell subsequently created an au- 
 thority for this purpose in the establish- 
 ment of the Triers. An ordinance* was 
 passed, (March 20, 1054,) appointing a 
 committee of thirty-eight persons, nine 
 of whom were laymen, whose business 
 it was to examine all who were nomi- 
 nated to any ecclesiastical preferments: 
 but a clause was inserted expressly pro- 
 viding that their approbation should 
 not be construed into any solemn setting 
 apart of the candidate for the ministry. 
 They were vested with extraordinary 
 powers, far beyond what had ever been 
 granted to the bishops ; and as they 
 sat in London, the mere fact of being 
 forced to appear before them must have 
 proved a vast expense and trouble to 
 the clergy, had not this evil been partly 
 obviated' by their frequently granting 
 commissions in order that individual 
 might be examined in the country. 
 Their proceedings were often most ar- 
 bitrary and very absurd. There are 
 some examinations given by Walker,' 
 which turn entirely on abstruse points 
 of divinity, in which the candidate is 
 obliged to bear testimony to his own 
 qualifications and the grace of God 
 which is in him ; a method which can 
 hardly fail to end either in hypocrisy or 
 the rejection of the candidate. Uivder 
 such a system of examination, they 
 might refuse persons nominated to liv- 
 ings on account of their political opi- 
 nions, without any danger of discovery; 
 and this is the excuse which Neal' 
 makes for their proceedings. Their 
 commission originally extended to those 
 who had been admitted into any bene- 
 fice during the last j-ear, as well as to 
 any future presentations ; but when 
 (Aug. 28th) the ordinance' passed for 
 ejecting scandalous ministers, they be- 
 came more than ever a political engine, 
 and attacked under the same authority, 
 and as if guilty of the same offence, the 
 notoriously profligate, the friends of tho 
 Common Prayer Book, and the enemies 
 of the present government, who, in the 
 eyes of the rest of the country, were 
 
 5 Walker, i. 150, 170. Neal, iv. 93. 
 
 6 Baxter's Life, 72. 
 ' Suff. i. 174. 
 
 8 Hist. Puritans, iv. 97. ' Walker, i. 178. 
 
Chap. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 
 
 237 
 
 confounded in the same obloquy.' Se- 
 vere, however, and unjust as the con- 
 duct of the Triers was, it fell far short 
 of the ultimate declaration of the pro- 
 lector,' who forbade all persons to em- 
 
 f)loy any of the delinquent {i. e. roya- 
 i.st) clers;y, even as tutors to their child- 
 ren. The extreme severity of this 
 measure seems to have prevented its 
 etecution for any leno;th of time; but 
 Cromwell refused to rescind it, though 
 solicited by Archbishop Usher, ^ who 
 was earnest in his personal requests to 
 ,him. The protector seemed at first 
 willing to grant that they should not be 
 molested, provided they meddled not 
 with politics ; but his council urged him 
 to concede no liberty to men who wore 
 implacable enemies to himself and his 
 government.* 
 
 § 610. The pretext by which he had 
 I chiefly gained his power was that of 
 j universal toleration, and in all proba- 
 jbility there was more of real freedom 
 in religion under his government, than 
 at any other period previous to the revo- 
 lution ; but the exclusion of the church 
 of England, which may be accounted 
 for on political principles, was not the 
 only exception to the toleration which 
 was professed. In the instrument of 
 government^ by which the chief author- 
 ity was delegated to Cromwell, the free 
 I exercise of their religion was guarantied 
 ,to all " who professed faith in God by 
 Jesus Christ," (Dec. 1.5(5:5,) an expres- 
 sion which the first parliament assem- 
 bled by him determined to contain no 
 less than " the fundamentals of reli- 
 
 I ■ 
 
 I ' See the details of some proceedings of this sort 
 I held at Abingdon, Berks, upon Pocock, Hebrew 
 
 Professor at Oxford and rector of Cliildrey. 
 
 (1' well's Life of Pocock, p. 152 and 185.) The 
 I charges are, — 
 
 , " 1. That he had frequently made use of the 
 Wolatrous Common Prayer Book as he performed 
 
 ' divine service. 
 
 ■'2. 'I'hal he was disaffected to the present 
 
 , power," &,c. &c. And when he had disproved 
 all ilicse accusations, he, who was one of the most 
 learned men in Europe, would have been turned 
 
 ; out for ignorance and insulBciency, if his friends 
 from O.xlord had not come and shamed the com- 
 missioners into justice. 
 2 Walker, i. 194. 
 
 " Parr's Life of Usher, 75. Wordsworth's 
 . Eccl. Bing. v. 374. 
 
 * Gauden, afterwards bishop of Exeter, wrote 
 a petitionary remonstrance, presented to Oliver 
 Cromwell, to the same effect. (Wood's Ath. 
 iii. G14.) 
 
 5 Baxter's Life, 197. 
 
 gion." (Sept. 3, 1(5.')4.) And a com- 
 mittee of divines was formed to draw up 
 in terrnmis " the fundamentals of reli- 
 gion." They were far from agreeing 
 in their opinions, and some were anxious 
 to insert many propo.sitions which suited 
 their own ideas, and would exclude the 
 Roman Catholics and Socinians. Bax- 
 ter wisely reasoned ac^ainst this narrow- 
 ing the bounds of the original expres- 
 sion : bttt the labours of the committee 
 were rendered abortive by the dissolu- 
 tion of the parliament. (Jan. 22, 1G55.) 
 So little indeed did these advocates of 
 freedom understand its real principles, 
 that John Sotithworth," a Roman Catho- 
 lic priest, was executed for the exercise 
 of his sacerdotal functions, nor were the 
 severe laws against Roman Catholics 
 abrogated. In the parliament l()5()-7, 
 a new oath of abjuration^ was framed, 
 which not only denied the authority of 
 the pope, but rejected the doctrine of 
 transubstantiation, and other tenets of 
 the church of Rome, and a refusal to 
 take it subjected the individual to severe 
 penalties and losses. There was at one 
 time a project for extending liberty of 
 conscience to the Roman Catholics," 
 and consttltations were held among the 
 members of the governinent for the pur- 
 pose of granting them security of person 
 and of the remainder of their jiroperty 
 after composition, as well as for pro- 
 viding a safe living for a prelate who 
 might exercise his functions ; but the 
 loyalty of the Roman Catholics was 
 alarmed at the idea of compounding;' 
 with the usurper, and they communi- 
 cated the circumstances to the exiled 
 court, where a stop was put to the whole. 
 The Jews," too, petitioned for toleration, 
 and leave to carry on trade in England, 
 and the protector seems to have been 
 favourable to their views ; but a council 
 of divines, lawyers, and merchants, 
 whom he consulted on the point of 
 conscience, on the legality of their ad- 
 mission, and on the political wisdom of 
 the measure, were so adverse to the 
 step, that the idea of it was relinquished : 
 but it appears*" that many individuals of 
 
 s Butler's Rom. Oath. ii. 407. 
 ' Neal, iv. 144. 
 
 s Butler's Rom. Cath. ii. 418 Thurloe's St. 
 Pap. i. 740. 
 9 Neal, iv. 126. 
 
 1° Collier's ChurcTi History, ii. 869. 
 
338 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV, 
 
 this religion did settle in London upon 
 sufferance, and that they had aburying- 
 ground of their own in 1657. 
 
 §611. If it be asked how the paro- 
 chial duties were performed during this 
 period, a variety of answers may be 
 expected, corresponding with the views 
 of those whom we consult, and changing 
 in the difTerent parts of the kingdom to 
 which we ma}' turn our eyes. If we 
 may believe Baxter, religion never 
 flourished more thap during this period ; 
 but his testimony is hardly admissible 
 as conclusive on this point, and even his 
 own history affords instances of the 
 contrary. As it is very difficult to form 
 a general opinion on the subject, it may 
 not be uninteresting to insert such de- 
 tails as may furnish us with some slight 
 data on which to ground our conclusions, 
 
 (a. D. 1611.) The town of Kidder- 
 minster' was about to petition against 
 their vicar as a scandalous minister, and 
 he, to escape this obloquy, consented to 
 give sixt}' pounds per annum to a lec- 
 turer, who should be appointed by the 
 chief inhabitants, and they chose Mr. 
 Baxter. During the civil war, the dis- 
 turbances of the town obliged the new 
 lecturer to fly from it, and he joined the 
 army for some time in the cajjacity of a 
 chaplain. When the successes of the 
 war had thrown the power into the 
 hands of the parliament, the living of 
 Kidderminster was sequestered, and the 
 temporalities placed at the disposal of 
 the princii:al inhabitants, in order that 
 they might provide themselves with 
 preachers. After some time, they could 
 only prevail on Baxter to continue as 
 their lecturer, wirh a salary aucniented 
 to one hundred pounds ; but when there 
 was a danger of their being called to 
 account for the disposal of the money, 
 tlie},- secretly conveyed tlie instrument 
 of seqiu'stration into Mr. Baxter's house, 
 and lie contiiuted to hold it, in order to 
 scrc("n them from inquiry. 
 
 § 612. Being thus seated in his living, 
 Baxter'' called on such of the inhabitants 
 as voluntarily chose to do so, to signify 
 to liim their willingness to be under his 
 ministry and discipline ; and thus, with- 
 out rejecting the rest of the parishion- 
 ers, whom he admitted, as strangers, 
 occasionally only to the eucharist, and 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, 19. ^ iby. gj^ 157^ 167. 
 
 to the baptism of their children, he did, 
 as it were, gather a church in his own 
 parish. His object in this method of •* 
 proceeding was, to mark the difference 
 between those who were, and those ' 
 were not church members ; for he found * 
 that many of his flock could only thus be 
 kept from separation, when they per- 
 ceived an outward line drawn between 
 themselves and their less godly neigh- 
 bours. About 600 out of 1600 adults 
 conformed to his discipline, and the rest, 
 without being excommunicated, lived 
 in outward unity with the church mem- 
 bers, and might join them upon the ^ 
 same terms whenever they were dis- 
 posed to express such a wish. Over 
 those who were thus immediately sub- 
 jected to his discipline, Baxter exercised 
 a spiritual authority, which, according 
 to his own account of it, proved very 
 beneficial to their higher interests. He 
 rarely excommunicated any one, but 
 frequentl}^ admonished and reproved 
 them. In order to carry on this work 
 \\-ith greater solemnity, a meeting of the 
 neighbouring clergy' was formed on the 
 first Wednesday in every month, to 
 manage the discipline of the parish ; and 
 the next day the clergy assembled for 
 their own discipline, and for mutual- 
 edification ; and numerous lectures were 
 established on different week-days for 
 the promotion of religion. These as- 
 sociations were not confined to anv par- 
 ticular party in the church. Their 
 terms of agreement were, to join for the .-q 
 exercise of such discipline as it was r 
 agreed on by presbyterians, episcopa- m 
 bans, and independents, that pastors 
 ought to exercise ; nor do the decisions -fd 
 of these meetings seem to have bound 
 the individual minister any further than 
 as they expressed the opinion of the 
 body. The success which attended 
 them in the neighbourhood of Kidder- -js 
 minster was considerable, and many i 
 other districts and counties adopted 
 something of the same sort ; as Cum- rr, 
 berland,* Wihs, Dorset, Hants, Somer- ^ 
 set, Essex ; and a society of the same 
 description was formed at Dubhn. This 
 association of Baxter's^ was composed 
 chiefly of men who, strictly spealving, 
 were connected with no party ; for there 
 
 3 Baxter's Life, 84. < Ibid. 162, 167, 169. 
 sjbid. 145. 
 
lAP. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 239 
 
 ere rro rigid presbyterians in the neigh- 
 iiurhood, the strict independents did 
 It co-operate, though they did not dis- 
 )prove of what was done, and few 
 )iscopalians had much communication 
 ith them ; it was formed of men who, 
 ithout joining any party exclusively, 
 ished to do their duty as ministers of 
 hrist. 
 
 § 013. In passing a judgment on such 
 proceeding, it is almost impossible for 
 e writer to divest himself of his own 
 clings or prejudices, and as difficult to 
 nn any accurate opinion from the prac- 
 :il result, at this distance of time, 
 ixit r' seems to have been a very zeal- 
 < 'hristian minister, and to have 
 u-lit and promoted the service of our 
 eat Master; but, during his whole life, 
 have been too fond of governing, and 
 j'O unwilling to be directed. In his 
 Irish he did that which I believe the 
 i>ii>i' is directed in Holy Scripture not 
 ' il l : he tried to draw an outward line 
 Ml rcn the godly and ungodly, to sepa- 
 .1 ■ the tares from the wheat; it is a 
 I t on which the judgment of (4od 
 III ilone be sufficient to decide rightly, 
 111 w henever it is attempted by man, it 
 ill \>r apt to render the servant of God 
 niud of his own spiritual attainments, 
 11(1 ti) drive away the careless from re- 
 l;iihi. That such parish discipline 
 ould produce some good,'^ there can be 
 1 0 doubt ; but it may well be questioned, 
 'hetlier the private admonitions of a 
 ilergyman, and the occasional inter- 
 i;rence of the civil magistrate, may not 
 |n the whole promote tlie cause of real 
 eligion with greater advantage. God 
 noweth. At all events, the judicial 
 haracler thvus conferred on the clergy 
 'lust be likely to do them harm in their 
 •wn minds. 
 
 I The beneficial effects of the meetings 
 if ministers must depend solely on the 
 vay in which they are carried on. 
 'rVhenever they are assembled by au- 
 ihority, they are likely on the whole to 
 
 ' It should be remcnilicred lliat Baxter was 
 ipiscopally ordained in ihe cliurch ol' Kiigland. 
 imd was always Irieridly to episcopacy as an ordt-r 
 n ihe church. 
 
 2 Baxter (Life, Oii) says lhat, as far as he saw, 
 here was a jfreat deal more religion, and a propor- 
 ionale fruil of good living ; Inu he is a witness in 
 lis own cause, and might not have had any oppor- 
 unity of observing the good effects of admonition 
 :arried on without coercion. 
 
 be useful, (though, as our visitations are 
 now conducted, they cannot be said to 
 produce much good.) But whenever 
 such meetings are formed of a part only 
 of the clergy of the district where they 
 are held, they can hardly fail to foster 
 divisions, to kee|) up differences rather 
 than diminish them ; and if so, it may 
 be feared that they will do more harm 
 than good. In an age, however, when 
 there was no appearance of ecclesiastical 
 discipline in the church, any attempt at 
 establishing it must have had its value ; 
 at that time, from the number of ejected 
 and silenced ministers, it was necessary 
 to supply the deficiency by instructing 
 the new workmen who were thus sud- 
 denly sent into the vineyard, and perhaps 
 these steps might then have proved use- 
 ful, though the plan, at another period, 
 would have been open to objections. 
 
 § (514. If Baxter' was wrong in draw- 
 ing ;i line of .separation between the dif- 
 fei-eiit inenib<'i-s ol'a suciety of Christians, 
 tile iiidepeiidciit.s Avere much more to 
 bhiiiie ill tlieir strictues.s, witli regard to 
 tidiiiis-iiiii into church membership. 
 Tliey recpiired not only a jirofession of 
 belief in Christianity, and of willingness 
 to submit to discipline, but generally 
 demanded some sort of evidence of the 
 influence of the Holy Ghost on the mind 
 of the candidtite who desired to be re- 
 ceived into tlie comuuinion of their 
 churches. They prevailed in Norfolk 
 and Suflblk, more than in the rest of 
 England, a circumstance wliich Neal* 
 attributes to the pro.xiinity of those coun- 
 ties to Flollaiul, wliich had afforded a 
 refuge to many of the banished secta- 
 ries, and from whence they returned, 
 when toleration allowed them to revisit 
 their native land. 
 
 As the iii(le])eiidents gradually in- 
 creased, tilery bectitue anxious to have 
 some connection among themselves, and 
 wished to possess a common band of 
 union, without destroying the independ- 
 ence of each jiarticular church, which 
 constitutes thtMr peculiar tenet. This 
 object was accomplished in 1658, when 
 they published their declaration of faith,' 
 formed after a conference held among 
 themselves at the Savoy, and which was 
 drawn up so much on the plan of the 
 
 3 Life, 143. 1 Hist. Puritans, iv. 172, 
 
 5 Hist. Puritans, 174. 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. IIV. 
 
 confession of faith of the divines at West- 
 minster, that the doctrinal works of that 
 assembly have generally been adopted 
 by the congregational churches. Their 
 chief difference consists in the govern- 
 ment of the church, -wherein they are 
 entirely democratic. The church of 
 England theoretically places the power 
 of church discipline in the bishop, as- 
 sisted by his dean and chapter, or by 
 certain other assessors. The presbyte- 
 rians place this authority in the presbyter 
 and elders, or in assemblies of these, 
 making each presbyter the bishop of a 
 small diocese. The independent seems 
 to esteem ordination a mere appointment, 
 on the part of the congregation, of one 
 person who shall officiate in public, and 
 leaves the authority of discipline in the 
 church itself, regulating even excommu- 
 nication by the vote of the majority. 
 
 During the same period the presbyte- 
 rians' carried on as much of their in- 
 ternal government among themselves as 
 they pleased, or indeed could, when di- 
 vested of any coercive power, and held 
 their meetings for the purpose of dis- 
 cipline and ordination. In 1(55.5 they 
 published* some directions about cate- 
 chising, in consequence of two cate- 
 chisms published by Biddle, a Socinian. 
 These directions' do not differ much 
 from the canon on the subject, and seem 
 to have been required on account of the 
 neglect of that useful method of instruc- 
 tion, a neglect originating in the preva- 
 lence of sermons, and the fancied supe- 
 riority of preaching. 
 
 § 015. But the whole of this account 
 is that which the puritans give of them- 
 selves. If we consult Isaac Walton, 
 whose testimony may be presumed to 
 incline to the opposite party, we shall 
 find a different description.* He speaks 
 with regret* of the former honesty and 
 plain dealing of the people, now ex- 
 changed for cruelty and cunning. Of 
 the frequency of j^erjury among men, 
 who had so often sworn to obey every 
 succeeding government as it was estab- 
 
 ' Hist. Puritans, iv. 74. 2 Neal, iv. 121. 
 
 3 Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. v. 351. 
 
 " Lord Clarendon (Own Life, ii. 39, 8vo. ; -21, 
 fol.) gives a pathetic account of the dissohuion of 
 domestic ties during this period. Children dis- 
 obeyed and neglected their parents, and the con- 
 nection between master and servant was at an end. 
 
 ' Life of Sanderson. Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. 
 V. 483. 
 
 lished. He will tell us' that the com- 
 mon people were made so giddy and 
 restless, through the falsehoods, and mis- 
 application of Scripture, of those who 
 wished to prove that God was on their 
 side, that they had perverted all notions 
 of religion, trusting in election, which 
 produced no fruits of grace. That in 
 many parishes, where the stipend was 
 small, there was no one to officiate, 
 while the strictness of some incumbents 
 cut off a portion of their flock from par- 
 taking in the sacrament of the eucharist. 
 
 It may indeed excite our wonder that 
 any friends of the church of England - 
 should have been able to continue their - 
 services under the multifarious persecu- 
 tions to which they were exposed ; and i 
 more so, that any fresh members should 
 desire to enter the pale of her ministry, h; 
 under such disheartening circumstances. ;-■ 
 Yet the lives of Sanderson and Bull i 
 furnish us with instances of both the i 
 one and the other. Sanderson was t 
 fortunate enough, from having been i: 
 exchanged as a prisoner for Dr. Clarke, si 
 and from his own judicious conduct, tO t 
 be allowed to retain quiet possession i- • 
 of his living of Boothby Pagnel ; and •■' 
 Bull, by taking a small cure which no i 
 one cared to have, was suffered to offi- f 
 ciate without interruption. In both i- 
 these instances, the chief difficulty COB- r 
 sisted in the use of the Common Prayer, ' 
 which was forbidden with a strictness ^ 
 which marks its value ; and both these i 
 worth)' sons of a persecuted church ; 
 gave way so far as to comply with the t . 
 existing authorities, while in their mi- r 
 nistration they preserved the spirit of- r. 
 its services. 7 The case of Bull* is per- ; 
 
 * Wordsworth's Ecc. Biog. v. 512. 
 
 ' There is an interesting account of the manner 
 in which Sanderson conducted himself about the 
 Common Prayer, in his "Judgment concerning 
 submission to Usurpers." printed among some 
 tracts at the end of the first edition of Walton's 
 Life, 12mo.. which is partly introduced into ihe 
 life. (Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. v. 496.) He ' 
 used it till the soldiers came and tore it to pieces; I' 
 and even then, in all the occasional services when i - 
 they were not in church. When complained of, 
 he determined to give up the Common Prayer, 
 rather than desert his post : he gives an abstraci 
 of the prayers which he used, preserving the pe- 
 titions while he varied the words. Bull did very 
 much the same. On one occasion, (Life, by Nel- 
 son, p. 34,) he baptized the child of a dissenter, 
 saying the service by heart from the Commoo 
 Prayer, and then the good people were mnch 
 pleased with every thing but the cross. 
 
 8 Life, by Nelson. 
 
( AP. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 241 
 
 I; IS more worthy of notice. He was 
 
 iced with a presbyterian divine to 
 sh his education, which had been 
 i irrupted by his refusing to take the 
 efagement at Oxford. The perusal 
 
 0 Hoolcer, Hammond, Taylor, and 
 ( )tius, which were lent him by the 
 s of his tutor, directed him to seek 
 f episcopal ordination. This he was 
 f unate enough to obtain by means 
 g Dr. Skinner, the ejected bishop of 
 ( ford, who resided in his former dio- 
 c e, and secretly conferred the same 
 f our on many others also. Bull thus 
 b ame an active minister of the church 
 r Enn;land, at a time when few could 
 
 e lioped for her temporal restora- 
 
 . (ilfj. The majority of the true 
 £ mbers of the church of England 
 
 1 St have spent their time in seclusion, 
 a 1 generally under considerable pri- 
 \ ions ; for their activity in favour of 
 t throne had been too marked to suf- 
 ' thi- usurping power to tolerate them; 
 
 I 11 is more than probable that their 
 iniml endurance of these persecu- 
 : IS created a strong bias towards the 
 ( irch and king during the whole of 
 I usurpation. Many persons who 
 lire not adverse to republican princi- 
 ] s, could not but feel the cruelty of 
 1 bidding men to use by themselves, 
 ( in families, such prayers as they 
 ] -ferred. The picture' of Fell, Alles- 
 i e, and Dolben, meeting in private to 
 t ebrate those services which a govern- 
 1 nt, glorying in the name of religious 
 I eration, dared not allow them to per- 
 I rn in public, was not then confined 
 I the canvass, and known only to those 
 :o are familiar with the portraits of 
 In I'll. The subjectof it must have been 
 ' n|' frequent occurrence, and have 
 tkrn volumes in praise of :he offices 
 lich they loved, and of the tyranny 
 lich precluded the use of them. No 
 e can see a good man suffering for 
 ; sake of that which he believes to 
 the truth, without feeling a respect 
 d admiration for him; and among 
 J human means whereby the doctrines 
 Christianity have been spread and 
 itered, none has produced more ef- 
 ■ :t than the example of persons pa- 
 
 A well-known picture in Christ Church Hall. 
 e also Wood's Athense. Fell, John, iv. 201, 
 t. by Bliss. i 
 31 
 
 tiently submitting to hardships for con- 
 science' sake. 
 
 The exceptions to these observations, 
 concerning the tyranny used towards 
 the clergy of the church of England, 
 are perhaps more numerous during the 
 reign of Cromwell than might have 
 been expected from the tenor of the 
 laws, or the proceedings of the govern- 
 ment ; and it is likely that the protector 
 winked at the indulgence which many 
 among the governing party must will- 
 ingly have granted to their friends, or 
 those whom they respected among the 
 royalists. Seth Ward procured the 
 chantership of Exeter for Brownrigge,'' 
 the silenced bishop of that see, and G. 
 Hall, afterwards bishop of Chester, was 
 employed as a preacher in London dur- 
 ing Cromwell's reign ; and doubtless 
 many other instances of the same sort 
 might be found. Bates, who was phy- 
 sician to the protector, says, that the 
 use of the Common Prayer^ was even 
 allowed in houses and private conven- 
 ticles. 
 
 Many of the royalist clergy, during 
 this season of distress, found retreats in 
 the houses of their friends, and carried 
 on those studies which prepared their 
 minds for future exertions, and solaced 
 them during their involuntary inactivi- 
 ty." Oriental literature, which had 
 been fostered under the munificent 
 hand of Laud, produced its fruit when 
 that prelate had ceased to preside over 
 its cultivation. The superiority of Po- 
 cock^ in this department continued him 
 in his two professorships of Hebrew 
 and Arabic at Oxford, though di^prived 
 of his canonry of Christ Church ; and 
 the polyglot Bible of Walton," together 
 with Castell's Lexicon, would, if every 
 other proof were wanting, satisfy us of 
 the eminence to which our countrymen 
 attained at this period. Nor should it 
 be forgotten that Cromwell had the 
 merit of ])atronising this latter work. 
 
 § 017. In the account of this period, 
 it will be necessary to say something 
 of the fanatics who were now nume- 
 rous, and who had rendered themselves 
 
 2 Wood's Alhense, by Bliss, iv. 248 ; iii. 812. 
 
 3 Neal, iv. 92. 
 
 See the lives of Hammond, Sanderson, Po- 
 cock, Walton, Spratt's History of the Royal So- 
 ciety, Frewen, Sheldon, Wood's Athenae. 
 5 Twell'a Pocock, 136. « Todd's Walton. 
 
S42 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 conspicuous during the previous dis- i 
 tractions of the country. We may in- 
 deed derive some information as to the j 
 founders and the origin of some of i 
 these sects ; but the history of fanati- 
 cism is so much the same in all coun- 1 
 tries and times, that it is difficult to 
 mark any real peculiarities with regard | 
 to the several forms under which it i 
 shows itself. Religious fanaticism ge- j 
 nerally arises from some real neglect, 1 
 or misconduct, in those who ought to 
 be the guardians and teachers of reli- 
 gion. The age which preceded the j 
 times which we are considering, abound- 
 ed with too great an attention to cere- 
 monies ; it is not necessary to the argu- 
 ment to trace out the origin of the 
 fault ; according to our individual sen- 
 timents, we may conclude that the pu- 
 ritans neglected the form of religion 
 too much, or that the high church party 
 insisted on them too strongly ; but cer- 
 tainly forms were regarded universally 
 in too important a light. The conse- 
 quence of which was, that the relaxa- 
 tion of government which the rebellion 
 necessarily produced, allowed every 
 fanatic to exhibit his own peculiarities ; 
 and ill-judging persons, who had before 
 observed that too much attention was 
 paid to forms, hastily rejected every ap- 
 pearance of order, and disseminated 
 the dictates of their own feelings as 
 the motions of the Spirit of God.' 
 
 § 618. (a. d. 1649.) George Fox' was 
 a sincere Christian and harmless sort 
 of person, who, having long indulged 
 in mystic and solitary reveries, com- 
 menced the task of instructing the 
 world by means of a divine light pecu- 
 liarly imparted to himself, which led 
 him to despise the ordinary benefits of 
 education, an advantaire which, from 
 the lowness of his birth, he did not 
 possess. The license of the times ena- 
 bled him to spread his ojiinions, and 
 procured him followers, whose absurd 
 irregularities of conduct would, at ano- 
 ther period, have bi-oniiht inevitable con- 
 tempt on any denomination of Chris- 
 tians, and exposed the liuakersHo just, 
 
 ' See the Story of ilie Soldier and the Five 
 Lights at Walton. (Collirr's Hist. ii. 8G1.) 
 
 2 Neal's Parimns, iv. 2;), .'vc. 
 
 ' This name was given ilicni by Gervas Bennet, 
 a justice of the peace at Derby, because their 
 speaking was usually attended with convulsive 
 
 though often too severe punishments. 
 In the history of these times, it is pecu- 
 liarly difficult to distinguish between 
 the misconduct of individuals belong- 
 ing to a sect, and the tenets of the sect 
 itself; and in speaking of quakerism, 
 we must use more especial caution, for 
 the sect seems to have had no land- 
 marks, which might point out the Ktnits 
 necessary for judging fairly about it. 
 Every enthusiast, who pretended to an 
 internal revelation, held their distin- 
 guishing tenet ; and every man who, 
 in his enthusiasm, rejects revelation and 
 reason, must appeal to a supernatural 
 communication. The quakers were, at 
 this time of toleration, in one sense, 
 persecuted ; for all men who throw 
 down the boundaries of civil and reli- 
 gious society must be restrained by 
 those who wish to maintain them, and 
 such restraints arc, by partial people 
 and the sufferers, denominated perse- 
 cution ; but to speak of things by their 
 right names. Fox, and some of his fol- 
 lowers," as well as certain anabaptists, 
 attempted to interrupt the authorized 
 services of the churches, and were 
 often hardly dealt with, but were ne- 
 cessarily punished. They virtually set 
 at naught the civil magistrate, and 
 when those in authority used severity 
 towards them, they were called suffer- 
 ers in the cause of Christ : in many 
 cases, the severity was unjustifiable, 
 but toleration was even then really un- 
 known, and inoderation is the offspring 
 of quiet times; and when the times 
 became more quiet, the quakers became 
 more reasonable. Many of their suf- 
 ferings were owing to themselves alone; 
 they refused to pay tithes and to takfe 
 oaths ; and it must be a toleration hardly 
 desirable which will allow men to 
 fraud any one of his legal rights, or be 
 contented with subjects who will not 
 comply with the established laws of the 
 land. The punishments were often 
 evuel ; but the sufferers generally de- 
 served punishment, for they began by 
 injuring their brethren. 
 
 If the doctrine of an inward light be 
 so modifi»?d as to mean no more than 
 the necessity of divine aid, it becomes a 
 
 shakings of the body. (Neal, iv. 33.) One wo 
 niai: came into the church quite naked. (Ibid. 
 iv. ^39.) 
 1 Baxter's Life, ii. 180. 
 
CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 243 
 
 jiet of catholic Christianity ; but when- 
 sr it is allowed to be paramount to 
 1; Scriptures, and to set aside the 
 press commands of Holy Writ, as in 
 • ; instance of the sacraments, it is dif- 
 uit to say how it can be esteemed 
 rapatible with Christianity; yet this 
 a matter of opinion, and cannot justi- 
 ; cruelty or persecution. We must 
 
 i t confound in our ideas the present 
 iet and peaceable persons who are 
 lied quakers with the fanatics of this 
 Iriod; the term, like that o[ mcthodist. 
 Is comprehended a vast variety of 
 l;n who have entertained an equal 
 irersity of opinions. 
 
 § 619. This same observation will 
 ply to the anabaptists, a name which 
 ly comprehend any denomination of 
 iristians who are averse to infant 
 ptism, and who will therefore deem 
 I subsequent admission by baptism 
 jtcessary, in cases where persons have 
 I'cn originally presented at the font as 
 Ifants. We must therefore rank un- 
 |t the same appellation the fanatics 
 I Munster,' the Memnonites of Hol- 
 nd, and the anabaptists of England, 
 'ho were, some of them, quiet Chris- 
 ims, while others held those pernicious 
 lictrines which must tend to render 
 e name of Christianity contemptible; 
 •etending to be guided by an inward 
 
 ■ jht, they despised the ordinary advan- 
 ges of knowledge and learning, and 
 
 I ere frequently most abusive in up- 
 raiding such ministers as exerted 
 iiemselves in their professional call- 
 •gs. 
 
 I The antinomians, too, disturbed the 
 lurch during the usurpation, inveigh- 
 iig against the necessity of obedience 
 
 ii the written law of God, and ultimately 
 iestroying the distinction between good 
 fid evil. 
 
 i The family of lovc^ made all religion 
 
 [.. 1— 
 
 I ' Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. iv. 103, 423. 
 ' This sect owes its origin to Henry Nicolns, a 
 lercer of Delph, who broached his errors about 
 540. They were brought to England, probal>ly, 
 y one Vitells, about 1574. They cotisistcd in 
 le rejection of infant baptism; of the divinity of 
 'hrist ; of the depravity of human nature. Tiie 
 'amilisls seem to have entertained little objection 
 ) the church of Rome, or any denomination of 
 .'hristians, provided they held the doctrine of 
 
 ■ love," which was to perfect human nature, and 
 ) establish God's heavenly kingdom on earth, 
 'heir opinions differed little from those of the 
 ree-willers in Queen Mary's time. See the 
 idex to Strype. 
 
 j to consist in an inward love to Christ, 
 and were guilty of so many abomina- 
 tions that Baxter' calls them infidels ; 
 but these were not a new sect. 
 
 The fifth-monarchy men expected the 
 coming of King Jesus, during whose 
 [reign they should themselves be made 
 kings and priests ; they were men who 
 were sincere in their hatred of the 
 tyranny which they had experienced ; 
 who looked forward to bring reforma- 
 tion to perfection, but overlooked the 
 means by which these ends might be 
 promoted. They made good soldiers 
 under the cominand of Cromwell, but 
 threw down the fabric which they had 
 erected as soon as the guidance of his 
 superior genius was withdrawn. 
 
 In speaking of such men we are per- 
 haps wrong in using the term sect at 
 all ; these opinions were held by many 
 persons at this time, but constitute of 
 necessity no line of separation : they 
 ever have been held, and ever will be 
 so, while mankind suffer themselves to 
 be directed blindly, and influenced by 
 beings as subject to errors as them- 
 selves ; fanatical teachers will always 
 find fanatical followers; but the license 
 which tolerated them, and which was 
 the dawn of that liberty of conscience 
 which this country now enjoys, was 
 then productive of much confusion. 
 Men had not learned to differ in opinion 
 without disputing on their differences, 
 nor had toleration taught them that to 
 disturb and vilify those who disagree 
 with us in doctrine must always be a 
 real offence against Christian charity. 
 Undoubtedly at this time the interrup- 
 tions to the public service were not 
 unfrequent ; and the extension of vital 
 Christianity seems to have been greatly 
 prevented by the contentions among 
 those who differed in their religious 
 opinions. 
 
 §620. While speaking of the morality 
 of this period, we must not forget that 
 no government ever put forth severer 
 statutes* against immorality, or tried 
 more strenuously to promote Christiani- 
 ty as far as the words of an ordinance 
 could promote this object. The same 
 bill which did away the penal statutes 
 for not attending the parish church, 
 enjoined that every person should fre- 
 
 ' Life, i. 91. Neal, iv. 26. 
 
344 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XIV. 
 
 quent some place of religious worship 
 or preaching ; and notwithstanding all 
 the previous ordinances about the ob- 
 servance of the Sabbath, they forbade 
 the neglect of the Lord's-day, and of 
 any other days set apart for humiliation 
 or thanksgiving, under heavy penalties, 
 which extended also to magistrates or 
 constables who failed in exerting them- 
 selves to prevent such irregularities. 
 Adultery and incest were made punish- 
 able with death; the same punishment 
 was attached to those who were twice 
 convicted of keeping a house of ill-fame; 
 and every breach of morality of this 
 description was exposed to great se- 
 verity. Swearing was subjected to a 
 fine, and the entertaining blasphemous 
 and execrable opinions was punishable 
 by imprisonment, banishment, and 
 death. The laws too against actors' 
 were put in force, and persons attend- 
 ing plays were liable to a fine of five 
 shillings, so that none appear to have 
 been acted for the space of twenty 
 years. 
 
 § 621. (Dec. 1656.) The ordinance 
 against heterodox opinions was far 
 from being allowed to remain inactive ; 
 for James Naylor,^ a fanatic more 
 worthy perhaps of a madhouse than 
 of the honour of being converted into a 
 confessor, was severely punished by a 
 vote of the House of Commons, and 
 subjected to much the same cruelties 
 as the Star Chamber might have in- 
 flicted ; he was whipped, put in the 
 pillory, and imprisoned. Fry, too, a 
 member,^ was expelled from the House 
 for professing Socinian opinions, and 
 Biddle tried for his life upon the same 
 plea. This error, like many others, 
 spread prodigiously, and we have the 
 testimony of the assembly of divines at 
 Westminster themselves,* who, when 
 consulted as to the punishment to be 
 inflicted upon blasphemy, desired that 
 it might be severe, since it was growing 
 fast. The externals of religion were 
 undoubtedly observed with greater 
 strictness, but it seems impossible to 
 conceive but that the violence of the 
 civil war must have tended to destroy 
 real religion ; and however some excep- 
 
 tions may induce us to alter the balance 
 in our minds — for the opinion of Bax- 
 ter must have its weight — it can hardly 
 be supposed that, upon the whole, the 
 religious and moral principles of the 
 kingdom could have been advanced, or 
 could have failed to be grievously cor- 
 rupted by the political state of the 
 country. 
 
 § 622. (a. d. 1653.) One of the laws 
 
 of the Barebone parliament^ made mar- 
 riage merely a civil contract, much in 
 the same manner as is now the case in 
 Scotland, excepting that more notoriety 
 was given to the performance of the 
 ceremony. The parties were forced to 
 have their banns published three times 
 at church or in the market-place, and 
 they were to profess their mutual desire 
 of being married, in the presence of a 
 magistrate, in order to render the union 
 legal. This act was ratified in 1656, 
 but the parties were then permitted to 
 adopt the accustomed rites of religion, 
 if they preferred them. 
 
 In a country where a universal tole- 
 ration of religious opinions is allowed 
 under the same government, there is 
 more wisdom in this ordinance than all 
 men will be willing to admit. Marriage* 
 is an institution not only anterior to the 
 preaching of Christianity, but independ- 
 ent of it. Most nations have connected 
 it, more or less, with religious ceremo- 
 nies, and no Christian can hope for 
 happiness in this state of life, unless it 
 be entered into in the fear of God, and 
 with the divine blessing ; but a govern- 
 ment which extends its protecting hand 
 over all religions, and contains among 
 its subjects persons of all persuasions, 
 may well say, " The contract shall be 
 civil, and the religious part of it left to 
 the choice and opinions of the partiea 
 contracting." By following a contrary 
 system, we have among ourselves the 
 absurdity, that the ecclesiastical courts 
 have the sole judgment with regard to 
 marriages, while in cases in which the 
 Scriptures obviously admit of a divorce, 
 these courts have no power to furnish 
 ' that redress for the infidelity of his wife 
 
 > Neal, iii. 402 ; iv. 246. 2 Ibid. iv. 139, &c. 
 9 Wood's Ath. iii. 705, 599. 
 * Lightfoot's Gen. Rem. 49. 
 
 5 Neal, iv. 67. 
 
 s See Judge Hale's judement about the m»r- 
 riage of Quakers : he would not allow it to be «et 
 aside, though performed without the legal forms. 
 (Life by BumeL Wordsworth's EccleaastictI 
 Biography, vL 72.) 
 
lAP. XIV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 SIS 
 
 iiich our Saviour expressly grants to 
 je husband ; and the injured party 
 'ust have recourse to a civil authority 
 so expensive a nature that unless he 
 • rich it is useless for him to think of it. 
 § 623. Among the difficulties to which 
 e church of England was exposed at 
 is period, there appeared to he great 
 mger that the succession of bishops' 
 ould be interrupted, and the following 
 Tcumstance directed the attention of 
 e exiled court to this point. The 
 lurch of Rome had renewed the story 
 ' the Nag's Head'^ ordination, and ap- 
 ;aled to the declaration of Morton, 
 shop of Durham, who was said to 
 ive asserted it in parliament. Mor- 
 n, who was still alive, though very 
 d, published an authenticated denial 
 his having done so, which excited 
 le remaining bishops to prevent any 
 [■petition of the same evil.^ Many 
 .ethods of avoiding it were proposed, 
 at there remained much difficulty as 
 I the consecration, the mere act of 
 ! hich would have been dangerous to 
 le bishops engaged in it ; and the par- 
 es were not agreed as to the steps by 
 'hich it should take place. The court 
 'as unwilling to resign the real power 
 f nomination, and there were no chap- 
 ;rs remaining to whom a congp (Velire 
 ould be sent, and to consecrate without 
 uch an election was displeasing to 
 
 ' Neal, iv. 208. = Pee « 409. 
 
 ' Allesiree was much employed in ihis negmia- 
 ion beiween the bishops and the court. (Wood's 
 ^th.) So was Barwick. Branihill was consuhed 
 'D the subject. 
 
 ( many of the elder bishops. Lord Cla- 
 rendon wished to feign a total lapse to 
 the crown, but this implied a real power 
 of election in the chapter, which the 
 court did not wish to establish. And 
 the idea of consecrating them as bishops 
 of sees in Ireland, where the king nomi- 
 nates without the form of an election, 
 dissatisfied the English prelates. The 
 event was, that the restoration prevent- 
 ed the execution and necessity of these 
 contrivances. 
 
 § (521. The restoration was probably 
 I brought about by a variety of combin- 
 ! ing causes. Since the death of Oliver 
 Cromwell there had been no perraa- 
 j nent government, and the people, weary 
 ' of anarchy, were ready to receive with 
 joy any power which bore the appear- 
 ance of a settled authority. They were 
 now undeceived in their hopes of tast- 
 ing the sweets of real liberty under a 
 republic, and had experienced the ty- 
 ranny of a military usurper. The 
 presbyterians, generally favourable to 
 monarchy, were now smarting through 
 the license which the independents had 
 brought in, and disposed to run any 
 hazards rather than continue under the 
 rule of men who had done violence to 
 all their principles. They were per- 
 haps at this moment prejudiced more 
 strongly against the independents than 
 against the church of England ; and 
 Monk, joining the presbyterians, and 
 taking advantage of the tide which he 
 could hardly have resisted, had the 
 merit of deceiving everybody, and per- 
 forming an act of honesty. 
 
S46 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 CHARLES II. SAVOY CONFERENCE, 1660. 
 
 G50. Restoration. 651. Presbyterians. 652. Charles, civil to them. 653. Convention parliament. 
 654. Difficulties in the Restoration ; army. 655. Royalists, old and new. 656. Church, state of 
 657. Episcopacy disliked. 6.58. Parlies in the church; objects of the episcopalian. 659. Of ihe 
 nonconformist party. 660. Declaration from Breda. 66J. Petition of the presbyterians. 662. 
 Answer of the bishops. 663. King's declaration promised. CG4. Discussion at Worcester Hou»e. 
 665. King's declaration. 666. Favourable to the nonconformists. 667. Commission for the Snoj 
 conference. 668, The demands of the bishops; Baxter's form of prayer. 669. Obser\'aiion8 on 
 it. 670. The petition for peace. 671. Objections to the Common Prayer ; ceremonies, discipline. 
 672. Answer of the bishops. 673. Reply to it ; disputation appointed ; sinful points in the Com- 
 mon Prayer. 674. Disputations ; close of the conference. 675. Baxter's conduct. 676. Concea- 
 sions which might have been made. 677. DiscipUne over the church. 678. Over the laily. 679. 
 The nonconformists' petition to the king. 
 
 § 650. (May 29, 1660.) The restora- 
 tion of Charles II. took place with such 
 rapidity, and from such a variety of 
 causes, that as no one individual can 
 be said to have guided the event, so 
 every one seemed at the moment sur- 
 prised at it. The presbyterian party 
 had undoubtedly a very large share in 
 promoting the return of the king, and 
 while the republicans neglected to de- 
 mand any defences or safeguards for 
 the civil freedom of the state, their 
 friends in the church were equally 
 wanting in foresight with regard to ec- 
 clesiastical matters. It may be doubted 
 whether such an attempt would have 
 succeeded, but it may appear extraor- 
 dinary that they did not make it, unless 
 we consider that they had seen their 
 prospects of reform, both in church and 
 state, prove delusive ; and that they 
 fancied themselves too strong in the 
 nation to allow of their being trampled 
 on by the mere introduction of a court ; 
 little aware that the majority of the 
 people were not friendly to the strict- 
 ness which they had endeavoured to 
 introduce into the administration of 
 both, and that a large portion of every 
 society will, from possessing no princi- 
 ples of their own, generally side with 
 the governing party. 
 
 § 651. But before we enter into any 
 details of the history, it will be neces- 
 sary to guard against mistakes with re- 
 spect to the persons whom we designate 
 by the name of presbyterians, or rather 
 to state the reason why this term will 
 be inconvenient during the period which 
 we are now examining. By the term 
 presbyterian we generally understand 
 
 an anti-episcopalian, one who is hostile 
 to the order of bishops as an ecclesi- 
 astical order ; now the mass of tho«e 
 men, whose subsequent ejection forms 
 the great feature in the early part of 
 this reign, were not anti-episcopalians. 
 They had no objection' generally to 
 having a bishop, but they wished so to 
 tie his hands, that his chief authority 
 might consist in the councO of presby- 
 ters with whom they surrounded him, 
 and who were to be elected by the 
 clergy themselves. They wished for 
 the establishment of such a form of 
 ecclesiastical government as would, in 
 the state, satisfy a republican ; one 
 who might be contented to have a king, 
 provided he were to be nothing beyond 
 the chief magistrate of the republic. 
 Of course, therefore, the republican 
 and presbyterian party were closely 
 connected by principles ; and having 
 found themselves borne down by the 
 independents and army, they gladly 
 had recourse to a legitimate govern- 
 ment, under which they imagined that 
 they should be too strong to incur the 
 danger of persecution. 
 
 § 652. Charles, who was fully aware 
 of the strength of this party, and how 
 much he owed his return to their co- 
 operation, treated their divines with 
 marked respect; he admitted them to 
 friendly intercourse in Holland, and on 
 his arrival in this country appointed 
 several of them to be his chaplains,' 
 and some of them preached before him. 
 On his first landing he spent a Sunday 
 at Canterbury, and the service at the 
 
HAP. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 247 
 
 ithedral was carried on in his presence 
 ith all the decent ornaments which 
 elong to our church, and which had 
 ow been laid aside for nearly twenty 
 ears. Many of the clergy had re- 
 uested the king to dispense with these 
 eremonies, lest they should offend the 
 'eople : but he told them very plainly, 
 jliat while he allowed others to follow 
 'beir own opinions, he saw no reason 
 vhy the same liberty should not be ex- 
 'snded to himself; and this course of 
 iroceeding was properly observed at 
 Vhite Hall. It was the policy of 
 Jharles to be on good terms with this 
 )arty, nor is there any reason why 
 ve should doubt the sincerity of those 
 cind expressions which he used towards 
 hem : but it was almost impossible that 
 iny sincere coalition should continue 
 between elements so discordant as a 
 auritanic clergy and a dissolute court; 
 3Ut both probably were injured by the 
 utter separation from each other which 
 afterwards took place. 
 
 § (553. The parliament or convention, 
 which had recalled the king, contained 
 a great many individuals belonging to 
 the party of which we are speaking, who 
 were friendly to a monarchy, and not 
 hostile to the episcopacy ; but who had 
 no wish to see either the one or the 
 other raised so high as had formerly 
 been the case. They confirmed* the 
 clergy in their benefices, provided they 
 had been ordained before Dec. 25, 1659, 
 and had been admitted, since 1642, into 
 their livings upon a legal vacancy ; and 
 tried to create as little alteration as pos- 
 sible, provided the incumbent had not 
 favoured the king's death, nor shown 
 himself adverse to infant baptism. They 
 confirmed the leases made by colleges 
 and hospitals, and legalized all mar- 
 riages which had from time to time been 
 solemnized according to existing ordi- 
 nances. In all these acts they made no 
 distinction between orders which had or 
 had not been episcopally conferred, and 
 seemed anxious to tranquillize the nation 
 after the disturbances under which it had 
 been suffering. They passed, too, a bill 
 of indemnity for all but the regicides, 
 and appointed the observance of the 30th 
 of January and the 29th of May. 
 
 All acts, however, of the present as- 
 
 1 Statutes at large. 
 
 sembly laboured unoer one unavoidable 
 difficulty, that their legality might sub- 
 sequently be called in question, unless 
 confirmed by a parliament summoned by 
 the authority of the king : again, all such 
 men as had in their own persons served 
 the royal cause, or whose fathers had 
 done so, were, by the writ of summons, 
 excluded from being elected to sit in 
 this convention parliament, a particular 
 which had, in numerous cases, been 
 neglected, so that many of those who 
 most favoured the royal prerogative be- 
 longed to it, though they formed not the 
 majority. Upon these several consider- 
 ations, it was deemed preferable that 
 the convention should be continued no 
 longer than was absolutely necessary, 
 and it was dissolved therefore before the 
 29th of December. 
 
 § 654. The return of Charles II. had 
 appeared so to coincide with the general 
 wish of the people, that all opposition 
 seemed to vanish before the universal 
 desire for the re-establishment of legiti- 
 mate authority ; but the real difficulties 
 which attended this event were con- 
 siderable, and if not enough to endanger 
 the safety of the government, were quite 
 sufficient to render the situation of the 
 king far from enviable. 
 
 The army formed a body too powerful 
 to be consistent with any secure govern- 
 ment, and was composed of many men 
 who, though wise enough not to oppose 
 outwardly the progress of events, were 
 little satisfied with them. There must 
 always be a great unpleasantness in dis- 
 banding so large a force ; soldiers who 
 could be pleased at their own dismissal 
 must be very unlike any other human 
 beings ; since, having had the destiny 
 of the nation apparently in their hands, 
 they are compelled to dissolve the union 
 which has rendered them powerful, and 
 to descend in private life to a station ne- 
 cessarily far below what they have pre- 
 viously held. But in this case probably 
 many of the officers might with justice 
 suspect, that they had been made the 
 tools of the exaltation of Monk, and of 
 the consequent degradation of them- 
 selves. When they met the king on 
 Blackheath,^ they were perhaps one of 
 the finest bodies of men who had ever 
 been assembled on British ground ; they 
 
 2 Skinner's Life of Monk, 342; Burnet's Own 
 Time, i. 274. 
 
248 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 were now necessarily to be disbanded, 
 and there was little or no money to pay 
 them. 
 
 § 655. The friends of the crown were 
 far from being united. The older roy- 
 alists had suffered so much from their 
 repeated discomfitures, that they were 
 unwilling to run unnecessary risks ; and 
 the late attempts, on the rising of Sir 
 George Booth,' had brought forward 
 many men who had before no preten- 
 sions to royal favour ; so that the royal- 
 ists themselves formed a heterogeneous 
 mass, the older ones despising those 
 who had but lately embarked in the 
 cause, and who in their opinion had 
 contributed nothing to the Restoration ; 
 while those whose late activity had ex- 
 posed them to sufferings, to which they 
 had been unaccustomed, magnified the 
 utility of their own exertions, and dis- 
 dained the caution of the older friends 
 of the monarchy. These differences 
 were the more insufferable to the king, 
 because from the very first he found 
 himself assailed with solicitations for 
 preferment which he had no ability to 
 grant, and which his own personal fa- 
 cility prevented him from refusing with 
 ease. Abundant applications were made 
 during the first days of his return to 
 England, and such persons were most 
 importunate in their demands as had 
 merited advancement the least. 
 
 § 658. But the greatest difficulty con- 
 sisted in the state of the church. The 
 bishops had been driven from their 
 places nearly twenty years before, and 
 had generally retired into the obscurity 
 of private life. The generation who had 
 grown up in the church were at once 
 active and influential, and had found 
 themselves not only unfettered by supe- 
 riors, but had many of them been ad- 
 mitted into much indirect poAver, and 
 had always been taught to regard the 
 deposed hierarchy as tyrannical and 
 antichristian. They had universally 
 possessed a good deal of authority in 
 their own parishes, and looked forward 
 in the re-establishment of bishops to 
 being deprived entirely of these advan- 
 tages. It was impossible, therefore, that 
 they should regard the restoration of 
 episcopacy, together with the monarchy, 
 with any friendly eye. Out of the bench 
 
 ' Clarendon, Own Life, fol. 20, 8vo. 37. 
 
 of bishops nine only survived the Resto- 
 ration ; most of these were translated to 
 better bishoprics, and made room for the 
 appointment of new ones ; thirteen were 
 consecrated during the autumn and win- 
 ter, and four in the January following; 
 the latter sees had been left open, in 
 hopes that such leading members of the 
 nonconformist party as were not adverse 
 to episcopacy would accept them. All 
 beneficed clergymen who had been de- 
 prived during the usurpation, became 
 again possessed of their benefices at the 
 j Restoration, and all property, ecclesias- 
 tical or civil, which had been illegally 
 sold, reverted to its right owners ; a state 
 of things which, though perhaps neces- 
 sary, was very unlikely to excite a fa- 
 vourable feeling towards those who were 
 thus restored. There was a large and 
 forced transfer of property ; a circum- 
 stance which cannot fail to create dis- 
 satisfaction. The incomer always sup- 
 poses that he has been injured, and the 
 person ejected feels that he is deprived 
 of what he had deemed his own. All 
 ejected heads and fellows of colleges 
 were restored by an order of the lords,' 
 (June 4th ;) and after twenty years of 
 confusion, many individuals were in- 
 jured at the Restoration, who had shared 
 in none of the guilt of the usurpation. 
 
 § 657. But as far as we may be at 
 lowed to form an opinion on such a sub- 
 ject, the restoration of the episcopal 
 authority was that which most offended 
 the generality of the church. The point 
 at issue was in reality that of parish dis- 
 cipline. In the church of England the 
 spiritual power is lodged' in the hands 
 of the bishop ; the clergyman of a parish 
 may admonish, and, if he cannot reform, 
 may suspend from the communion till 
 he can have recourse to the bishop's 
 court ; but he has no power of his own 
 to inflict any spiritual punishment. He 
 cannot compel any of his flock to come 
 before him in a judicial manner. This 
 sort of jurisdiction had been generally 
 exercised during the usurpation, and the 
 minister held no communion with those 
 who despised his authority ; he might 
 in fact excommunicate any one who 
 neglected his summons, though such a 
 sentence bore with it none of those of- 
 fensive disabilit ies which attend on ex- 
 
 2 Neal's Puritans, iv. 240. 
 
 ' See ^ 591, and 595,'. 
 
3hap. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH 0 
 
 F ENGLAND. 
 
 349 
 
 ;ommunication as inflicted by a bishop's 
 ;ourt ; but then such a power gave a 
 earful influence to the parish priest. 
 The nonconformist party were anxious 
 ,0 continue this species of discipline ; 
 ind he must know very little of human 
 aature who fancies that any man, espe- 
 cially a young one, would readily relin- 
 quish an authority of this sort.' The 
 battle was indeed never fought on exactly 
 :his ground, but an examination of the 
 points at issue in the debates about the 
 liturgy," will easily convince us that 
 ;his was the real object of attack and 
 defence. 
 
 § 658. The tactics of the two parties 
 were as follows : the episcopalians feared 
 that bishops would be converted into 
 presidents of a college of presbyters, 
 and therefore their object was to deny 
 all authority to the presbyter, and to 
 lessen his influence, by convincing the 
 world that there had been much of evil, 
 and no good, in the late innovations 
 introduced into the government of the 
 church; and this object would be pro- 
 moted by showing that no alterations of 
 any kind were necessary. The rising 
 generation would be sure to side gra- 
 dually with the governing party, and it 
 might on this ground be deemed unwise 
 to remedy even real evils, since such a 
 step might induce the mass of the peo- 
 ple to doubt of the soundness of the 
 whole, when the advocates of the old 
 constitution acknowledged that some 
 things might admit of improvement. 
 This line of policy was so obvious, that 
 the eyes of the majority of the episcopal 
 party must have been open to it, and 
 their proceedings seem to have been 
 founded upon some such principle. 
 
 § 659. The object of the other party 
 was to show that change was necessary ; 
 that the power possessed by the bishops 
 
 ' See Selden's Table-Talk, Excommimicalion, 
 4 4- "They excommunicate for three or lour 
 things; matters concerning adultery, tithes, wills, 
 &c., which is the civil punishment the state allows 
 for such faults. If a bishop excommunicate a man 
 for what he ought not, the judge has power to 
 absolve, and punish the bishop. If they had thai 
 jurisdiction from God, why does not the church 
 excommunicate for murder, for theft ? If the 
 civil power might take away all but three things, 
 why may they not take them away too? If this 
 excommunication were taken away, the presbyters 
 would be quiet; it is that they have a mind to, it 
 is that they would fain be at," Slc. See also 
 another observation of his, 4 675, 
 
 » Baxter's Life, ii. 233. 
 
 32 
 
 had prevented the exercise of whole- 
 some discipline, and that the govern- 
 ment of the church of England still 
 required further reformation. If it could 
 be shown that the established church 
 was not formed on the best model, the 
 conclusion seemed natural, that some 
 modification of episcopacy ought to be 
 substituted in the place of the present 
 church government. At the same time 
 it was of the greatest consequence that 
 the party should appear to be united — 
 that they should hold together — that if 
 they were to fall, they might be over- 
 whelmed as a body. They probably- 
 thought themselves stronger than they 
 really were, and they knew that if di- 
 vided they must become insignificant. 
 The dilemma from which Baxter and 
 his friends had to extricate themselves 
 was this : if they asked too much, many 
 individuals of their own party would 
 say, that they were not prepared to 
 separate from the church of England, 
 because she refused to grant more than 
 what they themselves deemed abso- 
 lutely necessary. If they asked too 
 little, their opponents would have to 
 object against them, that men who pro- 
 fessed to be governed by Christian prin- 
 ciples were ready to destroy the peace 
 and unity of the church for such trifles 
 as these. 
 
 § 6()0. In order to get a clear view of 
 the Savoy conference, the arena on 
 which this contest was carried on, it 
 will be necessary to take a short view 
 of the events which preceded it ; for it 
 is not impossible that the issue of the 
 conference was nearly decided, before 
 the members who composed it had 
 actually assembled. 
 
 (April 14, 1660.) The king, in his 
 declaration from Breda, had used the 
 following expressions with regard to 
 toleration " We do declare a liberty 
 to tender consciences ; and that no man 
 shall be disquieted, or called in question, 
 for differences of opinion in matters of 
 religion, which do not disturb the peace 
 of the kingdom ; and that we shall be 
 ready to consent to such an act of par- 
 liament as, upon mature deliberation, 
 shall be offered to us, for the full grant- 
 ing that indulgence." The nonconform- 
 ists, when they beheld this disposition 
 
 ' Clarendon's History, iii. 747. 
 
I' 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 in the king, and the temper of the House 
 of Commons, were naturally led to ex- 
 pect concessions from the governing 
 party, and induced to express their 
 wishes as to the points which they | 
 desired to he changed, by presenting a 
 petition to the king. 
 
 §()01. They state that they agree 
 with the church of England' in doctrinal 
 truths, and the substantial parts of wor- 
 ship : and that they differ only about 
 the ancient form of church government, 
 the Liturgy, and ceremonies. They 
 request, 1. That encouragement maybe 
 given to private religious exercises. 
 
 2. That each congregation may have 
 a resident and efficient pastor, and that 
 scandalous ministers may be ejected. 
 
 3. That personal profession of faith 
 may be required of all communicants, 
 and that no one be confirmed without 
 the approbation of his pastor. 4. That 
 the Lord's day may be kept holy, with- 
 out unnecessary divertisements. They 
 state that they have no objection to a 
 balanced episcopacy, but complain, 1, of 
 the extent of dioceses, which rendered 
 a personal superintendence impossible : 
 
 2, of bishops deputing their authority to 
 officials who were sometimes laymen ; 
 
 3, of their occasionally assuming the 
 sole power of ordination, and exercising 
 arbitrary power in articles of visitation, 
 &c. In order to obviate these evils, 
 they request, that Archbishop Usher's 
 reduction of episcopacy may be adopted ; 
 that bishops suffragan, or chorepiscopi. 
 may be chosen by the presbyters ; that 
 the associations' may not be so large as 
 to make the discipline impossible ; that 
 no subscriptions or oaths of obedience 
 be required ; that bishops be not allowed 
 to act, except according to canons to be 
 agreed upon and sanctioned by act of 
 parliament. 
 
 They do not object to a Liturgy, per 
 se, provided the minister be not so con- 
 fined to it as to be prevented from exer- 
 cising the gift of prayer ; they request 
 that the Common Prayer, being justly 
 objectionable, may either be revised, 
 and that certain scriptural forms, to be 
 used according to the discretion of the 
 minister, may be added to it, or that a 
 new one be composed. 
 
 Jaxier'g Life, ii. 233. History of Nonconfor- 
 
 With regard to ceremonies, they re- 
 quest that the observance of holydays, 
 kneeling at the Lord's Supper, the use 
 of the surplice and of the cross at bap- 
 tism, as well as bowing at the name of 
 Jesus, may not be imposed on any who 
 scruple them : that such ceremonies as 
 have no foundation in law, as erecting 
 altars, bowing to them, &c., may be 
 discontinued. 
 
 § 6(52. (July 8, 1660.) To this peti- 
 tion the bishops made a formal reply, 
 arguing that none of these alterations 
 were necessary, and not declaring what 
 concessions they were prepared to make: 
 they state — 
 
 That the laws^ have already provided 
 for the four first requests, as far as is 
 consistent with the good of the church; 
 that the bishops desire that these par- 
 ticulars may be effectually remedied, 
 but are unwilling that private conven- 
 ticles and other abuses should be intro- 
 duced under colour of them ; that the 
 laws with respect to the Sabbath are 
 already more strict than in any other 
 reformed church. 
 
 That the diocesan form of govern- 
 ment has always existed in the church ; 
 that the personal cure of souls is the 
 office of the presbyter, and not that of 
 the bishop ; and that when the diocese 
 is large, the law has provided for the 
 appointment of suffragans ;* that there 
 is no objection to delegating authority; 
 and that though bishops have always 
 exercised ecclesiastical power, yet that 
 they have done so with the assistance 
 and advice of presbyters, as of their 
 deans and chapters, who were probably 
 appointed for this very purpose ; and 
 that the law will remedy illegeil acts of 
 bishops as well as those of others. That 
 with regard to Archbishop Usher's re- 
 
 3 Baxter's Life. 242. 
 
 " 26° Henry VHI. ch. 14. An act for i 
 tion and consecration of suffragans within this 
 realm. There are twenty-six places mentioned, 
 for which bishops sufTragan may be appointed. 
 The archbishop or bishop is to present two per- 
 sons to the king, of whom he is to nominate one 
 to be suffragan. The authority of such sufTragan 
 shall be limited by their commissions, which they 
 shall not exceed, on pain of pramumre. These 
 commissions are to be given by the bishop pre- 
 senting. This act was repealed 1, 2 Philip and 
 Mary, ch. 8, and revived 1° Eliz. ch. 1. Bishope 
 suffragans are spoken of in the thirty-fifth canon 
 of 1604. It would be very desirable that in popu- 
 lous dioceses they should be appointed now ; there 
 seems no legal reason why they may not b«. 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 CHUaCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 351 
 
 duction, it may be a great question, 
 whether it were not rather composed 
 with reference to existing animosities, 
 than as his own final and deliberate 
 choice ; that the election of suffragans 
 ; is already vested in the crown ; that 
 they understand not the term associa- 
 tions ;^ and that the use of oaths and 
 ) promises of obedience is expedient. 
 
 That the Liturgy appears suited to 
 I its object, and tolerably free from ob- 
 , jections ; that custom allows of the use 
 I of extempore prayer before sermon ; 
 i that they are ready to alter any thing 
 ' which shall be shown to be justly ofl^en- 
 sive, and object not to a reformation of 
 the Liturgy according to his majesty's 
 wish. 
 
 That the ceremonies are in them- 
 I selves not objectionable ; and that to 
 I change any of the laws about them 
 would be as likely to offend many sober 
 I persons as it would be to gain over 
 i those who contend for such matters. 
 Baxter''' himself drew up an answer 
 to this reply, but no use seems to have 
 been made of it. 
 
 § 66li. Some of the nonconformists 
 now contended, that it was useless to 
 proceed with any discussions, when it 
 was evident that no good could possibly 
 ' result ; but Baxter urged them to go 
 ' on, while there was even the most dis- 
 I tant hope of promoting peace, and they 
 i were confirmed in this view of the sub- 
 ' ject by a promise from the king, that 
 ( he would act the part of moderator be- 
 tween the contending factions, and sig- 
 nify his ideas of what concessions could 
 ' be made, by putting forth a declaration 
 which should be submitted to the in- 
 spection of both parties, before it was 
 published to the world. When the 
 draft of this declaration was put into 
 the hands of the nonconformists, many 
 animadversions were passed upon it, 
 I and a second paper was drawn up for 
 I the purpose of being presented to the 
 ■ king, but contained so much which was 
 I more likely to cause divisions than to 
 I promote peace, that it never passed be- 
 yond the hands of the chancellor. It 
 was the work of Baxter, and though 
 pruned of some of its most objection- 
 able passages by the interference of 
 Calamy and Reynolds, yet its sup- 
 
 ' See <> 612. ^ Baxter's Life, 248. 
 
 pression was judicious. One of the 
 arguments' in favour of a moderate 
 episcopacy is, that its adoption would 
 save those who had taken the covenant 
 from the sin of perjury, since they had 
 there sworn to root out prelacy only, 
 and not episcopacy. The chief de- 
 mands are, for a power of control over 
 the bishops, and a jurisdiction over theii 
 flocks, to be granted to the presbyters ; 
 that the Common Prayer .should not 
 only be reformed, but even very mode- 
 rately imposed ; and that the ceremonies 
 should be left indifferent. Complaints 
 are also made, that no minister can be 
 instituted without renouncing his pres- 
 byterian orders, and being re-ordained, 
 subscribing the oath of canonical obedi- 
 ence, and reading the disputed part of 
 the XXth article. 
 
 §604. The nonconformists* were now 
 desired to state what alterations in the 
 declaration they deemed absolutely ne- 
 cessary ; but since most of them were 
 inserted in the document itself, as it 
 was subsequently published, less notice 
 of them seems to be required.* (Oct. 
 22.) Three days before the publication 
 of the declaration^ there was a meeting 
 at Worcester House, the residence of 
 Lord Clarendon, where, while many 
 of the questions were discussed in a 
 conversational manner. Lord Clarendon 
 drew out a petition for toleration, which 
 had been presented by the anabaptists 
 and independents, and asked the advice 
 of the divines who were present con- 
 cerning it, wishing probably to cast on 
 the presbyterians the odium of a refusal, 
 if they who demanded such concessions 
 in favour of themselves were unwilling 
 to allow of toleration to others. Both 
 parties were silent for a time, till Bax- 
 ter, fearing lest, through their silence, 
 the petition should be granted, and that 
 the indulgence thus obtained would be 
 extended to the papists, spoke against 
 it ; so little were the principles of tole- 
 ration understood : indeed, a state of 
 things differing entirely from that of 
 the present day, almost prevents us 
 from estimating fairly the scruples of 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, 267 ; Hist, of Nonconformity, 
 10, &c. 
 < Baxter's Life, 275. 
 
 5 They may easily be traced by comparing Col- 
 lier's Eccl. Hist. p. 874; and Baxter's Own Life, 
 275, 259. 
 
 « Baxter's Life, 277. 
 
S52 HISTORY OF THE [Chap. XV. 
 
 the nonconformists themselves. When I That a commission shall be appoint- 
 we regard them as factious in their ' ed to review the Liturgy and to make 
 opposition to the ceremonies of the \ additional forms, which shall consist 
 church, as in truth we must do, we \ of an equal number from both sides, 
 forget that they had no liberty of join- In the mean time the king prays all 
 ing a dissenting congregation. j ministers to adopt as much conformity 
 
 § 605. (Oct. 25.) In this declaration i as they can, promising that none shall 
 the king' professes that he purposes to [be punished for the want of it; allow- 
 promote godliness, to encourage public j ing them to use or neglect the cross in 
 and private exercises of religion, to baptism, while parents who differ in 
 this particular from their own minister, 
 may procure another who agrees with 
 them, to christen their children : that 
 bowing at the name of Jesus shall be 
 left free, and the use of the surplice be 
 considered optional, except in cathe- 
 drals and colleges. That the oaths of 
 allegiance and supremacy shall suffice, 
 instead of that of canonical obedience 
 and subscription ; and that persons in- 
 stituted or taking degrees shall sub- 
 scribe to those only of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles which are doctrinal. 
 
 § 666. This declaration contains such 
 ample concessions to the wishes of the 
 nonconformists, that one is led to doubt 
 the sincerity of those who drew it 
 up ; for whatever might have been the 
 wishes of the king, if indeed he regard- 
 ed the matter at all, it was obvious that 
 no parliament ^vas likely to pass into 
 an act measures which would probably 
 displease the majority of the episcopal 
 divines and their adherents, and so ma- 
 terially change the constitution of the 
 church. The only immediate effect of 
 this declaration was partially to delay 
 for a season severities against the non- 
 conformists ; for the influence of the 
 court prevented the execution of the 
 act of uniformity of Queen Elizabeth: 
 but when endeavours were made, ^ (Nov. 
 6th,) on the motion of Sir Matthew Hale, 
 to pass it into a bill, it was thrown out, 
 and the convention was soon after dis- 
 solved. (Dec. 29th.) Both Houses, as 
 well as a large body of the London 
 clergy, presented addresses^ of thanks 
 to his majesty for his gracious conces- 
 sions ; and Baxter, who had previously 
 
 prevent the abuse of the Lord's day 
 and to cast out scandalous ministers 
 That he will endeavour to appoint good 
 bishops, who shall be preachers, and 
 that, where the dioceses are large, they 
 shall be assisted by suffragans. That 
 no bishop shall ordain or exercise any 
 ecclesiastical jurisdiction without the 
 assistance of presbyters. No chancel- 
 lor or official shall, as such, perform 
 any spiritual act of authority ; nor an 
 archdeacon do so, without the aid of 
 six presbyters, three chosen by the 
 presbyters of the archdeaconry, and 
 three nominated by the bishop. 
 
 That cathedral preferments shall be 
 filled by good men ; that a number of 
 presbyters elected by the presbyters of 
 the diocese, and equal in number to those 
 members of the chapter who shall be pre- 
 sent, shall assist the bishop in all eccle- 
 siastical functions, ordinations, &c. ; nor 
 shall any suffragan bishop ordain with- 
 out the presence of a sufficient number 
 of presbyters elected by their brethren. 
 
 That confirmation shall be carefully 
 performed with the consent of the 
 minister of the parish ; none shall be 
 admitted to the Lord's table without a 
 profession of faith and obedience, or 
 who has been guilty of scandalous 
 offences. 
 
 That rural deans, to be appointed as 
 heretofore by the bishop, shall hold 
 monthly meetings, with three or four 
 ministers of their deanery, for disci- 
 pline, and present to the bishop such 
 as they cannot influence by persuasion. 
 The rural dean shall superintend the 
 education of the children in the dean- 
 ery, seeing that the respective minis- j despaired of finding any thing yielded, 
 ters do their duty in preparing them j which might enable him to remain in 
 for confirmation. i his ministry, w^as so pleased, that he 
 
 That no bishop shall exercise any \ made up his own mind to exert all bis 
 arbitrary power, nor impose any thing influence in promoting uniformity. It 
 but according to law 
 
 Collier's Eccl. Hi^. U. I 
 
 3 Neat's Puritans, 
 Own Time, i. 305, s. 
 * Baxter's Life, 284, 
 
Chap. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 was about this time that the offer of 
 bishoprics' was made to Calamy, Bax- 
 ter, and Reynolds, who alone of the 
 three accepted the preferment." Cala- 
 my had been an antiepiscopalian, and 
 I it was naturally conceived by his 
 friends, that his accepting such a situa- 
 tion would be a disgrace to his former 
 professions, and to the cause of the 
 presbytery ; but Reynolds and Baxter 
 had always been friends to moderate 
 episcopacy, and if the declaration of 
 the king could be passed into a law, 
 there seemed no reason why they 
 should decline being placed on the 
 bench ; and Baxter, in his letter to 
 Lord Clarendon," says, that his chief 
 reason for refusing the promotion, was 
 the hope that he should more effectually 
 , advance the cause of peace, by retain- 
 I ing a station where his arguments in 
 j favour of episcopacy could be liable to 
 ' none of those suspicions to which they 
 , must be exposed, were he himself ex- 
 i alted into the office for which he be- 
 came the advocate. 
 ' § 667. (a. d. 1661.) In compliance 
 with the last clause in the declaration 
 [ of the king, a commission consisting of 
 twelve bishops and twelve noncon- 
 formist divines was appointed, (March 
 25th,) to whom nine of each party were 
 joined, in order to supply the places 
 of those who might be prevented from 
 attending. They* are instructed to 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, 281. 
 
 = Other prelerments were at the same time of- 
 fered to several of the same party. Echard, 781. 
 3 Baxter's Life, 282. 
 
 * The whole history of this conference is con- 
 tained in Baxter's own Life, 303—369, and the 
 History of Nonconformity. I am not aware of 
 any original account of it from the party of the 
 hishops. There are some observations about it 
 in Burnet's Own Time. The commissioners 
 were — 
 
 A. Frewen, abp. of York. 
 
 G. Sheldon, bp. of London. 
 J. Cosins, bp. of Durham. 
 
 J. Warner, bp. of Rochester. 
 
 H. King, bp. of Chichester. 
 H. Hinchman, bp. of Sarum. 
 G. Morley, bp. of Worcester. 
 R. Sanderson, bp. of Lincoln. 
 
 B. Lany, bp. of Peterborough. 
 B. Walton, bp. of Chester. 
 
 R. Sterne, bp. of Carlisle. 
 .1. Gauden, bp. of Exeter. 
 Ed. Reynolds, bp. of Norwich. 
 A. Tucknev. D. D. 
 J. Conant, D. D. 
 W. Spurstow, D. D. 
 J. Wallis, D. D. 
 Th. Manton, D. D. 
 
 " review the Common Prayer,' and to 
 make such alterations therein as shall 
 be thought most necessary ; and some 
 additional forms in the Scripture phrase 
 as near as might be suited to the na- 
 ture of the several parts of worship," — 
 " comparing the same with the most 
 ancient liturgies which have been used 
 in the church, in the primitive and 
 purest times." " To take into serious 
 consideration the several directions, 
 rules, and forms of prayer, and things 
 in the said book of Common Prayer 
 contained, and to advise and consult 
 upon and about the same, and the se- 
 veral objections and exceptions which 
 shall now be raised against the same ; 
 and if occasion be, to make such rea- 
 sonable and necessary alterations, cor- 
 rections, and amendments therein, as 
 shall be agreed upon to be needful and 
 expedient for the giving satisfaction 
 unto tender consciences, and the re- 
 storing and continuance of peace and 
 unity in the churches under our pro- 
 tection and government. But avoiding, 
 as much as may be, all unnecessary 
 alterations of the forms and Liturgy 
 wherewith the people are already ac- 
 quainted, and have so long received in 
 the church of Engl.md." 
 
 Their place of assembling was ap- 
 pointed to be the lodgings of the bishop 
 of London in the Savoy, and the com- 
 mission was to continue in force for four 
 calendar months, till the 2.5th of July. 
 
 §668. Their first meeting did not take 
 
 Edm. Calamy, B. D. 
 R. Baxter, Clerk. 
 A. Jackson. 
 Th. Case. 
 Sam. Clarke. 
 M. Newcomen. 
 The Supernumeraries were — 
 J. Earle, dean of Westminster. 
 P. Heyhn, D. D. 
 J. Hacket, D.D. 
 J. Barwick, D. D. 
 P. Gunning, D. D. 
 J. Pierson, D. D. ' 
 Th. Pierce, D. D. 
 
 A. Sparrow, D. D. 
 H. Thorndike, D. D. 
 Th. Horton, D. D. 
 Th. Jacomb, D. D. 
 W. Bales. 
 
 J. Rawlinson. 
 W. Cooper. 
 J. Lightfoot, D. D. 
 J. Collins. 
 
 B. Woodbridge. 
 R. Drake. 
 
 6 Baxter's Life, 304. 
 
254 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 place till April 15th, and then Sheldon, 
 bishop of London, informed his oppo- 
 nents, that as the bishops had no wish 
 for any alteration, the first step must be 
 a statement in writing, on the part of 
 the nonconformists, of all which they 
 desired might be altered or inserted. 
 This proposal was contrary to their 
 wishes and expectations, since they 
 hoped by mutual communication to dis- 
 cover how far concessions might be 
 practicable ; but was peremptorily in- 
 sisted on by the bishop, who declared 
 that nothing could be done till all the 
 exceptions, alterations, and additions 
 were brought in at once. This step 
 was likely to produce difTerences of 
 opinion among the nonconformists them- 
 selves, and to frighten the bishops into 
 rejecting every proposal, when they 
 beheld the extent of what was required 
 to be changed : and it may be pre- 
 sumed' to have been adopted by the 
 bishops for this very purpose, as it is 
 hardly consistent with the instructions 
 of the commission. Nor must it be for- 
 gotten, that three weeks had been lost 
 between the date of the commission and 
 the first meeting; a delay which could 
 hardly have been accidental. The office 
 of drawing up the additional forms was 
 assigned to Baxter, who had been most 
 anxious on this point, and the statement 
 of the objections to the Common Prayer 
 was intrusted to a committee ; but Bax- 
 ter was so much more rapid in his pro- 
 ceedings, that lie not only composed a 
 form of prayer of very considerable 
 length, l)\it brought in a table of objec- 
 tions almost as large as that of the com- 
 mittee. 
 
 § ()()!). It will not be easy to assign 
 any good excuse or reason why Baxter 
 should frame a form of prayer entirely 
 new. when the commission only ex- 
 tended to some additional forms; he 
 could lianlly bi^ foolish enough to sup- 
 ])Ose that the bishops would adopt it, 
 while the mere act of offering it could 
 not fail to irritate them. He himself 
 says,- that he wished to leave a standing 
 witness to posterity that he and his 
 friends were not adverse to a settled 
 form ; and as the composition was his 
 own, he was probably induced to think 
 
 > Burnet's Own Time, i. 309. 
 2 Life, 306. 
 
 more highly of the work than it de- 
 served.' The method which he pur- 
 sued in its composition, was to follow 
 the general plan of the Lord's Prayer 
 and the Ten Commandments ; nor can 
 it be denied that it is an extraordinary 
 production, considering the time he was 
 occupied about it, which did not exceed 
 a fortnight. It abounds in a copious 
 and flowing style, full of Scripture me- 
 taphors ; but to those who love the close 
 and simple forms of the services of our 
 church, and their correspondence with 
 the brief and distinct petitions which we 
 meet with in Scripture, it will appear 
 to be by no means free from the worst 
 of faults, that of preserving the phraseo- i 
 logy of the Bible, and applying it in an , 
 indefinite and perplexed manner, which \ 
 to an educated man of a poetical turn i 
 may prove edifying, but must be ge- ; 
 nerally unintelligible to the mass of any i 
 congregation. ■* JB 
 § 670. Upon consideration, it wafl 
 thought more prudent to send in thd^ 
 objections to the Common Prayer, be- 
 fore this document was offered, and 
 they were delivered on the fourth of 
 May : and this liturgy,'* when it had 
 been subjected to the examination of 
 the committee, and undergone some^ 
 trifling alterations, was presented to then 
 bishops, and accompanied with an ad-4 
 dress which bore the title of a petition- 
 for peace, a denomination which it ill 
 
 ' He says, (Life, 335,) when speaking of an ob- 
 jection raised against granting the minister leave 
 to pray "in these words." "or to this sense," 
 which is always the case in this form, that if this 
 clause, "or to this sense," had been dashed oat, 
 ii had been beyond exception. And again: "They 
 (I. e. the nonconformists) offer also such forms as 
 more unquestionable (than the Common Prayer,) 
 as to their congruity to the word of God. and to 
 the nature of the several parts of worship." (Hist 
 Nonconformity, 201.) It is printed in the History 
 of Nonconformity, 52, &.c. 
 
 ^ Among many other objectionable points it may 
 I be remarked, that the confession runs into parti- 
 ] culars which could hardly ever apply to the ma- 
 'joriiy of those present. The following metaphors 
 ! are introduced ; " Justice may run down as water, 
 and righteousness as a mighty stream."' "Oh, 
 habitation of justice and mountain of holine.ss!" 
 In the directions about the sermons, it is ordered, 
 that the preacher shall speak "from faith' and 
 holy experience in himself," " with convincing 
 evidence and persuading importunity;" objects 
 which, however desirable, are hardly attainable 
 I by means of a rubric. He calls a godfather, not a 
 sponsor, but a proparent. Surely a man must be 
 very ignorant of human nature, or very perverse, 
 who attempts to reconcile high-cbuTchraen by 
 these means. 
 I 5 Life, 334. 
 
^HAP. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 255 
 
 leserved. It was drawn up by Baxter, 
 ind read aloud to the bishops, who, ac- 
 ording to his own observation about it, 
 vould never have yielded to this pro- 
 )0sal, had they all known how long and 
 low ungrateful its contents were. It is 
 ilrawn up in a strong and nervous style' 
 )f oratory, which, while it advises mo- 
 leration, seems rather to threaten those 
 [vho neglect it than to pray for it. His 
 argument' is, that his brethren dare not 
 ;onform about things which they esteem 
 "ar from indifferent, for fear of God's 
 j.vrath. He talks of their tenderness 
 for the honour of Christ, speaks of the 
 Jiimerciful impositions of the bishops, 
 ;ven if that for which they stood were 
 Df God, and urges them, instead of 
 pressing conformity because it was law, 
 lo join with the nonconformists in pe- 
 ' titioning the king and parliament that 
 it might be no longer law. He reminds 
 them of the number of ministers who 
 must suffer, of people who must grieve 
 even for their souls, because their 
 teachers could not submit to the burden 
 of re-ordination, subscription, and the 
 ceremonies ; and appeals to their readi- 
 ness to suffer ir. their worldly interests, 
 as a proof of the sincerity of their pro- 
 fessions. These arguments would be 
 irresistible, if there were no such feeling 
 as that of prejudice in the world ; but 
 surely the nonconformists might fairly 
 have questioned whether their own zeal 
 for changing what was established in 
 the church were quite free from evil 
 motives. Men's passions often carry 
 them against their interests. The di- 
 lemma to which they would reduce the 
 bishops would turn with ecjual force 
 against themselves; for if they would 
 but comply with the orders of the church, 
 which had been no new imposition, they 
 might avoid all these evils ; and the 
 bishops might say with equal truth, that 
 they dared not innovate. The great 
 evil, however, of the address was, that 
 he who wrote the petition for peace did 
 not try to conciliate. 
 
 § 671. The objections raised against 
 the Common Prayer- are so numerous, 
 and many of them of so little importance, 
 that it would but weary the reader to 
 state them at length, while it is difficult 
 
 ' Hist, of Noacoiifoi mitv. 27. 
 ' Baxter's Life, 316. Hist, of Nonconformity, 
 152. 
 
 to classify or abridge them without 
 oiTiitting something which may be 
 thought iiuportant. They premise that 
 it is desirable that no matter of mere 
 opinion be left in a general formulary, 
 for fear of causing divisions ; and re- 
 quest that, as the Prayer Book was 
 originally framed with a view of com- 
 prehending the Roman Catholics, it 
 may now be altered so as to satisfy 
 those who differ only with regard to 
 ceremonies. On this point they re- 
 quested that the use of the surplice, of 
 the cross in baptism, of kneeling at the 
 sacrament, of the ring in marriage, as 
 well as all subscriptions about them, 
 might be left indifferent; and that the 
 rubric concerning the dresses might be 
 omitted ; that the observance of saints' 
 days might be optional ; and that such 
 expressions as implied any propriety 
 of fasting in Lent might be erased. 
 
 Under the second head we must ar- 
 range such points as bear indirectly on 
 discipline ; and here, with regard to the 
 Lord's supper, they wished that the 
 comiuunicants should be required to 
 give longer previous notice of their 
 intention of receiving; and that none 
 should be admitted to the table, who 
 did not make a public profession of 
 faith and obedience ; and that, in order 
 to give time for this, the exhortations 
 should be read on the Sunday before, 
 and not at the time of celebration.^ 
 That the rubric, instead of enjoining 
 every one to receive three times in the 
 year, should direct that the celebration 
 of the Lord's Supper should take place 
 at least so often ; that the rubric about 
 transubstantiation should be restored ; 
 and that, in the visitation of the sick, 
 the curate should be left at liberty to 
 administer or refuse the Lord's Supper, 
 according to his discretion. 
 
 In baptism, they requested not only 
 that a longer previous notice should be 
 required, but that no minister should be 
 forced to baptize the children of atheists, 
 infidels, heretics, or unbaptized persons, 
 nor of those who were excommuni- 
 cated, fornicators, or otherwise noto- 
 rious and scandalous sinners. That 
 godfathers should not be required, but 
 
 ' N. B. — The admonition which is now read 
 on the Sunday l)efore, was, till the last review, 
 read in the service itself : this point was changed 
 in consequence of the objections now raised. 
 
m 
 
 that parents, or proparents, should 
 make the answers in their own names. 
 
 That such expressions in the services 
 as seemed to imply that all the congre- 
 gation are regenerated or converted 
 should be changed, as well as the rubric 
 which asserts the undoubted salvation 
 of all baptized children dying before 
 the commission of sin.' That in Con- 
 firmation the children should not be 
 admitted without the consent of the 
 minister ; that the expressions in the 
 Burial of the Dead, and the Churching 
 of Women, which cannot properly be 
 Used of every individual, should be 
 altered to more general terms. 
 
 In remodelling the Prayer Book, as 
 a form of public devotions, they re- 
 quested that, in order to give a unity to 
 the whole, the frequent breaks and in- 
 terruptions might be omitted. That 
 the Litany, for instance, instead of be- 
 ing composed of many separate peti- 
 tions, might be consolidated into one 
 long prayer, and that the same plan 
 might be adopted with regard to other 
 collects and prayers, and in reading the 
 commandments ; by doing which many 
 repetitions, which occur in the services, 
 might be avoided, particularly the fre- 
 quent use of the Lord's Prayer and the 
 Gloria Patri, &c. It was desired that 
 greater liberty of altering the prayers, 
 and of introducing even his own, might 
 be conceded to the officiating minister ; 
 and, besides numerous verbal emenda- 
 tions, that the new translation of the 
 Bible might be adopted in the texts 
 quoted in the Prayer Book, and that 
 none of the Apocrypha might be read 
 as lessons. 
 
 § 673. After some time, the bishops 
 sent in an answer^ to the nonconform- 
 
 ' It is curious tliat this rubric was originally 
 placed as a part of the service for Confirmation, 
 to prevent people from esteeming baptism incom- 
 plete without that rite. " 'I'hat no man shall 
 think that any detriment shall come to the child- 
 ren by deferring their confirmation." This ob- 
 ject is not now answered, while the expression, 
 "certain by God's word," misrht as well as not 
 be applied to a proposition which, however true, 
 must be proved by reasoning on the analogy of 
 God's dispensations, and not from any one or 
 more texts of Scripture, adduced directly in its 
 confirmation. Baxter's (Life, 428) observation on 
 it is, "It is strange that when infant baptism it- 
 self is commonly said by these men to be a tradi- 
 tion, and not commanded or found in Scripture, 
 that yet they find it certain by the word of God, 
 that baptized infants are saved." 
 
 2 I am not aware that this answer of the bishops 
 
 [Chap. Xf. 
 
 lists, in which they observe that the 
 most effectual method of showing gra- 
 I titude to the king would be to comply 
 with his wishes in conforming to the 
 Liturgy, a step which at the same time 
 would be most likely to promote the 
 peace of the church. That humility 
 on the part of the governed would in- 
 duce them to respect their rulers, by 
 obeying what was ordered ;. while to 
 pretend to scruples, without proving 
 the points at issue to be unlawful, was 
 virtually to destroy all law ; and that 
 if scruples were to be consulted, those 
 of the conformists ought not to be dis- 
 regarded, who would justly be offended 
 at unnecessary alterations. That the 
 Prayer Book had been drawn up with 
 great care, and nothing introduced into 
 it which might not be proved to be 
 taken from the word of God, or the 
 practice of the primitive church ; that 
 if any thing of this sort could be pointed 
 out, the bishops themselves wished to 
 see it changed ; but that it could not 
 be necessary to make innovations for 
 the sake of satisfying those who were 
 themselves the cause that the services 
 were disliked. That there must be 
 some general rule with regard to cere- 
 monies, in which, except under peculiar 
 circumstances, the majority of any so- 
 ciety must be bound to obey the judg- 
 ment and decisions of their superiors, 
 since offence unnecessarily taken by a 
 weak brother could be no reason for 
 abrogating the general law of God, 
 which established the duty of subordi- 
 nation ; that the ceremonies alluded to 
 were in themselves ancient and unob- 
 jectionable, and that the observance of 
 Lent, and the saints' days, had been a 
 universal practice in the church, and 
 ought not now to be rejected. 
 
 In the Lord's Supper, the bishops 
 seem to have been ready to grant so 
 much as would allow the curate more 
 time for admonition, and to have quietly 
 passed over the rest. They abate no- 
 thing of the rubric concerning receiv- 
 ing three times in the year, and urge 
 the ministers to trj- to prevent the un- 
 fitness of the communicants by their 
 
 is anywhere printed at length. I believe the 
 whole of it is quoted by Baxter, as he answers il : 
 (Hist. Nonconformity, 187, &c.:) from whence I 
 have taken it. A copious abstract is given bf 
 ColUer, ii. 879. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
IHAP. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 \vn exertions. They add, that in hap- 
 sm too much power ought not to be 
 ;ft in the hands of the curate, lest he 
 light use it uncharitably towards the 
 hildren, whose right to baptism does 
 iiOt depend merely on their parents: 
 hat the use of godfathers' is ancient, 
 .nd need not be laid aside. 
 
 That the use of the term regenera- 
 ion' is according to the Holy Scriptures, 
 tnd since the child can do nothing to 
 linder the efficacy of the sacrament, it 
 s charitably to be presumed that the 
 )aptism is effectual. That in speaking 
 )f others who are not notorious ofTend- 
 !rs, (for these indeed are already ex- 
 cluded, ) charity denominates them such 
 IS they ought to be. That, in confirma- 
 ion, the consent of the minister is very 
 Droper, but still ought not to tie down 
 he hands of the bishop, in case he 
 sees fit to administer the rite without it. 
 
 That the responses, which are ob- 
 jected to as interruptions, are very 
 useful in keeping up the attention and 
 exciting the devotion of the congrega- 
 tion, and consistent with the practice 
 of the early Christian and Jewish 
 churches. That the connection of the 
 prayers seems to be good, and that 
 there is no reason why the different 
 attributes of God should not be brought 
 in before particular petitions, each end- 
 ing with an address through the merits 
 and mediation of Christ. That the 
 Gloria Patri, as a short confession of 
 the Trinity, cannot be a burden to any 
 Liturgy, and that the Lord's Prayer 
 occurs nowhere above twice in the 
 same service. That the concession of 
 greater liberty to the officiating minister 
 would destroy the very object of a set 
 
 ' It. may be observed that the nonconformisis 
 are probably nearer to the custom of the primi- 
 tive church, in their requests, than the present 
 rubric. .See Bingham's Ant. Index, Sponsors. 
 
 2 It is unfortunate that sulficienl attention has 
 not been paid to the ditFerent senses of this word. 
 If individuals assign to it a secondary meanins;, in 
 which it was not intended to be used in the bap- 
 tismal service, their o'ljcctions to this service are 
 due to themselves. Probably no sincere member 
 of the church of England ever thought that all 
 baptized persons were living under the influence 
 of the Spirit of God, or that the mind of any one 
 could be effectually turned to God, except through 
 the operation of the Holy Ghost ; and when this 
 is laid down, there is no great theoretical difTer- 
 ence between those who disagree on this point. 
 The collect for Christmas day is the best com- 
 ment on our baptismal service as to this particular. 
 
 form of prayer. That it is not neces- 
 sary to exclude the reading of the 
 Apocrypha, since the sufficiency of 
 Scripture does not supersede the neces- 
 sity of other instructions, as of ser- 
 mons, &c. 
 
 This answer is terminated by a list of 
 concessions, which, after all, are not con- 
 siderable, and will be noticed in the His- 
 tory of the Common Prayer;' but it 
 may be remarked, that three of these 
 promised alterations were never intro- 
 duced ; viz., the insertion of the whole 
 of the preface to the Ten Command- 
 ments in the coiTimunion service, " I am 
 the Lord thy God who brought thee out 
 of the land of Egypt," &c. ; in the mar- 
 riage service, the change of the word, 
 " with my body I thee worship," into 
 " I thee honour ;" and in the burial ser- 
 vice, the omission of the epithets " sure 
 and certain" hope ; the two last of which 
 seem to be desirable, nor am I acquainted 
 with any reason why they were not ef- 
 fected. 
 
 § 673. To this answer of the bishops, 
 the other party sent in a long reply,* 
 containing the chief arguments which 
 may be adduced on the several topics, 
 but drawn up in so violent a tone, that 
 it could only tend to widen a breach 
 which was already too large.' When 
 this paper was presented' to the bishops, 
 
 3 ^ 749, <!. " Hist, of Ncinconf. 1R3, &c. 
 
 5 'i'he preface was written by Calamy, and 
 states the points in which the bishops had not 
 made atiy concessions. (Baxter's Lite, 335.) The 
 answer itself was composed by Baxier, but is too 
 long, and enters too much into detail to admit of 
 any abridgment which shall convey an adequate 
 idea of its contents. It takes up one hundred and 
 l(iriy-two closely printed 8vo. pages: he calls it a 
 plain answer — it is, alas, (ar too plain to do any 
 good. He says (Hist. Nonconf. 198) in it, "Love 
 and tenderness are not used to express themselves 
 by hurting and destroying men for nothing:" " we 
 force not all lo use spectacles or crutches, (Ibid. 
 233.) because some are purblind or lame." He 
 calls the Cominon Prayer "a dose of opium, 
 (Ibid. 213,) which is likely to cure the disease of 
 divisions by extinguishing life, and uniting all in a 
 dead religion." He says, "Take all the world 
 for saints, (Ibid. 316,) and use them accordingly, 
 and blot out the doctrine of reproof, excommuni- 
 cation, and damnation from your Bible." It is 
 impossible that he could have even hoped for good 
 from such expressions. He adds, " You are all 
 (Ibid. 322) unacquainted with the subject of which 
 you speak." " The world (Ibid. 324) will see that 
 indeed we differ in greater things than ceremonies 
 and forms of prayer." " All tends lo take away 
 the difference (Ibid. 325) between the precious and 
 vile, between those that fear God, and that fear 
 him not." 
 
 6 Baxter's Life, 335. 
 
 y2 
 
258 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV. 
 
 Baxter observed, that they seemed of- 
 fended at its length ; and as he suspected 
 that no one, except those who were com- 
 missioned to answer the papers, ever 
 read them, he strongly urged that the 
 few remaining days might be employed 
 in friendly disputations. When this 
 point was conceded, he tried to induce 
 his opponents to state their objections to 
 his own form of Liturgy, but could not 
 obtain his request ; for the bishops main- 
 tained their vantage ground, and desired 
 that they might sec the necessity of any 
 alteration clearly established, before they 
 proceeded to discussions as to the nature 
 of them. This disputation was com- 
 mitted to Drs. Pierson, Gunning, and 
 Sparrow, against Bates, Jacomb, and 
 Baxter ; but the proceedings were car- 
 ried on with so much confusion, that no 
 good result could be expected from it. 
 
 Towards the end of the debate Bishop 
 Cosins brought forward a proposal as 
 coming from some considerable person, 
 by which an end might be put to the 
 dispute, if the nonconformists would 
 state ^vh■dt they considered to be "sinful" 
 in the Common Prayer, and what they 
 deemed "expedient to be altered." To 
 this proposal Baxter presently sent in an 
 answer, wherein he mentioned eight 
 particulars as sinful.* 
 
 1. That no minister might be admitted 
 '0 baptize without using the cross. 
 
 2. Or to exercise any office, if he dare 
 not wear a surplice. 
 
 3. That none be admitted to the com- 
 munion, that dare not kneel. 
 
 4. That ministers are forced to pro- 
 nounce all baptized infants regenerate. 
 
 5. To administer the Lord's Supper 
 to unfit persons, and they forced to re- 
 ceive it. 
 
 6. To absolve the unfit in absolute 
 terms. 
 
 7. To give thanks for all whom they 
 tury, " as brethren whom God has de- 
 livered and taken to himself." 
 
 8. That none may preach without sub- 
 scribing a declaration, that the Book of 
 Common Prayer and Articles containeth 
 in it nothing contrary to the word of 
 God. 
 
 There were, indeed, two more, which 
 he omitted at the request of his col- 
 leagues : the imposition of the Liturgy, 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, 341, &c. 
 
 and the subscription of canonical obe- 
 dience. 
 
 § 674. This step naturally offended 
 the bishops, who justly reasoned, that if 
 the thing imposed were not in itself 
 contrary to the word of God, the impo- 
 sition of it could hardly be sinful, how- 
 ever inexpedient an individual might 
 esteem it. The disputation was subse- 
 quently carried on in a syllogistic form, 
 and the only point clearly demonstrated 
 seems to be, the absurdity of expecting 
 to settle differences of opinion by such 
 a method. Baxter appears to have beep 
 far too metaphysical in his distinctions; 
 and though the fault, in a great measure, 
 lies in the attempt itself,^ yet his perti- 
 nacious denial of what to most men must 
 appear to be true, will induce us, per- 
 haps, to believe that he mistrusted his 
 own conviction of the sinfulness of ike 
 impositions. 
 
 Through these numerous delayt, 
 which were perhaps created on purpose 
 by the episcopal partj\ and certainly 
 much augmented by the temper with 
 which Baxter carried on his part of the 
 dispute, the time which was assigned 
 for the conference had expired, and all 
 that was effected was, that the bishops 
 had consented to some unimportant al- 
 terations ; the nonconformists had shown 
 what they wished for, in the modification 
 of the church ; and both parties had be- 
 come exasperated against each other. 
 
 § (!75. After the termination of the 
 conference, the nonconformist divines* 
 waited on the lord chancellor, who ad- 
 vised them to draw up an address to his 
 majesty, containing an account of all 
 that had taken place, and requested that 
 he might himself first see it. He seems 
 to have been most offended with Baxter, 
 and to have thought that if he had urged 
 his proposals with tem])er, and a spirit 
 of conciliation, all might have been well.* 
 And, indeed, Baxter appears throughout 
 the whole transaction to have given up 
 the hope, and with it, perhaps, almost 
 the wish, of reconciling the two parties. 
 He earnestly desired peace, but it was 
 only on his own terms, and be would 
 
 2 Wahon's Life of Sanderson ; Wordsworth's 
 Ecc. Biog. V. 529, «dc. 
 
 3 Baxter's Life, 364. 
 
 Lord Clarendon observed that if Baxter bad 
 been as fal as Dr. Manton, all might have gone on 
 well. Baxter's Life, 364. 
 
HAP. XV.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 859 
 
 bncede nothing to his opponents. With 
 lis feeling, it soon became his object to 
 ';nder the dispute, in the eyes of the 
 ''orld, as favourable as possible to his 
 fwn party, and to leave a clear testi- 
 .I'lony to posterity,* that the bishops had 
 'ejected that which, in his opinion, was 
 •ssential to Christianity. He readily 
 jUt himself forward in the contest, with 
 view of screening- his brethren from 
 uiimosity of the bishops, and es- 
 ■<i it a cause for which he could 
 ii'tably sufler, being no less dis- 
 r~ (1 to become a willing martyr in the 
 iu<i' of charity than he would havt- 
 ecu in that of iailh, had he been called 
 0 the trial. One cannot but admire the 
 'leroic temper of sucii a man, but wc 
 nust be very cautious not to mistake all 
 'hese feelings for pure Christianity. In 
 'his case, they were doubtless mixed up 
 jv'ith much which was Christian ; but 
 3axter never once thoun-ht of sacrificing 
 |n the cause of Christ that which a good 
 nan values most highly of any ihm<,r in 
 his w.irlil, the o-ood Cpiiiion of his nwii 
 nirty, and the admiration of liis fn.Muls ;- 
 lad he yielded all that in his consci.Mu-c 
 lie could yield, the more violent meui- 
 ')ers of his party would perhaps have 
 Counted him a traitor to their cause, but 
 .he peace of the church of England 
 ivould probably have been promoted, 
 ind the service of real religion have 
 been advanced. 
 
 § G70. When we view the whole ques- 
 tion, at this distance of time, it is impos- 
 sible not to wish^ that several concessions 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, 30(5. 
 ' 2 (Seidell's Table 'I'alk. " Clian<;inj,' Sides," 
 iH-i "When the pope nirered Liulier any pre- 
 ferment in the chiireli which he chose to have, 
 Luther answered, if lie had olfercd half a.s nuich 
 at first he would liave accepied it ; but now he 
 had fjone so far he could not come back. In truth, 
 he had made himself a srealer thing than they 
 could make him : the German priucee courted 
 him ; lie was to become the author of a sect, ever 
 after to be called Lutherans, yo have our 
 preachers done that are against the bishops ; they 
 have made themselves greater with the people 
 than they can be made the other way." 
 
 'If the whole services had been shortened; the 
 movning service so arranged, by a new rubric, per- 
 haps, that there might have been more unity in 
 the various parts of which it was composed, and 
 repetiiions had lieen thus avoided, particularly with 
 regard to the Lord's Prayer ;— if there had been a 
 distinct invocation for the aid of the Holy Ghost 
 to assist our prayers, an extension, perhaps, of the 
 latter part of the Absolution, in the commence- 
 ment of the duty of the day; ; — had the method of 
 (Ustributing the elements in the Lord's Supper 
 
 had been made, on points which, while 
 they affect not the doctrine, or discipline, 
 of the church, have been, and are, offen- 
 sive to many who conscientiously adhere 
 to what is ordered ; and which, had they 
 been grtmtrd at the period of which 
 we are spcakiiiq-, might probably have 
 tended to conciliation. But the failure 
 in the success of this conference must 
 be attributed chiefly to Baxter. He Avas 
 anxious to give the priest a negative 
 power over his bishop; that there should 
 be a certain number of elected presby- 
 ters, without whom the bishop should 
 not be allowed to perform certain offices. 
 The declaration had conceded the point, 
 and Baxter wished to introduce some- 
 thing of this nature into the rubric ; and 
 he was not contetited tliat the power of 
 the priest over the people sliould be con- 
 fined to persatisive government alone; 
 and when he began to argue on the 
 point with the bisliops, he became warm, 
 and used expressions which would have 
 i)een more \visely avoided. 
 
 § 077. The question about discipline 
 is one of opinion ; oih" in which men 
 may arrive at very ditierent conclusions 
 without adopting very discordant prin- 
 ciples. Discipline is probably best 
 preserved by vesting the supreme au- 
 thority in the hands of the immediate 
 governors, subject only to an appeal to 
 a higher tribunal and to the control of 
 public opinion. Discipline is different 
 from government. The object of dis- 
 cipline is to make the body subjected 
 to it as effective as possible ; of govern- 
 ment, to render the members governed 
 as free and happy as can be contrived. 
 But almost every body of men partakes 
 of two characters, and must be subjected 
 to discipline as well as government. A 
 country which does not submit to both, 
 will soon find itself overpowered by 
 some neighbouring state which has 
 been trained to combine its forces and 
 
 been altered, in case of a large number of com- 
 municants, a custom which many clergymen 
 have, from necessity, been forced to introduce; — 
 had the godfathers in baptism answered in their 
 own names, or had a rubric been inserted, explain- 
 ing the nature of the promises which they make; 
 — had the words, " with my body I thee worship," 
 " in sure and certain hope ;" and, '• it is certain 
 from God's word," in the several services, been 
 changed ; — had the reading the Apocrypha been 
 discontinued, and the tables of lessons new framed ; 
 the Prayer Book would probably have been 
 equally edifying, and less liable to objections, 
 
260 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XT. 
 
 to be directed in its operations hy dis-' 
 cipline. And no one in England can 
 help feeling that discipline should never 
 be separated from the principles of 
 government ; that every member of 
 even the army or navy, when subjected 
 to a court martial, is still an English- 
 man, to whom the laws of mere disci- 
 pline cannot be applied strictly without 
 injustice. 
 
 From the connection between church 
 and state which exists in this country, 
 the discipline of the church of England 
 is of a most complicated nature, and 
 can hardly be regarded as either disci- 
 pline or government, but must be 
 viewed as a mixture of both. The dif- 
 ferences between those who advocate 
 or oppose reformation in the constitu- 
 tion of our church, chiefly arise from 
 this circumstance, that the one regard 
 the matter as a question of discipline, 
 the other as purely of government. 
 The early state of the Christian church 
 required discipline rather than govern- 
 ment ; and the difficulties with which 
 they were surrounded rendered the 
 preservation of discipline among Chris- 
 tians of a given society comparatively 
 easy. Baxter's idea of a parish was, 
 that the members of it should be under 
 the control of some minister, to whom 
 they voluntarily submitted, and perhaps 
 some of the opposite party might have 
 looked upon the church establishment as 
 simply a branch of the body politic ; 
 but surely it is to regard the church of 
 England very superficially to confine 
 our notions to either of these views.* 
 
 § 678. It is highly desirable that the 
 external circumstances of a clergyman 
 should, as much as possible, enable 
 him " constantly to speak the truth, and 
 
 ' If the right of presentation to a living belong 
 to an individual, and the discipline exercised by a 
 bishop wrongfully deprive the clerk presented toil 
 of his freehold, the patron receives an injury for 
 which he ought to have a remedy from the civil 
 court. And yet, surely the bishop ought to be 
 guarded in the exercise of his discipline, or he may 
 be prevented from doing his duty conscientiously. 
 The adjustment of this is the real difficulty with 
 regard to discipline over the clergy. The discipline 
 over the laity is a totally different question. 
 
 boldly to rebuke vice," without his 
 suffering for the truth's sake ; and it 
 cannot be imagined that any inter- 
 ference of the bishop's authority at aH 
 tends to prevent this freedom, of action 
 on the part of the inferior members of 
 the church ; and it may fairly be ques- 
 tioned whether the use of a judicial 
 power vested in the parish priest would 
 advance the cause of vital Christianity. 
 As far as the hortative influence of pri- 
 vate admonition, there can be no doubt 
 that it was then, and is now, open to a 
 conscientious minister of God's word to 
 speak the most unpleasant truths to 
 any erring members of his flock ; yet 
 certainly no wise government will in- 
 vest a spiritual person with such author- 
 ity as will be likely to induce him to 
 tyrannize over his brethren. The 
 minister of the gospel possesses an 
 authority which is not derived from 
 man, and for the use of w-hich he is not 
 accountable to the civil magistrate; 
 but whenever he outsteps the limits of 
 spiritual admonition, he will probably 
 injure the cause of religion. If any 
 civil disabilities be attached to ecclesi- 
 astical censures, of the wisdom of which 
 there is much doubt, surely it is more 
 reasonable to confine the power of in- 
 flicting these censures on the people, to 
 as few persons as possible, and, as far 
 as can be, to remove it from the pastor. 
 
 § 679. When the conference' was 
 over, the nonconformists drew up a 
 petition to the king, containing a brief 
 statement of what had been done, and 
 an exposition of their principles. In 
 this they declared, that if the ciyil 
 magistrate commanded that %vhich they 
 believed to be wrong in its own nature 
 and offensive to God, it became their 
 duty to examine into the question care- 
 fully, and, if unconvinced, to suffer 
 patiently such penalties as were affixed 
 to disobedience. This document, too, 
 was drawn up by Baxter, but two of the 
 most vehement passages had been pre- 
 viously erased by the lord chancellor 
 and the earl of Manchester. 
 
 5 Baiter's Life, 366. Hist, of Nonconf. 333. 
 
I 
 
 \UF. XVI.1 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 861 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 FROM THE SAVOY CONFERENCE TO THE END OF THE REIGN, 
 
 1661—1685. 
 
 jbsidy granted by the clergy. 702. Act of uniformiiy. 703. Difficulties 
 jperly at a restoration; (*) on cliuroh property. 704. Observations on 
 
 01. Convocation; the la 
 
 I connected with church proper 
 the act of uniformity. 705. Treatment of the nonconlormisi.-;. 70(i, 707. Injustice of it. 708. 
 Causes of passing this act. 709. Cliarles friendly to toleration. 710. Ejection of the nonconform- 
 ists; re-ordinaiion.^ 711. Ejected clergy ; Acts of Parliament. 712. Corporation and test ; select 
 vestry act. 713. Cor>venticle act. 714. Five-mile act. 715. Attempts at a comprehension. 716. 
 Effects of the ill-treatment of the nonconformists. 717. The nonconformists not to be e.xcused. 
 718. Letters of the foreign divines ; evils on both sides. 719. Latiiudiiiarians. 720. Laws against 
 the Roman Catholics. 721. Plots; Oates's. 722. Dangerheld's. 723. Danger of the introduction 
 of popery. 724. The commons and nonconformists averse to toleration. 725. Exclusion of the 
 Roman Catholics froin power. 726. Policy ot the reign. 727. Plague. 728. Fire of London. 
 729. Oxford decree. 730. Lord Clarendon; his pohcy, character, and late. 731. Persecution. 
 732. Character of Charles. 733. Immorality arising from this reign. 
 
 May 8th, 1661, and its chief acts con- 
 sist in a review and alteration of the 
 Common Prayer Book, of which an ac- 
 count is subsequently given,' and in an 
 attempt to remodel the canons. A com- 
 mission under the great seal was read 
 in the Upper House on June 19th, in 
 order to give them authority to proceed 
 on this work, and many consultations 
 were held on the subject, but after all, 
 nothing was ever done. The bishops 
 appear to hare framivJ articles of visi- 
 tation for their own use in their dioceses, 
 which were intended to be adopted in 
 comihon in both provinces. The same 
 convocation continued to sit till Sept. 
 !()!)(), and as its proceedings were not 
 very important in any other respect 
 than in the alteration of the Cottimon 
 Prayer, it may be as well at once to state 
 generally what was done in it. A form 
 of ])rayer for the consecration of 
 churches* was examined, but laid aside, 
 though the drawing it up had been com- 
 mitied to Cosins, and afterwards re- 
 ferred to a committee of four bishops.* 
 A Greek and Latin grammar' was 
 also onlereil to be prepared by Barwick, 
 ;M'.jlocul.)r to the Lower House, who 
 was directed to consult any one except 
 .ichouhiiasters, the persons most fit to 
 judge of it. \ subsidy of four shillings 
 on the pound," to be raised in four years, 
 was trraiited ; remarkable, as this was 
 the last occasion on which the clergy 
 were taxed in this manner. The ori- 
 ginal object of the English convocation 
 
 2 Pee ^ij, \ 'al^ynod. Aug. 107, 118. 
 
 •< ^Jp.e ^ 7.50. 5 Synod. Ang. 114. 
 
 §701. In reviewing the history of the 
 allure of the Savoy conference, we 
 nust certainly attribute it more to the 
 lature of the discussion itself than to 
 liny fault in the individuals who carried 
 t on. When men, entertaining opi- 
 iaions at total variance v/ith each other, 
 meet for the purpose of discussing 
 them, unless they are possessed of ex- 
 traordinary forbearance, the distance 
 between them is likely to be increased 
 rather than diminished. The only 
 method, under such circumstances, 
 from which any favourable result could 
 rationall)' be expected, would be, if the 
 more moderate persons belonging to 
 the ruling party were selected, who 
 i had by private communication gained 
 an insight into the points in which 
 alteration was chiefly demanded, and 
 were directed by their comtnission, and 
 themselves disposed to concede every 
 thing which might be given up with 
 safety to the constitution of the church. 
 Such concessions might then become 
 acts of grace, while angry irritation 
 would be avoided : and if unaniinity 
 could hardly be hoped for ev.'u from 
 this means, yet the proceeding wotild 
 appear likely to unite the more iiioile- 
 rate members of both parties, ^thi- only 
 persons whose good opinion is n allv 
 worth cultivating,) and leave the whnl<> 
 blame of the failure on those who, after 
 all, were detertnined to continue di- 
 visions. Such, however, was not the 
 policy now adopted. 
 
 The convocation was assembled' on 
 
 ' Synodus Anglicana, 60, Appendi.x. 
 
262 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI, 
 
 seems to have been as much civil as ( 
 ecclesiastical. They granted money to [ 
 the crown, which was levied by eccle- j 
 siastical authority solely, till the reign 
 of Henry VIII. ; from which period, j 
 each several contribution was confirmed 
 by an act of parliament ; the sum paid j 
 depended on a poundage upon the value i 
 of each preferment, but the values could 
 hardly have been those in the king's 
 book, since this very convocation formed 
 a committee for reviewing the book of 
 subsidies. The bishops were the col- 
 lectors.^ During the usurpation the 
 clergy^ had been taxed with the laity, a 
 method which was probably found so 
 much more convenient, that it was sub- 
 sequently adopted. The change was 
 effected by a private arrangement be- 
 tween Sheldon and Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon, without any specific act of 
 parliament. In the act (16° 17° Car. 
 II. 1) which granted a royal aid of 
 2,477,500/., § 30, it is enacted, that the 
 spiritual revenues which become charge- 
 able under it shall be freed from the 
 two last years of the late subsidy. (166.5.) 
 From this time the clergy^ have paid 
 the same taxes with the rest of their 
 fellow-subjects, and voted for members 
 of parliament ; an alteration, which, 
 whether for evil or for good, has ex- 
 tinguished the political existence of the 
 convocation. 
 
 § 702. (a. d. 1662.) The event, how- 
 ever, which calls for the greatest atten- 
 tion during this period, was the passing 
 the act of uniformity. In order to form 
 a correct idea of the operation of this 
 act, it will be necessary to observe how 
 the law stood before and afterthe passing 
 it, without reference to the changes 
 which it introduced into the Prayer 
 Book itself. At the Restoration, the 
 act of uniformity of Elizabeth came 
 again into force ; but the original ob- 
 ject of this act may be said to have been 
 essentially different from that which 
 was now framed. The act of Elizabeth 
 attempted to punish, and finally to ex- 
 clude from the church, all ministers who 
 were not ready to conform with the 
 whole of the rubrics and services. It 
 enacted therefore that a conviction of 
 refusing to use the Common Prayer, or 
 
 ' Strype's Annals, v. 4^r!, 
 2 Collier. Errl. Hisi. ii. !-93. 
 ' Burnet's Own Time i. 340. 
 
 of speaking or preaching against it, 
 should, in the case of a beneficed man, 
 for the first offence be followed by the 
 loss of a year's income and six months' 
 imprisonment ; for the second, by de- 
 privation and one year's imprisonment ; 
 for the third, by deprivation and impri- 
 sonment for life. If the offending cler- 
 gyman were not beneficed, he -was at 
 first imprisoned for a year, and secondly 
 for life. The act of Charles II. en- 
 deavoured to exclude totally from the 
 church all who were not friendly to the 
 whole constitution of it. It enacted, 
 therefore, that every beneficed clergy- 
 man should be ejected ipso facto, unless, 
 before the 24th of August, 1662, he 
 used the church service, and declared 
 his assent and consent to every thing 
 contained therein. The process of 
 ejectment under the law of Elizabeth 
 would have been perfectly certain, if 
 the parties prosecuting were determined 
 to carry on the suit ; nor could any con- 
 siderable difficulty have attended the 
 conviction ; and indeed many bills were 
 found against the nonconforming cler- 
 gy* before the new act came into ope- 
 ration ; but a longer portion of time 
 would have been occupied in the several 
 steps, and the asperity of the prosecutor, 
 as well as the obstinacy of the prose- 
 cuted party, might probably have given 
 way during the process ; a circum- 
 stance which would have ill accorded 
 with the wishes of those who now ruled 
 the church. The new law further en- 
 acted that every person holding eccle- 
 siastical or academical preferment, or 
 teaching publicly or privately, should, 
 before the same da.y, subscribe a decla- 
 ration, " That it is unlawful to take 
 arms against the king, on any pretence 
 whatsoever ;" " that he will conform to 
 the Liturgy;" and "that no obligation 
 from the covenant lies upon himself, or 
 any other person ;" which last clause 
 was not to continue in force beyond 
 1682. This subscription was enforced 
 under pain of deprivation, and of fine 
 and imprisonment in the case of unen- 
 dowed sclioolmasters and tutors. This 
 bill, which was drawn up by Keeling,* 
 afterwards chief justice, was framed 
 with such strictness, that the tendency 
 
;hap. XVI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 263 
 
 if it was to exclude as many of the 
 'brmer clergy as possible ; and the 
 '[uestion, therefore, which really comes 
 'inder discussion, is with regard to the 
 'jolicy of ejecting so many individuals 
 'it once, and the justice' of doing so on 
 his occasion. 
 
 § 703. It may safely be conceded, 
 ':hat no national church can continue to 
 [;3^ist, unless the officiating meinbers of 
 ;he establishment be friendly to the de- 
 'tails of its services. Whoever is hostile 
 'to them cannot be allowed to take part 
 in the ministry. The proceedings there- 
 fore which regarded those who were 
 about subsequently to enter into the 
 church, could not from the nature of the 
 
 'question be unjust ; though the required 
 subscriptions may possibly be deemed 
 impolitic, since whatever circumstance 
 deprives a society of the assistance of 
 any individual member of the body po- 
 
 ilitic, is, so far as it extends, an evil. 
 
 ■ On the occasion of a restoration, every 
 
 'sound friend of social order will en- 
 deavour to create as little alteration as 
 possible. Nothing can restore to their 
 former condition the families which have 
 suffered in the struggle ; and though 
 the illegal transfer of property can never 
 be undone, yet a species of composition 
 may be effected, which may be ac- 
 quiesced in by both parties, though 
 neither are perfectly satisfied with it. 
 With these views, the acts of such ec-i 
 clesiastical bodies as had continued to 
 exist, though the members had often 
 been unjustly ejected and displaced, 
 were ratified ; and thus leases made by 
 colleges and hospitals, &c., were es- 
 tablished. The property of tithes had 
 never been separated from the livings ; 
 and with respect to the lands held under 
 bishops or chapters, though the rever- 
 sions had been sold in perpetuity, yet 
 these sales had probably been made at 
 such rates as to leave the purchasers 
 no great losers, after an occupation of 
 nearly twenty years, especially as the 
 very prices might have convinced them 
 that the title was never very sound. 
 
 ' The justice of the question can only refer to 
 those who were already in the church. Every 
 government must have the right to say that it will 
 be served under such and such conditions, how- 
 ever unwise it may be to impose such conditions. 
 The act at present only says, If you go into 
 the church, you must conform to the rules of the 
 church. 
 
 Add to which, that they who were able 
 to make such purchases during the re- 
 bellion, were little likely to be objects 
 of pity at the Kcstoration. The leases 
 therefore of these lands having, during 
 the usurpation, generally fallen in, the 
 churchmen who obtained the prefer- 
 ments to which they belonged, had an 
 opportunity of reletting them to their 
 own advantage ; and the distractions of 
 the times prevented the government 
 from taking such advantage of these 
 circumstances as might have substan- 
 tially benefited the church, instead of en- 
 riching these individual members of it." 
 
 2 It is difficult to convey an adequate idea of 
 what is here meant, to those who are not well 
 aware of the tenure ut ecclesiastical property. 
 During the prevalence ol monastic establishments, 
 the revenues of many livings were appropriated to 
 the support of some nionnstery, and the members 
 of this body superintended the spiritual care of the 
 parish. These cures were by degrees generally 
 eonverted into vicarnges, or perpetual curacies, 
 held by one of the members of the convent, and 
 the income assigned to them by the society was 
 proportionally slender, consi.sting of small tithes, 
 or of a money payment. There are even now 
 some livings held on this species of tenure. When, 
 at the Reformation, these pieces of preferment 
 cither fell into lay hands, or were transferred to 
 other ecclesiastical bodies, the sum previously paid 
 by the society became inadequate to the decent 
 support of a clergyman, who possessed no other 
 source of mairilci.aiice ; and the tithes, instead of 
 providing lor the payment of the ministry of the 
 place, enriched a churchman who had no con- 
 nection wiih ii. or were granted to lay impropria- 
 tors. A considerable portion of the property of 
 some bishoprics, chapters, and colleges, depends 
 on great tithes, which they hold as impropriators, 
 possessing frequently at the same time the right 
 of pre^enlalion to the living, which is a vicarage, 
 or perpenial curacy. In other cases, the patrons 
 of the livings are owners of the land, tithe, free. 
 These lands, or tithes, when pos-sessed by eccle- 
 siastical bodies corporate, are usually let out on 
 lives, or on leases of twenty-one years, renewable 
 every seven, and the income of the body corporate 
 depends on such renewals : but as these leases had 
 now generally run out, the legis^laiure might (airly 
 have obliged the newly-appointed ecclesiastical 
 impropriator to augment the living belonging to 
 the property from which he was about to receive 
 so large a fine. (Burnet, Own Time, i. 320, cal- 
 culates the sum total of these fines at a million 
 and a half.) The king, indeed, made some at- 
 tempt to effect this ; for in 1660 he wrote a letter 
 to bishops, deans, and chapters, signifying his 
 pleasure that small vicarages might be augmented 
 to 80/. per annum, or to the half of the value of 
 the rectory, wherever the whole value of it did not 
 exceed the double of that sum ; and it was sub- 
 sequently enacted, (29° Car. II. c. 8,) that aug- 
 mentations made by ecclesiastical bodies, since 
 the dale of the king's letter, should be binding 
 upon their successors, provided they did not ex- 
 ceed the value of one-half of the iinpropriation. 
 Nothing, however, was effected with regard lo lay 
 impropriations ; and indeed little can herein be 
 expected, till the subject is taken up with hberal- 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 § 704. But the question of the incum- 
 bency is different ; before we can decide 
 on this, it must be asked, whether it 
 would have been safe to retain the mass 
 of nonconformists within the pale of the 
 church ; whether, if it were necessary 
 to eject a large portion, it would not 
 have been wiser to do so as each was 
 convicted of some act of nonconformity ; 
 and, thirdly, whether the very steps taken 
 by the church did not tend to create the 
 opposition which it seemed to endeavour 
 to correct. It is exceedingly difficult to 
 answer these questions clearly and dis- 
 tinctly ; yet some observations may tend 
 to throw light on the subject, and enable 
 the reader to form his own opinion for 
 himself. 
 
 Churchmen during the usurpation had 
 possessed so much power in the domestic 
 concerns of each parish, that many indi- 
 vidual laymen, not only those who enter- 
 tained enlarged views of Christianity, 
 but the more numerous classes of the 
 profligate and the careless, had long 
 borne no friendly feelings towards that 
 species of ecclesiastical policy which in- 
 vested the ministry with this authority. 
 And though the general tone of society 
 had prevented any one from expressing 
 these feelings openly, the prevalent ex- 
 istence of them could not fail to produce 
 a strong effect at the Restoration. The 
 presbyterians had hated the government 
 of Cromwell for establishing toleration 
 and the independents, and so contributed 
 more readily to the recall of the king. 
 The general body of tlie nation rejoiced 
 in shaking off the chains with which 
 their spiritual pastors had bound them ; 
 and when the church party began to per- 
 
 ily by itie cliurch: and not wiihslanding the mu- 
 nificence of certain individuals at this period, so 
 little was done, that Sancrolt (Life by D'Oyly, i. 
 187.) renewed the application in 1680, by writing 
 to the several bishops and deans, urging them to 
 comply wi h the directions of the king's letter, 
 now saiiriioiied and rendered effectual by the act 
 of parliaiueii . This siep was the more reason- 
 able, as snnie (if iho « m si instances of livings in- 
 adequately iir.ivided lor. are to be found among 
 those which arc held under ecclesiastical bodies. 
 The extreme pincrly ulii. li has been entailed on 
 many of mir livings, and \\ hich might now have 
 been' remedied, is one the greatest evils which 
 afflicts our church pruperiy ; and the subject is 
 well worthy the seritnis attention of those who 
 watch over the concerns of our establishment. 
 
 Since the former oart ol this note was originally 
 printed, an Act has been brought in by A rchbishop 
 Howley to enable ecclesiastical impropriators to 
 augment poor livings. 
 
 ceive their own comparative strength, 
 and the favour with which the people 
 gladly recurred to their parental govern- 
 ment, they took too great an advantage 
 of these circumstances. 
 
 § 70.5. Had a contrary line of policy 
 been pursued ; had some further altera- 
 tions been made in the Common Prayer 
 Book ; had the old law been allowed to 
 stand with regard to conformity ; and, 
 particularly, had a wish existed and been 
 expressed by the upper orders among 
 the clergy, that union might be culti? 
 vated in the church as much as possible; 
 many of the more moderate noncon- 
 formists would probably have joined the 
 establishment. But the very declaration' 
 contained in the act was obviously intro- 
 duced to prevent the possibihty of such 
 an event. To say nothing of the former 
 clauses, who could assert that no obliga- 
 tion lay on any one from having taken the 
 covenant ? An individual maj^ rightly 
 deem himself not bound to the observ- 
 ance of an oath in itself illegal ; bul 
 who shall pretend that a presbyterian, 
 who had voluntarily taken the oath, and 
 who believed in the superiority of his 
 own form of church government, might 
 not be really bound by it, so far as to 
 use his influence, or to exert any other 
 legal power of which he was possessed, 
 to produce an alteration in the church? 
 The point was one of much too great 
 delicacy to be wisely introduced into a 
 solemn declaration ; but if the saying 
 attributed to Sheldon be true, we need 
 not trouble ourselves with such minutiae, 
 or question as to the object which they 
 who managed the affairs in the church 
 had in view.' " When Lord Manchester 
 told the king, while the act of uniformity 
 was under debate, that he was afraid the 
 terms of it were so rigid that many of 
 the ministers would not comply with it; 
 Sheldon replied, 'I am afraid they will.' 
 Nay, 'tis credibly reported he should say, 
 ' Now we know their minds, we'll make 
 them knaves if they conform.' " Doubt- 
 less Sheldon might deem this hne of 
 policy, of ejecting all the nonconformists, 
 to be the wisest for the church ; but the 
 events which have since occurred must 
 convince every man who can judge of 
 such questions, that intolerance is but 
 
 ' See « 702. 
 
 2 Calaray's Baiter, 170, •. 
 
:!hap. XVI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 mother name for selfishness, and will 
 renerally defeat its own ends. 
 
 § 706. Of the justice of these pro- 
 leedings it is perhaps more difficult to 
 brm an opinion which will be generally 
 ipproved. The church was then filled 
 !vhh men who, having been ordained 
 .vithout the imposition of the hands of a 
 jishop, and admitted by a usurping go- 
 vernment, could, in one sense, have no 
 egal claim to their benefices ; especially 
 imere they were intruding into the 
 Dlaces of those who had been illegally 
 lispossessed, and were still alive. Here, 
 herefore, the just restoration of the one 
 lecessarily ejected the other; but where 
 he persons in possession of the prefer- 
 nent had acted with the best intentions, 
 ind only obeyed that which was, de facto, 
 ;he government, could it be just to eject 
 ihem suddenly, without even giving them 
 [ime to re-examine and change their 
 apinions ? At all events, could it be 
 just to cast them out of all means of 
 supporting themselves, and not assign 
 them any portion of their benefices for 
 their support ? The usurping govern- 
 ment, when triumphant, had allowed 
 one-fifth' of the revenues to those whom 
 it ejected for their loyalty ; for in most 
 cases this was the real crime. The le- 
 gitimate government turned out many 
 loyal, though nonconforming clergymen, 
 and made not the slightest provision for 
 them. 
 
 It might be necessary, and therefore 
 just, to eject those who were essentially 
 adverse to an establishment, into which 
 they had gained admittance from cir- 
 cumstances ; but the manner in which it 
 was done must be designated as cruel. 
 The difficulties were so great, that the 
 wisest might doubt as to what line of 
 proceeding it was best to pursue ; and 
 while we blame what was done, it must 
 be remembered, that our reasonings are 
 founded upon much subsequent expe- 
 rience ; yet, had the governing party 
 acted with Christian charity towards 
 
 ' As the truth of the facts, as well as the accu- 
 racy of the reasoning, has been here called in 
 question, the reader is referred to i 598, where 
 the difficulty of obtaining the fifths, allowed by 
 the government, is fully admitted. And the re- 
 viewer is requested to turn to Walker, p. 103, 
 with regard to his own assertion, " that fifths were 
 n.'tjcr paid." I own, I wish I could change my 
 opinion, as to the conduct of those who governed 
 the church in the reign of Charles. 
 
 their brethren, had they merely done 
 unto others according to the golden rule 
 of our Saviour, much evil might have 
 been obviated at the time, and that spirit 
 of dissent from the church have been 
 prevented, which even yet clings to 
 trifles too ridiculous to merit the atten- 
 tion of a moment. 
 
 § 707. Had no new act of uniformity 
 been passed, and the operation of that 
 of the first of Elizabeth been delayed 
 for a time ; had a portion of their pre- 
 ferments been allowed to such of the 
 nonconformist clergy as chose, in the 
 mean season, to retire from their bene- 
 fices ; the party who scrupled to conform 
 would have been broken at least, and 
 probably some of the most active and 
 zealous of them might have contributed 
 to support the establishment; but this 
 was not the wish of the ruling party. 
 And even if the policy adopted by them 
 was sound, it must be confessed that it 
 was carried on in such a manner as to 
 render the abstract justice of it question- 
 able. Policy and justice are so linked 
 by indissoluble ties, that one is never 
 violated without infringing the other. 
 In this case there were circumstances 
 scarcely to be called accidental which 
 added materially to the hardship. Many 
 clergymen'' never saw the new Book of 
 Common Prayer till St. Bartholomew's 
 day ; and of the rest, few were so fa- 
 miliar with the work itself, that they 
 could at once estimate the nature of the 
 alterations. In this respect the strict- 
 ness of the act became a burden even 
 to those who did conform ; indeed, some 
 persons were ejected who subsequently 
 conformed, and among the rest, Kidder,' 
 afterwards bishop of Bath and Wells.* 
 St. Bartholomew's day hself, August 
 24th, was chosen,^ that the ejected clergy 
 might lose the tithes for the year, a se- 
 verity which can admit of no excuse. 
 
 § 708. The causes which contributed 
 to induce the ruling party to treat their 
 opponents with so much harshness, 
 were various. They had themselves 
 been exposed to insult, to deprivation, 
 and banishment, and misfortunes had not 
 
 2 Burnet's Own Time, i. 318. 
 ^ Birch's Tillotson, 77. 
 
 " An act passed 1663, for the relief of such per- 
 sons as by sickness or other impediments were 
 disabled from complying with the directions of th* 
 act. (Neal's Puritans, iv. 356.) 
 
 s Burnet's Own Time, i. 317. 
 
266 HISTORY 
 
 taught them to forgive. They deemed 
 that the security of the church depended 
 on their being able to trample her op- 
 ponents under foot. Political preju- 
 dices' were combined with their feelings 
 as churchmen ; for the nonconformists 
 were many of them favourable to a 
 republican form of government. And 
 the uncertainty, as to its continuance, 
 which hung over the power possessed 
 by them,'' excited a wish to take the 
 utmost advantage of the superiority now 
 afforded them. The principles and 
 benefits of toleration were little under- 
 stood, and men saw not that the real 
 interests of themselves and their oppo- 
 nents were the same. The friends of 
 the papacy desired to increase the feuds 
 among Protestants, that the oppressed 
 party might join with themselves in 
 obtaining an outward toleration of all 
 denominations of Christians ; and if the 
 project of bringing back popery into 
 England were ever to succeed, it must 
 be effected through the disagreement of 
 those who ought to be unanimous in 
 opposing its extension. 
 
 § 709. The inclinations of the king, 
 after his declaration from Breda, cer- 
 tainly disposed him to show kindness to 
 the nonconformists ; but he was hardly 
 perhaps bound by the letter of it to per- 
 form more than he did.^ The declara- 
 tion" stated, that he should be ready to 
 consent to any act of parliament which 
 might be offered him for that indul- 
 gence ; he could not have foreseen the 
 probability of a House of Commons dis- 
 posed to tyrannize over the nonconform- 
 ists ; and it should be remembered, that, 
 unless the court had restrained^ them, 
 they would have carried things much 
 higher than they did. His second de- 
 claration, Oct. 25, 1060, had breathed 
 the same spirit ; and when the act of 
 uniformity had deprived so many of the 
 nonconforming clergy, Charles II. pub- 
 lished another declaration, wherein, 
 though he states his intention of ob- 
 serving the act of uniformity, he pro- 
 fesses a willingness to grant some in- 
 dulgence to the weak. This declaration, 
 though in itself perfectly illegal, bore 
 
 1 kaiMi., ii. U.i-2. 
 
 2 Buriiei's Own Time, i. 306. 
 
 3 See an Address otihe Commons, 1653. Com- 
 plete History ol Kngland, iii. 239. 
 
 * Clarendon, Hist. Reb. iii. 747. 
 « Burnet's Own Time, i. 306. 
 
 OF THE [Chap. XVI. 
 
 with it such marks and appearance of 
 clemency as to render it less generally 
 unacceptable, after the severity which 
 had taken place on the 24th of August. 
 
 § 710. It is said, that on this day two 
 thousand ministers resigned their pre- 
 ferments. The act was drawn up with 
 such strictness, that it left the duty of 
 the nonconformist quite plain. A man 
 who entertained any rooted objection to 
 episcopacy, to the Liturgy, or to the 
 doctrine of non-resistance, could honestly 
 do nothing else than quit his prefer- 
 ments ; and this large number evinced 
 their sincerity by resigning all their 
 benefices. Passion might perhaps have 
 been mixed up with their motives, for, in 
 a time of general excitement, it requires 
 much greatness of mind to be free from 
 prejudice, yet no other test could more 
 fully evince their sincerity. The par- 
 ticular which probably created the great- 
 est difficulty was that of re-ordination. 
 A very considerable portion of these 
 ministers had never received episcopal 
 ordination ; and though diversity of 
 opinion had been entertained as to the 
 validity of the ordinations of foreign 
 reformed churches, the question was 
 now decided with regard to the church 
 of England ; for the act of uniformity 
 allowed none, who had not been or- 
 dained priest by a bishop, to hold pre- 
 ferment or administer the sacrament 
 of the Lord's Supper. It is not wonder- 
 ful that men, who had long exercised 
 their ministry ,8 many of them with great 
 apparent success, and whose opinions 
 had always been adverse to episcopacy, 
 or, as they termed it, to prelacy, should 
 at once reject a proposal which implied 
 a surrender of their former spiritual 
 authority, in order that it might be afresh 
 conferred. Bramhall in Ireland, to ob- 
 viate this difficulty, proposed to use a 
 form of re-ordination^ which should 
 " supply what was wanting according to 
 the canons of the church of England;" 
 thus waiving the real question, by making 
 a compromise to the opinions of both 
 parties : a plan which Overall,* when 
 bishop of Norwich, (1616,) wished to 
 have adopted in the case of Delaune, a 
 French Protestant ; but then he would 
 have used the words, " If thou art not 
 
 « Baxter's Life, iii. 37. 
 ' Neal's Puritans, iv. 314. 
 8 Birch's TUlotson, 185. 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 267 
 
 ordained before." If something of this 
 sort had been adopted, it would proba- 
 bly have tended to reconcile many indi- 
 viduals ; but the cases of persons who 
 havt; held preferment in England with- 
 out episcopal ordination are sufficient' 
 to leave the question in some degree 
 uncertain, and would have authorized 
 perhaps a greater lenity on the present 
 I occasion. The question for the future 
 , was now settled by the act of uniformity, 
 (§ X. ;) and rightly so settled, if the prin- 
 ciples previously laid down with regard 
 ! to episcopacy be correct. 
 I §711. It is of course impossible, from 
 I the limited extent of this work, to give 
 I any detailed account of the sufferings of 
 the ejected clergy ; and we may hope 
 that the evil was much lessened by the 
 general feeling in their favour which 
 these very severities created.^ The offer 
 I of bishoprics had been made to both 
 I Calamy and Baxter, yet both these men 
 I were, on very slight grounds, subjected 
 to the indignity of a common jail ; and 
 the same sort of persecuting spirit, of 
 which the act of uniformity may be 
 deemed the commencement, but which 
 was extended by the passing of several 
 other laws, broke forth throughout the 
 country ; so that every violent informer 
 who could meet with magistrates equally 
 violent, was let loose to exercise the 
 worst of passions upon the nonconform- 
 ing ministers, whose personal strictness 
 and severity, perhaps unduly exercised 
 when they were possessed of spiritual 
 power, had rendered them the objects 
 of the hatred of their neighbours. 
 
 The remainder of the ecclesiastical 
 history of this reign, if indeed it may be 
 so called, consists in the detail of the 
 bulwarks with which the church of Eng- 
 
 ' See ^ 454, ', where the question is discussed. 
 See also a beautiful letter of Bishop Ileber to 
 Schmidt on the subject, (Life. 8vo. iii. 411.) In a 
 plan of comprehension formed by Manton, Baxter, 
 Wilkins, and Burton, the words of ordination ran : 
 " 'lake thou legal authority to preach the word 
 of God and administer the sarramenis in any con- 
 gregation in England, where thou shalt be law- 
 fully appointed thereunto." (Baxter's Life, iii. 34.) 
 Usher and Davenant alone, among the bishops, 
 allowed of the validity of the ordination of foreign 
 Protestant churches. (Neal's Puritans, iv. 131.) 
 The question is one of extreme delicacy, on which 
 good and well-informed men may well think dif- 
 ferently ; but the decision of Bishop Heber is per- 
 haps as near as possible to the truth. He re-or- 
 dained with the assent of the party re-ordained. 
 
 ' See chap. ix. in Calamy's Life of Baxter, 
 which gives a very full account of the matter. 
 
 land, in her hour of triumph, endea- 
 voured to fortify herself against all her 
 opponents. She was endangered from 
 the attacks of the nonconformists and 
 the Roman Catholics, and her friends, 
 not trusting to the force of her own 
 excellence, sought to exclude every 
 doubtful member of the Christian com- 
 munity from possessing any power over 
 her concerns ; and imagined that they 
 should free her from the risk of being 
 persecuted, by giving her the power to 
 treat others Avith inhumanity. But it 
 should be remembered that these laws 
 have, in the season of difficulty, proved 
 inadequate to her defence, which, under 
 the blessing of God, has depended on 
 the unanimity and zeal which any real 
 attack on the constitution,eitherin'church 
 or state, has never failed to call forth ; 
 and that these acts, with the exception 
 of one of them, had long been virtually 
 repealed in practice, before they were 
 erased from the statute-book. 
 
 § 712. (a. D. If561.) The corporation 
 act^ compelled every officer of a corpo- 
 ration to take the oaths of supremacy 
 and allegiance, as well as that concern- 
 ing the unlawfulness of taking up arms 
 against the king, on any pretence what- 
 soever ; and to make a declaration against 
 the covenant : nor was any one to be 
 elected to any office, unless he had 
 received the sacrament of the Lord's 
 supper, according to the rites of the 
 church of England, within the year; 
 thus virtually excluding all who dis- 
 sented, from obtaining the influential 
 situations in boroughs. (1603.) And 
 the select vestry acf prevented any one ' 
 from holding the office of vestry-man in 
 a corporate town, unless he would make 
 the declaration against taking up arms 
 and the covenant, and promise to con- 
 form to the Liturgy. 
 
 § 713. The firstconventicle act'(1664) 
 subjected every person above the age of 
 sixteen, who was convicted before two 
 magistrates of being present at a con- 
 venticle, (a house where five persons 
 or more, beyond the inhabitants, were 
 assembled for the purpose of religious 
 worship,) for the first offence to a pe- 
 nalty not exceeding five pounds, or im- 
 prisonment for three months ; for the 
 
 " 13° Charles IL chap. i. of the second session. 
 < 15° Charles IL 5. « 16° Charles II. 4. 
 
868 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [CuAP. XVL 
 
 second of ten pounds, or six months ; 
 for the third, or any subsequent one, 
 upon conviction before a court of as- 
 size, to the payment of one hundred 
 pounds, or transportation. Conventi- 
 cles might be prevented by force or 
 broken into ; but the house of a peer 
 might not be searched without the pre- 
 sence of two magistrates. Cluakers 
 refusing to take an oath, when lawfully 
 called on, unless they admitted the le- 
 gality of taking one, might be trans- 
 ported. 
 
 The second conventicle act,' (1670,) 
 which was passed when this had ex- 
 pired, reduced the penalty to five shil- 
 lings for the first offence of being pre- 
 sent at a conventicle, and to ten shil- 
 lings for all subsequent ones ; but im- 
 posed a fine on the preacher of twenty 
 pounds for the first, and forty pounds 
 for all future offences ; and in case the 
 preacher fled, it made any one present 
 liable to pay a portion of his fine, not 
 exceeding ten pounds, and subjected 
 the owner of the premises to a fine of 
 twenty pounds. One particular was 
 peculiarly severe ; for, as the object of 
 the law was to prevent conventicles, it 
 was enacted that every clause should 
 be construed most largely for prevent- 
 ing them, i. e., against the prisoner. 
 Proceedings were not rendered void by 
 any want of due form. 
 
 § 714. (a. d. 166.5.) The five mile 
 act" subjected every nonconformist 
 minister or clergyman, not having duly 
 qualified, who should come, except in 
 travelling, within five miles of any cor- 
 porate town, or other place where he 
 had been minister, or had preached in 
 a conventicle since the act of oblivion, 
 to a penalty of forty pounds, or six 
 months' imprisonment, unless he would 
 take the oath against " taking up arms 
 against the king on any pretence," a 
 proposition on which few men, what- 
 ever might be their opinions, would 
 wish to decide thus peremptorily, and 
 to imbody their decision in an oath.' 
 
 • 22° Charles II. 1. 2 17° Charles II. 2. 
 
 3 Noihingcan more strongly mark the inutility 
 of such an oalh than the conduct of the country 
 towards James II. Very few real Christians will 
 hesitate to say, that hardly any provocation can 
 justify such a proceeding : but he must be an 
 incautious reasoner who would affirm thai none 
 can. Extreme cases are not provided for in the 
 Bible. 
 
 Nor were these ministers, or any per- 
 sons not frequenting the church of Eng- 
 land, to teach a public or private school 
 without incurring the same penalty. 
 
 It unfortunately happened that the 
 parliament* in Oxford, whither they 
 had retired on account of the plague in 
 London, were engaged in passing this 
 act at the very moment when the non- 
 conformist ministers were exerting 
 themselves most strenuously in preach- 
 ing and performing their other ministe- 
 rial functions in the metropolis. Some 
 of these, indeed, took the oath ; but 
 the majority continued their labours 
 notwithstanding the penalties while 
 the force of truth, and the feelings of 
 the people, prevented the law from 
 being fully carried into effect. 
 
 § 715. It must not, however, be sup- 
 posed that all these laws, tending to the 
 suppression of the nonconformists, were 
 enacted without any exertions on the 
 other side to obtain a greater indul- 
 gence for them. Many reasons, which 
 have been before detailed, made their 
 suppression to be well received both 
 by the court and the country, so that 
 for a long time such persons as pleaded 
 for toleration were but little attended 
 to ; yet its friends were not remiss in 
 endeavouring to relieve those whose 
 sufferings they could not but commise- 
 rate. 
 
 (a. d. 1669.) Lord Keeper Bridgmao, 
 and Wilkins, bishop of Chester,^ at 
 tempted to frame a bill, by which the 
 more moderate of the dissenters might 
 be taken into the church, and for this 
 purpose Manton and Baxter were con- 
 sulted. They gave it as their opinion 
 that Archbishop Usher's scheme would 
 comprehend all the nonconformists. 
 That the king's declaration' would em- 
 brace most of them, and that it would 
 satisfy many, if they were allowed to 
 exercise their ministry, by the removal 
 of the most objectionable points which 
 had been imposed upon them. The 
 object of Bishop Wilkins seems to have 
 been, to have made a comprehension 
 for the more moderate nonconformists, 
 and a toleration for the rest, not ex- 
 
 * Baxter's Own Life, part iii. 2. 
 ' See also * 727. 
 
 6 Burnet's Own Time, i. 439; Baxter's Life, 
 part iii. 23. 
 ' See * 665. 
 
IPiiP. XVI.} 
 
 eluding the Roman Catholics, and pro- 
 posals were made to this effect ; but the 
 House of Commons were very adverse 
 to any such measures. 
 
 (March 15, 1672.) When Charles 
 published his Declaration of Tolera- 
 tion,' suspending all penal laws on ac- 
 count of religion, promising license and 
 places of worship to Protestants, pro- 
 vided they met with open doors, and 
 liberty of private worship to papists ; 
 the commons presently declared the 
 proceeding to be illegal, (Feb. 19, 
 1673,') but not before they had unani- 
 mously resolved (Feb. 14) that a bill 
 should be brought in to relieve dissent- 
 ers, which received some alteration in 
 the lords,' but came to nothing, as the 
 parliament was prorogued. It should 
 be observed, that the friends of tolera- 
 tion wished not for any comprehension. 
 The papists desired that the tyranny 
 exercised against the nonconformists 
 might introduce a general toleration. 
 The court were anxious that the seve- 
 rity enforced by the commons might 
 induce men to fly to the king for pro- 
 tection, and the interests of the secta- 
 rians corresponded with those of the 
 papists. Baxter' drew up some terms 
 for satisfying the nonconformists, which 
 he sent to Lord Orrery, at the request 
 of Bishop Morley, who returned them 
 with his own observations ; but the pro- 
 ceeding led to the same result as the 
 Savoy conference. 
 
 (a. d. 1074-5.) A second attempt of 
 the same sort* was afterwards made, at 
 which Drs. Tillotson^ and StiUingfleet 
 met Baxter and other nonconformists, 
 but the object was frustrated by the 
 disinclination of the bishops. 
 
 (a. d. 1()81.) a severe law of Eliza- 
 beth (23" 2) against puritans" was re- 
 pealed bv tne Houses, after some diffi- 
 culty in the lords ; but the clerk of the 
 crown omitted to present the bill at the 
 end of the session, as the king had no 
 wish to free the nonconformist from the 
 liability of being ill treated, and could 
 hardly venture to reject the bill. There 
 was also a bill of comprehension offered 
 by the episcopal party, but not sup- 
 ported by the nonconformist interest ; 
 
 ' Collier, ii. 8i)5; Baxter's Life, iii. 99, 101. 
 ' Rapin, ii. 66S. ' Life, iii. 109. 
 " Baxter, 151. 6 Birch's Tillotson, 42. 
 
 Burnet's Own Time, ii. 268. 
 
 and before the end of the session, when 
 the parliament was about to be pro- 
 rogued, an extraordinary and most 
 unconstitutional vote passed the com- 
 mons.'' " That the prosecution of Pro- 
 testant dissenters, upon the penal laws, 
 is at this time grievous to the subject, a 
 weakening the Protestant interest, an 
 encouragement to popery, and dan- 
 gerous to the peace of the kingdom :" 
 a vote which was justly liable to all the 
 objections which were raised against 
 the declaration of the king. 
 
 (a. d. 1688.) The same object was 
 again attempted by Archbishop San- 
 croft just before the Revolution, and 
 prevented by the toleration act.* 
 
 § 716. These attempts, however, were 
 altogether useless, as far as the imme- 
 diate interests of the nonconformists were 
 concerned. The act of uniformity had 
 thrown them out of their profession, 
 and reduced many of them to beggary; 
 and though they were enabled to preach 
 for a short period, during the toleration 
 afforded by Charles, and the interval 
 between the two conventicle acts, yet 
 these were but brief respites in a long 
 season of oppression, till their continued 
 sufferings, and the circumstances of the 
 nation, had prepared the mind.s of most 
 men for the general toleration which 
 was ultimately introduced. The peo- 
 ple of England, though favourable to 
 the cause of the church, became ad- 
 verse to the persecution of dis,sonters 
 some magistrates avoided issuing war- 
 rants against them ; and Sir Nathaniel 
 Hern expressed a common feeling, 
 when he told certain bishops who 
 were dining with him, "That they 
 Could not trade with their neighbours 
 one day, and send them to jail the 
 next." 
 
 § 717. The hardships which the non- 
 conformists endured naturally dispose 
 us to sympathize with them; but we 
 must be careful not to regard all their 
 sufferings as if endured for the sake of 
 religion. The very severities of the 
 laws produced, perhaps, much of the 
 vehemence of those who were subject- 
 ed to the effects of them ; but the readi- 
 ness with which they rent asunder the 
 
 ' Calamy's Abridgment, 609. 
 "D'Oyly'sLife, 326. 
 ' Calamy's Abridgment, 605, 607. 
 z2 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
270 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 {Chap. XVI. 
 
 bonds of Christian unity, because deter- 
 mined not to give their own opinions, 
 is worthy of our strongest animadver- 
 sions. Granting, for the sake of argu- 
 ment, that every objection which they 
 raised against the church was valid ; 
 granting that our ceremonies were un- 
 scriptural, our discipline imperfect, our 
 impositions needless, they could not 
 have deemed these reasons sufficient 
 for seceding from the church, or esta- 
 blishing fresh congregations, if they 
 had been guided by the true spirit of 
 Christian unity and love.* Unfortu- 
 nately, no attempt was made to discri- 
 minate between the different classes of 
 nonconformists, who were all, by the 
 newly established laws, ranked under 
 one common denomination. Baxter, 
 who held communion with the church, 
 who preached occasionally within her 
 walls, and gave over to the use of the 
 establishment a chapel^ which he had 
 eix'Ctrd, was treat^'d with as much, if 
 not more severity than men who de- 
 claimed against her institutions as idola- 
 trous, and urged the duty of separation 
 as strenuously as if they had been at- 
 tacking the errors of the church of 
 Rome. The warmth, indeed, with 
 wliich Baxter had stood forward in the 
 controversy, had marked him out as 
 an object of rigour ; and his sufferings 
 from disease, as well as the laws, had 
 rendered him very acrimonious in his 
 expressions on the point at issue, and 
 made his language that of a controver- 
 sialist, and not of an humble Christian, 
 who sought for peace. 
 
 § 71M. The most unequivocal testi- 
 monies against the nonconformists are 
 to be found in the letters of several 
 members of the reformed churches in 
 
 > excelleni .iK-iM v i'inn- whi.-li 
 brnr imHrocily on tliis poini ; i '; I -ililfi 
 Tnlk. " t'ons( ionre." "ll ^ > ,r to 
 
 Icnve tliiif oui-loosf, ns to pir > . -h,-' ii^nre 
 
 follow ? For ihus. supposo an aiiabnpiist romrs 
 and tnkrs inv lioisp. 1 see him. He tells me 
 he did necordio^ to Ins conscience : his ronscienec 
 tells him all tlnn-s nre roninion amon^ the snitits ; 
 what is mine, is Ins ; ihrreture you do ill to make 
 
 he shall he liniiL'fd. What can I say to this man ? 
 he does aeeoiding to conscience. Why is f.ol he 
 as honcsi a man as he that pretends a rerrmony 
 established by law is ai;ninst his conscience?! 
 Generally, to pretend conscience against law is 
 dangerous ; in some cases haply we mav." I 
 » Life, iii. 179, ^7. 'I 
 
 Holland and France, who hesitate not 
 to condemn most distinctly the separat- 
 ing spirit which they exhibited.' The 
 nonconformists esteemed these laws ty- 
 rannical, in which every friend of reli- 
 gious liberty will probably agree ; but 
 they deemed the tyranny of a Christian 
 church, which suspended them from 
 the performance of clerical duties, a 
 sufficient reason for breaking the unity 
 of the church, and setting up separate 
 congregations ; a step in which few 
 moderate Christians will approve of 
 their conduct. Separation appears to 
 be allowable only when a church is de- 
 serted because it holds doctrines which 
 may endanger our salvation. When 
 the question was not about the "e*.se," 
 or the "6e?je es.se," but only about the 
 " melius esse" they inflicted a wound 
 upon our church, which time has not 
 been able to cure ; and created such a 
 spirit of division among us, that schism 
 is now hardly deemed a sin. The blame 
 must be shared by those who imposed 
 the laws, but the evil was most imme- 
 diately ])roduced by the secession of the 
 nonconformists. The antipathy with 
 which the two parties viewed each 
 other was gradually increased, as the 
 struggle was carried on ; till the one 
 side esteemed their opponents schisma- 
 tics, and they themselves were regarded 
 as persecutors; while both gradually 
 approached towards the character which 
 their adversaries gave them. The one 
 supposed that they could engender 
 unanimity by fines and imprisonments, 
 and the others exerted themselves in 
 drawinir away as many of their follow- 
 ers as they could from the communion 
 of the church. The moderate on both 
 sides deplored the existence and exten- 
 sion of such evils, and the excesses of 
 which both parties were guilty, daily 
 augmented the ranks of the moderate. 
 
 § 719. Manj- of the same feelings ex- 
 isted with regard to political questions, 
 and these mutual errors gave rise to a 
 set of men, who in our own days would 
 have been denominated liberals, but 
 who were then stigmatized under the 
 appellation of latitinUnarians. The 
 term seems to have been first applied 
 at Cambridge, during the usurpation, 
 
 3 These letters are printed at the end ofStilling- 
 fleet's Unreasonableness of Separation. 
 
Chap. XVI.] 
 
 to men who, having been elected into 
 fellowships since the beginning- of the 
 troubles, were not so strict in their pre- 
 judices as their neighbours ; who were 
 accused of Arminianism, and a prelati- 
 cal spirit, and were denied proferments 
 for this reason. These same persons, 
 on joining the church, were not particu- 
 larly forward in showing their zeal for 
 it, by abusing those who had scruples 
 about it. They were friends to the 
 Liturgy, and unwilling that any essen- 
 tial alterations should be introduced 
 'into it; and were adverse to the crude 
 effusions and blasphemous faiiailiari- 
 ties, sanctioned under the name of ex- 
 tempore prayer. They admired the 
 moderation of the church of England, 
 and were friends to liberty of con- 
 science ; being ready to conform them- 
 selves, they wished that as little as 
 possible should be imposed as of neces- 
 sity. Although it is objected to them 
 that they were not sound friends to 
 the establishment, they could not help 
 imagining that the essentials of Chris- 
 tianity are of as much consequence as 
 any external ceremonies. They were 
 accused of admitting innovations , in 
 philosophy, but they could not be led 
 to imagine that the church of England 
 need fear any investigation of truth ; 
 they thought that her greatest danger 
 consisted in the chance that her defend- 
 ers, armed with the ancient weapons 
 only, might be called upon to encounter 
 those who had adopted the new.' The 
 appellation was of that nature, that 
 many persons would be so denomi- 
 nated, who held no very distinctive 
 opinions on these topics; and as this 
 spirit extended itself to other depart- 
 ments as well as the church, it paved 
 the way in politics for our present 
 constitution ; in philosophy, for the dis- 
 coveries of Sir Isaac Newton ; and in 
 the church, for that liberty of con- 
 science, which, throuo;h (iod's blessing, 
 has been subsef|Ui'ntly established. 
 
 § 720. Many of the laws which have 
 been already mentioned, bore with equal | 
 severity on the Roman (Jatholics ; but 
 the hopes of the members of this com- 
 mtmion were supported by the divisions 
 among Protestants, and the prospect of 
 
 ' This account is taken from a tract published 
 in the PhcEnix, ii. 501. See also an article in 
 Builer's Roman Catholics, iii. 141. 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 271 
 
 introducing their own tenets, through 
 the violence of which the two parties 
 were mutually guilty. 
 
 The Corporation Act disabled them 
 from holding any situations in boroughs, 
 (1(572,) and the Test" threw them out 
 of all offices, or places of trust or profit ; 
 for it enacted that persons filling such 
 employments should not only take the 
 oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and 
 receive the eucharist according to the 
 rites of the church of England, but 
 make also a declaration against tran- 
 substantiation. Any act performed in 
 executing the office, after refusing to 
 lake the oaths or the sacrament, inca- 
 pacitated the ofTender from prosecuting 
 in any suit of law, and subjected him 
 to a fine of ijOO/. The law, however, 
 which afTected them most severely, was 
 that which excluded them from both 
 Houses of Parliament, by enacting,* 
 (1078,) that no one should sit or vote 
 in either House till they had taken the 
 oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and 
 signed a declaration against transub- 
 stantiation, the invocation of saints, and 
 the sacrifice of the mass, and added that 
 this declaration was made without any 
 mental reservation, or idea that it could 
 be dispensed with by the pope. The 
 penalty was a fine of 500/., and the seat 
 of a commoner was rendered vacant, 
 and the peer disabled from sitting dur- 
 ng the parliament. The same penalty 
 vas incurred by a popish recusant con- 
 vict coming into the presence of the 
 king or queen. The duke of York was 
 xcepted from the operation of this act. 
 These enactments were nugatory with 
 regard to a king who was determined 
 to govern without laws, and without a 
 parliament; but had one injurious ef- 
 fect, that they tended to unite every 
 friend of the Roman Catholic religion 
 irm adherence to the crown, when 
 the crown was opposed to the liberties 
 of the subject. 
 
 § 721. The warmth with which all 
 parties regarded each other was kept 
 up, and the mind of the nation retained 
 in this unnatural state of excitation, by 
 many plots, real and pretended, with 
 which the country was an;itated. To 
 say nothing of other disturbances, 
 Venner, and some fifth-monarchy men, 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 threw London into a state of great 
 alarm, but were immediately suppress- 
 ed. (1661.) Phillips, Stubbs, and two 
 6thers,were executed (1662) for another 
 conspiracy; and the year afterwards 
 (1663) twenty-one conspirators were 
 put to death in the north. But the 
 plot' (1678) which caused the greatest 
 agitation, was that with the discovery 
 of which the name of Titus Gates has 
 been so constantly connected, that it is 
 generally known by the appellation of 
 Oates's plot. He stated himself to 
 have been engaged with the Roman 
 Catholics, at home and abroad, and 
 now brought forward the evidence of a 
 plot framed in order to introduce the 
 Roman Catholic religion into England, 
 and to murder the king. For this plot 
 ten laymen'' and seven priests of that 
 persuasion suffered, and seventeen more 
 were condemned to death, some of 
 whom died in prison ; yet it is still a 
 question whether the whole of the evi- 
 dence under which they were convicted 
 were not fictitious. There can proba- 
 bly be no doubt in the mind of any 
 one that there was a plot generally to 
 introduce the Roman Catholic religion ; 
 and the conspirators, among whom 
 were some of the most exalted persons 
 in the country, might have been little 
 scrupulous as to the means of effecting 
 their object ; but whether the intention 
 of murdering the king were ever seri- 
 ously entertained is very problematical : 
 and Sir Walter Scott has, with his usual 
 skill, taken advantage of the violence 
 raised by this question, when he makes 
 Charles say, " I can scarce escape sus- 
 picion of the plot myself, though the 
 principal object of it is to take away 
 my own life." Men believed the evi- 
 dence which was sworn to by the wit- 
 nesses, and a jury which did so could 
 not but convict the prisoners; but, un- 
 fortunately, perjury was by no means 
 uncommon at this period. The convic- 
 tion of Gates himself, and the severity 
 with which he was treated in the next 
 reign, does not invalidate the evidence, 
 because it proves too much, and only 
 really shows the temper with which 
 both parties could act when they were 
 possessed of power. The excitement 
 
 ' Rapin, ii. 688; Welwood's Memoirs, 128. 
 ' Butler's Roman Catholics, iii. 74. 
 
 occasioned by this plot enabled Lord 
 Shaftesbury to carry the bill which ex- 
 cluded Roman Catholics from the 'wo 
 Houses, and we owe to it the passing 
 of the Habeas Corpus. 
 
 § 722. In order to counteract the fatal 
 effects which this plot was inflicting on 
 the Roman Catholics, a sham plot was 
 contrived for the purpose of throwing 
 the odium on the presbyterians and the 
 heads of the country party ; but Dan- 
 gerfield, who was chiefly concerned in 
 it, discovered the truth; and the attempt 
 only tended to confirm the kingdom in 
 its opinion of the danger from the Ro- 
 man Catholics, and to create a greater 
 dislike to them, while it contributed to 
 convince all sober-minded persons that 
 no one could be safe under such a go- 
 vernment,, or guard against the effects 
 of perjury and a prejudiced or packed 
 jury; a truth which was more sadly 
 confirmed by the fate of Lord Russell 
 and Algernon Sidney,^ who, whatever 
 might have been their guilt, were in all 
 probability unjustly condemned;* and, 
 indeed, throughout the latter part of 
 this reign, the law seems to have been 
 made an engine rather for the oppres- 
 sion of the subject than for his de- 
 fence. 
 
 § 723. The circumstance, that the 
 heir presumptive to the crown was ft 
 Roman Catholic, and anxious to intro- 
 duce his own religion into the country, 
 together with a well-founded belief that 
 the king himself secretly belonged to 
 that communion, could not fail to raise 
 a very general idea that the stability of 
 the church was in danger ; but the 
 whole of this question properly belongs 
 to the civil historian. There was no 
 probability that the Roman Catholics 
 would be able to convert the Protest- 
 ants, or establish their religion by any 
 other methods than those which must 
 first have destroyed the liberty of the 
 subject; except, indeed, inasmuch as 
 
 ' Rapin. ii. 729, 730. 
 
 * The question of Lord Russell's guilt seems to 
 turn on the truth of 'he evidence. A juryman who 
 believed the evidence could hardly help convicting 
 him. If a man meet a party frequently which is 
 plotting to overthrow a government by force, and 
 is present when some of them are despatched to 
 see whether the guards may be surprised, surely 
 he must, in foro conscienlia as well as hgali, be 
 Builiy of treason. I own I do not believe the evi- 
 dence. 
 
:;hap. XVI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 273 
 
 he violence with which the Protestants 
 iittacked each other, might induce the 
 limid members of their communion to 
 hrow themselves into the arms of the 
 ;hurch of Rome, and to seek to quiet 
 jheir doubts under the treacherous se- 
 |;urity of her infallibility. 
 
 The real state of the question seems 
 j 0 be this. The Roman Catholics were 
 Inore friendly to arbitrary power than 
 |,he presbyterians ; they possessed a 
 'Tiore gentlemanly religion, to adopt the 
 Idea of Charles II.; and the church of 
 England lying between the two, ap- 
 proaching to the church of Rome in the 
 mitation of ancient rites and ceremo- 
 lies, and in her respect for antiquity, 
 liul coinciding with the rest of the 
 reformed churches in her strict agree- 
 ment with the Scriptures in point of 
 doctrine, drew nearest to the former 
 when the country seemed in danger 
 from republicanism ; but when the 
 change in the face of politics marked 
 out the evils which were to be appre- 
 hended from arbitrary power and the 
 introduction of the Roman Catholic 
 religion, the high and the low church 
 parties joined to repel the threatened 
 invasion, and raised the cry of "No 
 popery." It is difficult, however, to 
 suppose that either Charles or James, 
 at this time, cared more for religion 
 than as it affected politics, or that 
 Shaftesbury sought for any thing be- 
 yond the establishment of his own 
 influence, and the predominance of 
 those principles which he had himself 
 espoused. But these observations must 
 not be extended to the country. When 
 the feeling was excited, men entertained 
 it according to their tcmjiers. In the 
 estimation of the sincere it was a point 
 in which religion was closely concerned ; 
 and as those who cared not for religion 
 gave it the same denomination, it 
 became one of those mixed questions 
 which agitate the country with the 
 greatest vehemence ; one in which the 
 religious scruples of the people are 
 apparently joined with their temporal 
 interests. 
 
 § 724. It was for these reasons that 
 the commons viewed with alarm two 
 attempts which were made by the king 
 to grant indulgence to those who differ- 
 ed from the church. (Dec. 2(5, 1(582.) 
 Charles had published a declaration for 
 35 
 
 liberty of conscience,' wherein, among 
 other things, he says, "That all his 
 subjects might, with minds happily 
 composed by his indulgence, apply 
 themselves to their several vocations ;" 
 and in his speech at the opening of 
 parliament, he says, "And yet if the 
 dissenters will demean themselves 
 peaceably and modestly under the 
 government, I could heartily wish I 
 had such a power of indulgence to 
 use upon occasions, as might not need- 
 lessly force them out of the kingdom, 
 or, staying here, give them cause to 
 conspire against the peace of it." This 
 step created so great a terror, that the 
 commons voted an address against any 
 indulgence to those who presumed to 
 dissent from the act of uniformity and 
 the religion established by law : and 
 many reasons were assigned why such 
 an indulgence was unadvisable, particu- 
 larly since continual concession must 
 at length lead to a general toleration. 
 A similar attempt ^vas made (March 
 15, U)72) when the king^ published a 
 declaration of toleration which sus- 
 pended all the penal laws on account 
 of religion, and the result was the 
 same. 
 
 The presbyterians were as adverse 
 as the church to toleration. The mass 
 of the people and their representatives 
 were unwilling to make concessions or 
 to grant indulgence to the nonconform- 
 ists, and even less favourable to the 
 Roman Catholics ; while every true 
 lover of his country must have been 
 alarmed at seeing the king assume to 
 himself a power which the disorganized 
 state of the kingdom appeared to ren- 
 der in some degree necessary, but 
 which was inconsistent with the due 
 observance of the laws, since all enact- 
 I ments must be nugatory if the crown 
 'can dispense with them. The Roman 
 Catholics and the court desired that the 
 j severities exercised on the nonconform- 
 ists should so dissatisfy the minds of 
 sober men that they might all readily 
 j embrace a toleration flowing entirely 
 I from the crown; the country party 
 [dreaded the assumption of such a pow- 
 ler; but till the difficulties which pre- 
 ceded the Revolution had convinced 
 j the nation of the necessity of toleration, 
 
 I ' Ecliard, 806. = See 5 715. 
 
274 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 no one seemed willing to concede such 
 liberty to others as he justly claimed 
 for himself. 
 
 § 725. The nonconformists are often 
 praised for the disinterested readiness ' 
 with which they declined accepting a| 
 toleration granted to themselves, upon 
 condition that the lioinan (.'atholicp i 
 should share in it; but though we can., 
 account for such fefliiiL'"?, we can hardly 
 applaud the liberality of men who would 
 rather give up their own liberty in reli- 
 gious matters than sufier their neigh- 
 hours to worship Ciod as tln-y pleased. 
 The exclusion of the Roman Catholics 
 from places of trust, and from the two 
 Houses, and the attempt to deprive the 
 duke of York of his riijht of succession 
 to the crown, stand on totally diflerent 
 grounds from the question of toleration. 
 It must be the inhi rcnt right of every 
 body politic to defend itself; if, there- 
 fore, the constitution will be endangered 
 by committing power into the hands of 
 those who entertain opinior}s- inconsistent 
 with the safely of the state the supreme 
 authority of a kingdom must have a 
 power of making such an exclusion ; it 
 can only be defended on the plea of ne- 
 cessity, and if necessary, it must be just. 
 The common safet}' of the \vhole must 
 give the captain of a ship the right of 
 throwing the property of his passengers 
 into the sea ; but unless he can show 
 that the safety of the whole depends on 
 his doing so, he will have much difficulty 
 in persuading his passengers to consent 
 to the measure ; yet it may become his 
 duty to take the rfsponsibiUty of such an 
 act upon himself. Tin- policy and the 
 justice of each of ilicsc proceedings are 
 inseparable, and depioul cniirely on the 
 necessity. All exclusion is, jjcr se, an 
 evil; circumstances may render it the 
 less of U\ o evils ; but jio < 'hristian coun- 
 try can have n riiiht to hinder men from 
 worshippii)'.;- ( iod arrnrdiiiyf to their own 
 fashion, proviilcd it be done peaceably, 
 and withoiu disturbance to society. 
 
 § 72f). It would be totally inconsistent 
 with the plan of this worl<, to enter into 
 any description of the policy of this 
 reign. It consisted in a variety of con- 
 trivances, by which the crown endea- 
 voured to obtain money from a yielding 
 parliament* and the bargains wliich the 
 House of Commons made for each of 
 its concessions ; bargains, in which the 
 
 welfare of one part of the community, 
 and the well-being of the whole, were 
 sacrificed to the supposed interests of 
 the rest. The money was no sooner 
 obtained than it was squandered on the 
 most unworthy purposes, and the liberty 
 of the subject preserved, not by any con- 
 stitutional stand, or carefulness in the 
 parliament, but because the prodigality 
 of the court always kept the king at the 
 mercy of his people. 
 
 § 727. Among the various calamities 
 which attended this eventful reign, there 
 are two of so marked a character, that 
 we can hardly omit the mention of them; 
 particularly as the)- each tended to call 
 forth the energies of the church and the 
 nonconformists ; and furnished a short 
 space of time, during which the labours 
 of both were directed to the same im- 
 portant object. ' 
 
 The plague broke out in London, in 
 Ma)-, 1605, and raged with greater or 
 less violence till the fire put an end t<» 
 its contagion. The upper orders, gene- 
 rally speaking, fled, to avoid its ravages, 
 and unfortunately some of the London 
 clergy imitated their example but their 
 places were quickly filled by the non- 
 conformists,^ and the near prospect of 
 death caused a strong effect on the minda 
 of many persons,^ to whom the ministers 
 of God's word addressed themselves. 
 Writers who have described the events 
 which attended this pestilence, spealc of 
 the religious impressions w-hich were 
 generally produced on the people ; and 
 though tliere was a dreadful continuance 
 of vicious indulgence, which showed 
 itself in many cases, yet the effect was 
 ordinarily much stronger on the other 
 side, and promoted the reformation of 
 mojals. It might prove a useful specu- 
 lation to compare the efTects of such 
 visitations on heathen and on Christian 
 countries.* At Athens it produced an 
 
 ' Echard, 823. 
 
 2 There died of the plague 68,596 persons wilhin 
 the bills of niorialii y. Among those who eseried 
 themselves in this season of distress, the names 
 of the duke of Alhemarle, Sheldon, archhishop 
 of Canterbury, and Lord Craven must not be for- 
 goiieii. 'I'hoiiias Vincent, a Westminster student 
 of Christ Church, wrote an account of it: he 
 stayed in London, and preached during the whole 
 
 ' Baxter's Life, iii. 2. 
 
 ^ See some valuable remarks on this sub|ect ia 
 Burton's flistory of the Second and Third Centu- 
 ries, p. 345, A. D. 253, and the account of thecen^ 
 1 duct of Cyprian and the other bishops. 
 
HAP. XVI.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 276 
 
 I sxtraordinary excess of immorality of 
 jTfty description. In London, though 
 iTToss vice still in some measure pre- 
 1, railed, yet men were ordinarily turned 
 owards religion ; the churches were 
 niled by persons exhibiting every 
 ' ard appearance of piety, and the 
 . i\ exclamations heard in the streets 
 partook of a devotional character. No- 
 :ihing but the pure and revealed Avonl of 
 God can impress' upon the jnind of man 
 ,a real belief in a future state ; and few 
 I who possessed a practical faith in tliis 
 doctrine, could fail to be influenced by 
 it, at least for the time, and frighlened 
 by such a tremendous warning into .some 
 species of reformation. 
 I § 728. (Sept. lOOG.) The fire of Lon- 
 don was one of the most terrible afflic- 
 tions which ever befell a devoted city ; 
 anil though the lives of the inhabitants 
 wrre spared, yet their property was sn 
 generally destroyed, that the most active 
 exertions on the part of the benevolent 
 could not prevent a very considerable 
 quantity of actual suffering. Many of 
 the nonconformist ministers were espe- 
 cially injured, since London formed a 
 great bank of charity from whence their 
 necessities had been supplied, and the 
 present distress not only disaliled some 
 of those who contributed to their sup- 
 port, but diverted much of the beneli- 
 cence of the kingdom into a new channel. 
 This visitation, however, did not produce 
 the good which might have been ex- 
 pected from it. The violence which had 
 long exasperated the two parties in the 
 church was far from being appeased ; in 
 reflecting on these calamitous events, 
 each threw the blame on their oppo- 
 nents ; the one reprobated the schismatic 
 temper of the nonconformists, the other 
 declaimed against the perjury and ty- 
 ranny of the hierarchy," but neither con- 
 fessed their own offences. 
 
 As eighty-nine churches were de- 
 stroyed, and the great mass of the popu- 
 lation remained, the nonconformists 
 gladly exerted themselves in opening 
 such meetings for public worship as 
 could most easily be provided, and the 
 obvious necessity of the case prevented 
 any opposition which might otherwise 
 have been raised to such an attempt ; 
 but unfortunately the doctrines which 
 
 ' Baxter, iii. 18. 
 
 were then prevalent in the kingdom 
 
 breathed not that spirit of reconciliation 
 whicli might have promoted the cause 
 of Christianity. It happened indeed 
 most ])rovidi'iitially, that several of the 
 parisli cliiirclii's which were preserved 
 were in I lie liamls of the most mo- 
 derate and al)lr.st of the clergy of the 
 day, as Stilliiiglleet, TiUotson, Out- 
 ram, and Patric ; but their exertions 
 were productive of less good, since 
 many of the nonconformists t'xhibited so 
 threat a dislik-e to the (^'ommon Prayer, 
 that they either rei'iised to join with 
 conformable ministers, or at least to 
 be present at the Liturgy and sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 § 729. The evil tendency of such 
 schismatic notions, joined with much of 
 disaflection towards the crown, which 
 continued to increase iluriii','- the whole 
 of this reign, naturally produced a con- 
 trary feeling on the pan of the church; 
 and many churchmen, in their zeal to 
 controvert what was wrong in these 
 opinions, ran into the extremes of pas- 
 sive obedience and non-resistance, a doc- 
 trine which, during the latter years of 
 the life of Charles 11., seemed equally 
 espoused by thi> court and the pulpit, 
 the bench and the har.- (U>8;3.) Under 
 tlie impulse of this increasing zeal, the 
 university of (Oxford made a solemn de- 
 cre<', which passed in the convocation 
 there on the same day as the execution 
 of Lord Russell took place, and pre- 
 sented it to the king, under this title,' 
 "The judgment and decree of the uni- 
 versity of (Jxford, passed in their convo- 
 cation on July 21, 1()8:}, against certain 
 pernicious hooks and damnable doc- 
 trines, destructive of the sacred persons 
 of i)rinces, their state and government, 
 and of all human society ;" in which 
 decree they formally condemned twenty- 
 seven propositions collected out of seve- 
 ral modern authors. This decree is 
 attributed to Dr. Jane, regius professor 
 of divinity, who was in consequence 
 made dean of Gloucester, and who, upon 
 the Revolution, again sought for prefer- 
 ment by changing his sentiments. The 
 declaration was placed in the college 
 halls, and remained there till, in 1(588, 
 it was displaced by those who had framed 
 
 2 Echard, 1036. 
 
 ' Rapin, ii. 730. Kennet, iii. 419. 
 
276 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 it, on the arriyal of the new govern- 
 ment.* 
 
 § 780. In revicwin? the history of the 
 reign, if it were attempted to describe 
 the characters of all those who took a ' 
 prominent part in the affairs of it, the 
 task would require a volume for itself; I 
 but there is one man who must not be [ 
 overlooked. 
 
 Lord Clarendon showed so much 
 wisdom in the treatment of the repub- 
 licans, whose services he accepted, that 
 it is difficult to understand why the 
 same minister should have adopted a 
 contrary policy with regard to the af- 
 fairs of the church. Burnet's^ account 
 of this matter, therefore, may possibly 
 contain some truth, where he slates that 
 the chancellor would have fallen into 
 more moderate counsels towards the 
 nonconformists, had he not been unwill- 
 ing to disoblige the bishops, who had 
 been very kind to him, in the affair 
 wherein his daughter's honour was 
 concerned ; and that his friend Lord 
 Southampton was disposed to have been 
 very moderate. In ihe transactions 
 connected with the Savoy conference. 
 Lord Clarendon does not appear to 
 have been adverse to the nonconform- 
 ists ; but the real state of the question, 
 as it was gradually developed to those 
 who were engaged in the government, 
 may fully account for this difference in 
 his conduct. At first he seems to have 
 been equally ready to conciliate the 
 enemies of the monarchy both in church 
 and state ; but when he came to act, 
 he found the characters of the parties 
 so dissimilar, that he was led to pursue 
 a very different line of treatment to- 
 wards them. The republican states- 
 men were possessed of enlarged views, 
 and were in many cases willing to fall 
 in with the measures which the altered 
 state of the kingdom required. The 
 presbyterian churchmen were men of 
 contracted notions, who would make 
 no allowances for the opinions of others, 
 
 ' These 
 
 ngs were so justly offensive to 
 some of the younger students, who in those days 
 pubhshed their satire in Latin verses, that many 
 epigrams were written on him. Among the rest : 
 Cum fronti sit nulla fides, ut carmina dicunt, 
 Cur tibi bifronti, Jane, sit uUa fides? 
 And again — 
 Decretum figis solenne, Decanus ut esses : 
 
 Ut fieres Praesul, Jane, refigia idem. 
 » Own Time, i. 305. 
 
 or concessions from their own decisions. 
 No one can examine the Savoy con- 
 ference, without being convinced that 
 men of such tempers were unable to 
 govern or to legislate for any church. 
 
 A wiser policy might probably have 
 broken the party, and greater conces- 
 sions would perhaps have conciliated 
 many ; but mankind had not then 
 learnt, nor could they foresee and 
 know, the benefits which toleration was 
 likely to produce. Lord Clarendon 
 therefore thought, with others, that no- 
 thing but severity could give security to 
 the church ; and this idea predominated 
 till the course of events convinced 
 every one that divisions among Pro- 
 testants could neither give safety to 
 the church or advance the cause of 
 religion. 
 
 § 731. The fate of the lord chancel- 
 lor was such as might have been natu- 
 rally anticipated ; his misfortune seems 
 to have been, that he did not retire from 
 his pre-eminent station sufficiently 
 early. He had. been raised too high 
 for a subject, and he could not hope to 
 govern or to guide a man so vicious 
 as the king. When he found that his 
 power of acting rightly had ceased, he 
 should have withdrawn from the scene ; 
 but he esteemed himself bound to sup- 
 port the measures of the court, though 
 he did not approve of them, and his 
 high station compelled him to take a 
 share in whatever was done ; so that 
 though he concurred in the treatment 
 of the nonconformists, we can hardly 
 be sure that he might not have adopted 
 a more enlightened policy, had he been 
 able to direct the government in all its 
 details. The general feeling of the 
 country was probably the real cause of 
 whatever was now done in this respect. 
 Baxter, in his own life, is often violent 
 in the blame which he throws on the 
 bishops, for persecuting, with all the 
 severity of the law, their nonconform- 
 ing brethren ; and particularizes Shel- 
 don and Ward.^ These men p-ere 
 both of them verj^ influential persons 
 in the concerns of the church, and 
 therefore the policy which was adopted 
 must in some measure be referred to 
 them ; but Baxter himself seems never 
 to have possessed those extended views 
 
:hap. XVI.] 
 
 I'hich could comprehend that men, who 
 iiflered entirely from himself in their 
 ipinions, might still be sincere and 
 onscientious in their j)roceeding;s. 
 These bishops were probably never 
 guilty of any acts of severity, to wliicli 
 hose who approved of their line of 
 lolicy would honestly object. They 
 ried to reduce the nonconformists by 
 orce of law, and not by conciliation ; 
 .nd many persons may even now think 
 hat they were right, and that their 
 irinciples were sound. Persecution 
 f every sort is unchristian ; but he 
 aust be very ignorant of human na- 
 ure who presumes to assert that every 
 ne who wishes to persecute must be 
 ntirely unchristian. What would 
 lave been the fate of churchmen if 
 he nonconformists had predominated ! 
 Uid yet there were many very good 
 iii'M among them. A spirit of tolera- 
 1011 is one which his own heart will 
 levtT teach to any one ; and it is only 
 ly degrees that nations learn the viruie 
 >f moderation. In lookiiii,'- at thi^' [loiiii 
 luririL!; the usiir|)ation , am! at the Rc- 
 toration, it would u , ;ni 1 iuvi- 
 lious to draw coin] ai isoiis. SrviTitv 
 ind injustice might luii.' limi ; \j)i'<nt .i 
 rom rebels, even tliough driven into 
 ebellion by o|i])ri s.sion ; but v.-hrrc a 
 egitimate government throws olF tlie 
 bstering care wliicli it should exhiliit 
 owards all its coiMren collerlivel y. and 
 ries to upivbhl its own sellish jiow er hy 
 )alancing against each oihei- lho>.- w hnm 
 t should end -a von r lo Muiie ; w In u ii:e 
 •-hnrch, wiiich we admire aild e>\e. 
 akes part in tliis d i-,;rr,,,-,.iii| struiju le, it 
 ;annot but |ioiiit out to us thi' iusuili- 
 •-iency of the best of human pohi'vanil 
 luman institui i(Uis. ari 1 nnilvc u - I eik 
 ip to that power which has preserved 
 as, and which can alone vouchsafe to 
 :ontinue our existence. 
 
 §782. Charles himsidf sought rather 
 to escape from the trouble of governing 
 than was anxious to tyrannize over 
 others; his wish for arbitrary poAver 
 arose from the (hduvive hope that it 
 would free him from tlmse d ist u i hances 
 to which he found hitusell' rontiuually 
 exposed : he did not desire' to he like 
 a grand seignior, but he did no\ think 
 himself a king while a company of fel- 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 277 
 
 [ lows were looking into all his actions, 
 
 I and examining his ministers as well as 
 his accounts ; and he expected that, by 
 balancing the church party against the 
 disscuiters, he might he able to hold the 
 reins in his own hands ; he was rapa- 
 cious in seeking money, for the sake 
 
 \ of squandering it on iiis favourites ; and 
 if the opinion of Coleman, secretary to 
 his brother, may be trusted, there was 
 nothing which he would rjot do for the 
 sake of obtaining it. He conformed, in 
 
 j religious matters, outwardly with the 
 church of England and it may be a 
 question whether he did not join the 
 church of Rome rather for the sake of 
 that fallacious ease which that sect 
 could impart to his troubled and waver- 
 ing conscience than for any better rea- 
 son. Fie treated his wife as kindly as 
 any man of his vicious habits could do, 
 and he was the slave of his mistresses. 
 His natural talents are described as be- 
 ing considerable ; and he was possibly 
 a better politician than any of his mi- 
 nis'ers ; but he was disgusted with busi- 
 ness by Lord Clarendon, and latterly 
 gave himself up to the guidance of his 
 brother, who being, perhaps, at that 
 time, as had a man, was certainly a 
 much worse monarch. The circum- 
 stance which must load Charles and his 
 t)rother with a political infamy, which 
 nothing can wipe away, was the man- 
 ner in which they separated their own 
 sn|)|Ui-;ed interest from that of their 
 c vintr v'. 15' cause they could not go- 
 vern ljni.'l:Mul according to their own 
 wishes, thev were ready to become 
 ihem.selves the pensionaries of France, 
 ami lo sell the interests of Britain, that 
 they mii^rlit obtain the means of en- 
 : laving; it. This project seems to have 
 llo\\-.'d frmn .lames, rather than from 
 Charles; hut it is shameless enough 
 even to have entertained the idea. 
 
 § 7:5;i. The natural tendency of such 
 a reiijn w a- to i-reaii' a most stupendous 
 di-e ree of prol' il- iic y, moral anil political; 
 anil this fruit was produced in abun- 
 dance. Perhaps there never was a 
 more disn-raceful public act than the 
 stoppage of the treasury, and certainly 
 all auiliors agree that this country was 
 never more degraded in its morality, 
 than while Charles H. was king. Re- 
 
 ' Burnei's Own Time, ii. 1. 
 
 2 Welwood, 148. 
 2 A 
 
278 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVL 
 
 ligion, instead of reforming these evils, 
 ■was itself the most fertile cause of con- 
 tention, and fostered every evil passion 
 with which human nature is corrupted : 
 gross profligacy will easily taint the 
 breasts of the thoughtless and the 
 worldly ; but religious discord takes 
 away the savour from that salt which 
 should season the whole ; at once in- 
 fects whatever is most valuable in the 
 community, and renders even the ex- 
 pectation of amendment distant and 
 
 uncertain. Fanaticism and a false dis- 
 cipline had promoted the cause of hy- 
 ' pocrisy and irreligion, and debauchery 
 and vice followed in their train ; but 
 party feeling seemed likely to have de- 
 stroyed whatever portion of Christianity 
 remained, had not God in mercy raised 
 up a body of men, whom the very dan- 
 gers and difficulties of the times tended 
 to educate ; and whose virtues and ex- 
 perience were matured by the opposition 
 which they were obliged to encounter. 
 
 APPENDIX E. TO CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 HISTORY OF THE COMMON PRAYER BOOK.' 
 
 4 741. 1545. The King's Primer, printed by authority. 
 
 742. 1548. Communion Service. 
 
 743. 1549. First Liturgy of Edward VI. published. 
 
 744. 1550 First Ordination Service published. 
 
 745. 1552. Second Liiurgy of Edward VI. 
 
 Second Ordination Service. 
 
 746. 1560. Liturgy of Elizabeth. 
 
 747. 1604. Alterations introduced by James I. 
 
 748. 1633. and Charles L 
 
 749. 1C61. Last revision. Authorized Liturgy. 
 
 750. Service for the Consecration of Churches; political services. 
 
 § 741. In giving an account of the 
 Common Prayer Book, it will be more 
 correct to describe it as a work coin- 
 piled from the services of the church of 
 Rome, or rather as a translation of such 
 portions of them as were free from all 
 objection, than as an original composi- 
 tion. The use of prayers in a language 
 unintelligible to the mass of the congre- 
 gation is an evil so obvious, tliat when- 
 ever men begin to judge for themselves, 
 they must necessarily reject it : and the 
 first step which was taken by the church 
 of England is, I believe, now generally 
 adopted in that of Rome : 1 mean a 
 translation of those portions of the ser- 
 vice which are most frequently used. 
 The book denominated the King's Pri- 
 mer was, I believe, first published by 
 
 • Few references are here given, for rrvos' of the 
 observations are made from collating ihe original 
 editions. There is a nice tract on the suljeci in 
 Sparrow's Rationale of ilic Common Prayer, 
 drawn up by Downes. Whea'ley and Nicholls 
 may be consulted. A complete documentary 
 history of the Common Prayer has just been pub- 
 lished by my friend Dr. Cardwell at Oxford. 
 History of the Conferences, dt-c.. connected wiih 
 the Common prayer, by E. Cardwell, D. D. Ox- 
 ford, 1840. 
 
 authority early in the spring of 1545.' 
 The object of its publication was to fur- 
 nish the unlearned with such parts of 
 the church service as were most re- 
 quired, as well as to supply them with 
 
 2 Before this, about 1535, a book called by the 
 same name, and written, or rather compiled, by 
 Cuthbert Mai-shall, archdeacon of Noitingham, 
 was published, probably with Cranmer's appro- 
 liaiion. hut wiihout authority. (Strype's Eccle- 
 siasiical Memorials, i. 335, ch. xxxi., and Cranmer, 
 i. 13S.) It contains many independent tracts, of 
 w hich Strype gives a list ; possibly the Primer 
 might have been allowed, to which Marshall 
 affixed these additions. I have never seen the 
 liiiok. Strype calls it a second edition with divers 
 additions, 4io. A Primer, 1545. to which I allude 
 above, is in the Bodleian. Watcrland on the 
 Aihanasian Creed. Works, iv. 282 a, speaks of a 
 Primer .set forth ip 1539. by John, bishop of Ro- 
 chester, (Hilsey,)p. 285. 
 
 In 1834 my laie friend Dr. Burton published 
 three primers ; that of — 
 
 William Marshall . . 1535 
 John Hilsev .... 1539 
 Henry VI H . . . 1545. 
 
 In the preface which he has given, there is all 
 the information on the subject which he could 
 collect. He proves the error of the account above 
 given from Sirype, and affords much new infor- 
 mation on the use made of Marshall's Primer in 
 composing the " Institution of a Christian Man," 
 (nr the Bishops' Book ;) Roman Catholic Primers 
 were previously in use ; he mentions one as early 
 as 1527. 
 
:hap. xvl] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 279 
 
 he Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the 
 Ten Commandments, in the vulgar 
 ongue. This booL' was republished in 
 he reigns of EdwanI and Elizabeth. 
 
 It contains tlie I^itari)-, varying but 
 ittle from our prest-nt form, excepting 
 hat there are certain petitions request- 
 ng " the prayers of angels, saints, and 
 iiiartyrs," and " to be delivered from the 
 ' yranny of the church of Rome." The 
 brmcr of which was omitted in the 
 'Prayer Book of Edward VI., and both 
 n that Elizabeth. In the Dirige, or 
 service for the dead, all the Primers 
 contain prayers for departed souls, which 
 is the more extraordinary with regard 
 .0 that published during the reign of 
 Elizabeth, since this point had been 
 altered in the second Common Prayer 
 of Edward VI., 1.552, and was never 
 again introduced into the service of our 
 church. 
 
 § 742. (March 8, 1.518.) The second 
 step in framing a new Service Book re- 
 ferred to that particular in which the 
 church of Rome had introduced the 
 greatest corruptions. When it was or- 
 dained by act of parliament that the use 
 of the Sacrament of the Lord's supj)er 
 in both kinds should be restored to the 
 people, a short formulary' was drawn 
 up for this purpose, to be used at the 
 end of the Latin mass, in which the 
 priest, having himself partaken during 
 the previous ceremony, was directed 
 subsequently lo administer to the rest 
 of the congregation both the bread and 
 wine. The service is from this circum- 
 stance much shorter than that which 
 formed a part of the Comn>on Prayer 
 in 1519, but most of the prayers and 
 exhortations are the same ; both these 
 contain one direction with regard to 
 confession, which marks the temper in 
 which they were drawn up. The people, 
 when exhorted as at present to come to 
 some minister of God's word, and open 
 their grief to him, in case they find their 
 consciences troubled, are urged to use 
 mutual charity towards those whose 
 opinions differ from their own as to 
 private confession ; that neither they 
 who open their sins lo the priest sho\ild 
 be offended at others who are satisfied 
 with their own humble confession to 
 God ; nor these latter exhibit less for- 
 
 ' Printed in Sparrow's Collecnon, p. 13. 
 
 I bearance towards such as seek for fur- 
 ther satisfaction from auricular con- 
 fession. 
 
 § 7l:i. (May 4, 1.549.) But when the 
 principles of general reformation were 
 more fully acted upon, the wliole ser- 
 vice was put forth in English,' and all 
 men were thus enabled to join in the 
 very words used by the minister of the 
 church. 
 
 The execution, however, of this work 
 was far from being so complete as its 
 first appearance might induce us to 
 suppose. The origirml Common Prayer 
 Book is, in all outward appearance, 
 nearly the same as that which we now 
 use, though its pages retain many of the 
 particulars in which we differ from the 
 church of Rome. In the funeral ser- 
 vice there are prayers for the dead. 
 The custom of anointing with oil is re- 
 tained in the office for baptism ; and in 
 that for the visitation of the sick, in case 
 the patient request<'d it. The outward 
 sign of the cross is still retained in se- 
 veral of the services where it is now 
 omitted : so that on tiie whole this book 
 forms a connecting link between the 
 Missal and the Prayer Book.^ 
 
 Book is drawn, the reader is referred to a most 
 complete treatise on this subject by Palmer, pub- 
 lished at the I'niversity Press in Oxford. Since 
 the publication of the 2d edition, these two Prayer 
 Books, § 743, ^1 74,'), have been reprinted at the 
 University Press, by my friend Dr. Cardwell. 
 
 » The most material differences between the first 
 Liturgy and that now in use were — 
 
 1. The morning and evening service began with 
 the Lord's Prayer; and the prayers for the king, 
 royal family, and clergy, &c., were wanting at 
 the end of it. The Liiany was not ordered to be 
 iiseii on Sundays, and contained a petition lo be 
 delivered from the tyranny of the bishop of Rome. 
 
 2. Each communion service began wiih an In- 
 troit, or psalm, sung as the officiating ministers 
 were proceeding to ihe aliar, (a custom which is 
 still retained in cathedral churches.) In the praise 
 given for the saints the name of the Virgin was 
 especially mentioned. The sign of the cross was 
 
 2 The persons employed in drawing it up were— 
 
 Crnnnier, abp. ol Canterbury. 
 
 (I.iodnch, bp. of Ely. 
 
 Holbech, bp. of Lincoln. 
 
 l):\y, bp. oi Chichester. 
 
 Skip, bp. of Hereford. 
 
 Thirby, lip. of Westminster. 
 
 Ridley, bp. of Rochesier. 
 
 Cox, dean of Christ Church. 
 
 May, dean of St. Paul's. 
 
 Taylor, dean of Lincoln. 
 
 Havns, dean of Exeler. 
 
 Robinson, archd. of Leicester and dean of Dur- 
 liain. 
 
 Redmain, dean of Westminster and master of 
 
 Trinity, Cambridge. 
 As to the sources from whence our Prayer 
 
280 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVI. 
 
 § 744. It is impossible not to remark 
 the prudence with which this booit was 
 drawn up. Almost the whole of it was 
 taken from difTennit Roman Catholic 
 services, particularly those after the use 
 of Salisbury, wliich were then generally 
 adopted in the south of England ; and 
 the princi[;le on which the compilers 
 proceeded in the work, was to alter as 
 little as possible what had been familiar 
 to the people.* Thus the Litany is 
 
 used in ihe consecration of the elements ; and 
 there was a prayer that they might be sanclititd 
 with the .Spirit and Word of God. 'I he words at 
 the preseniaiion of the elements were only the first 
 clause ol those now used ; and water was to be 
 mixed with the wine. This service varies mucli 
 from the one at present in use, and the Decalogue 
 forms no part of it. 
 
 3. In ihe baptismal service a form of exorcism, 
 in order to expel the evil spirit from the child, was 
 still used ; the child was anointed, and invested 
 with a white garment, or chrisom, to denote the 
 innoceiicy of the profession into which il was now 
 admitted. '1 he baptismal water was consecrated 
 once a month, and the minister was directed to dip 
 the child thrice. 
 
 4. The caiechism formed a part of the office for 
 confirniaiion. and wanted the explanation of the 
 sacraments at the end. 
 
 5. '1 he office for confirmation consisted merely 
 in the laying on of hands with prayer, without 
 any proni'^e on the part of the person confirmed, 
 with whicli it now begins. The sign of the cross 
 was siill used in it. 
 
 6. In ninlrimony the sign of the cross was still 
 retained, and money \vas given with the ring to 
 the bride. 
 
 7. In the visitation of the sick, allusion was 
 made to 'I'obias and i^arah. from the Apocrypha. 
 A prayer was added in case the sick per.^on de- 
 sired to be anointed, and he was to be signed with 
 the cross. And it was hinhcr directed, tha- the 
 same iorm ol absohition should be used in all pri- 
 vate confessions. 
 
 8. In the burial of the dead there were prayers 
 for the person buried, and lor the dead generally. 
 A particular service was added for the celebration 
 of the cni harisi at funerals. 
 
 9. With regard to dresses, priests were ordered 
 to wear the surplice in parish churches, and to add 
 the hood when they officiate in cathedrals or 
 preach. And in 'he communion, the bishop was 
 directed to weiir besides bis rochet, a surplice or 
 albe, wiih a cnpe or vestment, and to have a 
 pastoral stati boiiic by himself, or his chaplain. 
 The oflicia-mrr pri. st to wear a white albe, plain, 
 with a vcsiniont or cope. And the assisting mi- 
 nisters lo appear in albes and tunicles. Rubric, 
 Com. .'Service. 
 
 10. With regard to ceremonies used by the 
 people, the follmving rubric occurred, which has 
 been subsr(|ucnilv oniiiif d. '■ .As touching kneel- 
 ing, crossing. Iii.lrlmg up ol liands, knocking upon 
 the bieasi, and oilier l'csi ui i^s. tlicy may be used 
 or left, a.'? every man's dcvoiion siTvcih, without 
 blame;" and it may bo observed ilini the reasons 
 then drawn up "why .some ceremonies were ab- 
 rogated and others retained," and which were 
 then placed at the end ol the Prayer Book, now 
 stand as a preface. 
 
 ' Many parts of the service, which are not de- 
 
 nearly the same as that in the Salisbury- 
 Hours, e.xcepting that one hundred and 
 si.xteen addresses to the apostles, the 
 Virgin, and different saints are left out; 
 it only differs from that published by 
 Henry VIII. in the Primer, by three 
 addresses of the same nature, which 
 were there retained ; and varies from 
 our own in one petition only, " That 
 we may be delivered from the tyranny 
 of the pope." The collects, epistles, 
 and gospels were almost entirely the 
 same as those in the Salisbury Hours, 
 and several ceremonies were retained, 
 which have been since discarded. 
 
 (Nov. 1549.) In the latter part of this 
 year, a meeting of divines-' (probably 
 the same as had been engaged in com- 
 piling the Common Prayer) took place, 
 for the purpose of framing an ordi- 
 nation service, which was published in 
 March of the next year, and, after some 
 trifling alterations,^ adopted into the 
 Prayer Book, upon the review of it 
 which took place in 1552. It corres- 
 ponds very nearly with that now in 
 use, excepting that some of the portions 
 of Scripture which are read are different, 
 and the oath of supremacy has been 
 changed. •* Its several parts are taken 
 from that in use in the church of Rome, 
 with the omission of certain ceremonious 
 observances, and the insertion of most 
 of the questions proposed to the candi- 
 dates. 
 
 § 745. (a.d. 1552.) When a few 
 years had enabled the Christian com- 
 
 rived from the Roman Catholic service books, are 
 taken-from Herman's Consultation about Refor- 
 mation. He was archbishop of Cologne, and the 
 work was drawn up by Melanctbon and Bucer, 
 and translated into English in 1547- Laurence, 
 Bampton Lectures, 440. 
 
 2 Burnet, ii. 109, fol., 265, 8vo. 
 
 3 Differences between the ordination service, 
 1549— K55-3. 
 
 The service began with an Introit. The dea- 
 cons were to be dressed in albes, and the one who 
 read the gospel was to put on a tunicle. The 
 bread and chalice were given into the priest's hands, 
 together with the Bible. In the consecration of 
 bishops the pastoral staff was used, and committed 
 into his hand before the words, " Be to the flock 
 of Christ a shepherd." The archbishop laid the 
 Bible on the bishop's neck ; the other alterations 
 are merely verbal. The original edition was pub- 
 lished by Grafton. The copy in the Bodleian 
 library is a reprint. 
 
 * The smaller differences consist in the altera- 
 tion of some few words, and in the rubric concern- 
 ing the ages at which deacons and priests may be 
 ordained, corresponding with the law of Elizabeth. 
 See ^ 435. 
 
!hap. XVI.] 
 
 lunity to examine the new Common 
 'rayer Book, and some persons were 
 ardly satisfied with many of the cere- 
 lonies which were still retained in the 
 ffices, it was determined to make a 
 eneral review of the whole, under the 
 irection of Cranmer, with the assistance 
 f otlier divines, the same probably as 
 ad originally compiled it. While this 
 
 1 as in progress, two learned foreigners, 
 vho were then in England, were con- 
 ulled on the subject, and their opinions 
 eeni to iiave coincided with, or to have 
 nfiuenced,' the decisions of the English 
 )ishops ; for most of the points objected 
 o by Bucer'^ were subsequently amend- 
 •d, and the sentiments of Peter Martyr 
 ippear to have been very similar to 
 hose of Bucer.^ 
 
 ' Dr. Laurence (Baniplon Lect. 247) seems to 
 loubt whether these foreigners had much in- 
 luence with regard to the matter. 
 
 2 Burnet, ii. 287, 8vo. Strype's Cranmer, i. 299. 
 ' The alterations from the last, 1549, now made, 
 
 vere as follows : — 
 
 1. The sentences, exhortation, confession, and 
 ibsoluiion, with which the service begins, were 
 low introduced. The idea of them is probably 
 aken from a form of prayer used by the church 
 )f Strasburgh, and published in 15.t1 by Valeran- 
 ius PoUanus, when this church was established 
 It Glastonbury. The use of the Decalogue, as 
 ?art of the public service, is probably due to the 
 same source. See Laurence's Bamp. Lect. 198; 
 and Strype's Eccl. Mem. IL i. 378. The Litany 
 was to be used on Sundays. 
 
 2. In the communion service the Decalogue 
 was now introduced. The Introit, the name of 
 the Virgin Mary, together with the thanksgiving 
 for the saints, the sign of the cross in consecra- 
 tion, the invocation of the Word and the Holy 
 Ghost which accompanied it, and the admixture 
 of water with wine, were omitted. And the words 
 at the presentation of the elements were only the 
 second clause of those now used. At the same 
 time a declaration concerning the posture of kneel- 
 ing in receiving the sacrament was subjoined, 
 which differs not materially from that which now 
 stands at the end of the communion service. It 
 is difficult to understand why the invocation of the 
 second and third Persons in the Trinity was left 
 out ; it has been wisely restored in the American 
 Prayer Book. 
 
 3. In baptism, the form of exorcism, the anoint- 
 ing of the child, the use of the chrisom, and the 
 trine immersion, were omitted ; the water was 
 consecrated for the occasion as at present. 
 
 5. In confirmation, the sign of the cross wae 
 omitted. 
 
 6. In matrimony, the sign of the cross, and the 
 giving of gold and silver, were omitted. 
 
 7. In the visitation of the sick, the allusion to 
 Tobias and Sarah, the anointing, and the direc- 
 tion about all private confessions, were omitted. 
 
 8. In the burial service, the prayers for the 
 dead, and the office for the eucharist at funerals, 
 were omitted. 
 
 9. The rubric about the dresses was, " And 
 here it is to be noted, that the minister at the time 
 of the communion and at all other times in his 
 
 36 
 
 381 
 
 This Prayer Book, in fact, differs 
 very little from the one now in use, 
 excepting that at the end of the morning 
 and evening service the prayers for the 
 king and royal family were wanting', 
 and that the other prayers were then 
 placed at the end of the Lifany, and 
 probably not read unless that was used. 
 The occasional prayers, too, as well as 
 the thanksgivings, were wanting ; those 
 for rain and fair weather occurred at the 
 end of the communion service. 
 
 § 74G. (a. d. 15(i0.) On the re-esta- 
 blishment of Protestantism by Q,ueen 
 Elizabeth, one of her first cares was to 
 review the Common Prayer Book. 
 The question which was agitated be- 
 tween those whom she nominated to this 
 task,* was whether the first or second 
 book of Edward VI. should be adopted. 
 Her own inclination would probably 
 have guided her to prefer the former, 
 since it retained many ceremonies of 
 which she was particularly fond ; but, 
 upon examination, the second of Edward 
 VI. was selected, and a few alterations 
 were made in it.* 
 
 ministration, shall use neither albe, vestment, nor 
 cope ; but beitig archbishop or bishop, he shall 
 have and wear a rochet ; but being a priest or dea- 
 con, he shall have and wear a surplire only. 
 
 * The persons employed were, (Strype's Life of 
 Sir Thomas Smith, p. 5lj,) — 
 Bill, master of Trinity. Cambridge, and after- 
 wards dean of Wesiminster. 
 Parker, dean of Lincoln, aiid afterwards arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 May, dean of St. Paul's, and afterwards arch- 
 bishop of York. 
 Cox, dean of Ch Cli. O.xfnrd, and Westminster, 
 
 and afterwards bishop of Ely. 
 Pilkingion. master ol St. John's, Cambridge, and 
 
 afterwards bishop of Durham. 
 Grindal, bishop of London, and afterwards arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury. 
 Whitehead, who had been chaplain to Cranmer. 
 Sir Thomas Smith. 
 
 Of these. May and Cox had been employed ai 
 the compilation of the work. In the Annals, 
 Strype (Ann. i. 119.) adds Sandys and Guest. 
 
 5 The changes .opecitied in the act of unifortriity , 
 1° Elizabelhce. are, " With one alteration or addi 
 tion of certain lessons, to be used every .Sunday in 
 the year, and the form of the Liiauy abered and 
 corrected, and two .leniences only added in the 
 delivery of the sacrament to the comnninicants. 
 and none o'her or otherwise." Of these, the 
 changes in the lessons are not considerable. In 
 the Litany the petition lo lie delivered from (he 
 tyranny of the bishop of Rome was onniied, and 
 that for the queen altered. And in the commu- 
 nion, both th*' clauses at the presentation ol the 
 elements, which had stood in the first and second 
 of Edward, were put together, forming the words 
 now used. The clause in the act of uniformity, 
 1° Elizabethae, about dresses is, " Such ornaments 
 2 A 2 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
383 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVL 
 
 §747. (a. D. 1G04.) During the reign 
 of James I., in consequence of some 
 discussion at the conference at Hampton 
 Court, another review of the Common 
 Prayer was instituted, and a few changes' 
 introduced \^ ith much judgment ; but it 
 must not be forgotten that they pos- 
 sessed no legal authority, inasmuch as 
 they were only sanctioned by the royal 
 proclamation under which they were 
 published. 
 
 § 748. Laud'' is generally accused of 
 having made considerable alterations in 
 the Common Prayer, for which he had 
 no sufficient authority; and doubtless 
 there are many words changed in the 
 edition of 1638, as compared with that 
 of l(i22. If this had not been brought 
 forward among ten thousand charges 
 equally frivolous, as a proof of treason, 
 we might be induced to reprobate such 
 unwarrantable proceedings as they de- 
 serve ; but there is little evidence that 
 Laud was the author of the alterations, 
 and he expressly denies it^ in his own 
 version of his defence.* 
 
 of the church, and of the ministers thereof, shall 
 be retained and be used, as was in this church of 
 England by authority of parliament in the second 
 year of the reign of Edward VI., until order shall 
 be therein taken by the authority of the queen's 
 majesty," by the advice of the ecclesiastical com- 
 mission, or of the metrnpolilan of this realm. I am 
 not aware (hat any such order was ever taken by 
 Elizabeth. And by the act of uniformity, Charles 
 II. 14°, and the rubric, this is now the law of the 
 land. See ^ 743, b. 9. The prayers for the king 
 and clergy, which now stand at the end of the 
 morning and evetiing service, were then first in- 
 serted, but placed at the end of the Litany, and 
 the declaration about kneehng, at the end of the 
 communion, was left out. 
 
 ' The rubric in the service for private baptism 
 was so framed, by inserting the term " lawful 
 minister," as to leave no doubt concerning the 
 point that the church did not authorize lay baptism. 
 See ^ 424. '. In the church catechism that part 
 was added in which the sacraments are explained, 
 (drawn up by Dr. John Overall,) and certain 
 forms of ihanksgiving were now added, to corres- 
 pond wiih the prayers for fair weather, &c. 
 
 2 Neal's Puritans, ii. 220. 
 
 3 'I'roubles and Trial, 357. 
 
 * Besides verbal changes which are of no mate- 
 rial importance, the word priest is in several of the 
 services substimied for minisler, (not before the 
 absolution.) and ibis, as at present, without any 
 app.Treni rule; the word had belter be confined to 
 sui h offices as are peculiar to the priesthood, 
 while that of minister extends to all others, ex- 
 cepting when the cure of souls is implied, where 
 curate might be used, if such a distinction be 
 necessary. 
 
 In ihe prayer for the royal family the words 
 "Almighty God, which hast promised lo be a 
 father of ihine elect , and of their seed," are changed 
 to " Almighty God, the fountain of all goodness," 
 
 § 749. (a. d. 1661.) Upon the fruil- 
 less termination of the Savoy conference 
 it was determined that the alteration of 
 the Common Prayer should be submit- 
 ted to the convocation which was then 
 sitting, and a king's letter, giving them 
 authority to proceed to this work, was 
 
 In the service for the fifth of November: " Cut 
 off those workers of iniquity, whose religion is 
 rebellion," &,c. is changed into, " who turn reli- 
 gion into rebellion," &.c. ; an expression which 
 makes the sentence apply to the puritans, as well 
 as to the papists. But it may be observed that 
 the first of these two, the prayer for the royal 
 family, was introduced merely by a proclamation 
 of King James, and might therefore be altered by 
 King Charles; and the service for the fifth ofNo- 
 vember is not appointed by act of parliament. 
 The day is ordered to be kept holy, but no form 
 is auihorized. 
 
 In the epistle for Palm Sunday the word " in" 
 the name of Jesus was altered to "at ;" a change 
 which, whether right or wrong, is sanctioned by 
 the authorized and Geneva translations. 
 
 The Prayer Book so altered, differs but hllle 
 from that which was prepared for Scoiland; but 
 the alterations, trifling as they are, mark the spirit 
 of those who then directed the public afl'airs of the 
 kingdom, and are therelore well worthy of out 
 notice. In the table of lessons, most of those 
 taken from the Apocrypha are omitted in the 
 Scotch Prayer Book, the names of fifteen Scotch 
 saints are introduced into the Calendar, and the 
 word presbyter is everywhere substituted for that 
 of priest. The reading psalms too are taken from 
 the received version of 1611. These changes 
 were probably all of them in accordance with the 
 wishes of the nation, and conciliatory in their in- 
 tention. In the administration of the Lord's sup- 
 per, which is the only service in which any con- 
 siderable change took place, there are many small 
 particulars calculated to be very offensive lo per- 
 .sons superstitiously hostile to Rome, which was 
 the state of the people of Scotland at that time. 
 
 A quiet Christian would perhapsobject to but few 
 of these alterations; but it was surely injudicious 
 to bring back a Prayer Book destined for the use 
 of that country, to a greater conformity to the first 
 Liturgy of Edward vT. and the Roman rituals. 
 The bread and wine are to be " offered up," and 
 placed upon the Lord's table. The prayers for 
 thechurch mihtant, and of consecration, are nearer 
 to those of 1549 ; and the words pronoimced at 
 the delivery of the elements, are the very same as 
 those in the Prayer Book of that date. These 
 had been altered in the reign of Elizabeth, for fear 
 of any mistake about transubstantiation. In one 
 rubric the word corporal for the napkin is re- 
 tained ; in another, the use of wafer-bread is per- 
 mitted ; and in the prayer which now immediately 
 follows the Lord's Prayer after receiving, but 
 which in the Scotch Prayer Book is used before, 
 the expression, "we may worthily receive the 
 most precious body and blood of thy Son," is re- 
 introduced from that of 1549 : all which changes, 
 whether objectionable in themselves or no, mark 
 a decided want of attention to the feelings of that 
 country at the time. It may be here wonhy of 
 remark, that a custom, prevalent in many parishes 
 in England, of saying, "Glory be to thee, O 
 God," immediately before the reading the gospel 
 for the day, is directed ni the Scotch Prayer Book, 
 and was perhaps then introduced, from being in 
 common use in this country. 
 
Jhap.XVI.] 
 
 ead in the upper house of convocation 
 in November 21. This convocation' 
 lad been previously employed in fram- 
 ng new services for the twenty-ninth 
 |)f May and the thirtieth of January; 
 I'lnd had prepared a form of baptism 
 "or those of riper years, the necessity 
 i)f which had been created by the 
 [neglect into which that sacrament had 
 frequently fallen during the usurpa- 
 tion; but when the inutility of the con- 
 'ference had become apparent, several 
 lof the bishops had probably so prepared 
 ithings during the vacation that the work 
 went rapidly on when it was brought 
 I forward in the autumn. Within two 
 J days after the king's letter was read, a 
 portion of the revised Prayer Book was 
 transmitted to the lower house, and 
 the whole put into their hands on 
 November 27. The several offices 
 were subsequently examined, and a 
 j form of prayer to be used at sea intro- 
 ' duced ; but the whole was finished and 
 subscribed on December 20.^ 
 
 There were, it appears, some small 
 alterations made in the Prayer Book in 
 parliament, (1G62,) while the act of 
 ; uniformity was passing, which were 
 referred by both Houses, March 5, to a 
 committee of three bishops, (August 
 24,) and when this act came in force, 
 the Common Prayer Book, as it now 
 stands, became part of the law of the 
 land, and has been uniformly used in 
 the church of England ever since. 
 
 In speaking of a work of this sort, the 
 excellency of which is acknowledged 
 by all parties, it must be superfluous to 
 enter into any commendations, however 
 well deserved. If there be persons 
 who doubt of the propriety of the 
 expression with which it was originally 
 ushered into the world, as being "set 
 forth by the aid of the Holy Ghost,"' 
 yet all members of our church must 
 thank God that among the many other 
 national blessings bestowed upon us, we 
 possess a Liturgy probably the most pure 
 and apostolical which exists. The only 
 question which admits of any doubt, is. 
 
 ' .Synodus Ang. App. 83. 
 
 2 The convocation of York took little interest in 
 these proceedings. At the request of Archbishop 
 Frewen they gave a hasty assent to what was 
 done by means of their proxies. (Wake's State 
 of the Church, App. No. 158.) 
 
 ' Act of Uniformity, Edward VI. 2° 3° ch. 
 
 383 
 
 whether some reasonable objections to 
 it may not still be obviated ; whether 
 some verbal alterations may not be 
 made with advantage ; and a further 
 amalgamation take place in the three 
 services which are now generally used 
 together in the morning, by which an 
 unnecessary repetition of the same or 
 similar petitions may be avoided.* See, 
 too, § 806. 
 
 The most important alterations which now 
 took place are :— 
 
 1. The new or authorized version of the Bible 
 was adopted in it, except in the Psalms, the Ten 
 Commandments, and the sentences in the Com- 
 munion Service. 
 
 2. The morning prayer was printed separate 
 from the evening, such prayers as are common to 
 both being reprinted, and the last five prayers in 
 each were introduced from the end of the Lilany. 
 
 3. The occasional prayers which stood con- 
 nected with the Litany were now divided from it. 
 The prayers in the Ember weeks were inserted, 
 (the latter of them from the Scotch Liturgy,) aa 
 well as that for the parliament and for all conditions 
 of men : at the same time the general Thanks- 
 giving and that for restoring public peace at home, 
 were added. 
 
 4. Some few new collects were inserted, some 
 changed, and verbal alterations introduced into 
 many. Church was generally substituted for con- 
 gregation. 
 
 f>. In the Communion Service the exhortations 
 were a good deal changed, and directed to be read 
 on some previous Sunday or holiday, and commu- 
 nicants were directed to give notice of their inten- 
 tion the day before. The admonition about tran- 
 substantiation was again introduced, with some 
 alterations from that of 1552. 
 
 6. The service for the baptism of those of riper 
 years, and the form of prayer to be used at sea, 
 were also introduced ; and, 
 
 7. The last five prayers in the Visitation of the 
 Sick. 
 
 If it be asked which of these changes were in 
 compliance w ith the wishes of the nonconformists, 
 it may be observed that the whole of the first and 
 fiiih were in conformity with their desires, and the 
 introduction of the general 'I'hanksgiving and 
 many verbal alterations were suggested by them. 
 
 8. The consent of the curate is now required 
 for confirmation, though the bishop may, if he see 
 fit, confirm without it ; and this rite is not made a 
 sme (jva non for receiving the Lord's supper. 
 
 9. The Absolution in the Visitation of the Sick 
 is left to the judgment of the curate, by the inser- 
 tion of the clause (if he humbly and heartily desire 
 it.) 
 
 10. In the Churching of Women, the service 
 may now be performed from the desk, and the 
 psalms are changed. The newly-married couple 
 are not now required to receive the Lord's sup- 
 per. The lont is now to be placed conveniently, 
 by the direction of the ordinary, and the wnrds, 
 in the latter part of the Catechism, "Yes, they do 
 perform them by their sureties, who promise and 
 vow them both in their names," &c., are changed 
 to, "Because they promise them both by their 
 sureties," &c. 
 
 Of these, 5, 8, 9, increased the discretionary 
 power of the curate with regard to admonition, 
 but afforded him not any judicial authority ; and 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
284 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Cdap. XVI 
 
 § 750. Although the service generally 
 used at the consecration of churches is 
 possessed of no actual authority, yet as 
 there exists a form sanctioned by cus- 
 tom, it can hardly be passed over with- 
 out some brief notice. Churches have 
 been dedicated to the service of God 
 from the earliest periods, and since the 
 time of Constantine, (who died in 337,) 
 some form of consecration has been 
 used for this purpose. The custom 
 prevailed among our Saxon forefathers, 
 and was continued by the church of 
 Rome to the Reformation. At that 
 period of our history, unfortunately, 
 more churches were destroyed than 
 built. Bishop Andrews,' who died in 
 1626, had drawn up a form in English, 
 taken chiefly, I believe, from the office 
 of the church of Rome, and this form 
 was approved and followed (though pos- 
 sibly not without some alterations) by 
 Laud, and most other bishops. (1630.) 
 It had been the intention of the arch- 
 bishop'^ to have prepared a service for 
 this purpose in the convocation of 1640, 
 but the circumstances which attended 
 that assembly prevented the accom- 
 plishment of this object. The subject^ 
 was again taken under consideration in 
 the convocation of 1661, and the prepa- 
 ration of a form committed to the care 
 of Bishop Cosins; and when presented 
 to the house, it was referred to a com- 
 mittee of four bishops for revision ; but 
 nothing seems ultimately to have been 
 done about it. In 1684 Bishop Spar- 
 row published that of Bishop Andrews. 
 In the year 1712, a form* of consecrating 
 
 herein probably the real interests of Christianity 
 were consuhed. 
 
 It may be worthy of remark, that there have 
 been four Acts of Uniformity. 
 
 1548. 2° and 3°-) rru„.„ . 
 
 Edw. VI.c.i.pes|^wo 
 
 1552. 5° and 7°J ^^'^^ 
 repealed in 1559. 1° Elizabeihie, 
 
 which was not 
 repealed in 1662. 14° Caroli II. 
 
 These last two are often printed in the begin- 
 ning of the Prayer Book. 
 
 • Heylin's Laud, 213. 2 n,id. 441. 
 ' Synodus Anglicana, 107. 
 
 * Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, i. 300, 
 
 ' churches, chapels, and churchyards, or 
 places of burial, was sent down from 
 the bishops to the lower house of corj- 
 vocation on the 2d day of April, and 
 was altered by the committee of the 
 
 I whole house ; which form, as it did not 
 receive the royal assent, was not en- 
 
 [ joined to be observed, but is now 
 generally used. It is printed in Burn; 
 
 I but every bishop is at liberty to adopt 
 a form according to his own judgment, 
 and bishops do frequently make slight 
 alterations, but the service is virtually 
 that of Bishop Andrews. 
 
 There are at the end of the Prayer 
 Book four services, which, properly 
 speaking, form no part of the book 
 itself. They consist of forms of prayer 
 for — 
 
 1. The 5th of November, the Gun- 
 powder Treason.* 
 
 2. The 30th of January, the Martyr- 
 dom of Charles I.^ 
 
 3. The 29th of May, the Restoration.' 
 
 4. The Queen's Accession.' 
 
 The first three of these days are by 
 acts of parliament^ ordered to be kept 
 holy, but no service is specified as being 
 appointed for them. The authority by 
 which they are here introduced, is merely 
 an order from the king in council, re- 
 peated at the beginning of every reign. 
 
 ^ Some expressions in this service were altered 
 by Laud, and gave great and unreasonable offence. 
 At the accession of William and Mary, it was al- 
 tered so as to apply to the Revolution, as a second 
 escape from popery. (Heylin's Laud, 418, <i 748,') 
 
 ' This was drawn up by .Sancrolt, and approved 
 by the convocation, 1661, through a committee of 
 four bishops, and eight members of the lower 
 house ; it has received hardly any alterations since 
 that time. (D'Oyly's Life, i. 44. Syn. Ang. 67.) 
 
 " This was approved by the committee of con- 
 vocation, 1661, and was originally adapted to com- 
 memorate the birth of Charles 11., as well as the 
 Restoration : at his death it was altered, and some 
 further substiturions took place at the same time, 
 in which mention is made of the rebellion, and 
 those concerned in it, in stronger terms than before. 
 (D'Oyly's Sancrofi, i. 116. 
 
 * The day of their inauguration has been »ene- 
 rally observed by our sovereigns since the Reform- 
 ation, upon the same authority as any other day of 
 thanksgiving, or fasting. The present service dif- 
 fers but little from that of Queen Anne, which 
 was framed from that of James II. 
 
 9 3° Jac. I. 12° Car. II. 14, 30. 
 
:hap. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 386 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 DURING THE REIGN OF JAMES II. 1685 1688. 
 
 51, 752. Opinions of James II. 753. Accession of James; addresses. 754. Revenue, policy. 755. 
 Cruelly of James. 756. He alarms his subjects ; letter about preaching. 757. Court of Ecclesi- 
 astical Commission. 758. Declaration for liberty of conscience. 759. Dispensing power. 7(iO. 
 Sufl'erings of the dissenters. 761. Attacks on the universities; Magdalen (JloUege. 762. Cam- 
 bridge ; Charter-house. 763. Folly of James. 764. Remonstrances of the Court of Rome. 
 765. He tries to frame a parliament favourable to his plans. 766. Army ; Johnson. 767. Decla- 
 ration for liberty of conscience. 768. Difficulties of the clergy ; the seven bishops. 769. Sent to 
 the Tower. 770. Tried and acquitted. 771. Temper of the king and of the dissenters ; Sancroft'a 
 ; attempts at a comprehension. 772. Progress of the Revolution ; James alone ignorant of the 
 preparations of the prince of Orange. 773. He retraces his steps by the advice of the bishops. 
 774. The bishops refuse to sign a protest against the prince of Orange. 775. James finds that his 
 army will not support him, and flies into France. 776. Character of James; his talents and false 
 niiiions of government. 777. His desire to introduce popery, chiefly political. 778. He never 
 siiliiiiitted his own opinion to that of Rome; dishonest, imprudent, 779. Birth of the prince. 
 7to. Nature of the Revolution. 781. Conduct of the clergy. 
 
 § 751. (a.d. 1685.) The difficulty of 
 Irawing a strict line between civil and 
 ecclesiastical history, which has been so 
 iiMpiently stated, will appear perhaps 
 111 I re strongly in this reign than in any 
 Mlier. The contest which was decided 
 .n 1(!88, is often regarded as one of 
 merely a religious character; but if it 
 were viewed without those strong pre- 
 judices which are occasionally mixed up 
 with it, it would probably be denomi- 
 aated a political struggle, with which 
 the interests of religion were closely 
 connected, as they are indeed with most 
 political questions. James had been 
 early led to regard rebellion as the worst 
 of crimes, and his education, carried on 
 in a French camp, had disposed him to 
 conceive that obedience was the only 
 virtue ; a circumstance which never al- 
 lowed him to gain any just ideas of the 
 civil rights of his subjects. Obedient in 
 the extreme to the commands of the 
 king his brother, he expected the same 
 deference to his own wishes, when the 
 death of Charles had placed him on the 
 throne. He had been brought up with 
 a high, perhaps a blind veneration for 
 the church of England; and when he 
 came to examine the question for him- 
 self, he could see no reason why the 
 same sort of veneration should not lead 
 him to the church of Rome. His con- 
 version to that communion does not ap- 
 pear to have depended on any examina- 
 1 tion of the tenets of the two churches, 
 ' but on his discovering,' " that neither 
 
 Life of James II. i. 630. 
 
 the church of England, nor Calvin, nor 
 any of the reformers, had power to do 
 what they did :" it was not whether the 
 church of Rome were v.-rong in her 
 opinions or doctrines, but whether those 
 who seceded from it had any authority 
 to do so. 
 
 § 752. The political tendencies of 
 Popery and Protestanism very probably 
 influenced him in his choice : " he loved" 
 and aiined at absolute power, and be- 
 lieved that nothing could introduce and 
 support it but the Catholic religion, as 
 the Romanists call theirs ; and this in- 
 creased his zeal for it, and that zeal in- 
 creased his disposition to arbitrary 
 power: so that in truth his religion and 
 his politics were partly the cause of each 
 other, and indeed they cannot easily 
 be separated. The Protestant faith is 
 founded upon inquiry and knowledge, 
 the Popish, upon submission and igno- 
 rance. And nothing leads more to 
 slavery in the state than blind obedience 
 in matters of religion ; as nothing tends 
 more to civil liberty, than that spirit of 
 free inquiry which is the life of Protest- 
 antism." Sentiments which fully bear 
 out these general observations, are fre- 
 quently expressed by James. In speak- 
 of the bill of exclusion,' in 1680, he says, 
 " He was astonished that men of sense 
 did not see that religion was only the 
 pretence, and that the real contest was 
 about power and dominion ; that it was 
 the monarchy they desigried to banish ; 
 
 2 Note of Speaker Onslow's, in Burnet's Own 
 Time, iii. 2, a.' 
 
 3 Life of James 11. i. 594. 
 
•286 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIL 
 
 without which, the other banishments 
 would give them little satisfaction." 
 
 § 753. This attempt which had been 
 made to exclude him from the throne, 
 had not only confirmed him in all these 
 opinions, but had made him the enemy 
 of the Protestant cause ; while the per- 
 tinacity with which the Roman Catholics 
 supported his arbitrary measures, was 
 as much due to the severity of the penal 
 laws, and the intolerance of Protestants, 
 as (o the principles entertained by the 
 members of that communion. Protest- 
 ants first drove out the Roman Catholics 
 from the pale of civil liberty, and then 
 wondered that they were ready to sup- 
 port arbitrary power, which could alone 
 relieve them. While the bill of exclu- 
 sion was in ao-itation, a very powerful 
 party appeared adverse to the succes- 
 sion of James ; but the latter years of 
 Charks II., wherein the duke had en- 
 tirely f^overned the country, had so al- 
 tered the outward expression of opinion, 
 that the alarms of the kingdom were 
 di.s[)layeil in tlie look's of the people, 
 while their acclamations welcomed the 
 new monarch. In his first speech, "he 
 expressed' his good opinion of the church 
 of England, as a friend to monarchy. 
 Therefore he said he would defend and 
 maintain the church, and would preserve 
 the government in church and state, as 
 it was established by law."' These 
 words Mere much rrprated, and the 
 Common phrase was, " ^^'e have now 
 the word of a kin"-, and a w urd never 
 yet brolcn." Some of the addresses, 
 Ii0«"ever. v> liich were presented at this 
 period, contained expressions^ which 
 ou;/!!! n'lt 10 have bern misunderstood ; 
 while otlii rs r' iieweil their as.vurances 
 ol' lidrliiy ;nul rilicdii'nce in such terms 
 as, (rvaiilyin-- the w jslies of the kinc, 
 tended li i i i i' I n il e liiin, andto influence 
 till' fi)rni,iii.:ii ni plans; for he ex- 
 pectrd t!i;ii i!ic lii-h church party would 
 comply ■.vii.li his desires, and allow him 
 to I'.roceed m ii;s nrhitrary principles. 
 
 § 'I'ri. ianii's !jr:^:in his reicjn by levy- 
 ing iliose diiiics on tonnage and pound- 
 acre which had censed to be due upon 
 the death of his predecessor; so great 
 an inconvenience would have arisen 
 
 ' Burnet's Own Time, iii. 6. 
 
 2 The London clergy for instance talked "of 
 their religion established by law, which was dearer 
 to them than their lives." Burnet, iii. 7. 
 
 from the interruption of this payment, 
 that the measure was in itself unobjec- 
 tionable ; but the manner in which it 
 was done, by proclamation, without any 
 appearance of deference to law, afforded 
 ; no very favourable prognostic of his 
 I future conduct. The parliament, how- 
 I ever, as soon as it met, settled this upon 
 ; him, and with it a larger revenue for life 
 than had ever been possessed by any 
 previous monarch, amounting to two 
 millions per annum : at the same time 
 an attempt was made, that the grant 
 might be accompanied by a petition for 
 putting the laws in force against dissent- 
 ers, as had been the case during the 
 late reign ; but this was resisted in the 
 commons. The early policy of the king 
 was founded upon the hope that he might 
 balance the high church party against 
 the dissenters, and ultimately bring them 
 to his own persuasion. This, however, 
 was a method of proceeding from which 
 nothing but the blindness of James could 
 have expected success ; and perhaps the 
 victory which he obtained over the duke 
 of Monmouth in the west, and the earl 
 of Argyle in Scotland, contributed to 
 blind him, while it opened the eyes of 
 his subjects ; for the cruelties then exer- 
 cised exceed behef. To say nothing of 
 those who suffered' for their rebellion, 
 I and who had no right to expect mercy, 
 ! there are among others two instances of 
 old ladies who were executed for con- 
 cealing fugitives. They both denied any 
 I knowledge of the guilt of those nhom 
 I they protected ; but whether this were 
 j true or no. Lady Lisle was beheaded, 
 I and Mrs. Gaunt burnt, for doing that 
 i which many a friend of the best govem- 
 ' ment might readily commit ; and which 
 tlie feelings of the majority of the king- 
 dom would certainly pardon. It may be 
 sometimes necessary to punish such an 
 act, but no power on earth can prevent 
 mankind from secretly applauding the 
 action ; and every government is unwise 
 which uses severity contrary to the better 
 feelings of mankind. 
 
 § 755. James is occasionally excul- 
 pated by throwing the blame on Jeflreys. 
 yet James rewarded Jeffreys by imme- 
 diately making him chancellor ; and he 
 who could see his own nephew, when 
 
 3 Three hundred and thirty were executed, and 
 eight hundred and fitty-five transported. Hallam, 
 ii. 412. 
 
HAP. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 287 
 
 Is had determined to execute him ; who 
 |)uld allow the duke of Monmouth to 
 iine into his presence, and yet behead 
 im; can little expect that he shall be 
 eed from the charge of cruelty by trans- 
 •rring it on his ministers. The vin- 
 ictive spirit with which severity was 
 urifd on, and the insecurity which 
 wry one must have felt, from the mani- 
 injustice of several legal proceed- 
 i^s, particularly that against Cornish,* 
 ■ mid not fail to alienate the minds of 
 le iienerality of his subjects, till the 
 apid strides made towards the intro- 
 uction of popery roused the friends of 
 i-eeilom and religion. Indeed, James 
 "vrr concealed his preference for his 
 wii church, or left any room to hope 
 he would govern constitutionally, 
 \ hriirver he had obtained the means of 
 niii^r oihcrwise. He went to mass pub- 
 nn the first Sunday after his acces- 
 iii ; ill his address to liis parliament in 
 iliiiul, he declared his determination 
 imkl the royal power in its greatest 
 ; and in his speech to the two 
 alter the defeat of Monmouth, 
 --ed his intention of keeping up a 
 -I, ruling army, and retaining- certain of 
 li- DiFicers,'' though disijualilied on ac- 
 -Miint of their not having taken the test. 
 Xdw, though an honest man will not dis- 
 LMii-o his religious opinions, though an 
 hnu'^st king will try to uphold the just 
 riu'lits of the crown, yet it is difficult not 
 In li.,- somewhat skeptical about the reli- 
 aiiuis zeal of an individual who, at tiie 
 age of fiity, could not be ju'evailed on by 
 the entreaties of his wife, or his con- 
 fessors, to resign his inistrrss; ' and who, 
 after a solenni promise frequently re- 
 peated, of maintaining the government 
 as established by law, seemed so far from 
 
 ' OaiRS was probably jiisi ly ronvicuul of per- 
 jury, bur llie semcnco that \v- should bu v\ hi|iped 
 pulilifly twn e. llmi lic^ slumli] be impiisdiicd dur- 
 ing ilie'resl of his life, and siaiid hi ilie inllory lour 
 luiies (liiilni; each year, was excessively oruel. 
 Daiiijei lield's senlcnce was mnst unjust. His iiar- 
 rutivo ol ibe Meiil-tub plot, whether true or false, 
 was orilered lo he printed by ihe House ol Com- 
 mons ; and !0 line Williams, the speaker, for li- 
 censmij the book, was utijustiliable. Mr. Cornish 
 suffered lor the Rye-house plot on every inade- 
 quate evidonre. See Kennet, iii. 442. 
 
 2 Ke. met, ill. 439. 
 
 ' " When I urged him how such a course of 
 life did agree with the zeal he showed in his reli- 
 gion ; he answered, ' Must a man be o no reli- 
 gion, unless he is a saint?' " Burnet's Own 
 Time, ii. 28. 
 
 having a wish to keep it, that he turned 
 out four of his judges* because they 
 would not profess their readiness to 
 comply with the desires of the court. 
 
 § Tiit). James had been at first disposed 
 to conduct himself on friendly terms with 
 the church of England ; but he soon dis- 
 covered that the steps which he adopted 
 alarmed the members of that commu- 
 nion ; whose ministers became forward 
 in asserting the doctrines of the Reforma- 
 tion, and warning their hearers against 
 the dangers of popery. In order then 
 to check these proceedings, and to in- 
 timidate those who were carrying them 
 on, the king sent a letter to the bishops, 
 prohibiting the clergy from preaching 
 on controversial subjects,^ and threaten- 
 ing, in case of any opposition to his 
 wishes, that he would exact the tenths 
 and first-fruits to their full value. ^ This 
 letter, while it reminded every one of a 
 similar step taken in the beginning of 
 the reign of Mary, called fortli the ener- 
 gies of those who were most able to 
 advocate the cause, and roused them to 
 stand forward in defence of the doctrines 
 of the church.' It bectune, therefore, 
 oltvious that, unless the king could de- 
 ]iress the church, there was no hope of 
 his being able to succeed in the estab- 
 lishment of his own religious tenets, or 
 of arbitrary power, and he commenced 
 
 * Kennet, iii. 4.51. ^ Echard, ii. I0T7. 
 
 There may he a question as to ihe right pos- 
 sessed by the crown lo do this ; the words of the 
 Act are, " And be it ordained and enacted by the 
 auihority aforesaid, that the said yearly rent and 
 pi-nsion shall be ta.xed, rated, levied, proceyved, 
 and paid lolhe king's use, his heirs and successor.s, 
 in manner and form hereafter to be declared by 
 this act; that is to say. That the chancellor of 
 I'aigland for the lime being shall have power and 
 authority lo direct unto every diocese in this realm 
 and 111 Wales, several commissions in the king's 
 name under his great seal, as well to the arch- 
 bi-hop or bishop of every such diocese as to every 
 .iiirii (iilii r parson or parsons as the king's high- 
 - I! and appoint, commanding and 
 
 I I ' 11 ! ,:.i,l commissioners, so to be named 
 111 < .< i\ Ml n r.irnmission, or iii. of them at the 
 1( i-t, lo . X LMiiHc, search, or inquire, by all the 
 ways and means that they can by their discre- 
 tions," &c. &c. Where the words seem to carry 
 the right, though it might be doubled whether 
 this were the intention of the bill. This law was 
 abrogaied by Philip and Mary, but re-established 
 by Elizabeth. 
 
 ' Among the persons who managed and directed 
 this controversial warfare were Tillotson, Stilling- 
 fleet, Tennison, Patric, Sherlock, Aldrii'h, Atier- 
 bury. Wake, Henry Wliarlon, Prideau.t, Bull, 
 and .Sharp. See Burnet's Own Time, iii. 99. 
 D'Oyly's Sancroft, i. 220. Gibson pubUshed 3 
 vols, fol,, of these pieces. 
 
S88 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVH. 
 
 his operations by setting up a court well 
 calculated to execute his plans. In 
 April, 1686, he issued a commission for 
 ecclesiastical affairs, a step totally illegal. 
 The act passed in 1641, for the purpose 
 of destroying the Court of High Com- 
 mission, did in fact take away the whole 
 coercive power exercised by the Eccle- 
 siastical Courts ; when, therefore, after 
 the Restoration, some papists and dis- 
 senters denied the authority of the 
 bishops over them, a new act' was 
 passed, repealing such part of the act 
 of Charles I. as pertained to bishops' 
 courts, but still disannulling the right of 
 appointing an ecclesiastical commission, 
 and abrogating the canons of 1640. 
 
 § 757. The commission now issued is 
 printed in Kennet f it confers very ample 
 powers for visiting and reforming all 
 ecclesiastical abuses, for which purpose 
 the presence of the lord chancellor 
 (Jeffreys) and of two other commis- 
 sioners was required. It directs them 
 also to inspect and correct the statutes 
 of any schools or colleges, in cither of 
 the universities, and, if necessary, to 
 make new rules for their government ; 
 but this could not be done, unless four 
 commissioners were joined to the chan- 
 cellor. Such a court, against which 
 no exemptions might be pleaded, laid 
 every species of academical or eccle- 
 siastical property at the mercy of the 
 crown. The commissioners were, San- 
 croft, archbishop of Canterbury, Crew, 
 bishop of Durham, Sprat, of Rochester, 
 Lord Rochester, Lord Sunderland, and 
 Sir Edward Herbert. Of these, San- 
 croft refused to take any part in their 
 proceedings, and Cartwright,^ a creature 
 of the court, was substituted in his place. 
 The first act of this illegal tribunal was 
 directed against Compton, bishop of 
 London, a man well suited for the strug- 
 gle, of a noble family, and undoubted 
 loyalty, who proved himself ready to 
 defend the rights of his sovereign, or of 
 his fellow-subjects, by the sword, carnal,'' 
 IS well as spiritual. Sharp, afterwards | 
 archbishop of York, then rector of St. 
 Giles, had attacked some of the errors 
 
 ' 13° Car. II.. oh. 12. 2 iii. 454. 
 
 3 Burnet, iii. 13(3. 
 
 ^ When he had conveyed the Princess Anne 
 from London to Northampton, he put himself at 
 the head of a small army which was there assem- 
 bled. (See Burnet's Own Time, iii. 318, and 
 Wood's Ath.i 
 
 of popery, and James, who esteemed 
 this conduct as a personal insult tOAvards 
 himself, directed Compton to suspend I 
 him. The bishop expressed his readi- ' 
 ness to comply with any lawful com- 
 mand, but declared that he had no au- 
 thority to do so, except by a legal process 
 in an ecclesiastical court ; and in the 
 mean season persuaded Sharp to make 
 all due submission to the king, and to 
 avoid preaching, till the affair were 
 settled. But as this would not satisfy 
 his majesty, Compton was brought 
 (Sept. 6) before the Court of Ecclesias- 
 tical Commission, and suspended from 
 executing his office as a bishop. 
 
 § 758. These measures were grounded 
 upon the idea that the king, as supreme 
 head of the church, might make eccle- 
 siastical law, as well as execute it ; and 
 the next step in which James M'as en- 
 gaged, assumed almost the same power 
 with regard to the law of the land ; for 
 when he found that his expectations 
 from the high church party were dis- 
 appointed, he betook himself to the db- 
 senters, and tried, by favouring then;, 
 to establish a force which should be suf- 
 ficient to curb those whom he now 
 deemed his enemies. On April 4, 1687, 
 he issued a declaration^ for liberty of 
 conscience, whereby he suspended all 
 the penal laws against those who dif- 
 fered from the church of England, and 
 virtually repealed them. At the same 
 time, he allowed all those who were un- 
 willing to conform to the rites of the 
 church, to assemble for purposes of 
 public worship, dispensed with the ne- 
 cessity of taking any oaths, before en- 
 tering on office, and stated his determi- 
 nation to employ such persons as had 
 been faithful in their duty, and of whose 
 service he did not choose to be deprived. 
 The law of the land, as it stands at the 
 present moment, differs so little from 
 what James wished to establish, that cn 
 the part of those who rejoice in our pre- 
 sent liberty of conscience, no objection 
 I can be justly raised against this mea- 
 sure, except that which arises from the 
 nature of the authority assumed in the 
 publication of such a document. Laws 
 are annihilated, if the king by one 
 sweeping clause may dispense with 
 them. The power of pardoning, met- 
 
 5 Kennet, iii. 463. 
 
HAP. XVII.l 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 289 
 
 fully lodged in the crown, is totally 
 fferent from that which was now 
 aimed. There the king- forgives, be- 
 
 iiuse some circumstances render par- 
 )n the truest justice, and happy is the 
 
 !)vernment which is strong enough 
 ( equently to exercise this power; but 
 forgive an act when committed, and 
 license the commission of it, are steps 
 
 f a totally different nature. James 
 ;ver pretended to exercise this power 
 
 1 as to affect the property of his sub- 
 xts, but when the power is admitted, 
 ho can set limits to the use of it ? Who 
 in guaranty that no private property 
 lall be injured by it? In the case of 
 [agdalen college, of which mention 
 ill hereafter be made, James' argues 
 LStly, that " it was ridiculous to dispute 
 le king's power in dispensing with the 
 cal statutes of a college, which had 
 jen so frequently practised in former 
 ligns ; after it had been decided in his 
 
 '[.ajesty's favour that he might dispense 
 ith certain standing laws of the land." 
 he admission of this right in the crown 
 ould, in this case, have deprived an 
 iin st man of his prospects in life, and 
 ii^rlit liave rendered the situation of all 
 le members of a large college very un- 
 iinlortable, by robbing them of their 
 Lflit to appoint their own head, a pri- 
 ili'iri' as dear as any other species of 
 i')|j. rty ; nor should it be forgotten, 
 when an individual is wrongly ap- 
 iiiiued to any place of honour or emo- 
 iiiH nt,some proper person is prevented 
 oin obtaining the preferment. 
 § To!). Kennel ' says, that the assump- 
 011 of this power might have been 
 verlooked, if the king had not endea- 
 ouri'd to form a parliament for the pur- 
 ose of repealing the penal laws.^ The 
 tlem[U was made in a very unconsti- 
 ilional manner through private com- 
 mnications, generally denominated clo- 
 etings ; and many undue steps were 
 iken to influence men in their decisions. 
 
 though the legal repeal of all penal 
 iws would probably have been a iriea- 
 uri' productive of the greatest good to 
 liiL'laiid, had it been effected from the 
 fry first, yet unfortunately we can 
 lardly attribute any such enlarged views 
 0 James, whose sole object seems to 
 
 ' Own Life, ii. 123. m. 466. 
 
 2 That is, such laws as impose any pziins or pe- 
 laities on account of religion. 
 
 37 
 
 have been to establish his own author- 
 ity and to introduce his own religious 
 ojjinions, two ideas almost inseparably 
 connected in his mind. In this attempt 
 to bias the judgments of his people, 
 there was nothing which a weak man 
 might not have esteemed justifiable; 
 but when we look at his conduct with 
 respect to the judges, it is impossible to 
 acquit him of absolute dishonesty. The 
 question of the legality of the dispensing 
 power was brought to trial in the case 
 of Sir Edward Hales ; but, as a previous 
 step, the judges were sounded con- 
 cerning their several opinions, " and 
 such as were not clear to judge as the 
 court did direct, were turned out."* 
 Sir Edward accepted a place which re- 
 quired him to take the test, and his own 
 coachman sued him in the penalty of 
 five hundred pounds for not doing so; 
 in bar of which, the dispensing power 
 of the king was pleaded, and allowed. 
 The twelve judges on this occasion de- 
 cided the matter, as far as a court which 
 had not the confidence of the country 
 could decide it, and there were so many 
 persons indirectly interested in the ad- 
 mission of the power, that it is almost 
 wonderful that the decision was not re- 
 ceived with greater satisfaction. 
 
 § 700. The sufferings of the dissenters 
 had been so great, that no government, 
 worthy of the name, could have long 
 allowed them to be inflicted. The qua- 
 kers,'* in their petition to the king and 
 parliament, declared that above fifteen 
 hundred of their brethren had been of 
 late in prison, of whom 1383 now re- 
 mained there ; and that of these more 
 than two hundred were women. That 
 since 16(i0, above three hundred and 
 fifty had died in jail; that many others 
 had lost their lives from ill treatment 
 which they had experienced while un- 
 der confinement ; and that numberless 
 injuries had been done to their property. 
 The writer of the preface to Delaune's 
 Plea for the Nonconformists says, that 
 he was one of eight thousand Protestant 
 dissenters who had been punished in 
 jail during the reign of Charles II. 
 Oldmixon" says that Jeremy White had 
 collected a list of sixty thousand persons 
 who had suffered for religion, between 
 
 " Burnet, iii. 91. * Ncal, v. 17. 
 
 « History of the Stuarts, 715. 
 
 aB 
 
290 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XYtt. 
 
 the Restoration and Revolution. These 
 accounts may be, and probably are, 
 much exaggerated ; but after treatment 
 which at all approached to this descrip- 
 tion or extent, it is only wonderful that 
 the dissenters were as friendly to the 
 church as they were. The court' had 
 tried to render the breach between the 
 two parties as wide as possible, by 
 issuing a commission to examine into 
 the proceedings which had been un- 
 justly carried on against them ; (for in 
 many cases they had bought ofT further 
 prosecutions against themselves, by 
 making presents to those who were 
 connected with the ecclesiastical courts ;) 
 but the general moderation of the dis- 
 senters at this moment prevented any 
 such effect from being produced, since 
 they were convinced that the sole ob- 
 ject of the apparent kindness of the 
 king was to employ them in throwing 
 down the constitution. His arbitrary 
 conduct, indeed, which was always 
 exercised more or less in favour of the 
 Roman Catholics, prevented any one 
 from mistaking the plans which he had 
 in view. 
 
 § 761. James directed his first open 
 attack against the universities ; for he 
 foresaw, that if he could have succeeded 
 in contaminating the sources from 
 whence many of the higher feelings 
 which pervade a country derive their 
 origin, the task of perverting the minds 
 of the rest of the community would have 
 become comparatively easy. Oxford 
 was but ill prepared to resist the attempt. 
 Anthony Wood,'' in his own life, de- 
 scribes the place as given up to idleness, 
 and containing few scholars, who ge- 
 nerally spent their time in coffee and 
 ale-houses. He adds, that colleges^ 
 were deserted, for fear the gownsmen-* 
 should be turned out of their rooms to 
 provide lodgings for the members, in 
 case a parliament should be assembled 
 there. That whigs were afraid to send 
 their sons to a seminary, when there 
 was danger lest they should be per- 
 verted to tory principles, or converted 
 to popery. For after the accession of 
 James, Obadiah Walker, head of Uni- 
 versity college, and five or six more, 
 declared themselves of the Roman Ca- 
 
 ] tholic persuasion. Upon the death of 
 j Fell, in 1G86, the crown had appointed 
 Massey,* a Roman Catholic, to the 
 deanery of Christ Church ; and in 1687, 
 I when a vacancy occurred in the head- 
 ' ship of Magdalen college, the king sent 
 a mandatory letter, enjoining the fellows 
 to elect Farmer, a man of bad character, 
 and a Roman Catholic. The fellows 
 petitioned that the crown would either 
 grant them a free election, or that the 
 king would recommend such a person 
 as might be serviceable to his majesty, 
 and to his college : but in the mean 
 time, before any answer was received, 
 they, complying with the directions of 
 their statutes as to the time of election, 
 proceeded to choose Hough, and after- 
 wards refused to admit Samuel Parker, 
 bishop of Oxford, who was recom- 
 mended to them by the court. In con- 
 sequence of this disobedience, his ma- 
 jesty cited the fellows before him, dur- 
 ing his visit to Oxford, and upon their 
 continued refusal to obey his commands, 
 they wore brought before a committee 
 of the ecclesiastical commission, sent to 
 the university for the purpose of pu- 
 nishing them, and ultimately Hough 
 and twenty-five fellows quitted their aca- 
 demical preferments, protesting against 
 the illegality of the whole proceeding. 
 Parker enjoyed his preferment only two 
 years, and at his death, Bonaventure 
 Giffiird, vicar apostolic from the see of 
 Rome, was installed as president. 
 
 § 702. We have before seen' in what 
 light James regarded the transaction ; 
 he conceived that the king who had a 
 right to dispense with the laws of the 
 land must have an equal power to 
 change the statutes of a college ; and 
 there are many instances where, in the 
 appointments to colleges, the nomina- 
 tion had been virtually transferred to 
 the crown.' James, therefore, who en- 
 
 Burnet, iii. 175. 
 Ibid. Isxx. 
 
 2 Ath. \xx\x. 
 
 * Ibid. xciv. xcvii. 
 
 ' There w as a particular dispensation for O. { 
 Wallser, Ma?Eey, and several other members of ' 
 the University ; and one for Sclater, curate of 
 Putney and rector of Eshcr, for not using the 
 Common Prayer. (Hallam's Cons. Hist. ii. 410.) 
 
 6 See « 758. 
 
 ' When Sancroft vacated his headship at Ema- 
 nuel college, Cambridge, the king nominated Dr. 
 Breton, who was accordingly elected; and one 
 of the fellows approved of it as the only method 
 of preserving unanimity among them. (D'Oyly's 
 .Sancroft, i. 135. t) flinch was appointed warden 
 of All Souls by a mandamus from James, 1687, 
 and upon the death of the duke of Ormond, m 
 
UP. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 291 
 
 rtained the most extravagant notions 
 prerogative, and who was urged on 
 ■ the blind zeal of his ecclesiastical 
 \ isurs, (for the Roman Catholic laity 
 re too wise to approve of his con- 
 icl,) saw not that the freehold of every 
 16 of his subjects was rendered insc- 
 iro by so arbitrary an act, and that 
 ,'ery member of the college thus 
 ected would be regarded as a con- 
 ssor for the cause of Protestantism ; 
 liilc every friend to the universities 
 r I he church would be in arms against 
 measure which might in the next 
 lace eject any clergyman from liis 
 i ving. 
 
 I This shameless treatment, however, 
 i;as not confined to Oxford. In Cam- 
 ridge,' James had before directed the 
 |, Diversity to confer the degree of M.A., 
 jvithout taking the oaths, on Allen 
 j'^rancis, a Benedictine monk, then resi- 
 dent there. The senate rejected the 
 nandamus as quietly as they could, 
 )ut Dr. Peachall," master of Magdalen 
 I'ollege, and vice-chancellor, was ulti- 
 inately deprived of this office by the 
 jcclesiastical commission. The court 
 ihowever went no further, and the de- 
 rgree was never conferred. An almost 
 similar case took place at the Charter- 
 house, ' when the king ordered the 
 governors to admit Andrew Popham 
 without administering any oaths to him. 
 i The governors very properly resisted, 
 ' and the affair was never brought to an 
 1 issue. Two out of these three acts 
 1 were direct attacks upon property ; for 
 
 July, 1688, the university proceeded to a hasty 
 eleclion, lest a mandajnus should come in favour 
 of Jeffreys. (Birch's "I'illotson, 222, 234.) Wil- 
 liam III. attempted to do the same in King's col- 
 lege, Cambridge, but gave it up on the resistance 
 of the fellows. (Ibid. 261.) 
 ' Burnet, iii. 141. 
 
 2 He is called Rachell by Lord Dartmouth in 
 his note on Burnet. There is an p.xcollcnt letter 
 of his to Pepys, in the Diary, ii. 81. — " I am sor- 
 ry, as well as unhappy, to be brought lo a strait 
 'twi.\t God and man: the lawsof ihc land and ihe 
 oaths we lie under, are the fences of God's church 
 and religion professed and established amongst 
 us; and I cannot sufl'er myself to be made an 
 instrument to pull down those fences: if H. M. in 
 his wisdom, and according to his supreme power, 
 contrive other methods to satisfy himself, I shall 
 be no murmurer or complainer, but can be no 
 Kbettor. For the doctrine, discipline, and worship 
 of our church I heartily believe was neither fetched 
 from Rome nor from Geneva, but from Jerusalem, 
 from Christ and his apostles." 
 
 sD'Oyly'sSancroft, i. 239. 
 
 ! where a candidate disqualified by law 
 is appointed, it cannot but happen that 
 some qualified person is deprived of his 
 right. The third was an act of pure 
 tyranny upon the magistrate of a body 
 corporate, who did nothing beyond his 
 duty. 
 
 § 703. Some other parts of the con- 
 duct of James are marked with a folly 
 as conspicuous as the injustice which 
 is exhibited in the previous instances, 
 particularly the appointment of Father 
 Petre as a privy-counsellor, and the 
 sending Lord Castlemain to Rome. 
 The writer of the Life of James IL 
 throws the blame in both these cases 
 on Lord Sunderland, who brought for- 
 ward the king's confessor, that he 
 might use him as a tool and a screen. 
 Petre was a weak though plausible 
 man, but had a great infiuence over the 
 king, and the credit of more than he 
 really possessed ; Lord Sunderland 
 therefore wished that Petre might be 
 supposed to direct the king's counsels, 
 while the measures really proceeded 
 from the minister ; and the prospect of 
 obtaining a cardinal's hat was too strong 
 a temptation to be resisted by Petre. 
 Lord Castlemain was in consequence 
 sent ambassador to Rome,* in order to 
 obtain this object, and to request that 
 three vicars-general more might be 
 appointed for the kingdom; but his 
 reception there was most unfavourable; 
 and after delays and neglect, the only 
 point in which he succeeded was the 
 nomination of Drs. Giffard and Smith, 
 and Father Ellis, who were consecrated 
 bishops in partibus, and vicars-general 
 in England.^ 
 
 * Life of James IL, ii. 79. 
 
 5 Watson, bishop of Lincoln, the last of the 
 Roman Catholic bishops who had not become 
 Protestant at the Reformation, died in 1584. In 
 1598, the English RoniM Catholic church was 
 placed under the juristfiction of an archpriest, 
 vested with full authority over the secular clergy, 
 but unable to perform any episcopal functions, as 
 he was not a bishop- The Roman Catholics of 
 England justly reiTionstrated against this, ae being 
 virtually deprived of the benefits of episcopacy. 
 In 1623, a vicar apostolic was first appointed. 
 This is an ofKcer vested with episcopal authority 
 by the pope over any church whifih is in want of 
 a bishop, but which, for some reason, cannot have 
 one of its own : the bishop is consecrated to some 
 see, in parlilms infidtliujn, which had formerly a 
 bishop, but has now no church. The real differ- 
 ence between a bishop of a see and a vicar apos. 
 tolie, is, that the commission of the latter is only 
 during the pope's pleasure. Ireland has Eoroan 
 
392 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVII. 
 
 § 764. The court of Rome was far 
 too wise to appro\'e of the hasty steps 
 which were takincf place in this country, 
 and foresaw the destruction which such 
 imprudence must bring upon the in- 
 terests of the papal cause. Innocent 
 XL' indeed is said to have advised 
 James to use all moderation, and to 
 have written to him for that j)urpose 
 immediately on his accession ; (proba- 
 bly through Carryl, who was sent into 
 Italy upon his ascending the throne.) 
 The Spanish ambassador, and the 
 English Roman Catholic laity joined 
 in urging the same point, but to no 
 purpose ; and it is difficult to decide 
 whether the madness of the priests or 
 the impolicy and dishonesty of Lord 
 Sunderland were the most influential 
 cause which led to the ultimate catas- 
 trophe : probably each contributed to 
 assist the other. It was not perhaps in 
 itself likely that .Tames should have 
 been influenced by the suggestions of 
 the pope, for, like Lewis XIV., he was 
 rather an enemy to the principles of 
 Protestantism than a friend to the court 
 of Rome, of which he had no wish to 
 increase the power ; but no outward 
 rupture took place in consequence of 
 these events ; and though Lord Castle- 
 main'' afterwards declared that the ob- 
 ject of his embassy was one of mere 
 compliment between two temporal 
 princes, yet the accounts given by his- 
 torians, and appearances in England, 
 seem to support a contrary supposition. 
 The ^next year, (July :i, 1()87,) the 
 pope's nuncio was publicly received at 
 Windsor, and the duke of Somerset'' 
 disgraced, because he refused to incur 
 the danger of rendering himself guilty 
 of high treason in the eye of the law, 
 by presenting the accredited agent of 
 the see of Rome. The king had not 
 only allowed the monks in Sl. James's 
 to wear the dresses of their orders, but 
 the nuncio" himself, Sen. F. D'Adda, 
 had been consecrated archbishop of 
 Amasia, in the chapel belonging to that 
 palace. 
 
 Catholic bishops of her own, who are independent 
 of Rome, as far as Roman Catholics can be ; and 
 the members of that communion in England have 
 much reason to complain that they have never 
 been allowed this privilege. (Butler's Roman 
 Catholics, ii. 240, &c.) 
 
 > Welwood, 157. « Ibid. 184. 
 
 » Ibid. 182. ♦ Life of James II., ii. 116. 
 
 § 705. All this served but to irritate 
 the minds of the people. It convinced 
 every thinking person that they could 
 expect no half-measures, and enabled 
 those who approved not of these pro- 
 ceedings to enlist the prejudices of 
 every Protestant in opposition to his 
 majesty. It showed the world that 
 James cared nothing for laws, and 
 proved to them that their only safety 
 depended on their establishing a power 
 in the force of general opinion, which 
 should be able to overwhelm any 
 strength with which the injustice of the 
 king might be backed. 
 
 James himself could not fail to 
 perceive the danger of acting entirely 
 against law, and therefore attempted to 
 obtain a sanction for his own conduct 
 by procuring a change in the laws 
 themselves. With this view, when he 
 had dismissed his former parliament,* 
 (July, 1(587,) he endeavoured to assem- 
 ble a new one which might coincide 
 with his own wishes in the abolition of 
 the Test. The method by which he 
 tried to effect this object was, first, by 
 going on a progress through many 
 parts of the country, during which he 
 sounded the opinions of the most influ- 
 ential persons, hoping to bias their judg- 
 ments, but found that the feelings of 
 most men were unequivocally adverse 
 to his desires. He discoursed of liberty* 
 of conscience, but forgot that all his acts 
 tended to destroy even liberty of per- 
 son and property. In order that such 
 members as were friendly to the court 
 might obtain seats in the commons, 
 he used the most arbitrary measures 
 towards corporations, particularly that 
 of London; and while, in his alteration 
 of plans, he discarded his old friends, 
 he gained no new supporters among 
 those who were advanced by him ; for 
 no one could feel sure that a fresh line 
 of policy might not presently be pur- 
 sued, which would again make a sacri- » 
 fice of their interests. With regard to ' 
 members of parliament, he attempted 
 to produce the same eflx^ct by means of 
 the lords lieutenant, whom he directed 
 to put questions with respect to elec- 
 tions, both to candidates and to electors ; 
 but the task was carried on with no 
 zeal, and some of the lords lieutenant 
 
 * Rapin, 760. • Burnet, iii. 180. 
 
lAP. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 en opposed the wishes of the court 
 ithout concealing it. 
 § 706. Such decided marks of dislike 
 1 the part of his subjects would not 
 low Janies to shut his eyes to the un- 
 •rtainty of his prospects of success, 
 ,'pendent on any or all these means, 
 id he seems therefore to have placed 
 ^ reliance upon the army, which he 
 1(1 formed with much care, and mo- 
 lli'd, as far as possible, so as to give 
 iin every reason for expecting support 
 om it : but after all, the feelings of the 
 rmy were strongly against the religion 
 fthe king, and his plans tended only to 
 :iake the real objects of his intentions 
 [lore apparent. In l.iS i, Mr. .Tohnson,' 
 I clergyman, who was already in prison, 
 ' jr having written a work called " Julian 
 lie Apostate," published "An Address 
 ) all the English Protestants in the 
 Vi iiiy, to dissuade them from becoming 
 III' tools of the Court, and contributing 
 1 siilivert the Constitution." For this 
 [V \v:is most severely, nay, barbarously 
 lunished ; he was degraded from his 
 ,)rders, in St. Paul's, by some of the 
 lourtlv bishops, placed three times in 
 i.he pillory, and whipped from Newgate 
 :o Tyburn. This rigour betrayed the 
 weakness of the court, and their alarms : 
 and though numbers of Roman Catho- 
 lics were subsequently introduced into 
 the army, yet that body still continued 
 [true to the real interests of the country. 
 
 §7';?. (a.d. 1.W8.) When James then 
 had offended the mass of his subjects; 
 wh n he had outrun the zeal of those 
 wlinsc religious opinions seemed to con- 
 iv ci liiein more closely with his interests ; 
 wli 11 he dared not call a parliament, 
 and could not trust his army: he re- 
 publislied his declaration for liberty of 
 conscience. It is a painful consid.'ra- 
 tion, that this act, which, if it had been 
 done at a proper season, and from good 
 motives, might have formed the glory of 
 any (^'hristian king, can now only be 
 regarded as the last arbitrary proceed- 
 ing of one who would willingly have 
 made himself a tyrant ; and that the po- 
 litical liberty of our country must date 
 its origin from the opposition which was 
 now raised to a proclamation, in itself 
 advocating the cause of religious free- 
 dom ; so complicated are the connections 
 
 Birch's Tillotson, 217. Kennet, 452. 
 
 between real and pretended liberty. 
 This declaration, which had been origi- 
 nally published April 4th, IG87, was 
 now put forth with a new preface and 
 conclusion, (April 27th,) stating the de- 
 termination of the king to support it, the 
 efficient state of the army and navy, and 
 the prosperous condition of tlie country; 
 and as if this were nut sufficiently exas- 
 perating, it was directed by an order of 
 council that it should be read in every 
 parish church.'^ 
 
 § 708. The clergy were now placed 
 in the very difficult situation^ of either 
 disobeying the commands of the king, 
 or of contributing to their own degrada- 
 tion ; and the more dignified members 
 of that body nobly came forward to sus- 
 tain the violence of the storm. Arch- 
 bishop Sancroft, from the very first, 
 seems to have been employed in con- 
 sulting with his episcopal brethren, who 
 happened to be in the neighbourhood of 
 London, with regard to the line of con- 
 duct which they ought to pursue ; and 
 when, after a few days, he had assem- 
 bled a certain number of bishops, it was 
 agreed that they should present a peti- 
 tion to the king, signifying their reluc- 
 tance to distribute and publish the decla- 
 ration ; and professing their readiness to 
 come to some temper with the dissent- 
 ers. This petition was signed by San- 
 croft,^ VV. Lloyd, bishop of St. Asaph, 
 F. Turner of Ely, J. Lake of Chichester, 
 Th. Kenn of Bath and Wells, Thomas 
 White of Peterborough, and Jonathan 
 Trelawney of Bristol ; and on the even- 
 ing of the same day the six last pre- 
 sented it to his majesty at White Hall, 
 for Sancroft had been previously for- 
 bidden to appear at court. The king 
 received it with great appearance of 
 angfr ; the bishops, who conducted 
 themselves with great calmness and 
 respectfulness of demeanour, were dis- 
 missed from the royal presence ; and 
 through some unfaithfulness of those 
 about the king, a copy was printed and 
 dispersed throughout the town on the 
 same evening. The petition was after- 
 wards subscribed by six more bishops,' 
 
 2 1 hal ihecleigv might, as Palher Pelre said, eat 
 their. iwiidung (Ken.iet, iii. 481. Burnet, ill. 217.) 
 
 3 D'Oyly's .Sancroli, -254. •> .Sancrol'i. 262. 
 5 Coiiipiuii of London, W. Lloyd ot Norwich, 
 
 R. Franipion of Gloucester, .Selh Ward ol'Sarum, 
 Peter Mew of Winchester, Thomas Laniplugh 
 of Exeter. (Sancroft, 2(i9.) 
 
 2b2 
 
294 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIL 
 
 as approving its contents,' and the clergy I 
 generally followed the steps of the bish- 1 
 ops, so that not above two hundred of 
 them, through the whole kingdom, read j 
 the declaration in their churches. There | 
 were four bishops'' only who complied 
 with the orders of the court,^ and of i 
 these Crew suspended about thirty in j 
 his diocese for their refusal ; and the j 
 diocese of Chester, of which Cartwright 1 
 was bishop, united in an address of I 
 thanks for the declaration itself. ' 
 
 § 769. James remained some time in 
 suspense as to what measures he should 
 pursue, but at length came to the impru- 
 dent resolution of prosecuting the bish- 
 ops for a misdemeanor ; and on Friday, 
 June 8th, they were all committed to the 
 Tower, because they would not enter 
 into recognisances for their further ap- 
 pearance, a step which their legal ad- 
 visers recommended them not to take. 
 "The people," says Hume," "were 
 already aware of the danger to which 
 the prelates were exposed ; and were 
 raised to the highest pitch of anxiety 
 and attention with regard to the issue 
 of this extraordinary affair. But when 
 they beheld these fathers of the church 
 brought from court under the custody 
 of a guard, when they saw them em- 
 barked in vessels on the river, and con- 
 veyed towards the Tow.er, all their affec- 
 tion for liberty, all their zeal for religion, 
 blazed up at once, and they flew to 
 behold this aflJ"ecting and animating 
 spectacle. The whole shore was co- 
 ► vered with crowds of prostrate specta- 
 
 tors, who at once implored the blessing 
 of those holy pastors, and addressed 
 their petition towards heaven for pro- 
 tection during this extreme danger, to 
 which their country and their religion 
 stood exposed. Even the soldiers, seized 
 
 ' Bancroft, 269. 
 
 2 Naihaniel Crew, bishop of Durham ; Herb. 
 Crofis ot Hereford, Thorn. is Barluw of Lincoln, 
 and Thomas Sprat of Rochester ; Sprat was als-o 
 dean of Westminster. (Rapin, 7(i3.) ''1 was 
 then at Westminster school, and heard it read in i 
 the Abbey. As soon as Bishop Sprat, who was 
 dean, gave order for rending it, there was so great [ 
 a murmur and mriae in the church, that nobody 
 could hear him : but belore he had finished, there 
 was none left but a iew prchends in ilicir stalls, | 
 the choristers, and VN'esirnnister scholars. The 
 bishop could hardly hold the proclaniaiion in his 
 hands for trembling, and everybody l.ioked under 
 a strange consternation." Note of Lord Dart- . 
 mouth's in Burnet's Own Time, iii. 2] 8. g. | 
 
 SLifeofJamesH., u 167. " viii. 26L I 
 
 vntYi the contagion of the same spirit, 
 flung themselves on their knees before 
 the distressed prelates, and craved the 
 benediction of tjiose criminals whom 
 they were appointed to guard. Some 
 persons ran into the water, that they 
 might participate more nearly of these 
 blessings which the prelates were dis- 
 tributing on all around them. The bish- 
 ops themselves, during this triumphant 
 suffering, augmented the general favour 
 by the most lowly, submissive deport- 
 ment ; and they still exhorted the people 
 to fear God, honour the king, and main- 
 tain their loyalty, expressions more ani- 
 mating than the most inflammatory 
 speeches. And no sooner had they 
 entered the precincts of the Tower, than 
 they hurried to the chapel in order to 
 return thanks for those afflictions which 
 Heaven, in defence of its holy cause, 
 had thought them worthy to endure." 
 
 §770. On Friday, June loth, these 
 venerable .sufferers^ were brought before 
 the court of king's bench, on a writ of 
 habeas corpus, but allowed to return to 
 their own houses upon bail, till the day 
 of trial, which was fixed for the 29th. 
 The anxiety expressed by the country 
 generally was excessive, and the crowds 
 assembled in Westminster Hall and its 
 neighbourhood, when their fate was to 
 be decided, proportioned to the interest 
 which all orders took in the event. The 
 evidence for the prosecution consisted 
 in the proof of the signature of the 
 bishops, and of the publication of the 
 petition, which was established on the 
 testimony of the clerk and president 
 of the privy-council. Their defence 
 rested on the right of petitioning pos- 
 sessed by every Englishman, on the 
 modest terms in which this petition was 
 expressed, and the private manner in 
 which it was presented ; but the chief 
 argument lay in the illegality of the 
 dispensing power now claimed by the 
 crown. Of the four judges on the 
 bench, Wright and AUybone gave it as 
 their opinion that the petition was a 
 libel, and Holloway and Powel pro- 
 nounced it not to be so. The jury re- 
 mained in consultation all the night, and 
 at six o'clock the next morning brought 
 in their verdict of " Not guilty." The 
 tumultuous joy excited by the news of 
 
 5 Sancroft, 288. 
 
UAP. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 S9S 
 
 lieir decision, sjiread rapidly throug-h 
 he country, and tlie acclamations ex- 
 endcd to the camp at Ilounslow, where 
 he eafrerness with which the soldiers 
 joined in expressing- their satisfaction, 
 justly excited the alarms of the king. 
 
 § 771. The temper, however, of 
 fames was such, that he would not see 
 the real condition to which he had re- 
 duced himself; and havingf always 
 blamed the vacillation of his father 
 and brother, he hoped to remedy by 
 firmness an evil into which imprudence 
 ,had led him. His immediate advisers, 
 ■ij too, wished to widen the breach be- 
 j tween the king and his subjects, and 
 i the manner in which he proceeded to 
 I act sufficiently accomplished this ob- 
 I ject. The week after the trial, he dis- 
 I missed the two judges who had been 
 favourable to the bishops, and issued, 
 through the ecclesiastical commission, 
 an order, that all chancellors and arch- 
 deacons should send in the names of 
 those clergymen who had refused to 
 read the declaration. Bancroft, who, 
 through the whole of this part of the 
 transaction, showed great Christian 
 firmness, published some admonitions' 
 designed to be addressed by the bishops 
 to their respective clergy, in which he 
 called upon them to exert themselves 
 as became their station, and to endea- 
 vour to promote the peace of the na- 
 tion, and unanimity between Protes- 
 tants. Indeed, the friendly temper of 
 the dissenters at this period called forth 
 the praises of the church, and in con- 
 sequence of the prevalence of such 
 feelings, while the hour of danger was 
 at hand, the archbishop made some at- 
 tempts towards a comprehension. " The 
 scheme was laid out,° and the several 
 parts of it committed to such of our 
 divines as were thought most worthy to 
 be intrusted with it. His grace took 
 one part himself, another was commit- 
 ted to Dr. Patric. The reviewing of 
 the Liturgy was referred to a select 
 number of persons. The design was 
 this : to improve, and, if possible, amend 
 our discipline ; to review and enlarge 
 our Liturgy, by correcting some things, 
 by adding others, and if it should be 
 thought advisable by authority, when 
 
 ' D'Oyly's Sancroft, i. 320. 
 2 Ibid. i. 327. Wake's Speech at Sacheverel's 
 Trial, 212, 8vo. 
 
 the matter should be legally considered, 
 first in convocation, then in parliament, 
 by omitting .some few ceremonies which 
 are allowed to be indifferent in their 
 natures, as indilFerent in their usage, so 
 as not to make them of necessity bind- 
 ing on these who had conscientious 
 scruples respecting them, till they 
 should be able to overcome their weak- 
 nesses or their prejudices respecting 
 them, and be willing to comply." San- 
 croft considered how good an opportu- 
 nity had been lost at the Restoration, 
 because no previous step had been 
 taken by the friends of the church, and 
 because the warmth of the other party 
 had tended to inflame the minds of those 
 who were sufficiently adverse to any 
 alterations. 
 
 § 773. " In the mean time, by the 
 continued' and less disguised attempts 
 of King James against the liberties of 
 his subjects, and the safety of the Pro- 
 testant church, matters were fast draw- 
 ing to a crisis. The Protestants became 
 every day more and more convinced 
 that nothing less than open resistance 
 could preserve to them the enjoyment 
 of their religious profession ; and all 
 eyes were turned towards Holland, as 
 the quarter whence deliverance was to 
 spring. The prince of Orange, in con- 
 sequence of tiie numerous and strong 
 solicitations he had received from per- 
 sons of various ranks and interests in 
 England, had come to the resolution of 
 undertaking an expedition for the ex- 
 press purpose of saving that kingdom 
 from the dangers which threatened to 
 overwhelm it. In consequence, he had 
 employed the earlier part of the year in 
 making such preparations as had more 
 the appearance of providing for the 
 security of his own states than that of 
 meditating any thing hostile against 
 another. But as the autumn drew on, 
 he was obliged to take other measures 
 in collecting troops, artillery, and arms, 
 which une()uivocally marked the design 
 of undertaking a foreign expedition. 
 While this storm was gathering, .Tames 
 alone remained unconscious of his dan- 
 ger. Blinded by his passions, and 
 given over to infatuated counsels, he 
 vainly hoped for success in measures 
 from which every other eye saw that 
 
 3 D'Oyly's Sancroft, i. 330, &c. 
 
896 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIL 
 
 his ruin must ensue ; and when prepa- 
 rations were making, the object of 
 which was to all the world too plain to 
 be mistaken, he alone remained in ig- 
 norance of their real destination. At 
 last, about the middle of September, he 
 first came convinced of the purpose of 
 the intended expedition from Holland, 
 by a letter, as it is said, from Lewis 
 XIV. On receiving it, he turned pale 
 and stood motionless, and the letter 
 dropped from his hand ; striving to con- 
 ceal his perturbation from his courtiers, 
 he more plainly betrayed it ; and they, 
 in affecting not to observe his emotion, 
 showed no less plainly that they did. 
 The immediate effect of this discovery, 
 and of the alarm which overwhelmed 
 him, was to make him recur, with hurried 
 precipitation, to milder measures of 
 government, for the purpose of regain- 
 ing his lost popularity. Accordingly, 
 on Sept. 21, he published a declaration 
 expressing that it was his resolution to 
 preserve inviolable the church of Eng- 
 land ; that he was willing the Roman 
 Catholics should remain excluded from 
 the House of Commons; and assuring 
 his loving subjects that he should be 
 ready to do every thing else for their 
 safety and advantage, that becomes a 
 king who will always take care of his 
 people. Five days afterwards, he de- 
 clared his intention of restoring to the 
 commission of the peace those gentle- 
 men who had been displaced. But 
 matters had advanced too far for these 
 concessions to have any effect. Al- 
 though ostensibly proceeding from his 
 own free will, they were manifestly 
 extorted from him by fear. All confi- 
 dence in him, on the part of the peo- 
 ple, was forfeited ; and his devotion to 
 the Roman Catholic cause was known 
 to be such, that he would certainly re- 
 cur to his violent measures for esta- 
 blishing it, as soon as the fear of conse- 
 quences was again removed." 
 
 § 77:?. " But what was the most 
 striking effect of the alarm into which 
 he was now thrown, he condescended 
 to ask advice of those very persons 
 whom he had so lately treated with 
 hasty and inconsiderate violence, the 
 archbishop of Canterbury, and the rest 
 of the bishops ;" and was pleased in 
 being able to assure his people of the 
 returning cordiality between himself 
 
 and their lordships. He took off the 
 suspension from Bishop Compton, and 
 restored to the city of London their 
 charter, which had been so unwarranta- 
 bly taken from them ; and on Oct. 2 he 
 received from Sancroft, and the other 
 bishops who were in town, a paper* 
 containing their opinion as to the mea- 
 sures Avhich he ought to pursue, couched 
 in language of meekness, and delivered 
 with great gravity and courage. The 
 king thanked the bishops for their ad- 
 vice ; and each of the points either had 
 been, or were successively conceded ; 
 but the concession came too late ; the 
 country had lost all confidence in their 
 sovereign, and his acts of grace were 
 esteemed acts of weakness. Nay, the 
 very prayers for the peace and safety 
 of the nation, Avhich Sancroft composed 
 with great moderation and discretion, 
 are said to have tended to confirm the 
 minds of the people in the quiet oppo- 
 sition which they raised against the pro- 
 ceedings of the court, by directing their 
 thoughts to religion, the point concern- 
 ing which the only danger seemed to 
 threaten them. 
 
 § 774. The change in the king's 
 counsel, with regard to the bishops, 
 caused them to be viewed at first as 
 objects of suspicion, but their subse- 
 quent conduct, with respect to not ex- 
 pressing their abhorrence of the mea- 
 sures of the prince of Orange, placed 
 their conduct in its true light. James, 
 alarmed at the appearance of a univer- 
 sal defection, when the intended inva- 
 sion became evident, requested from 
 such bishops as could be assembled at 
 the moment, a public expression of 
 I their dislike to the measures of his son- 
 I in-law, and in a long personal interview 
 urged them to comply with his request. 
 But, after having vindicated themselves 
 
 ' It consists of ten heads : 1st, that he should 
 oommit ihe government in the several counties to 
 those who were legally qualified ; 2d. annul the 
 ecclesiastical connmission; 3d, restore the president 
 and fellows of Magdalen college ; 4th, reverse 
 all dispensations ; 5lh, and not grant any for the 
 fulure ; 6ih, that he should inhibit the vicar apos- 
 tolic ; 7ih, fill all vacant bishoprics ; 8th. super- 
 sede all qtio tcarratitos and restore ancient char- 
 ters ; 9lh. issue writs for a free parliament, 
 and lo provide for the security of the church 
 of England and liberty of conscience ; lOih and 
 Ins'ly, listen to the arguments which should be 
 advanced by the bishops to induce him to return 
 to the communion of the cbtirch of England. 
 , (D'Oyly's Sancroft, i. 340.) 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 297 
 
 from the charge of having- invited the 
 prince, the bishops declined expressing 
 any opinion distinct from the rest of the 
 peers, whose interest in the prosperity 
 of the nation was as strong as their 
 own. Tiiis refusal, while it injured the 
 cause of James, probably contributed 
 to save episcopacy in England ; for, 
 had the bishops of this country com- 
 ! mitted themselves on the side of arbi- 
 trary power, as the Scotch bishops did ; 
 had they so fettered themselves by any 
 declaration of opinions hostile to the 
 principles of the Revolution ; it is not 
 improbable that they would have been 
 hindered from taking part in the events 
 which subsequently occurred, and by 
 leaving the field open to their enemies, 
 as was the case in the north, have 
 tended to destroy the very order among 
 us. 
 
 § 775. James was much irritated at 
 this refusal ; but the landing of the 
 Dutch, with its immediate consequences, 
 
 I prevented him from showing his anger 
 publicly. When it was known that the 
 disembarkation had been effected, the 
 bishops joined with several temporal 
 peers in London to persuade the king to 
 call a free parliament, a step which 
 might even then, perhaps, have pre- 
 served the crown ; but he refused to 
 listen to the suggestion, till he had 
 found the insecurity of any reliance on 
 
 , the army, and had seen that, as no one 
 trusted him, he could confide safely in 
 no one. 
 
 Events now followed each other in 
 rapid succession. The king joined his 
 army at Salisbury on the lOth of Nov., 
 but found that resistance was in vain, 
 since his own officers declined fighting 
 against the prince. Deserted by his 
 troops, his friends, and his children, he 
 determined to call a parliament whei. 't 
 was too late, and at length attempted to 
 fly into France. The peers who were 
 in London assembled, and took upon 
 themselves, for the time, the government 
 \ of the country, in order to preserve 
 I peace ; but the detention of James, and 
 his return to White Hall, where he was 
 received with the acclamations of the 
 people, and the attendance of a con- 
 siderable court, again seemed to give 
 him a momentary hope that all was not 
 lost. When, however, the prince of 
 Orange came to London, and the diffi- 
 38 
 
 culties which must have presented them- 
 selves as to any future settlement be- 
 came apparent, James was compelled 
 hastily to quit his palace, and his escape 
 into France was connived at. 
 
 § 770. The personal character of 
 James must explain to us many of the 
 secret springs of those proceedings for 
 which it might otherwise be difficult to 
 assign any sufficient reason. He seems 
 to have possessed that species of talent 
 which would have rendered him a dis- 
 tinguished second in any department, 
 but to have wanted that honest sound 
 sense which can alone qualify talent for 
 the highest stations. His conduct as a 
 young soldier under Turenne, his ex- 
 treme attention to business, his readi- 
 ness to obey, and, above all, his regula- 
 tions with regard to the admiralty, mark 
 him out as an object of admiration. He 
 viewed trade with the eye of a superior 
 statesman, and perceived its connection 
 with religious liberty. He saw that the 
 establishment of liberty of conscience 
 would make England great ; but here 
 his faults displayed themselves in con- 
 nection with his good sense ; for he was 
 utterly deficient of that uprightness of 
 mind which might have delivered hira 
 out of the intricacies in which his preju- 
 dices and religion involved him. 
 
 The misfortunes which attended his 
 early youth led him to false views of 
 governing. The education which he 
 had received in a camp, but, above all, 
 the notions which he derived from 
 Colonel Berkeley,' who was intrusted 
 with the care of him, and was a bold, 
 insolent man, disposed towards popery, 
 and exceedingly arbitrary in his temper 
 and ideas, probably infused into the 
 mind of James those high opinions con- 
 cerning absolute power which were the 
 incessant bane of his whole life. 
 
 §77?". When he came to the throne, 
 it was his first object to establish a strong 
 government, for he had seen the mise- 
 ries of a weak one, during the lives of 
 his two nearest relations ; but his only 
 idea of a strong government was of one 
 which did not depend on resources fur- 
 nished at the will of the people, and 
 which, therefore, might be denied him. 
 While his brother was cing, he had 
 always been ready to allow England to 
 
 ' Burnet, iii. 4. 
 
HISTORY OF THE 
 
 be under the control of France, pro- 1 
 vided he could maintain his own author- 
 ity in England ; and when advanced to 
 the throne, he was eager to adopt a line 
 of policy which, without rejecting the 
 assistance of France, should enable him 
 to emancipate himself from her power. 
 The friendly feeling towards him, on the 
 part of the people, with which his reign 
 commenced, and which must appear 
 wonderful after the specimens which he 
 had given of his own previous conduct, 
 made him master of a revenue which, 
 with his habits of business and economy, 
 seemed to render him indept'ndent of his 
 parliament ; and the first point to which 
 he applied himself, in his general plan 
 of establishing a strong and arbitrary 
 government, was the introduction of the 
 Roman Catholic religion into Britain. 
 He had ever connected the idea of re- 
 bellion with puritanic strictness, and he 
 fancied that by bringing in his own out- 
 ward form of worship, he should intro- 
 duce with it his own opinions as to pas- 
 sive obedience. It is often assumed, 
 that James in his proceedings was influ- 
 enced by religious motives. He alone 
 who knoweth the hearts of men can 
 estimate the motive of either kings or 
 subjects, but all his conduct corresponds 
 with the supposition that he wished to 
 introduce arbitrary power. He had 
 taken up the object of introducing Ro- 
 manism into England, and in his at- 
 tempts to effect any purpose, he was 
 apt to disregard right and wrong, law 
 and justice :' they alone were friends 
 who aided his object, and whoever op- 
 posed it was a rebel. This temper of 
 construing opposition^ to his measures 
 into treason pervaded the whole of his 
 life, and tended more than any thing 
 else to prevent even those most closely 
 connected with him from loving or 
 trusting him. In a free constitution, it 
 is impossible to establish unanimity of 
 measures, and unanimity of object can 
 only be obtained by mutual confidence, 
 a feeling which the faults of James en- 
 tirely destroyed in all around him, and 
 threw him into the hands of advisers 
 who were either very dishonest or very 
 foolish, or perhaps both. Lord Sunder- 
 land was p;obably careless of every 
 
 [Chap. XVIL 
 
 result, save of his own interest, and the 
 Jesuits had not prudence enough to 
 manage so vast a business. 
 
 § 778. James, who while he was king 
 probably cared little about religion, at 
 least cared not for the essentials of reli- 
 gion in himself,^ was most anxious to 
 make others adopt his tenets, though he 
 himself displayed no wish to submit his 
 own judgment to the see of Rome. 
 Lewis, in his severity and injustice 
 against Protestants, was as careful to 
 preserve his own temporal authority 
 over the church as Queen Elizabeth; 
 he revoked the edict of Nantes, and was 
 by no means indisposed to quarrel with 
 the pope ; and James, in his zeal for 
 Romanism, would attend no further to 
 the advice of Rome than as it coincided 
 with his own views. He received the 
 refugees who were driven from France, 
 because by this measure he hoped to 
 establish a spirit of toleration ; for he 
 was then desirous that the Roman Catho- 
 lics should be tolerated in England, and 
 he foresaw the benefit which such an 
 accession of active and industrious 
 strangers must bring to his country. 
 He prided himself much on the sacred- 
 ness of his word ; yet, though he had 
 promised, as solemnly and frequently as 
 was possible, to uphold the church of 
 England, he obviously sought every 
 means of introducing Roman Catholics 
 into the higher preferments. And if his 
 own mind could receive any comfort 
 from the distinction between the church, 
 of England de facto, the Protestant 
 church, and the church de jure, or the 
 Roman Catholic, wherebj-, while his 
 promise seemed to speak of one, he in- 
 tended the other, such dishonesty would 
 only tend to augment his guilt ; he either 
 meant to break his promise, or he ad- 
 mitted in his own mind such an equivo- 
 cation as must prove him doubly dis- 
 honest ; but as to his honesty of purpose, 
 we have a confession of his own, which 
 proves that he was not very scrupulous. 
 In a dirty pecuniary transaction between 
 Charles II. and the duchess of Ports- 
 mouth, wherein it was intended to raise 
 a sum of money for her, by persuading 
 James to surrender a rent-charge on the 
 post-office, he professes extreme readi- 
 
 i Life, 733, 738. 
 
 « Life, 734. Burnet, 
 
 » In the latier part of his hfe he exhibited strong 
 proofs of a sincere sense of religion. See his own 
 Life, published by Clarke. 
 
Chap. XVII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 299 
 
 ness to do all that was desired,' yet, " all 
 this while, the duke knew very well his 
 revenue was so settled, that nothing but 
 an act of parliament could alienate any 
 part of it ; which he took care not to 
 mention to any living soul, lest that 
 might have made the king lay the 
 thoughts of it aside ; and, by great for- 
 tune, none of the lawyers about town, 
 who were studying which way to bring 
 it about, hit upon that difficulty." The 
 acts of imprudence of which he was 
 guilty, and which have been before par- 
 tially detailed, arose from the same tem- 
 per: he thought it beneath his dignity 
 to conceal his wishes or his plans, and 
 though he displayed and carried them 
 on contrary to the desires of all his sub- 
 jects, yet he wondered that he was hated, 
 and perceived not that a king of Eng- 
 land cannot be powerful, unless he pos- 
 sess the love of his people. 
 
 § 779. After all, it may be question- 
 able whether the ill conduct of James 
 would have roused the nation to throw 
 off their allegiance, had not the birth of 
 a son and heir, who might continue the 
 struggle, excited every one to exert 
 himself in the defence of those points 
 which good men hold most dear, their 
 religion and their liberty. The queen 
 was delivered on June 10, and the dis- 
 like which was borne to the parents 
 has caused the son to be sometimes 
 called supposititious. At the time of his 
 birth, all the precautions do not appear 
 to have been taken which would have 
 been desirable in consequence of subse- 
 quent suspicions : but as William never 
 ventured to enter into a formal exami- 
 nation of the birth of the child, though 
 he had mentioned this subject in his first 
 declaration ; and as he would probably 
 have done so, had he found any evi- 
 dence to substantiate a charge which 
 would have been so useful to himself, 
 we may fairly presume that it has no 
 foundation in truth. But the fact that 
 an heir was born, produced a strong 
 effect in the country. The event on 
 which the king and his Roman Catholic 
 advisers had always built their hopes, 
 was accomplished, but its accomplish- 
 ment proved the ruin of their cause. 
 Many an Englishman had looked for- 
 ward to the time when a Protestant 
 
 ' Life, i. 724. 
 
 successor should free them from their 
 alarms, real and imaginary ; but this 
 hope was now destroyed, and every 
 one saw that his safety depended on 
 himself. Freemen will not live in an 
 uncertainty whether or no their rights 
 are to be respected, and the conduct of 
 James prevented any one from sup- 
 posing that he meant to respect their 
 rights, any further than his own want 
 of power to subvert them should render 
 it necessary. 
 
 § 780. It may be asked, whether the 
 present struggle were political or reli- 
 gious, whether the attacks of the king 
 were directed against the church or 
 against the state ; but this question can 
 never be answered, till the line shall 
 have been distinctly drawn between the 
 church as a spiritual body, and the 
 church establishment as a member of 
 the body politic. The attack was made 
 on the property of the church, and on 
 the property of the state, when men who 
 were by law untjualified, were put into 
 civil and ecclesiastical stations ; and the 
 passions and prejudices, together with 
 every honourable feeling of the people, 
 were excited, when they beheld, on the 
 part of the crown, a total disregard of 
 the very appearance of law. When the 
 bishops were imprisoned for petition- 
 ing the king, a right which belongs to 
 every man in the kingdom was invaded; 
 and the boldness of these sufferers, and 
 the interest which was exhibited in their 
 favour, were as much connected with 
 patriotism as with religion. Yet, since 
 religion is a higher feeling than patriot- 
 ism, since obedience to God is a plainer 
 duty, and one in the performance of 
 which the reason of all men will agree, 
 whatever be their conduct, it naturally 
 came to pass that the opinion of the 
 country referred the quarrel to religious 
 grounds. The question, however, still 
 is of a mixed nature : had not religion 
 been indirectly attacked, the country 
 might never have been excited ; and 
 though the measures of James might 
 have been opposed, the prince of Orange 
 would probably not have been so strongly 
 invited to rescue the kingdom from the 
 misrule of his father-in-law. 
 
 § 781. It is not easy to state exactly 
 what part the church of England, as a 
 body, took in this struggle ; for, by con- 
 sulting different authorities, we may 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIII. 
 
 draw conclusions diametrically opposite. 
 They had, to use the language of the 
 biographer of James, notwithstanding 
 the doctrines' of non-resistance and pas- 
 sive obedience which they preached, 
 " begun early to spread jealousies among 
 the people ; and, instead of suffering 
 with patience, they complained before 
 they felt any smart ; and thought ima- 
 ginary dangers a good pretence to en- 
 courage a real sedition. They had 
 preached prerogative and the sovereign 
 power to the highest pitch, while it was 
 favourable to them ; but when they ap- 
 prehended the least danger from it, 
 they cried out as soon as the shoe 
 pinched, though it was of their own 
 putting on." And the same invectives 
 are thrown out against Ihem by the 
 historian of the puritans. Though there 
 may be some grounds for such an accu- 
 sation, yet the language of some of the 
 addresses presented by the clergy had 
 contained declarations sufficiently clear. 
 The London clergy had used the ex- 
 pression, " our religion established by 
 law, dearer to us than our lives the 
 very terms adopted by the House of 
 Commons, when Monmouth had been 
 
 I defeated. The wishes of James made 
 him assume that the clergy generally 
 I spoke the same language as those indi- 
 I viduals who wished to gratify him by 
 their compliances; yet the readiness 
 I with which they all came forward in 
 defence of the Protestant faith, when it 
 was endangered, ought to have shown 
 him the value which they attached to 
 their religion ; and to have led him to 
 presume that their submission would go 
 no further than was consistent with 
 their sense of duty towards God. With 
 regard to many of the distinguished or- 
 naments of our church, nothing can be 
 more glorious than their conduct. They 
 resisted the arbitrary proceedings of 
 James, while he was king, and after- 
 wards sacrified their worldly situations, 
 when, after his flight, they conceived 
 that their duty towards him demanded 
 I such a surrender. Their circumstances 
 i put them forward in the fight, and they 
 j nobly defended their country; happy 
 would it have been, if all their later 
 acts had been guided by the same spirit. 
 But this part of the question belongs to 
 i another chapter. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 DURING THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF OTLLIAM AND MARY, 1688, 1689. 
 
 801. Non-jurors; many of the clergy unwilling to rcognise the new government. 802. Inutility of 
 oaths generally. 803. The authors of the Revolution most injured by the oath ; their subsequent ill 
 conduct. 804. Their principles. 805. Principles of the Revolution. 806. Toleration Act ; 
 attempt at a comprehension ; ecclesiastical commission for reforming evils. 807. Alteration of the 
 Liturgy. 808. Further additions ; family prayer; {") American Prayer Book. 809. The convo- 
 cation throw out every thing. 810. Advantages and disadvantages of this failure. 811. Summary 
 of the History of the Church; Henry VHI. ; Edward VI. 812. Mary. 813. Elizabeth. 
 814. James I. 815. Charles and Laud. 816. Restoration. 817. Present constitution of the 
 church. 818. Evils arising from the connection of church and state. 819. Advantages and blessings. 
 
 § 801. When William and Mary were 
 seated on the throne by the decision of 
 the convention parliament, and it be- 
 came necessary that those who held 
 offices under the new government 
 should express their adherence to it, the 
 oaths of supremacy and allegiance were 
 so modelled as to be less particular 
 with regard to the royal authority, and 
 more decidedly adverse to the preten- 
 sions of the church of Rome. But many 
 
 1 Life, ii. 70. 
 
 « Burnet, iii. 7. Welwood, 175. 
 
 of the bishops, and some of the clergy, 
 were unwilling in any way to acknow- 
 ledge that which was in their eyes 
 merely a government de facto, when 
 they had before promised fidelity to the 
 other, on the ruins of which it had been 
 established. Eight bishops^ and about 
 four hundred of the other clergy, most 
 
 ' The non-juring bishops were Bancroft ; Lloyd, 
 Norwich; Turner, Ely; Frampton. Gloucester; 
 White, Peterborough ; Kenn, Bath and Wells. 
 These were ejected. Lake of Chichester and 
 Thomas of Worchester had died in the mean time. 
 (D'Oyly'3 Sancroft, i. 447.) 
 
Chap.XVIII.] church of ENGLAND. 
 
 301 
 
 of whom held considerable situations in 
 the church, refused to transfer their 
 allegiance ; and though great modera- 
 tion was used towards them, before they 
 were deprived, yet the necessity of de- 
 priving them, and the policy of the law 
 which obliged every one holding such 
 preferments to take tlie oaths, are very 
 questionable. The question was indeed 
 discussed, and one plan proposed was, 
 to enable William to impose the oath at 
 his pleasure ; but this would have thrown 
 the whole odium of ejecting the bishops 
 on the king, and there was no absolute 
 necessity of imposing the oath at all : 
 it might probably have answered all the 
 purposes of the government as effectual- 
 ly if such persons had been severally re- 
 quired to make a promise not to disturb 
 the new order of things. For as the 
 large majority of the clergy took the 
 oath, and many of them were certainly 
 far from favourable to the objects of it, 
 they v.ho complied were often exposed 
 to much censure, as having sworn con- 
 trary to their consciences ; and neither 
 those who then bound themselves in 
 opposition' to their inclinations, nor 
 those who, by refusing to take the oath, 
 were deprived of their preferments, 
 were likely to prove very faithful ad- 
 herents to their new sovereigns ; where- 
 as they might have been perfectly con- 
 tented to continue quiet subjects under 
 a government which they had neither 
 power nor inclination to disturb. 
 
 § H02. No oaths, of whatever descrip- 
 tion, w^ill bind bad men, when the senti- 
 ments of the mass of the peojile are 
 contrary to the tenor of the oath ; and 
 there is no more frightful particular pre- 
 sented to us by history than the fre- 
 quency with which oaths are imposed 
 and broken. The prudence and suc- 
 cess of William prevented his opponents 
 from having any opportunity of trying 
 the force of the promises made to him ; 
 but had the fate of war in Ireland en- 
 abled James to assert his rights in this 
 
 ' Burnet, iv. 49. 
 
 2 When William was about to go into Ireland, 
 it was proposed to frame an oath of abjuration 
 with regard to James II. In the debate in the 
 House of Lords, the earl of Macclesfield declared, 
 "that he never knew them of any use, but to 
 make people declare against the government, that 
 would have submitted quietly to it, if thev had 
 been let alone." {Burnet, iv. 77. Note of Lord 
 Dartmouth, u.i 
 
 country, it is absurd to suppose that 
 they who had sworn fidelity to both 
 could be bound to obey both, or would 
 have hesitated in following their inte- 
 rests, or the inclinations of their own 
 minds. He who holds an office or dig- 
 nity under a government, may fairly be 
 called on to declare his fidelity to that 
 government, in any way which the go- 
 vernment shall choose to select ; but it is 
 very doubtful whether or no the author- 
 ity imposing such an oath strengthens 
 its hold on the mind of the man. He 
 who takes an office, is in forn conscien- 
 tiw bound to perform the duties of it, 
 whether he swear to do so, or no; and 
 probably general promises and oaths, 
 made at the time of entering into the 
 office, have a good tendency in fortify- 
 ing the resolutions of the individual ; 
 they form a sort of bond upon the man 
 himself, when called on to exert his 
 authority. It may happen, that, when 
 he is wavering as to whether or no he 
 ought to act on some point, tiie thought 
 of his oath may be useful to his own 
 mind ; but if it be not decidedly useful, 
 the habit of taking frequent oaths cannot 
 fail to injure him. And it is a disgrace 
 to the age in which we live, that oaths, 
 with regard to trifling matters, should be 
 required on so many occasions as they 
 are ; for they must tend most injuriously 
 to demoralize the people who take 
 them.-' 
 
 § In this case, many upright 
 
 men, whose bold and temperate opposi- 
 tion to .Tames had been chiefly instru- 
 mental in fixing the opinions of the 
 nation, who, under God, had contributed 
 more than any others to effect the 
 change w^hich had taken place, were the 
 first to suffer for their uprightness. No 
 one can fail to admire their conduct, and 
 10 pity them, (if indeed any one who 
 suffers in the performance of his duty, 
 can be an object of pity ;) but surely the 
 government which imposes the oath by 
 which such persons are ejected, has no 
 reason to expect that it will be served by 
 honest men. Most of these bishops 
 would probably have continued to hold 
 their preferments, had there been no 
 
 ^ Every friend of religion must rejoice in the 
 alterations which have taken place, in this respect, 
 since this was originally printed ; and pray that 
 all unnecessary oaths may gradually be dispensed 
 with. 
 
 2C 
 
302 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XTin. 
 
 necessity of taking the oath ; and would 
 perhaps have readily promised not to 
 disturb the new government; but they 
 felt their duly to James, and were ready 
 to suffer, rather than betray it. The 
 law' which imposed the new oaths, en- 
 abled the king to allow twelve non- 
 juring clergymen incomes out of their 
 benefices, but it does not appear that 
 he made any use of this license. The 
 act was a most impolitic one ; for it gave 
 to every friend of James a most con- 
 vincing argument in favour of his claims, 
 and could not but indispose the minds 
 of honest men towards a government 
 which could be guilty of such gross 
 injustice. 
 
 But the ejected bishops, and some of 
 the non-jurors, have made themselves, 
 by their subsequent conduct, the objects 
 of just disapprobation in the eyes of the 
 friends of the establishment. For San- 
 croft, who, from his age and timidity, 
 was unwilling to act himself, made over 
 his archiepiscopal authority to Lloyd, 
 bishop of Norwich, and the deprived 
 prelates proceeded to continue the suc- 
 cession of bishops in the church, in 
 opposition to those who were authorized 
 by the srovcrnment. This schism con- 
 tinued till 177iJ, but this subject does not 
 properly fall within our portion of his- 
 tory. The principle on which these 
 bishops acted was partly true, and partly 
 false ; but the extent to which they car- 
 rii'd it, rendered it very prejudicial to the 
 peace of the church. 
 
 § bOl. The authority by which every 
 bisViop, or priest, acts is one which is 
 derived by succession from the apostles, 
 each succeeding generation communi- 
 cating to the next the authority under 
 which they theii'S(dves lia\-t' been acting. 
 The division ofthe country into dioceses 
 and parishes is a civil arrangement, 
 which regulates the ]dace where the 
 individual shall exercise his ministry ; 
 but the civil power neither confers the 
 ministerial authority, nor can alter it. 
 When, therefore, the civil authority de- 
 prived these non-juring bishops of their 
 temporal jurisdictions, it could not divest 
 them ofthe sacred office to which they 
 had been called ; and they conceived 
 that, as this was still continued to them, 
 they were bound still to exercise it. 
 
 ' 1° Wilbam and Mary, 8. 
 
 The same thing is actually taking place 
 at this moment in Scotland. The legal 
 church government there is presbyte- 
 rian ; yet is there a regular succession 
 of Protestant bishops, who fill certain 
 sees, without any authoritative power 
 derived from the state, and constitute 
 perhaps one of the purest forms of epis- 
 copacy in the world. As far as Scot- 
 land is concerned, her bishops are, in the 
 opinion of an episcopalian, fully borne 
 out in this apparent schism ; because 
 the rest of the church there, though 
 legally established, has discarded the 
 apostolical order of bishops, and the di- 
 vision must be charged by us on those 
 who have introduced the anomaly of a 
 Christian church without bishops. Let 
 us hope, that, at this moment, both par- 
 ties are free from any schismatic feel- 
 ings, and pray that God may guide 
 whichever of them is wrong into the 
 right path : but the bishops in England 
 cannot be absolved from the crime of 
 contributing to a schism ; whatever their 
 own ideas might be, they could hardly 
 deem it necessary to make two churches 
 within the kingdom, because a usurper 
 was prayed for in that connected with 
 the establishment ; and yet it is extraor- 
 dinary, that both Sancroft= and Tillot- 
 son, men whose opinions about the Re- 
 volution were diametrically opposite, 
 both concurred in esteeming it sinful 
 for those who were opposed to the prin- 
 ciples of the Revolution to join in a 
 service in which a prayer was offered 
 up for William and Mar3^ The schis- 
 matic feeling, the spirit of opposition 
 which thus prevailed, with but few 
 bright exceptions, was excessive, and no 
 man was exposed to greater obloquy on 
 this account than Tillotson.' 
 
 § 805. If it be asked, whether the 
 j bishops were justified in the opposition 
 ' raised by them against James, though 
 they refused to submit to the govern- 
 ment which this opposition had virtually 
 established, the answer must depend on 
 our opinion of the merits ofthe Revolu- 
 tion itself. The blessings which hav. 
 been derived to us from this great ever,: 
 make everj- Englishman anxious t 
 justify the principles on' which it was 
 carried on ; but after all, it seems much 
 
 2 D'Oyly, 458; Birch's TUlotson, 282. 
 
 3 Birch's Till. 316. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 309 
 
 more clear that the Revolution was 
 necessary, than easy to justify it on any 
 permanent principles. It is one of those 
 extraordinary cases which are not refer- 
 able to any general law ; it was a recur- 
 rence to first principles, an exception to 
 the law. About such questions Chris- 
 tianity probably gives no other rules 
 than that great one of " doing unto others 
 as we would have others do unto us;" 
 and when those in authority pervert that 
 power which has been intrusted to them 
 for the good of their fellow-creatures, in 
 order to trample on their rights, it 
 becomes the duty of those next in com- 
 mand and in authority, those into whose 
 hands God has put a subordinate power, 
 to exert this power for the good of the 
 body politic. England would have been 
 ruined, had the policy of James been 
 continued ; and William and the peers 
 of the realm, aided by the representa- 
 tives of the people, did the best they 
 could under such circumstances : and 
 we should be thankful to God that so 
 great a benefit was effected. With 
 these views, tlie bishops were right in 
 opposing James, and would have been 
 wise, perhaps, had they taken the oatlis ; 
 but who shall venture to blame con- 
 scientious prelates wlio did not viewtiie 
 matter in this light ? The hardship with 
 which these good men were treated, 
 rendered some of them morose, and 
 made Turner, (bishop of Ely,) perhaps, 
 afterwards join in Lord Preston's ])lot ; 
 in which, as he answered for the other 
 bishops, though probably without any 
 authority, the blame was in some degree 
 thrown on the whole body. But in 
 their subsequent conduct about ecclesi- 
 astical matters they were at all events 
 guilty of creating a schism in the church, 
 and added one more to the ten thousand 
 causes of division which have disti-acted 
 the church of England, and which all 
 the measures of conciliation used at this 
 time proved inadequate to heal. 
 
 § 80). Among the steps taken to 
 tranquillize the nation, and to jiromote 
 peace, the passing of the toleration act' 
 stands pri>-eminent. It granted the 
 dissenters a full liberty as to religious 
 worship ; but was not extended either 
 to Roman (Jatholics or those who de- 
 nied the doctrine of the Trinity; and 
 
 ' 1" William and Mary, 18. 
 
 left all who did not conform to the 
 church of England under many dis- 
 qualifications. 
 
 But a much greater attempt was 
 made for healing our divisions by 
 means of some alterations in the church 
 itself. On Sept. V.i, KiH'J, a commission 
 was issued, "to prepare alterations in 
 the Liturgy and Canons, to make pro- 
 posals for reforming the ecclesiastical 
 courts, and to provide for a strict method 
 of examining candidates for holy or- 
 ders." It consisted of ten bishops and 
 twenty divines,'- many of whose names 
 form the brightest ornaments of our 
 church, from the writings which they 
 have left behind them. They met in 
 the Jerusalem chamber, and a discus- 
 sion was soon raised as to the legality 
 of the commission itself, but was over- 
 ruled, since none of the acts of such an 
 assembly could be at all binding till 
 they had received legal confirmation, 
 and were only destined to prepare mat- 
 ters for the convocation. Two bishops, 
 however. Mew and Sjiratt, and Drs. 
 Jane and Aldrich, withdrew in dissatis- 
 faction, and the subsequent conduct of 
 these latter plainly showed the motives 
 which influenced them. As the labours 
 of this commission in the end proved 
 ineffectual, it is only by accident that 
 we are acquainted with any of their 
 proceedings, and this fortunately on 
 the point which is perhaps in itself of 
 the greatest interest ; I mean with re- 
 gard to the proposed alterations in the 
 Liturgy. 
 
 § 807. The points which were settled 
 were, 3 that the chanting of divine ser- 
 vice in cathedral churches shall be laid 
 aside, that the whole may be rendered 
 
 ' Birch's Tillotson, 193. 
 
 2 Lamplugh, archbishop of Yprk. 
 Coinpton, bishop of London. 
 Mew, bishop of Winchester. 
 W. Llnvd, bishop of St. Asaph. 
 Spiait, bi^liop of Rochester. 
 SiTiiili, bi-liDp of C'arhfle. 
 'I'reLuvnry, bishop of Exeter. 
 Burnet, biphop of Salisbury. 
 Iluniphrfys, bishop of Bangor. 
 Stratford, bishop of Chester. 
 
 S'illingflcet. .lane. Alston. 
 
 Pairic. Holl. Tcnison. 
 
 Tillotson. - Beaumont. Sroft. 
 
 Meggot. Morita^'U. Fowler. 
 
 Sharp. Goodman. (Jrove. 
 
 Kidder. Beveridge. Williams. 
 
 Aldrich, Battely. 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIH. 
 
 intelligible to the common people. 
 That, besides the psalms being read in 
 their course, as before, some proper 
 and devout ones be selected for Sun- 
 days. 
 
 That the Apocryphal lessons, and 
 those in the Old Testament which are 
 too natural, be thrown out, and others 
 appointed in their stead by a new ca- 
 lendar ; which is already fully settled, 
 and out of which are omitted all the 
 legendary saints' days, and others not 
 directly referred to in the service book. 
 
 That, not to send the vulgar to search 
 the canons, which few of them ever 
 saw, a rubric be made, setting forth the 
 usefulness of the cross in baptism,* not 
 as an essential part of that sacrament, 
 but only a fit and decent ceremony. 
 However, if any do, after all, in con- 
 science scruple it, it may be omitted by 
 the priest. 
 
 That likewise, if any refuse to receive 
 the sacrament of the Lord's supper 
 kneeling, it may be administered to 
 them in their pews. 
 
 That a rubric be made, declaring 
 the intention of the Lent fasts to consist 
 only in extraordinary acts of devotion, 
 not in distinction of meats ; and another, 
 to state the meaning of "rogation Sun- 
 days," and "ember weeks;" and ap- 
 point that those ordained within the 
 qiialuor tempora do exercise strict de- 
 votion. That the rubric which obliges 
 ministers to read, or hear, "Common 
 Prayer," publicly or privately, every 
 day, be changed to an exhortation to 
 the people to frequent those prayers. 
 
 That the absolution, in morning and 
 evening prayer, may be read by a dea- 
 con, the word priest in the rubric being 
 changed into minister, and those words, 
 "and remission," be put out, as not 
 very intelligible. 
 
 That the Gloria Patri shall not be 
 repeated at the end of every psalm,"but 
 of all appointed for morning and even- 
 ing prayer. That those words in the 
 Te Deiim, "thine honourable, true, and 
 only Son," be thus turned, "thine only 
 begotten Son," "honourable" being 
 only a civil term, and nowhere used in 
 sacris. 
 
 ' In NichoUs' Apparatus ad Defensionem Ecc. 
 Ang. 95, &,c., it is said, that it should be left to 
 the decision of convocation, whether the use of the 
 cross should be left optional to the parents. 
 
 The Benedicite shall be changed into 
 the 128th psalm, and other psalms like- 
 wise appointed for the Benedictus, and 
 Nttnc dimittis. The versicles after 
 the Lord's Prayer, &c., shall be read 
 kneeling, to avoid the trouble and 
 inconveniences of so often varying 
 postures in the worship. And after 
 those words, " Give peace in our time, 
 O Lord," shall follow an answer pro- 
 missory of somewhat on the people's 
 part, of keeping God's law, or the like; 
 the old response being grounded on 
 the predestinating doctrine taken in too 
 strict an acceptation. 
 
 All high titles or appellations of the 
 king, queen, &c., shall be left out of the 
 prayers, such as most illustrious, reli- 
 gious, mighty, &c., and only the word 
 sovereign retained for the king and 
 queen. Those words in the prayer for 
 the king, "Grant that he may vanquish 
 and overcome all his enemies," as of 
 too large an extent, if the king engage 
 in an unjust war, shall be turned thus, 
 " Prosper all his righteous undertakings 
 against thy enemies," or after some 
 such manner. 
 
 Those words in the prayer for the 
 clergy, "who alone workest great mar- 
 vels," as subject to be ill interpreted 
 by persons vainly disposed, shall be 
 thus, "who alone art the Author of all 
 good gifts :" and these words. " the 
 healthful Spirit of thy grace," shall 
 be, "the holy Spirit of thy grace," 
 "healthful" being an obsolete word. 
 The prayer which begins, " O God, 
 whose nature and property," shall be 
 thrown out, as full of strange and im- 
 pertinent expressions, and besides not 
 in the original, but foisted in since by 
 another hand." The collects, for the 
 most part, are to be changed for those 
 which the bishop of Chichester^ has 
 
 2 It is difficult to understand what is here meant. 
 The prayer was introduced, 1560, from the Li-any 
 of the Salisbury Hours, and is certainly one of the 
 most beautiful and Christian prayers iii the Litur- 
 gy. He who has never felt the propriety and 
 torce of it, must be either a very good or a very 
 bad man. 
 
 3 Simon Patric. In Nicholls' Apparatus ad 
 Def. Ecc. Ang. it is added, that the epistles for 
 the day were selected so as better to agree with 
 the several gospels. Simon Patric framed the 
 collects: G. Burnet added fresh spirit to them; 
 Stillingfleet reviewed them ; and Tillotson gave 
 the last polish to them. Tenison altered all the 
 expressions in the Liturgy to which objectioM 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 305 
 
 prepared, being a review of the old] 
 ones with enlargements, to render them 
 more sensible and affecting, and what | 
 expressions are needless, to be re- 
 trenched. 
 
 If any minister refuse the surplice, 
 the bishop, if the people desire it, and 
 the living will bear it, may substitute 
 one in his place, that will officiate in it, 
 but the whole thing is left to the dis- 
 cretion of the bishops. 
 
 If any desire to have godfathers and 
 godmothers omitted, and their children 
 presented in their own names to bap- 
 tism, it may be granted. 
 
 About the Athanasian' Creed, they 
 came at last to this conclusion, that, lest 
 the wholly rejecting it should by un- 
 reasonable persons be imputed to them 
 as Socinianism, a rubric shall be made, 
 setting forth or declaring the curses 
 denounced therein not to be restrained 
 to every particular article, but in- 
 tended against those that deny the 
 substance of the Christian religion in 
 general. 
 
 ^V^hother the amendment of the trans- 
 lation of the reading psalms (as they 
 are called) made by the bishop of St. 
 Asaph (William Lloyd) and Dr. Kid- 
 der, or that in the Bible, shall be inserted 
 in the Prayer Book, is wholly left to 
 the convocation to consider of and 
 determine. Several alterations were 
 made in the Litany, Communion Ser- 
 vice, &c. 
 
 § 808. H. Prideaux, dean of Norwich, 
 had formed great hopes and expecta- 
 tions from this convocation, and in his 
 life'^ mention is made of several deside- 
 rata in the Liturgy ; but it is not stated 
 whether the opinions there expressed 
 were precisely his own. The points 
 mentioned are, forms for receiving peni- 
 
 were raised. It was left to convocation to deter- 
 mine whether, in the reordination of ministers 
 ordained by presbyters only, a conditional form 
 should not be used, as in the baptism of those 
 about whose previous admission into the Christian 
 covenant there is a doubt. 
 
 ' Nioholls says, that it was left to the judgment 
 of the minister to exchange this for the Apostles' 
 Creed. Nicholls however is wrong. See Water- 
 land's Tract, Works, iv. 305. Whoever wishes 
 for information about this creed may find it in 
 Waterland. The history of the creed is as follows. 
 It was probably composed in France (between a. 
 t>. 426—430) by Hilary, bishop of Aries, in Latin. 
 The translation in our Prayer Book is taken, by 
 mistake, from the Greek. 
 
 a P. 59. 
 
 39 
 
 tents,' for preparing condemned pri- 
 soners, for the consecration of churches, 
 and a book of family prayer, which was 
 actually drawn up, but never published, 
 and at last mislaid and lost, at the death 
 of Williams, bishop of Chichester, in 
 whose hands it had been placed. Some- 
 thing of this sort was the more wanted 
 at this period, since the custom of family 
 prayer had been generally discontinued. 
 The puritans disgusted many sober per- 
 sons with their crude and extempore 
 effusions, and the opposite party had 
 extravagantly cried up the Liturgy, as 
 if no other form of prayer \vnis to be 
 used in families, any more than in the 
 churches ; and the natural consequence 
 was, that in houses where there were no 
 chaplains, the Prayer Book was disused, 
 and nothing substituted in its place. 
 
 In looking at the alterations now pro- 
 posed, there are several particulars 
 which seem to be unimportant, while 
 others are omitted in which a change 
 might be desirable ; nor does it appear 
 that the time occupied by the prayers 
 would have been rendered shorter, the 
 object perhaps most required, when our 
 own service is compared with that of 
 other reformed churches.* 
 
 ' In 1637, while Hall was bishop of E.teter, cer- 
 tain slaves returned to that diocese from Morocco, 
 who, having renounced Christianity during their 
 captivity, were on their return re-admitied into 
 the church. Laud and Hall composed a form of 
 prayer for this purpose, which was approved by 
 the bishops of Ely (White) and Norwich, (Wren,) 
 and settled by the king's appointment. (See 
 Laud's Own Life, p, 550.) In the convocation of 
 1640, one of the services then intended to have 
 been drawn up was a form of reconciling peni- 
 tents and apostates. This probably would have 
 only been an authoritative publication of the former. 
 (Neal's Puritans, ii. 297.) 
 
 The American Prayer Book, altered in 1790, 
 is formed in great measure on this model. With 
 the exception of one or two particulars, the changes 
 appear to be judiciously made; and as it is not a 
 book which talis in the way of every English 
 reader, a brief statement of some of its chief varia- 
 tions from our own may not prove unacceptafcle. 
 Throughout the whole, there are many small 
 verbal alterations, where obsolete terms, or forms 
 of expression, are exchanged for such as are now 
 in common use ; and most of those sentences and 
 words are altered, which are liable to foolish 
 cavils, or real objections. It begins with a pre- 
 face, which modestly justifies the alterations. 
 
 1. In the calendar, the lessons are a good deal 
 changed. About one-half the first lessons for 
 Sundays are the same, and there are also proper 
 second lessons from the New Testament, ap. 
 pointed for each Sunday. Those for saints' days 
 are nearly the same as in ours. In the general 
 calendar of lessons, the chapters composing the 
 first lessons are so divided, that all those taken 
 2c2 
 
306 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVin, 
 
 § 809. All these attempts, however, 
 were rendered abortive, by the temper 
 which soon displayed itself in the lower 
 house of convocation. The first cir- 
 cumstance which evinced this disincli- 
 nation to any changes, was the election 
 of a prolocutor ; for it had been the de- 
 sire of the bishops, who were most 
 friendly to alterations, that Tillotson 
 should have been chosen to that office ; 
 whereas Dr. Jane, author of the Oxford 
 
 from the Apocrypha, and which are read in our 
 church from September to November, are omitted. 
 The second lessons in morning service, talien from 
 the gospels, are so divided, that the gospels are 
 read over only twice during the year, and the 
 Epistles, as in our church, three times. 
 
 2. In the general arrangement of the three ser- 
 vices which are used together in morning prayers 
 in our church, such portions of each as are virtu- 
 ally repetitions, may be omitted at the discretion 
 of the minister. Thus one creed only need be 
 read ; the Lord's Frayer and the collect for the 
 day need only be used once ; and the Gloria Pairi 
 repeated only at the end of the psalms for the day, 
 or the Gloria in Excehis substituted for it. Thus 
 also a large portion of the Litany, (from " OChrist, 
 hear us," to "as we do put our trust in thee,") 
 may be omitted ; and thus the morning prayer, 
 htany, and communion service, are converted, as 
 far as possible, into one uniform office. 
 
 3. Of the three forms of absolution in our Prayer 
 Book, that used in the visitation of the sick is 
 wholly omitted ; and either the form contained iii 
 the morning prayer, or that taken from the com- 
 munion service, may be used at the discretion of 
 the minister. 
 
 4. With regard to the p.salms, there are ten 
 portions of them selected, and ordered to be used 
 instead of those of the day, at the discretion of the 
 minister; and in cases of fasts and thanksgivings, 
 where none are appointed by authority, the mi- 
 nister is allowed to choose them for himself. The 
 version is the same as that in our Liturgy. 
 
 5. The Athanasian creed is wholly omitted, and 
 the minister may use, at his discretion, the Nicene, 
 or Apostles'. 
 
 6. In the evening prayers, the Magnificat and 
 Song of Symeon are omitted, and the 92d psalm 
 introduced. 
 
 7. The occasional prayers are newly arranged, 
 and several new ones, as well as corresponding 
 thanksgivings, introduced. 
 
 8. In the communion, no previous notice is to 
 be required of the communicants, who are all to 
 receive kneeling. There is a new additional pre- 
 face for Trinity Sunday ; and a prayer of oblation, 
 partly new, in which the invocation of the three 
 persons of the Trinity is re-introduced from the 
 Liturgy of 1549. 
 
 9. In baptism, the parents are allowed to stand 
 as sponsors, and the use of the cross may be 
 omitted at their desire. The rubric about bap- 
 tized children being undoubtedly saved is omitted ; 
 and in the baptism of persons of riper years, all 
 mention of informing the bishop is left out. 
 
 10. The catechism is nearly the same. Ministers 
 are not ordered to catechise after the second les- 
 son. The confirmation is nearly the same. 
 
 11. In matrimony, the ceremony may take 
 place in a house, and the prayers are a little alter- 
 ed, and some are omitted. 
 
 Decree, 1683,' and Regius Professor of 
 Divinity, obtained a majority of two to 
 one in his favour. This success was 
 said to be greatly promoted by the inter- 
 ference of the earls of Clarendon and 
 Rochester, uncles to Glueen Mary, who 
 endeavoured to perplex the measures of 
 the court, from the administration of 
 which they found themselves excluded. 
 And Birch, in his life of Tillotson, ac- 
 cuses Compton of having joined in this 
 cabal, out of ill will to the destined pro- 
 locutor, who was already marked out as 
 the successor of Sancroft. This elec- 
 tion'' sufficiently proved what was to be 
 expected from the convocation ; and Dr. 
 Jane, in his speech which he made as 
 prolocutor to the upper bouse, after 
 having greatly extolled the church of 
 England, concluded with the emphatic 
 words, " Nolumus leges Anglite mutari." 
 The commission from the crown, under 
 which the convocation would have acted, 
 was delayed on account of the loss of 
 the great seal, which James had thrown 
 into the Thames, in his flight. It was 
 couched in very conciliating terms, and 
 requested that the matters proposed for 
 the consideration of convocation might 
 be discussed with impartiality and mode- 
 ration. When this had been read, and 
 it was necessarj- that an address should 
 be prepared in answer to it, a dispute 
 arose between the two houses, as to 
 
 12. In the visitation of the sick, all notice of 
 private confession and absolution is omitted ; the 
 psalm is changed to the 130ih, and there are some 
 new occasional prayers at the end. 
 
 13. In the burial of the dead, the pjalms are 
 shortened, and all expressions changed which 
 seem lo apply to the state of the persoii buried. 
 
 14. The churching of women is much short- 
 ened, and may be confined to a single prayer. 
 The olTenngto be applied to the relief of distressed 
 women in childbirth. 
 
 15. The form of prayer to be used at sea is 
 nearly the same. 
 
 16. The commination is wholly omitted. 
 
 17. The form of ordaining priests and deacons, 
 and consecrating bishops, is nearly the same. 
 
 18. There are added, a form of prayer for the 
 visitation of prisoners, a prayer of thanksgiving 
 for the fruits of the earth, a form of family prayer, 
 a form for consecrating churches, (which is nearly 
 the same as that published by Bishop Andrews,) 
 and an office of institution. 
 
 19. The Thiny-nine Articles are hardly 
 changed. In the eighth, all mention of the 
 Athanasian Creed is left out; the twenty-first, 
 about assembUng councils, is left out. In the 
 thirty-fifth, the homilies are allowed of as contain- 
 ing sound doctrine, but are not to be read till they 
 have been revised. 
 
 ' ^ 729. 2 TUIotson, 202. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 307 
 
 the terms in which they should return 
 their thanks, since the lower house re- 
 fused by any expression to acknowledge 
 any connection between the Protestant 
 churches generally and the church of 
 England, and were but ill disjioscd to 
 feel or evince any gratitude to the king 
 for issuing the commission. The whole 
 appearance indeed of the lower house 
 was such, that the session was soon dis- 
 continued ; and a considerable clamour 
 justly raised against the clergy, who 
 now expressed so little kindness towards 
 their dissenting brethren, after all the 
 promises which had been made, while 
 the dangers arising from a Roman 
 Catholic king united all Protestants dur- 
 ing the reign of James II. 
 
 § 810. In one point of view, the failure 
 of such a plan at this moment may be 
 considered providential ; for had any 
 alterations in the Liturgy or constitu- 
 tion been effected, it would have afforded 
 the non-jurors a strong handle for attack- 
 ing the church. They would then, with 
 a greater show of plausibility, have 
 spoken of themselves as the ancient 
 church of England, and thrown the 
 blame of the schism, which they them- 
 selves had created, on those who had 
 introduced the innovations. 
 
 Whether or no any great success 
 might have arisen from an attempt at a 
 comprehension, is very doubtful. Those 
 who have once left the communion of 
 the establishment are not likely to be 
 reclaimed by any changes which can be 
 made in the services ; but it wouJd surely 
 be desirable, if every objection which a 
 sober and reasonable member of the 
 church might make !o these formularies 
 were as far as possible obviated. There 
 were many things which did then, there 
 are some thing's wkich do now, offend 
 the true friends of the church of Eng- 
 land, who willingly comply with the 
 Liturgy and services, as established by 
 law, because they esteem the Common 
 Prayer Book, as a whole, to be a most 
 excellent composition, one wonderfully 
 well suited to the purposes for which it 
 was intended, but who, nevertheless, 
 regard it as a human production, and 
 therefore capable of improvement, as 
 well as requiring, from time to time, 
 verbal alterations, as the language of 
 the countrv gradually varies. And the 
 quiet friend of reform cannot but feel 
 
 sorry that this attempt was then dropped, 
 and has never since been carried into 
 effect. 
 
 § 811. The church of England was 
 now established by law upon its present 
 basis, and has retained the form which 
 it then acquired, without any variation. 
 Though the several steps by which this 
 object was accomplished have been 
 gradually detailed, yet it may not be 
 uninteresting to take a brief and sum- 
 mary viewof the progressive alterations, 
 and of the constitution of the church, as 
 it exists at this moment. 
 
 The church of England first ceased 
 to be a member of the church of Rome 
 during the reign of Henry VIII., but it 
 could hardly be called Protestant till 
 that of Edward VI. Its doctrines were 
 in an intermediate state, and differed 
 little from the declaration of faith set 
 forth by the Roman Catholic bishops 
 of England in 1S2«. During the short 
 reign of Edward VI. it became entirely 
 Protestant, and, in point of doctrine, 
 assumed its present form. This step 
 however was made rather by the decree 
 of the government than by the conviction 
 of the nation. Tlie people, indeed, were 
 generally too ignorant to form any 
 opinions of their own ; and the proba- 
 bility of opposition, which might na- 
 turally have been expected from the 
 clergy, had any attempt been made to 
 introduce these innovations through their 
 intervention, induced Cranmer and the 
 Protector to establish what has been 
 called a parliamentary religion. View- 
 ing then the religion thus authorized as 
 a part of the law of the land, to disagree 
 with it became, in the eye of the go- 
 vernment, an offence against the state, 
 and, as such, punishable by civil pe- 
 nalties. 
 
 § 812. Under Mary, the kingdom was 
 reconciled to the church of Rome, but 
 the entire sway of that court was far 
 from being re-established. Mary per- 
 secuted from principle ; and the perse- 
 cutions which were then inflicted served 
 to open the eyes of the people to the 
 evils of a form of religion, under the 
 mask of which such barbarities could 
 be perpetrated, and made them gladly 
 recur to the tenets which had been pre- 
 viously established, as soon as her death 
 gave them an opportunity of doing so. 
 
 § 813. Elizabeth was herself not in* 
 
308 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVHI. 
 
 disposed to have approached, as near as j 
 possible, to the Romish communion ; an , 
 inclination which was increased in her j 
 through the opposition exhibited by the 
 puritans of her day, with whom the love 
 of liberty, jjolitical and religious, was 
 most closely blended, and who were 
 ready to withstand her arbitrary pro- 
 ceedings in the government of the coun- 
 try, as well as to disregard the ceremo- 
 nies and rites of the church. The power 
 of the ecclesiastical courts was exerted 
 to depress this spirit of independence, 
 and any act which marked a dissent 
 from the church was severely restrained 
 by cruel penalties. The Court of Eccle- 
 siastical Commission became the tool of 
 the state, and the idea of resisting the 
 government became familiar to the 
 minds of those, who either tried to es- 
 tablish civil freedom, or who disliked 
 the institutions of the church. 
 
 § 814. Under the weak reign of 
 James I., all these evils were very much 
 increased. He had personally suffered 
 much from the presbyterians ; he car- 
 ried his notions of prerogative much 
 higher than his predecessors, and ad- 
 ministered the government in such a 
 manner, that they who were discon- 
 tented with the state of affairs learnt 
 that no safety could be expected, except 
 from the dissemination of their own 
 principles, and the combination which 
 would be thus formed against the prO' 
 ceedings of the court. And the impo 
 licy of the court itself, by a misuse of 
 the term jDMn7a?i, combined together all 
 who were adverse to the government, 
 civil or ecclesiastical, and augmented 
 the ranks of its opponents, who were 
 perhaps from these circumstances invo- 
 luntarily forced to become the enemies 
 of both church and state. 
 
 §815. All these evils assumed a more 
 formidable appearance during the ad- 
 ministration of Laud, in the time of 
 Charles I. The Courts of High Com- 
 mission, and of the Star Chamber, were 
 so connected in practice, that the king- 
 dom viewed them as branches of the 
 same system of tyranny ; and, regard- 
 ing rather the administrators than the 
 courts in which they acted, the people 
 learnt to hate the bishops and the higher 
 clergy. The canons of 1640 added to 
 this odium ; for, had they been carried 
 into effect, they would have rendered 
 
 the clergy the instruments of dissemi- 
 nating doctrines' which no free nation 
 can consistently maintain. But the 
 chief mistake in the administration of 
 Laud was, that he ranked so many in- 
 dividuals among such as were un- 
 friendly to the church, and in his con- 
 duct showed himself so adverse to all 
 who were branded with his displeasure, 
 that he made them assume a character 
 foreign to their wishes ; and thus, men 
 who ought to have been the support of 
 the establishment, and who would pro- 
 bably have proved so, had they not 
 been cut off from all hopes of rising in 
 their profession, were numbered among 
 the enemies of the church, and, as it 
 were, compelled to become so. These 
 circumstances threw down the constitu- 
 tion of the church, when the civil go- 
 vernment was overturned ; but even 
 before this event, the king had made a 
 material alteration in the ecclesiastical 
 constitution, by passing an act of par- 
 liament which took away most of the 
 coercive power from the bishops' courts. 
 
 § 816. At the Restoration, the author- 
 ity of the bishops' courts was restored, 
 yet deprived of its excessive power, by 
 the destruction of the Court of High 
 Commission. This, however, did not 
 deliver the mass of dissenters from the 
 persecutions to which they had been 
 formerly subjected. The royalist House 
 of Commons became as persecuting as 
 the High Commission had ever been, 
 and the laws which were enacted against 
 nonconformists and Roman Catholics, 
 show that a, spirit of persecution is not 
 confined to churcWen alone. It is a 
 dreadful, but natural temper of the 
 human mind. These circumstances, 
 however, produced or.e blessing; by 
 degrees they opened the eyes of all 
 orders to the real nature of toleration ; 
 and as the persecutions in the days of 
 Mary tended, under God's providence, 
 to establish Protestantism in England, 
 I so the miseries now borne by the dis- 
 j senters contributed to afford us the 
 blessings which liberty of conscience is 
 calculated to confer on those nations 
 which enjoy it, either in part or in 
 whole. 
 
 § 817. The constitution of the church 
 of England, as settled at the Revolution, 
 
 1 1 See 4 570. 
 
Chap. XVIII.] CHURCH OF 
 
 ENGLAND. 
 
 was that of an authorized and paid esta- 
 blishment ; which was not allowed to 
 persecute those who dissented from it. 
 It was a church supported by the go- 
 vernment, but not so e.'fclusively as to 
 render any opposition to it, or dissent 
 from it, an offonce against the state. 
 To these observations there were two 
 exceptions, with regard to the Roman 
 Catholic and the Socinian. But when 
 we consider the numbers of the several 
 denominations of Christians in England, 
 we may say that toleration was generally 
 established, and that these exceptions 
 did not invalidate the great charter of 
 liberty of conscience, which this event 
 had granted us ; they obscured its glory, 
 rather than impaired its substantial ex- 
 istence. The church of England then 
 became, as it has continued ever since, 
 a paid and authorized church establish- 
 ment ; which was to watch over the 
 spiritual concerns of the nation, and to 
 try to benefit the country, by making 
 every member of the body politic a 
 better man and a better Christian ; it 
 became the appointed duty of her mi- 
 nisters to endeavour to lead their breth- 
 ren, through peace on earth, to bliss in 
 heaven. The institution of such a body 
 depended on the enactments of the first 
 teachers of our holy faith. The pay- 
 ment of it, and its connection with the 
 state, has arisen from thegratitude which 
 our forefathers felt towards a society so 
 constituted. But this connection has 
 fettered the church with many evils. 
 
 § 818. It has justly authorized the 
 state in interfering with clerical appoint- 
 ments, and, from the value of the reve- 
 nues which are attached to them, has 
 unfortunately induced those at whose 
 disposal they are placed to select their 
 friends, who are not always the proper 
 persons to fill the situations; while it 
 has induced the clergy to seek for the pre- 
 ferments. The poverty of many of our 
 spiritual cures prevents them, humanly! 
 speaking, from being properly taken I 
 
 care of ; and God knows whether the 
 wealth of others does not tend to diffuse 
 a want of spirituality through the church. 
 
 It has induced the state, from mistaken 
 kindness, to connect civil jienalties with 
 ecclesiastical censures, and by altering 
 the nature of such control, by diverting 
 it from the consciences to the present 
 fears of the sinner, has done away with 
 the utility of them altogether. 
 
 It has put a stop in a great measure 
 to the exercise of discipline over the 
 members of the church itself : and while 
 we trust that the establishment contains 
 perhaps as large a number of the real 
 servants of God as any other body of 
 men of the same size, we cannot but 
 deplore that there are many offending 
 members in it, for the correction and 
 cutting off of whom no steps are, or 
 perhaps can be, talcen. 
 
 § 81!). These are some of the most 
 obvious evils with which the connection 
 between church and state has encum- 
 bered the establishment : but let us not 
 shut otir eyes to tin' lu ii.'fits of this con- 
 nection. T,rt 111! \- (iiir n ard the church 
 establishiiii'iil as a iii.iial pul^ce ilitserni- 
 nateil through the cmiiii ry ; and he must 
 be blind to the itUerests of civilization, 
 if he thank not God for the advantages 
 which are produced by the distribution 
 of educated men in every part of Eng- 
 land. Let him regard it a. the in'-.tru- 
 nient. under God, of spreading the 
 knowli'd'Ti' of pure and simple Chris- 
 tianity, and he must be ignorant of the 
 blessings of (uir holy ftiith, if he thank 
 not God that a minister of the ios]icl is 
 provided for every | arish. And if there 
 be faults but too visible in the adminis- 
 tration of this establishtiiont, let us pray 
 (iod that they may he reformed by the 
 steady iiand of those invested with legal 
 iiuthority ; and that neither the dilatori- 
 ness iior the lialf-measures of her real 
 friend-; may transfer the task of re- 
 formation to those who are hostile to the 
 interests of our church. 
 
310 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVllL 
 
 APPENDIX F. 
 
 See § 170, James Bainham was a 
 lawyer of a good family, and had married 
 the daughter of Simon Fish ; in 15:51 he 
 was brought before Sir Thomas More 
 and Bishop Stolfesley, but submitted. 
 The next year he was again in trouble 
 as a relapsed heretic, and ultimately 
 handed over to the civil power to be 
 burnt. Fox, ii. 245, &c. 
 
 " After this, Mr. Latymer was retained 
 in the court, and resorted much to Lon- 
 don, and preached the gospel in divers 
 churches there, to the great benefit of 
 many, and the propagation of religion. 
 Here, in 1532, he gave a charitable visit 
 to James Bayneham, a little before his 
 burning, upon this occasion. 'After 
 Mr. Bayneham had been condemned 
 between More, the lord chancellor, and 
 the bishops, and committed unto the 
 secular power to be brent ; and so, 
 immediately after his condempnation, 
 lodged up in the deep dungeon in New- 
 gate, ready to be sent to the fire, Edward 
 Isaac, of the parish of Wei, in the county 
 of Kent, and William Morice of Chip- 
 ping Ongar, the county of Essex, Esq., 
 and Raphe Morice, brother unto the said 
 William, being togethers in one com- 
 pany, met with Mr. Latymer in London. 
 And for that they were desirous to un- 
 derstand the cause of the said Bayne- 
 ham's condempnation, being to many 
 men obscure and unknown, they en- 
 treated Mr. Latymer to go with them to 
 Newgate, to th'intent to understand by 
 him the very occasion of his said con- 
 dempnation ; and otherwise to comfort 
 him to take his death quietly and pa- 
 tiently. When Mr. Latymer and t bother 
 before named, the next day before he 
 was brent, were come down into the 
 dungeon, where al things seemed utterly 
 dark, there they found Bayneham sitting 
 upon a couch of straw, with a book and 
 a wax candle in his hand, praying and 
 reading thereupon. 
 
 " ' And after salutation made, Mr. La- 
 tymer began to commune with him in 
 this sort : Mr. Bayneham, we hear say I 
 that you are condempned for heresy to 
 be brent; and many men are in doubt, 
 wherfore you should suffer ; and 1, for i 
 
 my part, am desirous to understand the 
 cause of your death ; assuring you that 
 1 do not allow that any man should con- 
 sent to his own death, imles he had a 
 right cause to dy in. Let not vainglory 
 overcome you in a matter that men de- 
 serve not to dy for : for therin you shall 
 neither please God, do good to j'ourself, 
 nor your neighbour. And better it were 
 for you to submit your self to the ordi- 
 nances of men, then so rashly to finish 
 your life without good ground. And 
 therefore we pray you to let us under- 
 stand the articles that you are con- 
 dempned for. 1 am content, quoth 
 Bayneham, to tel you altogether. The 
 first article that they condemne me for is 
 this, that I reported that Thomas Becket, 
 sometime archbishop of Canterbury, was 
 a traitor, and was dampned in hel, if he 
 repented not : for that he was in armes 
 against his prince, as a rebel ; provoking 
 other foreign princes to invade the realm, 
 to the utter subversion of the same. 
 Then said Mr. Latymer, Where read 
 you this ? Quoth Mr. Bayneham, I read 
 it in an old history. Wei, said Mr. Laty- 
 mer, this is no cause at al worthy for a 
 man to take his death upon ; for it may 
 be a ly, as well as a true tale ; and in 
 such a doubtful matter it were mere mad- 
 ness for a man to jeopard his life. But 
 what else is layd to your charge ? The 
 truth is. said Bayneham, I spake against 
 purgatory, that there was no such thing, 
 but that it picked men's purses ; and 
 against satisfactory masses : which [as- 
 sertions of mine] 1 defended by the au- 
 thority of the Scriptures. Mary, said 
 Mr. Latymer, in these articles your con- 
 science may be so stayed, that you may . 
 seem rather to d v in the defence thereof, 
 than to recant both against your con- 
 science and the Scriptures also. But 
 yet beware of vainglory : for the Devil 
 will be ready now to infect you ther- 
 with, when you shall come into the mul- 
 titude of the people. And then Mr. 
 Latymer did animate him to take his 
 dt ath quietly and patiently. Bayneham 
 thanked him heartily therfore. And I 
 likewise, said Bayneham, do exhort you 
 to stand to the defence of the truth ; for 
 
Chap. XVIII.] CHURCH OP ENGLAND. 
 
 311 
 
 you, that shall be left behind, had need 
 of comfort also, the world being so dan- 
 gerous as it is. And so spake many 
 comfortable words to Mr. Latymer. 
 
 " ' At the length Mr. Latymer de- 
 manded of liim, whether he had a wife 
 or no ? With tiiat question Bayneham 
 fel a weeping. What, quoth Latymer, 
 is this your constancy to Godwards ? 
 What mean you thus to weep ? O ! 
 sir, said Bayneham to Mr. Latymer, you 
 have now touched me very nigh. I 
 have a wife, as good a woman as ever 
 man was joyned unto. And I shal 
 leave her now, not only without sub- 
 stance, or anything to live by ; but also, 
 for my sake, she shal be an opprobrie 
 unto the world, and be pointed at of 
 every man in this sort. Yonder goeth a 
 heretique's wife ! And therefore she 
 shall be disdained for my sake ; which 
 is no small grief unto me. Mary, sir, 
 quoth Latymer, I perceive that you are 
 a very weak champion, that wil be over- 
 thrown witli such a vanity. Where are 
 become al those comfortable words that 
 so late you alledged unto us, that should 
 tary here behind you ? I mervail what 
 you mean. Is not Almighty God hable 
 to be husband to your wife, and a father 
 unto your children, if you commit them 
 to him in a strong faith ? I am sory to 
 se you in this taking, as though God had 
 no care of his, when he numbreth the 
 hairs of a manys head. If he do not 
 provide for them, the fault is in us that 
 mistrusteth him. It is our infidelity 
 that causeth him to do nothing for ours. 
 Therefore, repent, Mr. Bayneham, for 
 this mistrustingof Almighty God's good- 
 nes. And be you sure, and I do most 
 firmely believe it, that if you do commit 
 your wife with a strong fahh unto the 
 governance of Almighty God, and so dy 
 therin, that within this two years, per- 
 adventure in one year, she shal be better 
 provided for, as touching the felicity of 
 this world, than you, with al your policy, 
 could do for her your self, if you were 
 presently here. And so, with such like 
 words, expostulating with him for his 
 feeble faith, he made an end. Mr. 
 Bayneham, calling his spirits to him- 
 self, most heartily thanked Mr. Latymer 
 for his good comfort and counsel ; say- 
 ing plainly, that he would not for much 
 good, but he had come thither to him : 
 for nothing in the world so much trou- 
 
 bled him, as the care of his wife and 
 family. And so they departed. And 
 the next day Bayneham was burnt.' 
 Of whose death this wondrous thing is 
 recorded, that in the midst of the flames 
 he professed openly, that he felt no pain; 
 and that the fire seemed unto him as 
 easy as lying down in a bed of down. 
 But return we to Latymer, who glorified 
 God twenty-three years after in the same 
 manner of death, and under the same 
 imputation of heresy."' 
 
 The details of Ridley and Latimer 
 may be found not only in Fox, but re- 
 printed in Wordsworth's Eccl. Biog. iii. 
 418, &c. That of Cranmer is thus 
 described in Strype : 
 
 " Yet, because it is not convenient 
 so briefly to pass over such a remarka- 
 ble scene of his life, being his last ap- 
 pearance upon the stage of this world, 
 [ shall represent it in the words of a 
 certain grave person unknown, but a 
 papist, who was an eye and ear-witness, 
 and related these matters, as it seems, 
 very justly, in a letter from Oxon to his 
 friend. Which is as followeth : 
 
 " ' But that I know for our great 
 friendship and long-continued love, you 
 look even of duty that I should signify 
 to you of the truth of such things as 
 here chanceth among us ; I would not 
 at this time have written to you the un- 
 fortunate end, and doubtful tragedy, of 
 T. C. late bishop of Canterbury : be- 
 cause I little pleasure lake in beholding 
 of such heavy sights. And, when they 
 are once overpassed, I like not to re- 
 hearse them again ; being but a renew- 
 ing of my wo, and doubling my grief. 
 For although his former life, and 
 wretched end, deserves a greater mise- 
 ry, (if any greater might have chanced 
 than chanced unto him,) yet, setting 
 aside his offences to God and his coun- 
 try, and beholding the man without his 
 faults, I think there was none that 
 pitied not his case, and bewailed his 
 fortune, and feared not his own chance, 
 to see so noble a prelate, so grave a 
 counsellor, of so long-continued honour, 
 after so many dignities, in his old years 
 to be deprived of his estate, adjudged 
 to die, and in so painful a death to end 
 his life. I have no delight to increase 
 it. Alas, it is too much of itself, that 
 
 ' Strype's Eccl. Mem. III. i. 372. 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XV III. 
 
 ever so heavy a case should betide to 
 man, and man to deserve it. 
 
 " ' But to come to the matter : on 
 Saturday last, being the 21st of March, 
 was his day appointed to die. And, 
 because the morning was much rainy, 
 the sermon appointed by Mr. Dr. Cole 
 to be made at the stake, was made in 
 St. Mary's church : whither Dr. Cran- 
 mer was brought by the mayor and al- 
 dermen, and my Lord Williams. With 
 whom came divers gentlemen of the 
 shire, Sir T. A. Bridges, Sir John 
 Browne, and others. Where was pre- 
 pared, over-against the pulpit, an high 
 place for him, that all the people might 
 see him. And, when he had ascended 
 it, he kneeled down and prayed, weep- 
 ing tenderly: which moved a great 
 number to tears, that had conceived an 
 assured hope of his conversion and 
 repentance. 
 
 " '"i'hen Mr. Cole began his sermon. 
 The sum whereof was this : First, he de- 
 clared causes why it was expedient that 
 he should suffer, notwithstanding his 
 reconciliation. The chief are these. 
 One was, that he had been a great 
 cause of all this alteration in this realm 
 of England. And, when the matter of 
 the divorce between King Henry VIII. 
 and Q,ueen Katharine was commenced 
 in the court of Rome, he, having no- 
 thing to do with it, set upon it as judge, 
 which was the entry to all the inconve- 
 niences that followed. Yet in that he 
 excused him, that he thought he did it 
 not of malice, but by the p-^rsuasions 
 and advice of certain learned men. 
 Another was, that he had been the 
 great setter forth of all this heresy re- 
 ceived into the church in this last time : 
 had written in it, had disputed, had con- 
 tinued it, even to the laf* hour; and 
 that it had never been soen in this 
 realm (but in the time. of schism i that 
 any man continuing so long hriih been 
 pardoned : and that it was not to be 
 remitted for ensample's ?ake. Other 
 causes he alleged, but these were the 
 chief, why it was not thought good to 
 pardon him. Other causi s beside, he 
 said, moved the queen and the council 
 thereto, which were not meet and con- 
 venient for every one to understand 
 them. 
 
 " 'The second part touched the audi- 
 ence, how they should consider this 
 
 I thing: that they should hereby take 
 [example to fear God: and that there 
 I was no power against the Lord : hav- 
 ing before their eyes a man of so high 
 degree, sometime one of the chiefest 
 prelates of the church, an archbishop, 
 the chief of the council, the second 
 peer in the realm of long time : a man, 
 as might be thought, in greatest assu- 
 rance, a king of his side ; notwithstand- 
 ing all his authority and defence to be 
 debased from an high estate to a low 
 degree ; of a counsellor to be a caitiff; 
 and to be set in so wretched estate, that 
 the poorest wretch would not change 
 conditions with him. 
 
 " 'The last and end appertained unto 
 him : whom he comforted and encou- 
 raged to take his death well, by many 
 places of Scripture. And with these, 
 and such, bidding him nothing mistrust, 
 but he should incontinently receive that 
 the thief did : to whom Christ said, 
 Hodie meciim eris in parailiso. And 
 out of St. Paul armed him against the 
 terrors of the fire, by this : Dominus 
 Jidelis est : Non sinet nos tentari ultra 
 quam ferre potestis : by the example of 
 the three children ; to whom God made 
 the flame seem like a pleasant dew. 
 He added hereunto the rejoicing of St. 
 Andrew in his cross: the patience of 
 St. Laurence on the fire : ascertaining 
 him, that God, if he called on him, and 
 to such as die in his faith, either will 
 abate the fury of the flame, or give him 
 strength to abide it. He glorified God 
 much in his conversion ; because it 
 appeared to be only his work : declar- 
 ing what travel and conference had 
 been used with him to convert him, and 
 all prevailed not, till it pleased God of 
 his mercy to reclaim him, and call him 
 home, in discoursing of Avhich place, 
 he much commended Cranmer, and 
 qualified his former doing. 
 
 " 'And I had almost forgotten to tell 
 you. that Mr. Cole promised him, that 
 he should be prayed for in every church 
 t in Oxford, and should have mass and 
 Diris^e sung for him ; and spake to all 
 the priests present to say mass for his 
 soul. 
 
 ] " ' When he had ended his sermon, 
 I he desired all the people to pray for 
 I him ; Mr. Cranmer kneeling down with 
 them, and praying for himself. I think 
 I there was never such a number so earn- 
 
Chap. XVIII.] 
 
 CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 318 
 
 nestly praying together. For they, 
 that hated him before, now loved him 
 for his conversion, and hope of con- 
 tinuance. They that loved him before 
 could not sodenly hate him, having 
 hope of his confession again of his fall. 
 So love and hope increased devotion 
 on every side. 
 
 " 'I shall not need, for the time of 
 sermon, to describe his behaviour, his 
 sorrowful countenance, his heavy cheer, 
 his face bedewed with tears ; sometime 
 lifting his eyes to heaven in hope, some- 
 time casting them down to the earth for 
 shame ; to be brief, an image of sor- 
 row : the dolor of his heart bursting 
 out at his eyes in plenty of tears : re- 
 taining ever a quiet and grave behaviour. 
 ^ Which increased the pity in men's 
 • hearts, that they unfeignedly loved him, 
 hoping it had been his repentance for 
 his transgression and error. I shall not 
 need, I say, to point it out unto you ; 
 you can much better imagine it yourself. 
 
 " ' When praying was done, he stood 
 up, and, having leave to speak, said. 
 Good people, I had intended indeed to 
 desire you to pray for me ; which be- 
 cause Mr. Doctor hath desired, and you 
 have done already, I thank you most 
 heartily for it. And now will I pray 
 for myself, as I could best devise for 
 mine own comfort, and say the prayer, 
 word for word, as I have here written it. 
 And he read it standing, and after 
 kneeled down, and said the Lord's 
 Prayer ; and all the people on their 
 knees devoutly praying with him. His 
 prayer was thus : 
 
 " ' O FATHER of heaven ; O Son 
 of God, Redeemer of the world ; O 
 Holy Ghost, proceeding from them 
 both, three persons and one God, have 
 mercy upon me most wretched caitiff, 
 and miserable sinner. I who have 
 offended both heaven and earth, and 
 more grievously than any tongue can 
 express, whither then may I go, or 
 whither should I fly for succour ? To 
 heaven I may be ashamed to lift up 
 mine eyes ; and in earth I find no re- 
 fuge. What shall I then do? shall I 
 despair? God forbid. O good God, 
 thou art merciful, and refuses none that 
 come unto thee for succour. To thee 
 therefore do I run. To thee do I hum- 
 ble myself: saying, O Lord God, my 
 sins be great, but yet have mercy upon 
 40 
 
 me for thy great mercy. O God the 
 Son, thou wast not made man, this great 
 mystery was not wrought, for few or 
 small offences. Nor thou didst not 
 give thy Son unto death, O God the 
 Father, for our little and small sins 
 only, but for all the greatest sins of the 
 world : so that the sinner return unto 
 thee with a penitent heart : as I do 
 here at this present. Wherefore have 
 mercy upon me, O Lord, whose pro- 
 perty is always to have mercy. For 
 although my sins be great, yet thy 
 mercy is greater. I crave nothing, O 
 Lord, for mine own merits, but for thy 
 name's sake, that it may be glorified 
 thereby : and for thy dear Son Jesus 
 Christ's sake. And now therefore, 
 Our Father, which art in heaven, &c. 
 
 " 'Then rising, he said. Every man 
 desireth, good people, at the time of 
 their deaths, to give some good exhorta- 
 tion, that other may remember after 
 their deaths, and be the better thereby. 
 So I beseech God grant me grace, that 
 I may speak something, at this my de- 
 parting, whereby God may be glorified, 
 and you edified. 
 
 " ' First, It is an heavy case to see, 
 that many folks be so much doted upon 
 the love of this false world, and so 
 careful for it, that for the love of the 
 world to come, they seem to care very 
 little or nothing therefore. This shall 
 be my first exhortation. That you set 
 not overmuch by this false glosing 
 world, but upon God and the world to 
 come : and learn to know what this 
 lesson meaneth, which St. John teach- 
 eth, that the love of this world is hatred 
 against God. 
 
 " ' The second exhortation is. That, 
 next unto God, you obey your king and 
 queen willingly and gladly, without 
 murmur or grudging ; and not for fear 
 of them only, but much more for the 
 fear of God ; knowing that they be 
 God's ministers, appointed by God to 
 rule, and govern you. And therefore 
 whoso resisteth them, resisteth God's 
 ordinance. 
 
 '"The third exhortation is. That you 
 love altogether like brethren and sistern. 
 For, alas! pity it is to see what conten- 
 tion and hatred one Christian man hath 
 to another ; not taking each other as 
 sisters and brothers ; but rather as stran- 
 gers and mortal enemies. But I pray 
 2D 
 
314 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 [Chap. XVIIL 
 
 you learn and bear well away this one 
 lesson, To do good to all men as much 
 as in you lieth, and to hurt no man, no 
 more than you would hurt your own 
 natural and loving brother or sister. 
 For this you may be sure of, that who- 
 soever hateth any person, and goeth 
 about maliciously to hinder or hurt 
 him, surely, and without all doubt, 
 God is not with that man, although he 
 think himself never so much in God's 
 favour. 
 
 " ' The fourth exhortation shall be to 
 them that have great substance and 
 riches of this world. That they Avill well 
 consider and weigh those sayings of 
 the Scripture. One is of our Saviour 
 Christ himself, who saith. It is hard for 
 a rich man to enter into heaven: a sore 
 saying, and yet spoke by him that knew 
 the truth. The second is of St. John, 
 whose saying is this. He that hath the 
 substance of this tvorld, and seeth his 
 brother in necessity, and shutteth up 
 his mercy from him, how can he say, 
 he loveth God? Much more might I 
 speak of every part; but time sufficeth 
 not. I do but put you in remembrance 
 of things. Let all them that be rich, 
 ponder well those sentences : for if ever 
 they had any occasion to show their 
 charity, they have now at this present, 
 the poor people being so many, and 
 victuals so dear. For though I have 
 been long in prison, yet I have heard 
 of the great penury of the poor. Con- 
 sider, that that which is given to the 
 poor, is given to God ; whom we have 
 not otherwise present corporally with 
 us, but in the poor. 
 
 " ' And now, for so much as I am 
 come to the last end of my life, where- 
 upon hangeth all my life passed, and 
 my life to come, either to live with my 
 Saviour Christ in heaven, in joy, or 
 else to be in pain ever with wicked 
 devils in hell ; and I see before mine 
 eyes presently either heaven ready to 
 receive me, or hell ready to swallow 
 me up ; I shall therefore declare unto 
 you my very failh. how I believe, with- 
 out colour or dissimulation : for now is 
 no time to dissemble, whatsoever I have 
 written in times past. 
 
 " ' First, I believe in God the Father 
 Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. 
 &c., and every article of the Catholic 
 faith, every word and sentence taught 
 
 by our Saviour Christ, his apostles, and 
 prophets, in the Old and New Testa- 
 ment. 
 
 " ' And now I come to the great thing 
 that troubleth my conscience more than 
 any other thing that ever I said or did 
 in my life : and that is, the settinsr 
 abroad of writings contrary to the truth. 
 Which here now I renounce and refuse, 
 as things written with my hand, con- 
 trary to the truth which I thought in 
 my heart, and writ for fear of death, 
 and to save my life, if it might be : and 
 that is, all such bills, which I have 
 written or signed with mine own hand 
 since my degradation : wherein I have 
 written many things untrue. And for- 
 asmuch as my hand offended in writing 
 contrary to my heart, therefore my 
 hand shall first be punished: for if I 
 may come to the fire, it shall be first 
 burned. And as for the pope, I refuse 
 him, as Christ's enemy and antichrist, 
 with all his false doctrine. 
 
 " ' And here, being admonished of 
 his recantation and dissembling, he 
 said, Alas, my lord, I have been a man 
 that all my life loved plainness, and 
 never dissembled till now against the 
 truth ; which I am most sorry for. He 
 added hereunto, that, for the sacrament, 
 he believed as he had taught in his 
 book against the bishop of Winchester. 
 And here he was suffered to speak no 
 more. 
 
 " ' So that his speech contained chiefly 
 three points, love to God, love to the 
 king, and love to the neighbour. In 
 the which talk he held men very sus- 
 pense, which all depended upon the 
 conclusion: where he so far deceived 
 all men's expectations, that, at the hear- 
 ing thereat they were much amazed ; 
 and let him go on a while, till my Lord 
 Williams bad him play the Christen 
 man, and remember himself. To whom 
 he answered. That he so did ; for now 
 he spake truth. 
 
 " ' Then he was carried away ; and 
 a great number that did run to see him 
 go so wickedly to his death, ran after 
 him, exhorting him, while time was, to 
 remember himself. And one Friar 
 John, a godly and well-learned man, 
 all the way travelled with him to re- 
 duce him. But it would not be. What 
 they said in particular I cannot tell, but 
 the effect appeared in the end ; for al 
 
:hap. XVIIL] CHURCH OF ENGLAND. 
 
 315 
 
 he stake he professed that he died in 
 ill such opinions as he had taught, and 
 jft repented him of his recantation. 
 
 " ' Coming to the stake with a cheer- 
 ful countenance and willing mind, he 
 put off his garments with haste, and 
 stood upright in his shirt: and a bache- 
 lor of divinity, named Elye, of Brazen- 
 nose college, laboured to convert him 
 to his former recantation, with the two 
 •Spanish friars. But when the friars 
 saw his constancy, they said in Latin 
 ione to another. Let us go from him; 
 : we ought not to be nigh him ; for the 
 1 devil is with him. But the bachelor 
 ' in divinity was more earnest with him : 
 unto whom he answered, that, as con- 
 cerning his recantation, he repented it 
 right sore, because he knew it was 
 against the truth ; with other words 
 more. Whereupon the Lord Williams 
 cried. Make short, make short. Then 
 the bishop took certain of his friends 
 by the hand. But the bachelor of 
 divinity refused to take him by the 
 I hand, and blamed all others that so did, 
 : and said he was sorry that ever he came 
 in his company. And yet again he 
 required him to agree to his former 
 recantation. And the bishop answered, 
 (showing his hand,) This is the hand 
 that wrote it, and therefore shall it suf- 
 fer first punishment. 
 
 " ' Fire being now put to him, he 
 stretched out his right hand and thrust 
 it into the flame, and held it there a 
 good space, before the fire came to any 
 other part of his body; where his hand 
 was seen of every man sensibly burning, 
 crying with a loud voice, This hand 
 hath offended. As soon as the fire got 
 up he was very soon dead, never stir- 
 ring or crying all the while. 
 
 " ' His patience in the torment, his 
 courage in dying, if it had been taken 
 either for the glory of God, the wealth 
 of his country, or the testimony of truth, 
 as it was for a pernicious error, and 
 the subversion of true religion, I could 
 worthily have commended the exam- 
 ple, and matched it with the fame of 
 any father of ancient time ; but, seeing 
 that not the death, but the cause and 
 quarrel thereof, commendeth the suf- 
 ferer, I cannot but much dispraise his 
 obstinate stubbornness and sturdiness in 
 dying, and especially in so evil a cause. 
 Surely his death much grieved every 
 
 man ; but not after one sort. Some 
 pitied to see his body so tormented with 
 the fire raging upon the silly carcass, 
 that counted not of the folly. Other, 
 that passed not much of the body, 
 lamented to see him spill his soul, 
 wretchedly, without redemption, to be 
 plagued for ever. His friends sorrowed 
 for love ; his enemies for pity ; stran- 
 gers for a common kind of humanity, 
 whereby we are bound one to another. 
 Thus I have enforced myself, for your 
 sake, to discourse this heavy narration, 
 contrary to my mind : and, being more 
 than half weary, I make a short end, 
 wishing you a quieter life, with less 
 honour ; and easier death, with more 
 praise. The 2'3d of March. 
 
 'Yours, J. A.' 
 
 "All this is the testimony of an ad- 
 versary, and, therefore, we must allow 
 for some of his words ; but may be the 
 more certain of the archbishop's brave 
 courage, constancy, patience. Christian 
 and holy behaviour, being related by 
 one so affected."' 
 
 The feelings about his wife which 
 agitated Bainham, and which were so 
 happily removed by his conference with 
 Latimer, might have been expected 
 more or less to affect every one of the 
 martyrs who were bound to earth by 
 this most sacred tie ; but this does not 
 appear to have been the case ; and not 
 only did many women suffer gloriously 
 and patiently themselves ; not only did 
 men who were married willingly resign 
 their wives and families to the care of 
 God ; but several women were found, 
 who seem to have animated their part- 
 ners to the struggle, as well by their 
 prayers as by their assistance and ad- 
 vice. 
 
 Laurence Saunders was born of 
 worshipful parentage, was educated at 
 Eton, and King's College, Cambridge, 
 and, having taken orders, he boldly 
 preached in his parish church of All- 
 hallows, Bread street, and was conse- 
 quently confined and detained there for 
 a very considerable time before his 
 martyrdom. (Fox, iii. 113.) "As the 
 said Master Saunders was in prison, 
 straight charge was given to the keeper 
 that no person should speak with him. 
 
 I Strype's Cranmer, 551—559, 8vo., 384—390, 
 fol. 
 
316 
 
 HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. [CHiip. XVIH. 
 
 His wife yet came to the prison-gate 
 with her young- child in her arms, to 
 visit her husband. The keeper, though 
 for his charge he durst not suffer her to 
 come into the prison, yet did he take 
 the little babe out of her arms, and 
 brought him unto his father; Laurence 
 Saunders seeing him, rejoiced greatly, 
 saying that he rejoiced more to have 
 such a boy, than he should if two thou- 
 sand pounds were given him. And 
 unto the standers by, which praised the 
 goodliness of the child, he said. What 
 man, fearing God, would not lose his 
 life present, rather than, by prolonging 
 it here, he should adjudge this boy to 
 be a bastard, his wife a whore, and 
 himself a whoremonger ? Yea, if there 
 were no other cause for which a man 
 of my estate should lose his life, yet 
 who would not give it to avouch this 
 child to be legitimate, and his marriage 
 to be lawful and holy ? 
 
 " I do, good reader, recite this saying, 
 not only to let thee see what he thought 
 of priests' marriage, but chiefly to let all 
 married couples and parents learn to 
 bear in their bosoms true affections : 
 natural, yet seasoned with the true salt 
 of the Spirit, unfeignedly and thoroughly 
 mortified to do the natural works and 
 offices of married couples and parents, 
 so long as with their doing they may 
 keep Christ with a free confessing faith 
 in a conscience unfoil : otherwise both 
 they and their own lives are so to be 
 forsaken, as Christ required them to be 
 denied, and given in his cause." 
 
 This good man was afterwards con- 
 demned to death, and sent to Coventry 
 to be burnt. From the length of time 
 during which he was in prison, he had 
 the opportunity of addressing many 
 letters to his friends, particularly to his 
 wife, which are printed in the Acts and 
 Mon., and in the letters of the Martyrs. 
 Among a vast number of others, the 
 following occurs addressed to his wife, 
 wherein allusion is made to a shirt, 
 which seems to have been prepared for 
 his execution. There is no date to it. 
 It is addressed " To his wife and other 
 of his friends." 
 
 " Grace and comfort in Christ. Amen. 
 
 Dear wife, be merry in the mercies of 
 our Christ, and ye also, my dear friends: 
 pray for us, every body. We be shortly 
 to be dispatched hence to our good 
 Christ. Amen. Amen. Wife, I would 
 you sent me my shirt,' which you know 
 whereunto it is consecrated. Let it be 
 sewed down on both the sides, and not 
 open. O, my heavenly Father, look 
 upon me in the face of thy Christ, or 
 else I shall not be able to abide thy 
 countenance, such is my filthiness. He 
 will do so, and therefore I will not be 
 afraid what sin, death, hell, and damna- 
 tion can do against me. Oh wife, always 
 remember the Lord. God bless you! 
 Yea, he will bless thee, good wife, and 
 thy poor boy also ; only cleave thou unto 
 him, and he will give thee all things. 
 Pray, pray, pray." (Fox's Martyrs, iii. 
 1 18 ; Letters of 'the Martyrs, 200.) Tyn- 
 dale, writing to Frith, then in the Tower, 
 says, (Works, 453 ; Fox, ii. 307,) " Fear 
 not threatening, therefore, neither be 
 overcome with sweet words ; with which 
 twain the hypocrites shall assail you ; 
 neither let the persuasions of worldly 
 wisdom bear rule in your heart ; no, 
 though they be your friends that counsel 
 you. Let Bilney be a warning to you. 
 Let not their visure beguile your eyes. 
 Let not your body faint. He that en- 
 dureth to the end shall be saved. If the 
 pain be above your strength, remember. 
 Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, I 
 tvill give it you. And pray to your 
 Father in that name, and he will ease 
 your pain or shorten it. The Lord of 
 peace, of hope, and of faith, be with you. 
 Amen." And again : " Two have suf- 
 fered at Antwerp, &c. See, you are not 
 alone : be cheerful, and remember that, 
 among the hardhearted in England, there 
 is a number reserved for grace ; for whose 
 sake, if need be, you must be ready to 
 suffer." He then gives some account 
 of the printing of Joye's Bible, and ends, 
 " Sir, your wife is well content with the 
 will of God, and would not for her sake 
 have the glory of God hindered. William 
 Tyndale." 
 
 ' Rawlins While, fisherman, desired his wife to 
 send him his wedding garment or shirt, in which 
 he was afterwards burnt. Fox, iii. 181. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 55. Julius Cossar invades Britain. 
 
 Claudius invades Britain. 
 Caractacus captive at Rome. 
 Anglesey taken by Suetonius. 
 St. Peter and St. Paul put to death at 
 Rome. 
 
 Conquests of Agricola in Britain. 
 Adrian's wall built. 
 
 ■76. King Lucius embraces Christianity. 
 Severus in Britain. The wall between the 
 
 Forth and Clyde built in the next year. 
 Carausius usurps the government in 
 
 Britain. 
 Martyrdom of St. Alban. 
 Constanline emperor of Rome. 
 The Council of Aries. 
 The Council of Nice. 
 The Council of Sardica. 
 The Council of Ariminum. 
 Maximus takes the flower of the British 
 
 forces from England. 
 The Pelagian heresy condemned in 
 
 Africa. 
 
 The Romans finally leave Britain. 
 
 Hengist and Horsa land in England. 
 
 The "kingdom of Kent, the first of the 
 Heptarchy, established. 
 
 Rome taken by the Heruli. 
 
 St. Patrick, who converted Ireland, dies. 
 
 The supposed date of King Arthur. 
 
 Gildas, the first English historian, flou- 
 rished. 
 
 582. The kingdom of Mercia, the last of the 
 
 Heptarchy, established. 
 586. The British church had retired into 
 
 Wales. 
 
 596. Augustin comes to Thanet. 
 
 601. The meeting of the Saxon and British 
 churches in Worcestershire. 
 
 622. ^ra of the Hegyra, or flight of Moham- 
 med. 
 
 664. The Council of Whitby. 
 
 678. Sussex, the last of the Heptarchy, con- 
 verted to Christianity. 
 
 730. The edict of Leo Isaurus against image 
 worship. 
 
 Origin of the civil dominion of the popes. 
 735. The Venerable Bede dies. 
 754. The pope re-established in his temporal 
 
 power by Pepin. 
 787. The Danes invade England. Lichfield 
 
 made an archbishopric. The second 
 
 Council of Nice. 
 872. Alfred begins his reign. 
 880. Schism between the Latin and Greek 
 
 churches. 
 
 934. The battle of Burnanberg placed all 
 
 England under Athelstan. 
 940. Howel Dha, king of Wales. 
 996. The publication of Elfric's Homily 
 
 against Transubstanliation. 
 1013. Sweno, king of England and Denmark. 
 1041. Edward the Confessor. 
 1059. The Waldenses separated from Rome. 
 1066. Harold II. conquered at Battle. 
 
 ARCHBISHOPS OF CANTERBURY BEFORE THE CONQUEST. 
 
 830. Ceolnoth. 
 871. Alheldred. 
 891. Phlegmund. 
 923. Athelm. 
 928. Wulfelm. 
 941. Odo Severus. 
 954. Dunstan. 
 
 988. Elhelgar. 
 
 989. Siric. 
 996. Aluricius. 
 
 1005. Elphege. 
 1013. Living, or Leovingus. 
 1020. Agelnoth, or ^Ethelnot. 
 1038. Edsine, or Eadsius. 
 1050. Robert Gemeticensis. 
 1062. Stigand. 
 
 2d2 317 
 
318 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 
 K' f 
 England. 
 
 Popes. 
 
 Archbishops of 
 Canterbury. 
 
 Remarkable Evenls. 
 
 1066. 
 
 William I. 
 
 
 
 
 1070. 
 
 
 
 Lanfranc, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1070. 
 
 
 
 
 Gregory VII. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1073. 
 
 
 
 1080. 
 
 
 
 
 1079 Doomsda book be un 
 ooms ay oo egun. 
 
 
 
 
 
 81. Osmond, bishop of Samra, 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Usum Sarum. 
 
 
 
 Victor m. 
 
 
 
 1087. 
 
 William II. 
 
 1086. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Urban II. 
 
 
 
 1090. 
 
 
 1088. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Anselm, 1093. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 95. The first crusade; Peter the 
 
 
 
 
 
 Hermit. 
 
 
 
 Pascal n. 
 
 
 99. The Knights of St. John insti- 
 
 
 
 1099. 
 
 
 tuted. 
 
 1100 
 
 Henr I 
 enry . 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1105. Anselm goes to Rome about 
 
 
 
 
 
 investitures. 
 
 1110. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Rodulph, 1114. 
 
 
 
 
 Gelasius II. 
 
 
 
 
 1118. 
 Callixtus II. 
 
 
 19. The order of Knights Templars 
 
 
 
 1119. 
 
 
 instituted. 
 
 1120. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 W. Corboyl, 
 
 
 
 
 
 1122. 
 
 
 
 
 Honorius 11. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1124. 
 
 
 
 1130 
 1130. 
 
 
 Innocent II. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1130. 
 
 
 
 1135. 
 
 Stephen. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 37. The Pandects of the Roman 
 
 
 
 
 
 law discovered at Amalphi. 
 
 
 
 
 Theobald, 
 
 1140. 
 
 
 
 1138. 
 
 40. Canon law introduced into Eng- 
 
 
 
 
 
 land. 
 
 
 
 
 
 William of Malmsbury flou- 
 
 
 
 
 
 rished. 
 
 
 
 p£>locfin TT 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 L ^^'^^11 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 TTT 
 
 IjUgenius 111. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1145. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 G ff e f M nm' th fl 
 
 
 
 
 
 '^rished ° " 
 
 1 1 ^0 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 51 The canon law collected by 
 
 
 
 Anaslasius IV. 
 
 
 Gratiaa. 
 
 
 
 1 1 53. 
 
 
 
 1154. 
 
 Henry II. 
 
 Adrian IV. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1154. 
 
 
 
 
 
 Alexander III. 
 
 
 
 
 
 1159. 
 
 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 319 
 
 Henry III. 
 
 Lucius in. 
 1181. 
 
 Urban IIL 
 1185. 
 Gregory VIII. 
 1187. 
 
 Cle 
 
 m. 
 
 Celestin III. 
 1191. 
 
 Innocent III. 
 1198. 
 
 Honorius III. 
 1216. 
 
 Gregory IX. 
 1227. 
 
 Celestin IV. 
 
 1241. 
 Innocent IV. 
 
 1243. 
 
 Alexander IV. 
 1254. 
 
 T. Becket, 
 1162. 
 
 Baldwin, 1184. 
 
 Reginald Fitz 
 Jocelin, 1191. 
 Hubert Walter, 
 1193. 
 
 Stephen Lang- 
 ton, 1207. 
 
 R. Welhershed, 
 1229. 
 
 Boniface, 1245. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1160. Some Germans punished for 
 heresy at Oxford. 
 
 64. Constitutions of Clarendon. 
 
 71. T. Becket murdered. 
 
 72. Conquest of Ireland. 
 75. Greaihead born. 
 
 89. The third crusade. 
 
 1200. Mariner's compass 
 2. Fourth crusade. 
 4. The inquisition established. 
 
 sed. 
 
 8. London incorporated by charter, 
 10. One of the Albigenses burnt in 
 London. 
 Crusade against them in France. 
 15. Magna Charta. 
 
 21. The first mendicants establish- 
 
 ed in Oxford. 
 
 22. A deacon burnt for apostasy. 
 
 35. Greathead, bishop of Lincoln. 
 
 49. University college, Oxford 
 founded. 
 
 59. Matthew Paris ob. 
 
330 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 1290. 
 
 1307. 
 1310. 
 
 1320. 
 1327. 
 
 Edward III. 
 
 Urban IV. 1261. 
 Clement IV. 
 1265. 
 
 Gregory X. 
 1271. 
 
 Innocent V. 
 
 1276. 
 Adrian V. 76. 
 John XXI. 76. 
 Nicholas III. 
 1277. 
 
 Martin IV. 1281 
 
 Honorius IV. 
 Nicholas IV. 
 
 Celestin V. 
 1294. 
 Boniface, VIII. 
 1294. 
 
 Benedict XI. 
 
 1303. 
 Clement V. 
 
 John XXII. 
 1316. 
 
 Benedict XH. 
 1334. 
 
 Clement VI. 
 1342. 
 
 Rob. Kilwarby, 
 1272. 
 
 J. Peckham, 
 1278. 
 
 Rob. Winchel- 
 sey, 1294. 
 
 Walter Raynold, 
 1313. 
 
 Simon Mepham, 
 1328. 
 
 Joseph Stratford, 
 
 Th. Bradwar- 
 dine, 1349. 
 Simon Islip, 
 1349. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1265. Knights and burgesses sum- 
 moned to parliament. 
 
 79. Statute of Mortmain. 
 
 83. Final redaction of Wales. 
 
 84. Roger Bacon ob. 
 
 About this lime Stamford be- 
 came an university for 
 
 short period. 
 
 1301. The barons assert the inde 
 pendence of England in a 
 letter to the pope. 
 
 8. The seat of the popes trans- 
 ferred to Avignon. 
 
 12. The order of Knights Templars 
 dissolved. 
 
 43. The Houses of Lords and Com- 
 mons distinct. 
 
 46. Battle of Cressy. 
 
 48. Some Flagellants landed in Eng- 
 land, but made no proselytes, 
 

 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 321 
 
 
 
 Kings of 
 England. 
 
 Popes. 
 
 Archbishops of 
 Canlerbury. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 
 1350. 
 
 1360. 
 
 1370. 
 
 1377. 
 1380. 
 
 1390. 
 1399. 
 
 1413. 
 1422. 
 
 Richard II. 
 
 Henry IV. 
 
 Henry V. 
 Henry VI. 
 
 Innocent 
 Urban 1 
 
 Gregory 
 13 
 
 Rome. 
 
 VI. 1352. 
 V. 1362. 
 
 XI. 1370. 
 
 rs. 
 
 Avignon. 
 
 Simon Lang- 
 ham, 1366. 
 Will. Wittlesey, 
 1368. 
 
 Simon Sudbury, 
 1376. 
 
 Will. Courtney, 
 1381. 
 
 Thomas Arun- 
 del, 1396. 
 
 Hen. Chichely, 
 1414. 
 
 1352. Statute of Prsemunire. 
 The Plowman's Complaint 
 was published about this 
 period. 
 66. Battle of Poictiers. 
 
 69. Tamerlane, the Mogul con- 
 queror. 
 
 71. The parliament petition 
 that secularemployments 
 may not be held by 
 churchmen. 
 
 76. Edward the Black Prince 
 
 dies. 
 
 77. Wiclif answers before 
 
 Courtney in St. Paul's. 
 
 78. Grand schism of the west. 
 
 81. Wat the Tiler's insurrec- 
 tion; S. Sudbury mur- 
 dered. 
 
 83. Cannon first used by the 
 
 English in defence of 
 Calais. 
 
 84. Wiclif ob. 
 
 87. Winchester school founded. 
 
 88. Commission against the 
 
 Lollards. 
 
 95. The petition of the Lollards 
 is presented to parlia- 
 ment, 
 
 1400. Statute against the Lol- 
 lards. 
 
 1. William Sawtrey, priest, 
 burnt for heresy. 
 
 7. Bank established at Genoa. 
 9. Council of Pisa, which de- 
 poses Gregory. 
 10. Badby burnt. 
 
 14. Council of Constance. 
 
 15. John Huss burnt. 
 Battle of Agincourt. 
 
 16. Jerome of Prague burnt. 
 
 17. Paper made from rags. 
 
 18. Lord Cobham hanged and 
 
 burnt. 
 
 Urban VI. 
 
 1389. 
 Boniface 
 DC. 
 
 1404. 
 
 Innocent 
 VII. 
 1406. 
 Gregory 
 XII. 
 
 Martin 
 
 Clement 
 VII. 
 
 1394. 
 Benedict 
 XIII. 
 
 Pisa. 
 1409. 
 Alexan- 
 der V. 
 1410. 
 John 
 XXIII. 
 
 V. 1417. 
 
 41 
 
322 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 1460. 
 1461. 
 
 1470. 
 1471. 
 
 Henry VI. 
 restored. 
 Edward IV. 
 restored. 
 
 Edward V. 
 Richard III. 
 
 Henry VII. 
 
 1509. Henry VIII. 
 
 Eugenius IV. 
 1431. 
 
 Felix IV. or V. 
 1439. 
 
 Nicholas V. 
 1447. 
 
 Callixtus III. 
 
 1455. 
 Pius II. 1458. 
 
 Paul II. 1464. 
 
 Sixtus IV. 
 1471. 
 
 Innocent VIII. 
 1484. 
 
 Alexander VI. 
 1492. 
 
 Pius III. 150.3. 
 Julius II. 1503. 
 
 John Stafford, 
 1443. 
 
 Joseph Kemp, 
 1452. 
 
 Thomas Bou- 
 chier, 1454. 
 
 Henry Dean, 
 
 1501. 
 William V^^or- 
 ham, 1503. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1428. Joan of Arc raises the siege 
 
 of Orleans. 
 31. Council of Basil. 
 36. Chevy Chase. 
 
 40. Printing established by Gutten 
 
 berg, at Strasburg. 
 
 41. Eton school founded. 
 
 44. Pecock, bishop of St. Asaph. 
 
 50. Pecock, bishop of Chichester. 
 
 52. The wars of Lancaster and 
 
 York. 
 
 53. Constantinople taken by thi 
 
 Turks. 
 
 End of the English government 
 in France, 
 
 58. Pecock deposed. 
 
 59. Engraving on copper invented. 
 
 73. A press established in England, 
 probably in Westminster Ab- 
 bey. 
 
 83. Luther born. 
 
 85. Battle of Bosworth. 
 
 86. Cape of Good Hope discovered- 
 
 91. End of the empire of the Moors 
 
 in Spain. 
 
 92. Discovery of Hispaniola by C, 
 
 Columbus. 
 
 94. Algebra introduced into Europe. 
 
 98. Main land of America disco- 
 vered, and a new passage to 
 India. 
 
 1505. Colet, dean of St. Paul's. 
 
 12. Council of St. John Lateran. 
 
 13. Battle of Flodden Field. 
 
 14. Hunne murdered in prison. 
 17. Luther preaches against indul- 
 gences. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE 
 
 323 
 
 1519. 
 1520. 
 
 Adrian VI. 
 1522. 
 Clement VII. 
 1523. 
 
 Thomas Cran- 
 mer, 1533. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1519. First voyage round the world 
 by Magellan. 
 
 Henry VIII. declared Defender 
 of the Faith. 
 
 24. Sweden and Denmark embrace 
 the reformed faith., 
 
 28. P. Hamilton burnt at St. An- 
 
 drew's. 
 
 29. Trial of the divorce ; Wolsey's 
 
 fall. 
 
 Diet of Spires; the name of 
 Protestants first given. 
 
 30. The title of Supreme Head of 
 
 the Church acknowledged by 
 the clergy ; diet of Augsburg, 
 and league of Smalcalde. 
 
 31. The bishops directed to pre- 
 
 pare a new translation of the 
 Bible. 
 
 32. Marriage with Anne Boleyn. 
 
 33. The divorce pronounced. 
 Elizabeth born. 
 
 34. The marriage of Henry and 
 
 Catharine confirmed at Rome. 
 
 35. Sir T. More and Bishop Fisher 
 
 executed. 
 Visitation of the monasteries. 
 Order of Jesuits founded. 
 
 36. Queen Catharine dies. 
 Queen Anne Boleyn executed. 
 Henry marries Jane Seymour. 
 Articles published by the king. 
 Pilgrimage of grace. 
 
 37. The Institution published. 
 Edward born. 
 
 Jane dies. 
 3S. Lambert burnt. 
 
 Henry excommunicated. 
 
 39. New bishoprics erected by act 
 
 of parliament. 
 Act of the Six Articles passes. 
 Cardinal Beaton, archbishop of 
 
 St. Andrew's. 
 
 40. Henry marries Anne of Cleves. 
 Divorced. 
 
 Cromwell beheaded. 
 Barnes, &c., burnt. 
 Henry marries Cath. Howard. 
 
 41. Catharine Howard beheaded. 
 
 42. Birth of Mary, and death of 
 
 James V. of Scotland. 
 
 43. Erudition published. 
 
 Henry marries Catharine Parr. 
 War with France. 
 45. Colleges and chantries given to 
 the king. 
 The Council of Trent sits. 
 
m 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 1546. 
 1547. 
 
 Edward VI. 
 Jan. 29. 
 
 Julius III. 1550. 
 
 Mary, July 6. 
 
 Elizabeth, 
 Nov. 17. 
 
 Marcellus II. 
 Paul IV. 1555. 
 
 Pius V. 1566. 
 
 Cardinal Pole, 
 1556. 
 
 M. Parker, 1559 
 
 Remarkable Eveon. 
 
 1546. Peace with France. 
 
 Cardinal Beaton assassinated. 
 
 47. The earl of Surrey executed. 
 Homilies printed. 
 
 48. New communion. 
 Cranmer's Catechism. 
 The Interim published. 
 
 49. Joan Bocher burnt. 
 
 50. Foreign churches established 
 under A Lasco. 
 
 51. Commission for reforming the 
 
 ecclesiastical laws. 
 
 52. The Protector executed. 
 Treaty of Passau. 
 
 53. Catechism published; (Ponel's.) 
 The acts of Edward VI. re. 
 
 pealed. 
 
 54. Wyal executed. 
 Disputations at Oxford. 
 Marriage of the queen. 
 
 55. Feast of Reconciliation of the 
 
 nation. 
 Peace of Augsburg. 
 Latimer and Ridley burnL 
 
 56. Cranmer suffers at Oxford. 
 Bonner's Homilies published. 
 
 57. War with France. 
 
 58. Calais taken. 
 
 Mary queen of Scots married to 
 
 the dauphin. 
 Revision of the Liturgj'. 
 
 59. Disputation at Westminster. 
 
 60. Peace with France and Scot- 
 
 land. 
 
 Reformation established 
 Scotland. 
 
 61. St. Paul's, London, burnt. 
 
 62. Assistance sent to the French 
 
 Protestants. 
 
 63. End of the Council of Trent 
 Convocation, the Thirty-nine 
 
 Articles passed. 
 Plague in England. 
 
 64. Second Book of Homilies dis- 
 
 tributed. 
 Calvin dies. 
 
 65. Sampson deprived of the dean 
 
 ery of Christ Church. 
 
 66. Thirty-seven London ministers 
 
 suspended for the dresses 
 The church of Scotland vt 
 to the church of England in 
 favour of toleration. 
 
 67. Schism of the London divines, 
 Persecutions under the duke of 
 
 Alva in the Netherlands. 
 
 68. Mary queen of Scots enters 
 
 England. 
 
 69. The northern rebellion. 
 
 70. Regent Murray murdered. 
 Felton affixes the bull_ to the 
 
 door of the bishop of London 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 Remarkable Even 
 
 Gregory XIII. 
 1572. 
 
 Edm. Grindal, 
 1575. 
 
 John Whitgif 
 1583. 
 
 Sixtus V. 1585. 
 
 Urban Vn. 
 Gregory XIV. 
 
 1.590. 
 Innocent IX. 
 
 1591. 
 
 Clement VIII. 
 1592. 
 
 1571. The ecclesiastical commis- 
 sion very active. 
 72. Presbytery established at 
 Wandsworth. 
 Massacre of St. Bartholomew. 
 
 74. Prophesyings suppressed in the 
 diocese of Norwich. 
 
 75. Two Dutch anabaptists burnt. 
 
 76. Antwerp taken by the Spa- 
 niards. 
 
 Grindal writes to the queen. 
 
 77. Prophesyings put down. 
 Grindal sequestered. 
 Drake sets off from Plymouth. 
 Socinus, Faustus, publishes his 
 
 opinions in Poland about this 
 time. 
 
 79. Hamont burnt in Norwich for 
 impiety. 
 
 Rebellion in Ireland. 
 
 80. Campian and Persons come to 
 England. 
 
 Drake returns. 
 
 81. The parliament petitions the 
 queen for reformation in 
 church. 
 
 Declaration of the independence 
 of Holland. 
 
 82. Reformation in the calendar by 
 
 the pope. 
 Grindal restored. 
 . Chopping and Thacker exe^ 
 cuted. 
 
 . First English settlements in 
 North America. 
 The prince of Orange shot. 
 Association formed to preserve 
 the life of Elizabeth. 
 
 85. Elizabeth protectress of the Ne. 
 therlands. 
 
 86. Leicester commands in Holland. 
 Trial of Mary queen of Scots. 
 
 87. Mary queen of Scots executed, 
 
 88. Elizabeth excommunicated. 
 The Armada sails from the 
 
 Tagus. 
 F. Kei burnt for a heretic. 
 
 89. Marriage of James with Anne 
 
 of Denmark. 
 
 91. Trinity coll., Dublin, founded. 
 Cartwrighl before the ecclesi- 
 astical commission. 
 
 93. Barrow, &c., executed. 
 Plague in London. 
 
 94. Cardinal Allen dies in Rome. 
 
 95. Lambeth Articles. 
 98. Edict of Nantes. 
 
 Tyrone's rebellion. 
 
 3E 
 
326 
 
 CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 James I. 
 March 24. 
 
 Charles I. 
 March 27. 
 
 Leo XI. 1605. 
 Paul V. 1605. 
 
 Gregory XV. 
 1621. 
 
 Urban VIH. 
 1623 
 
 Richard Ban- 
 croft 1604. 
 
 George Abbot, 
 April 9, 1610. 
 
 William Laud, 
 1633. 
 
 Eemarkable Events. 
 
 1600. The pope grants a pardon to 
 the rebels in Ireland as in the 
 case of a crusade. 
 East India Company esta- 
 blished. 
 1. Essex executed. 
 
 Spaniards land in Ireland. 
 
 3. Submission of Tyrone. 
 Coronation of James and Anne. 
 
 4. Conference at Hampton Court 
 
 5. Convocation assemble. 
 Powder Plot. 
 
 6. Garnet executed. 
 
 Brief against the oath of alle- 
 giance. 
 
 7. Brief; confirmatory of the last. 
 9. College at Chelsea founded. 
 
 Arminius dies. 
 
 10. Moors expelled from Spain. 
 Henry IV. stabbed by Ra^ 
 
 vaillac. 
 
 11. Translation of the Bible pub- 
 
 lished. 
 
 Legate burnt in Smithfield, and 
 Wightman at Lichfield. 
 
 12. Charter House founded. 
 Prince Henry dies. 
 
 13. Wadham college founded. 
 Elizabeth married to the elector 
 
 palatine. 
 
 14. Logarithms invented. 
 
 18. Beginning of the thirty years 
 
 war. 
 
 King's declaration for liberty on 
 
 the Lord's day. 
 Synod of Dort begins. 
 
 19. Queen Anne dies. 
 Synod of Dort ends. 
 Discovery of the circulation of 
 
 the blood. 
 
 20. Battle of Prague. 
 
 22. Proclamation for releasing po' 
 
 pish recusants. 
 King's letter about preaching. 
 
 23. Charles and Bnckingham go to 
 
 Spain. 
 
 26. Letter to the clergy in favour of 
 
 loans. 
 
 27. Abbot suspended. 
 
 28. Petition of rights presented. 
 Murder of the duke of Bucking 
 
 29. Charles's instructions to the 
 
 bishiips. 
 
 30. Laud, chancellor of Oxford. 
 3.3. Charles crowned at Edinburgh 
 
 Book of Sports published. 
 
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 327 
 
 Innocent X. 
 1644. 
 
 Charles L 
 executed. 
 
 Cromwell, 
 Protector, 
 Dec. 16. 
 
 Richard 
 Cromwell, 
 
 Sept. 3. 
 Charles 11. 
 
 restored. 
 
 Alexander VII. 
 1655. 
 
 Will. Juxton, 
 1660. 
 
 Gilbert Sheldon, 
 1663. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1635. The Thirty-nine Articles re- 
 ceived by the church of Ire- 
 land. 
 
 Juxton, lord-treasurer. 
 
 36. Writs for ship-money issued. 
 
 37. Tumult in Edinburgh about the 
 
 Liturgy. 
 I. General assembly at Glasgow. 
 Peace with Scotland. 
 
 40. The parliament meet April 3, 
 
 dissolved May 5. 
 The Long Parliament meet 
 Nov. 3. 
 
 41. Lord Strafford executed. 
 Protestation of the bishops. 
 
 42. Bishops deprived of their votes. 
 Aug. 25. The king's standard 
 
 raised. 
 
 43. Assembly of divines meet. 
 The covenant taken by the 
 
 Houses. 
 
 44. Surrender of York. 
 
 46. Laud beheaded. 
 
 Directory introduced 
 
 46. The king surrenders. 
 
 47. The king seized by Joyce. 
 
 48. Cromwell defeats the Scotch at 
 
 Preston. 
 Conference in the Isle of 
 Wight. 
 
 49. Cromwell goes to Ireland. 
 
 50. Charles II. lands in Scotland. 
 
 51. Charles II. crowned at Scone. 
 Battle of Worcester, Septem- 
 ber 3. 
 
 53. Cromwell dissolves the parlia- 
 
 ment. 
 
 54. Triers appointed. 
 
 55. Archbishop Usher dies. 
 
 57. Inauguration of Cromwell. 
 
 60. Trial and execution of the re- 
 
 gicides. 
 
 61. Savoy conference. 
 
 62. Episcopacy restored in Scot- 
 
 land. 
 
 Nonconformist ministers eject- 
 ed. 
 
 63. Lord Bristol exhibits articles 
 
 against Lord Clarendon. 
 
 64. The duke of York takes a fleet 
 
 of Dutch merchantmen. 
 
 65. Plague in London. 
 Parliament meets at Oxford. 
 
 66. The fire of London. 
 
 The covenanters beaten by 
 Dalziel. 
 
3S8 
 
 CHRONO 
 
 LOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 V 
 
 James n. 
 Feb. 6. 
 
 William and 
 Mary. 
 
 Clement EX. 
 1667. 
 
 Clement X. 
 1670. 
 
 Innocent XI. 
 1676. 
 
 Alexander Vm. 
 
 Innocent XII. 
 1691. 
 
 Will. Sancroft, 
 1677. 
 
 John Tillotson, 
 1691. 
 
 Remarkable Events. 
 
 1667. The Dutch enter the Med- 
 
 Bridgman's attempt at a com- 
 prehension. 
 
 70. The duchess of Porumouth 
 came over with the dochess 
 of Orleans., 
 
 71. Duchess of York dies. 
 
 72. The exchequer shut. 
 
 The De Witts put to death in 
 Holland. 
 
 73. Test act passes. 
 James marries the princess of 
 
 Modena. 
 
 78. Oates's plot. 
 
 79. Archbishop Sharp murdered. 
 Dangerfield's plot. 
 Habeas Corpus passed. 
 
 80. Lord Stafford executed. 
 
 83. Rye-house plot. 
 
 Lord Russell beheaded. 
 The charter of the city of Lon 
 don made void. 
 
 85. Revocation of ihe edict of 
 Nantes. 
 
 89. Episcopacy abolished in Scot- 
 
330 
 
 GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
GENEALOGICAL TABLES. 
 
 331 
 
INDEX. 
 
 The large figures refer to the Sections ; 
 
 Abbot, G., writes to James against tolerating 
 Roman Catholics, 521; suspended, why, 555. 
 
 Abbots, six hanged, 210 ; many surrender their 
 monasteries, 212. 
 
 Absolution, Wiclif's opinion of, 1 18 ; doctrines 
 of the church of England and Rome on this 
 point; danger thereof ; Erudition nearest to 
 Rome, 279 ; of the sick, 407, ^ ; question of, 
 at Hampton Court, 504. 
 
 Abuses galling, before men wish to reform 
 them, 101 ; political, in the church of Rome, 
 102; moral, ditto, 105; in the church, com- 
 plained of, 465. 
 
 Acts of parliament. Mortmain, provisors, 
 praemunire, 104; statute against heretics, 
 113, ''; statute de lueretico comburendo, 121 ; 
 statute subjecting all robbers to the civil 
 power, inveighed against by a preacher, 
 151 ; against the pope ; of succession, 166 ; 
 of succession, Henry Vllf. against the 
 pope's authority, 204 ; of the six articles, 217; 
 repealed, 307; suppression of monasteries 
 and the erection of new bishoprics, 218 ; to 
 sanction the king's proclamations for and 
 against the reformers, gave great power to 
 Henry VIII., 223; dissolution of monaste- 
 ries, several, 241 ; marriage of the clergy, 
 312, 329 ; many severe laws repealed, 307; 
 second of uniformity; about holydays and 
 fasting, 329; for dividing the see of Dur- 
 ham, 331 ; marriage of Henry and Catha- 
 rine confirmed ; the acts relating to religion 
 of Edward VI. repealed ; act of attainder 
 against Lady J. Grey, 355 ; acts against the 
 prelacy repealed; against heresy renewed, 
 364; supremacy gives authority for the 
 High Commission Court, (see Supremacy,) 
 403 ; tenths and first-fruits restored to the 
 crown; the power of exchanging property 
 between the crown and vacant bishoprics, 
 404; act of uniformity, 405, 416; passed, 
 702; severe act about refusing the oath of 
 supremacv, 412 : requiring subscription to 
 the XXXIX Articles ; age of priests and 
 deacons for ordination; church leases; let- 
 ting tithes, 435; incorporating the universi- 
 ties; enacting the poor laws, 436 ; against 
 Roman Catholics ; about bulls and fugitives 
 beyond sea, 437 ; for the security of the 
 queen's person, directed against Mary queen 
 of Scots; against seminarists and Jesuits, 
 453 ; penalty for not frequenting the parish 
 church; popish recusants confined to their 
 own place of abode, 462; transfers of church 
 property to the crown made illegal ; severi- 
 ties against Romaa Catholics renewed, 513 ; 
 
 ,• the small figures, ', ^c. to Notes. 
 
 against Roman Catholics required to attend 
 the sacrament, and take the oath of alle- 
 giance ; disabilities, 515 ; suffragan bishops, 
 662, ^ ; leases of colleges and hospitals dur- 
 ing the usurpation, confirmed, 703 ; corpo- 
 ration, 712 ; test act, 720 ; select vestry act, 
 712 ; first conventicle act, 713 ; second, ib. ; 
 five-mile act, 714; exclusion of Roman 
 Catholics from both Houses, 720 ; exclusion 
 of Roman Catholics carried by Lord Shafts- 
 bury, 721; habeas corpus, 721; toleration 
 act, 806. 
 
 Adda, F. d', the pope's nuncio, consecrated in 
 
 St. James's, 764. 
 Addresses made to James delude him, 753. 
 Admonition to parliament, 433, ', 446. 
 Adrian comes to England; famous for his 
 
 learning, 8. 
 Advertisements set forth, 432. 
 Adultery made capital, 620. 
 Age of priests and deacons, 435. 
 Alban, St., death of, 3. 
 Albes, 743, 9. 
 Alcuin's idea of purgatory, 15. 
 Aklrich withdraws from the commission, 
 1689, 806. 
 
 Alesse argues against the five sacraments, 20S. 
 Alexander, Peter, in England, 314. 
 Alfred educates England ; he translates many 
 books into Saxon; his general learning; es- 
 tablishes a school for his son ; sends an 
 embassy to the Syrian churches, 11; pub- 
 lishes the ten commandments, 18,8; went 
 to Rome with his father, 20 ; translated the 
 psalms, 533. 
 Alien priories dissolved, 1414, 248, ^. 
 Alienation of church property by exchanges 
 
 during a vacancy of the bishopric, 404. 
 Allegiance, oath of, Roman Catholics forbid- 
 den to take it ; many took it at first ; Black- 
 well took it, and was punished for so doing, 
 516. 
 
 Allen, Cardinal, provides for the succession 
 of priests, 438 ; much to blame about the 
 Armada, 457. 
 Allestree, picture of, 616 ; employed about the 
 
 continuation of episcopacy, 623, 
 Alphonsus preaches against persecution, 366. 
 Altars changed into communion tables, 323. 
 Alvie, master of the Temple, dies, 454. 
 American Prayer Book, 808, 
 Anabaptists burnt, 316, 619 ; demand tolera- 
 tion, 664. 
 
 Andrews, Bishop, composes the service for 
 
 the consecration of churches, 569, 750. 
 St. Andrew's, castle of, taken, 494. 
 
 333 
 
334 INI 
 
 Anglo-Saxon church, the, not Protestant, 9 ; 
 progress of error in, 26 ; inadequate views 
 of the atonement, and prepared for errors, 
 24. 
 
 Annates, 103. See First-fruits. 
 
 Anselm, .53 ; appeals to Rome illegally, and 
 
 confirmed by the legate, 54; recalled by 
 
 Henr>- I., 55. 
 Anlinomians, 619. 
 
 Apocrypha, lessons from the, objected to, 507, 
 671, 672, 807. 
 
 Apostates, a form of prayer for reconciling 
 them, 808. 
 
 Appeal to the pope by Wilfrid, 8. 
 
 JppMo ad Casarem, by Montague, 553, 
 
 Appointments, ecclesiastical, importance of, 
 132 ; disputed between the crown, the pope, 
 and the lower clergy, 133; origin of this 
 dispute; nature of it, 1.33—135. 
 
 Architecture, promoted by monasteries, 345. 
 
 Argyle, victory over, 754; offended at the ad- 
 vancement of the archbishop of St. An- 
 drew's, 566. 
 
 Arians, 4, 8. 
 
 Ariminum, council of, 4. 
 
 Aries, council of, ibid. 
 
 Armachanus, or Fitzralph, 108, 2. 
 
 Armada, 457. 
 
 Armies, the royalist and republican, 579 ; per- 
 sons who composed them, 580. 
 
 Arniinianism prevails among the higher cler- 
 gy, 557. 
 
 Army, payment of officers in the, 430, "; 
 friendly to independency, 593 ; danger from, 
 at the I?estoration ; their fine condition, 654. 
 James II. relies on the, 766. 
 
 Arthington, prophet of judgment, 461. 
 
 Articles, Thirty-nine, 481, &c. See the Table 
 of Contents. Forty-two prepared; not a 
 compromise of opinions, 325; published 
 1553; history of their composition, uncer- 
 tain, 481; not sanctioned by convocation, 
 and subscribed by few of the clergv, 484 ; 
 Thirty-eight, published 1663, 412 ; prepared 
 by Parker; altered, printed, a bill concern- 
 ing subscribing them stopped in the lords 
 by Elizabeth, 1566, but allowed to pass in 
 1571, 485. Thirty-nine reviewed in 1571, 
 485 ; published by Jewel, 487 ; controverted 
 clause in the twentieth article ; testimonies 
 concerning it, 486 ; theory of the author, 
 487; Parker did not mean to authorize it; 
 Laud not to blame concerning it, 488; ob- 
 jections raised to the reading it, 663; sources 
 ,from whence they are taken, 483 ; subscrip- 
 'tion to, required by law, 435; to such as 
 pertain to faith, 4.54 ; at present, dates from 
 the canons of 1604, 488; objected to at 
 Hampton Court, 505, 506 ; declaration pre- 
 fixed to, 557 ; altered by the assembly of 
 divines, 589. 
 
 Articles of 1.536; abstract of, 205, 206,271; 
 act of the six, 217; repealed, 307; three, 
 in the thirty-sixth canon ; imposed by Whit- 
 gift, 450; ex officio mcro, 451 ; the five, of 
 the synod of Dort, 520. See Perth, 565, K 
 
 Articuli pro clero, in synodo Low). 1584, 451. 
 
 Ascham, his life saved by Gardiner, 368. 
 
 .Ashley rejects the authority of the ministers 
 at Frankfort, 367, 
 
 Aske, a leader of the northern rebellion, 210. 
 
 Askew, A., burnt ; her supposed connection 
 with the court ; Wriothesly tortures her him- 
 self, 225. 
 
 Assembly of divines at Westminster, 585: 
 members who composed it, 586 ; power of 
 ordaining vested in them, 589; works of, 
 590 ; incur a praemunire, 592 ; they formed 
 a sort of church government, 609. 
 
 Association formed to revenge the death of 
 Elizabeth, 439; formed among the clergy, 
 612. 
 
 Asylum, use of, 243. 
 
 Athanasian creed, 807, '. 
 
 Athens not reformed by the plague, 727. 
 
 Atonement, inadequate views of, in the Anglo- 
 Saxon church, 26; held by Wiclif, 119. 
 
 Attainder, acts of, 219. Cromwell, 227. 
 
 Augmentations, court of, 202, ^ 
 
 Augmentation of livings, 703, -. 
 
 Augsburg Confession, 232 ; some of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles taken from, 483, and 
 
 Auguslin, St., comes to England, 6 ; archbi- 
 shop of England ; his proceedings, 7. 
 
 Auricular confession among the Saxons, 21. 
 
 Babington's conspiracy, 455. 
 
 Bacon's plan for a seminary for diplomacy, 
 249; intolerant, 445. 
 
 Bainham burnt, 170; his conference with 
 Latimer, Appendix F. 
 
 Bale, J., trial of Lord Cobham, 124. 
 
 Balmiranoch, Lord, condemned to death, 566. 
 
 Banchor, monastery of, 5. 
 
 Bancroft at the Hampton Court conference, 
 504; ill conduct of, 50.5, .507, 511 ; his ac- 
 count of the conference at Hampton Court, 
 511, K 
 
 Baptism by laymen discussed, 424, ' ; 504. 
 (See Infant.) Cross in, questions, 508. See 
 
 Cross. 
 
 Baptismal service objected to, 424, 671, 672. 
 
 Barebone parliament, 603, '. 
 
 Barlow, bishop of Chichester, consecrates 
 
 Parker, 409. 
 Barlow, dean of Chester, his account of the 
 
 conference at Hampton Court, 510. 
 Barnes, martyrdom of, 221. 
 Baro preaches against the Lambeth Articles, 
 
 464. 
 
 Barret denies absolute predestination, 463. 
 Barrow executed, 461. 
 
 Bartholomew, St., hospital of, founded, 332; 
 
 massacre of, 437 ; day of, hardships of 
 
 choosing that day, 1662, 707. 
 Barton, Elizabeth, the maid of Kent, 167. 
 Barwick, prolocutor, prepares a grammar, 
 
 701. 
 
 Bastwick punished, 562. 
 
 Bates, one of the disputants, 1661, 673. 
 
 Baxter, in favour of toleration, 610; his mi- 
 nistry at Kidderminster, 611 ; his discipline 
 associations, 612 ; author's opinion con- 
 cerning it, 613; he draws up an answer to 
 the bishops, 662; urges his friends to go on, 
 663 ; draws up a violent paper to the king, 
 ib.; objects to toleration to others, 664; de- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 335 
 
 termines to support the church, but refuses 
 a bishopric, 666; draws up a new form of 
 prayer, 668 ; petition for peace, violence of, 
 
 " 670; answer to the reply of the bishops, 
 violence of, 673; disputation, his obstinacy 
 in the, 674 ; Lord Clarendon offended with 
 him, and with reason ; his good qualities 
 and faults, 675; the cause of the failure of 
 the Savoy conference, 676; his idea of a 
 parish, 677; sent to jail, 711, 731; con- 
 sulted about a comprehension, 715; sends 
 some lerms for reconciling nonconformists 
 to Lord Orrery; partially fond of the church; 
 gives up a chapel, 717. 
 
 Beal unfriendly to the bishops, 451. 
 
 Beaton, Cardinal, his want of prudence, 493 ; 
 and death, 494. 
 
 Becket, Thomas, is persecuted, and flies, 57 ; 
 received by the courts of France and Rome ; 
 very violent; reconciled, 58; murdered; 
 miracles at his tomb; character, 59. 
 
 Bede, not a believer in transubstantiation, 16; 
 his division of the Commandments, 18,8; 
 his translation of the Bible, 533. 
 
 Berkeley, Colonel, instructed with the care of 
 James II., 776. 
 
 Bertram, 16, <" ; 313, K 
 
 Bible translated by Wiclif, 112; proclamation 
 for printing the, 218; another in favour of 
 the, and an attempt to suppress it; the ex- 
 amination of the, referred to the universi- 
 ties, 222; in the hands of the people, 229; 
 necessary to he repressed in order that the 
 clergy might refute heretics, 317 ; presented 
 to Elizabeth in a pageant, 402; translations 
 of, 531; see Table; dates of orders about 
 setting it up in churches, Table, before, 
 531 ; there has been hut one translation 
 corrected, 532; Anglo-Saxon, several trans- 
 lations; English, Rolle's or Hampole's; 
 WicUf's; no previous one, 533, ', p. Id?'-. 
 Tyndale's translation of the New Tesia 
 ment, 534 ; price of a Bible, 534, ' ; Cover- 
 dale's, Matthew's 535; Cranmer's, or the 
 Great Bible ; Taverner's, 536 ; Geneva 
 translation, divided into verses, 537; Par- 
 ker's, or the Bishops', 538; Rhemes and 
 Douay, 539; authorized version, 540. 
 
 Bid ales, 558. 
 
 Bidding prayer, 305, 
 
 Biddle tried for being a Socinian, 621. 
 
 Bilney burnt, 170. 
 
 Bilson, Bishop of Winchester, at the confer- 
 ence at Hampton Cottrt, 504. 
 
 Birchet murders Hawkins, 446. 
 
 Bishoprics divided, 8; first elective; their 
 wealth m.ade them fall into other hands, 
 133; appointed by the crown, 135; new, 
 erected, 218; void in 15.54,360; power of 
 exchanging property with the crown during 
 a vacancy, 404 ; used, 427 ; filled up, 1.559, 
 409 ; offered the nonconformist divines, 66G. j 
 
 Bishops, British, 3 ; at the early councils, 4; 
 power of their courts curtailed, 166; inhi- 
 bited from visiting; their authority restored 
 by a commission from the king, 201 ; source 
 of their authority, 201,2; king's letter to, I 
 209 ; Book, 213 ; remain at their posts, and i 
 
 prepare for persecution, 354 ; offer a sum 
 of money to Elizabeth in exchange for the 
 power of the crown to transfer their pro- 
 perty during vacancies, 404, ■"; ejected by 
 the oath of supremacy; treated kindly, 407; 
 consecrated; difficulty about it, 1559, 409; 
 determined not to leave the church on ac- 
 count of the dresses, 418 ; their wealth and 
 power disliked, 425 ; disliked by some of the 
 court, 451 ; plan for curtailing their pomp, 
 452 ; hated by the people, 459 ; distinctive 
 offices of, 460, ; difficulties against which 
 they had to strive ; many of them unfit men, 
 471 ; the Bible so called, 538; attacks on 
 their votes in the lords; protestation; sent 
 to the Tower; deprived of their vott^s, 573; 
 their succession endangered during the 
 usurpation, 623 ; nine remaining at the 
 Restoration, 656 ; answer to the noncon- 
 formists, 662 ; their lands restored at the 
 Restoration, 703; ia purtibua, im, ^ ; the 
 seven come forward nobly, 768; sent to the 
 Tower, 769; tried, 770; James asks their 
 advice; they give it, 773, ' ; they refuse to 
 sign any expression of dislike to the prince 
 of Orange, 774. 
 
 Blackwell took the oath of allegiance, 516. 
 
 Blasphemy, laws against, 620, 621. 
 
 Bocher, Joan, burnt, 1549. 315. 
 
 Boethius translated by .Mfred, 11. 
 
 Boleyn, Anne, executed; divorced, 203. 
 
 Bonner, bishop, injunctions of, 223 ; sent to 
 prison, 306; deprived, 31S; takes posses- 
 sion of , his see, 353; Homilies; and Profit- 
 able and Necessary Doctrine, 369, '; de- 
 grades Cranmer, 370 ; commission granted 
 to him for discovering heretics, 373 ; glutted 
 with murder, 374; dies in prison, 407. 
 
 Book-s, sent to Augustin, 7, '; which promoted 
 the Reformation, 171; Bishops' and King's, 
 213 ; to be kept by the bishops, of the names 
 of those who had been reconciled to Rome, 
 365 ; of Sports, disliked by the clergy, 519 ; 
 second, 559. 
 
 Booth, Sir George, his rising had brought 
 forward a new set of royalists, 665. 
 
 Bourn, chaplain to Bonner, preaches at Paul's 
 Cross, and is nearly killed, 353. 
 
 Bowing "at" the name of Jesus, 661, 748, 
 
 Bradford, tract on predestination, 267, ^ 
 
 Bramhall, his plan for re-ordaining, 710. 
 
 Breeches Bible, 537, 
 
 Bribes paid to Rome for aiding suitors; 
 annates deemed so, 103; given to the eccle- 
 siastical commissioners, and to Cromwell, 
 211, ■-; given by Philip to secure his mar- 
 riage with Mary, 356. 
 
 Bridewell established, 1553, 332. 
 
 Bridgman, Lord Keeper, attempts to frame a 
 bill for the relief of^ the nonconformists, 715. 
 
 Britha assists the ititroduction of Christianity 
 into England, 6. 
 
 Browne returns to the church, 466. 
 
 Brownrigge, bishop of Exeter, made chanter, 
 
 Brunswick, Henry VIH. sends ambassadors 
 there, 233. 
 
 Bucer, professor at Cambridge, 314; advises 
 
336 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Hooper to comply, 321; consulted on the 
 Common Prayer, &c., 328, 745 ; his bones 
 burnt at Cambridge, 373. 
 Bull of Pius v., 437. 
 
 Boll, George, enters in orders, and performs 
 his ministry during the usurpation, 615. 
 
 Bullinger's Decads quoted, 430. 
 
 Burgrat, agent from the Protestants to Henry 
 VIII., 232. 
 
 Burleigh, Lord, his account of the state of the 
 church, 1563, 431 ; dislikes articles ex offino 
 mero, 451 ; his testimony in favour of the 
 Roman Catholics, 457; blames churchmen; 
 his opinion of cathedrals, 471. 
 
 Burnet reviewed the Collects, 807, 3, p. 304. 
 
 Burning of heretics ; the gentry thanked for 
 attending; the people adverse to, 367. 
 
 Burnt, the number of those who were, 374. 
 
 Burton punished, 562. 
 
 Byfield burnt, 170. 
 
 Calais lost, 374. 
 
 Calamy refuses a bishopric, 666 ; sent to jail, 
 711." 
 
 Calderwood's account of the conference at 
 Hampton Court, 511. 
 
 Calvin consulted on a plan of Protestant union, 
 by Cranmer,324; the doctrines of the church 
 of England not derived from him, 340. 
 
 Cambridge, disputations on transubstantiation, 
 315 ; Bucer's and Fagius' bones burnt there, 
 373; disputes about conformity, 433; dis- 
 pute there on predestination, 463 ; suffer- 
 ings of, 599 ; the vice-chancellor ejected by 
 James II., 762. 
 
 Campbell betrays Hamilton, and dies, 493. 
 
 Campegio sent to England; burns the bull, 
 and postpones the decision, 159. 
 
 Campian comes to England and is executed, 
 438. 
 
 Canon and civil law, 166, ■'. 
 
 Canons of the church of Rome useless for re- 
 forming it; dispensed with, 107; of 1571 
 never passed legally, 434; of 1604, 512, 
 sent down to Scotland, 567; of 1640, 570; 
 character of, 571, 815; abrogated, 756 ; re- 
 viewed, 1661, 701. 
 
 Canons, or Canonici, origin of, 23. 
 
 Canterbury Hall, Wiclif expelled from, 109. 
 
 Canterbury, service performed there before 
 Charles II., 652. 
 
 Cardinal's college, plan of, 157, -, p. 44 ; many 
 sent there became reformers, 157, ', p. 45. 
 
 Carew, Sir Peter, engaged in Wyat's plot, 
 359. 
 
 Carryl, James, agent at Rome, 764. 
 
 Cartwright's dispute with Whitgift; expelled 
 from his readership and fellowship ; his 
 ideas about ordination, 433 ; confined for 
 refusing the oath p.r nffirio mero, 458 ; be- 
 comes more moderate ; his character, 466. 
 
 Cartwright, bishop of Chester, gets up an ad- 
 dress in favour of the declaration, 768. 
 
 Castlemain, Lord, sent to Rome, 763, 764. 
 
 Catechising, the presbyterians publish direc- 
 tions about, 614. 
 
 Catechism, Cranmer's, 310; Ponet's author- 
 ized, 331 ; stigmatized by convocation, 357 ; 
 Noel's, 412; church, probable history of, 
 
 331, 6; objected to, 507; part on the sacra- 
 ments added, 747, '. 
 
 Catesby and Percy powder-plot, 514. 
 
 Cathedral churches, Burleigh's opinion oC 471. 
 
 Cavelarius teaches Hebrew at Cambridge, 314. 
 
 Cecil, Sir William, the Thirty-nine Articles 
 submitted to him, 482. 
 
 Celibacy of the clergy ; the Council of Nice 
 endeavours to impose it ; custom of the 
 Greek church ; early established in Eng- 
 land ; generally evaded, 22 ; evils arising 
 from it; arising from dependence on Rome, 
 23; insisted on in vain, 55; Wiclif 's opi- 
 nions of, 116; evils of, 105,312; proclama- 
 tion about the, 216; effects of; Lawney's 
 answer to the duke of Norfolk, 230, ' ; it 
 directed the exertions of churchmen to their 
 own society, 247; in the Erudition, 280. 
 See Marriage. 
 
 Ceremonies and traditions, 281; pressed by 
 Laud, 569; objected to, 661, 662, 671, 672. 
 
 Censures, ecclesiastical, attended with tempo- 
 ral penalties, 426, and 
 
 Chaderlon, at Hampton Court, 504, 509. 
 
 Chanting proposed to be left off, 1689, 807. 
 
 Chantries and chapels granted to Henry VIII., 
 225; to Edward VI., 1547, 307. 
 
 Chapels and chantries granted to the king, 
 225. 
 
 Chapters founded by Heavy, 248, '; lands of, 
 restored in 1660, 703. 
 
 Charles I., 551 ; imprudence about the Scotch 
 Liturgy, &c., 566; want of energy to com- 
 mand, 581 ; fault in betraying Lord Straf- 
 ford, 582; causes of his death ; escape from 
 the army, 594; his firmness about episco- 
 pacy, he understood the argument well ; 
 disputes with Henderson and at Newport ; 
 his quer)', which was never answered, 595; 
 his character, 596 ; summary of his reign, 
 815. 
 
 Charles 11., 602; goes to Scotland, and takes 
 the covenant ; his invasion of England, 607; 
 restoration of, 650; civil to the presbyteri- 
 ans ; will not allow the ceremonies to be 
 dispensed with, 652; difficulties attending 
 the Restoration, 654; declaration at Breda, 
 660 ; promises to moderate between the 
 parties, 663; and to publish a declaration; 
 abstract of, 665 ; observations on, 666 ; let- 
 ter for augmenting small livings, 703, 2; 
 disposed to favour the nonconformists, but 
 not bound to more than he did ; his decla- 
 rations, 709; declaration for toleration, 715; 
 liberty of conscience, 724; cared nothing 
 about religion, 725 ; policy of his reign, 726; 
 always sought ease ; fond of money; cha- 
 racter ; the pensioner of France, 732 ; im- 
 morality of the reign, 733. 
 
 Charta, Magna, the pope adverse to it, 63. 
 
 Charter-house, dispute about, James 11., 762. 
 
 Cheke, his comfort in Edward, 334; the 
 XXXIX Articles submitted to him, 482. 
 
 Chelsea college at, 517. 
 
 Cheyney comes forward alone to dispute in 
 
 convocation, 357. 
 Children dying before the commission of sin, 
 
 671, K 
 
INDEX. 
 
 337 
 
 Choirs in danger of being destroyed to pay 
 the clergy, 452. 
 
 Chorepiscopi, or bishops rural, 585. 
 
 Christianity, how far destroyed by errors in 
 the church, 25. 
 
 Christ Church, Wolsey's plan of, 157, the 
 treatment of the parliamentary commission- 
 ers, 600. 
 
 Christ's Hospital founded by Edward VI., 332. 
 
 Church, British, 1 ; union with the, attempted 
 by Augustin, 7; wealth of, in the Saxon 
 times, 12; of England dates from the di- 
 vorce, 201 ; establishment, value of, 259; 
 poverty of, 330 ; the causes, 430 ; Erastian- 
 ism of, 33G ; origin of her documents, 342 ; 
 allerations in, made by churchmen, 338; 
 property, principles of, 4'30, - ; state of, 1603, 
 471 ; ales, 558 ; was not the point attacked 
 by the houses, 571 ; the attacks on, aimed 
 at destroying its civil power, 573, 576; 
 government, how carried on during the 
 usurpation, G09; government, a mixture of 
 discipline and government, 677; blamed 
 for its conduct about James, 781; esta- 
 blished at the Revolution, summary of its 
 history, Sll. 
 
 Churching, ilie, of women objected to, 424. 
 
 Churchmen, their high stations in the state in- 
 fluenced the church, 551, 566 ; in the privy- 
 council, 554. 
 
 Civil and canon law, 166, 
 
 Clarendon, (Constitutions of, 57, '. 
 
 Clarendon, Lord, account of the morals in 
 England, 615, '; meeting at his house on 
 the king's declaration, 604 ; otTended with 
 Baxter. 675; his arrangement about taxing 
 the clergy, 701 ; his conduct about the pres- 
 bvlerians and revolutionists, 730 ; his fate, 
 731. 
 
 Classes at Warwick and Northampton, 456. 
 
 Clemens Romanus, quotation from, 2, p. 1. 
 
 Clement VII., his conduct about the divorce 
 of Henry and Catharine, 1.59, 163. 
 
 Clergy, most of them married in the time of 
 the Danes, 23; how to be fairly regarded in 
 the early history, 51; English, ejected by 
 William I., 52; a balance between the 
 crown and aristocracy, and beneficial to 
 the lower orders, 53 ; claim exemption iVoni 
 civil jurisdiction, 57; theclaim unjust, 102; 
 taxed by the pope, 103, 61; further papal 
 exactions from them refused, 64 ; increased 
 power of, to be tried by a jury; taxes im- 
 posed on ; bull to prevent this ineffectual, 
 66; tax themselves; the oppression of the 
 crown induces them to fly to Rome and to 
 defend themselves, 69; degraded state of, 
 pride and ignorance of, 105; why power is 
 to be given them, 131 ; wealth of, inveighed 
 against by the reformers, 134; hold offices 
 of state, 136; imprudence of, 153; vices of, 
 154; ignorance of, 157; comply with the 
 wishes of Henry VIH.; wh)', 163; the par- 
 liament object to the power of, 164; hated, 
 causes, 170; irritate Henry, 201 ; revenues 
 of, lessened at the Reformation by the loss 
 of fees and personal tithes, 250 ; marriage 
 of, 318 ; secular, bound by no oath about 
 43 
 
 celibacy, 329; degrading employments of, 
 330; m.any fly beyond Sea, 354; married, 
 ejected fr<nn benefices very unjustly, 360 ; 
 ready to take advantage of the changes, to 
 avoid their oaths, 361 ; Roman Catholics 
 ejected, 1559 ; they generally comply, 407; 
 defective state of, 1569,410; profits of, in 
 towns, 430; state of, in Elizabeth's reign, 
 431 ; injured by promoting forced loans, 
 553 ; enjoined to read the Book of Sports, 
 559; crimes usually objected to them, 572; 
 left out of the commission <if the peace, 
 573; faithful to the crown, 574 ; sufl^erings 
 of; charges brought against them ; ejected 
 for not taking the covenant; provisiott 
 made for them of a fifth of their preferment, 
 598; Cromwell's severity towards, 609; 
 how they lived during the usurpation ; in- 
 strumental in the Restoration, 016; when 
 first taxed with the laity, 701 ; difficulty of 
 their situation in 1688, 763; men of con- 
 tracted notions, 730, see Dissenters: blamed 
 for flattering .lames about passive obedi- 
 ence, 781 ; blamed for taking the oath un- 
 der Will, and Mary, 801 ; spiritual authority 
 of the, 804; their institution divine, modi- 
 fied by law, 817. See London. Clergy, Celi- 
 hnrtj, Marriiist- 
 Clerk ales, 558. 
 
 Clerk, the, of the crown, withdraws a bill, 715. 
 
 Cleves, Anne of, married to Henry, 219; di- 
 vorced from him, and resides in England, 
 221. 
 
 Cloveshoo, council of, 9. 
 
 Cdhham, Lord, had joined Henry IV. ; in the 
 reign of H>'ury V.; he diff'uses Wiclif's 
 doctrines; llriir\- \'. tries to convince him 
 of his error, l"-;3; l)i(.MiL;ht to trial; his ex- 
 amination resembles that of Thorpe; his 
 answers agree with those of Wiclif ; sent to 
 the Tower; escapes ; denies a false recan- 
 tation; hung in St. Giles' fields, 124; sup- 
 posed connection with a disturbance there, 
 125. 
 
 Coin debased by Henry VIII., 249, ^. 
 
 Culet, reads lectures in St. Paul's; accused 
 
 of heresy, 157. 
 Collects, intended to be changed, 807, K 
 College at Chelsea, 517. 
 
 Colleges, alarm about, in consequence of the 
 chantries being given to the king, 307; 
 headships of, appointed by the crown, 762, 
 
 Commanilmeni, fourth; observation in the 
 Erudition, 27J. 
 
 Commandments, ten, Saxon, 18; division of, 
 18, f ; 331, ' ; by Bonner, 369, 
 
 Commission granted to the bishops, 1535, 201 ; 
 granted to Bimner, 373; High Court of, 
 origin of, 403; established, 406 ; ejects the 
 Roman Catholic clergv, 407; described, 
 428; 111 the time of Charles I., 55.5, 573, 
 575; established in Scotland, IGIO, 565; ad 
 melius inijuirenrltim to ascertain the value of 
 church property stopped by the church 
 parly, 451 ; for a reformation in the church, 
 1689, legality of it questioned, 806. 
 
 Commissioners appointed to frame ecclesias- 
 tical laws, 482. 
 
 2F 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Commissions granted to bishops contrary to ] 
 all sound opinions ot church authority, 339 ; 
 of concealment, 438. 
 
 Committee of religion, 572. 
 
 Common Prayer examined, 1550, 322 ; altered, 
 1551,326; disputes about at Frankfort, 367 ; 
 the services examined, 1558, 402; objected 
 to by the puritans, 423; reviewed, 1661, 
 701; history of, (see the (Contents of the 
 following chapter,) 741 ; Scotch, 748, \ 
 
 Commons, House of, restrained by Elizabeth. 
 435; interfere about the XXXIX Articles 
 being subscribed, 485; unconstitutional 
 vote of, against the prosecution of noncon- 
 formists, 715; see Parliament. 
 
 Communion in both kinds, 307. 
 
 Communion service, 1 548, 308, 309 ; examined, 
 742 ; at funerals, 407, ^ ; table railed in, 
 569, 571. 
 
 Comprehension, attempts at, 715; attempted 
 
 by Bancroft, 771. 
 Compton, Bishop of London, called before the 
 
 ecclesiastical commission, 757; adverse to 
 
 Tillotson, 809. 
 Concealment, (see Commissimn of,) 428. 
 Concessions promised by the bishops, but 
 
 never made, 672; which might safely have 
 
 been made, 676, 
 Conciliation of the church of England towards 
 
 Roman Catholics, 407, 
 Conference, see Hampton Court, Savoy. 
 Confession ; difference between the church of 
 
 Rome and England with regard to it, 21 ; 
 
 Wiclif's opinion of, 118; auricular, evils 
 
 of, 230 ; auricular, evils of, among Roman 
 
 Catholics; neglected by Protestants, 309, 
 
 414; and absolution of the sick, 407, ; to 
 
 a priest, duty of, discussed, 514 ; direction 
 
 about, 1548, 742, 743, ; of faith of the 
 
 church of Scotland, 495. 
 Confirmation not confined to bishops, 118; 
 
 Erudition, 280 ; discussed, 504, 506 ; Savoy 
 
 conference, 671, 672. 
 Conformity, duty of, 321. 
 Conge d eliie, w-hat, 307, 
 Congregation, the, formed, 494. 
 Congregational churches; independents, 614. 
 Connection of church and state, evils of, 818; 
 
 advantages of, 819. 
 Consecration of churches, 569, 701, 750 ; form 
 
 of, 808. 
 
 Consecration of bishops, legality of, question- 
 ed, 409, '; difficulty about, 623. 
 
 Constantine, 3, 4, 
 
 Constantius Chlorus, 3. 
 
 Constitution of the church of England, 817. 
 
 Consubstantiation, stated, 314 ; article on, 341 ; 
 an article against, left out of the Thirty- 
 nine, 1562, 485, \ 
 
 Conventicle acts, 713. 
 
 Convention parliament which recalled Charles, 
 prudence of their measures, 653. 
 
 Conversion of Sussex and the Heptarchy, 8. 
 
 Convocation, 205 ; reject the summons of 
 Henry VIII. to Mantua, 208 ; denominates 
 the Common Prayer an abominable book ; 
 disputes there, 357; petition that church 
 property may not be restored, 364; 1559, 
 
 anti-reformers, 406 ; 1571,434; petition in 
 favour of'Grindal, 447; 1584, 451 ; regula- 
 tion about ministers, 456; records of, burnt 
 in St. Paul's, 1666, 486 ; 1661, acts of; con- 
 stitution of, how extinguished, 701 ; 1689, 
 809. 
 Cope, 743, 2, 9. 
 
 Coppinger, the prophet of mercy, 461. 
 Cornish executed, 755, '. 
 Coronation (Richard II.) service, 17, 
 Corporal presence in the sacrament, 214. See 
 
 of Six Jrlutes, 217. 
 Corporate bodies, their lands unproductive, 
 252. 
 
 Corporation act, 712. 
 
 Corrodies lost at the dissolution of monaste- 
 ries, 253, 2. 
 
 Cosins, plan for deciding the controversy, 
 1661, 673; engaged on a form of consecra- 
 tion for churches, 750. 
 
 Covenant, solemn league, 568, ' ; brought into 
 England, 580 ; ministers ejected for not 
 taking it, 598; Cambridge, 599; Oxford, 
 reasons against, 600 ; oath about the, 702, 
 705. 
 
 Co verdale comes before the council, 354 ; con- 
 secrates Parker, 409; his Bible; he was 
 not well suited to the task, 535. 
 
 Council of Cloveshoo, 9; of Aries, Nice, 
 Sardica, Anminum,'4; of Nice, second, re- 
 jected in England, 18; of Mantua, 208. 
 
 Courts, ecclesiastical and civil, separated by 
 William I., 52, 
 
 Cox, bishop of Ely, friendly to severe mea- 
 sures, 422. 
 
 Cranmer, Archbishop, his suggestion of con- 
 sulting the universities, 162, ■ ; made arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury ; his objection to the 
 oaths to the pope, 1C4 ; declares the divorce, 
 165; his object in the dissolution of monas- 
 teries, 202; divorces Anne Boleyn, 203; 
 argues against Lambert, 215; never a Lu- 
 theran vith regard to the real presence, 
 215, ^ ; screened with regard to the celibacy 
 of the clergy, 216; sends his wife into Ger- 
 many, 218; argues against the Act of Six 
 Articles, 217; little affected by it, 218; 
 speaks in favour of Thomas Cromwell, 219; 
 plot against him ; his forgiving temper, 224 ; 
 in danger, delivered by Henry's kindness; 
 ill conduct of the council towards him, 226; 
 retiring, while one of Edward VI.'s council, 
 301 ; anxious to destroy images, 302; uses 
 civil authority to promote the Reformation, 
 304 ; urges Edward VL to sign the warrant 
 for burning Joan Bocher, 315; answers the 
 demands of the rebels in Devonshire, 317; 
 tries to persuade Hooper to comply, 321 ; 
 befriends learned foreigners; plan of a 
 Protestant union, 324 ; unwilling to sign 
 the deed in favour of Lady Jane Grey, 333; 
 his Catechism, 310; very Erastian in his* 
 ideas, 337 ; wise in the way of reforming, 
 340 ; draws up a protest which is published, 
 354 ; comprehended in the attainder of Lady 
 Jane Grey, 355; disputes at Oxford, 361; 
 thinks ill of Gardiner, 368 ; degraded and 
 burnt ; his character ; his several recanta- 
 
INDEX. 
 
 339 
 
 tioDs, 370 ; see Appendix F. directed to 
 frame the Thirty-nine Articles; he proba- 
 bly did so, 482 ; the sources from which he 
 drew them, 483; his Bible, or the Great 
 Bible, 536. 
 
 Creed, Lord's Prayer, and Gospel, explained 
 to the people, 23. 
 
 Crew suspends his clergy about the declara- 
 tion, 768. 
 
 Crisom left out, 745, 3; used, 743, 3. 
 
 Cromwell, Thomas, Lord Vicegerent, 201 ; 
 proclamation in favour of reform, 207; fall 
 of; condemned by an act of attainder, 219; 
 his character, 220; received bribes, 211, '\ 
 
 Cromwell. Oliver, continued in his command, 
 together with his seat; his talents, .580; op- 
 presses (Cambridge, 599 ; chancellor of 0.\- 
 ford, 600; his progress to command, 602; 
 governor of England after the battle of Wor- 
 cester; his proceedings in taking posses- 
 sion of this power, 603; his manner of 
 governing; the protector of Protestants, 
 604 ; character of, by Baxter, 605 ; severity 
 against the Church of England, 609 ; tolera- 
 tion of Roman Catholics and Jews, 610; he 
 winked at the royalist clergy, 616. 
 
 Cross in baptism objected to, 424 ; Hampton 
 Court, 508; objected to, 661 ; alterations in 
 the Liturgy, 1689, 807. 
 
 Crown, power of, in Scotland and England at 
 the ReformaliOM, 493. 
 
 Crucifix retained in the chapel of Elizabeth, 
 408, ' ; used at coronation ol Charles L, 569. 
 
 Cup, denied to the laity in the twelfth century, 
 17, '*; given to them, 307. See Communion. 
 
 Danes attack monasteries, 10, 23; incorpo- 
 rated with the English, 12 ; restore monas- 
 teries, 243. 
 
 Dangerfield, his plot, 722 ; condemned, 755, '. 
 
 Davenant, reprimanded for preaching on pre- 
 destination, 557 ; allowed the ordination of 
 foreign Protestant churches, 710, 
 
 Deacons, age of, when ordained, 435 ; in the 
 Presbyterian church, 591. 
 
 Dead, see Prayer for the, 305. 
 
 Decalogue, Saxon, 18, * ; introduced into the 
 communion service, 745, 2. 
 
 Decimation of the royalists, 605. 
 
 Declaration prefixed to the Thirty-nine Arti- 
 cles, 557; of Cromwell against the clergy 
 of the Church of England, 605, 609 ; of 
 Charles IF., at Breda, 660 ; promised by 
 Charles 11., 663 ; abstract of, 665 ; of 
 Charles IL, for toleration, 715; of liberty of 
 conscience, 758 ; republished ; to be read in 
 churches, 767. 
 
 Defender of the Faith, Henry declared, 157. 
 
 Delaune, re-ordination of, 710. 
 
 Depravity of the religious orders, 130, 202. 
 
 Dering, Sir E., bill for destroying bishops, 573. 
 
 Desiderata in the Liturgy, 808. 
 
 Deuce, derivation of the word, 7, 
 
 Devonshire, risings in, 1549, 317. 
 
 Diocess, division of, a civil enactment, 804. 
 
 Diplomacy, plan for a school for, 849. 
 
 Directory, 590. 
 
 Dirige of the King's Primer, contains prayers 
 
 for the dead, 741. 
 Discipline esUblished at Frankfort, 367, ' j 
 
 I objected to by the puritans, 423, 425 ; over 
 the laity, desired by many reformers ; prin- 
 ciples of it; not to be desired, 426; esta- 
 blished by Baxter, 612; over the laity, 657; 
 real subject of dispute at the Restoration, 
 671; question of, 677; and government, 
 their difierence, 677 ; church over the laity, 
 678; prevented by the connection between 
 church and state, 818. 
 Discussions, ecclesiastical; the method of 
 
 carrying them on, 700. 
 Dispensations, promote perjury, 56 ; profitable 
 to Rome, 107; granted by Clement V. to 
 Archbishop Reynolds, 107, K 
 Dispensing power, 758. 
 
 Disputation in convocation, on transubstantia- 
 lion, 357; inutility of, 358; held at Oxford, 
 Cranmer, &c., 361 ; in Westminster Abbey, 
 405; at the Savoy conference, 673; inutility 
 of, 674 ; carried on before some of the court, 
 451. 
 
 Dispute between the crown and church, 68,69. 
 Dissenters, petition about them ; James IL 
 tries to balance ihem against the high 
 church, 754; sufTerinss of, 760; the good 
 conduct of, at the Revolution, 771 ; little 
 friendly feeling towards them, 1689, 809. 
 Dissolution of monasteries, see Monasteries. 
 Divorce of Catharine, 158 ; decisions concern- 
 ing, 162, 163 ; texts of scripture which bear 
 on the, 165, ; of Anne Boleyn, ground of, 
 203, '. 
 
 Doctrine, a Profitable and Necessary ,Bonner's, 
 
 369, '. See Erudition. 
 Dort, synod of, 520. 
 Douay Bible, 539. 
 
 Dress of the clergy, 422, p. 132 ; 743, 9; 
 745, \ 9. 
 
 Dresses, ecclesiastical, disputed, 321, 414; 
 Bucer wishes them changed, 322; of 1549, 
 enjoined by the act of uniformity, 416; 
 opinions about, 418. 
 Dubrilius and Illutus establish schools, 5. 
 Dudley, Guilford, married to Lady Jane 
 
 Grey, 333. 
 Dunbar, battle of, 602. 
 
 Dunstan, 12 ; imposes a penance on Edgar, 
 
 21 ; ejects the married clergy, 23. 
 Durham, see of, divided, 331 ; university there, 
 251,'. 
 
 Easter, Roman method of keeping, adopted by 
 
 Oswi, 7; derivation of the word, 7, '. 
 Ecclesiastical courts separated from the civil 
 by William L, 52; error in their composi- 
 tion, 307. 
 
 Ecclesiastical discipline of episcopacy and 
 presbytery, 593. See Presbyterian Government. 
 Ecclesiastical commission, court of ; esta- 
 blished by James U., 756. See Commission. 
 Edinburgh, tumult about the Liturgy, 568. 
 Education, how best promoted, 251, 252. 
 Edward IIL inquires what preferments are in 
 
 the hands of foreigners, 110. 
 Edward VL comes to the throne, 1547, 301; 
 unwilling to sign the warrant for burning 
 Joan Bocher, 315 ; always adverse to allow- 
 ing the use of the mass to Mary, 327, 384; 
 his charitable foundations, 332 ; leaves lh« 
 crown to Lady Jane Grey, 333 ; his power 
 
340 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of doing so, 351 ; under him England be- 
 came Protestant, 811. 
 
 Ejection of the Roman Catholic clergy, 407; 
 of the nonconformist clergy, 704. 
 
 Election of ministers, 426. 
 
 Eleutherius, bisliop of Home, King Lucius 
 sends messengers to him, 3. 
 
 Elfric's homily against transiibstantiation, 10; 
 translated the Scriptures, 533. 
 
 Elizabeth confined for Wyat's rebellion, 359; 
 saved by Philip, 363 ; ascends the throne, 
 401; prudence of her conduct; sends to 
 Philip and Rome; Paul rejects her claim to 
 the tlirtme; her personal conduct conciliat- 
 ing, 402 ; crowned ; entertains scruples vvilh 
 regard to the name of Supreme Head of the 
 church, 403; looks to her own interests, 
 404 ; her injunctions, 406 ; temporizing 
 spirit of, 408; retains a crucifix in her 
 chapel, 408, ■ ; presses conformily by writing 
 to Parker, 416 ; very peremptory about 
 conformity, 420 ; pillaged the church, 427, 
 429 ; unjust and unwise in her proceedings 
 as to church property; her conduct com- 
 pared to that of Henry VIII. and Edward 
 VI.; very selfish; her reasons for taking 
 church property, 429; wishes the bishops 
 to act on her supremacy, 434 ; her skill in 
 repressing the growing power of the com- 
 mons, 435; excommunicated by Pius V., 
 437 ; to blame for not marrying, 439 ; per- 
 secutions under, compared with those during 
 the reign of Mary, 444; injustice during her 
 reign, 445 ; the real author of severe mea- 
 sures, 446; silence of Grindal, 447; her 
 conduct towards him impolitic and severe, 
 448; tried to suppress sermons, 449 ; pre- 
 vents innovations in religion, 456 ; firmness 
 of, 465; dislikes the Lambeth Articles, 464, ^; 
 moderated in her severity to the puritans 
 by age, 465; character of, 467; her treat- 
 ment of Roman Catholics and puritans; 
 disliked sermons ; disliked married clergy- 
 men, 468, " ; religious; agreat monarch, 469; 
 her death, 470 ; stops a bill concerning sub- 
 scription to the Articles, 1566; allows it to 
 pass, 1571; her wisdom in so doing, 485 ; 
 her prepossessions about the doctrines of 
 the church, 487, " ; how she restrained the 
 growing desire of freedom, 526 ; fostered 
 animosities in Scotland, 564 ; summary of 
 her reign, 813. 
 
 Eluanus and Medwinus sent to Rome, 3. 
 
 Engagement imposed ; called the covenant of 
 the independents, 606. 
 
 England, early converted to Christianity, 2. 
 
 Episcopacy, early established in England, 1 ; 
 Wiclif 's opinion of, not a distinct order, 117; 
 objected to, 425; preserved by Cranmer, 
 340; argument in favour of, 460; in Scot- 
 land, 564; disliked as an engine of state, 
 671 ; disputes on, at Newcastle and New- 
 port, 595 ; on episcopal government, 595, 
 p. 224; Archbishop Usher's plan of, 585, 
 662 ; how far objected to, 661 ; saved at the 
 Kevolution by the conduct of the bishops, 
 774 ; now existing in Scotland, 804. 
 
 Episcopalians, object of the, at the Restora- 
 tion, 668. 
 
 Epistle and gospel allowed in English, 402. 
 Erasmus's paraphrase to be setup in churches, 
 305, and 2. 
 
 Erastianism of the church of England, 336; 
 introduced by the Reibrraation, 414. 
 
 Erastians; Thomas Erastus, 588. 
 
 Errors, progress of, in the church of England ; 
 and introduced by degrees from Rome, 24 ; 
 in the church, how far they destroy Chris- 
 tianity, and the hopes of salvation ; ill ten- 
 dency of, 25. 
 
 Erudition ; King's Book, 233; doctrines of it 
 examined, 271, &c. ; points wherein it is 
 nearer to the church of England, than the 
 Institution, 272, ^ ; wherein the Institution 
 is the nearest, 283. Little progress had 
 really been made in the doctrines, 282 ; com- 
 pared with the Thirty-nine Articles, App. 
 B. 271, &c. 
 
 Essex, the earl of, his objects in the war, 580. 
 
 Establishment, plan of an ecclesiastical, sent 
 to England, 7 ; monastic, useful at first, 23; 
 use of, as apolitical engine, 132; value of, 259. 
 
 Ethelbert, receives Augustin, 6. 
 
 Ethelvvulph's grant to the church, 10; goes 
 on a pilgrimage to Rome, 20. 
 
 Eusebius, quotation from, 2, 2, p. 1. 
 
 Ex officio, see Officio. 
 
 Exclusion of the Roman Catholics, no want 
 of toleration, 725. 
 
 Excommunication, an evil means of coercion 
 for discipline, 504; rarely eiercised by Bax- 
 ter, 612. 
 
 Executions during the reign of Henry Vm. 
 
 very numerous, 227. 
 Exequies and masses, 227. 
 Exeter, the Jesuit's day still kept there, 317, ^ 
 Exiles for religion, on their return disliked the 
 
 power exercised by the bishops, 475. 
 Exorcisms; examined, 322; of the devil from 
 
 the child, 743, ■', 3. 
 Extempore prayer, use of, demanded, 671, 672. 
 Extreme unction, see Unction. 
 Fagius placed at Cambridge, 314; his bones 
 
 burnt there, 373. 
 Fairfax, general, 580. 
 Family of love, 619. 
 
 Family prayer drawn up by authority, 808. 
 
 Fanaticism, cause of, 617. 
 
 Farmer, James II. orders the fellows of Mag- 
 dalen to elect him president, 761. 
 
 Fasting in Lent, 329; neglected among Pro- 
 testants, 414. 
 
 Fell, Samuel, dean of Christ Church, opposes 
 the parliamentary commissioners; Mrs., re- 
 fuses to leave the deanery, 600. 
 
 Fell, Dolben, and AUestree, picture of, 616. 
 
 Fellows of colleges restored, 656. 
 
 Felton affixes the bull to the gates of the 
 bishop of London, 437. 
 
 Festivals, Christian, accommodated to heathen 
 feasts, 7. 
 
 Fifth-monarchy men, 619. 
 
 Fifths granted to the ejected clergy, 598. 
 
 Fines, estates let on, 202, '. 
 
 Fire of London, 728. 
 
 First-fruits, or annates, 103; considered as 
 bribes, 103, 3; 126, taken from the pope, 
 164 ; history of, 201, ', p. 64. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 341 
 
 Fish, Simon, writes the Supplication of the 
 Beggars, 171. 
 
 Fish to be eaten on the fast days, 1.'549, 312. 
 
 Fisher sent to the Tower, 167 ; death and cha- 
 racter, 169. 
 
 Fitzralph opposes the errors of Rome; called 
 
 Armaclianus, 108, -. 
 Five points of Perth, 565, See Dort too. 
 Five-inile ncl, passed at Oxford, 714. 
 Fletcher, bishop of London, draws up the 
 
 Lambeth .\rticles, 463, marries, 468, 
 Foreign churches established under John li 
 
 Lasco, 324; quit England, 354. 
 Foreign divines, opinion of, concerning the 
 
 dresses, 419. 
 Foreign reformed churches, the convocation 
 
 will aclfnowiedege no connection with, 809. 
 Foreigners, holding preferments in England, 
 
 103 ; learned, aided the Reformation, 314 ; 
 
 received by Cranraer, 324. 
 Forest burnt, 493. 
 
 Formularies of Faith, Henry VIII., 271, '. 
 
 Fornication severely punished, 620. 
 
 Fox, Bishop, introduces Wolsey to Henry 
 
 VIII., 155. 
 Fox, G., founder of the Quakers, 618. 
 Francis, A., James 11. orders a degree of a. m. 
 
 at Cambridge to be granted him, 762. 
 Franciscans executed, 201. 
 Frankfort, troubles at, 367. 
 Freewill, 275. 
 
 Friars, Wiclif an enemy to, 109; visit Wiclif 
 
 in his illness, 112. 
 Frith, John, burnt, 170. (See also Appendix 
 
 F.) assisted Tyndale in his translation, 534. 
 Fry expelled from the House for being a Soci- 
 
 nian, 621. 
 Fugitives, many English, 3.54. 
 Fundamentals in religion, question about, 610. 
 Gag, a, for the new Gospel, 552, -'. 
 Galilean Liturgv, 5. 
 
 Galloway, his account of the Hampton Court 
 ccinference, 51 1. 
 
 Gardiner, Stephen, objects to the commissions 
 granted to the bishi>ps, 201 ; new line of 
 policy adopted by, 214; writes in favour of 
 images, 303; imprisoned, 3t)fi, 310; de- 
 prived of his bishopric, 320; minister to 
 Mary; his plans, 3.)3; prevents Pole from 
 coming to England, 356 ; no friend to mild 
 measures, and persimnllv hostile in ihe vic- 
 tims of persecuii.ui ; his booli republished, 
 365; (lisnppiiinted at the eti'ecis of persecu- 
 liiin, 3r)6 ; death; character; he saves the 
 lives ,if Smiih and Ascham, SCS. 
 
 Ganieti. powder plot, 514. 
 
 Gaudeii's peliiions to Oomwell in favour of 
 the clergv, GO!l, i. 
 
 Gaul, early cnnneclion with the church of 
 England, 1 ; Chrisiianily established in, 3. 
 
 Gaunt, Mrs., burnt, 754. 
 
 Geneva, the service of, adopted by the dissenl- 
 ins clersv, 1566, 432; translation of the 
 Bible, 537. 
 
 Gentrv, thanked for attending the execution 
 
 of heretics, 3C7. 
 Gerhard and his followers pnnished ; their 
 
 opinions uncertain, 60. 
 Germanus comes to assist the British church, 5. 
 
 Germany, reformation in, its effects on Eng- 
 land, 231. 
 
 Gidard, 13., president of Magdalen college, 761. 
 
 Giles' St. Held, Lord Cobham executed in, 124 ; 
 disturbance there, 125. 
 
 Glasgow, general assembly at, 568. 
 
 Glastoiibiiiy .Abbey founded by Joseph of Ari- 
 malhea, 2; church of foreigners placed 
 there, 324. 
 
 Gloucester, see of, snppiessed, 330. 
 
 Good works, idea of, among the Anglo-Saxons, 
 26; in the Erudition, 275. 
 
 Grammar prepared bv convocation, 1661, 701. 
 
 Grey, Lady Jane, declared heir to the crown 
 by Edward VI., 333, 351; executed; her 
 character, 359. 
 
 Greathead opposes the power of Rome; es- 
 teems the pope antichrist, 65, and ^. 
 
 Greek church, custom of, with regard to the 
 marriage of the clergy, 22. 
 
 Greek literatuie patronised by Henry VHL, 
 Wolsey, and Colet, 157. 
 
 Greenwood executed, 461. 
 
 Gregory I. sends Augustin into England, 6; 
 sends relics to Augustin, 19. 
 
 Grindal, his opinion on the dresses, 418; his 
 treatment of Sampson, 422; cautious in not 
 adopting the canons of 1571,434; offends 
 Elizabeth by giving directions about pro- 
 phesyina:s ; his letter to Elizabeth ; confined 
 to his palace, and silenced, 447 ; his cha- 
 racter, 448; remonstrates with Elizabeth 
 on her arbitrary conduct as to ecclesiastical 
 matters, 468. 
 
 Grostete, 65, ^. 
 
 Guisnes lost, 374. 
 
 Gunning one of the disputants, 1661,673. 
 
 (lunpowder used l)V Wishart, 493, '. 
 
 Hacket represents our Saviour, 461. 
 
 Hackinglon, convent at, 61. 
 
 Hale, Sir M., endeavours to convert the decla- 
 ration into an act of parliament, 666. 
 
 Hales, Judire, refuses to sign the deed in fa- 
 vour of Lady Jane Grey, 333; imprisoned 
 by Mar\', 354. 
 
 Hall's, Bishop, Hard Measure, 574; he and 
 Land drew up a firm of prayer for recon- 
 ciling apiistates, 808. 
 
 Hall, G., preacher in London, 616. 
 
 Hamilton, Palrie, burnt, 493. 
 
 Hamilton rescinds all the acts about the Li- 
 turgy, 5(58. 
 
 Hampole's, or Rolle's translation, 533. 
 
 Hamptim Cmirt conference, never intended 
 fur a free discussion; held for the sake of 
 infirinins ihe king as to the state of the 
 quesliiin, riO.'? ; the parlies who composed 
 it; c< iilii maiiiin ; absolution; private bap- 
 tism l>v laii-s ; excnmmunication as a means 
 of coei'ci.in objected to, 504; objections of 
 Reynolrls; final perseverance, 505 ; confir- 
 mation, never performed by a priest with- 
 out a bishop ; objection to the Thirty-nine 
 Articles, 506; catechism; Sabbath; trans- 
 j lalion of the Bible; seditious and popish 
 I books ; lessons from the Apocrypha, 507 
 I cross in baptism; questions proposed; sur- 
 j plice ; marriage service ; churching of 
 I women; prophesyings, 508 ; James pleases 
 aF2 
 
343 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 the episcopalians; their flattery; his opi- 
 nion of the puritans ; his real superiority, 
 509; Barlow's account of the conference, 
 510; Galloway's account; the cause of the 
 apparent difference, 511. 
 
 Harding, 170. 
 
 Hartford, L., see Somerset. 
 
 Headships of colleges appointed by the crown, 
 762. 
 
 Heath sent to prison, 319 ; treated kindly by 
 
 Elizabeth, 407. 
 Heber, Bishop, idea with regard to re-ordina- 
 
 lion, 710, '. 
 
 Helvetic confession not the source of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, 483. 
 
 Henderson, his dispute with Charles I. on 
 episcopacy, 595. 
 
 Henry I. recalls Anselm ; the dispute between 
 them compromised, 55 ; sells his prefer- 
 ment, 67. 
 
 Henry II. accepts the grant of Ireland from 
 the pope, 57; violent about Becket, 58; 
 submits, 59. 
 
 Henry IV. grants power to the church, 121 ; 
 joined by Lord Cobham, 123. 
 
 Henry V. tries to convince Lord Cobham, 123. 
 
 Henry VIII. supports the civil power, 152. 
 Wolsey's influence over, 154; spoilt by 
 Wolsey ; his book against Lulher, 156 ; 
 patronises literature, 157; protests against 
 his marriage with Catharine ; fears the 
 curse of dying childless; scruples not in- 
 fused by Longland ; entertained before his 
 love for Anne Boleyn, 158; supremacy of, 
 163 ; hardly less arbitrary than that of 
 Rome, 172; refuses to appear at Rome by 
 proxy, 166; irritated by the clergy, 201; 
 his object in the dissolution of monasteries ; 
 gains little by it, 202 ; reconciled to Mary, 
 203; marries Jane Seymour, 204; sum- 
 moned to appear at Mantua ; rejects the 
 summons ; Cardinal Pole writes against 
 him, 208; letter to the bishops, 209; sits 
 as judge on Lambert, 215; angry with the 
 Protestants for refusing him church proper- 
 ty; argues in favour of the Six Articles, 
 217; his proclamations made law, 218; 
 marries Anne of Cleves, 219; marries Ca- 
 tharine Howard, 221 ; his judicious speech 
 about religion, and persecuting conduct, 
 225; marries Catharine Parr, 224; delivers 
 Cranmer, 226; character; ungrateful, well 
 served, but selfish; naturally a fine charac- 
 ter, but spoilt; an instrament in the hands 
 of Providence, 227, 228; the opinion of the 
 German divines about his marriage alien- 
 atedhimfrom them, 231 ; rapacity; always 
 poor; chapters founded by; he did not begin 
 the transfer of property from one religious 
 use to another, 248, ' ; plan of constructing 
 harbours, 249 ; leaves money for masses and 
 obits, 303; in his reign England ceased to 
 be popish, 811. 
 
 Herbert's, Lord,observation on persecution,221. 
 
 Heresy, first punished, 60 ; laws against, dur- 
 ing the usurpation, 621. 
 
 Heretics, statute against, 113, ^, de hcereliro 
 
 comburendo, statute, 121. 
 Hern, Sir N., his saying about dissenters, 716. 
 
 Heptarchy, when converted, 8, ' ; union of, 10. 
 Hewetl, 170. 
 
 Hichins, alias Tyndale, 534, «. 
 
 High Commission, see Commission. 
 
 Hocus-pocus, derivation of, 7, '. 
 
 Hodgkin, suffragan of Bedford, consecratCB 
 
 Parker, 409. 
 Holydays, law about, 329; objected to. 661, 
 
 671, 672. 
 Holy water, 23. 
 
 Homilies, published 1540,223; first book of, 
 published 1547,305; Bonner's, 369,'; se- 
 cond book of, published ; history of their 
 composition, 412, '. 
 
 Hooker, dispute with Travers, 454. 
 
 Hooper, scruples about the dresses, 321 ; comes 
 before the council, 354 ; burnt at Glouces- 
 ter, 366. 
 
 Home, pastor at Frankfort, 367, 
 
 Horsey, Chancellor, compromise about, 152; 
 coroner's verdict against, 153. 
 
 Hotchyn, alias Tyndale, 534, 
 
 Hough, elected president of Magdalen, ejected 
 by James II., 761. 
 
 Howard, Catharine, married to Henry VTH., 
 221 ; executed, 222. 
 
 Humphrey, winked at, complies, 416. 
 
 Hunne dies in prison ; the coroner's verdict 
 of murder against the chancellor; his bodj 
 burnt, 152. 
 
 Jacomb, one of the disputants, 1661, 673. 
 
 James, St., tradition about, 2. 
 
 James I. succeeds quietly to the throne ; his 
 answer about the church of England, 501 ; 
 anxious to learn the real stale of the church, 
 502 ; observations about predestination ; re- 
 proves Bancroft, 505 ; vehemence against 
 presbyteries, 508 ; pleases the episcopa- 
 lians ; their flattery ; his opinion of the 
 nonconformists; his superiority in the con- 
 ference, 509 ; puts a Slop to transfers of 
 church properly to the crown ; disappoints 
 the papists and puritans, 513; founds a 
 college at Chelsea fur controversial divinity, 
 517; puts forth the Book of Sports, 519; 
 letter about preaching ; advice about the 
 study of theology, 521,'; character of; a 
 weak man ; the state tutor of Europe; did 
 not keep his word, 523; his opinions of 
 government, 524 ; with high notions he pre- 
 served no power, and was laughed at; the 
 victim of favourites ; could not bear parlia- 
 ments ; disliked the prej-bytery for the same 
 reason ; his change of language about the 
 church of England; his treatment of Roman 
 Calholics, 526; possessed of liltle real reli- 
 gion; all offices under him sold, 527; cruelty 
 to heretics, 518; his observations on the 
 Geneva Bible, 537 : his management about 
 the bishops in Scotland, 564; bribes the 
 presbyterians,566; summary of his reign.814. 
 
 James II.. as duke of York, excepted from the 
 hill against Roman Catholics, 720; cared 
 not for religion, 723 ; the pensioner of 
 France, 732; accession, 751; his educa- 
 tifin ; his conversion political, 752 ; pro- 
 mises to support the church of England, 
 753; levies duties without parliament; re- 
 venue settled on him ; cruelly of, 754 ; he 
 
INDEX. 
 
 343 
 
 was open in his attacks on the constitution ; 
 his real want of religion, 755; prohibits 
 preaching on controverted points, 756; as- 
 sumes the power of dispensing with the 
 laws, 758 ; his conduct with regard to the 
 judges, 759 ; tries to balance the dissenters 
 and church, 754, 7G0 ; his folly about Petre 
 and Lord Castlem;un, 763 ; advised by the 
 pope and others to use moderation, 764; 
 endeavours to change the laws, by procur- 
 ing a parliament favourable to his own 
 views, 765; he relies on the army, 766; 
 obstinate, 771 ; at last convinced of his er- 
 ror, and endeavours to retrace his steps, 
 772 ; asks advice of the bishops, 773 ; find- 
 ing every thing lost, he attempts to (ly into 
 France, 775; his character, 776; birth of 
 his son instrumental in the Revolution, 779. 
 
 Jane, Dr., author of the Oxford decree, 729 ; 
 withdraws from the commission, 1689, 806 ; 
 elected prolocutor, 809. 
 
 January 30th, observance of, 653 ; service, 750. 
 
 Idolatry of the church of Rome, 106. 
 
 Jeffreys rewarded by James II., 755; at the 
 head of the ecclesiastical commission, 757. 
 
 Jerusalem, pilgrimages of the English to, 20. 
 
 Jesuits' day at E.xeter. 317, '; their dispute 
 with the seculars, 462. 
 
 Jewel's Apology printed, 1562, 411; opinion 
 on Ihe dresses, 418 ; publishes the Thirty- 
 nine Articles, 485, 487. 
 
 Jews, toleration of, under Cromwell, 610. 
 
 Ignorance of the clergy, 105, 157. 
 
 lllutus and Dubritius established schools, 5. 
 
 Image worship, when introduced into England; 
 before Alfred's time; observations on, 18, 
 and 
 
 Images, Wiclif's opinion of, 118; Pecock's 
 opinion of, 127; erudition, 277; destroyed, 
 302 ; abused by false devotion ; to be taken 
 down, .304 ; removed, 308 ; abuse of, in- 
 quired into, 408. 
 
 Immoraliiy prevalent during the usurpation, 
 615; in Charles II.'s reign, 733. 
 
 Impropriations a great evil, 250; plan for 
 transferring them to the cure, 452 ; feoffees 
 of, dissolved, 556. 
 
 Independents, promote religious liberty; tole- 
 rate all except the church of England and 
 Roman Catholics, 607 ; propagation of the 
 gospel in Wales their work, 608 ; they de- 
 stroved the existence of a ministry, 609, 
 614 ; the Triers, 609; strict in admitting 
 church members ; many of them in Nor- 
 folk and Suffolk ; they publish a declaration 
 of faith ; called congregational churches ; 
 their government democratic, 614 ; church 
 government of, 588; tendency and growth 
 of, 589, 593; established in Wales, 593; 
 liberty of conscience their object, 594; they 
 demand toleration, 664. 
 
 Indulgence, greater, might have been shown 
 to the nonconformists, 417. 
 
 Infallibility, papal, 282; a bar to all discus- 
 sion, 3.58, 405 ; leads to persecution, 443. 
 
 Infant baptism, a source of differences, 317 ; 
 argument for, 460, •', p. 159. 
 
 Inhibition sent to the bishops, 201. 
 
 Injunctions, put forth by Bonner, 223; Ed- 
 
 ward VI., 304 ; of Elizabeth, about the mar- 
 riage of the clergy and the supremacy, 406. 
 
 Injustice, common during the reign of Eliza- 
 beth, in judicial trials, 445. 
 
 Innocent XI. advised moderation to James II., 
 764. 
 
 Innovation in religion stopped by Elizabeth, 
 45G. 
 
 Innovators, danger of, at the Reformation, 340. 
 
 Inquisition, steps tending towards establish- 
 ing, 365, 367. 
 
 Insecurity under Charles II., 722. 
 
 Institution, Bishops' Book, 213. See Erudition, 
 271, &c. 
 
 Instrument of government, 603, p. 233. 
 Interdict, England laid under an, 63. 
 Intolerance generally prevalent, 445; a name 
 
 for selfishness, 705. 
 Introit, what, 743, ^. 
 Investitures, 54, '. 
 
 John excommunicated; about to be deposed 
 by Philip of France, 62 ; he submits, 63. 
 
 Johnson, Dr., prayed for his mother when 
 dead, 15. 
 
 Johnson, publishes an address to the army, 
 and is punished, 706. 
 
 Joseph of Arimathea, founder of Glaston- 
 bury, 2. 
 
 Joye, G., alters Tyndale's translation, 534. 
 
 Ireland granted to Henry II. by the pope, 57; 
 war in ; Oliver Cromwell, 602. 
 
 Judges, James II.'s conduct about them with 
 regard to the dispensing power, 759. 
 
 Jurisdiction, exclusive, of the clergy, injuri- 
 ous, 102, 136. 
 
 Jus divinum of presbytery, 589, 592 ; episco- 
 pacy, 595. 
 
 Justification by faith, 275. 
 
 Juxon, made lord treasurer, 583. 
 
 Kent, the maid of, 167 ; Joan of, 316. 
 
 Kidder, Bishop, ejected, and conformed, 707. 
 
 Kidderminster, Baxter's ministry there, 611. 
 
 King, power of, while a minor, questioned, 318. 
 
 Kings, foreign, educated in England, U; 
 Saxon, visit Rome, 30 ; Book, 213. 
 
 Kneeling at the eucharist objected to, 661, 671. 
 
 Knewstubbs at Hampton Court, 504, 509. 
 
 Knocking on the breast, 743, \ 10. 
 
 Knolles hostile to the bishops, 451. 
 
 Knox, conspicuous at Frankfort, 367; comes 
 to Scotland ; character, 495 ; proceedings, 
 harshness, 496. 
 
 Labourers, agricultural, too numerous in 
 Henry VIII.'s time, 257; out of employ- 
 ment, 317. 
 
 Laity, Wiclif asserts their duty to take away 
 
 misused property from the church, 116; 
 
 chiefly instrumental in bad appointments in 
 
 the church, 259. 
 Lambert appeals to the king, is tried and 
 
 burnt, 215. 
 
 Lambeth, convent at, 61 ; Articles, never the 
 doctrine of the church of England, 464, ; de- 
 sired to be inserted into the Thirty-nine, 505. 
 
 Langton, Stephen, appointed archbishop of 
 Canterbury by the pope, 62; adverse to 
 Magna Charta, 63. 
 
 A Lasco, superintendent of foreign churches, 
 324. 
 
344 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Latimer resigns his see, 218; disputes at Ox- 
 ford, 361, App. F. 
 Latin service, '23. 
 Latitudinarians, 719. 
 
 Laud, question of the controverted clause in 
 the Thirty-nine articles, 486, 488 ; urges the 
 clergy to promote forced loans ; his ideas 
 of government, .5.'j3 ; his faults injured the 
 church, 55^1 ; offended at Richardson for 
 ordering a notice to be read in church, 5.59; 
 tries to benefit the church by advancing 
 churchmen to places in the state, 566, 585; 
 urges the Scotch bishops lo be cautious that 
 their proceedings abcmt the Liturgy might 
 be legal, 567; fond of ceremonies ; intro- 
 duces them; crucifix; consecration of 
 churches, 569; frames canons, 1640, 570; 
 impolicy of, in alienatmg moderate men, 
 571 ; difficulty of drawing his character, 
 582; his character, 583; absurdity of the 
 charges of treason, 584; accused of alter- 
 ing tlie Liturgy, 748 ; he and Hall dreiv up 
 a form of prayer for reconciling apostates, 
 808, ' ; mistake of his admuiistration, 815. 
 
 Lawney's joke about the marriage of priests, 
 230, '. 
 
 Laws, ecclesiastical, reformation of, 330; dis- 
 cussed, 434 ; respecting morality, 620; and 
 justice perverted; Charles H., 722. 
 
 Lay fiefs a premium on war, 244. 
 
 Lay baptism, allowed in the church of Eng- 
 land, 424, ' ; service altered to exclude, 
 
 747, '. 
 
 Laymen held preferments, 303, '. 
 Lay patrims, simony of, 430. 
 Leases of colleges and hospitals confirmed, 
 1660, 703. 
 
 Legates, papal, admitted by William L, 52 ; re- 
 fused admittance mto England by Mary, 374. 
 
 Legate, B., burnt in Smithfield, 518. 
 
 Leicester, Lord, at the head of the anti-episco- 
 palians, 451 ; sent into the Netherlands, 453. 
 
 Lent, derivation of the word, 7, ' ; fasting ob- 
 jected to, 671, 672, 807. 
 
 Letters of foreign divines about the noncon- 
 formists, 718. 
 
 Lewis admitieil not the power of Rome, 778. 
 
 Lilifis against the bishops, 458. 
 
 Libertv. civil, much mixed up with the Re- 
 forinalioii,42.5; of conscience, declaration of, 
 758; republished, to be read in churches, 767. 
 
 Libraries destroyed at the dissolution of mo- 
 nasteries, 256. 
 
 Licenses of preaching not lo be given, 521. 
 
 Lies published for history, 608, -. 
 
 Lights in churches, 23. 
 
 Lisle, Mrs., executed, 754. 
 
 Litany put forth in English, 224; not used on 
 Sundays, 741, 743, - ; 744, 745, '. 
 
 Literature, progress of, promoted the Reforma- 
 tion ; English literature, 157, p. 45; pro- 
 moted by monasteries, 245. 
 
 Littleton, lord keeper, reads the protestation 
 of the bishops, 573. 
 
 Liturgy, Gallican, brought into England, 5; 
 new, 1548, moderation of, 309, 316; law 
 about, 329; origin of, 341; Scotch, 564, 
 
 748, * ; objected lo by the nonconformists, 
 661- answer to objections, 662 ; answered. 
 
 673; interruptions in the, objected lo, 671, 
 672; points in, deemed sinful, 673; review 
 of, 701 ; published just before August 24lh, 
 707; attempted alteration in, 806; points set- 
 tled, 807; the failure of the plan, 809; altera- 
 tions in, why desirable, 810. See Common 
 Prayer. 
 
 Livings, augmentation of, 609 ; how held under 
 ecclesiastical bodies, 703, 
 
 Loans, forced, promoted by the clergy, 553. 
 
 Lollard?, numerous, 120; name, 120,'; pro- 
 clamation against them ; their petition, 121 ; 
 inveigh against the wealth of the clergy, 134. 
 
 London clerg)-, generally comply, many dis- 
 sent, 416; importance attached to their 
 compliance, 422; ejected; form separate 
 congregations, 432; their address lo James 
 H. 753, ^ 781. 
 
 Long parliament, 572. 
 
 Longland, Henry's confessor, accused of in- 
 fusing scruples into his mind about the 
 marriage with Catharine, 1.58. 
 Lord's Prayer, Creed, and Gospel, explained 
 j to the people, 23. 
 Lord's Supper, kneeling at, 807. 
 Love, Mr., executed, 607. 
 Love, family of, 619. 
 Lucius, king, 3. 
 
 Luck, derivation of the word, 7, '. 
 
 Lupus, a French bishop, assists the British 
 church, 5. 
 
 Luther, Henry's book against, 157. 
 
 Lutheran states, difficulty with regard to, 214. 
 
 Lutheran doctrines of our church ; of the 
 Forty-two .\rticles ; and services, 341. 
 
 Magdalen college, dispute about the head- 
 ship, 761. 
 
 Maid of Kent, the, 167. 
 
 Maine executed, 438. 
 
 Mainwaring fined, and then made a bishop, 552. 
 
 Manchester, earl of, oppresses Cambridge, 599. 
 
 Mantua, council assembled at; Henry sum- 
 moned to appear; the convocation and king 
 reject the summcms, 208. 
 
 Mariaret professorships, 169. 
 
 Marriage of Henry and Catharine dissolved, 
 1G5; confirmed, 355. 
 
 Marriage of the clergy, 311, 329, 468, •'; at- 
 tacked, and the married clergy ejected, 360 ; 
 rules concerning, 1350, 406, K 
 
 Marriage made a civil contract, 622 ; service, 
 508; confirmed at the Restoration, 653. 
 
 Martin Marprelate, a name given to several 
 books, 458. 
 
 Martyr, Peter, disputes at Oxford, 314; his 
 wife's bones buried in a dunghill, 373; con- 
 sulted on the Liturgy, 745. 
 Martyrs, succession of, their examinations 
 j chiefly on transubstantiation and submis- 
 I sion to the church, 122, 130. 
 Mary, see J'irgia Mary. 
 
 j Mary objects to alterations during her bro- 
 ther's minority, 306 ; her mass is stopped, 
 327, 334 ; succeeds to the throne; her reli- 
 gious opinions unfavourable to her cause, 
 351; proclaimed queen; she promises too 
 much, 352 ; supposed attachment lo Cardi- 
 ; nal Pole, 356 ; punishes those who spread 
 I reports about herself, 363 ; disappointment 
 
IND 
 
 about her delivery, increases the persecu- 
 ' tion ; her notion about it; neglected by her 
 husband, 3GG; rebuilds the convent of Fran- 
 ciscans, and gives up church lands and 
 tenths, 369 ; vindictive about Cranmer, 370; 
 converts VVestiniiister into a monastery; 
 - destroys the documents of former reigns, 
 373; refuses admission to I'eto, the papal 
 legate, into Englaiui, 374 ; death of; charac- 
 ter, 375 ; her severities had gone beyond the 
 wishes of the Roman (Catholics, and her 
 government had alienated the nation, 401 ; 
 persecutions during her reign compared 
 with those under Elizabeth, 444 ; summary 
 of her reign, 812. 
 
 Mary, queen of Scots, an act for security of 
 the queen's person levelled against her, 
 453; injustice of her execution, 455. 
 
 Mass, believed by the Anglo-Saxons to be a 
 sacrifice for the quick and the dead, 17 ; 
 the meaning of the word, 17, ". 
 
 Masses and exequies, 277 ; Henry VIII. leaves 
 money for, 303; private, forbidden, 307. 
 
 Massey, dean of Christ Church, a Roman Ca- 
 tholic, 761. 
 
 Mathews, Tobie, writes the petition in favour 
 of Grindal, 447 ; at the Hampton Court con- 
 ference, 504. 
 
 Matthew's Bible, .535. 
 
 Matrimony, Wiclif's opinion about, 118; Eru- 
 dition, i280. 
 
 Mazarine, Cardinal, afraid of Cromwell, 604. 
 Mechanics ordained, 410. 
 Medwinus and Eluanus sent by King Lucius 
 to Rome, 3. 
 
 Melancthon's opinion of Wiclif, 119; Henry 
 VIII. anxious that he should come to Eng- 
 land, 232; consulted by Craniner on a plan 
 of Protestant union, 324, ^ ; invited to Eng- 
 land and consulted, 341. 
 
 Mendicant orders, 105. 
 
 Mew, bishop of Winchester, withdraws from 
 
 the commission, 1689, 806. 
 Miilwives baptize, 424. 
 Mill burnt, 49.5. 
 Millenary petition, 502. 
 
 Ministers in Kent and Suifolk silenced; ap- 
 peal to the council, 450. 
 
 Ministers, calling of, and election, 426. 
 
 Ministry, the, totally destroyed by the inde- 
 pendents, 608. 
 
 Monasteries attacked by the Danes, 10; re- 
 stored by them, 213; abuses in, 130; Hen- 
 ry's object in their dissolution ; Cranmer's ; 
 all under 200/. per ann. suppressed ; instruc- 
 tions given to the visitors, 202; surrender 
 of; some refounded, 209 ; new visitation 
 of; disorders discovered in some ; excep- 
 tions, 211 ; surrenders of; small benefit to 
 the crown, 212; act for suppressing, 218; 
 dissolution of, 241, &c. ; originally useful, 
 242; a premium on peace, and practically 
 beneficial, 244 ; promoted architecture, lite- 
 rature, and trade, 245 ; by degrees they be- 
 come less useful, 246; favoured by the 
 people; why] they admitted the younger 
 branches of great families, fed the poor, 
 and were good landlords, 247 ; number of, 
 founded in each reign, 247, ' ; they would 
 44 
 
 EX. 345 
 
 hardly have been overthrown except by 
 violence; plans for employing the wealth 
 of them, 248, 249, 251 ; evils arising at the 
 time from the dissolution of, 253, 25.5, 258; 
 the property ultimately fell into the hands 
 of the industrious, 254 ; property of, trans- 
 ferred, 258 ; the transfer ultimately bene- 
 ficial, 259 ; property transferred at the 
 dissolution, equal to the present property 
 of the church, 258, p. 77; destroyed in 
 Scotland, 49.5. 
 Monastic establishments useful at first; fa- 
 vourable to civilization; attacked by the 
 Danes, 23. 
 
 Monk, General, destroys the power of the pres- 
 bytery in Scotland, 607 ; deceived every 
 one at the Restoration, 624. 
 
 Monks, origin of, 5, ' ; preferments granted to, a 
 hinderance to the Reformation, 303 ; in St. 
 James's allowed to wear their dresses, 764. 
 
 Money given lo the bride, 743, 
 
 Monmouth, victory over, 754. 
 
 Montague attacked by the commons, 552. 
 
 Morality, laws respecting, 620. 
 
 Morals, dissolute, 1549, 317. 
 
 More, Sir Thomas, sent to the Tower, 167; 
 death and character, 168. 
 
 Morley, his jest about Arminians, 557 ; wishes 
 for a comprehension, 715. 
 
 Mortmain, statute of, 66; impolicy of, 104. 
 
 Murderers and robbers subjected to the civil 
 courts, 151. 
 
 Music, church, objected to, 424. 
 
 Nag's-head consecration, 409 ; denied by Mor- 
 ton, 623. 
 
 Nantes, edict of, James receives the refugees, 
 778. 
 
 Nash, Thomas, his satirical writings useful, 
 461. 
 
 Naylor severely punished, 621. 
 
 Necessary Doctrine and Erudition, 223. 
 
 Nevill, Dr., sent to congratulate James, 501. 
 
 Nice, council of, 4; second, rejected by the 
 British church, 18; endeavours to impose 
 celibacy on the clergy, 22. 
 
 Nicholson, (see Lumber},) 215, \ 
 
 Nicodemus, Gospel of, 157. 
 
 Nismes, Protestants of, protected by Crom- 
 well, 604. 
 
 Noel's Catechism published, 412. 
 
 Nonconformists, treatment of; they were gene- 
 rally disliked, 704 ; how they should have 
 been treated, 705, 707; allowed no support 
 from their livings when ejected, 706; the 
 manner of doing it cruel, 707; some had 
 never seen the Common Prayer till they 
 were called on to use it, 707; causes of 
 their ill-treatment, 708; the people in fault 
 rather than the king, 709; number ejected, 
 710; relief of the nonconformists attempted, 
 715; faults of, 716; testimonies against 
 them ; foreign letters, 718; adverse to tole- 
 ration, 724; not praiseworthy for their op- 
 position to Roman Catholics, 725 ; exerted 
 themselves during the plague, 714, 727 ; mi- 
 nisters injured by the fire of London; they 
 opened meetings, 728. See Preshyleruins. 
 
 Nonjurors, 801 ; subsequent conduct of, 803; 
 continue the succession of bishops, 803 ; 
 
S46 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 principles on which they acted, not to be 
 justified, 804; principles of their political 
 conduct, 805. 
 
 Non-residence objected to by the puritans, 423. 
 
 Non-resistance, doctrine of, prevalent, 729. 
 
 Norfolk, risings in, 1549,317. 
 
 Northumberland, duke of, causes the fall of 
 Protector Somerset, 328 ; obtains the pala- 
 tinate of Durham, 331 ; persuades Edward 
 VI. to set aside Mary and Elizabeth, in fa- 
 vour of Lady Jane Grey, 333; his unpo- 
 pularity injures the cause of Lady Jane 
 Grey, 352. 
 
 Norwich, property of the church of, in dan- 
 ger; refounded,488. 
 
 Number of those who were burnt, 374 ; eject- 
 ed, 710. 
 
 Nuncio of the pope received by James, 764. 
 Oates's, T., plot, 721 ; condemned to be whip- 
 ped, 755, '. 
 
 Oaths to the pope, Cranmer protests against, 
 164; of priests did not bind them to celi- 
 bacy in England, 360 ; sanctity of, destroyed 
 by the changes, in England, 361 ; of allegi- 
 ance, 515 ; the et isetera oath, 570 ; about ihe 
 covenant, 702, 705; of supremacy, 166, 403; 
 supremacy and allegiance, William and 
 Mary, 801 ; unnecessarily imposed, 1689, 
 803 ; question as to the utility of, 802. See 
 ex Offirio mero. 
 
 Obits, Henry VIIL leaves money for, 303. 
 
 Odo, 12. 
 
 Officers in the army, preachers, 593. 
 
 Offices of state held by the clergy, 136, 583. 
 
 OJirio mero. Articles ex, proposed to clerg)'- 
 men; of an inquisitorial nature, 451; many 
 puritans refuse to take the oath; method of 
 proceeding, 458, p. 157; James speaks in 
 favour i,{ it, 509. 
 
 Oldcastle, Sir John, see Cobham, Lord. 
 
 Oldcorn, powder plot, 514. 
 
 Opinions of Wiclif, 115, &c. 
 
 Orange, prince of, solicited to invade Eng- 
 land, 772; never questions the legitimacy, 
 of James's heir, 779. 
 
 Orders, see Religions Orders; seven orders of 
 the church of Rome, 22; confusion con- 
 cerning, 117; only two mentioned in Scrip- 
 ture,280; how many in the primitive church ; 
 equivocation about the term, 460, "\ p. 158. 
 
 Ordination of priests to offer mass for the liv- 
 ing and the dead, 17; service, 319, 744; of 
 inadequate persons, 410; supposed to exist 
 in the election of the congregation, 426 ; 
 Cartwright's ideas about, 433 ; age of priests 
 and deacons; regulations about, 435 ; pres- 
 byterian, discussed. 454, '; power of, vested 
 in the assembly, 589; form of, in the direc- 
 tory, 590; by foreign churches, 710, '. 
 
 Organs and church music objected to, 424. 
 
 Orienial literature flourished during the usurpa- 
 tion, 616. 
 
 Origen, quotation from, 2, ^ 
 
 Original sin, 275. 
 
 Orrery, Lord, he attempts a comprehension, 
 716. 
 
 Osbolslon, ill treated, 563. 
 Oswi adopts the Roman method of keeping 
 Easter, 7. 
 
 Overall, Bishop, his plan for re-ordaining, 710; 
 
 drew up part of the Catechism, 747, '. 
 Outram, 728. 
 
 Oxford ; Gerhard and his followers punished 
 for heresy, 60; Wiclif 's opinions approved 
 there, lli ; he is summoned before commis- 
 sioners there, 112; friendly to Wiclif; gives 
 him letters testimonial, 120; erected into a 
 see, 218, <^; disputations on transubstantia- 
 tion, 315 ; disputation at ; Cranmer, 361 ; P. 
 Martyr's wife's bones dug up, 373 ; suffer- 
 ings of; reasons against the covenant; Er- 
 bury silences the presbyterian divines there, 
 600; decree, 729; state of, 1687, 761. 
 
 Pagit, Eusebius, ill treatment of, 459. 
 
 Pardons of the church of Rome, 106. 
 
 Pare, George Van, burnt, 1551, 315. 
 
 Parish, churches, 8 ; discipline, Baxter's, 812. 
 
 Parishes, division into; a civil enactment, 804. 
 
 Parker, M., publishes the Testimony of Anti- 
 quity, 16; consecrated archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 1559, 409; Elizabeth writes to him 
 pressingconformity,41G; entertained doubts 
 as to the dresses, 418; his difficulties in 
 pressing conformity. 420; peremptorj- in his 
 treatment of Sampson and other noncon- 
 formists ; his excellences, 422 ; writes to 
 Elizabeth on the spoliation of the church, 
 429, ; urges Grindal to adopt the canons 
 of 1571, 434; how far he was the cause of 
 persecution is uncertain ; his character, and 
 death, 446; prepares the Articles for the 
 convocation, 1562,484; remodels them, 485, 
 487. 
 
 Parker.Mrs., called by her maiden name, 468,'. 
 
 Parker, Samuel, bishop of Oxford, elected 
 president of Magdalen college, 761. 
 
 Parliament; (^see Mts of Parliament :) present 
 a petition in favour of reform in the church, 
 1581,448; members sent to the Tower for 
 innovating in religion, 456; selfishness and 
 tyranny of, 580; Long, oppression of, 598; 
 the kingdom disgusted with them, 603 ; Ro- 
 man Catholics prevented from sitting in, 
 720, 721. 
 
 Parliamentary religion, the church of Eng- 
 land, a, 336, 811. 
 
 Parr, Catharine, married to Henry, 224; talks 
 to the king on religious subjects; in dan- 
 ger, but escapes, 226. 
 
 Parties for and against Reformation, 205. 
 
 Pascal IL, his ill conduct about Anselm, 55. 
 
 Pascatius Radbertus, 16. 
 
 Passive obedience, doctrine of, prevalent, 729; 
 preached till the clergy had to suffer for 
 781. 
 
 Pastoral Staff, 743, 9. 
 
 Patric, employed about the Collects, 728,807,', 
 p. 304. 
 
 Paul, St., possibly converted England, 2. 
 Paul's Cross, 353. 
 
 Paul IV. annuls the settlement about church 
 property, 364 ; refuses to acknowledge Eli- 
 zabeth, 402. 
 
 Paul V. forbids Roman Catholics to take the 
 oath of allegiance, 516. 
 
 Payment of officers in the army, 430, ". 
 
 Peachell, ejected from the vice-chancellorsfaip 
 at Cambridge, 762. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 Pecock, promotes the Reformation by excus- 
 ing Romish errors, and analyzing what was 
 innocent in them ; promoted to the sees of 
 St. Asaph and Chichester; deprived of his 
 preferments, 12C; he offended by betraying 
 the weakness of Rome, by defending it on 
 its right ground ; images ; pilgrimages, 127 ; 
 defends the supremacy, and the religious 
 orders, but blames the abuses, 128; the Bi- 
 ble the standard of his faith; his opinions 
 similar to Wiclif 's ; a man of no great 
 talents, 129. 
 
 Peers, House of, the number of lay and spi- 
 ritual members, 129, 
 
 Pelagian heresy, 5. 
 
 Penal laws render the Roman Catholics fa- 
 vourable to the tyranny of James II., 753; 
 James tries to repeal them, 759. 
 
 Penance and repentance confounded, 21, ; 
 and confession, difference between the 
 churches of England and Rome ; those ge- 
 nerally imposed among the Saxons; com- 
 mutation of, 21, 3; or repentance; sacra- 
 mental part, 279. See Jbsolution. 
 
 Penitents and apostates, a form of prayer for 
 reconciling, 808. 
 
 Penruddock, rising of, 605. 
 
 Penry executed, 461. 
 
 Perjury, promoted by dispensations, 56; pre- 
 valence of and cause, 615. 
 
 Persecutions, early, St. Alban, 3; directed the 
 attention of mankind to the false doctrines 
 of Rome, 136; effects of 173; Lord Herbert's 
 observation on, 221 ; question concerning, 
 discussed, 365; disgust excited by; petition 
 against; Alphonsus preaches against; Phi- 
 lip adverse to persecution, 366 ; under Mary 
 and Elizabeth, 444; in England before Lu- 
 ther, 491, 2 ; James I., 518 ; of the usurpa- 
 tion and Charles II., 731 ; of dissenters ; 
 Charles II. ; arising from the House of Com- 
 mons, 816. 
 
 Perseverance, final, discussed at Hampton 
 Court, 605. 
 
 Persons, comes to England, 438; much to 
 blame about the armada, 457. 
 
 Perth, assembly of; the five points, 565, ^ 
 
 Peter, St., tradition about, 2. 
 
 Peter's pence, 103, ^ ; re-demanded ; Wiclif 
 declares them not to be due, 110. 
 
 Petitions presented against episcopacy; the 
 Millenary; its value, 502; of the noncon- 
 formists to the king, 1660, 661 ; for peace, 
 of Baxter, 670 ; after the conference, 679 ; 
 of the seven bishops, 768. 
 
 Peto, refused admission into England, 374. 
 
 Petre, Father, made privy-counsellor, 763. 
 
 Philip, St., tradition about, 2. 
 
 Philip of France proceeds to depose John, 63. 
 
 Philip of Spain sends money to Gardiner to 
 bribe off opponents, 356 ; he saves Eliza- 
 beth, 363 ; adverse to persecution ; he neg- 
 lects Mary, 366. 
 
 Pictures and images, when introduced; de- 
 crees of second council of Nice, 18. 
 
 Pierson, one of the disputants, 1661, 673. 
 
 Pilgrimages to Jerusalem, early made by the 
 English ; and to Rome ; abuses arising 
 from; penitential canons enact them, 30; 
 
 347 
 
 Wiclif 's opinion of, 118 ; Pecock's, 127 ; of 
 
 grace, 209. 
 
 Pius V. excommunicates Elizabeth, 437. 
 
 Plague in London, 714; nonconformists ev- 
 ened themselves, 727. 
 
 Plans for employing the wealth of the sup- 
 pressed monasteries, 248 ; constructing 
 harbours ; a school of diplomacy, 249. 
 
 Plays, none acted during the usurpation, 620. 
 
 Plots against the government,721 ; Charles II., 
 722. 
 
 Ploughman, complaint of; notice of, 107, 
 Pocock, ill treatment of, 609, 
 Poinets. See Ponet. 
 
 Pole, Cardinal, writes against Henry, 208; 
 appointed legate ; idea of his marrying 
 Mary, 356; comes to England and recon- 
 ciles the kingdom to the pope; he alarms 
 the holders of church property, 364; a 
 friend to mild measures, 365; evil reports 
 sent of him to Rome, by Gardiner, 368; 
 reforms the church ; intends to publish the 
 New Testament, and to establish cathedral 
 schools, 369 ; archbishop of Canterbury, 
 372 ; dismisses several heretics, 373 ; per- 
 secuted by Paul IV., but restored, 374; 
 death of; character, 375. 
 
 Police, moral, established by the church, 819. 
 
 Pollanus, Valerandus, 745, ^ 1. 
 
 Ponet, defence of priests' marriage, 216 ; Cate- 
 chism, 331. 
 
 Poor laws, 436. 
 
 Poor priests, Wiclif 's, 120. 
 
 Pope, the, grants Ireland to Henry II., 57; ap- 
 points Stephen Langton archbishop of Can- 
 terbury, 62; taxes the clergy, 103; many 
 of them Frenchmen ; offensive to England, 
 103 '; laws against, 166. 
 
 Popery, political tendency of, 752. 
 
 Popham, A., at the Charter-house, 762. 
 
 Poverty of the church, 330, causes of, 410, 430. 
 
 Powder-plot, 514. 
 
 Power, why given to the ministers of the gos- 
 pel, 131. 
 
 Practice of prelates, 171. 
 
 Praemunire, statute of, 104, '. 
 
 Prayers for the dead, early in use; not con- 
 nected necessarily with purgatory, 15 ; al- 
 tered, 305 ; examined, 322 ; in the primers 
 of Edward VI. and Elizabeth, 741 ; ad- 
 dressed to saints before Alfred's time ; 
 Anglo-Saxon church's opinion about, (see 
 Lord's,) 18; bidding, 305, '; in Latin; wis- 
 dom of having the, an odd argument for, 
 310; for the sufferers under Mary, forbid- 
 den, 374 ; common, used in Scotland, (see 
 Common,) 494 ; how used during the usur- 
 pation, 615, '; Bates says it was allowed, 
 616; the nonconformists' objection to, 671 ; 
 form of for the fifth of November, &c., 750. 
 
 Praying for William and Mary,objected to, 804. 
 
 Preacher, a, inveighs against the bill which 
 subjected all robbers to the civil power, 151. 
 
 Preachers, king's, appointed and sent through 
 the country to preach, 1551, 326; licensed, 
 who are favourable to the church of Rome, 
 354 ; in Oxford, silenced for preaching on 
 predestination, 557. 
 
 Preaching forbidden, 223; on week-days. 
 
348 IND 
 
 stopped, 323 ; James's letter about, 521 ; on 
 controverted points,forbidden; James II.,?56. 
 Predestination, a source of differences, 276, 
 317; disputes about, 367; controversy about, 
 463; Hampton-court, 505. See Latnbeth Ar- 
 ticles. 
 
 Preferments, (see Appointments,) value of, the 
 cause of disputes, 133; and of wrong ap- 
 pointments, 134 ; granted to monks ; pover- 
 ty of, a hinderance to the Reformation, 303. 
 
 Presbyterians, few in the House of Commons 
 at first, 571, ' ; tyrannical over the laity, 
 587; why, 591, '; established in London 
 and Lancashire, 592; their church govern- 
 ment, 587 ; divine right of, 589, 592 ; framed 
 by the assembly of divines, 591 ; republican, 
 593 ; ministers petition for the king, 595, ' ; 
 silenced by Erbury, 600 ; they wished to 
 establish a limited monarchy, 601 ; their 
 proceedings when in power; ejected by the 
 engagement; abused the power of the bish- 
 ops, but loved the power of the presbytery, 
 606 ; offended at the execution of Mr. Love ; 
 they afterwards possessed no power ; Monk 
 destroys it in Scotland, 607; their goi;grn- 
 ment in the minister and elders ; they pumsh 
 directions about catechising, 614; instru- 
 mental in the Restoration, 650; who are 
 meant by the term ; republicans in the 
 church, 651; difficulty arising from them 
 at the Restoration, 656 ; anxious for parish 
 discipline, 657 ; object of the, at the Resto- 
 ration ; the difficulty of it, 659 ; their peti- 
 tion to the king, objections to the church, 
 661 ; alter the king's declaration, (see Savoy 
 Conference,) 664 ; after the conference they 
 present an address to the king, 675. 
 
 Presbytery admired by those who had been 
 exiles for religion, 425; first established at 
 Wandsworth, 446 ; attempt to introduce the, 
 452 ; how introduced into England, 574, 580. 
 
 Price of a Bible, 534, K 
 
 Prideaux, J. V. C, when the Articles were 
 published without the first clause in the 
 twentieth, 487. 
 
 Prideaux, H., formed great hopes of a reform 
 in the church, 808. 
 
 Priests, poor, Wiclif 's, 120 ; age of, when or- 
 dained, 435. 
 
 Priests and ministers, the term used without 
 rule in the Rubrics, 748, 
 
 Primer, 224, ' ; 741, 2. 
 
 Principles on which the nonjuring bishops 
 continued the succession, 804; of the Revo- 
 lution, 805. 
 
 Printing, 157. 
 
 Printing-press of the libellers discovered, 458. 
 
 Priories, alien, dissolved, 1414, 248, ^. 
 
 Prisoners at Worcester sold for slaves, 607. 
 
 Proclamation to the clergy in favour of re- 
 form, 207; about the celibacy of the clergy; 
 Cranmer screened, 216; against innova- 
 tions, 308 ; Henry's made equivalent to 
 laws; for priming the Bible, 218; in favour 
 of the Bible, 222. 
 
 Profitable and Necessary Doctrine, published 
 by Bonner, 369, '. 
 
 Propaganda, Protestant, 604. 
 
 Propagation of the Gospel ia Wales, 608. 
 
 Proparents, 671. 
 
 Property, church, Wiclif 's opinion of, 116; 
 confusion about, 116, ^; why granted to the 
 church, 131 ; transferred at the dissolution of 
 monasteries, 258; not restored, 1554 ; Cardi- 
 nal Pole inveighs against this, and Paul IV. 
 annuls all the concessions, 364 ; principles 
 of, 430, 2; at the Restoration, 703, 2. 
 
 Prophesyings, what they were ; stopped by 
 the queen; advantages of, 427 ; in Norwich, 
 stopped, 446 ; bishops ordered to suppress 
 them, 447; objected lo by James, 508. 
 
 Protestant Union of Faith proposed by Cran- 
 mer, 324. 
 
 Protestantism, political tendency of, 752. 
 Provisions, papal, 103; statute against, 104; 
 
 dispute about, compromised, 110. 
 Provision made for the ejected clergy, 598. 
 Provisors, statute of, 104. 
 Prynne punished, 562. 
 
 Psalm singing, 312 ; authority of the Old Ver- 
 sion, and history of, 312, " ; in the Prayer 
 Book, taken from the Great Bible, or Cran- 
 mer's, 536, '; selections from, 1689, and 
 new translation, 807. 
 
 Purgatory, doctrines of, when invented; com- 
 mon to many religions ; prayers for the dead 
 not necessarily connected with it; traces of 
 it among the.\nglo-Saxons ; popular notions 
 of it in the time of Bede and .\lcuin, 15 ; first 
 believed, and then made profitable, 24; Wic- 
 lif 's opinion of, 117; attacked, 170; the 
 origin of the wealth of the clergy, 229 ; ex- 
 amined, 248; Erudition, 277. 
 
 Puritans opposed the civil power, 421 ; objec- 
 tions of, 423; intolerant, 445; treatment of, 
 449,459, 461 ; endeavour to alter the govern- 
 ment of the church. 458; their plan of pro- 
 ceeding, 459 ; much to blame, yet treated 
 with severity, 466, 471 ; Elizabeth's treat- 
 ment of, 468 ; points complained of by them, 
 502; James's opinion of them, 509; idea 
 conveyed by the name, 524 ; different par- 
 ties comprehended under the term, 527. 
 
 Quakers, name of, 618, ' ; compelled to take 
 an oath, 713; sufferings of, 760. 
 
 Qunre impcM. 110, •'. 
 
 Quick and the dead, the mass a sacrifice for, 
 among the Anglo-Saxons, 17. 
 
 Rachell, Dr., ejected from the vice-chancellor- 
 ship of Cambridge, 762. 
 
 Rationale of the Roman Catholic service,271, -. 
 
 Ratram, see llertruni. 
 
 Rebellion, northern, suppressed, 210 ; hastens 
 
 the suppression of monasteries, 211; Wy. 
 
 at's, caused by the Spanish match, 359. 
 Recantation, feigned one of Wiclif, 112; of 
 
 Lord Cobham', 124. 
 Reconciliation with Rome, 1554, 364. 
 Redemption, universality of, 276. 
 Reform, plans of, 452 ; only safe when carried 
 
 on by the upper orders, 601. 
 Reformatio leptm ecrlcsiaslirarum,330, i35, and"; 
 
 the first chapters an authorized expression 
 
 of the meaning of the Thirty-nine Articles, 
 
 482. 
 
 Reformation, steps towards a, 137; causes of 
 151 ; promoted by the progress of literature 
 157; review of, instruments who produced 
 
IND 
 
 it, 174; state of the, 1547, 229; in Germa- 
 ny, its effects on England not considerable 
 during Henry's reign, 231 ; hindered by hav- 
 ing monks put into benefices, and poverty 
 of the livings, 303; of ecclesiastical law, 
 330 ; affections of the people towards the, 
 1553, 335 ; review of the benefits and evils 
 arising from the, 413; political character 
 of, 442 ; in England, not hasty, 491 ; it had 
 been long preparing, 492 ; to be preferred 
 to that in Scotland, 498 ; in Scotland, 491 ; 
 rapid, 493; established 1560, 495; general 
 view of, 497; arevokuion in the church, 49S; 
 introduced discussion in church and state, 
 525. 
 
 Reformed churches too simple in their cere- 
 monies, 414. 
 
 Reformers, the, publish a statement of their 
 belief, from prison, 362. 
 
 Regeneration, at baptism, 671, 672, 2, p. 257. 
 
 Relics, used in the consecration of churches, 
 18 ; natural respect for them ; sent by Gre- 
 gory to Augnstin, 19. 
 
 Religion, influence of, in forming the army, 
 579 ; used by Cromwell, 582 ; state of, dur- 
 ing the usurpation, 611, 615. 
 
 Religious orders, Pecock defends the variety 
 of, 128; depravity of, 130. 
 
 Re-ordination objected to, 663; influences 
 many of the nonconformists, 710, and '; 
 454, '1 ; form of, 807, 
 
 Repentance and penance confounded, 21 ; sa- 
 cramental part of it, 276, 279. 
 
 Responses in the Liturgy objected to, 671, 672. 
 
 Restoration, causes of, 624 ; the presbyterians 
 negligent in providing for their safely al,650; 
 service for,653 ; summary of the history, 816. 
 
 Revenues of the clergy lessened at the Re- 
 formation by the loss of fees and personal 
 tithe, 250, ^ ; of the suppressed monasteries, 
 how they might best have been applied, 251. 
 
 Revolution, progress of the, 722 ; was it a po- 
 litical or religious struggle 1 780; principles 
 of, 805. 
 
 Reynolds at the conference at Hampton Court, 
 504, 505, 506, 507 ; accepts a bishopric, 666. 
 
 Rhemes New Testament, 539. 
 
 Richardson, ch. j., suppresses wakes, &c., 559. 
 
 Ridley, disputations in Cambridge, 315; ad- 
 vises Hooper to comply, 321 ; made bishop 
 of London, 323 ; his assistance desired in 
 the dispute in convocation, 357 ; disputes 
 at Oxford, 361 ; supposed to have assisted 
 Cranmer in framing the 39 Articles, 482. 
 
 Ring, in marriage, 671. 
 
 Risings in Devon and Norfolk, 317. 
 
 Rites, diversity of, destroys not the unity of 
 the church, 277. 
 
 Robbers and murderers subjected to civil 
 courts, 151. 
 
 Rogers, J., his assistance desired by the Pro- 
 testants disputing in convocation, 357 ; 
 burnt in Smithfield, 366; publishes Mat- 
 thew's Bible, 535. 
 
 RoUe's translation of the Bible, 533. 
 
 Roman Catholics injured by the conduct of 
 Paul IV., 402 ; they attended church early 
 in Elizabeth's reign, 437 ; treatment of, 438 ; 
 severity caused by the ill conduct of their 
 
 EX, 349 
 
 own leaders, 439 ; treatment of, under Eliza- 
 beth, discussed, 440 ; their conduct alarmed 
 Protestants, 468, ; treatment of, at the time 
 of the armada, 457 ; their cause cursed with 
 injudicious leaders; some of the clergy 
 view the matter truly ; Burleigh's testimony 
 in their favour, 457 ; in some measure the 
 cause of their own sufferings ; number who 
 suffered, 462, " ; severe laws against, 515; 
 punished. lOOfi, 516 ; a project for tolerating 
 Ihein under Cromwell, 010; laws against 
 them; exi-hulpd IV.. m p;uiiament, 720 ; ques- 
 tion about tlii'iii, 72:i; driven to support 
 James by the inldleraricc o( the Protestants, 
 753 ; in England have much reason to com- 
 plain at not having bishops,763, ■> ; excluded 
 from toleration, 806 ; not tolerated, nor So- 
 cinians, 817. 
 
 Rome, superiority of, over Saxon England, 9, -'; 
 errors of the church of, generally those of 
 human nature; debt due to, from Europe, 
 14 ; date of their inlrodiiction into England, 
 15; pilgrimages to; visiied by many of the 
 Saxon kings, 20; influence of, arose from 
 the vices of ihe kings; interfered to sup- 
 ll^rt the just rights of the church, 53 ; inter- 
 feres with the affairs of England, 61 ; power 
 of, 64; Greathead opposes it, 65; growth of 
 the power of, 67 ; causes of it; injustice of 
 the crown, 68, 70; political abuses of the 
 church, with regard lo England; attempts 
 to limit it, 102 ; moral abuses, 105; doctrinal 
 errors of, idolatry, &c., 106; covetousness 
 of, Wielif writes against Ihe, 108; Wiclif 
 opposes the temporal power of, and the doc- 
 trines, 111; Pecock excuses the errors of, 
 12(1; d._-lt'ii.ls iheiii oil the ri'^'ht ground, and 
 so injures llieir del'ence, 127 ; misuses the 
 power gianled 10 her, 131 ; the power of, a 
 check to the crown, 132; stepped in to de- 
 fend the right of the clergy to appoint their 
 own superiors, aj.iinst the crown, 133; 
 power (>!', dependent ..n false doctrines ; and 
 attacked by the lrans!alion of the Bible, 136; 
 final roplure wilh.ltio ; the relit;ion of, never 
 in the Bible, 172, '; the power of, thrown 
 down by opinion, as well as laws, 229. 
 
 Royalists, division among the, at the Restora- 
 tion ; easer for preferments, 655. 
 
 Roye, William, assi>ted Tyndale, 5.34. 
 
 Rural deans promised ; their office, 665. 
 
 Russell, Lord, 722. 
 
 Sabbatarian controversy, 519, 558. 
 
 Sabbath, strict observance of it enjoined, Ed- 
 ward VI., 304 ; how spent in the days of 
 Elizabeth, 519, '; laws about, during the 
 usurpation, 620. 
 
 Sacramentaries, 214, 
 
 Sacraments, seven, Wiclif's opinion of, 118; 
 Alesse argues against them, 205 ; a question 
 of the name, rather than the thing; differ- 
 ence between the different sacraments; 
 three most necessary ; how the church of 
 England views this, 278. 
 
 Sacraments to be administered by the clergy, 
 460, 3, p. 159 ; of the Lord's supper, 671. 
 
 Saints, invocation of, 18, 277. 
 
 Salisbury, services after the use of, the basis 
 of the Commoa Prayer, 744, 
 2G 
 
3se 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Salvation through Christ alone, 276. 
 
 Sampson deprived, 416 ; intolerant, 445. 
 
 Bancroft urges chapters to augment their liv- 
 ings, 703, 2 ; attempts a comprehension, 715; 
 refuses to act on the ecclesiastical commis- 
 sion, 757; conduct about the declaration, 
 768; sent to the Tower, 769 ; publishes ad- 
 iflaonitions to the other bishops; attempts a 
 comprehension, 771; presents a paper of 
 advice to James II., 773, ' ; draws up a ser- 
 vice for SOlh of January, 750, <> ; transfers 
 his authority to Lloyd, 803. 
 
 Sanctification, held by Wiclif, 119. 
 
 Sanctuary, abuse of, 103 ; benefit of, 243. 
 
 Sanderson carries on his ministry ; method of 
 using the Common Prayer, 615. 
 
 Sandys' opinion on the dresses, 418. 
 
 Sardica, council of, 4. 
 
 Saunders, L., burnt at Coventry, 366 ; his letter 
 
 to his wife, App. F. 
 Savoy conference; the commission, 667; its 
 
 failure owing to the nature of the discussion, 
 
 700. 
 
 Sawtrey, William, burnt, 122. 
 
 Saxons invade England, 6. 
 
 Saxon names of days and feasts, 7, ' ; kiligs 
 visit Rome, 20. 
 
 Scandalous ministers, committee of, 574. 
 
 Schism, hardly deemed a sin, 718. 
 
 Schools, early established in England, 5; es- 
 tablished by Alfred for his son, 11 ; for di- 
 plomacy, plan for, 249; cathedral, Pole in- 
 tends lo' establish, 369. 
 
 Scotland ; (see Liiurgy, Sroirh ,) reformation 
 in, compared with that of England, 491, 
 495; Cromwell's war in, 602; episcopacy 
 now existing there, 804. 
 
 Scotch church write concerning dresses, 419. 
 
 Scory, consecrates Parker, 409. 
 
 Scriptures, Holy, the standard of faith, in 
 Wiclifs opinion, 116; Pecock's, 129 ; study 
 of, 157; use of, 172; burning of, 173. 
 
 Sea, Form of Prayer to be used at, 749. 
 
 Sects, during the Usurpation, 617. 
 
 Secular clergy, dispute with the Jesuits ; de- 
 clare their loyalty, 462. 
 
 Sees, new, erected. 218, '. 
 
 Selden's Table Talk, 657, ' ; 675, =; 717,'. 
 
 Self-denying ordinance, 580. 
 
 Seminaries established; the oath taken by the 
 seminarisls in Scotland. 438. 
 
 Separation of the church of England from 
 Home, 165,204,403,437; when allowable, 
 718. 
 
 Sermons, written, 223; prohibited by Mary, 
 354; prevalence of, injurious, 614. 
 
 Service, church, in Latin, 23 ; books, old, de- 
 stroved, 1550, 319 ; at the end of the Prayer 
 Book, 750. 
 
 Severus, a French bishop, assists the British 
 church, 5. 
 
 Seymour, Jane, married to Henry VIII., 204. 
 
 Seymour, Sir Thomas, admiral, executed, 313. 
 
 Shaftesbury, carries the exclusion bill against 
 Roman Catholics, 721; cares little for reli- 
 gion, 723. 
 
 Sharp preaches against popery, 757. 
 
 Shaxton, resigns his see, 218; condemned to 
 be burnt ; recants, 225. 
 
 Sheldon, makes an arrangement about subsU 
 dies, 701, 705 ; saying about the noncon- 
 formists, 731. 
 
 Shirt, see Saunders, L., Append. F. 
 
 Shrines destroyed, 212. 
 
 Sibthorpe,hissermonnotlicensedbyAbbot,555. 
 
 Simon Zelotes, tradition about, 2. 
 
 Simoniacal contracts of patrons, 305, 410, 430. 
 
 Sinfulnessof the impositions intheLiturgy,673. 
 
 SLx Articles, act of, 217. 
 
 Skinner, bishop of Oxford, ordains during the 
 usurpation, 615. 
 
 Smalcalde, princes assembled there, write to 
 France and England ; Henry answers them, 
 and sends ambassadors, 232. 
 
 Smith challenges P. Martyr at Oxford, 313 ; 
 he flies, 314. 
 
 Smith, Sir T., his life saved by Gardiner, 368. 
 
 Socinians ; severity against, 621 ; not tole- 
 rated ; nor Roman Catholics, 817. 
 
 Somerset, duke of, protector, 301 ; his fall, 
 319; and character, 328. 
 
 South prayed publicly in Westminster school 
 for Charles on the day of his execution, 600. 
 
 Southworth, a Romish priest, executed, 610. 
 
 Spanish match; parliament petitions against 
 it, 356; creates a rebellion, 3-59. 
 
 Sparkes, at the Hampton Court conference, 504. 
 
 Sparrow, one of the disputants, 1661, 673. 
 
 Spies, the papal officers are, 103. 
 
 Spoliation, still carried on, 1552, 330. 
 
 Sponsors, the answers made by,objected to,424. 
 
 Sports.Bookof ; disliked by the clergy,5 19,559. 
 
 Spratt, bishop of Rochester, on the ecclesiasti- 
 cal commission, 757 ; reads the declaration 
 in Westminster Abbey, 768. -; withdraws 
 from the commission, 1689, 806. 
 
 Standish, Dr., advocates the civil power, 152. 
 
 Star Chamber, court of, 554, 575. 
 
 State of the country, 1640, 571. 
 
 Stephen increases the papal power by his 
 injustice; summoned before the bishop of 
 Winchester, 56. 
 
 Stillingfleet, preaches, 728 ; reviewed the Col- 
 lects, 807, p. 304. 
 
 Strafford, Lord, injustice of his death, 582. 
 
 Str.isburg, service of the church at, 745, 1. 
 
 Straw, miracle of, 514. 
 
 Subscription to the Articles; limited to those 
 relating to faith and the sacraments, 485 ; 
 dates from the canons of 1604, 488. 
 
 Subsidy, what, 331, ; last, paid by the clergy, 
 how paid, 701. 
 
 Sudbury, S., summons Wiclif before hfm, 111. 
 
 Suffolk, men of, Marj-'s promise to them, 352. 
 
 Suffolk, duke of, executed for Wyat's rebel- 
 lion, 359. 
 
 Sufl"ragan bishops, 662, 
 
 Summary of the history of the church of Eng- 
 land, 811. 
 
 Sunderland, Lord, dishonest, 777. 
 
 Supererogation, works on, 275. 
 
 Superiority of Rome over Saxon England, 9. 
 
 Supplication of beggars, by Fish, 171. 
 
 Supremacy, papal, Wiclif opposes the, 115; 
 Pecock defends it, 128 ; of the king, ill re- 
 ceived by the clergy, 163; oath of, 166; 
 hardly less arbitrary than that of Rome, 172; 
 Erudition, 281 ; the parliament iinwiiling to 
 
IND 
 
 give it up, 356; Elizabeth scruples about 
 the name; oaih of, 403; declaration of Eli- 
 zabeth concerning, 406 ; Roman Catholic 
 clergy ejected by it, 407; oath of; severe 
 act of parliament about, 412 ; oath of, 453, ' ; 
 established in England very arbitrary, 525. 
 
 Surplice, question about, at Hampton Court, 
 508; objected to, 661, 671; use of, 1689,807. 
 
 Surrender of monasteries, see Munasteries. 
 
 Surrey, Lord, execution of, 227. 
 
 Sussex converted to Christianity, 8. 
 
 Swearins:, laws against, 620. 
 
 Su'ord, " You have the word, but we have the," 
 3.)8. 
 
 Syrian churches,Alfred sends an embassy to,l 1. 
 'J'averner's Bible, 536. 
 
 Tax imposed by the pope on the clergy, 61, 
 103; by Edward I., 66; imposed on the cler- 
 gy by parliament, 701. 
 
 Taylor burnt at Hadley, 366. 
 
 Temporalities during a vacancy, 53, K See 
 Properly. 
 
 Teiinison reviewed the Liturgy, 807, p. 304. 
 Tenths and first fruits restored to the crown, 
 
 401; augmentation of, 430, ". 
 Tenths and fifteenths, 331, 
 Tertullian, quotation from, 2, ■» ; and 3. 
 Test act, 720. 
 
 Testimonials given by Oxford to Wiclif, 120. 
 Tewkesbury burnt, 170. 
 
 Thanks given to the gentry for attending the 
 execution of heretics, 367. 
 
 Theodore, archbishop of Canterbury, 8. 
 
 Theodoret, quotation from, 2, p. 1 ; ', p. 2. 
 
 Theology, studv of, James's advice, 521, '. 
 
 Thirlby degrades Cranmer, 370. 
 
 Thorpe, William, examination of, 124. 
 
 Throgmorton, Sir N., the jury fined for ac- 
 quitting him, 359. 
 
 Tillotson, preaches, 1666, 728 ; exposed to 
 much obloquy, 804; reviewed the Collects, 
 807 ; not elected prolocutor, 809. 
 
 Tithes mentioned before Eihelwulph's grant 
 to the church ; spoken of as due by divine 
 right, 10 ; personal, 430 ; not to be let by a 
 non-resident clergyman, 435. 
 
 Toleration establi>hed by Cromwell, 610 ; pro- 
 mised by Charles 11. at Breda, 660; little 
 understood; demanded by the anabaptists 
 and independents, 664; Charles II., decla- 
 ration for, 71.5. 
 
 Toleration act, 806. 
 
 Tombs of the archbishops of Canterbury, re- 
 spect paid to; dispute about it, 19. 
 
 Tonstal, story of burning the New Testament, 
 173 ; draws up an answer to the German 
 Protestants, 232; deprived, 331. 
 
 Torture directed to be used, 367; used at the 
 powder-plot, 514. 
 
 Tracy, his will, 170. 
 
 Trade promoted by monasteries, 245. 
 
 Traditions and ceremonies, 281. 
 
 Transfer, the, of property from one religious 
 use to another not begun by Henry VIII., 
 248, '; to the crown, made illegal, 513; in- 
 jurious when sudden, 656. 
 
 Translations formed by Alfred, 11 ; of the Bi- 
 ble, 507, 531, &c. (see Jiible); question of a 
 new translation, 540 ; new to be used, 671. 
 
 EX. 8M 
 
 Transubstantiation, Waterland's history of; 
 not held by the Anglo-Saxons, 16; first be- 
 lieved, and then made profitable, 24; de- 
 clared to be a tenet of the church of Rome, 
 63, 106; opposed by Wiclif, 112; Wiclifs 
 opinion ; the first decision about in England, 
 119; the point on which martyrs were ex- 
 amined,122; Erudition, 280 ; doctrine stated, 
 313; disputations on, at Oxford and Cam- 
 bridge, 314; disputed on in convocation, 
 357 ; the doctrine for which the martyrs suf- 
 fered, 444 ; declaration to be made against 
 it, 720. 
 
 Travers, disputes with Hooker ; question as 
 to his ordination, 454. 
 
 Tremellius, placed at Cambridge, 314. 
 
 Triers, established by Cromwell ; used politi- 
 cally, 609. 
 
 Trinity, correct faith in, among the Anglo- 
 Saxons, 26; doctrine of, in the Erudition, 
 273 ; non-believers in, excluded from tole- 
 ration, 806. 
 
 Troubles at Frankfort, 367, ". 
 
 Tunicles, 743, \ 9. 
 
 Turner, bishop of Ely, engaged in Lord Pres- 
 ton's plot, 805. 
 
 Tyndale's translation of the New Test., 534 ; 
 burnt by Tonstal, 173. 
 
 Vtilor erclesiastiais, history of the various ones 
 in England, 201, ', p. 54; question as to the 
 right of the crown to frame a new one, 756, ^, 
 
 Vaudois relieved by Cromwell, 604. 
 
 Ubiquitarians, 313, ' ; article about, 341. 
 
 Udai translates Erasmus's Paraphrase, 205,' ; 
 executed, 461. 
 
 Verses, Bible divided into, 537, \ 
 
 Vesey, Dr., persuades Henry VIII. to support 
 the civil power, 152. 
 
 Vicars apostolic in England, 763, ■\ 
 
 Virgin Mary, worship of, 18 ; addresses to, 744. 
 
 Visitation of the church (see Monasteries'), 201; 
 ecclesiastical, 1547, .304; 1549,314;of the uni- 
 versities, 373 ; Articles of, framed, 1661, 701. 
 
 Unction, extreme, 280. 
 
 Uniformity, act of, 405; compared with that of 
 Elizabeth, 702; discussed; its policy, 703, 
 &c. ; its justice, 706; persecutions under 
 it, 711. 
 
 Union, Protestant, planned by Cranmer, 324, 
 and \ 
 
 Universities, the question of the divorce re- 
 ferred to them, 163; alarmed at the grant 
 of chapels and chantries, confirmed, 225 ; 
 wanted in the north of England, 251 ; visit- 
 ed, 373; sad state of, 1559, 410, \ p. 123; 
 incorporated, 436 ; state of, 1603, 471 ; sub- 
 jected to the ecclesiastical commission, 757 ; 
 first attacked by James II.; stale of, 761. 
 
 Vorstius, James I. offended with him, 518. 
 
 Vows of chastity, a great snare, 116. 
 
 Usher's, Archbishop, episcopacy, 585, 662 ; 
 intercedes with Cromwell in favour of the 
 clergy, 609; allowed of the ordination of 
 foreign Protestant churches, 710, '. 
 
 Usurpation, 601. 
 
 Utopians, the, allowed not of persecution, 
 
 168, p. 50. 
 Wales, propagation of the gospel there, 693 ; 
 
 independency established, 608. 
 
353 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Walker, Obadiah, head of University college, 
 a Roman Catholic, 761. 
 
 Walton's accounlof the morality of the usurpa- 
 tion, 615. 
 
 Wadsworth, presb3-tery at, 446, \ p. 148. 
 War, civil, causes of, 575 ; abstract of, 578. 
 Ward, Bp., severe on nonconformists, 731. 
 Warham, persecutions of, 1511, 491, ^. 
 Warwick, E. of, (duke of Northumberland,) 
 joins the reformers,319. See Northumberlanrl. 
 Water, holy, 23. 
 
 Water to be mixed with the wine in the sacra- 
 ment; baptismal, when consecrated, 743, 
 
 Watson, the last of the Roman Catholic bish- 
 ops, 763, \ 
 
 Wealth, taken out of England to Rome, 103; 
 of the clergv, why the reformers inveighed 
 against it, 134, 137. 
 
 Wedding garment. See Shirl. 
 
 Weederburn makes the alterations in the Li- 
 turgy, 567. 
 
 Wentworth brinss in ecclesiastical bills, 435. 
 
 Westminster Abbey, disputation there, 1559, 
 405; School; the boys prayed for Charles 
 on the day of his execution, 600. 
 
 Weston, prolocutor of convocation, 357; his 
 remark on the controversy between the two 
 parties, 358. 
 
 Whighlman, burnt at Lichfield, 518. 
 
 White's, Jeremy, list of sufferers, 760. 
 
 Whiigifi's, Robert, observation about the reli- 
 gious orders 172, '. 
 
 Whitgift, Archbishop, petitioned for greater 
 liberty about the dresses, 418; dispute with 
 Carlwnght, 433; archbishop of Canterbury; 
 strict in enforcing uniformity; imposes the 
 three Articles, 430; holds disputations at 
 Lambeth before some members of the Court, 
 451; puts a stop to plans of reform, 452 ; 
 opposes the appointment of Travers, 454; 
 discovers a press, 458; determines the pre- 
 destinarian controversy by the Lambeth .Ar- 
 ticles, 463; moderated towards the puritans 
 by age ; peremptorv ; his gentleness, 465, ' ; 
 sends letters to the suffragan bishops con- 
 cerning the state of the church, 502 ; makes 
 preparations for the Hampton Court con- 
 ference, 503; pre>enl there, 504; his ex- 
 pressions about James, 509. 
 
 Whitiingham, at Frankfort, 3C7, 
 
 Wiclif. distinguishedatOxford; writes against 
 the covetousness of the church of Rome, 
 108; expelled from the wardenship of Can- 
 terbury Hall; an enemy to the friars; dis- 
 putes on the arrears claimed by the pope; 
 lectures, 109 ; called professor of divinity, 
 •why ? 109, " ; declares Peter's pence not due 
 to Rome ; offends the pope and clergy, 110; 
 brought before S. Sudbury in St. Paul's ; his 
 doctrines approved in Oxford; brought be- 
 fore the archbishop at Lambeth ; sends in 
 a declaration of his faith as to certain 
 points. 111 ; labours under a severe fever; 
 the friars visit him ; translates the Scrip- 
 tures; opposes transubstantiation ; sum- 
 rnoned before commissioners in Oxford; 
 leaves the university ; is reported to have 
 recanted, 112; prepares his mind for mar- 
 THE 
 
 tyrdom; dies of the palsy, 113; his great 
 learning, and good qualities ; he opposes the 
 temporal power and doctrines of Rome, 1 14; 
 his opinions; adverse to the papal supre- 
 macy, 115; asserts the duty of the laitv to 
 take away church property if misused; ce- 
 libacy ; the Holy Scriptures his ultimate 
 standard ; purgatory ; episcopacy cot a dis- 
 tinct order, 116, 117; seven sacraments; 
 baptism ; confirmation not confined to bish- 
 ops ; absolution and confession ; matrimo- 
 ny ; pilgrimages; images, 118; opinion on 
 transubstantiation; beheld the doctrines of 
 the atonement and sanctification ; Melanc- 
 thon's opinion of Wiclif, 119; his poor 
 priests ; his doctrines promote disturbances; 
 Oxford I'riendly to him, gives him letters 
 testimonial, 120; Lord Cobham maintains 
 his opinions, 123, 124; Pecock's opinions - 
 resemble his, 129; his followers inveigh 
 against any temporal power in the hands 
 of the clergy, 135; attacked the power of 
 Rome by pointing out her false doctrines, 
 136; foresaw the final result of the strug- 
 gle, 137 ; translation of the Bible. 533 ; ques- 
 tion of a previous translation, 533, ■', p. 195. 
 
 Wilfrid appeals to the pope, 8. 9. 
 
 Wilkins, Bp., attempts to frame a bill for the 
 relief of the nonconformists, 71.5. 
 
 William I. possessed of full power over the 
 church; subjects ecclesiastical property to 
 civil ser\'ice ; ejects the English clersy ; ad- 
 mits papal legates ; separates the civil and 
 ecclesiastical courts, 52. 
 
 William II. quarrels with .Anselm, 53; admits 
 the authority of the pope, and deceived hy 
 it, 54. 
 
 William and Mary assume the throne, 801. 
 Williams, Abp., ill-treated. 555; Osbolston,563. 
 Williams, Speaker, fined. 755. '. 
 M'inchelsey opposed Edward I., 66. 
 Windsor, persecution at, 224. 
 Wine at the sacrament to be mixed with wa- 
 ter, 743, '. 
 
 Wirtemberg Confession, articles taken from, 
 
 among the Thirty-nine, 485, ^ 
 Wishart burnt, 493. 
 
 Wives who animated their husbands to suffer 
 martyrdom. See Appendix F. 
 
 Wolsey, 154; Fox introduces him to Henry; 
 his rise ; influence over Henry; his honesty, 
 155; spoils Henry; his qualities and faults, 
 156; patronises literature ; his college ; saw 
 the need of reforming, 157, "; accused of 
 insinuating scruples to Henry by means of 
 Longland, 158; his fall; unjustly treated, 
 160; submits; goes to York; dies; charac- 
 ter of, 161. 
 
 Worcester-house, meeting there, 1660, 664. 
 Word, " You have the, but we have the sword," 
 358. 
 
 Works before justification, 275. 
 Wriothesley, Chancellor, tortures A. Askew, 
 
 225; loses his influence, 301 ; dies, 319. 
 W^ryght, a priest at Douay, writes in favotir 
 
 of obedience to Elizabeth, 457. 
 Wyat, Sir Thomas, 359. 
 Yule, origin of the name, 7, '. 
 END. 
 
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 work, and the object for which it is desifrned." — Stmthern Churchman. 
 
 *' Of the theology of this work, our neutrality forbids us to speak ; but of its literary 
 misfits we can and mast apeak favorably. It is a tale of domestic and religious life in 
 Itity, by one who has seen all that is here described. The allusions are redolent with 
 classic sweets- The book is artistically got up by the trade." — /f. Y. Sun. 
 
 " We have not read this work, but some of our Protestant friends, who have read it, 
 •ly that it is a charming book; that it gives a more perfect insight into the interior of 
 Itilian society, thaji any book recently published; that 'he story is well told and th% 
 interest is maintained to the last; and that ihc lovers of fiction and the loven of truth wiU 
 be alike gratified by its perusaL" — Louisville Journal. 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stanford Sf Swords. 
 
 PERRANZABULOE; 
 
 Ancient Cross of St. Pieran in the Sand 
 
 One volume. 12mo. 75c. 
 
 " A further examination of this work has confirmed our opinion, and made us desire to 
 reiterate our testimony, that it is truly a Protestant History, written in a most attractive 
 style. When we first saw it, we did not suppose it was possible for any one to invest eft 
 threadbare a subject with any deg:ree of novel interest. But we were mistaken, and we 
 are glad to be able to express the opinion, that the publishers have done well to select it. 
 The title is singular but most appropriate, and the incidents connected with it are most 
 ingeniously made the basis of the whole history. — Episcopal Recorder. 
 
 " We trust all our readers wi'l forthwith luy this book and read it. It will furnish an 
 effectual antidote to all the hcrcticRl t'ast p, Imed upon the unwary, the evident intention 
 of which is to palliate Roman corruption on the specious ground of chabitit."— ProlesJ- 
 ant Churchman. 
 
 " Clear in its style and sound in its influence, it is a complete Protestant history, writ- 
 ten by one who has invested the almost threadbare sbuject with a novel interest, and it is 
 well calculated as an antidote to the many heretical volumes which have from time to 
 time fascinated the unwary and led the mind captive to corrupt and unscriptural doc- 
 trines Boston Evening Transcript. 
 
 " It is an interesting book to all interested in antiquities, Church history and polity^," 
 ■N.r. Oazttte. 
 
 " A book which combines the fascination of romance with the instructioa of real 
 history " — Mobile Daily Advertiser. 
 
Valuable Works ^ published by Stanford t^r Swords, 
 
 HOBART^S STATE OF THE DEPARTED. 
 
 THE STATE OF THE DEPARTED. 
 
 BY JOHN HENRY HOBART, D. D. 
 
 BISHOP OE TH£ PROT. EPIS. CHURCH IN THE DIOCESE OF NEW-TORK. 
 
 Fourth Hdition. One Volume. 12mo» 50c. 
 
 "This little volume, pp. 129, contains an address delivered by Bishop Hobart, at tfa« 
 uneral of Bishop Moore, of New-York, in 1816 : also, a 'Dissertation on the State of De- 
 parted Spirits, and the Descent of Christ iuto Hell;* written by Bishop Hobart, in conse- 
 quence of exceptions having been taken to his funeral address. The dissertation u 
 published as last revised by the Ri^bt Reverend author. Those who wish to inform 
 themselves upon this subject, will find in this book as good a treatise upon it as they will 
 piobably ever meet with."— Banner of the Croat. 
 
 "The larger portion of this volume is occupied by *A Dissertation on the State of 
 Departed Spirits, and the Descent of Christ into Hell" — in which that subject is discuued 
 with much clearness of statement, and fulness and force of reasoning — presenting the 
 whole argument on the side adopted by the Bishop with an effect and in a compass not 
 elsewhere, we believe, to be found in our language." — Southern Churchman. 
 
 " Perhaps the best dissertation on the very important question as to the state of the 
 departed, is this one of the lamented Bishop Hobart, in which the whole subject u 
 thoroughly ex:imined."— Prot)idenc« Atla4. 
 
 "The publishers of this valuable work have at last given us an edition in a style some- 
 thing like what its merits demand. As it forms one of the volumes prescribed by th« 
 House of Bishops in the course of study for candidates for Holy Orders, it is quite super- 
 fluous for us to commend it." — Young Churchman^s Miscellany, 
 
 " This work of the late Bishop Hobart, is published at a very seasonable time, when 
 every doctrine of the Church is called in question. It was occasioned by the Bishop's 
 sermon on the death of his predecessor, Bishop Moore of New-York, and is an unanswer- 
 able defence of the doctrine of the intermediate state. Extrncts are given as well from 
 the writings of Dissenters as from those of the Anglican Church; and the distinctioB 
 between it and the Romiah doctrine of purgatory is clearly pointed out. The present 
 edition is beautifully got up, the paper excellent, and the type clear and good; and a> 
 Ihe work itself is used as a text book in the General Theological Seminary of the Church, 
 we have no doubt the sale thereof will be even more rapid than it has been from its first 
 ippearance, and speedily repay the firm who have issued it io so creditable a style." — 
 Vational Prc$s. 
 
 WYATT'S PARTING SPIRIT^S ADDRESS. 
 
 THE PARTING SPIRIT'S ADDRESS TO HIS MOTHER. 
 
 BY BEV. WM. EDWARD WYATT, D. D., 
 
 BECTOB OF ST. PAUL'3 PABI3H, BALTIHOBZ. 
 
 Feu th Edition. One Volume. 18mo. paper. 13c. 
 
 "We regai^ this as one of the most touchingr and beautiful thin^a which we have eT«r 
 •4; equally sound and judicious, it is calculated to ditfuse comfort through the mourn- 
 ing home which has been bereft of some bright flower transplanted from lhi» sterile earth 
 to *fce Faradise of God." — Young Churchman's MisctUantf. 
 
 " A fourth edition of this beautiful and tender little thing has been issued. Erer^ 
 pamat who has lost an engaging little child, will read this admirable little tract w4a 
 lir*|]r interKt." — Albany Spectator. 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stanford Sf Swords. 
 
 MARGARET; OR, THE PEARL. 
 
 B T T R K 
 
 REV. CHARLES B.TAYLER, 
 
 ArTHOB nP " LADT MAET," " RECORDS OF A GOOD MAN'S LIFK," fcC fcC. 
 
 In one handsome duodecimo volume. 75c. 
 
 " A good book may bn campared to a dear and faithful friend, always welcome, and 
 lending its influence to cheer iind freshen the pathway of life. To this class the writingi 
 of the ptous and gilted author of the present volume justly belong. The favorable recep- 
 tion, by a discerning public, of two of the works of the Rev. Mr. Tayler, recently issued 
 from their press, has encouraged the publishers to add a third ; confidently believing that 
 the valuable instructions and examples abounding in it, apart from the great inlerest of 
 the narrative itself, will render ' Margaret ' no unfit companion to ' The Records of a 
 Good Man's Life,* and * Lady Mary." All three are worthy a place in every family and 
 parish library." — Publishers' Preface, 
 
 " Those who have read Lady Miiry," and ' The Records of a Good Man's Life," will 
 be anxious to pe:use this olume. It is one of those gems of religious 6ctioo, which teach 
 truth in a manner equ:> y calculated to inform the mind and impress the hearty without 
 exciting appeals to the .muginatiou. or unwholesome stimulants to the religious sensibili- 
 ties."— ProtesJanJ Churchman. 
 
 " We are glad to see this work republisqed here. It is a book for the family, convey- 
 ing lustrnction and awakening reflection, while it arrests the attention, and retains it by 
 the truthfulness of its domestic scenes." — Evening Gazette. 
 
 " It is unnecessary to say, except to those who are unacquainted with this gifted au- 
 thor's other writings, that the volume is both highly instructive and attractive." — Southerm 
 Churchman. 
 
 " A pleasing narrative of pride and wealth subdued to suffering and humiliation, and 
 false opinions overcome by faith in Christ. Nothing could be more proper and Christian- 
 like than tie tone and temper of this lillle volume, which will be read by the rellgiou* 
 with pleasure and profit. It is very prettily sent forth by the American publishers."— 
 Satilhem Patriot. 
 
 " The tyiiography and general appearauci of the volume is hifbljr ered'^ibl* to th( 
 publishsrs."— .^Uanjr Eteninf JouruiU. 
 
Valuahle Works, puhlished hy Stanford If Swords. 
 
 J ACKSON^S R EMAINS. 
 
 THE LIFE AND REMAINS 
 
 KEY. WILLIA^^I JACKSON, 
 
 LATE RECTOR OF ST. PAUL'S CHLRCH, LOUISVILLE. 
 
 BRIEF SKETCH OF HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER 
 
 B Y T H E 
 
 REV. WM. M. JACKSON. 
 One handsome volume, 8vo. §1,75. 
 
 "The life of a laborious and devoted clergyman, preseou few incidents to wla the 
 attentioD of those who read for pastime, or mere mental exciteraeut. But to all who lore 
 to contemplate pure character, profound and earnest piety, and thoroi^h devotion to the 
 service of Christ, a record like the one before us, is rich in attractions. 
 
 *' Many of our readers will recognize every line of the faithful portraiture here pre- 
 sented. The Rev. Mr. Jackson was for many years Rector of Sl Stephen's Church, in 
 this city, and in that position hia faithful, judicious, zealous, and self-denying exertions 
 were eminently blessed. Memorials of his earnest ministry, his humble, saintly life, and 
 bia abundant labors for Christ and the Church are written in many hearts in our midst, as 
 well as in that distant field were hi^ last years were spent. He has left behind faun a re- 
 putation which every parochial clerg> man may well covet, &s his best legacy to the Church. 
 
 " To say that the volume before us is full of interest for the Christian reader, would be 
 to speak far too coldly of its merits. It is replete with instructioQ of that hisrh character 
 which arrests the intellect while it subdues the heart. It is the more valuable, inasmuch 
 as it consists chiefly of the sermons and other instructions of the Christian pastor, whose 
 memorial to the Church it is, stamped with fresh and living interest, so that as we read, it 
 is sometimes hard to realize, that the lips that uttered them are now closed in death, and 
 that the soul from which they spran? has gone to its reward, • Being dead he yet speak- 
 eth and happy will it be for us all, if amidst the excitements and distractions of these 
 times, the excellent counseb of our departed brother shall impress us with a more solemn 
 sense of the exalted duties and awful responsibilities of the ministry of reconciliation in the 
 Church of the living God."— Protestant Churchman. 
 
 " This is the title of a large, handsomely printed volume, from the press of Stanford and 
 Swords, containing a brief biographical memoir of the late Rector of St, Paul's Church. 
 Louisville, Ky., together with extraets from his letters, the sermon preached on occasion of 
 his funeral, by Bishop Smith, minutes of conversation, sermons, and various fragments, the 
 collection and publication of which was earnestly desired by a large number of h-s friends 
 and parishioners. 
 
 •• The character which is described in this volume is eminently that of a Christian minis- 
 ter, and though the seeker after bold adventure, or vivid incident, may not find within its 
 pages the material for gratifying his peculiar tastes, the record of a good man's life cannot 
 be read without interest or profit, even thouerh there be little in it of the startling or the 
 adventurous. We earnestly commend this volume therefore to the attention of our read- 
 ers."* — Evening Gazette. 
 
 "This is the title of a very handsome octave volume, which has been recently published 
 in New-York, It is well printed on fine paper, and is embellished with a portrait which 
 will strike all who remember how the lamented original looked, as an excellent likeness. 
 The volume consists of a memoir of Mr. Jacksoo, a selection from his sermons and letters, 
 and extracts from his writings. It is a worthy tribute to the memory of a good man la 
 this community no recommendation is necessary to induce persons to purchase such a vol- 
 ume. Of course his numerous friends and admirers will hasten to supply the«nselfe« with 
 copies of the work " — Louisville Journal. 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stavford !f Swords. 
 
 SHORT^S CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 HISTOEY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, 
 
 TO THE RKVOLUTION OF ENGLAND OF 1G88, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 RT. REV. THOMAS VOWLER SHORT, D. D., 
 
 BISHOP OF ST. ASAPH. 
 
 One Volume. Qvo. $1,50. 
 
 not lii 
 anthur 
 (evide 
 tho us 
 
 ciiurt 
 docirin 
 
 now appears lor nio first liiii(! 
 ingly wen iimea. — Episcopal 
 " The fact that this work eii 
 period of fciii'iisu History uowr 
 
 ouce tile suuioct of his inquirv. As 
 chroiioloL^ical tames aim a couious mc 
 It is printed in douoie coniiiius ; anu 
 Ushers."— Baffimure American. 
 
 fects • 
 
 additi o 
 
 " We wcl. 
 scries of Pn 
 
 pages, WHICH treat ot some ot tue most intensely interesting perioas i 
 mother country. The reformatiou of the Church : the great revoluti 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stanford 4r Swords, 
 
 of the old Church with the monarchy ; its re-establishmeni on the Presbyterian basis ; the 
 recall of the Stuarts, and with them of the Episcopal Church, und the overthrow of the 
 Presbyterian supremacy; the formation of the Thirty-Nioe Articles of the Church of 
 England ; these, with other matters of kindred interest, nfford a rich theme, whii b, in the 
 volume before us, is eloquently descanted upon. AH who feel an intereiit in these matters 
 would do well to possess themselves of a copy of the work. The beautiful style in which 
 this work is issued, is highly creditable to the publishers."— PAt/a</</pAia Inquirer, 
 
 "This is a volume which has already received authoritative approval in this country, 
 bein? a class book in the Protestant Episcopal Seminary at Alexandria, D. C, and perhaps 
 in other institutions. It is a large octavo, written in a clear and comprehensive style, and 
 thus embraces avast amount of ecclesiastical knowledge, while it has, in many places, an elo- 
 quence of diction, and in all a nervous directness, which make it an interesting as well as 
 a useful volume. The low pricu of this book is such as will place it within the reach of 
 all purchasers; and the members of the Protestant Episcopal communion will no doubt re- 
 ward the enterprise of the publishers, and gratify themselves, by giving the volume a wide 
 circulation. It has already passed through three editions in Enerlaud, and must be allowed 
 the high praise of being the most comprehensive work on the subject now before the pub- 
 lic."— 5o(urrfay Post. 
 
 " There is a degree of candor and impartiality in this work which, for a Churchman, is as 
 unusual as it is commendable. The author has a justifiable partiality for his own Church 
 and the tory party of which it has been a prominent section in all periods of English his- 
 lory ; but this preference is not allowed to interfere with a caudid and honm statement of 
 facts, whether they bear against the interest and character of his friends, or are favorable 
 to that of his opponents. With a just admiration of excellence, wherever found, and a 
 love of freedom and popular rights, he looks upon the whole field of history with the impar- 
 tial comprehensiveness of an historian, rather than with the jealous zeal of a partisan, or 
 the exclusiveness of a sectary. He eulogizes the Reformation; does something like jus- 
 tice to the character of the Puritans, of Cromwell, and the Presbyterians: admits the 
 tyranny of Laud, the weakness and selfishness of Charles, and the violence and irreligioa 
 of the Royalists at the period of the Revolution. 
 
 " There is much, of course, of which non-Episropalians cannot approve. No Church- 
 man can be expected to look at some periods of English history with a clear and unpreju- 
 diced mind. The light which the Revolution sheds upon the genius and character of 
 Episcopacy is too glaring to be quietly looked at. So, if we read the histories prepared 
 by Churchmen, it must always be with much indulgence to the weakness of human nature 
 and pity for the prejudice which can slander some of England's best men, and stigmatize 
 as opp-ession and tyranny the purest and freest government she has ever had. The woik 
 is written in a condensed, yet attractive style, with great precision and accuracy. As a 
 text book, or for general perusal, it will be found interesting and valuable. It is, we are 
 happy to add, »ery neatly printed, and sold at a low price." — y. Y. Evangelist. 
 
 " An octavo volume of 353 pages, accompanied by a chronological and genealogical table 
 and very full index. It is a wo. k of real merit, written by one strongly attached.'of course, 
 to the Church of which he is a member, but apparently no bigot. We will not pretend to 
 vouch for all his opinions; but such perusal as we have been able to give to his wntings, 
 convinces us that he is sincere in them, and that he is honest in the statement of facts. His 
 references are numerous. The religious sentiments which he expresses iu the progress ol 
 the work are evangelical in their character ; and the views which he entertains of Chris- 
 tians of other persuasions evince a charitable spirit. He sees and candidly acknowledges 
 defects in the Church of England, and disadvantages of a grievous nature resulting from 
 the connection of Church and state : but on the whole, he prefers his communion to oth- 
 ers, and exhorts his brethren to seek its improvement. We shall place the book among 
 our most important histories." — Baptist Advocate. 
 
 "The style in which this history is written is elegant and chaste; and, from the 
 examination which we have made of the portions of the work in which the predilections 
 of the author would be most likely to appear, we believe hi^ statements to be made in all 
 candor, and with an honest desire to be impartial and truthful. As a history of the Church 
 of England, it possesses decided advantages over every other work which we have seen or 
 heard of; and whilst it will be regarded by all Protestant denominations as a most valuable 
 contribution to general ecclesiastical history, it commends itself especially to the ministers 
 and members of the Episcopal Church, and we have no doubt will be duly appreciated. 
 It is a work of vast labor, learning, and research." — Protestant Betnner, 
 
 {Short. ) 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stanford !f Swords. 
 
 PALMER'S CHURCH HISTORY. 
 
 A COMPENDIOUS ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. 
 BY THE REV. WILLIAM PALMER, M. A., 
 
 AUTHOR OF "ORIGINES LITUHGIC.*:, ' &C. 
 
 WITH PREFACE AND NOTES BY AN AMERICAN EDITOU. 
 
 In one volume, \2ino. 50c. 
 
 The truly learned and souod-ininded author has set himself honestly to seek out tha 
 r«9u1t8 of the system devised by Heavenly Wisdom, and set in operation by God himself, 
 when He dwelt among us. He does not puzzle himself and his reader with an attempt at 
 ft * pragmatical ' investigation of the human motives and propensities that have carried on, 
 tvhile they seemed to thwart and vtuate, the divine counsels for man's salvation. Still 
 leas does he stoop to flatter the poor pride of human reason by lowerinja; a narrative of 
 God's doings with and in his Church lo the tone of secular hiatory, and muking all plain 
 ftnd easy for the most unspiritual comprehension. He writes as a believer of the facts thai 
 he narrates ; but not a believer without investigation. He writes as one whose own be- 
 lief makes him in earnest with his reader, and in consequence leaves the impression ol 
 reality on the miud. Convinced that God did indeed found his Church upon a rock, 
 immoveable and unconquerable, he looks for it, without fear or shrinking, amid the worst 
 of tempests of controversial strife or secular oppression, and undc- the deepest mists 
 of ignorance and error, and not only finds it, signalized b}' its unvarying tokens of peace, 
 holiness and joy, but makes it obvious to others. We see, with him, ttiat though times huvo 
 changed, and manners varied, the word and promise of God have endured unchanged, anj 
 iheir accomplishment has gone on invariably."— 5tsAo;? Wliiitingham. 
 
 RECORDS OF A GOOD MAN'S LIFE, 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. CHARLES B. TAYLER, M. A. 
 One handsome volume, 12mo. 75c. 
 
 ** This is, indeed, a ' golden book * — one th.it cannot be read without as much profit u 
 pleasure by all who feel interest in the life of a good country parson. The narrative ex 
 Dibits the character of a man who was di^^tinguished, not for talent or learning, but for 
 being in earnest, and heartily endeavoring to live up to his Cliristian profess'iu — with 
 whom baptism was not a form, but the commencemeut of a life of Christian faith,"— 
 Banner of the Crost. 
 
 " An elegant reprint of a volume endeared to many a heart by a thousand charms of 
 •tyle. sentiment, and pious meditation. The loveliness of humanity passing through the 
 stages of life under the influence, and illuminated by the divine tight of the pure precepts 
 of the Gospel, the surpassing beauty of holiness exhibited in the character of woman as a 
 Christian wife and mother, and the manly dignity and nobleness of the Christian father 
 and husband, are all here exhibited so sweetly, so truthfully, so eloquently, as to touch 
 the soul of the most obdurate. We trust all our readers are so familiar with these pages, 
 as to feel the justice of our praise, and to seize eagerly the opportunity of again meetioir 
 an old and beloved companion." — Protestant Churchman, 
 
 HOBART'S FESTIVALS AND FASTS. 
 
 A Companion to the Festivals and Fasts of the Prote.'itaut Ei'iscopal Churck 
 in the United States of America. Principally .selected and itered 
 from Nelson's Com])amon for the Festivals and Fasts of 
 the Church of EnglMiul. 
 
 WITH FORMS OF DEVOTION. 
 BY JOHN HENRY HOBART, D. D., 
 
 BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 One volume. 12?no. 75c. 
 
 ••It will prove a useful companion in the ex.ilteJ exercises of the Christian lifsi 
 ftnd, while it serves to impress on the nle^l^ersof t))e Episcopal Communion the excel* 
 leDce of their truly Apostolic and Primitive Church, it must excite them to adori their 
 |tr9r«fsiou bf ''-orreiponding fervor .f piety and sanctity of manners." 
 
Devotional Works, published by Stanford Sf Swords. 
 
 JENKS' DEVOTIONS, 
 
 ALTERED AND IMPROVED 
 
 "^Y THE REV. CHARLES SIMEON, M, A., 
 
 FELLOW OF king's COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE. 
 
 From the 33d London, edition. One volume. 18nM>. 56c. 
 •* Its distinguishing excelteocy is, that far the greater part of the Prayer* appear to Hat* 
 Dtenprai/ed aud oot wrilten. There is a spirit of humiliatioD in them, which is admin- 
 biy suited to express the sentioicuts aud feeUngs of a contrite heart. There is also t 
 fervor of devotion in them, which can (scarcely fail of kindling a corresponding flame ia 
 the breasts of those who use them. But it is needless to pronounce an eulogy on a book, 
 the value of which has besu already tested by the sale of many myriads.^ 
 
 NELSON ON DEVOTION. 
 
 THE PRACTICE OF TRUE DEVOTION, 
 
 W RELATION TO THE END, AS WELL AS THE MEANS OF REUGIOKi 
 WITH AN OFFICE FOR THE HOLY COMMUNION: 
 
 BY ROBERT NELSON, ESQ. 
 One volume. 18ffu». 50c. 
 
 HOBART^S CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL. 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN'S MANUAL 
 OF FAITH AND DEVOTION, 
 
 CoD'aining Dialogues and Prayers suited to the Various ^xerercises of the 
 Christian Life, and an Exhortation to Ejaculatory Prayer, with 
 Forms of Ejaculatory and Other Prayers. 
 
 BY JOHN HENRY HOBART, D. D.. 
 
 " Its object is to exliibit and enforce the various exercises, duties, suiii 
 privileges of the Christian life, to awaken the careless; to excite the lake- 
 Wbrm ; and to instruct and comfort the penitent believer." 
 
 THE COMMUNICANT'S MANUAL. 
 
 CONTAINING THE ORDtR FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF 
 
 THE HOLY COMMUNION. 
 BY THE LATE BISHOP HOBAET, OF NEW-YOEK. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED 
 
 PRAYERS AND MEDITATIONS, 
 BY BISHOPS TAYLOR, BEVERIDGE, AND OTHERS. 
 
 A beautiful miniature edition. 31c. 
 
 PASSION WEEK: 
 
 THREE SERMONS OF LANCELOT ANDREWES, 
 
 BISHOP OF WINCHESTEB, 
 
 ON THE PASSION OF OUR LORD. 
 
 TO WHICH ABE ADDED 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM HIS DEVOTIONS. 
 
 One volume. ISwjo. 38c. 
 
 ■' The aiilbor was a man of prayer, ' full of faith and of the Holy Ghost; ' his Iboafhti 
 ••n oiler of the thin^> of God, and his life was of as high an order ai his tJlou^hU. I< 
 kt« ttyle is somewhat old, yet it is full of life and point, and the matter rich i aail to kii> 
 •k* feeli aright, hij itaeme is ever new, and though commoa always nirriog." 
 
Valuable Works, published by Stanford Sf Swords. 
 
 MELVILL'S SERMONS. 
 
 SERMONS BY HENRY MELVILL, B. 
 
 Minuter 3f Camden Chapel, Cambcrwcli, and late Follow and Tutor of St. \ .«i CoUeg*, 
 Cambridge. 
 
 EDITED BY THE RT. UEV. C. P. M'lLVAINE, D. 
 Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the Dioce«e of Oh»% 
 
 Four th edition , One volume, royzl Svo, $2,50. 
 
 This volume contains all the sermons yet published by the author, .ir jiidor his sanc- 
 tion. Many others have been published surreptitiously ^ which he never prepared for thn 
 prcsa, and which ou^'^hi not to bo rend as specimens of his preaching. 
 
 A strong attestation of the merit of these discourses is ^iveu in the fact, that floodeo a« 
 is the market with the immense variety of pulpit composition which the London press 
 coHtinually pours io, so that a bookseller can scarcely be persuaded to publish a volume 
 of sermons at his own risk, and such a volume seldom reaches beyond a sin;,'le edition, 
 those of Melvill have passed through several, and do not cease to attract much attention, 
 
 " Heartily do we admire the breathing words, the bold figures, the picturesque images, 
 the forcible reasonings, the rapid, vivid, fervid perorations, of these discourses/' — British 
 Critic. 
 
 COMPANION FOR THE ALTAR, 
 
 WEEK'S PREPARATION 
 
 FOR THE 
 
 HOLY COMMUNION: 
 
 Consisting of a Short Explanation of the Lord's Supper, and Medita(5oM oud 
 Prayers proper to be used Before and During the Receivini" of 
 the Holy Communion; according to the Form prescribed 
 by the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 
 United States of America. 
 
 BY JOHN HENRY HOBART, D. D.. 
 
 Bishop of the Prot. Epis. Church in the State of New-York. 
 In one volume. \2mo. 50c. 
 ' The writer has endeavored to keep in view two principles, which ho 
 deems most important and fundamental. These principles are — That we ore 
 saved from the guilt and dominion of sin by the divine merits and grace of 
 a crucified Redeemer ; and that the merits and grace of this Redeemer are 
 appUed to the soul of the believer in the devout and humble participation of 
 the ordinances of the Church, admmistered by a Priesthood who derive their 
 authority by regular transmission from Christ, the Di^•ine Head of the Church, 
 and the source of all power in it." 
 
 Perhaps no other commendation of this work is needed than the fact, 
 that since its first publication, in 1804, it has successfully withstood the 
 competition of all other works on the same subject, has passed through almost 
 countless editions, and is still steadily uicreasing in the favor of the pioui 
 and devout. 
 
 JERRAM ON INFANT BAPTISM. 
 
 CONVERSATIONS OX INFANT BAPTISM. 
 BY CHARLES JERRAM, VICAR OF CHOBHAM, SURRY. 
 
 One volume. \Smo. 37c. 
 
 Th*M CoDverialioni furnish n complete view of the vhale coBtroTenjr, ■■<i a aat ■•• 
 <lMt** defeuce of liifuit Bnptiun. 
 
Devoiional Works, published hy Stanford Sf Swordt 
 
 WILBERFORCE'S PRAYERS. 
 
 FAMILYJRAYERS, 
 William wilberforce, esq. 
 
 EDITED BV HIS SON', 
 
 ROBERT ISAAC WILBERFORCE, M. A 
 
 TO WHICH ABE ADDED, 
 
 PRAYERS BY THE REV. JOHN SWETE, D. D. 
 Chie volume 18?no. cloth. 25c. 
 
 " Thai the habit oC family deiotion is not inconsistent with the most zealous and iuii«> 
 Bitted discharsre of public duty is ev inced by the example which the author of Iheie Pnjr* 
 era afTorded. His singular union, indeed, of private relision and public usefulness, mj ia 
 freat measure be attributed to that state of mind of which this custom was at once a cauM 
 and a consequence. The Grecian colonists, whose more polished manners, and the tim' 
 plicity of whose native speech, were endangered through the contaminations of barbariaa 
 intercourse, by assembling at stated seasons, to confess their degeneracy, and revive th« 
 thought of purer times, retained as well the language » hich was their common bond, as tha 
 ■uperiority which was the birth-right of their race. Amidst the increasing turmoil of our 
 days, the custom of daily worship may be looked to by Christians for a similar result. It 
 has been shown, indeed, that this practice comes commended by the experience of former 
 times. But if it were needed in a period of quiet and re|)ose, how much more amidst tha 
 agitation by which our cities are now convulsed, and wliicb shakes even the villages of 
 our land ! In tranquil days, the disciples were comforted by the presence of Christ ; but 
 it was amidst the waves of Gennesaret that they learned to appreciate that power which 
 could hush the stormy elements ieto rest. It was when neither sun nor stars for many 
 days appeared, and no small tempest lay upon him, that the captive apostle could be 
 of good dheer, because there was with him the angel of that God, whose he was and whom 
 
 THORNTONS'S PRAYERS. 
 
 FAMILY mYERS, 
 
 PRAYERS ON THE TEN COMMANDMENTS. 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A FAMILY COMMENTARY UPON THE SERMON ON THE MOUNT 
 
 HENRY THORNTON, ESQ., M. P. 
 
 EDITED BY THE 
 
 RIGHT REV. MANTON KASTBURN, D. D., 
 Bishop of MassachuseUs. 
 
 One handsome volume. \ 2mo . 75c. 
 
 The present volume contains two works, which have been separately published in Enp- 
 land ; the Family Commentary on the Sermon on the Mount having' appeared there, aboul 
 a year after the first edition of the Family Prayers. The arran^pracnt now adopted wit 
 it is ihou^^hl, be found convenient for domestic worship ; as combiniog within the eani% 
 volume a Manual of prayer, and portions of scriptural exposition for reading-. 
 
 " It may seem presumptuous in the Editor lo say any thinff by way of introdnctioo tc 
 productions bearing on their title-pa^ the name of Thornton : — a name, familiar not to 
 Rutland only, but to the worhl ; and indissolubly a<>sociated witli our thoughts of whatever 
 is enlarged in Christian b« iieficence, sound in reli2ioiis vio»s,and beautiful in consisteocj 
 of daily practice. He will take the liberty, hov^ever. of simply saying, that in regard fO 
 the Family Prayers, that, without at all ietractin? from ihp mTit of other works of the 
 came description, they appear to him to preserve, in a remiirkuble degree, the difficult and 
 happy medium between verboseness on the one h:ind, and a cold conciseness on the other. 
 It is believed that none can use them, witlioul feelin; that they impart a spirit of grati- 
 tude and self-humiliation. They are what praytsrs should b*», — fervent, and yet perfectly 
 
 The Commentary upon the Sermon on the Mount, is remarkable throughout for 
 the profound insight into human nature which it manifests : for its cle%r exhibition of tha 
 fundumental truths of th"- tfospel : and for the faithfulness, honesty, and at the same tiaa^ 
 the true refiuenient aad dignity, of the language in which its iu.^tructions are coavejred." 
 
Devotional Works, published by Stanford ^ Sworas. 
 
 TREATISE ON THE LORD'S SUPPER, 
 
 DESIGNED AS A GUIDE AND 
 
 COMPANION TO THE HOLY COMMUNION. 
 BY THE REV. EDWARD BICKERSTETH, 
 
 Edited, and adapted to the Services of the Protestant Episcopal Churek 
 in the United Slates, 
 BY THE REV. LEWIS P. W. BALCH, 
 
 Rector of St. Bartholomew's Church, N. Y. 
 
 One handsome volume. \2mo. 75c. 
 CONTENTS.— Part I.— Chap. 1. The Appointment of the Lord's Supper 
 —2. The Atonement made by tue Death of Christ — 3. Our Faith in Christ's 
 Atonement — 4. On the New Covenant — 5. The Design of the Lord's Supper 
 — 6. The Obligation to Receive the Lord's Supper — 7. Answers to the Ex- 
 cuses commonly made for not Coming to the Lord's Supper — 8. On Receiv 
 ing Unworthily — 9. On the Benefits connected with a Due Reception of ihn 
 Lord's Supper — 10. The Happiness which would follow its General and 
 Devout Observance — 11. On Communion with Christ and His People on 
 Earth — 12. On the Heavenly Communion to be Hereafter enjoyed with 
 our Lord. Part II. — Chap. 1. On Preparation for the Lord's Supper — 2. 
 Helps for Self-Examination, and Prayers — 3. Meditations Preparatory to 
 the Lord's Supper. — 4. Hints for the Regulation and Employment of the 
 Mind during the Communion Service — 5. On the Communion Service of the 
 Chvircli — 6. On the Remembrance of Christ at the Lord's Table — 7. Medi- 
 tations during the Communion — 8. Texts selected for Meditation, and 
 arranged under different Heads — 9 , Meditations and Prayers after Receiving 
 — 10. Psalms and Hymns suited to the Lord's Supper — 11. The Due Im- 
 |(rovement of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 " It is indeed a cause of devout thankfulness, that books like ' Bickersteth's Treatise 
 on the Lord's Supper ' are in such demand. And a fervent Prayer is offered to God, that 
 every effort to enlighten the hearts of men on the subject of the Holy Communion, may 
 receive His gracious blessing, until the time come when all * shall be devoutly and reli- 
 giously disposed to receive the most comfortable sacrament of the Body and Blood of 
 Christ, in remembrance of His meritorious Death and Passion, whereby alone we obtain 
 remiision of our lioj, and are made partakers of the kingdom of heaven. ' " 
 
 NEW MANUAL OF DEVOTIONS, 
 
 IN THREE PARTS. 
 Containing Prayers for Families and Private Persons : Offices of Humiliatioa 
 —for the Sick — for Women — for the Holy Communio* — with Oc- 
 casional Prayers. 
 
 COBKECTED AND ENLARGED BV THE EIGHT BEV 
 
 LEVI SILLIMAN IVES, D.D., 
 
 Bishop of the Diocese of North-Carolina, 
 
 TO WHICH IS ADDED, 
 
 A FRIENDLY VISIT TO Tm. HOUSE OF MOURNING. 
 
 BY THE REV. RICHARD CECIL, M. A. 
 One large \2mo. volume. $1.00. 
 " The volume here presented to the public, contains forms suited to aD 
 conditions in which human beings may be placed, and almost all conceivabU 
 Tuiaticna of their circumstances, in a style well adapted to the simpLicitjr <A 
 mm ■! » and genoise piety." 
 
Valuable Works, puhlished hy Stanford if Swords. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF MRS. ELIZABETH FRY, 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 A HISTORY OF HER LABORS 
 
 IN PROMOTING 
 
 TBB REFORMATION OF FEMALE PRISONERS, 
 
 AND THE 
 
 IMPROVEMENT OF BRITISH SEAMEN, 
 
 !T THE 
 
 REV. THOMAS TIMPSON, 
 
 Honorary Secretary to the British, and Foreign Sailors* Society. 
 
 One volume. 12?no. 75c. 
 
 "An interesting sketch of the life, labors, and death of one who was numbered with the 
 salt of the earth. In works of love, she was most abundant. She toiled with indefatiga- 
 ble zeal, for the benefit of her sex, exploring the darkness of dungeons, and diffusing 
 through them the light and influence of her own lovely and tender spirit." — Episcopal 
 Recorder. 
 
 " Mrs. Fry was one of those unselfish beings, whose sole object in life seems to he to do 
 
 food, to the full extent of the means and opportunities with which God has blessed them, 
 [er arduous labors in effecting reform in prisons, were no less earnest and successful than 
 her exertions in behalf of the seamen of Great Britan, a class whose moral and spiritual 
 interests, had been, until her day, shamefully neglected. This volume exhibits the incep- 
 tion, progress and results of her benevolent enterprises, and is filled with matter of rare 
 interest to the Christian and philanthropist. It deserves a wide circulation."— Pro(e»Io»J 
 ChnrchmoK. 
 
 " She lived a life of active benevolence, however, which may be usefully contemplated 
 and copied by those of a sounder faith. By her numberless journies to visit the abodes of 
 the poor, the sick, and the imprisoned, and'by her ceaseless efforts to ameliorate their con- 
 dition, she earned the well-deserved name of < the female Howard.' Her useful career i« 
 well portrayed iu this volume." — Calendar. 
 
 " The extraordinary character of Mrs. Fry, and her unparalleled labors exerted to pro- 
 mote the reformation of female prisoners, and the improvement of British seamen, have 
 earned for her a reputation throughout Great Britan and Europe, second only to that of 
 the philanthropist Howard. Mr. Timpson's Memoir is a brief but comprehensive tribute 
 to her virtues and worth, by one who was associated with her in some department ol'phi- 
 lanthropic service." — Gazette Times. 
 
 *' Some time ago we announced the intention of the New-York publishers to reproduce 
 this work fiom the English edition. Their purpose is now fulfilled, and no doubt the phi- 
 lanthropic reader will greatly prize this memorial of a lady who, beyond all her female 
 contemporaries, was in labors of benevolence abundant. The American edition, with the 
 exception that it has no portrait, is nearly or quite equal to the English and at a less price. 
 The admirable system with which Mrs. Fry prosecuted her labors is beyond all praise, 
 and if the work wrought no other purpose than furnishing such an example of order in the 
 prosecution of multifarious duty, it would amply repay the purchase. But its usefalneu 
 u by no raeaas confined to that single feature."— iV. Y. CommercuU Adtertiser. 
 
The history of the Church of England to 
 
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