* PBIIICETOII "icC. juK 1883 TKSOLOQICil BX 5203 .P9 1838 v.l Price, Thomas. The history of Protestant nonconformity in England THE HISTORY OF PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY IN ENGLAND, THE REFORMATION UNDER HENRY VIII. BY THOMAS PRICE, D.D. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. LONDONi-WlLLl AM PATERNOSTER ROW. 1838. BALL, LONDON : PKINTED BY J. HADDON, CASTLK-8TREKT, FINSBURY. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I. HENRY VIII. The Reformation — Causes of— Revival of Learning — England pre- pared for the Reformation — WycUffe — Early Statutes against Heresy — Sufferings of the Lollards favorable to their cause — State of the English Church on the Accession of Henry VIII. — His Zeal for the Papacy — Writes against Luther — Defender of the Faith — Luther's Reply — Commission to search after Luther's Works — Tyndales New Testament — Sir Thomas More writes against the Reformers — Change in the Policy of the King — Scruples respecting his Marriage — Applies to the Pope for a Divorce — Appeals to the Universities — Divorce pronounced by Cranmer — Infiuence thereof on the Ecclesiastical Policy of Henry — Measures hostile to the Papacy — Majority of the Nation adverse to the King's Measures — Indefinite Nature of the King's Supremacy 1 CHAPTER II. Elevation of Cranmer — Articles of Religion — Injunctions — Institu- tion of a Christian Man — Necessary Erudition — Lesser Monas- teries suppressed — Greater Monasteries — Erection of new Bishop- rics— Bible printed — Cranmer and his Associates ignorant of the Nature of religious Liberty — The irreligious Tendencies of Popery the main Cause of their Opposition — Martyrdom of Bilney, Bayfield, and Bainham — John Frith — John Lambert — Sacramen- tarians and Baptists— Statute of Six Articles 30 VIU CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. The Popish Party Plot the Destruction of Cranmer — Papists and Protestants executed — Circulation of the Bible opposed by the Catholics — Act for the Advancement of Reformation — Litany published in English — Character of Henry — Character of the Reform he effected — State Alliances injurious to Christianity. . . 53 CHAPTER IV. EDWARD VI. New Council favorable to the Reformation — Further Reformation resolved on — General Visitation — Homilies compiled — Repeal of the Statute of six Articles — Communion in both kinds — Book of Common Prayer — Act of Uniformity — Preaching prohibited — Priests permitted to marry — Articles of Religion — Blemishes of the Reformation — Gardiner and Bonner imprisoned — Deprived — Princess Mary opposed to the Reformation — Her rigorous treatment — Hooper objects to the Habits — Persecution of Sectaries — Burning of Joan Bocher — George Van Pare — Character of Edward's Reformation — Reformation injured by the rapacity of Courtiers. . OG CHAPTER V. MARY. Proclaimed Queen — Her tolerant Professions — Leading Protestants imprisoned — Parliament summoned — Edward's Laws repealed — Wyatt's Revolt unfavorable to the Protestants — Kingdom reconciled to the Papacy — Ancient Laws against Heretics revived — Martyr- dom of John Rogers — Laurence Saunders — Hooper — The Work of Persecution devolved on Bonner — Martyrdom of Bradford — Latimer and Ridley — Cranmer — Protestants hold private Meetings — Number of Protestants burnt — Troubles at Frankfort, ... 98 CHAPTER VJ. ELIZABETH. Elizabeth proclaimed — Anxiety of religious Parties — Cautious Policy of the Queen — Preaching prohibited — Catholic Bishops ref use to officiate at the Queens Coronation — Meeting of Parliament^ Act of CONTENTS. IX Supremacy — Of Uniformity — Convocation — Dispute at Westminster — Catholic Bishops deprived — Parker made Archbishop of Canter- bury— Appointment of New Bishops — Their Aversion from the Habits — Impolicy of their Compliance — Injunctions issued — Articles of Religion set forth by the Bishops — Apparent Security, but latent Danger, of the Church 128 CHAPTER VII. Convocation of 1.5G2-3 — Prevalence of Puritanism — Second Parlia- ment— Act for the Assurance of the Queens Power — Determination to enforce the Habits — Queen's Letter to Parker to enforce Unifor- mity—Pilkington to the Earl of Leicester on behalf of the Puritans — Whittingham to the same — Book of Advertisements — Parkers rigorous Enforcement of Conformity — London Ministers before the Commissioners at Lambeth — Sampson and Humphrey — Humphrey's Letter to the Queen — To Cecil — He conforms — Fox refuses to subscribe — Opposition to the Habits at Cambridge — Letter of the Scotch Church on behalf of the Puritans — Licenses called in — The Ejected Ministers publish in their own Dtfence—^ Press restrained 15G CHAPTER VIII. The Puritans divided on the Propriety of separating from the Hier- archy— Principles of the first Separatists — The Separatists not Schismatics — Chilling worth's Testimony — Arrest at Plumbers' Hall — Progress of Persecution — Examination of Axton — Progress of Opinion amongst the Puritans — Cartwright advocates a Presby- terian System — Deprived of his Lectureship — His Propositions — Expulsion from the University — Puritans supported in the Parlia- ment of 1571 197 CHAPTER IX. Publication of the Admonition to Parliament — The Authors of it imprisoned — Whitgift employed by the Archbishop to reply — His Answer — Formation of the first Presbyterian Church — Second Admonition published by Ciu'twright-^Replies to Whitgift' s Answer. 22G X CONTENTS. CHAPTER X. Proclamation against the Admonitions — Sandys complains to Burleigh of the Favor shown to the Puritans — Warrant issued for the Apprehension of Cartwright — Whitgift publishes a Defence of his Answer — Cartwright' s Second Reply — Second Part of it — Subscrip- tion vigorously pressed — Suspension of Mr. Deering — Charges against him — Restored by the Council, but again removed at the Instigation of the Bishops — Imprisonment and Trial of Mr. Johnson — Dies in Prison — Queen's Proclamation to enforce Uni- formity— Commissions issued — Council's Letter to the Bishops — Protestation of the Puritans 255 CHAPTER XI. Form of Subscription — Suppression of Prophesyings in Norwich — Meetings in Cambridgeshire suspected — Death and Character of Parker — Persecution of Dutch Baptists — Fox's Letter to the Queen — Elevation of Grindal — Commanded to suppress the Prophesyings — His Letter to the Queen in their Defence — His Sequestration . 283 CHAPTER XII. The new Bishops more hostile to the Puritans than their Predecessors — Examination of Mr. Merbury — Petition from CornwaM to Par- liament— Petition from London — Publication of the Gaping Gulf — Robert Brown — His Apprehension — Principles — Parliament of 1581 — Act to retain the Queen's Subjects in Obedience — Act against seditious Libels — A view of Antichrist in the English Church — Ec- clesiastical Arrangements of the Puritans SOI CHAPTER XIII. Elevation of Whitgift— His articles for the Regulation of the Church Rigorously enforces Subscription — Address of the Essex Minis- ters to the Council — Suffolk Address— Publication of Practices of Prelates — Court of High Commission — Articles for the Examina- tion of the Clergy — Burleigh's Letter disapproving of Whitgift's Measures— Whitgift' s Reply— Letter from the Council— Confer- ence at Lambeth CONTENTS. xi CHAPTER XIV. Parliament of 1584 — Articles offered to the Queen by the Archbishop, for the Reformation of Abuses — Whitgift's Letter to the Queen — Press restrained — Cartwright's Return and Arrest — Aylmer's Let- ter to Burleigh — Travers silenced — Parliament of 1586 — Publica- tion of the Holy Discipline — Presbyterianism organized . . . 847 CHAPTER XV. Publication of the Mar-prelate Tracts — Replies to them — Efforts of the Government to suppress them — Bancroft's Sermon — Sir Francis Knollys' Opposition to the Doctrine of Divine Right advanced by Bancroft — Parliament of 1589 — Address of Convocation to the Queen — Case of Mr. Udal^Cartwright and others before the Com- missioners, and in the Star-chamber 8G8 CHAPTER XVI. Case of Mr. Cawdrey — Puritans not implicated with Hacket — Parliament of 1593 — Act against the Browniats — Execution of Brownists — Thacker and Coping — Burrow and Greeivwood — Penry — Imprisonment of Brownists — Their Petition to the Council — To Lord Burleigh — Execution of Brownists stayed — Their Ba- nishment— Principles of the Sect 898 CHAPTER XVII. Hookers Ecclesiastical Polity — Controversy respecting the Sabbath — Calvinistic Controversy — Lambeth Articles — Apparent Success of Whitgift's Policy — Parliament of 1597 — Convocation — The High Connnission stayed by Prohibitions from the Civil Court — Charac- ter of Elizabeth — Her Ecclesiastical Government 429 CHAPTER XVIII. j JAMES I. Expectation of Parlies — Millenary Petition — Strength of the Puritan Party — Cambridge and Oxford Universities oppose the Puritans — Publication of Jacob's Reasons for Reforming the Church of England — Hampton Court Conference — Death and Character of Whitgift — Proclamations against Papists and Puritans — Par- liament o/*lG04 — Convocation 449 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIX. Elevation of Bancroft — Unconstitutional Decision of the Judges- Severity' of Bancroft's Proceedings — Chamberlaine's Account — *.S'/r Dudley Carlctons — Number of Puritans suspended or deprived — The Archbishop compelled to moderate his Severity — His Directions to the Bishops — Brownist Church at Amsterdam — Petition to the King — Baptismal Controversy at Amsterdam — Dispute respecting Discipline 481 CHAPTER XX. Arbitrary policy of Bancroft — Principles of the more rigid Puritans — Impolitic Treatment of the moderate Puritans — Injury done to ■ the Church bv the arbitrary Principles of tJie Clergy — Parliament o/'lGlO — Imprisonment of Mr. Fuller — Emigration to Virginia- Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury — New Translation of the Bible — Burning of Socinians — Return of Baptists to England — Con- sistent Advocates of Religious Liberty — Rise of the Independents at Leyden — Formation of the first Independent Ch urch .... 503 CHAPTER XXI. Selderts Submission, — Boole of Sports — Emigration of Independents to New Plymouth — Religious Character of the Colony — Rise of Doc- trinal Puritans — King's ecclesiastical Directions — Character of James 530 OF PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. CHAPTER I. HENRY VIII. The Reformation — Causes of — Revival of Learning — England pre- pared for the Reformation — WycUffe — Early Statutes against Heresy — Sufferings of the Lollards favourable to their Cause — State of the English Church on the Accession of Henry VIII. — His Zeal for the Papacy— Writes against Luther — Defender of the Faith — Luther's Reply — Commission to search after Luther's Works — Tyn- dale's New Testament — Sir Thomas More writes against the Re- formers— Change in the Policy of the King — Scruples respecting his Marriage — Applies to the Pope for a Divorce — Appeals to the Uni- versities— Divorce pronounced by Cranmer — Influence thereof on the Ecclesiastical Policy of Henry — Measures hostile to the Papacy — Majority of the Nation adverse to the King's Measures — Indefi- nite Nature of the King's Supremacy. The Reformation of religion in the sixteenth chap. century is one of the most memorable transactions which the annals of mankind record. It stands ^yjj^^ out from the ordinary course of events, as an epoch TheReforma- in the history of the human mind to which there is nothing parallel since the origin of Christianity. Resulting from causes which had been long in operation, it extended beyond the most sanguine VOL. I. B 2 THE HISTORY OF hope of its first promoters. It commenced apparently in accidental circumstances, and was consequently regarded with indifference b}^ those who were most interested in its suppression. Too intent on the pro- motion of their ambitious and criminal schemes; or too ignorant of the nature of man to form an enlightened estimate of the influences which deter- mine his conduct; they failed to recognize the secret causes which had shaped the course, and were daily giving a character of increased decision to the movements, of Luther. They regarded his opposi- tion to the mission of Tetzel as but an indication of the jealousy of his order. Such contentions between the different orders of the Roman church had been too frequent to induce much concern. They had hitherto excited but little notice. The authority of the pontiff" had been equally respected by both parties ; while some point of precedence, some question of privilege, some subtle and scarcely definable dogma, however important it might appear to excited and interested disputants, was too trifling to engage general attention. It had therefore been the usual policy of the Papacy to remain a silent spectator of such contests. The exertion of its au- thority was reserved for more important occasions ; w^hen it interposed with a promptitude and energy which invariably compassed its end. But in the case of Luther there were causes in operation, of which neither himself nor Leo was a competent judge. The most sagacious observer might well have been deceived in estimating the character and probable results of his undertaking. He was but the voice of the public mind; the development of a feeling which had been in- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 3 creasingly prevalent for generations past. The ^^^p- Reformation was an effect as well as a cause ; it resulted from the operation of influences which had HENRY VIII. been daily gathering strength throughout Europe. The tendency of events had occasionally been checked ; the waters of the advancing tide had been thrown back; but they uniformly returned with augmented power, carrying on their bosom the seeds of a moral renovation, which they were destined to scatter through the earth. The revival of learning:, and the invention of the f^'''^^^ O ' learning art of printing, had given a new impetus to the human mind. Arousing itself, like a strong man after sleep, it began to look around with an inqui- sitive and penetrating eye. Ancient boundaries were overstept; the landmarks which pointed out the limits of former research were despised as the memorials of barbarian ignorance; and an appeal was prosecuted from the decisions of authority, to the nature of man, and the obvious purposes of human society. An extensive alteration was immediately effected in the habits of human thought. The in- tellect of man asserted its supremacy : it rose to an elevation, from which it could take a wide and en- lightened survey of the complicated interests of life. The master spirits of the age soon proclaimed their deliverance from an irrational and deofradins: bond- age, and called on the nations of Europe to assert the dignity of their nature, and to restore the purity of their faith. The reformers of the church were pre- ceded by the restorers of learning. The seeds of intellectual renovation had been widely scattered, and had borne much fruit, before Luther and his associates appeared. The public mind of B 2 4 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. Europe was in consequence prepared to respond to their call. Religious reformers had previously ^vnf ^ appeared ; but, in the supineness and ignorance of their contemporaries, they encountered obstacles which no diligence or zeal could surmount. But when the Saxon monk reprobated the impiety and despotism of Rome ; when he raised the standard of revolt against a power which had uniformly crushed its opponents for a thousand years past, he was sus- tained by the almost universal conviction of the public mind, that that power was abused in its exercise, if not illegal in its nature. The human mind was not then in the stagnant and qui- escent state in which it had been ; its faculties were aroused and pushed into action ; it was prepared to listen to Luther's statements, and to yield itself to the stirring influences with which they were fraught. England pre- Tlic Rcformatiou had made considerable process pared for the ^ ^ Reformation. Gcrmauy, and other parts of Europe, before its character was extensively known in England. This country, however, was not wholly unprepared for its reception ; though the character of the monarch, the wealth of the clergy, and the severity of the laws against heretics, greatly reduced the probability of its successful diffiision. Upwards of a century and a half before the time of Luther, Wycliffe had exposed the superstition and despotism of Rome. Born in the early part of the fourteenth century, he anticipated the discoveries of his more fortunate successors ; and laboured with an assiduity and recti- tude of purpose, which entitle him to the admiration and gratitude of posterity.^ Though his labours did » Wycliffe strenuously main- of officers appointed by the legis- tained there were but two classes lation of Christ. " By the ordi- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 5 not effect an alteration in the ecclesiastical polity of chap. his country, they made an extensive and per- manent impression. A numerous class of followers ^y^j^^ were raised up by the providence of God : these pre- served the precious seed of the kingdom until more propitious days ; and, though assailed by the fiercest persecutions, were enabled to hand down the sacred deposit to the times of the Lutheran reformation.'' The success which attended Wycliffe's labours Eariy statutes ^ ^ against here- aroused the jealous and intolerant spirit of the tics, popish clergy. In conformity with their usual practice, they availed themselves of the secular aid, by inviting the sword of the magistrate to subdue or exterminate the enemies of the church. The propriety of punishing capitally for matters of opinion had long been recognized in the papal code ; and the history of Europe had afforded many instances of atrocity occurring under the operation of this prin- ciple. In the year 1382, being two years prior to the Richard ii. •death of Wycliffe, an act, entitled, "An act to com- mission sheriffs to apprehend preachers of heresy and their abettors,'' &:c., was surreptitiously obtained by nance of Christ," lie says, "priests and bishops were all one. Bat afterwards the emperor divided them, and made bishops lords, and priests their servants ; and this was the cause of envv, and quenched much charity." In an- other place he observes, " I boldly assert one thing-, viz., that in the primitive church, or in the time of Paul, two orders of the clergy were sufficient ; that is, a priest and a deacon. In like manner I affirm, that, in the time of Paul, the presbyter and bishop were names of the same office." — Vaughan's Life of Wycliffe, vol. ii., p. 275.-2 Ed. »» The disciples of Wycliffe were termed Lollards, and were found in most parts of the king- dom. Knighton, a canon of Lei- cester, and a contemporary of Wycliffe, tells us, that in the year 1382, " Their number very much increased, and that, starting like saplings from the root of a tree, they were multiphed, and filled every place wuthin the compass of the land." This language must undoubtedly be understood with some limitation ; but we cannot mistake the inference to be drawn from it. — Ibid., p. 154. THE HISTORY OF the clergy. In the following year the House of Commons petitioned the king, that, " Forasmuch as jj^^ that statute was made without their consent, and never authorized by them ; and as it never was their meaning to bind themselves or their successors to the prelates, no more than their ancestors had done before them ; they prayed the aforesaid statute might be repealed." To this the king consented; but by the artifice of the bishops the knowledge of this fact was suppressed ; so that, the former act being re- tained in the statute book, the prosecutions were continued as before.*" Some years afterwards the Archbishop of Canter- bury and his suffragans were empowered by the king " to arrest all who should obstinately preach or maintain, publicly or privately, any conclusions of the holy Scriptures, repugnant to the deter- minations of the church." Such offenders were so to be treated, "that the sharpness of their pains may give them sufficient cause to return to the lap again of their holy mother the church.'"^ On ^ the death of Richard, the clergy obtained additional power, of which they promptly availed themselves. Having assisted Henry the Fourth in usurping the crown, they were rewarded by the grateful monarch with power to punish capitally such of the Lollards as refused to recant. " Immediately on his accession, Henry proclaimed himself the protector of the church against the assaults of the Lollards. In the first convocation held during his reign, his intentions were made known to the clergy by a royal message. At the opening of the second, the king's commissioners, the earl of Nor- * Pari. Hist.,, i. 177. Burnet's Reform., i. 41. ^ Fox, i. 574. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 7 thumberland, and Erpingham the lord chamber- chap. lain, exhorted the prelates and proctors to take measures for the suppression of the errors dissemi- hexry nated by the itinerant preachers ; and promised them the royal favour and assistance in the pursuit of so necessary an object. In the parliament which began to sit at the same time, the king's intention to support the established church was announced from the throne ; and the commons, in their address, thanked him for his solicitude in favour of the doctrine, and his determination to preserve the liberties, of the church."^ In the second year of his reign a law was passed, the preamble of which sets forth, that unauthorized preachers go about teaching heretical doctrines, holding conventicles, &c. ; and it provides that the bishop shall have power to arrest all persons suspected of such offences, and, in case of conviction, to punish them with imprisonment, and a line to the king. It then enacts, that if the persons so convicted shall refuse to renounce their doctrines, &c., or if, after abjuration, they relapse, they shall be delivered over to the civil power, to be burnt in some public place before the people.^ So fearfully rapid is the progress of persecution, when its principle is once admitted. The inefficacy of milder expedients wounds the pride and ruffles the temper of the dominant party. Obstinacy is alleged as the cause of resistance ; and a course of measures ^ LiDgard's Hist, iv. 443. ag-alnst the Pope ; so was this ^ ^Burnet's Reform., i, 41. Wil- William Sautre, the true and liam Sautre was the first who foithfull martyr of Christ, the first suffered under this statute. "As of all them in Wicklifie's time, king Henry the Fourth," saj-s Fox, which I find to be burned in the " was the first of all English kings raigne of the foresaid king, which that began the unmerciful! burn- was in the 3'ear of our Lord ing of Christ's saints, for standing 1400."— Fox, i. 590. 8 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, length adopted, which contemplates the de- struction rather than the rescue of the offender. ^vn?^ The Convocation kept pace with the Parliament Arundel's carccr of persecution. A series of regulations, Constitutions called Arundel's Constitutions, were adopted at this period by the former body, which breathe a spirit of intolerance worthy of the darkest age of popery. They enact, that no man shall preach without the li- cense of his ordinary ; and pass a sentence of interdict on all churches receiving heretical teachers. They prohibit schoolmasters from inculcating religious opinions on their pupils; require that all books written by Wycliife and his disciples should be banished from schools, halls, hospitals, and other places ; and forbid the translation of any portion of Scripture into the vernacular tongue, or the questioning any of the articles contained in the decretals and con- stitutions of the church. These, with various other points, were determined by the clergy ; and reso- lutions were passed, to institute the strictest inquiry after persons suspected of heretical opinions, whom it was decreed to prosecute with the utmost rigour.^ Such a series of resolutions, passed under such circumstances, could not fail to produce much suffering. They were not permitted to remain a dead letter : the clergy were active in carrying out their spirit, and thus further alienated the more thoughtful part of the community from the esta- blished church. " Who would have thought," says Fox, when concluding his account of these events, " by these laws and constitutions, so substantially founded, so circumspectly provided, so diligently executed, but that the name and memory of this « Fox, i. 507. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 9 persecuted sect should have been utterly rooted up, chap. and never could have stood ? And yet, such be the works of the Lord, passing all men's admiration, ^yjj^^ all this notwithstanding, so far was it off that the number and courage of these good men was van- quished, that rather they multiplied daily and increased. For so I find in registers recorded, that these foresaid persons, whom the king and catho- lick fathers did so greatly detest for hereticks, were in diverse countries of this realm dispersed and increased ; especially at London, in Lincolnshire, in Norfolke, in Herefordsliire, in Shrewsbury, in Calais, and diverse other quarters."^ In the early part of the reign of Henry the Fifth, "'^'^y ^• the clergy excited the king to prosecute the Lollards still more rigorously. Twelve inquisitors — for this fearful name was already introduced — were com- missioned by the archbishop Arundel to search after heretics and the books of Wycliffe. They examined the writings of the reformer and his associates, and deduced thence 246 articles, which they reported as contrary to the doctrines of the church. These articles were submitted to a Convo- cation, where it was decreed, " That it would be impossible to extirpate the doctrines of WiclifFe, unless certain great men, who were the professed abettors and maintainers of them, were taken off; that sir John Oldcastle lord Cobham, being the chief of them, should be first dealt withal; and that without delay a process should be issued out against him, as a most notorious heretic."^ These proceedings of the Convocation were fol- lowed up by the Parliament, which assembled April " Fox, i. 600. ' Pari. Hist., i. 323. Fox, i. 030. 10 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. 30th, 1414. A very severe law was passed against the Lollards, which enacted, " That whoever read ^vm^ the Scriptures in English, which was then called 'Wickliffe's learning,' should forfeit land, cattle, goods, and life, and be condemned as hereticks to God, enemies to the crown, and traitors to the kingdom ; that they should not have the benefit of any sanctuars% though this was a privilege then granted to the most notorious malefactors ; and that if they continued obstinate, or relapsed after pardon, thev should first be hans^ed for treason asfainst the king, and then burned for heresy against God.'"' Sufferings of ^^^^ cruelty of such a statute was only equalled by its the Louards ppofauitv. It was an open and deliberate attempt, farourable to l »^ -T l ' their cause, maiulv pTomptcd by the clergy, to extinguish the light of divine truth. But the fierceness of their intolerance counteracted their desio-n. It is one of the laws of the divine government, that the suffer- ing which moral evil engenders leads to its cor- rection. There is a point beyond which oppression is not endured ; where humanity, though enfeebled, claims redress, and exhibits a strength of resistance on which neither despotism nor bigotry had calcu- lated. The sufferings inflicted on the Lollards se- cured them the sraipathy of the people. They who were careless about the dogTuas of the church, were oftended by the persecuting spirit of the clergy. A ^ Pari. Hist., i. 324. It is worthy burr. Referring to the bill intro- of notice, that this very parlia- troduced on this occasion, the ment, so famed in the annals of chronicler Hall saj-s, " This bill persecution, contemplated the made the fat abbots to sweat ; application of the lands and pos- the proud priors to frown ; the sessions of the church to the ser- poor priors to curse ; the silly vice of the state. This would nuns to weep ; and, indeed, all probably have taken effect, had her merchants to fear that Babel it not been for the pohcy of Chi- would down." — Pari. Hist., i. 324. cheley, the archbishop of Canter- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 11 secret suspicion of the integrity of their cause, and chap. the honesty of their motives, was widely diffused The public mind was gradually alienated from ^yjj^^ them, and became at length prepared to acquiesce in the violent changes which the caprice of Henry dictated. The dying martyr inflicted a more serious blow on the hierarchy, than the most active and zealous of its living opponents. It is difficult, if not impossible, to gain a nation's attention to ab- stract principles : men are so immersed in the ordinary pursuits of life, as to regard such matters with indifference ; but their hearts are ever accessible to those sympathetic emotions which the perception of suffering awakens. It is thus that an all-wise Providence educes good from evil, making even the sufferings of the virtuous the most efficient means of diffiising their principles. The partial reformation effected by Henry was not wrought out of due time. " The nation must have been fully ripe for such a change, when it could be accomplished with so much safety by a prince possessing so little to endear him to his subjects as Henry the Eighth."^ This monarch ascended the throne in April, E^Jfi^jJ**"^ 1509, in the eiditeenth year of his aj^e. His at- ^^"""^^ °° ' c> J o accession of tachment to the papacy was undoubted, while his "^'^y v^"- impetuous and despotic character precluded the hope of his permitting any alteration of the esta- blished institutions of the land. England had for several centuries been one of the strono-.holds of popery. Immense sums w^re annually transmitted to Rome ; and the power of the clergy had attained so fearful a height, as to threaten the destruction of ' Vauglian's W vcliffe, ii. 362. THE HISTORY OF civil freedom. Efforts had not been wanting on the part of many to restrain their avarice and power ; but they were of little effect : the public mind was so superstitious and ignorant, as to pre- clude the possibility of presenting an effectual barrier to the encroachments of Rome. The sta- tutes of the realm remained in many cases a dead letter, through the want of popular sanction ; and the Pope's emissaries were thus encouraged to ex- tend their authorit}^, and increase their demands. The principal livings of the kingdom were given by the pontiff to foreign divines, who were igno- rant of the language, and never trod the soil. All the arrangements of the church were based on mercenary principles, and became at length so obviously vicious, as to awaken the disgust and indignation of all. During the early part of his reign, Henry emulated the zeal of his most per- secuting predecessors. The progress of the Lutheran reformation on the continent served to quicken the vigilance, and envenom the zeal, of the English clergy. Aroused from their supineness by the rumours of change which were perpetually brought to their shores, they put the machinery of persecu- tion into active and deadly operation. They, were especially solicitous to prevent the importation of the writings of Luther. But their utmost efforts failed to compass their design. A thou- sand channels of communication were opened be- tween the English mind and the productions of the Saxon reformer. His works silently circulated through the land; and found a multitude of minds prepared and anxious for their reception. The commercial intercourse of this country with PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 13 the continent afforded innumerable facilities for chap. the introduction of the reformed faith, of which the zeal then enkindled readily took advantage. ^vni^ Henry was not slow in taking measures to guard ^.^ his subjects from the contagious spirit which was ^''P^'^y- abroad. The laws against heresy were enforced with rigour ; many were imprisoned, and some burnt. Fear operated extensively in the case of those who were first apprehended ; and several, in consequence, abjured. But the Lollards — for so the reformers were then termed — gradually gained courage, and at length maintained at the stake the principles they had privately embraced. The slightest deviation from the faith or practice of the church was sufficient to bring them under the inflictions of a persecuting code. " If a man had spoken but a light word against any of the consti- tutions of the church, he was seized on by the bishop's officer ; and if any taught their children the Lord's prayer, the ten commandments, and the apostles' creed, in the vulgar tongue, that was crime enough to bring them to the stake ; as it did six men and a woman at Coventry in the passion- week, 1519, being the 4th of April.""" So zealous was the king on behalf of the papacy, that he entered the arena of theological controversy with Luther, by publishing a work on the Seve/i Sacraments.'' Henry was not wholly unskilled in scholastic theo- logy. Thomas Aquinas had been his favourite author in early life ; and his vanity now prompted Burnet's Reform., i. 50. " No doubt," he says, " this book n The genuineness of this work was wrote by the king, as other is matter of dispute. Bishop Bur- books were under his name ; tliat net inchnes to tlie negative of the is, by his bishops or other learned question; in wliich he has been men. Sir Thomas More, who supported by respectable writers. must have known the author. 14 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. I. HENRY VIII. him to take part in those momentous discussions - which were shaking the foundations of the popedom. His work was presented to the Pope in full con- sistory by Dr. Clarke, dean of Windsor, with an assurance, that as his master had refuted the errors of Luther with his pen, so he was ready to oppose his disciples with his sword. Leo was profuse in his expressions of admiration and gratitude; and, in a private letter to the king, tells him, "that it appeared that the Holy Ghost assisted him in writing it." Henry looked for something more than mere acknowledgments as a reward for his service ; he wished to rival the kings of France and Spain in his titles as well as in his power. The former had long borne the appellation of " Most Christian," and the latter that of " Catholic." The title, therefore, of " Defender of the Faith," was conferred on Henry by a formal bull, and the grant was confirmed by Leo's successor, Clement VH." So short-sighted are the most sagacious and pro- found politicians : unmindful of the waywardness of human nature, they calculate on the permanence of its views, and are consequently exposed to chagrin and disappointment when it experiences any of those innumerable revolutions to which it is incident. It was not unnatural that the clergy gives this account of it : ' That supplied by Henry : his prone- after it was finished by his grace's ness to theological disputations appointment, and consent of the favours this opinion ; while his makers of the same, I was only a explicit assertion of the fact, in sorter out, and x)lacer of the prin- his reply to Luther's answer, re- cipal matters therein contained.' quires an admission to this extent. So it seems others were makers. Had it been wholly the work of and sir Thomas More only a others, the king would scarcely sorter. By the style, it was have ventured so open an asser- guessed by some to be wrote by tion of his authorship. — Lingard's Erasmus." — Burnet's Reform., i. England, vi. 142. 51. After all, the probability is "Burnet's Reform., iii. 27.— that the basis of the work was Lingard's England, vi. 143. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 15 should magnify the king as another Solomon : their chap. joy knew no bounds ; and their most incredulous moments never gave birth to the thought, that they "y^^^^ should have to retract their praise, or regret its utterance. But such is the maze amid which an overruling Providence guides the course of human affairs. Luther replied to the king's book with all the vehemence and acrimony of which his nature was capable. Instead of being daunted by the rank of his opponent, he took courage from it : it was not in his nature to shrink from such an en- counter ; and the freedom and virulence of his style, while it offended the vanity of Heniy, gave umbrage to some of his own friends. The illus- trious rank of his antagonist drew attention to the controversy, and thus subserved the interests of truth. At a subsequent period, he attempted to sept 1525. excuse his asperity and want of respect, in a style not altogether befitting his general character. In a letter to the king, he says, " Because from good witnesses he had learned that that book, set forth against him under the king's name, was not indeed the king of England's book, as cunning sophisters would pretend, abusing the name of his majesty. But he now was ashamed, he said, to lift up his eyes to his majesty, who had suffered himself by that credulity to be moved against so great a king, by means of those evil workers ; especially since he himself was but fcex et vermis, dregs and a worm, in comparison to so great a king.''^ p Strype's Memorials, i. 92. Tour; yet Lutlier absurdly terms This very letter of apology con- him, "illud monstrum et publi- tains some passages which must cum odium Dei et hominum, Car- have been singularly ofiensive to dmalis Eboracensis, pestis ilia Henry. Wolsey at this time was regni tui." " Among the many in the height of his master's fa- strange things," says Mr. Hallam\ 16 THE HISTORY OF works. May 14th 1521. CHAP. 2eal of the king was further displayed by a commission which Wolsey issued to all the bishops, "vm7 ^^q^ii'ing them diligently to search after any books, Commission WHttcn or priutcd, of Martin Luther's or his disci- 'LuX's^'^^'ples. Notice was to be given in church, at mass- time, that whoever had such books should deliver them up to the bishop or his officer within fifteen days, under the pain of incurring the greater ex- communication. The wording of this commission is expressive of the strongest detestation of the doctrines of Luther. The bishops are enjoined to do their part, " before those damnable and pestiferous errors and heresies, broached by Luther, took place in this kingdom; lest they should take root as a noxious briar here : and that, by the express will and command of the most potent and illustrious prince, required him (Wolsey), with all possible endeavour, to root out and abolish this heresy from this his noble kingdom.'"' Tyndaie s Tlicsc cfforts, liowcvcr, proved unavailing*. The New Testa- . . ' ' ^ . ^ . ment. writiugs of thc Saxon reformer were imported in large numbers, and read with that avidity and delight which usually accompany a forbidden grati- fication. At length the New Testament was trans- lated into English by William Tyndale, and printed at Antwerp, whence it found its way through a thousand channels into the heart of this country. A prohibition was immediately published by every bishop, declaring that some of Luther's followers had erroneously translated the New Testament, corrupting it by a false rendering and by heretical " which Luther said and wrote, was a vein of insanity in his very I know not one more extravagant remarkable character." — Consti- than this letter, which almost tutional Hist., i. 81. justifies thc supposition, that there *i Strype's Mem., i. 56. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 17 glosses; and requiring, therefore, all within their chap. several dioceses to bring such copies of this work as were in their possession to the vicar-general within ^yjj^^ thirty days, under the pain of excommunication. Many other books, most of them written byTyndale, were prohibited at the same time. Sir Thomas More, one of the most celebrated ^^^^^^-^^^t" men in English history, undertook to answer some ^he Reformers of them; but so deeply was his exalted and, for the most part, benevolent mind tinctured with the superstition of the age, that he would not commence their examination till he had obtained a license from the bishop." The publication of the New Testament materially aided the progress of the Reformation. The appeal was thus transferred from authority to reason. The inspired record was laid open to general inspection, and though partial errors were sometimes committed in the interpretation of its contents, yet the feeblest intellect was found equal to the application of its rules to the ordinary practice of life. A gross deception was proved to have been 1 Bumet's Reform., i. 51. Lewis's Trans., p. G7. It is much to be regretted, for the honor of human nature, that IMore ever appeared in the character of a per- secutor. He was one of the most amiable, talented, and virtuous men of his day ; yet such ^vas the corrupting influence of a false reli- gion on his heart, that his generous nature did not recoil from acts of barbarit}' when their infliction was demanded by the church. In early life, More had given promise of better things. In his Utopia, written about the year 1516, he advocates the widest toleration. " On the ground that a man can- not make himself believe what he pleases, the Utopians," he says, *^do not drive any to dissemble their thoughts by threats, so that men are not tempted there to he or^'disguise their opinions." From these principles, however, he swerved at the rery time when he might have most successfully advocated them, and has thus sullied one of the most perfect and highly -gifted characters which history suppUes. Sir James Mack- intosh's sketch of the life of this illustrious man is amongst the most philosophical and bewitch- ing pieces of biography in our language. VOL. I. C 8 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. I. practised on the human mind, and a feeling of indignation followed the discovery. The Scriptures H^NRY ^vere generally interpreted with that sort of pre- judice with which we listen to the evidence of a witness whom the opposite party has endeavoured to keep out of court. Few, probably, in these times commenced the reading of Tyndale's Testament without a secret persuasion that its contents were unfriendly to the authority, wealth, or morals of the clergy; and this persuasion, to whatever extent it existed, could not fail to influence the interpreta- tion of particular passages." p^ury^o?the Events speedily transpired to change the whole king. policy of the king. Hitherto he had been a most 8 " The book that had the great- est authority and influence, was Tindal's translation, of the New Testament, of which the bishops made great complaints, and said it was full of errors. But Tonstal, then bishop of London, being a man of invincible moderation, would do nobody any hurt, 3'et endeavoured, as he could, to get their books into his hands ; so, being at Antwerp in the year 1529, he sent for one Packington, an English merchant there, and de- sired him to see how many New Testaments of Tindal's translation he might have for money. Pack- ington, who was a secret favorer of Tindal, told him what the bishop proposed. Tindal was very glad of it ; for being con- vinced of some faults in his work, he was designing a new and more correct edition ; but he was poor, and the former impression not being sold off, he could not go about it ; so he gave Packington all the copies that lay in his hands, for which the bishop paid the price, and brought them over, and burnt them publicly in Cheap- side. This had such a hateful appearance in it, being generally called a burning of the word of God, that people/rom thence con- cluded there must be a visible contrariety between that book and the doctrines of those who so handled it ; by which both their prejudice against the clergy, and their desire of reading the New Testament, was increased. So that next year, when the second edition was finished, many were brought over^ and Constan- tino (a coadjutor of Tindal) being taken in England, the lord chancellor, in a private examina- tion, promised him that no hurt should be done him if he would reveal who encouraged and sup- ported him at Antwerp ; which he accepted of, and told that the greatest encouragement they had was from the bishop of London, who had bought up half the im- pression. This.l made all that heard of it laugh heartily, though more judicious persons discerned the great temper of that learned bishop in it." — Burnet's Reform., i. 260. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 19 dutiful and zealous son of the church, and was dis- chap. tinguished by marks of her special favor. No monarch in Europe appeared more unlikely to ^yjj^^ secede from her communion, much less to erect the standard of a separate and hostile faith. As his course of policy had hitherto been most respectful to the papacy, so his character was desti- tute of every moral quality which gave promise of a religious reformer. It would be difficult to point to an individual, in the long line of English monarchs, who appeared, at the commencement of his reign, less likely to be the agent of such a revolution as Henry effected. His character was a compound of the worst passions which degrade the nature of man, and only fails to awaken universal disgust by the deception practised on us by the festive and martial bearing of his early years. " It may be truly said that Henry, as if he had intended to levy war against every various sort of natural virtue, proclaimed, by the executions of More and of Anne, that he henceforth bade defiance to compassion, affection, and veneration. A man without a good quality would perhaps be in the condition of a monster in the physical world, where distortion and deformity in every organ seem to be incompatible with life; but, in these two direful deeds, Henry perhaps approached as nearly to the ideal standard of perfect wickedness as the infirmities of human nature will allow." * The circumstances which g^ave rise to a change scmpies re- />•.., specting his 01 policy on the part of the king are well known to marriage, every reader of English history. After a marriage of twenty years with Catherine of Arragon, the » Sir J. Mackintosh's Hist, of Eng., ii. 205. c 2 20 THE HISTORY OF 1527. CHAP, widow of his elder brother, prince Arthur, he pro- fessed to regard the connexion with religious ^vin ^ scruples, as contrars^ to the divine law, and danger- ous to his salvation." His scruples were ostensibly- grounded on theLevitical code, which, it was alleged, prohibited the marriage of a brother's widow; but there is reason to suspect that Catherine's age and want of personal charms had more to do with the king's state of mind than any suggestion of his conscience. It is notorious that his solicitude about a divorce from the queen became intimately blended with a passion for Anne Bole}Ti, one of her maids Applies to the Qf houoT. Haviuo' obtained the concurrence of pope for a di- c5 some of his principal officers. Dr. Knight was dispatched to Rome with instructions to pre- pare the way for an application to the pope for a divorce. The king appears to have calculated on the success of his negociation, and was deeply mortified at the evasive and tortuous policy of the supreme pontiff. Clement, it must be admitted, was placed in a situation of extreme difficulty. The " Catherine was married to king's advisers, respecting the prince Arthur at St. Paul's, on the propriety of this marriage; and 14th of November, loOl, and was the prince himself, on attaining left a widow on the 2nd of April the age of fourteen, at the corn- following. Henry the Seventh, mand of his father, entered a pro- being still desirous of cementing test against it, and declared his the union between England and intention not to confirm it. On Spain, and being some what further his own accession, prudential con- influenced, it is probable, by the siderations appear to have induced large dowry of two hundred thou- Henrj- to renew his marriage with sand ducats which were given Catherine* from which period he with the infanta, then obtained lived with her as his wife. These a bull from the pope, permitting circumstances should be borne in her marriage with his second son, mind, as an act of justice to prince Henry. In the Hardwicke Henry ; more especially as his papers, i. 13, there is an account character must dispose every of the celebration of this cere- benevolent mind to put the worst mony in 1.503, when the prince construction on his actions. — Bur- was only about twelve years of net's Reform., i. 54 — 57. Hallam's age. Serious scruples were enter- Const. Hist., i. 82. tained at the time bv some of the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 21 king's suit was opposed by the emperor Charles V., chap. the nephew of the English queen, whose power the pope had recently felt, and whose vengeance ^y^j^^ was threatened in case of the divorce being granted. His territories were much more contiguous to the papal states than were those of Henry, and his active and martial character left no room to doubt of his severely avenging any insult offered to his aunt. The whole machinery of European politics was set in play by the opposing monarchs to secure a favourable decision. At one time Henry thought himself on the point of succeeding, at an- other time he cursed the perfidiousness of the pope. Various expedients were resorted to by Clement to procrastinate his decision, and thus gain the ad- vantage of any circumstances which might occur. At len2:th it was sumested to the kino^ that an Appeals lo ^ ... * the univer- appeal to the Universities and learned men of«i"es,&<;. Europe might determine the matter in his favor, and release him from the wearisome suit he was pro- secuting at Rome."' He readily adopted the sug- gestion ; and his emissaries, proceeding to the most celebrated seats of learning throughout Europe, solicited the suffrages of their members on his be- half. More difficulty was experienced in England than on the continent. At Oxford and Cambridge the question of the divorce was connected with the " This suggestion proceeded 1529. Cranmer was, in conse- from Dr. Cranmer, afterwards quence, sent for by the king, and archbishop of Canterbury. Being was placed in the family of Sir at Waltham Abbey in Essex, he Thomas Boleyn, recently created was casually introduced to Fox earl of Wiltshire and Ormond. and Gardner, the almoner and He was soon employed in various secretary of the king, who re- embassies in France, Italj^ and quested his opinion on the divorce, Germany ; and manifested such which they subsequently reported zeal in Henry's cause, as insured to their master, at Greenwich. his rapid preferment. Strype's This liappened about August, Life of Cranmer, i. 5. THE HISTORY OF CHAP. I. nounced Cranmer. May 23, 1533. May 28. reformation, and became in consequence more com- plex and difficult of settlement. But Henry was ^vm ^ not likely to tolerate opposition from his own sub- jects : intimations of no equivocal kind were con- veyed to the university of Oxford, which at length procured a determination in his favor.'' From the continent, more particularly from France, numerous judgments were obtained favorable to his cause, which were presented by the Lord Chancellor to the House of Commons, and were subsequently Jan. 1530-1. p^nted.^ Divorce pro- Upwards of five years were employed by Henry in negociating with the papal court. Wearied at length with its procrastination, he ordered Cranmer to pronounce the sentence of divorce. The Arch- bishop accordingly declared the marriage of the King with the lady Catherine null and void ; and on his return to Lambeth, he confirmed the marriage of Henry with Ann Boleyn, which had been privately solemnized by Dr. Lee some months before.^ This step precipitated the king into a course of measures hostile to the papacy. During " Bishop Burnet will not admit tion of bribes, is an assertion im- that threatenings were employed probable in itself, and which with the university of Oxford. would redound more to the dis- Few, however, will be of his honour of the estabhshed church opinion, who read attentively the than most of the charg-es made three letters which the king against her by the hottest zealots addressed to that body, and of reformation." — Hist, of Eng- which the bishop has printed, land, ii. 160. — Hist, of Reform., iv. 429. ? It is much to be regretted ^ Burnet endeavours to dis- that so respectable a historian as prove the charge of bribery, but Dr. Lingard should have per- without success. The medium mitted a party spirit to pervert opinion of Sir James Mackintosh his views. His account of Anne seems to be best sustained : Boleyn is as unworthy of his " That money was plentifully sagacity as it is discreditable to distributed, seems to be certain ; his candour ; and must destroy but that the apparent consent of all much of the confidence which, the learned catholics, who gave an in other cases, we might be dis- opinion relating to this affair, was jVosed to exercise in his fidehty chiefly purchased by the distribu- aiad discrimination. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 23 the latter part of his negociations at Rome, he had chap. endeavoured to arouse the fears of Clement, by some decided measures adapted to humble the spirit, ^yj'j^^ and diminish the authority, of the Enp;lish clerg-y. ^ ^ 'J ^ ~ ©•/ Influence of It had been suo^2:ested by his advisers, that the most *his step on ./ ^ the ecclesi - distant fear of losinp; Enp;land would determine the ^^t'^^i p^'^^y . rri Henry. vacillating policy of the Vatican. The present state of ecclesiastical affairs rendered the subjection of this country more important to the pope than ever. His authority was successfully assailed both in Germany and Switzerland, and the spirit of revolt was known to extend throughout the European com- munity. Nothing seemed wanting to the complete destruction of the popedom, but the defection of some leading monarch ; and Henry ventured to inti- mate, in his official communications, that he should be driven to this step if justice were not done to him. But the tlireatenings and promises of Charles the Fifth counterbalanced these intimations, and thus led to the rupture which freed England from subjection to the pope. When the proceedings of Henry were reported at Rome, the pope was en- treated by the emperor to do justice to his claims, and avenge the insult offered to the church. But the influence of the French king was employed to mo- derate the resentment of Clement, who at length annulled the sentence pronounced by Cranmer, and -^"'y^'- declared Henry and Anne excommunicated, unless they should separate by the end of September.'' Hopes were subsequently entertained of an amicable arrangement; but the definitive sentence of the pope, in favor of Catherine, proved a declaration of interminable war. * Lingard's Hist., iv. 260. 24 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. mean time, measures had been rapidly proceeding' in England. In the parliament of 1530, hostile to the papacy. ^ vm^ several bills were passed for the correction of clerical Measures abuscs ; onc against exactions on probates of wills ; another for the regulation of mortuaries ; and a third, respecting pluralities, non-residence, &c. Severe reflections were thrown out on the clergy; and the bishop of Rochester was reprehended in the upper house, for the censure he had passed on the language of the commons.^ In the following year, ^^1- a still more important and decided step was taken by the king. Cardinal Wolsey having incurred the penalties of a premunire by the exercise of his legantine authority, the whole body of the clergy were alleged to be implicated in his oflence.^ By admitting his jurisdiction, they became, it was argued, his abettors, and the attorney-general was consequently ordered to file an information against them in the court of king's bench. The convoca- tion offered to compound the matter by a present to the king of one hundred thousand pounds, which he refused, unless an acknowledgment of his being " supreme head of the church and clergy of Eng- land" were introduced into the preamble of the grant. The majority of the clergy were averse from this proposition, but ultimately acceded to it, with * Pari. Hist., i. 501. Burnet's them to England, or did receive Reform., i. 133. or execute them; they were out ^ These proceedings against of the kiug's protection, and that Wolsey and the clergy were they should forfeit their goods founded on an obsolete statute and chattels to the king, and tlieir of Richard the Second, which persons should be imprisoned." ordained " that if any did pur- As the proceedings under this chase translations, sentences of statute were to be put on a writ, excommunications, bulls, or other called from the most material instruments from the court of words of it, premunire fades, it Rome, against the king or his was called the ^^statute of pre- crown; or whosoever brought nmnire." Burnet's Reform., i. 176. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 25 the qualification, " so far as the law of Christ will permit." The convocation of the province of York - adopted the same wary language, paying to the king the sum of eighteen thousand, eight hundred, and forty pounds, as an atonement for their offence.*" This was an important step towards securing the subjection of the clergy to the civil power, and obviously paved the way for the act of supremacy which followed shortly after. Various statutes were passed in the years 1533 and 1534, which gradually withdrew the church of England from subjection to the see of Rome. "Appeals to Rome" were prohibited, under the penalties of premiinire ; the clergy acknowledged that they could not adopt any constitution without the king's assent ; a purely domestic election and consecration of all prelates was established ; all pecuniary contributions, called Peter-pence, im- posed by " the bishop of Rome, called the pope," were abolished ; all lawful powers of licensing and dispensing were transferred from him to the arch- bishop of Canterbury ; and his claims to them are called usurpations, made in defiance of the true principle, "that your grace's realm, recognizing no superior under God, but only your grace, has been, and is, free from subjection to the laws of any foreign prince, potentate, or prelate." After thus excluding foreign powers, by so strong a denial of their jurisdiction, the same statute proceeds to affirm, that " your majesty is supreme head of the church of England, as the prelates and clergy of your realm, representing the said church in their ^ Burnet's Reform., i. 182. 26 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, synods and convocations, have recognized.""^ In the following session, their enactments were confirmed king's mea sures. ^vm^ by a brief but comprehensive act, which provided that the king, his heirs, &c., should be accepted and reputed the supreme head, on earth, of the church of England ; enjoying all the honors, jurisdiction, profits, &c., thereto belonging, with full power to visit and correct all heresies and other abuses.^ The majority This important statute effected an entire separa- advertetothe tiou of thc Euglisli church from the communion of Rome ; and, as such, it constitutes an epoch in the history of our religious reformation. It is not to be supposed that such an act could pass without much opposition. We must not infer, from the pliancy of Henry's parliaments, that the majority of the people acquiesced in his measures. There is good reason to believe that dissatisfaction extensively prevailed, and that, had the aristocracy possessed the same bold and haughty spirit as their fathers, a different result would have been witnessed. The more active spirits of the day were in favour of the change. They sympathized with the movement that was going on, and anticipated, from the conflict of parties, and the temporary confusion of affairs, the establish- ment of a new and more enlightened order of things. But the mass of the population were too Sir J. Mackintosh's England, duced to the commons in the ii. 173. It is generally supposed beginning of March, and received that this act was prompted by the royal assent on the 30th. The the definitive sentence which determination of the conclave Clement gave against the king on could not, therefore,^ have been the 23rd of March, 1534. But the cause of this decisive measure. Dr. Lingard has satisfactorily — Lingard's Hist., vi. 267. shown this opinion to be errone- « Pari. Hist., i. 525. Lord Her- ous. The bill abolishing the bert's Life of Henry the Eighth, power of the pope was intro- 408. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 27 ignorant and superstitious to appreciate the prin- chap. ciples in operation. They were satisfied with their '. — ancient faith. It had been the religion of their ^y^j^j^ fathers, which was entrenched in the strong-holds of their affections, and confirmed in its sway by the extensive and omnipotent power it had long wielded over the minds of men. The catholic priesthood, no doubt, exerted all their influence to prejudice the king's measures in public estimation. Though but few of them possessed sufficient honesty or firmness to brave his power on behalf of their church, yet, in private, we may well believe, they did their utmost to counteract his design, and perpetuate their own authority.^ It is to their in- fluence on an ignorant and unreflecting population that those insurrections must be attributed, which speedily broke out in different parts of the country. The act of supremacy did not define the limits naturrof the of that ecclesiastical authority which it vested in 'estT^n'^the the king. Its terms were general and somewhat vague ; well adapted to the immediate purpose of its framers, but necessarily supplying a thousand occasions for misconstruction or doubt. Its object was so perfectly novel, that it would not have been surprising had it been much less complete. Eccle- siastical supremacy had hitherto been regarded as the mysterious attribute of God's vicegerent. It was the object of superstitious veneration, which to analyze was sin ; to limit, the height of impiety. ^ Tonstal, Gardiner, and Bon- men have inherited a larger por- ner wrote in favour of the king's tion of the detestation of man- supremacy. Their subsequent kind than Gardiner and Bonner, history proves that in doing so They added the meanness of they acted insincerely. The hypocrisy to the cruelty of per- first was a temporizer, the other secutiou. two were bitter persecutors. Few 28 THE HISTORY OP " When Henry the Eighth," says Sir James Mack- — intosh, " was declared at the Reformation to be the ^ supreme head of the church of England, no attempt was made to define, with any tolerable pre- cision, the authority to be exercised by him in that character. The object of the lawgiver was to shake off the authority of the see of Rome, and to make effectual provision that all ecclesiastical power and jurisdiction should be administered, like every other part of the public justice of the kingdom, in the name and by the authority of the king. That object scarcely required more than a declaration that the realm was as independent of foreign power in matters relative to the church, as in any other branch of its legislation. That simple principle is distinctly intimated in several of the statutes passed on that occasion, though not consistently pursued in any of them. The true principles of ecclesiastical polity were then nowhere acknowledged. The court of Rome was far from admitting the self-evident truth, that all coercive and penal jurisdiction exer- cised by the clergy was, in its nature, a branch of the civil power delegated to them by the state, and that the church, as such, could exercise only that influence (metaphorically called authority) over the understanding and conscience, which depended on tlie spontaneous submission of its members. The protestant sects were not willing to submit their pretensions to the control of the magistrate ; and even the reformed church of England, though the creature of statute, showed, at various times, a dis- position to claim some rights under a higher title. All religious communities were at that time alike intolerant; and there was, perhaps, no man in PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 29 Europe who dared to think that the state neither chap. possessed, nor could delegate, nor could recognize, as inherent in another body, any authority over ^^^j^^ religious opinions. Neither was any distinction made in the laws to which we have adverted, be- tween the ecclesiastical authority which the king might separately exercise, and that which required the concurrence of parliament. From ignorance, inattention, and timidity, in regard to these im- portant parts of the subject, arose the greater part of the obscurity which still hangs over the limits of the king's ecclesiastical prerogative, and the means of carrying it into execution."^ ^ Hist, of the Revolution, 65^ CHAPTER II. Elevation of Cranmer — Articles of Religion — Injunctions — Institu- tion of a Christian Man — Necessary Erudition — Lesser Monas- teries suppressed — Greater Monasteries— Erection of new Bishop- rics— Bible printed — Cranmer and his Associates ignorant of the Nature of religious Liberty — The irreligious Tendencies of Po- pery the main Cause of tlieir Opposition — Martyrdom of Bilney, Bayfield, and Bainham — John Frith — John Lambert — Sacramen- tarians and Baptists — Statute of Six Articles. CHAP. The elevation of Cranmer to the primacy of the English church was an important step in the Refor- HENRY mation. It took place in the year 1533, as a reward ^ for the zeal and ability with which he had defended Cranmer. the king's divorce. He appears to have accepted the distinction with reluctance, and the best friends of his reputation must regard his compliance mth some degree of regret. He was destitute of that fortitude and determination of mind which so high a station required. There was little of moral heroism in his character. He was timid and vacil- lating ; honest in his purposes, but irresolute in his conduct. The frown of the king alarmed him, while the faintest intimation of his pleasure generally secured the silence, if not the concurrence, of Cranmer. In a private station, or in a calmer age, he would have maintained an irreproachable cha- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 31 racter; but at present he needs all the sympathy chap. which his martyrdom inspires, to retain for him a high place in the respect of impartial men.^ Had his ^y^^^^ enemies permitted him to live after his recantation at Oxford, they would most effectually have de- stroyed his credit ; but by committing him to the flames, they have enbalmed his memory in the grateful recollection of posterity. The decision and heroism of his last moments have a character of tragic interest which redeems much of the timidity of his previous conduct. Nothing can exceed the baseness of his persecutors, except their folly; for to their delusive and heartless policy he is mainly indebted for his present reputation. In the year 1 536, certain Articles of Religion Keuolor' were set forth by the king, "that unity and con- cord in opinions, namely, in such things as do con- cern our religion, may increase and go forward, and all occasion of dissent and discord, touching the same, be repressed, and utterly extinguished." These Articles exhibit the progress made in the reformation of the doctrine and worship of the church. Most of the errors of popery are retained, though with some modification. Baptismal regene- ^ Cranmer's protest at his con- lation that he should take a cer- secration was an unwortliy act, tain oatli, he had a right to offer and ought not to be defended. Our a limitation, not explanatory, but gratitude for the benefits he utterly inconsistent with it. We wrought must not render us in- are sure that Cranmer's views and sensible to the duplicity of this intentions, which he very soon part of his conduct. Burnet's carried into effect, were irrecon- language is much too mild for the cileable with any sort of obe- occasion, while the more recent dience to the Pope; and if, under attempt of one of Cranmer's ad- all the circumstances, his conduct mirers to vindicate his memory was justifiable, there would be an must excite the regret of every end of all promissory obligations candid and impartial mind. "The whatever."— Constit. Hist., i. 135. question," says Mr. Hallam, " is, Strype has supplied the protest in whether, having obtained bulls the Appendix to his Life of Cran- from Rome, on an express stipu- mer, Number V., p. 683. 32 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. II. HENRY VIII. ration, auricular confession, transubstantiation, re- . verencing of images, prayer to departed saints, and a belief in purgatory, were all enforced; while the doctrine of justification was obscured by the efficacy attributed to "contrition and faith joined with charity." These Articles were subscribed by Cran- mer and seventeen bishops; together with many abbots, priors, archdeacons, and proctors. They afford little satisfaction in themselves, but were adapted to encourage the hope of further reforma- tion. The Scriptures and ancient creeds are sub- stituted in the place of tradition and popish decrees, and some approach is made to a scriptural exhibi- tion of the leading doctrines of Christianity.' Certain injunctions were shortly after addressed * An abstract of these Articles is famished by Burnet in the first volume of his Reformation, page 346. Also by Strj-pe, in his Life of Cranmer, vol. i., p. 58. This latter writer, in his Memorials, vol. i., p. 588, has confounded the Articles with the ImtitutAon of a Christian Man, a work published by au- thority in the followino' year. In the Addenda to his History, vol. iv., p. 106, Burnet has supplied the Articles themselves, with all the subscriptions. As an example of the extent to which the doc- trines of Popery are modified in these Articles, I subjoin the one on Purgatory. "Forasmuch as due order of charity re quire th, and the book of Maccabees and divers ancient doctors, plainly showing, that it is a very good and charit- able deed to pra}- for souls de- parted; and forasmuch, also, as such usage hath continued in the church so many years, even from the beginning ; we will that all bishops and preachers shall in- struct and teach our people, com- mitted by us unto their spiritual charge, that no man ought to be grieved with the continuance of the same, and that it standeth with the very due order of charity for a Christian man to pray for souls departed, and to commit them in our prayers to God's mercy, and also to cause others to pray for them in masses and exequies, and to give alms to others to pray for them, whereby they may be reUeved and holpen of some part of their pain. But, forasmuch as the place where they be, the name thereof, and kind of pains there, also be to us uncertain by Scripture ; therefore this, with all other things, we re- mit to God Almighty, unto whose mercy it is meet and convenient for us to commend them, trusting that God accepteth our prayers for them, referring the rest wholly to God, to whom is known their estate and condition ; wherefore, it is much necessary that such abuses be clearly put awa}-, which under the name of Purgatory have been advanced, as to make men believe that, through the Bishop of Rome's pardon, souls might clearly be delivered out of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 33 to the clergy, in which, amongst other things, they chap. were required to publish to the people, twice every L_ quarter, that the bishop of Rome's usurped power ^y^j^^ had no warrant from Scripture; to dissuade them from making pilgrimages to saints, or from regard- ing images or relics with superstitious reverence, and to exhort them to teach their children the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Command- ments.' This was the first act of pure supremacy on the part of the king, and could not fail to be highly displeasing to the adherents of Rome. The clergy murmured at the authority assumed; but they knew the temper of Henry too well to offer any open resistance. The pro2:ress of the Reformation was further institution of •1 iTiii !• ^ Christian shown m a work, published by authority, entitled, Man. The Institution of a Christian Man, It was drawn up by Cranmer and other divines, under a com- mission from the king; and was designed to supply an accredited exposition of religious truth. "Call- ing to our remembrance," say the prelates in their introductory address to the king, "how the whole pith and sum of all those things which be at great length contained in the whole canon of the bible, and be of necessity required to the attaining of everlasting life, was sufficiently, exactly, and there- with shortly and compendiously, comprehended in the Twelve Articles of the Common Creed, called the Apostles' Creed, in the Seven Sacraments of the Church, in the Ten Commandments, and in the prayer of our Lord, called the Pater-noster; and, purgatory, and all tlic pains of it, deliver tliem from all their pain, or tliat masses said at Scala caeli, and send them straight to heaven; or otherwise, in any place, or be- and other like abuses." fore any image, might likewise * Burnet's Reform,, i. o63. I) 34 THE HISTORY OF HENRY VIII. considering, therefore, that if your highness's people were perfectly instructed and learned in the right knowledge and understanding of the same, they should not only be able easily to perceive and understand, and also to learn by heart and bear away, the whole effect and substance of all those things which do appertain and be necessary for a Christian man, either to believe or to do, but also that all occasions might thereby be removed, which by any colour or visage have caused any of them to fall, or to be offended ; we have, after long and mature consultation had amongst us, compiled a certain treatise, wherein we have employed our whole study, and have therein truly and purely set forth and declared, in our mother tongue, the very sense and meaning, and the very right use, virtue, and efficacy, of all the said four parts." This pub- lication was established by Act of Parliament, and obtained the name of the Bishops' Book. It con- tained a great part of the Articles issued in the pre- vious year, with large additions on the Creed, Ten Commandments, &c.^ Necessary In 1543, it was rcDublished, with some modifica- Doctrine, ^ ^ i • i r» 1543. tions favourable to popery, under the title of A Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man, From that period to the death of Henry, the Kings Book, as the Necessary Doctrine, kc, was called, remained the standard of orthodoxy, and obtained as extensive an authority as either of its predecessors. The successive changes which the theology of the monarch had undergone, were adopted with equal indifference by his courtiers, and were too servilely followed even j Strype's Cranmer, i. 74. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 35 HENRY VIII. by the more eminent reformers. The timidity of Cranmer probably influenced the movements of his party, and thus prevented bolder and more resolute spirits from openly resisting the ecclesiastical dogmas of the king.*" The monasteries of the kinG:dom now presented Dissolution of ~ -"^ the Monaste- the most formidable obstacle to the king's measures, "e^- They were numerous, and richly endowed, and pos- sessed very considerable influence over a large por- tion of the community. Many of their inmates ventured openly to impugn the royal proceedings. Attached by principle and interest to the papal see, they deprecated the overthrow of its supremacy, and the various alterations consequent thereon. They partook in a less degree than any other class of the community of the spirit of innova- tion which was abroad. Isolated from general Herbert's Henry the Eighth, 559. Strype's Mem., vol. i., pt. i., p. 583. The Articles, the Institu- tion, and the Erudition, were re- published in 1825, by Bishop Lloyd, under the title of Formu- laries of Faith, put forth by au- thority during the reign of Henry the Eighth. The views of ecclesiastical or- ders held by the English re- formers, were vastly different from those now prevalent amongst the clergy. In the chapter, for in- stance, on the Sacrament of Orders, in the Necessary Doc- trine, &c., no such distinction between a bishop and a priest as has since been maintained, is even alluded to. On the contrary, this remarkable language is employed: "And of these two orders only, that is to say, priests and dea- cons. Scripture maketh express mention, and how they were con- firmed of the apostles by prayer and imposition of their hands. And to these two the primitive church did add and conjoin other D inferior and lower degrees, as sub- deacons, &c. And whereas we have thus summarily declared what is the office and ministra- tion which in Holy Scriptures hath been committed to bishops and priests, and in what things it consisteth, as is afore rehearsed, lest peradventure it might be thought to some persons that such authorities, powers, and jurisdic- tions, as patriarchs, primates, archbishops, and metropolitans, now have, or heretofore at any time have had, justly and law- fully, over other bishops, were given them by God in Holy Scripture ; we think it expedient and necessary, that all men should be advertized and taught, that all such lawful powers and authori- ties of one bishop over another were and be given to them by the consent, ordinance, and positive laws of men only, and not by any ordinance of God in Holy Scrip- ture." Formularies of Faith, &c., p. 281. THE HISTORY OF society, they were ignorant of the change which was passing on the minds of men. Their views were not modified by those collisions of opinion for which the ordinary intercourse of life gives occasion, nor their judgments enlightened and rectified by an extensive observation of the bearing of different creeds. It was, therefore, soon evident to the king and his advisers, that the suppression of these institutions w^as necessary to the permanence of the change they had eflfected. Their wealth also be- came a powerful temptation. They were known to possess a considerable portion of the rental of the kingdom, and to be distinguished in their domestic economy by a wasteful and luxurious expenditure. The courtiers suggested that the king might be rendered permanently independent of his parlia- ment, by appropriating the wealth of the convents to his own use; whilst Cranmer and the other reformers urged his employing this treasure in the establishment of new bishoprics and other ecclesias- tical offices. Nor were examples wanted to en- courage the king to act on this advice. Cardinal Wolsey had obtained bulls from the pope for the suppression of several religious houses, to aid him in founding his colleges at Oxford and Ipswich."" A precedent was thus established, which Henry now determined to imitate. Commissioners had pre- viously been appointed to visit the monasteries, whose report was read in parliament, when an act was passed for the suppression of the lesser houses. The preamble states, "That small religious houses, under the number of twelve persons, had been long and notoriously guilty of vicious and abomi- Burnet's Reform,, i. 86. Strype's Memorials, i. i. 169. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 37 nable living ; and did much consume and waste chap. their churches, lands, and other things, belonging to them ; and that, for above two hundred years, ^^yj'j^y there had been many visitations for reforming these abuses, but with no success; their vicious living increasing daily, so that, except small houses were dissolved, and the religious put into greater monas- teries, there could no Reformation be expected in that matter. Whereupon it was enacted, that all houses which" might spend yearly two hundred pounds, or within it, should be suppressed, and their revenues consecrated to better uses, and they compelled to reform their lives." By another Act passed this session, the estates belonging to these houses were vested in the crown ; and a new court was erected to take cognizance of their revenues, called the Court of the Augmenta- tions of the King's Revenue. Thus fell the lesser abbeys to the number of three hundred and seventy- six, by which an annual income of thirty or thirty-two thousand pounds accrued to the king, besides goods and chattels, which at a low cal- culation were valued at one hundred thousand pounds.'' The greater monasteries, thouo;li respited for a ^'^^^'"tion of T . 1 • -1 p r-i 1 the greater time, were destmed to meet a similar fate. Stokesley, Monasteries, bishop of London, in the debate on the bill for the suppression of the minor houses, had remarked, "These lesser houses were as thorns, soon plucked up; but the great abbots were like petrified old n Burnet's Reform, i. 311 . Her- thousand pounds (probably half a bert's Henry the Eighth, 440. million according to our wao-cs " One hundred thousand pounds and prices) were added to the (probably a million and a half of annual revenue of the crown." the present value) came imme- Sir J. Mackintosh's Eno-land, L diately into the exchequer; thirty 212. 38 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, oaks ; yet they must needs follow, and so would others do in Christendom, before many years were ^^ENRY passed/"' This was hastened by the insurrections which broke out in different parts of the country. The monks in the North of England had encouraged their tenants to join in the pilgrimage of grace, and thus drew upon themselves the severest displeasure of the impetuous and revengeful king. Another visitation was consequently appointed. Some of the greater abbots were induced to surrender their houses in 1538; and in the following year a bill May 13, 1539. was brouglit luto Parliament, which provided that "all monasteries or other religious houses dissolved, suppressed, surrendered, renounced, relinquished, forfeited, or by any means come to his highness, shall be vested in him, his heirs, and successors, for ever." "The number of monasteries dissolved," says the editor of the Parliamentary History, "ac- cording to Speed, Stow, and Cambden, amounted to six hundred and forty-five ; amongst which, twenty- seven had votes, and sat in the House of Lords, as mitred abbots. Of colleges, were dissolved, in di- verse shires, ninety. Of chantries and free-chapels, some time after, two thousand three hundred and seventy-four. And of hospitals, one hundred and ten."P The dissolution of the monasteries placed a large portion of the wealth of the nation at the disposal of the crown. The clear yearly value was rated at one hundred and thirty-one thousand six hundred and seven pounds, but is alleged by Burnet to have greatly exceeded this; the courtiers undervaluing " Burnet's Reform., i. 312. P Pari. Hist., i. 537. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 39 the estates in order to obtain tliem on more easy chap. terms."^ Dr. Lingard, on the authority of Nasmith's edition of Tanner's Notitia, states the annual ^y^j^^ revenue of the suppressed houses at one hundred and forty-two thousand nine hundred and fourteen pounds; an immense sum, if the comparative value of money at that period be taken into account.'^ Besides the annual income of these houses, they yielded a large amount of property in their goods and chattels. The moveables of the smaller mon- asteries were valued at one hundred thousand pounds; a sum which probably did not exceed a fourth of the aggregate value of moveable wealth thus realized.' It is well for the liberty of England that Henry's political sagacity was not equal to his despotic disposition. Had he been frugal in his expendi- ture, he might probably have rendered him- self independent of his parliaments; but the im- mense treasures which now flowed in upon him, were scattered with a prodigal hand. His rapacious courtiers were enriched; new blood was circulated through the languid frame of the aristocracy; and society at large was benefited. Numerous cases of *i Hist, of Reform., i. 432. sions of six, four, or two pounds. Hist, of England, vi. 345. with a small sum to each at his • Pensions were granted to the departure, to provide for his im- monks on the breaking up of mediate wants. The pensions to these institutions. Dr. Lingard, nuns averaged about four pounds, who is never chargeable with ex- It should, however, be observed, hibiting the acts of Henry's go- that these sums were not in vernment in too favourable a light, reahty so small as they appear, tells us: "The pensions to the as monf^y was probably at that superiors appear to have varied, period of ten times more value from two hundred and sixty-six than it is now. It was provided pounds to six pounds per annum. that each pension should cease as The priors of cells received gene- soon as the pensioner obtained rally thirteen pounds. To the church preferment of equal value." other monks were allotted pen- Hist, of England, vi. 341. 40 THE HISTORY OF oppression and suffering no doubt occurred ; but the general result has been eminently beneficial. ^vm^ The policy of Henry the Seventh, and the long wars of York and Lancaster, had exhausted the wealth and depressed the spirits of the aristocracy. The natural leaders of the people were deprived of the power and inclination to render them any effectual service, in resisting the encroachments of the crown. They had sunk into mere dependants on the court; they lived from day to day on its patronage and smiles; and were more likely to aid its despotic designs, than to oppose its invasion of popular right. But a more healthy and vigorous tone was given to this body by the distribution of so large a mass of property amongst its members. An independent fortune generated an independent spirit, and thus prepared the agents of that mighty revolution which was speedily to be effected in the sentiments of the nation. New bishop- It had been given out by the king, that eighteen biished. new bishoprics should be established with the wealth obtained by the suppression of the monasteries. It is not very probable that he ever seriously entertained the project. His policy was too ra- pacious and prodigal to allow of it. The scheme might serve to tranquillize his conscience, and to diminish opposition; but he was ultimately satisfied with scantily endowing six episcopal sees.^ One of the first acts of Cranmer, on his elevation * These were, "Westminster, converted into cathedral and col- Oxford, Peterborough, Bristol, legiate churches. Strype's Me- Chester, and Gloucester. Four- morials, i. i. 589. Lingard's leen abbeys and priories were also England, vi. 347. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. to the primacy, was to take measures for the chap translation of the Sacred Scriptures into the ver- nacular tongue. He began with the New Testa- ^^.^^^^ ment, an English copy of which he divided into eight or ten parts, and sent to the most learned men of his day for their correction. These were returned to Lambeth at the appointed time, with the excep- tion of the Acts of the Apostles, which had been intrusted to Stokesley, bishop of London; who wrote to Cranmer, "I marvel what my lord of Can- terbury meaneth, that he thus abuseth the people, in giving them liberty to read the Scriptures; which doth nothing else but infect them with heresy. I have bestowed never an hour upon my portion, nor never will. And therefore my lord shall have this book again, for I will never be guilty of bringing the simple people into error."" So perverted were the views of the dignitaries of the church, and so determined the opposition which Cranmer encoun- tered in his labours for its reformation. His per- sonal sense of the value of the Scriptures, and deep conviction of their importance, led him to perse- vere in his design, and secured his ultimate suc- cess. The whole bible was printed in the year 1535, ""^'t's."' by Coverdale, and again in 1537, under the fictitious name of Thomas Matthew, when it was " Strype's Cranmer, i. 48. When Cranmer expressed his surprise at the conduct of Stokes- ley, we are told that IMr. Thomas Liiwney, who stood by, re- marked, can tell your grace why my lord of London will not bestow any labour or. pains this way. Your grace knowetli well, that his portion is a piece of the New Testament; but he, beini^ persuaded that Christ had be- queathed him nothing- in his Tes- tament, thought it mere madness to bestow any labour or pains where no g-ain was to be gotten. And, besides this, it is the Acts of the Apostles, which were sim- ple poor fellows, and therefore my lord of London disdained to have to do with any of them." Ibid. p. 40. 42 THE HISTORY OF ^^J^P- commanded by the king to be set up in all parish churches throughout the realm. The latter edition ^^vm^ contained marginal notes, reflecting on the errors and corruptions of popery, which were suppressed in subsequent editions, when the Catholic party pre- ponderated in the royal councils.'' The importance which Cranmer and his associates attached to the free circulation of the Scriptures was fully justi- fied by the event. Luther by this means had suc- cessfully attacked the strong holds of popery; and the English Reformers, in imitation of his example, were now inflicting a deadly wound on the cx^rrupt and monstrous system to which they were opposed. An exhibition of the errors of popery, however it might alienate the public mind from the ancient faith, would have answered no good purpose, had it not been connected with the unfettered publica- tion of the divine word. Scepticism might have been promoted, and the withering influence of infidelity diffused abroad ; but the religious ends which the Reformers contemplated would not have been attained. It was necessary to sub- stitute truth for error, the word of God for the traditions of the church, in order that the benign and holy spirit of Christianity should supplant the selfish and malignant passions which had been engendered. Cranmer and Tlic popisli party uow gaiucd ground in the ignorant of king's councils, and the progress of the Reforma- the nature of . . i t> p religious li- tion was consequently stopped, beiore attemptmg a detail of the measures by which they partially compassed their end, it may be necessary briefly to * Strype's Memor., i. i. 472. Lewis's Hist, of Eng. Transl., 105. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. sketch the course of persecution with which Cran- mer and his brethren were unhappily identified. This will throw light on the character of the chief actors in the scene, and help us to understand the precise position of ecclesiastical affairs. A blind party spirit has attempted to throw the whole odium of persecution on the church of Rome. The records of history, and the principles of human nature, have been alike disregarded in its indis- criminate censure and praise. The candid of all parties will regret the criminality of such an attempt, while the increasing intelligence of the age renders its folly as obvious as its guilt. The truth is, that, with very few exceptions, the first reformers were as ignorant of the true prin- ciples of religious liberty, as the most bigoted of the catholics. Though rebels themselves, they refused to allow rebellion in others ; impugning the authority of Rome, they established their own; and whilst denying the infallibility of the pope, they practically asserted that of their own creeds. Cranmer possessed a more timid disposition, and a more benevolent heart, than Gardiner and Bonner ; but he was not a whit before them in his knowledge of the right of private judgment and of the unfettered freedom of religious worship. It may seem strange to some, that the Reformers did not at once perceive the true ground of their own proceedings ; — that they did not feel constrained, by a sense of absolute necessity, to defend their secession from Rome by asserting, in bold and unhesitating terms, their own intelligence and the spirituality of religion; — that they did not vindicate the dignity of their nature, and the etherial temper of their faith, by exploding 44 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. II. coercion as an insult to the one, and a gross outrage on the other. But when we take into account the ^^vni.^ ignorance of their times, and the influences amid which they were trained, our surprise will be awakened by the extent rather than by the scanti- ness of their discoveries. Important principles are of slow development. Whatever is necessary to the preservation of life, and the perpetuation of the species, is provided for by some general law of the Creator. The promptings of instinct are made to anticipate and supersede the decisions of judg- ment. But not so in the moral world. To the formation of character, the free exercise of thought is indispensable. The elements of knowledge are liberally supplied ; but diligence, discrimination, and fidelity are requisite to deduce from them the principles of wisdom and the lessons of piety. The mists of passion and the interests of party obscure and pervert the judgment, and thus conceal from view those celestial principles which would be readily discovered and embraced by an unbiassed intellect. Thcivopposi- The Reformers were mainly influenced, in tion to the ^ ^ ^ papacy main- tlicir scDaration from the papacy, by the grievous ly prompted , , , ^ , . • • i i • n- by its irreii- injurics which its superstitions had inflicted on cy. the human mind. This was the impelling motive, which gave its character to the whole of their pro- ceedings. The very ardour of their zeal, as it car- ried them forward to the ultimate purpose of Chris- tianity, left them no time for the prosecution of those inquiries which, however important, were not obviously connected with the main object of their eff()rts. Their purpose was the conversion of souls, and the purification of the church of Christ ; PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 45 and we need not be surprised, nor should our con- ^ demnation be severe, if they were so absorbed by — its magnitude as to overlook inquiries of a less vital character. Their confidence in the integrity of their own views tended still further to mislead them. Instead of appealing to the principles of human nature, and to the character of religion, they vindicated their course by alleging the supe- riority of their sentiments. Instead of rearing a defence which might have protected themselves and their posterity, in all future times, from the assaults of spiritual intolerance, they were content to meet the exigency of the moment, by making an impres- sion on the men of their day. Their defence was grounded on an unsound basis. Its fallacy, though not obvious at once, w^as speedily shown in the dis- cussions that followed ; for each party employed it with equal confidence. The Romanist and the Pro- testant, Gardiner and Cranmer, retained it as com- mon ground, on which to conduct their defence, and to vindicate their persecution of others. It was not till the puritans were subjected to the fiery ordeal through which priestly intolerance made them pass, that those immortal principles were elicited which now constitute the basis of our legislation. Amidst the strife of parties, the human intellect worked out its own salvation. Bishop Burnet tells us, that, " during the agita- tion of the king's process, there w^as no prosecution of the preachers of Luther's doctrine."^ As soon, however, as that cause was decided, severe measures were adopted to restrain the freedom of religious inquiry, and thus prevent the faith of the people ' Hist, of Reform., i. 260. 46 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. fj.Qjjri outstripping that of the monarch. " Many were brought into the bishops' courts ; some for HEXRY teaching their children the Lord's Prayer in Eng- lish ; some for reading the forbidden books ; some for harboring the preachers; some for speaking against pilgrimages, or the worshipping and ador- ing of images ; some for not observing the church fasts ; some for not coming to confession and the sacrament ; and some for speaking against the vices of the clergy. Most of these were simple and illiterate men ; and the terror of the bishops' courts and prisons, and of a fagot in the end, wrought so much on their fears and weakness, that they gene- rally abjured, and were dismissed."* Martvrdom of Amongst the most eminent confessors of this fiew!& bX- period were Bilney, Bayfield, and Bainham. On their first apprehension they abjured ; but subse- quently avowed the reformed faith with firmness, and sealed it with their blood. The charges pre- ferred against them were, a depreciation of the im- portance of pilgrimages ; a denial of the propriety of praying to departed saints ; an avowal of the efiicacy of faith ; and other similar offences, ^ Latimer was » Buraet's Reform., i. 265. body, and with ,God's creatures, An interesting account of in thanks to him, refresh the same, these martps is supplied by as ye see." Then sitting with his Fox, in the second volume of friends in godly talk to their edifi- his Acts and Monuments. Tlie cation, some put him in mind, evening before the execution of that though the fire which he Bilney, the martyrologist relates should suffer the next day should that many of his friends resorted be of great heat to his body, yet to him, one of whom expressed the comfort of God's spirit should surprise at his partaking so heart- cool it to his everlasting refrcsh- ily of a repast. Whereupon the ing. At this word, putting his holy man exclaimed : " I follow hand toward the flame of the the example of the husbandmen candle burning before them, and of the country, who having a feeling the heat thereof, "O," ruinous house to dwell in, yet (said lie) ^' I feel by experience, bestow cost so long as they may, and have known it long by philo- to hold it up. And so do I now sophy, that fire by God's ordi- with this ruinous house of my nance is naturally hot ; but yet I PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 47 brought before the convocation on a charge of heresy, ^^^p- but escaped by subscribing the articles offered to him. There was, as yet, no dispute respecting tran- ^y^?^ substantiation. It was first questioned by Frith, a disciple of the Swiss school, whose works came into John Frith, England much later than those of Luther. John Frith was one of the Cambridge men whom Wolsey removed to his new college at Oxford. His intimacy with Tyndale led to the adoption of that reformer's views, on which account he was imprisoned ; but, being released by the compassion of the cardinal, he fled to the continent, where he remained for some years. He was distinguished for his moderation and learning, but on his return to England was apprehended for heresy. The charges against him were a denial of purgatory and transubstantiation ; both of which he admitted, defending his sen- timents with eminent skill and temper. In a letter which he wrote from prison to his friends, he thus describes his examination. "And first of all, as touching purgator}^ they inquired of me whether I did believe there was any place to purge the spots and filth of the soul after this life. But I said, I thought there was no such place : for man (said I) doth consist and is made only of two parts, that is to say, of the body and the soul ; whereof the one is purged here in this world, by the cross of Christ, which he layeth upon every child that he receiveth; as affliction, worldly oppression, persecution, im- am persuaded by God's holy howsoever that the stubble of word, and by the experience of this my body shall be wasted by some spoken of in the same, that it, yet my soul and spirit shall be m the flame they felt no heat, and purged thereby; a pain for the in the fire they felt no consurap- time, whereon notwithstanding tion; and I constantly believe, folio weth joy unspeakable."p.227. THE HISTORY OF ^^j^P- prisonment, &c. And last of all, the reward of sin, which is death, is laid upon us ; but the soul is "vm^ purged with the word of God, which we receive through faith, to the salvation both of body and soul. Now if ye can show me a third part of man beside the body and the soul, I will also grant 3^ou the third place, which ye do call purgatory. But be- cause ye cannot do this, I must also of necessity deny unto you the bishop of Rome's purgatory." After giving an account of the discussion he maintained with his persecutors on the second charge preferred against him, he adds : Here peradventure many would marvel, that forasmuch as the matter touchinof the substance of the sacrament being separate from the articles of faith, and binding no man of neces- sity, either unto salvation or damnation, whether lie believe it or not ; but rather may be left in- differently to all men, freely to judge either on the one part or on the other, according to his own mind, so that neither part do contemn or despise the other; but that all love and charity be still holden and kept in this dissension of opinions. What, then, is the cause why I would therefore so willingly suffer death ? The cause why I die is this ; for that I c^innot agree with the divines and other head pre- lates, that it should be necessarily determined to be an article of faith, and that we should believe, under pain of damnation, the substance of the bread and wine to be changed into the body and blood of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, the form and shape only not being changed. Which thing, if it were most true (as they shall never be able to prove it by any authority of the Scripture or doctors), yet shall they not so bring to pass, that that doctrine, were PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 49 CHAP it never so true, should l^e liolden for a necessary n. article of faith. For there are many things, both ^ in the Scriptures and other places, which we are vm, not bound of necessity to believe as an article of faith."^ Refusing to recant, he was condemned, as an ob- stinate heretic, "to be cast out from the church, and left unto the judgment of the secular power, most earnestly requiring them," said his judges, witli impious hypocrisy, " in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ, that this execution and punishment, worthily to be done upon thee, may be so moderate that the rigor thereof be not too extreme, nor yet the gentleness too much mitigated, but that it may be to the salvation of thy soul, to the extirpation, ter- ror, and conversion of heretics, to the unity of the catholic faith, by this our sentence definitive, or final decree." Cranmer concurred in the proceedings against Frith, as is shown in his letter to Hawkins, reprinted by Dr. Lingard.*^ But he took a more active part in the prosecution of Nicholson, who to conceal jj^jj" himself from the bishop had assumed the name of Lambert. This estimable man had been imprisoned on a charge of heresy by archbishop Warham, but was released on the death of that prelate. Having heard Dr. Taylor, afterwards bishop of Lincoln, preach on the presence of Christ in the sacrament, he sought an interview with him, and stated his objections to the received doctrine, which he after- wards committed to writing. Taylor showed this paper to Dr. Barnes, a Lutheran, and they reported the matter to Cranmer, who summoned Lambert c Acts and Monuments, ii. 253. ^ Hist, of England, vi. 86G. VOL. r. E bert 1538. 50 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. II. * into the arcliiepiscopal court. He was ultimately condemned to the stake, where he yielded up his VIII. soul to God, exclaiming, " None but Christ, none but Christ. Sacramen- tarians and The sacramentarians and baptists were now dili- ^uti' B'^^^b' sought out and persecuted. In the year 1539, certain injunctions were issued by the king, the fourth of which directed that " Those that be in any errors, as sacramentaries, anabaptists, or any other that sell books having such opinions in them, being once known, both the books and such persons shall be detected and disclosed immediately unto the king's majesty, or one of his pri\y council, to the intent to have it punished without favour, even with the extremity of the law."^ Many of the latter experienced the unrelenting rigor of eccle- siastical intolerance. Some were banished, others imprisoned, and not a few perished in the flames. They were obnoxious to all other sects. The pro- testants, equally with the papists, regarded them with abhorrence, and even at the stake gave utter- ance to the strongest sentiments of hatred. "Which sect," said Barnes, when brought to Smithfield in 1540, " I detest and abhor." ^ The ascendancy of the popish party in the king's councils was unequivocally displayed in a statute entitled, " An act for abolishing diversity of opinions in certain articles concerning Christian religion." The preamble states, "that the king, considering e Acts and ^lonuraents, ii. 3o8. fraught with instruction which It is singular that the three men, every mind is capable of receiv- Cranmer, Taylor, and Barnes, ing. who were principally concerned ^ Ibid., ii. 369. in the death of Lambert, were « See the first chapter of themselves condemned to the Crosby's Hist, of the English stake as heretics. Such facts are Baptists. statute of the six articles. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 51 the blessed effects of union, and the mischiefs of C!HAP. discord, since there were many different opinions, ■ both among the clergy and laity, about some points of religion, had called this parliament, and a synod at the same time, for removing these differences, when six articles were proposed, and long debated by the clergy ; and the king himself had come in person to the parliament and council, and opened many things of high learning and great knowledge about them ; and that he, with the consent of both houses of parliament, had agreed on the following articles. "1. That in the sacrament of the altar, after the consecration, there remained no substance of bread and wine ; but under these forms the natural body and blood of Christ were present. "2. That communion in both kinds was not necessary to salvation to all persons by the law of God ; but that both the flesh and blood of Christ were together in each of the kinds. "3. That priests, after the order of priesthood, might not marry by the law of God. "4. That vows of chastity ought to be observed by the laws of God. "5. That the use of private masses ought to be continued ; which, as it was agreeable to God's law, so man received great benefit from them. "6. That auricular confession was expedient and necessary, and ought to be retained." It was further enacted, "that if any did speak, preach, or write against the first article, they were to be judged heretics, and to be burned without any abjuration, and to forfeit their real and personal estates to the king. And those who preached or E 2 HENRY VIll. 52 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. w X 1 1. II. Obstinately disputed against the other articles, were j^^^.j^Y j^^^ge^ felons, and to suffer death as felons, VIII. without benefit of clergy. And those who, either in word or writing, spake against them, were to be prisoners during the king's pleasure, and forfeit their goods and chattels to the king, for the first offence ; and if they off'ended so the second time, they were to suflfer as felons."^ On the passing of this act, Latimer and Shaxton resigned their bishoprics ; and Cranmer sent his wife to her friends in Germany.' The influence of the latter prelate was now considerably diminished ; and his power of forwarding the Reformation was further abridged by the fall of Cromwell in the following year. The popish party vigorously pressed the obnoxious statute they had carried through parliament. Commissioners were appointed in every shire to search out and examine delinquents. Hundreds were committed to prison, and many expired at the stake. Others fled to the continent, where they learnt a purer faith than had yet obtained in their native country.'' The punish- ments inflicted on this occasion " did but advance their religion," remarks lord Herbert ; " 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."' Burnet's Reform., i. 416. somewhat circumscribed by the Pari. Hist., i. 539. thirty-fifth of Henry the Eighth, ' Shaxton subsequently re- which enacted, " that persons turned to the papal church, and shall not be convicted upon it, became a persecutor of his former but by the oaths of twelve men ; associates. — Strype's Mem., i. i. that the prosecution shall be 544. within a year ; and that if any Ibid., 545. one preaches against the six ' Lifeof Henry the Eighth, 530. articles, he shall be informed The operation of this statute was against within forty days." CHAPTER III. ft The Popish Party Plot the Destruction of Cranmer — Papists and Pro- testants executed — Circulation of the Bible opposed by the Catholics — Act for the Advancement of Reformation — Litany published in English — Character of Henry — Character of the Reform he effected — State Alliances injurious to Christianity. The great object of the Popish party was the ruin of Cranmer. The zeal with which he had pro- moted the Reformation was an unpardonable ^y^j^^ offence, for which his death only could atone. But The Popish he retained an interest in the affection of his royal EruSon of master, which no other courtier possessed. Henry's protection of Cranmer is one of the few redeeming acts of his life. It is somewhat difficult to account for it. It probably arose from the integrity of the archbishop's character, and the timidity of his dis- position. The latter quality prevented his arousing the king's anger, by persisting in opposition to his measures; whilst the former could scarcely fail to impress even the brutal mind of Henry with some degree of awe. Had Cranmer possessed more firmness, or less virtue, he would, in all probability, have been sacrificed by his monarch.™ Burnet has furnislied some care of Cranmer. — Hist, of Re- pleasing- instances of the king's form., i. 420, 526, 550. 54 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. III. HENRY VIII. Papists and Protestants executed. The king was as zealous in enforcing* his supre- macy, as in setting bounds to the faith of his sub- jects. The Catholic, equally with the Protestant, was obnoxious to his penal code. The former was punished as a rebel, for admitting the papal supre- macy; the latter as a heretic, for denying the July, 1540. papal doctrines. A day or two after the execution of Cromwell, three Catholics, Powel, Abel, and Featherstone, were conveyed from the Tower to Smithfield, on the same hurdle with three Pro- testants, Barnes, Garret, and Jerome. The former were hanged and quartered as traitors; the latter were burnt as heretics." The unprejudiced of every party will admire the integrity displayed by these sufferers, in support of their respective opinions. Whatever view may be entertained of their doc- trines, we must be strangely perverted by the spirit of party, if we refuse them the tribute of our com- mendation and gratitude. By braving the wrath of a brutal king, they set an example of moral courage, the influence of which has been amongst the most regenerative elements of society. That sym- pathy with suffering endured for conscience' sake, which is restricted to our own party, is fictitious and morbid; induced by accidental associations, rather than by upright principles, and the pure spirit of Christian fellowship. The wayward tem- per and capricious policy of Henry were strikingly displayed in the alternate persecution of the two religious bodies into which his subjects were di- vided. His own creed was a compound of the Reformed and Catholic faith, while his heart was open only to the worst influences which a depraved " Burnet's Reform, i. 477. Lingard's England, vi. 40.5. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 55 nature can experience. The variations of his policy were therefore numerous, and generally bore some L. relation to the revolutions of his domestic circle. henry VIII. The predominance of the Catholic party, during ^^^^^^p^ ^^ the latter period of this reio-n, was evidenced in the catholics ■I to prevent the efforts made to prevent the circulation of the circulation of ^ , . the Scriptures Scriptures. It was represented to the king, by Gardiner, that the authorized version was dis- figured by many false renderings, and that much evil had arisen from the liberty he had granted his subjects of reading it. Cranmer did his utmost to counteract these misrepresentations ; and at length succeeded in moving the king to refer the transla- tion to the judgment of the two universities. "The bishops," we are told by Burnet, "took this very ill, when Cranmer intimated it to tliem in the king's name; and objected, that the learning of the universities was much decayed of late, and that the two houses of convocation were the more pro- per judges of that, where the learning of the land was chiefly gathered together. But the archbishop said he would stick close to the king's pleasure, and that the universities should examine it."*" The design of the Popish bishops was thus frustrated, and their protest, which followed, served only to display their chagrin and disappointment. Shortly afterwards Cranmer took courage to urge the ad- vancement of the Reformation, and ultimately obtained an Act for this purpose. It was entitled, An Act for the Advancement of True Religion, and Abolishment of the Contrary; and was clogged with many provisos, which the Catholic prelates suc- ceeded in introducing. " Hist, of Reform., i. oOG. 56 THE HISTORY OF HENRY VIII. An Act for the Advance ment of Re- formation. 1543. CHAP. The preamble set forth, "That, there being many dissensions about religion, the Scriptures, which the king had put into the hands of his people, were abused b}^ many seditious persons in their sermons, books, plays, rh}Tnes, and songs; from which great inconveniences were like to arise. For preventing these, it was necessary to establish a form of sincere doctrine, conformable to that which was taught by the apostles. Therefore all the books of the Old and New Testament, of Tindal's translation (which is called crafty, false, and untrue), are forbidden to be kept or used in the king's dominions ; with all other books contrary to the doctrine set forth in the year 1540; with punishments, and fines, and impri- sonment, upon such as sold or kept such books. But Bibles that were not of Tindal's translation were still to be kept, only the annotations or pream- bles that were in any of them were to be cut out, or dashed; and the king's proclamations and in- junctions, with the primers and other books printed in English, for the instruction of the people, before the year 1540, were still to be in force; and among these, Chaucer's books are by name mentioned. No books were to be printed about religion, without the king's allowance. In no plays, nor interludes, they might make any expositions of Scripture; but only reproach vice and set forth virtue in them. None might read the Scripture in any open assembly, or expound it, but he who was licensed by the king or his ordinary; with a proviso, that the chancellors in parliament, judges, recorders, or an}^ others who were wont on public occasions to make speeches, and commonly took a place of Scripture for their text, might still do, as they had done formerly. Every PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 57 nobleman or gentleman might cause the Bible to be ch.a read to him, in or about his house, quietly and without disturbance. Every merchant that was a ^^^^ householder might also read it ; but no w^oman, nor artificers, apprentices, journeymen, serving-men under the degree of yeomen, nor no husbandmen, or labourers, might read it: yet every noblewoman or gentlewoman might read it for herself; and so might all other persons but those who were ex- cepted. Every person might read and teach in their houses the book set out in the year 1 540, with the Psalter, Primer, Pater-noster, the Ave, and the Creed, in English. All spiritual persons who preached or taught contrary to the doctrine set forth in that book, were to be admitted, for the first conviction, to renounce their errors; for the second, to abjure, and carry a fagot; which if they re- fused to do, or fell into a third offence, they were to be burnt. But the laity, for the third offence, were only to forfeit their goods and chattels, and be liable to perpetual imprisonment. But these offences were to be objected to them within a year after they were committed. And whereas, before, the part}^ accused was not allowed to bring wit- nesses for his own purgation, this was now granted him. But to this a severe proviso was added, which seemed to overthrow all the former favour; that the act of the six Articles was still in the same force in which it was before the making of this act. Yet that was moderated by the next proviso; that the king might, at any time here after, at his pleasure, change this act, or any pro- vision in it."^ ^ Burnet's Reform.; i. olG— 518. 58 THE HISTORY OF c^AP. Revolting as are many parts of this statute, it An Frigmh Litany p- Usbed. 1545. mitigated the severity of previous laws against ^viii} ^^^^s} ' relieving the laity from fear of being burnt, and by allowing the accused to summon witnesses in their defence. The prohibition of the Bible to persons of the lower order was consonant to the policy of the Romish church, and not foreign, perhaps, from the wishes of some of the timid and least enlightened friends of the Reformation. It required the experience of half a century to relieve the friends of Protestantism from a vague and incon- sistent dread of the effects of an indiscriminate perusal of the sacred volume. The same policy which led the Romish church to discountenance the circulation of the Bible, induced the adoption of a foreign language in its public devotions. The people were thus kept in profound ignorance, and were taught to substitute a de- pendance on their priests for an intelligent worship of God. No s^^stem could be more skilfully adapted to exclude the light of heaven from their minds, or to mould their sentiments and habits into more perfect harmony with the designs of their ecclesiastical rulers. The Refonners early per- ceived the enormit}^ of this practice, and attempted its correction. As they unveiled the book of God to the inquiring gaze of an awakened church, so they sought to render her devotions intelligible to the meanest of her members. It is the glor}^ of Protestantism to have shone as a light in a dark place. Her path has been luminous with the rays of knowledge, and may be every where distinctly traced by its contrast with surrounding darkness. Flagrant as was the evil referred to, its correction was PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 59 not speedily effected. The great mass of the people ^nt.^* being superstitiously attached to the offices of the ' Romish church, rendered any alteration a some- ^vhl^ what delicate and difficult work. Moreover, in this case there was no such motive to induce the king to interfere as existed in some others. The supremacy of the pope had been discarded, because he refused to gratify the wishes of Henry ; and the wealth of the monasteries had been seized, because they promised to relieve the necessities of the king, and to enrich his impoverished courtiers. But, in the present instance, no such motive could operate ; and it required, therefore, a favourable conjuncture of circumstances to secure for the Reformers the alteration they desired. This occurred when the king was about to depart for France to prosecute the war he was waging in that country. A Litany, with other devotional offices, was then published in the English language, under the title of An Ex- hortation to Praijer, thought meet hj his Majesty and his Clergy to be read to the People. Also, A Litany, with Suffrages to be said or sung, in the time of the Processions, Many traces of popery are dis- coverable in this performance. Invocations are addressed to the virgin, to angels and archangels, to patriarchs, apostles, prophets, Sec. But it was in substance the same as is at present used in the English church, and was, on the whole, adapted to promote the views, and encourage the hopes, of the Reformers.'' Burnet's Reform., iii. 247. In unto us for the contrary, not only the mandate which was ad- to cause these prayers and suf- dressed to Cranmer, the king fraj^cs aforesaid to be published, says, "Wherefore we will and frequented, and openly used, in command you, as you will answer all towns, churches, villages, and 60 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. III. The policy of the king continued to vacillate to the close of his life, which happened on the 28th of "vm.^ January, 1547. Of his character, little need be Character of carly Hfc, liis pcrsoual qualities were Henry. brilHaut aud imposing; and the contrast he fur- nished to his prudent and parsimonious father attached an unwonted degree of popularity to the commencement of his reign. But his temper grew capricious, and his disposition cruel, as he advanced, in years. Casting aside the tenderness of his youth, he became ferocious and blood-thirsty ; the indis- criminate persecutor of all parties, according as his humour or policy might suggest. His claim to our attention is founded on the religious revolution he effected. The part he acted in this great change invested him with a false glory, which has misled the judgment and perverted the sympathies of his countrymen. His intimate connexion with the first movements of ecclesiastical reform has obtained him credit for religious principles of which he was wholly destitute. The adulatory style in which he was addressed by the contending religionists of his day has been mistaken for the sober expressions of truth; and his name, in consequence, has passed current as a reformer of religion, a purifier of the temple of God. A veil has thus been cast over the enormities of his life, which has preserved him from the execration to which he is so justly obnoxious. The motives by which he was actuated, in his separa- tion from the papacy, were any thing but religious. The divorce which he caused Cranmer to pronounce parishes, of your own diocese, manding' them in our name, and but also to signify this our plea- by virtue hereof, to do and execute sure unto aU other bishops of the same accordingly." — Ibid., iv. your province, willing and com- 14C. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 61 in 1533, as it was designed to make way for his own ^^j^^- gratification, so it precipitated him into a course of. measures, from the spiritual bearings of which his ^yjj^^ heart was utterly estranged. He sought only the satisfaction of his own evil passions. The man who could profane with blood the sanctuary of domestic joys ; who could win, with flattering speech, the confiding attachment of the female heart, and then consign the beautiful form, in whose best affections he was enshrined, to the block ; who could raise talent from obscurity, avail himself of its services, and then, with brutal indifierencc, reward them with a public execution, retained so little of the image of humanity, as to be in- finitely removed from the spirit and temper of Christ. The course which Henry pursued as an ^ccle- ^^Yiforma^ siastical reformer was in harmony with his charac- ter. So long as interest impelled, he assailed popery in its strongholds. The supremacy of the pontiff* was discarded, monastic institutions were abolished, the exorbitant wealth of the clergy was scattered amongst a rapacious and impoverished aristocracy, the word of God was translated into the vernacular tongue, and many vestiges of ancient superstition were removed from the land. But the system he established was of the same nature as that which he displaced. The supremacy of the pope was supplanted by that of the king; and if infallibility was not claimed, the proceedings taken could only be justified on that principle. The right of private judgment was as sternly denied as in tlie worst days of popery, and the fires of per- secution were enkindled by a bigotry as intolerant 62 THE HISTORY OF and brutal as the man of sin ever displayed. The fact is, and impartial history records it, ^vm^ the reformation of Henry was a struggle for power, and not for principle ; the reckless daring of a mind which would have subverted all law, and extinguished all virtue, for the gratification of its selfish passions. Religion was an engine of state policy which the monarch employed to heighten his power and confinn his despotism. The radical error of the Reformers was their admission of the magistrates' right to legislate for the church. By making the faith of a nation dependant on the will of the king, they hazarded a thousand evils, amongst the least of which was the reaction which this principle involved on the accession of Mary. The immediate effects of a vicious principle may appear to be beneficial, but its ultimate tendencies are invariably pernicious. Had Cranmer and his associates exhibited religion in its primitive sim- plicity and honour; had they denounced its subjec- tion to the state as incompatible with its nature and injurious to its success ; had they, while scrupulously rendering to Csesar the things which were Caesar's, reserved unto God that which was his ; in a word, had they trusted to the mysterious power with which Christianity is allied, rather than to the patronage of their prince ; they might have exposed themselves to dangers which for a time they escaped, but they would have redeemed religion from re- proach, and have preserved her from those corrupt- ing associations which have enfeebled her energies, and rendered her an object of mistrust, if not of contempt. The power of religion consists in her purity and meekness. She is adapted to the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 63 sympathies and wants of man ; and when unfettered ^* by human aid, and freed from the insult of kingly patronage, she will win her way to the confidence ^yjj^^ and gratitude of mankind. When the religion of a people is made to depend fn^uriouf"^^^ on the pleasure of their rulers, it is necessarily sub- ^Christianity, jected to a thousand infusions foreign from its nature, and destructive of the reverence it should inspire. Alienated from its legitimate purpose, it is employed by the ambitious and crafty in pro- moting their nefarious schemes; and becomes, in consequence, connected, in the public judgment, with whatever is criminal and oppressive in the political institutions of the land."" The kingly or magisterial office is essentially political. Its power may be wielded by an irreligious, immoral, or pro- fane man; a despiser of Christianity, or a blas- phemer of God. There is nothing to prevent this, or to afford even a presumption that it shall be otherwise. What, therefore, can be more monstrous than to attach to such an office a controlling power over the faith and worship of the church ; to con- stitute its occupant the supreme head of that body which is represented as a congregation of faithful men? Amongst the many fantasies of the mind of man, none is more singularly absurd than this. It is in striking opposition to the nature of Christianity, and inconsistent with the obligations it imposes on r The modern history of Europe Christianity an object of suspicion affords ample confirmation of and reproach. Were the religion these remarks. France, during of the Son of God to be seen the period of its revolution; Spain, through no other medium, it Portugal, and Italy, at the pre- would soon become, like Samp- sent day ; and our own country, son, when shorn of his strength, in the midst of its many privi- the derision and laughter of its leges ; all bear witness to the ten- enemies, dency of a state religion to render 64 THE HISTORY OF ^m^' disciples. The Christian faith addresses men individually, soliciting an examination of its cha- ^vm.^ racter, and demanding an intelligent and hearty obedience. But where the pleasure of a king is permitted to regulate the faith of a nation, authority is substituted for reason, and the promptings of fear supplant the perception of evidence, and the confiding attachment of an enlightened piety. This is the radical defect of the English Reformation. It was a movement dictated by the king, which he assumed to regulate at his pleasure, and to enforce by the severest penalties. The Reformers sanctioned the king's assumption of ecclesiastical supremacy, by receiving the correction of abuses as an act of the royal bounty, which might have been withheld. The people, therefore, were prohibited from proceed- ing further than the king authorized. They were to believe as he taught, and to worship as he en- joined. Suspending their own reason, extinguishing the light divine within them, they were to follow their monarch, licentious and blood-thirsty as he was, in all matters pertaining to the moral govern- ment and eternal welfare of their souls. Such was the system which Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and numerous other worthies advocated. Well may we weep over the weakness and folly of our nature, when such men could be induced to embrace, and zealously defend, so unhallowed and pernicious a system. Its tendency was concealed from their view ; but the course of English history has rendered it sufficiently obvious to their succes- sors, to ensure its speedy rejection. During the latter part of the reign of Henry, the English church may be considered as in a state of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 65 transition from popery to protestantism. It partook of the character of both, but could not be identified with either. Its alleo-iance was transferred from ^Jt?,?^' VIII. the pontiff to the king, but the traces of ancient superstition were still visible in its worship, and its offices were modelled on the depraved example of the popedom. " The religion established by Henry the Eighth," remarks lord Russell, " was so far from being the reformed church of Luther or of Calvin, that he prided himself in maintaining the Roman catholic faith after he had shaken off the supremacy of the pope. His ordinances, indeed, vibrated for a short time between the old and the new religion, as he listened more to Cranmer or to Gardiner; but the law of the six articles, which contains the creed he finally imposed on his people, maintains and confirms all the leading articles of the Roman belief.'" • On the English Government, &c., 40. VOL. [. F CHAPTER IV. EDWARD VI. New Council favourable to the Reformation — Further Reformation resolved on — General Visitation — Homilies compiled — Repeal of the Statute of six Articles — Communion in both kinds — Book of Common Prayer — Act of Uniformity — Preaching prohibited — Priests per- mitted to marry — Articles of Religion — Blemishes of the Refor- mation— Gardiner and Bonner imprisoned — Deprived — Princess Mary opposed to the Reformation — Her rigorous treatment — Hooper objects to the Habits — Persecution of Sectaries — Burning of Joan Bocher — George Van Pare — Character of Edward's Reformation — Reformation injured by the rapacity of Courtiers. CHAP. Edward the Sixth ascended the throne January 31, 1547, in the tenth year of his age, EDWARD having been born October 12, 1537. His father's New Council ^^^^ appointcd a council to exercise the royal favo urable to the Reforma ' prerogative during his minority. " In the list of executors, appointed by the will of Henry the Eighth, we see the decisive preponderance of the ' new nobility,' invidiously so called by their ene- mies, both because they were partisans of the new reformers, and because they owed their sudden rise in wealth to a share in the spoils of the church. Generally speaking, they were gentlemen of ancient lineage ; but their fortune and rank commonly sprung from this dubious source."' This pre- ' Mackintosh's England, ii. 247. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 67 ponderance was probably owing to the impri- ^^y^' sonment of the duke of Norfolk, the chief of the popish party, which made way for the in- ei^^^ar fluence of his rival, the earl of Hertford, who was soon afterwards created duke of Somerset, and received the titles of " governor of his majesty, lord protector of all his realms, lieutenant-general of all his armies." He was decidedly favourable to the Reformation, which now proceeded with more vigor and consistency than in the former reign. His party alliances and personal ambition prompted the same course. He was the head of a class whose existence depended on the measures which Henry had commenced ; and he therefore readily ob- tained the concurrence of his colleagues in his re- forming plans. The young king, his nephew, was well known to be inclined to the same policy. Great care had been taken of his education, by his tutors, sir Anthony Cook, Dr. Richard Cox, and sir John Cheke, who were all favourable to the Reformation. They naturally infused their own principles into their royal pupil, and thus prepared him for acting the distinguished part which he took in the history of the English church. "They were happily chosen," says Strype, "being both truly learned, sober, wise, and all favourers of the gospel."" Cranmer and his associates were relieved, by the F^'^tner Re- 1 "L r TT • formation death oi Henry, from that excessive dread which resolved on, had cramped their energies, and prevented their following out their principles to their legitimate results. " They therefore resolved to proceed with « Memorials, ii. i. 13. Burnet's ^ The attempt of some Protes- Reform., ii. 39. tant writers to defend Cranmer F 2 68 THE HISTORY OF ^Yv^' ^^^^^^^ vigor in the correction of abuses, and to introduce into the formularies and worship of the EDWARD church such alterations as would assimilate them to the primitive standard. At the same time, they felt the necessity of proceeding with caution. A large majority of the clergy were hostile to their views, and the people generally w^ere so ignorant and superstitious as to be wedded to the most offensive of those rites which they purposed to abolish. The cautious policy of Cranmer was therefore adopted, and less, probably, was done General ^liau mip;ht safclv have been effected. A visitation Visitation. ~ 1^7. of the whole kingdom was appointed, and injunc- tions were issued, well suited to prepare the way for more extensive and radical changes. In these in- junctions it was ordered, that curates should take down such images as they knew were abused by pilgrimages or offerings to them ; but that private persons should not do it ; that, in the confessions in Lent, they should examine all people, whether they could recite the elements of religion in the English tongue ; that at high mass they should read the epistle and gospel in English ; and every Sunday and holyday, they should read, at matins, one chapter out of the New Testament, and at even- from the charge of pusillanimity liclj professed the same. Of in suppressing some of his opi- these, archbishop Cranmer was nions during the latter part of the chiefest ; who, though will- Henry's reign, is injudicious and ingly he had done no ill, and unworthy of their cause. Better privately many good offices for admit the truth with Fuller, who, the Protestants, yet his cowardly writing of the accession of comphance hitherto with poperj', Edward, says, " Other confessors, against his conscience, cannot be which had fled beyond sea, as excused ; serving the times pre- John Hooper, Miles Coverdale, sent in his practice, and waiting &c., returned witli joy into their on a future alteration in his hopes country; and all Protestants, and desires." — Church History, which formerly for fear had dis- book vii. -371. sembled their religion, now pub- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. song, another out of the Old, in English ; that the holyday being instituted at first that men should give themselves wholly to God, yet God was gener- ally more dishonoured upon it than upon the other days, by idleness, drunkenness, and quarrelling, the people thinking that they sufficiently honored God by hearing mass and matins, though they understood nothing of it to their edifying ; there- fore, thereafter the holyday should be spent accord- ing to God's holy will, in hearing and reading his holy word, in public and private prayers, in amend- ing their lives, receiving the communion, visiting the sick, and reconciling themselves to their neigh- bours ; that the people should be taught not to despise any of the ceremonies not yet abrogated, but to beware of the superstition of sprinkling tlieir beds with holy water, or the ringing of bells, or using of blessed candles for driving away devils ; that all monuments of idolatry should be removed out of the walls or windows of churches, and that there should be a pulpit in every church for preach- ing," &:c/ As the people were kept in great sus- pense by the controversies which were carried on in the pulpit, all bishops were ordered to preach in their cathedrals only ; and other clergymen in their collegiate or parochial churches, unless they had obtained a special license from himself. The object of this mandate was to silence the advocates of the old, and to favour those of the new, faith. To the latter, licenses were freely granted ; but to the former, they were systematically refused. Such is the method in which religion is befriended when the principle of authority is once admitted. Burnet's Reform., ii. 44. Strype's Mem., ii. i. 72. 70 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. There being a great dearth of preachers at this time, Cranmer caused a book of Homilies, or short EDWARD sermons, to be prepared for the use of such incum- Homiiies bcuts as wcrc incapable of publicly expounding the compued. divine word. The subjects selected were of the plainest and most elementary kind ; such as the use of the Scriptures, the misery of mankind by sin, their salvation by Christ, &c. Great objections were urged by the popish party against these homi- lies. " Sometimes, when they were read in the church, if the parishioners liked them not, there would be such talking and babbling in the church, that nothing could be heard. And if the parish were better affected, and the priest not so, then he would * so hawk it, and chop it,' (I use the words of old Latimer,) ' that it were as good for them to be without it, for any word that could be understood.""' An English copy of Erasmus's Paraphrase of the New Testament was also ordered to be provided in every parish church, for the use of the unlearned. Gardiner opposed these measures with all the acute- ness which his distinguished talents and long ex- perience enabled him to display, and was successful in pointing out inconsistencies in the doctrine of the Paraphrase and Homilies.^ Unhappily for the reputation of the Reformers, they were not content with the legitimate weapons of religious contro- versy, but appealed to force in support of their opinions. Gardiner and others, as we shall presently see, were stript of their preferments, and were treated with a severity which forms some extenua- tion of their subsequent conduct, Statute of Six It was an object of deep solicitude with the Articles. 1547. * Strjpc s Mem.; ii. i. 49. > Lingard's England, vii. 25. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 71 Reformers, to obtain an early repeal of the obnox- ^^^p- ious and persecuting statutes which had been passed in the previous reign. This was effected in the ed\^\ ard parliament which met November 4, 1547. The acts of Richard the Second and Henry the Fourth against the Lollards were repealed, together with the statute of the six articles, and others which follow^ed in explanation of it.^ " By which repeal," says Heylin, in obvious ignorance of the acts yet remaining on the statute-book, " all men may seem to have been put into a liberty of reading Scripture, and being in a manner their own expositors ; of entertaining what opinions in religion best pleased their fancies ; and promulgating those opinions which they entertained. So that the English for a time enjoyed that liberty which the Romans are affirmed by Tacitus to have enjoyed without con- trol in the times of Nerva ; that is to say, a liberty of opening ichatsoever they pleased, and speaking freely their opinions wheresoever they listed. Which,** whether it were such a great felicity as that author makes it, may be more than questioned."^ Amone'st the many innovations of the church of com°i™io° ^ , , . i° both kinds Rome, the prohibition of the cup in the Lord's ^^^i^^i^ed. Supper, to the laity, w^as one of the most palpable. It therefore became an early point of difference between the adherents and the impugners of the papacy ; the former attempting its justification, and the latter denouncing it as a violation of the law of Christ, and an unwarranted departure from the * Burnet's Reform., ii. 6.3. matter of circumstance rather * Hist, of Reform., 48. Hey- than of conviction, and was lin's mistrust of the principles of never so understood and approved Protestantism is obvious even in as to command the sympathies of his professed advocacy of them, his Ijcurt. His dissent from Rome was a 72 THE HISTORY OF ^rr^* pi'^ctice of his apostles. Early in the session, a bill was introduced for the correction of this evil, EDWARD which sets forth, that it is more agreeable to the first institution of the sacrament, and more conformable to the common practice of the apostles and primi- tive church for five hundred years, that it " should be ministered to all Christian people, under both kinds of bread and wine, than under the form of bread only ; and that the people should receive the same with the priest, than that the priest should receive it alone." ^ This was an act of great con- sequence, not only as it reformed two notorious abuses, but as it proclaimed throughout the king- dom, in a manner level to every capacity, the decided tone and character of the supreme govern- ment. Election of Tlic clcctiou of blshops was also, by act of par- Bishops. liament, vested in the crown, and all their proceed- ings were ordered to be carried on in the king's name, and their official documents to be sealed with the royal instead of the episcopal arms.'' Thus the subjection of the religious to the civil power was effected. The system which had been matured by the craft and despotism of Rome was at once over- turned ; and from their imnatural elevation, the dignitaries of the church sunk into mere dependants on the court. The political agents of the English Reformation were evidently bent on keeping the ecclesiastical powers in complete subordination. They went from one extreme to another. Having tasted the bitterness of clerical tyranny, they re- taliated on the clergy "by making them," as Heylin justly remarks, " no other than the king's ministers Strype's Mcmor., ii. i. 98. " Burnet's Reform., ii. G8. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 73 only, liis ecclesiastical sheriffs, to execute his will ^^^^ and disperse his mandates.' And such must evei be the course of things while mere political men edward are allowed to legislate for the church. Their minds are susceptible of such motives only as are of a secular order. Whatever regard they may pro- fess for the purity and honour of religion, is usually known to be insincere, by their utter disregard of its authority, and open violation of its laws. They never approach but to profane it ; they never enter its sanctuary but to carry thence the vessels of the Lord. Insult is thus added to neglect, and the baseness of hypocrisy supplies a yet darker hue to the character of the debauchee and the infidel. The committee of bishops and divines which had The book of _ ^ ^ Common prepared the English communion-book were now Prajer. directed by the king to draw up a form of Common Prayer and administration of the Sacraments, to be substituted for the Latin mass-book. Thev accord- ingly met in May, 1548, and compiled, from the various offices previously used, what they deemed most scriptural and instructive. Having been ac- customed from infancy to a set form of prayer, we need not be surprised that the English Reformers contemplated the necessity of a new liturgy for the church they were founding. So decided were their views, that Burnet tells us, "I do not find it was ever brought under consideration, w^hether they should compose a form for all the parts of divine worship, or leave it to the sudden and extemporary heats of those who were to officiate, which some have called, since that time, the worshipping by the Spirit : of this way of serving God they did not Hist, of Reform., 51. 74 THE HISTORY OF ^^y^* then dream ; much less that the appointing of forms of prayer was an encroaching on the kingly office EDWARD of Christ."^ The question of priestly attire also came now under consideration. Some of the Reformers ob- jected to the surplices, capes, and other vestments of the Romish clergy, as symbols of superstition, which ought to be discarded with the mass. "On the other hand," says Burnet, "it was argued, that, as white was anciently the color of the priests' garments in the Mosaical dispensation, so it was used in the African churches in the fourth century ; and it was thought a natural expression of the purity and decency that became priests: besides, the clergy were then generally extreme poor, so that they could scarce afford themselves decent clothes ; the people also, running from the one ex- treme of submitting too much to the clergy, were now as much inclined to despise them, and to make light of the holy function ; so that, if they should officiate in their own mean garments, it might make the divine offices grow also into contempt."^ The compilers departed from the papal offices of devotion no farther than was absolutely necessary. What was notoriously superstitious they discarded, but retained what was merely questionable in de- ference to the prejudices of the popish party. Dif- ferent opinions will be entertained of the policy of such a course. That it rendered their production incomplete was acknowledged by themselves, in the review which they subsequently instituted, and 1552. which the liturgy was affirmed, in a parlia- mentary statute, to have been "made more perfect.' ' Hist, of Reform., ii. 115. ^ Hist, of Reform., ii. 120. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 75 And that it tended to retain the people in a state ^* half popish and half protestant, and thus increased the difficulties of effecting a more perfect Reforma- edward tion, has been clearly shown in the history of the En- glish church. The truth of the matter would seem to be, that what a cautious and temporizing policy admits, to neutralize present opposition, is but a transfer of the difficulty to some future stage, when it must be encountered under less favourable cir- cumstances, and without that energy of feeling and of action, which accompanies the first movements of religious reform. That which is tolerated in the hope of future correction, becomes gradually the object of veneration even to those who would at first have consented to its removal. The disciples of Cranmer have defended, with bitter zeal, rites and ceremonies which, there is reason to believe, he sanctioned from a feeling of necessity only. TheActofuni. new service-book was confirmed by a statute, 1549. entitled. An Act for the Uniformity of Service, and Administration of the Sacraments throughout the Realm; by which it was enacted, that any clergyman refusing to use the new service-book, or officiating in any other manner, should, for the first offence, be imprisoned six months, and forfeit a year's income; for the second offence, forfeit all his preferments, and be imprisoned one year; and for the third offence, be imprisoned for life. Any person writing or printing against it, was, for the first offence, to be fined ten pounds ; for the second, twenty pounds; and for the third, to suffer the loss of all his goods, and be imprisoned for life.^ While the book of Common Prayer was in the ^ Burnet's Reform., ii. 148. Strype's Memor., ii. i. 133. 76 THE HISTORY OF XV. * course of preparation, it was natural that men's minds should be powerfully excited by the prospect ED\\ ARD extensive an alteration as it would effect. The pulpit became the arena of controversy, from which opposing theologians gave utterance to Sept. 23, 1548. tlicir zcal or bigotry. To prevent the continu- ance of such discussions, a proclamation was issued in the king's name, prohibiting "all manner of persons, whosoever they be, to preach in open audience in the pulpit, or otherwise; to the intent," it is hypocritically alleged, "that the whole clergie, in this mean space, might apply themselves to prayer to Almighty God, for the better atchieving of the same most godly intent and purpose, not doubting but that also his loving subjects in the meantime will occupie themselves to God's honour, with due prayer to the church, and patient hearing of the godly homilies, heretofore set forth by his highness's injunctions unto them, and so endeavour themself that they may be the more ready with thankfull obedience to receive a most quiet, godly, and uniform order, to be had throughout all his said realms and dominions.'"" What a system must that be which recognizes, in any human being, a right to issue such an edict as this; an edict so fearfully impious as to involve a coun- teraction, and that on no limited scale, of God's wisest and most gracious designs ! But such is the system which the Reformation perpetuated in this country, and which has subsequently been main- tained by means in perfect harmony with its anti- christian character. Fuller's Church History, book vii. 880. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 77 The same parliament which established the book c^^^^^p- of Common Prayer passed an Act permitting 1_ marry. 19, 1549. priests to marry, which encountered more contra- edward diction and censure than any other law passed in ••• Priests per- this reign. The celibacy of the clergy was a "^'"^d to favourite dogma of the Romish church. It was the J^^^b. corner-stone of its political system, and had in- vested with a fictitious and deceptive sanctity those who ministered at its altars. The first Reformers were therefore regarded as peijured in departing from their canonical vows, while their successors have been represented as men of too earthly a character to officiate in the pure sanctuary of God.' One thing was yet wanting to the completeness Re^gion of the English church, which Cranmer was directed to supply, by an order from the privy council, in 1551. He accordingly drew up a set of Articles, which he submitted for revision to some of his brethren. These were ultimately published by the May, 1553. king's authority, under the following title, "Arti- cles which were agreed to in the synod of London, in the year 1552, by the bishops and other godly and learned men, to root out the discord of ' Burnet's Reform., ii. 141. So mined, that the laws against strong was the popular feeling priests' marriages were most un- against the marriage of the clergy, lawful by the law of God ; to that it was deemed necessary, in which they had not only given 1 552, to pass another law, which their assent in the convocation, set forth, " That many took occa- hut signed it with all their hands, sion from words in the Act for- These slanders did also occasion merl}' made about this matter, to that the word of God was not say, that it was only permitted, as heard with due reverence; where- usury and other unlawful things upon it was enacted, that such were, for the avoiding greater marriages, made according to the evils; who thereupon spoke slan- rules prescribed in the book of derously of such marriages, and service, should be esteemed good accounted the children begotten and valid, and that the children in them to be bastards, to the begot in them should be inherit- high dishonour of the king and able according to law." — Burnet's parliament, and the learned clergy Reform., ii. 306. of the realm, who had deter- THE HISTORY OF opinions, and establish the agreement of true religion/' They were forty-two in number, and were substantially the same as the thirtv-nine adopted by Elizabeth, and which still constitute the doctrinal standard of the hierarchy. ^ The original design of these articles is sufficiently obvious from their title. They were " to root out the discord of opinions," &c.; so that, as Burnet remarks, "One notion, that has been since taken up by some, seems not to have been then thought of; which is, that these were rather articles of peace than of belief ; so that the subscribing was rather a compromise not to teach any doctrine contrary to them, than a declaration that they believed accord- ing to them. There appears no reason for this con- ceit, no such thing being then declared ; so that those who subscribed, did either believe them to be true, or else they did grossly prevaricate."^ The ecclesiastical changes of the reign of Ed- ward effected an extensive and most important alteration in the English church, and could not fail to be regarded with exultation and grati- tude by every religious Reformer. We need not, therefore, be much surprised at the adulatory strains in which the Protestants of that period were accustomed to speak of the youthful Ed- ward. Miles Coverdale styles him, "The high and chief admiral of the great navy of the Lord of Hosts; principal captain and governor of us all under him ; the most noble ruler of his ship, even j Strype's Cranmer, i. 390. ]\Ie- not in these Articles, nor is it morials', ii. ii. 24. Burnet's Re- easy to ascertain how it gained form., ii. 265, iii. 316. The clause admittance into those of Eliza- of the Twentieth Article, affirm- beth. ing the power of the church to Hist, of Reform., ii. 270. decree rites and ceremonies, is PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. our most comfortable Noah, whom the eternal God hath chosen to be the bringer of us unto rest and quietness in him That he had set up his sail already, and was so well forward of his most godly journey, the gracious wind of the Holy Ghost serving him, that it made many a faithful subject of his, according as his calling required, to come after a goodly pace And that his godly homilies, and notable work of Erasmus's Paraphrase upon the holy Evangelists, were worthy to be com- pared to the rich jewels that Moses used to the pleasant garnishing of the temple. And as for the sacred bible, and volume of God's holy book, set forth by his majesty's appointment, to be duly practised in all holy exercises within his churches, as it was the fairest flower of his garden, and the most precious pearl of God's jewel-house, so, because his majesty had graciously made them partakers thereof, they acknowledged themselves no less bounden to his majesty, than the Israelites were first to their sovereign Moses, for bringing them up out of Egypt, and for setting up the taber- nacle; and afterwards to noble king Josias, for restoring them again the book of the law."^ In pronouncing judgment on such language, we must remember the circumstances of those who adopted it, and the style of the age in which they lived. It was customary, even at a much later period, for authors to address their patrons in tHe most fulsome strains ; indeed it is not till comparatively recent times, that men of letters have discarded this ser- vility as alike dishonourable to him who oflers and to him who accepts it. * Str3T)e's Memor., ii. i. 102. 80 THE HISTORY OF ^^y^' After tracing thus far the brighter and more pleasing features of the reign of Edward, an en- EDWARD lightened friend of the English Reformation would Blemishes of S^^^ close his uarrative ; but there are events uon.^^^''""^" closely interwoven with the ecclesiastical changes of this period, the suppression of which is pro- hibited by every principle of impartiality and justice. The spirit of party may regard an ac- knowledgment of the faults of the Reformers as inconsistent with a due appreciation of their excel- lences; but those who have studied history aright, and are adequately alive to its important objects, will deem an admission of the former absolutely necessary to a correct estimate of the latter. It has already been shown that the views of Cranmer and his associates on the subject of religious freedom were extremely defective. Va- rious illustrations of tliis were supplied during the present reign, which it is the more important to keep in mind in order to an accurate view of the proceedings of the papists under the succeeding Gardiner and mouarcli. Gardiucr, the bishop of Winchester, was piiro°ned!™ the leading prelate of the popish party. He was a man of extraordinary ability and endowments, who had been an active agent of Henry in his negocia- tions with Rome. Protestant writers affirm that his pride was wounded by his not being appointed one of the king's executors ; but charity requires us to hope that some better motive influenced him in the resolute opposition he maintained to the re- forming measures of the council. Bonner, bishop of London, was a man of more brutal temper, and of less ability, than Gardiner. He was distinguished as a Canonist, but would probably have been un- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 81 known to posterity, had it not been for the san- ^^y^' guinary part he acted under Mary. These two Bonner de- ived. Oct. 4, 1549. bishops were committed to prison in the first year edward of Edward, for opposing the Injunctions and Homi- lies, where they remained for some few months.™ Their opposition was at length felt to be so serious an obstacle, that it was determined to proceed to their deprivation. The case of Bonner was first selected. A commission was issued, September 18, JJ^^j 1549, to Cranmer and Ridley, with Petre and Smith, the king's secretaries, and Dr. May, dean of St. Paul's, to examine the charges preferred against him; and they were empowered to suspend, im- prison, or deprive him, as they should deem fit. The trial lasted till the following month, when a oct.4. sentence of deprivation was pronounced, and he was remanded to the Marshalsea, where he re- mained till the king's death. ° Gardiner had already been confined nearly two ^^-ardiner de- . . p . , prived, years, when a commission was issued for his trial, Feb. i4, ir.5i. December 14, 1550. He was charged with refusing to preach the king's supremacy during his minority, with negligence in obeying the royal injunctions, and with obstinacy in not asking the king's pardon. He was at length deprived of his bishopric, and sent back to the Tower, where he remained a close pri- soner till released by Mary. It was ordered by the king's council, that "he should be removed from the lodging he hath now in the Tower, to a meaner lodging, and none to wait upon him but one, by the lieutenant's appointment, in such sort as by the resort of any man to him, he have not the liberty to send out to any man, or to hear from any man. Burnet's Reform., ii. 57. " Burnet's Reform., ii. 193. VOL. I. G 82 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. And likewise that his books and papers be taken from him, and seen; and that, from henceforth, he the Reforma tion. ED\v ARD i^^y^ neither pen, ink, nor paper, to write his de- testable purposes, but be sequestered from all con- ferences, and from all means that may serve him to practise any way.'"" oppo^ed^^^ Other popish bishops were also deprived and im- - prisoned; as Heath of Worcester, and Day of Chichester. But there was a more illustrious per- son, whose opposition to the new constitution and service of the church was as decided and zealous as the most active parti zan of Rome could wish. The princess Mary, half sister to the king, was attached to the papal church by the earliest and most power- ful associations. The authority of the pontiff was identified with the validity of her mother's mar- riage, while the Reformation was regarded as the cause of Anne Boleyn, the successful rival of her royal parent. During her father's reign, Mary had yielded a reluctant submission to his ecclesiastical measures ; but on his death, she refused obedience to the council, and demanded that religion should remain in the state in which Henry had left it, till the king was of age. The reply of the protector is of considerable importance, as affirming very distinctly the intention of Henry to have proceeded further in the Reformation. "He put it to her, as « Strype's Cranmer, i. 315. Burnet's Reform., iii. 290—298. It would be strange indeed if such treatment, operating- on men like Bonner and Gardiner, had not formed the bitter persecutors of the succeeding reign. We may condemn their sanguinary course with merited severity ; but justice requires us to remember the wrongs they had endured, and the lessons they were taught. What can jVIr. Southey mean by gravely telling us, when speaking of these bishops, " They were de- prived of their sees, and impri- soned, but no rigor was used to- ward them ?" — Book of the Church, ii., 114. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 83 well knowing it, if that king did not depart this life before he had fully finished such orders as he minded to have established among his people, if ^^^^^^^ death had not prevented him; and that it was most true, that no kind of religion was perfected at his death, but left all uncertain, most likely to have brought in parties and divisions, if God had not helped. He and others could witness, what regret and sorrow their late master had at the time of his departure, for that he knew religion was not esta- blished, as he purposed to have done ; and a great many knew, and' so did he, what that king would have done further in it, if he had lived." ^ Refusing to adopt the new service-book, in 1549 she was ordered by the council to conform herself to the laws, and not to cast reproach on the king's government. She appealed to the emperor, ^ler cousin, who interposed on her behalf, praying she might be permitted the use of the mass. As his friendship was of considerable importance at this time, his suit was granted; but when peace had been concluded with France, Mary was again dis- turbed by injunctions from the council. At length she had an interview with the council, in the pre- sence of the king ; "Where," says Edward, "was declared how long I had suffered her mass, in hopes of her reconciliation, and how now, being no hope, which I perceived by her letters, except I saw some short amendment, I could not bear it. She an- swered. That her soul was God's, and her faith she would not change, nor dissemble her opinion with contrary doings. It was said, I constrained not her faith, but willed her not as a king to rule, but as a p Strype's Memor., ii. i. 94. Burnet's Reform.^ iv. 263. G 2 84 THE HISTORY OF subject to obey; and that her example might breed — too much inconvenience.'"' On the following day VL the emperor's ambassador threatened war, if this policy were persisted in, and the council therefore advised the king to connive for the present at her disobedience ; but he positively refused, thinking the mass idolatrous and impious. "Upon this," says Mar. 20. Bumct, "thc council ordered Cranmer, Ridley, and Poinet to discourse about it with him. They told him that it was always a sin in a prince to permit any sin; but to give a connivance, that is, not to punish, was not always a sin, since sometimes a lesser evil connived at might easily prevent a greater. He was overcome by this; yet not so easily, but that he burst forth in tears, lamenting his sister's obstinacy, and that he must suffer her to continue in so abominable a way of worship, as he esteemed the mass.""^ Aug. 9. It was subsequently resolved that she should no longer be allowed the mass ; and the officers of her household were consequently sent for, and charged not to peraiit any other service to be used than that A.ig.3i. appointed by law. For disobedience to this man- date they were sent to the Tower, whither Dr. Mallet, her chaplain, had been sent on the 27th of the previous April.' This treatment of the princess Mary must be permitted to modify the judgment we pronounce on her unhappy and disastrous reign. Her temper, naturally unamiable, was soured by it, and became the ready instrument of a superstition blind, intolerant, and unrelenting. At the same «i Edward's Journal, March 18, Edward's Journal, March 20th, 1551. 1551. ' History of Refonu., ii. 275. « Strj-pe s Aleraorials, ii. i. 447. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 85 time it is equally incumbent on us to reflect that ^* there were extenuating circumstances in the con- duct of her persecutors. "Somerset and Northum- ^^^j"^^^ berland, who were the successive masters of the king and kingdom, saw the immense advantage to accrue to the protestant cause from the conversion of the presumptive heir to the throne. The feeble infancy of Edward was the only protection of the Reformation against a princess already suspected of bigotry, and who had grievous wrongs to revenge. Her conversion was therefore the highest object of policy. Justice requires this circumstance to be borne in mind, in a case where every generous feel- ing rises up in arms against the mere politician, and prompts us warmly to applaud the steady re- sistance of the wronged princess."^ The Reformers were disposed to act with severity, Hooper ob- not only agamst the adherents oi the ancient habits, &c. faith, but also against such of their brethren as scrupled the propriety of any of their enactments. The case of John Hooper, nominated to the bishop- ric of Gloucester, affords a painful illustration of this.'' He was a zealous, learned, and pious man, * Mackintosh's England, ii. 268. clergiemen of the highest parts " " Come -we now, ' saj s Fuller, and places. For now nonconfor- "when referring to this circum- mit}- in the dales of king- Edward stance, "to the saddest difference misconceived, -svhich afterward that ever happened in the church in the reign of queen Mary (but of England, if we consider either beyond sea at Frankford) was the time how long it continued, born ; which in the reign of the eminent persons therein en- queen Elizabeth was .nursed and gaged, or the doleful effects weaned; which under king James thereby produced, — it was about grew up a j^oung youth, or tall mutters of conformity. Alas! stripling; but towards the end of that men should have lesse wis- king Charles his reign, shot up to dom than locusts; which, when the full strength and stature of a sent on God's errand, did not man, able, not only to cope with, thrust one another, whereas here, but to conquer, the hierarchic, its such shoving and shouldering, adversary." — Church Hist., b, viL and hoising and heaving, and 401. 86 THE HISTORY OF who had been an exile for conscience' sake during the latter part of the reign of Henry. At this DWARD period he resided at Zurich, where he formed an intimacy wdth some of the Sw^ss Reformers, and imbibed their more simple views of ecclesiastical polity. "He seemed to some," says Fuller, "to have brought Switzerland back with him, in his harsh, rough, and unpleasant behaviour, being grave unto rigour, and severe unto surliness. Yet to speak truth, all Hooper's ill nature consisted in other men's little acquaintance with him. Such as visited him once, condemned him of over austerity ; who repaired to him twice, only suspected him of the same; who conversed with him constantly, not only acquitted him of all morosity, but commended him for sweetness of manner s^^' He was one of the most diligent and popular preachers of this reign, and was therefore sent through the counties of Kent and Essex to reconcile the people to the Reforma- juiy 1550. tion. Being nominated to the see of Gloucester, he declined its acceptance on account of the oath of supremacy and the priestly garments. The former objection was removed by the king, who erased the exceptionable words, "by God, by the saints, and by the holy gospels," from the oath; and w^as inclined, Burnet tells us, with the council, to order him to be dispensed with as to the garments also. But Ridley opposed this conciliatory measure, and Hooper was commanded to confine himself to his house. He was subsequently committed to the custody of Cranmer, and finally was sent to the Fleet. It is humiliating to see such men as Cranmer and Ridley contending against the more tolerant principles and better ^ Church Hist., b. vii. 402. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. feelings of their monarch. They might have been ^^^^^ excused, if not justified, in refusing to consecrate Hooper contrary to law; but th^t they should have ^^^^^"^^^ concurred in his imprisonment is a lamentable proof of intolerance and pride. Why was the honour of a bishopric to be forced on Hooper ? He desired it not; he wished to be excused; but so intent were they on the maintenance of their idol uniformity, that all the charities of their nature were sacrificed at its shrine. "In conclusion," says Fox, "this theological contention came to this end, that the bishops having the upper hand, Mr. Hooper was fain to agree to this condition, that sometimes he should in his sermons show himself apparelled as the other bishops were. Wherefore, appointed to preach before the king, as a new player in a strange apparel he cometh forth on the stage." But the intolerant principles which swayed the ^f^g^'^^^ig" councils of the Reformers were still more strik- ingly exemplified in the persecution of the sectaries which sprung up during this reign. No modera- tion was observed towards them, and the leading " Acts and Monuments, iii. furiously rageth in these our days ; 120. It is pleasing to know that howsoever, in time past, by cer- these eminent men were recon- tain bv-matters and circumstances ciled before their death. During of religion, your wisdom and my their imprisonment, in Mary's simplicity grant) hath a little reign, Ridley addressed an afFec- jarred, each of us following the tionate and pious letter to Hooper, abundance of his own sense and in which, after acknowledging judgment; now, I say, be you the receipt of two epistles from assured that even with my whole Hooper, he saj-s, "But now, my heart, God is my witness, in the dear brother, forasmuch as I un- bowels of Christ, I love you in derstand by yonr works, which I the truth, and for the truth's liave but superficially seen, that sake, which abideth in us, and, we throughly agree and wholly as I am persuaded, shall, by the consent together in those things grace of God, abide in us for which are the grounds and sub- ever." — Ibid., 121. Strype's stantial points of our rehgion, Cranmer, i. 302. Burnet's Re- against the which the world so form., ii. 242. Ibid., iii. 299. 88 THE HISTORY OF men of both parties, the protestant equally with the catholic, concurred in their condemnation. A EDWARD complaint was preferred to the council of several Apru 12,1549. -^^P*^^*^ having sought refuge in England, and being diligently engaged in the dissemination of their opinions. A commission was accordingly issued to the archbishop of Canterbury and others, to "search after all Anabaptists, heretics, or con- temners of the Common Prayer. They were to endeavour to reclaim them, to enjoin them penance, and give them absolution; or, if they were obsti- nate, to excommunicate and imprison them, and to deliver them over to the secular power to be farther proceeded against.'"' Several abjured their opi- nions ; but two of them were faithful to the dictate of conscience, and refused to purchase life by dishonor. Buraiflg of The first of these was Joan Bocher, commonly Joan Bocher. iviay 2, 1550. callcd Joau of Kent. She was a zealous protestant, and had actively promoted the Reformation during the perilous reign of Henry VIII. It is difiicult to ascertain the precise error with which she was charged. The language attributed to her is unin- telligible, and, if really adopted, entitled her to the compassion of her inexorable judges. She is repre- ^ " At this time there were fall of maD, and the aids of grace, many Anabaptists in several parts were indeed philosophical sub- of England. They were generally tleties, and only pretended to be Germans, whom the revolutions deduced from scripture, as almost there had forced to change their all opinions of religion were ; and seats. Upon Luther's first preach- therefore they rejected them, ing in Oermany, there arose Among these, the baptism of in- many, who, building on some of fants was one. They held that his principles, carried things to be no baptism, and so were much further than he did. The rebaptizcd ; but from this, which chief foundation he laid down was most taken notice of, as was, that the scripture was to be being a visible thing, they carried the only rule of Christians. Upon all the general name of Ana- this many argued that the mys- baptists." — Burnet's Reform., ii. tt;ries of the Trinity, and Christ's 176. incarnation and sufferings, of the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 89 sented as denying that "Christ was truly incarnate ^^^^ of the virecin, whose flesh being; sinful, he could EDWA take none of it : but the Word, by the consent of vi. the inward man in the virgin, took flesh of her." Refusing to retract her statement, she was, after much persuasion and many conferences, adjudged an obstinate heretic, and left to the secular power. ^ The youthful Edward refusing to sign the warrant for her execution, Cranmer was employed by the council to remove his scruples. The arguments he employed were such as the papists had used, and for which they had been condemned by Cranmer. The stoning of blasphemers under the law, the difference between essential and secondary points of Christian faith, and the obligation of kings to check impiety, were urged with all the zeal, though not with the innate cruelty, which Bonner subsequently dis- played. "These reasons," says Burnet, "did rather silence than satisfy the young king, who still thought it a hard thing (as in truth it was) to pro- ceed so severely in such cases: so he set his hand to the warrant, with tears in his eyes, saying to Cranmer, 'That if he did wrong, since it was in submission to his authority, he should answer for it y When condemned to die, we are informed, she said to her judg-es, "It is a goodly matter to consider your ignorance. It was not long ago since you burned Anne Ascue for a piece of bread, and yet came yourselves soon after to believe and profess the same doctrine for which you burned her. And now, forsooth, you will needs burn me for a piece of flesh, and in the end you will come to believe this also, when you have read the scrip- tures and understand them." Where was Cranmer's conscience, that this statement did not arouse him? I scarcely know a more painful and humiliating fact than the part he took in this criminal affair. It did not arise from cruelty of disposition, for his heart was humane and benevo- lent, but from the perverted views he had early imbibed in an in- tolerant and unchristian school. How bitter must the recollection of it have been during his own imprisonment at Oxford! Strype's Mem., ii. i. 335. 90 THE HISTORY OF ^^y^' to God.'" The archbishop, we are told, was deeply affected by this speech ; but he did not interpose to EDWARD prevent the execution, which took place May 2, 1550.^ Apr/25ri55i. followiug ycaT another of these disgraceful scenes was acted. George Van Pare, a surgeon, of Dutch extraction, being charged with denying the divinity of Christ, was condemned to the flames. He suff*ered with great constancy of mind, kissing the stake to which he was bound by his brother protestants,* Such instances of religious faithfulness are entitled to the respect of mankind, whatever judgment may be pronounced on the opinions enter- tained. The sufferer for conscience' sake, to what- ever school he belongs, gives the fullest proof of honest, if not of enlightened, conviction, which the condition of man permits. These executions were severely censured by many protestants, and were not unnaturally adduced by the catholics in vindi- cation of their atrocities. Many other persons of the same persuasion with these sufferers were at this time in prison, as appears by the king's pardon issued December, 1550. "Last of all," says Bur- net, "came the king's general pardon, out of which those in the Tower or other prisons, on account of the state, as also all Anabaptists, were excepted." ^ 2 Burnet's Reform., ii. 178. * Burnet, ii. 179. "A certain Pierce's Vindication of Dissenters, Arrian," says Edward's Journal, 84. Heylin's Reform., 88. The at- April 7, 1551, "of the strangers, tempt of Strype, Memor., ii. ii. a Dutchman, being excommuni- 183, to vindicate Cranmer's me- cated by the congregation of his mory, can scarcely be deemed countrymen, was, after long dis- successful by the most devoted putation, condemned to the fire.'' of the archbishop's admirers. Mr. ^ Ibid., 227. Strype, writing of Todd, in his Vindication, vir- the year 1550, says, "Sectaries tually gives up the point, by appeared now in Essex and Kent, merely quoting the language of slieltcring themselves under the Strype, p. 03, 2d ed. profession of the gospel ; of whom PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 91 Happily for the reputation of the English Re- chap. formers, no other executions on account of religious opinions took place during this reign. In their edward calmer moments, they probably remembered their severity with regret, and would gladly have re- traced their steps, had it been within their power. The lovely spirit of Christianity could not fail ulti- mately to mitigate the rigor of their judgment, and to aid the charities of their heart in regaining their natural ascendancy. The Reformation effected under Edward the Character of Sixth, whatever imperfections attended its progress, uon^or^Ed- or however incomplete the state in which it was ^^""^ left, must be regarded with devout gratitude by every advocate of religious liberty and scriptural truth. The offices of the church were reformed, many vestiges of superstition removed, and a freer circulation was given to the word of life. The Re- formation of Henry was mainly characterized by a rejection of the pope's supremacy ; but that of his son consisted in the erection of a new constitution, more rational in its principles, and more simple in its form. The former monarch exulted in over- throwing the power of the papacy; the latter, in rooting out its errors. The one was a vindictive destroyer, who found his happiness in the ruins complaint was made to the coun- Pelagians; that there were con- cil. These were the first that tributions made among them for made separation from the re- the better maintaining of their formed Church of England, hav- congregations ; that the members ing gathered congregations of of the congregation in Kent went their own. The congregation ,in over unto the congregation in Essex was mentioned to be at Essex, to instruct and to'join with Bocking; that in Kent was at them; and that thev had their Feversham, as I learn from an old meetings in Kent ' in diverse register. From whence I also places beside Feversham."--Mera. collect, that they held the opi- ii. i. 369. nions of the Anabaptists and 92 THE HISTORY OF ^^y^' with which he surrounded himself ; while the other, with the beneficent spirit of Christianity, sought, Ei^^^j^^^ according to the measure of his knowledge, to communicate to his subjects the elements of eter- nal life. It were absurd to suppose that, at the commencement of his reign, Edward could give a rational assent to the measures of his council. In the latter years of his life, however, there is reason to believe that he took an active and enliohtened part in ecclesiastical affairs. Without adopting the exaggerated and fulsome terms in which it has been customary with protestant writers to speak of this youthful monarch, we may affirm his intellect to have been matured, and his principles fixed, far beyond his years. The instructions of his tutors were received with docility by his virtuous mind, and served to qualify him, at a very early age, to preside over the deliberations of a great and pow^er- ful nation. As soon as he became rationally cogni- zant of what was taking place, he entered with the ardor of youth on the work of reformation, and would probably have proceeded much farther, had he not been checked by the interposition of his advisers.*" His piety seems to have been undoubted, ' Speaking of c?wc//)/jne, Edward good life. As for the pra3-ers says^ " But because those bishops and divine service, it were meet who should execute it — some for the faults were drawn out (as it papistry, some for ignorance, was appointed) by learned men, some for age, some for their ill and so the book to be established, name, some for all these — are un- and all men willed to come there- able to execute discipline, it is unto to hear the service, as I have therefore a thing unmeet for put in remembrance in articles these men : wherefore it were touching the statutes of this par- necessar}% that those who were liament. But as for discipline, I appointed to be bishops or preach- would wish no authority given ers, were honest in life, and generally to all bishops, but that learned in their doctrine ; that by commission be given to tliose rewarding of such men, others tliat be of the best sort of tlieni might be allured to follow their to exercise it in their dioceses." PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. and his errors are to be attributed to his education rather than to the promptings of his own heart. Cranmer and the other divines with whom he acted were sincerely attached to the doctrines of the Reformation. With all their imperfections, they were men of a high and noble spirit, who zealously laboured in the cause of human improvement. Their situation was perplexing and difficult, almost beyond example ; and an impartial posterity, in pro- nouncing sentence on their conduct, is bound to remember the wayward and cruel policy of Henry, as well as the covetousness and ambition of the courtiers of his son. Had Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and their brethren, been permitted to act out their principles, the English Reformation would probably have assumed a different character. Cranmer is reported to have drawn up a Book of Prayers a hundred times more perfect than that in use; "yet the same cannot take place," it was affirmed, " for that he was matched with such a wicked clergy and convocation, with other ene- mies."That extensive dissatisfaction existed amongst the Reformers is unquestionable. The principle of concession to the papists, on which the offices of the church had been constructed, was regarded by the more zealous as a sacrifice to ex- pediency, uncalled for by existing circumstances, and unjustifiable in principle. " Diverse there — Remains, No. ii. The reader nix, ii. 82. Mr. Strype is in error who wishes to see additional in representing- this (Life of Cran- cvidence of Edward's disposition mer, i. 881) as the report of to further reform, may consult Bullincrer. It was the report of Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, i. one of Dr. Cox's party, as may C6 — 68, and Pierce's Vindication, be seen by an inspection of the p. 12. book itself. Troubles at Frankfort, Phce- 94 THE HISTORY OF rapacity of courtiers ^?v.^* ^^^'^ now," says Strype, " in this king's reign, that liked so little of popery, that they thought it highly convenient not to symbolize with that church in any of its usages. And that gave occasion to them to dislike, particularly, two things ; viz., the posture of kneeling at the reception of the communion, and the priestly habits, which were not laid aside by the reformers of this church from papal innova- tions. The retaining of these gave the more dis- gust, because it was contrary to the example of many of the foreign Reformers, as those of Switzer- land and Geneva; whose books and judgments swayed greatly, and were much used here."^ ^^brtL Much injuiy was done to the Reformation by the vicious life of many professors, and by the notorious rapacity of its political agents.^ The courtiers of Edward continued the practice of their predeces- sors, by sharing amongst themselves the spoils of a vanquished church. " You have had among you," said Edward to one of them who advised the king to make the bishops surrender their temporalities, " the commodities of the abbeys, which you have consumed — some with superfluous apparel, some at dice and cards, and other ungracious rule ; and 8 Strype's Mem., ii. ii. 32. whereof no minister did or could John Knox was at this time, 1552, dischargee his conscience before preaching in England ; and having God. For no ministers in Eng- refused a living to which he was land had power to separate the recommended by the council, he lepers from the heal; which was, was called before them, April he said, a chief point of his 14, and asked " Whether he office." They asked him if kneel- thought that no Christian might ing at the Lord's table was not serve in the ecclesiastical minis- indifferent ? He answered, that tration, according to the rites and Christ's action was most perfect, laws of the realm of England ? " and that it was most sure to To which he said, " that many follow his example ; and that things at that time were worthy kneeling was man's addition and of reformation in the ministry of invention." — Ibid., p. 72. England, without the reformation f Burnet's Reform., iii. 325. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 95 now you would have the bishops' lands and revenues ^' to abuse likewise. Set your hearts at rest ; there • shall no such alteration be made while I live." On edward one occasion Ridley was commanded by the council not to fill up a vacant stall in St. Paul's, as it was desimed to reserve its income for the furniture of the king's stable. The bishop immediately wrote to Mr. Cheke, entreating his aid to prevent such a profanation. " Alas, Mr. Cheke," he says, " this seemeth unto me to be a right heavy hearing. Is this the fruit of the gospel? Speak, Mr. Cheke, speak, for God's sake, in God's cause, unto whom- soever you think you may do any good withall."^ The whole character of the Reformation suffered from the erroneous principles on which it was con- ducted. The exercise of authority, and the allure- ments of wealth, though they induce external con- formity, are incapable of moulding the religious sympathies and affections of the human mind. The Reformers unhappily appealed to these, and, as a natural consequence, were compelled to admit the influence of ambitious and unprincipled men over their proceedings. Regarding the secular power as the only legitimate agent of religious revolution, they waited its pleasure, and submitted to its caprice. Force was thus substituted for persuasion, and the homage of hypocrisy or the submission of indifference was accepted in the place of enlight- ened conviction. Could we divest ourselves of prejudice, and look at Christianity in its simple and divine character, nothing would be regarded as more absurd or ridiculous than an attempt to change the religion of a nation by legislative enact- ? Ridley's Life of Ridley, 860. THE HISTORY OF ments. The means employed would appear so incompatible with the end contemplated, that we should feel constrained to doubt the sincerity, or to deny the intelligence, of those who advised them. The Reformers, moreover, were inconsistent with themselves. Their secession from Rome was only to be justified on the ground of the right of private judgment and the sufficiency of the scriptures as a rule of faith. To these they appealed in their contro- versies with papists, and were uniformly triumphant. They constituted their strong-hold, whence no sub- tlety or erudition could dislodge them. But they ^renounced these principles in requiring the early separatists to believe at the mandate of others, or to substitute the authority of the prince or of the priest for the pure word of God. It was in defence of the first and most elementary principles of pro- testantism, that the puritans suffered and died. Their memories were defamed by the men of their day, as their persons and property were outraged ; but an enlightened posterity is vindicating their name, and assigning them a place amongst the illustrious dead. It is, however, but an act of common justice to state, that no extensive religious revolution has been effected with less expense of life than that of Edward. If the English Reformers were not better instructed in the nature of religious liberty than the catholics, they were more humane in their temper. It is praise enough for young Edward," remarks Sir James Mackintosh, " that his gentle- ness, as well as his docility, disposed him not to shed blood. The fact, however, that the blood of no Roman catholic was spilt on account of reli- gion in Edward's reign, is indisputable. The pro- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 97 testant church of England did not strike the first ^j^y ^• blow. If this proceeded from the virtue of the counsellors of Edward, we must allow it to out- edwar weigh their faults ; if it followed from their for- tune, they ought to have been envied by their antagonists. Truth and justice require it to be positively pronounced, that Gardiner and Bonner cannot plead the example of Cranmer and Latimer for the bloody persecution which involved in its course the destruction of the protestant prelates. The antitrinitarian and the anabaptist, if they had regained power, might indeed have urged such a mitigation ; but the Roman catholic had not even the odious excuse of retaliation.'"" »• Hist, of England, ii. 271, 319. VOL. I, H CHAPTER V. MARY. Proclaimed Queen — Her tolerant Professions — Leading Protestants imprisoned — Parliament summoned — Edward's Laws repealed — Wyatt's Revolt unfavourable to the Protestants — Kingdom reconciled to the Papacy — Ancient Laws against Heretics revived — Martyrdom of John Rogers — Laurence Saunders — Hooper — The Work of Per- secution devolved on Bonner — Martyrdom of Bradford — Latimer and Ridley — Cranmer — Protestants hold private Meetings — Num- ber of Protestants burnt — Troubles at Frankfort, CHAP. Edward was succeeded by his sister, Mary, the . daughter of Catherine of Arragon, a devoted MARY, zealot of the Roman church. It is not necessary to Sed"'" detail, at any considerable length, the atrocities of jui^Ts 1553 ill-fated and sanguinary reign. Her title, as the daughter of Henry the Eighth, soon enabled her to defeat the ambitious designs of the duke of Northumberland ; who, to perpetuate his power, had induced the late king to alter the succession in favour of lady Jane Grey, the wife of his fourth son, lord Guildford Dudley. Mary was proclaimed at St. Paul's Cross on the 18th of July, and made her triumphant entry into London on the 3rd of the following month. The Reformers were now doomed to experience the evil tendency of some of their principles. They had acknowledged and acted on the ecclesiastical supremacy of the crown ; PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 99 Her tolerant professions. and had obtained some benefits by doing so. But chap. they were now to learn, in the bitter school of per '• — secution, that those benefits were partial and tern- J^^ary. porary. It is well observed by Neal, " that an absolute supremacy over the consciences of men, lodged with a single person, may as well be pre- judicial as serviceable to true religion ; for if king Henry the Eighth, and his son, king Edward the sixth, reformed some abuses by their supremacy, against the inclinations of the majority of the people, we shall find queen Mary making use of the same power to turn things back into their old chan- nel, till she had restored the grossest and most idolatrous part of popery."' Mary assumed, at first, a mild and tolerant tone. When lady Jane Grey was proclaimed by the coun- cil, Mary retired to the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, the inhabitants of which, notwithstanding their protestantism, rallied round her, promising their aid, " so that she would not attempt the alter- ation of the religion which her brother, king Edward, had before established by laws and orders publicly enacted, received by the consent of the whole realm." "To this condition," says Fox, " she agreed, with such promise made unto them that no innovation should be made of religion, as that no man would or could then have misdoubted her." J Much to the same purpose was the declara- tion she made to the lord mayor and aldermen of London, on her coming to the Tower, " that though her own conscience was stayed in matters of religion, yet she meaneth graciously not to compel or strain other people's consciences otherwise than God shall, ' Hist, of Puritans, i. 70. •> Acts and Mon., iii., 12. H 2 100 THE HISTORY OF as she tnisteth, put in their hearts a persuasion of the truth.'"" But this politic disguise was soon MARY, abandoned. Gardiner and Bonner were released from imprisonment, and the former was made lord chancellor. They were also restored to their bishop- Aug. 13. rics, together with Heath, Day, and Tonstal. A tumult having taken place at St. Paul's, occasioned by some severe reflections of Bourn, a chaplain of Bonner, on the ecclesiastical proceedings of Edward's reign, a proclamation w^as issued on the 18th, declaring that the queen, " considering the great danger that had come to the realm by the differences in religion, did declare for herself, that she was of that religion that she had professed from her infancy, and that she would maintain it during her time, and be glad that all her subjects would charitably receive it. Yet she did not intend to compel any of her subjects to it, till public order should be taken in it by common assent ; requiring all, in the mean while, not to move sedition or unquietness till such order should be settled ; and not to use the name of papist or heretic, but to live together in love, and in the fear of God ; but if any made assemblies of the people, she would take care they should be severely punished ; and she straitly charged them, that none should preach, or expound scripture, or print any books or plays, without her special license."* This suspension of the libertv of preaching was but an imitation of the policy of the last reign. Edward's counsellors had assumed the same authority, and had been applauded for doino; so bv the most zealous Reformers: but now, the supremacy was vested in a papist, whose ^ Burnet's Reform., iii. 331. ' Ibid., ii. 380. Strype's Mem., iii. i. 38. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 101 designs and hopes were all centred in the restora- chap. tion of the ancient faith. The march of persecution proceeded with unexampled rapidity. The mea- ^^^^y. sures of the court were urged forward with a celerity which betokened the mixture of personal animosity with religious rancour. The bitterness of revenge was added to the ferocious and blood-thirsty pro- pensities of the bi2:ot. Several of the most eminent Protestants * ~ imprisoned. protestants, among whom were Bradford, Rogers the proto-martyr, Hooper bishop of Gloucester, Coverdale of Exeter, and Dr. Cox the late king's tutor, were committed to prison during the first month of the queen's residence in her metropolis. In September, Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer were committed to the Tower, and in the following month, the archbishop of York."" Some of these were apprehended on a charge of treason for the part they had taken on behalf of lady Jane Grey; but the proceedings which were subsequently adopted against them prove that the real ground of their committal, and that which constituted their unpardonable sin, was the zeal they had exhibited in the cause of the Reformation. But the hands of the Romanists were bound til! Parliament summoned. a repeal of the laws of Edward the Sixth could be obtained. The leading protestants had been appre- hended on various charges, but could not be pro- ceeded against as heretics, till the laws under which they had acted were annulled, and others substi- tuted which enforced the faith and worship of the proscribed church. To remove this obstruction, as well as to pass some private acts of favour to the duke of Norfolk and others, parliament was sum- Burnet's Reform., iii. 083. Strype's Memorials/iii. i. 77. 102 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, moned to meet in the early part of October. The usual method of influencing the elections was MARY, resorted to by the court, with such success as to demonstrate the insecure and precarious condition in which religion must ever be placed, if depen- dant on the patronage of a court, or the votes of a political assembly. Both Henry and Edward had met with obsequious parliaments, which did little more than register their edicts. The pleasure of the monarch was soon embodied in the form of law, however extensive the alteration he proposed. One change after another had thus been sanctioned, with scarcely an appearance of opposition; and yet no sooner was Mary established on the throne, than a parliament assembled as ready to condemn the Reformation, and to reconcile the nation to Rome, as any of its predecessors had been to sanction the revolt which Henry had commenced, and his son had widened. On the last day of October, a bill was sent down to the commons, for the repeal of king Edward's laws respecting religion, which was carried after a discussion of six days. " The preamble sets forth the great disorders which had fallen out in the nation by the changes that had been made in reli- gion, from that which their forefathers had left them by the authority of the catholic church ; thereupon all the laws that had been made in king Edward's time about religion were now repealed, and it was enacted, that, from the 20th of Decem- ber next, there should be no other form of divine service but what had been used in the last year of king Henry the Eighth, leaving it free to all till that day, to use either the books appointed by king Edward's laws repealed, 1553. MARY. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 103 Edward, or the old ones, at their pleasure." ° By chap. this one statute, as Heylin remarks, " not only all things were reduced to the same estate in which they stood at Edward's coming to the crown ; but all those bishops and priests which had married by authority of the former statutes, w^ere made un- canonical, and consequently obnoxious to a depriva- tion. So that for want of canonical ordination on the one side, and under colour of uncanonical marriages on the other, we shall presently find such a general remove amongst the bishops and clergy, as is not any where to be paralleled in so short a time." The revolt of sir Thomas Wyatt, who rallied the men of Kent around his standard, to prevent the [^^h^Jp^o. marriage of Mary with Philip of Spain, proved ^^^tants. highly vmfavourable to the protestants. He appears to have been a brave and patriotic youth, who anti- cipated that England would become a mere pro- vince of Spain, and be ruled with the same iron sceptre as had been extended over the Netherlands. Failing in his enterprise, he involved lady Jane Grey and her husband in his ruin, exposed the princess Elizabeth to imminent danger, and afforded occasion to Gardiner and his associates to charge the protestants with disloyalty. Though his procla- " Burnet's Reform., ii. 395. — For the removal of various This act repealed no less than books and images. Sixthly — For nine statutes, all designed to ad- the ordering of ecclesiastical vance the Reformation. These ministers. Seventhly — For the were: First — An act for receiving uniformity of Common Prayer, the communion in both kinds. &c. Eighthl}-. — For the keeping Secondl}- — For vesting the elec- of certain fast-days ; and Ninthly tion of bishops in the crown, k.c. — For the explanation of the pre- Thirdly — For the uniformity of vious statute respecting the mar- })ublic worship. Fourthly— For riage of priests, 5vc. — Strype's the abrogation of all laws against Memor., iii. i. 83. Heylin's the marriage of priests. Fifthly Reform., 28. 1554, 104 THE HISTORY OF CHAP V. ' mation made no reference to religion, and explicitly affirmed that his sole design was to preserve the liberty of the kingdom, by preventing its falling under the yoke of foreigners ; yet those who thirsted for the blood of Cranmer and his brethren took advantage of the insurrection of Wyatt to urge the necessity of severe measures against the adherents of the reformed faith. A visitation of the clergy \vas appointed, with a view of removing such as were favourable to the protestant doctrine, and vast numbers were expelled on this account, as well as on the ground of their marriage or some other un- canonical circumstance.^ " The married clergy," it has been remarked, with equal beauty and truth, " were observed to suffer with most alacrity. They were bearing testimony to the validity and sanctity of their marriage against the foul and unchristian aspersions of the Romish persecutors ; the honour /of their wives and children were at stake ; the desire of leaving them an unsullied name and a virtuous example, combined with the sense of reli- gious duty ; and thus the heart derived strength from the very ties which, in other circumstances, might have weakened it.''^ At length it was determined formally to recon- ^155^^' ^^^^ kingdom to Rome. For this purpose Car- dinal Pole received a special commission from the o Archbishop Parker states the was fiomewhat below three thou- number of (k-prived ministers to sand. — Hist, of Reform., iii. 339. be twelve thousand ; but in this But Norfolk was an eminently he is unquestionably mistaken. protestant district, and Burnet's The calculation of Burnet is more calculation, it may therefore be probable. He takes the diocese presumed, is too high. Dr. Lin- of Norwich, nearly an eio^hth part gard, taking- his ratio from the of the kingdom, for his data, and diocese of Canterbury, thinks the finding there were three hundred number did not exceed one thou- and thirty-five deprived in it, he sand five hundred, calculates that the whole number p Book of the Church, ii. 151. Kingdom re- conciled to the 1554- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. pope, with which he arrived in England at the end of November, 1554, his own attainder having pre- viously been repealed. The former parliaments of this reign had restored religion to the state in which Henry left it ; but it was now resolved to retrace the steps which that capricious monarch had taken, by reuniting the nation to the papal see. Parliament was accordingly summoned to meet in November, great pains being taken to secure the return of de- voted and zealous catholics. Pole addressed the two houses, thanking them for the Act they had passed in his favor; and added, "This I protest before you, my commission is not of prejudice to any person. I come not to destroy, but to build; I come to reconcile, not to condemn; I am not come to compel, but to call again; I am not come to call any thing in question already done, but my com- mission is of grace and clemency, to such as will receive it. For touching all matters that be past, they shall be as things cast into the sea of forget- fulness.'"^ Two days afterward the two houses pre- sented an address to the king and queen, praying, "That whereas they had been guilty of a most horrible defection and schism from the apostolic see, they did now most heartily repent of it; and, in sign of their repentance, were ready to repeal all the laws made in prejudice of that see; therefore, since the king and queen had been no way defiled by their schism, they pray them to be intercessors with the legate to grant them absolution, and to receive them again into the bosom of the church.'"" With this request Philip and Mary complied, and the cardinal, in the pope's name, absolved "all 1 Fox, iii. 90. Burnet's Reform., ii. 451. Fox, iii. 00. THE HISTORY OF those present, and the whole nation, and the dominions thereof, from all heresy and schism, and all judgments, censures, and penalties, for that cause incurred ; and restored them to the commu- nion of holy church in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." This restoration of England to the papal see, was welcomed throughout Europe, as an earnest of the speedy suppression of Protestant- ism. The English catholics rejoiced in the second conversion of their country to Christianity; while those of the continent regarded with still greater complacency the system which could thus regain its supremacy in the very heart of disaffection and revolt. A considerable difficulty was experienced by the parliament in framing the Act of repeal. Many of the statutes of Henry, and some of Edward, vested the property of the church in the crown, or disposed of it in other equally uncanonical ways. This was now extensively distributed amongst the nobility and courtiers, who were by no means dis- posed to relinquish their share of the spoil, however servilely they might adopt their monarch's creed. Some security was therefore demanded for the pos- sessors of abbey-lands, which the pope and cardinal hesitated for a time to give. But the necessity of the case determined their conduct, and the condi- tion was ultimately granted. So little of principle was there in this renunciation of protestantism and return to popery, that if security had not been given to the holders of church property, their consciences would have permitted them to continue in what they hypocritically pronounced to be "a most horri- ble defection and schism." They had no objection to follow the religion of their monarch, if they PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 107 might retain the wealth of which they had robbed y. it, and the holding of which their adopted faith condemned as an act of impiety and sacrilege. So strangely mixed are the elements of human action ; so anomalous the principles which form the cha- racter and regulate the conduct of mankind. The parliament having obtained satisfaction from Pole, a bill was passed, setting forth their former schism from Rome, and present reconciliation, and their repeal of all Acts against that see, passed since the twentieth of Henry the Eighth. Thus, by one sweeping act of legislation, all that had been done for the advancement of the Reformation was swept away. The system which had slowly grown out of the ignorance and superstition of mankind was restored to its forfeited supremacy; and afforded another opportunity of developing its character, and of proving, more completely than ever it had yet done, its incompatibility with freedom of thought and the wide extension of knowledge. The nation was not long reconciled to the Ancient laws papacy before the sanguinary spirit of its adopted uc^'reviveT faith was seen. A bill was introduced to the lower house on the 12th of December, and sent up to the lords on the 15th, for reviving the laws of Richard the Second, Henry the Fourth, and Henry the Fifth, against heretics. The most important of these statutes was that of Henry the Fourth, which pre- scribed the mode of putting heretics to death, enjoining the sheriff or local magistrate to receive them from the diocesan, "and then, on a high place, before the people, to cause them to be burnt." The ancient writ, "on burning a heretic," was founded on this statute. The clergy were thus 108 tHE HISTORY OF Smithfield. Jan. 22, 1555. ^^A^- armed with tremendous power, which they soon ■ ■ put into fearful operation. The liberty and life of MARi. ^Yie commonwealth were intrusted to their hands, and they proceeded to do with them according to the dictates of an inhuman bigotry. The ma- chinery of persecution being prepared, it was de- termined by some public example to strike terror into the protestant. faction, and, if possible, subdue their intractable spirits. John Ro2:ers, a prebend John Rogers ^ o ' i S^i'^lL.f. St. Paul's, was the first victim selected. He was esteemed one of the most learned of the Reformers, and his zeal was proportioned to his learning. After being confined for some time to his own house, he was summoned before the council, where he underwent a long examination by Gardiner, in answer to whom he declared, "I know none other head but Christ of his catholic church, neither will I acknowledge the bishop of Rome to have any more authority than any bishop hath by the word of God, and by the doctrine of the old and pure catholic church, four hundred years after Christ." Being urged with the inconsistency of his present declaration with the acknowledgment of the supre- macy of Henry, he replied, " I never granted him to have any supremacy in spiritual things, as are the forgiveness of sins, giving of the Holy Ghost, authority to be a judge above the word of God." After several examinations, he was degraded, and delivered over to the sheriff* as an obstinate heretic. He requested permission to see his wife before his execution, "for she hath ten children," said he, "that are hers and mine, and somewhat I would counsel her, what were best for her to do." But this request was brutally denied by Gardiner, who, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 109 adding insult to cruelty, told his victim, ^' She is chap. not thy wife." He was burnt in Smithfield, his pardon being offered him at the stake, if he would ^^^i^^- recant; but he preferred death to a protracted life, degraded and rendered miserable by a sense of guilt.^ Four days after Laurence Saunders was burnt saunTr? at at Coventry. He was apprehended for preaching ""^ZhX contrary to the queen's prohibition, and after being detained a long time in prison, was de- graded by Bonner. Fox tells us the jailor had strict charge not to permit any one to speak to him. His wife was consequently refused admission; but the keeper, himself probably a father, took the babe from her arms, and carried it to Saunders. He was delighted with the sight of his child, exclaiming, "What man, fearing God, would not lose this life present, rather than, by prolonging it here, he should judge 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?" He likewise was offered a pardon at the stake, but stedfastly refused it, and died exclaiming, "Welcome the cross of Christ, welcome everlasting life."* On the following day bishop Hooper suffered "^^^^^f martyrdom at Gloucester, whither he had been con- ^• veyed from London, the queen's counsellors think- ing to strike terror throughout his diocese by so signal an example of severity. Immediately on the accession of Mary, he had been entreated by many s Fox, iii. 98. ' Ibid., iii. 108. 110 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, friends to consult his safety by leaving the kingdom, as his zeal and untiring diligence, together with MARY, the part he had taken against Bonner, rendered him peculiarly obnoxious to the popish faction. But he stedfastly refused, saying, with Roman heroism, sanctified by Christian principle, "Once I did flee, and take me to my feet; but now, because I am called to this place and vocation, I am throughly persuaded to tarry, and to live and dye with my sheep." He was committed to the Fleet, September 1, 1553, and endured great suf- ferings from the barbarity of his keeper. "I have suffered imprisonment," he writes, shortly before his death, "almost eighteen months; my goods, living, friends, and comfort, taken from me; the queen owing me, by just account, eighty pounds or more. She hath put me in prison, and giveth nothing to find me, neither is there suffered any one to come at me w^hereby I might have relief. I am with a wicked man and woman, so that I see no remedy (saving God's help) but I shall be cast away in prison before I come to judgment. But I commit my just cause to God, whose will be done, whether it be by life or death." Various methods were employed to induce Hooper to return to the papal church. His high reputation in the protes- tant body rendered his conversion eminently de- sirable in the judgment of the catholic prelates. But he resisted their solicitations, and was conse- quently degraded from his ministry, and con- demned to the flames. When he understood that he was to be sent to Gloucester, he "rejoiced very much, lifting up his eyes and hands unto heaven, and praising God that he saw it good to send him PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. amongst the people over whom he was pastor, there to confirm with his death the truth which he had before taught them; not doubting but the Lord would give him strength to perform the same to his glory." On his arrival in Gloucester, Sir Anthony Kingston, an old friend, waited on him, and, bursting into tears, reminded him that life was sweet and death bitter, and therefore entreated him to submit to the ruling power. "True it is," re- plied the Christian martyr, "that death is bitter, and life is sweet ; but, alas ! consider that the death to come is more bitter, and the life to come is more sweet. Therefore, for the desire and love I have to the one, and the terror and fear of the other, I do not so much regard this death, nor esteem this life, but have settled myself, through the strength of God's Holy Spirit, patiently to pass through the torments and extremities of the fire now prepared for me, rather than to deny the truth of his word." When engaged in prayer at the place of execution, a box was laid before him containing his pardon, if he would recant; but he exclaimed, "If you love my soul, away with it." His suff"erings were fear- fully aggravated by the greenness of the wood, which rendered it necessary to kindle the fire three times, so that the lower part of his body was burned without the upper part being much injured. His patience and self-possession, however, never left him, and he died a monument of sustaining grace, in circumstances the most agonizing that can be imagined." " Fox, iii. 119. Hooper's ora- fore sent to the authorities at tory was much dreaded by his Gloucester, to prevent his ad- persecutors. Orders were there- dressing the people at the time of 112 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. These terrible examples of the fierce and de- striictive intolerance of popish counsellors were far MAR\. producing the effect which had been antici- persecution ' pated. Gardiner expected to terrify the whole devolved upon , • . , . . , « . , Bonner. P^^tj luto suDmissiou, bv 3. icw cxccutious ; and when he perceived his mistake, he was desirous to avoid the odium of a butchery which he had not suflficient virtue or humanity to prevent. His participation in blood, unlike that of Bonner, was mainly prompted by a cold-hearted policy. He did not delight in the sufferings of his victim, but regarded them as the means of advancing the in- terest of his party. When policy, therefore, no longer urged sanguinary measures, the work of slaughter was left to Bonner, one of those vulgar and brutal spirits who find their appropriate occu- pation in the infliction of suffering on the more vir- tuous members of society. The nation was amazed at such proceedings. The constancy of the martyrs confirmed their brethren in the Protestant faith, while their sufferino;s awakened a detestation of popery, which rendered its subsequent overthrow comparatively easy. The work of slaughter was, as yet, but com- menced. From the various prisons of the kingdom, and especially from those of London, victims were selected from time to time, as offerings to the papal Moloch. Scarcel}^ a week passed without some of his execution. "Because this Hooper is, as all heretics are, a vain-glorious person ; and if he have liberty to speak, he may persuade such as he has seduced to persist in the miserable opi- nions that he hath taught them ; therefore strict order is given, that neither at his execution, nor in going to the place of it, he be suffered to speak at large ; but that he be led quietly, and in si- lence, for avoiding farther infec- tion."— Burnet's Reform., iii. 362. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 113 these terrible exhibitions. Bradford, an eminent ciiap. preacher, suffered in July with a cheerful counte- nance, saying to his youthful companion, "Be of good comfort, brother ; for we shall have a merry j'^y^^f'tw,. supper with the Lord this ni2:ht." And on the 16th Latimer and ^ ^ , , Ridley, Oct. of the following October, Latimer and Ridley, — the le. former greatly advanced in years and venerable for integrity and zeal, the latter amongst the most moderate and learned of the protestant divines, — were burnt at Oxford.'' " Be of good heart, bro- ther," said Ridley to Latimer, at the stake, " for God will either assuage the fury of the flame, or else strengthen us to abide it;" to whom Latimer, when a kindled fagot was laid at the feet of Ridley, replied, " Be of good comfort, Mr. Ridley, and play the man ; we shall this day light such a candle by God's grace in England, as I trust shall never be put out." Cranmer, who had been removed from the Tower cranmcr. to Oxford with Latimer and Ridley, was spared for some months longer than his brethren. His gentle and timorous disposition being known to his adver- saries, they hoped, by addressing his fears, to in- duce him to recant. He was apprehended on a charge of treason in September, 1553, of which he was convicted in the following month. For this crime he solicited and obtained pardon, protesting " Ridley might have been course which, involving-, in their prosecuted for treason, having judgment, an exclusion from the preached against the title of Mary, mercies of God, precipitated and in support of Jane Grey, thus their victim into a deeper abyss rendering, as sir James Mackin- of misery than any temporal sen- tosh remarks, " almost the only (ence could have done. So futile perilous act of homage to the un- is the extenuation v\ hich Dr. Lin- fortunate Jane, after she began gard and other catholic historians her fleeting reign." But his have attempted of the enormities bigoted persecutors preferred a of this reign. VOL. I. I 114 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, that he had opposed the late king's alteration of the succession, and had at length most reluctantly MARY, signed his will, in compliance with his urgent and repeated solicitation. Commissioners were appointed to try him on the charge of heresy, who sat at Oxford, September 12, 1555. Cranmer maintained his cause with his usual temper and learning, refusing to acknowledge the pope's authority, or to retract the doctrines he had preached. He was Feb. 14, 1^56. degraded in the following Februar}^ by Bonner and Thirleby ; the former displaying his accustomed brutality, and the latter, remembering the many benefits he had received from Cranmer, protesting, with many tears, it was the most sorrowful action he had ever performed. Cranmer now addressed the queen, setting forth the reasons of the ecclesi- astical changes of which he had been instrumental during the reigns of her father and brother. His enemies saw in this correspondence the indications of infirmity, and determined to profit by them. He was removed from prison to the house of the dean of Christchurch, where he v/as courteously entertained, and his hopes and fears were alternately aroused. Some of his visitors were probably sin- cere in their professions of regard; but the prin- cipal agents in this diabolical plot were intent on the destruction of his character, without the slight- est intention of sparing his life. They had resolved on his death, but they wished to embitter it by a sense of guilt, and to divest it of the glory of martyr- dom. "They told him," says the martyrologist, " how the council and the noblemen bare him good- will. They put him in hope that he should not only have his life, but also be restored to his ancient PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 115 dignity, saying, it was but a small matter, and so easy, that they required him to do, only that he. would subscribe a few words with his own hand . . . but if he refused, there was no hope of health and pardon ; for the queen was so purposed, that she would have Cranmer a catholic, or else no Cranmer at all." Unhappily for the reputation of Cranmer, he yielded to their solicitations, and set his hand to a paper, renouncing all the errors of Luther and Zuinglius, admitting the pope's supremacy, the corporal presence, and all the other distinguishing doctrines of the papacy."" The duplicity and blood- thirstiness of his enemies were now revealed. The queen could not forgive the part he had taken in her mother's divorce. His recantation had freed him from the guilt of heresy ; yet she determined to gratify her revengeful spirit by visiting him with CHAP. v. MARY ^ Cranmer's recantation was re- peated several times, so humiliat- ing and abject was his fall. Pro- testant writers have generally shown a disposition to conceal this fact. But Strype, though sufficiently partial to the Reform- ers, tells us, Our writers mention only one recantation, and that Fox hath set down, wherein they follow him. But this is but an imperfect relation of this good man's frailty; I shall therefore endeavour here to set down this piece of his history more distinctly. There were several recanting writings to which Cranmer sub- scribed one after another ; for after the unhappy bishop, by over persuasion, wrote one paper with his subscription set to it, which he thought to pen so favourably and dexterously for himself, that he might evade both the danger from the state, and the danger of his conscience too ; that would not serve, but another was required as explanatory of that. And when he had complied with that, yet either because writ too briefly or too ambiguously, neither would that serve, but drew on a third, yet fuller and more expressive than the former. Nor could he escape so, but still a fourth and a fifth paper of recantation was demanded of him, to be more large and more particular ; nay, and lastly, a sixth, which was very prolix, containing an acknow- ledgment of all the forsaken and detested errors and superstitions of Rome, an abhorrence of his own books, and a ^'ilifying of him- self as a persecutor, a blasphe- mer, a mischief-maker ; nay, and as the wickedest wretch that lived."— Mem. iii. i. 391. The degree of doubt which attaches to the recantations of Cranmer, as pubhshed by Bonner, may be learnt from Todd's Vindication, &c., p. 116. I 2 116 THE HISTORY OF MARY. March 21. its severest penalties. Cranmer accordingly pre- pared himself for death. His virtues survived his fall, and shed over the closing scene of his life a lustre which has enshrined him in the memory and affection of his countrymen. Some hope of life appears to have been entertained till the morning of his execution. Perceiving then the design of his persecutors, he resolved openly to confess his apostasy, and to warn others from treading in his steps. Shame and grief possessed his soul. He had belied his conscience to save his life, so that a debasing sense of guilt was now added to the bitter- ness of disappointment. He was removed to St. Mary's church, where Dr. Cole preached, hypocri- tically professing a concern for his welfare, and encouraging him to believe that the promise of Christ to the penitent thief would be fulfilled in his case. " I shall not need," says a catholic eye- witness, " for the time of sermon, to describe his behaviour, his sorrowful countenance, his heavv cheer, his face bedewed with tears ; sometime lifting his eyes to heaven in hope, sometime casting them down to the earth for shame : to be brief, an image of sorrow ; the dolour of his heart bursting out at his eyes in plenty of tears ; retaining ever a quiet and grave behaviour." His hearers pitied him, imagining that his tears flowed from a sense of guilt in having departed from the papal church. Cran- mer, however, undeceived them in his address. " And now I come," said he, " 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 setting abroad of writings contrary to the truth. Which here now I renounce and refuse as PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. things written with my hand, contran' to the truth wliich 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 ovni hand since my degradation, wherein I have written manv thins^s untrue. And forasmuch as mv hand offended in writino- contrary to mv 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." His enemies, enraged beyond measure at this declara- tion, hurried him to the stake ; " where, with a cheerful countenance and willing mind, he put off his garments with haste. Fire being now put to him," says the same impartial witness, " he stretched out his rio-ht 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, cry ing with a loud voice. This hand hath offended. As soon as the fire got up, he was very soon dead, never stirring or crpng all the while. His patience in the torment, his courage in dying, if it had been taken either for the glor^^ of God, the wealth of his country, or the testimony of truth, as it was for a pernicious error and subversion of true religion, I could worthily have commended the example, 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 sufierer, I cannot but much dispraise his obstinate stubborn- ness and sturdiness in dying, and specially in so evil a cause. Surely his death much grieved every 118 THE HISTORY OF ^f^* man; but not after one sort. Some pitied to see his body so tormented with the fire raging upon the silly carcase, 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; strangers, for a common kind of humanity, whereby we are bound to one another." Such is the account of Cranmer's appearance and deportment, furnished by an eye-witness whose humanity controlled, if it could not eradicate, the prejudices of his creed. While we deplore the weakness of Cranmer, we must not forget his many virtues. Had his enemies permitted him to survive his fall, it might have been difficult to vindicate his memory ; but the extent of their malice produced a reaction in their victim's heart, which regained him the sympathy and affection of mankind. " The language of Cranmer," remarks one of the most philosophical and candid of historians, " speaks his sincerity, and demonstrates that the love of truth still prevailed in his inmost heart. It gushed forth at the sight of death, fidl of healing power, which engendered a purifying and ennobling penitence, and restored the mind to its own esteem after a departure from the onward path of sincerity. Courage survived a public avowal of dishonour, the hardest test to which that virtue can be exposed ; and if he once fatally failed in fortitude, he in his last moments atoned for his failure by a magnanimity equal to his transgression. Let those who require unbending virtue in the most tempestuous times condemn the amiable and faulty primate ; others, who are not PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 119 SO certain of their own steadiness, will consider his cra.p. fate as perhaps the most memorable example in history, of a soul which, though debased, is not ^^^RY. depraved, by an act of weakness, and preserved a heroic courao-e after the forfeiture of honour, its natural spur, and, in general, its inseparable com- panion.'"' In the mean time, the protestants, undeterred by Protestants hold private these terrible examples of severity, met privately Assemblies \ , ^ " ^ for Worship. for religious worship in different parts of the country. Numerous assemblies were held in Suffolk and Essex ; and in London, a congregation of about two hundred met in various places, sometimes in Aldgate, sometimes in Blackfriars, sometimes in Thames-street, on board of ships, or in the sur- rounding villages, especially Islington. They were at length discovered through the treachery of Roger Serjeant, and several of them were apprehended by the queen's vice-chamberlain, at the Saracen's head, Islington, some of whom, after being cruelly racked in the Tower, were sentenced to the flames, which they endured with the utmost fortitude, March 28, 1558.^ But, notwithstanding the vigilance with which they were watched, and the heartless severity with which they were visited, the Reformers main- tained their resolution and probably increased their numbers. They waited in hope of better days, when the memory of the martyrs should be embalmed in » Mackintosh's England, ii. Ecclesiastical Memorials, chap. 327. Such as are desirous of xxx. Dr. Lingard's account is uii- acquainting themselves more fully happily characterized by the same witli the history of Cranmer's trial, blind spirit of party which de- recantation,anddeatb,raay consult tracts, in so many cases, from Fox's Acts, &c., iii. 543—568. the worth of his o'therwise valu- Burnet's Reform., ii. 514 — 524. able history. Strype's Memorials of Cranmer, y Fox, iii. 722 — 729. b. 3, chaps, xix., xx., and xxi. 120 THE HISTORY OF the grateful recollection of their countrymen, and their virtues extend a sanctifying influence over the MARY, institutions and spirit of the land. PnlJlSnEtf '^^^^ persecution of Mary raged without abate- bumt,&c. ment to the close of her life, which happened November 17, 1558. The number of victims is variously calculated. In the preface to Ridley's Treatise De Ccena Domini, supposed to have been written by archbishop Grindal, it is stated that eight hundred died for religion in the first two years of the persecution. Burnet, however, after Fox, states the number burnt at two hundred and eighty-four, besides others who died from long and rigorous imprisonment.^ In a book entitled "The Execu- tions for Treason," written by Lord Burleigh, in queen Elizabeth's time, he says, "Four hundred persons sufl*ered publicly in queen Mary's days, be- sides those who were secretly murdered in prison : of these twenty were bishops and dignified clergy- men ; sixty were women; children, more than forty ; some women big with child ; one bore a child in the fire, and the child was burned." ^ This is probably the nearest approach we can make to the ^ Hist, of Reform., ii. 567. in sundry prisons." From tbis a Ibid., iii. 397. Strype has account (and its general accuracy preserved (Memor., iii. ii. 554) an is unquestionable) the persecution exact catalogue of the number, appears to have continued vrith- places, and state of these execu- out abatement to the close of tions. His calculation differs very Mary's hfe. That it ^vas not little from that of Fox and Bur- commenced earlier is obviously net. It is as follows: attributable to the necessity of the ... nation being first reconciled to 1005 burnt il j^^^g^ -pj.^ Lingard naturally , " p,. endeavours to reduce the number p , of the sufferers, in order to di- from t . o minish our abhorrence of his feep. looo „ 4U p^^.^^,^ ^y.^^^ ^^^^ success, the ^ reader may learn by consulting "Besides those," says the me- his work, vii. 284. inorialist, "that died of famine PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 121 facts of the case, and it exhibits a sufficiently fear- chap. ful and horrifying spectacle. Religious persecu- , tion had not been unknown to our fathers, but the mary. instances of capital punishment for heresy were few, and the interval between them had been great. They had not, however, been sufficiently numerous to impair the humanity of the nation, much less so to pervert its sympathies as to induce any complacency in these horrible exhibitions. The slaughter of Gardiner and Bonner was therefore regarded with indignation and abhorrence. Their names became hateful, and their memory has been loaded with the reproach of many generations. "It was an unusual and an ungrateful thing," says Burnet, "to the English nation, that is apt to com- passionate all in misery, to see four, five, six, seven, and once thirteen, burning in one fire ; and the sparing neither sex nor age, nor blind nor lame, but making havoc of all equally, and, above all, the barbarity of Guernsey, raised that horror in the whole nation, that there seems, ever since that time, such an abhorrence to that religion, to be de- rived down from father to son, that it is no wonder an aversion so deeply rooted, and raised upon such grounds, does, upon every new provocation, or jealousy of returning to it, break out in most vio- lent and convulsive symptoms." While some ap- proach to truth can be obtained, in calculating the numl)ers that were burnt, it is impossible to form any adequate conception of the mass of misery which was involved in the persecutions of this period. A speedy death, though by fire, was mer- ciful and kind, compared with the treatment which some experienced. New methods of torment were 122 THE HISTORY OF devised by a perverted ingenuity, which might in- flict the pain, without bringing the relief, of death. MARY. Bigotry put on its fiercest and most rancorous form, and revelled in scenes of woe which might have touched the hardest heart. It was with con- siderable difficulty that the princess Elizabeth, sister of the queen, escaped from the machinations of her enemies. Though she complied to a considerable extent with the forms of popery, she was strongly suspected by Gardiner of a leaning to the reformed feith, w^hich awakened apprehensions of no pleasing kind in the breast of that sagacious and long- sighted minister. She was arrested on suspicion of being accessary to the insurrection of Wyatt, and was committed to the Tower; but, on the esta- blishment of her innocence, was sent to Wood- stock, under the custody of Sir Henry Benefield, a rigorous and brutal keeper. The counsellors of the queen were divided respecting the best way of disposing of her. One party wished to proceed against her for treason; while another, at whose head apparently was Gardiner, advocated her per- petual confinement in the Tower. Elizabeth lived in the daily expectation of death, and was probably indebted for her life to the 'policy of Philip, rather than to the humanity of the queen, or the justice of her advisers. Troubles at Whilc thcsc cveuts transpired in England, scenes Frankfort. . , ^ ^ \ . . 1554. were actmg on the continent, which, from their in- timate connexion with the subsequent history of our ecclesiastical institutions, demand notice. Im- mense numbers fled to the continent in the early July 14. part of this reign. Some of these settled at Frank- fort, where they obtained from the senate the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 123 use of the French church, on condition of sub- chap. scribing to the French creed. They immediately consulted amongst themselves about their order of ^^^i^y. service. "At length," we are told, ''the English order was perused, and this by general consent was concluded, that the answering aloud after the minister should not be used, the litany, surplice, and many other things also omitted;" and in "the ministration of the sacraments, sundry things were also by common consent omitted, as super- stitious and superfluous." Having thus agreed on the order of their worship, and chosen a temporary minister and deacon, they addressed an aflectionate and pious letter to their brethren in Strasburgh, Zurich, and other places, entreating them to re- move to Frankfort, and partake of their privileges.^ This invitation, however, was declined, unless the exiles at Frankfort engaged to restrict themselves in public worship to the use of king Edward's ser- vice-book; "lest," said the brethren at Strasburgh, Nov.23. "by much altering of the same, we should seem to condemn the chief authors thereof, who, as they now suffer, so are they most ready to confirm that fact with the price of their blood ; and should also both give occasion to oUr adversaries to accuse our doctrine of imperfection, and us of mutability, and the godly to doubt of that truth wherein before they were persuaded, and to hinder their coming hither, which before they had purposed." Several letters ^ "This," says old Fuller, count themselves peaceably pos- ■whose account of this dispute sessed of any happiness until (if (Church Hist., b. viii. 27 — 35) is it be in their power) they have correct and candid, "is the com- also made their fellow-sufferers munion of mints, who never ac- partakers thereof." — 28. 124 THE HISTORY OF ^"^f ^- passed between the Frankfort congregation and their brethren without effect, when it was at length re- MARY. solved by the former to adopt the Geneva service- book, "as an order most godly, and farthest off from superstition." John Knox, who had been chosen their minister, was accordingly requested to introduce it. But he declined to do so till further correspondence had taken place with the brethren at Strasburgh, Zurich, &c.; nor would he adminis- ter the Lord's supper according to the "book of England, for that there were many things in it placed (as he said) only by warrant of man's au- thority, or no ground in God's word for the same, and had also a long time very superstitiously in the mass been wickedl}^ abused. But if he might not be suffered to minister the sacraments according to his conscience, he then requested that some other might minister the sacraments, and he would only preach: if neither could be admitted, he besought Feb. 6, 1555. that hc might be discharged." An order of service was ultimately adopted on trial; "some part taken from the English book, and other things put to, as the state of the church required." This was to continue in use till the end of April, and it was agreed to refer all disputes, which in the mean time might arise, to Calvin, Musculus, Martyr, Bullinger, and Vyret. Great joy prevailed in the church at the harmony thus induced. "Thanks were given to God, brotherly reconciliation fol- lowed, great familiarity used, the former grudges seemed to be forgotten ; yea, the holy communion was upon this happy agreement also ministered." This happy state of things continued till the 13th PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 125 of the following month, when Dr. Cox, and other exiles, who arrived from England, interrupted their - worship by "answering aloud after the minister, contrary to the church's determination. The seniors of the congregation expostulated with them in vain, for on the following Sabbath one of their number, without the knowledge of the brethren, ascended the pulpit, and read the English Litany. John Knox was not the man patiently to endure such proceedings. It was his turn to preach in the afternoon, when he referred, in terms not more severe than just, to the conduct of Dr. Cox and his associates, in disturbing the harmony of a peaceful church. He condemned the English book as con- taining things "superstitious, impure, and imper- fect," and affirmed an unwillingness to reform religion to be one of the "many things which provoked God's anger against England." A con- ference was held on the Tuesday following, when, with a generosity which ought to have conciliated esteem, Knox supported and carried a proposition, to give Cox and his companions a right to vote in their proceedings. The first use which they made of this privilege was the expulsion of Knox, whose talents and energy they dreaded. But this not compassing their end, they resorted to more crimi- nal measures to drive him from the city. Knox had written a book soon after the accession of Ms.ry, entitled, An Admonition to Christians, in the course of which he had severely reflected on the emperor, as the great support of popery. This book was now presented by some of Dr. Cox's party to the magis- trates, as proof of treason. They were subjects of the emperor, and could not therefore omit to notice 126 THE HISTORY OF MARY. such a charge ; but, perceiving its baseness, and en- • tertaining a high respect for Knox, they conveyed an intimation to him, through two of his friends, that he should leave the city; "for otherwise they should be forced to deliver him, if the emperor's council (which then lay at Ausburgh) should, upon like information, send for him." Knox accordingly returned to Geneva, leaving his enemies to rejoice in their ill-gotten triumph.*' The existence of the puritan party may be dated from this dispute. The exiles continued to maintain their respective positions, and on their return to England scattered abroad the elements of that discussion, which was destined to subvert the throne, and lay the hierarchy in ruins. During the reign of Edward, individuals had expressed dissatisfaction with the English service-book and ceremonies ; but from this period a party arose, steadily increasing in num- bers, activity, and decision, who advocated a thorough revision of the offices, and greater sim- Mr. Southey's notice of this cap^ the tippet, and the sur- affairbetraysthesame want ofcan- plice, which they called con- dour and fair dealing, which is so juring garments of popery." — lamentably conspicuous through- Book of the Church, ii. 299. It is out his polemical writings. "^There deeply to be regretted that such a had been/' he says, "a dispute writer should permit his intellect among the emigrants at Frank- to be clouded, and the charities of fort, during Mary's reign ; it had his heart to be repressed, by the been mischievously begun, and prejudices of an intolerant sect, unwarrantably prosecuted, and All our knowledge of these pro- its consequences were lamentably ceedings is derived from " A felt in England ; whither some of Brief Discourse of the Troubles the parties brought back with begun at Frankfort/' &c. ; first them a predilection for the disci- published in 1575. It was writ- pline of the Calvinists, and a ten by one of the puritan party, rooted aversion for whatever but carries with it such an air of Catholic forms were retained in fairness and honesty, as to com- the English church. In this, in- mend itself to impartial men. Its deed, they went beyond Calvin integrity was unimpeached by himself; refusing to tolerate what the contemporaries of its author, he had jjronounced to be ^toler- It is contained in the second able fooleries.' The objects of volume of the Phosnix. their abhorrence were the square PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 127 plicity in the worship, of the church. Though re- chap. pressed by the vigorous policy of Elizabeth, they came forth with renovated strength on the accession mary. of the Stuarts, and extorted from the second of that ill-fated race a recognition of their rights, and an admission of many of their principles. CHAPTER VI. ELIZABETH. Elizabeth proclaimed — Anxiety of religious Parties—Cautious Policy of the Queen — Preaching prohibited — Catholic Bishops refuse to officiate at the Queens Coronation — Meeting of Parliament— Act of Supremacy — Of Uniformity — Convocation — Dispute at Westminster — Catholic Bishops deprived — Parker made Archbishop of Canter- bury— Appointment of New Bishops — Their Aversion from the Habits — Impolicy of their Compliance — Injunctions issued — Articles of Religion set forth by the Bishaps — Apparent Security, but latent Danger, of the Church. CHAP. Elizabeth was proclaimed on the 17th of No- IV vember. 1558. She was residing at the time at ELiz. Hatfield, under the custody of sir Thomas Pope ; Proclaimed, aud, ou beiuo^ informed of the o^reat chang-e in her Nov, 17, 1558. ' o o C!5 affairs, we are told she fell on her knees, exclaiming, "This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes." She was crowned on the 15th of the following January, at Westminster ; on the day pre- vious to which, she passed through the city in great state, ingratiating herself with the people by a cheerful acknowledgment of their kindness, saying, "God bless you, my people." The temper of the citizens was shown, and the future course of the queen indicated, in an occurrence which took place as she passed under a triumphal arch in Cheapside. An old man, representing Time, led a child, grace- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 129 fully apparelled as Truth, who handed to the queen a copy of the English bible. She received it with pleasure, and, having kissed it, laid it on her ^ljz. bosom, declaring it was the best present she had received that day. She found the affairs of the kingdom in a depressed and perplexing condition. The foreign administration of Mary had been as in- glorious as her domestic government was intolerant; and Elizabeth consequently succeeded to an ex- hausted treasury, and an embarrassing war. Her first object was to surround herself with counsellors on whose integrity and wisdom she could rely : and the choice she made was proof of an enlarged intellect, and of consummate prudence. Many of the popish counsellors of her sister were re-appointed; but others, distinguished for their attachment to the Reformation, were added to them. Amongst these, sir William Cecil and sir Nicholas Bacon were the most distinguished for capacity, and occupied the highest place in the confidence of their mistress. Deep solicitude was felt tlirouo;hout the nation ^"'''f'ty of ^ ^ ^ ^ religious par- respecting the course which the queen would adopt t'^^- in religion. The hopes of the protestants decidedly preponderated. Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, the early patron of the Reformation. Her own legitimacy and title to the crown were identified with a denial of the pope's authority; while the wrongs she had endured at the hands of her popish sister were further adapted to cement her union with the reformed party. On the other hand, she was known to have attended mass, and in many things to have conformed to the papal institu- tions of the previous reign. Those who were best acquainted with her disposition and creed could VOL. I. K 130 THE HISTORY OF not but suspect that the freedom of thought on which protestantism is based would meet with ^^^2- little favour at her hands, and that many of its doctrines would be found repugnant to her religious sympathies. Her situation also favoured a medium course, if it should not incline her wholly to adopt the ancient faith. The papacy was in apparent strength through the land. Its adherents were in possession of powder, and had recently given indu- bitable evidence of their readiness to adopt any measures, however violent or sanguinary, by which the interests of their church might be advanced. The pope also, on the ground of her heresy, had declared her illegitimate ; and Mary of Scotland, the hope of the popish party, had preferred her claim to the throne. poikyTf the The queen, therefore, proceeded with great cau- queen, ^[^^ preparing the way for that ecclesiastical revolution which she contemplated. The exiles for religion were permitted to return, and such as were imprisoned on the same account were released; but all innovations in worship were prohibited, and none of the deprived clergy were restored/ Va- d When the news of Mary's able worthily to receive it, and to death and Elizabeth's accession give thanks for the same." The reached the English exiles, it letter from which this extract is naturally filled their hearts with taken constitutes one of the most joy. "We lifted up our hearts pleasing and characteristic exhi- and voices to our heavenly Fa- bitions of a religious spirit on re- ther," said the exiles at Geneva, cord. It was addressed to the "who hath not only, by his due brethren at Frankfort by the providence, nourished us in our church in Geneva, which con- banishment, preserved us, and, as sisted mainly of those who had it were, carried us in his wings, been driven from the former city but also heard our prayers, grant- by the hostihty of their fellow- ed our requests, pitied our coun- exiles, and it was designed to ef- try, and restored his word ; so feet a reconciliation before they that the greatness of this marvel- returned to their native land, lous benefit overcometh our judg- "What," say they, "can the pa- ments and thoughts, how to be pists wish more than that we PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 131 rious measures were suggested for the accomplish- ^^^^ ment of her design, but the presiding spirit of Cecil is apparent in those which were adopted/ The eliz. cautious policy of the queen was far from securing the approval of all her protestant subjects. Igno- rant of the dangers by which her throne was en- compassed, or too short-sighted to trace the proba- ble consequences of violent measures, they re- proached her counsellors with weakness, or sus- pected them of treachery. In many parts of the country, images were removed from the churches; the Romish priests were insulted, and the service- book of Edward was set up. In hope of preventing this excess of zeal, by showing her intention of pro- ceeding with the work of reform, the queen ordered the Gospels and Epistles, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Litany, to be read in English.^ The pulpit now became the scene of religious contention. The ad- vocates of the old and of the new faith availed themselves of the opportunity it afforded to engage the passions of the people on behalf of their respec- sliould dissent one from another, entirely embrace you our dear and, instead of preaching- Jesus brethren ; so, we beseech you in Christ and profitable doctrine, to the Lord, that unfeii^ncdly you contend one against another, will do the like on your part," either for superfluous ceremonies, &c. This letter was signed by or other like trifles ; from the John Knox, Miles Covcrdale, and which God in his mercy hath de- others, and bears date December livered us. Therefore, dear bre- 15, 1558.— Phojnix, ii., 181. thren, we beseech you (as we « Burnet, vol. iv., p. 872, and doubt not your godly judgments Strype, in his Annals, vol. i. App. will think it so best), that what- iv., have preserved a copy of the soever offence hath been hereto- plan drawn up by Cecil, with all fore either taken or given, it may the skill which that wary and so cease and be forgotten, that talented minister could command, hereafter God lay it not to our It is entitled. The Device for Al- ' charges, if thereby his blessed teration of Religion in the First j word should be any thing hin- Year of Queen Elizabeth. / dered. And as we for our parts f Burnet, ii. 585. freely remit all offences, and most K 2 132 THE HISTORY OF tive creeds. Each appealed to topics which they deemed sacred and invincible, and urged them with a confidence and zeal unknown to modern times. Preaching Drcadiug the consequences of such appeals, the Dw.'27Ti558. queen issued a proclamation commanding her sub- jects that "they do forbear to preach or teach, or to give audience to any manner of doctrine or preach- ing, other than to the gospels and epistles, or to use any other manner of public prayer, rite, or cere- mony, in the church, but that which is already used, and by law received until consulta- tion may be had by parliament,"^ &c. In thus silencing all the ministers of the kingdom, the ad- visers of Elizabeth acted on the same principle as their predecessors. No valid objection could be urged by any who had admitted the propriety of similar proclamations under Henry, Edward, or Mary. Each party, however, as in its turn it felt itself aggrieved, condemned this policy as unwar- ranted and pernicious; an assumption of authority exceeding the bounds of human legislation. The catholics, who had applauded the proclamation of Mary, bitterly censured that of her sister ; while the protestants, who had complained of the former as the device of a party, to silence or entrap its op- ponents, acquiesced in the latter as a necessary, if not an enlightened, act of legislation. Such are the inconsistencies to which erroneous principles con- duct men, and which at length become so glaring e Strype's Annals,!., App. iii. to liberty, and walk abroad as for- Amongst the petitions presented merly, in the English tongue. To to the queen at this period, was which EHzabeth replied, that the one on behalf of ^latthew, Mark, petitioner should first endeavour Luke, and John, who were rc- to know the minds of the pri- presented as imprisoned in a Latin soncrs, who perhaps desired no translation, and for whom it was such liberty as was demanded. — sought that they might be restored Heylin's Reform., 103. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 133 and enormous as to engender suspicion, and thus ^y^^' lead to the detection of the latent error. An admis sion of the magistrate's authority to legislate for the church has subjected the latter to all the whims and caprices, to all the secularity and bad passions, by which the human mind can be agitated. The catholic bishops, perceivino; the tendency of cathouc p ^ bishops refuse the queen's measures, and dreadino^ the influence to omdate at . , , the queen's of Cecil and Bacon in her councils, refused, with coronation, the exception of Oglethorp of Carlisle, to officiate at her coronation. Some of them had complied with the ecclesiastical changes of Edward's reign, and could therefore scarcely plead conscience in the present case; but others were probably in- fluenced by an honest, though mistaken, conviction. It has been too common with protestant writers to refuse the credit of upright motives to their catholic opponents; but the more enlightened spirit of the present day requires the same candid construction to be placed upon their actions, as is pleaded for in the case of the early reformers. We may dissent from their creed, and condemn their conduct; but it does not follow that w^e shall be justified in charg- ing them with base or sinister motives. All parties now looked with anxiety to the ap- ^^^^ting of , . ^ ^ parliament. proachmg parliament, which met January 25, ] 559. 1559. Dr. Cox, one of the protestant exiles, preached on the occasion, and sir Nicholas Bacon, the lord keeper, opened the session, in a speech w^hich suf- ficiently indicated the queen's design. "The mat- ters and causes," said he, "whereupon you are to con- sult, are chiefly and principally three. Of those, the first is of w ell making of laws, for the according and uniting of these people of the realm into an uniform 134 THE HISTORY OF ^ vl.^* order of religion, to the honour and glory of God, the establishing of the church, and tranquillity of • the realm." This object he exhorted them to seek with "all humbleness, singleness, and pureness of mind," avoiding, "as a great enemy to good council, all manner of contentions, reasonings, and disputations; and all sophistical, captious, and frivolous arguments and quiddities; meeter for ostentation of wit than consultation of weighty matters, comelier for scholars than counsellors, more beseeming for schools than for parliament houses. And like as in council," he continued, "all con- tention should be eschewed, even so by council pro- vision should be made, that no contentious, con- tumelious, nor opprobrious words, as heretick, schismatick, papist, and such like names, being nurses of such seditious factions and sects, be used ; but may be banished out of men's mouths as the causers, continuers, and increasers of displeasure, hate, and malice ; and as utter enemies to all con- cord and unity, the very marks that you are now come to shoot at." Actofsupre. ^j^g principal statutes of this session were those of supremacy and uniformity. These con- stitute the basis of the reformed church of England, and will be regarded as its disgrace or glory, according to the views of religious liberty which are entertained. The former was entitled. An Act for restoring to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over the state, ecclesiastical and spiritual, and abolishing foreign power. It required all archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical persons, together with judges, justices, and all civil ^ Sir Simond D'Ewes' Journal; pp. 1], 12. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 135 officers, to take the following oath : " I do utterly testify and declare, that the queen's highness is the 1- only supreme governor of this realm, and all other ^liz. her highness's dominions and countries, as well in spiritual and ecclesiastical things or causes, as tem- poral; and that no foreign prince, person, prelate, state, or potentate, hath, or ought to have, any jurisdiction, power, superiority, pre-eminence, or authority, ecclesiastical or spiritual, within this realm; and therefore I do utterly renounce and forsake all foreign jurisdictions, powers, superiorities, and authorities, and do j)romise that, from hence- forth, I shall bear faith and true allegiance to the queen's highness, her heirs, and lawful successors ; and to my power shall assist and defend all juris- dictions, pre-eminences, privileges, and authorities, granted or belonging to the queen's highness, her heirs, and successors, or united and annexed to the imperial crown of this realm."' The penalty for refusing this oath was a loss of all preferment, and a permanent disqualification for filling any ecclesi- astical or civil office. To maintain the supremacy of any foreign power, by writing, preaching, &c., was rendered highly penal, being visited, in the first » An exposition of this oath was memory, king Henry the Eic^hth, supplied in the injunctions to the and king Edward the Sixth, which ecclesiastical visitors of 1559, is, and was of ancient time, due whence it appears that the catho- to the imperial crown of this lies had alleged, from the words of realm ; that is, under God, to this oath/' that the kings or queens have the sovereignty and rule over of this realm, possessors of the all manner of persons born withhi crown, may challenge authority these her realms, dominions, and and power of ministry of divine countries, of what estate, either service in the church." For the ecclesiastical or temporal, soever disproof of this allegation it is they be, so as no other foreign stated, " Her majesty neither power shall, or ought to have, doth, nor ever will, challenge any any superiority over them." — other authority than that was Somer's Tracts, i. 73. Strype's challenged and lately used by Annals, i. i. 236. Hallam, i. 152. the said noble kings, of famous THE HISTORY OF place, with loss of preferment; in the second, with the forfeitures of a premunire; and in the third place, with the punishment of treason. So severe was the policy by which it was attempted to re- establish the reformed faith. Grafting on a few scriptural principles some of the worst dogmas of popery, the founders of the English church trod in the steps of their opponents, at the very time they were proscribing their creed and imprisoning their persons. It was further provided, in this statute, that the queen and her successors should be em- powered to appoint ecclesiastical commissioners, *'to exercise, under her and them, all manner of jurisdiction within the realms of England and Ire- land, &:c.; to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatsoever. Provided, that they have no power to determine any thing to be heresy, but what has been adjudged to be so by the authority of the canonical scriptures, or by the first four general councils, or any of them ; or by any other general council, wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of canonical scripture ; or such as shall hereafter be declared to be heresy by the high court of par- liament, with the assent of the clergy in convoca- tion." J From this clause originated the court of high commission, which speedily became so fearful an instrument of clerical intolerance and civil tyranny. The comjnissioners appointed under this j Burnet, ii. 697. Strj'pe's which had been repealed by Annals, i. i. 100. The Act of Mary.— Ibid., 103. Collier, ii. Biipreniacy revived many of the 421. laws of Henry and Edward, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 137 Act generally neglected its restrictive clauses, and ^ greatly exceeded their delegated power. For a time their severity appeared to be successful; but the feelings of the nation were so outraged by their atrocities, that the abolition of this court was soon universally demanded. The Act for the uniformity of Common Prayer «^ t/ i/ c/ o formity. and service in the church, and administration of the '^^^ sacraments^ re-established, with slight alterations, king Edward's book, which Mary had abolished. These alterations were designed to conciliate the catholics, and consisted principally in the omission of a prayer for delivery from the " tyranny of the bishop of Rome, and all his detestable enormities," and in leaving the language of the church respect- ing the corporal presence more general and inde- terminate.^ The clerical vestments also were re- stored to the state in which they were left by the first liturgy of Edward, and a clause was introduced empowering the queen " to ordain and publish such further ceremonies and rites as may be for the advancement of God's glory and edifying his church, and the reverence of Christ's holy mysteries and sacraments." Elizabeth valued her ecclesiastical supremacy above all the other attributes of her crown, and was most jealous of any parliamentary interference with it. She possessed the spirit of popery under a protestant guise, and brought back the Reformation to a less perfect state than that in which it had been left by her brother Edward. It ' Burnet, ii. 606. Strype's amongst tlie papists, that for ten Annals, i. i. 104_, 122. "By years they generally repaired to ■which compliances/' says Heylin, their parish churches without and the expunging of the pas- doubt or scruple." — Hist, of Re- sages before remembered, the form., p. 111. Burnet, ii. 618. book was made so passable THE HISTORY OF is accurately remarked by Burnet, that " as her first impressions in her father's reign were in favour of such old rites as he had still retained ; so in her own nature she loved state, and some magnificence in religion, as well as in every thing else ; she thought that in her brother's reign they had stripped it too much of external ornaments, and had made their doctrine too narrow in some points ; therefore she intended to have some things explained in more general terms, that so all parties might be compre- hended by them." The Act of Uniformity, like its kindred statutes, was fenced round with penalties. He who ventured to address his Maker in other language than that of the book of Common Prayer, was liable to the loss of goods and chattels for the first offence, to twelve months' imprisonment for the second, and to confinement during life for the third. How strange it is that men bearing the Christian name should be so impious as to prescribe to the Deity the only form of supplication he shall receive ! This is one of those species of infatuation, the folly of which would amuse, if its impiety did not prohibit the indulgence of levity. The statute in question afiected both protestants and catholics, and was peculiarly offensive to such of the former as had imbibed an attachment to a simpler ritual, and a purer form of polity, than was esta- blished in England. It prohibited the slightest deviation from the prescribed order of public wor- ™ Reform., ii. 582. We shall form than comported with her subsequently have occasion to half popish creed. Had they animadvert on this temper of the possessed the spirit of John Knox, queen, and its infelicitous influ- they would probably have carried cnce on the English Reformation. their views; but they trembled at Many of her bishops were well the thrcatening'S of their mistress, disposed to a more thorough re- and acquiesced in her pleasure. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. ship, and obviously assumed a principle which would go far to discredit and condemn the Reforma- tion itself. If Elizabeth, by virtue of her office as queen, possessed the right of determining the form of public worship, that right belonged equally to her sister Mary, and the fathers of the English church were consequently wrong in refusing her obedience. But if it be alleged that the right of the former so to legislate was founded on the cor- rectness of her creed, by whom, it may be asked, was this correctness to be determined ? By Eliza- beth herself, or by her subjects? If the foraier, why is not the same admission to be made in the case of Mary? and if the latter, where is the justice of visiting with punishment such as deemed her creed unscriptural, and her laws pernicious? Amongst the innumerable follies to which men have been ad- dicted, none is more egregious or absurd than is ex- hibited in the end which this statute contemplated. Were it attainable, it would be unworthy of pursuit, for it is wholly apart from religion; and if com- passed, it might exist with the greatest security where the spirit of religion is not found. To whatever extent it has been accomplished by human legisla- tion, it has involved the corruption of Christianity, and a most unnatural and pernicious imprisonment of the human mind. What conceivable benefit would flow from the same mode of worship being enforced in every Christian assembly throughout England ? But the folly of the attempt to secure uniformity of religious worship is apparent in its hopelessness. It has not, it will not, it cannot succeed. So long as religious principle endures, or the human mind retains the power of thought and 140 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. VI. ELIZ. the faculty of research, all enactments of this kind must be futile. They constitute an unnatural coercion of man's intellect; and if they appear to succeed for a season, their ultimate defeat is thereby rendered more signal. Uniformity in the modes of religion has usually been sought at the expense of its living spirit. They have been mistaken for religion itself ; and the energy and zeal which ought to have been expended on the conversion of an apostate world have consequently been employed in the establishment of rites with which relio-ion has but little if any connexion. There is not an established sect in Christendom which does not fur- nish confirmation of these remarks ; and we shall frequently have occasion to observe the evidence of their truth which the history of our own hierarchy supplies. " The artificial religion of creeds and rituals withers and dies in the hands of the most artful priests and the most absolute and prosperous monarchs; while the artless practice of piety and virtue lives with the poor through successive genera- tions. Penal statutes to suppress it, resemble penal statutes to cleanse the world of violets ; fashion may banish them from the burgomaster's garden ; but the heavens will unite to nourish them under the shade of a nettle, or at the foot of an oak."° Conrocation. jj^ couvocatiou which held its meetings during the sitting of parliament, the popish party so far prevailed as to agree on the following particulars, which they determined to present to the queen. I. That in the sacrament of the altar, by virtue of the words of Christ, duly spoken by the priest, is present, realiter, under the kinds of bread and ■ Robinson's Eccl. Researches, p. 186. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. wine, the natural body of Christ, conceived of the Virgin Mary, and also his natural blood. II. That after the consecration there remains not the substance of bread and wine, nor any other sub- stance but the substance of God and man. III. That in the mass is offered the true body of Christ, and his true blood, a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and dead. IV. That to Peter the apostle, and his lawful suc- cessors in the apostolic see, as Christ's vicars, is given the supreme power of feeding and ruling the church of Christ militant, and confirming their brethren. V. That the authority of handling and defining concerning the things belonging to faith, sacra- ments, and discipline ecclesiastical, hath hitherto ever belonged, and ought to belong, only to the pastors of the church, whom the Holy Ghost for this purpose hath set in the church, and not to laymen.° These were sent to the two universities, and, with the exception of the last, obtained the signatures of a majority of their members. Prudence, and not principle, probably induced this exception, as the design of the queen to effect extensive alterations was now apparent, and her disposition to resent any impeachment of her ecclesiastical supremacy gener- ally suspected. She was known to possess too much of the spirit of her father patiently to endure any interference with her spiritual authority. This address of the convocation places the religious opinions of the clergy at the commencement of this reign beyond dispute : it shows that they were Strype s Annals, i. i. 81. Fuller, ix. 55. 142 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. VI. ster. tlioroughly popish; and thus establishes, beyond dispute, the absence of moral principle in the sub- ELiz. sequent compliance of the clerical body with the religious changes of Elizabeth's reign. ^weSiZ- This explicit avowal of papal doctrines by the convocation probably hastened the determination of the queen's advisers to act over again the farce which had been acted under Edward and Mary. A public disputation between eight protestant and the same number of popish divines was appointed to take place at Westminster. It was arranged that the discussion should be carried on in witing, and the following questions were selected for debate. 1. Whether it was not contrary to the word of God, and the practice of the primitive church, to conduct public worship in an unknown tongue? 2. Whether every church had not authority to alter rites and ceremonies, so that it be done to edification? 3. Whether it could be proved from God's word that the mass was a propitiatory sacrifice for the living and the dead ? The protestant disputants were cheered by the spectators, to the great annoyance of their opponents, who, on the second day of meeting, refused to conform to the regulations prescribed, and the conference was therefore terminated.^ The p Burnet, ii. 600. Stiype, i. i. hundred and thirty-three pounds, 128. Collier, ii. 414. Burnet six shillings, and eight pence ; the makes the number of disputants bishop of Carlisle, two hundred on each side to be nine ; but in and fifty pounds ; the bishop of this he is corrected by Strype. Chester, two hundred marks ; Dr. The bishops of Wilton and Lin- Cole, five hundred marks ; Dr. coin were committed to the Harpsfield, forty pounds ; and Dr. Tower, and the other popish dis- Chedsey, forty marks. — Strype, putants, after being made to wait 140. \\Tiat can Mr. Southey daily on the queen's council, understand by liberty of speech from the 5th of April till the and perfect safety, when, referring 12th of May, were fined in the to this discussion, he tells us, "A following sums : the bishop of pubHc disputation was appointed, Litchfield and Coventry, three not as m Mary's reign^ to be con- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 143 • • CHAP one party claimed a triumph, and the other com- vi. plained of a prejudgment of their case. Such is the general result of these farcical exhibitions, got up by state patrons of religion to serve their purpose. The act of supremacy was directed against the g^^^jj^p^^^. catholics, whose religious principles it violated by p""'^^;^^,.^ requiring a renunciation of the spiritual as well as the temporal authority of the pope."^ Many of them refused to take the oath which it prescribed, and were in consequence deprived of their preferments. Amongst these were all the bishops, with one excep- tion. " They resolved among themselves," we are told by one who lived in those days, " not to comply to take the oath of supremacy to the queen, nor to renounce all foreign jurisdiction ; going upon this policy, that the queen could not displace them, there being none else to supply the rooms and places in the church, whether dioceses or parishes."' In eluded by burnino^ those who difFered in opinion from the ruling- party, but with full liberty of speech and perfect safety for the Romish disputants?" — Book of the Church, ii. 259. 1 The operation of this act was subsequently extended so that it might embrace a variety of cases not contemplated by its framers. "This," remarks Mr. Hallara, " was ,according to the invariable practice of Tudor times ; an oppressive and sanguinary statute was first made, and next, as occa- sion might serve, a construction was put on it contrary to all common sense, in order to take away men's lives." — Constit. Hist., i. 290. In 1583, Elias Fawker and John Coppinge, two Brownists, were executed at Bury, for circulating tracts impugning the ecclesiastical supremacy of the queen. — Strype's Annals, iii. i. 209. ' Ibid., i. i. 155. The number of clergy who lost their prefer- ments by refusing this oath was much smaller than might have been expected. Strype gives the following list. Ibid., 106. Bishops - ------14 Deans - -- -- --13 Archdeacons - _ _ _ - 14 Heads of colleges - - - - 15 Prebendaries ----- 50 Rectors of churches ~ - - 80 Abbots, Priors, and Abbesses 6 In all 192 Burnet makes the number of deans 12, and of archdeacons the same. In the other items of this list he agrees with Strype.— Bur- 144 THE HISTORY OF ^^^^P- this expectation they were bitterly disappointed, for the good providence of God supplied a race of ELiz. dignitaries as eminent for talent, learning, and diligence, as any of whom the English church has ever had to boast. The compliance of the new bishops with the popish inclinations of the queen may be censured, and their want of charity, and almost brutal harshness, to their puritan brethren, cannot be too severely condemned ; but we must not suffer their imperfections to render us insensible to their virtues ; nor withhold their merited tribute of praise on account of the censure we are compelled to pass on some parts of their policy. Parker made J)y^ Matthcw Parkcr was appointed to the see of Archbishop of ^ ^ Canterbury. Cautcrbury, whlch honour he appears to have accepted with reluctance. He had been chaplain to Anne Boleyn; and was very strongly recom- mended b}^ sir Nicholas Bacon to fill the highest station in the church. The queen could scarcely have selected an agent more compliant with her wishes, or more zealous in enforcing the most trifling and obnoxious portions of the prescribed ritual. The situation of Parker, it must be admitted, was net's Reform., ii. 020. Collier conscience by an unprincipled makes the whole number to be subscription! It was remarked, about 250. — Eccles. Hist. ii. 431. with equal truth and wisdom, by The compliance of the catholic bishop Shipley, in the debate on cler2:y on this occasion shows tlie the dissenters' relief bill, in 1779, futilit}- of tests, however cautiously "I am not afraid of those tender worded, as a means of securing and scrupulous consciences, who uniformity of doctrine. They are over cautious of professing may drive the conscientious from and believing too much ; if they the service of the sanctuary, but are sincerely in the wrong, I for- will never eject the formalist and give their errors, and respect their In-pocrite. How much more noble integrity. The men I am afraid and Christian-like was the con- of are the men who believe every duct of the nonconformists under thing, who subscribe every thing, Charles the Second ; two thou- and who vote for every thing." — sand of whom resigned their Pari. Hist, livinjrs rather than burden their PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 145 one of extreme difficulty and embarrassment. He ^^^^j^- lived in an age when the conduct of men outstript their theory; when the stirring influence of religious revolutions was felt, without the judgment being sufficiently enlightened to recognize the right of man to mould his worship of the Deity according to the dictates of his conscience. It was the period of attempted force and tyranny in religion ; more difficult in its management than the darkest times of popery, and less peaceful than the more liberal days in which we live. There was enough of moral principle in operation to vindicate, at any risk, tlie doctrines of the Christian faith. Martyrs came forth from every rank, inspired with apostolic zeal, to bear witness at the stake to the truth of God. And yet so ignorant were the men of that day of the character of the movement that was taking- place, — its etherial nature and divine impulse, — that they attempted to bind it with human laws, and to fashion it at their pleasure by the gross in- struments of worldly policy. Parker, like most of his brethren, had seceded from Rome without being- aware of the principles which his conduct involved. He therefore attempted to establish the supremacy of his church, though he denied that of the pope ; and could manifest the harshness, if not the ferocit}^ of an inquisitor, while professing the spirit of a meek and lowly Saviour. But his character will sufficiently appear in the course of this history. Several of the exiles who had returned to Enishops. He adds, I confess we suffer many things against our hearts, groaning under them ; we can not take them away, though we were ever so much eliz. set on it."^ So general, indeed, was the opposition of the first bishops of Elizabeth, that Grindal, in a letter dated August 27, 1566, says, "All the bishops who had been beyond the sea had, at their return, dealt with tlie queen to let the matter of the habits fall ; but she was so possessed, that, though they had all endeavoured to divert her from prosecuting that matter, she continued still inflexible. This had made them submit to the laws, and to wait for a fit opportunity to reverse them."''' Even Parker is represented as having no partiality to the cap and surplice, and wafer-hread, and such like injunctions. " It would have pleased him well enough," says the too favourable Strype, " if some toleration had been given in these matters, as he often declared."'' It is a strong: presumption ae^ainst the propriety »mpo»icy of ^ \ . ^ ^ *^ the Bishops' of the course which these bishops pursued, that the compliance, ceremonies to which they submitted with reluctance have ever since been regarded by their disciples as parts of a perfect system, which it were pro- fanity to touch with a reforming hand. The rites which Grindal and his brethren admitted as objec- tionable, on the ground of necessity simply, and with the hope of their speedy removal, have since been magnified as of apostolic origin, and of almost magic virtue. The sanction which they gave tliem by their practice has been remembered, while their protests have been forgotten or neglected. What the early Reformers mourned over, their followers have gloried in. What the former esteemed the blemish of ^'Burnet, iii. 475. Pierce's Vindication, 44. Parker, i. 452. 150 THE HISTORY OF their church, the latter have defended as its beauty. Nor is there anything surprising in this. It is the ELiz. i^eg^it of a law whose operation may be traced in all similar cases, and it therefore enforces the obliga- tion under which religious innovators are placed to hand down to their disciples a system as perfect as human intelligence and fidelity can make it. There is but little hope of the correction of an imperfect system when once it is established. Men's views and sympathies become moulded by it, till they regard all its parts as necessary to its completeness, and regard with pious horror the boldness which would remove the least of them. Nor can that moral excitement, which is requisite for the carry- ing on of religious Reformation, be long main- tained. It is not in the nature of the human mind to permit its faculties to be perpetually on the stretch : it soon experiences exhaustion, and calls for repose ; when it readily acquiesces in an imper- fect system, rather than undergo the fatigue and risk of renewed labour. Injunctions Au ccclcsiastical visitation being; now contem- issued. ^ . . 1559. plated, the queen issued fifty-three mjunctions. They were substantially those of king Edward, and were designed to promote the Reformation, without driving the papists from the communion of the church. Some new ones were added sufficiently indicative of the queen's aversion from the mar- riages of the clergy, and her inclination in other points to sympathize with the faith of her popish subjects. No priest or deacon was to marry with- out a license from his diocesan and two justices of the peace. Two or three discreet persons were to be appointed in every parish, to see that all the parishioners went to church on Sundays and holy- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 151 days. No books were to be printed without a ^y^^* license from the queen, the archbishop, the bishop of London, the chancellor of the universities, or the bishop or archdeacon of the place where it was printed. All were to kneel at the prayers, and to bow at the name of Jesus. The sacramental bread was to be round and plain, somewhat broader and thicker than those prepared for the mass. In the preface we are told, "That her majesty, by the ad- vice of her honourable council, intending the ad- vancement of the true honour of Almighty God, the suppression of superstition throughout all her highness's realms and dominions, and to plant true religion, to the extirpation of all heresy, enormities, and abuses, as to her duty appertained, did minister to her loving subjects these godly injunctions." Penalties were attached to disobedience, according to the discretion of commissioners appointed by her majesty. ^ These officers were to visit all the y Strype, i. i. 235. Burnet, ii. (which God deliver us from,) 614. The bishops had consider- to consent to the erecting or re- able difficulty in dissuading the taining the same in the place of queen from retaining the use of worshipping ; and we trust, and images, which she thought a most earnestly ask it of God, that means of awakening devotion in they may also persuade your the people. They drew up a majesty, by j^our regal authority, paper, stating, in very respectful and in the zeal of God, utterl}^ to but decided terms, their objec- remove this offensive evil out of tions to the use of images in the the church of England, to God's churches, in which thej' say : great glory, and our great com- " We do most humbly exhibit to fort We beseech your your gracious consideration, those highness, most humbly, not to authorities of the scriptures, rea- strain us any further, but to sons, and pithy persuasions, which, consider that God's word doth as they have moved all such our threaten a terrible judgment unto brethren as now bear the office us, if we, being pastors and mi- of bishops to think and affirm nisters in his church, should as- images not expedient for the sent unto the thing which in our church of Christ ; so will they learning and conscience we are not suffer us, without the great persuaded doth tend to the con- offending of God, and grievous firmation of error, superstition, wounding of our own consciences, and idolatry, and finally to the THE HISTORY OF churches of the kingdom, and the nature of their duties may be learnt from the preamble of the com- mission for the archbishopric of York, which sets forth, "that God having set the queen over the nation, she could not render an account of that trust, without endeavouring to propagate the true religion, with the right way of worshipping God in all her dominions ; therefore she, intending to have a general visitation of her whole kingdom, em- powered them, or any two of them, to examine the true state of all the churches in the northern parts; to suspend or deprive such clergymen as were un- worthy, and to put others into their places ; to pro- ceed against such as were obstinate, by imprison- ment, church censure, or any other legal way. They were to reserve pensions for such as w^ould not con- tinue in their benefices, but quitted them by resig- nation ; and to examine the condition of all that were imprisoned on the account of religion, and to discharge them ; and to restore all such to their benefices as had been unlawfully turned out in the late times." ^ These were extensive powers to be committed to any set of men, and could not fail to engender many evils. Burnet tells us, "that which was chiefly condemned in these commissions was, the queen's giving the visitors authority to proceed by ecclesiastical censures, which seemed a great stretch of her supremacy ; but it was thought, that the queen might do that, as well as the lay-chan- ruin of the souls committed to to this relic of papal superstition our charge, for the which we must is frequently referred to in the give an account to the Prince of correspondence of her bisliops pastors at the last day." — Burnet, with tlie continental protestants. iv. .380. Records, vi. ^ Burnet, ii. 619. The attachment of the queen PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 153 cellors did it in the ecclesiastical courts ; so that ^^^^p- one abuse was the excuse for another." _1_ A considerable advance had now been made eliz. towards completing the Reformation which Eliza- ^^^j^,^^ beth and her advisers projected. The supremacy f^'JI^^^ of the church was transferred from the pope to the ^'''^^p' queen, the public offices of worship were revised, and translated into the English tongue, the bishop- rics were filled with learned and zealous men, and the royal injunctions were sent through the land. The doctrines of the church had not yet been set forth. Any articles embodying them, must, of necessity, be approved by the convocation; and it was, probably, felt not to be safe, as yet, to trust to the compliance of that body. In the mean time, the bishops set forth A declaration of certain princi- pal articles of religion^ which the clergy in entering on their livings were required to read publicly, with the following protestation : "These things above rehearsed, though they be appointed by common order, yet do I, without all compulsion, with freedom of mind and conscience, from the bottom of my heart, and upon most sure persuasion, acknowledge to be true and agreeable to God's word."" The restorers of the reformed church of England ^^^^^^^^ now probably rejoiced in the success of their labours, and looked forward to a season of tran- quillity and enjoyment. They had surmounted the difficulties which encompassed them at the queen's accession. The strength of the papal party was broken ; and all the offices of emolument, honour, and influence were in the hands of the protestants. * Burnet, iv. f393. Records, xi. tent danger, of the church. THE HISTORY OF The dangers anticipated from the violence and bigotry of the catholics had been avoided by the sagacity of the queen's ministers; and no other enemy appeared to disturb the peace, much less to endanger the safety, of the infant church. But in the midst of these appearances of serenity, there were some circumstances to induce the apprehen- sion of coming evil. A sagacious by-stander, ac- quainted with the character of religious revolutions, and the force of moral conviction, could scarcely have failed to anticipate events similar to those which shortly occurred. The new church failed to realize the hopes of the most zealous and uncom- promising reformers. Having worked out their own deliverance from the trammels of superstition, they regretted to see so many vestiges of it retained in the services of the church. This they regarded as an act of temporizing policy, unworthy of the character of Reformers, and injurious to the in- terests of truth. They had been foremost in their opposition to popery; and the same zeal still ani- mated their hearts, and was ready to lead them to fresh combats. The presence of the common foe restrained their ardor for a time. Their complaints were consequently uttered in whispers ; but when once the fear of popery was removed, they spoke with a voice which betokened determination, and which it would have been wise in their rulers to have respected. But the queen inherited too much of her father's temper to modify her institu- tions in conformity with the wishes or principles of refractory subjects; and her divines were too servile to hazard her displeasure by enforcing the course which their own judgments approved, and which PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 155 duty rendered incumbent. The church was thus deprived of the services of many w^hose learning, piety, and diligence would have done her honour, ^^iz. They objected to her terms of conformity, and pre- ferred submitting to penury and reproach, rather than incur the burden of an accusing conscience. Nor was the church in a condition to lose their aid without injury. It was greatly deficient in able and pious ministers. The clergy were for the most part grossly ignorant, of secular dispositions, and secretly favourable to popery. To so great an extent was the want of adequate instructors felt, that Strype tells us, "the bishops were fain to take many laymen that had little more learning than ability of reading well, and of good lives and con- versations ; and to ordain them only to read the service and the homilies to the people in the church, till others could be procured." ^ »» Annals, i. i. 234. Strype's volumes abound with proofs of the destitute condition of many of the churches, through the pau- city of able ministers. Fuller supplies an amusing illustration of this fact. After speaking of the bishops, he says, "As for the inferior clergy under them, the best that could be gotten were placed in pastoral charges. Alas ! tolerability was eminency in that age. A rush candle seemed a torch where no brighter light was ever seen before. Surely preach- ing now ran very low, if it be true what I read, that Mr. Tavernour, of Water-Eaton, in Oxfordshire, high sheriffe of the county, came in pure charity, not ostentation, and gave the scholars a sermon in St. Maries, with his gold chain about his neck, and his sword by his side, beginning with these words : Arriving at the Mount of St. Maries, in the stony stage where I now stand, I have brought you some fine biskets, baked in the oven of charity, and carefully conserved for the chickens of the church, the sparrows of the Spirit, and the sweet swallows of salva- tion."— Church Hist., ix. 65. CHAPTER VII. Convocation of 1562-3 — Prevalence of Puritanism — Second Parlia- ment— Act for the Assurance of the Queen s Power. — Determination to enforce the Habits — Queen's Letter to Parker to enforce Unifor- mity— Pilkington to the Earl of Leicester on behalf of the Puritans — Whittinghani to the same — Book of Advertisements — Parker s rigor- ous Enforcement of Conformity — London Ministers before theCom- missioners at Lambeth — Sampson and Humphrey — Humphrey's Let- ter to the Queen — To Cecil — He conforms — Fox refuses to subscribe — Opposition to the Habits at Cambridge — Letter of the Scotch Churck on behalf of the Puritans — Licenses called in — The Ejected Minis- ters publish in their own Defence — Press restrained. CHAP. In January, 1562-3, the Convocation met, which VII. C'e," says Collier, ''they found the innovators a consider- able number; but, notwithstand- ing- the struggle, the protesting party carried it. And thus the ceremonies and religious decora- tions continued in their former condition. However, 'tis plain by the contest, the Frankfort and Geneva precisians had no small interest. Many of the Ehglish exiles were willing to reform away the ornaments and so- lemnity of divine worship ; and thought Calvin's platform a much better regulation than that of the primitive church. But God be thanked, the majority of our re- formers had a different sense of these matters ; and had more learning and judgment, more steadiness and resolution, than to be overruled vrith noise and no- velty."—Eccl. Hist., ii. 48G. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 161 James Mackintosh, "who were somewhat inferior in numbers, appear to have been of more weight, if considered either as men of learning, or as number- ing among them nearly all the voluntaiy exiles for religion." ' Nor can it reasonably be doubted that attachment to popery influenced some of the votes given on this occasion. It is notorious that the great body of the clergy were secretly inclined at this period to the ancient faith. Out of nine thousand four hundred of Mary's clergy, only about two hundred and fifty, on the most liberal calcula- tion, refused to swear to the supremacy of Eliza- beth. The remainder, though destitute of moral honesty, cannot be suspected of attachment to pro- testantism, and their sentiments and feelings could not fail to secure some representatives in the convo- cation. To whatever extent this might be the case, opposition would be manifested to further reform, not from an attachment to what had already been effected, but from the dread of further departure from the forms and spirit of popery. Now, tlie propositions rejected by the convocation, were for a further separation from the Romish church, and could not therefore but be opposed by all who had a secret leaning towards it. The fact that so large a proportion of the first Reformers, and those con- fessedly amongst the most learned, zealous, and devout of their day, were attached to the peculiari- ties of the puritans, should shame the intemperate and ignorant partizans, who refer to them in anger and contempt. In libelling the puritans, they > Hist, of Eng.^ iii. 132. Stn-pe, on this occasion ; by a comparison Annals, i. i. o04, has preserved a of which the truth of these obser- list of the majority and minority vations may be ascertained. VOL. I. M 162 THE HISTORY OF c^AP. asperse the men who exerted themselves most diK- gently in laying the foundation of their church, and ELiz. -vvere ever foremost to endure the loss of liberty and life on behalf of a common protestantism. The most eminent churchmen of the day were favourable to the alterations proposed by the puritans, and were only prevented from seeking their introduc- tion into the offices of the church by the opposition and threats of the queen. Had it not been for her influence, puritanism would have triumphed in the church, and a purer Reformation than was con- sonant with her views have been in consequence effected. "This arbitrar}^ monarch had a leaning towards Rome in almost every thing but the doc- trine of papal supremacy. To the real presence she was understood to have no objection, the celi- bacy of the clergy she decidedly approved, the gorgeous rites of the ancient form of worship she admired, and in her own chapel retained." ^ r/puril!^^- '^^^^ puritan party at this period was far more numerous than is generally supposed. It has been customary with a certain class of writers to represent them as few in number, mean in rank, morose in temper, and contracted in their views. But the very reverse of this was the case. We have already seen that Elizabeth's first bishops approved of the puritan objections, though they did not feel justified in exposing the nation to the return of popery by refusing, on this account, to conform to the pre- scribed ceremonies. A very large proportion of the clergy was shown by the division in the convocation to entertain the same views. They prevailed throughout the kingdom, especially amongst the j Quarterly Review, June, 1827, p. 31. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 163 most zealous and devout both of the clergy and ^y^^' of the laity. Many members of Cambridge university, were deeply imbued with puritanism, ^liz. and the parliament was no less affected with it. Even the queen's council contained persons whose leaning was decisively in this direction, so that nothing but Elizabeth's inflexible purpose, based on her half popish creed, prevented its be- coming the religion of the land. " I conceive," says one of the most accurate and impartial of historians, " the church of England party, that is, the party adverse to any species of ecclesiastical change, to have been the least numerous of the three (catholic, church of England, puritan) during this reign ; still excepting, as I have said, the neutrals, who commonly make a numerical majority, and are counted along with the dominant religion. — The puritans, or at least those who rather favoured them, had a majority among the protestant gentry in the queen's days. It is agreed on all hands, and is quite manifest, that they predominated in the house of commons. But that house was composed, as it has ever been, of the principal landed proprietors, and as much represented the general wish of the community when it demanded a further reform in religious matters, as on any other subjects. One would imagine, by the manner in which some express themselves, that the discontented were a small faction, who by some unaccountable means, in despite of the government and the nation, formed a majority of all parliaments under Elizabeth and her two successors.'"" ^ Hallam's Const. Hist., i. 25". bishop Maddox in his aniniad- Such is the representation of versions on Neal, p. 87, &c. M 2 164 THE HISTORY OF ^vn^* '^^^^ second parliament of this reign began the" 12th of January, 1563, and the lord keeper, in his ELiz. opening speech, gave clear intimations of the p^ihiment. scverc and rigorous measures which were speedily adopted against such as scrupled the habits or ceremonies. After adverting to the deficiency of good preachers, he proceeded to remark that two enormities had sprung up from the slothfulness of ministers and the want of good discipline. " The K^per's fii"st is, that for lack thereof, every man liveth as he .peech. ^ijj^ without fear ; and secondly, many ceremonies agreed upon, but the right ornaments thereof are either left undone or forgotten. As in one point, for want of discipline it is that so few come to ser- vice, and the church so unreplenished, notwith- standing that at the last parliament a law was made for good order to be observed in the same ; but yet, as appeareth, not executed. Therefore, if it be too easy, let it be made sharper; and if already well, then see it executed. For the want of discipline causeth obstinacy, contempt, and growing of heresy ; therefore better to be winked at and unspoken, than bruted abroad and unperformed ; therefore, in mine opinion, the device is good, that in every diocese there be officers appointed and devised, as hath been thought good, to sit for redress of these and such like errors, twice or thrice a year, till the faults be amended." ^ Act for the Additional security against the catholic party was Assurance of . ^ /. 7 the Queen's sought lu sii act, FoT tkc assuTonce of the queens majesty's royal power over all states and subjects with- in her dominions. By this act all persons accepting preferment in the inns of court, the universities, or ' Dr. Ewes' Journal, 60. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 165 ELIZ. the church, and all members of parliament, were ^y^j^- bound to take the oath of supremacy enjoined by the queen's first parliament. The penalties of the statute of premunire were to be inflicted for the first refusal, and those of high treason for the second. It is probable this statute was never in- tended to be executed according to its letter, but to operate by way of terror. The queen's ministers wished to keep the papal party quiet, and they sought to efl'ect their purpose by means of rigor, according to the policy of their day. This bill met with little opposition in either house. Two speeches made against it are preserved, which are interesting as showing that even the catholics of that day could plead for liberty of conscience when their opponents were in power.'" The bishops were required to " I do entreat/' said lord Montag-ue in the upper liousc, *' whether it be just to make this penal statute to force the subjects of this reahn to receive and be- lieve the religion of the protes- tants upon pahi of death. This, I say, is a thing more unjust ; for that it is repugnant to the law of nature and all civil laws ; the reason is, for that naturally no man can or ought to be con- strained to take for certain that that he holdeth to be uncertain ; for this repugneth to the natural liberty of man's understanding, for understanding may be per- suaded, but not forced." Mr. Atkinson, a member of tlie lower house, contrasted the tolerant doctrines formerly advocated by the protestants with their present conduct. " Thus much have I heard the preachers say, that are now, that tliough in the old law idolatry was punished with death; yet since the coming of Christ (who came to win the world by peace, and bade, Put tip thy a word) the greatest punishment that hath been taught by the apostles in case of religion hath been by excommunication. For religion, say they, must sink in by persuasion, it cannot be pressed in by violence. And therefore they called the act of the six articles, that was made the thirty-first of king Henry the Eighth, the whip with the six lashes. And as for the dealings in queen Mary's days, they nuicli misliked them ; calling the bishops bloodsuckers, and bade ' fie on those tormentors, th.'it delighted in nothing else but in the death of innocents ; that threatened the whole realm with their fire and fagots ; murderers ; that they were worse than Caiaphas, worse than Judas, worse than the trai- tors that put Christ to death.' And that with such vehemency and stomach, as I assure you I marvel how it can possibly come to pass, that they should now desire to establish that as a law, which they thought then so un- lawful."— Strype's Annals, i. i. 443—450. Collier, ii. 481. 166 THE HISTORY OF ^vii^* administer the oath prescribed in this statute, and were therefore in danger of incurring the odium ELiz. ^vhich would accompany the execution of its penalty. To prevent this, the archbishop sent private letters to his brethren, entreating them to proceed with prudence in executing the act, and not to tender the oath a second time, till he was informed of the first refusal, and of the circumstances under which it took place. Whether his moderation in this case was influenced by principle or mere policy, whether he disapproved of the punishment or only dreaded the consequences of its infliction, will be decided according to the views which are entertained of his general policy. It is not improbable that this course was suggested by some of the queen's council, who dreaded the intemperate zeal with which the digni- taries of the church might otherwise have pushed the execution of this statute."" Detennina- -(-j^g follow^ino; vcaT it was determined more tion to en- <~> force the rifforouslv to enforce the habits and ceremonies of Habits, &c. 55 J the church. The queen's government was now relieved from that excessive dread of the popish party which had hitherto induced it to connive at the discretionary power exercised by the clergy. For some years after her accession, serious dangers were apprehended from that quarter. In these cir- cumstances great reliance was placed on the puri- tans as the most inflexible and zealous protestants in the land. The great bulk of the clergy had complied with all the changes of the three previous reigns, and would therefore, it might naturally be concluded, as readily return to popery, as they had departed from it. But with the puritans — their " Parker's letter to his brethren his approval. — Strype's Parker, i. ■was submitted to Cecil and had 248. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 1G7 enemies being judges — it was a question of life and death. They admitted of no compromise ; they would enter into no parley. They had not only drawn the sword, but had thrown away the scabbard. In the time of trial, it was well known they might be relied on. No crisis could shake their resolution, nor any tempting offers purchase their friendship. Hence probably arose their brief interval of repose. Cecil and Bacon were too sagacious to risk the aid which they knew not but they might soon need, and which, they were well assured, the puritans would effectually render. But, when the hour of danger was past ; when the queen's throne was established, and the bishops felt secure in their sees, the puritans were regarded, not as desirable auxiliaries, but as refractory subjects, who must be brought to a sense of duty by prompt and rigorous measures. Instead of being rewarded for past services, they were threatened with punishment for present delinquency. Their scruples were despised, and the only alterna- tive left them was poverty or guilt, the exposure of their families to want, or of themselves to the reproaches of an accusing conscience." Hitherto *• Strype attributes tlie rigorous were reiterated at subsequent measures henceforth adopted to periods, in vindication of the the disturbances and insolent coercive measures wliich were behaviour of some of the puritans. adopted. The indiscretions and Bishop Maddox, in his animad- violence of the puritans towards versions on Neal, lays great stress the protestant church are not to be on this allegation, and thus compared with those of the reform- endeavours to vindicate the ers towards the church of Rome; bishops from a charge of false- yet it is customary with a certnin hood and tyranny. A pretext cLiss of writers to magnify the for- for persecution has never been mer and to gloss over and extenu- wanting, when the governors of ate the latter. The one class of the church or the state have de- offences is represented as justi- termined on it. Wyatt's insur- fying the severest measures of a rection was thus employed in vindictive hierarchy; the other, Mary's time ; and the insolence as the inevitable attendants on and disloyalty of the puritans the earliest movements of rehgious CHAP. VII. ELIZ. 168 THE HISTORY OF ELIZ. ^vih' ^^^^ non-compliance of the clergy had been con- nived at without any other evil than a want of uni- formity in their dress and public services. This diversity probably gave occasion to intemperate addresses from the pulpit. Some would enforce the ritual and others oppose it ; and each might uncon- sciously substitute a spirit of strife and vain glory for an enlightened regard to the honour of divine worship. "It is marvellous to consider," says Strype, " how much these clerical habits were abhorred by many honest and well-meaning men ; accounting them antichristian ceremo?iies, and so styling them ; and by no means to be used in a true Christian church, because used in the apostate church of Rome. It may suffice, as a sign how averse many were unto these habits, only to mention one or two. Crowley called them conjuring gar- ?nents of popenj^ and would not therefore be per- zeal. Such a procedure betrays succeeded in proving". The fact more of party-spirit than of is, that Elizabeth's bishops yielded the calm decision of an impartial somewhat to the corrupting in- judgment. The same principle fluences of their station, and holds in both cases, and must be were therefore indisposed to fulfil fairly applied. Both the reform- their early promises. When ers and the puritans frequently writing to Bullinger, they had mistook an intemperate and con- pleaded that the obnoxious cere- tentious spirit, for that of the monies were enjoined by parlia- gospel. The violence and fierce- ment before tJieir entrance into it. ness of human passion were per- "But that after it was passed, mitted, in some cases, to mingle thej, being chpsen to be bishops, with and debase their religious must either content themselves to zeal. To deny this fact is to take their places, as things were, contradict the page of history. or else leave them to papists or To regret the Reformation on tlds Lutherans. But in the mean account, is to display an ignorance space they promised not to urge of human nature, and an utter dis- their brethren in tliose things; regardof the welfare of the church. and when opportunity should That instances of such misconduct serve, to seek reformation of did occur among the puritans, them." — Parker, i. .307. How may be freely admitted ; but that far they fulfilled this promise, let they were so numerous as to call the records of history tell. Some for or to justify the measures of them were honestly concerned which tlieir enemies adopted, to do so, but Parker was too in- neither Strype nor Maddox has tolerant to permit it. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 169 suaded to minister in them ; and in the year 1565, Dr. Turner, the dean of Wells, enjoined a common adulterer to do his open penance in a priest's square cap."P The attention of the queen's government was at length attracted to these diversities in the apparel and service of the church. They are noted by Cecil in a paper dated February 14, 1564, in the following manner. Varieties in the service and administration used. Some say the service and prayers in the chancel ; others in the body of the church. Some say the same in a seat made in the church ; some in the pulpit, with their faces to the people. Some keep precisely the order of the book ; others intermeddle psalms in metre. Some say with a surplice ; others without a surplice. The table standeth in the body of the church in some places ; in others it standeth in the chancel. In some places the table standeth altarwise, distant from the wall yard ; in some others in the middle of the chancel, north and south. In some places the table is joined ; in others it standeth upon trus- sels. In some the table hath a carpet ; in others it hath none. Some with surplice and cap ; some with stirplice alone ; others with none. Some witli chalice ; some with a communion cup ; others with a com- mon cup. Some with unleavened bread, and some with leavened. [He might have added, some with wafers, some with common manchet bread.] Some receive kneeling, others standing, others sitting. Some baptize at a font, some in a bason. Some Parker, i. 300. 170 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. VIT. ELIZ. sign with the sign of the cross ; others sign not. Some minister in a surplice, others without. Some with a square cap ; some with a round cap ; some with a button cap ; some with a hat. Some in scholars' clothes, some in others."^ to Parker, to The queen addressed a letter to the archbishop foi^ty, j^" reflecting severely on these diversities, and requiring 2o. io64-o. 1^1^ proceed to their correction. " We mean not," said the daughter of Henry, "to endure or suffer any longer these evils thus to proceed, spread, and increase in our realm ; but have certainly determined to have all such diversities, varieties, and novelties amongst those of the clergy and our people, as breed nothing but contention, offence, and breach of common charity, and are also against the laws, good usages, and ordinances of our realm, to be reformed and repressed, and brought to one manner of uniformity through our whole realm and dominions." The archbishop is therefore com- manded to confer with his brethren in the ecclesias- tical commission, and to take such measures as that "uniformity of order may be kept in every church, without variety and contention." They were to admit none to preferment who were not well dis- posed to the common order, and would not promise to use the same " in truth, concord, and unity ; for we intend," says the queen, " to have no dissension or variety grow, by suffering of persons which maintain the same, to remain in authority."' The archbishop was not disinclined to the course which the queen's letter prescribed. He was as rigid a disciplinarian as herself, though on somewhat different grounds. She acted as a politician, he as Strype's Parker, i. 302. ^ Ibid. Appendix, 24. Annals, i. ii. 126. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 171 a divine ; the one was offended at the transgression ^y^^' of her commands, the other was concerned to main tain the uniformity of his church. Elizabeth re- ^^i^- garded the ecclesiastical as subordinate to the secular interests of her state, while Parker, with the illiber- ality and intolerance of a bigot, urged the duty of the magistrate to support the dogmas of the priest. But the archbishop had now entered on a work surrounded with greater difficulties than he anticipated. It was not so easy as he imagined to subdue the rising spirit of the clergy, sustained as that spirit was by the esteem and applause of the better portion of the community. The puritans also had powerful friends even in the queen's council, and amongst the dignitaries of the church, whose influence frequently availed to check the persecuting career of Parker, and at length to be- cloud his latter days. Pilkinp'ton, the bishop of Durham, as soon as he Piikington 1 1 r> 1 f • ' 1 • to the earl of heard oi the measures which were in contemplation, Leicester, on . . , . behalf of the wrote to the earl oi Leicester, prayins; him to use Puritans, his mhuence with the queen to prevent them. 1 marvel much," said he, " that this small controversy for apparel should be so heavily taken ; but this is the malice of Satan, that where he cannot overthrow the greatest matters, he will raise great troubles in trifles Paul circumcised Timothy when there was hope to win the Jews ; but when they would have it of necessity, he would not circumcise Titus. Therefore compelling would not be used in things of liberty .... Consider, I beseech your honour, how that all countries which have reformed religion, have cast away the popish apparel with the pope, and yet we that would be taken for the 172 THE HISTORY OF ^vn^* contend to keep it as a holy relic. Mark, also, how many ministers there be here in all countries, ELiz. ^Ij^^ zealous, not only to forsake that wicked doctrine of popery, but ready to leave the ministry and their livings, rather than to be like the popish teachers of such superstitions, either in apparel or behaviour. This realm has such scarcity of teachers, that if so many worthy men should be cast out of the ministry for such small matters, many places should be destitute of preachers. And it would give an incurable offence to all the favourers of God's truth in other countries. Shall we make so precious that, that other reformed places esteem as vile ? God forbid. St. Paul bids women use such apparel as becomes them that profess true godliness. Which rule is much more to be observed of men, and specially of preachers. But if we forsake popery as wicked, how shall we say their apparel becomes saints and professors of true holiness? St. Paul bids us refrain from all outward show of evil ; but surely in keeping this popish apparel, we for- bear not an outward show of much evil, if popery be judged evil."^ whittingham Wliittingham, dean of Durham, wrote in a similar to the same. . t • i f i i strain to Leicester, one passage only oi whose letter I shall adduce as illustrating the character of the objections urged against the clerical vestments, and the abhorrence with which they were regarded. " I am advertised by the letters of many," he says, " and it is here bruted by the report of all, to the utter discouragement of the godly, and the great boldening and triumph of the wicked ; that a decree is either passed, or even at hand, to compel us either » Strype's Parker, Appendix, 25. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 173 against our consciences to wear the old popish apparel, or else with the loss of our livings to be deposed from our ministry. Nihil est tertiinn. " In that sorrowful case and miserable shipwreck, albeit I see no way how we shall escape dangers, yet the remembrance of your honour is no small assuaging of my grief, who I know by sincerity of God's word favoureth all true preachers, abhorreth popery and superstition, and pitieth the lamentable condition of Christ's afflicted. Again, when I con- sider the great charge joined to us of Almighty God, and the strait account that we have to make for the right use and true dispensation of his mysteries, I find no comparison that might justly move any Christian to doubt of the better of these two choices. Only that which maketh a show for the maintenance of that apparel is, the opinion of mdifferency. Which thing he that will persuade, must then prove that it tendeth to God's glory, consenteth with his word, edifieth his church, maintaineth Christian liberty, ^yhich conditions and circumstances if they want, the thing which otherwise by nature is indifferent, doth degenerate and become hurtful. But how can God's glory be advanced by those garments Avhich superstitious man and antichrist have invented for the maintain- ing and beautifying of idolatry ? What agreement can man's superstitious inventions have with the eternal word of God ? What edification can there be, where the Spirit of God is grieved, Christ's little ones discouraged, the weak brethren brought in doubt of religion, the wicked papist confirmed in his error, and a door of new set open to all popish traditions and antichristian impiety? 174 THE HISTORY OF ^yff' " Neither can any call this Christian liberty where 1 a yoke is laid on the disciples' neck, where the con- ELiz. science is clogged, true preachers threatened, the ^ course of God's word stayed, the congregation spoiled of godly and learned pastors, the sacra- ments brought under subjection of idolatrous and superstitious vestments."' These appeals were not without effect, as will be presently seen. In the mean time, the archbishop addressed a letter to Grindal, who filled the see of London, announcing the communication received from the queen, and directing him to pro- ceed in conformity with it. Grindal, like Pilking- ton, was averse from the rigorous proceedings of the primate, and would gladly have been excused from taking part in them. His temper was mild and tolerant, so that Parker had considerable difiiculty in inducing him to exert himself on this occasion. He solicited a private letter from the queen in aid of his persuasions, and at length suc- ceeded so far as to secure an apparent cooperation at least, in the tyrannical and merciless course on Book of which his own heart was set." The ecclesiastical Advertise- ments, commissioners drew up a set of articles to be sub- 1564. ^ scribed by the clergy, which are known by the name of Advertisements, and which it was designed to enforce by the authority of the council ; but the friends of the puritans interposed to prevent this, and so far prevailed with the queen, that she " seemed not unwilling to relax in the discipline of the church, and come towards an indulgence for the dissenters.'"" The archbishop was so convinced of the general hostility of the clergy to the cere- t Str5T)e's Parker, App. 27. ' Annals, i.ii. 130. Parker,i.m8. " Ibid., i. 321. " Collier, ii. 495. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 175 monies he wished to enforce, that his only hope of ^y^' success was founded on the exercise of the queen's authority. He despaired of compassing his end if eliz. the book of advertisements was not authorized by the council, and did not go forth in the queen's name. " If the queen's majesty would not authorize it," he told Cecil, " the most part of the orders therein prescribed were like to lie in the dust, for execution on their (the leading clergy) parts, laws were so much against their own private doings. But if she, with consent, would publish her plea- sure concerning these articles, he trusted, out of the awe the clergy had of her, she would be obeyed.'"' Such were the arguments which a protestant bishop could employ, and such the means by which he sought to secure the adoption of his views. When the council refused to confirm the advei^tise- ments, the spirit of the churchman was vmguardedly displayed. He could not brook the moderate coun- sels which had prevailed, but pettishly said, " It was better not to have begun except more were done ; and that all the realm was in expectation. Sapienti pauca'' Adding, concerning himself and his bre- thren in the commission, "That if this ball should be tossed unto them, and then they have no authority by the queen's majesty's hand, they would sit still. And that if they of the council laid not to their helping hand, as they did once," he said, " in Hooper's days, all that was done was but to be laughed at."^ It was in the same spirit, fretted and chaffed at not being vigorously supported in his intolerance, that he requested Cecil to obtain a letter from the queen to aid his endeavours, remark- Parker, i. 316. y Ibid., i. 317. 176 THE HISTORY OF ^vii^ ing, " If you remedy it not by letter, I will no more strive ag-ainst the stream, fume or chide who will."^ ELTZ .... The pertinacity with which Parker on this occasion urged the adoption of rigorous measures, and his evident chagrin and disappointment when the council refused to be the instruments of his tyranny, are amongst the most unamiable and repulsive features of his history. In some cases it may be urged on his behalf, that he was acting at the com- mand and under the impulse of others; but no such plea will avail him here. The politician and the courtier were accessible to the cry of the oppressed, but the primate of the English church had steeled his heart against it. Bigotry was so dominant there, the lust of power so omnipotent, that he could move calmly on to the accomplish- ment of his design, unmoved alike by the plea of conscience, and the miseries of penury and reproach. There is no passion so destructive of the charities of our nature as that which reigns in the breast of an intolerant ecclesiastic. Parker's Tlic archbishoD, thoug-h repulsed in the council, rigorous en- ^ ... forcementof determined to proceed with riffor in enforcinp* the Conformity, . , tt t i 1565. obnoxious ceremonies. He accordingly sat at Lambeth with the bishops of London, Ely, Win- chester, Lincoln, and other ecclesiastical com- missioners, where the noncomplying clergy were summoned to appear. The method of proceeding on which the commissioners agreed was, first to address all the clergy assembled at Lambeth, saying " something to move them to conformity, with in- timation of the penalty which necessarily will ensue against the recusants;" then to examine ^ Parker, i. 818. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 177 them separately, " whether they would promise con- ^y^/* formity in their ministrations and outward apparel, and testify the same by subscription." Those who refused were immediately to be suspended, and their livings to be sequestrated, and deprivation by due form of law was to follow if they were not reconciled within three months.^ Parker was par- ticularly anxious to secure the conformity of the London ministers, " for their example the rest of the nation were like to follow ; and they seemed the most averse of any ministers in the land to use the habits and observe the rites." They were London , . - , 1 p 1 Ministers at accordingly summoned to appear beiore the com- Lambeth, missioners at Lambeth on the 24th of March, when the chancellor of the bishop of London addressed them : " My masters and the ministers of London, the council's pleasure is, that strictly ye keep the unity of apparel like to this man," pointing to Mr. Robert Cole, a minister likewise of the city, who had refused the habits awhile, and now complied, and stood before them canonically habited, " as you see him ; that is, a square cap, a scholar's gown priest-like, a tippet, and, in the church, a linen sur- plice ; and inviolably observe the rubric of the Book of Common Prayer, and the queen's majesty's injunctions, and the Book of Convocation. Ye that will presently subscribe, write volo. Those that will not subscribe, write nolo. Be brief ; make no words." And when some would have spoken, the answer was, " Peace, peace. Apparitor, call the churches. Masters, answer presently, suh pcena contemptus; and set your names." Then the Sumner called first the Peculiars of Canterbury, then some * Strype s Parker^ i. 427. VOL. I. N 178 THE HISTORY OF of Winchester diocese (whose livings were in South- wark), and lastly, the London ministers."^ Nothing could be more unfeeling or despotic than the course pursued on this occasion. The men who were capa- ble of so acting towards their brethren would have led them to the stake, and have gloried in their death, if the state of the public mind had permitted extreme measures. They possessed the spirit of inquisitors, which they would have embodied in murderous deeds, if their power had been equal to their in- tolerance. " Men's hearts were tempted and tried," says one of the noncomplying clergy. " Great was Grindal_, 144. The ministers gave in a written statement of their objections to the apparel, which closes thus: " These things being thus weighed with the warning that St. Paul giveth, 1 Thess. v., where he commands us to abstain from all appearance of evil, we cannot but think that in using of these things, we should beat back those that are coming from superstition, and confirm those that are grown in super- stition, and consequently over- throw that which we have been labouring to build ; and incur the danger of that horrible curse that our Saviour has pronounced : 'Woe to the world because of offences.' " Knowing therefore how horrible a thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God, b}' doing that ■which our consciences (grounded upon the truth of God's word, and the example and doctrine of ancient fathers) do tell us were evil done, and to the great dis- crediting of the truth whereof we profess to be teachers, we have thought good to yield ourselves into the hands of men, to suffer whatsoever God hath appointed us to suffer, for -the performing of tlic commandments of God and a clear conscience before the com- mandments of men, in complying with which we cannot escape the condernxuation of our consciences ; keeping always in memory that horrible saying of John in his first epistle: * If our conscience con- demn us, God is greater than our conscience.' And not forgetting the saying of the psalmist, * It is good to trust in the Lord, and not to trust in man ; it is good to trust in the Lord, and not to trust in princes.' Ps. cxviii. And again, Ps. cxh i ; ' Trust not in princes, nor in the children of men, in whom there is no health, whose spirit shall depart out of them, and they shall return to the earth from whence they came, and in that day all their devices shall come to nought.' " Not despising men, therefore, but trusting to God only, we seek to serve him with a clear conscience, so long as we shall live here, assuring ourselves, that those things that we shall suffer for doing so shall be a testimony to the world, that great reward is laid up for us in heaven, where we doubt not but to rest for ever with them that have before our days siiffered for the like." — Ncal's Puritans, i. 175, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 179 the sorrow of most ministers, and their mourning, ^y^^- saying, 'We are killed in the soul of our souls for this pollution of ours, for that we cannot perform in the singleness of our hearts this our ministry.""' From the account which the primate gave of this affair to Cecil, it appears that sixty-one promised conformity, nine or ten were absent, and thirty- seven refused."^ Many of the latter were married and had families, whose precarious condition and exposure to want could not but greatly aggravate the sorrow consequent on their deprivation. The archbishop calculated on this as rendering their submission probable, for he tells Cecil, with all the hardheartedness of a practised inquisitor, " That some of them, he thought, would come in when they should feel their wants ; especially such as b}^ a spiced fancy held out. Some of them, he doubted not, were moved in a conscience which he laboured by some advertisements to pacify. But the wood, he said, was yet green, and it was not felt as he thought it would be hereafter." Many other clergymen were summoned before hJI'^^J^J^^^'' the commissioners, amongst whom were Drs. Samp- son and Humphrey, the former dean of Christ- ^^s, ^ ' March.1565. c Strypc's Grindal, 145. would not reconcile themselves d Strype's Parker, i. 429. "Of within three months, then to be which number," says Strype, " as deprived. The archbishop did the archbishop acknowledo-ed, expect hereupon that their beha- were the best, and some viour would have been rough and preachers. Six or seven con- clamorous ; but, otherwise than venient sober men pretending a he looked for, they showed rca- conscience. Diverse of them sonablc quietness and modesty." zealous, but of little learning and Strype tells us. Annals, i. ii. judgment. And, in short, he and 130, that several of these con- the rest in commission with them formed within the three months ; (whereof the bishop of London but does not mention his autho- was one) did suspend them, and rity. The statement, however, is sequester their fruits, and put not improbable. The prospect of them from all manner of ministry; poverty and reproach has chilled with signification that if they the zeal of many virtuous minds. before the Commission- 180 THE HISTORY OF church, and the latter president of Magdalen — college, Oxford. " These were of great esteem in • the nation," says Strype, "being men of good learn- ing, and having been both of them exiles in queen Mary's reign." Their first appearance was on the 3rd of March, when the archbishop urged their compliance ; adducing the opinions of Bucer and Martyr as favourable to such a course. This, however, they declined, and on the 8th requested permission to return to their college duties, which Parker refused, and they were consequently detained in London. They drew up an elegant and respectful letter to the archbishop and his three brethren in the commission, protesting, before God, it was a bitter grief to them that there should be a contention about so small a matter, but that it com- forted them to know that all professed the same gospel, and that it was in things indifferent only that each followed his own opinion. They alleged the authority of Augustine, Socrates, and others, in whose time varieties in the rites of the church were permitted ; and then prayed the bishops, " That if there were any reckoning to be made of fellowship in Christ, if there were any fellow-feeling and compassion, of which they doubted not, they would permit, nay, promote that which Paul com- mended, and Augustine yielded ; that every one might acquiesce in his omi cXTj^o^o^/a, i. e. confident 'persuasion; and that the unity of the faith might be kept in divers observances. That their reasons for this address were many and great; viz.^ that con- science was a tender thing, that ought not to be touched nor angered. That they were not turbulent nor obstinate, nor willing to see the peace of the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 181 ELIZ. church disturbed, or studied novelty, or refused to ^y^^' be convinced. But they were taught by conscience, that things in their own nature indifferent do not always seem indifferent to the opinions of men, and are changed by times and accidents. That this law concerning the restoring the ceremonies of the Roman church is joined with the hazard of slavery, necessity, and superstition : subjoining these words, because this does not seem so to you, you are not to be condemned by us ; because this does seem so to us, we are not to he vexed by youJ^^ Parker, i. 324. In one of their examinations, the archbishop put the following questions to them, which, with the substance of their answ^ers^ I insert as fur- nishing a brief statement of the puritan case. 1. Is the surplice a thing evil, wicked, or indifferent ? Tliough the surplice in sub- stance be indifferent, 3'et by cir- cumstances it is not so ; being of the same nature with the vestis peregrina, or the apparel of idola- try ; the wearers of which God threatened to visit. 2. If it be not indifferent, for what cause ? Because that things consecrated to idolatry are not indifferent. 3. Whether the bishop, detest- ing papistry, may enjoin the sur- plice, or enforce the injunction already made ? To such an one it may be said in the words of Tertullian, Si tu Diahoii pompam ( oderis) quic- quid ex ea attigeris, id scias esse idololatriam ; of which if he be persuaded, he w^ill not so act. 4. Whether the cope be a thing indifferent or not, being appointed for decency and reverence, and not for superstition or holiness ? Reverence unto the sacrament is wrought by doctrine and dis- cipline. Decency is not gained by that which has been devised and used to deface the sacrament. If the gold ordained by God, for reverence and decency in the Jewish temple, is not to be admitted to beautify the church of Christ; much less cope.? brought in by papists, and continued in their service as proper ornaments of their religion, ought to be retained. 5. Whether any thing which is indifferent may be enjoined as godly, for the use of connnon prayer or the sacraments ? If it be merely indifferent, as the time, place, and such neces- sary circumstances of divine wor- ship, for which a warrant may be produced out of the scriptures, w^e think it may. 6. Whether the civil magistrate ma^' appoint an abstinence from meats on certain days ? If it be duly guarded from superstition, he may so'appoint it, on account of its manifest advan- tages. 7. Whether a law may be made for the difference of ministers' apparel from that of laymen ? Whether such a prescription be lawful admits of doubt, as the New Testament does not decree, nor did the primitive church appoint, any such distinction ; but would rather ministers should 182 THE HISTORY OF c^AP. Sampson and Humphrey wrote also to the earl of Leicester, entreating his aid, that they might be ELiz. permitted to return to Oxford. But their supplica- tions were of no avail. The commissioners were determined to proceed with rigor, in hope of sub- duing the refractory spirit of the puritan party. These confessors were therefore compelled to con- tinue their attendance; and on the 29th of April, the archbishop, says Strype, " did peremptorily will them to agree wdth the rest of the clergy in matters of conformity, or else to depart their places. He showed them, in few words, that these were the orders which they must observe, viz., to wear the cap appointed by injunction, to wear no hats in their long gowns, to wear a surplice with non- regents hood in the choirs at their colleges, accord- ing to the ancient manner there ; and to communi- cate kneeling, in wafer-bread." They refused to comply, pleading the dictate of conscience ; and requested time for the removal of their goods.^ It was ultimately determined to make an example of Sampson, lest his influence should pervert the students, by whom he was much respected. He was therefore deprived of his deanery, and was detained a prisoner for a considerable period.^ be known from the laity by their munion for diversity in ceremo- doctrine than by their raiment. nies, so that there be unity of 8. Whether such ministers as faith and charity. And it is to be wear the apparel used by the desired that there may be a papists ought to be condemned charitable permission of diversity, for so doing ? as on both parts there is a unitas To judge, disprove, or condemn operantium — Str3'pe's Parker, i. another man's servant, is not our 329. Other arguments were part ; for that he standeth or added to these by the puritans, falleth unto his Lord. as may be seen in the 23rd chap, 9. Whether such preachers of Parker's life, ought to be reformed or re- f Ibid., 327. strained? i Ibid., pp. 368, 371. It is due to Irenaeus will not have bretliren Parker, to mention that he inter- restrained from brotherly com- ceded with the chapter of Christ PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 183 Humphrey's Letter to the Humphrey was also imprisoned for some time, ^y^j^* and was then released, apparently without permis- sion to return to Oxford. About this time he ^l^^- addressed an admirable letter to the queen, in which he vindicates himself and his brethren, and ^^^^^^ urges the toleration of their worship. " You know that in things indifferent, especially those which are in controversy, it is lawful for every man, without prejudice to others, to have his full persuasion, and Church, and with the queen, on behalf of Sampson, entreating from the former some favour which is not specified, and ear- nestly soliciting from the latter his restoration to liberty. Such acts of kindness towards the puritans were unhappily infre- quent in the administration of Parker ; they serve, however, to induce a hope that his heart was not wholly destitute of the softer and more benevolent qualities of our nature. He was the adminis- trator of a vicious system which engrafted the pride of ecclesias- tical domination on the worst passions of man's degenerate heart. Several letters passed between Sampson and Grindal, formerly fellow-exiles for religion ; the former now poor and afflicted with palsy, the latter archbishop of York. One of these is pre- served by Strype, and does equal honour to the piety and talent of Sampson. After expostulating with Grindal on the inconsistency of his worldly pomp with a Christian spirit, and with minis- terial faithfulness, he refers to his own afflictions in the following touching manner. " You do pity my poverty and lameness. To my remembrance, I complained neither of the one nor of the other to you ; if I did of the first, I was to blame, for I com- plained before I had need. And if I had need, I thank God, I would make choice of them to whom I might complain. How bold I might be with you, both you and 1 do know. Touching the other, I am so far from com- plaining of it, that I do humbh'- thank God for it. It is the Lord's hand which doth touch me. He might in his justice have smitten and destroyed me ; but it is his favour and most rich mercy to- wards me, through Jesus Christ, that as a loving father he doth tenderly touch me and chastise me. I do bless and praise his name for it. If the Lord doth see that my poor labour may serve to any good purpose in his church, he both can and will heal me. And then if it shall also please him to furnish me with gifts meet for his service, I shall say, Ecce ! ego, rnittc me. But if the Lord hath determined by this lameness to make me unmeet in labour, as now I am, and so lead me to my grave, the Lord give me grace to say with Hezekiah, Bonus est scr7)iO Domini ; and with Ely, Ipse est Deus, quod bonum est in oculis suis faciat. And yet shall I labour, so as I can, till my foot be in sepulchro. It is to bear bonds and chains I grant, sed Domini sunt vincuki ; and such that if I were put to my choice, I would rather choose to carry them to my grave, than, freed from them, to carr}- the clogs and cares of a bishopric, as that state is now." — Strype's Parker, App. 94. 184 THE HISTORY OF that the conscience ought not in any case to be bound. That the matter which we handle is agree- able to religion and equity, I think there is no man that doubteth. Seeing, therefore, the thing which we request is honest, and that which is commanded is doubtful ; and they who make the request are your most loving and obedient subjects and minis- ters of the word ; why should your mercy, O queen, which is usually open for all, be shut up from us ? You, being the prince, will not give place to your subjects ; yet, being merciful, you may spare them who are in misery. You will not disannul a public decree ; yet you may mitigate it. You cannot abolish a law ; yet you may grant a liberation. It is not meet you should follow every man's affec- tions ; yet it is most right and convenient that the mind and conscience {^e not forced. " We do not go about, O most gracious queen, to bear rule, who ought to be subjects ; but we would that reason, the queen of queens, should rule, and t'hat the humble entreaty of the ministers of Christ might obtain that which religion commandeth. Wherefore, O most noble prince, I do in most humble sort request and earnestly desire, that your majesty would seriously and attentively consider the majesty of the glorious gospel, the equity of the cause, the small number of workmen, the great- ness of the harvest, the multitude of tares, the grievousness of the punishment, the lightness of the fault, the sighs of the good, the triumphs of the wicked, and the mischiefs of the times." ^ Having many powerful friends at court, he escaped depriva- tion, though he continued his nonconformity to the •» Brook s Puritans, i. 3G8. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 185 habits. When the archbishop published the Aclver- ^vnf * tisements for a more rio-oroiis enforcement of the ceremonies, Humphrey wrote to Cecil, entreating him to suppress them. " I am sorry," he writes, Humphrey's , , , •11 • • 1 letter to Cecil, " that the old sore is broke out agam, m such sort, Apru, isgg. at such a solemn time, in print, to the common calamity of many, and marvel and misery of all. The cause is not so sound, in my poor opinion, as it is made. The trouble is greater than we think. The inhibition of preaching, strange and lament- able. The cry of a number is and will be ' pitiful in the ears of God and man. The book of adver- tisements, though it contain much that is many ways of the wise misliked, yet because it hath no determination of time, nor of penalty, was better esteemed. The execution hitherto vehemently urged marvellously moveth and marreth all. I am so highly bound to God, that giveth me this bold access to your honour, that I cannot for this his goodness yield to him condign thanks. Wherefore, as I of these proceedings simply promote the judg- ment of many ; so I humbly request you to bear with this my rude plainness, and to be a means to the queen's majesty to stop the execution, and to suffer the book to sleep in silence. These days, these evils, this people, this age, require other adver- tisements. The queen's majesty in the preface seeketh unity and concord ; this hath bred variety and discord more than ever was. To your wisdom, goodness, and godliness, I refer all ; as also the continuance of your prosperous state to the Almighty."' So high was the estimation in which he was held by lord Burleigh, that, about 1574, ' Parker, i. 432. 186 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. VII. 1576. that nobleman recommended him to the queen to fill a vacant see. Of this he subsequently informed ELiz. Humphrey, intimating that his nonconfonnitv was the great obstacle to his preferment. Heconfonns. jjc shortlv aftcrwards conformed, as appears by liis letter to the lord treasurer, in reply to his friendly communication, in which he says, " I have yielded, that no further surmise of any wilfulness should be gathered ; and would have done the like heretofore, but that ha^'ing a tolemtion, I was glad to enjoy it; and I hoped still for some points of redress; wherein I was no open intermeddler, but only a private solicitor and humble suitor to her majesty and your lordships. It was a remorse, to seem by singular apparel to sunder myself from those brethren whose doctrine and life I always loved and liked. And I protest to your lordship, before God, that my standing before, and conform- ing now, Cometh of one cause, viz., the direction of a clear conscience ; and tendeth to one end, which is edification. And if in the proclamation, which I hear shall be set forth for apparel, one clause may be added for ministers and students in the univer- sity, and a plain signification given, that it is en- joined, not so much for an ecclesiastical ceremony, as for a civil policy and ordinance, it would, I think, satisfy many in conscience." j Strype's Annals, i., App. 28. parts of the ritual, he never con- Humphrey, like many other of templated an assault on the con- the earliest puritans, ^vas proba- stitution of the church. Writings bly offended at the extent to in 1.572, to Mr. Gilby, a zealous wiiich Cartwrisrht and his disci- puritan in Leicestershire, he dis- ples carried t^eir opposition to tinctly intimates his disapproba- the established church ; and might tion of the Admonitions to Parlia- thus more easily be persuaded to m^n^ recenth-published. Openly comply with the ceremonies. to publish such admonitions as Though he excepted against some are abroad I like not/' he says ; PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 187 John Fox re- fuses to sub- John Fox, the martyrologist, was also summoned ^^i^Y' before the commissioners at Lambeth. Though he had done eminent service in the protestant cause, he was long neglected, on account of his aversion to the habits,^ and at length was in danger of losing the ^^^^ little preferment he had obtained. Being required to subscribe (in hope that his compliance would in- fluence others), he produced a copy of the Greek New Testament, declaring, "To this will I sub- scribe." And when he was urged with the canons, he refused, saying, " I have nothing in the church save a prebend at Salisbuiy, and much good may it do vou if you will take it away."^ His unequalled labours on behalf of the protestant faith saved the "for in some parts and terms they are too broad and overshoot themselves." — Brook's Puritans, i. 373. ^ When Dr. Humphrey was chosen president of Magdalen College, in loGl, Fox wrote him a congratulatory letter, couched in a facetious st\le. "Why do I trifle thus," said this estimable man, " and begin to congratulate you your preferment, who should much rather expostulate the case with you ? For come, Sir, tell me, why have you thus left us and our flock and order, and gone away ? Fugitive, runaway, as you are, be you not ashamed? You ought to have taken example of greater constancy by me, who still wear the same clothes, and remain in the same sordid condition, as England received me in, when I first came home out of Germany. Nor do I change my degree nor order ; which is that of the men- dicants, or, if you will, of the friars preachers. And in tliis order you yourself were, and was like enough to continue an honest compauioa with us. But now you have forsaken this our order and classis, and mounted I know not whither ; fortunate success, as tlie proverb is, waiting on vou." — Strype's Parker, L 223, 224. » Fuller, ix. 76. Heylin's Re- form., 164. The remark of the latter writer on Fox's reply is characteristic. " This refractory answer," he says, for it was no better, might well have moved the bishop to proceed against him, as he did against some others who had stood on the same refusal ; but kissing goes by kindness, as the saying is, and so much kindness was showed to him, that he both kept his reso- lution and his place together ; which, whether it might not do more hurt to the church than that preferment in the church did advantage him, I think no wise man will make a question ; for commonly the exemption or in- demnity of some few particulars confirms the obstinacy of the rest, in hope of being privileged with the like indemnity." 188 THE HISTORY OF ^y f^: martyrologist of the church from the condemnation of its rulers. He had been their companion in ELiz. exile, and was favoured bv some from sincere re- gard, and connived at by others through fear or shame. The sturdiest advocate of uniformity could not, for very shame, punish so eminent a labourer in the protestant cause. S^ftT 1 Great opposition to the clerical habits was evinced Cambridge, ^t Cambridge. Nearlv three hundred of the fellows and scholars of St. John's college, in the absence of , Dr. Longworth, the master, came into the chapel without their hoods and sui-plices, and continued to do so after his return. A similar hostility was evinced bv the members of Trinitv colleo;e, and was known extensively to prevail in other branches of the university. These things were soon reported to sir William Cecil, the chancellor, who wrote to the vice-chancellor, acquainting him with the great displeasure of the queen, and requiring him imme- diately to call "the heads of the colleges, and other grave graduates, whom that leprosy had not touched, and to recommend his most heartv and earnest desire to everv of them, that as thev in- tended the honour of God, the preservation of chris- tian unity, the good name of that honourable and famous university, the favor of their sovereign lady the queen towards the same ; and lastly (which was, he said, of least estimation), as they regarded his poor good will towards the whole body, and every good member of the same, so they would persist and continue in the observation of uniform order in these external things, which of themselves were of none other value but to make a demonstra- tion of obedience, and to render a testimony of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 189 unity.""' The visitation of St. John's pertaining to ^y^/' the bishop of Ely, Cecil wrote to him, desiring he would exercise his jurisdiction, if it should be ne- ^^^"^^ cessary, for the correction of such misdemeanours. So vigilant and decisive was the policy of the queen's government at this period. Several heads of colleges, apprehending serious mischiefs to the university, from an enforcement of the habits, ad- dressed a letter to the chancellor, stating the con- scientious scruples which some of their members entertained, and the probability of their leaving the university, and the loss which would be consequent thereon, if the habits were enforced. They ex- pressed their deliberate judgment that the removal of this burden would be without inconvenience or danger, while its imposition would prove very in- jurious to the preaching of the gospel, and to sound learning. " This letter produced no other effect than that of confirming the court and ecclesiastical com- mission in their purpose of enforcing the obnoxious habits. ° Longworth was summoned to London, Strype's Annals^ i. ii. 155. ° On this, as" on most other " Strype's Annals, i. ii. 160. occasions, the civil ruler was ex- Parker, i. 38G. Appendix 80. cited to persecution by the sug- Amongst the signatures to this gestions of ecclesiastics. Parker letter is that of John Whit- was particularly active in this un- gift, afterwards the opponent of hallowed work. On the 8th of Cartwright, and the persecuting Dec. he wrote to Cecil, " that if archbishop of Canterbury. His- he, their chancellor, of the privy tory affords numerous examples council, and in such place and of men commencing life with pro- credit as he was^ should, suffer fessions of liberality, and closing so much authority to be borne it with all the rancour of thcolo- under foot by a bragging brainless gical hatred, and the fierceness of head or two, in my opinion, your ecclesiastical intolerance. It is conscience shall never be excus- not our provmce to decide on the able We mar our reli- sincerity of this early act of Whit- gion ; our circumspections are so gift. Those who maintain the variable (as though it were not affirmative should be prepared to God's cause, which he will de- show how his heart was subse- fend), makes cowards thus to quciiLly hardened against the men cock over us. I must say, as whose cause he thus advocated. Demosthenes answered, what was 190 THE HISTORY OF ^vn^' compelled to sign a paper acknowledging his guilt in permitting such innovations, and promising to do his utmost to enforce the queen's injunctions. And the others who had concurred with him made their peace by submissive letters, in which they displayed more meanness of spirit than honest at- tachment to truth. But the object of these mea- sures was unattained, for the university continued a nursery of puritanism, and replenished its ranks from time to time with learned and able advocates. The bold spirit of this rising party, apparent even in its early movements, natural y engaged the sympathies of the young. It was in unison with the temper of the times, and, as displaying a healthy and vigorous protestantism, was welcomed to the confidence, and aided by the prayers, of the more enlightened and devout part of the community, scttehchil^ch '^^^ cause of the puritans was advocated by the on behalf of church of Scotlaud. A letter to the bishops and the puritans. ^ ^ Dec27, 1566. p^g^QPg Euglaud was adopted in the general as- sembly at Edinburgh, in which the ministers and ' elders of Scotland say, "Byword and writ, it is come to our knowledge, that diverse of our dearest brethren, amongst whom are some of the best learned within that realm, are deprived from ecclesiastical function and forbidden to preach, and the chief part in rhetoric, the second part, the third. Pronun- ciation, pronunciation, pronun- ciation, said he. So say I, exe- cution, execution, execution of laws and orders, must be the first and last part of good government. Although I yet admit moderation for times, places, multitudes, &c. And hereafter, for God's love, never stir any alterations, except it be fully meant to have them established." — Strype's Parker, i. 389. " These frequent solicitations and counsels of the archbishop (says Strype) added new spirit to the* chancellor, and put him upon doing somewhat effectually in or- der to uniformity in the univer- sity."—Ibid., 394. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. say that by you they are stayed to promote the kingdom of Jesus Christ, because their conscience will not suffer them to take upon them, at the commandment of the authority, such garments as idolaters, in time of blindness, have used in their idolatry. ... Ye cannot be ignorant how tender a thing the conscience of man is : all that have knowledge are not alike persuaded. Your con- sciences reclaimeth not the wearing of such gar- ments; but many thousands, both godly and learned, are otherwise persuaded, whose consciences are con- tinually stricken with these sentences, What hath Christ Jesus to do with Belial? What fellowship is there betwixt darkness and light ? "If surplice, corner-cap, and tippet have been badges of idolatry in the very act of idolatry, what hath the preacher of Christian liberty, and the open rebuker of all superstition, to do with the dregs of that Romish beast? Our brethren that of con- science refuse that unprofitable apparel, do neither damn nor molest you, which use such vain trifles. If ye should do the like to man, we doubt not but therein ye shall please God, and comfort the hearts of many, which are wounded with the extremity that is used against the godly, and our beloved bre- thren." They then meet the plea that the bishops were but the agents of their sovereign. "If," say they, "the commandment of authority urge the con- sciences of yours and our brethren, further than they can bear, we unfeignedly crave of you, that ye remember, that ye are called the light of the world, and the salt of the earth. All called to authority have not the light of God always shining THE HISTORY OF ™vu' ^^^^^^^ their eyes, but their aflfections oftentimes savor overmuch of the earth and of worldly ELTz. ^visdom. And therefore we think ye should boldly open yourselves to all power that will or dare extol itself, not only against God, but also against all such as dare burden the consciences of the faith- ful, further than God has burdened them by his own word Our humble supplication is, that our brethren, who among you refuse the Romish rags, may find of you, the prelates, such favor as your Head and Master commandeth every one of his members to show to others, which we look to receive of your gentleness, not only for that ye fear to offend God's majesty in troubling your brethren for such vain trifles, but also because ye will not refuse the humble request of us your bre- thren and fellow-preachers of Jesus Christ." ^ The English bishops, or rather the queen and primate, were too fixed in their purpose to be swayed by this communication. What immediate influence it produced, we are not told; but that it utterly failed to change the policy of the archbishop, is evident from the intolerant character of his future proceedings. Licenses VaHous miuistcrs, distino-uished for piety and called in. i • i P i • i 15G5. zeal, were silenced ni the course oi this year, to the serious detriment of the English church. But the archbishop, blind to the danger he incurred, re- solved on a more sweeping measure, by which, in p A Parte of a Register, 125. while free from adulation, is yet Strvpe considers the English snfficiently respectful. It would bishops as somewhat roughly have been well for the English treated in this letter : on what nation and church if the advice account I cannot divine. Its it contains had been fairly acted terms, though strong, are not of- on. — Life of Parker, i. 458. fensive ; and its general tone. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 193 hope of purging the church from all who were ^y^^^" puritanically inclined, the bishops were directed to order their clergy to bring in their old licenses and to take out new ones, which were to be granted only to those who bound themselves not to disturb the established order of the church.'^ By this measure, Parker expected to mould the clergy to his views, and to prepare a more obsequious body for the public ministration of religion. How far he suc- ceeded will appear in the future course of this history. His proceedings were carried on with various degrees of zeal in different parts of the country. Several of the bishops were averse from them, and only lent their concurrence through fear of the queen's displeasure. With all their excellen- cies, they were deficient in that moral heroism which would have sacrificed wealth and dignity rather than concur in measures which were disapproved ; or it may be — and charity bids us entertain the sup- position respecting some of them at least — that they retained their stations at a sacrifice of feeling, lest popery should again inundate the land.' 1 Parker's Life, i. 876. Serious the want of aid from the council, comphiints were made at court of and expresses his utter despair of the severity of the archbishop's success if left to fight the battle proceedings, in silencing so many of intolerance alone. " Mr, of the clergy : in consequence of Secretary/' says the irritated pri- which, the queen caused the se- mate, "can it be thought I alone, cretary to write to him. In his having sun and moon against me, reply he states, " that all this was can compass this difficalty ? If no more than he foresaw before you, of her majesty's council, lie began ; and that when the provide no otherwise for this mat- queen put him upon doing what ter than as it appeareth openly, he had done, he told her at his what the sequel will be, horresco first speech with her the second vel reminisccndo cogitare." — 452. Sunday in Lent, that these precise ^ Serious apprehensions were folks would offer their goods and occasionally entertained by some bodies to prison, rather than they of the bishops of the queen's would relent." — 448. reconciling herself to the popish Strype has preserved a curious party. These arc expressed by letter of the archbishop to the Parker and Cox, in letters pre- secretarj-, dated April 28, 1506, served by Strype in his life of the in which he bitterly complains of former. — i. 455, App. 17. VOL. X. O 194 THE HISTORY OF ^yff' The press was not idle on this occasion. Though its province was not ascertained, nor its power ELiz. known, as at present, some instructive examples The ejected Qf j^s uiio'litv influeuce had recently been furnished, ministers v— j publish in which encourao-ed the puritans to avail themselves their own ^ o i defence, of it. lu thc hauds of Luther, it had shaken the popedom ; and as wielded by the English Reform- ers, it had proved the instrument of awakening and of wisely guiding the mighty energies of the public mind. The deprived ministers, therefore, having failed in their applications to the queen and council, determined to submit their case to the decision of impartial men. They accordingly published a small treatise, entitled, A brief discourse against the outward apparel and ministering garments of the popish church; in the commencement of which they state, Considering how hurtful a thing to a Chris- tian commonwealth it is to have the ministers of God's word despised and brought into contempt, we have thought it our duty briefly to declare, in writing, to be set forth to be seen of all men, some part of the reasons and grounds of our doings, in refusing to wear the outward apparel and minister- ing garments of the pope's church."' In this treatise the puritan controversy is seen in its sim- plest form, though an approach is occasionally made to the freer and bolder sentiments which were subsequently avowed. Press Numerous other publications of a similar nature restrained, ^ . , . , . June 19, 1566 wcTc issucd ; to which the bishops replied, either m » Neal gives the title of this garments of the pope's church. — pamphlet differently. He terms it, Hist, of Puritans, i. 183. This is ^ declaration of the doings of found on the top of the first page, those ministers of God's word and while that mentioned in the text sacraments in tfte city of London, occupies the title-page. — Strype's vhich have refused to wear the Annals, i. ii. 162. vpper apparel and ministering PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 195 person or by means of their chaplains. These were ^y^^- legitimate weapons, appropriate to the contest, and suited to advance the interests of truth. The appeal was thus transferred from authority to reason. The judgment and conscience of the nation were made arbiters of the dispute; they were constituted the final judge, and all the attempts which the dominant party subsequently made to withdraw this appeal, or to avert its natural consequences, proved utterly vain. The puritan tracts were diligently sought after and read. They were cir- culated throughout the country, and made an im- , pression strongly unfavourable to the bishops. They were for the most part written in a nervous and pun- gent style, with some mixture of that coarseness which unhappily characterizes nearly all the con- troversial pieces of that day. On the whole, they were eminently adapted for popular impression, and falling in as they did with the most excited passions of the protestant community, they could scarcely fail to make a deep and lasting impression. Finding that their cause was not advanced by these discussions, the ecclesiastical commissioners recommended to the lords of the privy council that the press should be restrained. This was accordingly done by a decree of the Star Chamber, bearing date, June 29, 1566, which prohibited, under severe penalties, the print- ing or publishing of " any book against the force and meaning of any ordinance, prohibition, or commandment, contained or to be contained in any the statutes or laws of this realm, or in any injunc- tions, letters patent, or ordinances, passed or set forth, or to be passed or set forth, by the queen's grant, commission, or authority." Power was given o 2 196 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, to the wardens of the Stationers' company to search all suspected places, and to open all packages; and ELiz. all stationers, printers, and others trading in books, were required to enter into recognizances truly to observe the prescribed ordinances, and to assist the wardens and their deputies in the discharge of their duties.* It would be difficult to point out the dif- ference between such conduct and the uniform policy of the popedom. The principle of both is the same, though, happily for mankind, the temper of modern times has prevented the protestant eccle- siastic from carrying it to the same extent as his catholic brother. t Parker, i. 442. CHAPTER VIII. The Puritans divided on the Propriety of separating from the Hierarchy — Principles of the first Separatists — The Separatists not Schismatics — Chillingworth's Testimony — Arrest at Plumbers' Hall — Progress of Persecution — Examination of Ajcton — Progress of Opinion amongst the Puritans — Cartwright advocates a Presbyterian . System — Deprived of his Lectureship — His Propositions — Expulsion from the University — Puritans supported in the Parliament of 1571. The puritans were now compelled to deliberate chap. on the propriety of holding separate meetings for religious wwship. Their ministers were ejected eliz. from the church, the reforms which they sought were sternly denied, the publication of their senti- divided on the ments was prohibited, and a fixed determination separating was avowed to retain in the constitution and ritual of merarc^hy. the establishment what they deemed incompatible • with the purity and extension of religion. As faith- ful men, therefore, they w^ere compelled to inquire what further steps they should take. Were they to practise rites which they regarded as unlawful ; to connive at and to sanction a system which they partially disapproved? or were they, by the assertion of their Christian liberty, to release conscience from restraint, and thus secure to themselves and their descendants a purer form of ecclesiastical polity ? While their scruples were respected, they clung to the establishment with filial piety. But the resolu- 198 THE HISTORY OF tion now taken by those in authority to force their submission, or to deprive them of their ministry, necessitated the contemplation of a step adverse to their most cherished prejudices, and fraught with consequences from which they might well shrink. They knew something of the temper of the arch- bishop and queen, and had already seen indubitable evidence of their readiness to punish every depar- ture from the prescribed rule. If the neglect of a surplice, or the omission of a few words, were visited ' with deprivation and imprisonment, what was to be expected if the standard of revolt should be openly raised, and hostile forms of worship practised ? These considerations could not but influence the more prudent and timid, while others of a higher order powerfully tended to prevent so decided a step. Many who were dissatisfied with the ceremonial of the church esteemed it their duty to remain in her communion. They regarded the points wherein they differed from their brethren as trifling com- pared with those in which they agreed. The pure doctrine of the word was recognized in her standards of faith, and proclaimed from many of her pulpits. The way of salvation was taught within her pale, and hope was entertained of the queen's heart being drawn to a purer ritual, and a more effective discipline, than she was yet prepared to sanction. Some of the puritan ministers condemned separation as an unmixed evil, fraught with the elements of discord, and tending to the dishonour of the Chris- tian name. Others urged the obligation of their ministry as paramount to the authority of the prince; and, without being aware of the extent or value of the principle, began to urge the unlawfulness of the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 199 civil magistrate enforcing ecclesiastical regulations. This momentous principle, whose complicated bear ings are yet but partially understood, was then ^ in the first stage of its development. It was matter of feeling rather than of judgment ; one of those instinctive appeals which the human mind fre- quently makes in the season of trial to the primary laws of its nature. It arose from the pressure of circumstances, and was generally discountenanced even by the wise and good. But it has survived its defamers, and has slowly commanded regard. Its accordance with the nature of man and the spirit of Christianity was gradually elicited, till at length it has been enrolled amongst the axioms of the most intelligent and impartial of mankind. Nor were the laity unconcerned in this matter ; they displayed a zeal fully equal to their ministers, and in many cases urged them to more decisive mea- sures. Hence a division took place amongst the puritans which prepared the way for the sweep- ing changes advocated by Cartwright and his disciples." " The refusers of the orders of the church," says Strype, " who by this time were commonly called puritans, were grown now into ^two factions. The one was of a more quiet and peaceable demeanour ; who indeed would not use " It should be frankly admitted that Fox, Coverdalc, and other leading puritans strongly censured such of their brethren as separated from the establishment. They endeavoured toiprevent it ; but, as is usual in the course of revolu- tions, whether rehgious or politi- cal, the moderation of their coun- sels impaired their own influence, instead of diminishing the zeal of others. Some of them complained of being treated with unkindness in consequence of their having disapproved of the measures of their brethren. The fact was probably so, nor need we with- liold our censure from such obh- quities on account of our sym- pathy with the general views of those chargeable with them. — Fuller, ix. 106. CoUicr, ii. 511. Strype's Parker, i. 482. 200 THE HISTORY OF ^y^^[' the habits, nor subscribe to the ceremonies enjoined ; as kneeling at the sacrament, the cross in baptism, the ring in marriage ; but held to the communion of the church, and willingly and devoutly joined with the common prayers. But another sort there was, that disliked the whole constitution of the church lately reformed ; charging upon it many gross remainders of popery, and that it was still full of corruptions not to be borne with and anti- \ christian ; and especially the habits which the clergy were enjoined to use in their conversation and ministration. Insomuch that these latter sepa- ^ rated themselves into private assemblies, meeting together, not in churches, but in private houses, wdiere they had ministers of their own. And at these meetings, rejecting wholly the Book of Com- mon Prayer, they used a book of prayers framed at Geneva for the congregation of English exiles lately sojourning there ; which book had been overseen and allowed by Calvin and the rest of his divines there, and indeed was for the most part taken out of the Geneva form. And at these clan- cular and separate congregations, they had not only prayers and sermons, but the Lord's supper also sometimes administered. This gave great offence to the queen, thus openly to turn their backs against that Reformation which she so carefully had ordered and established.'" Principles of Qrdcr to au enlightened estimate of the con- the first Sepa- ... ratists. duct of the separatists, it is necessary to ascertain their principles. These were neither so few nor so trifling as is generally represented by their enemies. They were not confined to insignificant scruples, ' LHc of Grindal, p. 168. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 201 which a little more expansion of mind would have ^y^f' removed ; but embraced many of the more promi- ■ nent features of the hierarchy, and constituted a medium between those of the earliest puritans and such as were shortly afterwards so boldly advocated by the Cambridge professor. They objected to the ecclesiastical supremacy and .temporal dignities of the bishops; to the numerous • titles and offices of archdeacons, deans, chapters, and other officials ; to the exorbitant power of the bishops and their, chancellors in the spiritual courts ; and to the want of godly discipline. They likewise disapproved of many things in the public liturgy, as the frequent repetition of the Lord's Prayer, the responses of the people, and some passages in the offices of marriage and of burial. They disliked the reading of the apocryphal scriptures, the system of patronage, the observance of church festivals, and the cathedral mode of worship. In addition to all which, they strongly objected to many of the ceremonies of the cliurch, as the sign of the cross in baptism, the substitution of godfathers and god- mothers in the place of parents, the confirming of children, bowing at the name of Jesus, the ring in marriage, and the surplice and other ceremonies used in divine service.''' ^ Ncal's Puritans, i. 192—190; ■where tlie reader will find these principles stated more fully, with the reasonings by which they were supported. Mr. Neal is certainly misled in further stating-, p. 196, that the puritans were also distinguished by asserting the natural right that ever}' man lias to judge for himself, and make profession of that religion lie apprehends most agreeable to truLli, so far as it docs uot ulfect the peace and safety of the government he lives under ; with- out being determined by the pre- judices of education, the laws of the civil magistrate, or the decrees of councils, churches, or synods." Nor is his editor. Dr. Touhnin, successful in defending him from the criticism of bishop \Varbur- ton. The passage to which Dr. T. refers in p. 199, proves only tliat the party in question deemed it unlawful for the prince to en- 202 THE HISTORY OF lists not Schismatics, ^yul' Such being their principles, they were naturally ' ^led to separate from the established church. No ELjz. other course was open to them. The only alter- The separa- jj^^jy^ gubmissiou to what they deemed unscrip- tural and pernicious. Hence the absurdity of the charge of schism, which has been so liberally pre- ferred by the advocates of the church. It matters not, so far as this charge is concerned, whether the principles of the separatists were erroneous or true. They were bound to act upon them, and the attempt to prevent their doing so by deprivation and impri- sonment constitutes the only schism of the case. The charge lies against the rulers of the church, and not against those who seceded from her. The former, by their tyrannical impositions, destroyed the unity of the church ; while the latter, by refusing to submit to their pleasure, only performed an act of loyalty to Christ. Had they done otherwise, they might have retained their emoluments, but they would have been converted into wages of ini- quity ; they might have pleased the primate and the queen, but it would have been at the expense of His displeasure who is " head over all things to the church." It is perfectly childish to confound separation and schism. The former may not only be guiltless, but be eminently praiseworthy ; while the latter is invariably criminal in its origin, and pernicious in its fruits.'' This distinction is clearly maintained by Chillingworth, and other protestant writers, in force " that which appertained to " " Schism, in fact, is a thing* bad papistry, idolatry, and the pope's in itself; bad in its very nature: canon law." A different opinion separation may be good or bad, probably would have been ex- according to circumstances. A pressed, had the views of the schismatic is an epithet of crimi- puritan party been in question. nality ; it indicates the personal PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 203 their controversy with the Romanists ; and the principles which they so triumphantly advocated in behalf of protestantism are equally applicable to ^^^2- the case before us. " Not protestants for rejecting," chimng. says Chillingworth, "but the church of Rome for ^^^'JJy;'^- imposing upon the faith of Christians, doctrines un- written and unnecessary, and for disturbing the church's peace and dividing unity for such matters, is, in a high degree, presumptuous and schismaticaL" Again, he says, as if the case of the puritans were directly in his view, " If this church, supposed to want nothing necessary, require me to profess, against my conscience, that I believe some error, though never so small and innocent, which I do not believe, and will not allow me her commu- nion but upon this condition ; in this case, the church, for requiring this condition, is schismatical, and not I, for separating from the church." ^ Again, in his answer to the preface of his opponent, he vindicates his church from the charge of schism ; and his argument, and even his language, may be adopted by the puritan as admirably suited to his case, and completely successful in its vindication. To the popish inquiry, ' Hora they can be excused character of the individual, and it describes that character as bad. A separatist is merely a name of circumstance: in itself it is neither bad nor good ; it indicates no- thing as to the personal character of the individual, it merely de- scribes his position in relation to others. Schism can exist, as we have seen, where there is no sepa- ration, and separation itself is not necessarily schism ; not necessa- rily so, for, while it may be occa- sioned by crime, it may be occa- sioned by virtue ; it may result, in those who depart from intoler- ance attempted, or intolerance sustained, from the pride of fac- tion, or the predominance of principle; attachment to party, or attachment to truth. A schis- matic, in short, must be a sinner, on which ever side he stands ; a separatist may be ' more sinned against than sinning.' " — Dissent not Schism. By the Rev. Thomas Binney. y Preface to the author of Cha- rity Maintained, &c. Sees. 35-44. 204 THE HISTORY OF (ii/ from schism, who forsook her communion upon pre- fence of errors zohich zaere not damnable ? — the very •^2- case of the puritans in relation to the church of England — Chillingworth replies, " All that we for- sake in you is only the belief, and practice, and profession of your errors. Hereupon you cast us out of your communion. And then, with a strange, and contradictious, and ridiculous hypocrisy, com- plain that we forsake it. As if a man should thrust his friend out of doors, and then be offended at his departure. But for us not to forsake the belief of your errors, having discovered them to be errors, was impossible ; therefore, to do so could not be damnable, believing them to be errors. Not to forsake the practice and profession of them had been damnable hypocris}^ supposing that (which you vainly run away with, and take for granted) those errors themselves were not damnable. Now to do so, and, as matters now stand, not to forsake your communion, is apparently contradictious ; seeing the condition of your communion is, that we must profess to believe all your doctrines not only not to be damnable errors (which will not content you), but also to be certain, and necessary, and revealed truths. So that, to demand why we forsake your communion upon pretence of errors which are not damnable, is, in effect, to demand why we forsook it upon our forsaking it ? For, to pretend that there are errors in your church, though not damnable, is, ipso facto^ to forsake your commu- nion ; and to do that which, both in your account, and, as you think, in God's account, puts him that does so out of your communion. So that, either 3^ou must free your church from requiring the PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. belief of any error whatsoever, damnable and not damnable ; or, whether you will or no, you must free us from schism. For schism there cannot be, in leaving your communion, unless we were obliged to continue in it. Man cannot be obliged by man, but to what either primarily or virtually he is obliged by God ; for all just power is from God. God, the eternal truth, neither can nor will oblige us to believe any, the least and the most innocent, falsehood to be a divine truth — that is to err ; nor to profess a known error — which is to lie. So that, if you require the belief of any error among the conditions of your communion, our obligation to communicate with you ceaseth ; and so the imputa- tion of schism to us perishes into nothing, but lies heavy upon you for making our separation from you just and necessary, by requiring unnecessary and unlawful conditions of your communion." ' The chief leaders of the separation were Cole- man, Button, Halingham, and Benson ; all bene- ficed within the diocese of London.'' Their meeting's were strictl}^ private, and were held in various places. Sometimes they assembled in barns, woods, and fields ; and at other times, under various pre- tences, in their own houses.^ But they could not long elude the vigilant tyranny of their persecutors. Answer to the Preface of Charity Maintained. Sec. 22. Surely the advocates of the Establishment must be acquaint- ed with these and numerous similar passages in the writings of Chillingworth ; and, if so, what must be thought of their candour in reiterating the charge of schism against the puritan separatists? "Yourselves," said Ains worth, "are a precedent to us of like practice, in separating, not in, but out of, the church of Rome : as you have dealt with the mother, so do we with the daughter, because like mother like daughter, according to the pro- verb. Ezek. xvi. 44." — Counter Poyson, 1589, p. 8. a Fuller, ix. 81. ^ Hcyhn's Hist, of Presbyte- rians, 259. 206 THE HISTORY OF ^viii' '^^^ queen and council, hearing of these meetings, sent to the bishop of London, directing him to searcli after those who frequented them ; to endeavour, by persuasion, to bring them to conformity ; and, if this failed, to deprive them, in the first place, of the liberty of the city, and afterwards to inflict such other more severe penalties as they might deem fit. Arrest at Uudcterred, however, by the sufierings thus pre- Hall, June pared for them, the seceders continued their assem- 19, io6<. ijjjgg . length, ventured more openly to meet at Plumbers' Hall, which they hired for the day under pretence of a wedding. Here they were dis- covered by the sheriff's of London, and several of them were committed to the Compter. On the follow- ing day seven were brought before the lord mayor, the bishop of London, and other ecclesiastical com- missioners. The bishop charged them with ab- senting themselves from their parish churches ; and with setting up unlawful meetings for prayer, preaching, and the administration of the sacra- ments ; telling them they thus condemned " the whole state of the church reformed in King Ed- ward's days ; which was well reformed according to the word of God ; yea, and many good men have shed their blood for the same, which your doings condemn." To which one of them, by the name of Smith, replied, " So long as we might have the word freely preached, and the sacraments administered, without the preferring of idolatrous gear above it, we never assembled together in houses. But, when it came to this point, that all our preachers were displaced by your law that would not subscribe to your apparel and your law, so that we could hear none of them in any church, by the space of seven PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 207 or eight weeks, except father Coverdale — and then ^y^f' were we troubled, and commanded to your courts from day to day, for not coming to our parish ^liz. churches. Then we bethought us what were best to do ; and we remembered that there was a con- gregation of us in this city in queen Mary's days, and a congregation at Geneva, which used a book and order of preaching, &:c., most agreeable to the word of God ; which book is allowed by that godly and well learned man. Master Calvin, and the preachers there ; which book and order we now hold. And, if you can reprove this book, or any thing that we hold, by the word of God, we will yield to you, and do open penance at Paul's Cross ; if not, we will stand to it, by the grace of God." They then complained of the popish character of some of the preachers, and affirmed that the kingly authority of Christ was sacrificed to the pope's canon law, and the will of the prince. When asked by the bishop, what was preferred to this authority? they replied, " That which is upon 3^our head, and upon your back ; your copes and your surplices, and your laws and ministers ; because you will suffer none to preach, nor minister, except he wear them, or subscribe to them." Grindal reminded them of Sampson and Lever, who still preached ; to which they rejoined, " Though they preach, you have deprived them, and forbidden them ; and the law standeth in force against them still, howsoever you suffer them now." The bishop urged the opinion of the learned ; all of whom, he said, were against them : but they boldly replied, " We will be tried by the word of God, which shall judge us all at the last day." Whereupon the dean 208 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. VIII. ELIZ. of Westminster, betraying his ignorance of the faith he professed, inquired, " But who will ye have to be judge of the word of God?" To whom they an- swered, " Why, that was the saying of the papists in queen Mary's time. I have heard it, when the truth was defended by the word of God, then they would say. Who shall judge of the word of God ? The Catholic Church must be judge i""" Refusing to abjure their principles, or to conform to the esta- blished ceremonies, they were sent to Bridewell, where they remained upwards of a year. The bishop endeavoured to reclaim them, but without success ; when, " pitying their condition," Strype tells us, " he moved the secretary, that clemency might be used towards them ; that so, by giving them freely their liberty, only with an admonition, they might be more prevailed withal to comply c Strvpe's Grindal, 169-176.— A Parte of a Register, 2.3-37.— The Lord Mayor was evidently disinclined to the part he was compelled to act. He compas- sionated the prisoners, and gently endeavoured to persuade them to submit. "Well, good people," he said ; " I would you would wisely consider these things, and be obedient to the queen's ma- jesty's good laws, as I and other of the queen's subjects are, that you may live quietly, and have liberty, as my lord here and mas- ters have said. And as, for my part, I would that you were at your hearts' ease, and I am sorry that ye are troubled: but I am an officer under my prince, and, therefore, blame not me. I can- not talk learnedly with you in celestial matters ; but I have a mother wit, and I will persuade the best 1 can. The queen hath not established these garments and things for any holiness' sake or religion, but only for a civil order and comeliness : because she should have the ministers known from other men ; as the aldermen are known by their tip- pets, and the judges by their red gowns, and sometimes they wear coifs ; and likewise lords' ser- vants are known by their badges. I will tell you an example : there was an alderman within this year that went in the street, and a boisterous fellow met him, and went between him and the wall, and put him towards the kennel. And some that were there about him, said to him, " Knowest thou not what thou doest.'^ — he is an alderman." And he said, " I knew him not ; he might have worn his tippet.'' Even so, when the ministers began to be des- pised, the queen's grace did or- dain this priests' apparel, but the people cannot be content^ and like it.— Ibid., 30. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 209 with the laws, than by severity." His suggestion y^fj^* was adopted ; and, in April, 1569, twenty-four men and seven women were released, with an intimation ^^iz. that severer measures would be adopted in case of another offence. ^ In this affair, the prosrressive nature of ecclesi- pi^o^^ss of ^ 1 o Persecution. astical pride and intolerance may be seen. The rulers of the church first sought merely to prevent the entrance into its offices of such as scrupled con- formity to its rights ; they then proceeded to eject tliose who were similarly disposed ; but, in the instance before us, they advanced with fearful rapi- dity to rival the papacy itself. " The principle of intolerance," it has been remarked, " was affirmed by deeds as well as by words. The minor ma- chinery of persecution was put together, and set up — nay, it was brought into activity; a pernicious example, little excused by the limited extent of its immediate mischief."^ What injury could have befallen religion by leaving these men to them- selves ? Charity and justice required it, and the spirit of protestantism demanded it on their behalf. Grindal was personally tolerant, but the system which he worked was despotic and persecuting. Its influence on himself was unhappily shown in subsequent transactions ; wherein he appears to have thrown aside the gentleness of his nature, and to have assumed the sternness of Parker, if not the fiercer bigotry of Whitgift. It is not in human nature to conduct the operations of such a system without receiving its unhallowed impressions. The persecution of the puritans now proceeded with greater vigor than ever. The archbishop Grindal, 200. * Sir J. Mackintosh's England, iii. 133. VOL. I. P THE HISTORY OF endeavoured to diffuse his spirit throughout the kingdom, and was constantly employed in stirring up his brethren to rigorous measures, or in suggest- ing to the queen and her ministers suspicions of the political character and views of his opponents. Every means was employed to discover the num- ber, reputation, and intentions of those who were dis- satisfied with the ecclesiastical government. Great numbers were summoned into the spiritual courts, the rules of whose proceedings were as adverse to moral as they were subversive of political rights. It was not unusual to tender an oath to the accused, pledging him to answer all questions, though framed for the purpose of implicating himself or his friends. This practice became, subsequently, more general, and constituted a fearful instrument of intolerance and cruelty. Amongst the many obli- gations under which the puritans have laid their country, it is by no means the least, that they de- nounced this oath as a palpable infraction of the spirit and principles of the English constitution. " Leaving these unjust and lawless men," said an early puritan writer, " with their bad practices and fond inventions, I doubt not, by these few yet effectual proofs and authorities, it doth manifestly appear unto all men of upright and sound judg- ment, that as well the imposing as the taking of these general oaths is a profane abusing of the holy name of God ; that the exacting of oaths, ex officio, is a great indignity to the crown and sceptre of this kingdom, and a wrong and injury to the freedom and liberty of the subjects thereof That the same is not necessary or profitable to the church and commonwealth, but hurtful to them both ; PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 211 brought in only by the practice of the popish clergy, ^y{i[' to the prejudice of the public peace and tranquil- lity of this realm ; and that the same never had any good allowance by any law, custom, ordinance, or statute of this kingdom, neither yet put in use by • any civil magistrate of this land : but as it corruptly crept in among many other abuses, by the sinister practice and pretences of the Romish prelates and clergymen, so this their unlawful dealing hath been, from time to time, by law^ful and just authority impugned and restrained." ^ The puritans, while protesting against this oath, Examination were divided in opinion on the propriety of taking , it. Some deemed it an unlawful surrender of their liberty ; while others, confiding in their integrity, scorned concealment, and maintained the obligation of making an unreserved disclosure of their princi- ples and plans. An example of this is supplied in the examination of Mr. Axton, minister of Morton Corbet, in Leicestershire. He had been cited into the bishop's court three different times in the year 1570 ; and was examined respecting the apparel, the cross in baptism, and kneeling at the sacra- ment ; all of which he scrupled. He disdained to conceal his sentiments, though aware of the conse- quences which would flow from their disclosure. The bishop of Litchfield demanding to know his opinion of " the calling of the bishops of England," the following dialogue took place : — Axton. It seemeth strange unto me that you * A briefe treatise of Ocathes ex- propound. And of their forced acted by Ordinaries and Ecclesi- and constrained oathes, ex officio, asticall Judges, to answere g-ene- wherein is proved that the same rally to all such Articles or Inter- are unlawfull, p. o7. rogatories as pleaseth them to p 2 •212 THE HISTORY OF should propound this question unto me, especially in — this place, and at this time. I am not ignorant into ^' what great danger I may fall by answering unto your question ; neither can I be compelled to an- swer hereunto, being not accused of any thing by any. Bishop. Yes, I may compel you to answer upon your oath. Axton. And if you do so, I may choose whether I vAW answer upon mine oath or not. Bishop. But I may urge you with your own speeches, which you used the last time you were before me. Axtoji, That which I spake willingly then, to the glory of God, that will I also speak willingly now. Bishop. But I marvel why you, being so bold before without all motion, should be so doubtful now to speak, being required. Axton. I do not know to what end vou do ask me these things, or whether it be only to bring me into danger or no ; and I might have conscience not to thrust myself into danger. But, at this time, because I am persuaded it shall redound to God's glory, I will speak my conscience, whatever danger shall ensue. And I beseech you, in Jesus Christ, to hear me in the fear of God, as certainly, by the assistance of his Holy Spirit, I shall speak nothing but in his fear, and that which is so grounded in my conscience out of his word, as I am persuaded I ought to die in the defence thereof ; and do trust, not in myself, but in his Holy Spirit, that I shall be most willing to die, as well in the defence of this truth, as in the defence of any article of my faith. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 213 if it shall so please the Lord to make a trial of ^y^^l' me. ELIZ. Bishop. What do you think of me ? I dare say you account me to be no lawful bishop ? Axton, You are not lawfully called to be a bishop according to the word of God. BisJiop. I thought so. But why am I not a law- ful bishop ? Axton. For three causes especially : — the first is, for that you are not ordained a bishop by the consent of the eldership. The second, because you are not ordained to be a bishop over any one flock, for you say you are a bishop over the whole diocese, and then you are a bishop over many flocks; and yet you do not think that you are bishop (that is, pas- tor) over any of these congregations. The third, because you are not chosen to be a governor in the church of God by the election of the people.^ But these severe measures failed to accomplish Progress of the end for which they were employed. Instead of subduing opposition, they aroused and extended it. Men were led to examine the foundations of the power by which they were so cruelly oppressed. The influence of education and early attachment was thus counteracted ; until at length a determina- tion was avowed to overturn a system whose refor- mation only had previously been sought. This is the natural course of things, it is one of the ordinances of Divine Providence, whereby good is brought out of evil, and the purity of the church advanced by the sufterings of its members. The human mind is, for the most part, so indolent, and the influences which induce acquiescence in received opinions and ^ .AIS. pp. 45— 48. opinion imongst the Puritans. 214 THE HISTORY OF ^Yiii' P^^^^^^^s numerous and powerful, that some ' stirring motive is usually required to force men to ^^i^- trace out the legitimate extent of their principles. In the first period of their history, the puritans were opposed only to the habits, and a few of the ceremonies of the church. Had their scruples been ^ respected, or any disposition been evinced to meet their case with fairness and charity, their opposition, probably, would not have proceeded farther. At- tached to the church by many of the most powerful ties which can bind the human mind, they would gladly have remained in her communion. But, when their consciences were forced ; when attempts were made to constrain their performance of ser- vices which they disapproved ; when the bishops, instead of being overseers, became lords of the church of Christ, and pursued with avidity every scheme which could increase their wealth, or strengthen their powder ; then the puritans were driven to a closer and more scrutinizing examina- tion of the existing system than they would other- wise have instituted. The consequence of this was a rejection of the episcopal order, and a preference of the presbyterian form of church goverment. They had seen this latter system at Geneva, and other places on the continent, and had witnessed the struggles recently made on its behalf in the neigh- bouring kingdom of Scotland. Thomas IcadcT of thls section of the puritan Cartwright ^ advocates a ^odv — which rapldlv increased in numbers, and Presbyterioii ^ i. J system. ^yas cmincut for zeal, activity, and learning — was 1570. » Thomas Cartwright, fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and Lady Margaret's professor of that university. He was a man of distinguished learn- ing, and of undoubted piety ; with controversial PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 215 powers well fitted to the age in which he lived, ^^^^j^- and an ardent temperament, that no discourage- ments or difficulties could subdue. In his divinity lectures he advocated the equality of ministers, and a return to the discipline of apostolic times. His ELIZ. ^ Sir George Paule, the pane- gyrist rather than the biographer of Whitgift, has attempted to discredit Cartwright by impugn- ing his motives. In the year 1564, on the occasion of Eliza- beth's visit to the university, Cartwright, as one of the most learned of that body, was chosen, with others, to dispute before her. Paule represents him as mortified by the neglect with which the queen treated him, and as pro- ceeding immediately to Geneva, "that he might the better feed his humour." " Mr. Cartwright," he says, "immediately after her majesty's neglect of him, began to wade into diverse opinions, as that of the discipline ; and to kick against her ecclesiastical go- vernment."— Life of Whitgift, 10. Heylin, Hist, of Reformation, 1G4 ; and ColHer, Ecclesiastical Hist, li. 492, have retailed this slan- der ; in which unworthy conduct they have been followed by se- veral modern writers. Fuller mentions the charge with evident marks of distrust. " We find one great scholar," he remarks, " much discontented, if my author may be believed, namely, Mr. Thomas Cartwright. He and Thomas Preston were appointed two of the four disputants in the philo- sophy act before the queen. Cartwright had dealt most with the muses, Preston with the graces, adorning his learning with comely carriage, graceful ges- ture, and pleasing pronunciation. Cartwright disputed like a great, Preston like a genteel, scholar, being a handsome man ; and the queen, upon parity of deserts, al- ways preferred propetness of per- son, in conferring her favours." And he adds, " Mr. Cartwright's followers credit not the relation. Adding, moreover, that the queen did highly commend, though not reward, liim." — Hist, of the Uni- versitj' of Cambridge, 139. Cart- wright's general character is suffi- cient to discredit this account. But its inaccuracy is rendered more apparent by the fact, that his visit to Geneva, which Paule represents as the consequence of his disgust at the queen's neglect, and as the source of those opinions for which he was deprived of his professorship, did not take place till after his expulsion from the university. Strypc exonerates Cartwright, alleging that, " by the relation of the queen's reception at Cambridge (now in the hands of a learned member of that uni- versity), there appears no clear ground for any such discontent. For the queen is said there to have approved them all ; only that Preston pleased her most ; and was made her scholar, with the settlement of a yearly hono- rary salary on him." — Annals i. ii. 107. His elevation to the di- vinity chair, in 1569, is ample evidence of the estimation in which he was held by the univer- sity, and would have sufficed to calm his spirit had it been per- turbed by such emotions as his enemies were forward in attribut- ing to him. It was due to the memory of this eminent man to vindicate him from so foul an as- persion. But what must we think of those modern libellers, who, passing over the admission of Strype, and the mistrust of Fuller, retail the venom of Paule, Heylin, and Collier? 216 THE HISTORY OF ^Yiii' pop^l^^^ty ^^^6 university was great, especially amongst the students, who flocked to his lectures, ELiz. eagerly imbibed his sentiments. The chan- cellor was soon informed of his proceedings ; and Grindal, now archbishop of York, at the suggestion of some of the heads of colleges, addressed a letter to Cecil, praying him to interpose his authority for the correction of so great an evil. This letter is dated June 24, 1570, and represents Cartwright as making " daily invections against the external policy and distinction of states, in the ecclesiastical government of this realm." " The youth of the university," says Grindal, " which is at this time very toward in learning, doth frequent his lectures in great numbers ; and therefore in danger to be poisoned by him, with love of contention and liking of novelties ; and so become hereafter, not only un- profitable, but also hurtful to the church." He therefore prayed the chancellor to cause Cartwright and his adherents to be silenced, "both in schools and pulpits ;" and, if they did not conform, to be expelled " out of their colleges, or out of the uni- versity, as the cause shall require." Also, that Cartwright should be prevented from taking his degree, as doctor of divinity, for which he had made application ! ' Letters were also sent to Sir William Cecil, by some members of the university, in vindication of Cartwright ; for " he had," says Strype, " a great party in the university, and some of them men of learning, who stuck close to him, exceedingly admiring him." j He himself, in an elegant Latin letter, dated July 9, 1570, de- clared to the chancellor, "that none was so averse 'to * Strvpc's Grindal, 240. J AnnaH ii. 1, 2. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 217 sedition, and the study of contention, and that he ^^^f' had taught nothing which flowed not naturally from the text which he treated of. And that, when eliz. an occasion ofl'ered itself of speaking concerning the habits, he waved it. He denied not, but that he taught that our ministry declined from the ministry of the ancient and apostolical church ; which he wished might be framed and modelled according to the purity of our reformation. But that he did this sedately, that none could find fault with it but some ignorant or malign hearers, or such as catched at something to calumniate him."^ The chancellor, after maturely considering the matter, sent a letter to the heads of the university, enjoining on both parties perfect silence respecting the controverted points. He appears to have been satisfied of Cartwright's integrity, and was disposed to proceed with tenderness towards him. "How far," he says, " Mr. Cartwright herein proceeded, I can- not certainly determine ; being by himself, and a testimonial of others of that university, of good name, advertised in one sort ; and by others also there, whom I have cause to trust, in another sort. What mind he had in the moving of these matters, by himself in communication, I perceive the same not to be much reprehended ; being, as it seemeth, not of any arrogancy, or intention to move troubles ; but, as a reader of the Scriptures, to give notes, by way of comparison, between the order of the min- istry in the times of the apostles, and the present times now in this church of England." ^ Whitffift and his associates, instead of following: deprived of , . ^ his lecture- the advice of their chancellor, proceeded to ad mo- ship. Annuls^ ii. i. o. ' Ibid., i. ii. 377. 218 THE HISTORY OF ^^^l' nish Cartwright to retract his opinions. This he —-—firmly refused to do; and was, in consequence, deprived of his stipend, though permitted to con- tinue his lecture. Whitgift, being soon afterwards Dec. 11, 1570. chosen vice-chancellor, summoned Cartwright be- fore him ; and, being " armed with authority," as Fuller expresses it, he required him to renounce his sentiments ; and, on his refusal, deprived him of his lectureship, and prohibited his preaching within the university, or its jurisdiction.'' Tf cS^tSt propositions which Cartwright had presented to the vice-chancellor were the following, which strikingly display the progress of opinion, notwith- standing the violent methods which were employed to restrain it. 1 . The names and functions of arch- bishops and archdeacons ought to be abolished. 2. The offices of the lawful ministers of the church, as bishops and deacons, ought to be reduced to the apostolical institution. Bishops to be employed in preaching and in prayer, and deacons in ministering to the poor. 3. The government of th^ church ought not to be entrusted to the chancellors of bishops, or to the officials of archdeacons ; but every church ought to be governed by its own ministry and presbytery. ° 4. Ministers ought not to be at large, but should have charge of some one particu- lar flock. 5. No one ought to solicit or stand as a candidate for the ministry. 6. Ministers ought not to be made by the sole authority and power of " Clarke's Lives of Thirty-two gift, Number Q, he reads presby- English divines, &c. p. 17. terum, in which he agrees with n Strype's Whitgift, app. 9. Clarke, p. 18, who tells us, he Strype, in his Annals, i. ii. copied out of the original in the 380, reads presbyterium ; but, in university registry, his appendix to the Life of Whit- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 219 bishops, much less in a study, or any private place; ^y^^l' but the election ought to be made by the church.^ Other opinions, deemed heretical, were extracted ^^^2- from his lectures, and sent to court to prejudice him „. ' J: J His expulsion still further in the estimation of the queen and f'^^'" ^he uni- ^ versity, &c. chancellor. His case was prejudged ; and his enemies soon succeeded in depriving him of his fellowship, and in banishing him from the univer- sity. The pretence for this severity was as flimsy as the sentence was unjust. The college statutes re- quired a senior fellow to take the order of priest- hood; which it was alleged Cartwright had not done, he being only in deacon's orders. He was therefore judged to be perjured, and was expelled accordingly. The whole case depends on the mean- ing of the phrase order of priesthood. Whitgift, and his abettors, contended for a restricted inter- pretation ; while Cartwright maintained, that it was of more comprehensive import, and included the diaconal as well as the ministerial order. The church of England maintains a threefold order of ministers ; and assigns to the lowest, that of dea- cons, the administration of baptism, and the preach- ing of the word/ Hence it would appear, that Cartwright was correct in his view of the contested phrase, and that the use his enemies made of it was prompted by a predetermination to expel him from their body, rather than by an honest concern for the maintenance of the university statutes. " Some p Strype's Whitgift, App. 9. festly incorrect. Hist, of Puri- Ann;ils i. ii. 880. Neal has given tans, i. 212. a different version of the sixth i Annals, i. ii. 881. proposition, in which he is mani- Sparrow's Collection, &c. 146. 220 THE HISTORY OF ^^^^ accusations," says Cartwright, referring to — AYliitgift, "touch the cause, but the most part touch ELiz. it jjQt Of this latter kind, one sort are of m}^ man- ner of living, albeit he count it a childish kind of confuting, that one should learn the cause, and take himself to the person. Here my ministry is di- versely accused, as that I did not seek for the order of priesthood, as it is called ; for that is that he meaneth, I should have done by oath, or else departed the college. The answer hereto is longer than this treatise may embrace ; which I am ready to exhi- bit before him to whom it belongeth: because I am provoked, I humbly desire him to receive the cause. But, in a word, it is a mere cavil. For the meaning of the statute of the house is to provide that men should not turn tlieir studies to other professions, of law, &c. ; but that there should be to furnish the college of a number of preachers, of which I was one as soon as I entered. Neither was there any duty of ministry which the college could require of me, that I was not enabled to do according to the laws of the church of England, by virtue of that ministry which I had received. So that the law itself (as that whose meaning was fulfilled even with my entry) did not require it. Also the corruption of the law, or at the least, of his interpretation (bind- ing men to beg a ministry, and thereby, after a sort, to testify of themselves that they be fit for it), might, after knowledge that I ought not to beg it, justly keep me back." * The personal hostility of Whitgift is apparent throughout this affair ; nor can it be denied, that a similar feeling was gene- rated in the nobler breast of Cartwright. The con- • Second reply to Wliitgift.— Ei)i?;tk' to tlic Church of Eiiglaud, p. 9. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 221 troversy in which they subsequently engaged af- ^y^f' forded ample opportunities for its display. The bitterness which oppression engenders is legible in the writings of the latter, while those of the former display the insolence and hard-heartedness of eccle- siastical power, and the affected contempt of wounded pride. Cartwright, on his expulsion from the university, repaired to Geneva ; where he formed an intimacy with Beza, the coadjutor and successor of Calvin. In the parliament which met April 1571, a strong^ ^'"'•itans sup- ^ ^ ^ i _ ^ ported in the disposition to complete the reformation of the church commons, was evinced. Soon after the commencement of the session, " Mr. Strickland, a grave and ancient man, of great zeal," introduced the subject in a temperate speech, in which he avowed his conviction that there were some things superstitious in the Book of Common Prayer. " He spake at large of the abuses of the church of England and of the church- men; as, first, that known papists are admitted to have ecclesiastical government and great livings ; that godly, honest, and learned protestants have little or nothing ; that boys are dispensed with to have spiritual promotions ; that by friendship with the master of the faculties, either unable men are qualified, or some one man allowed to have too many several livings ; finally, he concluded with petition, that, by authority of the house, some con- venient number of them might be assigned to have conference with the lords of the spirituality, for consideration and reformation of the matters by him remembered."* He proceeded a few days P , . ^ April 14. atterwards to mtroduce a bill for the reformation of ' D'Ewes's Journal^ p. 157. 222 THE HISTORY OF the Book of Common Prayer, which was opposed by the queen's ministers on the ground of its being an invasion of her prerogative. He succeeded, however, in having it read a first time." During the Easter recess he was called before the lords of the privy^ council, and was commanded to refrain, during their pleasure, from attending on parliament.' This gave rise to an animated discussion in the com- mons, in which may be traced the germ of that spirit which constituted the bulwark of English liberty in the subsequent reigns of James and Charles. Mr. Carleton signified to the house that one of their members was detained from them, " by whose commandment, or for what cause, he knew not. But for as much as he was not now a private man, but to supply the room, person, and place of a mul- titude specially chosen, and therefore sent, he thought that neither in regard of the country, which was not to be wronged, nor for the liberty of the house, which was not to be infringed, we should permit him to be detained from us." Another member remarked, " The precedent was perilous, and though in this happy time of lenity, among so good and honourable personages, under so gracious a prince, nothing of extremity or injury was to be feared ; yet the times might be altered, and what now is peiTTiitted, hereafter might be construed as of duty, and enforced even on this ground of the present permission. That all matters not treason, or too much to the derogation of the imperial crown, were tolerable there, where all things came to be considered of, and where there was such fulness of power, as even the right of the crown was to be «• D'Ewes's Journal, 166. ^ ii,id., 168. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 223 ELIZ. determined. That to say the parliament had no ^^j^j^* power to determine of the crown, was high treason. - He remembered how that men are not there for themselves, but for their countries. That it was fit for princes to have their prerogatives ; but yet the same to be straitened within reasonable limits. The prince could not of herself make laws, neither might she by the same reason break laws. That the speech uttered in that place, and the offer made of the bill, were not to be condemned as evil ; for that if there were any thing in the Book of Com- mon Prayer, either Jewish, Turkish, or Popish, the same was to be reformed." The result of the dis- cussion was, that Mr. Strickland was permitted to resume his place, and that the house showed an increased determination to proceed in measures of ecclesiastical reform. Various other bills were in- troduced, amongst which was one to enforce the articles of religion agreed on in the convocation of 1562. Some of these respected the ceremonies of the church and the ecclesiastical supremacy vested in the crown. To these the puritan party opposed themselves, and their influence was sufficiently powerful to confine the sanction of parliament to such of the articles as pertained to matters of faith. The statute of 13 Eliz., c. 1 2, accordingly enacts, that every priest or minister shall subscribe to all the articles of religion which only concern the con- fession of the true Christian faith, and the doctrine of the sacraments, comprised in a book entitled "Articles whereupon it was agreed," &c.'' That ^ D'Ewes, 175. all the articles. In so doing, they ^ This limitation was of little acted without authority ; but it practical utility, the bishops in- was in vain for the puritans to variably enforcing subscription to protest, for the queen and the 224 THE HISTORY OF Yiih limitation was introduced with design, is placed beyond doubt by a remarkable conversation which ELJZ. jyjj.^ AVentworth, one of the committee appointed by the commons to wait on the archbishop, represents to have taken place between himself and the pri- mate. Speaking in the session of 1575, on behalf of the liberties of parliament, he severely reflects on the dignitaries of the church, as the great hinderance of its reformation. " I have heard of old parliament men," he says, " that the banishment of the pope and popery, and the restoring of true religion, had their beginning from this house, and not from the bishops ; and I have heard that few laws for religion had their foundation from them ; and I do surely think, before God I speak it, that the bishops were the cause of that doleful message (from the queen), and I will show you what moveth me so to think. I was, amongst others, the last parliament, sent unto the bishop of Canterbury, for the articles of religion that then passed this house. He asked us why we did put out of the book the articles for the homilies, consecrating of bishops, and such like ? Surely, Sir, said I, because we were so occupied in other matters, that we had no time to examine them, how they agreed with the word of God. What, said he, surely you mis- took the matter, you will refer yourselves wholly to us therein. No, by the faith I bear to God, said I, we will pass nothing before we know what it is ; for that were but to make you popes. Make you popes who list, said I, for we will make you none. primate were agiiinst them, tion ^Tas to those which respected Several were in consequence de- ceremonies. — Strjpe's Annals, ii. prived in lo72, for not subscribing j, 276. to the articles, whose only objec- PROTESTANT NONCONFOR3nTY. 225 And sure, Mr. Speaker, the speech seemed to me to be a pope-like speech, and I fear lest our bishops do attribute this of the pope's canons unto themselves. Papa noil potest errare ; for surely if they did not, they would reform things amiss, and not to spurn against God's people for writing therein as they do ; but I can tell them news, they do but kick against the pricks, for undoubtedly they both have and do err, and God will reveal his truth, maugre the hearts of them and all his enemies, for great is the truth, and it will prevail."^ CHAP. VIII. ELIZ. y D'Ewes, 239. Hallam's Con. Hist., i. 200. Mr. Wentwortli was committed by the house to the custody of its seijeant, for some passages in this speech which it was alleged reflected on the queen. A committee was also appointed, before which he was examined ; but the court, tliouoh its influence prevailed thus far, obtained little advantage by its prosecution of this distinguished and intrepid patriot. " I do thank the Lord my God," said he to the committee, that I never found fear in myself to give the queen's majesty warning to avoid her danger. Be you all afraid thereof if you will, for I praise God I am not, and I hope never to live to see that day ; and yet I will assure your honours that twenty times and more, when I walked in my grounds, revolving this speech to prepare against this day, my own fearful conceit did say unto me that this speech would carry me to the place whither I shall now go, and fear would have moved me to have put it out j then I weighed whether in good conscience, and the duty of a faithful subject, I might keep myself out of prison, and not warn my prince from walkinor in a dansrerous course ; my conscience said unto me, that I could not be a faithful subject, if I did more respect to avoid my own danger than my prince's danger ; herewithall •! was made bold, and went forward as your honours heard: yet when I utter- ed these words in the house, that there was none without fault, no, not our noble queen ; I paused, and beheld all your countenances, and saw plainly that those words did amaze you all. Then I was afraid with you for company, and fear bade me to put out those words that followed, for your countenances did assure me that not one of you would stay me of my journey; yet the consideration of a good conscience and of a faithful subject did make me bold to utter it in such sort as your honors heard. With this heart and mind I spake it, and I praise God for it ; and if it were to do again, I would with the same mind speak it ag^lin." — D'Ewes, 24.3. The man who could thus calmly resolve, and firmly act, was not likely to be terrified by the threatenings of the court. He speedily regained his liberty, and in successive parliaments showed himself the wortliy predecessor of Hampden and Pym. VOL. I. CHAPTER IX. Publication of the Admonition to Parliament — Tlie Authors of it imprisoned — Whitgift employed by the Archbishop to reply — His An- swer— Formation of the first Presbyterian Church — Second Admo- nition published by Cartwright — Replies to Whitgift's Answer. ^' \io^e of redress from the queen and bishops being now relinquished, the more zealous of the 1572. ELiz. puritans resolved on an appeal to the judgment and loS^^t, conscience of the legislature. For this purpose they published a treatise entitled An Admojiition to the Parliament ; in which they set forth, with much warmth of feeling and strength of language, their objections to the hierarchy, and the wrongs they had endured from its officers. This publication marks an important era in the history of puritanism. " The hour for liberal concessions had been suffered to pass away ; the archbishop's intolerant temper had taught men to question the authority that op- pressed them, till the battle was no longer to be fought for a tippet and a surplice, but for the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy, interwoven as it was ^N-ith the temporal constitution of England." ^ This ' Hallam, i. 252. The publica- towards the union of the puritans tion of this treatise may be re- and the patriots — the advocates garded as one of the earliest steps of spiritual freedom and the de- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 227 treatise constituted an appeal from the queen and bishops to the representatives of the nation ; — an ominous step, which could not fail to excite the dis- E^-^^' pleasure of the court. It avowed distinctly, and in no measured terms, unceasing hostility to the constitution of the church. Rejecting all dis- guise, it spoke out freely the language of strong conviction, tinctured with somewhat of that bitter- ness which has too generally characterized the con- troversies of the church. " Two treatises ye have here ensuing, beloved in Christ," say the authors, " which ye must read without partiality or blind affection. For, otherwise, you shall neither see their meaning, nor refrain yourselves from rashly condemning of them without just cause. For, certain men there are of great countenance, which will not lightly like of them, because they principally concern their persons and unjust deal- ings; whose credit is great, and whose friends are many: we mean the lordly lords, archbishops,bishops, suffragans, deans, university doctors, and bachelors of divinity, archdeacons, chancellors, and the rest of that proud generation, whose kingdom must down, hold they never so hard ; because their tyrannous lordship cannot stand with Christ's kingdom. And it is the special mischief of our English church, and the chief cause of backwardness, and of all breacli and dissension. For they whose authority is for- bidden by Christ, will have their stroke without their fellow-servants ; yea, though ungraciously, cruelly, and popelike, they take upon them to beat them, and that for their own childish articles, being fenders of civil liberty. The close the despotism of Elizabeth, and and faithful union of these two utterly to overthrow that of the parties enabled them to check Stuarts. Q 2 THE HISTORY OF for the most part against the manifest truth of God. First, by experience, their rigor hath too plainly appeared ever since their wicked reign, and spe- cially for the space of these five or six years last. But, in a few words to say what we mean, either must we have a right ministry of God, and a right government of his church, according to the scripture, set up (both which we lack) ; or else there can be no right religion, nor yet for contempt thereof can God's plagues be from us any while de- ferred. And therefore, though they link in toge- ther, and slanderously charge poor men (whom they have made poor) with grievous faults, calling them puritans, worse than donatists, exasperating and setting on such as be in authority against them, having hitherto miserably handled them with revilings, deprivations, imprisonments, banish- ments, and such like extremities, yet is these poor men's cause never the worse, nor these challengers the better, nor God's hand the farther off to link in with his against them." ^ The authors of the Admonition then proceed to lay down what tliey term " a true platform of a church reformed." " We in England," they say, "are so far off from having a church rightly re- formed, according to the prescript of God's word, that as yet we are scarce come to the outward face of the same. For to speak of that wherein the best consent, and whereupon all good writers accord. The outward marks whereby a true christian church is known are, preaching of the word purely, minister- ing of the sacraments sincerely, and ecclesiastical discipline, which consisteth in admonition and cor- * Preface to the Admonition. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. recting of faults severely. Touching the first, namely, the ministry of the word, although it must be confessed that the substance of doctrine by many delivered is sound and good, yet herein it faileth, that neither the ministers thereof are according to God's word proved, elected, called, or ordained ; nor the function in such sort so narrowly looked into, as of right it ought, and is of necessity re- quired."^ The ministry of the church is contrasted, in several particulars, with that of the apostolic age; and the parliament in conclusion is told, "The way to avoid these inconveniences, and to reform these deformities, is this : Your wisdoms have to remove advowsons, patronages, impropriations, and bishops' authority, claiming to themselves thereby right to ordain ministers, and to bring in the old and true election, which was accustomed to be made by the congregation. You must displace those ignorant and unable ministers already placed, and in their rooms appoint such as both can and will, by God's assistance, feed the flock. You must pluck down and utterly overthrow, without hope of restitution, the court of Faculties, from w^hence not only licenses to enjoy many benefices are obtained, as pluralities, trialities, totquots, kc; but all things, for the most part, as in the court of Rome are set on sale, licenses to marry, to eat flesh in times pro- hibited, to live from benefices and charges, and a great number beside, of such like abominations. Appoint to every congregation a learned and dili- gent preacher. Remove homilies, articles, injunctions, and that prescript order of service made out of the mass-book. Take away the lordship, the loitering, Admonition, p. 1. Ed. 1617. 230 THE HISTORY OF the pomp, the idleness, and livings of bishops, but — yet employ them to such ends as they were in the ^' old church appointed for. Let a lawful and a godly seigniory look that they preach not quarterly, or monthly, but continually ; not for filthy lucre sake, but of a ready mind." Objections are similarly urged against the discipline of the church, and its administration of the sacraments, and an earnest desire is expressed that they might plead their cause " by writing, or otherwise," before her ma- jesty. " If this," say they, "cannot be obtained, we will, by God's grace, address ourselves to de- fend his truth by suffering, and willingly lay our heads to the block. And this shall be our peace, to have quiet consciences with our God, whom we will abide for, with all patience, until he work our full deliverance." ^ These extracts render it sufficiently evident that the whole ground of controversy between the bishops and the puritans had undergone an entire change. A few concessions at the commencement of the queen's reign would have satisfied such men as Fox, Coverdale, and Humphrey ; but the battle was now to be fought on other ground, and for an object immeasurably more important. " Neither is the controversy betwixt them and us," say the writers of the Admonition, " as they would bear the world in hand ; as for a cap, a tippet, or a surplice ; but for greater matters, concerning a true ministry and regiment of the church according to the word: which things once established, the other melt away of themselves. And yet consider, I pray you, whether their own argument doth not choke them- ^ Admonition, p 3. Ibid., p. 18. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 231 selves, for even the very name of trifles doth plainly declare that they ought not to be maintained in Christ's church. And what shall our bishops win by it ? forsooth that they be maintainers of trifles, and trifling bishops, consuming the greatest part of their time in those trifles, whereas they should be better occupied. We strive for true religion and government of the church, and show you the right way to throw out antichrist, both head and tail, and that we will not so much as communicate with the tail of the beast. But they, after they have thrust out antichrist by the head, go about to pull him in again by the tail, cunningly colouring it lest any man should espy his footsteps, as Cacus did when he stole the oxen."^ Letters from Beza and Gualter were appended to the Admonition, in which those eminent reformers express their regret at the im- perfect reformation of the English church, and their s^^mpathy with the puritans in their principles and sufferings. This book obtained a rapid and extensive circulation. Four editions were exhausted within a short period, though strenuous efforts were made to suppress it. The archbishop sent a copy to the lord treasurer, who, with other ecclesiastical commissioners, addressed letters to the lord mayor and some of the aldermen of London, urging them to discover the printer and corrector.^ Two divines, j1T7«i . • • The authors rield and Wilcox, who were principally concerned in committed to drawing it up, were sent to Newgate, July 7, 1572, and on the following October, were indicted on the statute of uniformity, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment.^ The archbishop sent Mr. Pearson, « Admonition, 18. ^ Strype's Parker, ii. 110. sMS., p. 118. Strype's Annals, ii. i. 275. The first Admonition 232 THE HISTORY OF ^?x^' ^^P*- 1572, one of his chaplains, to confer with them, who, in the course of an amicable discussion, I- LIZ. objected to the style of their writings, as partaking " rather of choler against some persons, than to seek a godly reformation. " To this Mr. Field replied, " That thing specially toucheth me, and therefore I answer, as God hath his Moses, so he hath his Elijah. Isaiah calleth the rulers of his time, princes of Sodom. John calleth the scribes and Pharisees, generation of vipers, Christ calleth them adders' brood and an adulterous nation. And you know the scriptures both of the Old and New Testament, especially the prophets, are full of such vehemency. We have used gentle words too long, and we perceive they have done no good ; the wound groweth desperate, and dead flesh hath overgrown all, and therefore the wound had need have a sharp corsive and eating plaister. It is no time to blanch, nor to sew cushions under men's elbows, or to flatter them in their sins ; but God knoweth, we meant to is frequently represented as the not who besides. And then it production of Cartwrig-ht'; on was agreed upon (as it seemetli) what authority' I do not know. that an admonition should be Strvpe, in his Life of Parker, sa} ?, compiled, and offered unto the Cartwright was the chief author, parliament approaching-." — p. 42. Uiough there was (as it was Here is no mention of Cartwright, thought) a club concerned in the which, together with his absence composing of it." — ii. 110. His at this time on the continent, and account of the matter in his Life the fact of Field and Wilcox (rf \\ hitgift, i. 55, is somewhat being punislied as the authors, different, and is taken from Ban- renders it all but certain that he croft's Survey of the pretended had taken no part in its com- holy dh^cifdine, who tells us, position. Yet Air. Hallam (Con, " After some time spent in these Hist., i. 252), and others less dis- brawls, then they bethought tliem tinguished for historical accuracy, to fall more directly in hand wit^ speak of his authorship ascertain, the Geiievian discipline. To this Mr. Neal, on the contrary, attri- purpose certain persons assembled butes it to Field and Wilcox, and themselves privately together in says it was revised by several of London (as I liavtr been inform- the brethren. — History of Purl- ed), namely, Gilby, Sampson, tans, i. 231. liicvcr. Field, Wilcox, and I wot PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 233 touch no man's person, but their places and abuses, ^^^^* which derogate from the truth." ^ They addressed an elegant Latin letter to the lord treasurer Burleigh, eliz. in vindication of themselves, wherein they acknow- ledge, " That they had indeed lately writ a book, requiring the reformation of horrid abuses, with that intent, that sincere religion, being freed from popish superstition, might be restored by the whole parliament, with the queen's approbation. But by themselves, they attempted neither to correct nor change anything ; but referred all to their judg- ments, according as so great a matter called for.'" They also addressed the earl of Leicester, represent- ing their poverty and sickness, complaining tliat they were detained beyond the term of their imprisonment, and praying him " for the tender mercies of God, in consideration of them, their poor wives and children, to be a means to the rest of the lords of her majesty's most honourable privy council, that they may be released and dis- charged."-* The archbishop and clergy, havino; secured the whitgift imprisonment oi rield and Wilcox, were anxious the Arch- . I'l 111 1 bishop to to counteract the iimuence which so bold and un- reply to the . . 1 T • 1 ^7 • • Admonition. compromising a publication as the Admonition might exert on the public mind. Dr. Whitgift, therefore, at the request of archbishop Parker, un- dertook a reply, to which such importance was at- tached that it was subjected to the revision of Parker, Cooper bishop of Lincoln, Perne of Ely, and other learned men, before it was printed.'' This was a legitimate means of defence, and had no other been employed, the proceedings of the archbishop and his h MS., p. 135. ^ k Strype's Wliitgift, i. 85. Sir i Annuls, ii. i. 27G. G. Paiile's account is rendered j MS., lie. somewhat amusing by tlie know- 234 THE HISTORY OF ^' t)rethren would have been free from censure. Such a course would have accorded with their character as ELiz. Christian teachers, and been best adapted to con- ciliate the esteem and confidence of the nation. But the bishops mistrusted their owti cause, and were evidently galled by the weapons of their opponents. They therefore availed themselves of the magistrate's aid, and incarcerated their opponents before they confuted them. The title of Whitgift's reply was '' An amwere to \\^"\^! « certain Ubell entituled, An Admonition to the Parlia- ment,'" It contains the whole of the Admonitiony which it answers paragraph by paragraph. It is addressed "To his loving nurse, the Christian church of England;" and is introduced by an exhortation to such as were in authority, which betrays the bad spirit of the controversialist, and the little confidence which Whitgift placed in the integrity and strength of his cause. The atroci- ties of Munster had invested the name of ana- baptist with indescribable horror. Of this the polemic meanly takes advantage to prejudice his opponents in the estimation of the queen's government. " Considering, " he says, " the strangeness of the time, the variety of men's minds, and the marvellous inclinations in the common sort of persons (especially where the gos- pel is most preached) to embrace new invented doctrines and opinions, though they tend to the ledge we obtain from other found among the green heads of sources, of the feelings of the the university (who were greedy archbishop and of his advocate. of novelties), and to stop the "Albeit," he says, " Dr. Whit- current of so dangerous positions, gift considered that this libel (the he spared not his pains in writing Admonition) was unworthy of a learned answer." — LifeofWhit- any serious confutation; yet in gift, p. ID. regard of the great applause it PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 23 disturbing of the quiet state of the church, the dis- ^* crediting and defacing of such as be in authority. and the maintaining of licentiousness and Jewd ^^^2. liberty ; I thought it good to set before your eyes the practices of the anabaptists, their conditions and qualities, the kind and manner of their beginnings and proceedings, before the broaching of their manifold and horrible heresies, to the intent that you, understanding the same, may the rather in time take heed to such as proceed in like manner ; lest they, being suffered too long, burst out to work the same effect. I accuse none, only I suspect the authors of this admonition and their fautours. What cause I have to do so, I refer to yourselves to judge, after that I have set forth unto you the ana- baptistical practices, even as I have learned in the writings of such famous and learned men as had themselves experience of them, when they first began in Germany."' There was a meanness in • Ans were, p. 13. Ed. 1573. Re- had carried but the countenance ferring to this jjart of Whitgift's and name of a professor of the treatise, Cartwright remarks, "It is gospel, much less of a doctor of more than I thought could have divinity. Before you will join happened unto you, once to admit with us in this cause, you will into your mind this opinion of ana- place us, whether we will or no, baptism of your brethren, which in the camp of the anabaptists ; have always had it in as great to the end you might thereby, detestation as yourself, preached both withdraw all from aiding us, against it as much as yourself, which are godly minded, as for hated of the followers and favour- that you, fearing (as it seemeth) ers as much as yourself. And it the insufficiency of your pen, is yet more strange, that you might have the sword to supply have not doubted to give out your want other ways. And if such slanderous reports of them, we be found in their camp, or be but dared to present such accusa- such disturbers of the quiet estate tions to the holy and sacred seat of the church, defacers of such as of justice, and thereby (as much be in authority, maintainers of as in you lieth) to corrupt it, and licentiousness and lewd liberty to call for the sword upon the (as you do seem to charge us innocent (which is given for their with), we refuse not to go under maintenance and safety), that, as those punishments that some of it is a boldness intolerable, so that wicked sect received for just could I hardly have thought that recompence of their demerits, it could have fallen into any tliat You say you will not accuse any,* 236 THE HISTORY OF CHAP IX. this attempt to draw down the suspicion of a jealous government on his opponents, from which an ELiz. honourable mind would have shrunk. Field and Wilcox, the avowed authors of the Admonition, were now in prison. But Whitgift could laugh at their sufferings, and coolly express his regret at their not being more severe. " Touching the cruelty and rigor these men complain of," he says, "I shall need to speak little, being manifest to all that be not with sinister affections blinded, that lack of severity is the principal cause of their licentious liberty. But who seeth not their hypocrisy, which would make the world believe that they are per- secuted, when they be with too much lenity punished for their intolerable contempt of good laws and other disordered dealings ? Nay, such is their perverseness, or rather arrogancy, that if they be debarred but of the least part of their will and desire, by and by they cry out of cruelty and per- secution. It is to be doubted what these men will do when persecution cometh indeed, which now make so much of a little, or rather of nothing." The man who thus wrote at the commencement of his career, could not fail to become an active and cruel persecutor by the time that he had attained the primacy of his church. Such was the case with Whitgift, and his name must, in consequence, go down to posterit}^ dishonoured. The principles on which he and the authors of the Admonition reasoned were totally different. The puritans con- tended for a rigid adherence to the letter of apos- I know it is for want of no crood sure, if your hand were as strong- will lliat 3 ou do not accuse tliein, as your heart." — Keplye, p. 12. of whose condemnation and ex- ™ Answere, p. So. treuie punishii;ent we might be PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 237 tolic institutions and practice, while Whitgift main- tained that a discretionary power was vested in the rulers of the church, to modify and regulate its ^l^^- ceremonies. The one appealed to the word of God, the other to the writings of the Fathers. The one required conformity to the example of the apostles; the other, obedience to the mandate of the prince. Another important step taken by the puritans t^^Tan church this year, was the formation of the first Eno;lish ' ^ 1572. presbytery. This took place at Wandsworth, near London, " a place conveniently situate," says Hey- lin, " for the London brethren, as standing near the bank of the Thames, but four miles from the city, and more retired and out of sight than any of their own churches about the town."" Regulations were adopted, under the title of The Order of Wands- worth^ elders were chosen, their offices defined, and the names of such as favoured the step were given in. The principal parties in this affair were Mr. Field, the lecturer of Wandsworth, Mr. Smith, of Mitcham, Mr. Crane, of Roehampton, and Mr. Wilcox; but others of considerable note soon joined them.° They endeavoured to keep their meetings secret; but their number and frequency precluded the possibility of this, and soon exposed them to the vigilant rigor of the archbishop. Cartwriffht, having; now returned from the con- ^^'^""'^ . c5 ' ~ ^ Admonition tinent, visited his brethren in prison, and, undeterred published by X ^ ^ Cartwright. by his past sufferings, and fearless of what yet n History of the Presbyterians, place before July 7, as on that p. 273. day he and Mr. Wilcox were ° Bancroft's Dangerous Posi- committed to prison, where they lions, b. iii. c. i. Fuller, b. ix. p. were detained till the close of 103. Neal, i. 248. Mr. Field 1-573 at the least.— Brook's Puri- being- present at the formation of tans, i. 822. this society, it must have taken 238 THE HISTORY OF *' awaited him, he speedily published the Second — Admonition. Referring to the treatment which the ' authors of the first had experienced, he says, " The matters therein contained, how true so- ever they be, have found small favour. The persons that are thought to have made them, are laid in no worse prison than Newgate ; the men that set upon them are no worse than the bishops ; the name that goeth of them is no better than rebels ; and great words there are that their danger will yet prove greater." P The work opens with an address " To the godly readers," in the course of which Cartwright thus vin- dicates himself and his brethren from the charge of writing with too much warmth. " Some men, and that good men too, will say. These treatises are too hot for this time. I wish to know wherein? Whether in the matters we handle, or in the handling of the matters ? The matters are God's, wherein we may not mince him ; and the deformities have con- tinued long, and are manifestly intolerable ! . . . . And yet, for as much as we hear they will answer us ; this I say, if they will keep them to the truth itself, the word of God, then will the matters shortly come to a good issue ; but if they draw us to other trials, there will prove craft in daubing, as they say ; for that hath been the craft of the papists, to rig up all corners, and to find all the shifts they can to have scope enough to vary a lie ; to say much, no- thing to the proof, and yet to amaze the people with show of authority. But if they will answer us still with cruelty and persecution, we will keep ourselves out of their hands as long as God shall give us p Admonition, p. 38. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 239 leave ; and content ourselves with patience, if God suffer us to fall into their hands ; and surely, we - shall hardly escape them, if they and their doers, which be certain persecuting printers, may have their wills. And here humbly we beseech her majesty, not to be stirred against us by such men as will endeavour to bring us more into hatred, which will not care what to lay to our charge, so they may oppress us, and suppress the truth. They will say, we despise authority, and speak against her sovereignty ; but, O Lord, what will not envy say against the truth ? . . . . This is most true, that her majesty shall not find better subjects in her land than those that desire a right reformation ; whose goods, bodies, and lives are most assured to her majesty and to their country." The impossibility of avoiding offence in the faithful discharge of ministerial duty is strikingly exhibited in the body of the treatise, "No preacher may, without great danger of the laws, utter all truth comprised in the book of God. It is so cir- cumscribed, and wrapt within the compass of such statutes, such penalties, such injunctions, such advertisements, such articles, such canons, such sober caveats, and such manifold pamphlets, that, in a manner, it doth but peep out from behind the screen. The laws of the land, the Book of Common Prayer, the queen's injunctions, the commissioners' advertisements, the bishops' late canons, Lindwood's provincials, every bishop's articles in his diocese, my lord of Canterbury's sober caveats in his licenses to preachers, and his high court prerogative, or grave fatherly faculties ; these together, or the worst of them (as some of 240 THE HISTORY OF ^ix^' bad), may not be broken or offended against, but with more danger than to offend against ^Liz. the Bible. To these, subscribing, and subscribing again, and the third subscribing, are required ; for these, preachers and others are indicted, are fined, are imprisoned, are excommunicated, are banished, and have worse things threatened them ; and the Bible — that must have no further scope than by these it is assigned ! Is this to profess God's word? Is this a refomiation ? . . . . We say, the Word is above the church (Eph. ii. 20), then, surely, it is above the Eno;lish church, and above all these books before rehearsed. If it be so, why are they not overruled by it, and not it by them?"'^ This second Admonition appeared before Whitgift's reply to the Jirst, and was briefly noticed at the close of that treatise. " I have also received," says Whit- gift, in a style of affected indifference, " a second Admonition to the parliament, the author whereof undertaketh to teach how to reform those things which the other Admonition found fault with. I shall not need to make any long discourse of it, neither will I. The answer to the first Admonition is an answer to this also.""^ 1 Page 40. ' Answere, 33.3. Referring to this brief notice of tlie Second Admonition, Ciixivix\^\\t says in his Replye, "Now by this slender answering of it, or rather not answering at all, but only asking how this and that is proved (whereas beinir proved, it is un- reproved of him), he doth his cause nnore harm than he is aware of. For unless his proofs ^ be joined with his expulsions, im- prisonments, and with all that racket which he maketh in Cam- bridge, to the uttermost of that his authority will stretch unto, he may be well assured, that their driving 'out will draw in the truth, and their imprisonment will set the truth at greater liberty, and thereby prove itself to be neither papistry nor anabaptistry, dona- tistry, catharismy, nor any other heresy which are by due correc- tion repressed. But as for the truth of God, the more it is laden, the straighter it standeth, and the more it is kept under, the more it enforceth itself to rise, and will undoubtedly get up, how great soever the stone be which is layed upon it."— Page 218. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 24] No sooner did Wliitgift's Anszaer to the Admoni- ^f^^' tion appear, than Cartwriglit commenced a repl}', which he prepared with astonishing rapidity.' It is entitled "A replije to an ansxvere made of M. ^^^X^""'^' Doctor Whifegifte, against the Admonition to tJie^^^^^^'^ Parliament. By T. C," and is without imprint of date and place, &c. It is introduced by an address " to the church of England, and all those that love the truth in it," wherein Cartwright replies toseveral general objections against his cause. To the charge of producing confusion and disorder he says, "Justice may be as well accused of doing wrong, as this doc- trine for bringing in disorder, whose whole work is to provide that nothing be done out of place, out of time, or otherwise than the condition of every man's calling will bear. Which putteth the people in subjection under their governors ; the governors in degree and order one under another, as the elder underneath the pastor, and the deacon underneath the elder ; which teacheth that a particular church shall give place unto a provincial synod where many churches are, and the provincial to a national, and likewise that unto the general, if any be ; and all unto Christ and his word. When on the con- trary part, those which stand against this doctrine, are thereby compelled to bring into the church great confusion and marvellous disorder ; whilst the * He could not have commenced tliis Reply before November, 1572, for Strvpe tells us that Whitgift submitted a written copy of the first part of his Answer to Parker for his inspection on Sept. 21, and the second part on the 21st of the following month. Strype's Whitgift, i. 85. It could' not VOL. I. therefore have been published be- fore November, and probably not till later in the year. Cartwright's Reply must of course have been commenced subsequently to this, and was published before the 11th of June, 1573, it being referred to in a proclamation of that date, — Strype's Parker, ii. 256. 242 THE HISTORY OF ^" P^s^^^'^ office is confounded with the deacon's ; whilst women do minfster the sacraments, which is ELiz. lawful only for men ; whilst private men do that w^hich belongeth unto public persons ; whilst public actions are done in private places ; whilst the church is shuffled with the commonwealth ; whilst civil matters are handled by ecclesiastical persons, and ecclesiastical by those which be civil ; and to be short, whilst no officer of the church keepeth his standing, and one member doth take upon it the office of another. Which things, as they hazard the harm, and destroy the body, so they do presently hinder, and will shortly (if remedy be not provided) utterly overthrow, the church. And therefore, un- less good order be in that which was brought into the church by popery, and confusion in that which was left unto the church by the apostles ; and that it be order that public actions should be done in private places by private persons ; and by women that is appointed to be done by men, and confusion when the contrary is observed ; and finally, unless order have another definition or nature than hither- to hath been read or heard of, there is no cause why this doctrine, which containeth the discipline and government of the church, should be thus shame- fully slandered with confusion and disorder."* Cartwright contends, in opposition to Whitgift, that the offices of archbishop and archdeacon are unlawful ; that the primitive bishop was an entirely different person from the bishop of the church of Eng-land ; that each church should have its elder- ship and possess the right of electing its minister ; that the scriptures furnished a model of church t Replye, p. 1. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 243 CHAP. IX. government ; and that the commonwealth was to be moulded to the church, and not the church to ■ the commonwealth. These views are urged with considerable force. It is evident, from the spirit of the treatise, that he was deeply interested in its composition. He writes like a man who had em- barked all his interests in the cause which he de- fends, and who, instead of regretting the step, gloried in it as his highest honour, and the best proof of his fidelity to God. His ardour never cools, nor does his style become insipid or wearisome. His learning is displayed in admirable subserviency to his general purpose, while the severity of his logic enables him to unravel the sophistry, and triumphantly to refute the fallacious reasoning, of his opponent. He con- stantly appeals to the w^ord of God as the only standard of Christian faith and practice. " The sum of all is," he says, " that the cause may be looked upon with a single eye, without all mist of partiality ; may be heard with an indifferent ear, without the ware of prejudice ; the arguments of both sides may be weighed, not with the change- able weights of custom, of time, of men, which, notwithstanding (popish excepted), shall be showed to be more for the cause than against it, but with the just balances of the incorruptible and unchange- able word of God."" The following is a fair sample of the manner in which he closely follows and ably refutes the reason- ing of Whitgift, at the same time that it throws considerable light on the views which Cartwright entertained on one of the main points in con- troversy. " You give occasion of suspicion that " Replye, p. 7- R 2 244 THE HISTORY OF your end will be scarce good, which have made so - evil a beginning. For whereas you had gathered out of the Admonition, that nothing should be placed in the church but that God hath in his word commanded ; as though the words were not plain enough, you will give them some light by your exposition. And what is it? You answer, that it is as much as though they would say, nothing is to be tolerated in the church of Christ, touching either doctrine, order, ceremonies, discipline, or govern- ment, except it be expressed in the word of God. Is this to interpret ? Is it all one to say, nothing must be placed in the church, and nothing must be tolerated in the church. He hath but small judg- ment that cannot tell that certain things may be tolerated and borne with for a time, which, if they were to be set in and placed, could not be done without the great fault of them that should place them. Again, are these of like weight — except it be commanded in the word of God ; and, except it be expressed in the word of God? Many things are both commanded and forbidden, of which there is no express mention in the word, which are as necessary to be followed or avoided as those where- of express mention is made. Therefore, unless your weights be truer, if I could let it, you should weigh none of my words. Hereupon you conclude that their arguments, taken ab authoritate negative, prove nothing. When the question is of the autho- rity of a man, indeed it neither holdeth affirmatively or negatively. For, as it is no good argument to say, It is not true, because Aristotle or Plato said it not ; so is it not to say, It is true, because they said so. The reason whereof is, because the infirmity . ROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 245 of man can neither attain to the perfection of any thing whereby he might speak all things that are to be spoken of it, neither yet be free from error eliz. in those things which he speaketh or giveth out ; and therefore this argument neither affirmatively nor negatively compelleth the hearer, but only induceth him to some liking or misliking of that for which it is brought, and is rather for an orator to persuade the simpler sort, than for a disputer to enforce him that is learned. But, for- asmuch as the Lord God, determining to set before our eyes a perfect form of his church, is both able to do it and hath done it, a man may reason both ways necessarily. The Lord hath commanded it should be in his church ; therefore it must. And of the other side, he hath not com- manded; therefore it must not be. And it is not hard to show that the prophets have so reasoned negatively ; as when, in the person of the Lord, the prophet saith. Whereof I have not spoken, and which never entered into my heart; and as where he condemneth them, because they have not asked counsel at the mouth of the Lord And it is no small injury which you do unto the word of God, to pin it in so narrow room, as that it should be able to direct us but in the principal points of our religion ; or as though the substance of religion, or some rude and unfashioned matter of building the church were uttered in them, and those things were left out, that should pertain to the form and fashion of it ; or, as if there were in the scriptures only to cover the church's nakedness, and not also chains, and bracelets, and rings, and other jewels, to adorn her aud set her out ; or that, to conclude, 246 THE HISTORY OF ' these were sufficient to quench her thirst, and kill — her anger, but not to minister unto her a more • liberal and (as it were) a more delicious and dainty diet. These things you seem to say, when you say, that matters necessary to salvation and of faith are contained in the scripture ; especially when you oppose these things to ceremonies, order, disci- pline, and government But to the end it may appear that this speech of yours doth something take up and shrink the arms of the scrip- tures, which otherwise are so long and large, I say that the word of God containeth the direction of all things pertaining to the church, yea, of whatso- ever things can fall into any part of man's life. . . . Not that we say, as you charge us in these words, (that no ceremony, &:c., may be in the church, ex- cept the same be expressed in the word of God) but that, in making orders and ceremonies of the church, it is not lawful to do what men list, but they are bound to follow the general rules of the scripture, that are given to be the square whereby those should be squared out. I will here set down, as those which I would have, as well all orders and ceremonies of the church framed by, as by the which I will be content that all those orders and ceremonies which are now in question, whether they be good and convenient or no, should be tried and examined by. And they are those rules which Paul gave in such cases as are not particularly mentioned of in scripture. The first, that tl^ey offend not any, especially the church of God. The second is (that which you cite also out of Paul), that all be done in order and comeliness. The third, that all be done to edifying. The last, that. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 247 they be done to the glory of God. So that you see ix. ' ' that those things which you reckon up, of the hour, and time, and day of prayer, kc, albeit they be not specified in the scripture, yet they are not left to aiiy to order at their pleasure, or so that they be not against the word of God ; but even by and ac- cording to the word of God they must be esta- blished, and those alone to be taken which do agree best and nearest with these rules before re- cited. And so it is brought to pass (which you think a great absurdity) that all things in the church should be appointed according to the word of God. Whereby it likewise appeareth, that we deny not but certain things are left to the order of the church, because they are of the nature of those which are varied by times, places, persons, and other circumstances, and so could not at once be set down and established for ever ; and yet so left to the order of the church, as that it do nothing against the rules aforesaid. But how doth this follow : certain things are left to the order of the church ; therefore, to make a new ministry by making an archbishop, to alter the ministry that is appointed by making a bishop or a pastor without a church or flock, to make a deacon without ap- pointing him his church whereof he is a deacon, and where he might exercise his charge of provid- ing for the poor, to abrogate clean both name and office of the elder, with other more ; now I say, doth it follow, that, because the church hath power to order certain things, therefore it hath power to do so of these which God hath ordained and esta- blished ; of the which there is no time, nor place, 248 THE HISTORY OF nor person, nor any other circumstance, which can ■ cause any alteration or change?" ^ In answer to another of the arguments of Whitgift, Cartwright maintains the church's independency of the magistrate. This is one of his distinguishing doctrines, and, from its connexion with the history of ecclesiastical opinion, deserves to be prominently exhibited. *'If there be," he says, "no churches established, because there are no christian magis- trates, then the churches of the apostles were not established. And it is absurd to say, that the ministers now, with the help of the magistrate, can lay surer foundations of the church, or build more cunningly or substantially, than the apostles could, which were the master-builders of the church of God. And as for the consummation of the body of the church, and the beauty of it, seeing it consisteth in Jesus Christ, which is the head, that is always joined inseparably in all times of the cross, and not the cross with his body, which is the church; I cannot see why the churches under persecution should not be established, having both the founda- tion and the nethermost parts, as also the top and highest part of the church, as well as those which have a christian magistrate. If, indeed, the magis- trate, whom God hath sanctified to be a nurse unto his church, were also the head of the same, then the church could not be established without the magis- trate ; but we learn that, although the godly ma- o'istrate be the head of the commonwealth, and a threat ornament unto the church, yet he is but a member of the same. The church may be esta- Replyc, pp. 25—28. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 249 blislied without the magistrate, and so, that all the ^^^^* world, and all the devils of hell, cannot shake it ; but it cannot be in quiet, in peace, and in outward eliz. surety, without a godly magistrate There- upon you conclude that the church was thus popu- lar, which is as untrue as the former part. For the church is governed with that kind of government which the philosophers that write of the best com- monwealths affirm to be the best. For in respect of Christ, the head, it is a monarchy ; and in re- spect of the ancients and pastors, that govern in common, and with like authority amongst them- selves, it is an aristocracy, or the rule of the best men ; and in respect that the people are not se- cluded, but have their interest in church matters, it is a democracy, or popular estate." In a subsequent part of his treatise he is still more explicit ; maintaining, not only the church's independency of the magistrate, but the magistrate's subjection to the church. His language is strong, and, even when coupled with and explained by other statements, must be censured as unscriptural and pernicious. One extreme generates another. The church of England was based on the submission of the ecclesiastical to the civil power. She was the creature of the state ; drew her resources from its patronage, and lived on its favor. It was, there- fore, no wonder that her ministers became the flatterers of their prince, and contended, with all the eagerness of a selfish and secular ambition, for the largest share of his bounty. The sycophancy of the clergy, and the consequent prostration of the church, drove Cartwright and his disciples to an " Rcplye, p. 51. 250 THE HISTORY OF opposite error, equally repugnant to the happiness — of society, and the welfare of religion. "It is true," he says, "that we ought to be obedient unto the civil magistrate, which governeth the church of God in that office which is committed unto him, and according to that calling. But it must be re- membered, that civil magistrates must govern it according to the rules of God prescribed in his word ; and that, as they are nourishers, so they be servants, unto the church; and as they rule in the church, so they must remember to subject them- selves unto the church ; to submit their sceptres, to throw down their crowns, before the church ; yea, as the prophet speaketh, to lick the dust of the feet of the church. ^ Wherein I mean not that the church doth either wring the sceptres out of princes' hands, or taketh their crowns from their heads, or that it requireth princes to lick the du':t of her feet (as the pope under this pretence hath done) ; but I mean as the prophet meaneth, that whatsoever magnificence, or excellency, or pomp, is either in them or in their estates and commonwealth, which doth not * Madox, in his Vindication of the Church of England, against Neal, p. 121, very unfairly termi- nates liis quotation here ; wliolly omitting the explanatory clause which follows. Mr. Hallam, quoting from him, naturally ex- claims: " It is difficult to believe that I am transcribing the words of a protestant writer ; so much does this passage call to mind those tones of infatuated arro- g-ance, which had been heard from the lips of Gregory VII., and of those who trod in his footsteps." — Const. Hist. i. 254. Every ingenuous mind must sympathize with this distinguished writer in the surprise and repro- bation he here expresses ; but his emotions would, probably, have been somewhat moderated had he been acquainted with the whole passage. I am far from justify- ing Cart Wright's language. On the contrary, I beheve it to be highly injudicious. But I am persuaded that, as quoted by bishop Madox, it makes an impression much stronger and more offensive than Cartwright contemplated, or than the whole passage justifies. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 251 agree with the simplicity and (in the judgment of the world) poor and contemptible estate of the — church, that that they will be content to lay down, ^^i^- And here cometh to my mind that wherewith the world is now deceived, and w^herewith M. Doctor goeth about both to deceive himself and others too, in that he thinketh that the church must be framed according to the commonwealth, and the church government according to the civil government, which is as much to say, as if a man should fashion / his house according to his hangings; when as in- deed it is clean contrary, that as the hangings are made fit for the house, so the commonwealth must be made to agree with the church, and the govern- ment thereof with her government. For as the house is before the hangings, and therefore the • hangings which come after must be framed to the house which was before ; so the church being be- fore there was any commonwealth, and the com- monwealth coming after, must be fashioned and made suitable unto the church. Otherwise God is made to give place to men, heaven to earth, and re- ligion is made (as it were) a rule of Lesbia, to be applied unto any estate of commonwealth whatso- ever." y Had Cartwright contented himself with main- taining the independence of the church, he would have rendered an invaluable service to reliction. Thus far he was authorized to go by the unalter- able standard of Christian faith ; and the wwking out of this principle would have entitled him to the gratitude and veneration of mankind. But it does not happen in the history of our species that all >■ Reply e; p. 180. 252 THE HISTORY OF truth is comprehended by one mind, or that the whole field of undiscovered science is laid open and explored by one penetrating intellect. Luther left much to be discovered by the diligence of his dis- ciples ; Cranmer's views were slowly formed, and at their best estate were, on some important points, obscure and imperfect ; and Cartwright, while he struggled for the church's freedom, pointed out to his successors the means by which they might de- tect his errors, and thus escape the perilous effects which would have flowed from their adoption. He set in a clear and forcible light the evils which re- sulted from the supremacy of the church being en- trusted to political men. It was for his followers, amid their incredible suff'erings, in the solitude and misery of their prison-houses, to learn the folly and the wickedness of calling on the magistrate to en- force the decisions of the church. The error of Cartwright, fearful as was its nature, was rendered comparatively harmless by the circumstances and experience of the age in which he lived. This per- nicious dogma had been exhibited in all its enor- mity by the popedom. Europe had groaned for centuries beneath its influence, and yet exhibited melancholy proofs of its withering power and unheard-of abominations. It was not, therefore, probable, that a nation like England, in the first season of its liberty, should willingly return to bondage by again submitting itself to the yoke of priestly domination, from which it had just escaped, through the heroism and sufferings of its fathers. This would have evinced an unparalleled forgetful- ness of the lessons of history, and been proof of a nature the most abject and base. The ignorance PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 253 and crimes of centuries had broken the charm of clerical sanctity. The records of the past were too ■ explicit, and the testimony of eye-witnesses was too positive and clear, to allow the ministers of religion to be regarded with the superstitious reverence which was necessary to the general adoption of Cartwright's views. The false glory with which they had been encircled, had passed away before the scrutinizing eye of an inquiring age, and they were now known to be as peaceable as other men ; as susceptible of the promptings of ambition, and the inflation of pride, as any of their compeers. Cartwright's defective acquaintance with the nature and grounds of religious liberty is apparent throughout his writings. He was the advocate of coercion in some cases, though opposed to it in his own. The following passage amongst many others is sufficiently explicit in the enunciation and approval of this unchristian practice. "But now I hear you ask me," he says, "what then shall become of the papists and atheists, if you will not have them be of the church ? I answer, that they may be of and in the commonwealth, which neither may nor can be of nor in the church. And therefore, the church having no- thing to do with such, the magistrate ought to see that they join to hear the sermons in the place where they are made, whether it be in those parishes where there is a church, and so preaching, or where else he shall think best ; and cause them to be examined, how they profit; and if they profit not, to punish them ; and as their contempt groweth, so to increase the punishment, until such times as they declare manifest tokens of unrepentantness; •254 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, and then, as rotten members, that do not only no ! good nor service in the body, but also corrupt and ELiz. infect others, cut them off. And if they do profit in hearing, then to be adjoined unto that church which is next the place of their dwelling." ^ Such were the sentiments which, by a strange perversion of intellect, Cartwright advocated. Had they been uttered in the high places of the land, by those who inherited the emoluments and wielded the power of the church, little surprise would have been excited. But that the victim of protestant intolerance, while claiming liberty of worship for himself, should thus admit the very principle on which his own oppression might be justified, is a circumstance so abasing to the pride of our nature, as to awaken incredulity and regret. The evidence of the fact, however, is too conclusive to admit of doubt, and the only extenuation which can be urged is, that Cartwright's early training in the school of intolerance had familiarized him with its principle, and rendered him insensible of its enormity. But the disciples of Parker and Whit- gift are not entitled to glory over the puritan advo- cate, since their masters added to his theoretical error the sternness and ferocity of practised inqui- sitors. ' Replye, p. 61. CHAPTER X. Proclamation against the Admonitions — Sandys complains to Burleigh of the Favour shown to the Puritans — Warrant issued for the Appre- hension of Cartwright — Whitgift publishes a Defence of his Answer — Cartwright' s Second Reply — Second Part of it — Subscription vigorously pressed — Suspension of Mr. Deering — Charges against him — Restored by the Council, but again removed at the Instigation of the Bishops — Imprisonment and Trial of Mr. Johnson — Dies in Prison — Queen's Proclamation to enforce Uniformity — Commissions issued — Council's Letter to the Bishops — Protestation of the Pu- ritans. Whatever inconsistencies were chargeable on chap. Cartwright, his enemies dreaded the influence of his writings. Instead of leaving him and his eliz. opponent fairly to exhibit the streno;th of their re- Proclamation . . 1 • 1 r* asainst the spective systems, a proclamation was obtained irom Admonitions 1 -1 AT'- 1 andReplye, the queen against the two Admonitions and Cart- June n, 1573. Wright's Replye, commanding, "Every printer, stationer, &c., who had in their custody any of the said books, to bring in the same to the bishop of the diocese, or to one of her highnesses privy council, within twenty days after, he shall have notice of this proclamation." * This measure was attended with ver}^ little success, for at the expiration of a month not a » Str^-pe's Parker, ii. 256. 256 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, single copy had been brought in to the bishop ; "though," says Strype, "one need not doubt there ELiz. were some thousands of them dispersed in the city and other parts of his diocese.'"' Sandys, who had been mainly instrumental in procuring the procla- mation, complained to the lord treasurer of the favour shown to Cartwright in the city, and urged the adoption of more vigorous measures against the ford'^trel^v^-^ purltau malcoutcnts. " There is a conventicle, or plaiting oT' rather a conspiracy," he tells his lordship, " breed- shoJn ing in London. Certain men of sundry callings J^'^^^y^^* are, as it were, in commission together, to procure Aug. 5, 1573. i^^jjjg foj. Cartwright's book, and promise to stand in defence thereof unto death If these seditious and tumultuous beginnings be not met withal in time, they will in short space grow to great inconvenience. The city will never be quiet, until these authors of sedition, who are now es- teemed as gods, as Field, \yilcox, Cartwright, and others, be far removed from the city. The people resort unto them, as in popery they were wont to run on pilgrimage. If these idols, who are honoured for saints, and greatly enriched with gifts, were re- moved from hence, their honour would fall into the dust ; and they would be taken for blocks, as they are. There be some aldermen, and some wealthy citizens, which give them great and stout counte- nances, and persuade what they can that others may do the like. A sharp letter from her majesty would cut the courage of these men. Her majesty's proclamation took none effect: not one book brought in. Mr. Cartwright is said to lie hid in London, with great resort to him. If the lord mayor, Strype's Parker, ii. 257. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 257 alderman Rivers, with others, had commission to p- A.. search out these matters, they would frankly do it." ELIZ. The malevolence of Cartwri2:ht's enemies was un- wanam for ~ the apprehen- satisfied while he retained his liberty. It was not Wright. enough, in their estimation, to deprive him of ^m^'^. his academical rank and emoluments, to banish him from the university, and to prohibit his writings as seditious and heretical, a warrant was now issued for his apprehension, signed by Sandys, the bishop of London, and eleven others of the high commission."* But he happily es- caped to the continent, where he remained for some years actively engaged in the service of reli- gion.^ Shortly after his departure, Whit2;ift published whitgift s /. 7 4 7/7 • • Defenceof his " The Defense of the Aiiswere to the Admonition Answer. against the Replie of T. C," a ponderous folio, containing upwards of eight hundred pages. It included ^the Admonition, Whitgift's Answer e, and Cartwright's Replie, together with much additional matter. In the preface he states, "this replie of T. C. (which of some is counted so notable a piece of work) consisteth of two false principles and rotten pillars ; whereof the one is, that we must of necessity have the same kind of government that " Strype's Whitglft, App. 16. ^ Annals, ii. i. 418. ^ Mr. Wilcocks, one of the au- thors of the Admonition, writing to Mr. Gilby, under date of Feb. 2, 1574, says, "Our brother Cart- wright is escaped, God be praised, and departed this land, since my coming up to London, and I hope is by this time at Heidelberg. The Lord bless him, and direct him in all things by his Holy Spirit, that he may do that which may serve for the advancement of his glory, and the profit of his church. His earnest desire is, that you and all the godly should remember him in your earnest and hearty pray- ers ; therefore I the more boldly and willingly now make mention of him." — Brook's Puritans, ii. 193. VOL. I. S •258 THE HISTORY OF was in the apostles' time, and is expressed in the scriptures, and no other ; the other is, that we may not in any wise, or in any consideration, retain in the church any thing that hath been abused under the pope : if these two posts be weak, yea rotten, (as I have proved them to be in this my Defense) then must the building of necessity fall."^ The spirit of the disputants was now inflamed ; and the controversy, therefore, assumed much of a personal character. Whitgift was galled by the acknowledged merit and extensive influence of his opponent's writings. It was evident to himself and his associates, that he made no progress in public favour. However he might be applauded by the archbishop and his brethren, the general verdict of his countrymen was against him. His powers were not equal to the struggle, and the cause he had un- dertaken consequently failed in his hand. His " Defense " displays a fretted temper, the chafed and ruflled spirit of an ambitious but disappointed man. He envied the popularity of Cartwright, while he reproached him with it. The latter, in his Replie, having remarked, " Although you will grant us neither learning nor conscience, yet you might afford us so much wit as that we would not willingly and of purpose want those commodi- ties of life, which we might otherwise enjoy as well as you, if we had that gift of conformity, which you have." Whitgift tauntingly rejoined, "What commodities you want, that I have, I cannot con- jecture ; your meat and drink is provided with less trouble and charges unto you, and in more delicate and dainty manner, than mine is ; your ease and f Defense, Prof., p. 2. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 259 pleasure ten times more; you do what you list, go chap. when you list, come when you list, speak when you list, at your pleasure. What would you have more ? I know not why you should complain, except you be of the same disposition with the Franciscan friars, who, when they have filled their bellies at other men's tables, were wont to cry out, and say, O quanta patimur, &c. Some men are de- lighted to be fed at other men's tables, and prefer popular fame before silver and gold." ^ And in another place he says, "I muse with what face you can thus seek to deface true pastors that do good in the church, though not so much as you think they should do, seeing you yourself, and a number more, do no good at all in any place, but only range up and down, live at other men's tables, disturb the church, and think that you have done your duties when you have defaced all other men's doings. I am verily persuaded, that he which preacheth at his cure but one sermon in a year, offendeth God less than you do, that have forsaken your calling.'"' These passages afford sufficient evidence of the total absence of all generous and noble sentiments from the breast of Whitgift. The man who could thus taunt a noble foe with the poverty, and consequent dependance, which his own oppressions had in- duced, must have possessed a mean and base spirit. Had his power been equal to his malignity, he would have driven his puritan antagonist from every refuge to which pity, respect, or affection had admitted him. He had succeeded in depriving him of his professorship, in expelling him from the university, and in forbidding him to exercise his Defense, p. 283. »» Ibid., 241. s 2 260 THE HISTORY OF sacred calling; and now he upbraids him with his silence, and basely reflects on his reception of the hospitalities which his virtues had insured. £^^"Re Cartwright was not slow in replying to ^Vhitgift's Defence. ' His work was published in the following year, and was entitled, " The Second RepUe of Thomcis Cartzcriglit ; against Maistei' Doc- tor WJutgiffs Second A?iswere, Touching the Church Discipline. " It is introduced by an epistle to the church of England, &c., in which he answers va- rious personal charges, and reminds his accuser of his responsibility to God. " In the other part of my life," says Cartwright, " after he had thrust me out of the college, he accuseth me for going up and down doing no good, and living at other men's tables. That I was not idle, I suppose he knoweth too well: whether well occupied or no, let it be judged. I lived indeed at other men's tables, having no house nor wife of mine own ; but not without their desire, ' It is strange that Fuller should that party, resolving to go a new represent the controversy as clos- "way to work, and to turn their ing with the publication of Whit- serious books into satirical pam- gift's '•'Defense." ^'Sundry rea- phlets. Some few attributed it to sons," he says, "are assigned of Mr. Cartwright's modest respect Mr. Cartwright's silence, all be- to his adversary, who had gotten lieving as they are affected, and the upper ground of him (Whit- most being affected as led by gift being soon after made bishop their interest. Some ascribed it and archbishop), though in my to his weakness, who having spent mind this would more heighten all his powder and shot in former than abate their opposition." — fights, was forced to be quiet for Church Hist., b. ix. p. 103. Col- the future. Others, to his pride lier commits the same error, tell- (undervaluing what he could not ing us that Cartwright "retired overcome), counting Whitgift's out of the field, and left the last answer no answer, but a re- enemy possessed of all the marks petition of what was confuted be- of an entire victory." — Ch.Hist.ii. fore. Others imputed it to his 537. Mr. Lawson, a worthy dis- patience, seeing otherwise multi- ciple of the Whitgift school, has pljing of Replies would make displayed his laborious research brawls infinite; and while women and historical impartiality, by re- strive for the last vord, men echoing this statement. — Life of please themselves with the last Laud, V. i. p. 19. reason. Others, to the policy of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 261 and with small delight of mine, for fear of evil chap. tongues. And although I were not able to requite it, yet towards some I went about it, instructing ^^i^- their children partly in the principles of religion, partl}^ in other learning." ^ " My duty towards him," he remarks in another place, " is accused diversely of unbrotherhood^ un- faithfulness, want of good will ; made heinous by circumstance of perjury and untliankf illness. Wherein I will not answer, that I used not you as master, because you used not me as fellow ; but ask you, wherein this breach of duty consisteth ? If I owe you fidelity, I owe it more unto the Lord ; if good will, the truth must be preferred ; if the master of Trinity College be a friend, the truth is more ; if you a brother, the truth ought to be bro- ther, sister, mother, and all. Against what part of true fidelity is it, to reprove him openly by writing, which had openly by writing spoken evil of that which I was and am persuaded to be the everlast- ing truth of God, and reviled those that main- tained it ? Against what point of good will, to have showed him the way, whom I judged to be out ; to light him a candle, whom I saw in this point to grope in darkness? And if I did it sharper than your taste can like of, besides that bitter things are often wholesomer than sweet, you should not think much to be stricken with the back of the sword, which have smitten others with the edge : nor to be lightly pricked with some impair of your credit, which have thrust others through, in taking from them, so much as lay in you, all opinion both of godliness and learning. You doubt whether / •* Second Replie^ Ep. to the Churchy p. 11. 262 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. jYieant good faith, when I called you a brother ; take heed lest, in giving no credit unto others, you ELIZ. leave no place for others to give any unto you. And if I had offended in these, yet my unthankfulness cannot be great. You never gave me any thing in my bosom or secretly : what you have given by sound of trump and openly, cannot be hidden.'"' ^r'^oirt^"^ The controversy was closed in 1577, by the pub- wright s se- lication of " The Rest of the Second Replie of Thomas cond Replie. , *^ l J 1577. Cartivright, against, " ^ &c. Paule tells us that Whitgift contemplated a reply, but "was by the advice of some (whose judgments he much es- teemed) dissuaded from troubling himself in that which he had already overthrown Master Cartwright," he adds, "after these controversies, thus begun and continued by himself, as you see, lived sometimes beyond the seas, now in one place, and then in another, without attaining any eminent or certain place in the commonwealth, save only the mastership of an hospital in Warwick. But Dr. Whitgift, having continued master of Trinity *' Second Replie, Ep. p. 12. ' We have already seen that the grounds of the puritan con- troversy had undergone an entire revohition. The contest about apparel had been exchanged for others, affecting the constitution and offices of the church. Cart- vrright was of opinion that no mi- nister should leave his charge on account of the habits. As touching that point/' he says, "whether the minister should wear it, although it be inconve- nient : the truth is, that I dare not be autor to any, to forsake his pastoral charge for the inconve- nience thereof ; considering that this charge, being an absolute com- mandment of the Lord, ought not to be laid aside for a simple in- convenience, or uncomelinessof a thing, which in its own nature is indiiferent. The offence, in oc- casioning the weak to fall, and the wicked to be confirmed in their wickedness, is one of the foulest spots in the surplice, and which of all other can make it most detestable in the eyes of a godly minister When It is laid in the scales, with the preaching of the word of God, which is so necessary for him that is called thereunto, that a woe hangeth on his head if he do not preach it ; it is of less importance, than for the refusal of it, we should let go so necessary a duty." —Rest of Second Replie, p^ 2G2. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 263 College ten years, and being twice vice-chancellor, cil\p. was by her majesty preferred also to the deanery of Lincoln, which he held for the space of seven ^l^^- years." During the period of this controversy, subscrip- ^"g^rou^^^^^^ tion was vigorously pressed by the bishops, andP'^'^^- many excellent men were deprived. They were summoned before the council, or ecclesiastical com- mission, and were examined on various points touching their approval of the thirty-nine articles, and their conformity to the established ceremonies. The slightest suspicion of puritanism rendered them obnoxious to vexatious citations, which, taking them from their homes, exposed them to inquisitorial examinations, and subjected them to all the inso- lence and tyranny of inflated prelates. " The pro- secution of the puritans," says Strype, " went now vigorously forward, more than ever it had done, the queen being resolved to suppress them." Many of the most eminent of their number were brought before the council; among whom were Deering, Wiborn, Johnson, Brown, Field, Wilcox, Sparrow, and King, of whom some were committed to prison, and were threatened with banishment. They were examined on the following points: I. Whether it be lawful for a private man openly to disapprove or condemn what is established by public authority, before showing the error of it by humble supplication. II. Whether the book of service be good and godly, every tittle of it grounded on holy scripture. III. Whether the book of articles be agreeable to God's word. Life of Whitgift, pp. 20—22. 264 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. i\\ Whether the example of the primitive church must of necessity be followed. ELiz. y. Whether all ministers must be equal in their jurisdiction, as well as in the administration of the word and sacraments. ° Suspension of Mv, Decrinor, who had been domestic chaplain to Deerins, ^ the duke of Norfolk, was appointed lecturer at St. Paul's in 1572, where his talents as a public speaker drew large congregations. He was known to be favourable to the new platform of church govern- ment, and was therefore ^dgilantl}' watched by the bishop's emissaries. Being at length charged with the utterance of words reflecting on the magistrate, and tending to the disorder of the church, he was summoned before the council, and suspended from his ministry, though he positively denied the words charged upon him, and exonerated himself His letter to cvcu lu tlic cstlmatiou of the bishop. ° He ad- xov. 1, 1573, dressed an eloquent letter to the lord treasurer, in his own vindication, prapng that his case might be fairly heard, and be early decided. " I ask no more," he says, "than what is due unto me, even from her majesty's seat of judgment and justice. If I have done evil, let me be punished ; if not, let me be eased of undeserved blame. I crave no partiality; but I seek to answer, and to make you judges of my cause, before whose presence I ought to fear, and whose steps of their feet I do humbly reverence And because I will not appear to be led by fancy, I will be bold with 3'ou, as the man whom, above others of your calling, I am bound to honour, to show forth what is my opinion, and the reasons by which I am moved unto it. I • Stiype's Parker, ii. 238. ° Strjpe's Annak, ii. i. 308. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 265 am thus persuaded : The lordship or civil govern- ciiap. ment of bishops is utterly unlawful. My reason is this : the kingdom of Christ is only a spiritual ^^^iz. government ; but the government of the church is a part of the kingdom of Christ; and therefore the government of the church is only a spiritual government. What the kingdom is, and what government he hath established in it, learn not of me, but of God himself. The prophets do plenti- fully set it forth unto us. Isaiah saith, He shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, &:c. And l>y what authority shall the ministers strike with a sword, or with a sentence from a civil judgment- seat condemn the wicked ? . . . . And what can be plainer than the words of Christ himself. My kingdom is not of this world. How plainly doth St. Paul say, The weapons of our warfare, they are not carnal There are no chariots that go swift in victory as the word of truth ; no terror in the world that so shaketh the bowels, and maketh the thoughts to tremble, as the sword of the Spirit. There is no sceptre that reacheth so wide a dominion as the law of the majesty of God ; which is written in the hearts of all the world, and con- demneth all flesh before the majesty of God. All other force is but little, and we may either with- stand it or fly from it. But the power of the word is such as shall pass through all stops and hinder- ances My lord, seeing all men are subject before the minister, even as himself also is subject to -the w^ords of his mouth, what power, what autho- rity, will you give unto him ? Will you set him upon a seat of justice, and put a sword in his hand ? Then bring the prince to plead her cause, 266 THE hTsTORY of CHAP, guilty or not guilty ? Fie upon the pope, that hath so dishonoured God, and made the glory of his ^^^2- judgment-seat to be spotted in the countenance of a faint-hearted king. We will be no proctors for such an untimely fruit, that hath made princes bondmen, nobility thraldom, and himself a tyrant. Let us learn a better lesson of our Saviour Christ, Date Ccesar'i quce sunt Ccesaris, et quce sunt Del, Deo. The prince alone is the person in the world to whom God hath committed the seat of justice, and they only to execute the duty of it to whom it is committed The minister is ap- pointed for another defence, where horsemen and chariots will do no good. They may hinder the minister, and make him forget his duty ; they can- not profit him in his office and function. He must frame the heart, upon which you cannot set a crown ; and edify the soul, which flesh and blood cannot hurt. He sealeth unto the conscience God's mercies, which are sweeter than life ; and maketh rich the thoughts with righteousness and peace, which shall abide for ever. To those that are dis- obedient he pronounceth the judgment that maketh the heart afraid; and to the poor in spirit he bringeth comfort which no tongue can express. And to these things, what availeth either sword or spear ? God asketh but a tongue that is prepared to speak ; and he ministereth the power that is in- visible." P p Annals, ^ii. i. 400. I regret style, is not surpassed by any pro- my inability to quote the whole duction of the age. It may be of this admirable letter, which, seen entire in Strype. The dif- fer conclusiveness of reasoning, ference between the primitive and enlightened interpretation of the modern bishop is thus pointed scripture, ardent zeal for truth, out: and an easy, flowing, and elegant I. The bishops and ministers PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 267 On his appearance in the star chamber, Mr. chap. Deering was accused of ' speaking against god- ing in the star chamber. fathers and godmothers ; and that the statute of provision for the poor was no competent way de- charges a- vised for it ; and that he could provide for the ^^^^ poor two ways ; the one way, by committing them to the rich, to be kept ; the other, to what pur- pose is this superfluity^ and, what do we with so much plate 9 That he put off his cap, and said. Now I will prophesy, Matthew Parker is the last archbishop that ever shall sit in that seat. To which Mr. Cartwright should say, Accipio omen''"^ In reply to these charges he addressed a letter to the lords of the council, in which he triumphantly vindicates himself, and exposes the malice of his enemies."^ In order to his restoration, however, the bishops required him to subscribe to the following articles : I. I acknowledge the book of articles (agreed upon by the clergy in a synod, 1563, and confirmed then were one in degree ; now they are diverse. II. There were many bishops in one town ; now there is but one in a whole country. III. No bishop's authority was more than in one city : now it is in many shires. IV. The bishops then used no bodily punishments: now they im- prison, fine, &c. V. Those bishops could not ex- communicate or absolve of their own authority : now they may. VI. Then, without consent, they could make no ministers : now they do. VII. They could confirm no children in other parishes : they do now in many shires. VIII. Then they had no living of the church, but only in one congregation : now they have. IX. Then they had neither officials under them, nor com- missaries, nor chancellors. X. Then they dealt in no civil government by any established authority. XI. Then they had no right in alienating any parsonage, to give it in lease. XII. Then they had the church where they served the cure, even as those whom we call now parish priests, although they were me- tropolitans or archbishops. — Ibid., p. 411. 'J Ibid., p. 414. Annals, vol. ii. App. 28. 268 THE HISTORY OF by the queen's majesty) to be sound, and according ■to the word of God. II. The queen's majesty is the chief governor, next under Christ, of this church of England, as well in ecclesiastical as civil causes. III. I acknowledge that in the book of common prayer is nothing evil, or repugnant to the word of God, but that it may be well used, in this our christian church of England. IV. I acknowledge, that as the public preaching of the word in this church of England, is sound and sincere ; so the public order in the ministration of the sacraments is consonant to the word of God. To the second of these articles he offered unre- servedly to subscribe ; but respecting the others he entertained conscientious scruples, which he frankly states in his reply, and which he earnestly prays may be candidly construed. " See, I beseech you," he says, " what wrong I sustain, if I be urged unto it (subscription). While any law did bind me to wear cap and surplice, I did wear both. When I was at liberty, surely I would not wear it out of devotion. Since I never persuaded any man to refuse them, nor am charged that ever I preached against them. For the service-book, I preached not against it. I came to church to hear the prayers, and according to the book, I will and do willingly come to the Lord's supper In the mean season, if I be urged to subscribe, so far as I may, in respect of duty, I will earnestly crave that I be called to no further answer, than it may be proved I have openly dealt. Otherwise, if by authority I be charged to speak what I think, though I have no law to accuse myself, I will not PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 269 yet conceal any truth before a christian magis- chap. trate."' — — ELIZ. He was examined in the star chamber, on twenty other articles, " for more exact search and en- quiry," as Strype informs us, " into his principles and opinions concerning the church, and its usages, practices, and clergy, and concerning the queen's authority." Some of the questions proposed to him respected civil matters exclusively, while others were designed to place him in the awkward dilemma of expressing an approval of the entire constitution and ceremonial of the church, or of exposing himself to the charge and penalties of puritanism. The course pursued on these occa- sions was tyrannical in the extreme. Instead of proceeding on evidence fairly adduced, and well sustained, an embarrassing inquiry was instituted into the opinions entertained on multifarious points. An inquisitorial research was conducted into the secrets of the heart, from which it was hoped to draw out the latent heresy, and thus furnish ground for the infliction of ecclesiastical censures and of civil penalties. * The council at leno-th restored him to his lecture- Restored by , . . ^ . - the Council, ship, which, however, he retained but for a short but again 1 • 1 . 11' removed at time." Ihe bishops were too incensed at his case the instiga- being taken out of their hands to allow him to bishops. s A Parte of a Register, pp. 81- 85. Str3 pe's Annals, ii. i. 415. t "In general," says Mr. Pierce, " all those articles seem to be put to wreck his conscience, and get somewhat out of him, to make him an offender b}- his own con- fession. For my part, when I consider the abominable tyranny of all such proceedings, and the barbarous wickedness of sifting the secrets of men's hearts, about matters of which perhaps they never spake any thing before ; I heartily bless my God, that he did not cast my lot in such days, but preserved me for times of more equity and freedom." — Vind.,p. 81. " Strype attributes the removal of his suspension to the bishop of London, whom he represents 270 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, remain unmolested. Cox wrote to the lord trea- surer, complaining of the council having restored ELiz. Deering without consulting the bishops, and in- timated his inclination to address the queen on the subject."' Parker and Sandys also entered their protest. " These proceedings" they say, " pufF them (puritans) up with pride, make the people hate us, and magnify them with great triumphing, that her majesty and the privy council have good liking of this new building."'' Sandys also wrote to Bur- leigh and Leicester, urging his dislike of Deering's continuance, which these noblemen represented to the queen, and a warrant was consequently obtained from the council for his removal. Thus an estimable man was removed from a station for which he was eminently fitted, and in which he was accomplishing much good. The instruction of the ignorant, and the conversion of the irreligious, were esteemed as trifles in com- parison with the church's uniformity. The number of preaching ministers at this time was very small ; "out of his good nature" as inter- Ibid., p. 270. Whereas he him- ceding- with the lord treasurer for self, within a few pages of this his release. " He thought," says statement, adduces the testimony the historian, " a soft plaster of Parker and Sandys to the fact, better than a corrosive to be ^' We have sent unto you," say applied in this sort. That this these dignitaries in a letter to one man would be spared, but well of their brethren, " certain articles schooled." — Life of Parker, ii. taken out of Cartwright's book, 265. I can scarcely credit the by the council propounded unto benevolence of Sandys' interposi- Mr. Deering, with his answers to tion in this case, as his subsequent the same ; and also a copy of the conduct is incompatible with it. council's letter writ to Mr. Deer- His treatment of Deering, when ing, to restore him to his former the latter called to inform him of reading and preaching, his answer his release, indicated irritation notwithstanding, our advices never and anger. Strype impeaches the required thereunto." — Ibid., p. veracity of Deering in affirming 281. that the council had given him ^ Ibid., p. 266. letters restoring him to his lecture- ^ Ibid., p. 281. ship. "Indeed," he says, "the ^ Ibid., p. 270. council gave him no letters." — PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 271 yet the most laborious and successful were silenced, chap. because they would not profess what their con- sciences condemned, or practise what they deemed unscriptural. The indifference thus displayed by the bishops of Elizabeth to the spiritual interests of men involves their character in doubt, and loads their memory with an odium which no ingenuity can remove. About the same time, Mr. Robert Johnson, J^ntoriir, domestic chaplain to the lord keeper Bacon, was^"^'^''"* tried at Westminster hall for nonconformity. In July, 1571, he had been cited before the archbishop, and the bishops of Ely and Winchester, at Lambeth, when, refusing to subscribe the three articles which were proposed to him, he was suspended from his ministry. He addressed an humble letter to the commissioners, stating his readiness to conform to the utmost possible extent that his conscience would permit, and earnestly praying to be restored to his former liberty.^ The result of this application is not reported; but in 1573 he was summoned before the bishop of Lincoln, and required to subscribe to the following articles. L I am content hereafter, in mine open sermons and public preaching, to forbear to impugn the articles of religion agreed upon in the synod at London, 1562, or any of them. 11. Neither will I speak against the state of the church of England, now allowed by the laws of this realm, nor against the Book of Common Prayer, nor any- thing contained therein. IIL Neither will I sing or say, or cause, procure, or maintain any other to sing or say, any common or open prayer, or minister any sacrament, otherwise or in any other manner y Strype's Parker, ii. 69. 272 THE HISTORY OF CHAF. Qp fopj^ is mentioned in the said book, till further order be taken by public authority. ELiz. refused to comply with the bishop's requisition, on the ground that it was necessary to prepare the people for further reformation; that liberty of speech was granted to those who approved the cere- monies ; and that many errors were contained in the His letter to ^^^^ Commou Praycr. ^ Shortly afterwards he Sandys, ^r^g comuiittcd, with some others, to the Gate- Feb. 2, 1574. ^ ' house, for nonconformity; whence he wrote to Sandys, charging him with the guilt of persecu- tion, and admonishing him of its fearful punish- ment. "I will be bold," he says, "to utter my grief which I have conceived for you, in that you are, as it were, an instrument to persecute the lambs of Christ : not without cause do I say persecute, for you know that persecutors be not all of one sort, some being of the body, and some being of the mind, some of the goods, and some of the good name. Although, therefore, there be no death offered for these causes, yet there is persecution enough, and too much, for them ; whilst some are imprisoned, and by that means lose not only their liberty, but are in danger of their lives, whilst they are compelled to remain in filthy and unclean places, more unwholesome than dunghills, more stinking than swine stews. Others are persecuted in mind, for that partly through extremity of law, partly by your plausible persuasions, they are en- forced to subscribe to that whereat every good con- science may make stay, and every godly man doth disallow. And as for persecution in their goods, it needeth not to speak, since the spending of them ' Parte of a register, pp. 94—100. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 273 followeth imprisonment ; and as for the good name chap. of your brethren, the opprobrious terms of you and your colleagues in commission, as puritans, schis- eliz. matics, rebels, and I wot not what, doth sufficiently testify. Wherefore, although it be no bloody persecu- tion, yet it is both great and dangerous. I say it is great; for if a man lose and spend his goods, it is somew^hat ; if he forego his liberty, it is more ; if his good name and estimation be blemished, it is greater ; but to be grieved in mind, and disquieted in conscience, is the greatest of all, and so great that the most bloody and persecuting papists can- not hurt a Christian more. Therefore, take heed lest that you get the name of persecutors. Let not worldly policy prevail more than true divinity. Let not man cause vou to do that which God for- biddeth. Let not the commission draw you further than God's word will suffer. Let not your honour here in earth cause you to do that which is against the honour of God. Let not your palace make you forget the heavenly palace, nor yet the temple of God here in earth .... You say you are our chief pastor, we desire some food ; you are our doctor, we desire to be taught. This way is best for us to be won, and for you to use. Laws and authorities of men must not outface the laws and authorities of God. Popish logic of slanders and imprisonment will not prevail. The syllogisms of the Fleet, and enthimema of the Gatehouse, an induction of Newgate, a sorites of the White Lion, and example of the King's Bench, will not serve. They hold neither 7nood nor figure. All the fallacies of logic and sophistry will not nor cannot darken the truth. Wherefore, chop nor change no VOL. I. T •274 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. ij^QYe with the word of God, but speak it and preach it in sincerity, as in the sight of God."^ ELiz. ^i^g twentieth of the same month Mr. Johnson wititer, was tried at Westminster hall in the presence of Feb. 20, 1574. quccn's commissioners. He was accused of baptizing without the cross, of marrying without the ring, and on one occasion in the administration of the Lord's supper, when compelled to send for more wine, of not repeating over it the words of consecration. To these charges he replied, "At no time in celebrating the communion have I omitted any praj^er or words of institution which the order of the book prescribeth, but have used them in as full and ample manner as they are appointed ; but sometimes upon occasion when wine failed I sent for more, which I delivered to the people with the words appointed in the book to be said at the delivery of the sacrament, not again repeating the words of institution, partly for that it being one entire action and one supper, the words of institution afore spoken were sufficient, as I do take it ; and partly for that in the Book of Common Prayer there is no such order appointed. To the second I say thus : that indeed I did once or twice not use the ring; but after I was complained of to my ordinary, who reprehended me, I used the ring, as I have good and sufficient witness. To the third I answer, that I have omitted to make the sign of the cross, but not upon contempt ; but seeing that I have already sustained seven w eeks' imprisonment, with the loss of my place and living, I beseech you be indifferent judges whether this be not sufficient » Parte of a Register, pp. 101—104. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 275 punishment for so small a trespass."^ His case was prejudged, and no defence therefore availed him. Convicted papists and notorious debauchees were brought forward as witnesses, on whose testimony he was pronounced guilty, and sentenced to one CHAP. X. ELIZ. b Parte of a Register, p. 105. The bishop of London, who ^vas present as one of the commission- ers, admitted the first two cliarges to " be but trifles, and matters of no weight," but attached great importance to the other. John- son was subjected to a severe examination b}' the bishop, the dean of Westminster, and others, in which he displayed consider- able acuteness. A report of it was drawn up by Johnson him- self, and is preserved in A parte of a Register. The following may be taken as a sample. Dean. You lacked the word, therefore it was no sacrament. Johnson. I had the word. Bishop. How had you the word, when you confess that you recited not the institution ? Johnson. I had recited the in- stitution afore, and that was sufficient. Dean. Yea, for that bread and wine that was present ; but when you did send for more bread and wine, you should have again rehearsed the words of institu- • tion. Johnson. The book appointeth no such order. Bishop. Yes, Sir, the book saith, you shall have then suffi- cient bread and wine, and then the prayer of the institution must be recited. Now, for as much as 3-0U had not sufficient, therefore you should have repeated the institution. Johnson. There is no such caveat nor proviso appointed in the book. Bishop. But that is the meaning of the book. Johnson. Men may make what meaning they list, but I refer my- self to the book, whether it be so appointed or no. Dean. You are not forbidden in any place to use the repetition. Johnson. Neither yet am I commanded. Dean. Then the word is of no force. Johnson. I say not so, for I confess the word to be necessary to the substance of a sacrament; but this is not the question be- tween you and me, for we both confess this ; but herein is the controversy, whether the institu- tion is necessary to be repeated, seeing it is but one and the self same action, and the same com- municants which were before, for whose sakes the words are uttered and spoken. If it had not been the same supper, or the communi- cants had been clianged, then it had been necessary again to have rehearsed the institution. Bishop. You like very well of yourself, and you are stubborn and arrogant. I have heard before of your stubborn heart, but now I do well perceive it. Gerard. If thou wert well served, thou shouldest be used like a magician. Lord Chief Justice. Sir, is this your glory and your pride, that you may come to talk thus before such an assemblj' ? And I say to thee, thou art an arrogant and presumptuous fellow, and a sedi- tious. Joh n son . Ho wsoe ver your j udg- ment be, I stand or fall to my own Lord. Bi.shop. You know not what harm you have done in defending an error before this company, to bring them in a doubt that they know not which way to take. 2 276 THE HISTORY OF ^^x.^' year's imprisonment." On the 7th of March he wrote to bishop Sandys, complaining of hard treat- ment, and entreating him to act the part of a Christian pastor. " I pray you," said the suffering and dying servant of God, "let us feel some of your charitable relief to sustain us and our families from danger of famine in this so hard a world ; seeing as you have been the chief of my trouble, 1 desire you to be some part of my comfort. If you had not been at the first, I had escaped the prison. If your amplifications had not been at the last, I had not been condemned. Let pity requite spite, and mercy recompense malice.'"^ But these appeals were vain. The bishop's heart was steeled against them, and Dies in Johnson consequently remained to languish and die prison* I J o in prison. His case was recommended by the council to the merciful consideration of Sandys, in a letter dated May 16, 1574, wherein they represent him as very sick and likely to die, and commanded him to be permitted to remove to his own house on bail. But the bishop was inexorable, and Johnson speedily sunk into the grave.^ In the reign of Mary he would have closed his career at the stake ; but in the protestant times of Elizabeth he was left to pine away in the cold and noxious atmosphere of a prison. In the one case he would have been ranked as a martyr ; in the other, he is represented as a heretic, Johnson. My lord, I defend no libellers are bold enough to repre- error, I maintain a truth. sent them as receiving nothing Dean. Nay, you maintain a but offices of forbearance and horrible heresy. kindness from their superiors, Bromley. Yea, if you were which they were too ungrateful well served, you should try a to acknowledge, and too vulgar- fagot, minded to appreciate, —p. 107-109. Such was the un- Ibid., p. 111. generous and abusive treatment Ibid., p. 118. which the puritan confessors ex- ^ Ibid., p. 111. perienced : and yet their modern PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 277 and defamed as a disturber of the church of God. c;hap. It requires, however, but little knowledge of human nature, to be assured that more strength of Christian eliz. principle was needed to meet death in the latter shape than in the former. Solitary and unfriended, with a wasting frame and an exhausted spirit, the puritan martyr had to meet the slow approach of the king of terrors. Had he in such circumstances yielded to temptation; had his instincts mastered his principles, and life been purchased by tamper- ing with conscience, his weakness might have been pitied, as his guilt must have been condemned; but in erasing his name from the Christian brother- hood, every enlightened mind would have been indignant at his oppressions rather than astonished at his fall. The queen's government was now determined ^^amatio/'to to crush the puritans. A proclamation was accord- ^^^^^^ ingly issued, commanding all officers, civil and o^^- i^^s. ecclesiastical, to put the act of uniformity in execu- tion, " with all diligence and severity, neither ' favouring nor dissembling with one person or other." Any person who, by preaching or writing, spoke against the Book of Common Prayer, was to be imprisoned. Those who abstained from coming to church were to be punished " with more care and diligence than heretofore had been done;" and such as assembled in private houses, or used other rites than were prescribed, were to be "punished with all severity according to the laws of the realm." ^ This proclamation was followed by commissions commissions to the bishops and other persons, to search after delinquents, and to punish them according as their judgments should dictate.^ ' Strype's Parker, ii. 320. ? Ibid., p. 322. 278 THE HISTORY OF A letter was also addressed by the council to the bishops, severely reflecting on them as the cause of ELiz. ^i^Q diversities which prevailed, charging them with Council's let. ^ciug influcuced in their proceedings by the love of money, and commanding them, either in person or Nov. 7, 1573. by tlicir officcT, to scc that no departure from the prescribed orders was practised in their dioceses. " The fault," say the council, " why such diversities have of late been taken up in many churches, and therefore contentions and unseemly disputations risen, in her highness's opinion, is most in you, to whom the special care of ecclesiastical matters doth appertain, and who have your visitations, episcopal and arcliidiaconal, and your synods and such other meetings of the clergy, first and chiefly ordained for that purpose, to keep all churches in your dio- cese in one uniform and godly order; w^hich now is, as is commonly said, the more is the pity, to be only used of you and your officers to get money, or for some other purpose.'"" The work, how^ever, did not proceed as vigorously as the queen and archbishop desired. Some of the , commissioners were secret friends of the puritans, and others were disgusted with the occupation assigned them. Many of the courtiers were un- friendly to the clergy, and did not hesitate on some occasions publicly to express their sentiments. Parker endeavoured to quicken their diligence by addressing himself to their fears. " How secure soever the nobility were of these puritans," he said to lord Burleigh, " and countenanced them against the bishops, they themselves might rue it at last. And that all that these men tended towards was to the overthrow of all of honorable quality, and Strype's Parker, ii. 345. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 279 the setting afoot a commonwealth."' So unscrupu- chap. lously did the wily prelate adapt his suggestions to the prejudices of his auditor. His skill would ^l^^- have been better employed in amending the vices of the clergy, and thus rendering them worthy of the esteem of their countrymen. They had much need of reformation, as Strype himself acknowledges. Speaking of the year 1572, he says, " Churchmen heaped up many benefices upon themselves, 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 decays, and were kept nasty and filthy and undecent for God's worship. Among the laity there was little devotion. The Lord's day greatly proplianed and little observed. The com- mon prayers not frequented. Some lived without any service of God at all. Many were mere hea- thens and atheists. The queen's own court a har- bour for epicures and atheists, and a kind of lawless place, because it stood in, no parish. But instead » Strype's Parker, ii. p. 323. sequent growth. " I could rehearse j Ibid., 204. Str\^e attributes b}^ name,'' says a puritan sufferer, this state of things in a great about the year 1570, " a bishop's measure to " these unhappy con- boy, ruffianly both in behaviour troversies about the churches and apparel, at every word swear- government and other external ing and staring, having ecclesias- raatters in religion." Had he in- tical promotions — a worthy pre- verted his position he would have bend, no doubt. I could name been much nearer the truth. The whoremongers being taken, and secularity of the clergy led them also confessing their lechery, and to contend for the rites of a church yet both enjoying their livings, in whose pomp and wealth they and also having their mouths shared, and it became at length so open, and not stopped nor for- glaring as to disgust the laity with bidden to preach. I know also religion itself. It was this state of some that have said mass diverse things which gave birth to puri- years since it was prohibited, and tanism, and which favoied its sub- upon their examination confessed 280 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, of correcting these enormous evils, Parker was chiefly occupied in the persecution of brethren more ELiz. scrupulous than himself, by which he disgusted the better part of the community, and spread dis- satisfaction through the nation. " I understand," he wrote to Burleigh, " how throughout all the realm, among such as profess themselves protestants, the matter is taken ; they (puritans) rightly justi- fied, and we (commissioners) judged to be extreme persecutors." ^ And no marvel that such was the case, for never did Romish priests proceed in the work of persecution with greater promptitude or apparent pleasure than he and his associates. No means were left untried which promised to overcome the scruples or to bend the indomitable spirits of the puritans. A vigilant eye was kept on all their movements, and the full weight of episcopal autho- rity, clothed with the additional sanction of an ecclesiastical commission, or of the privy council, stood perpetually ready to repress their efforts and to punish their zeal. The archbishop and some of his brethren held stated meetings at Lambeth, to consult on the affairs of the church, where, if we may judge from subsequent events, they formed the resolution of employing more decided and rigorous measures. Their fears were evidently aroused by the increasing numbers and activity of the puritans. Nor were they unmindful of the patrimony of the church, as is evident from a letter which Parker and Sandys addressed to an absent bishop. " In the same, and yet are in quiet service in the church ; but these possession of their ecclesiastical infect not their flocks with false promotions. I know double bene- doctrine, for they teach nothing- ficed men that do nothing else but at all.'' — Parte of a Register, p. 8. eat, drink, sleep, play at dice, Parker, ii. 192. cards, tables, bowls, and read PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 281 the platform set down," they say, "by these new chap. builders, we evidently see the spoliation of the patrimony of Christ, and a popular state to be eliz. sought. The end will be ruin to religion, and con- fusion to our country."^ The puritans were now in the habit of meeting f/th?piri- privately for worship, and are represented as*^""'* requiring the following protestation from those who ' were admitted to their assemblies. " Being thoroughly persuaded in my conscience, by the working and by the word of the Almighty, that these relics of antichrist be abominable before the Lord our God ; and also for that by the power, mercy, strength, and goodness of the Lord our God only, I am escaped from the filthiness and pollu- tions of these detestable traditions, through the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ ; and last of all, inasmuch as by the working also of the Lord Jesus and his Holy Spirit, I have joined, in prayer and hearing God's word, with those that have not yielded to this idolatrous trash, notwith- standing the danger for not coming to my parish church, &c. ; therefore I come not back again to the preaching, &:c. of them that have received these marks of the Romish beast." Nine reasons are then given for their refusing to join in the worship of the established church, when they add, " More- over, I have now joined myself to the church of Christ ; wherein I have yielded myself subject to the discipline of God's word, as I promised at my baptism. Which if I should now again forsake, and join myself with their traditions, I should for- sake the union wherein I am knit to the body of • Strype's Parker, ii. 281. 282 THE HISTORY OF ^' Christ, and join myself to the discipline of anti- — christ. For in the church of the traditioners there is no other discipline than that which hath been maintained by the antichristian pope of Rome, whereby the church of God hath been afflicted, and is until this day. For the which cause I refuse them.'"" ^ Collier, ii. 544. Strype's ratification of their assent." To Parker, ii. 283. Parker has ap- what credit this report is entitled, pended to a copy of this decla- it is impossible now to say. Itsim- ration, the following statement. probabiUty is so great that other " To this protestation the congre- testimony than that of the arch- gation singularly did swear, and bishop must be adduced to com- after took the communion for mand our belief. CHAPTER XI. Form of Subscription — Suppression of Prophesyings in Norwich — Meetings in Cambridgeshire suspected — Death and Character of Parker — Persecution of Dutch Baptists — Fox's Letter to the Queen — Elevation of Grindal — Commanded to suppress the Prophesyings — His Letter to the Queen in their Defence — His Sequestration. Subscription was now vigorously pressed throughout the country. The bishops were deter- mined to purg-e the church of all nonconformine^ eliz. ministers, and therefore cited such oi the clergy as scripuon. they suspected to appear before them. The form of subscription varied in different dioceses, but the following was most generally adopted. " I promise unfeignedly by these presents, sub- scribed with my hand, that I shall endeavour, my- self, so far as God's grace shall assist me, and my talent committed unto me of God shall enable me, to teach the word of God soberly, sincerely, and truly, according to the form of doctrine established in this realm, and without odious invections and indiscreet discourses, by name, or by plain circum- stances, to defame any person. And that I shall not stir or continue any unprofitable contentions in doctrine. I shall not impugn the state of religion received, nor dissuade any man from the rites and 284 THE HISTORY OF ceremonies thereof ; but shall refer all alterations ■ therein to the wisdom of public authority to take order in the same. I shall also in mine exhortations and sermons, spend so the time I have to speak, that I partly set forth the truth of wholesome doc- trine, partly confute errors contrary to the same, and partly to spend most of my labour to exhort mine auditory to the o:ood fruits of o-odlv conversa- tion. I shall not suffer any person to use my license of preaching by raizing the name or abusing the seal. And shall also deliver up m}^ license, being so required thereunto by that authority from whence I had it. " 1. I acknowledge the Book of Articles agreed upon by the clergy of this realm, in a synod holden 1563, and confirmed by the queen's majesty, to be sound and accordino- to the word of God. " 2. The queen's majesty is the chief governor next under Christ, of this church of England, as well in ecclesiastical as in civil causes. " 3. I acknowledge that in the Book of Common Prayer there is nothing evil or repugnant to the word of God, but that it may be well used in this our christian church of England. " 4. I acknowledge that as the public preaching of the word in this church of England is sound and sincere, so the public order of administration of sacraments is consonant to the word of God. "And whereas I have, in public prayer and admin- istration of sacraments, neglected and omitted the order by public authority set down, following mine own fantas}^ in altering, adding, or omitting of the same, not using such rites as by law and order are appointed ; I acknowledge my fault therein, and PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 28 am sorry for it, and liumbly pray pardon for that disorder. And here I do submit myself to order - and rites set down. And I do promise that I will from henceforth, in public prayer and ministration of sacraments, use and observe the same ; the which thing I do presently and willingly testify wath the subscription of mine own hand."" A different form was devised for the laity, many of whom experienced rigorous and cruel treatment.'' The commissioners before whom they appeared were strangely indignant at their assuming the right of judging for themselves, and required from them an implicit assent to wdiat their superiors taught ; but the freedom which the puritans now exercised in religious investigations had engendered a spirit which no threatenings could appal or rigor subdue.^ CHAP XI. ELIZ. a MS., 200. o The form of subscription de- vised for the laity included tlie second, tLird, and fourth of the articles to ^hich tlie clergy sub- scribed, and substituted the fol- lowincr for their confession of ecclesiastical transgressions. "And whereas I have absented myself from my parish church, and have refused to join with the congrega- tion in pubhc prayer, and in the receiving of the sacrament, according to the public order set down, and my duty in that be- half, I am right sorry for it, and pray that this my fault may be pardoned ; and do promise that from henceforth I will frequent my parish church, join with the congregation there as well in prayer as in the use of the sacra- ments, even according to such order as by public authority is set down and estabhshed. And to witness tliis my subscription and promise, I do willingly subscribe my name.' —MS., p. 201. P An example of this is supplied in the case of Mr. White, a citizen of London. He had been fined, and sent from one prison to an- other, for not frequenting his parish church. He was treated with most offensive rudeness and gross brutality at his appearance before the commissioners, Jan. 18, lo7'% as the following exami- nation will show. His examiners were the lord chief justice, the master of the rolls, the master of the requests, Mr. Gerard, the dean of Westminster, the sheriff of London, and the clerk of the peace. On his introduction, he was thus addressed : — Lord Chip/Justice. Who is this.'* White. White, and please your honor. Lord Chief Justice. A\'hite, as black as the devil ! White. Not so, my lord ; one of God's children. Lord Chief Justice. Why will you not come to your parish church ? 286 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. Puritanism extended on every hand. It grew with ] the piety of the nation, and trained up those master ELIZ. White. My lord, it is my desire to frequent the places of preach- ing- and prayer : neither did I re- fuse my parish church, for I did not only frequent the same, but also procured diverse godly men there to preach ; and as I said ■when I was last before you, since my last troubles about these mat- ters, I was never absent from my parish church, being at home, in health, and at liberty. Mr. Gerard. You have not usually frequented your own parish. White. I grant I have more used other places, where I was better edified. Gerard. Will you come to your parish to hear prayer, though there be no preaching ? White. I crave the liberty of a subject ; and if I do not publicly use both preaching, prayer, and sacraments, and behave myself as a Christian, deal with me accord- ingly. Master of the Rolls. Nay, you must answer yea or no. White. You know my mind. I would avoid those things which be a grief to me, an offence to others, and the only disturbance of the quiet state of our church. Dean of Westminster. What one thing can you find fault with in the common book ? White. Let them answer that to whom it more appertaineth, for being in prison almost a whole year about these matters, I was, notwithstanding, upon a statute touching that book indicted, and before I came to liberty, almost outlawed. Lord Chief Justice. Thou art a contemptuous fellow, and wilt obey no laws. White. Not so, my lord ; I do and will obey laws, and therefore refusing but a ceremony of con- science, and not refusing the penalty for the same, I rest still a true subject. Lord Chief Justice. The queen majesty was evil overseen that you were not made of council, how to make laws and orders for religion. White. Not so, my lord ; I am to obey laws and orders warranted by God's word. Lord Chief Justice. Do the queen's laws command anything against God's word ? White. I do not say so, my lord. Lord Chief Justice. Yes, marry do you ; and there I will hold you, by your leave. White. Only God and his laws be absolute and perfect ; all men and their laws may err. Lord Chief Justice. This is one of Shaw's darlings ; I will tell thee what, I will not speak any- thing of affection, for I know thee not, saving by this occasion ; thou art the wickedest and the most contemptuous person that came before me since I sat in this com- mission. White, Not so, my lord ; my conscience doth witness with me otherwise. Master of the Requests. What if the queen should command to wear a grey frize gown, would you come to the church then? White. That were more toler- able than that God's ministers should wear the habit of his enemy. Loi'd Chief Justice. How if she should command to wear a fool's coat and a cock's comb? White. That were very un- seemly, my lord, for God's minis- ters. Dean of Westminster. You will not be obedient to the queen's proceedings. White. I am and will be obedient. Lord Chief Justice. Yea, you say so ; but how are you obedient when you will not do that she commandeth ? White. I have said I would PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 287 spirits who were speedily to act so distinguished a part as the advocates of liberty and the friends of ■ mankind. CHAP. XI. ELIZ. avoid only those things which have no warrant in God's word, and are either condemned or written against by the best re- formed churches. Neither are they within the compass of St. Paul's rule, to serve for order, peace, coraeUness, and edification, but the flat contrary. Lord Chief Justice. He would have no laws. White. If there were no laws, I hope I would live like a Christian. Lord Chief Justice. Thou art a rebel. White. Not so, my lord ; a true subject. Lord Chief Justice. Yea, I swear by God, thou art a very rebel, for I see thou wouldest draw thy sword, and lift up thy hand, and wouldest arise to rebel against thy prince, if time served. White. My lord, I thank God, my heart standeth right toward God and ray prince, and God will not condemn, though your honor hath so judged. Lord Chief Justice. Take him away. White. I would speak a word, which I am sure will offend, and yet I must speak it. I heard the name of God taken in vain : if I had done it, it had been a greater offence than that I stand here for. Gerard. White, White, you do not behave yourself well. White. I crave your worship, show me wherein, and I will crave pardon and amend it. Lord Chief Justice. I may swear in a matter of charity. White. There is now no such occasion But forasmuch as I am so charged, and that it is bruited that at my last be- ing before you I did deny the supremacy of my prince, I desire your honors and worships, with all that be present, to bear witness that I acknowledge her majesty the chief governor next under Christ, over all persons and causes within her dominions, and to this I will subscribe. ... I acknow- ledge the substance of doctrine and sacraments to be sound and sincere ; and so I do of rites and ceremonies, as they agree with the word of God. Lord Chief Justice. The best in England shall understand of you. Take him away. White. My lord, I would to the Lord Jesus my committing to prison these two years might pro- cure these matters to be indiffer- ently conferred upon and decided by God's word, and the judgment of other reformed churches. Lord Chief Justice. You shall be committed, I warrant you. White. I pray you, my lord, let me have justice. I am, as I have said, unjustly presented, and I know the jury did not so present me, but that it is done by the malice of some; wherefore I desire to have a copy thereof. Lord Chief Justice. You shall have your head from your shoul- ders ; have him to the Gate-house. White. I pray you commit me to some prison in London, that I may be near my house. Lord Chief Justice. No, sir, you shall go thither. White. I have paid fines and fees in other prisons ; send me not where I shall pay the like again. Lord Chief Justice. Yes, marry shall you ; that is your glory. White. I desire no such glory. Lord Chief Justice. It will cost you twenty pounds, I warrant you, before you come out. White. God's will be done. " Thus," says this persecuted man, " I was had to the Gate- house, Jan. 18, 1573."— MS., p. 176—178. 288 THE HISTORY OF ^ xi.^' meetings of the clergy for mutual instruction in divine knowledge now became an object of sus- ELiz. picioji archbishop. They were termed ^ro- of prophesy- phesymgs, and had commenced in 1571. It was ings in the . ^ , n diocese of customary, m many parts ot the country, for the ''Tsm" ministers of a district to meet together once a fort- , night, for the right interpretation of scripture. The manner of conducting these exercises at Northamp- ton is thus described by Strype. " Certain of the ministers who were appointed (discoursing orderly one after another) handled some text (given, as it seems, by the bishop), opening the same plainly and briefly before the people ; and all to be des- patched by eleven of the clock. Then (the con- gregation dismissed) the ministers did withdraw into some convenient place, and there conferred among themselves, as well touching doctrine as good life and manners, and other orders meet for them to observe." "After the consultation, any of the brethren might propound their doubts and questions collected out of that place of scripture that day expounded, and signify the same unto the president and the other brethren, and declare the same in writing unto the first speaker. And order was taken for the satisfy- ing of the said question at the next exercise. " The consultation to be ended with some short exhortation to move each one to go forward in his holy office, to apply his study, and increase in god- liness. The exercise finished, the next speaker was nominated publicly ; and the text he should ex- pound read. If any presumed to break these orders and rules, and seemed to be contentious, the presi- dent was presently to command him, in the name of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. God, to silence. And after the exercise, tlie un- advised person to be censured b}^ the brethren.'"^ Notwithstanding the benefits which accrued to the church from these exercises, they were repre- sented to the queen as engendering a spirit of in- ^ quiry hostile to the church, and favourable to puri- tanism. An order was therefore obtained for their suppression, which Parker forw^arded to the bishop of Norwich, requiring him immediately to see it executed. Parkhurst, deeply regretting this step, wrote to the archbishop, signifying his opinion " that the prophesyings had, and still did, bring singular benefit to the church of God, as well in the clergy as the laity ; and it was a right necessary exercise to be continued, so the same was not abused, as indeed it had not been, unless in one or two places at the most.'"" He wrote also to some of the privy council, from whom he obtained a letter countermanding the archbishop's directions, and requiring him to uphold the meetings of the clergy.' But Parker was not to be diverted from his purpose. The queen w^as his friend, and Parkhurst was con- sequently compelled reluctantly to issue an order for the suppression of these meetings throughout his diocese. They were continued, however, in other parts of the country, and were found eminently useful to the protestant cause.* 1 Strype's Grindal, p. 201. An- severe measures adopted ao-ainst rals, ii. i. 472. Fuller's Church them. In answer to tlic arch- Hist., b. ix. p. 121. bishop, who had reproved him ' Strvpe's Parker, ii. 359. for his lenitv, he once observed, « Ibid., 300. Annals, ii. i, 477. " ^Miat I am', and what mv doing-s ' Parkhurst died this year, in are, cannot be hid ; and therefore the sixty-third year of his age. I do refer myself to the reports. He was favorable to the puritans, not of anv one, but of all severally, and uniformly averse from the This I find, by good proof, thr,t, VOL. I. U 290 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XI. ELIZ. Religious meetings in Cambridge- shire sus- pected. 1574, Death and character of Parker. The same jealous intolerance which led to the suppression of projohesyings, induced the archbishop to interfere with the meetings of some pious per- sons in Cambridgeshire and Essex. They were accustomed, on holy days, when relieved from their ordinary occupations, to meet for the reading of the scriptures, " thinking thereby to spend their time better than others, or themselves before had done, when it was taken up in playing at cards, dice, and tables, or sitting at alehouses." But such meetings were uncanonical, and fraught, in the suspicious judgment of the archbishop, with the elements of discord and confusion. Dr. Pern was therefore commissioned to investigate the matter, the result of whose inquiries was a triumphant vindication of the accused parties." So vigilant was Parker in enforcing his ecclesiastical system, that not the slightest movement could take place in any part of the country without engaging his immediate attention. But the archbishop was now approaching to the termination of his career. The bitterness of his zeal, however, was undiminished. One of his last public acts was the visitation of the diocese of Winchester, particularly of the Isle of Wight, which gave rise to general complaint, and was censured even by the queen.' The fretfulness of age had probably soured his temper, and given an un- exampled severity to his proceedings. He died the rough and austere manner of ruling- doth the least good ; and on the other part, the contrary hath and doth daily reclaim and win diverse. And therefore do I choose rather to continue my accustomed and natural form and manner, which I know how it hath and doth work, than with others, by rigor and extremity, to overrule," &c. — Annals, ii. i. 509. " Strype's Parker, ii. 381. An- nals, ii. i. 556. ^ Parker, ii. 423. App. 99. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 291 May 17, 1575, in the seventy-second year of his ^^f^* age. He was attached to the study of ecclesiastical antiquities, to which he did much service, and which ^l^'^- now constitutes his chief praise. As primate of the church of England, he committed a capital error in not availing himself of the influence of his station to heal the divisions which early ensued. It was in his power greatly to have diminished, if not entirely to have prevented, them. Asecession must ultimately have taken place from a church which retained so many of the corruptions of the papacy; yet it might have been averted by moderate coun- sels. But the rigidity of Parker's temper aggra- vated the wound he should have healed, and thus entailed on his successors the necessity of measures whose cruelty has stamped them with indelible in- famy. He was a severe churchman, whose notions of religion were restricted to the maintenance of its forms. Mistrusting the stability of his church, he was perpetuall}^ alarmed for its safety, and un- scrupulously employed in its support every means which force or fraud could supply. The least devia- tion from the ordinary routine of religious services awakened his suspicions and fears. The simplest and most fervent piety failed to secure his compla- cency, unless it were clothed in the habiliments which authority had sanctioned, and expressed itself in language borrowed from the offices of his church. That men were advancing in conformity to God, and in benevolence towards their species, failed to interest his mind, if the slightest taint of puritanism were suspected, or the least irregularity in religious services were known. "He w^s 3. Parker indeed," says Fuller, in his - u 2 292 THE HISTORY OF ^- quaint style, " careful to keep the fences, and shut — the gates of discipline against all such night stealers as would invade the same.'"'' Placed in a station of commanding influence, he prostituted his power to the support of the queen's prerogative and the maintenance of ecclesiastical uniformity. To this he sacrificed the higher purposes of his vocation, and set an example of servility in the state, and of despotism in the church, which Whitgift, Bancroft, and Laud fatally imitated. He had refused sub- mission to the pope, yet he claimed it from others, and enforced the demand with a hard-heartedness which penury and weeping innocence could not move. Nor can it be justly pleaded in his defence that his course was shaped by the commands of the queen and her council. In a few instances this might have been the case, but in general it was otherwise. He was Elizabeth's principal adviser in ecclesiastical affairs. She relied on his church- manship, and found him ever ready to execute her severest edicts. He rarely, if ever, manifested sorrow when employed as the minister of her wrath ; though his joy knew no bounds when he was sanctioned by her authority to execute the perse- cuting code which he had mainly contributed to form. "On the review of his whole behaviour," says Mr. Hallam, "he must be reckoned, and ahvays has been reckoned, the most severe disci- plinarian of Elizabeth's first hierarchy ; though more violent men came afterwards. " Yet it is due to the memory of Parker to observe, that the errors of his administration, serious and criminal as they were, sprung naturally out of the system Church Hist., ix, 108. ^ Const. Hist., i. 244. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 293 lie represented. The reformed church of England ^"t^' was unsound at heart. It had its origin in force, it was shaped and moulded by human laws, and ^^^2. could only be maintained by the exercise of an authority unsanctioned by the word of God. It was based on principles subversive of human rights, and could not fail to involve its supporters in measures which reason condemns, and which reve- lation represents as destructive of those graces with which God seeks to embellish the human soul. In no situation, probably, would Parker have engaged the attachment of his contemporaries ; his disposi- tion was too austere, and his temper too rough, to allow of this : but in other circumstances, and with different connexions, he might have avoided the oppressions which now constitute his disgrace, and which will hand down his name to the latest pos- terity, as a persecutor of the saints of God. The fierceness of ecclesiastical intolerance was ^flf'''^''"^" of Dutch bap- severely felt at this time by some Dutch baptists, who had been driven to England by the atrocities of D' Alva, the Spanish general. So early as 1568, , they had engaged the attention of the bishops, who obtained a proclamation from the queen di- recting a severe visitation to be made throughout London, and ordering all persons "that have con- ceived any manner of such heretical opinions, as the Anabaptists do hold, and meaneth not by charitable teaching to be reconciled, to depart out of this realm within twenty days, upon pain of forfeiture of all their goods, and to be imprisoned and further punished." ^ This proclamation does not appear to have had its intended effect, for the y Strype's Grindal, p. 181. Parker, i. 521. 294 THE HISTORY OF ^xt^* ^^^^^^^^^ rapidly increased. A short time prior to the death of Parker a congregation of them was 1575. Ei^iz. discovered in Aldgate, London, twenty-seven of whom were committed to prison. A commission was granted to the bishop of London, assisted by others, "to confer with the accused, and to pro- ceed judicially if the case so required." Four of them, having recanted, were released, after bearing lighted fagots at St. Paul's cross. Several others were condemned, most of whom were banished, but two were reserved to endure the extreme penalty of the law. ^ JeuerTothe Johu Fox, thc martyrologist, whom Elizabeth, notwithstanding his puritanism, was acustomed to call "my father Fox," was alone found to inter- pose on behalf of these despised and hated secta- ries. He addressed an eloquent letter to the queen, in which he pleads for their lives in a strain of earnest and impassioned supplication. "To roast the living bodies of unhappy men," he says, " who Fuller's Church Hist. ix. 104. ble and detestable heresies, and Mackintosh's England, iii. 168. do ask God, before his church, The form of recantation employed mercy for my said former errors, in this case was the following: and "do forsake, recant, and re- " Whereas we, being seduced by nounce them ; and I abjure them the devil, the spirit of error, and from the bottom of my heart, by false teachers, have fallen into protesting I certainly believe the those most detestable and damna- contrary. And further, I confess, ble errors, that Christ took not that the whole doctrine esta- flesh of the substance of the Vir- blished and published in the gin Mary ; that the infants of the church of England, and also that faithful ought not to be baptized ; is received in the Dutch church that a christian man may not be a in London, is found true and ac- magistrate, or bear the sword and cording to God's word ; where- oilce of authority; and that it unto in all things I submit my- is not lawful for a christian man self, and will be most gladly a to take an oath. Now, by the member of the said Dutch church; grace of God, and by the assist- from henceforth utterly abandon- ance of good and learned minis- ing 'and forsaking all and every ters of Christ's church, I under- Anabaptistical error." stand the same to be most damna- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 295 err rather through blindness of judgment than per- ^^j^' verseness of will, in fire and flames, raging with pitch and brimstone, is a hard-hearted thing, and ^^^2. more agreeable to the practice of the Romanists, than the custom of the gospellers. I do not speak these things because I am pleased with their wickedness, or favour thus the errors of any men ; but seeing I myself am a man, I must favour the life of man ; not that he should err, but that he might repent. Wherefore, if I may be so bold, I humbly beg of your royal highness, for the sake of Christ, who was consecrated to suffer for the lives of many, this favour at my request, which even the divine clemency would engage you to, that if it may be (and what cannot your authority do in such cases?) these unhappy men may be spared. There are excommunications and imprisonments ; there are bonds; there is perpetual banishment; burning of the hand; whipping; or even slavery. This one thing I most earnestly beg ; that the piles and flames of Smithfield, so long ago extinguished by your happy government, may not be revived. But, if I may not obtain this, I pray with the greatest earnestness, that out of your great pity, you would grant us a month or two, in which we may try whether the Lord will grant that they may turn from their dangerous errors, lest with the de- struction of their bodies, their souls be in danger of eternal ruin."* But the queen was inexorable; the * Fuller, ix. 104. " All his temporaries, and to win the as- topics," says Sir James Mackin- sent of his sovereign, than bolder tosh, referring to this letter, ''are propositions ; they form a wide not indeed consistent with the step towards liberty of conscience, true principles of religious liberty. Had the excellent writer pos- But they were more likely to sessed the power of showing soften the antipathy of his con- mercy, and once tasted the sweet- 296 THE HISTORY OF ^xi^* ^^^^^ heretico comhurendo was issued, and John — Wielmacker and Hendrick Ter Woort expired at ELiz. the stake in Smithfield, July 22, 1575. This was the first example during this reign of capital pun- ishment for religious errors. All parties at the time concurred in its approval, though an en- lightened posterity now regrets its occurrence as an indelible blot on the English reformation. Elevation of Parkcr was succeeded by Grindal, who had been Gnndal to the ' archbishopric guccessivelv bishop of London and archbishop of of Canterbury J r r 1575-6. York. He had been an exile for religion during the reign of jMary; and on his return, hesitated to accept the bishopric of London, on account of the ceremonies and habits. He was at first favourable to the puritans. So long as their objections were confined to the ceremonial of the church, he es- teemed them as brethren, who should be treated with kindness, and won by conciliation ; but when they proceeded to impugn the constitution of the hierarchy, and to denounce the episcopal order, Grindal withdrew from them his favour, and spoke of them with an asperity foreign from his natural disposition. His temper inclined him to moderate counsels, and his religious principles were too strong to permit him to yield an unreserved sub- mission to the queen's commands. He soon had reason to repent his elevation to the primacy. Commanded r^^ie immediate occasion of his incurrino; the to suppress O the prophesy, quecu's displcasurc, w^as the patronage he extended to the prophesyings of the clergy. These meetings, though suppressed in Norfolk, and in other parts of ness of exercising it towards de- tice of unbounded toleration." — luded fanatics^ he must doubtless Hist, of Eng., iii. 170. have been attracted to the prac- Strype's Annals, ii. i. 504. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 297 the country, were continued in some districts, and c^^^- the new archbishop was desirous of employing them for the instruction of an ignorant clergy. In ^^iz. order to guard against possible evils, he drew up regulations for their management, by which he hoped to obviate the objections of his sovereign. But the queen was intractable. Parker had poi- soned her mind by his suggestions, and she there- fore required Grindal to put down these exercises. He urged their necessity to qualify the clergy to preach; but she insisted that preachers were too numerous already, " urging," says Strype, " that it was good for the church to have few preachers, and that three or four might suffice for a country ; and that the reading of the homilies to the people was enough.'"^ The archbishop was deeply alfected by the determination of the queen, yet resolved to act worthy of his character and station, whatever might be the result. His conscience protested against compliance, and he honorably abided by its decision. He addressed a lono; letter to the queen. His letter to the queen in ably advocatino- the importance of a preachino- their defence. , , . Dec. 20, 157G. ministry, and the continuance of the prophesyings. " For my own part," he says, "because I am very well assured, both by reason and arguments, taken out of the holy scriptures, and by experience (the most certain seal of sure knowledge), that the said exercises, for the interpretation and exposition of the scriptures, and for exhortation and comfort drawn out of the same, are both profitable to in- crease knowledge among the ministers, and tendeth to the edif\'ing of the hearers, I am forced, with all humility, and yet plainly, to profess, that 1 can- <^ Strype's Grindal, p. 327. Ibid., 329. 298 THE HISTORY OF not with a safe conscience, and without the olFence - of the majesty of God, give my assent to the sup- pressing of the said exercises : much less can I send out my injunctions for the utter and universal subversion of the same. I say with St. Paul, / have no power to destroy, but only to edify ; and with the same apostle, / can do nothing against the truth, but for the truth. If it be your majesty's pleasure, for this or any other cause, to remove me out of this place, I wdll, with all humility, yield thereunto, and render again to your majesty that I received of the same Bear with me, I beseech you, madam, if I choose rather to offend your earthly majesty, than to offend the heavenly majesty of God." In concluding his letter, he entreated two things of the queen; first, to refer all matters per- taining to the doctrine and discipline of the church to the bishops and other divines ; and secondly, "when," to use his own words, "you deal in mat- ters of faith and religion, or matters that touch the church of Christ, which is his spouse, bought with so dear a price, you w ould not use' to pronounce too resolutely and peremptorily, quasi ex aiithoritate, as ye may do in civil and extern matters ; but al- ways remember that in God's causes, the will of God, and not the will of any earthly creature, is to take place. It is the anti-christian voice of the pope, Sic volo, sic jubeo; stet pro rations voluntas. Wherefore I do beseech you, madam, in visceribus Christi, when you deal in these religious causes, set the majesty of God before your eyes, laying all earthly majesty aside ; determine with yourself to obey his voice, and with all humility say unto him, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 299 Non mea, sed tua voluntas fiat. God hath blessed ^^^^* you with great felicity in your reign, now many years ; beware you do not impute the same to your own deserts or policy, but give God the glory. And as to instruments and means, impute your said felicity, first, to the goodness of the cause ye have set forth ; I mean, Christ's true religion; and, secondly, to the sighs and groanings of the godly in their fervent prayer to God for you ; which have hitherto, as it were, tied and bound the hands of God, that he could not pour out his plagues upon you and your people, most justly deserved." ^ These were sentiments worthy of a christian pastor, and their faithful utterance on this occasion serves to redeem Grindal from the reproach of having pre- viously complied with the arbitrary commands of the queen. He had gone further, it is probable, in compliance with her dictates, than his judgment sanctioned; but he was now to learn the folly of looking for the favor of princes, unless prepared unscrupulously to execute their pleasure. Eliza- beth was incensed at the honesty of her primate, and threatened to suspend him ; but Grindal's re- solution was not to be shaken. He persisted in his refusal to issue an order for the suppression of the prophesyings ; in consequence of which, the queen sent letters to the several bishops, commanding May, 1577. them immediately to put them down.^ The arch- bishop was confined to his house and sequestered for six months ; at the expiration of which period, « Strype's Grindal, Appen. ix. to be incorrect by Strype. — Ibid., Fuller assigns this letter to the p. 882. year 1580, in which he is shown ^ Strype's Grindal, p. 342. 300 THE HISTORY OF refusino; to make the submission which was re quired of him, his sequestration was continued. ^ s Strype's Grindal, p. 343. At this period, Burleigh, who well knew his sovereign's tem- per, sent a friendly communi- cation to Grindal informing him of the course which the lords of the star chamber would pursue, and suggesting to him the best way to effect his reconciUation with the queen. " Concerning his of- fence to her majesty," said this wary and sagacious poUtician, "if he forbear the particular recital of his fault with the circumstances. he ma}-, with the better estima- tion, and less burden to his con- science, use a more general speech to acknowledge his fault, and to cry pardon. For which purpose his grace may say, that he is very sorry that he hath in this sort of- fended her majesty, as he is charged ; and that he requireth her majesty to pardon him; and not to interpret his doing to have been with any meaning to offt^nd her majesty." — Ibid., 348. CHAPTER XII. The new Bishops more hostile to the Puritans than their Predecessors — Examination of Mr. Merhury — Petition from Cornwdll to Parlia- ment— Petition from London — Publication of the Gaping Gulf— Robert Brown — His Apprehension — Principles — Parliament of\b^\ — Act to retain the Queen s Subjects in Obedience — Act against sedi- tious Libels — A view of Antichrist in the English Church — Ecclesi- astical Arrangements of the Puritans. The persecution of the puritans continued with- ^xf/" out abatement, notwithstanding the sequestration of Grindal. As the first bishops of this reign, some of whom favoured the puritans, and endeavoured to Thenewbish- r ops more zea- shiekl them from the rio-ors of the law, were re- o ' the puritans moved by death, others occupied their place, of ^•'^"^'''^''■p'''^" J ' A r 7 decessors. severer principles, and of less tolerant disposition. Parkhurst was succeeded by Dr. Freke, a fit instru- ment for an arbitrary court; and Pilkington was followed in the see of Durham by Dr. Barnes, who soon complained of the laxity of his predecessor, and endeavoured to enforce the very letter of con- formity. Ready instruments were therefore found in most parts of the country to carry on the work of persecution, who were not checked in their career by the remembrance of former friendship, or the sympathies of religious feeling. The elevation of Grindal, and his subsequent sequestration, did not, 302 THE HISTORY OF XII.' therefore, bring such relief to the puritans as might have been expected. Though he did not direct the machinery of persecution with the same inflexibility of purpose as his predecessor, he was compelled to be a party to transactions which his better judg- ment must have censured. The new bishop of Norwich signalized his zeal in his primary visita- tion, by suspending a considerable number of the nonconforming ministers.'' Sandys also, in the archbishopric of York, forgot the moderation of his better days, in an attempt to purge his province of puritanism ; while Aylmer, his successor in the see of London, emulated the bigotry and intolerance of his catholic predecessors. Five times in one year he summoned his clergy to appear before him, that he might narrowly inspect their conduct, and prescribe them such rules as his own judgment, or that of his superiors, dictated. He was the most active member of the ecclesiastical commission, and com- plained to the lord-treasurer of the want of zealous co-operation on the part of his lay associates. ' He •> Strjpe's Annals, ii. ii. 59. Parte of a Register, p. 393. " We dare not yield to these ceremo- nies," say several of the Norfolk ministers, in a supplication -which they presented to the council, "because, so far from edifying and building up the church, they have rent it asunder, and torn it in pieces, to its great misery and ruin, as God knoweth ; although her majesty be incensed against us, as if we would obey no laws, we take the Lord of heaven and earth to witness, that we acknow- ledge, from the bottom of our hearts, her majesty to be our law- ful queen, placed over us by God for our good ; and we give God our most humble and hearty thanks for her happy government ; and both in public and private, we constantly pray for her pros- perity. We renounce all foreign power, and acknowledge her ma- jesty's supremacy to be lawful and just. We detest all error and heresy. Yet we desire that her majesty will not think us dis- obedient, seeing we suffer our- selves to be displaced, rather than yield to some things required. Our bodies, and goods, and all we have, are in her majesty's hands ; only our souls we reserve to our God, who alone is able to save us or condemn us." — MS., p. 253. ' Strype's Aylmer, pp. 42, 60. " The bishop," says Strype, "was PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 303 CHAP. XII. ELIZ. represented himself as hated like a dog, and as called the oppressor of the children of God, a cha- racter to which his proceedings prove that he was well entitled. ^ He was accustomed to employ the most virulent and abusive language to the puritan clergy. When Mr. Merbury, one of the ministers of ^''^^j^;"^^;^,^ Northampton, appeared before him and other com- J'^J^ as little liked of the puritans. For as he roundly executed his office in reclaiming- or suppressing them, they spared not to defame and show their ill will to him." — Ibid., 39. Aylmer had not always ad- vocated the temporal dignity and wealth of the clergy. Before his own and his brethren's elevation he could declaim against these things with all the warmth and passion of Knox himself. That reformer, during the reign of Mary, had published a work, en- titled, A Blast against the Go- vernment of Women ; wherein he vehemently contended against the lawfulness of devolving regal au- thority on a female. On the ac- cession of Elizabeth, his fellow- exiles were apprehensive that she might be prej\idiced against them by this publication, and Aylmer was therefore employed to reply to it. This he did in a treatise printed at Strasburgh, 1559, under the title of An Har- borowe for Faithful and Trewe Subjects, against the late blowne Blaste concerning the Government of Women, Sec. The popish bishops were now in possession of the emoluments of the church, and the protestant exiles had not been corrupted by the influx of wealth and the exercise of power. The future bishop of London could therefore advocate the alien- ation of ecclesiastical property to civil purposes, without dream- ing that he was guilty of im- piety and sacrilege. "Come oflp, ye bishops," he says, "away Mer- before bishop of London. with your superfluities, and yield Nov. 5, 1578. up your thousands : be content with hundreds, as they be in other reformed churches, where be as great learned men as you are. Let your portion be priest-like, not prince-like. Let the queen have the rest of your temporalities and other lands to maintain these wars which you procured, and your mistress left her embroiled in ; and with the rest to build and found schools throughout the realm ; that every parish church may have his preacher, every city his superintendent, to livehonestly and not pompously : which will never be unless your lands be dis- persed and bestowed upon many, which now feed and fat but one. Remem.ber that Abimelech, when David in his banishment would have dined with him, kept such hospitality, that he had no bread in his house to give him but the show-bread. Where was all his superfluity to keep your pre- tended hospitality ? For that is the cause that you allege, why you must have thousands, as though you were commanded to keep hospitality rather with a thousand than with a hundred.'' — Ibid., p. 148. This passage was objected to Aylmer, when he became bishop of London, and an oppressor of the ministers of God; but he coolly replied, " When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought as a child." — Ibid., p. j 'ibid., 62. 304 THE HISTORY OF *' missioners at St. Paul's, the following dialogue took — place, which formed part of a conference, as dis- • graceful to the bishop as it must have been irritating to the estimable man whom he oppressed. Bishop. Thou speakest of making ministers; the bishop of Peterborough was never more overseen in his life, than when he admitted thee to be a preacher in Northampton. Merhiiry, Like enough so, (in some sense) I pray God those scales may fall from his eyes. B. Thou art a very ass ; thou art mad ; thou art couragious; nay, thou art impudent: by my troth I think he be mad, he careth for nobody. M. Sir, I take exception against swearing judges; I praise God I am not mad, but sorry to see you so out of temper. B. Did you ever hear one more impudent ? M. It is not (I trust) impudence to answer for myself. B. Nay, I know thou art couragious, thou art fool-hardy. M. Though I fear not you, yet I fear the Lord. B. Thou takest upon thee to be a preacher, but there is nothing in thee. Thou art a very ass, an idiot, and a fool. M. I humbly beseech you. Sir, have patience ; give this people better example. I am that I am, through the Lord. I submit the trial of my suffi- ciency to the judgment of the learned; but this wandering speech is not logical. B. This fellow would have a preacher in every parish church. M, So would St. Paul. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 305 B. Where wouldest thou have them ? M. In Cambridge, in Oxford, in the inns of court, yea, and some in prison, if there wanted more; we doing our part, the Lord would do his. B. I thought where thou wwldst be; but where is the living for them ? M. A man might cut a good large thong out of your hide and the rest, and it would not be missed. B. Perge mentire. Thou shalt dispose of our livings orderl}^ M. It is more than you can do 3^ourselves. If living be the default, they are to blame which have too much ; whatever is the cause, the church feeleth the smart. B. Thou art an overthwart, proud puritan knave; thou wait go to Northampton, and thou wilt have thine own saying to die, but thou shalt repent it. M. I am no puritan ; I beseech you be good to me: I have been twice in prison, but I know^ not why. B. Where was he before ? Keeper of the Gate-house, With me, my lord. B. Have him to the Marshalsea, there he shall cope with the papists. M, I am to go whither it pleaseth God, but re- member God's judgments : you do me open wrong, I pray God forgive you. ^ ^ A Parte of a Register, pp. serve a party purpose. That the 381 — 386. Such was the conduct language of the puritans to their of some of the bishops, wliom superiors was sometimes disre- party writers represent as pat- spectful and abusive, must be ad- terns of meekness and forbear- mitted ; but the treatment they ance. Had the language of Ayl- received constitutes an extenua- mer been employed by a puritan, tiou which no honest mind will it would have been denounced in overlook. Their enemies trans- no measured terms by a class of gressed without excuse, while writers who distort history to they were provoked by oppres- VOL. I. X 306 THE HISTORY OF A vast number of the most zealous and laborious of the clergy were thus silenced at the very time when the increased activity of popish emissaries rendered their services peculiarly necessary. The dignitaries of the church were perpetually declaim- ing against popery, and exaggerating the danger of its increase. From session to session they in- voked the legislature to pass persecuting laws for its suppression, and endeavoured to possess the queen's council with apprehensions of its growth. And yet, as if to stultify themselves, and to expose their church to the utmost peril, they silenced and drove from her altars many of the most devoted protes- tants in the land. Under the pretence of unifor- mity, they did the work of their catholic opponents ; and were only saved from the consequences of their own folly by the heroic fortitude and religious emi- nence of the men whom they oppressed. Many of the conforming clergy were papists, of whom we are informed by a writer of that age, that they " sub- scribed and observed the order of service, wore a side-gown, a square cap, a cope, and surplice. They would run into corners, and say to the people. Be- lieve not this new doctrine, it is naught ; it will not long endure ; although I use order among them outwardly, my heart and profession is from them, agreeing with the mother-church of Rome. No, no; we do not preach, nor yet teach openly. We sionsTvhichmio'htliavemadeawise wicked caitiff, and firebrand of man mad. None of them ex- hell, which, for increasing- the ceeded Aylmer in the bitterness pomp and vain glory which he and virulence of their style, as his shall not long enjoy, will betray language respecting the French Christ and his cross to his mortal king will show. " He," says the enemy." — Strype's Aylmer, page bishop, " was a king or a devil, a 183. christian or a lucifer Oh ! PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 307 read their new devised homilies for a colour, to Petition from Cornwall to satisfy the time for a season." ^ Many of the — churches were entirely destitute of ministers, and ^^^^ some laro e districts were sunk into a state of almost o heathen ignorance. In a supplication from the people of Cornwall to the parliament, the petitioners say : We are in one p^^'^™^"^- of the farthest parts of this land, above the number of fourscore and ten thousand souls, which for want of the word are in extreme misery; for the preach- ing of the gospel being the beauty of Christ's spouse, we want the same, and are therefore so far from that beauty and comfort, wherewith God's church and children are adorned, and do delight in, that we, as men starved and pined with tlie famine of the word, are as if we were not. And this is neither for want of maintenance nor of place, for, beside the impropriations in our shire, we do allow yearly above nine thousand and two hundred pounds, and we have about eightscore churches. The greatest part of which maintenance and places is received and supplied by men, which, through their ignorance and negligence, are guilty of the sin of sins, namely, of the sin of soul murder. Some of them are gamesters, as well on the Sabbath as other days ; some are fornicators, some adulterers, some felons, bearing the marks in their hands for the same offence. Another part of the maintenance and places (which we take not fully to be the seventh part) is in the hand of preachers ; but they are of sundry sorts. Some are non-residents, some have diverse benefices, some preach but quarter seimons ; so that, between spring and spring, pas- * Strype's Annals, ii. i. 145. X 2 308 THE HISTORY OF ^xn^" ^^^^^ pasture, meal and meal, the silly sheep may starve. Some drunkards, some quarrellers, ^^12. some spotted with whoredom, and some with more loathsome and abominable crimes than these. A third sort of ministers we have which do teach truly, labour painfully and faithfully in the Lord's husbandry, and watch diligently over the Lord's heritage. Yet these men are not suffered to attend their calling, for the mouths of the superstitious papists, of the godless atheists, of the filthy livers, are open against them; and the ears of them that are called lords over them, are sooner open to their accusations (though they be but for ceremonies) than to the others' answers. Neither is it safe for us to go to hear them ; for though our own pastures and fountains are withered and dried up, yet if we seek for the bread and water of life elsewhere, we are cited to appear in their courts, where we are taunted, checked, reviled, and threatened with ex- communications, so that we are worse dealt with than those most miserable men deal with their beasts ; for they will neither feed us at home, nor suffer us to seek for food elsewhere. L^n^n ^""^ Even in London there was so great a scarcity of preaching ministers, as to justify the following lan- guage in a petition addressed about this time to parliament. There are in this city, say the petitioners, a great number of churches, but the one-half of them, at the least, are utterly unfurnished of preach- ing ministers. The other half, partly by means of non-residents, which are very many, partly through the poverty of many meanly qualified, there is •» MS., p. 300. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 309 scarce tlie tenth man to be found that maketh any conscience carefully to wait upon his charge, whereby the Lord's Sabbath is often wholly ^^iz. neglected, and for the most part miserably man- gled. As sheep going astray without a shepherd, we humbly, on our knees, beseech this honorable assembly, in the bowels and blood of Jesus Christ, to become humble suitors unto her majesty, that we may have guides as hungry men, that the bread of life may be brought home unto us, that the sower may come into the fallow-ground, that the pipes of water may be brought into our assemblies, that there may be food and refreshing for us, our poor wives, and forlorn children. So shall the Lord ^ have his due honour, you shall discharge a good dut}^ to her majesty, many languishing souls shall be comforted, atheism and heresy banished, her majesty have more faithful subjects, and you more hearty prayers for your prosperity in this life, and full happiness in the life to come, through Jesus Christ, our alone Saviour." This state of things may well have induced thoughtful and pious men to connive at some transgressions of ecclesiastical rule, on the part of brethren whose honesty was undoubted. If no tenderness was due to the person of the non-con- forming minister, some regard should have been paid to the religious interests of his people. The alternative, in many cases, was a connivance at the scruples of the puritans, or a suspension of the preaching of the gospel. The bishops of Elizabeth, for the most part, chose the latter, and thus incurred a degree of guilt which it is fearful to contemplate. n MS., 302. 310 THE HISTORY OF Publication of the Gaping Gulf by Stubbs. Sep. 27. In the year 1579, the queen, then forty-six years of age, was engaged in a treaty of marriage with ELiz. (j^j^g Anjou, a brother of the French king. This match was justly regarded with serious appre- hensions by Elizabeth's protestant subjects, and especially by the puritans. Remembering the recent Bartholomew atrocities, they were alarmed at the prospect of a French match, and preached and spoke against it as an offence to religion, and an injury to the land. Mr. John Stubbs, a puritan lawyer, published a treatise against the marriage, entitled, after the fashion of his day. The discovert/ of a gaping gulf, wherein England is like to be swallowed hy another French marriage, if the Lord forbid not the ba?ins, by letting her see the sin and punishment thereof The queen, being highly in- censed at this publication, issued a proclamation designed to refute its statements, and commanding the person of its author to be secured.'' Within a few days, Stubbs, together with Singleton, his printer, and William Page, the disperser of his book, were apprehended. The last was pardoned ; but the other two were, on an act of Philip and Mary, sentenced to have their right hands cut off. This barbarous punishment was inflicted on a scaf- fold erected in the market-place at Westminster. " I remember," says Cambden, " being present thereat, that when Stubbs, having his right hand cut off, put off his hat with his left, and say'd with a loud voice, God save the queen, the multitude standing about was altogether silent, either out of horror of this new and unwonted punishment, or else out of pity towards the man, being of most • Strype's Annals, ii. ii. 232, 303. Grindal, p. 350. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 311 honest and unblameable report, or else out of hatred ^xn^* of the marriage, which most men presaged would be the overthrow of relio^ion/'P Stubbs was a man of learning as well as of loyalty, and was sub- sequently employed by the lord treasurer to answer a work of cardinal Allen's, entitled The English Justice, which he accomplished to his o\ati honour and to the benefit of the protestant cause."^ About this time Robert Bro\\Ti began to attract RobenBrown the attention of the bishops. He was descended ^ from an ancient family in Rutlandshire, and w^as a relative of the lord treasurer Burleigh. His educa- tion was received at Cambridge, where he imbibed the spirit of ecclesiastical innovation, which he carried to a much greater extent than Cartwright or any of his predecessors. His labours were prin- cipally confined to the diocese of Norwich, where he preached with great success. The vehemency P Annals, 133. The Gaping higlilv dang-erous to her life." — Gulf'is represented in the queen's Const. Hist. i. 315. proclamation as a lewd and sedi- ^ Strype's Annals, ii. ii. 305. tious book, and this description This same year Matthew Ham- has been re-echoed by some mond was cited before the bishop modem writers. Such persons of Norwich for heresy and bias- would do well to read the pam- phemy. He was charged with phlet they thus libel. " This denying- the inspiration of the pamphlet," says Mr. Hallam, "^is New Testament, the Divinity of very far from being what some the Saviour and of the Holy have i^norantly or unjustly called Ghost, and the perfietuity of bap- it, a virulent libel ; but is written tism and of the Lord's supper, in 'a sensible manner, and with He was first sentenced to lose his unfeigned loyalty and affection ears, which barbarity he endured towards the queen. But, beside with firmness, and was subse- the main offence of addressing the quently burnt in the castle-ditch people on state affairs, he had, in at Norwich, on May 20, 1579. — the simplicity of his heart, thrown Collier, ii. 569. Heylin's Presby., out many allusions proper to hurt 280. Our account' of the senti- her pride, such as dwelling too ments of Hammond is derived long on the influence her husband from his persecutors, and should would acquire over her, and im- therefore be received with caution, ploring tliat she would ask her It has been no uucommon thing physicians whether to bear chil- for persecutors to misrepresent dren at her years would not be the creed, in order to justify the murder, of their victims. 312 THE HISTORY OF ^xu^' style, which had rendered him popular even at Cambridge, drew many of the country people to his preaching, and enabled him to exercise considerable influence over them. " His arrogant spirit of reproving," said the bishop of Norwich in a letter to Burleigh, " was such as it was to be marvelled at ; the man being also to be feared, lest, if he were at liberty, he should seduce the vulgar sort of the people, who greatly depended on him ; assembling themselves together to the number of a hundred at a time, in private houses and conven- ticles to hear him, not without danger of some evil intent.'"^ b>^Te^ecd/. ^^'^^ apprehended by the ecclesiastical com- siasticai com- jggjQjjgpg ^jjj committcd to the sheriff of the missioners. ' 1^^- county ; but on the intercession of the lord treasurer, he was permitted to repair to London, where the persuasion of his friends, and the reasoning of the archbishop, brought him to some degree of com- pliance. Soon afterwards he left the kingdom and settled at Middleburgh in Zealand, where he formed 1582. a church on his own principles. His views were set forth in a work entitled A Treatise of Reforma- tion, without tarrying for any, &c., in which he con- tended for the church's independence of the civil power, and argued the wickedness of waiting for the magistrate's sanction in order to reform the constitution and offices of the church. The society over which he presided being torn with division, Brown returned to England in 1585, when he was cited before Whitgift to answer certain charges founded on his T?'eatise of Reformation. The inter- cession of Burleigh again effected his release, and Strype's Annals, iii. i. 22. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 313 he was sent to his father's in hope that his past troubles would render him more temperate and submissive for the future. But the restlessness of eltz. his spirit continued, and his father at length ejected him from his house. " The old gentleman," says Fuller, " would own him for his son no longer than his son owned the church of England for his ^ mother." Brown now prosecuted a course of itine- rant labours, inveighing bitterly against the cere- monies, worship, offices, and constitution of the church. Wherever he came, he pronounced the church of England to be antichristian, and exhorted the people to introduce, without delay, a simpler and more scriptural form of ecclesiastical polity. Cartwright and his disciples had long waited for the parliament to introduce the reforms which they advocated ; but Brown denied that the sanction of the magistrate was necessary, and affirmed every congregation of Christians to be a church, free from external control, and competent to the regulation of its own affairs. The itinerant character of his labours brought him in contact with a large number of persons, while his sanguine temperament and ardent zeal prompted him to seize every oppor- tunity for the diffusion of his views. His success was consequently great. Churches were planted in various parts of the kingdom ; and principles were brought into discussion, which, though rejected at first as democratical and irreligious, have subse- quently made their way to the confidence and admiration of a large portion of the community. He was therefore at once dreaded and opposed by the bishops and their agents. The whole system of ecclesiastical tyranny was arrayed against him, and 314 THE HISTORY OF 1689. ^xn^' honor, as he professed to esteem it, of having been confined in thirty-two prisons. He at ELiz. length settled at Northampton, where his preaching engaged the attention of Lindsell, the bishop of Peterborough, who cited him before him, and on his refusing to comply, excommunicated him. Brown is represented as having been so deeply affected by this sentence as to be induced to make his submission to the bishop, and to return to the communion of the church. The lord treasurer wrote a letter to Lindsell on his behalf, entreating that if " there should remain any relics in him of his former erroneous opinions, that he would confer with him ; and finding him dutiful and conformable (as he hoped he should), to receive him again into the ministry, and to give him his best means and help for ecclesiastical preferment." He was sub- sequently preferred to the rectory of a church near Oundle in Northamptonshire, where he remained till his death.' His private character did not con- ciliate esteem or aSection. He was haughty, dog- matical, and passionate ; a restless zealot, who con- tended for the forms of religion without evincing the moral rectitude and simplicity of intention which are the essential ingredients of a religious reformer.* • Fuller, ix. 166 — 169. Heylin's the following account of him. Hist, of Presby. 295—297. Collier, " For my own part, I have, when ii. 581. Strype's Annals, iii. i. 22. a youth, often beheld him. He Whitgift, i. 619. Fuller is sceptical was of an imperious nature, on the point of Brown's renounc- offended if what he affirmed but ing his former opinions, and, I in common discourse were not think, not without good reason. instantly received as an oracle. He took no part in the public He was then so far from the sab- ministry of his church, but re- batarian strictness to^which some tained a curate who did the whole preciser Brownists did afterwards of the duty. pretend, that both in judgment ' Fuller knew Brown, and gives and practice he seemed rather PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 31 The principles which Brown advocated were substantially the same as those which are now held by the majority of English dissenters. He main- eliZv tained that the Christian church is a voluntary Hisprincipi association of believing men, that it is competent to the management of its own affairs, and is capable of existing under every form of civil government which ^ human society can assume." He consequently repudiated its subjection to the state, and denied the possibility of its sustaining a national character. It necessarily followed from these principles, that he should denounce the hierarchy as an unscriptural institution, adapted rather to advance the designs of its political supporters, than to promote the religious libertine therein. In a word, he had in my time a wife, with whom for many years he never Hved, parted from her on some disgust ; and a church wherein he never preached, thouo'h he received the profits thereof. ' He died about the year 1G80, in Northampton jail, rwhither he had been con- veyed for striking the constable of his parish. " " The church planted or gathered," says Brown, "is a company or number of Christians or believers, which, by a willing covenant made with their God, are under the government of God and Christ, and keep his laws in one holy communion ; because Christ hath redeemed them unto holiness and happiness for ever, from which they were fallen by the sin of Adam. " The church government is the lordship of Christ in the com- munion of his offices ; whereby his people obey his will, and have mutual use of their graces and callings, to further their godliness and welfare." — The life and man- ners of all true Christians. 1582, p. 20. His views on the sub- ject of ecclesiastical censure were sober and scriptural ; and if fairly acted on, would efFectually exclude coercion from the Chris- tian church. " Rebuke is a pro- nouncing of the known wicked- ness of any, with condemning the same, in the hearing of the offender onl}', if his fault be private ; or of witnesses, if he be wilful therein, and openly justify it ; or of the church, if he yet be more wilful ; or else if his fault be open, in the presence and hearing of those which see his fault; or if he be wilful, before the church, whereby he may be ashamed and others fear. Separation of the open, wilful, or grievous offenders, is a dutifulness of the church in with- holding from them the Christian communion and fellowship, by pronouncing and showing the covenant of Christian communion to be broken by their grievous wickedness, and that with mourn- ing, fasting, and prayer for them, and denouncing God's judgments against them." — Ibid., p. 26. 316 THE HISTORY OF ^xn^* ^^^^'^i'^ mankind. He attacked the whole system of the established church, denying the validity of ^Liz. its orders, the purity of its rites, the rectitude of its worship, and the soundness of its constitution. He declaimed against it as a spiritual Bab3don, loaded with many of the abominations of the popedom, equally haughty in its spirit, though less powerful to accomplish its intolerant designs. On these topics he indulged in language, the harshness and asperity of which cannot be too severely censured. Forgetting the meekness of the Christian spirit, he employed raillery and invective where calm reason- ing and scriptural exhortation would have been more appropriate. Some of his earliest followers partook of his temper; but the evil was speedily corrected by the consistent piety and sterling good sense of those who succeeded. Discarding his severity and uncharitableness, they condemned the anathemas he had uttered against all other com- munities, and blended the softer graces of Chris- tianity with the fidelity that was requisite for the defence of neglected truths. His principles were thus purified from the alloy with which he had debased them, and were exhibited in a form which won the respect, even where they did not effect the conviction, of impartial and reflecting men.'' fleeting of After several prorogations, the parliament again 1581- met on January 16, 1580-1, and one of their earliest measures was to resolve on a public fast, and on daily preaching. " That so they beginning their " An interesting account of the It is drawn up with, his usual liistorv and principles of the accuracy and discrimination, and Browiiists is furnished by pro- may be consulted with great fessor V aughan in his Memorials advantage. See also Wilson's of the Stuart Dynasty, chap. 20. Dissenting Churches, i. 13. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. proceedings with the service and worship of God, he might the better bless them in all their consul- tations and actions." The queen was highly offended with this invasion of her prerogative ; and the house, not being yet prepared to vindicate its constitutional privileges, tamely submitted.''' The disposition of the commons was subsequently shown in a petition to the queen for the correction of eccle- siastical abuses. The great number of unlearned ministers, the abuse of excommunication, the com- mutation of penance, the midtitude of dispensations and pluralities, and many other things very hurtful to the church, were specified by the commons as needing reformation. A committee was appointed to solicit the concurrence of the bishops, and a favourable answer was obtained from the queen.'' But the session passed away without anything being done. Elizabeth was not sincere in seeking the correction of ecclesiastical abuses. Her agents knew this, and therefore trifled with the business which she entrusted to their hands. Two laws were passed in this session of parlia- ment which grievously affected the puritans. They were designed to operate against the papists, whose emissaries were now more active than ever. The statutes enacted against the members of the Romish church had served to alienate them from the queen's government, and to attach them to the in- terests of Mary Stuart, the rival and prisoner of Elizabeth. Their disaffection had shown itself on various occasions, and only wanted a favourable ^ D'Ewcs*s .Tournal, pp. 282— ^ Ibid., pp. 501—302. 285. 318 THE HISTORY OF ^^r* opportunity to subvert the government and assail ^ the life of the queen. More lenient measures might ELTZ. i^ave restored their loyalty ; but the atrocities of popery were too recent, and had made too vivid and horrifying an impression on the mind, to allow of their adoption. He who had proposed them would have subjected himself to the suspicion of disloyalty and irreligion, -vsdthout the slightest chance of bene- fiting the members of the Romish communion. The house of commons, much as it disapproved of the severities practised against the puritans, were dis- posed to adopt any measures which promised to ^he' %u^t subdue and extirpate popeiy. A law was therefore subjects, &c passed, entitled "An act to retain the queen's sub- jects in their due obedience," which, after repeating the former provisions that had made it high treason to reconcile any of the queen's subjects, or to be reconciled to the church of Rome, imposes a penalty of twenty pounds a month on all persons absenting themselves from church, unless they heard the English service at home.^ This clause was sub- y Cambden's Annals, cxxxiii. p. feit ten pounds a month, be dis- 12. Fuller's Ch. Hist., b. ix. p. abled from teaching school, and 131. Hallam's Const. Hist. i. 196. suffer a year's imprisonment." Neal, i. 300. This law enacted, " Some," says Fuller, " and those " That all persons that do not far enough from all poperv, mis- come to church or chapel, or other liked the imposing of money place where common prayer is mulcts on men's consciences. If said, according to the act of the mass were lawful, let it be uniformity, shall forfeit twenty freely permitted ; if unlawful, let pounds per month to the queen, it be wholly prohibited. It is a being thereof lawfully convicted, sad case to make men pay dear and suffer imprisonment till paid. for their damnation, and to sell Those that are absent for twelve them a license to do that which months shall, upon certificate the receivers of their money con- made thereof into the king's ceive to be unlawful. It is part bench, besides their former fine, of the character of the whore be bound with two sufiicient of Babylon (which protestants sureties in a bond of two hundred generally apply to Rome), that pounds for their good behaviour. she traded, or made a mart of the Every schoolmaster that does not souls of men ; as this was little come' to common prayer, shall for- better." PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 319 sequently interpreted so as to comprehend the puri- ^^n^* tans as well as the papists, and was enforced with merciless rigor.^ The other law affecting the piiritans, which was ^^ij^^^""' passed in this parliament, rendered the publication "^^i^- of seditious libels against the queen's government a capital felony. It was levelled at the books dis- persed by the seminary priests ; but, by a forced construction, was made to bear on some of the puritanical writings.^ Many puritans were put to death under this statute, the operation of which became so fearful as to render the advocacy of opinions adverse to those of the queen or of her bishops extremely hazardous. Judges were found to put any construction on the law which their em- ployers desired, and juries were sufficiently servile to answer all the purposes of an unscrupulous and despotic court. * Neal regards this clause as having been design edly in troduced by the enemies of the puritans. — Hist., i. 300. On what evidence he founds his opinion, I know not, but am disposed to think him in error. The temper of the parlia- ment was hardly such as wittingly to have intrusted the prelates with additional power for the annoyance and injury of the puritans. » Hallam's Const. Hist., i. 278. Mr. Neal inaccurately represents this law as directed against the puritans. Speaking of their rigor- ous treatment, he says, "This exasperated their spirits, and put them upon writing satirical pamphlets against their adver- saries ; in some of which there are severe expressions against the un- preaching clergy, calling them (in the language of scripture) dumb dogs, because they took no pains for the instruction of their parish- ioners ; the authors glanced at the severity of the laws, at the pride and ambition of the bishops, at the illegal proceedings of the high commission, and at the unjustifi- able rigors of the queen's govern- ment; which her majesty being informed of, procured a statute this very parliament," &c. — Hist, of Puritans, i. 299. Heylin also represents this statute as directed against the puritans, and regrets that it was limited to the life of the queen. " Had it been re- vived," he says, " by either of the two last kings, it might possibly have prevented those dreadful mischiefs which their posterity for so long a time have been in- volved in." — Hist, of Presby., p. 288. 320 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XII. £LIZ. The condition of the puritans was grievously affected by the operation of these statutes. They were left to the mercy of the bishops, who un- scrupulously availed themselves of the increased ^ means of oppression thus placed in their hands. But the spirit of resistance to ecclesiastical tyranny had grown with oppression, and was now become sufficiently strong to endure the severest penalties of the law, rather than renounce its liberty of thought, or forego the forms of worship w^hich it approved. The measures adopted served con- sequently to irritate rather than to terrify. They gradually dissolved the last bond which united the puritans to the church, and substituted for their early disaffection a fixed and inveterate hostility. A view or'' The growing repugnance of the puritans to the thrEngiis'h church was evinced in a brief treatise, published about this year, under the title of A Viewe of Anti- christ his laws and ceremonies in our English church unreformed. It is represented in the introduction * as "A clear glass, wherein may be seen the danger- ous and desperate diseases of our English church, being ready utterly to perish, unless she may speedily have a corrosive of the wholesome herbs of God's word laid very hot to her heart, to expulse those cold and deadly infections of popery which the attainted apothecaries of antichrist have cor- rupted her withal ; else long she cannot endure." The former part of the treatise consists of four tables, in the first of which the generation of anti- christ is fancifully traced, in order to substantiate the relation of the church of England to that of Rome. " What are they," it is asked, " that make laws to the church contrary to the verity, and PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 321 deprive, imprison, and banish the members of Christ, both preachers and others, that will not - yield thereunto, but Antichrists ? And judge in- differently by the antithesis following, whether there be not a young pope hatched up in the bosom of our church, whose horns be grown so strong, that he dare push at any, and is to be feared, will shortly push to death many of God's saints, unless the Lord stir up our good magistrates, to cut his horns, or tie him shorter, which is high time to do: so shall the danger of spilling much innocent blood be avoided." The treatise concludes with a prayer that, as Jehoshaphat destroyed the high places in Judah, so the queen might be strengthened by the Lord to " cast down all the high places of idolatry within her land, with the popish canon law, and all the superstition and commandments of men, and to pluck up all filthy ceremonies pertaining to the same. And that her highness may send forth her princes and ministers, and give them the book of the Lord, that thereby they may bring home the people of God to the purity and truth of the apostolic church." ^ A Parte of a Register, pp. of our Saviour, Matt, xviii. 17. 65-72. This work was apparently By this church is meant the mi- written by Gilby and Wilcocks, nisters and elders that are chosen the name of the former bcirio- sub- out of the congregation to watch scribed at the close of the third over the flock. The proceedings table, and that of the latter at the of tliis church in matters of difH- end of the fourth. The ecclesias- culty, if it cannot be determined tical views advocated are presby- in their congregation, is to call a terian, as the following passage meeting of the rest of the will^show: "Whereby it appear- churches in that province, and if eth, that none but Christ only it be a matter of greater weight, hath full and sole authority to to proceed to a greater number ; make laws unto his church ; nei- yea, a general meeting of the ther is it lawful for any to exer- whole churches of the land, and cise the censures of the church there, with fasting and prayer, to himself alone, but together with enter into the causes and to end those that are authorized by the the same." — Ibid., p. 68. church according to the direction VOL. I. Y CHAP. XII. ELIZ. 322 THE HISTORY OF ^xn^* attempt was made by the leading puritans, about the year 1582, to arrange and perfect their ELiz. ecclesiastical system. A meeting was held for this Ecclesiastical purpose, probably in London or Cambridge, when o"^r'^uri! various regulations were agreed on, by which it was hoped to introduce the practice of their principles without awakening the jealousy of their superiors, I or incurring the penalties of the law. Accommo- dating themselves as far as possible to the existing system, they sought to render its forms subservient to their own views. " Let no man," they say in their advice to the brethren, " (though he be an university man) offer himself to the ministry, nor let any man take on himself an uncertain and vague ministry, though it be offered unto him. But such as be called to the ministry by some certain church, let him impart it unto that classis or con- ference (whereof themselves are), or else to some greater church assembly : and if such shall be found fit by them, then let them be commended, by their letters, unto the bishop, that they may be ordained ministers by him. Those ceremonies, which being taken from popery are in controversy, ought to be omitted and given over, if it may be done without danger of being put from the ministry. But if there be any imminent danger to be de- prived, then this matter must be communicated with the classis in which that church is; that by the judgment thereof it may be determined what ought to be done. If subscription to the articles of religion, and to the book of common prayer, shall be again urged, it is thought that the book of articles may be subscribed unto, according to the statute thirteenth of Elizabeth, that is, unto such PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 323 CHAP. xn. of them only as contain the sum of christian faith, and doctrine of the sacraments. But, for many weighty causes, neither the rest of the articles in that book, nor the book of common prayer, may be allowed, though a man should be deprived of his ministry for it. It seemeth that churchwardens, and collectors for the poor, might thus be turned into elders and deacons, when they are chosen. Let the church have warning fifteen days before, of the time of election, and of the ordinance of the realm ; but especially of Christ's ordinance, touch- ing appointing of watchmen and overseers in his church, who are to foresee that none oifence or scandal do arise in the church, and if any shall happen, that by them it may be duly admonished. And touching deacons of both sorts (men and women) the church shall be monished, what is re- quired by the apostle, and that they are not to choose men of custom and of course, or for their riches; but for their faith, zeal, and integrity. Let the names of such as are so chosen be published the next Lord's-day; and after that, their duties to the church, and the church's towards them, shall be declared : then let them be received into the ministry to which they are chosen, with the prayers of the whole church." Regulations were also made for a division of the churches into classes, and the several gradations of comitial, provincial, and na- tional assemblies, were arranged. Such a scheme, however it might answer a tem- porary purpose, while the archbishop was seques- tered, and the attention of the government princi- pally directed to the Jesuits, could not permanently Fuller's Ch. Hist., ix. 140. Collier, Eccl. Hist., ii. 582. Y 2 324 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, accomplish the design of its framers. Cartwright's scheme was essentially incompatible with the exist- ELTZ. ing system. It did not admit of a compromise, and could not be mingled up with it. This effort, therefore, to carry on their discipline under a dis- guise, was soon detected by their vigilant enemies, and only served to introduce other and severer tests. Such methods of concealment have never advanced the interests of truth. Habituating the mind to something like deceit, they impair its moral sensibilities, and thus prepare the way for other and more criminal compliances. They expose the christian character to the charge of duplicity, and bring religion itself into doubt. CHAPTER XIII. ELIZ. Elevation of Whitgift — His articles for the Regulation of the Church — Rigorously enforces Subscription — Address of the Essex Ministers to the Council — Suffolk Address — Publication of Practices of Pre- lates— Court of High Commission — Articles for the Examination of the Clergy — Burleigh's Letter disapproving of Whitgift' s Measures — Whitgift' s Reply — Letter from the Council — Conference at Lambeth. The death of Grindal, in 1583, made way for the ^xiil' elevation of Whitgift to the primacy of the church. This latter event took place September the 23rd, and was followed by a course of measures which Elevation of were designed to extirpate, if they did not subdue, thl^ar^hbish- the puritan party. "At his first coming to the "P/^^^y/^^''" see," says Collier, " he had instructions from the i^®^- queen to hold a strait rein, to press the discipline of the church, and recover his province to uni- formity. This method agreed with the archbishop's sentiments, and was probably suggested by him- self." Whitgift was worthy of his vocation. His Eccl. Hist., ii. 581. "To connivance of the prelates, the him/' says Cambden, "the queen, obstinacy of the puritans, and the who, as in civil matters, so also in power of certain noblemen, was the ecclesiastical laws, thought run out of square." — Annals, that no relenting- was to be used, 158.3, p. 27. gave in charge, that before all This year was disgraced by the things he should restore the dis- martyrdom of John Lewis, who cipline of the church of England, was burnt at Norwich for deny- and the uniformity in the service ing the divinit}^ of Christ. — Ful- of God, established by authority ler s Ch. Hist., ix. 169. of parliament, which through the 326 THE HISTORY OF ^xm' controversy with Cartwright had fretted his temper, and rendered him a willing instrument of the ELiz. queen's design. In the early part of his career he had unscrupulously employed his authority as vice- chancellor, in the oppression of his opponent; to the rudeness and asperity of whose controversial writings he now added the rancour of the polemic, and the intolerance of the state priest. " It is sel- dom good policy, " remarks INIr. Hallam, when referring to the elevation of Whitgift, to confer such eminent stations in the church on the gladi- ators of theological controversy; who, from vanity and resentment, as well as the course of their studies, will always be prone to exaggerate the im- portance of the disputes wherein they have been engaged, and to turn whatever authority the laws or the influence of their place may give them against their adversaries. This was fully illustrated by the conduct of archbishop Whitgift, whose ele- vation the wisest of Elizabeth's counsellors had ample reason to regret."* Immediately after his consecration he gave an th^hJi^di!'^ earnest of his future course, by publishing several articles which the bishops of his province were commanded to execute. Amongst other things it was ordered that all 'preaching, reading, catechis- ing, and other similar exercises, in private places, and where persons are present not belonging to the family, should be discontinued, " seeing the same was never permitted as lawful under any christian magistrate ; but is a manifest sign of schism, and a cause of contention in the church." None were permitted to preach who did not four ' Const. Hist., i. 269. Publishes ar tides for the regulation of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 327 times in the vear read the service, and administer chap. ./ XIII the sacraments accordino; to the book of common 1- prayer. All preachers were to wear the prescribed ^^i^- apparel, and to subscribe, under the penalty of de- privation, to the queen's ecclesiastical supremacy, the agreement of the book of common prayer and of the ordination of priests and deacons with the Avord of God, and to the truth of the articles of religion agreed on in the convocation of 1563. ^ Objections were made to the authority of these articles, and to the legality of enforcing them ; but Whitgift was not to be restrained by such scruples. No regard was shown to personal character, or to ministerial reputation ; to the good which had been effected, or to the prospects of usefulness which were then unfolding themselves. Subscription was peremptorily demanded, and Rigorously • P n 1 • P 1 mi 1 • enforces sul deprivation followed its refusal. The archbishop scription. allowed of no middle course. He treated the scru- ples of conscience with indifference; and the firm- ness which virtue engendered, he punished as the contumacious resistance of legal authority. The f Strype'sAVhitgift, i. 229. The priests, and deacons, containetli form of subscription was as fol- notliingin it contrary to the word lows : of God. And that the same may I. That her majesty, under be lawfully used ; and that he God, hath, and ought to have, the himself will use the form of the sovereignty and rule overall man- said book prescribed, in public ner of persons born within Ker prayer, and administration of sa- realms, and dominions, and coun- craments, and none other. tries, of what estate, ecclesiastical III. That he alloweth the book or temporal, soever they be. And of articles of religion, agreed upon that none other foreign power, by the archbishops and bishops prelate, state, or potentate, hath, in both provinces, and the whole or ought to have, any jurisdiction, clergy in the convocation holden power, superiority, pre-eminence, at London in the year of our Lord or authority, ecclesiastical or tern- 1562, and set fo'rth by her ma- poral, within her majesty's said jesty's authority. And that he realms, dominions, and countries. bclieveth all the articles therein II. That the Book of Common contained to be agreeable to the Prayer, and of ordering bishops, wovd of God. 328 THE HISTORY OF clergy groaned beneath his inflictions. Complaints — were loud and universal, and numerous petitions ■ were forwarded to the privy council, praying that his course might be arrested, and his power of doing mischief be decreased. The severities of Whitgift caused the days of Parker to be remem- bered with complacency, and mainly contributed to that remarkable defection from the English church which so rapidly ensued. = Sixty-four mi- nisters were suspended in the county of Norfolk, and sixty in Suffolk, together with considerable numbers in other parts of the kingdom. ^ Many ^ "Who can deny," says the author of the Unlawful Practices of Prelates, when referring to Whirgift's severity in depriving the clergy, "that it came from the humour of one man, as may be esteemed, more carried away with private conceit, than with any grave council and g-odly expe- rience, perhaps (as myself of some of them understand) against the tide of the advice of "many of their own coat ; but undoubtedly against almost the former practice of three or four and twenty years' experience : of the peaceable go- vernment that hath been under her sacred majesty, and some of the best of 'those grave and chris- tian predecessors of his ; who, howsoever toward some particular good men, some hard dealing here and there were showed by the in- stigation of some ignorant and half-popish persons, for lack of judgment and knowledge : yet none ever dealt so generally against the whole ministry, and so eagerly against the stream and light of all men's judgments, in so learned an age, before this new plot was heard of; and now, alas, with too much certainty is felt." — A Parte of a Register, p. 282. »» MS., 480,437. According to a paper printed by Strype in the Appendix to Whitgift's Life, p. 99, the number of conformable ministers in two dioceses and two archdeaconries, within the pro- vince of Canterbury, was seven hundred and eighty-six, and that of nonconformists only forty-nine. This statement does not include London or Norwich, two of the strong-holds of puritanism. It is impossible to reconcile this ac- count with the scarcity of preach- ing ministers experienced during the latter part of this reign, or with the notoriously puritan bias of a large portion of the clergy. i\Iany may have subscribed to ar- ticles which they partially disap- proved, rather than incur penury and imprisonment; but still the account of Neal, Hist, of Puri- tans, i. 323, which makes the number suspended in six counties for non-subscription to be two hundred and thirty-three, is much more consonant with the com- plaints so extensiveh- urged a- gainst Whitgift's proceedings, and with the strength subsequently displajed by the non-complying clergy. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 329 were induced to subscribe by promises which were never kept ; and others sacrificed conscience at the — solicitations of temporal interest. " Seeing we are ^ urged," said a puritan writer of that day, "we will stand to the proof of every particular, and show how sugarl}^ they dealt, and yet in the end did undermine them, promising to some who had sub- scribed according to the archbishop's godly inter- pretations, that they should have a copy of the same, which after they could not get. To others, that they subscribed with this and that condition, but afterwards their names were mustered in one rank with the rest, as being all under the same colors. That others were promised, after this sub- scription, much favor and protection against their evil disposed and popish enemies, which yet after- ward they felt as the shadow of a naked tree in the latter end of a hot and dry summer; being rather more molested in their commissaries' court than before. Is not this," adds the writer, "undermin- ing, to make a man to swear to answer to articles which he might not see, till afterward, and then to urge him, upon his oath, not only to confess the matters wherewith he is charged, but any such thing, or any thing sounding that way, and not only of pub- lic speech, but private, zvhen or xnheresoever they were spoken, and not only the things, but the words, and not only the xoords, but the occasion whereon, the manner how, the reasons why, any such things were said, and that not of one but every article, to the number of seventeen."' Such was the inquisitorial process through which the puritans had to pass ; a process as designedly complicated and perplexing K Parte of a Register, 387. 330 THE HISTORY OF ^xitf ' which the worst agents of popery had devised. Numerous petitions were presented to the ^^12- council by the deprived ministers and by others on their behalf, setting forth the oppressions of the archbishop, and praying that some regard may be shown to the rights of the clergy, and to the reli- gious interests of their people. Address of " Wc arc in e-reat heaviness," say the Essex the Essex ^ ^ ^ ' ^ ministers to ministcrs, " and some of us already put to silence, the council. ... «/ a and the rest living in fear ; not that we have been, or can be, as we hope, charged with false doctrine or slanderous life ; but for that we refuse to sub- scribe that there is nothing contained in the Book of Common Prayer, and of ordaining bishops, priests, and deacons, contrary to the word of God. We do protest in the sight of the living God, who searcheth all hearts, that we do not refuse in desire to dissent or other sinister affection, but in the fear of God. Now the apostle teacheth, that he which doth doubt, if he eat is condemned. Then, if a man be condemned for doing a lawful action, be- cause he is in doubt whether it be lawful, and yet doth it ; how much more should we incur the dis- pleasure of the Lord, and procure his wrath unto our destruction, if we should subscribe, being certainly persuaded that there be some things in those books contrary to his word."^ suflfoik An address was also presented to the council, by heS'or some gentlemen and justices of the peace in Suffolk, cier^""^" setting forth the grievances of their clergy. " These towers of Sion," say they, "the painful pastors and r ministers of the word, by what malice we know not, they are marshalled with the worst malefactors ; i MS., p. 330. PROTESTANT NONCONFOR3IITY. 331 presented, indicted, arraigned, and condemned for matters, as we presume, of very slender moment. - Some for leaving the holydays unbidden ; some for singing the psalm Nunc dimittis, in the morning ; some for turning the questions in baptism, concern- ing faith, from the infants to the godfathers, which is but you for thou ; some for leaving out the cross in baptism ; some for leaving out the ring in mar- riage. Whereupon the law, neither the law-maker, in our judgments, had ever regard, but meant in- deed to bridle the enemy. Yet now (a most pitiful thing to see) the back of this law turned to the adversary ; and the edge, with all the sharpness, laid upon the sound and true-hearted subject. We grant order to be the rule of the Spirit of God. We desire one uniformity in all the duties of the church ; the same being agreeable to the proportion of faith. But if these mock ceremonies (and their like) be so indifferent, as their use or not use may be left to the discretion of the ministers, we think it, in duty (and under your favorable correction we speak it), very hard to have them go under so hard handling, to the utter discredit of the whole ministry' anfl profession of truth If, therefore, it may be lawful to speak but truth for ourselves, this is our course : we serve her majesty and the countiT, not according to our fantasies, as the world falsely bears us in hand, but according to the law and statutes of England. We reverence both the law and the law-maker. Law speaketh, and we keep silence. Law commandeth, and we obev. With- out law, we know that no man can possess his own in peace. By law we proceed against all offenders; we touch none that law spareth ; we spare none 332 THE HISTORY OF that law toucheth. Hinc illce lachrymce. We allow not of the papists their treacherous subtilties and hypocrisies. We allow not of the family of love, an egg of the same nest. We allow not of the anabaptists nor of their community. We allow not of the Brownists, the overthrowers of church and commonwealth. We abhor all these. We punish all these. But now, humbly upon our knees, we pray your good lordships to give us leave to advertise you how the adversary very cunningly hath christened us with an odious name, neither rightly applied, nor surely rightly understood, to the end, no doubt, that we being occupied in the defence of our innocence, they might have the greater freedom to go about their hateful treacheries. It is the name of jmritanism. We detest both the name and heres}'. It is a term compounded of all other heresies aforesaid. The papist is pure and immaculate ; he hath store of goodness for himself, and plenty for others. The family cannot sin ; they be so pure that God is hominified in them, and they deified in God. But we, thanks be to God, do cry in the bitterness of our souls, Peccavimus cum patribus nostris. We groan under the burden of our sins. We confess that there be none worse before God. And vet before the world, we labour to keep ourselves and our profession unblameable. This is our puritanism. It pleaseth them to use this name to ministers, to magistrates, and to others, especially to such as have an eye to their juggling. And the name being odious many times with the ignorant sort, it maketh the person odious.'"" - Whitgift was induced, in consequence, probably, Strype's Annals, iii. i. 264. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. of these supplications, to mitigate his rigor in some few cases. ^ But the principles on which he pro- ceeded, and the course which he had marked out for himself, precluded the general adoption of a milder policy. He had coolly decided on his mea- sures, and was not to be deterred from their execu- tion by any sufferings which they involved. The arguments which he employed to remove the scruples of his clergy, were such as his popish pre- decessors might have used. " If you subscribe not," said he, " to the article concerning the Book of Common Prayer, then by necessary consequence must follow, there is not the true service of God and right administration of the sacraments in the land. 2. If you subscribe not to the book of order- ing ministers, then it followeth, your calling is un- lawfvd, and the papists' argument is good : No call- ing, no ministry, no church, kc. 3. If not to the last article, then you deny true doctrine to be esta- blished in the churches of England ; which is the main note of the churches. And so I see no reason why I should persuade the papists to our religion, and to come to our church, seeing we will not allow it ourselves." As though objections could not be preferred to some parts of the service and ceremonies of the church, without the condemnation the whole. This was popery in disguise ; an assumption of infallibility without its profession ; a mean and paltry effort to mislead the judgments of honest men, in order to entrap their conscience, and to secure their submission. « The Unlawfull Practises of Pre- Strype's Wliitgift, i. 248. ' lates.— Parte of a Register, p.29G. 334 THE HISTORY OF ^xui' Whitgift's proceedings were exposed in a pam- — phlet published about this time, under the title of ELiz. jy^^ Unlawful Practises of Prelates, against godly Publication of ^^/zi^/^r^, tlie maintainers of the discipline of God. practisesif''' It is free from most of the faults which belong to prelates. ^^iQ coutroversial pieces of this age; and while it severely reflects on the pride, ambition, and in- tolerance of the archbishop, it maintains the digni- fied style which becomes the advocate of truth. " If the truth have victory," says the writer, " she shall have it against the preachers (in some sort) of the gospel. If she prevail not, God shall revenge her right, both known and resisted. What then in this case shall we do ? Shall not the physic be ministered to our sick country, that bringeth per- petual safety and cure, because some present troubling of the humours may for the time disease? Yes, verily. But it were good that peace were gained with giving place. So then, who shall yield, the truth, or man's corruptions ? The truth? No. It may melt like gold, but cannot cease to be gold ; when, as yet, man's vanities shall turn into smoke. Shall discipline have her right ? It can- not be. One evidence doth open one and the same right, both to her and her sister (doctrine). Man's fancy will not give ground, discipline ought not. Such is the nature of truth, it is beat down, but always triumphs. More wisely, therefore, shall we do, if we make her our friend, that must prevail. So this, assuredly, can we no way better do, than by furthering, assisting, and advancing of her most just cause. How this ? Private men, with their prayers to God, with supplications and protestations to men. Public presence, with their counsels, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 335 credit, and all other helps, as their vocation shall require. And now, even now, it seemeth the dis- - cipline of Christ afresh seeketh and beseechetli the favors of men. The time of the worthy assembly in parliament craveth it. The place, the eye of the realm, challengeth it. The persons, the ancient professors of the gospel, long for it."" The treatment received by such of the clergy as scrupled subscription, is thus described. " By what way proceeds he (Whitgift) in this business ? He cites them. They pay. The thing is urged. They appeal to the subscription required by law, and whereunto they may yield with a good conscience. They are reviled before the people, to the mani- fold discredit of their ministries. Yea, by their means they have been brought before the bars of justice. They have been arraigned amongst felons and thieves. They have been imprisoned to the uttermost, and defaced, and yet they are silent. They are sent for before the archbishop. The pur- suivant is paid. Their journey is chargeable ; more costly their attendance. Again they are im- periously appointed to subscribe. Doubts are showed why they may not consent. They are reproached, shaken up, threatened, some impri- soned, none satisfied, none confuted. And further, that way may be made to the full accomplishment of their uncharitable purpose, when they have no- thing against them, no witnesses to be produced ; but the complaint of some enemy or wretch, the worst in the place they dwell, whose witness ought not to be taken of any righteous court of justice, against any that are godly, by an oath (in old ■ A Parte of a Regis ter, p. 281. 336 THE HISTORY OF ^xiii' P^P^^^^ practice) ex officio, they examine them (by an inquisition much like to that of Spain), of their ELTz. secret thoughts, purposes, and intentions. They will know what they think, and what they will do ; what they did, and what they have left undone ; that they may have some colour to proceed against them. They pretend contempt, and so at length they are suspended. Their preaching is stopped, disorder riseth in every quarter, insolences, con- fusions. They are debarred of the greatest part of their stipend for the maintenance of a poor silly reader ; sometimes dangerous in preaching false doctrine, commonly contemptible, oft reproachful in life and behaviour. O lamentable case! many are deprived utterly, to satisfy disordered persons their desires. O great heinous impiety ! Where is the dear account of the most precious preaching of the gospel ? Where is the regard due to the credit and estimation of the bringers of so glad tidings ? Where is the dutiful and most Christian care of the souls of poor Christians ? Alas, it is not found in some ; it is not suffered in others ; yea, it is most grievously punished in many.'"" Court of High But the opposition which he encountered only Commission ^ ^ established^ served to arouse the archbishop to greater oppres- sions. Not content with his episcopal jurisdiction, he applied to the queen for the establishment of a • court of high commission, urging, amongst other reasons, that search might thus be made for unlaw- ful books, and that authors, printers, and publishers might be examined on oath ; that ecclesiastical censures were contemned by the puritans ; that the commission might punish by sequestration ; and « A Parte of a Register, p. 287. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 337 that the ecclesiastical law was a carcass without a ^f/* soul, unless aided by such a court. p The queen acted on his advice, and by letters patent, dated December 9, 1583, named forty-four commissioners, twelve of whom were bishops, some privy counsel- lors, and the rest clergymen or civilians, who were empowered to put the acts of supremacy and of uni- formity, and two others mentioned in the preamble of the commission, into execution. "And we do give," says the queen, " full power and authority to 3^ou, or any three of you, whereof the archbishop of Canterbury, or one of the bishops mentioned in the commission, or sir Francis Walsingham, sir Gilbert Gerard, or some of the civilians, to be one, to inquire from time to time, during our pleasure, as well by the oaths of twelve good and lawful men, as also by witnesses, and all other means and ways you can devise, of all offences, contempts, mis- demeanours, &c. . . . and of all heretical opinions, seditious books, contempts, conspiracies, false rumours or talks, slanderous words and sayings, kc, contrary to the aforesaid laws." Power is also given to any three of the commissioners, of whom one must be a bishop, to punish all persons who absent themselves from church; to visit and reform all errors, heresies, schisms, &;c.; to deprive such of the clergy as maintain any doctrine contrary to the thirty -nine articles; to punish incests, adulteries, fornications, &;c. ; to examine all suspected persons on their oath, and to visit such as are obstinate or disobedient with excommunication or other eccle- siastical censures, or with fine or imprisonment, at their pleasure.^ Temporary commissions had f Strype's Whitgift, i. 266. Neal, i. 330. Hallam's Const. 1 Strype's Annals, iii. i. 260. Hist, i. 271. VOL. I. 2 338 THE HISTORY OF ^xiii' pi'^viously been appointed ; but their powers were extremely limited, as compared with the court now established. It was founded on a clause of the act of supremacy, and extended its jurisdiction over the whole kingdom. Had it been established at an earlier period, and its operations been conducted with the silence and barbarity of its kindred institu- tion in Spain, it might have effectually checked the course of human freedom, and done irreparable injury to mankind. But the time of its erection was unfavorable to its success. The national mind had been rapidly progressing for some years, in the knowledge of political science and in the practice of religious liberty. The legality of this monstrous tribunal was, therefore, instantly questioned; and many of the puritans, emboldened by their past struggles, stood forth to challenge its authority, and to brave its terrors. Its power failed to intimidate, while its oppressions served to deepen dissatisfaction, and to extend resistance. Its immediate effects were painful ; but its remote consequences were friendl}^ to the advancement of society in know- ledge, virtue, and freedom. Articles for Whitffift promotly availed himself of the in- the examina- . 7 . tionofthe creased facilities for persecution which this court clergy, drawn up by Whit- supplied. He drew up a series of interrogations, consisting of twenty-four articles, which embraced p every point of clerical uniformity, and were at the same time sufficiently precise to render evasion difficult, if not impossible. To these the ministers were required to answer on oath ; an unrighteous requisition founded on the canon law, and equally opposed to the principles of natural equity and to the spirit of the English constitution. It was im- possible for any of the clergy to answer the questions PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 339 of the archbishop without incurring the danger of ^xiil' criminating themselves or their friends, for they • were so framed as to elicit the slightest ecclesiastical ^^^^* transgression/ They were designed to supersede the necessity of witnesses, and to render the course of episcopal intolerance more rapid and certain. The brutal harshness with which Whitgift pressed his inquisitorial measures, offended some of his own friends, who were sincerely attached to the established church, and concerned for the main- tenance of her authority. The lord treasurer Burleig-h wrote to the arch- Bundgh's ~ letter to bishop, expressing; his dislike of the articles, and whitgift dis- ^ ^ ^ ~ approving of entreating that he would pursue a more moderate severity, and tolerant course/ " But now, my good lord,'' he says, " by chance I am come to the sight of an instrument of twenty-four articles of great length and curiosity, found in a Romish style, to examine all manner of ministers in this time, without dis- tinction of persons. Which articles are entitled, Apud Lambeth, May, 1584, to he executed, ex officio mero, &:c Which I have read, and find so curiously penned, so full of branches and circum- stances, as I think the inquisitors of Spain use not f These interrogatories may be wise infirmities, as well in dis- seen in Strype's Whitgift, Appen- cretiont as in deepness of judg- dix, Number iv. p. 81, and in ment, concerning matters poktic Neal's Puritans, i. 337. and things indifferent; therefore • Sir Francis Knowles, also I do presume again, as I have treasurer of the chamber, wrote a done aforetime, most humbly to letter 'to Whitgift, June 8, 1584, beseech your grace, to open the in which, referring to popery, he mouths of all zealous preachers, says, "And since this mighty that be sound in doctrine, howso- enemy of God, and of her majesty, ever otherwise they refuse to so full of treasonable practices, subscribe to any tradition of cannot be withstood, but by open- man, not compellible by law, or ing the mouths of preachers, be infirm, as before is said." — zealous and sound in doctrine, Strype's Whitgift, App. 8. p. 103, although as men they have other- z 2 340 THE HISTORY OF ^xitiV many questions to comprehend and to trap their "I know your canonists can defend these with all their particles ; but surely, under your grace's cor- rection, this judicial and canonical sifting of poor ministers is not to edify or reform. And in charity, I think, they ought not to answer to all these nice points, except they were very notorious offenders in papistry or heresy. Now, my good lord, bear with my scribbling. I write with a testimony of a good conscience. I desire the peace of the church. I desire concord and unity in the exercise of our religion. I favour no sensual and wilful recusants. But I conclude, that, according to my simple judg- ment, this kind of proceeding is too much savouring of the Romish inquisition, and is rather a device to seek for offenders, than to reform any. This is not the charitable instruction that I thought was in- tended. If these poor ministers should, in some few points, have any scrupulous conceptions fit to be removed, this is not a charitable way to send them to answer to your common registrar upon so many articles at one instant, without any commodity of instruction by your registrar, whose office is only to receive their answers. By which the parties are first subject to condemnation, before they be taught their error."* ^itgifi's Whitgift replied to the lord treasurer, alleging •^"'y3. that he had uniformly acquainted him with his proceedings, and had acted on his advice. " Touch- ing the twenty-four articles," he says, " which your lordship seemeth so much to dislike, as written in a Romish style, smelling of the Romish inquisition, ' Strype's Whitgift, i. 310, App. ix. p. 104. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 341 &c., I cannot but greatly marvel at your lordship's ^^jf^- vehement speeches against them (I hope without cause), seeing it is the ordinary course in other ^^iz. courts likewise ; as in the star chamber, the court of the marches, and other places. And (without offence be it spoken) I think these articles to be more tolerable, and better agreeing with the rule of justice and charity, and less captious, than those in other courts For my own part," he adds, "I neither do nor have done anything in this matter, which I do not think myself in duty and con- science bound to do ; which her majesty hath not with earnest charge committed unto me ; and the which I am well able to justify, to be most requisite for this state and church ; whereof, next to her majesty, though most unworthy, or, at the least, most unhappy, the chief care is committed to me ; which I may not neglect, Avhatsoever come upon me therefore. I never esteem the honor of the place (which is to me gravisshnum onus), nor the largeness of the revenues (for the which I am not yet one penny the richer), nor any other worldly thing, I thank God, in the respect of the doing of my duty. Neither do I fear the displeasure of man, nor regard the wicked tongues of the uncharitable, which call me tyrant, pope, papist, knave, and lay to my charge things which I never did, nor thought upon." " In a subsequent letter the archbishop expresses Jaiy 15. his deep concern at the lord-treasurer's dissatisfac- tion with his proceedings. " God know^eth," he says, " how desirous I have been, from time to time, to satisfy your lordship in all things, and to " Strype's Whitgift, i. 310, App. 10. p. 107. 342 THE HISTORY OF ^xm' ^^^^ ^^^^E^ approved by you. For which cause, since my coming to this place, I did nothing ELiz. importance without your advice. I have risen up early and sat up late, to write unto you such objections and answers as are used on either side. I have not done the like to any man. And shall I now say, that I have lost my labor ? Or shall my just dealing with two of the most disordered minis- ters in a whole diocese (the obstinacy and contempt of whom, especially of one of them, yourself would not bear in any subjected to your authority), cause you so to think and speak of my doings and of my- self ? No man living should have made me believe it. My lord, an old friend is better than a new. And I trust your lordship will not so lightly cast off your old friends, for any of these new-fangled and factious sectaries ; whose endeavour is to make division wheresoever they come, and separate old and assured friends Your lordship seemeth to burden me with wilfulness, &:c. I think you are not so persuaded of me ; I appeal therein to your own conscience. There is a difference betwixt wilfulness and constancy . I have taken upon me the defence of the religion and rites of this church; the execution of the laws concerning the same ; the appeasing of the sects and schisms therein; the reducing the ministers thereof to uni- formity and due obedience. Herein I intend to be constant; which also my place, my person, my duty, the laws, her majesty, and the goodness of the cause requireth of me ; and wherein your lordship and others (all things considered) ought, as I take it, to assist and help me. It is more than strange that a man in my place, dealing by so good PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 343 warranty as I do, should be so hardly used, and for not yielding be counted wilful. But Vi?icit qui patitur, overcomes. And if my friends herein for- sake me, I trust God will not, nor her majesty, who have laid the charge on me, and are able to protect me ; upon whom only I will depend." The lords of the council also addressed a letter to the archbishop and the bishop of London, in- CHAP. XIII. ELIZ. " Strypc's Wliitglft, A pp. 11. p. 112. This letter was accompanied by twopapers,oneof them contain- ing- reasons why ministers should be examined respecting tlie arti- t fes on their oath;, and the other showing the inconveniences of proceeding- on presentment, and conviction of witnesses, and not ea; officio mero. The hitter paper especially, presents tlie arch- bishop's notions of equity in no very favorable or pleasing light. The inconveniences of not pro- ceeding ex officio are thus stated: I. It will give a precedent for the obstinate papists, the Brown- ists, the family-men, and all other sectaries, to look for the like mea- sure, and to be convinced only by witnesses upon presentment ; whereas they spread their poison in secret and among their fa- vorites, and therefore can hardly be so convinced, or brought to reformation, though it be never so well known what kind of men lliey be. II. It will come also to the same point as before, because the detected by presentment is not hereby convinced, but is by law to be put to his clearing, by an- swering articles upon his oath, together with compurgators if they be enjoined, whereas no wit- nesses are to be had for. proof of it. ^ III. This course cannot be taken, by reason of the number of those that are to be reformed, ;md the distances of the place. I V. Also, because, if the chief gentleman in the parish, or most of the parish be so affected, no- thing will be presented, as expe- rience teacheth. V. Further, the great trouble in writing out so many commis- sions for the giving of charge, and examining of witnesses, must be considered. VI. The trouble likewise in procuring the commissioners and witnesses below in the country, and the charges of them both, and the registrars in writing, and transmitting the depositions up, which is not meet to be upon the party's charges, especially being not yet known, whether there be cause to remove him or not. VII. Again, if archbishops and bishops should be driven to use proofs b}'^ witnesses, and excluded from other means warranted by law, (as by the answer of the party notoriously defamed or pre- sented,) the execution of the law, which ought in equality to be ministered according to the pro- per nature of a law, (which ought to be common and general to all sorts, and to have an equal and uniform execution,) should be unequal, by having use against all other persons, and by restraining the use and execution in this point against some persons. VIII. The archbishops and bishops should be overpressed with charges, if they should be compelled to procure and produce witnesses for every disorder of this nature."— Ibid., 821 . Letter from the council, disapprovini? of the arch- bishop's pro- ceedings. Sept. 20. 344 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XIII. ELIZ. Whitgift's letter to forming them of the numerous complaints received from various parts of the kingdom, and urging them to proceed with greater moderation and pru- dence. " Against all sorts of lewd, evil, unpro- fitable, and corrupt members," say their lordships, "they heard of no inquisition, nor of any kind of proceeding to the reformation of those horrible offences in the church ; but yet of great diligence, yea, and extreme usage, against those that were known diligent preachers. That they therefore, for the discharge of their duties, being by their vocation under her majesty, bound to be careful that the universal realm might be well governed, &c., did most earnestly desire their lordships to take some charitable consideration of these causes. That the people of the realm might not be deprived of their pastors, being diligent, learned, and zealous, though in some points ceremonial they might seem doubtful, only in conscience, and not of wilfulness ; nor that their cures be suffered to be vacant ; nor that such as were placed in the room of cures be in- sufficient for learning, or unmeet for their conver- sation." Whitgift now addressed himself to the queen, the queen, exprcssiug his devotion to her service, and entreat- ing her countenance. " And albeit," he says, "I have incurred the displeasure of some, and the evil speeches and slanderous reports of every man, yet so long as my service shall be accepted of your majesty, upon whom only, next under God, I do depend, I will not be discouraged, nor faint in my calling ; humbly beseeching your majesty to con- tinue your accustomed goodness unto me ; and not " Strypc's WJiitgift, 328. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 345 to be drawn into any mislikings of my doings by any information ; until I have answered for myself, and that you have due proofs of the same. And eliz. likewise to continue your most gracious and settled disposition in the maintenance of your laws and orders already established and authorized ; con- sidering what doings may follow in these trouble- some days, if it shall be lawful for common persons, and private men, in a settled estate, to pick quarrels thereat, and to innovate what they list, when they list, and so often as they list." The numerous applications made on behalf of L^mbeth!^ the puritans, obtained them little favor at the arch- bishop's hand. He consented indeed to a conference at the close of this year, which took place at Lam- beth, in the presence of the earl of Leicester, lord Gray, and sir Francis Walsingham. The disputants, Dec. lo. on the first day of meeting, were the archbishop and the bishop of Winchester on the one side, and Mr. Travers and Dr. Thomas Sparke on the other, and the subjects discussed were certain objections urged by the puritans to the book of Common Prayer. On the second day of meeting, the lord Dec. 12, treasurer and the archbishop of York were present without taking apparently much part in the discus- sion. Little good was to be expected from such a meeting, and the parties separated more fixed in their opinions than ever, and more determined to continue the course which they had respectively commenced.^ " Strype's Whitgift, i. 333. ^ Panic's Wliit^'ift, page 40. Strype's Whitgift, i. S35~. MS. 602-514. Paiile and Strype claim the victory for the archbishop, and represent the noblemen pre- sent lis having- urged the puritan niiniiiters to conformity. This 346 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, follows of course, and shows the nisters were convinced of their XIII' futility of such disputations. Pri- error, and persuaded to conform vate conference may enlighten by this conference. In this, how- ELIZ. convince, but pubhc dispu- ever, they are mistaken, as a re- tations awaken pride and other ference to the place which they bad passions, unfavorable to a quote will show. Strype's repre- calm investigation of the contro- sentation is, that the noblemen verted points. Mr. Neal, i. 345, present were convinced by the and Mr. Brook, in his Lives of strength of the archbishop's rea- the Puritans, i. 324, represent sonings, and persuaded the two Str3T)e as affirming that the mi- ministers to conform. CHAPTER XIV. Parliament of 1684 — Articles offered to the Queen by the Archbishop, for the Reformation of Abuses — Whitgift's Letter to the Queen — Press restrained — Cartwright' s Return and Arrest — Aylmers Let- ter to Burleigh — Travers silenced — Parliament of 158G — Publica- tion of the Holy Discipline — Presbyterianism organized. In the parliament which met November 23, 1584, a strong disposition was evinced to befriend the puritans. On the 14th of December, three ^^^2- petitions were presented to the lower house, one p^^j.^^^^^^ respecting liberty for godly preachers, a second for the exercise and continuance of their ministry, and tans, a third for the speedy supply of able men for desti- ♦ tute places. Dr. Turner then reminded the house of a bill and book which he had formerly sub- mitted to its attention, and requested that they might be read. Some of the privy council, who were present, opposed this proposition, and assured the house that the queen would take speedy mea- sures to redress the evils complained of. ^ Two days afterwards it was proposed by the chancellor of the exchequer that the petitions should be re- ferred to a committee, which should reduce their ' D'Ewes' Journal, p. 339. 348 THE HISTORY OF .P- contents to a series of articles to be presented to — the lords for their concurrence. This was accord- 2- ingly done, and sixteen articles were extracted, which it was proposed to submit in the form of a petition to the upper house. ^ The first six of these articles respected an insufficient ministry ; the rest were as follows : 7. That no oath or subscription be tendered to any entering the ministry but such as are pre- scribed by the statutes of the realm, except the oath against corrupt entering. 8. That ministers using the book of Common Prayer be not troubled for the omission or change of some rites. 9. That they be not cited before the officials and commissaries, to the discredit of their ministry, but that their cases be heard by the bishops themselves. 10. That such as have been suspended or de- prived for refusing the articles lately tendered, be restored, or at the least, be permitted to preach where they may hereafter be invited to do so. 11. That the examination ex officio mero of godly and learned preachers be abandoned, and that they be not cited to appear before the ecclesiastical com- missioners out of the diocese wherein they live, ex- cept for some notable offence. 12. That the ministers of every archdeaconry have exercises or conferences amongst themselves, to be regulated as to time, place, and manner, by their ordinary. 13 and 14. That the abuses attendant on excom- munication be corrected. 15 and 16. That non-residence and pluralities be * D'Ewes' Journal, pp. 340-344. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. utterly abolished, or be allowed only on condition of an able and sufficient curate being maintained.'' This petition was warmly opposed in the upper house by the archbishops of Canterbury and York, whose influence, aided by the known predilections of the queen, prevented the affair proceeding any further. Other bills, however, relating to eccle- siastical matters were introduced, and the support which they received sufficiently indicated the tem- per of the house. On the 26th of February, a bill against unlawful licenses to marry, and another for swearing bishops and archbishops not to do any thing contrary to the common law of England, re- ceived, the former a first, and the latter a second, reading. On the 17th of March, a bill was adopted by the house, for the disposal of parsonages impro- priate to godly and charitable uses; and on the 22nd of the same month, another, for the better execution of the statute of the 13th of Elizabeth, for the reformation of the disorders of the ministry of the church, was read a third time and passed. The queen charged the commons to refrain from such measures, as inconsistent with her supremacy; but though her messages were always received with profound respect, and were followed by a tem- porary abandonment of the measures which they b D' Ewes' Journal, p. 857. Ful- ler's Ch. Hist., ix. 1* 9. Strvpe's Whitivift, App. 13. p.ll8. Fuller erroneously assigns these events to the year 1587. c The reply of the archbishop of York is recorded in Sir Simond D'Ewes' Journal, p. 869, and that of Whitgift in Strype's Life, i. 854. The latter prelate also drew up an answer to the articles, in writing, which he submitted to the queen .—Ibid., Appendix 13. p. 124. Strype has printed another an- swer to the sixteen articles of the commons, which he attributes to the bishops as a body, and sup- poses to have been drawn up in convocation. — Annals, iii. i. 829, App. 40. ^ D'Ewes' Journal, pp. 860 861, 809, 871. Strype's Whit- gift, i. 868. 350 THE HISTORY OF ^xiv^* deprecated, others of a similar nature were after- wards introduced and pressed on the attention of *^Liz. the house. The spirit of English liberty was now growing amongst the national representatives; and though not yet sufficiently matured to resist the encroachments of the sovereign, it was too strong tamely to acquiesce in them. Articles of- Thc archblshoD and clerg-y became alarmed at fered by the ^ , • i p i archbishop to the rcsolute and menacing attitude ot the commons, the reform of They had attempted to disarm them by presenting D^5,i584. five articles to the queen specifying the alterations which they deemed advisable. These respected the admission of proper persons to the ministry, the prevention of the too frequent commutation of penance, the restraint of licenses to marry without banns, the correction of some abuses in excommu- nication, and the decrease of pluralities.* " As that party," says Strype, referring to the puritans, " had offered their articles to the parliament to be re- dressed, so the archbishop presented as soon, or sooner, his to the queen ; wherein he (with the rest of the bishops) prudently took the best course to oblige the queen; who, as she looked upon herself, according to her title, to have the supreme govern- ment and care of her church's affairs under God ; so she disliked to have her parliaments, consisting of laymen, to meddle in church matters." The reforms thus proposed fell far short of what the parliament contemplated ; but even these were neglected for many years, and did not receive the sanction of convocation till near the close of this reign. The queen's counsellors often complained of the unwillingness of the bishops to effect such « Strype's Whitgift, i. 364, App. 14. p. 130. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 351 modifications of ecclesiastical laws and usages as ^^j^^* were admitted to be necessary : and their conduct in this instance did not tend to remove the imputa- tion. The queen was their only hope, and to her they appealed in a petition against a bill for the suppression of pluralities, then pending in parlia- ment. ^ Whit2:ift also addressed a letter to the whugift to the queen a- queen, in which he artfully flatters her tyranny, and gamst the 1 1 1 T 11. commons. endeavours to make her parliament the object oi Mar. 24, i585. suspicion. "May it please your majesty," he says, " to be advertised, that notwithstanding the charge of late given by your highness to the lower house of parliament, for dealing in causes of the church; albeit also, according to your majesty's good liking, we have set down order for the admitting of meet men in the ministry hereafter ; yet have they passed a bill in that house yesterday, touching that matter, which, besides other inconveniences, (as, namely, the trial of the ministers' sufiiciency by twelve laymen, and such like,) hath this also, that if it pass by parliament, it cannot hereafter but in parliament be altered, what necessity soever shall urge thereunto ; which I am persuaded in short time will appear, considering the multitude of ^ Referring to this bill, they re- other seminaries, where they may present it as pregnant with the hope for more encouragement; most calamitous results. "Which will give the adversary just cause indeed," say they, " impeacheth to rejoice and triumph, when your majesty's prerogative royal ; they shall see the clergy and impaireth the revenue of the learning generally so much dis- crown; overthroweth the study graced and vilified by the gentry of divinity in both universities ; and commons of this land ; depriveth men of the hvings they abridgeth all ability in the minis- do lawfully possess ; beggareth try, either of keeping hospitality, the clergy ; bringeth in abase un- or of contributing to the state in learned ministry ; taketh away case of necessity ; and, that which all hope of a succession in learn- is most lamentable, maketh way ing; will breed great discontent- to an anarchy and confusion."— ment m the younger sort of stu- Strype's Whitgift, p. 383. dents ; and make them fly to 352 THE HISTORY OF XIV. ' livings not fit for men so qualified, by reason of the smallness thereof. Whereas, if it is but as a canon from us by your majesty's authority, it may be observed or altered at your pleasure." ^ The par- liament was soon afterwards prorogued, and subse- quently dissolved ; but the primate and his brethren instead of employing the opportunity thus afforded in recovering the esteem and confidence of the f Strype's Whitgift, i.891. The archbishop well knew the temper of the queen, and skilfully adapt- ed his suggestions to it. He so far succeeded as to induce her to send a message to the commons, commanding tliem to desist from interfering with church matters. The speaker referred to this in his address to the queen at the close of the session, informing her that they had dutifully complied with her pleasure, " for that it was well understood that your majesty, as having by God's ordi- nance a supreme authority for that purpose, had straitly charged the archbishops, bishops, and your whole clergy, now assembled in their convocation, to have due regard to see to the reformation of diverse abuses in the govern- ment and discipline of the church. And so our firm hope is, that your majesty will, by your strait commandment to your clergy, continue your care to see and command that such abuses as are crept into the church, by the ncghgence of the ministers, may be speedily reformed, to the honor of Almighty God, and to your own immortal praise, and comfort of your subjects." The queen did not forget to advert in her reply to the proceedings of the commons ; and while her re- marks betray her usual jealousy of any interference with her su- premacy, they indicate something like dissatisfaction with the bishops. " There be some fault- finders," said Elizabeth, with the order of the clergy, which so may make a slander to myself and the church, whose over-ruler God hath made me ; whose neg- ligence cannot be excused, if any schisms or errors heretical were suffered. Thus much I must say, that some faults and negligences may grow and be, as in all other great charges it happeneth, and what vocation without ? All which if you, my lords of the clergy, do not amend, I mean to depose you. Look ye, therefore, well to your charges. This may be amended without heedless or open exclamations I see many over-bold with God Al- mighty, making too many subtle scannings of his blessed will, as lawyers do with human testa- ments. The presumption is so great, as I may not suffer it ; yet mind I not hereby to animate Romanists, which, what adversa- ries they be to mine estate is suf- ficiently known; nor tolerate new-fangledness: I mean to guide them both by God's holy true rule. In both parts be perils ; and of the latter I must pro- nounce them dangerous to a kingly rule, to have every man, according to his own censure, to make a doom of the validity and privity of his prince's government, with a common veil and cover of God's word, whose followers must not be judged but by private men's exposition." — Pari. Hist, i. 831-884. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 353 commimity by conciliatory measures, only exaspe- ^^j^^^* rated it the more by increasing severity and intoler- ance. The dictates of experience, and the sugges- ^^i^i^. tions of pity, were alike despised. Instead of profit- ing by the warnings they had received during the last session, they treated the feelings of the nation with contempt, and seemed anxious to accelerate their own fate. In the convocation which sat during this parlia- ment, the puritans had endeavoured to obtain a redress of their wrongs. But their petition was . rejected, and a paper which they addressed to the archbishop was equally unsuccessful.'' They ap- plied in succession to every quarter whence they could hope for succour, but failing to obtain it, they were compelled to adopt measures which placed them in more direct hostility to the ecclesi- astical institutions of the land. It happened with them as with other victims of persecution. The rigorous treatment which they experienced, instead of recalling them to the communion of the church, drove them farther from it, and thus afforded to their enemies a pretext for severer and more exter- minating measures. Cases of individual oppression were continually taking place, in all parts of the country. The most zealous and laborious of the clergy were harassed by citations, and were kept in perpetual alarm by a system of mistrustful inspec- tion, which invaded the privacy of home, and sought to penetrate into the secrets of the heart. The archbishop was deeply concerned to prevent p^ess ^ his adversaries from circulating their sentiments through the medium of the press. The council had assumed, in various proclamations, the right of h MS. 595. Strype's VVhito-ift, i. 880. VOL. I. 2 A 354 THE HISTORY OF restraining the importation, and of regulating the — sale of books; and Whitgift now urged on the • queen the importance of their authority being in- terposed to guard the church and clergy from the attacks to which they were daily subjected. He thus succeeded in obtaining a decree from the star- chamber, which, after declaring that great abuses had been practised by persons exercising the art of printing, proceeded to enjoin that all printers should certify their presses to the Stationers' Com- pany, under the penalty of a year's imprisonment ; and that none should be kept in any other place than London, excepting one in each of the Univer- sities. Such printers as had commenced their business within six months were to discontinue the same, and no new ones were to be admitted till the excessive number already existing were diminished. None were to print any book until it had been perused by the archbishop of Canterbury or the bishop of London, except the queen's printer and the law printers. Every person printing books against the form or meaning of any statute, injunc- tion, letters patent, &:c., was to suffer the loss of his presses, to be disabled from continuing his calling, and to be imprisoned six months. ' Had the archbishop succeeded in enforcing these ordinances, he would effectually have triumphed over his adversaries, and laid the liberties of his country prostrate. Happily, however, his power was not equal to his intolerance, and the press still continued its services to the cause of freedom and of truth. * • Strvpe's Whitgift, i. 422. App. exercised his power over the 24. p. ] 60. press, as may be supposed, with j It is justly remarked by Mr. little moderation. Not confining Hallam, that ''The archbishop himself to the suppression of PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 355 Cartwright now returned from the continent, ^^j^^* in hopes of recruiting his constitution, which was greatly enfeebled by disease. He had officiated for several years as preacher to the English merchants cartwriaht at Antwerp, and had conducted himself with Ena™nd° singular moderation and prudence. His physicians recommended him to try his native air, as the only means of saving his life ; and he therefore applied to the lords of the council for permission to return. His case was also represented to the queen, by the earl of Leicester and by lord Burleigh, but her majesty declined to grant her protection. Cartwright at length resolved to act on the advice of his phy- sicians; but scarcely had he landed, when Aylmer, the bishop of London, apprehended and committed him to prison. This was an act of barbarit}' which no plea can justify or extenuate. The puritan ad- vocate had confined himself for years to the dili- gent discharge of his ministerial duty. All the powers of his capacious and vigorous mind had been directed to the exhibition of those doctrines which all professed to believe, and to the enforce- ment of those duties in the practice of which human virtue and happiness consist. And he was now returning to the land of his fathers, with scarcely any other prospect than that of speedily books favoring the two religions adverse to the church, he per- mitted nothing to appear that in- terfered in the least w^ith his own notions. Thus we find him seiz- ing an edition of some works of Hugh Broughton, an eminent He- brew scholar. This learned di- vine differed from Whitgift about 2 Christ's descent to hell. It is amusing to read that ultimately the primate came over to Brough- ton's opinion ; which, if it prove some degree of candour, is a glaring evidence of the advan- tages of that free inquiry he had sought to suppress. " — Const. Hist., i. 825. 2 356 THE HISTORY OF ^xw' ^^^^i^^ i^t^ grave. In such circumstances, a generous foe would have commiserated his condi- ELiz. iIqy^^ and sought to supply his wants. But A^dmer was as incapable of generosity as he was unac- quainted with the higher charities which religion inspires. The government was disposed to con- nive at Cartwright's return, but the bishop eagerly availed himself of the opportunity to incarcerate his victim. Dreading, however, the odium which would attach to himself and his order if he pro- ceeded against his prisoner in the high commis- sion court, Aylmer arrested him by a warrant from the queen, of which he informed the lords of the council. Elizabeth was incensed at his having thus acquainted her council with the authority she had given him, and the bishop was reduced to the dis- graceful dilemma of addressing the following letter to the lord treasurer : itS^to ^ understand myself to be in some displeasure Burleigh, ^ith her majesty, about Mr. Cartwright, because I sent word to your lordships, by the clerk of the council, that I committed him by her majesty's commandment. Alas ! my lord, in what a dilemma stood I, that if I had not showed that warrant, I should have had all your displeasures, which I was not able to bear; and using it for my shield (being not forbidden by her majesty), I am blamed for not taking upon me a matter wherein she herself would not be seen. Well, I leave it to God, and to your wisdom, to consider in what a dangerous place of service I am. But God, whom I serve, and in whose hands the hearts of princes are, as the rivers of waters, can and will turn all to the best; and stir PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 357 up such honorable friends as you are, to appease her majesty's indignation." ^ — Whitgift appears to have been moved to some- ^ thing like compassion by the enfeebled state of his opponent, though he refused him a license to preach, which the earl of Leicester solicited. " I am content and ready to be at peace with him," he says, " so long as he liveth peaceably ; yet doth my conscience and duty forbid me to give unto him any further public approbation, until I be better persuaded of his conformity." ' Cartwright was, in consequence, released from confinement, and was soon afterwards appointed, by the earl of Leicester, to the mastership of an hospital, at Warwick, which was exempted from . episcopal jurisdiction. Here he laboured with unwearied diligence, though not without molesta- tion. His talents and influence were too much dreaded by the bishops to allow him to remain un- ^ Stn-pe's Aylmer, p. 70. Tliis letter is without date; but in the Lrmsdownc collection in the Bri- tish Museum, are two letters from Cartwrit^ht to Burleigh, the one dated April, 1585, requesting that nobleman to procure his liberty, and the other, June, 1585, re- turning thanks to his lordship, for having done so. — Hanburv's Life of Cartwright, prefixed to Hook- er's Works, p. 170. ' Hooker's Life, prefixed to his works, p. 85. Strvpe's Whitgift, i. 428. •n Clarke's Lives, p. 19. His labors at Warwick were not con- fined to the hospital. "It was his meat and drink," says Clarke, " to be doing the will of his hea- venly Fatlier; so that besides all Lis pains in writing, and in the hospital, he preached every Sab- bath day in the morning about seven o'clock, in the lower parish of Warwick, and when he could be suffered, in the upper parish in the afternoon ; besides which, he preached a lecture on Satur- days in the afternoon, in the upper church, in wliich he went over a great part of the Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, with singular judgment and profit; and this he / did of liis own free-will, without demanding or receiving one penny for his pains. And whereas, he was sometimes suspended by the bishops from preaching in the churches, his manner was at those times to preach in the hospital, whither man}' resorted to hear him, though they were sure to be brouglit into the bishop's court for the same." 358 THE HISTORY OF ^xiv** disturbed. He was subsequently brought into trouble, and in liis enfeebled age had to endure the ELiz. insolence of oppression, and the rigors of confine- ment. Mr. Tiarers Mt. Walter TravcTS, a distinguished puritan the arch- ' diviuc, was, about this time, prohibited by the arch- bishop. |3jg}-iQp from preaching in any place in the kingdom. Entertaining objections to the English mode of ordination, he had repaired to Antwerp in 1578, and was inducted into the ministry by the presbytery of that city." He subsequently officiated as assist- ant to Cartwright, and on his return to England, was appointed domestic chaplain to lord Burleigh. His interest with the lord treasurer might have secured him preferment in the church, if he had not objected to the terms of conformity. He there- fore accepted the lectureship of the Temple, for which no subscription was required, and was strongly recommended by Mr. Alvey, the master, as his suc- cessor. Burleigh favoured his appointment; but the archbishop represented him to the queen as one of the principal authors of dissension in the church, and entreated her majesty not to encourage the puritans by sanctioning his introduction to so influential an office. Mr. Hooker was accord- ingly appointed, and Travers continued his lecture- ship.° The different views entertained by these distinguished men, interrupted the harmony of their intercourse, and ultimately led to the expulsion of Travers. Hooker was friendly to the ceremonies and discipline of the church, while Travers deemed them imperfect, and advocated their revision. The " Fuller's Church Hist. ix. 214. " Strype's Whitgift, i. 340. Str\7)e's Whit^ift, i. 477. Annals, iii. i. 3o2. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 359 one was a thorough churchman, who esteemed the ^^^y constitution of the hierarchy perfect, and its offices ■ scriptural, the other impeached the soundness of its foundation, and would gladly have new modelled its worship. Their differences were not confined to points of discipline. Travers was a rigid Calvinist; Hooker, a latitudinarian. The former doubted, if he did not deny, the possibility of the salvation of papists, while the latter more charitably argued for their salvability. These differences were introduced to the pulpit ; the lecturer replying to the master, and he in return justifying the doctrine he had advanced. " Many of their sermons," says Walton, " were concerning the doctrine and ceremonies of this church, insomuch that as St. Paul withstood St. Peter to his face, so did they withstand each other in their sermons. For as one hath pleasantly expressed it, the forenoon sermon spake Canterbury, and the afternoon, Geneva." ^ Travers had the advantage of Hooker in an easy and flowing style which won upon his audience, and rendered him more popular than his associate. There was little of bitterness or personal hostility in their sermons ; each respected his associate, and was honestly attached to his own views. Whitgift, however, was apprehensive of danger to the church from the continuance of these discussions ; and he therefore prohibited Travers from preaching in the Temple or elsewhere.^ The grounds of this proceeding P Life of Hooker, p. 87. Han- a sabbath in the afternoon were bury's Ed. of Hooker. assembled together, their atten- 1 Many who approved of the tion prepared, the clotli (as I may silencing of Travers, objected to say) and napkins were laid, yea, the manner in which it was done. the guests set, and their knives Fuller gives the following account drawn for their spiritual repast ; of it. " All the congregation on when suddenly, as Mr. Travers 360 THE HISTORY OF ^xn^° were threefold ; his not being lawfully ordained according to the laws of the church of England ; ELiz, j^is j^Q^ possessing a license ; and his opposition to the doctrine of Hooker the master. Travers pre- sented a supplication to the council complaining of his having been condemned without a hearing, and referring his case to their lordships' consideration/ To the charges exhibited against him, he replies with considerable force, and many of the lords of the council were disposed to concur in his restora- tion. But Whitgift was omnipotent in church affairs, and the friends of the silenced puritan were therefore incapable of accomplishing their wishes. " His finger," says Fuller, ^' moved more in church matters, than all the hands of all the privy counsel- lors besides, and he was content to suffer others to be believed (and perchance to believe themselves) great actors in church government, whilst he knew he could and did do all things himself therein.'" ^Tas going up into tlie pulpit, a their heads, as dishking the .sorn- fellow served him with a managing of the matter." — Ch. letter prohibiting him to preach Hist., ix. 217. anymore. In obedience to autho- ' Travers's Supplication and rity (the mild and constant sub- Hooker's Repl}' are subjoined to mission whereunto won him Hooker's Works. — Hanburj-'s Ed. respect with his adversaries), Mr. iii. 33.5. Travers calmly signified the same * Church Hist., ix. 218. The to the congregation, and requested archbishop's method of evading them quietly to depart to their requests made on behalf of the chambers. Thus was our good puritans, is thus described by Zai.harias atruck dumb in the Fuller. " This was the constant temple, but not for infidelity; custom of Whitgift ; if any lord impartial people accounting his or lady sued to him to show fault at most but indiscretion. favour for their sakes to ncn-con- Mean time, his auditory (pained formists, his answer to them was that their pregnant expectation to rather respectful to the requester, hear him preach should so pub- than satisfactory to the request, licly prove abortive, and sent He would profess how glad he sermonless home) manifested in was to serve them, and to gratify their variety of passion, some them in comphance with their grieving, some frowning, some desire, assuring them for his part, nuirmuring, and the wisest sort, all possible kindness should be who held their tonsfucs, shaked indulged unto them : but in fine. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 361 So extensive was the reputation of Travers, that ^^iv** ahout the time of his expulsion from the Temple, he was invited, together with Cartwright, to the divinity professorship in the university of St. Andrews.* This, however, he declined ; but shortly afterwards he accepted the provostship of Trinity college, Dublin, which he held for several years." He ended his days in retirement and penury, pos- sessing the testimony of a good conscience, and the respect of upright men. In the parliament which met October 29, 1586, 2:reat exertions were made to obtain a further ^^^^!^' c» puritans. reformation of the church.'' The puritans presented a petition to the house of commons, in which they . set forth the bishops' neglect of preaching, and their assumption of secular offices, the facilit}^ with which they admitted unlearned and irreligious men to the ministr}^, and their harsh and despotic treatment of many who labored assiduously and with success in their sacred calling.''' On the 27th of February, Mr. Cope, after adverting to the necessity of a learned ministry, and the amendment of things he would remit nothing- of his rigor against them. Thus he never denied any great man's desire, and yet never granted it ; pleasing them for the })resent with general promises, and (in them not dissembling, but using dis- creet and right expressions) still kept constant to his own resolu- tion. Hereupon afterwards the nobility surceased making more suits unto him, as ineffectual, and even left all things to his own disposal." t Fuller, ix. p. 21o. " Ibid., p. 218. " Strvpe's Annals, iii. i. 639. Whitgi'ft, i. 487. MS., 672. The puritans sub- joined to this petition a statement of their grievances, and a table of ecclesiastical statistics, tending to show the deplorable condition of the established church. They had instituted an extensive survey of several counties, with a view of ascertaining the number and value of ecclesiasticress them will sufficiently account for their ex- treme scarcit}-. " Strvpe's Annals, iii. ii. 98. Life of 'Whitgift, i. 559. ColHcr, ii. 609. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 377 CHAP the English church regarded bishops and priests as constituting but one order, the superiority of the former being matter of convenience, and derived solely from the authority of the prince. But Bancroft maintained that they had supremacy of the clergy by divdne right, and were empowered, by virtue of their commission from heaven, to superintend and regulate their proceedings. Such a claim con- stituted a new ground of debate, which the puritans contested with all the learning and zeal for which many of them were justly distinguished. It became the rallying point of the two parties, to the support or demolition of which they severally directed all their energies. The result, so far at least as the public mind is concerned, does not admit of doubt, for there is scarcely a dogma in the creed of any religionist which is held in more derision and con- tempt than that for which Bancroft pleaded. The puritans were not alone in their opposition sir Francis ^ . . . . Knollys to the doctrine of the archbishop's chaplain. Sir opposes the . ^ ^ doctrine of Francis Knollys, a privy counsellor, wrote to lord d'vine right, Burleigh on the subject, expressing his strong- objections to the superiority claimed for the bishops, and pointing out the injury which it did to the queen's supremacy. He assured the lord treasurer, in a letter written in August, 1590, "that he sought not his own ambition, nor his own covetousness, as the bishops were accused to do, but he sought her majesty's safety, which could not otherwise be con- tinued but by the maintenance of her supreme government against the false claimed superiority of bishops from God's own institution. For the pride of the bishops' claim," he added, " must be pulled down, and made subject to her majesty's supreme 378 THE HISTORY OF ^xv.^* go'^ei'iinient. And that they must confess that they .had no superiority of government at all, but by ^^12- commission from her majesty ; for otherwise their claimed superiority is treasonable to her, and tyran- nous over the inferior clergy." ° But the queen was not to be moved by the representations of her treasurer and kinsman. She therefore commanded him to desist from his opposition to the bishops, whose assumption she connived at, if she did not approve it. They were the ready and servile instru- ments of her pleasure in oppressing the lower clergy, and she probably thought that their efforts would be more successful if their claim of superiority were allowed. Elizabeth had little difficulty in dealing with her bishops. They were as submissive and compliant as the most arbitrary monarch could desire, and rarely questioned the propriety of her views, except when she contemplated an alienation of the revenues of their sees. On all other points they were as obsequious as the most abject of her courtiers, and did more than any other class to flatter her pride and promote her love of power. The disgusting extent to which their flattery was sometimes carried, was signally conspicuous in an address presented by the convocation in 1589, on occasion of a bill pending in the commons. Parliament of Likc tlic othcr parliamcuts of this reign, that 1589 which met on the fourth of February, 1588-9, was favorable to the reformation of the church. On the twenty-fifth of February, a motion w^as made reflect- ing severely on the proceedings of the ecclesiastical rulers, as contrary to the laws, and injurious to the queen's subjects ; and two days afterwards, a bill • Strype's Whitgift, ii. 52. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 379 queen. against pluralities and non-residence was introduced ^ and read a first time. This was subsequently laid aside, and a new one adopted, which passed through the lower house, and was sent up to the lords on the tenth of March, where the influence of the court and church party was sufficiently powerful to arrest its progress.^ The convocation was alarmed at the prospect of ^^^'^^'^ the convoci this bill passing into a law, and agreed on the following address to the queen, which was drawn up by the archbishop. " The woful and distressed state whereunto we are like to fall, forceth us, with grief of heart, in most humble manner to crave your majesty's most sovereign protection. For the pretence being made the maintenance and increase of a learned ministry, when it is thoroughly weighed, decayeth learning, spoileth their livings, taketh away the set form of prayer in the church, and is the means to bring in confusion and barbarism. How dangerous innova- tions are in a settled state, whosoever hath judg- ment perceiveth. Set dangers apart, yet such great inconveniencies may ensue as will make a state most lamentable and miserable. Our neighbours' miseries might make us fearful, but that we know who rules the same. All the reformed churches in Europe cannot compare with England in the number of learned ministers. These benefits of your majesty's most sacred and careful government, with hearty joy we feel and humbly acknowledge. Senseless are they that repine at it ; and careless, which lightly regard it. The respect hereof made the prophet say, Dii estis ; all the faithful and discreet clergy P D'Ewes's Journal, 438, 440, 442, 444. 380 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XV. ELIZ. Mr. Udal. say, 0 ! Dea certe. Nothing is impossible with God.'"^ When the ministers of religion disgrace themselves, and insult their prince, by the employ- ment of such language, they expose their motives to suspicion, and bring their profession into con- tempt. The archbishop was now at the height of his power. He possessed the entire confidence of his sovereign, and was intrusted with almost unlimited authority in the punishment of ecclesiastical delin- quents. The rulers of the church had hitherto, for the most part, confined themselves to the infliction of deprivation and imprisonment ; but they now resolved to proceed with greater rigor, and to exact the last penalty of the law. Mr. John Udal was one of the first on whom sentence of death was passed. He had been suspended in 1586, and again in 1588, on charges of non-conformity ; after the latter of which periods he settled at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Appearance where his ministry was eminently useful. Thence he was summoned by an order of the coimcil to London, and appeared before the commissioners at lord Cobham's house, on January 13, 1590. He was examined respecting the authors of the Mar-prelate tracts, and of other puritan publications ; but declined to give any information which should criminate his brethren.' His manner towards the before the commission- ers, Jan. 13, 1590. Hooker gives the foUow- &c., and the other, published in ing account of its origin, in a ELIZ. 430 THE HISTORY OF It was divided into eight books, the first four of which were published in 1594, the fifth in 1597, and the remaining three some years after the author's death.' Its character is matter of history, and its merits are too w^ell known, and too generally admitted, to require extended comment. It stands, by universal consent, in the first class of English literature, and has done more to display the capa- bilities of our language, and the strength of our intellect, than any other of the controversial produc- tions of that age. Its majestic and flowing diction, its profound investigation of the foundations of law, and the skill with which it brings its general con- clusions to bear on the particular case of the church of England, command the admiration of the intelli- gent reader, however adverse his views may be to those which the author advocates. The Ecclesias- tical Polity is deeply interesting to the protestant dissenter, as displaying the utmost that can be advanced in support of the system to which he is opposed. All that human genius, or that the most patient and scrutinizing inquiry into the nature of man and the constitution of human society, can letter to Whitgift. "My lord, often as his and others' tender my particular contests with Mr. consciences shall require us. And Travers here have proved the in this examination, I have not more unpleasant to me, because I only satisfied myself, but have believe him to be a good man; and begun a Treatise, in wliich I in- that belief hath occasioned me tend a justification of the laws of to examine mine own conscience our ecclesiastical poHty ; in which concerning' his opinions ; and to design God and his holy angels satisfy that, I have consulted the shall, at the last great day, bear scripture and other laws, both me that witness which my con- human and divine. Whether the science now does, that my mean- conscience of him, and others of ing is not to provoke any, but his judgment, ought to be so far rather to satisfy all tender con- complied with, as to alter our sciences." — Walton's Life of frame of church government ; our Hooker, prefixed to Hanbury's manner of Gods worsliip; our edition of his works, p. 99. praising and praying to him ; and ' Walton's Life, 100. Strype's our established ceremonies, as Whitgift; ii. 148, 199. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 431 effect, is here accomplished on behalf of the hier- archy. If, therefore, such a work fails to sustain its positions ; if many of its principles are unsound^ and its course of argumentation is precisely similar to that which popery employs ; if large sections of the work are as conclusive against the pro- testant faith, as against that form of it to which Hooker was opposed; a strong presumption must be awakened that there was a radical unsoundness in the cause he advocated, which no genius could remedy or diligence correct.^ That such defects do attach to this celebrated performance has been ex- tensively acknowledged, and will be increasingly felt, as the true spirit of protestantism prevails amongst its professed disciples."" CHAP. XVII. ELIZ. J Walton tells us that the first four books of the Ecclesiastical Polity were strongly recom- mended to the perusal of the pope Clement VIII., either by cardinal Allen or Dr. Staple ton, and that his holiness expressed the hig-hest possible admiration of tliem. " There is no learning," said he, *'that this man hath not searched into ; nothing too hard for his understanding; this man indeed deserves the name of an author. His books will get reverence by age, for there are in them such seeds of eternity, that if the rest be like this, they shall last till the last fire shall consume all learn- ing."— Life of Hooker, p. 101. It is well known that James II. referred to the preface to Hooker's work, and to Heylin's Hist, of the Reformation, as the works which mainly contributed to his renun- ciation of protestantism. — Hal- lam's Const. Hist., ii. 514. ^ The better parts of the Eccle- siastical Polity," remarks Mr. Hallam, " bear a resemblance to the philosophical writings of anti- quity, in their defects as well as their excellencies. Hooker is often too vague in the use of general terms, too inconsiderate in the admission of principles, too apt to acquiesce in the scho- lastic pseudo-philosophy, and, in- deed, in all received tenets, he is comprehensive rather than saga- cious, and more fitted to sift the truth from the stores of accumu- lated learning, than to seize it by an original impulse of his own mind ; somewhat also impeded, like many other great men of that and the succeeding century, by too much 'acquaintance with books, and too much deference for their authors. It may be justly objected to some passages, that they elevate ecclesiastical autho- rity, even in matters of belief, with an exaggeration not easily recon- ciled to the protestant right of private judgment, and even of dangerous consequence in those times ; as when he inclines to give a decisive voice in theological controversies to general councils, not indeed on the principles of the church of Rome, but on such as must end in the same conclu- 432 THE HISTORY OF A new controversy was raised in the year 1595, by the publication of a treatise on the sabbath, in ELiz. ^vhich the author, Dr. Bound, maintained its moral Controversy ^latuTC aud pcrpctual obligation/ This was totally different from the view which the early reformers, both continental and English, had entertained, and was regarded with extreme suspicion by Whitgift."' ^ Several ministers were cited into the bishops' courts for advocating this doctrine in their sermons ; and the archbishop issued letters forbidding Bound's treatise to be printed, and calling in the copies already in circulation." But his efforts were utterly fruitless. The obnoxious doctrine was received with unexampled favor, and rapidly circulated through the country. " It is almost incredible," says Fuller, " how taking this doctrine was, partly because of its own purity, and partly for the eminent piety of such persons as maintained it ; so that the Lord's day, especially in corporations, began to be precisely kept, people becoming a law to themselves, forbear- ing such sports as yet by statute permitted ; yea, many rejoicing at their own restraint herein. On this day, the stoutest fencer laid down the buckler ; the most skilful archer unbent his bow, counting all shooting besides the mark ; may-games and morrice- sion — the high probability that chancellor. — Strype's AnnalS;, iii. the aggregate judgment of many i. 496. grave and learned men should be ™ It was early insinuated by well founded. Nor would it be the enemies of the puritans, that difficult to point out several other their advocacy of the moral subjects, such as religious tolera- character of the sabbath was but tion, as to which he did not eman- a piece of policy. This base in- cipate himself from the trammels sinuation was first urged by Mr. of prejudice," — Const. Hist., i.29o. Rogers, the earliest opponent of ' Ten years before this, Mr. Dr. Bound's doctrine, and lias Smith, a member of the Cambridge since been repeated by Collier and imiversity, had advocatcda similar others. — Fuller, ix. 228. Collier, view of the sabbath, for which he ii. 04o. was summoned before the vice " Strype's Whitgift, ii. 415. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 433 dances grew out of request ; and good reason tliat x"'ii * bells should be silenced from gingling about men's legs, if their very ringing in steeples were adjudged unlawful. Some were ashamed of their former pleasures, like children which grown bigger, blush- ing themselves out of their rattles and whistles.'"' The efforts which Whitoift and the lord chief justice Popham made to suppress Bound's treatise, only served to increase the avidity with which it was sought after. Men eagerly inquire for that which is forbidden. The power of curiosity is thus added to the love of knowledge, and sacrifices are cheerfully made to procure what would otherwise have been disregarded or unknown. Thus it was with the publication in question, as the subsequent history of the Sabbatarian controversy will show J' Hitherto the English reformers had, with very caivmistic few exceptions, been strictly Calvinistic in their '"^'^ doctrinal views. The puritans and the church party had been equally zealous for the maintenance of ' those opinions which were known, as a theological system, by the name of the Genevan reformer, and o Church Hist., ix. 227. p "The price of the doctor's hook," sajs Fuller, " began to be doubled, as coinmonly books are then most called on when called in ; and many who hear not of them wlien printed, inquire after them -when prohibited. And though the book's wings were dipt from flying abroad in print, it ran the faster from friend to friend in transcribed copies ; and the Lord's day in most places was most strictly observed. The more liberty people were offered, the less they used it, refusing to take the freedom authority tendered them. For the vulgar sort have the actions of their superiors in constant jealousy, suspecting each gate of their opening to be a trap, evcr\- hole of their digging to be a mine, wherein some secret train is covertly conveyed to the blow- ing up of the subject's liberty, which made them almost afraid of the recreations of the Lord's day allowed them ; and seeing it is the greatest pleasure to the mind of man to do what he pleaseth, it was sport for them to refrain from sports, whilst the forbearance was in themselves voluntary, arbitrary, and elective, not imposed upon them."— Ch. Hist., ix. 229. VOL. I. 434 THE HISTORY OF ^- were supposed to be absolutely necessary to a fair — exhibition of the sovereignty^ of Divine Love in thq ^* salvation of men. Recently, however, indications of an approaching change had been visible in the Arminian complexion of the theology advocated in many of the pulpits of the establishment. This was objected to Hooker and to others of the clergy by the puritans, as a manifest departure from the articles of the church and the testimony of the sacred volume. A new line of distinction was thus gradually, and almost imperceptibly, drawn between the church and puritan part3^ Doctrinal differences were introduced in their discussions, which embit- tered their hostility, and rendered their agreement more hopeless than ever. The debate commenced in the university of Cam- bridge, where the two divinity professors, Drs. Whittaker and Baro, were of different judgments on the topics involved in the Calvinistic contro- versy.'' Great offence was given to several of the heads of colleges by Mr. Barret, a fellow of Gonvil and Caius college, who, in a sermon at St. Mary's church, reflected severely on Calvin and other foreign writers, and exhorted his hearers not to read their productions." He was summoned before the vice-chancellor, and the measures adopted against him led to the interposition of the archbishop, who, to stifle the controversy, and to prevent the peace of the church from being disturbed, convened a meet- ing of learned divines at Lambeth, where the follow- ing articles were adopted, to which the scholars of the university were required to conform their judg- ments. 1 Strype's Whitgift, ii. 227. ' Ibid., 229. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 435 1 . That God from eternity has predestinated some x vif* men to life, and reprobated others to death. 2. That the moving or efficient cause of predes- tination to life is not the foreknowledge of faith, or ^ulT. perseverance, or good works, or of any other thing ^"' ^o-^^" in the person predestinated, but only the good-will and pleasure of God. 3. The number of the predestinated is fixed, and cannot be lessened or increased. 4. Those who are not predestinated to salvation shall be necessarily damned for their sins. 5. A true, living, justifying faith, and the sanc- tifying spirit of God, is not extinguished, nor does it fail or fade away in the elect, either finally or totally. 6. A man truly faithful, that is, one endowed with justifying faith, has a full assurance of the remission of his sins, and of his eternal salvation through Christ. 7. Saving grace is not given or communicated to all men so that they might be saved if they would. 8. No one is able to come to Christ, unless it be given to him, and unless the Father 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. ' These articles were severely censured by some, and as warmly approved of by others. The judg- ments passed on them were regulated by the opinions which men previously entertained, the one party condemning them as subjecting their framers " Fuller, ix. 230. Collier, ii. 644. Strvpo's Wliito-ift, ii. 280. 2 F 2 436 THE HISTORY OF to the penalties of a premunire, the other commend- ing them as a faithful testimony to the truth, borne in their public and official character by some of the dignitaries of the church. Heylin affirms, that the queen was incensed with the archbishop for draw- ing them up, and had at one time resolved on having him and his associates in this labor pro- secuted ; but his testimony is unsupported, and deserves little credit. * The only light in which the Lambeth Articles can properly be regarded is that of a testimony to the opinions then prevalent in the English church. In this point of view they constitute an interesting and an important historical document, to which the Calvinistic interpreters of the thirty-nine articles may confidently appeal." A revolution was subsequently effected in the theo- logical sentiments of the dignitaries of the church, which gave rise to a numerous party, termed doc- trinal puritans. The members of this party were *■ Hist, of the Presbyterians, 844. This writer insinuates that Whitg-ift did not fully approve of the doctrines contained in these articles, but was influenced by' other motives in the part which he took in drawing them up. — P. 345. Were this the case, it would leave the archbishop's moral cha- racter under an indelible stigma. But there is not a particle of truth in the unworthy insinuation. " Collier, ii. 645, endeavours to show that these articles did not contain the doctrine of the En- glish reformers ; but the more can- did Fuller remarks, "All that I will say of the credit of these ar- ticles is this : That as medals of gold and silver, though they will not pass in payment for current coin, because not stamped with the king's inscription, yet they will go with goldsmiths for as much as they are in weight ; so, though these articles want au- thentic reputation to pass for pro- vincial acts, as lacking sufficient authority, yet will they be readily received of orthodox christians, for as far as their own purity bears conformity to God's word. And though those learned divines be not acknowledged as compe- tent judges to pass definitive sen- tence in those points, yet they will be taken as witnesses be- yond exception, whose testimony is an infallible evidence, what was the general and received doctrine of England in that age, about the forenamed controver- sies."—Ch. Hist., ix, 232. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 437 distinguished by a rigid adherence to the general ^^-jj'* doctrines of the Lambeth Articles, and were re- garded by the court divines with as much hostility ^^^i'^- as the more numerous body who impugned the ceremonies and constitution of the church. The force of circumstances naturally brought these two classes of puritans together. A feeling of sympa- thy and respect was mutually awakened. Both were opposed to the administration of the church, though on different grounds, and were ultimately combined in a successful resistance of episcopal intolerance and latitudinarian principles. The violence of the archbishop's proceedinos Apparent ... . success of the appears to have alarmed the puritan mmisters into archbishop something like silence. A long course of oppres- sion had depressed their spirits, and induced them to wait for the more favorable opportunity which they expected on the accession of James. The death of the early reformers had made way for the appointment of other men of fiercer temper, and of more plastic principles. All the higher stations in the church were filled by the zealous advocates of conformity. During a period of forty years, the ecclesiastical patronage of the crown had been bestowed on the enemies of the puritans, whose exclusion from offices of emolument and influence was anxiously sought by Elizabeth and her archbishops. It need not, therefore, awaken sur- prise if the puritans, abandoning all hope of ac- complishing their design during the life of the queen and the administration of Whitgift, reserved themselves for better times. There was a successor in prospect, educated in presbyterian principles, and pledged to their maintenance, from whom they 438 THE HISTORY OF ^^P* might naturally expect an attentive hearing and a favorable judgment. It must not, however, be supposed that the course of intolerance was stayed. Though the puritans were more cautious and re- served, their enemies displayed on every occasion the same bitterness and tyranny. Judge Anderson, in his circuit, during the year 1596, disgraced the English bench by his violent denunciation of the puritans and Brownists, and by his contumelious treatment of such of their ministers as were brought before him. " I would to God," said an observer of his proceedings, " that they which judge in religious causes, though in the name of civil affairs, would either get some more knowledge in religion and God's word than my lord Anderson hath, or else might be assisted in all such causes by those which have." The archbishop also, in order to prevent the return of persons disaffected towards the church, actively exerted himself in the elections for the par- liament which met October 24, 1597. His efforts were so far successful that the constitution and wor- ship of the establishment was exempted from assault, though several bills were introduced for the correc- tion of abuses existing in the spiritual courts, and of other evils in the administration of ecclesiastical affairs. ^ But the interposition of the queen again prevented the parliament from adopting any mea- sure for the removal of the evils which were depre- cated. In the convocation which sat during this parlia- ment, various regulations were agreed to for the Parliament of 15D7. Convocation. * Strype's Annals, 4. Numb. ^ Strype's>Whitgift, ii. 373. 19(5. Mbid., 376. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 439 correction of some of the more flao-rant evils that ^"-^J'- ^ W 11. ment5 of the commi*- sion arrestel by prohibi- tions from the ciril courts. disgraced the ecclesiastical courts ; which were afterwards allowed by the queen, and were pub- lished with her authority.-'' But the reforms The jud?- thus introduced afforded no protection to the puri- tans from the gross injustice of the high com- by°p^^bu mission court. More effectual relief, however, was obtained from the civil courts, into which the puri- tans removed their case, by prohibitions from West- minster Hall. The archbishop bitterly complained of this interference with the ecclesiastical commis- sion, and, together with his brethren, he drew up a number of queries respecting the legality of such prohibitions, for the consideration of the judges. ^ But neither his eflforts, nor those of his successor, could prevent their being granted, though Laud at length succeeded in frightening the judges from the discharge of their duties. These prohibitions protected the puritans in some measure from the power of their enemies, whose fears were aroused by the advanced age of the queen, and the prospect y Sparrow's Collections, 245. Strype's WTiitgift, iL 383. * Ibid., 307, 427. The follow- ing were tlie queries relating more particularly to the ecclesiastical commission. " Seeing ecclesias- tical authority is now as highly and truly vested in the prince as is her temporal. Whether her temporal authority should any more restrain her ecclesiastical, than her ecclesiastical should her temporal? And for avoiding of confusion, and encroachment of jurisdictions distinct, why the prince's supreme ecclesiastical authority may not be as jealous over the temporal, as the temporal is over the eccle- siastical : seeing the common oath of obedience tieth all indifferently to the assistance and the defence of all pre-eminences, united to the crown ? And seeing so many and so great personages, with some others, are trusted to do her ma- jesty's service in her highness' ecclesiastical commission. Whe- ther it be convenient that an of- fender, ready to be censured, upon his own false suggestion before a conference had with any commis- sioners thereupon, who knew the truth best, should obtain, and publicly in court throw in, a pro- hibition to the delay of justice, and to the disgrace and dispa- ragement of those who served freely without all fee therein ?" THE HISTORY OF of a presbyterian successor. Her long reign was terminated March 24, 1603, to the great relief of her attendants, and the general satisfaction of the nation. ^ Her personal character has been very variously drawn. By the writers of one party she has been represented as eminently devout, imbued with the spirit, and influenced both in her private and public conduct by the principles, of religion ; while their opponents have described her as a compound of dissimulation, cruelty, and lust. A medium course between these conflicting representations will be found most accordant with the facts of her history, and the known temper of her mind. No doubt can be entertained of her distinguished talents. They were of a masculine order, and were better fitted to inspire awe, and to secure obedience, than to com- mand regard. They were more suited to the sovereign than to the female, and were shown in the skilful selection of her counsellors, and in her steady adherence to that line of policy which her own judgment and their suggestions alike approved. She knew what was due to the dignity of her crown, as well as any sovereign in Europe; and could, for the most part, command even her weak- nesses and attachments when this was concerned. Her religion was, like that of most princes, a thing * Towards the close of her life eth every costly cover that coraeth Elizabeth was reduced to a piti- to the table, and taketh little but able state of wretchedness. She manchet and succory potage. She never forgave herself for signing walks much in her privy cham- the warrant for Essex's execution. ber, and stamps with her feet at Sir John Harrington, in a letter ill news, and thrusts her rusty written at the close of 1001, says sword at times into the arras in of her, "She is quite disfavoured, great rage." — Xuga? Antiqute, i. and unattired, and these troubles 317. waste her much. She disregard- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 441 of policy and form. Protestant in name, but papist in spirit, she attended to the ceremonial parts of ■ worship, but was utterly destitute of that reverence for the Deity, without which external services can- not be pleasing in his sight. The part which Elizabeth acted in restoring the protestant church of England, has caused her to be ranked as a religious woman. Her virtues have been ex- aggerated, and her defects cautiously concealed, by the advocates of that church, so that her religious character has been totally misapprehended. She has received credit for principles of which she was totally destitute; and has been exhibited as a pat- tern of virtues, no one of which appeared in her deportment. She was strongly attached to some of the most obnoxious dogmas and rites of the Romish church, and on more than one occasion threatened her bishops with a reinstatement of the ancient faith. Warmly opposed to an increase of preaching- ministers, she contended with singular inconsistency that it was good for the church to have but few, and that three or four were enough for a county. Her own attendance on their sermons was infre- quent, being chiefly, if not entirely, confined to the season of Lent. ^ She was frequently in the use of profane oaths, and sometimes treated her bishops with an insulting asperity." The bishop of London, having on one occasion, when preaching before her, reflected on the vanity displayed by many persons in their apparel, she told her attendants that if he b Strype's Grin dal, 829. Parker, the queen, says, "She swears i. -401. much at those tliat cause her Sir John Harrington, in a let- griefs in such wise, to the no ter dated October 1), J flOJ, giving small discomfiture of all about an account of his audience with her." — NiigcC Antiqute^ i. HID. CHAP. X\ II. ELIZ. 442 THE HISTORY OF x^'iL " ^^^^ more discourse on such matters, she would Her ecclesi astical go- Temment, fit him for heaven, but he should walk thither ELiz. ^^ithout a staff, and leave his mantle behind him.'"^ Such was the personal character of the queen, of whom the church of England boasts as her restorer and ornament. The ecclesiastical government of Elizabeth grew naturall}^ out of her temper and principles. Her arbitrar}^ disposition led her to suspect and strongly to oppose the bold spirit of inquiry on which pu- ritanism was engrafted, while her hatred of spiritual religion prompted her to discountenance and punish its most zealous advocates. The vital form which piety assumed in the ministrations of the puritans could not fail to be offensive to a sovereign so ig- norant of its nature. Her ecclesiastical administra- tion was based on an unchristian and mischievous principle. It employed force instead of persuasion, and substituted temporal rewards for the blessings of the gospel dispensation. Her supremacy over the church was an assumption which no laws can justify, and which brought with it a thousand elements of secularity and corruption. It regarded religion as a matter of state policy, and the church as a creature of parliamentary statutes. The dif- fusion of the one and the stability of the other were ^ Nugje Antiquae, i. 170. Cox, ply with my request, by G — I the bishop of Ely, having refused will unfrock you. to ahenate some of the posses- '^Elizabeth." sions of his see, for the benefit of — Const. Hist. i. 304. the lord-keeper Hatton, EUzabeth On another occasion she com- wrote to him the following laco- manded Fletcher, the bishop of nic epistle : London, to be suspended, because " he being a widower, married a " Proud prelate, fine lady and widow which ar- " You know what you were bitrary sentence was immediately before I made you what you arc : executed by the obsequious W'hit- if you do not immediately com- gift. — Strype's Whitgift, ii. 215. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 443 sought to be advanced by the same agency as was employed in mere political affairs. Wealth and rank were conferred on the ministers of a favored sect, who repaid the patronage which they received by vesting their appointment in the crown. The splendour of the hierarchy was thus heightened, but its piety was enfeebled. What it gained in temporal dignity it lost in moral strength. The tide of corruption set in strongly; and, though its course was for a season arrested, it ultimately carried away every obstruction, and forced its noxious waters through a thousand channels. The treatment which the puritans received from the government of Elizabeth was progressively severe. In the early part of her reign many of the bishops were friendly to their cause, but their views were modified by the collisions which ensued. " Then," says Lord Bacon, " were they content mildly to acknowledge many imperfections in the church; as tares come up amongst the corn; which yet, according to the wisdom taught by the Saviour, were not with strife to be pulled up, lest it might spoil and supplant the good corn, but to grow on together till the harvest. After, they grew to a more absolute defence and maintenance of all the orders of the church, and stiffly to hold that nothing was to be innovated; partly because it needed not, partly because it would make a breach upon the rest. Hence, exasperated through contentions, they are fallen to a direct condemnation of the contrary part, as of a sect. Yea, and some indiscreet per- sons have been bold in open preaching to use dis- honorable and derogatory speech and censure of the churches abroad; and that so far, as some of 444 THE HISTORY OF our men, as I have heard, ordained in foreign parts, have been pronounced to be no lawful ministers."^ This growing violence of opinion was accompanied with a proportionable rigour and severity. The administration of Parker has already been described. Its character deepened as it advanced. It became increasingly intolerant and arbitrary; but in its worst stage it was moderate, and almost paternal, as compared with that of Whitgift. The queen seldom acted but with the concurrence and on the advice of the latter prelate. Many of her counsellors were averse from his proceedings, and would gladly have disarmed him of his authority. But she rebuked their interference, and gave her open countenance to his most oppressive and unconstitutional mea- sures. Lending herself to the counsels of an in- tolerant and bigoted ecclesiastic, she attempted to coerce the conscience of her subjects, and to per- • petuate the system of her sister under a protestant name. But her design utterly failed. Though the puritan clergy were ejected from their benefices, were fined, imprisoned, and, in some cases, were put to death; though the press was restrained, and the privileges of parliament were invaded; though the hio^h commission court and the star chamber were rigorously employed to destroy the last relic of English freedom, yet, at the queen's decease, the party disaffected to the hierarchy was more nu- merous, more decided in hostility to the church, and more confident of ultimate success, than at any former period of her reign. The sufferings of the puriums during the primacy of Whitgift are not to be paralleled in the history • Work^. vii. 48. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 445 of protestant intolerance, unless, perhaps, an ex- ception may be made of the times of the second Charles. The number of deprivations and impri- ^^iz. sonments which took place must have involved a mass of misery, at which humanity may well weep, and the infliction of which it becomes the virtuous of every party to reprobate. That the puritans were immaculate it would be folly to pretend. Their faults were numerous, and some of them glaring. But they were loyal subjects of the queen, and, as such, were entitled to the equal protection of her laws. The most envenomed hostility could not fasten upon them the charge of disafiection to her civil govern- ment, yet they were given over to the tender mer- cies of intolerant priests, who have ever been foremost in the career of persecution, and in the shedding of human blood. The capital error of the puritans was their imperfect acquaintance with the nature of religious liberty. Indistinct ap- proaches to the truth are discoverable in some of their writings; but it is too evident to admit of doubt, that they were wholly unprepared to grant to others the freedom which they asked for them- selves. This gave an inconsistency to their pro- ceedings, and involved their successors in coercive measures which cannot be too severely condemned. It has been attempted to defend Elizabeth's go- ^fjj^^'' vernment, on the ground that the rudeness and ^am s defence ^ of the queen -s insolence ot the puritans, and the obvious tendency government, of their measures to disparage the authority of the queen, justified the employment of severe measures against them. Sir Francis Walsingham, one of her counsellors, took ground somewhat similar to this, in a letter which he wrote, about 1580, to Monsieur ELTZ. 446 THE HISTORY OF x^^f' Critoy, a Frenchman, in which he states that the - queen's proceedings against the papists and puritans were grounded on these two principles : — " The one, that consciences are not to be forced, but to be won and reduced by force of truth, with the aid of time, and use of all good means of instruction and persuasion. The other, that causes of conscience, when they exceed their bounds, and grow to be matter of faction, lose their nature; and that so- vereign princes ought distinctly to punish their practices and contempt, though coloured with the pretence of conscience and religion."^ After adverting to the case of the catholics, he says, " For the other party, which have been offen- sive to the state, though in another degree, which named themselves reformers, and we commonly call puritans, this hath been the proceeding towards them: A great while, when they inveighed against such abuses in the church as pluralities, non-resi- dence, and the like, their zeal was not condemned, only their violence was sometimes censured. When they refused the use of some ceremonies and rites as superstitious, they were tolerated with much connivancy and gentleness; yea, when they called f Mr. Hallam, referring to these both by social worship, and by principles, remarks, first, "that certain positive rites; and that they take for granted the funda- the marks of this profession, ac- mental sophism of religious into- cording to the form best adapted lerance, namely, that the civil to their respective ways of think- magistrate, or the church he sup- ing, were as incumbent upon the ports, is not only in the right, but catholic and puritan, as they were so clearly in the right, that no upon the primitive church ; nor honest man, if he takes time and were they more chargeable with pains to consider the subject, can faction, or with exceeding the help acknowledging it ; secondly, bounds of conscience, when they that, according to the principles persisted in the use of them, of Christianity as admitted on notwithstanding any prohibitory each side, it does not rest in an statute, than the early christians." esoteric persuasion, but requires — Const. Hist. i. 809. an exterior profession, evidenced < PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 447 in question the superiority of bishops, and pre- tended to a democracy in the church ; yet their propositions were here considered, and by contrary writings debated and discussed. Yet all this while it was perceived that their course was dangerous and very popular: as because papistry was odious, therefore it was ever in their mouths, that they sought to purge the church from the relics of pa- pistry; a thing acceptable to the people, who love ever to run from one extreme to another. Because multitudes of rogues and poverty was an eye-sore and a dislike to every man ; therefore they put into the people's head that, if discipline were planted, there should be no vagabonds nor beggars — a thing very plausible : and in like manner they promised the people many of the impossible wonders of their discipline; besides, they opened to the people a way to government by their consistory and pres- bytery; a thing, though in consequence no less prejudicial to the liberties of private men than to the sovereignty of princes, yet in first show very popular. Nevertheless, this, except it were in some few that entered into extreme contempt, was borne with, because they pretended, in dutiful manner, to make propositions, and to leave it to the pro- vidence of God, and the authority of the ma- gistrate. " But now, of late years, when there issued from them that affirmed the consent of the magistrate was not to be attended ; when, under a pretence of confession, to avoid slander and imputations, they combined themselves by classes and subscriptions; when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the government of the church by ridi- 448 THE HISTORY OF culous pasquils; when they began to make many - subjects in doubt to take oaths, which is one of the fundamental parts of justice in this land, and in all places; when they began both to vaunt of their strength, and number of their partizans and fol- lowers, and to use combinations that their cause would prevail, through uproar and violence, then it appeared to be no more zeal, no more conscience, but mere faction and division: and, therefore, though the state were compelled to hold somewhat a harder hand to restrain them than before, yet was it with as great moderation as the peace or state of the church would permit."^ This letter has been represented by the enemies of the puritans as a triumphant vindication of the proceedings of Elizabeth's government against them. Its reasonings, however, are sophistical, and some of its statements are incorrect. It has more of the appearance of an official despatch than of a confidential communication, and must be regarded rather as furnishing the utmost that can be urged by a secretary of state in defence of his sovereign's administration, than as supplying an impartial judgment on the character and proceedings of the parties in question. "It is a very able apology for her government," says Mr. Hallam, " and, if the reader should detect, as he doubtless may, somewhat of sophistry in reasoning, and of misstatement in matter of fact, he will ascribe both one and the other to the narrow^ spirit of the age with respect to civil and religious freedom, or to the circumstances of the writer, — an advocate w^iose sovereign was his client.'"^ Buraet's Reform., ii. G47. ^ Const. Hist., i. 809. CHAPTER XVIII. JAMES I. Expectation of parties — Millenary Petition — Strength of the Puritan Party — Cambridge and Oxford Universities oppose the Puritans — Publication of Jacob's Reasons for Reforming the Church of England — Hampton Court Conference — Death and Character of Whitgift — Proclamations against Papists and Puritans — Parliament of 1^4 — Convocation. The character of James was but little understood ^^/j J]- at the time of his ascendinof the Enirlish throne. As ion on sion James. he had been educated in the bosom of a presbyterian James i church, the puritans were elated with the hope of E^p^ctat his favour, and looked forward to a period of repose, if not of supremacy, under his patronage. His professions of attachment to the church of Scotland warranted this expectation. In the general as- sembly of that church, in 1590, he encouraged the clergy to prosecute the work of reformation. " In the end,*' says the historian, "to please the assembly, he praised God that he was born in the time of the light of the gospel, to such a place, as to be king of such a kirk, the sincerest kirk in the world. The kirk of Geneva," he added, keep pasche and yule (Easter and Christmas), what have they for them? They have no institution* VOL. r. 2 G 450 THE HISTORY OF xvm! ^"^^ neighbour kirk of England, their ser- vice is an evil said mass in English; they want JAMES I. nothing of the mass, but the liftings. I charge you, my good people, ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your pu- rity, and to exhort the people to do the same ; and I, forsooth, so long as I brook my life and crown, shall maintain the same."' The same circumstances which had promoted a false confidence in the pu- ritans exerted a depressing influence on the arch- bishop and his brethren. They were in the habit of referring to his accession under the metaphor of a Scotch mist, and feared much that he would pa- tronize the new discipline, and make extensive al- terations in the government and liturgy of the ' Calderwood's Cluirch Hist, of Scotland, 256. Dr. Grey, in his Examination of Mr. Neal's second ToluTne, endeavours to disprove the fact of James having ex- pressed any attachment to the presbyterian church of Scotland. For this purpose he quotes pas- sages from his printed works, and from his speeches in the Hampton Court conference, -which severely reflect on the puritans: and hence he concludes that at no period of his life could he have uttered such sentiments as Neal, on the authority of Calderwood, attri- butes to him. It is obvious to remark that the two classes of passages, those adduced by Neal and those brought forward by Dr. Grey, are perfectly reconcileable on the supposition of the king's insincerity, while the former re- ceive confirmation from the fact that he interposed on behalf of some of the English puritans, at the risk of incurring the displea- sure of Elizabeth. These con- flicting passages pertain to dif- ferent periods of his life, and are but specimens of the kingcraft of -which he was so proud. Dr. Grey principally relies on^ a passage from the Basilikon Doron, which was published in 1599, and con- sequently before James's acces- sion to the English throne. But he forgets to tell his readers that only seven copies of this work were permitted to be printed, the printer being sworn to se- cresy ; and that to a reprint of it, issued a short time before the death of Elizabeth, a new preface was added, in which the king, to remove the impression which his reflections on the clergy might make to his disadvantage, pro- tests, on his honor, " that, by the name of puritans he meant not all preachers in general, or others that misliked the ceremonies as badges of popery, and the epis- copacy as smelling of a papal supremacy, but did equally love the learned and grave on either side; and intended onl}- such brainsick and heady preachers that leaned too much to their own dreams, contemned all au- thority, counted all profane that would not swear to all their fan- tasies."— Harris's Life of James I., 51—51. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 451 church. So serious were the apprehensions of the ^^jj^" archbishop, that he is reported to have prayed that he might not live to see the next parliament. Both JAMes i; parties gave the monarch credit for sincerity, of which they soon found him to be wholly destitute. Whitgift's fears, however, were soon allayed, for Dr, Nevyl, a dean of Canterbury, having been sent into Scotland with assurances of the loyalty of the clergy, and an earnest request that James would take them under his protection, returned with an answer which," says Strype, " gave him great comfort and satisfaction. "J While the king; was on his way to London, the -^lii'^nary petitioa. puritans presented to him what was popularly called the millenary petition. It was entitled, the humble petition of the ministers of the church of England, de- siring reformation of certain ceremonies and abuses of the churchy in the preamble of which the subscribers say : " We, the ministers of the gospel in this land, neither as factious men, affecting a popular party in the church, nor as schismatics, aiming at the dissolution of the state ecclesiastical, but as the faith- ful servants of Christ, and loyal subjects to your ma- jesty, desiring and longing for the redress of diverse abuses of the church, could do no less, in our obedience to God, service to your majesty, and love to his church, than acquaint your princely majesty with our particular griefs. And, although diverse of us that sue for reformation, have formerly, in respect of the times, subscribed to the book, some upon protestation, some upon exposition given them, some with condition, rather than the church should have been deprived of their labour and ) Strype's Whito^ift, ii. 469, 479. 2 G 2 452 THE HISTORY OF xvm' ^^^^i^^^T ' ^^^^ number of more than a thousand of your majest^^'s subjects and ministers, JAMES I. all groaning, as under a common burden of human rites and ceremonies, do, with one joint consent, humble ourselves at your majesty's feet, to be eased and relieved in this behalf." ^ In this petition they prayed, " First, that in the church service, the cross in baptism, interrogatories ministered to infants; confirmations, as superfluous, may be taken away; baptism not to be ministered by women; and so explained; the cap and surplice not urged; that examination ma}^ go before the communion ; that it be ministered with a sermon ; that divers terms, of pj'iests, and absolution, and The title commonly g-iven to this petition was founded on the reputed number of signatures to it. These were o:^enerally reck- oned at a thousand, though they fell considerably short of that number. Clarke states them at above seven hundred and fifty, from twenty-five counties only, which Fuller repeats, with this remark, " However, for the more rotundity of the number, and grace of the matter, it passeth for a full thousand, which no doubt the collectors of the names (if so pleased) might easily have Oxfordshire 0 Stafibrd 14 Dorset 17 Hertford 17 Nottingham 20 Surrv 21 Norfolk 28 Wiltshire -31 Buckingham '33 Sussex 47 Leicester 57 Essex 57 completed. I dare not guess what made them desist before their number was finished : whether they thought that these were enough to do the deed, and more were rather for ostentation than use, or because, disheartened by the intervening of the Hampton Court conference, they thought that these were even too many for a denial." — Clarke's Lives, &c., 116.— Church Hist. X. 7. In a puritan treatise, pub- lished in 160.5, the following list of the signatures to this petition is given : — Cheshire 12 Bedford 16 Somerset 17 Derby 20 Lancashire 21 Kent 23 London 30 Lincoln a3 Warwick 44 Devon and Cornwall ... 51 Northampton 57 Suffolk 71 jin Abridgment of that book which the ministers of Lincoln diocess delivered to his nmjesty—ip. 52. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 453 some others used, with the ring in marriage, and ^ other such like in the book, may be corrected ; the — longsomeness of service abridged; church songs "^"^ and music moderated to better edification ; that the Lord's day be not profaned ; the rest upon holy- days not so strictly urged; that there may be an uniformity of doctrine prescribed ; no popish opinions to be any more taught or defended ; no ministers charged to teach their people to bow at the name of Jesus ; that the canonical scriptures only be read in the church. Secondly, concerning ministers: that none hereafter be admitted into the ministry but able and sufficient men; and those to preach diligently, and especially upon the Lord's day; that such as were already entered, and could not preach, may either be removed, and some clia- ritable course taken with them for their relief, or else to be forced, according to the value of their livings, to maintain preachers ; that non-residence be not permitted ; that king Edward's statute, for the lawfulness of ministers' marriage, be revived ; and that ministers be not urged to subscribe, but according to the law, to the articles of religion and the king's supremacy only. Thirdly, For church livings and maintenance: that bishops leave their commendams ; some holding prebends, some par- sonages, some vicarages, with their bishoprics; that double beneficed men be not suffered to hold, some two, some three, benefices with cure; and some two, three, or four dignities besides ; that impro- priations annexed to bishoprics and colleges be demised only to the preachers' incumbents for the old rent ; and that the impropriations of laymen be charged a sixtli or seventh part of their value for 454 THE HISTORY OF xvm' ^^^^ maintenance of preaching ministers. Fourthly, For church discipline: that the discipline and ex- JAMES I. communication may be administered, according to Christ's own institution, or, at the least, that enor- mities may be redressed ; as, namely, that excom- munication come not forth under the name of lay- persons, chancellors, officials, &c. ; that men be not excommunicated for trifles and twelve-penny mat- ters, nor without the consent of their pastors; that the officers be not suffered to extort unreasonable fees ; that none having jurisdiction, or registrar's places, put the same out to farm, &c." ^ fhrpSu^*^ Other petitions of a similar nature were presented p^y- to the king during the summer of 1603, some of which spoke a language more decided, and called for alterations more sweeping and radical."" The number of signatures attached to these petitions was very great, and clearly show that, however the administration of Whitgift had terrified the mal- contents into silence, it had utterly failed to over- come their aversion, or to eject them from the benefices of the church. The archbishop himself was probably surprised at the strength which the puritan party now put forth. He passed the sum- mer, we are informed, pensively, and left no means untried by which he could hope to defeat the de- signs of his opponents, and to secure the favor and protection of the king. Cambridge uuivcrsitics of Cambridge and Oxford were and Oxford C5 oppose the alarmed at the movements of the puritans. The puritans. * former passed a grace, June 9th, 1603, declaring. « Fuller, X. 22. « Strj-pe's Whitgift. ii. 481 ; Fuller, X. 24. Strype s Whitgift, ii. 484. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 455 " that whosoever in that university should openly ^yfjj* oppose, by word or writing, or any other way, the doctrine or discipline of the church of England, or ^^^^^^ ^' any part thereof, should be suspended from any de- gree taken, or from any degree to be taken, to be excluded, ipso facto," And the latter published a reply to the millenary petition, dedicated to the archbishop and others of the king's counsellers, in which they humbly beseech his majesty, " That it might be considered, how inconvenient and insuf- ferable it was, in christian policy, to permit a long and well-settled state of government to be so much as questioned, much more to be altered, for a few of his subjects; especially considering the matter pretended to be the cause of these men's grief, and of their desired reformation, unjustly so called." ■ The design of this answer was to prejudice the petitioners in the estimation of the king, and to recommend the church of England to his patronage as the most loyal and the best constituted church in the world. The excitement attendant on the accession of ^"1''''^^''''" of Jacob 's James ffave rise to numerous publications, setting: Reasons for , . ^ . . . Reforminjj forth the views of the several relie^ious parties in t^e churcn of 11-1 A 1 . 1 1 England. the kmgdom. Among the rest was one entitled. Reasons taken out of God's word and the best human testimonies^ proving a necessity of reforming our churches in England. It was written by Mr. Henry Jacob, a Brownist, and strikingly exhibits the rapid progress which many members of that sect were now making in christian charity and expansiveness of feeling. Their residence on the continent, whither they were driven by persecution, had « Strype's Whitgift,Hi. 483, 484 ; Neal, ii. 6. 456 THE HISTORY OF xvni.' b^o^&ht them into connexion with forms of worship different from those they had discarded in England, JAMES I. coinciding exactly with their own. Their self-confidence was thus shaken ; they learned to respect the integrity of men whose modes of wor- ship they disapproved, and became solicitous to blend a christian spirit with the faithful exhibition of religious truth. Mr. Jacob's treatise was de- signed to establish the following propositions : 1. It is necessary to reform the churches of England, their ministry, and ceremonies. 2. For the space of two hundred years after Christ the visible churches using government were not diocesan churches, but particular ordinar}^ congregations only; and the bishops (as they were peculiarly called after the apostles) were only parishional, not diocesan bishops, differing from other pastors only in priority of order, not in majority of rule. 3. The scriptures of the new testament do contain and set forth unto us (besides the government by extra- ordinary offices, apostles, prophets, evangelists) an ordinary form of church government used then. 4. The ordinary form of church government set forth unto us in the new testament ought necessarily to be kept still by us ; it is not changeable by men, and therefore it only is lawful. The exclusive authority of the scriptures is the principle on which Mr. Jacob mainly relies through- f out his treatise. " We believe," he says, " God's written word ought to be our sole warrant for all things ecclesiastical, and even so, namely, for those with us now in controversy, if at all they be lawful." He admits that many of his brethren dissented from some of his views, yet asserts that they were PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 457 all united in maintaining " the sufficiency and ^v^ii' perfection of God's word in whatsoever matters merely ecclesiastical." Reasoning faithfully on J^mes j. this principle he necessarily arrives at conclusions unfavorable to the established church, of which he nevertheless speaks in terms of moderation and re- Q'ard. His views of the nature of a church are set ^'^^"^^"^^^^ O Christina forth with distinctness and simplicity in the fol- ^^"^"^^ lowing passage: " It is to be noted that in the esti- mation of men a visible church (that is, which is endued with power of spiritual outward govern- ment) is of divers forms and natures. Nevertheless in truth and in very deed Christ hath ordained for us only one kind of a visible church in his word, and this only ought to be allowed and believed to be a true church by all christians, for who is it that can, or ever could, make any society of people to be a visible church but Christ only ? Some men esteem the universal number of professed christians in the world to be one visible church, calling it the catholic or universal visible church. And the catholics, taking hold hereof, do conclude that likewise there is and ought to be one catholic and universal government ecclesiastical, unto which all other churches, and their governments, must be subordinate. But in God's word there is no such visible church nor government any where to be found. This is merely devised by the wit and will of men. Again, men esteem a whole nation pro- fessing the gospel to be one visible church, and they call it a national church, likewise a province a provincial church, and a diocese a diocesan church. But none of these likewise can be found in the whole new testament of Christ. Only a particular 458 THE HISTORY OF xviii 9^^dinary constant congregation of Christians in Christ's testament is appointed and reckoned to be JAMES I. a visible church. And therefore so standeth the case now here with us in England also, and so we ought to esteem it.''^ From his general reasonings in the first part of his treatise he deduces the following conclusions, in which his approximation to the modern inde- pendents is distinctly marked: "1. Every parti- cular ordinary congregation of faithful people in England is a true and proper visible church. 2. Every such congregation here and everywhere is endued with power immediately from Christ to govern itself ecclesiastically or spiritually. 3. Every true and proper visible church every where is but one ordinary or constant congregation only.""^ He successfully vindicates his cause from the charge of being unfriendly to monarchy, which its enemies perpetually urged. First," he says, " we absolutely deny that any manner of ecclesiastical government requireth the civil government to become conformed to it. This is a most false con- ceit. The bounds of either government are distinct and clearly severed the one from the other; albeit, each doth aid and succour the other But they think this manner of government will become tumultuous and troublesome in the state ; and so it will prove hurtful to the prince. I would demand, why think they that the church government (as we desire it) will be troublesome and tumultuous ? They will answer, because we require of necessity that elections of ministers, and excommunications, &c., must be popular, which cannot but bring with them commonly tumult, and much trouble, if not p Reasons, &c., 4. Ibid.. 22. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 459 confusion and peril to many. Whereupon I reply, ^vm' that this were very true indeed (viz. much trouble and tumult would commonly follow, and perhaps J^^^es peril to divers) if we desired or sought for popular elections of diocesan bishops. Such as we read of and find to have been used in many places under christian princes from three hundred years after Christ hitherward for a long time. As, for example, at Antioch, Alexandria, Rome, Constantinople, &c. In these and other cities very great stirs, tumults, and confusions among the people have risen indeed not seldom times, even in and about such their elections. The ecclesiastical histories are full of examples to this purpose. But such running to- gether of a whole city or diocese, such voice- giving of such multitudes of people we desire not, neither do we any way allow it. It was a corrupt remainder indeed of the people's ancient free voice- giving to the election of theiv parishiojiai pastors or bishops. For such all ordinary bishops and pastors were primitively in the apostles' days, and such every where they were left by them. Every ordi- nary bishop, then (I say), was only of a parish (as the ancients call it), that is of one particular con- gregation only, and no greater. And so their elections were accomplished by the free consent and voice-giving only of the people of each of these particular ordinary congregations, or parishes. Now it is true, indeed, we acknowledge, we allow, and do desire such elections and excommunications by the people. Neither is this to be reckoned any popularity, which can be either prejudicious to princes, or tumultuous in itself. No, it cannot be an inconvenient order, but most reasonable for any place or people in the world. Namely, seeing we 460 THE HISTORY OF xvm' expressly hold this assertion no otherwise (and we heartily pray that it may be noted), but as it is JAMES I. grounded on four circumstances : 1. In regard that it is (as we are well assured) a divine order and ordinance instituted for each church by Christ and his apostles. 2. Considering that we allow the people's consent and voice-giving in elections, ex- communications, &c., to be done only by the chris- tian people of one parish, that is of one particular ordinary congregation only, and by no greater nor larger number of people by any means. 3. Con- sidering that in the manner hereof we hold this only to be necessary and ordinary, that the eccle- siastical guides there (apart from the people) do first bv themselves prepare and determine the V. hole matter, in such sort that the people may not need to do oug-ht afterward, but onlv consent with them, and freely signify their consent in it. 4. If any wdiere it should fall out that this people thus guided, and being so few, will yet presume to be in their church elections, &c., unruly and violent, then the prince's next dwelling officers of justice may and ought to make them keep peace and quietness." Hampton The determination of the king was formed from ferenL^Tan. thc fiTSt momcut of his ascending the English throne; nor was he long in making it known. It was necessary, however, that some regard should be paid to appearances. He therefore pretended ignorance, and requested to be informed on the points in dispute between the church and the pu- ritans. His instant conversion would have been so palpably base as to have excited general con- tempt; but it was hoped, by affecting the character of an inquirer, and offering to sit in judgment •■ Reason?, &c., 26, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 461 on the contending parties, that he might con- xvni.* ceal his real intentions, and gain credit for sin cerity. A proclamation was accordingly issued, ^^^^^^ bearing date Oct. 24, 1603, appointing a conference in the presence of the king between certain digni- taries of the church and some divines of the puritan party. This proclamation, though affecting im- partiality, sufficiently indicated the king's deter- mination. The constitution and doctrine of the English church are affirmed to be " agreeable to God's word, and near to the condition of the pri- mitive church;" and its condition to be such as reflected great credit on those by w4iom it had been governed. Severe censures are passed on the zealous effi)rts of the puritans, and all the king's subjects are required to " repose themselves, and leave to his conscience that which to him only ap- pertained ; avoiding all unlaw^ful and factious manner of proceeding. For that hereafter, if any should, by gathering the subscription of multitudes to supplications, by contemptuous behaviour to any authority, by open invectives and indecent speeches, either in the pulpit or otherwise, or by disobedience to the processes proceeding from their jurisdiction, give him cause to think that he had a more unquiet spirit than became any private person to have to- wards public authority ; he would make it appear by their chastisement how far such a manner of proceeding was displeasing unto him ; and that he found that these reformers, under pretended zeal, affected novelty, and so confusion in all estates. Whereas his purpose and resolution ever was, and so still was, to preserve the estate, as well ecclesias- tical as politic, in such form as he had found it 462 THE HISTORY OF xvm* established by the laws here ; reforming only the abuses which he should find apparently proved."' JAMES I. rpi^g conference was held at Hampton Court, and the disputants were nominated by the king. On behalf of the hierarchy there were summoned eight bishops, beside the archbishop, six deans of ca- thedral churches, the dean of the king's chapel, two doctors of divinity, and one archdeacon; while, from the puritans, four divines only were selected. Dr. Reynolds, Dr. Sparke, Mr. Knewstubs, and Mr. Chadderton.* The conference was continued for three days, January the 14th, 16th, and 18th, and w^as managed, on the part of the king, with the grossest partiality. The puritans were excluded on the first day, the king being desirous of conferring with the bishops on some points respecting which he was not perfectly satisfied. He commenced the conference by " a congratulation to Almighty God for bringing him into the promised land, where re- ligion was purely professed — where he sat among grave, learned, and reverend men; not as before elsewhere, a king without state, without honor, without order, where beardless boys would brave him to his face. And to assure us," says dean Barlow, " that he called not this assembly for any innovation, acknowledging the government eccle- siastical, as now it is, to have been approved by « Strype's Whitgift, ii. 485. and to my comfort I am assured^ The archbishop might well ex- by his majesty's letters writ to press his satisfaction with this me, that they have not much pre- proclamation. Writing to the vailed. Your lordship, I am earl of Shrewsbury, Dec. 12, 1603, sure, doth imagine that I have he says, Although our humorous not all this while been idle, nor and contentious brethren have greatly quiet in mind. For who made many petitions and motions, can promise himself rest among correspondent to their natures, so mriny vipers — Ibid., App. 44, yet your lordship may perceive, j). 391. by the proclamation published. Ibid., ii. 492. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 463 manifold blessings from God himself, both for the ^yf^{ increase of the gospel, and with a most happy and glorious peace ; yet, because nothing could be so J^^^^^s i. absolutely ordered, but something might be added afterward thereunto, and in any state, as in the body of man, corruptions might insensibly grow, either through time or persons ; and in that he had received many complaints since his first entrance into the kingdom; his purpose, therefore, was, like a good physician, to examine and try the com- plaints, and fully to remove the occasions thereof, if they prove scandalous, or to cure them if they were dangerous; or, if but frivolous, yet to take know- ledge of them, thereby to cast a sop into Cerberus' s mouth, that he may never bark again/' The points on which he required satisfaction were, first, some things in the book of common prayer, as " Barlow's Account of the Hampton Court Conference, printed in the Fhenijc, i. l-i2. Barlow was dean of Chester, and one of the church disputants in this conference, and was charged by the nonconformists with having done great injustice to their argu- ments in his Account. " When the Israelites," says Fuller, re- ferring to this charge, " g-o down to the Philistines to whcfall their iron tools, no wojider if they set a sharp edge on their own, and a blwit one on their enemies' wea- pons."—Ch. Hist., X. 21. Bui it is not necessary to impeach the correctness of Barlow's account, in order to a vindication of the puritans. His own report is suf- ficient evidence against his party. "If," remarks Dr. Harris, "he has not represented their (the puritans') arguments in as just a light, nor related what was done by the ministers as advantageously as truth required, he has abun- dantly made it up to them by ghcwing that the bishops^ their adversaries, were gross flatterers, and had no regard to their sacred characters ; and that their mortal foe James had but a low under- standing, and was undeserving of the rank he assumed in the re- public of learning. This he has done efliectually; and therefore whatever was his intention, the puritans should have applauded his performance, and appealed to it for the proof of the insufficiency of him who set himself up as a decider of t|ieir controversies." — Life of James I., p. 103. Strype has» printed an account of this conference, contained in a letter from the bishop of Durham to the archbishop of York. — Whitoift's Life, App. 44, p. 402. :Mr. Patrick Galloway also forwarded an ac- count to the presbytery of Edin- burgh, havinw first submitted it to the revision of the king. — Calder- wood's Hist., 474. See also Win- wood's Memorials, ii. 13. These accounts supply some circum- stances omitted by Barlow. 464 THE HISTORY OF j^- confirmation, absolution, and private baptism ; se- — condly, the manner of proceeding in the ecclesias- ^- tical courts ; and, thirdly, the provision made for the religious instruction of Ireland. On all these points he spoke at considerable length, to the great delight of a willing auditory. " So admirably," says Barlow, " both for understanding, speech, and judg- ment, did his majesty handle them, sending us away not with contentment only, but astonishment.'"' On the second day, Jan. 16th, the puritans were present; and Dr. Reynolds, in the name of his brethren, proposed — 1. That the doctrine of the church might be preserved in purity according to God's word. 2. That good pastors might be planted in all churches to preach the same. 3. That the church government might be sincerely ministered, according to God's word. 4. That the book of common prayer might be fitted to more increase of piety." Though their manner was respectful, and even timid, the puritan advocates were insulted and browbeaten by the king, were frequently inter- rupted in their speeches, and reminded, in coarse and offensive language, of the measures which would be adopted to constrain their obedience. The king displayed throughout the day the acri- monious violence of a weak and unprincipled man. Mr. Knewstubs having expressed some doubt of the rio:ht of the church to introduce new ceremo- nies, James told him with anger, that " he would not argue that point with him, but answer therein, as kings are wont to speak in parliament, Le Roy s'avisera; adding that it smelled very strongly of " Account of, &c., 148. * Ibid., 149. PROTESTANT NONCONFORJIITY. 465 anabaptism ; comparing it to the usage of a beard- ^vin less boy (one Mr. John Black), who told him that he would hold conformity with his ordinances, for JAMes t. matters of doctrine, but for matters of ceremony they were to be left in christian liberty to every man, as he received more and more light from the illumination of God's Spirit. But I will not of that, quoth the king ; I will have one doctrine and one discipline, one religion in substance and in cere- mony ; and therefore I charge you never to speak more to that point (how far you are bound to obey) when the church hath ordained it."" In a subsequent part of the discussion, Dr. Rey- nolds having requested that the prophesyings might be revived, and that those cases of ecclesiastical discipline which could not be decided at these * meetings, might be referred to the archdeacon's visitation, and ultimately to the bishop with his presbytery, the king broke out into an indecent passion, declaring that a Scotch presbytery, to which he thought the proposition of Dr, Rey- nolds tended, agreed with a monarchy no better than God with the devil. " Then," said he, " Jack, and Tom, and Will, and Dick, shall meet, and, at their pleasures, censure me and my council, and all our proceedings. Then Will shall stand up and say, It must be thus. Then Dick shall reply, and say, Nay, marry, but we will have it thus. And, therefore, here I must once reiterate my former speech, Le Roy s'avisera. Stay, I pray you, for one seven years before you demand that of m e ; and if then you find me pursy and fat, and my windpipes stuffed, I will perhaps hearken to you.""^ Barlow's Account, 166. " Ibid.^ 109r VOL. I. 2 II 466 THE HISTORY OF ^^AP. Thus decorously could the Solomon of liis age, as his clerical sycophants styled him, talk in the presence JAMES I. Qf grave divines, whom he had convened to discuss matters of the deepest importance to the religious interests of the community. He insulted the puritan advocates by charging them with hypocrisy, and closed the conference by remarking to his attendants, " If this be all that they have to say, I shall make them conform themselves, or I will harry them out of this land, or else do worse." On the third day of the conference Dr. Reynolds and his brethren were admitted only to hear the alterations on which the king and the bishops had agreed, when the former told them " he now saw that the exceptions against the communion book were matters of weakness;" adding, " therefore, if the persons reluctant be discreet, they will be won betimes, and by good persuasions; if indiscreet, better they were removed, for many, by their factious behaviour, were driven to be papists."'' " Thus," remarks Mr. Neal, " ended this mock con- ference, for it deserves no better name, all things being previously concluded between the king and the bishops before the puritans were brought upon the stage, to be made a spectacle to their enemies, and borne down, not with calm reason and argu- ment, but with the royal authority — I approve or disprove: the king making himself both judge and party." ^ " Barlow's Account, 170. forgot nothing but their masks. * Ibid., 175. The puritans would not be gulled y Hist, of Puritans, ii. 18. ''The by it, but continued to dissent; Hampton Court conference," says and they were right." — Lectures Mr. Robinson, " was a ridiculous on the Principles of Noncon- farce, a compound of kii.gcraft formity. Works, ii. 221. and priestcraft. The actors in it PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 467 The conduct of the church divines on this oc- ^vm* casion was one consistent piece of abject and ful some flattery. It is scarcely possible to read the -^"^^"^"^^ ^ narrative which one of themselves has published without feeling contempt for their servility, and indignation at the injury which they inflicted on religion. Whitgift was so enraptured at the king's defence of the ex officio oath, as to declare " that undoubtedly his majesty spake by the special as- sistance of God's Spirit;" and Bancroft, his suc- cessor in the archiepiscopal see, upon his knee protested that his heart melted within him with joy, and made haste to acknowledge unto Almighty God the singular mercy we have received at his hands, in giving us such a king, as since Christ's time, the like, he thought, had not been." ^ " In the accounts that we read of this meeting," observes Mr. Hallam, " we are alternately struck with wonder at the indecent and partial behaviour of the king, and at the abject baseness of the bishops, mixed, according to the custom of servile natures, with insolence towards their opponents. It was easy for a monarch and eighteen churchmen to claim the victory, be the merits of the dispute what they might, over abashed and intimidated ad- versaries."* Sir John Harrington, a bitter enemy of the pu- ritans, who was present at this conference, gives « Barlow's Account, 174. Mr. marks, " as it may appear to us. South ey attempts to extenuate it proceeded as much from habit the conduct of the prelates by as from delight, at finding- the urging the habit of their day. king's opinions upon church go- They were so accustomed to the vernment, which had been greatly language of gross adulation as to doubted, in such entire conformity be almost innocent in its employ- with their own." — Book of tho ment. When they used it on Church, ii. 884. this occasion, "unworthy," he re- » Const. Hist., i. 404. 2 H 2 4U8 THE HISTORY OF xvm' ^^^^ following account of it, in a letter to his wife: " The bishops came to the king, about the petition jAiMEs I. puritans. I Avas by, and heard much dis- course. The king talked much Latin, and disputed with Dr. Reynolds, at Hampton ; but he rather used upbraidings than arguments, and told the peti- tioners that they wanted to strip Christ again, and bid them away wdth their snivellings : moreover, he wished those who would take away the surplice might want linen for their own breech. The bishops seemed much pleased, and said his majesty spoke by the power of inspiration. I wist not what they mean, but the spirit was rather foul- mouthed. I cannot be present at the next meeting, though the bishop of London said I might be in the anti-chamber; it seemeth the king will not change the religious observances. There was much discourse about the ring in marriage, and the cross in baptism; but, if I guess right, the petitioners aoainst one cross will find another." ^ The alterations agreed on at this meeting were » few and trivial. The term absolution was to be explained, the rubric about private baptism to be qualified, some thanksgivings were to be added to Nug^ Antiqu9e, i. 181. The recti v, ut est eorum moris, as I king- himself, -vvriting- to a Scotch was forced at last to say unto correspondent, says of this con- them, that if any of them had ference, " We have kept such a been in a collegfe disputino- with revel with the puritans here these their scholars, if any of their dis- two days, as was never heard the ciples had answered them in that like ; where I have peppered sort, they would have fetched them as soundly as ye have done him up in a place of a reply; and the papists there. It were no so should the rod have plied upon reason that those that will refuse the poor boy's buttocks. I have the airy sign of the cross after such a book of theirs as may well baptism should have their purses convert infidels, but it shall never stuffed with any more solid and convert me, except by turning substantial crosses. They fled me more earnestly against them." me so from argument to argument, — Strype's Whitgift, App. 4(>, p. without ever answering me di- 408. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 469 the litany, some questions and answers appended ^ to the catechism, and the most objectionable por tions of the Apocrypha were to be omitted. " Thus," says Heylin, rejoicing in the discomfiture of the puritans, " this great mountain, which had raised so much expectation, was delivered only of a mouse."*" It is therefore no wonder that the pu- ritans were generally dissatisfied with the con- ference, and refused to be determined by its con- clusions. Their ministers had been invited by the king, instead of being nominated by themselves, and had argued for the indifi'erence, rather than the sinfulness, of the ceremonies. The points in dispute were barely proposed, and the puritan divines were frequently interrupted and browbeaten. On these grounds the great body of the noncon- formists withheld their concurrence, and the breach between them and the church was in conse- quence widened."* James thus lost the only oppor- tunity which his reign aflforded of healing the religious divisions of the nation. He might have done so without sacrificing the cliurch, or making undue concessions to tender consciences. Had he been but sincere, and his bishops been men of mo- deration and principle, the majority of the puritans might have been won over, and the hierarchy rein- stated in the confidence of the nation. But he was too vain, and weak, and unprincipled, to seize the golden opportunity, and bitter was the retribution c Hist, of the Presby., 373. «' Xeal;, ii. 19. The puritans earnestly pleaded for a new trans- lation of the bible, in consequence of which the present authorized Aersion was made. 8o far from being the illiterate bigfots which part}- 'malice has affirmed, they were in advance of their oppo- nents in the importance which they attached to scriptural eru- dition. 470 THE HISTORY OF xvtn ^'^^^^^ ^ disappointed and an exasperated people visited on his family. JAMES I. Whitgift did not long survive this conference. Death and His dcatli was hastened by anxiety. Though his whSSft." P^i'ty had triumphed at Hampton Court, he was not easy. He dreaded the approaching parliament, in which he was aware that the puritans would make strenuous efforts to introduce their discipline. They had prepared a Directory, to be submitted to the house, which, says Strype, the archbishop " was privy to, and very apprehensive of." He expired on the 29th of February, and is recorded to have said on his death-bed, " And now, O Lord, my soul is lifted up, that I die in a time wherein I had rather give up to God an account of my bishopric, than any longer to exercise it among men." ^ The character of his administration has sufficiently ap- peared in the course of this history. It embodied the worst passions of an intolerant state priest, and stood out in the history of protestant persecution as worthy of especial reprobation. Its early severity was but an earnest of its later atrocities. Com- mencing in extensive deprivations, it proceeded to imprisonment, and ultimately to the infliction of death. It knew no mercy — it exercised no com- passion. It had but one object, and that it pursued without compunction or remorse. The most con- scientious of the queen's subjects were mingled with the vilest of tlieir race. Whatever was noble in character, elevated in sentiment, or pure and ethereal in devotion, was confounded with the baser elements of society, and proscribed and punished as an offence to God and treason against the state. e Strj-pe's Whitgift, ii. 507. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 471 The legal institutions of the kingdom were con- xvm.' verted into means of oppression, and the dark re cesses of its prisons resounded, at once, with the ^^^^^ sighs and the prayers of men of whom the world was not worthy. It is in vain to defend the admi- nistration of Whitgift on the ground of the excesses of the Puritans. Those excesses were provoked by his cruelty. They grew out of his government, the unmitigated rigor of which exasperated the spirits and soured the temper of his opponents. Neither can the archbishop be justified on the plea that he acted on the commands of the queen. His servility was indeed contemptible, but his ecclesi- astical measures had their origin in his own breast. He was the queen's adviser, to whose judgment she deferred, and of whose hearty concurrence in every measure of severity and intolerance she was fulW assured. Several of her counsellors were opposed to his severity, " but, secure of the queen's support, Whitgift relented not a jot of his resolution, and went far greater lengths than Parker had ever ven- tured, or perhaps had desired, to proceed." ^ His administration involved an immense sacrifice of life. It is easy to number the martyrs whom popery led f Const. Hist., i. 271. Cart- wright, the distinguished anta- gonist of Whitgift expired a short time before him. He died Dec. 27, 1603, aged sixt_y-eight years. His pubhshed works were nu- merous, and his confutation of the Rhemist transhiti(m of the New Testament, pubhshed after his death, greatly extended his fame. He had been urged by several parties to undertake this work. Sir Francis Walsingham sent him one hundred pounds towards the purchase of such books as he might require. Se- veral of the doctors and heads of houses at Cambridge united in a letter earnestly calling him to this work, as did also many mi- nisters in London and Suffolk. With these requests he com- plied, and had made some pro- gre«s in the work, when the suspicious Whitgift, jealous of the honor his antagonist might thus obtain, interdicted his pro- ceeding any further. Fuller, ix. 171. Strype's Whitgift, i. 482. Annals, iii. i. 287. 472 THE HISTORY OF xvin' stake; but no other than an omniscient being is competent to reveal the secrets of his dark and JAMES I. loathsome prison-houses. Many of his victims en- tered with a robust fmme and a vigorous spirit ; but the one was wasted by disease, and the other broken down by oppression, till the last enemy released them from the tyrant's grasp, and ushered them into the presence of the King of kings. The pro- testant church of England is deeply steeped in the blood of the saints. The martyrdom it inflicted was less violent and less calculated to shock the public mind, but it was not a jot less cruel or wicked than that which Bonner and Gardiner prac- tised. Soon after the conference at Hampton Court the King's pro- clamation ^St'sIHd l^ing issued two proclamations ; one dated Feb. 22, puritans. 1604, igQ^.^^ commaudiug all seminary priests and Jesuits to leave the kingdom by the 19th of the following month; and the other, bearing date March 5, le- t veiled against the puritans, and having for its object an uniformity of the hook of common prayer to he used throughout the realm. In the latter proclama- tion the veil is completely thrown aside. The king speaks out in his proper character, and annihilates at once all the hopes which the puritan party had entertained. " He could not conceal," says James, referring to the Hampton Court conference, " that the success of that conference was such as happened to many other things, which moving great ex- pectation before they be entered into their issue, produce small effect. For that he found more and vehement informations, supported with so weak and slender proofs, as it appeared unto him and his council, that there was no cause whv anv change PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 473 CHAP should have been at all, in that which was most xviii! impugned, the book of common prayer, containing the form of the public service of God here esta- blished, neither in the doctrine which appeared to be sincere, nor in the forms and rites which were justified out of the practice of the primitive church." After stating that he had consented, with the con- currence of the bishops, to the explanation rather than the change of some trivial things, he warns his subjects against expecting any further conces- sions. " For that neither would he give way to any to presume that his own judgment, having deter- mined in a matter of this weight, should be swayed to alteration by the frivolous suggestions of any light spirit; neither was he ignorant of the in- conveniences that did arise in government by ad- mitting innovation in things once settled by mature deliberation."" The parliament which Whitgift had so nuich dreaded, and to which the puritans now clung as their only hope, met on the 19th of March, 1603- 4. The king opened the session in a long speech, in which his vanity, pedantry, love of power, and hatred of the puritans were sufficiently apparent. To the persons of the Roman Catholics he professed great moderation, and of their church he spoke in terms which must have awakened the apprehensions of all true protestants. After adverting to his pro- testant education, he said, "But I was never violent nor unreasonable in my profession. I acknowledge the Roman church to be our mother church, al- though defiled wdth some infirmities and corrup- tions, as the Jews were when they crucified Christ ; Strype's Whitgift, ii. o2(). 1G04. 474 THE HISTORY OF xviji.' I am none enemy to the life of a sick man, because I would have his body pumed of ill hu- A.3tIES I •/•TO 'mours; no more am I enemy to their church, be- cause I would have them reform their errors, not wishing the downthrowing of the temple, but that it might be purged and cleansed from corruption ; otherwise how can they wish us to enter, if their house be not first made clean?" The temporal supremacy claimed by the catholic clergy for the pope, and the sanction afforded to the assassination of kings, are represented as the only impediments to their toleration. " If," said the king, after re- ferring to these, " they would leave and be ashamed of such new and gross cormptions of theirs, as themselves cannot maintain, nor deny to be worthy of reformation, I would, for mine own part, be con- tent to meet them in the mid-way, so that all no- velties might be renounced on either side ; for, as my faith is the true, ancient, catholic, and apostolic faith, grounded upon the scriptures and express words of God, so will I ever yield all reverence to antiquity in the points of ecclesiastical antiquity; and by that means shall I ever, with God's grace, keep myself from ever being a heretic in faith, or schismatic in matters of policy." The professions of moderation contained in this passage might have entitled the king to the admiration of pos- terit}^ if they had proceeded from a sense of justice or a regard to the rights of conscience ; but the language adopted towards the puritans proves that he was entirely free from these honorable motives. " They do not so far differ from us," said James, " in points of religion as in their confused form of policy and purity; being ever discontented with PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 475 the present government, and impatient to suffer ^vm* any superiority, which maketh their sects insufFer- > able in any well-governed commonwealth." ^ His J^mes i. sympathies were all in favor of the Romish church, between which and that of England he would gladly have promoted a confederation. This led him to solicit the confidence of its members, while he denounced, with all the bitterness of a polemic, the firmest and truest protestants of the land. Little was done in this parliament respecting religion. A law was passed making void all grants and leases of church lands to the king, the marriage of the clergy was legalized, and a statute of Edward VI. was revived, which enacted that all processes, cita- tions, &c., of the ecclesiastical courts should be issued in the king's name, " which," says Heylin, " gave some colour to the puritan faction, for creating trouble to the bishops in their jurisdic- tion." ' In the convocation which sat during this par- liament severe measures were adopted against the puritans. The see of Canterbury being vacant, Bancroft presided, and, on the second of May, he presented to the lower house a book of canons, con- taining one hundred and forty-one articles. These were speedily adopted, and received the sanction of the king ; but, not having been confirmed by par- liament, they are binding on the clergy only.-" h Parliamentary Hist. i. 977— of Middleton and Croft. His J)B8. lordship, in giving- the judgment J Heylin's Hist, of the Presby., of the court over which he pre- 375. ^ sided, remarked; "On the best j The authority of these canons consideration we have been able was for a long time matter of to give it, we are all of opinion dispute, but was finally settled that the canons of lf>0'3, not by Lord Hardwicke, in the case having been confirmed by par- Convocation, 1604. 476 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. -jjj The main object of these canons was the suppression of puritanism; and, if curses could have effected it, JAMES I. destruction was inevitable. The sentence of excommunication was now added to the penalties attaching' to nonconformity. This vras a fearful addition to the sufferings of the puritans, for he who was excommunicated was not only separated from the fellowship of the church, but was rendered incapable of sueing for his lawful debts, was sub- jected to imprisonment until satisfaction was ren- dered to the church, and at death was refused christian burial. This sentence, the most solemn and affecting which the christian church can pro- nounce, aggravated by the temporal penalties with which human legislation vainly sought to augment its power, was threatened against the most trifling violations of ecclesiastical rule. Whoever affirmed that the book of common prayer contained any thing repugnant to scripture, or that the ceremonies of the church are not such as good men may use with a safe conscience ; whoever declared that there are in England other assemblies rightly challenging to themselves the name of churches, or that it is lawful for ministers or laymen to make rules, &:c., in causes ecclesiastical ; whoever questioned the apostolical character of the established church, or refused to subscribe to any of the thirty-nine ar- ticles ; whoever impugned the ordination of bishops, li;iiTient, do not propria rigorc here, which, in thnt respect, and bind the hiity; I i^AV , propria vi- bv virtue of such ancient allow- gore, bv their own force and an- ance, will bind the laity; but that thoritv; for there are many pro- is an obligation antecedent to, visions contained in these canons and not arising from, this body of which are declaratory of the an- canons." — Burn's Eccl. Law, cient usage and law of the church Pref. xxxi. of P^njrland received and wiloNved PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 477 priests, and deacons, or affirmed that the form of xvm! their consecration contained any thing repugnant to God's word; — whoever committed these or a vast ^'^"^^^-^ ^' number of other and similar offences, was to be cast out of the fellowship of the church, and con- signed to the fearful retributions of an eternal world. ^ Such were the tender mercies of pro- testant ecclesiastics at the commencement of the seventeenth century, long after the revival of li- terature, and the proclamation of spiritual freedom by Luther and his associates. Popery may plead the ignorance of the times when its system was shaped, and the character of its policy determined; but the protestant church of England arising in the age of Shakspeare and Bacon successfully emulated the bigotry, intolerance, and cruelty of its predecessor. That the fires of Smitlifield were not more frequently rekindled, is attributable to the state of the public mind, which checked the course of persecution, and imposed some decency on infuriated ecclesiastics. They incarcerated instead of burning their victims. They consigned them to solitude, to penury, and disease, and were rarely diverted from their course till they had bowed the spirit, or broken the heart, of their victim. On the 23rd of May, there was a debate in the convocation about the cross in bap- tism, which gave occasion to the delivery of an admirable speech by the bishop of St. David's, Dr. Rudd, who exposed the futility of the arguments employed by Bancroft and others, and earnestly pleaded for a moderate and conciliatory line of policy. After affirming the antiquity of the cere- mony, and expressing his conviction that all super- ^ Sparrow's Collection, 271—334. Ncal, ii. 20. 478 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, stition was excluded from the church of Eng^land, XVIII. . ^ ' the bishop thus proceeds. " Likewise I wish, that JAMES I. if the king's highness shall persist in imposing of it, all would submit themselves to it (as we do) rather than forego the ministiy in that behalf. But I greatly fear, by the report which I hear, that very many learned preachers, whose consciences are not in our custody, nor to be disposed of at our devo- tion, will not easily be drawn thereunto. Of which number, if any shall come in m}^ walk, I desire to be furnished beforehand, by those that be present, with sufficient reasons to satisfy them (if it be pos- sible) concerning some points which have been presently delivered " Concerning these preachers last mentioned, I suppose that if, upon the urging them to absolute subscription and use of the ceremonies and attire prescribed, they should stand out stiff, and choose rather to forego their livings and the exercise of their ministry, though I do not justify their doings therein, yet surely their service would be missed at such time as need shall require us and them to give the right hand of fellowship one to the other, and to go arm in arm against the common adversary, that so may be vis unita fortior. In which case of want of their joint labors with ours, there might arise cause of some such doleful complaint as fell out upon an accident of another nature in the Book of Judges, w^here it is said. For the divisions of Reuben were great thoughts of heart. " Likewise consider who must be the executioners of their deprivation, even we ourselves, the bishops, against whom there will be a great clamour of them and their dependents, and many others who are well PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 479 affected towards them ; whereby our persons shall ^"^jj* be in hazard to be brought into great dislike, if not into extreme hatred ; whereof what inconveniencies JAInies i. may ensue, I leave to your wisdoms to be considered of. " Also remember that when the Benjamites (though for their just deserts in maintaining a bad cause) were all destroyed, saving 800 (or rather 600), and the men of Israel sware in their fury that none of them would give his daughter to the Ben- jamites to wife, that when their hot blood w^as cool, they lamented and said. There is one tribe cut off from Israel this day ; and they used all their wits, to the uttermost of their policy, to restore that tribe again. " In like sort, if these our brethren aforesaid shall be deprived of their places for the matter pre- mised, I think we shall find cause to lend our wits to the uttermost extent of our skill, to provide some cure of souls for them where they may exercise their talents. " Furthermore, if these men, being divers hun- dreds (as it is bruited abroad), should forsake their charges (as some do presuppose they will), who, I pray you, should succeed them ? Verily, I know not where to find so many able preachers in this realm unprovided for. But be it, that so many may be found to supply their empty rooms, yet they might more conveniently be settled in the seats of unpreaching ministers, and so the number of preachers should be much increased. But if they shall be put in the places of these men, being dis- possessed, thereupon would follow: First. That the number of preaching incumbents should not be 480 THE HISTORY OF xviii' ^^^Itiplied by this supply. And Secondly. The church could not in likelihood be so well and fitly JAMKS I. furnished on a sudden ; for that though haply the new supply should be of men as learned as the former, yet it is not probable that they should be at their first coming from the university, as in a good while after, so ready preachers, so experienced in pastoral government, so well acquainted with the manners and usage of the people, and so discreet ever}^ way of their carriage of themselves, as the others, who have spent already many years abroad in their ministerial charge. " Beside this, forasmuch as in the time of the late archbishop of Canterbury, these things were not so extremely urged, but that many learned preachers enjoyed their liberty herein, conditionally, that they did not, by word or deed, openly disgrace or dis- trust the estate established, I would know a reason why it should now be so generally and exceeding straitly called upon ; especially seeing that those means are now more necessary, by so much as we see greater increase of papists to be now of late, than was before ? To conclude : I wish, that if by petition made to the king's majesty, there cannot be obtained a quiet remove of the premises which seem too grievous to divers, nor yet a toleration for them which be of the more staid and temperate carriage ; yet at the least there might be procured a mitiga- tion of the penalty, if they cannot be drawn by our reasons to a conformity with us." ' * Pierce's Vindication, 158 — omitted. They are unimportant 163. Dr. Grey endeavours to to the bisliop's reasoning-, and convict Neal of g-arblinr^ tliis were evidently omitted by Xeal speech, for whicli purpose he has for (lie sake of brevity. — Ejcami- printed in brackets such words and ntition of Xeal' a Second Vo/iam, clauses as the latter writer had 30 — 3G. CHAPTER XIX. Elevation of Bancroft — Unconstitutional Decision of the Judges- Severity of Bancroft's Proceedings — Chamherlaine' s Account — Sir Dudley Carleton's — jVumber of Puritans suspended or deprived — The Archbishop compelled to moderate his Severitg — His Directions to the Biahops—Brownist Church at Amsterdam— Petition to the King— Baptismal Controversy at Amsterdam — Dispute respecting Discipline. About nine months after the decease of Whitgift, ^^ix^ Bancroft was translated from London to the see of Canterbury. He was a man of rough temper J^-^^^^^ and of a despotic disposition, whose mind had been ^J^^J^^^"^" soured by controversy; and who pandered to the evil passions of a feeble and unprincipled king. The reasons of his elevation are tlius stated by sir John Harrington. " His majesty had long since imderstandino- of his writino; against the Ge/ievisi/isr and Scottising ministers ; and though some ima- gined he had therein given the king some dis- taste, yet finding him, in the disputations at Hamp- ton Court, both learned and stout, he did more and more increase his liking to him. So that although in the common rumour, Thob}^ Matthew, tlien bishop of London, was likeliest to have carried it ; so learned a man, and so assiduous a preaclier, qui VOL. [. 2 I 482 THE HISTORY OF ^xix " conciojiibm domniatur, as his emulous aud enemy wrote of him ; yet his majest}% in his learning JA]MEb I. tnow-ing, and in his wisdom weighing, that this same strict charge {pasce oves meos), feed m}- sheep, requires as well a pastoral courage of driving in the stra}' sheep, and driving out the infectious, as of feeding the sound ; made special choice of the bishop of London, as a man more exercised in affairs of the state. I will add also mine own con- jecture out of some of his majesty's own speeches, that in respect he was a single man, he supposed liim the fitter, according to queen Elizabeth's prin- ciples of state ; upon whose wise foundations, his majesty doth daily erect more glorious buildings.'"" 2|2r^I Bancroft entered on the duties of his high station with a firm resolution to fulfil the expectations of his prince. The severity of W hitgift haWng failed, he determined on more sweeping and exterminating measures, in which he was thoroughly supported by the kino^. In order to afford him the utmost coun- tenance, the twelve judges were summoned into the star chamber, and required to give their judgment on the follo>ving questions. 1. Whether the deprivation of puritan ministers by the high commissioners, for refusing to conform to the ceremonies appointed by the late canons, was lawful ? 2. Whether a prohibition be gi'an table against the commissioners upon the statute of 2 Henry V., if they do not deliver the copy of the libel to the party ? 3. Whether it be an offence punishable, and what punishment they deserved, who framed peti- *" Sugae Antiquae, ii. 25. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 483 tions, and collected a multitude of hands thereto, to prefer to the king in a public cause, as the puri- tans had done ; with an intimation that if he denied J^^^^es i. their suit, many thousands of his subjects would be discontented ? The judges, as was customary at this period of English history, decided in conformity with the known wishes of the court. The substance of their reply was, "that the king, without parliament, might make orders and constitutions for the govern- ment of the clergy, and might deprive them if they obeyed not; and so the commissioners might deprive them ; but that the commissioners could not make any new constitutions without the king ; and that to frame petitions and to collect a multitude of hands thereto, &c., was an offence fineable at dis- cretion, and very near to treason and felony in the punishment, for it tended to the raising sedition, rebellion, and discontent among the people." ° Encouraged by the decision of the judges. Ban- l^ncr^ft^ croft proceeded with unexampled severity to suspend p'^o'-^edings. and deprive the non-conforming clergy. He en- forced a fresh subscription to Whitgift's three articles, which was now more objectionable to the puritans than formerly, as the 36th canon, lately passed in convocation, required it to be done willingly and ex animo° A strict conformity to the •» Neal, ii. 36. Vaughan's Stu- things contained in the same; so art Dynasty, i. 139. that now there was no room left • Sparrow, 287. Collier, ii. 687. for scr\iples and different per- The latter writer says, " Some suasions. And thus some minis- who had formerly subscribed in a ters of consideration lost their loose reserved sense, were now livings to preserve their con- called upon to sign their con- science : I say to preserve their formity in more close unevasive conscience ; for it is a hard matter terms. For now the 36th canon to bring every bod3^'s understand- obliged them to declare that they ing to the common standard, and did willinyly and ex animo sub- make all honest men of the same scribe the three articles, and all mind/' 9 I O 484 THE HISTORY OF Chamber- laine'3 ii' couDt of the treatment ^xfx^' ^'^b^ic and canons was also enjoined, and no latitude was allowed to tender and scrupulous consciences. JA3IES I. 'pj^g rulers of the church were not to be satisfied with the most exact and precise obedience. They aimed at a tyranny more complete than that which Rome had achieved ; and recklessly punished, to the full extent of their power, all who had sufficient courage or principle to resist their usurpations. The persecution that followed was, consequently, more severe than any which the puritans and Brownists had yet experienced. The former were silenced, and the latter were driven from the kingdom. Mr. John Chamberlaine, a courtier of the time, of gives the following account of their treatment, in a the puritans, j^^^^^ ^^^^^ ^eh. 26, 1605. "Our puritans go down on all sides ; and though our new bishop of London proceeds but slowly, yet, at last, he hath ^ deprived, silenced, or suspended all that continue disobedient ; in which course he hath won himself great commendations of gravity, wisdom, learning, mildness, and temperance, even among that faction, and, indeed, is held every way the most sufficient man of that coat ; yet those that are deprived wrangle and will not be put down, but appeal to the parliament, and seek prohibitions b}^ law ; but the judges have all given their opinions that the proceedings against them are lawful, and so they cannot be relieved that way. Then they take another course — to ply the king with petitions, the ring- leaders whereof were sir Richard and sir Valentine Knightly, sir Edward Montague, with some three or four score of gentlemen more, that joined in a petition for the ministers of Northamptonshire last week, which was so ill taken, that divers of them Sir Dudley Carleton's account. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 485 were convented before the council, and told what ^^ix^* danger they had put themselves in by these associa tions ; and that thus combining themselves in a ^^^^^^ ^• cause against which the king had shown his mis- like, both by public act and proclamation, was little else than treason ; that the subscribing with so many names were armatse preces, and tended to sedition, as had been manifestly seen heretofore both in Scotland, France, and Flanders, in the beginning of those troubles."^' Sir Dudley Carleton, another courtier of that period, gives a similar account of their treatment, under date of Feb. 20, 1605. " The poor puritan ministers," he says, " have been ferreted out in all corners, and some of them suspended, others deprived of their livings. Certain lecturers are silenced, and a crew of gentlemen of Northampton- shire (who put up a petition to the king in their behalf), told roundly of their boldness, both at the council table and star chamber. And sir Francis Hastings, for drawing the petition, and standing to it when he had done, is put from his lieutenancy and justiceship of the peace in his shire. Sir Edward Montague and sir Valentine Knightly, for refusing to subscribe to a submission, have the like sentence. The rest, upon acknowledgment of a fault, have no more said to them.'"^ I' Winwood's Memorials^ ii. 49. petition in favor of their ministers ; 1 Winwood, ii. 48. It was now a copy thereof I shall be able to esteemed almost treasonable to send you by the next. The king petition the king- on behalf of the took in ill part this disorderlj' pro- puritan ministers. Mr. John ]More, ceeding, eommanded them pre- in a letter to secretary Winwood, sently to depart, and to depute dated Dec. 2, 1G04, tells him, ten of the wisest among them to " The puritans about Royston, to declare their grievances ; which the number of about seven or ten were sent to the council, who, eight and twenty, presented to the after examination, gave them king, as he was hunting there, a their mittimus. Upon Jheir bail 486 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XIX. It is difficult to ascertain the precise number of ministers who were silenced or deprived during this JAMES I. persecution. Calderwood states them at three hun- dred, but Heylin affirms that they did not exceed forty-nine/ Heylin's testimony, however, is worth- less, when unsupported, as in the present case; while Calderwood's statement is rendered probable by the notoriously puritan bias of a large portion of the clergy, and by the avowed intentions of Bancroft on attaining the primacy. His administration is represented by Heylin as having effected an entire Number of puritans de- prived and suspended. they are bound to be ready to answer the matter before the lords, when they shall be sunimoned." —Ibid., 36. ' Altare Damascenum, preface. Hist, of the Presby., 876. Calder- wood's statement is somewhat confirmed by the fact that James read the volume which contain- ed it, when being " somewhat pensive, and being asked the reason, by an English prelate, standing by and observing it, he told him he had seen such a book ; upon which the prelate, not willing his majesty should allow such an affair to trouble him, said they would answer it ; he replied, not without some passion, What will you answer, man ? There is no- thing here than scripture, reason, and fathers." " Had the exiled historian made the number of his suffering brethren to be six times more than it really was, would the king,'' professor Vaughan justly asks, '^have judged any attempt towards answering him to have been so useless? "--Stuart Dynasty, i. 145. Calderwood's testimony is also supported by the author of A Short Dialogue, proving that the ceremonies, S^c, are defended by none other arguments than such as the papists have heretofore used, published in 160.5. "Although there hath been," says the writer, " a great deal of cunning used by the bishops to blind the eyes of higher authority, and to stop the clamors of the people ; purposely passing by and winking at diverse whose judgement and practice they know well enough ; referring some others to another time, and discharging diverse upon special suit and favor ; yet the names of those that have been already re- moved, restrained, or refused to be admitted, together with those that stand under the censure of admonition (and therefore may be removed or restrained when the bishops will), their names, I say, being taken the 1st of Novem- ber, 1605, amounted to two hun- dred and seventy and upward. (And yet there were eight bishop- rics whereof it could not yet be learned what had been done in them.) Besides sundry who in the desire they had to preach the word, and to provide for their families, having j-ieldcd contrary to their consciences, fell into such heaviness upon it, that after they had pined away in sorrow for a time, they died of it. And besides a ver}' great number, who having yielded, or promised to yield, unto conformity, will never be brought unto subscription, what- soever it cost them." — p. 58. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 487 alteration in the appearance of ecclesiastical affairs; a result which could scarcely have been accom plished without extensive deprivations.' JAMes i. But the archbishop was compelled to stop short Bancroft ^ ... compelled to of his design by the extent of the opposition which moderate his he encountered. Like his predecessors, he had expected to alarm the puritan clergy into submis- sion ; but he found their number to be greater, and their resolution more fixed, than he had anticipated. The servile creature of a monarch's will, he Avas in- competent to estimate the force of moral principle in his opponents. " You have heard," writes Mr. Chamberlaine to secretary Winwood, January 26, 1605, "of the putting off of the parliament till October, the reason whereof I cannot understand nor reach unto, unless it be that they would have all the privy seals paid in, and that they would have those matters of the church thoroughly settled ; wherein it is hard to say what course were best to take ; for that more show themselves opposite than was suspected, and the bishops themselves are loath to proceed too rigorously in casting out and depriv- ing so many well-reputed of for life and learning, only the king is constant to have all come to con- formity."" This state of thine-s compelled Bancroft to address Hisdirections ^ to the bishop.?, Dec. 18, 1604. ' " Hereupon," he says, follow- of later times. Copes broiio-ht ed a oTeat alteration in the face again into the service of the of religion ; more churches beauti- church ; the surplice generally fied and repaired in this short time worn witliout doubt or hesitancy ; of his government, than had been and all thinos in a manner are in many years before. The liturgy reduced to the same estate in more solemnly officiated by the whicli they had been first settled priests, and more religiously under queen Elizabeth." — Hist, attended by the common people ; of Presby., 376. the fasts and festivals more ^* Winwood, ii. 46. punctually observed by both than 488 THE HISTORY OF Tix^' a letter to the bishops, dated December 18, 1604, in which he gives the following directions. "As to JAMES I. such ministers as are not already placed in the church, the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh canons are to be observed ; and none are to be admitted to execute any ecclesiastical function without subscrip- tion. Such as are already placed in the church are of two sorts': 1. Some promise conformity, but are unwilling to subscribe again. Of these, forasmuch as the near affinity between conformity and sub- scription gives apparent hopes that, being men of sincerity, they will in a short time frame themselves to a more constant course, and subscribe to that again which by their practice they testify not to be repugnant to the word of God ; your lordship may (an act remaining upon record of such their offer and promise) respite their subscription for some short time. Others in their obstinacy will yield neither to subscription nor promise of conformity, these are either stipendiary curates, or stipendiary lecturers, or men beneficed ; the two first are to be silenced, and the third deprived."" fhurdl'at While these events were occurring in England, Amsterdam, ggvcral of th^ purltaus, and many more of the " Neal's Puritans, ii. SB. " You hand would ; this second course know/' says the author of A was taken that men should be Slioi't Diahgue, &c., "that, at the pressed (for the time^ but to con- first, subscription was hotly urged, formity, and since (it beino- dis- and that not by other bishops only, ccrnecl that the number of refusers but even by the now archbishop would still be great), they have of Canterbury, at such time, as fallen yet lower, accepting of conventing all the ministers of some the use of the cross and London before him, he took his surplice only ; of others the use leave, being to go to the see of of the surplice alone ; of others a Canterbury. But when it was promise to use them only ; and of discovered that a far greater num- some the profession of their judg- ber would refuse than was sup- nient only, that they may be used posed, and than his majesty and without jpressing them to the use the lords perhaps were borne in of them at all." — p. .3. PROTESTANT NONCONI^'ORMITY. 489 Brownists, sought refuge from persecution in Hoi- ^^ix' land. The former became pastors of the English churches formed after the presbyterian model in the J^^^^^ ^• low countries, and chaplains to the English regi- ments occupying the cautionary towns ; but the latter were treated with neglect, and experienced great unkindness from the Dutch clergy, who refused them an opportunity of refuting the slan- derous reports which were propagated respecting them. Though they had themselves but recently emerged from a state of extreme suffering and peril, they refused their sympathy to the English exiles, and even endeavoured to prepossess the magistracy against them. " They seem evidently to have con- sidered them in the same light in which serious and consistent dissenters from the religious profession of the majority will ever be viewed,— as a set of discon- tented, factious, and conceited men, with whom it would be safest for them to have no connexion."^ 2 Mr. Francis Johnson, having been sentenced to perpetual banishment, retired to Amsterdam, where he became the pastor of a church of Brownists; the learned Mr. Henry Ainsworth being doctor or teacher. The principle on which this society was founded was thoroughly protestant. It recognized the exclusive authority of Christ, and the freedom of the church from all other subjection than that which was due to his laws. " The church," says their second petition to king James, " ought not to be governed by popish canons, courts, classes, cus- toms, or any human inventions, but by the laws and rules which Christ hath appointed in his testament."^ y Life of Ainsworth, prefixed * An Apologie or Defence, o~. to liis two treatises, p. 17. — Edin. 490 THE HISTORY OF ^xix^' Unhappily, however, the materials composing this society were discordant, and a scene of contention ja:\ies I. ^j^^ unhallowed strife consequently ensued, of which the enemies of the Brownists did not fail to take advantage. Their views were not yet settled. Agreeing in certain general principles, they differed on several minor points, which were gradually elicited in the course of their ecclesiastical adminis- tration. A strong antipathy to the church of Eng- land held them together so long as they were in the presence of the common foe ; but when the fear of the high commission court and of the star chamber was removed, they began to fall out amongst them- selves. This was nothing more than might have been expected. A similar evil had been experienced in the early history of most of the protestant com- munities of Europe; and is uniformly witnessed in the transition of a people from servitude to freedom, — from subjection to illegal authority, whether political or ecclesiastical, to the vigorous exercise of independent thought. The contentions which en- sued amongst the Brownists at Amsterdam tended, however, to prejudice their cause in general estima- tion, and was triumphantly referred to by their enemies as a full refutation of their claim to a stricter adherence than was observed by others to the primitive constitution of the church.* * Ainsworth refers to this in evil ? So perhaps a Turk or Jew his Counter-poyson, in answer to would do, with as much reason a charge of ''great and gross dis- as you can conclude that our order and partiality in adminis- separation from you is evil. Was tering of discipline, ' preferred by there ever any truth (think you) an opponent on the authority of that men did walk in it as they George Johnson. "Grant/' he ought? Or any church in the says, " that this were all true world, wherein the disciphne (as which he reporteth, what would you call it) was administered as you urge upon it? That there- it ought? Juhan the apostate, fore Christianity that we profess is that wrote so much against Christ, PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 491 The first occasion for dissension was the marriage Sfj^^' of the pastor, Mr. Francis Johnson, in 1594, to a widow of some fortune.^ His father and his brother J^^ies i. George, both members of the church, objected to » this marriage, alleging that the party in question was addicted to luxurious living and to finery in dress, and was consequently an unsuitable wife for their pastor in a season of persecution. Francis, however, persisted in his intention; and a dispute hence arose, which continued, with increasing irrita- tion and warmth of temper, till 1598, when George Johnson, his father, and some members who adhered to him, were expelled. It is difficult to ascertain the precise moral position of the conflicting parties on this occasion. The excommunication of a father and brother wears a harsh arid repulsive aspect, but tliere were probably circumstances to justify the step.'' The fact that their expulsion was sanctioned reading the testimonies of Moses, Neal confounds this unhappy the prophets, and apostles, had as debate with another that followed, good ground to blame the Israel- but was altogether distinct from ites and Christians for their man- it. In the former, Francis John- ners and discipline, and con- son was supported by Ainsworth, sequently to dissuade them from but in the latter he was opposed their faith, as you do us; yea, we by him. — Life of Ainsworth, p. 80. might allege faithful and undeni- Ainsworth sa3S that George able witnesses, whereas you rely Johnson was cast out of the upon a slanderer. Finally, what church "for lying and slandering, aim you at in all this, but to draw ftilse accusation, and contention." us back unto your church ; and — Counter-poyson, p. 50. Robin- there it is like we shall find dis- son's account is as follows, " True cipline without disorder or par- it is that George Johnson, together tialitu ; to wit, in your bishops' with his father taking his part, courts, for there the discipline of was excommunicated by the your courts is to be seen. Of church for contention arising at which we need say nothing ; the first, upon no great occasion ; voice almost of all the land crieth whereupon many bitter and re- out of their abominations. Only proachful terms were uttered both we observe how pregnant your in word and writing, George be- observations are to make us be- coming a disgraceful libeller." — lieve that because there are sins in Life of Ainsworth, p. 30. Zion, there be none in Babylon." —p. 50. 492 THE HISTORY OF ^xix"' ^^^^^ ^^^^^ Ainswortli and Robinson, must strongly incline an impartial judgment to this JAMES I. conviction. It is probable that both parties became heated in the course of the discussion, and ultimately acted under the impulse of irritated feeling rather than of a pure zeal for the honor of the Christian profession. tingT^i". On the accession of James, the Brownist church at Amsterdam, in connexion with some of their brethren in England, presented successively three petitions to him, the second of which is particularly interesting as containing a statement of the points wherein they differed from the church of England. " To the end,*' they say, " that your majesty might have the very points of difference between them and us noted down apart by themselves, we thought it good and behoveful to reduce them to these few and particular heads ensuing ; wherein we take the difference between us to consist." The following are the principal of these points. " 1. That Christ the Lord hath by his last testa- ment given to his church, and set therein, sufficient ordinary offices, with the manner of calling or entrance, works and maintenance, for the adminis- tration of his holy things, and for the sufficient ordinary instruction, guidance, and service of his church, to the end of the world. " 2. That every particular church hath like and full interest and power to enjoy and practise all tlie ordinances of Christ given by him to his church, to be observed therein perpetually. " 3. That every true visible church is a company of people called and separated from the world by the word of God, and joined together by voluntary PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 493 profession of the faith of Christ, in the fellowship of the gospel - "4. That discreet, faithful, and able men^^ (though not yet in office of ministry) may be appointed to preach the gospel and whole truth of God; that men, being first brought to knowledge, and converted to the Lord, may be there joined to- gether in holy communion with Christ our head, and one with another. " 5. That being thus joined, every church hath power in Christ, to choose and take unto themselves meet and sufficient persons into the offices and func- tions of pastors, teachers, elders, deacons, and help- ers, as those which Christ hath appointed in his testament, for the feeding, governing, serving, and building up of his church " 6. That the ministers aforesaid, being lawfully called by the church where they are to minister, ought to continue in their functions according to God's ordinance, and carefully to feed the flock of Christ committed unto them ; being not enjoined or suffered to bear civil offices withal, neither bur- dened with the execution of civil affairs, as the cele- bration of marriage, burying the dead, &c.; which things belong to those as well without as within the church. "7. That the due maintenance of the officers afore- said should be of the free and voluntary contribu- tion of the church; that, according to Christ's ordi- nance, they which preach the gospel may live of the gospel, and not by popish lordships and livings, or jewish tithes and offerings. And that therefore the lands and other like revenues of the prelates and clergy yet remaining (being still also baits to allure 494 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. XIX. JAMES the Jesuits and seminaries into the land, and in- -citements unto them to plot and prosecute their ^•wonted evil courses, in hope to enjoy them in time to come), may now by your highness be taken away and converted to better use, as those of the abbeys and nunneries have been heretofore by your majes- ties worthy predecessors, to the honor of God, and great good of the realm. " 8. That all particular churches ought to be so constituted, as, having their own peculiar officers, the whole body of every church may meet together in one place, and jointly perform their duties to God, and one towards another. And that the cen- sures of admonition and excommunication be in due manner executed for sin convicted and obsti- nately stood in. This power also to be in the body of the church whereof the parties so offending and persisting are members. " 9. That the church be not governed by popish canons, courts, classes, customs, or any human in- ventions, but by the laws and rules which Christ hath appointed in his testament. That no apocry- phal wTitings, but only the canonical scriptures, be used in the church. And that the Lord be wor- shipped and called upon in spirit and in truth, according to that form of prayer given by the Lord Jesus, Matt, vi., and after the liturgy of his own testament, not by any other framed or imposed by men, much less by one translated from the popish liturgy as the book of common prayer." Rise of the ShoTtlv aftcr the presentation of these petitions baptismal p i l i • • controversy thc pcacc of thc church was ao;ain disturbed by a at Amster- ^ . • p i • i controversy respectmg some pomts of doctrme, and An Apologie or Defence, p. 36. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 495 the mode and subjects of christian baptism. Mr. John Smith was the leader of the dissenting party on this occasion. He had suffered severely in JAMes i. England as a puritan ; and having, in the course of his inquiries, seen reason to embrace the principles of the Brownists, he repaired to Amsterdam, where he settled in 1606. His theological sentiments, which were very similar to those espoused by Arminius, became the occasion of unhappy collision with his brethren.* But his views on the subject of baptism were still more obnoxious, and awakened an angry and fierce controversy, in which the sa- credness of character and the charity of the gospel were alike disregarded. His sentiments on this latter point were substantially the same as those now held by the English baptists; and the mode in which he arrived at them was as follows: Smith did not hastily determine on a separation from the church of England. He was a patient investigator of the divine word, and cautiously felt out his way from the errors in which he had been educated.^ His « Mr. Smith's enemies charg-ed him with various singular notions ; as, that it was unlawful to read the scriptures in public worship ; that no translation of the bible was the word of God ; that sing- ing- the praises of God was un- lawful, &c. The quarter whence these charges emanate involves them in suspicion. "We dis- claim," says Smith, "the errors commonly, but most slanderously, imputed to us. We are indeed traduced by the world as atheists by denying the old testament and the Lord's day; as traitors to magistrates in denying magis- tracy; and as heretics in den3dng flie humanity of Christ, &c."-^ T/.'c Character of the Beast, or the False Constitution^ of the Church Discovered. Ep. to the Reader, 5. Ed. 1G09. Mr. Smith's successive changes of opinion have subjected him to the charge of having an "un- settled head." His accusers have forgotten the progressive nature of the changes he underwent. " For a man," he himself remarks, " if a Turk to become a Jew, if a Jew to become a papist, if a papist to become a protestant, are all commendable changes, though they all of them befall one and the same person in one year, nay, if it were in one month ; so that not to change religion is evil simply; and therefore^ that we should fall from the profession of 496 THE HISTORY OF ^xix^' ^^^^^^ close and protracted inquiry made hint sensible of the difficulties attaching to the system JAMES I. embraced, and enabled him to detect some inconsistencies in the practice of its disciples. The Brownists, whom he joined, denied the church of Enofland to be a true church, and the ordination of its ministers to be valid. They were consequently in the habit of re-ordaining such of the clergy as joined them, yet never questioned the validity of the baptism which had been administered within her pale. This occurred to the inquiring mind of Smith as an inconsistency, and led him to a further investigation of the subject, which resulted in a rejection of infant baptism, and a firm conviction that immersion was the only scriptural mode of its administration. Having arrived at this conclusion, he did not hesitate to avow it, and the consequence was his expulsion from the Brownist church. An angry controversv ensued, in which both parties impugned the motives and slandered the character of their opponents. Whether there was any thing censurable in Mr. Smith's mode of announcing his change of sentiment to his brethren, does not ap- pear; but their conduct in separating him from their communion cannot be justified without an ad- mission of the principle on which religious perse- cution is based. The right which it assumed involved, though in a more subtle form, the same spirit as had reigned in the councils of Whitgift and Bancroft. It was a narrow and exclusive » spirit, the prevalence of which has unhappily de- puritanism to Brownism, and from proved that we have fallen from Brownism to true christian bap- true rcliofion." — The Character of tism. is not simply evil or re- the Beast. En. to Reader, 1 . provable in itself, 'except it be PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 497 stroyed the genuine character of the churches of Christ, and rendered them the rallying points of faction — the nurseries of sectarianism and illibe- J^^^ES i. rality. Differences of opinion on minor points of christian belief and conduct are perfectly consist- ent with the fellowship of the saints, and will be found, when a catholic constitution is gene- rally adopted by christian societies, greatly to contribute to their moral influence. The ge- nuine nature of their association will then shine forth, and be seen of all. Ten thousand suspicions, with which they are now regarded, will be aban- doned, and the integrity of their profession and the benevolence of their design will be universally admitted.^ While the church at Amsterdam, in excluding Mr. Smith and his associates, arrogated a power with which no christian society is invested, Mr, e Much has been said about Mr. Smith havino^ baptized liim- self. Ainsworth, Jessop, and some others of his opponents charge him with having: done so, and make use of the alleged fact to awaken the ridicule of their readers, or to invalidate his admi- nistration of the ordinance. I confess that the matter does not appear to me to be of so much importance as some baptist au- thors deem it ; nor do 1 think it so easy to determine the truth or falsity of the statement as the writers on both sides conclude it to be. The mere fact that such a statement was made by the contemporaries of Smith, and that no direct denial of it has come down to us, gives it some appear- ance of truth. But, on the other Imnd, it must be remembered that the parties making the statement were angry controversialists, who VOL. I. 2 spared no invective or abuse, but seemed to think every epithet appropriate, and every assertion lawful, by which they could in- jure the reputation, or render ri- diculous the proceedings of their opponent. Mr. Smith's defences of himself are not now known. His enemies adduce long quota- tions from his writings, but no one of them admits the fact with which he was charged, or attempts to justify it. He doubtless must have referred to it, and had he, in doing so, made the slightest admission, they would readily have retailed his language. It is a further con- firmation of this view of the case tliat contemporaneous writers, re- ferring to the baptismal contro- versy amongst the Brownists, and that with no friendly design, make no reference to such a fact. See Crosby's Baptists, i. 95. Ivi- mey's Baptists, i. 118. K 498 THE HISTORY OF ^xilf * Smith himself referred to his brethren in a spirit and with language foreign from the temper of JAMES I. Christianity. In the violence of his opposition he adopted against the Brownists a course of reasoning precisely similar to that which they were accus- tomed to use against the church of England, and borrowed from their vocabulary the most offensive terms which they were in the habit of applying to the hierarchy. " Be it known, therefore," says Mr. Smith, " to all the separation, that we account them, in respect of their constitution, to be as very a harlot as either her mother England or her grandmother Rome is, out of whose loins she came ; and altliough once in our ignorance we have acknowledged her a true church, yet now, being better informed, we revoke that our erroneous judgment, and protest against her, as well for her false constitution as for her false ministry, worship, and government. The true constitution of the church is of a new creature baptized into the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; the false constitution is of infants baptized. We profess, therefore, that all those churches that baptize in- fants are of the same false constitution ; and all those churches that baptize the new creature, those that are made disciples by teaching men, confessing their faith and their sins, are of one true consti- tution ; and therefore the church of the separation, being of the same constitution with England and Rome, is a most unnatural daughter to her mother England and her grandmother Rome, who, being of the self-same genealogy and generation (that of the prophet being true of her, "as is the mother so is the daughter"), she dare, notwithstanding, most PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 499 impudently wipe her own mouth, and call her mother and grandmother adulteresses. Herein, ' therefore, we do acknowledge our error, that we, ^^^^^^ ^• retaining the baptism of England which gave us our constitution, did call our mother England a harlot, and, upon a false ground, made our separa- tion from her ; for although it be necessary that we separate from England, yet no man can separate from England as from a false church, except he also do separate from the baptism of England, which giveth England her constitution ; and who- soever doth retain the baptism of England doth withal retain the constitution of England, and cannot without sin call England a harlot, as we have done; and this we desire mav be well minded of all that separate from England ; for, if they re- tain the baptism of England, viz. the baptism of infants as true baptism, they cannot separate from England as from a false church, though they may separate from corruption ; and whosoever doth se- parate from England as from a false church, must needs separate from the baptism of England as from false baptism. For the baptism of England cannot be true, and to be retained, and the church of England false, and to be rejected ; neither can the church of England possibly be false, except the baptism be false, unless a true constitution could be in a false church. Therefore the separation must either go back to England, or go forward to true baptism. And all that shall in time to come se- parate from England must separate from the baptism of England ; and if they will not separate from the baptism of England, there is no reason 2 K 2 500 THE HISTORY OF ^xi^.' ^^^y *^^y should separate from England as from a false church." ^ JAMES I. Smith's followers, who were numerous, formed themselves into a church in Amsterdam, of which he became the pastor. He died about the year 1610, having given rise to a controversy that was productive of numerous publications, in which the strength of the contending par- ties w^as put forth with all the ardour and pas- sionate zeal of which human nature is capable. His principal antagonists were Johnson, Robinson, Clifton, and Ainsworth, who brought to the dis- cussion every advantage which profound erudition and extensive biblical researches could furnish. His sentiments, however, rapidly spread, and w^ere shortly afterwards conveyed by some of his disciples into England.* Sng Z- '^^^^ church at Amsterdam was subjected to cipiine. another division, in which Mr. Francis Johnson, the pastor, and Mr. Ainsworth, the teacher, were The Character of the Beast, or the False Constitution of the Church Discovered, &c., Epistle to the Reader, i. 3. Bishop Hall, in his treatise ag-ainst the Brown- ists, adopts the reasonings of Smith in this passage. " There is no remed}'," he says; "either you must go forward to anabaptism, or come back to us ; all your rabbins cannot answer that charge of your re-baptized brother. If we be a true church, you must return ; if we be not (as a false church is no church of God), you must re-bap- tize. If our baptism be good, then is our constitution good ; thus your own principles teach. The outward part of the true visible church is a vow, promise, oath, or covenant betwixt God and the saints. Now I ask, is this made by us in baptism or no ? if it be, then we have, by your confession (for so much as is outwardly re- quired), a true visible church; so your separation is unjust. If it be not, then you must re-baptize; for the first baptism is a nullity ; and (if ours be not) you were never thereby as yet entered into any visible church." — A Common Apologie of the Church of England against the Unjust Challenges of theover-justsect, commonly called Brownists, p. 31. * The rapid prevalence of Mr. Smith's views is acknowledged by contemporaneous authority. Crosby's Hist, of the Baptists, i. 04. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 501 opposed to each other. It originated in some question of discipline, which elicited a difference of opinion between these estimable men, and led to J^^^es i. their separation.^ Johnson is reported to have placed the government of the church in the elder- ship, and Ainsworth in the whole body of members. The former opinion generally prevailed among the puritans, while the latter was maintained by the Brownists with increasing distinctness, and marks their approach to the modern independents.*" Mr. i Ainsworth published an ac- count of this dispute, entitled, An Animadversion to Mr. Ri- chard Clifton's Advertisement, who, under pretence of answering Mr. Chr. Lnnne's hook, hath pub- lished another man's private let- ter, with Mr. Francis Johnson's Answer- thereto, which letter is here justified : the Answer thereto refuted; and the true causes of the lamentable breach that hath lately fallen out in the English exiled church at Amsterdam mani- fested. 1613. ^ It was customary with the opponents of the Brownists to re- present them as deroo-ating from tlie scriptural authority of the pastoral office. The charoe, how- ever, is disproved by the whole tcnorof their writings. Ainsworth, in his treatise on The Communion of Saints, after stating the obliga- tion laid on the whole church to maintain the laws of Christ, speaks thus of the province of the mi- nister : " But chiefly this pertain- eth to the ministers and watch- men of the church, who, having the word of reconcihation com- mitted unto them, and overseeing the manners of all the flock, must preach that word, be instant in season and out of season, reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all long- suffering and doctrine; they must hear the word at God's mouth, and give the people warning from him, admonishing them of their wicked ways, else they shall die in their sins, and their blood shall be re- quired at those watchmen's hands. They must teach the people the diff'erence between the holy and profane, and cause them todiscern between the unclean and the clean. These have the keys of the kingdom of heaven in more spe- cial manner given unto them, for the binding and loosing of sins by the public ministry of the word. They are to guide and go before the people, as in other affairs, so in administering the censures of the church. By such God of old did pluck up and root out, destroy and throw down, and again build up and plant ; by such he cut down sinners in Israel, and slew them by the word of his mouth. Unto such the people are to hearken onlv, and submit them- selves."—p. 233. Edinb. 1780. Mr. Robinson, pastor of the English church at Leyden, is equally explicit in maintaining the scriptural supremacy of the pas- tor. " The papists," he says, " plant the ruling power of Christ in the pope, the protestants in the bishops, the puritans in the pres- bytery ; we put it in the bod}- of the congregation, of the multitude called the church. We profess, however, the bishops or elders to be the only ordinary governors in the church, as in all other actions 502 THE HISTORY OF ^xix"' ^^^^ States " that Ainsworth and half the congrega- tion excommunicated Johnson, who, after some JAMES I. time, returned the same compliment to Ainsworth." But Mr. John Cotton, who was far removed from Brbwnism, and who lived in the midst of those who had been concerned in the dispute, asserts, in reply to Baillie, on whose authority Neal relies, that " Mr. Ainsworth and his company did not excommunicate Johnson and his party, but only withdrew from them when they could live no longer peaceably." ^ A separate congregation was thus formed, over which Mr. Ainsworth presided, who is said to have been succeeded by Mr. John Canne, the author of marginal references to the bible. of the church's communion, so also in the censures. Only we may not acknowledge them for lords over God's heritage, con- trolling all, but to be controlled by none; much less essential unto the church, as though it could not be without them ; least of all the church itself, as some ex- pound Matt, xviii. 17. We hold the eldership as other ordinances given unto the church for her ser- vice, and to the elders or officers, the servants and ministers of the church under Christ, as the scrip- tures expressly affirm." — Life of Ainsworth, 32. ' Way of the Congregational Clmrch," p. 6. Heyhn exults in these contentions, and displays at once his ignorance and his bi- gotrv in the account which he has furnished of them. " To such ri- diculous foUies," says this unprin- cipled writer, "are men com- jnonly brought, when once pre- suming on some new light to direct their actions, they sufTcr them- selves to be misguided by the ignis fatuus of their own inven- tions. And in this position stood the brethren of the separation^ anno 1606, when Smith first pub- lished his book of the present differences between the churches of the separation, as he honestly calls them. But afterwards there grew another great dispute, be- tween Ainsti-orth and Broughton, whether the colour of Aaron's linen ephod were of blue, or a sea- water green, which did not only trouble all therf^er.s in Amsterdam^ but drew their several followers into sides and factions, and made good sport to all the world but themselves alone. By reason of which divisions and subdivisions they fell at last into so many fractions, that one of them in the end became a church of himself, and, having none to join in opinion with him, baptized him- self, and thereby got the name of a Se- baptist, which never any sectary or heretic had obtained before*."— Hist, of Presb., 379. CHAPTER XX. Arbitrary policy of Bancroft — Principles of the more rigid Puritans — Impolitic Treatment of the moderate Puritans — Injury done to the Church by the arbitrary Principles of the Clergy — Parliament of 1610 — Imprisonment of Mr. Fuller — Emigration to Virginia — Abbot, Archbishop of Canterbury — New Translation of the Bible — Burning of Socinians — Return of Baptists to England — Consistent Advocates of Religious Liberty — Rise of the Independents at Leyden — Formation of the first Independent Church. While the exiles were thus contending amongst themselves, their brethren in England were perse- cuted with increasing fury. The rough temper J^^^^s i. and despotic principles of Bancroft found an ap- Arbitrary po- propriate sphere of operation in enforcing the most ^^1^^^ obnoxious rites of the hierarchy. He left the pu- • ritans no other alternative but of promising a complete and constant conformity, or of resigning their ministry. This reduced them to. a dilemma from which many of them shrunk; but the dictates of conscience were imperative, and they honestly abided by them. So long as it was practicable, they clung to the establishment; but, when the archbishop demanded an unreserved approval of the ceremonies, they came to the conclusion that it 504 THE HISTORY OF ^xx^' ^^^^^ ^"*y I'esigii their livings. " We pro- test," say they, " before the Almighty God, that JAMES I. acknowledge the churches of England, as they be established by public authority, to be true visible churches of Christ; that we desire the continuance of our ministry in them above all earthly things, as that without which our whole life would be wearisome and bitter to us; that we dislike not a set form of prayer to be used in our churches, nor do we write with an evil mind to deprave the book of common prayer, ordination, or book of homilies ; but to show our reasons why we cannot subscribe to all things contained in them." The ministers composing this section of the puritan body were called brethren of the second separation, being willing to unite with the church in her doctrine and sacraments, but unable to declare their approval of her ceremonies.'" They were conscientious men, whose scruples were entitled to respect, and whose co-operation should have been honestly sought by the rulers of the church, i^he mifrerif Thc puHtau body was now divided into several gid puritans, (.j^gg^g^ somc of whlch still maintained the unlaw- ^ fulness of separation, but others of them were driven, by the force of circumstances, to advocate their right of worshipping the Deity in accordance with the dictates of their conscience. The prin- ciples of the latter class were set forth by Mr, Bradshaw, in a small treatise, entitled, English Puritanisme, containing the Maine Opinions of the ligidest sort of those that are called Puritans in the Realme of England. " It cannot be unknown," says the autlior, in his address to the indifferent 1 Neal, ii. 54. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 505 reader, " that those christians in this realm which ^^x^' are called by the odious and vile name of puritans, are accused by the prelates to the king's majesty J^^^^ ^• and state to maintain many absurd, erroneous, schismatical, and heretical opinions concerning re- ligion, church government, and the civil magis- trac}^ which hath moved me to collect, as near as I could, the chief of them, and to send them naked to the view of all men, that they may see what is the worst that the worst of them hold. It is not my part to prove and justify them. Those that accuse and condemn them must, in all reason and equity, prove their accusation, or else bear the name of unchristian slanderers." The treatise is divided into six chapters, the first of which treats of " religion, or the worship of God in general." The absolute authority of the inspired volume as " the sole canon and rule of all matters of religion and the worship and service of God," is explicitly maintained, and it is declared to be a " sin to force any christian to do any act of religion, or divine service, that cannot evidently be warranted by the same." The authority of the word of God is represented to extend over the ceremonies of re- ligion equally with its doctrines, " it being a sin to perform any other worship to God, whether ex- ternal or internal, moral or ceremonial, in whole or in part, than that which God requires in his word." The second chapter treats of the nature of a church, which it describes as " an assembly of true believers, joining together in the true worship of God." All such assemblies are said to be possessed of the same spiritual privileges, to be free from ex- THE HISTORY OF teraal ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to have the right of choosing their own officers. Such a con- stitution is affirmed to be in " no ways repugnant to any civil state whatsoever, whether monarchical, aristocratical, or democratical, but to tend to the further establishing and advancing of the right and prerogatives of all of them." Chapter the third treats of the ministers of the church, and asserts pastors, teachers, and ruling el- ders to be the highest spiritual officers thereof. Civil jurisdiction and authority are affirmed to be in- compatible with their spiritual functions, which consist in the preaching of the gospel, inter- preting the written word, &c., and in applying its exhortations and reproofs to the people. ° Chapter the fourth treats of the elders of the church, whom it represents " as assistants unto the ministers in the spiritual regiment of. the congre- gations, who are by office, jointly with the mi- nisters of the word, to be as monitors and overseers of the manners and conversation of all the congre- gation." In the fifth chapter, concerning spiritual cen- sures, the keys of the church are said to be com- mitted to its officers, who are to proceed only " The puritans are frequently represented by their enemies as delighting in a fanciful and absurd interpretation of the sacred scrip- tures. Some of their number have undoubtedly subjected them- selves to such a charge, as have many of their opponents. But as a body they were distinguished by a sober adherence to the gram- matical sense of the inspired writings. " They hold," says Mr. Bradshaw, " that in interpreting the scriptures, and opening the sense of them, he (the pastor or minister) ought to follow those rules only that are followed in finding out the meaning of other writings, to wit, by weighing the propriety- of the tongue wherein they are written, by weighing the circumstance of the place, by comparing one place with another, and by considering what is pro- perly spoken, and what tropically or figuratively." PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 507 against open and proved crimes, to abstain from ^xx^* odious and contumelious speeches towards the guilty, and to use all civil respect to their superiors J^^^^ ^• in the execution of the church's censures.'' The oath eoc officio is reprobated in the strongest terms, " as damnable and tyrannous against the very law of nature, devised by antichrist, through the in- spiration of the devil." In the last chapter, which treats of the authority of the civil magistrate, his supremacy over all the churches within his dominions is asserted, while at the same time it is maintained that, as a member of some particular congregation, he ought to be subject to the laws which Christ has appointed for the government of his church. All archbishops, bishops, and other dignitaries are asserted to derive their authority from the will of the prince, and to o The languacre emplojed in tliis treatise clearly disproves the charges preferred against the puritans, of symbolizing with Rome in its subjection of the civil to the ecclesiastical power. Speaking of the keys of disci- pline, the author says his brethren " hold that they are not to be put to this use, to lock up the crowns, swords, or sceptres of princes and civil states, or the civil rights, prerogatives, and immunities of civil subjects in the things of this life, or to use them as picklocks to open withal men's treasuries and coffers, or as kevs of prisons, to shut up the bodies of men." Kings and all rulers were re- garded by the puritans as moral beings, who owed to God the same subjection as others. As members of the christian church they are under the common laws of God's household, yet the most respectful carriage is to be ob- served towartls them, in the in- fliction of any censure. " They hold," says I3radshaw, " that if the party offending be their civil superior, that then they are to use ever, throughout the whole carriage of their censure, all civil compliments, ofl^ices, and reve- rence due unto him ; that they are not to presume to convent him before them, but are themselves to go in all civil and humble manner unto him, to stand bare before him, to bow unto him, to give him all civil titles belonging unto him. And if he be a king and supreme ruler, they are to kneel down before him, and, in the humblest manner, to censure his faults, so that he may see ap- parently that they are not carried with the least spice of malice against his person, but only with zeal of the health and salvation of his soul. 508 THE HISTORY OF ^xx^' removable at his pleasure. " They hold," says ' Bradshaw, " that there should be no ecclesiastical JAMES I. Qfl^cer gQ high, but that he ought to be subject unto, and punishable by, the meanest civil officer in a kingdom, city, or town, not only for common crimes, but even for the abuse of the ecclesiastical offices ; yea, they hold that they ought to be more punishable than any other subject whatsoever, if they shall offend against either civil or ecclesiastical laws." Such were the sentiments entertained by the most rigid class of puritans ; but the voice of truth was for a time drowned by the clamor of faction. Their defence was unheeded, and a thousand calumnies were propagated against them by angry controver- sialists and interested priests. But the delusion is now happily passing away. Impolitic ^ cautious and prudent policy would have dic- tated to the archbishop the employment of con- ciliatory measures, with a view of separating the more moderate puritans from the other members of that body. The divisions existing among his opponents afforded him a favorable opportunity of dividing their forces; and, had he been wise to discern the signs of the times, and sufficiently honest to have improved them, the church might yet have been preserved from the calamitous over- throw which awaited her. But the moderation of this party was far from securing them any favor. They were represented by the bishops as " schis- matics, enemies to the king's supremacy and the state, and not to be tolerated in the church or commonwealth." They repelled the charge with treatment of the moderate puritans. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 509 honest indignation, declaring that they cheerfully ^xx.^* yielded obedience to the king in things indilferent, as well as in such as were necessary, so far as the ^^-^^^^ ^• law of God and the sacredness of conscience per- mitted. They invited the bishops to a public dis- cussion on the lawfulness of imposing ceremonies, and on the propriety of retaining the surplice, the cross in baptism, and other rites of the church. This was prudently declined, on which the Lin- colnshire ministers presented to the king an apology for those who refused subscription and conformity.'' An abridgment of this apology was afterwards printed, under the title of An Abridgment of that book which the Ministers of Lincoln Diocese delivered to his Majesty iqoon the first of December last, being the first part of an Apology for themselves and their brethren that refuse the subscription and conformity which is required. 1605. In this publication they declare that none of their number had ever refused to subscribe to the king's supremacy, but that the book of common prayer, and the other books to which they were required to subscribe willingly, and ex animo, did " contain in them sundry things which are not agreeable, but contrary to the word of God." Their exceptions to the book of common prayer and to the ceremonies are stated in respectful but firm language, and their general principles display . the progress which had been made even by the most moderate of the puritans. The earlier nonconformists objected to the impo- sition of the ceremonies on the ground of their in- difference ; but the plea of unlawfulness was now urged by the most temperate of their successors. p Ncal, ii. 48. i Abridgment, p. 1. 510 THE HISTORY OF ^xx.^' " contrary," they say, " to God's word to use (much more to command the use of ) such cere- JAMEs ;i. jnoYiieg worship of God as man hath devised, if they be notoriously known to have been of old, and still to be abused unto idolatry or superstition by the papists especially, if the same be now of no necessary use." to the church Thc Abridgment was answered by bishop trary princi- Moreton and Dr. Burgess, and the controversy it cieiy°^ awakened engaged the most able and zealous writers of both parties. They put forth their strength as if aware that the battle of the church of England was being fought. All that learning, and dili- gence, and zeal could accomplish, was performed on her behalf ; but her cause declined. The public mind had received an unfavorable impres- sion, which the talents and self-devotion of her advocates could not efface ; and it only required the deeper atrocities of Laud's administration to pre- cipitate her fall. The church of England sustained much injury from the zeal with which many of her advocates defended the most criminal and foolish of those invasions of popular right which were prac- tised by the king. There was no assumption which this vain and arbitrary monarch could riiake which did not find its ready defenders amongst the clergy. The liberal spirits of the nation were thus ofiended, and an alliance was proclaimed between political despotism and clerical conformity. This would have been a perilous state of things for the church at any period ; but it was especially so during the reign of James, whose character possessed no qualities which could redeem his assumptions from Abridgment, p. 17. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. contempt, and his apologists from reproach. In 1609, the house of commons sent a message to the lords, " that they had taken notice of a book lately published by one Dr. Cowel, which they conceived does contain matters of scandal and offence towards the high court of parliament, and is otherwise of dangerous consequence and example." They there- fore requested a conference, which was granted ; but the king interfered to prevent their inflicting any penalty on the defender of his prerogative.' In the last session of this parliament, held in 1610, the spirit of English liberty spoke out with a firmness which alarmed the monarch, and encou- raged the hopes of the puritans. In order to stop some bold members whose speeches contained severe reflections on the administration, both of civil and ecclesiastical aflairs, the king summoned both houses to Whitehall, and told them that he did not intend to govern by the absolute power of a king, but should confine himself within the laws of the empire. This temperate assurance did but ill comport with his exaggerated and ridiculous descriptions of monarchical power. " The state of monarchy," said the royal sophist, " is the supre- mest thing upon earth ; for kings are not only God's lieutenants upon earth, and sit upon God's throne ; but even by God himself they are called God." The power of kings is compared to that of the Deity ; and it is declared as an axiom in divinity, " That as to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so is it sedition in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power." The two houses were then commanded not to * Parliamentary History,!. 1122 — 1124. 512 THE HISTORY OF meddle with the main points of government, which the king termed his craft, nor to touch the ancient JAMES I. rights of the crown, nor to exhibit as a grievance any thing established by law, and to which they were aware that he would not return a favorable answer.* Such were the unconstitutional doctrines and advice of the first of the Stuarts. Had James possessed the intrepidity of some of his predecessors, he might have bowed the spirit of the nation to his pleasure ; but his timidity exposed his pretensions to contempt, while other features of his character awakened the disgust and abhorrence of every virtuous mind. Parliament of thc commous wcTc not to be deterred by such 1610. reasonings from the discharge of their constitutional duties. They consequently presented petitions to the king, complaining of the grievances which the nation suffered, and praying that they might be redressed. In one of these petitions, referring to the case of the puritans, they say, "Whereas diverse painful and learned pastors, that have long travelled in the work of the ministry with good fruit and blessing of their labors, who were ever ready to perform the legal subscription appointed by the statute of 13 Elizabeth, which only concerneth the confession of the true Christian faith and doctrine of the sacraments, yet for not conforming in some points of ceremonies, and refusing the subscription directed by the late canons, have been removed from their ecclesiastical livings, being their free- liold, and debarred from all means of maintenance, to the great grief of sundry your majesty's well- affected subjects ; seeing the whole people that ' King James's Works, 527— 548. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 513 want instruction are by this means punished, and through ignorance lie open to the seducements of- Fuller. popish and ill-affected persons ; we therefore most JAmes i humbly beseech your majesty would be graciously pleased that such deprived and silenced ministers may, by license or permission of the reverend fathers, in their several dioceses, instruct and preach unto their people in such parishes and places wliere they may be employed ; so as they apply themselves in their ministry to wholesome doctrine and exhorta- tion, and live quietly and peaceably in their callings, and shall not, by writing or preaching, impugn things established by public authority."" Bancroft's arbitrary disposition led him to regard J^'^^f^" with extreme disfavor every effort to secure for the puritans a fair construction of the laws by which they were punished. Mr. Thomas Lad, a merchant of Yarmouth, and Mr. Maunsel, a minister of that town, being convicted by the high commission in 1610, were committed to prison without the privi- lege of bail. Having claimed a writ of habeas corpus, their cause was argued by Mr. Nicholas Fuller, a bencher of Gray's inn, who fearlessly pleaded for their discharge, maintaining that the ecclesiastical commissioners had no power to im- prison, to administer the oath ex officio, or to inflict any fine. The archbishop was incensed at his in- trepidity, and represented him to the king as a champion of the nonconformists, of whom an example ought to be made. James listened to tlie base insinuation, and Mr. Fuller was cast into pri- son, where he was detained for the remainder of " Harris's James I., p. 275. VOL. 1. 2 L 614 THE HISTORY OF ^^^P- his life.'' Such atrocious examples of tyranny, how- ever they might gratify the resentment of Bancroft, JAMES I. and allay the apprehensions of his timid master, were far from promoting the interests of the church. The imprisonment of Fuller did more to alienate his profession and the public at large from the rulers of the church, than the writings of the most able controversialist of the day. " The strong holds of tyranny are rarely demolished until some noble natures have perished in the breach.'"'' Emigration f]r^Q severitv with which they were treated, led to Virginia. *^ *' many of the puritans to resolve on emigrating to • Virginia, then an uncultivated waste. They pre- ferred a wilderness, with all the privations and toil which it involved, to a further endurance of the oppressions of the archbishop. But even tliis miserable refuge was denied them, for when some of their number had repaired thither, and others were about to join them, Bancroft obtained a pro- clamation from James, forbidding them to proceed without a royal license.'' So unscrupulous and im- politic was the tyranny he exercised ; and yet pro- testant historians can be found to commend his government and to exhibit him as an example worthy of the imitation of his successors. ^ Fuller, X. 55. Pierce's Vind., families migrated to Virginia, p. 174. The former writer speaks that they might form a church of this circumstance as " an un- there, according to their own expected rub" to the archbishop opinions, and great numbers were while " driving on conformity preparing to follow them ; this very fiercely throughout all his imprudent primate, instead of re- province." joicing that so many intractable ^ Vaughan's Stuart DjTiasty, i. spirits were willing to transport 280. themselves out of the country, ^ Even the author of the Book obtained a proclamation whereby of the Church censures this act of they were forbidden to leave it Bancroft. " With an impolicy," without a special license from the Dr. Southey says, " gross as his king." — ii. 344. intolerance, when several puritan PROTESTANT NONCONFORMm'. 515 Bancroft closed his merciless and persecnting career in 1610 ; and was succeeded by Abbot, who had been successively bishop of Litchfield and James ] Coventrs % and of London. His elevation to the , primacy is attributable to the earl of Dunbar, one of the favorites of James ; and was deplored by the admirers of the policy of Whitgift and Bancroft.'' Abbot was a thorough Calvinist, a zealous enemy of poper)-, and an advocate of mild and tolerant mea- sures towards the puritans. Lord Clarendon has displayed the partizan spirit of his histor}' in his sketch of the character of this prelate. He contrasts his goverament of the church with that of Bancroft, " who understood the church excellently," he tells us, " and had almost rescued it out of the hands of the Calvinian party, and ver^- much subdued the unruly spirit of the nonconformists, by and after the conference at Hampton Court ; and if he had lived, would quickly have extinguished all that fire in England which had been kindled at Geneva. But Abbot,'' his lordship remarks, brought none of this antidote with him, and considered Christian religion no otherwise than as it abhorred and re- viled poper}', and valued those men most who did that most ftiriouslv. For the strict observance of the discipline of the church, or the conformity to the articles or canons established, he made little inquiry, and took less care ; and having himself made a ver>- little progress in the ancient and solid study of divinity, he adhered wholly to tlie doctrine of Calvin, and for his sake did not think so ill of y On the death of Bancroft, the prelate prevailed, and Abbot was bishops recommended Andrews, appointed. — Heylin's Presbv., bishop of Ely, as his successor ; .>)8. Collier, ii. 'f'X? but the iDfluence of the Scotch •2 I. -2 516 THE HISTORY OF ^xx^' ^^^^ discipline as he ought to have done. But if men prudently forbore a public reviling and railing New transla- tion of the Bible. 1611. JAMES I. ti^g hierarchy and ecclesiastical government, let their opinions and private practice be what it would, they were not only secure from any inquisition of his, but acceptable to him, and at least equally pre- ferred by him."^ In the year 1611, the translation of the sacred scriptures now in use was completed and published by authority. It had been undertaken at the request of the puritans in the Hampton Court conference, and w^as designed to exhibit a more faithful render- ing of the original, than any previous version had done. So early as the year 1604, the king com- missioned fifty-four learned men to undertake this important labor, directing them, amongst other things, to adhere to the bishops' Bible then in use, so far as the original would permit; to retain the old ecclesiastical terms ; and when words admitted of divers significations, to prefer that one which had been most generally used by the most eminent fathers, being agreeable to the propriety of the place and the analogy of faith. Their number was subsequently reduced by death to forty-seven, who w^ere divided into six classes; and the manner in which they prosecuted their design was well ' Hist, of the Rebellion, i. 157. The reins of discipline were re- The personal character and laxed during- his administration; government of Abbot are more he never moved a single step be- correctly described bv a modem yond the line marked out by the writer, whose impartiality I cheer- law; nor did he attend to the fully record, having had occasion complaints relative to the non- to express my dissent from his conformingministers, who became representation of another case. more open in their opposition, "Abbot," says Mr. Lathbury, through the archbishop's laxity." " was a man of an amiable dis- — Hist, of the English Episcopacy, position, and opposed to severe 7o. measures against the puritans. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 517 adapted, on the whole, to secure a faithful and perspicuous version. The king is certainly entitled to great praise for the part he acted in this matter ; J^^^^^s i- and it is deeply to be regretted that none of his successors have emulated his zeal in this best feature of his reign. The following year was distinguished by the last ^"'"hofomcvv of those barbarous scenes in which the ferocious and 101 J. fiendish nature of spiritual intolerance are so signally displayed. To record such facts is humiliating; but to have perpetrated them, brands with indelible infamy the character of James and his advisers. Bartholomew Legate, a native of Essex, was com- mitted to Newgate for denying the divinity of Jesus Christ. His opinions appear to have been substan- tially the same as those which now bear the name of Socinus. His character was unblameable, and his acquaintance with the scriptures extensive. During his protracted imprisonment the king fre- quently gratified his own vanity by causing Legate to be brought into his presence, and by endeavouring to convince him of his errors. But the honest though mistaken man refused to surrender his judgment to the keeping of the king, and was treated with an indignity more dishonorable to James than to him- self.^ At length he was convened before bishop * Fuller, X. 44. Lewis's Hist. searcher of the hearts. But here- of Transl., 300. in liis majesty failed of his expec- ^ " One time," says Fuller, tation, Legate returning, that in- the king" had a design to surprise deed he had prayed to Christ in him into a confession of Christ's the days of his ignorance, hut not Deity (as his majesty afterwards for these last seven years. Here- declared to a right reverend pre- upon, the king, in choler, spurned late), by asking him whether or at him with his foot : Away, base no he did not daily pray to Jesus fellow (saith he), it shall never he Christ ? which, had he acknow- said, that one stayeth in my pre- ledged, the king would infallibly sence that hath never prayed to our have inferred, that lA'gate tacitly Saviour for seven years together.'^ consented to Christ's divinity, as — Ch. Hist., x. 62. 518 THE HISTORY OF King in the consistory of St. Paul's, who, in con- currence with several other bishops, divines, and ja:«es I. lawyers, gave sentence against him as an obdurate, contumacious, and incorrigible heretic. He was delivered over to the secular power, and in March, 1612, was burnt at Sniithfield, having honorably refused a pardon which was offered him at the stake, on condition of his recanting. w^SLn, ^ follo^Tng month, Edward W'ightman, of Burton-upon-Trent, having been convicted before bishop Neile, underwent the same horrid penalty at Litchfield. It is difficult to determine what his opinions were. Scarcely any heresy had existed in ancient or modem times, which his enemies did not lay to his charge, so that an impartial inquirer will be led to suspect the accounts handed down to us respecting him. He appears to have been a man of weak intellect, who surrendered himself to the guidance of a morbid imagination. Whatever opinions he may have entertained, his honest ad- herence to the convictions of his judgment entitles him to the respect and sympathy of mankind. The cruelty of these executions offended the public mind to such an extent as deterred James and his bishops from repeating them. A Spanish Arian, who had been condenmed to the flames, was, in consequence, permitted to linger out his existence in Newgate.*" c I>r. Soathej attrifafutes his the paiblind eyes of vulgar jadg- preservatxm from the flames to ments looked only tinguished by a censorious and bitter spirit towards the church of England. But their followers gra- dually corrected their mistakes, and infused into their views of the constitution and government of the church more of the temper of Christ. Mr. Robinson is iustly reo-arded as the father of the «j C7 son. English independents. So early as 1602 he had entered into association with several ministers and others in Norfolk, " to walk with God and one another, in the enjoyment of God's ordinances, ac- cording to the primitive pattern, whatever it might cost them." Being narrowly watched by the emis- ' Mr. Orme, in his Memoirs of he is frequently incorrect in the Dr. Owen, attributes too much to statement of facts; if in the latter, that distinguished divine. He does he has not rendered his meaning not give due honor to his prede- sufficiently apparent. The follow- cessors in the noble work of en- ing passage is an example: — If, lightening the human mind, and to the puntans, Britain is indebted of pleading for its emancipation in a great measure for her civil from the trammels of authority, liberty, to the independents she It is somewhat difficult to deter- has been indebted for all that is mine the sense in which Mr. Orme rational and important in her uses the term j«rf^p^«(/e72f* in many views of religious freedom." By parts of his volume. The term is the term independents here does susceptible of a limited and of a he mean the denomination usually more comprehensive signification, known by this title, or the whole 'f he uses it in the former sense, body of congregationalists ? 524 THE HISTORY OF saries of the archbishop, and having suffered se- - verely from fines and imprisonments, many of them • resolved to emigrate to Holland, where they hoped to obtain the liberty of worshipping God according to the dictate of their conscience. They had great difficulty, however, in escaping from England, it being the inhuman policy of the primate to pre- vent their repairing to any land where they might enjoy the liberty which he refused. Succeeding at length, they arrived at Amsterdam in 1608, when the dispute between Mr. Smith and the Brownists was at its height. Mr. Robinson and his associates, being desirous of avoiding such contentions, re- paired to Leyden, where the magistrates permitted them to conduct public worship according to their own views. The intercourse which they held in this place with other protestants, and the opportu- nity for calm reflection which they possessed, exerted a very beneficial influence on their general principles and spirit. Mr. Robinson had been a zealous Brownist, but his views now became more expansive, and the gentleness and benevolence of his character were allowed to display themselves in his ecclesiastical system. Dr. Ames, the distin- guished countryman and fellow-exile of Robinson, was particularly serviceable to him on this occasion. The consequence of this alteration, on the part of Robinson and his brethren, was an interchange of kind offices and of christian fellowship with the Dutch, and other reformed churches. The charities of their nature, instead of being restricted to the members of their own sect, embraced the catholic church, wherever found, and of wliomsoever con- stituted. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 525 Though Robinson still maintained the lawfulness ^^x^' and necessity of separating from the reformed churches in his neighbourhood, he recognized them ^^^^^^ as churches, and received their members into OCCa~ His christian sional fellowship with his own. " We account the ^'^^'^^'^^'* reformed churches," says Mr. Robinson, " true churches of Jesus Christ, and both profess and practise communion with them in the holy things of God ; their sermons such of ours frequent as understand the Dutch tongue ; the sacraments we do administer unto their known members, if by occasion any of them be present with us ; their distractions and other evils we do seriously bewail, and do desire from the Lord their holy and firm peace. But haply it will be objected, that we are not like-minded with them in all things, nor do approve of sundry practices in use amongst them, if not by public institution, yet by almost universal consent and uniform custom. I grant it ; neither doubt I but that there are many godly and prudent men in the same churches, who also dis- like in effect the things which we do ; and, amongst other things, this malapert and unbridled boldness of unskilful men, who make it a very may-game to pass most rash censure upon the faith, and so, by consequence, upon the eternal salvation of their brethren, and to impeach their credit, whom they neither do nor perhaps willingly would know ; lest that which they wish to condemn unknown, they should be constrained to allow, if they once knew . it, and withal to disallow that into w^hich they them- selves have been led formerly by common error of the times." ^ s A just and necessary Apologio tumeliously than commonh' called of certain Christians, no less con- Brownists or Barrowists, p. 9. 526 THE HISTORY OF ^'xx!'* Robinson's views of the unscriptural constitution of the church of England are stated with distinct- JAMES I. jjggg^ ^j^^ ^l^g reasonings by which he endeavours Unscriptural to support thcm arc not easily to be refuted. " All of the church the natives and subjects of the kingdom," he says, of England. " although ucver such strangers from all show of true piety and goodness, and fraught never so full with many most heinous impieties and vices (of which rank whether there be not an infinite, and far the greater number, I would to God it could with any reason be doubted), are without difference compelled and enforced by most severe laws, civil and ecclesiastical, into the body of that church. And of this confused heap (a few, compared with the rest, godly persons mingled among) is that national church, commonly called the church of England, collected and framed; and such is the material constitution of that church. And if now you demand of me how it is formally constituted, and whether upon profession of faith and re- pentance (in word at least), made by them of years, any combination and consociation of the members into particular congregations (which consociation doth formally constitute the ministerial church, and members thereof, as both the scriptures and reason manifest) either is or hath been made since the universal and antichristian apostasy and defec- tion in popery? Nothing less, but only by their parish perambulation, as they call it, and standing of the houses in which they dwell. Every subject of the kingdom, dwelling in this or that parish, Mr. Brooks represents this treatise 1644 ; but the English copy from as translated from the Latin, in which I quote was printed in which it was originally written, in 1625. — Lives of Puritans, ii. 844. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 527 whether in city or country, whether in his own or other man s house, is thereby, ipso facto, made le gaily a member of the same parish in which thatJ^^^^^ ^• house is situated, and bound, will he nill he, fit or unfit, as with iron bonds, and all his with him, to participate in all holy things, and some unholy also, in that same parish church." ^ " We do not judge it," he afterwards remarks, in answer to the cavils of an opponent, " an evil in- tolerable (though greatly to be bewailed) that evil men should be suffered in the church ; but that all of most vile and desperate condition, that such and so great a kingdom aflfords, should thereinto, will they nill they, be compelled ; nor that the dis- cipline (as they call it) or ecclesiastical government instituted by Christ, is neglected or violated, but that another, plain contrary unto it, is set up by law, and fully and publicly every where exercised. Neither lies our exception against any personal or accidentary profanation of the temple, but against the faulty frame of it, in respect of the causes, constitution, matter, and form. Neither strive we about the walls of the city, but about the true and lawful citizens, the policy and government of the city of God, and essential administration of the same." ' h A just and necessary Apo- others ; and whom thou findest in logie, p. 62. error thou shalt not leave in ob- ' Ibid., 66. Robinson closes his stinacy, nor as having a mind treatise by an earnest appeal to the prone to schism. Err we may candour of his reader and the pro- (alas! too easily), but heretics tection of his God. "If in any (by the grace of God) we will thing we err," says this enlight- not be. But and if the things we ened advocate of scriptural truth, do seem right in thine eyes (as " advertise us brotherly, with de- to us certainly they do), I do sire of our information, and not earnestly and by the Lord Jesus (as our countrymen's manner for admonish and exhort thy godly the most part is) with a mind of mind, that thou wilt neither with- reproaching us, or gratifying of hold thy due obedience from his 528 THE HISTORY OF Formation of the first independent church in England, IGIG. ^xx^* '^^^^ ^^^^ independent church in England was formed in 1616, by Mr. Henry Jacob, formerly a JAMES T, Brownist, though not of the most rigid class. His intercourse with Mr. Robinson at Leyden had mo- dified his views, and he published the result in a treatise entitled, The Divine Beginning and Institu- tion of Chrisfs true, visible, and material Church. 1610. Returning to London in 1616, he called several of his friends together, and consulted them on the propriety of uniting together in church fel- lowship for a purer administration of the ordinances of Christ than was to be secured in the establish- ment. They agreed to his proposal ; and, after ob- serving a day of solemn fasting and prayer, each of them made open confession of his faith, and then joining hands, solemnly covenanted with each other, in the presence of Almighty God, to walk truth, nor just succour from thy distressed brethren. Neither do thou endure, that either the small- ness of the number or meanness of the condition of those tliat profess it, should prejudice with thee the profession of the truth ; but have in mind that of Tertul- lian, Do we measure men's faith by their persons, or their persons by their faith ? as also that of Austin, Ijet matter umgh with matter, and cause with cause, and reason with reason; but especially that of the apostle, My brethren, have not the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ in respect of persons. But now, if it so come to pass (which God forbid) that the most being cither forestalled by prejudice, or by prosperity made secure, there be few found (especially men of learning) who will so far vouch- safe to stoop as to look upon so despised creatures and their cause, this alone remainetli, that we (urn our faces and mouths unto thee, O most powerful Lord and gra- cious Father, humbly imploring help from God towards those who are by men left desolate. There is with thee no respect of per- sons, neither are men less re- garders of thee, if regarders of thee, for the world's disregarding them. They who truly fear thee, and work righteousness, although constrained to live by leave in a foreign land, exiled from country, spoiled of goods, destitute of friends, few in number, and mean in condition, are for all that unto thee (oh, gracious God) nothing the less acceptable ; thou num- berest all their wanderings, and puttest their tears into thy bottle : are they not written in thy book.^* Towards thee, O Lord, are our eyes; confirm our hearts, and bend thine ear, and suffer not our feet to slip, or our face to be ashamed, O thou most just and merciful God." PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 529 together in all God's ways and ordinances, ac- cording as he had already revealed, or should further make them known to them. Mr. Jacob JAmes i. was chosen pastor, and others were selected as deacons by the suffrage of the brethren. ^ Thus another form of ecclesiastical government was erected in the kingdom, differing both from the episcopal and presbyterian. Limited as yet in the number of its supporters, it was destined at no distant period to engage the cordial support of many of the most vigorous and powerful intellects in the nation, and to become the retreat of re- ligious freedom when assailed by presbyterian in- tolerance. J Neal, ii. 92. Wilson's Hist, of Pissenting Churches, i. 39. VOL. I. CHAPTER XXI. Seldens Submission — Book of Sports — Emigration of Independents to New Plymouth — Religious Character of the Colony — Rise of Doctrinal Puritans —The King' s ecclesiastical Directions — Character of James, ^xxL* Mr. John Selden, one of the most learned men ^in England, about the year ItJlS, aroused the fears JAMES I. incurred the hatred of the clergy, by publishing seiden's a H'lstorij of Tithes, in which he strenuously maintained that their sole title to ecclesiastical property was founded on the laws of the king-, dom. The consequences of such a doctrine were dreaded by the clergy, while the character, learning, and reputation of Selden drew general attention to his treatise. " Never a fiercer storm," says Fuller, " fell on all parsonage barns since the reformation, than what this treatise raised up." The rage of his enemies knew no bounds ; but instead of submitting their cause to the decision of the public judgment, they resolved on adopting their usual mode of suppressing obnoxious opinions. " The chief governors of the church," says Heylin, after mentioning some replies to Seiden's treatise, " went a shorter way, and not expecting till the book was answered bv particular men, resolved to seek for PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 531 reparation of the wrong ; from the author himself, ^^xi' upon an information to be brought against him in the high commission." Selden was alarmed by the ^^-^^^^ ^• determination of his enemies ; and, knowing the temper of the king, and the merciless rigor with which ecclesiastical delinquencies were punished, he signed the following acknowledgment, in open court at Lambeth, on the 28th of January, 1618 : My lords, I most humbly acknowledge my error, which I have committed in publishing the History of Tithes, and especially, in that I have at all, b}^ showing any interpretations of holy scrip- tures, by meddling with councils, fathers, or canons, or by whatsoever occurs in it, offered any occasion of argument against any right of mainte- nance, jure Divino, of the ministers of the gospel,* beseeching your lordships to receive this ingenuous and humble acknowledo-ment, too;ether with the unfeigned protestation of my grief, for that through it I have so incurred both his majesty's and your lordship's displeasure, conceived, against me in behalf of the church of Enoland.^ ^'JoHN Selden." The bishops gloried in this submission ; which, it must be acknowledged, was sufficiently humiliating to Selden. He did not possess the fortitude which was required for the part he had undertaken; but though he bowed to the storm, his writings con- tinued to influence the public mind, and to expose to contempt the unfounded pretensions of the clergy. A singular and very culpable measure was now Publication adopted by the king to check the prevalence of ofsports"^ ^ May, 1618. Hist, of Presby., 391. 2 M 2 532 THE HISTORY OF • Puritanism. It was seen to be identified with a — religious spirit, and to manifest itself in a scrupu- ^' lous observance of the Sabbath-day. The mem- bers of this party were distinguished from their ' neighbours and associates by a cautious and punctilious avoidance of all secular occupations and amusements on that day. They regarded it as sacred to the Deity, and employed its hours in the performance of religious services. The king and his clerical advisers consequently hoped to turn the current of popular feeling against them, by sanc- tioning those sports which they disallowed. For this purpose a proclamation was issued, bearing date May 24, 1618, which stated that the king had lately observed, in his progress through Lancashire, that the excessive scruples of some magistrates and ministers, in hindering the people from practising their lawful recreations on the Sabbath, had given great offence, and scandalized the church of England. He therefore commands, " that after the end of divine service his good people be not disturbed, letted, or discouraged from any lawful recreation ; such as dancing, either men or women, archery for men, leaping, vaulting, or any other such harmless recreation ; nor from having of may-games, whitson-ales, and morris-dances, and the setting up of may-poles, and other sports there- with used ; so as the same be had in due and con- venient time, without impediment or neglect of divine service; and that women shall have leave to carry rushes to the church for the decoring of it, according to their old customs. But withal, we do here account still as prohibited, all unlawful games to be used upon Sundays only ; as bear and bull- PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 533 baitings; and at all times, in the meaner sort of ^^^j' people by law prohibited, bowling." The catholics and puritans were excepted from -^^^^^^ ^ • this indulgence, which the clergy of Lancashire were commanded to read from their pulpits. It • was designed by its framers to be extended to all the churches in England; but archbishop Abbot, faithful to his high vocation, forbade it to be read at Croydon, where he resided at the time of its publi- cation. His decision compelled the king to hesitate, and the obnoxious proclamation was for the present withdrawn. The Book of Sports is reported to have been drawn up by bishop Moreton, and had it not been met with so firm a resistance, it would have inflicted an injury on the morals and religion of the country which thef piety of individuals might vainly have attempted to remedy. Its publication pre- sents the character of James and his advisers in the worst possible light. It was a cool and deliberate act of impiety, in which the name of religion was hypocritically employed to destroy its living spirit. Human nature is sufficiently disposed to neglect the sacred purposes of the christian Sabbath, with- out being invited to do so by the recognized head of the church. But the spirit and conduct of the puritans were so hateful to the king, that religion itself was to be sacrificed in order to bring them into contempt. " The puritans," it is remarked by the biographer of bishop Hall, " being the objects of his majesty's aversion and hatred, by their preaching and practice were inculcating the strict observance of the Sabbath, and therefore the fasts and festivals of the church were rather neglected ; ' Phenix, i. 1. Fuller; x., 74. Collier, ii., 711. Neal, ii., 104. 534 THE HISTORY OF ^xx^' order to counteract this, his majesty thought proper to command those idle and vain sports on JAMES I. the Lord's-day, in order to prevent the growth of puritanism snd poperi/ ; or in other words, to pre- vent the blessed effects of true religion in the minds of his subjects, and to encourage all vice and immorality." ™ independent^^ Thc independent congregation at Amsterdam mouth! having declined, through the death of its aged 1620. members, and the marriage of the younger ones into Dutch families, Mr. Robinson and his associates became anxious for the preservation of the princi- ples on which their church was formed. Numerous meetings were held to seek the divine guidance; and it was at length resolved to emigrate to America, and to form a colony where their sen- timents might be preserved, and their brethren find a refuge from persecution. Agents were accord- ingly sent to England, who obtained a patent from the king, allowing them the free exercise of their f religion in any part of America where they might settle, and arrangements were made with some merchants favorable to the undertakino;. Several of Mr. Robinson's congregation immediately dis- posed of their property, and a common fund was raised, with which they purchased the Speedwell, a small ship of sixty tons, and hired the May-flower, of one hundred and eighty tons. " Jones'.s Life and Times of affirmed : " The first day of the Bishop Hall, 71. The king, in pub- week, which is the Lord's-day, is lisliing the Book of Sports, was ns wholly to be dedicated to the inconsistent with himself as with service of God, and therefore we the religion he professed. So re- are bound therein to rest from our cently as the year 1615, he had common and daily business, and ratified the articles of the - Irish to bestow that leisure upon holy church, in which the morality of exercises, both public and pri- the Lord's-day is thus distinctly vate." — Neal, v., 44. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 535 All things being prepared for their departure, a solemn day of fasting and prayer was observed, when Mr. Robinson preached from Ezra viii. o}."^^^^^^ ^• I jjroclaimed a fast there, at the river Ahava, that we might afflict our souls before God, to seek of him a right way for us, and for our little ones, and for all our substance. He concluded his discourse with the following admirable address, in which the nobility of his character, and the enlarged liberality of his views, are equally apparent. " Brethren (said he), we are now quickly to part M^^^bLn from one another, and whether I may ever live to ^^V™' see your face on earth any more, the God of heaven only knows; but whether the Lord hath appointed that or no, I charge you, before God and his blessed angels, that you follow me no farther than you have seen me follow the Lord Jesus Christ. If God reveal any thino; to vou by anv other instru- ment of his, be as ready to receive it as ever you were to receive any truth by my ministry ; for I am verily persuaded, I am very confident, the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of his holy word. For my part, I cannot sufficiently bewail the condi- tion of the reformed churches, who are come to a period in religion, and will go at present no further than the instruments of their reformation. The Lutherans can't be drawn to oo bevond what Luther saw : whatever part of his will our good God has revealed to Calvin, they will rather die than embrace it. And the Calvinists, you see, stick fast where they were left by that great man of God, who yet saw not all things. "This is a misery much to be lamented; for though they were burning and shining lights in 536 THE HISTORY OF ^xxi' times, yet they penetrated not into the whole counsel of God ; but, were they now living, would JAMES I. be as willing to embrace further light, as that which they first received. I beseech you remember it, 'tis an article of your church covenant, that you he ready to receive whatever truth shall be made known to you from the written word of God, Remember that, and every other article of your sacred cove- nant ; but I must here withal exhort you to take heed what you receive as truth. Examine it, con- sider it, and compare it with other scriptures of truth, before you receive it; for 'tis not possible the christian world should come so lately out of such thick anti-christian darkness, and that perfection of knowledge should break forth at once* " I must also advise you to abandon, avoid, and shake off the name of Brownist; 'tis a mere nick- name, and a brand for the making religion and the professors of it odious to the christian world." " On the 1st of July, 1620, Mr. Robinson and the seniors of his congregation accompanied their bre- thren from Leyden to Delfthaven, where they were to embark. They were one hundred and one in number, under the guidance of Mr. William Brewster, a ruling elder of Mr. Robinson's church.° He was an admirable man, well fitted to the station assigned him, and united much of the wisdom of age (being then in his sixtieth year) with the vigor and resolution of youth. The brethren remained toge- ther all night, and having embraced each other in the morning, they knelt down on the sea-shore, and » Neal's New England, i., 78. " Mr. Neal states their num- ber to have been about one hun- dred and twenty, in which he is corrected by Mr. Brook. Lives of the PuritanSj ii. '^41. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 537 were commended by their pastor to the blessing and Sf^/*" protection of heaven. They then set sail, and after being compelled to put into two English harbours, JAmes i. they arrived at their destination, enfeebled and sickly, on the 19th of December. On the 25th they began to erect a store-house for their goods, and some small cottages to shelter them from the inclemency of the weather. They were divided into nineteen families, and their locality was decided by lot. Laws were immediately adopted for their government, and the name of New Plymouth was assigned to their settlement. The hardships they underwent are incredible. Soon after their landing a mortality raged amongst them which carried off* nearly half of their number, and the survivors were so enfeebled that not more than six or seven were able to administer to the wants of their companions. They were also mo- lested by the Indians, and their destruction would have been inevitable if the good providence of God had not interposed on their behalf. This colony is honorably distincfuished from all luiipious .V T character of others in ancient or modern times. It was planted tws colony, under the impulse of christian principle, and was designed to be a refuge whither the persecuted in England might repair with safety. The parties who originated it were men of exalted piety; and the motives which swayed their conduct were of the highest and purest order of which human na- ture admits. Other colonies had been founded at the impulse of national glory, or of commercial enterprise ; but this sprang from a sacred regard to the interests of religion, whose healthful tone and vigorous nature it proclaimed to the communi- 538 THE HISTORY OF CHAP. X ' ties of Europe. The character of the colonists gave a religious complexion to their affairs, whilst their JAiAJEs I. fortitude and piety revived the hopes of their bre- thren at home, and gave promise of a better state of things than had yet been realized. The world which the enterprising genius of Columbus had revealed to the European nations, was a theatre on which new maxims of government, and new forms of religion, were to be subjected to the test of experiment. Many of the settlements effected on its shores were conducted by men of piety, who were more solicitous for the preservation of christian truth, than for the accumulation of earthl}^ gain. The experiment was consequently made imder the happiest auspices, and the rising communities of the new world were speedily in a condition to speak the language of freedom to the enfeebled and de- crepid forms of despotism in Europe. Their early history was distinguished by many inconsistencies, flowing from the errors they had imbibed in infancy. The peculiarity of their situation, and the perplexing and hazardous nature of the circum- stances amid which they were required to act, un- happily led them to forget, on some occasions, the tolerant and generous principles which Robinson had inculcated. But his spirit revived amongst them, and ultimately effected the extinction of those laws and usages which were alike inconsis- tent with the spirit of Christianity and the profes- sions of their fathers. Riseofdoctri- ^hc Duritau controversy had hitherto respected nal puritans, it/ x the constitution and ceremonies of the church only. Both parties were united in doctrinal views, and James was known to have expressed more than PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 539 ordinary zeal in support of the opinions of Calvin, ^^^f' His delegates at the synod of Dort were instructed to concur in the condemnation of the tenets of "^^^^^^ ^' Arminius, and he himself wrote against Yorstius icis. with all the bitterness of an incensed polemic. Yet, within a very few years he cast off all the opinions he had thus advocated, and displayed a zeal on behalf of Arminianism in proportion to his former hostility. It is difficult to account for the rapid transition of James and his court from Calvinism to the opposite creed. The mystery would probably be solved if we knew the theolo- gical complexion of his favorites at this period. He was uniformly under the guidance of some one or more of his courtiers, whose influence deter- mined his policy far more than reasons of state, or an enlightened anticipation of coming events. Laud was now rising in the church, and having accompanied James in 1617, in his journey to Scotland, he probably established himself in his confidence. An entire alteration in the policy of the monarch was speedily evinced. The way to promotion was closed against such of the clergy as adhered to tlie obvious meaning of the thirty-nine Articles, while every reward which a prodigal prince could bestow, was conferred on those who adopted the new creed of the monarch. The Cal- vinists were discountenanced at court, and an oppo- site theology was broached with the approval and under the patronage of the king. Those who con- tended for an interpretation of the Articles opposed to the views of the king, gained the title of doctri- nal puritans, and were driven by the impolitic course adopted towards them into intercourse and 540 THE HISTORY OF ^xxL* fellowship with the more moderate of the non- conformists. The ranks of disaffection were thus JAMES I. swelled; and a growing conviction spread through the country, that the rulers of the church were alike regardless of the rights of conscience and the sacredness of religious truth. Archbishop Abbot was at the head of the doctrinal puritans; but he had little influence at this time in church affairs, and a circumstance which occurred in 1621 greatly depressed his spirits, and indisposed him to take part in public business. ^ This change in the policy of the court revived the Calvinistic contro- versy. The disciples of Geneva deemed it matter of sacred obligation to bear witness to the truths from which the monarch had apostatized, while the followers of Arminius were emboldened by the recent change to speak in a firmer tone, and with a less compromising spirit, than they had hitherto done. sSrardi*"* "^^^ pulpits of the kingdom became, in consequence, the arena on which contending theologists disputed for their respective creeds ; to prevent the con- tinuance of which, the king, in August, 1622, sent directions to the archbishop, to be communicated to the clergy of his province : "1. That no preacher, under a bishop or dean, shall make a set discourse, or fall into any common place of divinity in his sermons, not comprehended in the thirty-nine articles, or in some of the homilies. siastical di rections. 1622. P Being in ill health, he was invited by his friend, Lord Zouch, to his seat at Bramshall, in Berk- shire. Having accepted the invi- tation, and being engaged one day in hunting in the park, he struck a gamekeeper with an arrow which he had discharged at a deer. The wound proved mor- tal, and the archbishop retired to Guildford, where he resigned himself to grief. He subsequently settled £20 a year on the widow. —Fuller, X. 87. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 541 " 2. That no parson, vicar, curate, or lecturer, shall preach any sermon hereafter, on Sundays or holidays, in the afternoon, but expound the cate- ^^^^^-^ ^^ chism, creed, ten commandments, or the Lord's- prayer ; and that those be most encouraged w ho catechise children only. " 3. That no preacher, under a bishop or dean, presume to preach in any popular auditory on the deep points of predestination, election, reprobation ; or of the universality, efficacy, resistibility, or irre- sistibility, of God's grace. " 4. That no preacher, of any degree soever, shall henceforth presume in any auditory to declare, limit, or set bounds to, the prerogative, power, or jurisdiction of sovereign princes, or meddle with matters of state. "5. That no preacher shall use railing speeches against papists or puritans, but endeavour to free the doctrine and discipline of the church, in a grave manner, from the aspersions of both adver- saries. "6. That the archbishop and bishops be more wary for the future in licensing preachers ; and that all lecturers throughout the kingdom be licensed in the court of faculties, by recommendation from the bishop of the diocese, with a fiat from the arch- bishop, and a confirmation under the great seal of England." ^ The design of these directions, was too obvious to escape notice. It was a party movement, intended to silence the Calvinists, while their adversaries were sure of being countenanced in their disobe- dience. The Arminians might have preached with " Fuller, X. 108. Collier, ii. 723. Neal, ii. 116. 542 THE HISTORY OF CHAP, impunity on the proscribed points; ljut no Calvinist could do so without imminent peril. From this JAMES I. period doctrinal questions became more promi- nent in the puritan controversy. Arminianism was the badge of a party which advocated the most servile doctrines, both in politics and religion ; and had arrayed against it all the patriotism, and much of the learning and piety, of the nation. The house of commons complained of its increase, as a public grievance, and coupled it in their remon- strances with popery, as an evil scarcely less to be dreaded. Their aversion from it was fostered by the alliance with civil despotism into which its pro- fessors entered, and they were with difficulty re- strained from adopting measures for its suppression. Judging from a partial view of the facts of their own day, they regarded the system of Arminius as in- compatible with political freedom : for which, it is remarked by Mr. Hallam, " they had a sort of excuse in the close, though accidental and tem- porary, connexion that subsisted between the par- tizans of these new speculative tenets and t hose of arbitrary power ; the churchmen who receded most from Calvinism being generally the zealots of pre- rogative. They conceived also that those theories, conformable in the main to those most countenanced in the church of Rome, might pave the way for that restoration of her faith, which from so many other quarters appeared to threaten them." ' Character Jamcs closcd his inglorious career March 27, of James. ^ ^ 1625, in the fifty-ninth year of his age. Few monarchs have had their character drawn in more opposite colours. The court divines, who were so Const. Hist., i. 552. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 543 deeply indebted to his patronage, observed no ^^^xf' bounds in the virtues which they ascribed to him There was scarcely one befitting a prince, or of -^^^^^^ ^• which human nature was capable, for which they did not professedly give him credit. Laud observes of him, that it was little less than a miracle that so much sweetness should be found in so great a heart ; that clemency, mercy, and justice were all eminent in him ; that he was the greatest patron of the church, and the most learned prince that had been known for ages.' But bishop Williams, who preached his funeral sermon, exceeded even Laud in the fulsomeness of his panegyric. He selected for his text 1 Kings xi. 41, 42 : And all the rest of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon? And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years!' After in- stituting a fanciful and absurd comparison between Solomon and James, the bishop remarks, in re- ference to his style, " you may observe the Ecclesi- astes; in his figures, the Canticles; in his sentences, the Proverbs; and in his whole discourse, reliquum verhorum Salomonis, all the rest that was admirable in the eloquence of Solomon. From his sayings I come to his doings. Every action of his sacred majesty was a virtue, and a miracle to exempt him from any parallel amongst the modern kings and princes. Of all christian kings that ever I read of, he was the most constant patron of churches and churchmen. I will speak it boldly, in the presence here of God and men, that I believe in my soul « Rush worth, i. 160. 544 THE HISTORY OF ^xxL* conscience, there never lived a more constant, resolute, and settled protestant, in point of doctrine, JAMES I. ^i^^^ late sovereign. Through all Europe no more question was made of his being just, than of his being king. He was unto his people, to the hour of his death, another cherubim with a flaming- sword, to keep out enemies from this paradise of ours." ' The same strain of indiscriminate eulogy has been maintained to the present day, and has served greatly to mislead the public judgment. On the » Harris's James I., p. 290. The comparison instituted by the preacher is an amusing specimen of perverted ingenuity. " I dare presume to say," he remarks, " you never read in your lives of two kings more fully paralleled amongst themselves, and better distinguished from all other kings besides themselves. King Solomon issaidtoheunigenitus corammatre sua, the only son of his mother; so was king James. Solomon was of a complexion white and ruddy ; so was king James. Solomon was an infant king, puer parvulus, a little child ; so was king James a king at the age of thirteen months. Solomon began his reign in the life of his predecessor ; so, by the force and compulsion of that state, did our late sovereign king James. Solomon was twice crowned and anointed a king ; so was king James. Solomon's mi- nority was rough, through the quarrels of the former sovereign; so was that of king James. So- lomon was learned above all the princes of the east ; so was king James above all the princes in the universal world. Solomon was a writer in prose and verse; so, in a very pure and exquisite manner was our sweet sovereign king James. Solomon was the greatest patron we ever read of to church and churchmen; and yet no greater (let the house of Aaron now confess) than king James. Solomon was honored with ambassadors from all the kings of the earth; and so, you know, was king James. Solomon was a main improver of his home commodities, as you may see in his trading with Hiram ; and, God knows, it was the daily study of king James. Solomon was the great main tain er of shipping and navigation ; amostproper attribute to king James. Solomon beautified very much his capital city with buildings and waterworks ; so did king James. Every man lived in peace under his vine and his fig- tree,'in the days of Solomon ; and so they did in the blessed days of king James. And yet towards his end king Solomon had secret enemies, Kazan, Hadad, and Je- roboam, and prepared for a war upon his going to the grave ; so had and so did king James. Lastly, before any hostile act we read of in the history^, king So- lomon died in peace, when he had lived about sixty years ; and so, you know, did king James." — Ibid., 288. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 545 other hand, bishop Burnet and the writers of his ^^^f- school have represented James as " the scorn of the age, despised by all abroad, as a pedant -^^"^^^^s without true judgment, courage, or steadiness, subject to his favorites, and delivered up to the counsels, or rather the corruption, of Spain." " His personal character does not admit of much doubt. His general abilities were far from con- temptible; and had they been connected with prac- tical wisdom, or controlled by moral principle, they might have entitled him to the respect of mankind. But he was destitute of both these qualities, and became in consequence an object of contempt and suspicion. No reliance could be placed on his pro- fessions, for he gloried in a species of deceit which he termed kingcraft, by which he expected to solve all the enigmas of government, and to escape all its dangers. " He displays such levity and want of thought," writes his contemporary, Henry IV. of France, " in all his words and actions, that it is difficult to build upon him. He deals with Rome, Spain, and every power exactly as with me, but in truth, attaches himself to none ; moves in this or that direction, on account of this or that expecta- tion, suggested to him by some about him ; but ascertains neither the foundation nor merits of the subject, so that, as I foresee, he will let himself be surprised in all things." James was much addicted to intoxication, and to the use of profane oaths, and was not exempted from the suspicion of a more revolting crime. His « Burnet's Own Time, i. 30. ^ Harris's Life of James I., 78- " Raumer's Hist, of the 16th 88. Raumer's Illustrations sup- and 17th Centuries, ii., 191. ply additional evidence of the VOL. I. 2 N 546 THE HISTORY OF ^xxl' court was a scene of open profligacy, "equal," re- marks Mr. Hallam, "to that of Charles II., in the JAMES I. laxity of female virtue, and without any sort of parallel in some other respects.'"' And yet bishops and court di vanes could be found to represent this monarch as a pattern of christian virtue. It is true that the name of religion was perpetually on his lips, but his heart was destitute of its spirit, and his life failed to exemplify its graces. His vanity was flattered by presiding over the consultations of divines, and the reproaches of an accusing con- science probably required some such opiate as his professions of attachment to Christianity supplied. "'iS^^''' His maxims of government were despotic, and had the feebleness of his character permitted it, he would have acted them consistently out. He was perpetually oflending his parliament, by an avowal of arbitrary principles, yet was destitute of the foresight and intrepidity which were necessary for their maintenance. He awakened opposition by his pretensions, and then, alarmed at the dangers which threatened them, he rendered himself ridiculous by the manner in which he withdrew them. ^ "(SL^gorim' His ecclesiastical government laid the foundation of all those evils which embittered the reign and produced the tragical death of his son. Surround- ing himself with a servile clergy, he repaid their king's inebriety, ii. 200, 210. See also Vaughan's Stuart Memorials, i. 344. ' » Const. Hist., i. 452. ^ y "Consider, for pity's sake," writes the French minister to his master, " what must be the con- dition of a prince, whom the preachers publicly from the pul- pit assail ; whom the comedians of the metropohs bring up on the stage ; whose wife attends these representations in order to enjoy the laugh against her husband ; whom the parliament braves and despises ; and who is universally hated by the whole people." — Raumer, ii. 206. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 547 flattery by a zealous support of their immunities, ^"xY* and a merciless proscription of their foes. He hated the puritans as heartily as any of his bishops, J^^^^^ ^• and brought to their persecution all the rancour and fierceness of polemical strife. The clerg}^ lent themselves to the support of his prerogative, with a zeal which entitled them to his patronage. So early as 1606, the convocation drew up a set of canons deducins: the orio-in of o-overnment from the patriarchal regimen of families, and denouncing the more popular and liberal views which were becoming prevalent. Passive obedience to the reio;ninor monarch is inculcated throus^hout these canons, and anathemas are liberally pronounced on all who refuse it.^ The same doctrines were maintained by the higher clergy during the whole of this reign ; towards the close of which, the university of Oxford pronounced a solemn decree, " That by the doctrine of the Holy Scrip- tures, it is in no case lawful for subjects to make use of force against their prince, nor to appear offensivelv or defensivelv in the field ao'ainst the king, either upon the score of religion, or any other account whatever." All doctors, masters, and bachelors of law and physic, were to subscribe this article; and all persons to be promoted in future to any degree, were further required to take an oath that they not only at present detested the opposite doctrines, but would always continue to be of the * Hallam, i. 438. The second fore they chose some among- canon runs thus : " If any man themselves to order and rule the shall affirm that men at the first rest, sriving them power and ran up and down in woods and authority so to do ; and that con- fields, &c., until they were sequently all civil power, jurisdic- taught by experience the necessity tion, and authority, was first de- of government ; and that there- rived from the people, and dis- 2x2 548 THE HISTORY OF ^xxi^' ^^^^^^ opinion.* These slavish dogmas offended the house of commons, and arrayed against the rulers JAMES I. ^£ church every friend of liberal government and of popular rights. The puritans and the patriots were more closely united than ever. They sympathized with each other's views; and, sharing a common peril, the}^ combined for mutual defence. The vacillating policy of James towards his catholic subjects was another source of mistrust and dissatisfaction. This marked the whole of his reign, but was especially visible during the treaty for the Spanish match. A dread of the return of popery was thus awakened, which in its blindness and im- petuosity called for severer penalties and more exter- minating laws against the persecuted members of the papal church. A line of distinction was thus palpably drawn between the church party and their opponents. The former advocated the prerogative of the throne, the latter the rights of the nation ; the one contended for the propriety of relaxing the penal laws against the papists, the other demanded the infliction of their unmitigated rigor. This state of parties operated unfavorably on the interests of the church. It was deserted both by the patriot and the zealous protestant ; and was regarded as a sort of middle or neutral ground, where the half- hearted in politics and religion only could abide. The puritans and the catholics increased in numbers and boldness. The former especially made rapid ordered raultitude, or either is ordinance, originally descending originally still in tliem, or else is from him, and depending upon deduced by their consent, natu- him, he dotli greatly err." rally from them, and is not God's » Collier, ii. 72.5. PROTESTANT NONCONFORMITY. 549 progress in the enunciation of those immortal prin- ^xxi'* ciples for which they so zealously struggled in the following reign. The severities practised against ^^^^^^ ^• them, instead of subduing their spirit, only hardened them for the endurance of suffering, and fitted them successfully to plead the cause of human liberty against the iron despotism of Laud and Strafford. END OF VOL. I. LONDON : PRINTED BV J. 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Millard, Mr. Paul, Bishopsgate-strect, London. Miller, Mr., Chiswick. Moon, Wm., Esq., Tottenham. Morell, Rev. S., Coward's College. Morley, Mr. S., Hackney. Morrell, Rev. T., Ullisthorpe. Moseley, Rev. Mr., Plymouth. SUBSCRIBERS. 55 Molt, Mr., Norwich. Muir, Rev. Francis, Edinburgh. Mursell, Rev. J. P., Leicester {five copies). N. Napier, Mr., Peckham. Neave, Rev. J., Portsea. Newport Book Society, Isle of Wight. Nicholson, Rev. S., Plymouth. Norman, Mrs., Isleham. Nutter, Mr. Charles, London {two copies). Nutter, Mr. James, Cambridge. Nutter, Mr. O., Shelford. O. Ostler, Mr., Hull. Overbury, Mr. Benjamin, Basinghall-strcet. Overbury, Mr. Thomas, jun., London. P. Parrott, Miss, London. Paterson, Rev. Dr., Edinburgh. Paul, Mr. Robert, Saffron Walden. Peake, Mr., Clifton-street, London. Pearsall, Mr. George, Claremont-terrace. Pearson, Mr. H., Camber well. Pearson, Miss, Camberwell. Peddie, Rev. William, Edinburgh. Peeke, Misses, Southwark. Pewtress, Mr. Thomas, Gracechurch-street {two copies). Phillips, J. L., Esq., Melksham {two copies). Pike, Rev. Mr., Stepney College. Piper, Mr. S., Ipswich. Plint, Mr. Thomas, Leeds. Pope, Samuel, Esq., Tottenham. Pope, Mr. Henry, Manchester. Portway, Mr. W., Absol Park, Essex. Post, Mr. Jacob, Islington. Powell, Mr., London. Date Due -l^tM I !