l! i if! ^'M^ PRINCETON, N. J. '^fh Q it Purchased by the Mrs. Robert Lenox Kennedy Church History Fund. BR 755 .H8 1908 Hulbert, Eri B. 1841-1907 The English reformation and Puritanism THE ENGLISH REFORMATION AND PURITANISM Sii (/h^ M-ej-QyiXr , The English Reformation and Puritanism With Other Lectures and Addresses t/ By ERI B. HULBERT, D.D., LL.D. Professor and Head of the Department of Church History and Dean of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago A MEMORIAL Edited By A. R. E. WYANT, Ph.D. CHICAGO THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS 1908 Copyright 1907 By The University of Chicago Published January, 1908 Composed and Printed By The University of Chicago Press Chicago Illinois, U. S. A. FOREWORD It was the conviction of Dean Hulbert's colleagues that it was modesty rather than lack of ability that was respon- sible for the fact that he could never be persuaded to enter the field of authorship and publication, save to the extent of relatively short articles. "He loved to put his life into men and institutions that served men rather than into books," said Professor Burton. "Who can say that he would have been more wise had he written more books and helped fewer men? For, after all, books are for men, not men for books." Undoubtedly his throne was in the classroom. It was not primarily from original, learned, personal historical in- vestigation that he gained his marvelous control over the student mind. But he studied the material furnished him by specialists until it became a part of himself, got into his own blood and marrow, and made him red in the face. Then with the certainty of it thrilling his entire nervous system he became a mighty, electrical, teaching dynamo. Livy says there are only two valid reasons for making a book: either the author should have something new to tell, or he should be able to relate in a better style what was known before. If it be doubted that Dean Hulbert made any great original contribution to knowledge, it is certain that he had a unique and surpassing way of putting his- torical facts. His style was exceptionally pure, clear, and incisive, expressing, with extreme simplicity, and yet with great power and directness, precisely what he wished to say. His magnetic personality, clean-cut presentation, and force- ful delivery fastened the truth as with clinched nails, so vi Foreword that what he said and how he said it will never be for- gotten by those who heard him. Since his departure many students and friends have urged the publication of his manuscripts. There has been some hesitation about consenting to publish his lectures because of his well-known aversion to this while living, and also because much of his available material had not been written for publication. Furthermore, a number of his lectures were written years ago, and from time to time, as new facts were discovered to modify or amplify previous conceptions, notes were inserted, some of which were not elaborated and consequently had to be omitted in preparing the material for the press. Dr. Hulbert's method of classroom work was the use of an outline of his course for individual study, and the prepa- ration of special subjects by students, while his lectures served as a preview or gave a resume of periods that were studied. It is not deemed expedient to reprint his syllabus of The English Reformation and Puritanism, as it is avail- able for those who may specially desire it. Acknowledgment is made to his colleagues, Professors Franklin Johnson and J. W. Moncrief for their kind assist- ance in seeing this volume through the press, as well as for their labor of love in teaching his classes during his illness and finishing for him his term's courses. It is hoped by his children that the publication of these lectures and addresses, with a brief memoir of the author, may not only serve as a worthy memorial of our honored teacher and father, but that in printed form they may help to continue his life-work. . A. R. E. Wyant Chicago, III, November s, 1907 TABLE OF CONTENTS PART ONE BY THE EDITOR ^ PAGE A Brief Memoir of Dean Hulbert i II A Memorial Tribute to His Character 13 III Memorial Addresses 21 IV Memorial Resolutions and Testimonials 29 PART TWO I Some Preparations for the English Reformation . . 39 II Some Preparations for the English Reformation. — Con- tinued 67 III The Doctrinal Formularies Set Forth in the Reign of Henry VIII 99 IV The Protestant Complexion of Edward's Reign . . 125 V Protestant Sufferings under "Bloody Mary" . . . 149 VI Elizabeth and the Puritans. 1558-66 167 VII Thomas Cartwright and English Presbyterianism . . 193 vii viii Table of Contents VIII Robert Browne and English Independency . . . . 217 IX Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I. 1636-49 . . 245 X Puritanism under Charles II. 1660-85 267 XI The Anglican Church and Puritanism 281 XII The Established Church and Non-Conformity . . .313 XIII The Education Act of 1902 341 • XIV The Baptists of Today in Great Britain and Ireland 361 XV The Influence of Christianity upon Education . . 383 XVI The Place of the Home Mission Society in the Evangeli- zation OF American Cities 405 XVII The Baptist Outlook 433 XVIII The Man and the Message for the Twentieth Century , 451 XIX "Lest We Forget" — President William R. Harper . 475 PART ONE I A BRIEF MEMOIR OF DEAN HULBERT A BRIEF MEMOIR OF DEAN HULBERT It is not our purpose here to tell the story of Dean Hulbert's life, but to give only a biographical sketch. It is scarcely necessary to inquire concerning his heredity. It is related concerning Matthew Henry, the celebrated English Non-conformist divine and commentator, that as a young man he won the heart of a young woman of quality, whose love her father sought to discourage by saying : "Why, you don't know where he comes from." To which she replied: "Father, I don't know where he comes from; but I know where he is going, and I am going with him." We all know the direction of Dr. Hulbert's life, and we, too, want to go with him. But, if need be, his genealogical tree will also bear inspection. Those who have investigated his pedigree tell us that he is descended from William Hulbert, who came to America in 1630 and was made a freeman in Massa- chusetts Bay Colony in 1632. His family history is traced through WiUiam Hulbert, Jr.; Benjamin Hulbert (1703- 1760), who married Thankful Reese and was a soldier in the French war; Ambrose Hulbert (born 1752), who was at the battle of Bennington and afterward served through the war; Ambrose Hulbert, Jr. (1781-1869), who married Dorothy Baker in 1805; Eri Baker Hulbert (March 11, 1807 — June 9, 1852), father of Dean Hulbert, who married Mary Louisa Walker (February 24, 18 10 — November 27, 1874), daughter of William W. Walker and Lucretia Ferrel Walker, at Plainfield, N. Y., on October 20, 1831. Migrat- 3 4 A Brie] Memoir of Dean Hulbert ing to Chicago when it was but a village, Dr. Hulbert's father engaged in the grain business and made the first eastern shipment of grain from Chicago, sending seven bags of wheat to Charles Walker's mill at Burlington Flats, N. Y. Dr. Hulbert was a simon-pure Chicagoan. He was born here July i6, 1841, at the old family homestead on the location where the Masonic Temple now stands. His father's store was across the street on the corner now occupied by Marshall Field's great retail establishment. The death of the father when Eri was only eleven years old left the care of the family to the mother, who devoted the remainder of her life to the bringing-up of her three boys, William, Eri, and George. When thirteen years old Eri was "baptized by A. B. Earle, at Burlington Flats, N. Y., in the stream, through the ice, February 26, 1854." With the growth of the city and advance in real estate prices, un- fortunately the down-town property was sold and the family homestead was removed to Fortieth Street, near Cottage Grove Avenue, then on the far outskirts. He received his preliminary education in Chicago, and at eighteen entered Madison University, going to Union College for his senior year, where he received the degree of A.B. in 1863. He contemplated for a time the study of law, but later entered Hamilton Theological Seminary, where he graduated in 1865. The same year he received his A.M. degree from Madison, now Colgate; and the following year a second A.M. degree was conferred upon him by his alma mater, Union College. In 1880 he received the degree of D.D. from the Baptist Union Theological Seminary, and in 1898 the degree of LL.D. from Bucknell University. He was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity and of the Phi Beta Kappa society. He served with the Christian Dr. Hulhert^s Five Pastorates 5 Commission in Grant's army while before Richmond, and was identified with this work until the close of the war. DR. HULBERT's five PASTORATES In a memorial address, Dr. B. A. Greene said : His environment contributed largely to his nature and to the manner of his growth. He was born in Chicago, the cosmopolitan center of the great Middle West. Here the stir, venture, and "I can" of the new country got into his blood. The winds from the vast prairie stretch and from the great lakes played in his hair. When the boy was ready for college, he went to Union, where discipline, finish, and polish came to him. In the same state, at Hamilton, he took his theological course. In this school he came under the sway of that Yankee-shrewd, ox-hearted religious thinker. Dr. Dodge. The West and the East had kissed each other in the make-up of this young man now ready for a settlement. His first pastorate was in Manchester, N. H,, 1865-68. Returning to his native city he took charge of the work at the Rolling Mills' Mission, continuing from 1868 to 1870. This mission he organized into a church, and so successful was his work that he received a call from the important First Baptist Church of St. Paul, Minn., where he had a delightful pastorate from 1870 to 1874. From St. Paul he went to San Francisco, Cal., and was pastor of the First Baptist Church there from 1874 to 1878. Thus he had measured the width of the continent, and in education and preliminary experience had touched the national life all the way from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Then, as has been said, at the age when F. W. Robertson died, he came back to Chicago to put in twenty-nine years of solid work in his maturity. The first four years were given to the pastorate of the Fourth Baptist Church, from 1878 to 188 1. In his pastoral relationships he was everywhere popular and much beloved, many of the best people in his churches clinging to his personal friendship until he died. He was most consci- 6 A Brie} Memoir of Dean Hulbert entious in discharging all his duties as pastor and preacher, and some of his sermons, prepared during his early ministry, were afterward preached in the largest churches of the country. He always travailed in giving birth to the children of his brain, and in these treasured manuscripts we have the life-blood of a master-spirit. HIS QUARTER-CENTURY SERVICE AS A TEACHER For fifteen years he gave himself devotedly to the regu- lar work of the ministry. But, as Dr. Greene has well said, "his intellectual strength, his clean-cut style, his lofty ideals holding him in scholarly lines, and his power to teach, made him the inevitable man when the Baptist Union Theo- logical Seminary needed a professor of church history." And so he became professor of church history in 1881 in the seminary then located at Morgan Park, and filled the position with distinguished ability. It was here that he became intimately associated with those two great teachers. Dr. Northrup, professor of theology and president of the seminary, and Dr. Harper, then professor of Hebrew. During the year 1884-85 he was acting president of the seminary. When the University of Chicago was organized in 1892, the Baptist Union Theological Seminary became its divinity school, in accordance with the provision made in the original gift from Mr. Rockefeller; and Professor Hulbert, upon the recommendation of Dr. Northrup, be- came dean of the divinity school and head of the depart- ment of church history. These positions he held continuously until his death. The curriculum of his department, as developed under his guidance, covered an unusually wide range of study, laying special emphasis upon the history of the modern period. He had no small share in the formation of the University and, as one of President Harper's warm- His Quarter-Century Service as Teacher 7 est personal friends, his helpful intimacy and sympathetic interest had no small influence in molding the larger life of the University. The highest ruling body of the University of Chicago has expressed itself as follows : The Senate of the University of Chicago desires to place on record its sincere appreciation of <^he service rendered to the University by Professor Eri Baker Hulbert, and its sense of the loss sustained by the University and by the Senate in his death. Coming to the University at its foundation as dean of the Divinity School after an experience of fifteen years as a Christian pastor and of eleven years as professor of church history in the Baptist Union Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, Dr. Hulbert quickly adapted himself to the new^ situation v^^hich was created by the incorporation of that institution in the University. Although his previous educational experience had been exclusively in the training of men for the practi- cal w^ork of the Christian ministry and his interest in this department of education continued unabated, he entered sympathetically and intelli- gently into the w^ork of directing research upon the part of his own students and of developing a school of theology which, by adding to its task as a professional school that of investigation in all fields of theological study, should take its place as a graduate school of the University. As dean of the Divinity School, as head of the Department of Church History, as one of the editors of the American Journal of Theology, be contributed worthily to the promotion of theological scholarship in the Divinity School and in the country at large. So deep, however, was his interest in every phase of university life, and in particular in the welfare of the student body, that he was led to take an active part in the life of the University as a whole, serving with especial effectiveness on the University Council and- the Board of Physical Culture and Athletics. A clear and stimulating teacher, broad in his sympathies, quick and keen of insight, fearless in the defense of his convictions, transparently honest and sincere, endowed with an unfailing sense of humor and with an indomitable courage even in the face of heavy burdens of pain and suffering, he endeared himself to all his colleagues and has en- riched the University by his memory. 8 A Brief Memoir of Dean Hulhert On June ii, 1906, the twenty-fifth anniversary of Dr. Hulbert's connection with the seminary and Divinity School was appropriately celebrated by the alumni, and it was noted that he was the sole survivor of the teaching staff of the seminary of twenty-five years ago. Among his colleagues during these years, whose departure he had lamented, were Drs. Jensen, Boise, J. A. Smith, Sage, Simpson, Northrup, G. S. Goodspeed, and President Harper. It is a well-known fact that he did not serve the seminary with divided interest, but gave it his whole and best service. However, his activity did not cease with the limits of the theological school, but he rendered valuable service on denominational boards and was a teacher in the Women's Baptist Missionary Training School from the time of its organization. His counsel was ever in demand by students and pastors. His pen has given many strong and trenchant contributions to our denominational papers. He was one of the editors of the American Journal of Theology from its foundation in 1897. During a number of the earlier years of his teaching, on almost every Sunday he was supplying somewhere, thus helping to keep the churches in touch with the seminary. He never craved notoriety; in fact, to be talked about was distasteful to him. Notwithstanding this aversion to pub- licity, his sermons, lectures, and addresses always called forth favorable comment whether delivered in local churches, at state conventions, or national anniversaries. In succeeding chapters will be found an estimate of his character, of his power as a teacher, of his efficiency as an executive, of his eminence as a Christian educator, and of his influence on his generation. Though the printed page cannot convey the charm and power of his personality, the reading of his lectures and addresses will best help us to realize him again. His Family Joys and Sorrows 9 HIS FAMILY JOYS AND SORROWS It was during his first pastorate in Chicago that he married Miss Ethelyn E. Spencer, of Troy, Pa., on June 23, 1869, and brought his young bride to his native city. She was a bright Httle vivacious woman, always planning and executing a multitude of enterprises in the interest of her husband and his work. And for him life was always lonely without her cheery presence. Three children were born of this happy union : Ethelyn Louise, in St. Paul ; Clara Delia, in San Francisco, and Charles Eri, in Chicago. His home never lacked the comforts of life, and with his family he enjoyed many of life's luxuries, physical, intel- lectual, aesthetic, and spiritual. He was glad to give each of his children the enjoyment of a college education. His family spent a year and a half on the Continent and he crossed the Atlantic twelve times. The summer vacations were spent in the northern lake region or in travel, and were always enjoyed to the full. His was, indeed, a happy home. And, moreover, he was happy in his work, with a conviction that God had called him to his chosen field of service. But later the recurrent and protracted illness of his wife became the great sorrow of his life, and the untimely death of his daughter Clara added a weight of grief seemingly too heavy for mortal heart to bear. In his letter for the annual roll-call of his church, October 31, 1906, he said, in part : My membership with you dates back more than a quarter of a century. Nearly all the older members in the earlier days have passed to their reward on high. When my duties called me away from Morgan Park I ought perhaps to have taken my letter of dismission, but several reasons constrained me to elect otherwise. All the mem- bers of my family were in church connection with you, and I did lo A Brief Memoir 0} Dean Hulbert not wish to draw apart and form a new connection by myself alone. I indulged the hope that my household, broken and scattered, might some time be reunited and that we could re-establish our home in IMorgan Park. But the years have passed and the return of this annual roll-call finds our future as uncertain as ever I am constrained to say a word in behalf of two from whom you will not hear on Wednesday evening. (Of Grandma and Andrew and Louisa I need not speak, only recently have they left you.) Our Clara after ceasing to reside in Morgan Park continued to live for Christ in her school home in Mt. Carroll and in her church home in Denver. To Him and His service she absolutely devoted her refined nature and trained intellect, her consecrated will and beautiful spirit. Her quick Christian intelligence, deep inward experience, and win- some personality gave her access to many who could not be reached by stereotyped modes of approach and appeal. Though tarrying here on earth, she lived more and more in that ideal and spiritual world into the calm and fruition of which she has now entered. Those of you who knew Mrs. Hulbert in former days can testify to her deep and abiding interest in everything which concerned the welfare of the church. When the roll is called this evening, if she were able to respond, she would assure you that she still lives in the remembrance of those happy days when she was earnestly engaged in Christian service, and that nothing would give her greater joy than to resume those activities which illness compelled her to lay aside. HIS LAST ILLNESS AND DEATH Not only did Dr. Hulbert suffer in the distresses of those whom he loved, but the burden of bodily affliction at times rested heavy on himself. A few years ago, after a radical mastoid operation following pneumonia, his life was despaired of, but he was still brave in the face of death. After that illness, however, he enjoyed most excellent health, and we thought we could count on him for several years more of service, "rich, ripe, mellow, the quintessence of all that had gone before." He spent the summer abroad in company with his friend Mr. Jesse A. Baldwin, and seemed so vigorous during the autumn and early winter His Last Illness and Death ii that his friends were surprised to learn of his illness and shocked when they heard of his death. He passed away peacefully after a month's illness in the hospital, at 3 135 o'clock, on Sunday morning, February 17, 1907, in his sixty-sixth year. His death was due to an extension of pneumonia following an operation for gall-stones. His case was serious from the beginning, as rupture of the gall-bladder had already taken place. He fully realized the gravity of his condition, and having made all prepara- tions for death, made a long, courageous, uphill struggle for life. Several times his physicians gave up all hope and said he could live only a few hours, but each time he rallied. The University daily said editorially: "Any man of ordi- nary makeup would have gone before the end of the first week, but Dr. Hulbert was more than ordinary. It was alone his strength of character, his unflinching courage and confidence that kept him alive as long as he did live." Even the day before his death he was better than he had been for a week, and his physician expressed hopes of his recovery. But when the relapse came on, he said to his family gathered about him: ''This is the article of death." And after fare- well words, with their names on his lips, "the victorious Hulbert" passed away peacefully and fearlessly without even a bodily tremor. Of his family there remained his wife and Grandma Spencer, for whose continued welfare he was ever solicitous ; his daughter, Mrs. A. R. E. Wyant ; his son, Charles Eri; and five grandchildren — Florence Ethelyn Wyant, Elizabeth Wyant, Esther Louise Hulbert, Mary Addams Hulbert, and Eri Baker Hulbert HI. It did not remain for his many friends to put flowers on his casket and speak kind words to the ear of death in order to show their appreciation, but during his illness he was cheered and sustained by the many messages of love and 12 A Brief Memoir oj Dean Hulhert affection and hope that came pouring in upon him, such as this upon the visiting card of a colleague : "My beloved friend Hulbert — I dropped in just to tell you that we are with you in your fight. Our love, our hopes, our prayers are with you." In later chapters may be found some of the tributes paid to his memory. His own last published article in The Standard was a tribute to Dr. Harper on the anniversary of the President's death, in which he called attention to President Harper's spirit of Christian fortitude under in- tense bodily suffering and in the face of approaching death. His words seem almost like a prophetic description of his own departure: "If he was great as he stood forth in the noonday of his power, he was greater as he passed down into the valley of the shadow." And his concluding prayer was all too soon realized : We who remain have not yet been subjected to the supreme test. When that time comes, may the final ilhiess show us working on while strength remains, with a like constancy and steadiness, and passing into the strange, portentous dark of eternity with a like expectancy and assurance. Let US who mourn his departure and cherish his memory take inspiration from his life and be faithful in our work here until God unites us in the better service of the world above. II A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER II A MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO HIS CHARACTER Dean Hulbert was a man who loved simplicity, and, in general keeping with his wishes, the family requested that flowers be omitted at his funeral. But many friends have offered their tributes to his character, and in this chapter we weave them together into one great garland to make fragrant his memory. His character was such a complex of qualities as almost to elude analysis; so we shall know him better if we read the added testimony of many who loved him as a friend. His personality was so robust and abounding that it never failed to make its impression upon everyone with whom he came in contact. He was a perfectly unique character and possessed a marked individuality. He was no ordinary man. His intense, glowing, vigorous person- ality was sure to be noted, even on first acquaintance. There was nothing stereotyped or commonplace about him. He was a man of splendid physical proportions. Stately in stature and dignified in manner, he always commanded at- tention. There was something mysteriously magnetic about his personality. It was easy to see that he was a man of action, a very dynamo of nervous energy. He did not merely exist and move with routine regularity. His life was measured by quick heart-throbs. There was movement in his make-up, and urgency in his movement. Where he was things had to "go." His action and nervous energy manifested them- es 1 6 A Memorial Tribute to His Character selves even in the tones of his voice, sometimes gentle and tender, then again breaking forth in the explosive expres- sion of some great truth. Those who tried to read in the Divinity School library near his recitation-room sometimes thought that more noise rolled out from under his door and exploded through the transom window than was absolutely necessary, but they were sure that something was doing that would not soon be forgotten by his pupils. Nobody ever went to sleep under his teaching, and no one ever called him "dry-as-dust." He was the embodiment of a living theme, and hence he made it live before his students, and made them feel that they were actually eye-witnesses of the great movements and achievements of history. Dr. Hulbert was a man of noble enthusiasm and scho- lastic ambition. Every tier of his intellectual outfit was aglow with desire and purpose. What he knew he wanted to know as near the core as possible. He remained a hard- working student until the end of his days. On the back of an old memorandum paper I found these words in his hand- writing: Oh, how much I want lo know, and there is very much I could know if I had time and strength. I find by study certain things become clear which were obscure, and things now obscure I conjecture would become clear if I had the time to investigate. Is it to be sup- posed that I am to die in ignorance of these things and never, never know them? Is the ambition to remain forever unsatisfied? His enthusiasm and ambition for knowledge were con- tagious and filled the souls of his students with the same feelings. Another characteristic, going with the former, was his open-mindedness. He was hospitable to new truth from whatever source, and would follow it to the end. Living in an age of rapid transition, he appropriated knowledge from His Moral Courage, Sincerity, Frankness 17 every field accessible to him and assimilated it as he appro- priated it. In the closing chapter of this volume, he has expressed some of his own deep convictions regarding the spirit which should animate our Baptist preachers and leaders. He was a man of moral courage whom no threat could intimidate or turn from speaking his mind; no dread of censure ever caused him to erase a line. In the pulpit or on the platform he was a man with a message, and he delivered it without fear or favor. He did what Bismarck said the Germans do : "We fear God, but none other." He never hesitated under any circumstances to express his convictions. And he always sought to accomplish his purpose when he believed he was right. Dean Hulbert was notable for his sincerity and frank- ness. Of meanness and trickery he was incapable. And he had a salutary dislike, amounting to hatred and con- tempt, for anything hypercritical, hide-bound, or pharisaic. If he had a critcism to offer he would generally make it face to face with the man to whom it applied, and some- times with a frankness and bluntness that would deceive one who did not know him well into supposing that he was hard-hearted. The truth was that with the natural shrink- ing of a kind-hearted man from saying unpleasant things, he had schooled himself not to shirk the task of honest truth-telling, but to speak out without reserve the things that needed to be said. With his students he was frank, sometimes sharply and brusquely so; but they soon learned that it was a part of the intensity of the man, under which there was the kindliest of spirit. It was simply the dra- matic in his make-up that showed itself every day with so much effect in the classroom. He was also a lovable man whose heart ever went out 1 8 A Memorial Tribute to His Character in sympathy and helpfulness to others. No one ever came near to him and stayed near long enough to know him, but found out that he had a big, affectionate nature, and learned to love him. How he could tie up friends to his heart in an undying affection! His churches not only trusted and ad- mired him but also loved and clung to him long after he had left them. He won friends by being friendly. Among the students he was both a father and a companion. He re- garded them all as his "boys," and he was ever ready to show a sympathetic and helpful interest in their welfare. His generosity was another quality with which many had occasion to be impressed. Seemingly always self- reliant, he helped many others with their burdens, and these bear grateful testimony to his generous kindness shown in many ways. He was generous of his sympathy, generous of his money, generous of his time. There was nothing niggardly about his giving. When any student sought his counsel, he would drop his work, open up his mind, and in a few minutes become wholly absorbed in the matter under consideration. His large-hearted, generous nature found apparently the greatest delight in rendering some service of this kind. And he did it in such a kindly, sympathetic, and brotherly manner that his genuine interest was evidenced. His prudence and wisdom led him to seek out the minutest details; in fact, he went fully into the merits of each case before he would give any counsel whatever. His insistence on looking at every side of a question, even the darkest, seemed somewhat distasteful and apparently un- necessary to some who were youthful and always opti- mistic. But time, observation, and experience fully corroborated his method, and showed that it was just such a far-reaching vision as his, which included the disappoint- ing and dark areas of life, that made him such a wise A Genial, Jovial, Manly Christian 19 counselor to his students. Though impulsive by nature, a man in whose boiler steam was sure to be making when the fires of thought were kindled, he was for the most part tactful, decidedly so; though now and then his strong, impulsive nature might sweep him beyond the limit of his usual caution. His genial, jovial disposition, his ready wit, and keen sense of humor will long be remembered by his friends. He was such a good companion, such a jovial spirit, that any normal person would enjoy his presence. His wit was of the highest and finest quality. His humor was genial to the last degree. The funny side of situations never escaped him. He saw the fun of history. This was one reason why his minute presentation of historical details was never dull. His power in the classroom lay partly in the enforcement of the most striking and often of the trivial points, by an inimitable method of delivery, by modulation of voice, by gesture, by ready wit, by irony, by sarcasm, by an imperso- nation that was irresistible. There was a certain quaint eloquence in his teaching which fascinated the class and sometimes, when it approached the grotesque, amused them. But it all made them remember. Another thing that impressed us was the manliness of his religion. He was a manly man. There was nothing weak or womanish about him. One felt when with him that he was in the presence of a strong good man. He made the inevitable impression of character, virility, power. He was, as was said of Roger Williams, "a clubable man; a man whose dignity did not petrify us, nor his saintliness give us a chill." Religious cant was foreign to his soul. He shared that total freedom from religiosity which, in his last published article, he spoke of as characteristic of Presi- dent Harper. Our good dean was indeed a manly Chris- 20 A Memorial Tribute to His Character tian, and his entire life was a call upon all who knew him to manly Christian service. We notice, lastly, his cheerful courage and sublime forti- tude in the trials of life. Few men have passed through greater afflictions. But in all his relations his Christianity overflowed with an abounding good cheer, a buoyant spirit, and a hopeful courage. He unfailingly displayed a splen- did joyousness. Even his own griefs were not allowed to disturb the spirit of his best friend, if concealment would prevent it. Dr. Hulbert had a big brave heart ready to sympathize with others, and also to bear when the burden of affliction rested heavy on his own shoulders. The hearts of many have been touched by his sorrows. Work is the best cure for many of our troubles, and he seemed to seek relief in added service. But when to his tasks so nobly done and to this ceaseless inner burden of heart and loneliness borne in silence, there is added this uniform radiant inspira- tion of a cheerful courage, we discover a sublime heroism in such endeavor and the heroic fortitude of a true faith in God. Surely if ever there was a man who was the embodi- ment of good cheer and good courage amidst the sorrows of life, it was Dean Hulbert. Ill MEMORIAL ADDRESSES Ill MEMORIAL ADDRESSES I. AT THE FUNERAL SERVICE IN MANDEL HALL The funeral service was held on February 19, 1907. At the house of Mrs. G. S. Goodspeed, where for several years he had made his home, a guard of honor from the Divinity School stood by the casket until the relatives and immediate friends assembled for a brief service conducted by Pro- fessor A. K. Parker. The public service was held in Mandel Hall. The pallbearers were : Dean Shailer Mathews, Pro- fessors George B. Foster, Ira M. Price, J. W. Moncrief, Drs. T. W. Goodspeed and C. E. Hewitt, and Messrs. Jesse A. Baldwin and John A. Reichelt. The University trustees, senate, council, and faculties were on the platform and a large assembly of students and friends were present to honor his memory. President Judson presided. The Scrip- tures were read by Dean Mathews, also a selection from Pilgrim's Progress, telling how Standfast crossed over the river, which Dean Hulbert had read at the funeral of Presi- dent Harper. Professor Franklin Johnson offered a fer- vent prayer, in the course of which he said : We would not pray for our brother but give thanks for him. He has joined the innumerable saints. We offer prayers for ourselves and thanks for his great life. May his children and grandchildren tread the paths he has followed and carry on his worthy name. May God raise up a multitude of such gracious characters. Professor E. D. Burton, with characteristic clearness and impressiveness, paid a beautiful tribute to the memory of his colleague, in part, as follows : 23 24 Memorial Addresses There are four ambitions that enter into life, not to corrupt or degrade it, but instead, to invigorate and ennoble it : the ambition for goodness, for learning, for friendship, for achievement. The desire for goodness makes the saint; for learning, the scholar; for friendship, the friend, the lover, the husband, the father; for achievement, the man of affairs, taking his part in the world's life and helping to accomplish the world's tasks. It is true that to no one of these alone can we safely commit our lives. But to blend all these in one life — goodness, learning, friendship, achievement — this is to make one's life a noble anthem in which the deep, strong note of achievement blends har- moniously and inspiringly with the higher, sweeter tones of wisdom and friendship and goodness. Nor can we feel that any life is quite complete that lacks any one of these. But it is not a life lacking any of these things that we are contemplating here. Our dear friend, whose departure from us we mourn, whose victory we celebrate, was a man who loved goodness, and learning, and friendship, and achievement. He loved goodness, and sought it for himself and for others. It was no weak and womanish goodness that he desired. Piety was a word seldom on his lips. Religiosity was wholly foreign to his soul. Full of life to his finger tips, with a keen appreciation of every phase of life, his goodness was of a wholly masculine type. But it was there. Deep in his manly soul there was a strong desire to be a good man. And those who knew him most intimately knew best that through and through, at the center and at the surface, in purpose and in deed, their friend Hulbert was a good man. And he loved knowledge too. No man among us was more hospitable to light, whencesoever derived, more hopeful, more cheerful in the presence of new acquisitions of truth, even though these demanded important reconstruction of pre- vious opinions. He loved knowledge and feared not truth, but only error. And our friend loved friends, and had a capacity for making friends and of binding them to him with bands of steel. He spoke out, with frankness that sometimes seemed unfeeling, the truth as he saw it. Those who did not know him well enough to understand his motives were sometimes offended with such plainness of speech. But those who lived near to him came to prize his friendship, not least because they knew that from him they could always learn the whole truth as he knew it. To this frankness he added a generosity rarely equaled. Many a pupil of his could bear witness to the generous devotion with which he gave of his time and The Funeral Service in Mandel Hall 25 his sympathy and his thought, to understand another's problem and to relieve another's perplexity or distress. Never can I forget that great kindness with which he gave to me four months out of his busy life to help me to regain lost health and strength. Dr. Hulbert loved achievement in the world of action. Loving learning, I cannot but think he loved yet more life among men, the doing of things that needed to be done, the achievement of tasks. And he built his life into the lives of the people whom he served as pastor, into the lives of hundreds of men who have passed through the Divinity School in the twenty-five years that he was connected with it as professor and dean, into the lives of his colleagues, and into the school whose work he has guided since it became a part of the University in 1892. He loved goodness, and learning, and friendship, and achievement, and his goodly ambition in all these directions was nobly realized. And yet I should wholly fail to give an adequate impression of his life, fail to recall that which above all else will make his life for all of us who knew him a precious memory and an inspiration to noble living on our own part, if I did not speak a word concerning his indomitable and cheerful courage. With much to make his life joyful, there came also to him such sorrow and loss as it is laid upon few of us to bear, grief such as breaks men's hearts and crushes out their courage. He met it not with the stolidity of an insensitive nature, not with the despair of a weak nature, not with the rebelliousness of a soul that loses its faith under the strain of sore trial, not even with the stoical, silent endurance of one who with set teeth bends to the storm and utters no word whether of faith or of unbelief. Keenly suffering him- self in the sufferings of others, and in his own pain and loss, his own faith in God and God's goodness never wavered. He rose above his pain and loss, and faced life not only with courage, but with cheerful- ness, and shed about him not the gloom of his own sorrow, but the inspiration of his faith and courage. Such men never die. Such a life never ends. Its courage, its faith, its cheerfulness, its unselfish- ness are our heritage, ours to reproduce and by reproducing to trans- mit to those who come after us. In his going from among us we suffer a loss that time will never wholly make up to us. But we sorrow not as thinking only of our loss. We remember our gain also. His life has been to many of us rich in inspiration and help. Our herit- age none can take from us. And as for him — he has fought his fight, he has finished his course, he has kept the faith. Henceforth there is 26 Memorial Addresses laid up for him the crown of righteousness which the Lord the right- eous judge will give to all them that have loved his appearing. In the God in whom he trusted we also believe. It is well with him. It is well with us. Professor C. R. Henderson was the second speaker and sounded a note of cheer and gratitude, rather than of grief ; telHng, in his warm-hearted, inspiring way, of the good influence of our departed dean which would always remain with us and help us to devote our lives in noble service. After the benediction was pronounced, the body was slowly borne from the hall, to be taken to its final resting-place in the family burial plot at Mount Hope, to be near what was mortal of his lamented daughter Clara. II. AT THE DIVINITY-SCHOOL MEMORIAL SERVICE On April i, 1907, a memorial service was held by the Divinity School in Haskell Hall. President Judson pre- sided. Rev. W. H. McLeod spoke, representing the students; Dr. A. W. Wishart represented the alumni; Professor J. W. Moncrief represented the Divinity School ; Professor Albion W. Small represented the University, and Dr. B. A. Greene represented the Baptist denomination. Dean Hulbert's fatherly interest in the students and his readiness to help those in trouble; his power in the class- room and cautious progressiveness in theology; his helpful intimacy with President Harper, and his abounding cheer- fulness even in the midst of sorrow, were emphasized. Dr. Greene, in glowing, graphic phrase, spoke, in part, as follows : Just before Lyman Beecher died some one bent over him and asked the question: "Do you remember Dr. Taylor?" The old man felt a thrill of grateful memory and, putting his hand over his heart, said: "Part of me : part of me." A man who can get into other men and live in those other men like that is a mighty power The Diviniiy-ScJwol Memorial Service 27 in a denomination; a power in any department of associ- ated thought and activity. Such a man was Dr. Hulbert. He kept close to the results of the best and most searching investigation. These he tested in his own honest thinking, with light coming from every quarter; he tasted their spiritual import in his own soul's experience; then, when it became bone of his bone, flesh of his flesh, conviction of his manhood, he was ready to speak out his thought. His entire moral nature was right there, reserve forces within easy call; and every half -ounce of his physique tingled with eagerness to help send the message on its winged way. Wherever he went the denomination felt it was reaching up into finer strength; and the whole community agreed: "Here is a big- hearted brother for us all." His quality of religion helped the whole Christian brotherhood, and so made it more of an honor to be a Baptist. As a pastor he touched the denomination, here and there, to quicken, strengthen, exalt its better life, and, more than that, to harness its activities into effectiveness. Such a man, not only by what he actually does, but by example and stimulus, blesses the whole de- nomination. There is nothing stronger in this world than a truth- loving, purposeful, God-filled personality. But now, in the seminary, he is put at the center of denominational influence. Classes of min- isterial students come before him, and he unlocks all his hid treasure of learning and experience. He does not choke them with thrusting down his theories. He is full of whatever he teaches. He bubbles over always, like a spring fed from the mountains. There were times, and they were frequent, when his teaching poured forth as under mighty pressure from within. He made himself know history. He lived it over in his soul; he felt the struggle of the good with the bad; he saw the trend of things; he detected the push of God in among the pigmy politicians, ecclesiastics, and theologians. He put his intense, quiver- ing self into men in such a way that they never could forget the teacher, let them go to country or city, to the far frontier, or to China or Japan. They carried a Hulbert glow, at least in their memory, out into the great denomination. For years he was also a sort of Baptist bishop, preaching in churches far and near. They liked him, loved him, admired him, yielded them- selves up to the sway of his unique style — first quiet, deliberate, terse, lucid, then, before he got through, picturesque Switzerland with a ripping thunderstorm thrown in. His lightning came so near that 28 Memorial Addresses there was a sound like the tearing of cloth. He imitated nobody. It was Hulbert in the pulpit and no one else, except God who called him there. The fear of God was before his eyes, and no other fear. The Sunday he preached in any church was a Sunday when that part of the denomination took an exhilarating tonic. People knew what he said and understood what he meant. He was the antipodes to that class of speakers described by a quaint writer as follows: "Many persons are like many rivers whose mouths are at a vast distance from their heads, for their words are as far from their thoughts as Canopus from the head of the Nile." Not only did he preach: he stood on the platform of every state convention in the Middle West. He was repeatedly called to speak at our national anniversaries. Repre- sentative men from all sections heard him, and especially young minis- ters eager to study forceful personality. His thoughts, his ideals, his ethical conviction, his widening view, made strong appeal. The Baptist Training School of this city, from which hundreds of young women have gone out as missionaries all over the world, also acknowledges his invaluable and continuous service. He has all these years given it the overflow of the same rich life he gave to the Divinity School, and gave it gratuitously. Associated as he was with such a senior as Northrup, and such a junior as Harper, his life kept deepening and widening out. He was as eager to learn at the last as at the first. Every year had a springtime in his thinking and his feeling. He was a live tree making new wood, at least a part of the time. While there was a rugged strength in the trunk, he gloried in fresh, smooth bark where new buds could swell into velvety foliage and fragrant fruit. In the ripe strength of his years he came to be dean of the Divinity School in connection with this great University. He has stood in the forefront, every intelligent man acknowledging that he did not fall below the university idea; at the same time he carried in his heart the simplicity, the sincerity, the consecration of a humble believer in Jesus Christ. He was true to the fontal principles of his denomination; therefore he became, by the process of a healthy growth, a larger Christian, a roomier Baptist, an intenser lover of the truth in its God-revealing entirety. In fact, he became a splendid fulfilment of that old injunction of Sir Thomas Browne: "Be what thou vir- tuously art; and let not the ocean wash away thy tincture." IV MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS AND TESTIMONIALS IV MEMORIAL RESOLUTIONS AND TESTIMONIALS A worthy memorial of Dean Hulbert could be made by compiling a volume from the mass of material available as tributes to his memory. In addition to the two services at the University of Chicago, there were scores of memorial services held all over the country. In Baptist schools and in several sister institutions of learning the minds of the students were inspired by lessons from his life, and the faculties have given expression to their estimate of his character. The Baptist ministers' conferences of many cities held memorial services and passed fitting resolutions. In the churches which he served as pastor and in the churches served by the hundreds of his students scattered all over the world, his departure was the subject for a memorial service or a special prayer-meeting talk, empha- sizing the noble qualities of the beloved teacher and friend. Grateful recognition is also made by his family for the per- sonal letters of consoling sympathy received from many of his friends and associates. It scarcely needs to be added that these words are as highly prized as the more public expres- sions in the religious journals of various denominations, or the few resolutions and testimonials which the plan of this volume permits. The following selections are some of the expressions of fellow-educators and preachers giving especially an estimate of the place which he held among the great teachers of his day. 31 32 Memorial Resolutions and Testimonials BY THE DIVINITY FACULTY AND DIVINITY CONFERENCE, AND ADOPTED ALSO BY THE UNIVERSITY COUNCIL The members of the Divinity Faculty and the Divinity Conference of the University of Chicago desire to place on record their deep sense of the loss sustained by the University in the death of their friend and colleague, Eri Baker Hulbert, February 17, 1907. Dr. Hulbert became a member of the Faculty of the Baptist Union Theological Seminary in 1881. He was the acting president in 1884—85, and on the incorporation of the seminary in the University of Chicago became the dean of the newly organized Divinity School. In that office he displayed the highest devotion to the welfare of the school and of the students with whom he came in closest contact. His genial, courageous spirit, his virile piety, his wise counsel, his wide experience, his undi- vided loyalty to truth, made him a noble leader and friend. His deep and catholic interest in all religious, and particularly in all denomina- tional advance, was a potent influence in the lives of hundreds of ministers, and through them in the churches throughout the nation and particularly in the Middle West. In his death the Divinity School has lost a great teacher and leader; the Baptist denomination, a powerful inspiration; and the church, an indomitable champion. BY THE SCANDINAVIAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, MORGAN PARK, ILL. In view of the death of Eri B. Hulbert, senior dean of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, the faculties and students of the Scandinavian Seminary desire to express their profound realization of the loss sustained by this sad event. We join with the Divinity School as a whole in mourning the loss of our Senior Dean. As Scandinavians, we have in the departure of Dr. Hulbert lost a warm friend, a wise counselor, one deeply interested in the work for, and among, our nationalities, and the memory of him will long be cherished and revered among the Scandinavian Baptist ministers and churches. We desire to convey our sincere condolence to the bereaved rela- tives, and we wish them God's sustaining grace in a rich measure, and a clear realization of the blessed hope that is in Christ Jesus. Crozer, Rochester, McCormick 33 BY THE FACULTY OF THE CROZER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CHESTER, PA. The faculty of the Crozer Theological Seminary desires to express its sense of the great loss that the University of Chicago has sus- tained in the death of Professor Eri B. Hulbert. His long and efficient service in the chair of church history, and as dean of the Divinity School, has given him a place of honor in the history of American education ; and his character as man and Christian won him an equally high place in the esteem of all good men. The members of this faculty loved and honored him for his progressive spirit, for his loyalty to the truth, for the zeal with which he sought the advancement of Christian learning and the best training of the rising ministry. May God give us a succession of such men to carry on the great work of Christian education. In behalf of the Faculty, Henry C. Vedder BY THE FACULTY OF THE ROCHESTER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY The faculty of Rochester Theological Seminary desires to express to the Divinity Faculty of the University of Chicago its sincere sym- pathy and sorrow at the death of Dean Eri B. Hulbert, whose many gifts of scholarship and of personal magnetism have provoked admira- tion. God buries his workmen but he carries on his work. May Chicago be guided aright in filling the vacancy caused by the death so lamented I BY THE FACULTY OF THE McCORMICK THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, CHICAGO The faculty of McCormick Theological Seminary has heard with deep sorrow of the death of Professor Eri B. Hulbert, D.D. His genial, strong, and consecrated personality was appreciated by all of us, and in our meetings together we never failed to be impressed by his commanding presence. We shall miss the association with him which has been so pleasant and so satisfying. Our sympathy goes out to you in this loss. Your ranks have been sadly broken into within recent months, but those who have gone have 34 Memorial Resolutions and Testimonials given such deep and sincere testimony to the abiding principles and power of our faith, that our own courage must become the stronger, and our realization of the greatness and importance of our mission and responsibility fuller and more abiding. BY THE FACULTY OF THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY OF COLGATE UNIVERSITY The faculty of the Theological Seminary of Colgate University hereby expresses to you its sincere sympathy with you in the sorrow which has come to you in the death of your colleague and dean. Pro- fessor Eri B. Hulbert. We feel that his death is a loss not only to you, but to the whole brotherhood of theological scholars, and to our entire denomination. We can the better understand your feelings at the death of this good man, because he was for three years a student in our own college, and later a graduate of our Theological Seminary; and so was one of us, as well as one with you. We all have reason to be grateful together for the good work he has done, and proud of the record of a true and noble Christian life which he has made. BY THE FACULTY OF GARRETT BIBLICAL INSTITUTE, EVANSTON, ILL. Dear Professor Mathews : I have been requested by our faculty to communicate to you our sense of bereavement in the death of Pro- fessor Hulbert. He was greatly esteemed by us all, not only for his great gifts in scholarship, but for his high nobility of character, true catholicity of spirit, and genuine manliness. May we through you offer to all his colleagues and to his family this expression of our sorrow and sympathy. Very sincerely yours, Charles M. Stuart, Secretary BY THE FACULTY OF UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, NEW YORK Dear Brethren: In behalf of the faculty of the Union Theo- logical Seminary I beg to express our deep sympathy with you in your Meadville, McM aster, Hartjord 35 loss through the death of Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., head of the Department of Church History and dean of the Divinity School. The death of Dr. Hulbert is a personal loss to us, for we valued him highly as a colaborer in the great field of theological learning and education, and in this we express the feeling not only of our own selves but of the great community of scholars. With profound respect, I am. Yours most sincerely, George Wm. Knox Acting President BY THE FACULTY OF THE MEADVILLE THEOLOGICAL SCHOOL, MEADVILLE, PA. The faculty of the Meadville Theological School has learned with profound sorrow of the recent death of Dr. Eri B. Hulbert, dean of the Divinity Faculty of the University of Chicago, a man whose character and scholarly attainments have made him widely and favorably known to the theologians of our time. The Meadville Faculty wishes to express to its Chicago brethren its deep sympathy in the loss which the University of Chicago has sustained. BY THE FACULTY OF McMASTER UNIVERSITY, TORONTO, CAN. The faculty of McMaster University desires to express its sym- pathy with the Divinity Faculty of the University of Chicago in the sorrow and loss that have come to it in the death of Dr. Eri Baker Hulbert, the dean of the Divinity School, who was also teacher and friend of members of our own faculty. "Being dead he yet speaketh," through many pulpits and schools and in many lands. BY THE FACULTY OF HARTFORD THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, HARTFORD, CONN. On behalf of the faculty of Hartford Theological Seminary, I hereby express our deep sympathy with you in the loss by death of Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D., head of the Department of Church History and dean of the Divinity School in the University of Chicago. 36 Memorial Resolutions and Testimonials Those of us who knew Dr. Hulbert personally, who have felt the charm of his spirit and the energy of his will, his deep earnestness and his great ability, recognize the magnitude of the loss which has come upon you. We sorrow with you. Yours sincerely, W. Douglas Mackenzie BY THE FACULTY OF BANGOR THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, BANGOR, ME. The president and faculty of Bangor Theological Seminary learn with great regret of the death of Professor Eri Baker Hulbert, D.D., LL.D. They desire to extend their heartfelt sympathy to the Divinity Faculty of the University of Chicago, and to express the sense of loss that they themselves feel in the passing of such an eminent scholar and leader. At the same time they are deeply grateful to the Father for the help and inspiration that come to all workers in his vineyard from such a noble life of service. BY THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE OF THE AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION The Executive Committee of the American Baptist Missionary Union desires to record its appreciation of the character and services on behalf of the Kingdom of the late Eri B. Hulbert, dean of the theological faculty of the University of Chicago. Dean Hulbert's life-long interest in the cause of world-wide mis- sions was fully recognized, and his death has removed from us one whose voice and pen were ever potent on behalf of this great cause. We sympathize deeply with the University of Chicago, and particularly the faculty of the Divinity School, with which he was closely identified, and unite our prayers with those of his many other friends, that the influence of his life may ever abide as a directive force in the lives of the young men who shall enter the ministry from the Divinity School of the University. To the members of his family, also, we desire to express our deepest sympathy in this time of bereavement. National and City Conferences 37 BY THE SWEDISH BAPTIST GENERAL CONFERENCE OF AMERICA Resolution adopted at the 28th annual convention at Boston, Mass., September 11-15, 1907. In the recent death of Eri B. Hulbert, D.D., the General Con- ference of Swedish Bapists of America feels that it has lost a valuable friend. He was always interested in our Swedish work, and has done much toward maintaining and developing our theological school for the necessary training of our ministry. He helped to make it what it is, an organic part of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, whose powerful influence toward the upbuilding of the Baptist denomi- nation is felt all over this land, and in foreign lands as well. Blessed be his memory. We express to the bereaved family our deepest sympathy. BY THE PASTORS' CONFERENCE OF DENVER Resolved that we, the Baptist pastors of Denver and vicinity, deeply deplore the death of Dr. Eri Hulbert, and feel that in his departure the Divinity School has lost a most worthy dean, and a teacher of remarkable breadth of view and catholicity of spirit, and that our denomination has lost from the ranks of active workers, a leader, a counselor, and a preacher of conspicuous ability. BY THE BAPTIST MINISTERS' CONFERENCE OF SAN FRANCISCO The Conference of Baptist Ministers of San Francisco and vicinity has heard, with profound regret and with keen sense of personal loss, of the death of Dean Eri B. Hulbert, of the Divinity School of the University of Chicago. We desire hereby to record our appreciation of Dean Hulbert's great contribution to the work of our denomina- tion on the Pacific Coast, especially in his strong pastorate of the First Church, San Francisco, in a time of crisis and transition; of his influence as a leader in our general work in the West for many years ; and particularly of his scholarly, brilliant, and inspiring ser- vice as educator and teacher during the extended period of his labor in the seminary at Morgan Park, and in the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, to the unique and permanent value of which 38 Memorial Resolutions and Testimonials several of our number can testify personally. Dean Hulbert's con- tribution to Baptist work on the Pacific Coast is recognized to have been of the highest order of excellence, and his influence upon the lives of those so fortunate as to have been permitted to sit under his personal tuition, an abiding uplift and benediction. BY THE BAPTIST MINISTERS' CONFERENCE OF CHICAGO The Baptist Ministers' Conference of Chicago desires to put on record its appreciation of the character and services of Dr. Eri B. Hulbert, who passed from the scene of his earthly labors on Sunday morning, February 17, 1907. Dr. Hulbert was for many years a mem- ber of this Conference and did much in aid of its influence and use- fulness. During his pastorate in Chicago, he lived in uninterrupted fellowship with his brethren in the ministry, and co-operated heartily in every effort to advance the kingdom of our Lord. His sound judg- ment, the vigor and clearness of his thought, the impressiveness of his public speech, the unaffected candor and brotherliness of his spirit claimed for him a leading place in all denominational activities. After entering upon the important and engrossing duties of a teacher of church history in the Theological Seminary at Morgan Park, later the Divinity School of the University of Chicago, in which he held from the beginning the responsible office of dean, he maintained unabated his interest in the Conference, contributing to its programme and discussions when opportunity offered, and sharing still in the denominational affairs of the city. We remember gratefully the services of this unselfish, outspoken, warm-hearted Christian man in the proclamation and defense of the truth, and his memory must remain with all who knew him, an incentive to faithfulness. May strength be given to us also to carry our burdens with steadfast courage to the end. PART TWO SOME PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION SOME PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION I begin with two quotations from Taine's History of English Literature: Two distinct branches receive the common sap; one above, the other beneath : one respected, flourishing, shooting forth in the open air; the other despised, half buried in the ground, trodden under foot by those who would crush it : both living, the Anglican as well as the Puritan, the one in spite of the care taken to develop it, the other in spite of the effort made to destroy it. This sentence is the text; and it will require a term's hard work to expand and expound this text into a sermon. We shall be concerned chiefly with the "branch beneath," "despised, half buried under ground, trodden under foot" — the Puritan branch; but the other branch, the Anglican, must likewise, and constantly, engage our attention. Today's preliminary study is fittingly introduced by another line from Taine. He says : It must be admitted that the Reformation entered England by a side door; but it is enough that it came in, whatever the manner; for great revolutions are not introduced by court intrigues and official slight of hand, but by social conditions and popular instincts. When five millions of men are converted, it is because five millions of men wish to be converted. Let us therefore leave on one side the intrigues in high places, the scruples and passions of Henry VIII, the plia- bility and plausibility of Cranmer, the vacillations and basenesses of Parliament, the oscillation and tardiness of the Reformation, begun, then arrested, then pushed forward, then with one blow violently pushed back, then spread over the whole nation, and hedged in by a legal establishment, a singular establishment, built up from dis- cordant materials, but yet solid and durable. Every great change has 41 42 Preparations for the English Reformation its root in the soul, and we have only to look close into this deep soil to discover the national inclinations and the secular irritations from which Protestantism has issued. It is the purpose of this paper to array some of these national incHnations and secular irritations, these popular instincts and social conditions which were the precursors and harbingers of the English Reformation. We begin with : THE INFLUENCE OF SURVIVING LOLLARDISM John Wiclif, the Englishman, was born one hundred and fifty years before Martin Luther, the German. His contemporaries called him "the evangelical doctor," and in later times he was justly styled, "the morning-star of the Reformation." With his most liberal culture, his highest intellectual power, his moral dignity and repose, his Christ- centered character and life, he was indeed "the greatest reforming spirit England has produced." Of the radical and essential difference between Moses and Christ, between law and gospel, law and grace, of that great doctrine of salvation — justification by faith alone — ^Luther had a clearer intellectual apprehension, though not a deeper heart experi- ence, than Wiclif. In all other respects the English re- former was farther removed from Rome — stood nearer the letter and spirit of the New Testament. Indeed, even in our own day, there are few Protestant disciples as thoroughly and consistently scriptural as was John Wiclif. In England there lived a man five hundred years ago, in the midst of the darkness and corruption of the papacy, who said that "the Bible is the faith of the church ; though the Pope and all his clerks should disappear from the face of the earth, our faith would not fail, for it is founded on Jesus alone, our Master and our God;" who said that the Wiclifs Views of the Bible 43 "Holy Scripture is the faultless, most true, most perfect, and most holy law of God, which it is the duty of all men to learn to know, to defend, and to observe, inasmuch as they are bound to serve the Lord in accordance with it, under the promise of an eternal record." He held that the Bible alone is the rule and standard of Christian faith and practice. He believed in the paramount and permanent, in the unconditional and absolutely binding authority of the written word of God. Church teaching is not binding, the writings of the fathers are not, nor is tradition, nor are creeds and confessions, nor papal decrees and canons of councils. "If there were one hundred popes, and all the friars were turned into cardinals, their opinion ought not to be acceded to in matters of faith, except in so far as they base themselves on Scripture." The inspired book is the sole and all-sufficient standard of appeal, the absolutely decisive and exclusive and unlimited authority. He like- wise rejected the notion that the doctors of the church are the authorized interpreters of the book. It is to be under- stood in a grammatical and common-sense way, in the use of reason and through divine enlightenment. A devout and humble spirit is requisite. "The Holy Ghost instructs us in the understanding of the Scripture." Of course such a book, given for such a purpose, ought to be in the hands of the people in their mother-tongue. If God's word is the life of the world, and every word of God is the life of the human soul, how may any Antichrist, for dread of God, take it away from us that be Christian men, and thus suffer the people to die in heresy and blasphemy of men's laws, that cor- rupteth and slayeth the soul? This conception of the supreme authority of the Scrip- tures was held, in part at least, by the Waldenses before the days of Wiclif, but he reached his idea independently; and 44 Preparations for the English Reformation the clearness with which he discerned it and the firmness and consistency with which he held it are truly astonishing. Controlled by this conception of the Bible, Wiclif's theology was eminently biblical. He stood where modern Protestant orthodoxy stands respecting the tripersonality of the divine nature, and the works of God in creation, preservation, and providence; respecting the original state, apostasy, and consequent ruin of man; respecting the two natures of Christ and their union in one person, and his atoning sacrifice on earth, and his continued mediation and intercession in heaven, as opposed to the pretended inter- cessions of Virgin, saints, and martyrs. Neither Moody nor Spurgeon excelled him in the warmth and devoutness with which he emphasizes the Passion of our Lord. "No one can be saved unless he is washed in the blood of Christ;" and that blood has boundless power, reaching in its effect "forwards to the world's end, and backwards to the world's beginning." In view of this redeeming love of God in Christ, ought not men to forsake their sins, and welcome and embrace this saving grace of the Redeemer? Both repentance and faith are indispensable. But the repentance must be genuine, no mere outward doing of penance; and to be genuine it must be sincere and heartfelt and fruitful. All is vitiated if the penitent is acting a part, if his very soul is not engaged, if a changed life does not follow. Faith, too, is needful. Faith is a knowledge and recog- nition of the truths of Christianity (largely a matter of the intellect). Faith, too, is a loving obedience to the law of Christ, an imitation of the divine Redeemer (the very sub- stance of Christian morality, a matter pre-eminently of the heart and life). To Luther must be given the crowning honor of finding in the New Testament a third conception His Views of Good Works and the Church 45 of faith which Widif did not as clearly discern: faith viewed as that one act of the whole moral being by which the sinner accepts and embraces Jesus Christ as his own present, perfect, and precious Savior. In the church in which Wiclif was born and reared, the merit of good works was a theme of endless laudation. Wiclif quoted the words of Christ: "When ye have done all, then say, we are unprofitable servants." Cannot a man merit the forgiveness of his sins by good works? No. Granted that grace is requisite to conversion, cannot a man by his good works merit the gift of that grace? No. After he is converted, cannot a man by good works merit the blessedness of heaven? No. Cannot a converted man do his duty, and then a little more, and have this little more placed to his credit? No. What becomes, then, of super- erogation, of this boundless treasure of surplus merit which it belongs to the Pope to administer? There is no such thing as supererogation, and the Pope's administration of it is a "lying fiction." Wiclif 's superiority to Luther and to modern Protes- tantism is most clearly exhibited in his doctrine of the church — its nature, ofhcers, worship, and ordinances. He rejected and stoutly opposed the position of Cyprian out of which, later, the papal theory was evolved — the position that the church is that visible, external organization which began with the apostles and continues with an unbroken series of bishops as their successors, inside of which all are saved, and outside of which there is no salvation. Con- trariwise, the church of Christ is the whole company of regenerate persons in all times and ages — those in heaven, the church triumphant, those on earth, the church militant; and all together the body of the elect, the Bride of Christ. There are two classes of men, the elect (the only true 46 Preparations for the English Reformation church), and the reprobate. In the visible Catholic church the reprobate may hold the highest official trust, and the visible Catholic church may excommunicate the very chosen of the Lord. Besides this general, invisible host of God's elect, there are the smaller, local companies of regenerate persons, the individual churches, as distinguished from the church universal. When Wiclif says that "the church is an assembly of predestinated persons," and again that "the church is a congregation of just men for whom Christ shed his blood," he expresses exactly the Baptist view. In the matter of the officers of the church the existing arrangements are totally at variance with the teaching of the New Testament. In the New Testament this sharp distinction between the clergy and the laity cannot be found. In the New Testament this multiplicity of dignitaries — sub- deacons, deacons, archdeacons, priests, monks, canons, friars, bishops, pardoners, archbishops, cardinals, popes, and what not, cannot be found. As for the Pope, he has vaulted into Christ's place, and is none other than Anti- christ. In the New Testament this denying marriage to the clergy and this enforced support of them by prevailing methods cannot be. found. In the New Testament clergy and laity alike are called of God, and are alike his kings and priests. In the New Testament the mmiber of offices in the church is two, no more, that of bishop, presbyter, or pastor, and that of deacon. Bishop and presbyter are the same, interchangeable terms to designate one office. Enfor- cing celibacy upon these men is unscriptural and hypo- critical and pernicious; and their support ought to come from the voluntary offerings of the people. In the matter of worship there now prevails a still more damaging departure from New Testament simplicity. This devotion to martyrs, this adoring of relics, these festivals to His Views of Worship and the Sacraments 47 saints, these pilgrimages to shrines, these masses for the dead, and these prayers to Mary fall not short of open idolatry. Offensive to God are these gorgeous ceremonials, these appeals to the sensuous nature, these glittering robes and gilded trappings, lights and censers, and genuflections, and processionals, and all the rest. The senses are intoxi- cated and the soul is left to die. Not so ought the church to worship God. Above all things the worship ought to be simple, direct, devout, and earnest, suited to the spiritual needs of men, and "able to supply their souls with whole- some refreshment from the eternal fountain;" and to this end, in the house of God preaching ought to have the con- spicuous place; a preaching drawn from God's word, and opening up Bible thoughts and applying them to life; not a preaching taking its material from civil and natural history, or recounting the legends and lying miracles of the church, or rehearsing the tales and fables which fill the pages of profane antiquity. Perhaps such preaching will tickle the ears of worldlings, but it will never win a soul to Christ. And again it must be a preaching from the Bible truly interpreted, not an unauthorized, fanciful, allegorical inter- pretation. The very Bible must be preached, else the preach- ing is defective, saints are not edified, sinners are not converted, and God is not worshiped. Wiclif was himself a mighty preacher, and he wrote a treatise on The Art of Pulpit Discourse, and he had every gift for a modern chair of homiletics. The sacraments of the church are not seven, but two — Baptism and the Lord's Supper. Baptism does not wash away sins; it is the symbol of sins already washed away. Hence the ordinance is designed for regenerate men; it is not designed for infants. The babes are saved without 48 Preparations for the English Reformation baptism. Without spiritual baptism water baptism is value- less. The Romish doctrine of the Lord's Supper is the master- piece of Satan. The mass is the most monstrous perversion of Bible truth the ages have produced. Transubstantiation is simply diabolical. The Scriptures know nothing of it; even tradition does not uphold it; the senses flatly contra- dict it; it is most ruinous in its consequences. It is an awful blasphemy to hold that a priest can make God. Here, then, we find a man whose life-work — both de- structive and constructive — was of the first magnitude. On the destructive side, he rejected and denounced the Pope, the hierarchy, the outward visible Catholic church, sacerdotalism, sacramentarianism, transubstantiation, super- erogation, monkery, celibacy, ritualism, relics, images, pilgrimages, penances, indulgences, and all the other rags of popery. On the constructive side, he proclaimed the supremacy of the Bible, the sole headship and authority of Jesus Christ, the necessity of faith, repentance, and holy living, the simplicity and purity of worship, the original form and intent of the ordinances, the New Testament pattern of the Christian church. This is the man who inaugurated that extensive reaction against the papacy which issued one hundred and fifty years later in the English Reformation. He did this by his Oxford lectures, by his parliamentary career, by his patriotic resistance to the encroachments of Rome, by his pulpit efforts, by his order of itinerant preachers, by his English translation of the Scriptures, by his attacks on transubstantiation and the flagrant errors of Rome, by his scriptural theology, and by his stainless life. John Wiclif is the fountain-head of two streams of influence which have blessed the world. We trace the one Wiclips Folloivers, the Lollards 49 through John Huss, the Taborites, the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren, the Wesleys and Wesleyanism, the evangeHcal revival of the eighteenth century, and the great missionary movement of modern times. With this we are not now concerned. The other flowed between EngHsh banks and lost itself at last in that larger stream which we call the English Refor- mation. The followers of Wiclif multiplied with amazing rapidity. While he yet lived, it was said that "if two per- sons met on the road, one of them was sure to be a Wiclifite." All England was permeated with his doctrine and spirit. The Reformation might have come then if the times had been ripe. But his teachings were in advance of his age, and his followers — the Lollards as they were called — fell upon evil times. The Council of Constance con- demned all Lollard writings, and by its decree the remains of the great reformer were dug from their resting-place and burnt to ashes, and these were cast into the Swift, a neighboring brook running hard by. This brook, as Fuller says, "conveyed his ashes into Avon; Avon into Severn; Severn into the narrow seas ; they into the main ocean. And thus the ashes of Wicif are the emblem of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over." The Avon to the Severn runs, The Severn to the Sea; And Wiclif's dust shall spread abroad Wide as the waters be. The disciples fared no better than their master. Their meetings were broken up, their books destroyed, their per- sons seized and slain. Their utter extermination was fiercely sought. Nevertheless, men, holding the views of Wiclif and sharing his spirit, were hid away. They secretly met for fellowship and prayer; secretly transcribed and circu- L^ 50 Preparations for the English Reformation lated their books; secretly increased their number of adherents. Their hiding-places were discovered; their writings destroyed ; their bodies reduced to ashes. We learn of them chiefly through these trials and burnings. They lived unknown Till persecution dragged them into fame And chased them up to heaven. Their ashes flew — No marble tells us whither. With their name No bard embalms and sanctifies his song; And history, so warm on meaner themes, Is cold on this. At the dawn of the Reformation, before Luther had raised his voice, they were still in England, suppressed, scattered, harassed, pillaged, destroyed — a numerous people, though hidden and proscribed. At the beginning of the reign of Henry VIII the bishops were still burning their books and bodies. The extent of their influence in preparing the English nation for the revolt against Rome, it is impossible accu- rately to measure. Froude thinks that Lollardism had gradu- ally lost its power in the course of the fifteenth century, but it seems more reasonable and historical to connect that marked Christian revival among the peasantry and London tradesmen, which sprang up before Luther had been heard of, with the still unextinguished spirit of the followers of Wiclif. It was a fresh religious interest which had all the characteristics of that earlier movement. Lollardism was doing its subtle and effectual work in many English hearts. It was exposing the corrupt formalism of the reigning church; breeding a discontent with the tyranny of priests; making known the truth and spirit of the word of God; exhibiting in regenerate lives the peace and beauty of the Christian faith; and in many ways preparing the nation's The Renaissance 51 conscience for that revolution which forever broke Eng- land's thraldom to the papal throne. When at last the Reformation came, thousands of hearts were ready for it — made ready through Lollard influence — and ready for a more radical change than kings and dignitaries would give them. And subsequently when queens and bishops were set on making English Christianity a disguised Romanism, and forcing all Englishmen into an Anglo-catholicism, it was this same spirit of Lollardism that resisted to the death, and broke out afresh in Puritanism and non-conformity and separatism and independency — the very spirit that still sur- vives in the dissenting bodies of the British Empire. We turn now to another preparation for the English Reformation, and name, secondly: THE INFLUENCE OF THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING Lollardism wrought chiefly among the common people; Humanism reached the educated classes. The Lollards went to the shops and farms; the Humanists entered the univer- sities and palaces. The collapse of the eastern Roman Empire dates from the fall of Constantinople into the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1453. This date also marks the revival of ancient classical learning in western Europe. Greek scholars, bring- ing with them their literary treasures, sought refuge in the West, especially in Italy ; and at Florence found in the reign- ing family of the Medici powerful friends and enthusiastic patrons. The long-neglected study of Greek and Latin authors was renewed. The classical writings, and remains of antiquity of whatever sort, in which the East abounded, were eagerly sought, being accounted the most precious of treasures. The Latin MSS, buried in the dust and rubbish of the western monasteries, were searched for, discovered, 52 Preparations for the English Reformation accurately copied, often stolen. Classical libraries and Platonic academies were established. Dictionaries, gram- mars, translations, commentaries, were multiplied. Litera- ture, architecture, sculpture, painting, music — the souls of men were suddenly on fire for these things. It was an intellectual awakening ; an absorbing passion for the ancient culture; a revival of letters ; a new-birth of the human mind. Those were, indeed, eventful times. I. It was the time of the invention of printing; of the substitution of cheap linen and cotton paper in the place of expensive parchment also. The poor could have books. The dissemination of knowledge was made possible by the use of movable types. The year 1456 saw the Latin Bible in print; and before the end of the century there were ninety-one different editions of it in circulation. In less than twenty years after the publication of the Vulgate there were more than a hundred European cities in which the printing-press was in operation ; and in less than fifty years thereafter there were more than a thousand presses turning out all sorts of books. In 1476 the first Greek grammar was printed, and in 1480 the first Greek lexicon. In 1477 the Hebrew Psalter was put into type, and in 1488 the entire Hebrew Bible, a Hebrew grammar following in 1503, and a Hebrew lexicon in 1506. William Caxton introduced the art into England. At Cologne, in 1471, he translated the histories of Troy from French into English, and put the translation into book form. This was the first book ever printed in the English language. Three years later in England, in 1474, he published a work entitled The Game and Play of Chess. This was probably the first book ever printed in England. This, however, has been disputed. In the Bodleian library there is the copy in Latin of an exposition of St. Jerome bearing the imprint First Printing and Maritime Discoveries 53 "Oxonie M. CCCC. LXVIII" (1468). If this date, 1468, is correct, then the Oxford Press can claim the glory of having printed the first book in England. But there are those who deny that this exposition of St. Jerome was the first book printed in England. They assert that an "X" was left out of the date; that it ought to have been 1478 instead of 1468. If this is true then the book issued from Caxton's press at Westminster in 1474 antedates the book from the Oxford Press by four years. In 1 5 16 Erasmus produced his Greek New Testament — the first edition ever printed — with a corrected Latin version and notes. Between 1470 and 1500 more than ten thousand editions of books and pamphlets were published, including, in noble tomes, the works of Virgil, Cicero, Sallust, Homer, Aristotle, Plato, Sophocles, Xenophon, Plutarch, and many other classic authors. A new intellectual era had dawned, and by means of the printing-press the new learning was everywhere disseminated. 2. It was the time of maritime discoveries. The mariner's compass had come into use, and navigators could safely venture out of sight of land. In i486 Diaz skirted the African coast and reached the Cape of Good Hope. In 1492 Columbus discovered the New World. In 1497 John Cabot sailed along the North American shore for 900 miles ; and in 1498 Sebastian Cabot coasted from Labrador to Florida. In 1498 De Gama dropped anchor in the harbor of Calcutta. In 15 13 Balboa, from the Isthmus of Panama, discovered the Pacific Ocean. In 1520 Magellan sailed around South America to the East Indies, thence to Europe, thus circumnavigating the globe. He died in the Philip- pine Islands, but his ships reached home. The faith of men in the sciences which they had learned was shaken; their imaginations were stimulated; the boundaries of their 54 Preparations for the English Reformation knowledge were widened; a new hemisphere was added to the Old World, which brought a corresponding enlargement of conception and ambition. Over men's heads were new heavens, for the sailors had seen new constella- tions and beneath men's feet there was a new, a wonderful globe — not a disk but a sphere. 3. It was the time of the revival of letters and of art. With Florence as its center and the Medici as its patrons, the ancient classical literature was swaying and charming the minds of men as in the palmiest days of Athens. The MSS of the old orators, philosophers, and poets were brought from afar, were printed in sumptuous editions, and were studied with rapturous delight. Cosimo de Medici was founding his library and the Platonic Academy, Lorenzo the Magnificent, his grandson, was making his court the most brilliant and polished in the world, filling Florence with books, pictures, and statues, and making it the home of scholars, artists, and sculptors. Sharing his patronage were Facino, the head of the academy, claiming to harmonize Platonic idealism and Christian doctrine ; Politian, "the most brilliant Latin poet of the day," directing the studies of Lorenzo's children and exchanging Greek epigrams with learned ladies of the court; and Pico Mirandola, the great- est linguist of that age, who, when only twenty-three years old, challenged all the learned men of Europe to debate with him on nine hundred disputed opinions in philosophy. There, too, in Lorenzo's palace, was Michael Angelo doing his immortal work with brush and chisel — that great genius equally worthy as a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a poet, and a Protestant before Protestantism. These and a whole galaxy of kindred spirits were men who had only contempt for the barbarous Latin of the monks, for the ignorance of the clergy, for the dry and profitless discussions of the The Moral Condition at Rome 55 schoolmen, for the formaHsm and hypocrisy of the church. Platonism seemed so much higher, sweeter, purer, worthier than Christianity, that they were almost prepared to discard the latter in their enthusiastic devotion to the former. 4. It was the time of the Borgias in the papacy. Rome was in moral putri faction. The popes were the vilest of men. Alexander VI and Caesar and Lucretia Borgia are the synonyms of all that is diabolical. The papacy never reached a lower depth. Luther paid his celebrated visit to Rome at a later date, and when the papacy was not so bad ; but hear his words : I would not for a thousand florins have gone without seeing Rome. I should always have doubted whether I was doing injustice to the Pope. The crimes of Rome are incredible; no one will credit so great a per- versity who has not the witness of personal knowledge. There reign all the villanies and infamies, all the atrocious crimes, in particular con- tempt of God, perjuries, sodamy. We Germans swill liquor enough to split us, whilst the Italians are sober. But they are the most impious of men; they make a mock of true religion. There is a saying in Italy which they make use of when they go to church, "Come and let us con- form to the popular error." The Italians are either Epicureans or superstitious. They live ignorant of God's Word, not believing in the resurrection, nor life everlasting, and fearing only temporal evils. Their blasphemy also is frightful, and the cruelty of their revenge is atro- cious. They are men without conscience, who live in open sin, and make light of the marriage tie. Were there time, this awful indictment might be veri- fied by a thousand facts. Taine, speaking of the papacy in the last part of the fifteenth century, says, "Treasons, assassi- nations, tortures, open debauchery, the practice of poisoning, the worst and most shameless outrages were unblushingly and publicly tolerated in the open light of heaven." In 1490 the Pope revoked a decree forbidding the keeping of concubines, saying that "that was not forbidden, because the life of priests and ecclesiastics was such that hardly one 56 Preparations for the English Reformation was to be found who did not keep a concubine, or at least who had not a courtesan." Caesar Borgia at the capture of Capua "chose forty of the most beautiful women, whom he kept for himself." Under Alexander VI, says a con- temporary writer, "all ecclesiastics from the greatest to the least have concubines in the place of wives, and that publicly. Almost all the monasteries of the town have become baud- houses, and without anyone to speak against it." A cata- logue of the crimes and cruelties and obscenities of Alexander VI would fill a volume. He had mothers and their own daughters for his mistresses; lived on terms of criminal intimacy with his own daughter; joined in the most frightful orgies with his own children, Caesar and Lucretia; and spent his most valuable time in providing for his numerous bastards. Caesar Borgia murdered his own brother; so stabbed his father's favorite that the blood of the dying man spurted into the Pope's face ; and was guilty of almost countless assassinations. Hell itself cannot sur- pass the Rome of the Borgias. 5. It was the time of the great Italian reformer, Savonarola. He saw the corruption of both Rome and Florence, and his soul was moved. Against both the Pope and Lorenzo he raised his voice — the most eloquent voice Italy ever had. He longed to see Rome pure and Florence free. He knew his Bible literally by heart, and its spirit, not less than its letter, filled all his soul. It made him a Bible Christian, and gave him a Bible view of both religion and politics. Hence, in burning words he denounced the corruptions of the times, and called popes and princes to repentance. He saw in Lorenzo a man who had robbed Florence of her liberties, a man of exquisite taste and profli- gate life; who could write beautiful sonnets to virtue by day and break with virtue by night; a man with the magnificence Savonarola at Florence 57 of Milton's Satan, sagacious and cruel, cultivated and cor- rupt, a paganized votary of letters and of vice, a scholar, a tyrant, and a rake — a splendid fiend. He saw Lorenzo die ; saw Charles VIII invade the city ; saw the Medici expelled ; saw himself raised to supreme power; for three years saw Florence the most godly of cities; saw over his pulpit the motto: "Jesus Christ the king of Florence;" saw enemies reconciled, unrighteous gains restored, godless sports abandoned, obscene books, statues, and pictures burned, incontinence and debauchery done away, truth and purity prevailing, righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost — a little heaven on earth. Then the Borgias learn that Savonarola thinks to reform all Italy, Alexander VI orders him to Rome; forbids him to preach; excommuni- cates him; incites the Franciscans against him; plots with the Florentines to compass his ruin; at last gains his end, and the great reformer, the Italian patriot, the savior of Florence, the saintliest man in all Italy, is arrested, im- prisoned, tried as a heretic and impostor, tortured to the dis- jointing of his bones, hanged to a gibbet, and burned to ashes ; and with the death of their truest friend, their ablest statesman, their loftiest preacher, their noblest Christian, Florence and Italy sink back into slavery and rottenness. Bear in mind that I am describing the times just pre- ceding the advent of Martin Luther. They were, indeed, eventful times. The printing-press was beginning its marvelous career. The mariners were bringing new worlds into view. The Medici were introducing ancient Greece and Rome to European scholars. The Borgias were drag- ging the church into the bottomless depths of infamy. Savonarola, with the voice of an old Hebrew prophet, was warning a godless world of the doom which awaited it. It was the opening of a new era. New ideas, motives, 58 Preparations for the English Reformation ambitions, were swaying the minds of men. The narrow- ness and limitations of the past were giving way. While the encroachments of Mohammedanism were narrowing the domain of Christendom, the new geographical discoveries were broadening it. A new order of things was coming in ; a new day was dawning. The ecclesiastical system was losing its monopoly of the wealth, the learning, and the political power of the world. The church was no longer the sole tribunal of opinion. Mental freedom was begin- ning. The scholastic system was losing its grip, and could no longer control intelligence, nor rivet its shackles on religion and science. The feudal system was going to pieces, and the peasantry were rising into freedom. The era of authority was going out ; the era of individualism was com- ing in. A national spirit was taking the place of the churchly spirit; and Germany, France, Spain, and England were rising into power. But in what way is all this preparing England for the Protestant Reformation? Let us see. While Florence was mastering the Greek tongue, and through the Greek tongue was reviving the old Greek life, Greek thought, Greek cul- ture, Greek art, Greek philosophy, and through this revival was breaking the mental bondage of Europe, and was send- ing men everywhere in quest of truth and beauty, London and Cambridge and Oxford were as ignorant of the treas- ures of Greek literature as were our forefathers of the hieroglyphics of Egypt. But this ignorance was not des- tined to continue. Li the providence of God, English stu- dents journeyed to Florence to complete their studies, and there learned those languages in which the Scriptures were originally given, and there caught that spirit of reform of which Savonarola was the most illustrious exponent. The new learning and the new reform, destined to die in Italy, Reform Ideas Carried to Oxford 59 were destined to live again in England. The pioneers in this work of transplanting this garden of God — these plants of learning and righteousness and liberty — from Italian to English soil were such worthies as Grocyn and Linacre and Lilly and Colet and More and Erasmus. The first three resided in Florence when Lorenzo the Magnificent was at the height of his glory; and Colet, when, under Savonarola, "Jesus Christ was king of Florence." These men became the pupils and companions of Lorenzo and Ficino and Poli- tian and Pico Mirandola and Angelo and Savonarola. They gained personal knowledge of the horrible wickedness of the papacy and of the profligacy of priests and monks. They recognized the urgency of reform in the body of the church, in head and members. They saw and escaped the paganiz- ing drift of the learned men with whom they were associ- ated. They made themselves proficient in the knowledge of Greek. They studied the New Testament, gospels and epistles, as well as the writings of Plato. They went straight to the original sources and learned with joy and awe what Christianity really is. Christ himself lived again in their apprehension and experience; and thus prepared of God, they returned to Oxford, there to revive the study of the Greek language and literature; there to crowd their lecture-rooms with eager undergraduates, filling their souls with the very words of Christ and his apostles; there to give place and supremacy to the very religion of the New Testament, as opposed to the folly and irreligion of popes and priests and monks and schoolmen; and there to kindle an evangelical flame whose radiance should stream to the remotest and darkest corners of the British Isles, Of the four worthies whom I have named, we are most familiar with the career of Colet. Let him stand as the exponent of the rest. At Florence, in the Platonic 6o Preparations for the English Reformation Academy, he learned to read the language of the New Testament; in the church of San Marco he hung spell- bound on the lips of Savonarola, and learned of the infamy of the Borgias, of the utter corruption of the church, of the impending doom of the world, of the call from heaven for an instant and radical transformation of society With these fires burning on his heart's altar, he returned to Oxford. Before the youth of that university he laid the marvelous treasures of the Greek language. That language furnished him a key with which to unlock the word of God, and Christ became the center, the strength, and the inspira- tion of his life. "I admire the writings of the Apostles, but I forget them almost when I contemplate the wonderful majesty of Jesus Christ." His regenerate soul, in vital union with the living Head, discarded totally and forever the ecclesiastical and scholastic systems in which he had been reared, rejected utterly the traditional dogmas and corruptions of the schoolmen which opposed the historical and grammatical sense of the biblical text. Henceforth Christ and the New Testament ruled his thought and speech. The students crowded his lecture-room to hear the exposition of Paul's epistles. "He seemed like one inspired, raised in voice, eye, his whole countenance, and mien, out of himself." Burdened souls sought his counsel. He led them to Christ, They followed him from his lecture-room to his chambers. He resolved their doubts ; threw them out of conceit with scholastic follies; taught them the New Testament doctrine and piety; molded their character after the divine likeness. He saw the state of Christianity in England, and with Oxford students he did what he could to stem the tide. "With grief and tears," he pointed out the corruption of popes and cardinals — "the popes wickedly distilling poison, to the destruction of the church." He Colefs Call for Reformation 6i burst out, "O, Jesus Christ, wash for us not our feet only, but also our hands and our hcadl Otherwise our dis- ordered church cannot be far from death." From Oxford he removed to London, becoming the dean of St. Paul's. He did not miss his opportunity; preaching before the con- vocation of the clergy in 15 12, he exposed in plainest words the ecclesiastical abuses and scandals of the age, the igno- rance and wickedness of the priesthood, and the urgent need of a thoroughgoing reform. We see strange and heretical ideas appear in our days and no wonder. But you must know that no heresy is so fatal to us and to the people at large as the vicious and depraved lives of the clergy. That is the worst heresy of all. All the corruptness, all the decay of the church, all the offenses of the world, come of the covetousness of priests. Would that for once you would remember your name and profession, and take thought for the reformation of the church. Never was it more necessary, and never did the state of the church need more vigorous endeavors. A reformation is needed, and that reformation must begin with the bishops and be extended to the priests. The clergy once reformed, we can proceed to the reformation of the people. Let the clergy cease their secular occupations to the dis- honor of the priesthood. Let their luxury and worldliness come to an end. Let them be ministers indeed, busy with preaching, forsaking the court and laboring in their own dioceses — not merchants, hunters, usurers, wearing arms, being common players, haunting taverns, and associating questionably with women. Let the monks likewise be purged of similar faults. Moreover, let not the bishops themselves overlook their own errors. Abandon nepotism and simony and non- residence. Ordain and promote only worthy ministers. Reform the episcopal courts, and provincial councils. Beginning at the top let the reformation work its way down through the grades of the clergy, and at last to the common people. Of course, utterances like these provoked hostility, and of course, complaints were lodged with the London bishop and with the king. But the bishop would not interfere, and young King Henry said, "Let every man have his own 62 Preparations for the English Reformation doctor, and let every man favor his own; but this man is the doctor for me." Colet's next step was to found the celebrated school of St. Paul's, hard by the cathedral, in which one hundred and fifty-three selected youth were taught the Greek and Latin classics, the bad Latin of the monks and the worthless jargon of the schoolmen being dropped, and in the govern- ment of which the old flogging and force-methods gave place to gentleness and love. The historian. Green, says : Not only did the study of Greek creep gradually into the schools which existed, but the example of Colet was followed by a crowd of imitators. More grammar schools were founded in the latter years of Henry than in the three centuries before. The system of middle- class education, which by the close of the century had changed the very face of England, was the direct result of Colet's foundation of St. Paul's. Of course the bigoted clergy were quick to take the alarm, but in spite of their cries of heresy and all their evil machinations, Colet still preached on and won adherents. His school still flourished and his leaven of the Gospel still spread. At last, however, by tireless persecution he was driven into retirement, and thence he entered into the blessedness of the pious dead, resting from his earthly labors in the year 15 19 — two years after Luther had begun his conflict with the powers of Rome. We must remember that Colet was an intelligent and earnest Christian man; that he had a deep and fervent experience of the saving love and grace of Jesus Christ. We must remember, too, that he was a man of rich and varied learning. He knew the ancient philosophers, the Church Fathers, the great masters in law and in theology. We must remember, likewise, that his piety and learning turned him away from the lax morals and shameful practices of priests Colefs Rejorming Influence 63 and monks, from the superstitions which held the ignorant in thrall, from the unscriptural doctrines which the church had foisted upon the world. We must remember that liis example and teaching determined and molded the characters of some of the greatest men of the day in which he lived; that Sir Thomas More owed his conversion to him; that Lilly and Linacre and Grocyn owed their moral uplifting and influence to him; that Erasmus was brought to a saving knowledge of Christ by him and weaned away from scholasticism to practical wisdom through his entreaty ; and that the greatest of the Humanists through all his life looked upon Colet as "my best of teachers," "my own and only teacher." We must remember that Colet was the greatest preacher England had thus far produced (Wiclif being the one sole exception) — the first great preacher in St. Paul's, the first in that great line of preachers whose eloquence has been heard on that spot where the grand cathedral stands. We must remember that he was the greatest schoolmaster Eng- land had thus far produced ; that he was the founder of one of the greatest of English schools, and that his educational ideas were far in advance of his own age, and quite abreast the ideas which now prevail. CONCLUSION I ask you to bear with me now while in a few sentences I summarize the results at which we have thus far arrived. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, just before and after the commencement of the reign of Henry VHI, before Luther had raised his voice, there was a widespread feeling in England that a reformation of some sort was urgently needed. Regarding the sort of reformation needed there was a difference of opinion. Men, whose views the revival of learning had shaped, wished one sort. Men, 64 Preparations for the English Reformation whose views Wiclif had shaped, wished another sort. The Humanists thought that ignorance and superstition and immorahty and irreligion ought to be done away, but thr.t no organic change and no disturbing of estabHshed institu- tions was required. The Lollards thought that the reforma- tion ought to extend, as Canon Perry puts it, to "the destruction of the whole existing system of religious observance, and the rigid exclusion and condemnation of everything v/hich could not be justified from the Holy Scrip- tures." To speak broadly, the Humanists were educational or literary reformers; the Lollards were doctrinal or scrip- tural reformers. To the Humanist class belonged such men as the young king, Henry himself, who was highly educated and a patron of learning; Cardinal Wolsey, who was interested in the founding of colleges and cathedrals for the diffusion of intelligence and the promotion of morals ; Archbishop War- ham, who gave the new learning at Oxford and Cambridge his hearty approval; Bishop Fox, the founder of Corpus Christi at Oxford, "erected especially for the cultivation of the three learned languages;" Bishop Fisher, who learned Greek in his old age and introduced its study at Cambridge University ; William Grocyn, who brought Greek from Italy to England and gave lessons to Erasmus; Thomas Linacre, who likewise studied at Florence and taught at Oxford and founded the College of Physicians in London ; Thomas More, who cultivated learning all his days, and wrote that wonderful book Utopia; John Colet, of whom I have spoken at length in this paper; and Erasmus, greatest of them all, the prince of Humanists, of whom I shall have something to say in the paper which follows this. These were the intellectual reformers. Of the other sort — the biblical reformers — few names The Biblical Reformers, Obscure Men 65 have come down to us. They were obscure men, most of all anxious to dwell in obscurity, for discovery brought them to the dungeon and the stake and they are seen by us today, for the most part, in the light of their burnings. Froude says of these men who cherished the memory of Wiclif and imbibed his sentiments, that they formed a party in the country who had a part to play in the historical drama, composed at that time merely of poor men; poor cobblers, weavers, trade apprentices, and humble artisans, men of low birth and low estate, who might be seen at night stealing along the lanes and alleys of London, carrying with them some precious load of books which it was death to have, and giving their lives gladly, if it must be so, for the brief tenure of so dear a treasure. These men formed that class, numerous, though hidden and proscribed, whose "desires and aspirations were for a scriptural reformation." Both classes — the Humanists and the Lollards, each in its own way — were getting the English nation ready for the impending revolution. II SOME PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION— Contmued II SOME PREPARATIONS FOR THE ENGLISH REFORMATION— Cow/mw^o? In naming some preparations for the English Reforma- tion, I mention, in the third place : THE INFLUENCE OF THE GREEK TESTAMENT OF ERASMUS While Lollardism was an influence preparing the English peasantry for the approaching reformation. Humanism was substituting new ideas, borrowed from classic antiquity, for prevailing scholastic ideas and modes of thinking, and so snapping the cords which fettered the minds of the educated. Humanism was less paganized and more Christianized in England than in Italy. Grocyn, Linacre, Lilly, and Colet were devout biblical Christians as well as profound classical scholars, and by their teaching and example promoted both an educational and a religious reform. It was no small matter to turn the study of the university boys totally away from the useless subtleties of the scholastic philosophy, and the allegorical and mystical theology of the Middle Ages; no small matter so to stimu- late and arouse their minds by the quickening influences of the new learning and to bring about the result that, as an eye-witness testified, "The students rush to Greek letters; they endure watching, fasting, toil, and hunger in the pur- suit of them." One enthusiast, whose name I shall men- tion presently, exclaimed, 'T have given up my whole soul to Greek learning, and as soon as I get any money I shall buy Greek books, and then I shall buy some clothes." But how is our admiration for these university pro- 69 70 Preparations for the English Reformation fessors increased when we reflect that they were not mak- ing the study of the classics an end in itself; that with the classics as a means they were striving to indoctrinate their pupils in the principles and spirit of a rational and practical religion drawn directly from the Sacred Word, striving with the help of the language of Plato to lead their pupils to a knowledge of Christ ! One pupil whom these teachers guided and molded in both these respects — in learning and in piety — deserves our special notice. Erasmus, who afterward became the prince of Humanists and the most cultivated and learned man in all the world, far surpassing his instructors, acquired from Grocyn his classical knowledge and from Colet his rational piety. Erasmus was the illegitimate son of a Dutch priest, born in Rotterdam, about 1465. For five years, against his will, he was an Augustinian monk. Afterward he became a priest, though he never had a parish. For about five years he was secretary to the bishop of Cambray. From youth he had a quenchless thirst for knowledge. He studied at Paris and Orleans. Green says, "It was in de- spair of reaching Italy [Florence] that the young scholar made his way to Oxford, as the one place on this side the Alps where he would be enabled, through the teaching of Grocyn, to acquire a knowledge of Greek." But he had no sooner arrived there than all feeling of regret vanished away. I have found in Oxford [he writes] so much polish and learning that now I hardly care about going to Italy at all, save for the sake of having been there. When I listen to my friend Colet, it seems like listening to Plato himself. Who does not wonder at the wide range of Grocyn's knowledge? What can be more searching, deep, and refined than the judgment of Linacre? When did nature mould a Erasmus and His Career 71 temper more gentle, endearing and happy than the temper of Thomas More? Colet reminded the young enthusiast of Plato, but he also reminded him of Christ, and "taught him that theology must return from scholasticism to the Scriptures, and from dry dogmas to practical wisdom." Leaving England, he spent three years in Italy, taking his degree of doctor of divinity at Turin, and residing at Venice, Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Returning to England he became professor of divinity and reader of Greek at Cambridge. Resigning his professorship, he returned to the Continent, residing at Basle, Brussels, Antwerp, Louvain, and dying, in his seventieth year, at Basle, in 1535. He .was a little man, with a wrinkled forehead and a bad temper. He abhorred English beer, liked only Burgundy wine, loathed the very smell of fish, never wore spectacles, was fond of children, and dreaded death. He never learned English, German, or Italian, had just a little French, and only a smattering of his native Dutch. In Latin — the Latin of Cicero — he thought and spoke and wrote. He was the most famous and honored man in all Europe. Universities, kings, bishops, cardinals, and popes vied with each other to do him homage. In religion, while, as I believe, a sincere Christian, he had no liking for the martyr's crown. He started a reform which Luther continued. His enemies said, and truly, "Erasmus laid the egg, and Luther hatched it." In his Praise of Folly he could remorselessly expose the vices and follies of monks, priests, and popes, but with Luther's savage attacks and revolutionary schemes he had no sym- pathy. As the movement advanced, his position became most embarrassing. "It is dangerous to speak," said he, "and it is dangerous to be silent." Unwilling to displease any, he offended all. Long before he died he had incurred 72 Preparations for the English Reformation the enmity of both Lutherans and Romanists. "Secundus Curio describes two heavens, the papal and the Christian. He found Erasmus in neither, but discovered him revolving between both in never-ending orbits." Erasmus was pre-eminently a man of letters, and not a reformer; nevertheless, in spite of himself, by his literary labors, he did more than any living man to prepare the way for the Protestant Revolution. When he published the ancient Latin classics, Cicero, Terence, Seneca, Livy, Pliny, and the Greek classics with Latin translations, Euripides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plutarch, Lucian; when he sent forth in book form the writings of the principal Fathers, Irenaeus, Origen, Cyprian, Hilarius, Epiphanius, Basil, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustine; when he wrote and printed his own original works, The Adages, The Praise of Folly, The Colloquies, The Confessional, The Institution of Christian Marriage, The Manual of a Christian Soldier, The Catechism on the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer, The Method of True Theology; above all, when he sent forth the first printed edition of the Greek New Testament, with a Latin translation differing at many points from Jerome, in all this work of a scholar he was unconsciously doing more to bring about a reformation of religion than any man that breathed. The greatest work of Savonarola, the Italian, was the conversion of Colet, the Englishman; the greatest work of Colet was the conversion of Erasmus, the Dutchman; and the greatest work of Erasmus was the editing and printing of the Greek New Testament, through the reading of which Bilney was converted, who in turn converted Latimer, whose gospel preaching converted thousands more; and through the reading of which Tyndale was converted, who in turn translated into English the Word of Life, the reading of Erasmus^ Greek New Testament 73 which brought still other thousands to a saving knowledge of the truth. Erasmus got it into his head that to the learned world ought to be given the Greek New Testament in book form. I think the spirit of God lodged that thought in his mind. Certainly it was no vain ambition of the mere scholar. These are his words : "If the ship of the church is to be saved from being swallowed up by the tempest, there is only one anchor that can save it. It is the heavenly word, which, issuing from the bosom of the Father, lives, speaks, and works still in the Gospel." And again, "It is not from human reservoirs, fetid with stagnant waters, that we should draw the doctrine of salvation; but from the pure and abundant streams that flow from the heart of God." And yet again, "A spiritual temple must be raised in deso- lated Christendom. The mighty of this world will con- tribute toward it in their marble, their ivory, and their gold ; I, who am poor and humble, offer the foundation stone." Erasmus was the one man on earth fitted to make this offering. His purpose was "to restore the pure text of the Word of God." He alone had the requisite material and learning — the material in numerous Greek MSS of the New Testament and the writings of the Fathers, and the learning, in the ripest scholarship of the age. With material and learning at hand it was no easy task, however, for he himself declares, "If I told what sweat it cost me, no one would believe me." In due time, 1516, there appeared at Basle the first edition of the Greek Testament. Besides the text there was a new Latin translation in which the errors and obscurities and Hebraisms and barbarisms of Jerome's Vulgate were corrected. Notes were appended which justi- fied these departures from the received version. In process of time four other editions found their way into print. 74 Preparations for the English Reformation Speedily the new Greek-Latin book made itself felt in London, Oxford, and Cambridge. It produced a profound sensation. The learned read it with the utmost eagerness. Forthwith it began its enlightening and regenerating work. Then the opposition began. The priests declared : *Tf this book be tolerated it will be the death of the papacy." They fully understood that a Greek Testament today meant an English Testament tomorrow; for Erasmus himself had said: Perhaps it may be necessary to conceal the secrets of kings, but we must publish the mysteries of Christ. The Holy Scriptures, trans- lated into all languages, should be read not only by the Scotch and Irish, but even by Turks and Saracens. The husbandman should sing them as he holds the handle of his plow, the weaver repeat them as he plies his shuttle, and the wearied traveler, halting on his journey, refresh him under some shady tree by these godly narratives. The monks and bishops scented the danger from afar, and they raised a howl : This book must go or our race is run. Let the book live and we must die! Erasmus was both astonished and frightened. "Wretch that I am ! Who could have foreseen this horrible tempest? I call God to witness, I thought I was doing a work acceptable to the Lord and necessary to the cause of Christ." But the book was now beyond the reach of the timid scholar and the angry priest, and everywhere it was finding the consciences and hearts of men. Note two examples of its transforming power — one from each of the great uni- versities. At Cambridge was a young doctor, Thomas Bilney by name, who for a long time had sought peace of soul by the papal methods. His struggles, groanings, pri- vations, vigils, prayers, and penances I cannot here describe. He heard of the new book, and with inward trembling and awful dread, doubting whether prompted by God or the The Evangelizing Power of the Book 75 devil, he secretly purchased the proscribed volume. With the door of his room securely bolted, he began the reading. The very first sentence made him free in Christ. "This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief." "What, St. Paul the chief of sinners, and yet St. Paul is sure of being saved ! O assertion of St. Paul, how sweet art thou to my soul ! I also am, like Paul, and more than Paul, the greatest of sinners; but Christ saves sinners. At last I have heard of Jesus. Jesus Christ, yes, Jesus Christ saves. I see it all — my vigils, my fasts, my pilgrimages, my purchase of masses and indulgences were destroying, in- stead of saving me. All these efforts were, as St. Augustine says, a hasty running out of the right way." Bilney became, as we know, a flaming evangelist, and finished his course at the martyr's stake (Wolsey burned him in 1 53 1 ) . Let me exhibit just one trophy of his evange- lizing zeal and skill. Hugh Latimer was at Cambridge, the university cross-bearer. He had won this place by his nar- row, bigoted, prejudiced, impetuous, indefatigable zeal and activity against the new book and the readers of it. He did his utmost, in private and in public, to root it and them out of the university. Bilney was moved to attempt the conver- sion of this papal fanatic. He adopted a strange expedient, but it resulted in "one of the most astonishing conver- sions recorded in history." We will let D'Aubigne, though in shortened form, tell the story : Bilney went to the col- lege where Latimer resided. He knew that Latimer would listen to no direct appeal, so falling on his knees, he cried, "For the love of God, be pleased to hear my confession," The heretic prayed to make confession to the Catholic. The ardent Latimer eagerly yielded to Bilney's request, and the latter, on his knees before the cross-bearer, related to him 76 Preparations for the English Rejormation the anguish he had once felt in his soul, the efforts he had made to remove it, their unprofitableness so long as he de- termined to follow the precepts of the church; and lastly the peace he had felt when he believed that Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. Latimer listened without mistrust. The truth began to. enter; his heart was opened; new thoughts came crowding in; the penitent continued. The good Spirit of God was doing a work in the soul of the confessor. At length grace prevailed. The penitent rose up, but Latimer remained seated, absorbed in thought. God scattered the darkness that still obscured his mind. Bilney drew near him with love. Latimer was changed. Lie saw Jesus Christ as the only savior; he saw and adored. With horror he thought of the obstinate war he had waged against God; he wept bitterly. Bilney consoled him. "Brother, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." And Latimer, the new man, became the Hugh Latimer of history. Thus at Cambridge was the Greek Testament of Erasmus ful- filling its mission. At Oxford it was eagerly read, as bitterly denounced, as fruitful in blessed results. At Oxford was a young stu- dent taking his degrees under those celebrated teachers, Grocyn and Linacre. I have not the time to tell of the con- version of William Tyndale. He read the book, experi- enced its saving grace, and uttered the cry, "Eureka, I have found it!" Thus did God make Erasmus the precursor of the Reformation, and his Greek Testament the foundation stone of the new spiritual temple.^ ^ Professor S. M. Jackson is the editor of a series on the "Heroes of the Reformation." Only by a far stretch of the imagination could he include Erasmus in the series. In a list of the biggest cowards of the six- teenth century Erasmus would certainly stand at the head. He was Tyndale's English New Testament 77 I come now to a fourth preparation for the English Reformation : THE INFLUENCE OF TYNDALE^S ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT Having run the career of an able scholar and an earnest evangelist at both Oxford and Cambridge, Tyndale took up his abode at Sodbury (eight or ten miles from London), in the hall of his patron, Sir John Walsh. It was here that the idea of an English version of the Scriptures took defi- nite and final shape. "It was in the language of Israel that the Psalms were sung in the temple of Jehovah; and shall not the Gospel speak the language of England among us? Ought the church to have less light at noonday than at the dawn? Christians must read the New Testament in their mother-tongue." This sentiment irritated the priests in the neighborhood and inflamed their rage, and they set themselves to work his ruin. Driven from Sodbury, he made his way to London, where for a time, in the home of an alderman, Monmouth, by day and by night, he worked at his book. His enemies doubtless the most brilliant and polished scholar of his age, but at his best he had only a sneaking sympathy with the Reformers, and at his worst he was an arrant poltroon. It is a talented, scholarly, learned, ver- satile, sensitive, conceited, grumbling, cowardly, unlovable man that Pro- fessor Emerton has tried to introduce to his readers. He has set himself no easy task, for his "hero" was a bundle of contradictions, inconsistencies, pettinesses, trivialities, sinuosities. How can one be certain of his ground when he is dealing with such a singular compound of wisdom and deceit — a craven, evasive character, who, when self is concerned, seems incapable of telling the truth ? Perhaps it is a high enough meed of praise to say that Professor Emerton has given us the most "complete and satisfactory life of Erasmus" that has yet been written. His critical spirit and method guard him against taking the word of Erasmus at its face value, and con- strain him "in each case to weigh the value of the text with the fullest reference to all the circumstances." He has thus avoided numerous errors into which other biographers have fallen. — Extract from a review by Dean Hulbert in The American Journal of Theology, Vol. V (1901), p. 208. 78 Preparations for the English Reformation multiplying, he left London for Germany. On the Conti- nent he hid himself. Just where he did his work of trans- lating is still a matter of conjecture. He saw to it that the enemies of truth should not destroy his handiwork. At last the work was ready for the press, and the printing of it was begun at Cologne; but only begun, when, by an acci- dent, his project was discovered and all his hopes were ruined. Tyndale fled to Worms and there accomplished what at Cologne had failed. In the meantime the English rulers had been apprised of the danger: "Two English- men are plotting wickedly against the peace of your king- dom. They wish to send the New Testament in English to your people. Give orders at every seaport to prevent the introduction of this baneful merchandise." On the other hand, Tyndale's MSS were now in print, and he was planning the introduction of the books into England. Five Hanseatic merchants undertook to deliver them in London. A London curate — Thomas Garret — undertook their distribution. A single agent introduced upward of three hundred and fifty copies into Oxford. Cambridge was likewise supplied. The common people eagerly sought the book, and everywhere were tradesmen, peasants, and farmers zealously, though secretly, circulating Tyndale's Testament. The priests and rulers tried to stem the tide, but all in vain. Geikie says : Crowds of simple country people, guilty of no crime but having the New Testament in their own language in their possession, or of having listened to its being read by others, were dragged to prison, summoned before the bishops' courts, and forced to abjure by threats of the dungeon, the rack, or the stake Panic-struck, the Re- formers still at large, butchers, tailors, carpenters, who felt themselves suspected, strove to escape in the holds of vessels, or in disguise, any- where out of England. Even on the Continent they were not safe, for heretics were treated by all governments as outlaws, so that they Difficulties and Dangers of Tyndale 79 had constantly to watch against English emissaries sent over to arrest them. But the word of God could not be bound, and wherever it went it set men free, and it went everywhere, and the Reformation itself is William Tyndale's monument! A word further concerning Tyndale and John Frith who was associated with him. On fleeing out of England, in 1523, he seems to have gone to Hamburg, where he labored on his Testament for about a year. Thence he went to Cologne, where he got the first ten sheets of his translation into the press, when his work was discovered and all was suddenly brought to an end. From Cologne he fled to Worms, where, in 1525, he issued anonymously two editions of his Testament. Between 1525 and 1529 he got out two other editions, and in the latter year the fifth edition appeared. The next year (1530) his translation of the Pentateuch saw the light. The English authorities did their very utmost to keep these translations out of England. The bishop of London forbade their introduction under the heaviest penalties. Sir Thomas More wrote a treatise against Tyndale in seven books, in which he lampooned and vilified him, and pronounced him a blasphemous beast, fit only for burning. He knew enough to keep out of Eng- land, but his friend and assistant (John Frith), less wary, ventured to cross the Channel, and was seized and burned at the stake in 1533. Tyndale's turn came three years later. At Antwerp he was working on his translation of the Old Testament, when through the treachery of a spy, an agent of Henry VHI, he was arrested and taken to Viloorde (a small town between Antwerp and Brussels), and there languished in prison for two years. Henry VIH insisted on his execution, and, in 1536, he was chained to the stake. 8o Preparations for the English Reformation strangled, and finally burnt to ashes. His last words were, "Lord, open the king of England's eyes." It is a remarkable fact that the year after his martyr- dom (1536) the Bible was published throughout England (1537) by command of this very English king, and ap- pointed to be placed in every church for the use of the people, though it is true that Henry went back on this later. It is worthy of notice that Tyndale did his work independ- ently of his predecessor, Wiclif, and of his contemporary, Luther, and that his translation forms the basis of our own Authorized Version of the New Testament. Says Dr. John Clifford : William Tyndale fanned into a flame the smouldering embers of Lollardism, and roused into newness of life, and baptized into fresh energy, the work of the illustrious John Wiclif, by sending forth the New Testament in a version, which, in substance, is still in use among us. We are ready now for the fifth preparation for the English Reformation: THE INFLUENCE OF LUTHERAN BOOKS AND TRACTS ^'^ Hitherto we have said little of Martin Luther, and for r , Wiclif started the English reaction against the papacy more ^jhv vV ^^^^ °"^ hundred years before Luther was born, and his ^' followers had leavened the English mind with Lollard senti- j-*" ments before a German reformation had been thought of. Grocyn and Linacre and Colet were introducing the new learning into Oxford and Cambridge and London while Luther was yet a babe in arms. Erasmus had his Greek Testament in circulation a year before Luther nailed up his •.^ Luther and His Reformation 8i Theses. Tyndale conceived his idea of an EngHsh Testa- ment before Luther had made a stir in the world, and would have executed it just the same, had Luther never breathed.. And these four influences, Lollardism, Humanism, the Greek Testament, and the English Testament, made a refor- mation in England inevitable, utterly irrespective of any revival movement on the Continent. Happily an independent English reformatory movement was assisted and accelerated by influences from across the Channel. In 1483 Martin Luther was born. Li 1501 he entered the University of Erfurt. In 1505 he became Master of Arts and an Augustinian monk. In 1507 he was ordained to the priesthood. In 15 10 he visited Rome, and, while ascending Pilate's staircase, learned that the "just shall live by faith." At Rome he likewise saw the corrup- tion of the priesthood and the papacy. From 1508 he was sub-prior, preacher, and professor at Wittenberg. He lectured on the scholastic philosophy and the Holy Scrip- tures. In 15 17 the traffic in the Pope's indulgences was being carried on with a very high hand in the neighbor- hood of Wittenberg. Luther, who was a converted man, having experienced the remission of sins as a matter of grace, could not endure that the souls of men should be ruined by this bare- faced and scandalous sale of indulgences, and he made a protest and broke into open resistance. On October 31, 15 17, he nailed his ninety-five Latin Theses to the door of the castle-church at Wittenberg, and challenged the world to a public disputation. This is the date of the birth of the German Reformation. The Theses were a torch in a powder magazine. In short order Germany was tipped the other side up, i. e., right side up. It was only a few weeks until the translators and the printers had copies of the Theses scattered over all Europe. Luther was now 82 Preparations for the English Reformation in for it. In 15 19, at Leipzig, he had a big disputation respecting the papacy with Dr. Eck. The next year, 1520, in rapid succession, he pubHshed his three most effective reformatory works : the Address to the German Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and the Freedom of a Christian Man. Schaff says, "The first two are trumpets of war, and the hardest blows ever dealt by human pen to the system of popery; while the third is peaceful, and shines like a rainbow above the thunder clouds." In his Address to the German Nobility, he frees his mind respecting priests, monks, bishops, popes, cardinals, celibacy, masses for the dead, processions, saints' days, festivals, fasts, etc. — "As to the fraternities, indulgences, dispensa- tions, masses, and all such things, let them be drowned and abolished." The Babylonian Captivity of the Church was written in Latin and intended for the learned. In it he attacks the withdrawal of the cup from the laity, the doc- trine of transubstantiation, the sacrament of the mass, and the papal theories concerning confirmation, marriage, ordi- nation, and extreme unction. Regarding prevailing errors he says, "There is no hope of a remedy, unless we do away with all the laws of men, call back the gospel of liberty, and judge and rule all things according to it alone." His closing words are : I hear a report that fresh bulls and papal curses are being pre- pared against me, by which I am urged to recant, or else to be declared a heretic. If this is true, I wish this little book to be a part of my future recantation, that they may not complain that their tyranny has puffed itself up in vain. I shall also shortly publish, Christ being my helper, such a recantation as the See of Rome has never yet seen or heard, thus abundantly testifying my obedience in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. His Freedom of a Christian Man he dedicated to Pope Lutheran Tracts in England 83 Leo X, and, along with the book, sent to his Hohness a personal letter, in which he says : The Church of Rome, formerly the most holy of all churches, has become the most lawless den of thieves, the most shameless of all brothels, the very kingdom of sin, death, and hell; so that not even Antichrist, if he were to come, could devise any addition to its wicked- ness. And there are two or three pages more in the same vein. Of course thrusts like these stirred up the Beast, and the bull of excommunication was hurled, and in turn the bull was burned. Then other books followed — Against the Papacy of Rome, and Against the Bull of Antichrist, and all Europe was beginning to feel the rockings of the earth- quake. As to these books and others like them, they found a ready circulation. Everybody of low and high degree wanted them; they were practical and popular and went straight home to the business and bosom of men. Soon translations began to appear. English translations were in demand, and across the Channel into the homes of scholars and gentlemen and farmers and tradesmen went the books. And the English Lollard found himself in red-hot agree- ment with the Saxon monk. The English king and legate and bishops tried to stamp out the new German heresy, but their united efforts were worse than useless. Tonstall voiced the sentiment of the papal party : If you allow the heresies to grow up which this monk is scatter- ing with both hands, they will choke the faith, and the church will perish. Had we not enough of the Wiclifites? Here are new legions of the same kind. Today Luther calls for the abolition of the mass, tomorrow he will ask for the abolition of Jesus Christ. He rejects everything, and puts nothing in its place. What, if barbari- ans plunder our frontiers, we punish them ; and shall we bear with heretics who plunder our altars? No, by the mortal agony that Christ endured, I entreat you. What am I saying? The whole church con- 84 Preparations for the English Reformation jures you to combat against this devouring dragon — to punish this hell-dog, to silence his sinister howlings, and to drive him shame- fully back into his den. The English authorities took the matter in hand. They caused a manifesto against Luther and a prohibition of his books to be nailed by the notaries public to the principal door of every cathedral, conventual, collegiate, and parish church throughout all England. At St. Paul's in London, with great pomp and parade, they made a public burning of Luther's writings. The people looked on unconvinced. One man said, "Fire is not a theological argument." An- other said, "The Papists, who accuse Martin Luther of slaying and murdering Christians, are like the pickpocket, who began to cry 'Stop thief !' as soon as he saw himself in danger of being caught." Another said, "The bishop of Rochester concludes that because Luther has thrown the Pope's decretals into the fire, he would throw in the Pope himself. We may hence deduce another syllogism quite as sound : The popes have burnt the New Testament, there- fore, if they could, they would burn Christ himself." But pronunciamentos and prohibitions and burnings could not get the pages of Luther out of the hands of the people, nor his sentiments out of their hearts. Those senti- ments were there before, and his bold utterances only con- firmed and fastened them. Let us turn now to a preparation for the English Refor- mation less specific in its character, and of longer standing. I mention, sixthly : THE INFLUENCE OF THE NATIONAL JEALOUSY OF ROME's INTERFERENCE WITH THE POLITICAL AND ECCLESIASTI- CAL AFFAIRS OF ENGLAND The Saxon blood is not friendly to foreign dictation. There is not a century, scarcely a decade, in English history Rome's Interjerence in England 85 in which this opposition to papal encroachment does not reveal itself. Oftentimes the heel of the Pope is on the neck of the English king, but unless the king is a very bad ruler, the English people never take kindly to it. The Latin races seem to like to be tyrannized over, and be trod- den under foot, but the Teutonic races are made of better stuff. Down to the era of the Reformation the church in England was subject to the Roman pontiff. The bishops were the appointees and creatures of his Holiness the Pope. The church property, about half of the island, was free from taxation, and its revenues went to the enrichment of the Italian overlord. His chief concern seemed to be the financial one, and he resorted to endlessly varied expedients to fill his coffers. The Annates were the first year's prod- uce of a benefice — the value of a spiritual living for a whole year — which the Pope himself claimed by virtue of his appointing power. The Peter's Pence was the yearly ^payment by every landholder of a silver penny, valued at thirty pence. The Reservations were the large sums exacted by tfe ,Pope for the nomination to a rich benefice. The Expectatioi^s were the large sums taken by the Pope for nominating t6-' church which she was trying in such frantic and cruel ways to establish. In the fourth place, Mary's persecutions helped and hastened the Reformation in Scotland. The Pope and the Catholic powers hoped with the accession of Mary to crush the rising Protestant spirit in the north of the island, and to force Scotland back into the pale of the Romish church. Her accession had exactly the opposite effect. In the reigns of Henry and Edward the relations be- tween England and Scotland were strained. Henry wished to bring Scotland under English sway, and to this end he wished to engage the children Edward and Mary Queen of Scots. Disputes arose, war ensued, and Mary was engaged to the Dauphin of France. At the same time the Reforma- tion was starting under Hamilton, Wishart, and Knox. When Mary came to the throne and restored popery, many so-called heretics fled to the Continent, and many crossed the borders into Scotland, where they were gladly received, the religious love outweighing the political hate. These English heretics greatly aided the Scotch reform movement. The cruelties of Henry and Somerset (in Edward's reign) had alienated the Scotch and retarded the Reformation. But the bigoted, popish zeal of Mary drove English Protestants to Scotland, and hastened the Reforma- tion. The English exiles in Scotland had a very marked effect on the Scotch Reformation. Mary's persecution accelerated and augumented the Protestant movement. Mary's Persecutions Favored Democracy 159 In the fifth place, Mary's persecutions gave a great impetus to the cause of democracy. They helped forward political as well as religious liberty. This was an idea England and Europe were slow to receive. Living for ages under monarchy and feudalism, the people — the common people — took it for granted that their sole duty was to obey. It was the prerogative of the king and the lord to command, and of those under them to submit. Were they not subjects, and is it not the part of subjects to be in subjection? So rulers had taught, and so the ruled had believed. This was by divine appointment, and so this constituted part of religion. To rebel against it was to rebel against God. Kings are di- vinely called, and they rule by divine right. But Mary's horrid cruelties set men to thinking : Is there no limit to this divine prerogative? Can she banish, imprison, burn? and does heaven uphold her throne while she does it ? Would it be a sin against heaven to resist sheer tyranny and cruelty? Have the people no rights? By heaven's ordaining is the sovereign everything, and are the subjects nothing? Are there no mutual and reciprocal relations, obligations, duties ? For ages, to raise such a question was treason against heaven, but in the light of Mary's burnings men began to see — dimly. One man got his eyes fairly open, and he greatly helped other men. John Knox had labored in England for five years to build up the Reformation. Soon after Mary's accession, her popish agents were after him, and he fled to France. When the stake began to claim its victims, John Knox could endure it no longer, and he issued his famous book. First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment {Government) of Women. He had in mind Mary of Guise, regent of Scotland; Mary Stuart, her daughter, afterward Queen of Scots; and "Bloody Mary" of i6o Protestant Sujjerings Under Mary England. He thought government by women was some- thing monstrous, and that the EngHsh Mary was the modern Jezebel. While a student at St. Andrew's he had learned from his teacher, John Major, that councils were above popes, and that nations gave authority to kings. These sentiments he thundered in his book. Sovereigns have the divine right to rule righteously. The "powers that be" are not "ordained of God" farther than they exercise their power according to the will of God. If they use their authority to thwart God's will, it is the duty of the people to resist. God is above the king, and the subjects must obey God. If the king persists in his impious rule, the people must depose him, and, if the necessity is dire, they may even put him to death. Subjects have the power to resist their princes if princes exceed their bounds. Children ought to obey their parents, but children may bind a parent who is seized with a frenzy. It was right for the Israelites to resist the Egyptian pharaohs, for Daniel to disobey the king of Babylon, for Christ and the apostles to stand up against the Roman Empire. Kings and queens ought to be nursing fathers and nursing mothers, but when they became despots and tried to destroy their children, resistance was not unlawful. This doctrine had a strange sound in Scottish and Eng- lish ears, but it was not an unwelcome sound. The people, then, have some rights ; the obligation is not all on one side. The subject has the divine right to be ruled justly. "Passive obedience" is not the requirement of Scripture. Mary's burnings burned this thought into many minds. Mary's burnings called out Knox's trumpet blast, and the blast in turn answered the questionings and confirmed the convic- tions of many hesitating English minds. Democracy did not gain a complete triumph in Mary's reign. It is not The Curse Turned Into a Blessing i6i triumphant in England to this day. In the reigns of the Stuarts, fawning bishops and a subservient Episcopal church carried "divine right" and "passive obedience" to insane lengths, but in Mary's reign, and by reason of her bloody acts, democracy got an impetus it never lost. In Mary's banishments, imprisonments, and burnings we have a signal exhibition of God's overruling providence. She designed them to destroy Protestantism and to build Romanism. They had precisely the opposite effect. They caused the English people to hate their bigoted popish queen. They caused England to hate her despotic popish religion. They educated a strong English party in puritan sentiments, which party subsequently fought Romanists and Anglicans, and itself split into the two great presbyterian and independent divisions. It was Mary's persecutions which afterward gave England her Cromwells, Long Par- liaments, and Westminster Assemblies. They sent heroic English spirits into Scotland to guide and advance the Scotch Reformation to a successful issue. They awakened inquiries respecting the rights of sovereignty which gave a real impetus to democracy. Mary tried to burn Protestantism out of England. She succeeded in get- ting herself detested and her popish religion abhorred. She succeeded in giving strength and zeal and success to Puritan- ism. She succeeded in making the reformed religion in Scotland triumphant. And she taught the common people that they have rights — political and religious — which their rulers are bound to respect. She detested all these things, but by her own cruel conduct she made these detested things victorious. mary's disappointments and the failure of her reign I. Her connection with Philip turned out unhappily. Her marriage was a miserable failure. After giving him 1 62 Protestant Sufferings Under Mary all the affection her heart contained, he requited her with coldness, infidelity, and desertion. After living with her fifteen months, during which he was guilty of improper rela- tions with other women, he quit her for good. Before leav- ing her he drew her into a war with France, which impoverished England and lost her Calais and her conti- nental possessions. She had set her heart on having issue from the marriage with Philip; but it proved a false con- ception, or rather no conception at all, but some internal malady, from which she never recovered. 2. Her religious policy turned out a miserable failure. It excited the horror and disgust of the nation. It gained for her the hatred and loathing of her subjects. It defeated the re-establishment of Romanism. It introduced into Eng- land the doctrinal system and church polity of John Calvin. It had a mighty ultimate effect in making Scotland Protes- tant It excited the fears and awakened the opposition of the English nobility, who dreaded the restoration of their abbey lands. It set nobles and peasants alike on an inquiry after the foundations of kingly pretensions, and after a new adjustment of the relations between princes and subjects. In its ultimate effects it subserved the interests of both religious and civil freedom. 3. Mary's domestic and foreign policy was wholly dis- graceful and ruinous. The loss of Calais, after England had held it in possession for 210 years, bowed the nation's pride in the very dust. Mary said, "When I am dead, and my body is opened, ye shall find 'Calais' written on my heart." The home policy was equally disastrous. The treasury was depleted. The "crown" lands and large gifts were made over to the Pope. The national debt was growing. The mints were sending out debased coin. The foreign Marys Disappointment, Failure, Death 163 trade was falling off. Domestic industries were languish- ing. The ships and forts were going to decay. Pirates were infesting the channel. Mary's policy was crowding the nation on to the ragged edge of bankruptcy and general collapse. "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." The bigoted queen pursued a matrimonial, religious, foreign, and domestic policy which utterly frustrated her own designs, and well-nigh destroyed the nation. Her love affairs, her popish zeal, her commercial and political deal- ings at home and abroad, all missed their end. Her so-called miscarriage, the desertion of her husband, the calamities that attended her policy in church and state, destroyed her health, made her irritable and gloomy, and brought her to the grave a disappointed and vanquished wreck. She knew her subjects hated her. She knew the martyr fires she had kindled had not destroyed the Refor- mation. She knew that with her death the papal religion would come to an end. She knew that Calais and the French possessions were gone forever. She knew that her foreign policy had bankrupted the nation. She knew that even nature and the elements seemed to be in league against her — lightnings, floods, tempests, diseases, sweeping away the people in multitudes, so that in many parts there were not enough priests living to bury the dead. Knowing all this, it is no wonder that "she lived," as the French ambassador wrote, "almost alone, employing all her time in tears, lamentations, and regrets, in writing to try to draw back her husband to her, and in fury against her subjects." So the miserable creature miserably per- ished. Mary died November 17, 1558. Pope, cardinal, legate, archbishop of Canterbury, died within twenty-two hours thereafter. Thirteen Roman Catholic bishops and a 164 Protestant Sufferings Under Mary large number of the clergy died of the quartan fever, which was then epidemic, in a ver}^ short time. Thus most of the foremost enemies of Protestantism were almost immediately providentially taken out of the way. THE CHARACTER OF MARY It is not difficult for candid historians to give an accu- rate estimate of the character of Mary. They all agree that she had her father's obstinate will and her mother's super- stitious religion. I quote a paragraph from Ranke, one from Wakeman, and another from Hume. They fairly represent the general verdict. Ranke : As Queen Mary is designated "the Bloody" we are astonished when we read the authentic descriptions, still extant, of her personal appearance. She was a little, slim, delicate, sickly woman, with hair already turning grey. There was something in her eyes that could even rouse fear; her voice, which could be heard at a great distance, told of something unwomanly in her. She was a good speaker in public; never did she show a trace of timidity in danger. The troubles she had experienced from her youth, her constant antagonism to the authority under which she lived, had especially hardened in her the self-will which is recognizable in all the Tudors. All her sympathies were for the nation from which her mother came. She was abso- lutely determined to do all she could to restore and strengthen Catholi- cism in England. Gardiner assures us, and we may believe him in this, that it was not he who prompted the revival of the old laws against the Lollards; the chief impulse to it came, on the contrary, from the queen. It cannot be doubted that the persecutions would never have begun without her. No excuse can clear her memory from the dark shade which rests upon it. That which is done in a sovereign's name, with his will and consent, determines his character in history. Wakeman : In her narrow and obstinate nature, warped by past years of un- merited neglect, lacerated by the ever-present sting of unrequited love, justice, not mercy, appeared the first and most sacred of duties. The The Character of Mary 165 cloud which fell upon her own life, the disappointment of the expected heir, the development of incurable disease, the sense of her growing unpopularity with her people, the warfare of nature against her, the storms which ravished the coast, the blight which destroyed the crops, the last and most terrible disgrace of the loss of Calais, all seemed to her the awful judgments of an oflf ended God, demanding from her by his portents vengeance upon his enemies. As each new misfortune wrung her heart or threatened her throne, fresh batches of victims were sent to the stake by the miserable queen, in the despairing hope that by human sacrifice she could appease the wrath of heaven. History, in its compassion for her wrongs, in its pity for her sex, has tried in vain to find in her the victim, not the author, of so terrible a policy, and has sought to cast the blame of the massacres upon the vengeance of Gardiner, the brutality of Bonner, or the cruelty of the Spaniards. But the clear light of recent research has scattered such figments to the winds, and for good or for ill Mary Tudor must stand at the bar alone to answer for the stain of blood which lies so deep across the page which records the few years of her reign. Hume: Mary possessed all the qualities fitted to compose a bigot; and her extreme ignorance rendered her utterly incapable of doubt in her own belief, or indulgence to the opinions of others. She possessed few qualities either estimable or amiable; and her person was as little engaging as her behavior and address. Obstinacy, bigotry, violence, cruelty, revenge, tyranny, every circumstance of her character, took a tincture from her bad temper and narrow understanding. Did she believe she was doing God service? She said to Parliament late in her reign, she believed "she had been predestined and preserved by God to the succession of the crown for no other end save that he might make use of her above all else in the bringing back of the realm to the Catholic faith." THE RELATION OF THE REIGN OF MARY TO THE PRESENT CHURCH OF ENGLAND When we summed up the reign of Henry VHI, we raised the question whether the Church of England owed its origin 1 66 Protestant Sufferings Under Mary to this monarch. Many episcopal writers — high church- men— insist that the beginning must be dated back to Augustine, whom Pope Gregory sent in 597, and who be- came the first archbishop of Canterbury; that their church existed before the Reformation, and it has never ceased to exist since. If this is true, then in the reign of "Bloody Mary" we still have the Church of England. It was the Church of England, of which these gentlemen are mem- bers, which burned Rogers, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer, and Cranmer ; which sent three hundred Protestants to the stake, and drove eight hundred Protestants into exile. It was the Church of England which elevated bigoted and bloodthirsty Roman Catholics, like Gardiner, Bonner, Heath, and Day, into Episcopal bishoprics. It was the Church of England which abolished the Book of Common Prayer, the Forty- two Articles, and the English Bible. It was the Church of England which acknowledged the supreme headship of the Pope of Rome, and which enforced belief in transubstan- tiation, the seven sacraments, Mariolatry, clerical celibacy, purgatory, auricular confession, and the worship of saints, images, and relics. It was the Church of England which set up altars, crosses, and crucifixes, which substituted Latin for English in public worship, which sent men running on pilgrimages, and which, with fire and blood, compelled the acceptance of all popish doctrines and the observance of all popish ceremonies. To ordinary intelligence all this looks like the Church of Rome in England, and it all looks like something to be abhorred. But to the modern churchman, so essential is it to preserve the slender line of sweet continuity that, through the horrible reign of "Bloody Mary," we are still dealing with the Church of England. VI ELIZABETH AND THE PURITANS VI ELIZABETH AND THE PURITANS Elizabeth was the daughter of Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII. Her mother was beheaded when she was two years and eight months old. Her education was intrusted to persons who favored the reformed religion. She had a retentive memory, quick perceptions, a marvelous power of prolonged and intense application. She acquired a fair knowledge of German, and was perfectly familiar with Latin, Greek, French, and Italian. In theology, philos- ophy, and statecraft she made herself a master. Of course her penmanship, horsemanship, music, and court accomplish- ments were not neglected. In original endowments and solid and polite acquirements, she was perhaps the most remarkable woman of the age. Her childhood and maiden days were not altogether happy ones. The tarnished reputation of her mother, the Bluebeard proceedings of her father, the unkind conduct of her brother, the positive cruelty of her sister, must have made the memory of the past, the experience of the present, the anticipation of the future, anything but joyous and delightsome. With increasing years there also came in- creasing perils. Her relation to the Protestant party caused the Catholic Mary to order her arrest and confinement in the Tower. Charles V and some of the most powerful bishops and state councilors vehemently urged her execution, and she barely saved her neck by professing to be a Roman Catholic. 169 lyo Elizabeth and the Puritans STATE OF ENGLAND AT HER ACCESSION On the death of her blood-stained sister, she ascended the throne in 1558, being twenty-five years of age, and reigned forty-five years. The outlook was most forbidding — appalling is perhaps a better word. As concerned her- self, she was queen, indeed, but everybody knew that she had previously been declared illegitimate and incapable of the crown by her father, Henry VIII, by her brother, Edward VI, by her sister, the "Bloody Mary," by the Pope, by the Star Chamber, by the Convocation, and twice by act of Parliament. So doubtfully a queen at all, there was nothing in the condition of the realm to inspire hope. The national treasury was empty — worse than empty ; for in the previous reign the revenues had been anticipated, and the kingdom was staggering under an enormous debt. Trade was languishing, and to make matters worse, the coin had been debased, and the channel was full of pirates. An impend- ing financial crash she had to face. The nation was in the midst of a war with France — a disastrous war which threat- ened the overthrow of the English throne. Mary Stuart was claiming the seat which Elizabeth had just taken, and was resorting to all manner of political and religious plot- tings to gain her end. The papacy and France, Scotland, and Spain were secretly or openly hostile to the new queen, and doing their utmost to work her ruin. In addition to all this, among her own subjects there was being waged a huge factional religious fight. Does Elizabeth Tudor possess the strength, the courage, the wisdom, the tact, and skill to guide the ship of state through these tempestuous seas to a secure and restful haven ? In this paper, dropping all the rest, we are set to watch the outworkings of her religious diplomacy. Tlie Persecuted Return from the Continent 171 THE RETURN OF THE MARIAN EXILES No sooner was Mary dead and Elizabeth in power than the persecuted ones began to show their heads. Men who had been in hiding in England, whose ku-king-places Mary's officers could not discover, appeared upon the streets, and began again that religious agitation for which their lives had been in peril. Other men who had made their escape to the Continent hastily returned to their native land. Some of these men had been professors in the universities in the days of Edward VI, and bishops and deans and archdeacons and noted divines and knights and nobles. Mary's fury drove them to Switzerland and the Low Countries, and the cities on the Rhine — drove them out by hundreds. During their absence these men had become thoroughly imbued with the reform views and spirit, the doctrines and discipline advo- cated by Zwingli and Calvin. They brought back with them ^eight hundred of them and more — a deal of experience and learning and piety. Their eyes had been opened, their heads had been turned, their hearts had been changed. Their notions of things generally had been completely revo- lutionized. They didn't like popery at all, didn't like any of the rags or dregs or fooleries of popery at all. They had got above and beyond all that. No sooner were they landed in England than they began to act out their convictions. They would have nothing to do with Mary's Catholic Service-Book. They denounced it. They went so far as to overthrow the images and altars and whatever else had the look of Romish idolatry. They called loudly for a new order of things, for a thoroughgoing reform, for the total rejection of the "relics of the Amor- ites," for the substitution of a rational and spiritual religion. 172 Elizabeth and the Puritans Of course all this made the Romanists furious, and they raised a loud and bitter cry. The issues were joined, and an ugly, prolonged religious quarrel seemed inevitable. The queen was not at all pleased. She was forming an eccle- siastical policy of her own, which the hot-heads of botli parties, if not hindered, would frustrate and destroy. She took matters into her own hands. PREACHING FORBIDDEN One month and ten days after her accession she issued a proclamation intended to stop the religious disputes untU her own plan of settlement could be matured. She charged and commanded all manner of her subjects, lay and clerical, reformers and Catholics, to forbear from all teaching and preaching, whether in public or in private. In the churches the people might hear the gospel and epistle for the day and the Ten Commandments in English. They might also join in the Lord's Prayer and in repeating the Creed. But the ser- mon must be omitted, and every species of comment and remark. Upon the Scripture read there was no "exposition of any manner, sense, or meaning to be applied or added." Just simply read these few simple forms and let the matter stop right there. Let this silence continue until the proper authorities shall have determined the kind of religion and the order of worship to which the queen's subjects must sub- mit. Until then, "strait prohibition" must everywhere prevail. THE FIRST PARLIAMENT Elizabeth's first parliament met in January, 1559. It had been so "fixed" and "cooked," so worked in "blocks of five," that there stood a clear majority in favor of the Reformation. Proceeding to business it passed an act taking the annates and tenths from the church and restoring them First Parliament and Act of Supremacy 173 to the crown. It passed an act repealing some of the religious penal laws and permitting subjects to worship after the fashion prevailing in the last year of Edward VI. It passed an act requiring the public worship of God in the English tongue. It passed an act empowering the queen to name the bishops for vacant sees. It passed an act suppress- ing the convents which Mary had created and turning over the proceeds to the crown. And it passed two other acts of immense importance, the Act of Supremacy and the Act of Uniformity. THE ACT OF SUPREMACY In the Act of Supremacy the queen was made all that the Pope had been in other days. With the court of Rome all connection of whatever sort was wholly and forever broken. All writing, printing, teaching, or preaching, whereby a papal jurisdiction was defended, brought upon laymen confiscation of goods and imprisonment of person, and upon ecclesiastics loss of benefice for the first offense, praemunire for the second, and high treason for the third. In the place of the Pope, the queen was made supreme, and to this supremacy were attached all honors, dignities, im- munities, profits, and commodities to the church appertain- ing. To her was given full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction ought or may be lawfully reformed, repressed, ordered, corrected, restrained, or amended most to the pleasure of Almighty God, and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of the peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescription, or any- thing or things to the contrary notwithstanding Moreover, all persons in any public employs, whether civil or ecclesiastical, are 1 74 Elizabeth and the Puritans obliged to take an oath in recognition of the queen's right to the crown, and of her supremacy in all causes ecclesiastical and civil, on penalty of forfeiting all their promotions in the chureh, and of being declared incapable of holding any public office. THE COURT OF HIGH COMMISSION Attached to this Act of Supremacy was a clause which authorized the queen to appoint a "Court of High Com- mission" to whose keeping and control the religion of every Englishman should be unreservedly committed. To this court was given the right and power, under Elizabeth, of course, "to use, occupy, and exercise all manner of juris- diction, privileges, and pre-eminences, touching any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the realms of England and Ireland; to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences, and enormities whatsoever." The high-handed proceedings of this "Court of High Commission," its arbi- trary findings, its acts of tyranny and oppression, its fin- ings and confiscations and imprisonings, will run as warp threads through our study of Puritanism for nearly a hun- dred years (i 559-1641), until the English people have grown free and strong enough to trample it out of existence, and with it that other odious court, the Star Chamber. THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY The other important act — viciously important — which this first parliament of Elizabeth passed, was entitled "An Act for the Uniformity of Common Prayer and Service in the Church, and Administration of the Sacraments." To understand this action of Parliament in its history we must give attention to the queen's method of procedure. She was the animating spirit from first to last, and she had her own way of proceeding. When Elizabeth came to the Papists Dejeaied and Prayer-Book Revised 175 throne, the churches throughout the realm were in the pos- session of Mary's Romish priests. Something must be done to accompHsh their discomfiture, and to justify the changes in pubHc worship upon which the queen had set her will. THE WESTMINSTER DISPUTATION To this end she appointed a public disputation in West- minster Abbey at which the members of Parliament should be present. She selected sixteen disputants — eight on a side — eight Romanists against eight reformers. Three ques- tions were to be discussed : ( i ) Whether it is against the Word of God and the custom of the ancient church to officiate and administer the sacraments in a language un- known to the people; (2) Whether every church has authority to appoint, change, or set aside ceremonies and ecclesiastical rites, provided the same be done to edifying; (3) Whether it can be proved in the Word of God that there is offered in the mass a propitiatory sacrifice for the quick and the dead ? Elizabeth so controlled the preliminaries and movement of the debate as to insure the defeat of the Papists. This they discovered at the first meeting, and indignantly with- drew, thus giving the reformers the victory. THE REVISED PRAYER-BOOK The Romanists being disposed of and the way being clear, the next thing was to unite the "reformed" among themselves. It being agreed that we are to have a new church, the question now is, what shall the new church be? Doctrinally, we need not tarry long, for in main matters happily we all see eye to eye. Well then, let us come to church order, government, discipline, ritual, ceremonies, and the like. Here there was a division. The reformers who had been driven into exile under Mary said, over on the Con- 176 Elizabeth and the Puritans tinent we found a church pattern which the EngHsh nation ought to adopt — it is close to the New Testament and far removed from Rome. The reformers who had stayed at home during Mary's reign said, the church which Edward VI set up suits us, only let those parts of the service which hurt our countrymen, the Romanists, be toned down as much as possible. Elizabeth was more in sympathy with Papists than with extreme reformers, and the Edward VI idea suited her exactly. Accordingly she appointed a com- mission of divines to review King Edward's liturgy and to pare away all such expressions as might be specially obnox- ious to her Catholic subjects, such, for example, as the prayer, "From the tyranny of the bishop of Rome and all his detestable enormities, good Lord, deliver us." When the book was fixed up to the queen's liking, it was presented to both houses of Parliament and was enacted into law. Hence- forth all English subjects must worship God according to the book, without variation or shadow of turning. This was the famous (or infamous) Act of Uniformity. The form of public worship being thus determined (by the state and not by the church) there was contained in the statute this clause : The queen is hereby empowered, with the advice of her commis- sioners or metropolitan, to ordain and publish such farther cere- monies 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. A full reserve of power was thus left in the queen's hands. This whole scheme was of her devising, and she proposed to keep it in complete control. UNIFORMITY ENFORCED The Act of Uniformity went into operation June 24, 1559, seven months and seven days after the death of The Act 0} Uniformity Enforced 177 "Bloody Mary." In one brief half-year, the English church passed from the obedience of Pope Paul IV to the obedience of "Pope Elizabeth I." When she became queen she sent to him an ambassador to announce her accession, by whom he sent back the haughty answer, "that to the Holy See, and not to her, belonged the throne, to which she had no right, as being a bastard." In less than a year she showed him that to her belonged both throne and pulpit, combining in her sweet virgin self both queen and pope. Henceforth the queenly pope Elizabeth bears sway in the British Isles. Law without sanction is mere advice. Parliament ar- ranged that the Act of Uniformity should have the force of law. In England we are to worship God after a pre- scribed fashion. Law shall determine our doctrinal beliefs, the way we shall pray and sing, the very words we shall use, the very posture of body we shall assume, the very clothes we shall wear. And from these regulations there shall be no slightest deviation — in every minutest feature the rubric shall be exactly followed. But suppose an English subject should break the law — what then ? What then ? Why, every absence from church without reasonable excuse shall mean a fine of a shilling to be levied on one's goods and given to the poor. The poor themselves will see to it that no absences are overlooked. And once in church, if an English subject is found guilty of addressing God in language other than the Book of Common Prayer, guilty of sitting when he ought to kneel, guilty of performing service without surplice, cope, and tippet, for the first ofl^ense he shall suffer the loss of all his goods and chattels; for the second offense he shall go to jail for a year; for the third offense his shall be a life-imprisonment. The purpose is to make Uniformity uniform, and no doubt about it. No dodging. lySj Elizabeth and the Puritans Divide the English people into three classes : ( i ) Those who believed with the Pope — call them Romanists; (2) Those who believed with Elizabeth — call them Anglicans; (3) Those who believed with the continental reformers — Calvin, Melancthon, Zwingli, and others — call them Puri- tans (a name by which they came subsequently to be known). Now it can readily be understood how grievously the Act of Uniformity bore down upon the Romanists and the Puritans; understood, likewise, how impossible it is to en- force religion after this fashion; understood, likewise, how inevitably men of conscience and spirit will rise in revolu- tion sooner or later ; understood, likewise, how the rigorous pressing of this act caused all the mischiefs — the bad, ugly doings — of the next eighty years. But the queen-pope is having her way, and will have it whatever the consequences. The necessary provisions being now complete, attention must be directed to the actual running of the new machine. THE MARIAN BISHOPS DEPOSED Presumably the bishops and clergy throughout the realm are all of the Romish faith, being the appointees of the late Queen Mary. Elizabeth will deal first with the bishops and then with the clergy. First the bishops: She summoned them into her pres- ence, and made a speech to them. How about Supremacy? How about Uniformity? Do you intend to accept the laws recently made touching religion? How can we accept Supremacy, since the Pope alone is God's supreme head of the church on earth? How can we accept Uniformity, since it is against our conscience, and since in parliament we fought it step by step from first to last? Well, then, since you cannot submit, you can yield your bishoprics to better Bishops Deposed and Clergy Visited 179 men. Bishops Pate, Goldwell, and Scot, you may reside hereafter outside of England. Archbishop Heath, of York, you may remain at home, only take care that you walk cir- cumspectly. Bishops of Durham and Ely, I will assign you to the care of the new archbishopric of Canterbury (to be appointed). Bishops White, Bonner, and Watson, I think I see on your hands and garments the blood of many inno- cent victims, atrociously murdered in the reign of my sister Mary. I think the Tower is the best place for you. So she deposed and disposed of fourteen of the fifteen bishops. Kitchen, bishop of Llandaff, was the only bishop who had acquiesced in the new order of things, and he alone of them all was permitted to retain his see. Nine sees were vacant by death. Then Elizabeth proceeded to the filling of the vacant places. Some of Edward's bishops, whom Mary had driven into exile, declined to serve, not liking the popish features of the new Prayer-Book. Others reluctantly accepted office, and with trembling, but indulging the hope that changes for the better would soon be made. These new bishops conse- crated Matthew Parker archbishop of Canterbury, Decem- ber 17, 1559; and Parker, in turn, consecrated still other bishops; and thus the episcopate came again into working order. COMMISSION TO VISIT THE CLERGY Elizabeth appointed commissioners to visit the entire realm, to depose unworthy priests and fill their places, to correct abuses, and to enforce Supremacy and Uniformity. Less than two hundred clergymen were deprived of their livings, the rest consenting to smother conscience and abide by the new religion. What the new religion really was, was made still plainer by Fifty-three Injunctions which the com- i8o Elizabeth and the Puritans missioners were ever3rwhere to deliver: Clergymen must uphold the Act of Supremacy; four times a year must preach against papal rule in England; once a month must preach down pilgrimages, beads, and candles; must utterly extinguish and destroy all shrines, candlesticks, trindels, rolls of wax, paintings, and monuments which gender feigned miracles, idolatry, and superstition. Clergymen must not haunt alehouses or taverns, or spend their time idly at dice, cards, or other unlawful games; must not admit persons living in open sin to the communion table; must not marry without the consent of the bishop and two justices of the peace. Clergymen must, within three months, buy a New Testament for their own use; must learn some comfortable sentences for the sick ; must strictly observe the holy days, i. e., the prescribed fasts and festivals. Private Christians must attend the church services regularly; must not mock or make jest of the preacher; must give due attendance to what is read or preached ; must destroy out of their homes all abused images, and all pictures, paintings, and monuments of feigned miracles. Inn-holders must not sell drink in the time of divine service. Officiating priests, of whatever rank, must wear the vestments of King Edward, the copes, tippets, and square caps. School- masters must exhort their children to love the religion now allowed by authority. All the people, whenever the name of Jesus is pronounced in public worship, must bow their heads with lowness of courtesy. The Fifty-three Injunc- tions, of which these are briefest samples, must be read in every church in England once every ninety days. The queen's visitorial commissioners, the majority of whom were lay-visitors, armed with the Fifty-three Injunc- tions, made somewhat thorough work of it. The people, remembering the cruelties of "Bloody Mary," helped the Unijormity jor Papists and Puritans i8i queen's agents to demolish the utensils of idolatry (images, popish books, altars, banners, painted glass windows, tombs with popish inscriptions, etc). These high proceedings were more than Elizabeth had bargained for, and she took meas- ures to cool the iconoclastic zeal. It was no part of her pur- pose to alienate her Romish subjects, and at heart she herself was more a Catholic than a Protestant. In her own private chapel she still retained the crucifix, and images of the Virgin and St. John, and a high altar, and singing children in surplices, and priests in copes. So showy was her ser- vice that foreigners could not distinguish it from the papal, except that the English tongue was in use. It closely resembled the Romish ritual, with the Latin and the Pope left out. (The Pope she could not recognize for she was the daughter of Mistress Boleyn.) We turn now to the Puritans. The Act of Uniformity bore harder on them than on the Romanists, for they had consciences and convictions, which many of the Romanists had not. Of the 9,000 papal church officials, less than two hundred (189) made conscience of the matter and yielded their places, and of these less than fifty were parish priests, fifteen were heads of colleges in Oxford and Cambridge, twenty were college professors, fourteen were bishops, the rest were abbots, deans, canons, etc. There were only forty- five ordinary clergymen out of 9,000. The Puritans were made of sterner stuff. The Anglican party believed in the queen's establishment and liked it. The Puritan party thought it outrageous and spoke their minds. What were the points in controversy ? First, the Anglicans said, the papal jurisdiction ought not to obtain in England, and in the absence of a pope all ecclesiastical authority ought to lodge in the sovereign. The Puritans replied, we, too, reject the Romish bishop, but it is 1 82 Elizabeth and the Puritans unreasonable that the rehgion of a whole nation should be at the disposal of a single person, and that person a layman and a woman. Secondly, the Anglicans said, the papal church is a true church, though corrupt in some points; and the Pope is a true bishop, though not a universal bishop; and the ordinances of the Church of Rome are valid, since along that Episcopal line do our own bishops get their apostolic suc- cession. The Puritans replied, the papal church is a false and worthless church; its pope is Antichrist, its sacraments are invalid, and its ministrations are idolatrous. Thirdly, the Anglicans said, the Bible is the source and standard of doctrine, but Christ has left the discipline and government to magistrates. The Puritans replied, the Bible is indeed the rule of faith, but it likewise lays down the form of polity — the constitution and rule of order. At least nothing should bind the souls of men which is not therein enjoined. If there is discretionary power, it is in church officials, and not in magistrates. Fourthly, the Anglicans said, the pattern of church organization is found in the first four or five Christian cen- turies, rather than in apostolic times, because the apostolic institution is suited only to the infant church, while in later times we find the church full grown, having archdeacons, and archbishops, and all the other dignitaries. The Puri- tans replied, in the Bible alone is the divine intention laid down, and these later changes, with the addition of unheard- of officers and ordinances, are to be rejected. Fifthly, the Anglicans said, "indifferent things" (as rites, ceremonies, vestments, and such like) ought to be determined by the law of the magistrate; and the subjects ought to obey, and to do it cheerfully. The Puritans replied, since the things are indifferent they ought not to be forced Anglican and Puritan Controversies 183 by human laws, but each Christian ought to be left free in Christ. And yet again, these rites and vestments, since their use leads to superstition and popery, are not indifferent, and are unlawful. Sixthly, the Anglicans said, it is necessary to have a uni- form public worship. It is right to use the magistrate's sword to secure that uniformity. Liberty of conscience and freedom of profession are no man's right. In England there should be one religion; one uniform mode of worship; one form of church government for the whole nation; and with that one religion, worship, and government every English- man should be made to comply. The Puritans replied, we agree with you exactly and in every particular. We are not finding fault with your force methods; we, too, believe in force. Our complaint is that you are forcing a bad polity and a bad ritual, and that you are giving to the magistrate a power which does not belong to him. It is not the business of queens and rulers to fix doctrines and observances. That is the business of the church properly constituted and through its authorized officials. Afterward let the magis- trate compel assent. It is his duty to force compliance. The question between us is not whether religion shall be forced, but what religion shall be forced. To the modern doctrine of soul-liberty both Anglicans and Puritans were total strangers. THE SECOND PARLIAMENT Elizabeth reigned over England forty-five years — from 1558 to 1603. Her first parliament met in January, 1559, and passed the Acts of Supremacy and of Uniformity. Her second parliament met three years later, in January, 1563. In telling the story of Elizabeth and the Puritans, we have reached this second meeting of Parliament. "It was opened 184 Elizabeth and the Puritans with great pomp — twenty bishops in scarlet robes riding in the queen's train." Sermon and preHminaries over, Convo- cation proceeded to the consideration of the Forty-two Articles of Reh'gion drawn up in King Edward's time. The forty-two were reduced to thirty-nine, and the thirty-nine became and are still the doctrinal standard of the Church of England. Seven old articles were omitted; four new ones were added ; and seventeen old ones were curtailed or ampli- fied. The Puritans had had three years of established state religion, and now that Parliament was in session, they pro- posed to attempt at least a rescinding and annulling of the more offensive features of the Service-Book. The bishops who had tremblingly accepted office in the hope that changes for the better would soon be made, and the clergymen who wanted a more radical reformation than the queen had thus far countenanced, were determined that Convocation should remedy the evils under which they were groaning. Petition after petition, looking to the correction of manifold abuses, was presented and vehemently debated and all but granted. The Anglican and Puritan leaders were nearly equal in numbers, and some of the proposed changes were only defeated by the proxy votes of absentees — so near to a triumph did the radical reformers come thus early in the mighty struggle. But they were slightly outnumbered, and Convocation would grant nothing, and both alteration and abatement were refused. The nation, however, was in a different mood, and the English people wanted a further reform. Everywhere Elizabeth's regulations — her service-book and Fifty-three Injunctions — were honored or dishonored as the laity and clergy saw fit. Cecil reported to her in 1564 that the utmost irregularity everywhere prevailed. Elizabeth'' s Insane Demand for Unijormity 185 Some keep precisely to the order of the book; some intermix psahns in metre; some administer the communion with surpHce and cap; some with surplice alone; others with none. Some receive stand- ing, others kneeling, others sitting; some baptize in a font, others in a basin; some 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. Elizabeth was mad. She was furious. (She often swore. Perhaps on this occasion she was too mad to swear. ) I don't say she swore, but she lashed her bishops to the per- formance of their duty. Exact conformity we will have, and throughout the realm; and the bishops shall secure it, and without help from me. The reformers, foreseeing the storm, did what they could to stay its violence. The reform- ing bishops implored the interest of the queen's advisers in their behalf. Consider, we pray you, how all reformed countries have cast away popish apparel, and yet we contend to keep it as a holy relic. Since we have forsaken popery as wicked how can their apparel become the saints and professor of the gospel? .... The realm has a great scarcity of teachers, many places being destitute of any, and many ministers will rather leave their livings than comply Many papists enjoy their livings and liberty who have not sworn obedience, nor do any part of their duty to their miserable flock. Alas ! that such compulsion should be used toward us, and such great lenity toward the papists. But the queen could not be moved. Against her were the noblest men of the nation, her ablest state councilors, the majority of her bishops, the heads of the universities, her most godly and learned divines, the greater part of her sub- jects. Conformity she would have, idolatrous gear and all, and at whatever cost. And what a cost! What a chapter did Queen Elizabeth read into English history by her treatment of the friends of truth and foes of Rome! Depri- i86 Elizabeth and the Puritans vations, confiscations, mutilations, sequestrations, fines, im- prisonments, stocks, dungeons, maimings, croppings of ears, slittings of nostrils — everything that diabolical ingenuity could invent to compel the worthiest Christians England then had, to act a lie, to violate conscience, to dishonor God. That is a long and awful chapter. I have not time to read it here. THE GREAT SEPARATION IN 1 566 Up to the period we have thus far reached the Puritans are all members of the Church of England. The Anglicans are all members in full sympathy with the prescribed ritual. The Romanists are all members dissembling their real senti- ments and secretly plotting in the interests of the Pope — many of their clergy being mass-priests in disguise. And the Puritans are all members, greatly disliking the popish ceremonials, but content to abide within so long as con- formity is not rigidly enforced. But the time is at hand when the furious cruelty of the queen will compel a large body of the Puritans to become "Separatists." The schism was brought about in this wise : London being a hotbed of Puritanism, Parker, the archbishop of Canterbury, whipped on by Elizabeth, determined to make an example of that city. He summoned her pastors, in 1566, to the number of a hundred, to meet him at Lambeth, there to make answer "whether they would promise con- formity to the apparel established by law, and testify the same by subscription of their hands." On the day appointed, in the presence of the Court of High Commission, in the midst of the London pastors, the archbishop placed a clergy- man dressed out in the priestly apparel. Then his chan- cellor said. Ye ministers of London, the council's pleasure is that strictly ye keep the unity of apparel, like this man who stands here canonically Uniformity of Apparel Enforced 187 habited with a square cap, a scholar's gown priestlike, a tippet, and, in the church, a linen surplice. Ye that will subscribe, write Volo; those that will not subscribe, write Nolo; be brief, make no words. Sixty-one were persuaded and threatened into subscrib- ing; thirty-seven refused point blank. They were immedi- ately suspended and afterward deprived. The suspended preachers immediately published a declaration of their reasons for rejecting the "ministering garments of the Pope's church;" but the Court of High Commission would listen to no defense; and the archbishop, now that he had set his hand to the task, determined to make thorough work of it. His official position gave him absolute control throughout his whole province, with the exception that the University of Cambridge enjoyed the privilege of licensing "twelve ministers yearly to preach where they pleased inde- pendently of any of the bishops." This privilege had been granted by that infamous pope, Alexander VI, and con- firmed by Elizabeth herself. The university, in spite of the archbishop's furious protestation, issued its licenses to Puri- tan preachers (twelve a year), who were not slow to improve their liberty. This was a leak Parker could not close, but every other he shut up tight. He called in all licenses, thus suspending all clerical functions, and then issued new licenses only to such as would bind themselves to minister in the appointed way, vestments and all. In every parish censors and spies were appointed to note and report any departure from the rubric. In this way he had a sure check on every Non-conformist. Then followed petitions to the queen and to her council, and vindications to the public, and numerous pamphlets. If the Puritans could not preach, they could print. Then the Star Chamber ended this last recourse, by putting a gag on the press. On June 29, 1566, there appeared the stiff est kind of a law 1 88 Elizabeth and the Puritans against printing, publishing, selling, binding, stitching, own- ing, or secreting any kind of a book or pamphlet which opposed Uniformity or favored Puritanism, So the Puritans were deposed and effectually silenced. Their churches were closed, or the pulpits filled with Angli- can priests. The friends of non-conformity either absented themselves from church altogether, or came in after the ser- vice was over — just before the prayer and sermon. Observe the sacraments with "idolatrous gear," they would not ; and neither the queen nor Parker could force them. At length some of the deprived London pastors and their supporters held a conference, and reached the conclusion that since they could not have God's Word and sacraments without idolatry, it was their duty to break with the public churches, and meet in private houses, or elsewhere, for the worship of God according to their consciences. Being in- formed of these proceedings, the queen, and the High Com- mission, and the bishop of London resorted to every expedient their ingenuity could suggest to silence the preachers and to hold the laymen to the parish churches. But sheriffs and magistrates were not strong enough to stay the exodus from the Church of England, and from this period a large body of Puritans must be known as "Separa- tists." The separation occurred in 1566. There were now two classes of Puritans : Those who remained inside the Established Church and made shift with uniformity as best they could, and those who totally withdrew. The "Separatists," deprived of their livings, reduced to poverty, exposed to the vengeance of the law, had now to determine after what order they would worship God. Some thought it well to retain the Book of Common Prayer, strip- ping it, in its ceremonies, of all remainders of popery. Others thought it would be better to discard the old book Puritan Objections to Papal Customs 189 altogether, and to adopt a service at once scriptural and in keeping with the usages of the reformers on the Continent. The latter view prevailed, and John Calvin's Geneva Service- Book was adopted. PURITAN OBJECTIONS TO THE ESTABLISHED ORDER The question of the vestments was the crucial question which forced the "Great Separation" in 1566. 'Tf surplice, corner-cap, and tippet have been badges of idolaters in the very act of their idolatry, what hath the preacher of Chris- tian liberty, and the open rebuker of all superstition, to do with the dregs of the Romish Beast?" But their objections to the priestly garments were not by any manner of means the only objections of the Puritans to the Book of Common Prayer. This paper can fittingly close with the briefest statement of the chief of these. The Puritans objected to the vestments — we need say no more of that. They also objected to the sign of the cross in baptism. It has no Bible warrant, and the ignorant and superstitious give it a mystical virtue. They objected to godfathers and godmothers — parents and not strangers ought to be pledged to the religious nurture of children. They objected to confirmation. It is not scriptural. The mere ability to say the Lord's Prayer and Catechism is not an adequate qualification. The laying-on of the bishop's hands is a pretended giving of grace. The boy may in reality be the worst scapegrace in the neighborhood. They objected to kneeling at the Lord's Supper. Christ and his apostles reclined. They were feasting and not adoring. In the early church no such custom prevailed. It came in with transubstantiation, and lost its meaning when that heresy was discarded. They objected to bowing when the name of Jesus was pronounced. It was a childish superstition, and iQo Elizabeth and the Puritans no more demanded than bowing at any other name of Deity. They objected to the enforced observance of Saints' Days as holy days, while the Lord's one holy day was given up to buying and selling, sports and frivolity. They objected to the use of the ring in marriage. The Papists make mar- riage a sacrament, and bless and consecrate the ring and sprinkle it with holy water. Churches which have aban- doned Romanism ought to abandon this charmed symbol with all the rest. They objected to the absolution of the sick. The priest had no such absolving ability. He prac- ticed a cruel deception on the patient, and he was guilty of a blasphemous assumption of divine power. They objected to the form of the baptismal service. The priest has no warrant for praying, "We give thee thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Spirit." They objected to the burial service. The church has no right to lower the body of a notoriously wicked man into the grave with the words, "It hath pleased Almighty God to take unto himself the soul of this man. We therefore commit his body to the ground in sure hope of the resurrection to eter- nal life." Today the English clergyman is not required to say the burial service over murderers and suicides, or over persons who are known to have been living in open adultery. The rubric of the prayer-book of 1662 reads, "Here is to be noted that the office ensuing is not to be used for any that die unbaptized, or excommunicate, or have laid violent hands upon themselves." And so when they once got into the way of objecting, they found at last that there was scarcely any feature of the established religion against which some complaint could not be lodged. They objected to bishops lifting themselves above presbyters; to archdeacons, deans, and chapters; to the spiritual courts founded on the canon law of the papal Puritan Objections for Conscience^ Sake 191 church; to the coming of everybody to the communion table; to the reading of the apocryphal books in the public worship; to the ordaining of ministers too ignorant to preach; to hav- ing one minister in the possession of half a dozen benefices; to the non-residence of the holders of church livings ; to the singing of prayers, to antiphonal chanting, to the use of organs and all other musical instruments. In one sentence, they objected to being deprived and deposed and silenced, and impoverished, and disgraced, and imprisoned, and slit in the nostrils, and robbed of their ears, and left to die in cold, damp dungeons because they would not yield their consciences to the idolatrous gear and popish ceremonials of the Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments of the Church of England. VII THOMAS CARTWRIGHT AND ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM VII THOMAS CARTWRIGHT AND ENGLISH PRESBYTERIANISM Elizabeth reigned nearly half a century — from 1558 to 1603. During this long reign, Puritanism took on several widely different forms. At first the questions in dispute were on the surface, but with time they became more and more fundamental. Incipient Puritanism was concerned with vestments. In 1550, in the reign of Edward, Hooper was the representative of a large class who looked upon the prescribed garments as "relics of popery;" and this date, 1550, is generally taken as that of the first "public mani- festation of Puritanism as an element in church politics." This aversion to the vestments soon extended to many of the ceremonies of the church. An ever-increasing party found fault with the sign of the cross in baptism, kneeling at the Lord's Supper, bowing at the name of Jesus, the use of the ring in marriage, the forms employed in baptism, con- firmation, absolution, burial, etc. When Elizabeth's enforcement of conformity became unbearable, a number of Puritans found themselves com- pelled to worship God in a more scriptural, less papal way, in private assemblies, apart from the national church. These Puritans became "Separatists." This was in 1566 — eight years after Elizabeth came to the throne. The queen and her bishops pushed conformity with such rigor and cruelty that after a time men began to inquire whether the whole structure of the church as then organized was not unscriptural — whether episcopacy had any warrant whatever in the Bible — whether the biblical idea of the 19s 196 Cartwright and English Preshyterianism church ought not to supplant the Ehzabethan. It was Thomas Cartwright who set in operation the movement for the substitution of a Presbyterian national establishment in the place of the existing order, A powerful minority of the Puritans (remaining still in the Church of England), set itself the task of reforming the church from within; under- took to destroy the English church and to build in its place the Church of Geneva. The national church — the Church of England — was still to remain, only it was to be Presby- terian and not Episcopalian. This change they proposed to bring about, not in any violent, revolutionary way, but by educating the public mind and by persuading Parliament to pass the necessary laws. We have now Puritans who wish to see the church remain as it is — ruled by bishops — and Puritans who believe that episcopal rule is unscriptural and unlawful, and who wish to see the church ruled by presbyters. Both parties wish to see the church purged of popish practices and errors, and both parties wish the church to be of a national character, and all English subjects be forced by the govern- ment to yield to its discipline. About a decade after Cartwright began to make trouble, and to get himself into trouble, still another ecclesiastical idea was broached, which gave rise to still another Puritan party. Robert Browne conceived the idea that Episcopalians and Presbyterians were both wrong; that the Scriptures warranted the theories of neither faction; that, accord- ing to the Bible, the government of the church is neither episcopal nor presbyterial, but congregational; that a national church, of whatever sort, was not countenanced in the Word of God; that the New Testament knew only inde- pendent, local churches, subject only to Christ as the head; that Christians who really wished a genuine reform must Cartwright and the Puritan Movement 197 break connection altogether with the estabhshed reHgion and band together in local societies modeled after the Bible pattern. The Puritans, of whatever type, saw eye to eye respect- ing the papacy, and the duty of cleansing themselves from all defilements of Rome. But regarding the constitution of the church, and the relation of the church to the civil govern- ment, they were hopelessly divided. Concerning them all, Elizabeth had one settled, never-dying purpose — to force them all into exact conformity to her own established disci- pline. We are now prepared to examine more in detail the Puritan movement of which Thomas Cartwright is the most conspicuous representative. We reserve for a separate paper the ecclesiastical scheme of Robert Browne. Dr. Graham says : Thomas Cartwright is the greatest name as thinker, writer, suf- ferer, among the English Presbyterians. Professor Briggs says : Thomas Cartwright is the hero of Presbyterianism in England, lay- ing the foundations of Puritanism broad and deep, upon which a great structure was subsequently erected, which has continued till the pres- ent time. Some of his positions have subsequently proved untenable; but, in the main, the Presbyterian churches of Great Britain and America still stand by his principles. Who was this Thomas Cartwright? What principles did he advocate? In what way did his party seek to get these principles into practical operation? With what suc- cess did the party meet in this endeavor? This paper will give the outlines of the story through the reign of Elizabeth — from 1570 to 1603 — a period of thirty-three years. The narrative of Puritanism during the first twelve years of this reign we have already recited. 198 Carlwright and English Preshyterianism Cartwright was born about 1535. In 1547, the year Edward ascended the throne, he entered Cambridge Univer- sity— a lad of twelve years. During Mary's reign he was a law student in London. When Elizabeth became queen he returned to Cambridge. In 1564 the Vestment Contro- versies were raging, and his dislike of the habits was strengthened and increased by a visit he paid to Geneva. Coming back to Cambridge, he took his B.D. degree in 1567, and was made Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity in 1569. He was then about thirty-five years of age. At the university were three parties : ( i ) The Roman- ists, who said that the Reformation had already gone more than far enough, and who longed for a retrogade move- ment; (2) The Anglicans, who said that the Reformation had gone just far enough and who wished things to remain exactly as they were; (3) The Puritans, who said that the Reformation had not gone far enough and who were deter- mined it should go farther. The Puritan party was by far the most numerous, enthusiastic, and aggressive, and Cart- wright was their champion and idol. When he lectured, standing-room was at a premium, and when he preached at St. Mary's, the sexton was obliged to take down the win- dows of the church for the accommodation of the multitudes that flocked to hear him. Complaints were made to the gov- ernment of the wild views he was spreading among the stu- dents, and of the destructive onslaughts he was making on the established order. On one occasion he inveighed against the vestments, and at evening prayers the fellows and stu- dents of Trinity appeared without their surplices, which greatly scandalized the Anglican party. But to his mind vestments were a small matter, compared with graver errors and abuses. He had his say about pluralities and non-resi- dence, and called them "impious;" and about spiritual His ^^ Dangerous and Seditious''^ Opinions 199 courts, and called them "damnable, devilish, and detestable." "Poor men toil and travail, and princes and doctors lick up all. Those who hold offices should do the duties of those offices. High places in the commonwealth belong to merit, and those who without merit are intruded into authority are thieves and robbers," Dr. Hook, a bitter foe of Cartwright, has given a sum- mary of the "dangerous and seditious" opinions which he broached at this time in lectures and sermons. I mention the chief of these opinions by which the popular leader of the Puritans was "inflaming the minds of the younger mem- bers of the university against the institutions of the land." Cartwright insisted that in reforming the church it was necessary to reduce all things to the apostolic standard. Only men who can preach ought to be admitted into the Christian ministry. Popish ordinations are not valid. Only preachers ought to administer the sacraments. Only the canonical Scriptures ought to be read publicly in church. Burying the dead is not exclusively a ministerial office. Equal reverence is due to all parts of Scripture and to all names of Deity; there is no reason, therefore, for standing at the reading of the gospel and bowing at the name of Jesus. It is just as lawful to sit at the Lord's Table as to kneel or stand. The Lord's Supper ought not to be admin- istered by women or laymen. The sign of the cross in baptism is superstitious. To forbid marriages at any par- ticular time of the year is papistical. The keeping of Lent, and fasting on Fridays and Saturdays is superstitious. To observe the church festivals and then profane the Lord's Day by trading and open markets is unlawful. In ordain- ing ministers, to say, "Receive thou the Holy Ghost," is ridiculous and wicked. Kings and bishops ought not to be anointed. 200 Carlwright and English Presbyterianism To upholders of the state rehgion, sentiments such as these were in the highest degree offensive, and they insisted that the chancellor of Cambridge should take some speedy- course against Cartwright, alleging that the youth of the university, vuho frequented his lectures in great numbers, vv^ere "in danger to be poisoned with a love of contention and a liking of novelty." An effort was thereupon made "to silence Cartwright and his adherents, and to reduce them to conformity or expel them from the university." This effort proved successful, and late in 1570 Cartwright was deprived of his professor- ship. In September of the following year (1571) his fellowship at Trinity was taken from him. During the pro- ceedings which resulted m his expulsion from the university, he drew up his opinions in six propositions, and presented them to the vice-chancellor. These propositions reveal to us the "Puritan plan for reforming the government and discipline of the church." They are as follows : (i) That the names and functions of archbishops and archdeacons ought to be abolished. (2) That the offices of the lawful ministers of the church, viz., bishops and deacons, ought to be reduced to their apostolical institution : bishops to preach the word of God and pray, and deacons to be employed in taking care of the poor. (3) That the government of the church ought not to be intrusted to bishops' chancellors, or the officials of archdeacons; but every church ought to be governed by its own minister and presbyters. (4) That ministers ought not to be at large, but everyone should have the charge of a particular congregation. (5) That no man ought to solicit, or to stand as a candidate for the ministry. (6) That ministers ought not to be created by the sole authority of the bishop, but to be openly and fairly chosen by the people. Cartwright Expelled from Cambridge 201 These opinions were looked upon as untrue, dangerous, and seditious, and their champion was expelled from Cam- bridge. Cartwright betook himself to Geneva. His friends deplored his overthrow, but while losing his person they clung tenaciously to his ideas. His enemies said he had once before "traveled to Geneva that he might the better feed his humors with conceited novelties; and that he was so en- amored with the Genevan discipline, that he thought all churches and congregations were to be measured and squared by the practice of it." It will be necessary now to leave Cartwright in Geneva for a few months, while we take note of what is going on in London. Notwithstanding the queen's determined en- forcement of conformity, the Puritan party steadily increased in power; and the more high-handed and out- rageous the intolerance, the more radical and outspoken became the opposition. The men to whom the vestments and ceremonies were an offense, and whom the queen and her bishops were persecut- ing with Satanic fury, were not afraid to seek the redress of their wrongs in the highest court of the land. In the Parliament of 1571, Mr. Strickland, one of their number, boldly moved such a correction of the Prayer-Book as should take away the superstitious remains of popery. Elizabeth was so exasperated that she brought him before the council and forbade him the Parliament House. His fellow-members, smarting under the outrage, made such violent speeches that she speedily restored him to his place. In the same parliament when a committee was appointed to confer with the bishops respecting a confession of faith, the archbishop said, "Surely you will refer yourselves wholly to us as the bishops in these things." Mr. Wentworth replied, "No, by the faith I bear to God, we will pass nothing 202 Cartwright and English Preshyterianism before we understand what it is, for that were but to make you popes. Make you popes who Hst, for we will make you none." The Convocation which sat with this par- liament was under the queen's thumb, and turning a deaf ear to the supplications in behalf of the deprived and im- prisoned ministers, framed new canons of discipline which pressed the Act of Uniformity with redoubled energy. The result was that still other Puritan leaders were deprived and silenced. This, however, only goaded the party on. When Parliament met again the next year, 1572, the lord-keeper made a speech, in the queen's name, urging a stiffer enforcement of the discipline and ceremonies, but the Commons, in reply to the speech, immediately framed and passed two bills looking to the redress of Puritan griev- ances. This angered Elizabeth and she demanded the instant delivery of the bills, and forbade any further religious legislation. Parliament felt that its prerogative had been infringed, and was open and bold in its protesta- tion. For the speech that Wentworth made the queen sent him to the Tower. This blow at the freedom of Parlia- ment only emboldened and embittered the Puritan party. The Cambridge men of the Cartwright school spoke their minds and many of them were expelled from the university. John Field and Thomas Wilcox, representing the London men, drew up and themselves presented the famous "Admonition to Parliament for the Reformation of Church Discipline." For their hardihood the queen cast them into prison, and issued a proclamation against the Admonition, and forbade the Parliament to discuss such a question. In spite of the bishop's resistance, the Admonition found its way into print, and was scattered all over England. The Puritans were smarting under the whips of Good Queen Bess and her willing agents, and their temper and spirit (as well Admonition to Rejorm Church Discipline 203 as their ideas) come into view in this document. Let me give the import of three or four paragraphs : "From the true platform of a church reformed, let Parliament endeavor that Christ may rule and reign by the sceptre of his Word only, and let them learn with perfect hatred to detest the religion now established." Let the "lordly lords, arch- bishops, bishops, suffragans, deans, doctors, archdeacons, chancellors, and the rest of that proud generation know that their kingdom must come down, hold they never so hard." "A right ministry, and a right government of the church according to the Scriptures," England does not enjoy. "Ability to instruct and a godly conversation" are needful to the ministry, but in the English clergy there is the recep- tion of "tag and rag, learned and unlearned, the basest of the people." Formerly ministers were "known by voice, learning and doctrine," now they are "distinguished by cap, surplice, and tippet the garments of the Balaamite, of popish priests, of the enemies to God." "Once ministers preached the Word only, now they read homilies, articles, injunctions, etc." "Once painful, now gainful; then poor and ignominious, now rich and glorious." The Church of England lifts men into "livings and offices, by Antichrist devised, but in Christ's Word forbidden, such as Metropoli- tan, Lord's Grace, Lord Bishop, Archdeacon, Prelate of the Garter, High Commissioner." "These Archbishops and Lord Bishops are drawn out of the Pope's shop," and the canon law which guides them is anti-Christian, devilish, and contrary to Scripture. God's Word gives them no such power, and the dominion of one minister over another is "unlawful, and expressly forbidden by Holy Writ." These many ministers who cannot make a sermon, who can scarcely read the homilies prescribed for them, are "empty feeders, ill workmen to hasten the Lord's harvest, mes- 204 Cariwright and English Preshyterianism sengers that cannot call, prophets that cannot declare the will of the Lord, unsavory salt, blind guides, sleepy watch- men, untrusty dispensers of God's secrets, evil dividers of the Word, weak to withstand the adversary, not able to confute." And so the admonishers run on, page after page, biting sharply at non-residence, and pluralities, and popish apparel, baptism by women, and the churching of women after child- birth, and Romish holidays, and wafer-cakes at the com- munion, and sponsors at baptism, and homilies, and the Aprocrypha, etc., etc., and many other things found in the Prayer-Book, that "imperfect book, culled and picked out of the popish dung-hill, that mass book, full of abomi- nations." Then the admonishers tell Parliament what the true church is, and how it is properly officered and gov- erned ; and "conclude by imploring Parliament, for the sake of God's church and the queen, to consider and reform the abuses pointed out, so that Antichrist might be turned out headlong, and Christ might reign by his Word." The Puritans had been suffering under Elizabeth's tyranny for a decade and a half, and they felt that the time for soft speeches had come to an end. About the time the Admonition appeared, Cart w right returned to England from Geneva. He at once espoused the cause of Field and Wilcox, who were now in prison, and issued a document entitled "The Second Admonition, with an Humble Petition to Both Houses of Parliament for Relief against Subscription." Bishop Whitgift, his old enemy, wrote a reply. Cartwright rejoined, and Whitgift answered, and so the controversy ran on. Neither disputant framed his argument in courtly terms. Whitgift complained to Cartwright, "If you should have written against the veriest Papist in the world, the vilest person, the ignorantest Whitgijt and Cariwright in Controversy 205 dolt, you could not have used a more spiteful and malicious, more slanderous and reproachful, more contemptuous and disdainful kind of writing, than you use throughout your whole book." Cartwright answered back, "If peace had been so precious to you, as you pretend, you would not have brought so many hard words, bitter reproaches, enemy-like speeches, to double and treble the heat of contention." The Puritans gloried in their champion and loaded him with gratuities, and Elizabeth showed her appreciation of Whit- gift by making him, a few years later (1583), archbishop of Canterbury. The bishop of London and the Court of High Commission issued an order for the arrest of Cart- wright, but he concealed himself until he found a chance to escape out of the kingdom. We shall hear of him again before our story ends, but for the present we must trace the fortunes of the Puritan party at home. Notwithstanding the friendly attitude of many in high official places — of some of the bishops, of mayors and aldermen in the cities, of professors in the universities, of members of the House of Commons, of the chief and nearest counselors of Elizabeth herself — the Puritans were not able to escape the sword of the civil magistrate by which the canons, injunctions, and penal laws were rigidly enforced. All hope of any immediate relief through the action of Par- liament was at an end. Their case seemed truly desperate. The English church, of which they themselves were mem- bers, seemed to them little better than the Pope's. Their leaders were being silenced, imprisoned, and driven into exile. The smile of the queen rested on the Papists, and upon themselves she visited all her wrath. Their souls were horrified at the tidings that came to them from France; their fellow-Christians butchered in cold blood by thousands ; on St. Bartholomew's night, August 24, 1572, 10,000 2o6 Cartwright and English Presbyterianism Huguenots massacred in Paris alone, and 70,000 in France ; the Pope ordering Te Deums to be sung, and every Papist in England shouting for joy. Therefore Puritanism lived. It was no time to die. As Froude says in another connection : As the powers of evil gathered to destroy the English church and throne, it would have fared ill with England had there been no hot- ter blood than filtered in the sluggish veins of the officials of the Estab- lishment. There was needed an enthusiasm fiercer far to encounter the revival of Catholic fanaticism; and if the young Puritans, in the heat and glow of their convictions, snapped their traces and flung off their harness, it was they, after all, who saved the very church which attempted to disown them. But for the very Puritans whom the Establishment endeavored to destroy, the old religion would have come back on the country like a returning tide. / It was not Elizabeth who saved herself and who saved England. She enjo3^ed a victorious reign and died a natural death in spite of herself. To the Puritans whom she hated she owed her personal safety and her vast achievements. It was not by Elizabeth nor by her High Commission, but by Puritan statesmen, and Puritan patriots, that English liberty was preserved. It was not by the High-Church clergy that the ecclesiastical establishment maintained its existence, but by those very Calvinistic sectaries whom they silenced and imprisoned. There is today a Protestant English throne, and a Protestant Church of England be- cause of what Puritanism was and of what Puritanism did. The English church owes its very life, at this hour, to the men whom it detested and sought to destroy. But let us return to these men. It was evident to them that Parliament, at this time, 1572, could give them no help. They wanted two things. They wanted laws passed that would remove the hand of the queen and of the High Com- mission under which they were being crushed; and they Presbyterian Doctrines and Desires 207 wanted laws passed which would completely upset the exist- ing Establishment. They had a boundless abhorrence of popery, and an equally boundless abhorrence of the national hierarchy. They believed that Catholicism and Anglicanism were both alike from the devil. They had been studying their Bibles, studying them in the light of the teaching of John Calvin and the reformed divines of the Continent. In their Bibles they found a system of doctrines, and the constitution, government, and discipline of the Christian church. They believed that the church of the Bible was the Presbyterian church — such as Calvin had set up in Geneva, and Knox in Scotland, and the Huguenots in France. They called on Parliament to demolish the Church of England, Episcopalian in form, and to erect in its place the Church of England, Presbyterian in form. They counted it a sin to tolerate the Catholic worship, and likewise a sin to tolerate the Anglican worship. There ought to be a national church and worship, and these ought to be Presbyterian, because the Presbyterian alone is scriptural. The true Bible church once established, laws ought to be enacted forcing every English subject into strict conformity. Could the Presby- terians have triumphed, they would have whipped every Episcopalian into line with the same severity that was now being exercised toward themselves. In a later reign they did triumph for a brief period, as we shall see before our term's study ends, but for the present they must yield and suffer. Yield, did I say ? Not exactly that, for no genuine Puritan ever knew what it was to yield. But they must change their tactics, and accomplish by indirection what they cannot directly gain. A systematic organization of their numbers and forces will enable them to live on in spite of persecution, and to insure their perpetuity and growth. About five miles from London, on the banks of the 2o8 Cartwright and English Preshyterianism Thames, was the Httle village of Wandsworth. In this village, on November 20, 1572, fifteen ministers of London and its vicinity, and a company of laymen, secretly met for the purpose of forming a Presbytery. They elected eleven elders and defined their duties. This was the first fully constituted Presbyterian church in England. All the mem- bers were members of the Church of England, and they proposed to continue so. Their idea was to form an imperium in imperio, and to govern their actions as far as possible by Presbyterian rules while holding membership in an Episcopalian church. They hoped that the inside church would grow strong enough some time to destroy the out- side one. All this was done with the utmost secrecy. Organi- zations similar to this were secretly formed in different parts of England. A synod was held in London in 1584, at which a Book of Discipline, prepared by Walter Travers and Thomas Cartwright, was adopted. By 1590 more than five hundred Church of England ministers, in many counties in England, had signed this Presbyterian Book of Discipline. This secret movement began in 1572. Very soon the bishop of London "got wind of it," though he could not single out by name the guilty parties. He sounded the alarm to the Court of High Commission, and the pious queen issued a proclamation that the Act of Uniformity should be executed with redoubled energy. Every wheel of the ecclesiastical machinery was set to running to crush out the life of the offending Puritans. The jails rapidly filled with non-conforming Christians. The queen's fury only increased the evil. The bishop of London wrote : People resort to the suffering Puritans in prison, as in popery they were wont to run on pilgrimage. Aldermen and wealthy citizens give them great and stout countenance, and persuade others to do the like. The Exercises or Prophesyings 209 In this connection ought to be mentioned the "exercises," as they were called, or "prophesyings." So many of the best preachers in the kingdom had been deprived and silenced, and so many of the pulpits were either empty, or filled with mass-priests in disguise, or with men too ignorant to preach, and so deplorable was the moral condition of the realm in consequence, that the Puritans sought to remedy these evils by religious services apart from the regular order of wor- ship. The movement had its beginning, in 1571, in North- ampton. The account is a long one, but Froude gives it in epitome : Under the combined management of the bishop of Peterborough and the mayor and corporation of the city, the laity and clergy of Northamptonshire worked harmoniously together. On Sundays and holy days the usual services were read from the Prayer-Book. In the morning there was a sermon; in the afternoon, when prayers were over the youth were instructed in Calvin's catechism. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, a lecture of Scripture was read, with extracts from the liturgy, and afterward there was a general meeting of the congrega- tion, with the mayor in the chair, for the correction of discord, blasphemy, whoredom, drunkenness, or offenses against religion. On Saturdays, the ministers of the different neighborhoods assembled to compare opinions and discuss difficult texts; and once a quarter all the clergy of the county met for mutual survey of their own general behavior. Offenses, given or taken, were mentioned, explana- tions heard, and reproof administered when necessary. Beginning in 1571 at Northampton, these associations, with various modifications, sprang up in many parts of England. By 1574 they had taken on the form of an exe- getical club, and ministers' and laymen's conference. These "exercises" were called "prophesyings" from that passage in I Cor. 14:31, "Ye may all prophesy one by one, that all may learn, and all may be comforted." Lord Bacon gives this description : 2IO Cartwrighl and English Presbyterianism The ministers within a precinct did meet upon a week day in some principal town where there was some ancient grave minister that was president, and an auditory admitted of gentlemen and other persons of leisure. Then every minister successively, beginning with the youngest, did handle one and the same part of Scripture, spending severally some quarter of an hour or better, and in the whole some two hours : — and so, the exercise being begun and concluded with prayer, and the president giving a text for the next meeting, the assembly was dissolved. And this was, as I take it, a fortnight's exercise; which, in my opinion, was the best way to frame and train up preachers to handle the Word of God as it ought to be handled, that hath been practiced. By 1574 these "prophesyings" had become extremely popular. The Puritans were enjoying a little Bible exercise outside the Prayer-Book, and the more liberal bishops were giving the movement countenance. There were no less than ten bishops who took this view. They looked upon it as a "devotional meeting for the edification of the clergy and the better understanding of the Scriptures." Elizabeth did not take that view of it. She looked upon the "prophesy- ings" "as dangerous gatherings of disaffected spirits." When they reached the diocese of Norwich — the very head- quarters of non-conformity — she determined to act. She commanded the Bishop of Norwich to suppress the "exer- cises." Almost at the same time, he received a letter from four of the queen's privy councilors encouraging him to do nothing of the kind. Parker was archbishop and he told Elizabeth that these conferences were nothing better than seminaries of Puritanism, and that they made the people so inquisitive that they would not submit to the orders of their superiors. Soon after, Parker died (May 17, 1575), and was succeeded by Grindal (February 15, 1576), who had a decided liking for the "prophesyings." Grindal had been bishop of London and afterward archbishop of York. In Archbishop GrindaVs Fifteen Articles 211 the North there was a good deal of Romanism but very httle Puritanism. Grindal had proved himself a very good disciplinarian. He had curbed the old Romish superstitions, and he had put a stop to the disgraceful proceedings that had been going on in the churches. For example, in 1570, he had prohibited peddlers from selling their wares in the church porches in time of service, and made a strict require- ment that "no lords of misrule, or summer lords or ladies, or any disguised persons, morrice-dancers and others, should come irreverently into church, or play any unseemly parts, with scoffs, jests, wanton gestures, or ribald talk, in the time of divine service." Lord Burleigh (Cecil) thought he would make a good primate, and on the death of Parker induced Elizabeth to appoint him to the see of Canterbury. But Grindal had been one of the exiles in the reign of ''Bloody Mary," and on the Continent he had been tinctured with Puritanism. As soon as he became archbishop, being now the president of Convocation, he laid before that body Fifteen Articles. One of these articles provided that mar- riages might be celebrated at any season of the year. An- other provided that only a lawful minister should solemnize marriages. Another provided that "unlearned ministers" should not be promoted. Another provided that clergymen should possess themselves of the New Testament in Latin and English. These articles had a pretty strong Puritan look. The very year in which Grindal was made archbishop he made a metropolitan visitation, in which he discovered that there was a great scarcity of efficient preachers. He saw plainly the pressing need of a great increase in the num- ber and a great advance in the character of the clergy. He was firmly convinced that the quickest and readiest means to accomplish this end was the "prophesyings." 212 Cartwright and English Presbyterianism In 1576 the queen instructed her archbishop to see that these "prophesyings" were everywhere stopped. Grindal refused to obey and wrote her a sharp remonstrance. She called him to court where a stormy scene awaited him. She told him there was too much preaching in England; that four or five preachers were quite sufficient for a county; and that as for the "prophesyings," she would have no more of them. But Grindal could not be moved. He said, "I cannot with safe conscience, and without the offense of the majesty of God, give my consent to the suppressing of these exercises. I choose rather to offend your earthly majesty than the heavenly majesty of God." Elizabeth called a meeting of the Star Chamber to deprive the archbishop, but they prevailed on her to make it milder, and he was sequestered for five years for his disobedience. Then the queen had a letter sent to all the bishops : We hear to our great grief that in sundry parts of our realm there are no small number of persons presuming to be teachers and preachers of the church who do daily devise new rites and ceremonies, as well by their unordinate preaching, readings, and ministering the sacraments, as by procuring unlawfully of assemblies of great number of our people, out of their ordinary parishes, to be hearers of their disputations and new devised opinions, upon points of divinity far unmeet for vulgar people, which manner of innovation they in some places term "prophesyings," and in other places "exercises;" by which assemblies persons are taken away from their ordinary work, and divisions are encouraged and sober people are offended. The bishops are therefore charged to cause these "exer- cises" to cease, and if any continue to use them, to commit them to prison. For several years the queen found the tide too strong against her, and, storm as she would, the "prophesyings" continued. Not until Grindal died, and Whitgift became archbishop did she find the agent after her own heart who would go the lengths her majesty's fury The Purpose of Presbyterian Puritans 213 dictated. Whitgift died the year after Elizabeth, and dur- ing the remainder of her reign, for twenty years, he and she did all that diabolical ingenuity could invent to destroy Pres- byterians and Independents and Familists and Anabaptists, and every class of Non-conformists. Notwithstanding all, Puritanism steadily increased to the end of the reign. Today we are specially concerned with Presbyterian Puritans. I quote from Wakeman : Theirs was a deliberate attempt to introduce the Genevan Dis- cipline under cover of the formularies of the church. Their purpose was to erect a system of Presbyterianism inside the pale of the Estab- lishment. By rendering an outward conformity to the law in order to avoid persecution, under cover of that conformity they sought to establish a separate disciplinary machinery of their own which should supersede that of the church. Their Presbyterian friends in Scotland, Geneva, and Holland, etc., sympathized with, and encouraged them in this. It was in 1580 that Cartwright and Travers published their Book of Discipline, in which the Genevan system was adapted to the needs of England, and which was intended to form an authorized scheme of church government for the Puritan party. In 1582 the system was formally adopted by a secret synod in London and was put in full working order. A board of Puritan clergy was formed in each dis- trict, called a "classis" or conference, and provision was made for the consolidation of these classes into a national assembly which should meet in London at the time of the session of Parliament. In each parish was to be formed a consistory, which should include lay mem- bers elected for that purpose; but the real direction of the movement lay entirely in the hands of the classis. To it appertained the power of deciding in each particular case how much or how little of the ceremonial required by law the minister might be permitted to use, and to it was intrusted the still more important task of deciding on the qualifications of candidates for the ministry and of giving them their "call." When the classis had thus conferred Presbyterian orders upon a man, he was directed to apply to the bishop for the legal rite. In this way a complete church system on the Presbyterian model was formed, which was to work in obedience to the church system already established, by treating it as 214 Cartwright and English Preshyterianism a mere legal appendage, until the time came when, undermined from below, it might be successfully and entirely overthrown. The scheme worked admirably. Intelhgent and deter- mined men had it in hand, and they honeycombed the Episcopal establishment through and through. It cost them unspeakable hardships and sufferings, but they were living for a cause which they believed to be the cause of God. Cartwright was a prime mover and leading spirit in all this dangerous enterprise. Most of his time he passed in prison and exile, hated and hounded by Whitgift, the archbishop, but by his fertile brain, his ready pen, and his courageous sufferings, he made himself the acknowledged head and glorious hero of English Preshyterianism. For more than thirty years that strong man braved the fury of the queen and her metropolitan. Whatever judgment may be formed of Cartwright (and there are those who laud and those who execrate him), it was an honor, a real honor, to have for enemies in the matter of religion such persons as the queen and her arch- bishop. A man is as well known by the foes he makes as by the friends he keeps, and, so judged, Cartwright was a great and good man. Passing the queen by in silence (we have learned to know her already, and pretty well), let me quote this excellent and truthful estimate of Whitgift by Neal: The character of Whitgift's administration appears plain on the page of history. It embodied the worst passions of an intolerant state priest, and stood out in the history of Protestant persecution as worthy of special reprobation. It knew no mercy — it exercised no compassion. It had but one object, and that it pursued without com- punction and remorse. The most conscientious of the queen's sub- jects were mingled with the vilest of their race. Whatever was noble in character, elevated in sentiment, or pure and ethereal in devo- tion, was confounded with the baser elements of society, and pro- scribed and punished as an offense to God and treason against the The Character oj Whitgiffs Administration 215 state. The legal institutions of the kingdom were converted into means of oppression, and the dark recesses of the prisons resounded at once with the sighs and prayers of the men of whom the world was not worthy. It is in vain to defend the administration of Whitgift on the ground of the excesses of the Puritans. Those excesses were provoked by his cruelty. They grew out of govern- ment, the unmitigated rigour 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 ecclesiastical 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 fully 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 ventured, or perhaps had desired to proceed." His administration involved an immense sacrifice of life. It is easy to number the martyrs whom popery led to the stake, but no other than an omniscient being is competent to reveal the secrets of his dark and loathsome prison- houses. Many of his victims entered with a robust frame 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 Protestant Church of England is deeply steeped with 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 and wicked than that which Bonner and Gardiner practiced. At the dawn of the seventeenth century in the month of March, 1603, there died a woman in her seventieth year. She Hstened long to the prayers of her archbishop and when he rose from his knees, she motioned him to continue. As the end approached she was "moody and wayward," "gloomy and suspicious," so sad and heavy in heart that she "fetched not so few as forty or fifty great sighs." In the following December, 1603, there died a man in his sixty-ninth year. After spending two hours upon his 2i6 Cartwright and English Presbyterianism knees in private prayer, he declared to his wife that he had found unutterable joy and comfort, and that God had given him a glimpse of heaven before his departure. In the following February, 1604, there died a man in his seventy-fifth year. He had been stricken suddenly with paralysis, and his last inarticulate words were, in Latin, "For the Church of God." These three, within the space of a year, Elizabeth the Anglo-Catholic queen, Cartwright the Presbyterian divine, and Whitgift the Episcopal primate, passed into the presence of Him of whom it is said, "Justice and judgment are the habitation of his throne." VIII ROBERT BROWNE AND ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY VIII ROBERT BROWNE AND ENGLISH INDEPENDENCY ^ Robert, son of Anthony and Dorothy Browne, was born in Rutlandshire about 1550. The exact date cannot be determined with certainty. He came of good stock, being a relative of William Cecil, Lord Burleigh (Burghley), secretary of state under Henry VIII, and again under Elizabeth, made lord treasurer in 1572, and, according to Hume, "the most vigilant, active, and prudent minister ever known in England." Browne's grandfather, Francis, received from Henry VIII, by special charter, confirmed by act of Parliament, the privilege of remaining covered in the presence of the king and of all lords spiritual and temporal in the realm. Of Browne's boyhood and youth no account has been preserved. In 1570, being then about twenty years of age, he went to Cambridge University, entering Corpus Christi College. It is not certain that he attained his bachelor's ^ Review of The True Story of Robert Browne, by Champlin Bur- rage, in The American Journal of Theology, April, 1907 : "Mr. Burrage is a young scholar whose researches have been rewarded by the discovery of three manuscript writings of Robert Browne, the father of modern Con- gregationalism : 'Browne's Letter to His Uncle,' 'An Answer to Mr. Cartwright's Letters,' and 'A Reproofe of Certain Schismatical Persons.' These 'finds' furnish conclusive proof that the claim that Browne made the church independent of the magistrate is not well founded. In the light of the recently recovered writings. Dr. Dexter's classical chapter on Browne in Congregationalism needs supplementing and correcting at many points. This task Mr. Burrage has successfully performed in A New Year's Gift, edited and published in 1904, and in The True Story of Robert Browne, which appeared in 1906. — Eri B. Hulbert." 219 220 Robert Browne and English Independency degree. While at Cambridge he became, in 1571, domestic chaplain to the duke of Norfolk. At this early period he was expressing sentiments which displeased the authorities and which caused his citation before the ecclesiastical com- mission. The duke came to his rescue. We next catch sight of him teaching "scholars for about the space of three years," probably at Southwark, and also giving Sunday talks to people gathered in a gravel-pit in Islington, near London. Who these people were whom young Browne was "lecturing" and what he was lecturing them about, the writers of that day have not informed us. We know that a little after this, information was sent to the government that the brick-kilns near Islington were the chief shelters of the rogues in and about London; and that the informers would not hesitate to class as rogues those who stood opposed to state-church worship and discipline; and we may conjecture that Browne was talking to them of those church questions which were agitating his own mind and heart. In 1578-79 the plague raged in many parts of England, sweeping away thousands of victims. It was during this plague that Browne gave up his school, and returned to his father's home. After the plague, he repaired again to Cam- bridge, and became a member of the family of Rev. Richard Greenham (Dry Drayton), a clergyman of the Church of England, under whom he studied theology. The rule of the church was that no one should undertake to preach "without leave and special word from the bishop." In the face of this rule, however, Mr. Greenham encouraged his pupil to im- prove his gifts in public open discourse. The country people liked Browne's sermons; and the Cambridge city people, in Benet Church, liked them quite as well. His fresh enthu- siastic way of presenting truth caught the ear and favor of Browne's New Views Forming 221 both illiterate and cultivated hearers. Even thus early the far-seeing ones detected something in the matter of his preaching "which would prove the disturbance of the church, if not seasonably prevented." Just at this time, he was called to a Cambridge pulpit in which he preached, likewise discharging the pastoral duties of the parish, "for about half a year." Then "he sent back the money they would have given him, and also gave them warning of his departure." A great upheaval was taking place in his mind regarding the constitution of the existing church, the prevailing methods of religious reform, and especially the place and prerogatives assigned to the bishops. "To be authorized of them, to be sworn, to subscribe, to be ordained and receive their licensing" seemed to him to be unnecessary, to be un-Christian, to be positively wicked. So when his brother procured the bishop's seals for him, he would not have them, indignantly threw them away, "refus- ing utterly to avail of any such helps for entrance upon the ministry of the Word;" and forthwith began to cry aloud in Cambridge and elsewhere, with utmost vehemence, "against the calling and authorizing of preachers by bishops," and to proclaim to everybody that he himself was preaching, "not as caring for, or leaning upon, the bishop's authority, but only to satisfy his duty and conscience." By this time he had reached that point where the domi- nant passion of his soul was to see a genuine spiritual refor- mation in England; that point, too, where it was perfectly plain to him that the state-church establishment, with its ecclesiastical machinery and embracing the entire popula- tion, was the chief obstacle in the way of such reformation. His mind at last reached and rested in this result, viz. : "That the kingdom of God was not to be begun by whole parishes, but rather by the worthiest, were they never so 222 Robert Browne and English Independency few." This struggle of mind and soul laid him on a bed of sickness, and brought him very near to death. While lying ill, the bishop and council inhibited him from further preaching. When he recovered, "he took counsel still" (these are his words) "and had no rest, what he might do for the name and kingdom of God." He often complained of those evil days and with many tears sought where to find the righteous, who glorified God, with whom he "might live and rejoice together, that they put away abominations." Presently he learned that some of those "righteous," whom he was seek- ing with many tears, were to be found in Norfolk County. So, as he says, he thought it his duty to take his voyage to them; first, because he considered if there were not only faults but also open and abominable wicked- ness in any parish or company, and they would not or could not redress them, but were held in bondage by anti-Christian power, as were those parishes in Cambridge by the bishops; then every true Christian was to leave such parishes, and to seek the church of God wheresoever. Also, if any be forced by laws, penalties and persecution, as in those parishes, to join with any such persons either in the sacraments, or in the service and worship of God, they ought utterly to forsake them and avoid such wickedness. Accordingly Browne betook himself to Norfolk, finding his way to the city of Norwich. This was probably in the year 1580, in the twenty-second year of Elizabeth's reign, when Browne was about thirty years of age. Here he boarded with one Robert Harrison, whom he had known as a fellow-student at Corpus Christi, and whom he soon won to his way of thinking. Others were also won ; and the outcome of it all may be stated in the words of Dexter : The First Congregational Church 223 It is very clear that here at Norwich, following the track of thought which he had long been elaborating, he thoroughly dis- covered and restated the original congregational way, in all its sim- plicity and symmetry. And here, in this or the following year [i.e., 1580 or 1581], by his prompting and under his guidance, was formed the first church in modern days which was intelligently, and as one might say, philosophically, congregational in its platform and processes; he becoming its pastor. It is worth while to put a pin in there : The first Congre- gational church of modern times, according to Dexter, was founded in Norwich in 1580 or 1581 by Robert Browne. Leading English Congregationalists, however, writing since Dr. Dexter's book was published, question the histori- cal accuracy of his statements. Some maintain that the first modern Congregational church had its origin in the Bride- well Prison in London in 1567, 1568, or 1569, twelve or fourteen years before Browne instituted his church at Nor- wich. These were the circumstances: In June, 1567, a company assembled in Plumber's Hall, in London, to cele- brate a wedding. These people were non-conforming mem- bers of the Church of England. In meeting at Plumber's Hall they had in mind a religious service as much as a nuptial ceremony. They dared to worship God without the use of the Prayer-Book. Elizabeth's agents surprised them in their conventicle and dragged them off to prison. All English prisons at that time were loathsome dungeons, dark, damp, and foul, reeking with filth and vermin, and sure to bring their inmates to an untimely grave. Into this Bride- well prison these worshipers were hurried and huddled and there they remained for two years. Some time during these two years there in the prison they organized themselves into a Congregational church. They elected Richard Fitz as pastor and one Bowman as deacon. They took upon them- selves the functions of a Christian church. They chose from 224 Robert Browne and English Independency among their own number the brethren who should serve as officers, and they undertook the exercises of disciphne on their own members. Before their prison days were over their pastor and deacon both died of jail fever. Those who survived and finally got out of Elizabeth's horrible jail still held together as a church and were wont to meet for worship in London, in Southwark on the south bank of the Thames. Now this seems to have been a regularly instituted Congre- gational church. Even Dexter admits that "they surely were near the verge of the true system," though he adds, *T fail to find in the simple doctrines they left behind them any system whatsoever." The man intent on setting up Congregational churches in the face of Acts of Conformity and High Commissions and reigning Episcopacy, and a determined queen, will not have an altogether delightsome time of it. News comes to us next that our friend Browne is safely tucked away in jail. We get the intelligence through the good bishop of Norwich, who is writing to Lord Treasurer Burghley. In his letter, under date April 19, 1581, he says that the said party [Browne] had been lately apprehended, on complaint of many godly preachers, for delivering unto the people corrupt and contentious doctrine; and that his arrogant spirit of reproof was something to be marveled at; the man being also to be feared lest if he were at liberty he should seduce the vulgar sort of people, who greatly depended on him, assembling themselves together to the number of an hundred at a time in private houses and conventicle to hear him, not without danger of some evil event. Two days later (April 21) Lord Burghley replied to the bishop suggesting that his relative was moved by "zeal rather than malice," and that he ought to be "charitably conferred with and reformed." It looks as though Browne was there- upon set at liberty, and fell forthwith into those evil practices Removal from Norwich to Zealand 225 which so disturbed the peace and dignity of the church; for soon after (August 2) we find the bishop again writ- ing to Burghley imploring his help in the suppression of this troublesome young man who was preaching "strange and dangerous doctrines in his diocese." According to Fuller, the lord treasurer again helped his relative out of the hands of the bishop of Norwich, helped him into the hands of the archbishop of Canterbury (Grindal), helped him again out of the archbishop's hands, and in all these trials proved his "powerful and efficient friend." The members of the little Congregational church at Nor- wich were having a sorry time of it, as well as their pastor. They began to debate the question of removal. Where should they go? Beyond the English borders they could escape the churchly care of the bishop and of the "many godly preachers." Scotland was thought of, so were Jersey and Guernsey. At last they decided upon Zealand; and to that country they went in a body, probably near the close of the year 1581. They found a hospitable shelter in the town of Middelberg. Dutch strangers would give them what English friends denied. Here they set up their little Congre- gational church, and, with none to hinder them, began the experiment of self-government under the lordship of Christ alone. The measure of success which attended their effort will appear in the sequel. Browne and Harrison began at once to avail themselves of the help of the printing-press, Browne issuing at least three treatises and Harrison two, which were sent back to England and secretly circulated, against which Elizabeth issued a special proclamation, and for dispersing which at least two men (Copping and Thacker) were hanged. In these treatises they vindicate themselves from the false charges which had been preferred against them; they exhibit 226 Robert Browne and English Independency their reasons for believing that a true spiritual reformation can never be accomplished under the existing state-church arrangement; and they explain what they believe to be the divinely appointed model for the Christian church — a model which it is the duty and blessed privilege of all true disciples to follow. It is from these writings that we learn what Brownism truly was. Before stating the principles which Browne advocated and which he strove to embody and illustrate in the church which he gathered and of which he became pastor, it may be well to follow this strange man to the end of his career. The church at Middelberg was so broken by internal dis- tractions (we shall allude to these troubles before we con- clude) that Browne and "four or five Englishmen with their wives and families" resolved to "pull out," and try their for- tunes in Scotland. The church had then existed in Middel- berg about two years. Browne led this minority first to Dundee, thence to St. Andrews, and thence to Edinburgh, where they arrived January 9, 1584. They began at once to scatter their books and their notions; and, in turn, the Scotch Presbyterians, the very next Tuesday, had them before the session of the kirk of Edinburgh, On the follow- ing Tuesday they had a further hearing, at which time Browne alleged that "the whole discipline of Scotland was amiss; that he and his company were not subject to it; and therefore he would appeal from the kirk to the magistrate." Accordingly he was put safely away in the common jail until the heresies in his books could be detected, properly cata- logued, and put in shape for the court and the king. When finally released from custody he left Edinburgh, and wandered through the principal towns of Scotland, tak- ing note of the moral state of the kirk and of the progress of reformation. That he was not favorably impressed Removal to Scotland, Thence to London 227 appears from his writing afterward, "I have seen all manner of wickedness to abound much more in their best places in Scotland, than in our worser places in England." His observation of the practical working of the Presbyterian plan convinced him that it was no better than the Episco- palian plan for purposes of pure spiritual reformation, if indeed it was as good. He declared that by experience he had found that instead of one pope they had a thousand, and that instead of a few lord bishops in name they had a thousand lordly tyrants in deed. The movements of Browne at this period can be traced by the following dates: In November or December, 1583, Browne and his little company quit Middelberg. In January, 1584, they arrive at Edinburgh. In July, 1584, Lord Burghley, in a letter to the archbishop of Canterbury (Whit- gift), conjectures that Browne is then in London. The facts seem to be that after a few months stay in Scotland, he wandered back to England; made his way to his old haunts in and near the metropolis; disseminated his obnox- ious opinions by preaching in private conventicles and by circulating his writings; fell into the hands of the arch- bishop of Canterbury, who convicted and imprisoned him; got out of jail through the intercession of Lord Burghley, who sent him home to his father, sending a letter, October, 1585, asking the old man to treat his son in a kind and temperate manner. Another letter from Burghley (dated February, 1586) reveals the fact that the son had proved in- corrigible, and that the old man is seeking permission to set him adrift. Fuller says that "his good old father resolved to own him for his son no longer than his son owned the Church of England for his mother, and Browne, choosing rather to part with his aged sire than his new schism, he was discharged the family." Browne was removed to Stam- 228 Robert Browne and English Independency ford, going soon thereafter to Northampton, where his pestiferous teachings speedily brought him a citation from the bishop of Peterborough, which he disregarded, in con- sequence of which the bishop "excommunicated him for contempt." Browne was then thirty-five or thirty-six years old. He had not yet Hved half his days. At this point, there came a turn, outwardly at least, in his career. He sought and obtained readmission to the church (through Burghley). He asked appointment to the mastership of the grammar school at St. Olave's, Southwark. The request was granted on these six conditions : ( i ) To keep no conventicles; (2) to go to church sermons with the children; (3) to renounce his errors and conform to church doctrine; (4) to use in the school the church catechism; (5) himself to take parish-church communion; (6) and lastly to resign the mastership whenever he could not abide these articles. Browne bound himself, and held the position for five years. He resigned the school to become rector of a little country parish (which a hundred years later had only eight- een families) at Achurch cum Thorpe, near Northampton. In this obscure corner he passed the remainder of his days — for more than forty years a spectator, but not a participant in the tremendous political and ecclesiastical convulsions and revolutions of which England was the scene. There, hid away in that little hamlet, keeping the petty records of parish births and baptisms and marriages and burials, he heard of the plots to assassinate the queen, the inquisitions of the High Commission, Drake's exploits on the high seas, the execution of Mary Stuart, the gathering and destruction of the Spanish Armada, the death of Elizabeth, the acces- sion of James I, the Millenary Petition, the Hampton Court Conference, the Gunpowder Plot, the quarrels of king and Browne's Seclusion and Death 229 Parliament, the distresses of the Puritans, the driving of the Separatists out of England, the going of John Robinson to Leyden, the landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, the death of James, the accession of Charles, the dissolvings of parlia- ments, the Petition of Right, the murder of Buckingham, the horrible despotism of Strafford and Laud, the Puritan emigration to New England — all these things Browne must have heard of there in his corner, but for forty years he seems to have said and done nothing. Then the end came. Fuller tells the story: The constable of the parish re- quired of him the payment of a rate. Browne in passion struck the constable, who in turn caused Browne's arrest. To the prison he was carried in a cart on a feather-bed, being too injfirm (above eighty) to walk, and too unwieldy to ride, and not apparently having a friend in the world. As Fuller says, "To Northampton jail he is sent; where, soon after, he sickened, died, and was buried in a neighboring church-yard." This must have been at least his thirty-third prison experience ; for, many years before, he declared that he had been committed to thirty-two prisons, in some of which he could not see his hand at noonday. I wish now to consider three questions : ( i ) What did this man believe? What were the opinions which thirty- two times shut him into the dark and loathsome dungeons? (2) What caused the collapse of the Middelberg church? (3) What kind of a man was Robert Browne? I. HIS OPINIONS Of course, for his views we are for the most part depend- ent on his own writings, several of which have come down to us. First, he maintained that a true reformation could not proceed from the Church of England. Why? Because that 230 Robert Browne and English Independency church was itself inwardly corrupt, and itself needed to be reformed. Moral fitness was not needful in order to mem- bership. It included all sorts of folks. Everybody belonged to the church. God's very elect and the most depraved and abandoned sat side by side at the Lord's Supper. Saints, seducers, infidels, and cut-throats were all on a par; all bound under the Act of Conformity; the good forced to join in service and worship with the bad; all exclusion of the bad a thing unknown and impossible. By no stretch of imagination could such a mongrel and polluted establish- ment be accounted the true church of God, or help to bring in a genuine reformation. Then, again, this corrupt church was outwardly in subjection to a set of bishops and priests who approved these open abominations and did their utmost to perpetuate them. The Church of England is the Beast, and these bishops are the riders. "The church stoopeth as an ass for them to get upon." "The whip of their spiritual courts, and the spurs of their laws, and the bridle of their power, do make the church to carry them." This corruption and this subjection render the church powerless to reform the nation. Secondly, Browne taught that the true reformation could not be brought about by the state. Why ? Because religion and the church are beyond the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. The magistrate's commandment must not be a rule unto me of this and that duty, but as I see it agree with the word of God The magistrates may do nothing concerning the church, but only civilly They have no ecclesiastical authority at all, but only as any other Christians, if so be they be Christians If then the magistrate will command the soldier to be a minister or the preacher to give over his calling, they ought not to obey him In all things we must first look what is the Lord's will; and this freedom Browne's Congregational Views 231 have all Christians, and if the magistrates pursue and imprison and persecute, the blood of the righteous shall come upon them. Thirdly, Cartwright's Puritan-Presbyterian plan of reformation seemed to Browne quite as objectionable and valueless as the Church of England plan. Let England adopt what the Cartwright Presbyterians proposed, and there would still remain the parish churches made up of the entire baptized population (a corrupt body, of course) ; there would still remain the organic unity between all the congre- gations (which would compel all churches to keep step together in the matter of reform, the better churches hin- dered by the laggards) ; there would still remain the con- nection with the state, the civil powers enforcing conformity and uniformity with all the bloody vigor which now pre- vailed, no man in all the realm being left free to seek the Lord's will, or to obey his conscience. Fourthly, in view of these facts, it became clear as noon- day to Browne's mind that it was the duty of true Christians to draw out of the parish churches; to disjoin themselves utterly from the defiled and defiling National Establishment ; and to gather themselves together into separate congrega- tions. To remain in the state church, made of a godless membership, and ruled over "by popish prelates and hire- ling preachers," was to uphold these anti-Christian abomi- nations, and to renounce the Christ who saved them. Separation was the call of God. Fifthly, in Browne's view, a company of true believers, thus renouncing the Church of England, and rightly coming together, by and in thus coming together made themselves a true church of Christ, to whose government alone they were subject. He says : The church, planted or gathered, is a company or number of Christians or believers, who by a willing covenant, made with their 232 Robert Browne and English Independency God, are under the government of God and Christ, and keep his laws in one holy communion. Sixthly, this company of true beHevers come together rightly by entering into a public willing covenant with God and with each other, Browne explains : How must the churches be first planted and gathered under one kind of government? First, by a covenant and condition made on God's behalf. Secondly, by a covenant and condition made on our behalf. Thirdly, by using the sacrament of Baptism to seal these conditions and covenants. On God's side, this covenant binds him to be our God and Savior (we remaining faithful) ; on our side, this cove- nant binds us to obey him in all things, and to lead a godly Christian life. Browne tells how he went to work to organ- ize his church at Norwich : A covenant was made, and their mutual consent was given to hold together. There were certain points proved unto them by the Scrip- tures, all which being particularly rehearsed unto them with exhorta- tion, they agreed upon them, and pronounced their agreement to each thing particuarly, saying, "To this we give our consent." First, therefore, they gave their consent to join themselves to the Lord, in one covenant and fellowship together, and to keep and seek agree- ment under his laws and government; and therefore did utterly flee and avoid such like disorders and wickedness as was mentioned before. Seventhly, in Browne's conception, all church au- thority resides solely in Jesus Christ. He alone is king. He rules his church, not through bishops and queens and magistrates, but through the individual members thereof. Each member is his regent, to obey his will, and guided by his spirit, to aid in the salvation and welfare of others. Thus Browne's pure monarchy becomes a practical working scheme in and through a pure democracy. Eighthly, according to Brown, the officers of a church Officers and Discipline oj the Church 233 are: (i) a pastor, for exhorting, and guiding accordingly; (2) a teacher, for teaching doctrine especially and guiding accordingly; (3) one or more elders for oversight and counsel ; (4) one or more relievers, to gather and bestow the gifts of the church; (5) one or more widows to visit the afflicted and distressed. Browne seems to have given each church two ministers, one to exhort and one to indoctrinate. His elders were men of age and wisdom to help the ministers in an advisory way. His relievers and elders discharged the functions imposed now-a-days in Baptist churches on the deacons and advisory committee. His elders had no ruling power, as in the Presbyterian scheme. His widows dis- charged the duties assigned in the New Testament to deaconesses. Ninthly, in Browne's church, the Lord's Supper was the seal of the "growing together" of the members "in one body, whereof Christ is the head." Careful self-examination is enjoined, "lest the guiltiness of our secret sins and private offenses, do make us unworthy receivers." The church must separate itself from those "unmeet to receive," and must redress "all open offenses and faultings." Tenthly, the members pledged themselves to mutual watch care. Faults were to be looked for and reported. The church, in their esteem, was not a "mutual admiration society," but a kind of inquisitorial club, the more severe the minuteness, the nearer perfection. Lastly, between churches constituted as above described, there subsist relations of mutual friendship and helpfulness. Over each local church presides Christ, the head, to whom alone obedience is due, so that as regards neighboring churches each church is absolutely free and independent. But since Christ is one, and since the several churches are one in Christ, they must be one with each other. This one- 234 Robert Browne and English Independency ness is of sympathy and fellowship and counsel and aid, and not a oneness of dictation and supremacy and control. Browne's germ idea, out of which by degrees grew all his other ideas, was that Christ is the present and perfect Savior of each single soul, to whom each soul owes undivided fealty, it being the supreme duty of that soul everywhere and in every way to seek the greatest possible Christ- likeness. To get this idea, and those springing from it, into shape, to get them realized and embodied in an actual church, cost Browne many a terrific struggle, laid him on a sickbed more than once, and more than once brought him to death's door. We say nothing of the thirty-two prisons into which his opinions cast him. I am obliged to stop here and raise two questions. They deserve a lengthened treatment, but in this connection I have time for only a passing allusion. First, is it historically true that Robert Browne believed in the entire separation of church and state? Secondly, was Robert Browne the first to announce and practice the congregational form of church government? Both questions must be answered in the negative. Influenced by passages such as I have just quoted, Dr. Henry M. Dexter concluded that Robert Browne is entitled to the proud pre-eminence of having been the first writer clearly to state and defend in the English tongue the true — and now accepted — doctrine of the relation of the magistrate to the church. Douglas Campbell also says that Robert Browne was the first Englishman to take up and proclaim boldly that the civil government had no concern with religious matters, and to proclaim the doctrine of a separation between church and state. Dexter and Campbell are both wrong. Wallace St. John, in his doctor's thesis made in this department on The Dexler^s Claim for Broivne Disproved 235 Contest for Liberty of Conscience in England, shows con- clusively from Browne's writings that he could not possibly have held such a doctrine. And more recently still Cham- plin Burrage has discovered a letter written by Browne in 1588 to his uncle in which he actually labors to show that it is the right and duty of magistrates to meddle with church affairs. This letter Burrage has published under the title, A Nezv Year's Gift. I quote only two sentences: If then it be demanded who shall call and consecrate ministers, excommunicate and put down false teachers and bad fellows, and judge in a number of ecclesiastical causes, let the Word of God answer, which appointed the chiefest and most difficult matters to be judged by them of chiefest authority and gifts If it be asked who be of chiefest gifts or right to have chiefest authority, I answer that the civil magistrates have their right in all causes to judge and sit in order, and it is intolerable presumption for particular persons to scan of every magistrate's chiefest gifts or authority, or to deny them the power of judging ecclesiastical causes. Doubtless Browne was far in advance of Anglicans and Presbyterians in his views of the relations of church and state, but his own vision regarding these things was far from clear. At most he could only see men as trees walking. Secondly, it is not historically true that Browne was the first to discover and proclaim the congregational form of church government. Dutch Anabaptists by the thousand, residing in England, held the doctrines of church independ- ency and separation from the state long before Browne made a stir in the world. Hear what Campbell says : At this time more than half the population of Norwich was com- posed of refugees from the Netherlands, engaged in manufactures. They had a church of their own and were independent of the bishops. Among them were many Anabaptists. When now we find Browne after his settlement among these people of new ideas, preaching to his English congregation the doctrine of separation between church and state, it seems needless to inquire whence it was derived. 236 Robert Browne and English Independency The truth of history is that before Browne's day there were Dutch and Enghsh Anabaptists who held the full and complete idea of religious liberty, a truth to which Browne never reached in its fulness, and who also held the form of church polity known as Congregationalism, and from whom Browne himself probably derived his own conceptions in their rudimentary form. The superlative glory of Browne is that he worked out the Congregational scheme in a more orderly, coherent, and complete manner than had ever been done before. Browne's Congregationalism as he elaborated it, barring the interference of magistrates, could be accepted today, almost without alteration, by any modern church of the congregational order. This is something truly wonder- ful for that day. The definiteness and completeness of his conception entitle him to the highest praise. II. CAUSE OF THE MIDDELBERG COLLAPSE Our next question is. Why did the Middelberg church collapse? In 1580 or 1581, Browne, then about thirty years of age, organized at Norwich his ideal church, after the congregational model which I have explained. The state- church authorities made it so hot for the pastor and his flock that, late in 1581, they migrated in a body to Zealand, and took up their abode at Middelberg. Here the church led a troubled life for two years, and then fell to pieces. Was this because Browne's church organization was inherently bad and weak? Not at all; rather, just the reverse. It was in fact too good a scheme for such poorly prepared and unpracticed hands to work — just as my watch would soon fail of its purpose in the hands of Congo natives who never saw a watch before, and who must themselves learn how to wind, set, and regulate it. The watch is likely to be ruined in the learning. This little band of exiled disciples believed Cause of the Church Collapse 237 that one chief design and benefit of the church was to pro- mote the growth of all by detecting and correcting the faults of each. They bound themselves in covenant to help each other in this way. They were so conscientious in keep- ing this part of their covenant that they soon got to pulling each other's hair. They had regularly appointed seasons for making known to the church the slips and shortcomings v/hich each member had detected in his neighbor. These seasons grew to be very lively. In Browne's language, "There fell out questions, offenses, and taking of parts." It was not long before the "contention grew so far, that some fell from questions to evil speeches and slanders, from slanders to open defiance and railings." The church resolved itself into a kind of Ladies' Benevolent Society to gossip, and tattle, and peddle out petty meannesses. After a while they all got ashamed of themselves and in "an open meeting everyone confessed their faults," and resolved "to make a fair show that they would deal no more so foolishly." But it did not last long. Soon there are "whisperings, back- bitings, and murmurings privily," and these grow into "openly grievous threats, taunts, revilings and false accusa- tions." They find fault with Browne himself, "for having condemned his sister Aliens as a reprobate." Browne's wife gets censorious toward somebody, and there is "much ado" about her, Harrison gets sick, and becomes jealous of Browne. Browne gets sick, and Harrison turns his heel on him. Browne resigns his pastorate two or three times, but the church induces him to reconsider. Then all hands come together for mutual confession and reconciliation. Then they fall by the ears again, and Browne, discouraged and disgusted, quits the whole business, and, with a few families, sails away to Scotland. I think we ought in fairness to remember that these 238 Robert Browne and English Independency simple, honest Englishmen were pioneers in this difficult art of self-government; that their desire to help each other to be good was what led them to act so foolishly; and that a little more wisdom at this single point would have saved their noble enterprise from disaster. III. WHAT MUST WE THINK OF BROWNE HIMSELF? Our third question is, How ought we to judge of Robert Browne himself? The day he died in Northampton jail, a crabbed, crusty octogenarian, he had few friends in the world, perhaps not any. Very likely he had not learned how to grow old gracefully, and had come to be something of a nuisance. The outside world had long since passed him by. His contemporaries, for the most part, speak ill of him. The Church of England folks could never forget the tre- mendous emphasis with which he had, in earlier days, spoken and written against her corruption and subjection. Nevertheless, bad as he was, he was good enough to be one of her accredited ministers for more than forty years. The Puritan folks of the Cartwright order, and the other Puritan folks still abiding in the National Establishment, accounted him too radical by far, and an extremist of the worst type in the matter of separation and congregational polity. The Independents of old England, who sprang up later, and our own Pilgrim and Puritan Fathers held it a reproach to be nicknamed "Brownists," and repudiated the pedigree. With a man who could so disgracefully apostatize they would acknowledge no affilia- tion. Modern Congregationalists have, as a rule, felt and written the same way. Only comparatively recently has the tide begun to turn. The credit for this reversal of judgment belongs chiefly to Dr. Dexter, who has personally examined every original document, made Explanation of Browne's Strange Career 239 an exhaustive study of the whole case, and finds himself proud and happy in the ability to place Browne securely in his natural primacy among the great thinkers of modern Congregationalism. Dexter declares that three hypotheses exhaust the sub- ject of this remarkable career, and each of these hypotheses he examines at length. First, Robert Browne was a hypo- crite and a sneak, bad from skin to core. Secondly, he was an honest man throughout, honest in opposing and leaving mother church, and honest in returning to her bosom. Thirdly, he was an honest man throughout, rational and con- sistent in the first forty years of his life, broken in mind, and semi-insane during the last forty — to be pitied, there- fore, rather than blamed. That Browne was not a bad man is evident from these facts: First, that Rev. Richard Greenham believed in him thoroughly. The force of this proof can only be felt by an exhibition of the sterling qualities, the sagacity, the penetra- tion of this man Greenham. Secondly, Browne himself was strongly drawn to this man, found in him something con- genial, delighted in his companionship. Thirdly, that Browne's writings abound in proofs of his intelligence, his sincerity, his piety. No ordinary man was he in his pro- found discernment of the deep things of the spirit of God. If there ever was a saint, Browne was one; his writings show it. The stories of his scandalous sins while an Episcopal rector. Dexter has traced to their sources, and has shown them to be mostly lies. For example, that he beat his wife, and then justified himself on the ground that he beat her "not as his wife, but as a curst old woman." The story loses pith and point when it is known that, at the time, Browne did not have any wife. 240 Robert Browne and English Independency The second hypothesis Dexter disposes of as follows. I quote his language : I throw out altogether the notion that he could have been a genuine man to the period of his return to the communion which excommunicated him, then breaking down, of a sudden, into a renegade and a reprobate; because, in general, I do not believe in that kind of falling from grace; — because the change in him was too sud- den to have been of that character; and because if that thing had happened, we should surely have found him publishing books against the Brownists, and, at the very least, under Burghley's patronage, bidding for a bishopric! The third hypothesis, Dexter finds to be the key to the mystery of his career, viz. : that the last forty or forty-five years of his life were shrouded "by dark shadows of mental disorder — sometimes almost deepening into the midnight of actual insanity." Dexter's reasons for thinking so are as follows (I have not time to expand) : First, his natural constitution was nervous, brooding, fervid, fitful, fiery. Secondly, he had a feeble physical constitution. Thirdly, he underwent great suflferings. The English prisons were hor- rible. He knew more than thirty of them. Fourthly, peculiarities in his language and conduct have an insane look. A certain letter to Burghley is certainly insane. Many of his entries in the parish records betoken a mind off its hinges. The same may be said of his conduct at St. Olave's. Fifthly, the tone of some of Burghley's letters con- cerning him seems to point in the same direction. Lastly, Bredwell, a physician, and several other contemporaries dis- covered his disordered state, and pronounced him "mad." Dexter in expanding these six points makes out a fairly good case. There is one other explanation which Dexter does not name, which seems to me more plausible than any other. Browne met so many difficulties, and received such ill usage, Browne Doubtless Disheartened 241 that he lost heart and gave up the struggle. This is not an uncommon experience. He started out with the desire to know and follow the truth. He believed that he had actually discovered it. Then he began zealously to put it into prac- tice. Then he began to suffer for his opinions. Presently they clapped him into jail. Thirty-three different times he found himself behind the bars. The prisons were loathsome", and oftentimes so dark that he could not see his hand at noonday. His courage still held him up. He organized a church after the New Testament pattern as he conceived it, and became its pastor. Nothing worked smoothly. The members could not agree among themselves. They turned against him and made life a burden. He got tired ; he grew discouraged; he lost heart. At last he said. What's the use ? I have tried as honestly as I know how. My enemies hate me; my friends turn against me. God knows I have no heart to continue the struggle. What is the use? And he quit. If others want to stand up against this thing, let them do it. I have had enough. And so he hired out as a school teacher, and afterward as a parish priest. The hardships, privations, sufferings, imprisonments, rebuffs, disappointments, and failures had taken all the resolution out of him. He concluded to quit. He had had enough. Did he doubt the truth of his opinions? Oh, no. Only he had no spirit and courage to push them in the face of such opposition. He was disheartened; he had lost his hope. He longed for some corner where he could rest and be let alone. Many a man has been overcome in this way before half his days are over. If you blame and condemn Browne perhaps your feelings would change after you had been clapped into jail about thirty-two times. For my part, I admire and love and pity Robert Browne. That he was one of God's true children I have not a doubt. That he dis- 242 Robert Browne and English Independency covered and stated God's revealed constitution and govern- ment of the Cliristian church I have not a doubt. That this discovery and statement cost him a struggle within and without that unbalanced his reason may have been true; but I think he lost his grip. BROWNISTS AND BARROWISTS I have not left myself time to speak of the party which Browne's principles created in England. God did not permit the seed to die. Those books which Browne and Harrison printed in Middelberg were designed for secret circu- lation in England, and they bore an abundant harvest. Two of them had these titles : the one, A Book That Showeth the Life and Manners of All True Christians, and the other, Of Reformation Without Tarrying for Any, and of the Wickedness of Those Preachers Who Will Not Reform Themselves and Their Charge, Because They Will Tarry Till the Majestrate Command and Compel Them. Two non-conforming clergymen were hanged for spread- ing these "books seditiously penned by Robert Browne against the Book of Common Prayer." Rev. John Copping had been shut up in the common jail of Bury for seven years for non-conformity. He and a fellow prisoner. Rev. Elias Thacker, were the first to pay the death penalty for enter- taining congregational views, but they were not by any means the last. The government deemed it fitting that Browne's books should be hung around their necks as they ascended the scaffold. After the hanging of these first con- fessors, the theories of Browne spread with amazing rapidity. Thacker and Copping suffered their ignominious death in 1583. Exactly ten years later, 1593, Parliament had before it a new law for the suppression of the Brown- ists. In the debate on that bill, Sir Walter Raleigh declared, Brownists and Barrowists 243 "There are near 20,000 of them in England." Already these strange people, indulging these revolutionary ideas, were beginning to be known by a new name. The word "Barrowist" was taking the place of Brownist. Until very recently the Independents in England and the Congrega- tionalists in America have traced their origin to Henry Barrowe, repudiating Robert Browne. The most recent his- torical investigations, however, are vindicating Browne's memory and claims. Congregationalists have likewise named as their first church, not the one which Browne or- ganized in Norwich in 1850-81, but the one organized in London in 1592 with Francis Johnson as pastor and John Greenwood as teacher. The truth of history is that modern Congregationalism sprang primarily from Robert Browne and secondarily from Henry Barrowe, John Greenwood, John Penry, Francis Johnson, and a few others. Johnson was exiled, and Penry, Greenwood, and Barrowe were hanged. They were among the purest, wisest, worthiest men the Church of Christ has ever known. The story of their sufferings and death is thrilling and pathetic beyond the power of words to tell. They lived and died for the truth, and through their writ- ings and patient endurance of persecution, and heroic facing of death, lodged their precious thought in thousands of English hearts. In the coming days of Cromwell it will triumph, for a season, over the Episcopacy of Elizabeth and the Presbyterianism of Cartwright. But these are the days of trial and shame, of dungeon and rack, of scaffold and gibbet. Crucified today, it awaits the coming resurrection. Let me now conclude by stating in order the divisions and parties into which Puritanism broke. First, there were Puritans who believed in a national established church and in the Prayer-Book and in Episco- 244 Robert Browne and English Independency pacy, only they had no Hking for the popish features of the Prayer-Book and wished to see them ehminated. Secondly, there were Puritans who believed in a national established church, but did not like the Prayer-Book or Episcopacy. In the place of the Prayer-Book they wished to substitute the Worship-Book and the discipline of John Calvin; and in the place of Episcopacy they wished to sub- stitute Presbyterianism. Thomas Cartwright was their great leader. Thirdly, there were Puritans who repudiated a national established church, the Prayer-Book and the Calvin Wor- ship-Book, Episcopacy and Presbyterianism. They believed in local, independent churches, subject only to Christ. Their church polity was congregational and their great representa- tive was Robert Browne. Fourthly, there were Puritans who believed all that Robert Browne believed — independent churches, congrega- tional government, etc., and then went one step farther, restoring the ordinances of the church to their original simplicity, giving baptism only to professed believers, and rejecting infant baptism. These were Baptists. They be- lieved neither in a national church, nor in the Prayer-Book, nor in Calvin's Worship-Book, nor in Episcopacy, nor in Presbytery, nor in the baptism of unconscious babes. They did believe in separation from the national church, in the coming together of true believers in local churches, in the independency and self-government of these churches, in the officers and ordinances in these churches which Christ him- self had appointed. They went one step farther than the Congregationalists in reserving baptism for believers who could make an intelligent profession of their faith and in refusing the ordinance to babes. One step farther, like- wise, in rejecting pouring and sprinkling, and practicing only immersion. IX PURITANISM IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I, FROM THE ATTEMPT TO FORCE EPISCO- PACY ON SCOTLAND TILL HIS DEATH, 1636-49 IX PURITANISM IN THE REIGN OF CHARLES I, FROM THE ATTEMPT TO FORCE EPISCO- PACY ON SCOTLAND TILL HIS DEATH, 1636-49 In 1636 Laud prepared a Book of Canons for the gov- ernment of the Church of Scotland. Charles, on his own sole authority, gave these canons the force of law. Even Episcopalians and Royalists looked upon this act as an arbitrary stretch of kingly prerogative, and as a grossly extravagant usurpation and exercise of power. The Scotch branded it as an infamous outrage. The next year, the archbishop took a step which brought matters to a crisis. He determined to abolish the Book of Common Order in use in the Scottish church, and in the place of this Knox's liturgy based on the Geneva Prayer- Book, to set up his own Book of Common Prayer. In 1637 Charles and Laud attempted to force this English ritual upon the Scottish kirk. Wherein the liturgy differed from the English it differed in the interest of popery. In the Calendar, St. George and St. Patrick are retained. In the rubrics, the worshipers are told when to sit, when to stand, when to kneel. In the Scripture lessons, parts of the Aprocrypha find a place. The Lord's Supper is made as near like the mass as possible, and the priest prays concern- ing the bread and wine "which we now offer unto thee that they may become the body and blood of thy most dearly beloved Son." Sunday, July 23, 1637, the attempt is made to observe this service in the Church of St. Giles, Edinburgh. A tremen- 247 248 Puritanism in the Reign 0} Charles I dotis crowd is present. The lord chancellor and the arch- bishop of St. Andrew's are there. Privy councilors, su- preme judges, and city magistrates are there. The dean of Edinburgh, in his surplice, is to read the new service, and the bishop of Edinburgh is to preach. No sooner does the dean begin the collect than Janet Geddes, an old woman who kept a greengrocer's stall, seizes the stool on which she is sitting, and, screaming, "Thou false thief, dost thou say mass at my ear?" hurls the stool at the reader's head. Then the women generally, with angry cries, make a rush for the pulpit, and the dean, terror-stricken, strips off his surplice, and flees for his life. The bishop, ascending the pulpit, is met by a volley of stones and missiles, and his voice is drowned in cries of "A pope, a pope. Antichrist, Antichrist, stone him, stone him." At last the rioters are expelled from the church, the doors are bolted, and the service is brought to an end. When Laud gets the news he boils over with rage and swears the Scots must be disciplined. Strafford says, "These hounds must be whipped back to common-sense." Charles angers the English people by his despotic measures to draft and equip an army for an unholy war. The Scottish people in national covenant band together in revolution. Charles finds himself at the head of a small army which believed the Scots were in the right, and which could not be induced to strike the foe. Despairing and bankrupt, he resolves to call a parliament. For eleven years, without a parliament, with a high hand, he has misruled the English nation. Civil and ecclesiastical despotism has sought the destruction of both religion and law. In April, 1640, the "Short Parliament" met for three weeks. Charles demanded money to carry on his Scotch The Short Parliament and Scotch War 249 war. The Commons refused to talk about money until religion and grievances had been considered. So the debate began. It took up "innovations in religion," violations of fundamental laws, intrusions upon liberty, ship-money, illegal monopolies. Star Chamber and High Commission courts, the changes in religion which tended to translate Canterbury into Rome, popish books, popish ceremonies, altars, bowing toward the east, pictures, crucifixes, etc. Charles found that the Commons would not give him money, so, in anger, he dissolved the houses. He pushed despotic measures more insanely than ever. He cast mem- bers of the late parliament into prison. He threatened to imprison the lord mayor and sheriffs of London. He exacted ship-money and taxes of various sorts in the most ruthless fashion. He forced men from their plows to serve in the army. The dissolution of Parliament and these high- handed proceedings outraged and aroused the English public. Guizot uses a tame word when he says that "the people were indignant at seeing their rights, their creed, their persons, their possessions surrendered to the irresponsible will of the king and his council." In the mean time the "Scotch War" made no progress at all. The English army would not fight. They were in sympathy with the foe. They wanted to see the Scots tri- umphant. The soldiers, many of them Puritan conscripts, when they heard the Scottish drum-beat summon the troops to sermon, or at sunrise heard the hostile camp ring with psalms and prayers, knew that to fight such enemies would be to fight their own brothers, would be to fight against English liberty, and would be to fight against God. So we wonder not that the Scots pressed on, with slight resistance, across the Tweed and the Tyne, into Yorkshire, and, cutting off the coal supplies, had London at their mercy. Neither 250 Puritanism in the Reign 0} Charles I do we wonder that the Scottish army maintained the exact- est discipHne, plundered nothing, took nothing without pay, and sent to Charles apologies for the necessity that had forced them to achieve the victory. Discomfited on every side, without authority in his own army, his resources exhausted, his English subjects hating the war intensely, venting their wrath in riots in London, in sacking Laud's palace, in publishing angry pamphlets, Charles and Laud and Strafford saw that a parliament must be called or the king must cease to reign. So on November 3, 1640, the Long Parliament met — the most famous and the most powerful which England has ever known — that renowned parliament which, as Macaulay says, " is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all who, in any part of the world, enjoy the blessings of con- stitutional government." The Parliament was made up of the ablest and best- tried men in England. As to their religion [says Lord Clarendon], they were all members of the Established Church, and almost to a man for episcopal govern- ment. Both Lords and Commons were most, if not all, peaceable, orthodox, Church of England men; all conforming to the rites and ceremonies of Episcopacy, but greatly averse to popery, tyranny, and to the corrupt part of that church that inclined to Rome. A change of sentiment came over Parliament before it dissolved, the reasons for which will appear in the sequel. From November, 1640, to October, 1641, the proceedings were for the most part harmonious. The houses were not distracted by divided counsels. The awful tyranny in church and state under which the nation had groaned for the last eleven years unified the representatives of the people. The Commons commenced as usual with the grievances. Pe- titions from all sorts of folks poured in demanding redress. Petitions to the Long Parliament 251 These petitions came from all over the kingdom — from York, Norfolk, Essex, Kent, Somerset, in fact from nearly every shire. Many of them were of a general nature, com- plaining, as the Commons Journal says, of the "burdens and oppressions of the people in their consciences, liberties, and properties, and especially in the heavy tax of ship-money." Still other petitions set forth specific cases. We shall get a clear idea of the state of things by giving heed to three or four of these specific cases. One of the first read vv^as that of Susannah Bastwick. It recited that four years previously her husband, a physician, had been brought before the Star Chamber for writing and publishing books against the church ; that in his defense, her husband, Mr. Bastwick, boldly charged the prelates with despising the Scriptures and advan- cing popery, superstition, and idolatry; that he had been condemned to pay a fine of £5,000, to be put into the pillory, and to lose his ears, and that he had since been kept in close confinement. Mrs. Bastwick, in her petition, says that her husband's imprisonment began four years ago, but in fact his troubles started seven years earlier. It was in 1633 that Bastwick and two others, whose cases have become famous, were dealt with. I. William Pryn, Esq., was a barrister at law. Rewrote a book against plays, masks, dancing, etc., in which he railed against Maypoles, Christmas-keeping, etc. The book was regularly licensed, but it was felt that it aspersed the queen, who was fond of stage plays. Pryn was brought before the Star Chamber, and was sentenced to have his book burned by the common hangman, to be debarred as a lawyer, to be turned out of the Society of Lincoln's Inn, to be degraded at Oxford, to stand in the pillory at Westminster and also at Cheapside, to lose both his ears, one in each place, to pay a fine of £5,000, and to suffer perpetual imprisonment. 252 Puritanism in the Reign 0} Charles I 2. Rev. Mr. Burton, B.D., published two sermons en- titled "For God and the King." In these he criticized the late innovations in religion and worship. For this offense he was committed a close prisoner in Gate House. 3. Mr. Bastwick was a physician. He wrote a book in which he denied the divine right of bishops above presbyters. This angered the bishops and he was cited before the Court of High Commission. The court deprived him of his doctor's degree, excommunicated him from the church, fined him £1,000, and cast him into prison until he should recant. So were these three men treated by Star Chamber and High Commission — a lawyer, a minister, and a doctor. At the very same time an arrant Papist wrote a book in defense of popery, and not only was not punished but was permitted to dedicate it to the archbishop. But we are not yet through with these three men. After lying in prison three years they are once more before Star Chamber. This time they are charged with writing and publishing seditious books while lying in confinement. For this offense Star Chamber passed this sentence upon them (I quote from the verdict) : Mr. Burton be deprived of his living and degraded from his min- istry, as Pryn and Bastwick had been from their professions of law and physic; that each of them be fined £5,000; that they stand in the pillory at Westminster and have their ears cut off; and because Mr. Pryn had already lost his ears by sentence of the court, 1633, it was ordered that the remainder of his stumps should be cut off, and that he should be stigmatized on both cheeks with the letters S. L. [sedi- tious libeler (?)], and then all three were to suffer perpetual imprisonment in the remotest prisons of the kingdom. One was sent to the Scilly Islands, one to Guernsey, and one to Jersey, and there they were kept without pen, ink, or paper, or the access of friends, until the Long Parliament liberated them. Prisoners Released and Persecutors Arrested 253 I was saying that the Long ParHament met on Novem- ber 3, 1640. At once petitions began to pour in, among the very first being one from Mrs. Bastwick praying for the release of her husband. These petitions were heeded and the prison doors were thrown open. From the distant islands — Scilly, Guernsey, Jersey — came Bastwick, Pryn, and Burton, and from the Fleet came Dr. Leighton, another who had likewise suffered. Many others were released. Multitudes waited on these men as they journeyed through England on their way to London. On December 3, Bastwick, Burton, and Pryn appeared in the House and presented their cases. Dr. Leighton's account of his sufferings drew tears from the Com- moners. The fines against these men were canceled and reparation was made for their losses. Six thousand pounds was voted to Burton, £5,000 each to Pryn and Bastwick. Satisfaction was also voted to Dr. Leighton for his suffer- ings ; but the thirty-six stripes he had received on his naked back with a threefold cord, his hands being tied to a stake, the slitting of his nostrils, the cutting-off of his ears, the branding of his cheeks, and the ten years he had passed in prison, in a loathsome dog-hole full of rats and mice, with no light except from a small grate, with no bedding, nor place to make a fire but the ruins of an old smoky chimney — sufferings such as these could not be compensated for by money. He was now an old man in his seventy-second year, worn out with poverty, weakness, and pain, and just ready to topple into his grave. But the House did not stop with liberating these captives. Their tormentors were arrested, and Strafford and Laud and Star Chamber and High Commission were brought to the bar. The secretary of state and the lord keeper of the Great Seal, and other 254 Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I of the king's councilors were summoned to answer charges. These high dignitaries sought safety in flight to France. I say, then, that no sooner had the Long ParHament opened than petitions of all sorts began to pour in; and Parliament began to redress long-standing wrongs. It was voted that no interval of more than three years shall ever elapse in future between parliament and parliament; voted that Star Chamber, High Commission, and Council of York be abolished; voted that Puritan prisoners be set free ; voted that the Ro3^al Council be dissolved and that its members be impeached. Strafford and Laud were arrested and cast into prison. The king deserted Strafford and on the day he was im- peached agreed that Parliament should not be broken up without its own consent. It begins to look as though Charles was finding out that kingcraft was a losing game. It begins to look as though the Puritans were about to gain a respite from Laud's inhuman tyranny. It took about a year for Parliament to bring about the changes noted above. Then the Houses took a vacation for six weeks. When Parliament reassembled a divergence of opinion began to show itself. The governing body broke into parties — Roundheads and Cavaliers (afterward Whigs and Tories). There were several occasions for these divided counsels. I. The acts of Convocation were subjects of debate. Convocation had said, that the most high and sacred order of kings is of divine right, being the ordinance of God himself; that for subjects to bear arms against their king, either ofifensive or defensive, upon any pretense Virhatso- ever, is worthy of damnation. Every clergyman must preach and believe this on pain of excommunication, which penalty shall also fall upon all Divided Parliament and Irish Massacre 255 who print or write anything against the discipline of the Church of England. An oath had been imposed on all ecclesiastics never to give their consent to alter the govern- ment of the church by archbishops, bishops, deans, arch- deacons, etc. This oath was imposed on all students in the universities, all graduates, lawyers, divines, physicians, and schoolmasters. Complaints against the oath were numer- ous and loud, especially against the "etc." part of it. It was called "the et cetera oath." When the Scots Assembly had issued their declaration affirming Episcopacy to be unlawful. Laud had tried to counteract the effect of that declaration by having Bishop Hall write a treatise on the "Divine Right of Episcopacy." Then the press poured forth replies, "Prelatical Episcopacy Not from the Apostles," "Lord Bishops Not the Lord's Bishops," etc. Then the whole nation entered into the debate. Then into Parliament the petitions began to pour. Fifteen thousand citizens of London petitioned that the whole fabric of the hierarchy might be destroyed root and branch — "the root and branch petition." Seven hundred beneficed clergymen petitioned that Episcopacy might be not destroyed, but reformed. Six thousand nobility and gentry and dignified clergy petitioned that Episcopacy might be let alone, since without bishops there can be no presbyters, no consecration of the elements, no church. On this question which divided the nation. Parliament found itself divided. 2. In the meantime the Irish rebellion had broken out. It was currently believed (at least strongly suspected) that it had its origin in the wicked brains of the Romish queen and the Puritan-hating king. Certain it is that the Irish Catholics hated the English Parliament, and certain it is that letters were written in the queen's name authorizing the seizure of government, and certain it is that there was an 256 Puritanism in the Reign 0} Charles I indiscriminate slaughter of English Protestants, the esti- mates running from 10,000 to 400,000, 150,000 being a sober statement. Hume calls it a "universal massacre." "No age nor sex nor condition was spared." The horrors cannot be described. The endless sufferings and oppressions of Strafford, inflicted on the Irish, led to the massacre. It broke out in October — a conspiracy among all Catholics to murder all Protestants. They forced the houses of Protes- tants, and murdered the inmates, or drove them out naked. Thousands died of hunger and cold on the highway. Thousands were driven into streams and were drowned, or into empty houses and were burned. Charles I is suspected to have had previous knowledge of the massacre, or even to have instigated it. It was his first step to the scaffold. Before Parliament came the question, Shall the king have an army to bring Ireland into submission? Here the rulers split into two nearly equal parties. The Royalists said, nothing can be plainer than that we ought to give the king supplies in a time like this. The opposition said : The king is not to be trusted. In duplicity and treachery he would turn his army against the liberties of England herself. So, instead of voting the king their confidence and money, the opposition moved to present him a Grand Remonstrance. That Remonstrance of 206 Articles was in the nature of an inventory of the misdeeds of Charles since the day he became king, on the ground of which the present national distrust was made to rest. The Grand Remonstrance was carried by a majority of only eleven. The king's prospects looked hopeful. If he could restrain himself, and not play the fool he might soon have Parliament on his side. He promised his chief sup- porters that he would do nothing of importance without their knowledge, but feeling his returning strength and The Grand Remonstrance and Civil War 257 burning with vindictive rage, he violated his promise. Without giving notice to his friends, on that fatal day, January 3, 1642, Charles sent his attorney-general to im- peach Hampden, Pym, Hollis, and other Puritan leaders of the Commons, at the bar of the House of Lords. The next day (January 4) he went in person to the House, fol- lowed by five hundred soldiers, to seize the five members. The members had been forewarned and could not be found. This act roused the whole English nation. Macaulay says : The flagging zeal of the party opposed to the court revived in an instant. During the night which followed the outrage, the whole city of London was in arms. In a few hours the roads leading to the capital were covered with a multitude of yeomen, spurring hard to Westminster, with the badges of the parliamentary cause in their hats. In the House of Commons the opposition became at once irre- sistible, and carried, by more than two votes to one, resolutions of unprecedented violence. Strong bodies of train-bands, regularly relieved, mounted guard around Westminster Hall. The gates of the king's palace were daily besieged by a furious multitude, whose taunts and execrations were heard even in the presence chamber, and who could scarcely be kept out of the royal apartments by the gentlemen of the household. Then Charles quitted London never to return till the day of a terrible and memorable reckoning had arrived. Into the details of the Civil War which ensued we cannot enter farther than to point out a few incidents in the fortunes of Puritanism. From January to August, 1642, was spent in fruitless negotiations. The adherents of Charles and those of Parliament ranged themselves with their respective parties. On August 22, 1642, the king set up the royal standard at Nottingham, and the herald-at-arms read the royal proclamation, equivalent to a declaration of war. On his side was a large part of the nobility and the gentry of the kingdom who, while not in love with Charles, the treacherous king, nor with Laud's intolerant church, stood 258 Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I in fear of the overthrow of monarchy itself and of an Episcopal state establishment. On his side, too, were the Rom.anists, because the queen was of their faith. On his side, too, were most of the clergy, the two universities, and so many of the English people as loved the church ritual, and so many as hated the strictures and sobriety of the Puritans. On the side of Parliament were the yeomanry of the country, the small freeholders, the merchants and trades- people of the towns, the municipal corporations, the members of the Church of England who still adhered to Calvinistic doctrines, and that part of the aristocracy that detested popery and longed for civil liberty. Of course the Puritans were the staunch and enthusiastic supporters of the cause of Parliament. Very early the English Parliament realized the impor- tance of an alliance with Scotland, but Presbyterian Scot- land had no liking for the episcopal system, and, that this difficulty might be removed. Parliament enacted, September 10, 1642, that the prelatic form of church government, archbishops, bishops, etc., should cease, determine, and be- come absolutely void after November 5, 1643. It went on voting that the Lord's Day should be better observed; that the Book of Sports should be suppressed; that monthly fasts and lectures should be kept; that superstitious monu- ments and ornaments should be removed out of the churches ; that scandalous and inefficient ministers should be tried; that Puritan ministers who had been impoverished should be in a measure reimbursed; and, finally, on June 12, 1643, they passed an ordinance for the calling of an assembly of learned and godly divines, and others, to be consulted with by the Parliament, for the settling of the govern- ment and liturgy of the Church of England and for vindicating and The Solemn League and Covenant 259 clearing of the doctrine of the said church from false aspersions and interpretations. So originated the famous Westminster Assembly of Divines. In the Civil War the forces of the king were being vic- torious, and the Parliament felt more strongly than ever the absolute necessity of an alliance with Scotland. Com- missioners representing the Lords, the Commons, and the Assembly of Divines were dispatched to Edinburgh. The English were chiefly intent on a civil league with Scotland for the defense of the civil liberties of both countries. The Scotch were chiefly intent on a religious covenant between the two kingdoms. At last the bond of union was so framed as to embrace both objects, a result reached in "The Solemn League and Covenant." The Scotch authorities gave their assent to this instrument amid the applause of some and the bursting tears of others — tears of deep, full, and sacred joy. The document was then carried to England. On Sep- tember 25, 1643, the House of Commons and the West- minster Assembly took the Covenant. The whole audience of statesmen and divines arose, and with right hands held up to heaven, worshipped the great name of God, and gave their sacred pledge. The Commons subscribed on one roll of parchment, the Assembly on another. October 15, the House of Lords took the Covenant; and the Sunday following, the congrega- tions in and around London. In February, 1644, Parliament commanded the Cove- nant to be taken throughout the kingdom of England by all persons above the age of eighteen years. A word about the composition of the Westminster Assem- bly of Divines will pave the way for a word concerning the political and religious leanings of the parliamentary army. At first in the assembly were a few men of pronounced Epis- 26o Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I copalian views — government of the church by bishops — but these soon dropped out. Nearly all of them were ordained Episcopal ministers. The larger part of the assembly were Presbyterians, who, holding Cartwright's position, believed that the governing of the church by elders, synods, etc., was of divine appointment, and that the state ought to force all subjects into conformity to the Presbyterian model. They had no more sympathy with toleration than had Laud him- self, and could they have gained ecclesiastical control, their despotism and tyranny would have been every whit as crushing as Laud's or "Bloody Mary's." Their church sys- tem was God's system, plainly revealed in the Book, and men, all men, had but one duty — to submit. To tolerate error would be to share in the guilt of error. The party next in numbers and influence in the assembly were the Erastians, so named from one Thomas Erastus. They held that in the Scriptures no form of church govern- ment is laid down, and that, therefore, every nation is at liberty to adopt whatever church polity and discipline seems best. It is wholly a matter for civil government to decide, and then, having decided, it is the business of the magis- trates to see that the people conform, and to punish offenders. The smallest party in the assembly was made up of the Independents, who believed in independent local church gov- ernment, in Congregationalism, in the polity to which Baptists hold today. The churches should be self-governing. The state has no right to interfere. They had no liking for Popery, nor Episcopacy, nor Presbyterianism. They would almost as soon have been coerced by the Pope as by the king or the archbishop of Canterbury or a Presbyterian synod. They did not believe in coercion. In theory they advocated the widest toleration. In politics they were as Independents Rule Parliament and Army 261 impatient of the divine right of tcings as in rehgion of the divine right of bishops; and in the place of both kings and bishops they wanted a state and a church governed by the people — civil and ecclesiastical democracy. The only people who believed in toleration, even in theory, were the Inde- pendents. Their influence in the Westminster Assembly was slight, but in the army and in the Parliament before long it became irresistible. Vane's tongue and Cromwell's sword and Milton's pen were at their service. While the Westminster Assembly is waging its theo- logical battles; is framing a Directory of Worship; is trying to find out what the Bible teaches about pastors, teachers, deacons, and elders, and about ordination and excom- munication; is preparing its "Confession of Faith," and its Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the armies of Charles and of Parliament are facing each other in the field. In the early stages of the Civil War the king is almost everywhere victorious. Essex, at the head of the parlia- mentary forces, while a most excellent and estimable old gentleman, is no soldier. He is a kind of General Banks sort of man — admirable as governor of Massachusetts or as speaker of the House of Representatives, but good for nothing in New Orleans or on Red River expeditions. If Parliament is to win, somehow this man must be politely shelved. In the Independent party there is a man who can do the business. Cromwell is at the head of a regiment whose sides are iron. They can pray and expound Moses, and sing David's psalms, and obey, and whip anything that fronts them. The enemy never saw their backs. They are the men who can win at Marston Moor, and with the army new modeled, they are the men who can at Naseby give the army of the Cavaliers its death blow, and force the king to 262 Puritanism in the Reign 0} Charles I surrender himself into the hands of the Scotch. They were invincible because their cause was just, and because they cast the whole burden of their reliance on the God of battles. Baxter fairly hated their notions of independency, yet he is constrained to write: Many, yea, the generality of those people throughout England, who went by the name of Puritans, who followed sermons, prayed in their families, read books of devotion, were strict observers of the Sab- bath, being avowed enemies to swearing, drunkenness, and all profane- ness, adhered to the Parliament, and filled up their armies afterwards, because they heard the King's soldiers with horrid oaths abuse the name of God and saw them living in debauchery, while the Parlia- ment soldiers flocked to sermons, talked of religion, prayed and sung psalms together on guards. And all sober men of my acquaintance, who opposed the Parliament, used to say, The King has the best cause, but the Parliament has the best men. We must come back now to London. Divines and Lords and Commons have not been idle. As far back as December, 1640, the Long Parliament, in its first year, had impeached Laud on an indictment having fourteen counts, and had tucked him away nicely in the Tower. In November, 1644, he was brought out of prison and put upon his trial for high treason with ten additional counts against him. On Janu- ary 10, 1645, he paid the penalty of his crimes. Macaulay says of his execution : As the justice of the country had been something satisfied by the death of the criminal Strafford, it would have done honor to the Parliament to have left this aged prelate the example of their mercy, rather than to have made him the monument of their justice. Perpet- ual imprisonment, with no more than a decent maintenance, would have taken away his abihties of doing further mischief. It is plain that he fell a sacrifice to the intolerant principle of the Presbyterians, a sect who breathed as fiery a spirit of persecution as himself. While we have no tears to waste on Laud, that very impersonation of ecclesiastical and political tyranny, that Cromwell Demands Religious Toleration 263 worse criminal than Strafford, that fiend incarnate, when Puritans or others crossed his will, we must grant the full force of what Macaulay says about the Presbyterians. They had control in the Westminster Assembly of Divines. They maintained the divine right of Presbyterianism, and they did their utmost to commit Parliament to the rigid enforce- ment of their ecclesiastical system by civil penalties. Par- liament adopted their doctrinal standards, the Confession and the Catechisms, but their ecclesiasticism Parliament did not nationalize. Their growing power in Parliament, conjoined with intrigues with King Charles (now a prisoner in Scotland), would have foisted Presbyterianism upon the nation, and with it an enforced conformity as intoler- ant, tyrannical, and merciless as that of Laud, had not Cromwell, backed by his army, called a stay in the pro- ceedings. His word was : Gentlemen, you have gone far enough. My soldiers and I believe in religious toleration. We have not exposed our lives in defense of civil liberty, to have them crushed out under the heel of ecclesiastical despotism. Presbyterians may believe in the divine right of their system as much as they please, but they shall never have the terrific enginery of the state with which to force their system upon other folks. So issue was joined between Parliament and its army. It is a long story, but the outcome was that the Scotch delivered up the king to the English Parliament. He was conveyed to Holmby House in Northamptonshire. A month later (April 17, 1647) the Commons voted the army to be dis- banded. That army, made up of the most intelligent body of soldiers that ever existed, entertaining republican senti- ments as regards both church and state, was not disposed to relapse into either civil or ecclesiastical slavery. It created a council of its own, consisting of privates and officers. 264 Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I Then began a series of negotiations between king, Parlia- ment, and army — the final outcome of which was that the army seized the king, marched on London, purged Parlia- ment of its Presbyterian members, and brought the king to trial. The exclusion of 166 of the Commons from their seats, leaving about sixty Independents in power, made it easy for the "Rump" Parliament to vote the impeachment of Charles. A popular tribunal was created before which the king was arraigned, tried, and convicted. On January 27, 1649, the king's judges brought in their verdict, the last sentence in which reads : For all which treasons and crimes, this Court doth adjudge that he, the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, and murderer, and a public enemy, shall be put to death, by severing his head from his body. Three days later the king stepped upon the scaffold that had been erected upon the open street. Having made a speech, he submitted to the block, and his head was severed from his body at one blow, about two in the afternoon, in the forty-ninth year of his age, and the twenty-fourth of his reign. Upon the death of Charles the Commonwealth was inaugurated. The executive authority was vested in a council of state, and republicanism became the heir of monarchy. Just here we may well stop, and look about us, and inquire where we are. Where are the English sovereigns? Henry and Edward and Mary and Elizabeth and James and Charles are dead. Where are the archbishops of Canterbury? Cranmer and Pole and Parker and Grindal and Whitgift and Ban- croft and Abbot and Laud are dead. Four years ago, Laud, the worst of them all, expiated his misdeeds on the block. Where are the English statesmen ? Wolsey and Thomas Cromwell and Somerset and Northumberland and Hamp- A Look Backward and About 265 den and Buckingham and Strafford are dead. Twenty- years ago and more Felton's dagger found the heart of Buckingham, the worthless favorite of James and Charles ; and eight years ago the crowd went wild with joy as the head of Strafford rolled from the block. Where are the great divines who toiled and suffered for a reform in religion? Rogers and Hooper and Ridley and Latimer and Cranmer and Cartwright and Browne and Reynolds are dead. Where are the men of letters whose names will live as long as the English tongue is spoken ? William Shakespeare died in the midst of the reign of James I, the greatest of dramatists, but not a statesman, nor a churchman, and in no wise connected with the religious or the political excitements of his times. Francis Bacon died ten years after Shake- speare, at the very begining of the reign of King Charles, an orator, a jurist, a statesman, a philosopher, the king's counselor, solicitor-general, attorney-general, member of the Privy Council, keeper of the Great Seal, lord high chan- cellor, the greatest man of England, standing on the highest pinnacle of greatness — then the tragic fall, accused of accepting bribes, of corrupting judges, of official dishonesty, of political chicanery and corruption, his confession follow- ing, he was convicted, fined, imprisoned, disgraced, ruined ; the greatest, wisest, meanest of mankind, in philosophy a soaring angel, in politics a creeping snake. John Milton is today forty-one years old, and has yet to live twenty-five years more. Already he is a cultivated musician, a classical scholar, a Greek philosopher, a famous poet, an eminent statesman, a political and religious controversialist, a de- fender of civil liberty, a stout opponent of the Established Church, a pronounced Puritan after the stiff and sturdy Independent type, an advocate of the execution of King 266 Puritanism in the Reign of Charles I Charles, a constant friend of Oliver Cromwell ; and twenty- five years yet before him in which he can with his pen defend the acts of the English people in their struggle for liberty; can act as foreign secretary of state for Cromwell; can (though now blind) pen his immortal Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained. Five volumes of prose and eight of verse attest the fruitfulness of his pen and the greatness of his genius. Where now is that Ecclesiastical Establishment which Elizabeth and Bancroft and Whitgift and Laud toiled so diabolically to force upon the English nation ? That Episco- pal hierachy is wiped out of existence. So, too, are the Court of High Commission, and the Act of Uniformity, and the Book of Common Prayer, and the Thirty-nine Articles. Where now is that Presbyterian Establishment which Cartwright and Scotland and the Westminster Assembly would have forced upon the English people? Cromwell and the army and the Independents have come into power just in time to save that great calamity. X PURITANISM UNDER CHARLES II, 1660-85 X PURITANISM UNDER CHARLES II, 1660-85 Oliver Cromwell went to heaven, September 3, 1658. His last recorded prayer, of any length, is in these words : Lord, though I am a miserable and wretched creature, I am in cove- nant with thee through grace, and I may, I will, come to thee. For thy people, thou hast made me, though very unworthy, a mean instru- ment to do them some good, and thee service; and many of them have set too high a value upon me, though others wish and would be glad of my death. But, Lord, however thou dost dispose of me, con- tinue and go on to do good for them. Give them consistency of judg- ment, one heart, and mutual love; and go on to deliver them, and with the work of reformation; and make the name of Christ glori- ous in the world. Teach those who look too much upon thy instru- ments to depend more upon thyself; pardon such as desire to trample upon the dust of a poor worm, for they are thy people too; and pardon the folly of this short prayer, even for Jesus Christ's sake; and give us a good night, if it be thy pleasure. So passed away the greatest ruler England ever had; the man who made England "more respected and dreaded than any power in Christendom;" the man whose sole ambition was to give England civil and religious liberty ; the man for two centuries branded as a fanatic, a hypocrite, a tyrant, but in these late days beginning to be reckoned at his true worth, looked upon now as John Milton looked upon him then, seen to be God's own man, doing God's own work, in God's own way — the called and anointed of God to do God's bidding. Cromwell was succeeded in the protectorate by his son, Richard. Soon the factions, which his father had held in check, became too powerful, and the abdication of Richard was followed by the restoration of the Stuarts. 269 270 Puritanism Under Charles II April 14, 1660, Charles II sent over from Breda in Holland a Declaration to the effect that there should be a general amnesty, that the people should enjoy liberty of religious belief, that forfeited estates should remain in the possession of their present holders, and that the arrears due to the army should be liquidated. Ten days later the "Con- vention Parliament" met, numbering 556 members. The Declaration of Breda was looked upon with favor, and on May I the restoration of Charles Stuart was voted. The Republicans had tried to avert this issue, but in vain. Milton had issued his pamphlet setting forth "a ready and easy way to establish a commonwealth" and implored the people not to let his written sentences prove "the last words of expiring liberty." But the nation would not be satisfied without a re-establishment of monarchy. Only a small minority regretted the invitation extended to Charles to reascend the throne of his fathers. For various reasons the various classes and interests of English society found themselves at one — in cordial and enthusiastic harmony — on this decision to recall the Stuarts. Many were tired of the domination of the army. Almost any government would be better than military rule or irritating military interfer- ence with the free action of the nation's chosen representa- tives. The Romanists had every reason to believe that their condition and chances would be improved under a Stuart dynasty. The Royalists had always hated Cromwell and the Commonwealth, and were ardently attached to monarchical institutions. The Presbyterians looked with aversion on the tolerant maxims and policy of the Protector. They could never forgive him for frustrating their cherished schemes of ecclesiastical supremacy and control, and for the liberty he accorded to the various religious sects in the teeth Reaction Against Puritanical Austerities 271 of their "divine right of Presbyterianism." The Episco- pahans felt that their fortunes would surely take on a brighter look under kingly rule, since "no bishop, no king" had been handed down as an accepted maxim in the Stuart family. And the people generally were glad to escape the aus- terities of Puritan — puritanical — morality. Give us a rest from these intolerable interferences with private and social life. It is possible to go too far in trying to legislate uprightness and piety into folks, and the Puritans went too far, and the reaction came on apace. When Puritanism goes so far as to decree that "no persoii shall be employed but such as the House is satisfied of his real godliness ;" that books in the royal libraries which contain pictures of Jesus or Mary shall be burned; that sculpture representing nymphs and graces shall be destroyed or rechiseled; that public amusements of all sorts shall be discontinued; that bear-baiting, rope-dancing, wrestling-matches, horse-racing, stage-acting, puppet-shows, and ball-playing shall be ac- counted criminal offenses and severely punished ; that sports on the village green shall be accounted scandalous and every Maypole be hewn down; that Christmas shall be converted into a day of fasting and prayer, and that all men shall keep it, as Macaulay says, "in humbly bemoaning the great national sin which they and their fathers had so often com- mitted on that day by romping under the mistletoe, eating boar's head, and drinking ale flavored with roasted apples;" when Puritan parliaments go as far as this, and farther, in trying to legislate ethics and piety ; when, as we read in the Comic Dramatists of the Restoration, the outward signs of sanctity came to be a plain dress, short hair, unstarched linen, pine benches, and wooden-bottom chairs, a talking through the nose, a showing the whites of the eyes, a naming 272 Puritanism Under Charles II the children Assurance, and Patience, and Praise-God, and Tribulation ; an avoiding of Spring Garden when in London and abstaining from hunting and hawking when in the country; when civil government pushes its overstrained austerities to such senseless extremes as these, it ceases to excite our wonder that the people should welcome a change of administration, and that in the moral reaction a period of wild and desperate dissoluteness should follow. So Charles II was called to instate himself in the throne made vacant by his father's death. Eleven years of army and Cromwellian and Independent rule had been all the nation could endure. On May 26, 1660, Charles landed at Dover. The people received him with unbounded enthu- siasm and with the wildest transports of joy. No pen can picture the intoxication of delight with which the English masses of high and low degree welcomed back the restored and triumphant monarch. Then followed twenty-five years under Charles II and three under his brother, James II — "the darkest and most disgraceful in English annals." It remains, in the briefest manner, to indicate the grounds on which this indictment rests. Not to follow a chronologi- cal order, our object can be attained by reviewing the for- tunes of our old acquaintances, and taking a look at the new actors in the drama. First, the men who had been concerned in the execution of Charles I, the regicides. In the first year of the new king, the murderers of his father, as they were called, were brought to trial before a court of thirty-four com- missioners. Some had died and others had fled, but ten were arrested, convicted, and executed, meeting death courageously, and proud of the cause in which they suffered. Two months later, Parliament enacted that the bodies of Oliver Cromwell, John Bradshaw, and Henry Ireton should The Regicides and the Army 273 be taken from their graves, and be hanged upon the gallows at Tyburn. Accordingly the corpses were dragged from their coffins, drawn on hurdles to the place appointed, gibbeted from sunrise to sunset, the heads were set on poles at the top of Westminster Hall, and the trunks were buried together under the Tyburn gallows. The next year, 1661, by the king's order, the remains of Cromwell's mother, and of his daughter (Mrs. Claypole), and the bodies of about twenty others were removed from the Westminster Abbey and buried in the churchyard. Vane, whom the king had promised on his honor to pardon, paid with his life the penalty of friendly relations with regicides, and many others were drawn with ropes about their necks through the streets of London and committed to the Tower as prisoners for life. The estates of all were forfeited to the crown. Secondly, the army. The army, consisting in the three kingdoms of about sixty thousand men, was paid off in keeping with one of the terms of the Declaration of Breda, and gradually disbanded, with the exception of Monk's regiment and some others, about five thousand soldiers, who form the beginning, under the name of "guards," of Eng- land's present standing army. Thus perished the glorious Ironsides of Cromwell's day, the troops who never knew defeat, the safeguard of threatened Protestants in every corner of Europe, the glory of England, and the fear of the world. Thirdly, the Independents. They went down in the gen- eral crash. Royalists, Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Roman- ists, seemed to vie with each other to heap contempt upon their devoted heads, and not contempt merely, but insult and torture and slaughter. Let them be hanged and half hanged, quartered and emboweled, until they shall be so broken and crushed and scattered as never to rise again. It looked as 2 74 Puritanism Under Charles II though Independency had seen its last day. Not until the black and ugly storm had spent its force, did a star of hope appear. Fourthly, the Presbyterians and Episcopalians. The Presbyterians were among the foremost in urging the return of Charles. When the great king appeared, and hats went up, and bonfires were kindled, and flags were waved, and bells were rung, and throats were split with cheering, and the gutters ran with ale, the Presbyterians had, with the rest, been carried off their feet in this whirlwind of patriotic sentiment. They indulged the strongest hope of royal favor, even the insane expectation that Charles would adopt their discipline as the national creed. Then the contest began between Presbyterians and Episcopalians which in a few months ended in the utter discomfiture of the former. King and Parliament failed them in their hour of need and expected victory, and they fell almost as low as the Independents, whom they despised. On the day that Parliament met, May 8, 1661, Convoca- tion assembled in St. Paul's and confirmed the form of Common Prayer, and made sundry additions to the liturgy. Two weeks later, both houses of Parliament ordered the burning of the Solemn League and Covenant in London and Westminster. This was accordingly done by the common hangman two days later in the city, and afterward all over England. Presbyterian Scotland was forced into episcopacy. Four ministers, coming to London, were ordained and afterward consecrated bishops. The Scottish Privy Council forbade all meetings of synods and presbyteries. The Scottish Par- liament rescinded the Solemn League and Covenant. Thus all the Scotch had been contending for, for thirty years, was undone in nearly as many days. The Presbyterians met and Episcopacy Triumphs Over Preshyterianism 275 murmured in conventicles ; but to them, as to the Independ- ents, there came a day of dehverance — a deHverance attained only after countless struggles and sufferings. The Scots Worthies and the Cloud of Witnesses record the deeds and dying testimonies of heroic men who laid down their lives for "Christ's crown and covenant." So once more the Episcopalians are to have it all their own way, and speedily it becomes their way with a ven- geance. Laud's old doctrine of non-resistance and passive obedience is taken up again, and the monarch and Cavaliers and churchmen join in forcing upon every official in the realm the tenet that the most high and sacred order of kings is of divine right, being the ordinance of God himself, and that for subjects to offer resistance to their king or question his doings, on any pretense whatsoever, is worthy of damnation. In maintaining this political dogma the Commons were more earnest and pronounced than the king himself; and the Episcopal bishops and clergy far outstripped the Com- mons in the extravagance and fury with which they upheld and pushed it. Under no conceivable circumstances, in no imaginable extremity, would it be permissible to resist the royal authority. Suppose the king should become a hor- rible despot, should trample every English law in the dust, should outrage the simplest and holiest principles of justice, should commit innocent victims to dungeons, to tortures, to slaughter, should do this daily, should do it to hundreds or even thousands — would it not be right to force him to stop? The Church of England answered. No. The bishops said that a forcible interference would be damnable! In after-years these very men belied their theories, and stood in arms against their sovereign. But now they could afford to be insanely loyal, since from the Commons, by the favor 276 Puritanism Under Charles II of the crown, they were regaining all their old-time pre- rogatives. As one of the historians has said : It seemed to the established church impossible that a time would ever come when the ties which bound her to the children of her august martyr (i. e., Charles I) would be sundered, and when the loyalty in which she gloried would cease to be a pleasing and profit- able duty. Note the steps by which the Episcopalians regained the ascendency. In May, 1660, Charles II was restored to kingship. In October the army was disbanded. In Janu- ary, 1661, the corpse of Cromwell was disinterred, hanged, and beheaded; and the Covenant was abolished in Scotland. In May the Solemn League and Covenant was burned in England. In November the Corporation Act was passed, requiring all magistrates and officers to abjure the Covenant and to take an oath declaring it illegal to bear arms against the king. In the same year the bishops were restored to their seats in the House of Lords. In May, 1662, the Act of Uniformity was adopted, and went into operation the August following, and was entitled, "An Act for the Uniformity of Public Prayers and Adminis- tration of Sacraments, and for Establishing the Forms of Making, Ordaining, and Consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons in the Church of England." It required a declara- tion of assent and consent to all and everything prescribed and contained in the Book of Common Prayer, together with all its rites and ceremonies. Its enforcement cost 2,000 non-conforming ministers their pulpits and their livings. In May, 1664 (two years later), the Conventicle Act was passed. It provided that persons peremptorily refusing to attend the Episcopal church should be banished, and if they returned they should be executed. It further provided Uniformily, Conventicle, Five- Mile Acts 277 that if any person should be caught at a conventicle where five or more persons were present, for the first offense he should be imprisoned three months ; for the second offense, six months; for the third offense he should be banished; and in case he returned, he should suffer death without benefit of clergy. In October, 1665, the "Five-Mile Act" became law. It provided that non-conforming ministers should not come or be within five miles of any city, town corporate, or borough that sends burgesses to Parliament, or within five miles of any parish, town, or place, where they have preached in conventicles. Any two justices of the peace are empowered to commit such offenders to prison for six months without bail. By the Act of Uniformity 2,000 clergymen, on a single day, were expelled from their parishes. There is no time to speak of their privations and suft'erings; of their secret meetings for prayer and praise — meetings in upper cham- bers, with fastened doors, with closed shutters, with extinguished candles, with whispered sermons, with stationed guards ; no time to speak of the discoveries of their hiding-places, their arrests, the cruelties of magis- trates, the loathsome dungeons, and the heartless banish- ments. To accomplish this purging of Holy Church the best men in England were turned out, and their places were filled with boys, with informers, with laymen, with the illiterate and debauched. Call to mind a few of the worth- ies who suffered in those days, who made the slimy prisons of England glorious, and the authors of their misery infamous. Richard Baxter, author of Saints' Everlasting Rest and Call to the Unconverted, and one hundred and sixty-six other works, ejected from his parish and hunted 278 Puritanism Under Charles II like a felon by the minions of tyranny. John Howe, graduate of Oxford, author of the best work on the Holy Spirit ever written, driven from his place by the Act of Uni- formity. I cannot dwell on these names; but think of Matthew Poole and Theophilus Gale, and Thomas Manton, and Joseph Alleine, and Edward Calamy, and Thomas Goodwin, and John Ray, and John Flavel, and John Owen, and John Bunyan, and that long list of Puritan divines whose holy lives and profound writings will influence the world for good as long as time shall last. And then think of kings and Cavaliers and churchmen who would deprive and degrade and imprison and torture these men of God in the name of truth and religion ! While this Jehu zeal is building up a national church, and enforcing a conformity and a uniformity down to the cut of a bishop's collar and the bend of a layman's knee, what is the moral outcome of it all in the everyday living of king, court, and people ? First, the king. Would he lie? Yes. Swear? Yes. Drink? Yes. Gamble? Yes. Seduce? Yes. Was there any vice in the catalogue to which he was not addicted? I cannot think of one. Was he good-natured, witty, free and easy? Yes. Had he any of those qualities of charac- ter which the Puritans held in high esteem? No. Did he indulge himself in all those forms of dissipation which the Puritans abominated? Yes. Did he have a wife? Yes. Was he true to her? No. Did he keep mistresses? Yes. Did he bring his harlots from France and Italy? Yes. Did he lavish favors upon them in the most prodigal fashion? Yes. Did he have children by them? Yes. Did everybody know of these sensual indulgences? Yes. Was he rotten in moral character ? Yes. Greene says : The one thing he seemed in earnest about was sensual pleasure. Immorality of Charles and the Court 279 Mistress followed mistress, and the guilt of a troop of profligate women was blazoned to the world by the gift of titles and estates One of his courtesans became duchess of St. Albans, another duchess of Cleveland, another duchess of Portsmouth, and so on through a long list ; and the royal bastards were set among Eng- lish nobles No thought of remorse or of shame seems ever to have crossed his mind. How was it with his court ? The courtiers followed the example of their king. They attended brothels and gamb- ling-hells, but not conventicles. And how was it with the people? They followed the example of king and court. It was not vice half concealed and gilded, as in corrupt French society, but English vice, open, coarse, naked. Under the Commonwealth men were virtuous, or at least were com- pelled to wear the guise of virtue. With the Restoration there came an instantaneous change in the moral habits of the people. Puritan restraints removed, vice stalked through the streets without disguise. King and court set the fashion. Charles, Buckingham, Rochester, Sedley, and the others were chiefly distinguished for their wit and libertinism. Licentiousness and debauchery became uni- versally prevalent. Delicacy, sentiment, love, had no part in the relations of the sexes. Vulgar coarseness and in- decency and obscene jesting and animal passion bore open sway. The polite literature of the day became so impolite that it would be a disgrace today to be caught reading it. The stage gained all its glory from its nastiness. The favorite actresses were the mistresses of the nobility. Two of the king's concubines came from the theater. So enthralled was he by their fascinating society that he could not be dragged to attend upon affairs of state. It was the era of Comus and Bacchus, and Aphrodite; the era of the baud and of the debauchee. Chesterfield is said to have 28o Puritanism Under Charles II poisoned his wife, the fatal dose administered in the wine of the communion. To the king himself is imputed an incestuous connection with his own sister Henrietta. The duke of Buckingham, enamored of the wife of the earl of Shrewsbury, killed him in a duel, and then slept with his adulterous paramour the same night, in the bloody shirt in which he had slain her husband. When God sent that awful plague to London, that ghastly scourge in which four thousand died in a single night, ten thousand in a month, and more than one hundred thousand in all, it checked these impious revels only for a season. The lazar-house was not cleansed. King and court and people plunged again into their wild excesses. When the great fire visited the metropolis, laying two- thirds of the city in ruins, the king and his nobility could exert themselves to stay the conflagration, but before the ashes were cold they could return to toy with their mis- tresses. Thus things ran on for a quarter of a century. No mention has been made of the king's foreign policy, the most disastrous and disgraceful in English annals. It is all summed up in this one sentence : The king cringed to his rival, Louis XIV, that he might trample on his people, sank into a viceroy of France, and pocketed with com- placent infamy her degrading insults and her more degrad- ing gold — gold needed that he might gratify his sensual propensities. But the end came at last. Let us view the closing scene as portrayed by Macaulay. [See Macaulay's History of England, Vol. I, chap. 4.] XI THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AND PURITANISM XI THE ANGLICAN CHURCH AND PURITANISM » HENRY VIII Luther's ninety-five theses were posted in 15 17. Three years later came his famous treatise On the Babylonian Captivity in which he repudiated the pope's authority and five of the seven sacraments. Against Luther the king of England took up the cudgels in his Assertion of the Seven Sacraments, which won for him from Leo X the title ''Defender of the Faith," and from Luther the sting- ing sneer, "When God wants a fool, he turns a king into a theological writer." In doctrine Henry VIII remained a Romanist to the end of his days. In his last hours, with unwavering faith, he sought the intercession of Mary and the saints, and in his will he provided for the saying of masses for his soul "perpetually while the world shall stand." The noteworthy thing in the reign of Henry is that, retaining the pope's doctrine, he rejected the pope's supremacy. When the title, "On earth the supreme head of the Church of England" (1535), was added to the king's style, Henry himself assumed the place hitherto held by the Roman pontiff. By this revolution the old autonomy was destroyed, and the English church gained an independent organic life. The significance of this severance from Rome it is impossible to overestimate; but it did next to nothing ^ Read before the Ministers' Institute at the Divinity School, The University of Chicago, March 28, 1905. The occasion of this and the following lecture explains the repetition of some material previously given in the author's classroom lectures. 283 284 The Anglican Church and ^Puritanism for the reformation of religion. The old practices, super- stitions, and cruelties were still retained. It prepared the way, however, for the real reformation, which came in the following reign. EDWARD VI The sympathies of Edward, the boy king, were alto- gether Protestant, and through his state and church advisers the new religion was speedily introduced. It took definite form in a Book of Common Prayer compiled out of the Roman Catholic service-books previously in use, translated into English. The compilers mixed in popish ingredients to make it less unpalatable to Catholics, and they omitted as many popish superstitions as prudence seemed to dictate. Their policy was one of gradual advance. They intended better things when the people were pre- pared for them. After the issue of the first book, Protestant sentiment grew apace, and this first book was displaced, three years later, by a second. Its marked improvements are to be attributed chiefly to the influence of the continental reform- ers, who aided in its revision. It still contained some dregs of popery, but it was much more scriptural, less papistical, than the Church of England has ever been since. Eliza- beth changed it for the worse, dragging it back toward popery; Charles II did the same. The book in use in the closing days of Edward VI was more Protestant and reformed than the book in use today under his namesake, Edward VII. The issuing of these Prayer-Books was followed, in each instance, by an Act of Uniformity. The bishops were enjoined "to call in, burn, deface, and destroy all the old church books, the keeping whereof would be a let to the The Reactionary Policy of Mary 285 use of the Book of Common Prayer." King, council, and Parliament used all their power rigidly to enforce the exact observance of the prescribed ritual. Every Englishman must worship God after the ordained fashion; in no wise deviate from the established order; and take no account of tender consciences. Following the second Prayer-Book came the "Forty- two Articles of Religion," which, in Elizabeth's reign, were reduced to thirty-nine, constituting to this day the doc- trinal basis of the Church of England. The bishops and clergy and the members of the universities were required to make subscription. The articles provided for uniform belief, as the Prayer-Book provided for uniform worship. Thus, by the grace of king and Parliament, the English people were furnished out of hand with a form of service and a system of faith to which it was unlawful to take the slightest exception. MARY But suddenly this ecclesiastical scheme was completely upset, on the death of Edward, by the accession of his sister Mary. The reactionary policy of the daughter of Cather- ine brought ruin to the Protestant cause. On bended knees the two houses of Parliament implored restoration to papal favor and entrance again into the Roman fold. The jails and dungeons were quickly filled with Englishmen tainted with Protestant heresy. Nearly a thousand leading spirits — bishops, professors, preachers, and nobles — fled for their lives into foreign parts. Rogers and Taylor, Latimer and Ridley, Hooper and Cranmer, and two hundred and eighty more, were burned at the stake. Popery had done its work, and the English nation was filled with horror and disg-ust. 286 The Anglican Church and Puritanism ELIZABETH When Elizabeth came to the throne there dawned a new era for Protestant Christianity. Her first parhament passed two acts of immense importance, the "Act of Supremacy" and the "Act of Uniformity." By the first the queen was made all that the pope had been in other days. With the court of Rome all connection of whatever sort was wholly and forever broken. In the place of the pope the queen was made supreme, and to this supremacy were attached all honors, dignities, immunities, profits, and commodities to the church appertaining. To her was given full power and authority to visit, repress, redress, reform, order, correct, restrain, and amend all such errors, heresies, abuses, contempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which, by any manner of spiritual authority or jurisdiction, ought or may be lawfully reformed, repressed, ordered, corrected, restrained, or amended most to the pleasure of almighty God and increase of virtue in Christ's religion, and for the conservation of peace, unity, and tranquillity of this realm ; any usage, custom, foreign law, foreign authority, prescrip- tion, or anything or things to the contrary notwithstanding. Attached to this "Act of Supremacy" was a clause which authorized the queen to appoint a Court of High Commission, to whose keeping and control the religion of every Englishman should be unreservedly committed. To this court was given the right and power, under Elizabeth, of course, to use, occupy, and exercise all manner of jurisdiction, privileges, and pre-eminences, touching any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the realms of England and Ireland, to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, con- tempts, ofifenses, and enormities whatsoever. While this legislation was being enacted which vested supreme ecclesiastical power in the queen's hands, a commis- sion was hard at work fixing up an English Prayer-Book. Elizabeth Rules the Church 287 They wished to propitiate the lovers of the Reformation by the restoration of the reformed worship, and at the same time to concihate the Romanists by eHminating such anti-papal sentiments as had found place in Edward's Service-Books. This revised book, having been doctored to the queen's liking, and then still further doctored by her in council, received in due course the sanction of Parlia- ment. By the ''Act of Uniformity" — the second immensely important act passed by Elizabeth's first parliament — the exact observance of the Book of Common Prayer became the law of the land. The "Act of Uniformity" went into operation seven months and seven days after the death of "Bloody Mary." In one brief half-year the English church passed from the obedience of Pope Paul IV to the obedience of "Pope Elizabeth I." When she became queen she sent to him an ambassador to announce her accession, by whom he sent back the haughty answer that "to the Holy See and not to her belonged the throne, to which she had no right as being a bastard." In less than a year she showed to him that both state and church, queen and pope, centered and lived in her own sweet, virgin self alone. This, then, was the English church as by law estab- lished. Its doctrines were found in the Thirty-nine Articles and its forms of worship in the Book of Common Prayer. By act of Parliament a church was created coextensive with the nation, from the exactions of which there was no escape, and membership in which embraced all English subjects. Now, in the constituency of this all-embracing church the members were not all of one mind. There were those who were wholly pleased with Elizabeth's establishment, those who were wholly displeased, and those who were 288 The Anglican Church and Puritanism partly pleased and partly offended. The Anglicans felt that the reformation had gone just far enough, and wished things to remain exactly as they were. The Romanists felt that the reformation had already gone far more than far enough, and longed for a retrograde movement. The Puri- tans felt that the reformation had not gone far enough, and were determined to push it farther. All alike, Anglicans, Romanists, and Puritans, were members of the one organ- ized, legalized, national establishment. The fortunes of the Romanists are of interest and moment, but, lying entirely outside the limits of the present inquiry, they are properly enough left unnoticed. In this survey our direct concern is with the Puritans and with their struggle for a freedom which the Anglicans would not permit them to enjoy. During Mary's reign of terror those Protestants, who escaped the dungeon and the stake, sought hiding-places at home or fled beyond the seas. No sooner was Mary dead and Elizabeth in power than these persecuted ones who had been in hiding, whose lurking-places Mary's officers could not discover, reappeared to disseminate their views and to begin again that religious agitation for which their lives had been in peril. Those other men who had made their escape to the Continent hastily returned to their native land. Some of these men had been professors in the uni- versities in the days of Edward VI, and bishops, and deans, and archdeacons, and noted divines, and knights, and nobles. Mary's fury drove them to Switzerland and the Low Countries and the cities on the Rhine. During their absence these men had become thoroughly imbued with the reformed views and spirit, the doctrines and discipline, advocated by Zwingli and Calvin. They brought back with them — eight hundred of them and more — a deal of Divers Forms oj Puritanism 289 experience and learning and piety. Their eyes had been opened, their hearts had been changed, their notions of things generally had been completely revolutionized. They did not like popery — did not like any of the rags or dregs or fooleries of popery at all. They had got above and beyond all that. These were the men who leavened England with Puritan sentiment. DIVERS PHASES OF PURITANISM In course of time Puritanism took on diverse and con- flicting forms, but fundamentally it was the outgrowth of the Reformation and the logical issue of the Protestant spirit. Protestantism, once started, must continue to protest, one protest following another as new light made the path of duty plain. As political and religious truth was more clearly apprehended, there were stages of advance. In its first phase, Puritanism was a protest against forms of worship and religious observances which the English national church had brought over from Rome and incorporated in its Service-Books, and a struggle for free- dom from these idolatrous rites and ceremonies. In its second phase, Puritanism went farther and added to its protest against popish practices a protest against the existing forms of church organization and government, created and imposed by act of Parliament. It sought free- dom from Episcopal dominance and a remodeling of the church on the pattern furnished by Geneva. To destroy Episcopacy and to Presbyterianize the national establish- ment was the ideal of this class of Puritans. In its third phase, Puritanism was a protest against a national church of whatever sort, whether Episcopal or Presbyterian, and a struggle for the freedom of separation 290 The Anglican Church and Puritanism and the right to organize churches independent of Parlia- ment, self-created, self-governing, and free. In its fourth phase, Puritanism became more radical still. Having protested itself out of popery, Episcopacy, and Presbytery into open and avowed Separation, it went one step farther than Separatists or Independents were pre- pared to go, and insisted that a living, personal, and con- scious relation to Christ was the fundamental condition of fellowship in the churches of which he was head. Faith is a conscious act, requiring intelligence and involving will; hence it is as inconsistent for separated, independent churches to admit into membership unthinking babes be- cause they are born in a Christian family as it is for the national church to admit Englishmen to membership because they are born in an English parish. Neither class belongs to the Christian church, because membership therein is not dependent on merely "external conditions and accidental circumstances, but on a living, sincere, and real faith in Christ, and a hearty, personal subjection to his authority." The whole vast movement, of which these were the successive phases, had its inception in the great Protestant Reformation, and was its vital and enduring, as well as its logical and necessary, outcome. Protestantism protested itself into Puritanism in the narrow sense, which in turn protested itself into Separatism, which again in turn protested itself first into the less extreme and then into the more radical forms of Separation. THE FIRST FORM OF PURITANISM "The first public manifestation of Puritanism as an ele- ment in church politics" occurred in the reign of Edward, when Hooper, elected to the bishopric of Gloucester, The First Form of Puritanism 291 objected to wearing the bishop's scarlet robe, which to his mind was a symbol of Rome's corruptions and cruelties. He argued that the clerical vestments were of human origin, had no warrant in Scripture, were not suited to gospel simplicity, and tended to gender superstition, since in the minds of the ignorant they were supposed to possess a mysterious virtue which imparted a sacredness and validity to the acts of the priest who wore them. Hooper's scruples were partly overborne, but in the later history the Puritan conscience stiffened, and protested vehemently against the "defiled robes of anti-Christ," "the conjuring garments of popery," "the decking of the spouse of Christ with the ornaments of the Babylonish strumpet," "the for- cing of true preachers to be like in outward show to Christ's enemies." If surplice, corner-cap, and tippet have been badges of idolaters in the very act of their idolatry, what hath the preacher of Christian liberty, and the open rebuker of all superstitions to do with the dregs of the Romish Beast? But vestments were a small matter compared with graver errors and abuses, against which Puritans, in Eliza- beth's reign, raised an outcry, and from which they struggled to be free. To their minds the Book of Common Prayer was loaded with papistical and anti-Christian teachings. Being Protestants, they protested, therefore, against everything that savored of Rome : against the sign of the cross in baptism, for it has no Bible warrant and the ignorant and superstitious give it a mystical virtue; against godfathers and godmothers, for parents and not strangers ought to be pledged to the religious nurture of children; against confirmation, for it is not scriptural. The mere ability to say the Lord's Prayer and the Catechism is not an adequate qualification. The laying-on of the bishop's 292 The Anglican Church and Puritanism hands is a pretended giving of grace. The boy may in reaHty be the worst scapegrace in the neighborhood. They protested against kneehng at the Lord's Supper. Christ and his apostles recHned. They were feasting and not adoring. In the early church no such custom prevailed. It came in with transubstantiation and lost its meaning when that heresy was discarded. They protested against bowing when the name of Jesus was pronounced. It was a childish superstition, and was no more demanded than bowing at any other name of deity. They protested against the en- forced observance of saints' days, as holy days, while the Lord's one holy day was given up to buying and selling, sports and frivolity. They protested against the use of the ring in marriage. The Papists make marriage a sacrament, and bless and consecrate the ring, and sprinkle it with holy water. Churches which have abandoned Romanism ought to abandon this charmed symbol with all the rest. They protested against the absolution of the sick. The priest had no such absolving ability. He practiced a cruel decep- tion on the patient, and he was guilty of a blasphemous assumption of divine power. They protested against the form of the baptismal service. The priest has no warrant for praying "we give thee thanks that it hath pleased thee to regenerate this infant with thy Spirit." They protested against the form of the burial service. The church has no right to lower the body of a notoriously wicked man into the grave with the words: "It hath pleased almighty God to take unto himself the soul of this man; we there- fore commit his body to the ground in the sure hope of the resurrection to eternal life." And so, when they once got into the way of objecting, they found at last that there was scarcely any feature of the established religion against which some complaint could The Second Form of Puritanism 293 not be lodged. They objected to the coming of everybody to the communion table; to the reading of the apocryphal books in the public worship; to the ordaining of ministers too ignorant to preach; to having one minister in the pos- session of half a dozen benefices; to the non-residence of the holders of church livings; to the singing of prayers and antiphonal chanting, etc. These men were engaged in a desperate struggle to be free from the bondage of a half-reformed religion which an English sovereign and an English parliament had imposed upon them. They would not yield their consciences to the idolatrous gear and popish ceremonials of the Book of Cojumon Prayer and Adniiiiistration of the Sacraments of the Church of England. And so, refusing to yield, they were deprived and deposed and silenced and impoverished and disgraced and branded and slit in the nostrils and robbed of their ears and pilloried and imprisoned and left to die in cold, damp dungeons — the victims of ecclesiastical oppression and tyranny. THE SECOND FORM OF PURITANISM Elizabeth and her bishops pushed conformity with such rigor and cruelty that after a time men began to inquire whether the whole structure of the church, as then organ- ized, was not unscriptural ; whether episcopacy had any warrant whatever in the sacred writings; and whether the biblical idea of the church ought not to supplant the Elizabethan. In passing from a protest against forms of worship and religious observances to a protest against the very organi- zation and government of the existing church, Puritanism entered the second stage of its development. Into this second stage it carried all it had fought for in its earlier 294 The Anglican Church and Puritanism struggle, and then pushed into an entirely new field, in demanding not only that a papistical ritual should be dis- carded, but that episcopacy itself should be overthrown, and that a Presbyterian national establishment should be sub- stituted in its place. The national church — the Church of England — including all English subjects, was still to remain, only it was to be Presbyterian and not Episcopalian. This change was to be brought about by reforming the church from within, by educating the public mind, and by persuading Parliament to pass the necessary laws. We have now two classes of Puritans : Puritans who wished to see the church remain as it was, ruled by bishops, and Puritans who believed that episcopal rule was unscrip- tural, and hence unlawful, and who wished to see the church ruled by presbyters. Both parties wished to see the church purged of popish practices and errors, and both wished the church to be of a national character — all English- men embraced in its communion, and all forced to yield submission to its discipline. Specifically, it was a struggle against prelacy. These Puritans of the Presbyterian type wanted two things : They wanted laws passed which would remove the hand of the queen and of her Court of High Commission, under which they were being crushed ; and they wanted laws passed which would completely upset the existing establish- ment. They had a boundless abhorrence of popery and an equally boundless abhorrence of the national hierarchy. They had been studying their Bibles, studying them in the light of the teachings of John Calvin and the reformed divines on the Continent ; and they believed that the church of the Bible was the Presbyterian church — such as Calvin had set up in Geneva, and Knox in Scotland, and the Huguenots in France. They called upon Parliament to Presbyterians Plan to Triumph 295 demolish the Church of England, EpiscopaHan in form, and to erect in its place the Church of England, Presbyterian in form. Their scheme worked admirably. Intelligent and determined men had it in hand, and they honeycombed the Episcopal church through and through. Their idea was to form an iniperium in imperio, with the hope that the inside church would grow strong enough some time to destroy the outside one. Arrayed on their side were many of the best and strongest men in England — bishops and professors, mayors and aldermen, the highest officials in church and state, the chief and nearest counselors of Elizabeth herself — but their strength was not quite great enough to push their measures to a successful issue. Slightly outvoted in Parliament, they fell a prey to the queen and her inquisitors. Against them canons, injunctions, and penal laws were rigidly enforced. Elizabeth and her archbishops pursued them with relentless fury; and the whole ecclesiastical machinery was set in motion to crush them out of exist- ence. But God had some better thing in store for England, and so Puritanism could not die. Two things ought to be said concerning these outlawed Puritans. First, they were fighting a tremendous battle for liberty of conscience, but, sharing the spirit of their age, they had only half learned the meaning of liberty. They fought for liberty for themselves, but they had no thought of according liberty to others. Could they have triumphed, the Presbyterians would have whipped every Episcopalian into line with the same severity that was now being exer- cised toward themselves. The second thing to say is that, nevertheless, these half- illumined Puritans were the sole bulwarks of English liberty, both civil and religious. It was the very time of the horrible Catholic butcheries in France, and the triumphant 296 The Anglican Church and Puritanism crushing progress of the papal power. The forces of evil were gathering to destroy the English church and throne, and, as Froude says, It would have fared ill with England had there been no hotter blood than filtered in the sluggish veins of the officials of the establish- ment. There needed an enthusiasm fiercer far to encounter the revival of Catholic fanaticism. It was the Puritans who, after all, saved the very church which attempted to disown them. But for them, whom the establishment endeavored to destroy, the old religion would have come back on the country like a returning tide. It was not Elizabeth who saved herself and who saved England. She enjoyed a victorious reign and died a natural death in spite of herself. To the Puritans, whom she hated, she owed her personal safety and her vast accomplish- ments. It was not by Elizabeth nor by her High Com- mission, but by Puritan statesmen and Puritan patriots that English liberty was preserved. It was not by the High- Church clergy that the ecclesiastical establishment main- tained its existence, but by those very Calvinistic sectaries whom they silenced and imprisoned. There is, today, a Protestant English throne and a Protestant Church of England because of what Puritanism was and of what Puritanism did. The English church owes its very life at this hour to the men whom it detested and sought to destroy. THE THIRD FORM OF PURITANISM Of Presbyterian Puritanism Thomas Cartwright was the representative exponent ; but the Puritan idea could not stop at the stage to which he had brought it. Earnest and thoughtful minds carried it to a stage beyond. About a decade after he began to make trouble and to get himself into trouble, still another ecclesiastical idea was broached, which gave rise to still another Puritan party. Robert Browne conceived the idea that Episcopalians and Presby- The Third Form 0} Puritanism 297 terians were both wrong ; that the Scriptures warranted the theories of neither faction; that, according to the Bible, the government of the church is neither episcopal nor pres- byterial, but congregational; that a national church, of whatever sort, was not countenanced in the Word of God; that the New Testament knew only independent, local churches, subject only to Christ the head; that Christians who really wished a genuine reform must break connection altogether with the established religion, and band together in local societies, modeled after the Bible pattern. This congregational idea carried in it radical and poten- tial elements of the most far-reaching consequence. For one thing, it recognized the principle of church inde- pendency. Each church has supreme authority in itself under Christ, and its officers derive their power from the entire membership. Involved in this principle, for another thing, was the inevitable implication, seen dimly at first by a few, of the separation of church and state. If the church is a free and independent religious community, then it must stand apart from the state, and if the interests of religion are committed solely to such communities, then the state must cease to exercise religious functions. This was the necessary inference; and this result came from the irresistible logic of the situation. Bound up with church independency and the separation of church and state, came, in the third place, the principle of religious liberty. If each church is a religious democracy by itself, then one church or group of churches cannot coerce another church or group of churches in matters pertaining to religion. If church and state are separated and the state stripped of religious functions, then the state may not take any account of religious opinions as such, and may not use force to compel religious belief. As neither church nor state has thus any arm of rightful authority by which to enforce uniformity 298 The Anglican Church and Puritanism of belief, the necessary result must be not only religious toleration, but absolute liberty of conscience. These principles are commonplaces now, but in that day they were both new and detestable, and even their advocates did not clearly perceive their import, nor work them out to their logical conclusions. Queen Elizabeth hastened to do her utmost to stamp such religious sentiments out of existence. The leaders were gibbeted and their followers jailed. Copping, and Thacker, and Penry, and Greenwood, and Barrowe were among the illustrious martyrs of Congregationalism — as worthy men as ever graced the annals of the Christian church — done to death by the halter because they held the dangerous and detested doctrine of church independ- ency. And, early in the next reign, men of this mind, holding these views, harassed and hounded by the minions of James, sought a liberty in Holland which England denied them. Our Pilgrim fathers crossed the unknown seas and made a home in the new wilderness world, because freedom to worship God was a boon refused them in their native land. THE FOURTH FORM OF PURITANISM There was still a fourth class of Puritans, more advanced and radical than all who had gone before. They carried Puritanism to its ultimate, logical issue. In their spoken thought and written creed there was no wavering note of uncertainty about the complete and absolute sepa- ration of church and state, nor about full and unequivocal soul-liberty for all human beings. In both respects, the Anabaptists were in advance of the Independents; as they were, likewise, in their doctrine that membership in the churches should be conditioned, not upon residence or birth, The Fourth Form of Puritanism 299 but upon the work of grace in the heart. To the Inde- pendents the logical implications of their doctrines were too great for the first proclaimers, but to the Baptists there were no implications that they were not ready to proclaim from the very start. They were the only people in the world who discerned the abstract principle of true religious liberty, putting it at once into practical, con- crete application. "It came to speech with a clearness and fulness which suggests a revelation." Being the most thoroughgoing of Puritans, the Baptists were dreaded and hated above all others. The "royal Tudor lioness" put Council and High Commission and all the machinery of church and state into operation to extermi- nate these pests of society. Fines, confiscations, imprison- ments, burnings, were the price they paid for loyalty to truth. Elizabeth's failure to crush dissent As we reach the end of the long reign of Elizabeth, we perceive that her struggle to force her subjects into conform- ity with her own ecclesiastical establishment had utterly failed. Queen and magistrate. Parliament and Council, bishop and clergy, Star Chamber and High Commission, were powerless to coerce and subdue the consciences of a loyal, but protesting and resisting, people. On the day of her death, church parties were still as fixed and unyielding as ever. There were the Anglicans who espoused her cause; the Romanists who still clung to the Pope ; and the Puritans who repudiated both. There were Puritans of the moder- ate, Low-Church, anti-papal. Episcopal type ; of the Presby- terian type; of the Independent or Congregational type; and of the radical Baptist type. After all her frantic attempts to enforce conformity and to crush dissent, the 300 The Anglican Church and Puritanism party lines remained firmly drawn and the factional spirit remained hotly rampant. This was the Tudor bequest to the Stuart kings. At the close of her reign, all the forces were in the field which were to wage, through the Stuart period, so terrific a conflict in the cause of civil and religious liberty. In this struggle for freedom, to her everlasting disgrace, the Anglican church sided with the house of Stuart. JAMES I AND CHARLES I Into the preposterous and diabolical pretensions and tyrannies of the first James and the first Charles it is not needful to enter. The Stuart century, the seventeenth, wrapped within it the most varied and momentous events of any century of which we have history. It opened with the first James, that wise fool, in the seat of power. He was in fact a driveler, buffoon, coward, and sneak, but his maxim, "no bishop, no king," won for him the abject servility of the Episcopal leaders. He "was, in his own opinion," as Macaulay tells us, "the greatest master of kingcraft that ever lived, but was, in truth, one of those kings whom God seems to send for the express purpose of hastening revolutions." Fawn- ing upon this pedantic, garrulous, unmitigated tyrant and fraud, the Anglican bishops declared astonishment at his wisdom and sanctity, and affirmed that when he opened his slobbering mouth he spoke by special assistance of the Holy Ghost. They described him as "zealous as David, learned as Solomon, religious as Josias, careful of spreading the truth as Constantine, just as Moses, undefiled as Jehosa- phat, and clement as Theodosius." The bishop of London, in an idiotic outburst of feeling, said of this vulgar and repulsive creature, "I protest my heart melteth with joy The Stuart Divine Right of Kings 301 that almighty God, of his singular mercy, has given us such a king, as since Christ's time the like hath not been." It was the leaguing of this bogus kingcraft and this bogus priestcraft, the satanic alliance of political and ecclesias- tical despotism, the applauding and abetting by Anglican priests of the preposterous pretensions and diabolical tyrannies of Stuart kings, that in the course of time in- volved both kingdom and church in a common ruin. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS An absurd and inveterate conceit of irresponsible royal prerogative was the plague that infected and destroyed the house of Stuart. The divine right of kings was the blood- poison which coursed through the veins of them all — the poison which, infecting the body politic and the body ecclesiastic, at last brought death to both. In the most astounding manner they blurted out their conceit of un- limited power, and the duty of absolute submission. James spoke his own mind and the mind of his successors when he said : As for the absolute prerogative of the crown, that is no subject for the tongue of a lawyer, nor is it lawful to be disputed. It is atheism and blasphemy to dispute what God can do; good Christians content themselves with his will revealed in his Word ; so it is pre- sumption and high contempt in a subject to dispute what a king can do; or to say that a king cannot do this or that; but rest in that which is the king's will revealed in his law. To Parliament he said : The state of monarchy is the supremest thing on earth; for kings are not only God's lieutenants on earth and sit upon God's throne, but even by God himself they are called gods. As to dispute what God may do is blasphemy, so it is seditious in subjects to dispute what a king may do in the height of his power. To this doctrine the Anglican church gave its approv- 302 The Anglican Church and Puritanism ing and emphatic assent, curtailing it by neither proviso nor hmit. Convocation voted : That the most high and sacred order of kings is of divine right, being the ordinance of God himself; that for subjects to bear arms against their king, either offensive or defensive, upon any pretense whatsoever, is worthy of damnation. In maintaining this dogma the high Anglicans well-nigh outstripped the Stuarts themselves in the extravagance and fury with which they upheld and enforced it. Under no conceivable circumstances, in no imaginable extremity, would it be permissible to resist the royal authority. Sup- pose the king should become a horrible despot, should trample every English law in the dust, should outrage the simplest and holiest principles of justice, should commit innocent victims to dungeons, to tortures, to slaughter, should do this daily, should do it to hundreds or even thou- sands, would it not be right to force him to stop? The Church of England answered. No; the bishops said that a forcible interference would be damnable. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF KINGS LEADS TO DESPOTISM Of course on the heels of an absolutism of this sort despotism and oppression must quickly follow. Unlimited monarchy means in due course unlimited tyranny. A king, who is God's lieutenant and divinely invested with abso- lute power, is in no wise amenable to human restraints. He can do as he likes with men's persons and property. Par- liament, the courts, the laws of the land, the liberties and belongings of the people are all subject to the irresponsible will of the sovereign. And exactly this was the actual outworking of the divine-right doctrine. James and Charles proceeded to demonstrate in fact that their theory was valid and workable. If parliaments could serve their Divine Right and Despotism 303 ends they convened them; if they thwarted their will they dissolved them, and for eleven years Charles ruled with- out a parliament. And so were enacted those frightfully despotic and oppressive measures which blackened the annals of English history — unswerving assertions of irre- sponsible authority; persistent usurpations of unauthorized power; arbitrary stretches of royal prerogative; violations of the fundamental laws of the land ; infringements on the constitutional rights of the people; oppressions of subjects in their liberties and properties; finings and imprisonments without legal process ; ruthless invasions of the precincts of Parliament; shameless sales of offices and monopolies; coercions of magistrates and judges; billeting of soldiers on private citizens ; arbitrary taxations ; Star Chamber convic- tions; ship-money levies; illegal conscriptions; forced loans and benevolences; and every manner of high-handed mis- rule in every department of government. THE DIVINE RIGHT OF BISHOPS AND ECCLESIASTICAL DESPOTISM In all this James and Charles were upheld by the High- Church party. This was the state side of absolutism. It had its counterpart in the absolutism of the church. The two were halves of one whole. Over against the divine right of kings stood the divine right of bishops. As the bishops were the abettors of the Stuarts in carrying political despotism to its utmost limits, so in turn the Stuarts abetted the bishops in carrying ecclesiastical tyranny to its farthest bounds. In matters civil Strafford was the evil genius through whom King Charles robbed the people of their liberties, and in matters ecclesiastical x\rchbishop Laud was the fiend incarnate whom the king employed for the self- same purpose, the monster whose "memory is still loathed," 304 The Anglican Church and Puritanism as Buckle tells us, "as the meanest, most cruel, and the most narrow-minded man who ever sat on the Episcopal bench," and whom Macaulay describes as by nature rash, irritable, quick to feel his own dignity, slow to sym- pathize with the sufferings of others, and prone to the error, com- mon to superstitious men, of mistaking his own peevish and malignant moods for emotions of pious zeal. This was the triumvirate who took infinite delight in the outrages and cruelties of unbridled despotism, all three completely dominated by the idea of the divine right of kings and the divine right of bishops. ARCHBISHOP LAUD The power behind the throne, far beyond Strafford, was Archbishop Laud. The national church was under the con- trol of a man who came perilously near being a Roman Catholic. Twice the Pope offered him a cardinal's hat, which he only faintly refused. The daughter of the Duke of Devonshire explained to him why she embraced Roman- ism, " 'Tis chiefly because I hate to travel in a crowd ; and as I perceive your grace and many others are making haste to Rome, I wished to get there first, to escape being jostled." Back in the days of Elizabeth there was a Book of Com- mon Prayer enforced by an Act of Uniformity, but Laud was not content to require the ritual and teaching of Eliza- beth's day; he must needs push the Church of England through a change, almost equivalent to a revolution, in its doctrine, discipline, and worship; he must needs introduce innovations, giving everything a Romish trend and import ; and he must needs drive his uniformity in a manner odi- ously disdainful and haughty and with a temper offensively irrascible and hot. A mediaevalist was seeking to swing the Archbishop Laud's Retrograde Policy 305 church into a retrograde movement, and to fasten a dis- guised Romanism on the Enghsh nation — the communion table transformed into an altar, to stand altarwise against the east wall, costly altar-plate and Catholic fixtures and an altar service with adorations and bowings — all suggest- ive of transubstantiation ; a retinue of priests in rich copes and other accessories serving the altar with vestments, genuflections, and postures all modeled on Roman concep- tions ; into the Elizabethan idea and use of the Prayer-Book was injected the Laudian notion of apostolic succession, clerical celibacy, auricular confession, prayers for the dead, purgatory, and the ritualistic usages and sacramental and sacerdotal theories of the papal church. To sober men all this seemed a project and plot to ruin the gospel, and they abhorred it as the height of wicked- ness against God and his honor. But all the terrific machinery of state and church were at Laud's command, and conformity he would have to the last and least point of doctrine and ceremony. To this end he turned the courts of Star Chamber and High Commission into Protes- tant inquisitions and ferreted out and punished with exquisite torments those who opposed him. Fleeing before the fury of his rage and to escape his vengeance, more than twenty thousand British subjects quitted their native land to find a home in a new world beyond the seas; and it is soberly estimated that had he reigned twenty-four years instead of twelve one-fourth the population of England and one-third its wealth would have gone. But, at what- ever cost, conformity he would have, and at whatever price of cruelty and suffering. What a chapter did Laud read into English history by his treatment of the friends of truth and foes of Rome — deprivations, confiscations, seques- trations, mutilations, fines, imprisonments, maimings, 3o6 The Anglican Church and Puritanism stocks, and dungeons — everything that diabolical ingenuity could invent to compel the worthiest Christians England then had to act a lie, to violate conscience, to dishonor God. On the pages of that history are recorded the shock- ing cruelties of this merciless inquisitor, any single para- graph from which is quite sufficient to disclose the infamy of his character and deeds. Concrete examples will best serve our purpose. Bastwick was a physician who wrote a book in which he charged the prelates with despising the Scriptures and advancing popery, superstition, and idolatry. Pryn was a lawyer who wrote a book in which he inveighed against plays, monks, dancing, and Maypoles. Burton was a clergyman who published two sermons "For God and the King," in which he criticized the late innovations in religion and worship. These men were degraded from their pro- fessions, set in the pillory, branded in the cheeks, deprived of their ears, fined £5,000 each, and sentenced to perpetual imprisonment in the remotest prisons of the kingdom. Or take another case, and note its specific details. Doctor Alexander Leighton was a Scotch divine, the father of the celebrated Doctor Leighton. He wrote a book against the Episcopal hierarchy entitled Zion's Plea against Prelacy. This was the Star Chamber verdict against him : The Doctor should he committed to the prison of the Fleet for life and pay a fine of iio,ooo; that the Court of High Commission should degrade him from the ministry; and that then he should be brought to the pillory at Westminster and whipped; after whipping, be set upon the pillory a convenient time and have one of his ears cut off, one side of his nose slit and be branded in the face with a double S. for a Sower of Sedition; that then he should be carried back to prison, and after a few days be pilloried a second time in Cheapside, and be there likewise whipped, and have the other side of his nose slit, and his other ear cut off, and then be shut up in close prison for the remainder of his life. Puritan Progress Notwithstanding Persecution 307 Bishop Laud pulled off his cap while this merciless sen- tence was pronouncing, and shouted thanks to God for it ! THE PURITAN SIDE OF IT While Charles and Strafford and Laud were thus work- ing their theories of kingcraft and priestcraft, crushing the English people under an ecclesiastical and civil tyranny the extent and enormity of which no human speech is ade- quate to tell, what had become of those Puritan parties which had their rise in Elizabeth's reign, and which the queen and her Anglican church were powerless to destroy? When the first of the Stuarts came to the throne these Puritans of various types — Low-Church Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Independent, Baptist, and the rest — were all in the field, and, even before the crowning of James, were crying for redress of grievances. The struggle in which they had been engaged never ceased. They brought it over from the Tudors to the Stuarts. They fought the tyran- nical rule of Elizabeth and they continued the fight with James and Charles; and throughout the conflict they steadily increased in numbers and power. The very means used to annihilate them were overruled to their progress and victory. Parliament was won to their side by the autocratic rule of the Stuart kings — their high-handed usurpations of parliamentary prerogative, their defiance of constitutional restrictions, their tyrannical exercise of un- warranted power, their unbearable assumption of absolute monarchy, in all of which they were stoutly countenanced and assisted by the high Anglican party. The civil judges and law courts were won to their side by the manifest injustice with which the bishop's courts persecuted and punished offending Puritans. The Court of Arches and the Court of King's Bench antagonized the spiritual courts 3o8 The Anglican Church and Puritanism and snatched innocent victims from their vexing and unjust inflictions. Great numbers of the EngHsh laity were won to their side by the very harshness of the means that were used to suppress them. The promoters of the AngHcan cause were themselves unwittingly its destroyers. Their spirit was so uncharitable and their proceedings so narrow and unjust that popular sympathy was driven to the other side. The more Puritan divines were silenced and deprived, pilloried and whipped, branded and imprisoned, the more these outrages stirred the popular indignation. The people saw the Church of England transformed into a pseudo- Romanism; saw demands for reform in doctrine and wor- ship ignored and silenced; saw true Protestants and earnest Christians scourged and mutilated; saw their rights, beliefs, persons, and possessions surrendered to the irresponsible will of the king and bishop, and seeing all this they swelled the ranks of the Puritan party. Against kingly and priestly tyranny the disaffection grew through the reign of James and greatly increased in the reign of Charles; there was not a year in the reign of either in which the Puritan cause was not augmenting in numbers and strength. The more the Anglican religion was made to do base service in prop- ping up Stuart absolutism and the more the state lent itself to Anglican oppression, the more hateful became these two despotisms in the eyes of the people. The time ap- proached when in sheer desperation the victims of tyranny must destroy the tyrants. The excesses of despotism, sacerdotalism, ceremonialism, intoler- ance and cruelty [as Schaff explains] exhausted the patience of a noble freedom-loving people and kindled the blazing war-torch which burnt to the ground the throne and the temple. The day was near when the Puritans could turn on their tormentors. It was ushered in when Charles and Scots Rebel Against Laud's Liturgy 309 Laud attempted to force an English popish ritual on the Presbyterian church of Scotland. The nation rebelled against Laud's liturgy. Laud swore the Scots must submit. Strafford swore that these hounds must be whipped back to common-sense. The Scots in national covenant banded together in revolution. Things were get- ting beyond the king's control. For eleven years, without a parliament, with a high hand, he had misruled the English people; but now his straits were such that the calling of a parliament could not be escaped. This Short Parliament refused to grant a farthing for the Scottish war until inno- vations in religion and intrusions upon liberty had been con- sidered ; and so the king in anger dissolved the houses. The situation of Charles was becoming desperate. Strafford's policy of "thorough" no longer availed. Laud had run his course. The Scottish army was crossing the bor- ders. Discomfited on every side, his resources exhausted, his English subjects hating the war intensely, venting their wrath in riots in London, in sacking Laud's palace, in pub- lishing angry pamphlets, Charles and Laud and Strafford saw that another parliament must be summoned or the king must cease to reign. So convened that Long Parliament, the most famous and the most powerful England has ever known, that renowned parliament which, as Macaulay says, "is justly entitled to the reverence and gratitude of all who, in any part of the world, enjoy the blessings of constitu- tional government." Into the details of the Long Parliament it is impossible to enter. At last the time had come when the representa- tives of the people could voice the nation's discontent and redress its injuries. Early the Parliament provided against its own dissolution by royal caprice or anger. It quashed the king's right to end its sessions without its own consent. 3IO The Anglican Church and Puritanism It listened to the petitions that came pouring in from the victims of intolerance. It set free those Puritan prison- ers, many of whom had been languishing in loathsome dog- holes for a decade or more. From distant Scilly and Guernsey and Jersey came Bastwick and Pryn and Burton, attended in their progress Londonward by hosts of sympa- thizing friends, and from the Fleet came Dr. Leighton. Their fines were canceled, and for their losses they were reimbursed. The prisoners freed, their tormentors were arrested. Strafford and Laud were seized and landed in the Tower. Those courts of lawlessness and cruelty, through the years the scourge and terror of English subjects — Star Chamber, High Commission, Council of York — were abolished. The King's Council was dissolved, and its mem- bers were impeached. Strafford was attainted, and the day he was beheaded, 100,000 people witnessed the spectacle and kindled bonfires to attest their joy. Laud was left for a season to enjoy prison fare in the Tower. The bishops were expelled from the House of Lords. When the Irish massacre and rebellion occurred. Parliament re- fused the king's demand for soldiers and supplies, knowing that in duplicity and treachery he would turn his army against the liberties of England herself. Instead, he was presented with a Grand Remonstrance, in which were re- counted, in two hundred and six articles, the misdeeds of which he had been guilty since the day he became king. When in a moment of insane folly Charles, at the head of an armed band, invaded the House of Commons to drag from their seats Hampden, Pym, Hollis, and the other Puritan leaders, the outrage so infuriated Parliament and the populace that henceforth London became too hot a place for the king. At Nottingham he set up the royal standard, and proclaimed war against Parliament. Parliament began Acts of the Long Parliament 311 negotiations with Presbyterian Scotland. English Presby- terian Puritanism was steadily gaining the ascendency in the House of Commons. Superstitious monuments and ornaments were removed from the churches. Provision was made for the better observance of the Lord's Day. Clergymen of scandalous lives were arraigned and silenced, and more competent and worthy men were installed in their places. Puritan ministers, whom Laud had impoverished, were in a measure reimbursed. The Episcopal church was overthrown, it being enacted that "the prelatic form of church government, archbishops, bishops, etc., should cease, determine, and become absolutely void." An assembly of learned and godly divines was convened "to be consulted with by the Parliament for the settling of the government and liturgy of the Church of England and for vindicating and clearing of the doctrine of the said church from false aspersions and interpretations." During all this time the civil war was in progress with the odds in favor of Charles ; and the Parliament felt more strongly than ever the neces- sity of an alliance with Scotland. In due time this alliance was consummated in the Solemn League and Covenant, in which the two nations entered into compact to subjugate England and Ireland and to set up Scotch Presbyterianism in the three kingdoms as the established and exclusive religion. To this end the Westminster Assembly framed its Confession of Faith, its Catechisms, and its Directory of Worship. In the meantime the royal and parliamentary armies were waging their battles in the field, and Cromwell and his Ironsides were winning Marston Moor and Naseby. In London, the House of Lords, now thoroughly Presby- terianized, was abolishing the Book of Common Prayer, throwing Prayer-Book and surplice on the ash heap; drag- ging Archbishop Laud from his four years' imprisonment 312 The Anglican Church and Puritanism to pay on the block the penalty of his crimes; and deliber- ately planning to foist Presbyterianism on the nation with an enforced conformity as intolerant and merciless as Laud ever dreamed of. But Cromwell and his army had not won freedom from Episcopal tyranny to fall victims to a tyranny quite as bad under another name. They would almost as soon have been coerced in religion by the king or his bishop as by a Presbyterian synod. They did not be- lieve in coercion, and to it they would not submit. So Parliament and its own army were in open rupture. Charles had fallen into the hands of the Scots, who sold him to the English Parliament, the army in due course gaining possession of his person. The intrigues of Parliament and the duplicity and treachery of the king at last exhausted the patience of Cromwell, and he resorted to heroic meas- ures. London was invaded; Parliament was purged of its Presbyterian members; the Rump Parliament voted the king's impeachment; a popular tribunal was created which voted his execution. The verdict read : For all which treasons and crimes this Court doth adjudge that he the said Charles Stuart, as a tyrant, traitor, and murderer, and a public enemy, shall be put to death by severing his head from his body. With the death of Charles England passed to the pro- tectorate of Cromwell. Monarchy and episcopacy had been overthrown. The attempt of Presbyterian Puritanism to establish a theocracy, equally hostile to the rights of con- science, had been thwarted; and Puritanism of the Inde- pendent and Baptist types had gained a temporary triumph. The end was not yet, but the first great act in the struggle for civil and religious liberty had come to a close. XII THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AND NON-CONFORMITY XII THE ESTABLISHED CHURCH AND NON- CONFORMITY 1 For a decade after the beheading of Charles Stuart (1649), Oliver Cromwell tried to give the English people civil and religious liberty, but the intolerant spirit of the times thwarted his endeavor. In the main, Independents, Baptists, and Quakers wished all religion free; Romanists, Anglicans, and Presbyterians wished no religion free except their own. Impatience with democratic tendencies, reli- gious clemency, and military rule led to a desire for the restoration of monarchy. The republicans tried in vain to avert this calamity. Milton wrote his pamphlet setting forth "A ready and easy way to establish a common- wealth," and implored the people not to let his written sentences prove "the last words of expiring liberty." CHARLES II But the tide set strongly the other way, and Charles II was called to the English throne. From Holland he had sent a Declaration that there should be a general amnesty and liberty of religious belief, but perfidy was the master- vice of all the Stuarts. With the Restoration there followed twenty-five years under Charles and three under his brother James, "the darkest and most disgraceful in English annals." We recall that classic passage in Macaulay's essay on Milton : ^ Delivered before the Ministers' Institute at the Divinity School, The University of Chicago, March 29, 1905. 31 6 Established Church and Non-Conformity Then came those days never to be recalled without a blush, the days of servitude without loyalty, of sensuality without love, of dwarfish talents and gigantic vices, the paradise of cold hearts and narrow minds, the golden age of the coward, the bigot, and the slave. The government had just ability enough to deceive, and just religion enough to persecute. The principles of liberty were the scoff of every grinning courtier and the anathema maranatha of every fawning dean. In every high place, worship was paid to Charles and James, Belial and Moloch; and England propitiated those obscene and cruel idols with the blood of her best and bravest children. Crime succeeded to crime, disgrace to disgrace, until the race, accursed of God and man, was a second time driven forth to wander on the face of the earth, and to be a by-word and a shaking of the head to the nations. The grounds of this indictment he in the history itself. Charles IFs promises of general amnesty and liberty in religion were kept in genuine Stuart fashion. His amnesty extended to the living and the dead. The men who had been implicated in the execution of the late king were dragged through the streets of London with ropes around their necks, and sentenced to life-imprisonment. Ten of the chief of them were singled out for execution. Out of the tombs in Westminster Abbey were ejected the bodies of Cromwell's mother and daughter and twenty others and buried in the nearby churchyard. Out of their coffins were dragged the corpses of Cromwell him- self, and Bradshaw, and Ireton, and drawn on hurdles to the place appointed, gibbeted from sunrise to sunset, their heads set on poles at the top of Westminster Hall, and their trunks buried together under the Tyburn gallows. Liberty in religion was of a piece with political amnesty. The Congregationalists, Baptists, and Quakers went down in the general crash. Romanists, Anglicans, and Presby- terians vied with each other to heap upon them contempt and ruin. Let them be so broken and crushed and scattered Puritanism Under Charles II 317 as never to rise again. It looked as though Independency had seen its last day. Not until the black and ugly storm had spent its fury did a star of hope appear. The Presby- terians indulged the hope of royal favor, even the insane expectation that Charles would adopt and enforce their Confession of Faith and Directory of Worship; but Charles and Parliament failed them in their hour of ex- pected victory, and they fell almost as low as the Independ- ents whom they despised. Charles himself leaned strongly toward the Roman church, being "impatient of Protestant heresy in all its forms, and of Christianity itself in all its precepts," but that church being out of the question, its similitude was the next thing possible. History repeated itself. Edward's Prayer-Book, revised by Elizabeth, was again revised, and this time again in the interest of Rome; and then an Act of Uniformity was passed which enforced its strict observance. The act required a declaration of assent and consent to all and everything prescribed and con- tained in the Book of Common Prayer, together with all its rites and ceremonies. Once more the Anglicans were having it all their own way, and speedily it became their way with a vengeance. The army of Cromwell was disbanded; the corpse of Crom- well was hanged and beheaded; the bishops were restored to the House of Lords; the Solemn League and Covenant was burned throughout England by the common hangman; the Prayer-Book was made compulsory; Presbyterian Scot- land was forced into episcopacy; the old doctrine of the divine right of kings was again proclaimed, bishops and clergy madly asserting that any conceivable forcible inter- ference with royalty was damnable. In the very next reign these men belied their theories and stood in arms against their sovereign ; but now it seemed to them "impossible that 3i8 Established Church and Non-Conformity a time would ever come when the ties would be sundered which bound them to the children of the martyred Charles, and when the loyalty in which they gloried would cease to be a pleasing and profitable duty." THE ACT OF UNIFORMITY With the Anglicans in power, there was no room for Independents, Baptists, and Presbyterians. All clergymen were ejected who refused to renounce the Covenant, accept episcopal ordination, pay canonical obedience, subscribe the Thirty-nine Articles, and use the Book of Common Prayer. Two thousand non-conforming ministers on a single day were expelled from their parishes. The day chosen was singularly appropriate. Exactly ninety years before, on this same St. Bartholomew's day, the horrible Catholic butchery of French Protestants had taken place. This was England's St. Bartholomew's day. On the Sun- day preceding, vast crowds in tears attended the churches to be led in public worship for the last time by their Puritan pastors. THE CORPORATION ACT But the Act of Uniformity was not the only act by which intolerance sought to destroy dissent and to upbuild an Anglican establishment. Working in league with this act which expelled Non-conformist clergymen from the parish pulpits, was the Corporation Act, which excluded Non-conformist laymen from even the most petty civil offices in the kingdom. It required every mayor and magistrate, constable and alderman, bailiff and town-clerk, every civil officer of high or low degree to take the oath of allegiance, to abjure the Solemn League and Covenant, and to receive the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church Penalties for Presence at Conventicles 319 of England, the holy communion itself being thus dragged through the mire of politics, prostituted to these ignoble ends, and made the necessary prelude to the holding of any civil appointment. THE CONVENTICLE ACT But these acts were not crushing enough to exterminate non-conformity, and so there followed the Conventicle Act which forbade attendance upon religious meetings in which the Anglican ritual was not in use. Presence at the simplest cottage prayer-meeting, at religious conventicles of what- ever sort, subjected the culprit to the penalties of this barbarous law. To make the law effective, penalties were likewise imposed upon the man who permitted the use of his woods, garden, house, or barn for such gatherings; and upon the tithing-man or churchwarden who failed to report them; and upon the magistrate who was lax or slack to expose and squelch them. Henceforth if Non-conformists joined in prayer and praise it must be in secret conclaves, in upper chambers, with fastened doors, with closed shut- ters, with extinguished candles, with whispered sermons, with stationed guards. If their hiding-places were dis- covered it meant brutal arrests, ruinous fines, loathsome dungeons, heartless banishments. To accomplish this pur- ging of holy church, the best men in England were turned out, and their places were filled with boys, with informers, with laymen, with the illiterate and debauched. In the name of truth and religion, must be deprived and degraded, imprisoned and tortured such saints of God as Richard Baxter and Matthew Poole, Theophilus Gale and Edward Calamy, Thomas Manton and Thomas Goodwin, John Ray and John Flavel, John Owen and John Bunyan, and that long list of Puritan divines whose holy lives and profound 320 Established Church and Non-Conformity writings will influence the world for good as long as time shall last. THE FIVE-MILE ACT But even the Conventicle Act could not annihilate dis- sent. To accomplish this, some way must be devised to scatter and starve the preachers. Hence followed the Five- Mile Act which prohibited them from coming within five miles of any city, town, or parish in which they had ever conducted religious services ; and which debarred them from teaching school, whether public or private. They could neither preach nor teach, nor even show their presence within five miles of any place where their voice had once been heard. THE TEST ACT Following the Five-Mile Act, aimed to strike fatally at dissenting preachers, came the Test Act, aimed primarily at Catholics, but bearing hard on dissenting laymen. Public officers, whether civil, military, or naval, must subscribe the oaths of supremacy and conformity, must abjure tran- substantiation, and must receive the Lord's Supper in the Church of England. To these several acts were attached the heaviest penalties — fines, imprisonments, banishments, and, if the offender re- turned, death. To these acts supplements were added to the effect that informers should share in the fines, and that per- secutors should go free who committed outrages in hunting down schismatics and heretics. Under these acts men like Baxter and Bunyan, hosts of the worthiest and holiest, were crowded into filthy dog-holes in association with profligate and ferocious criminals, and subjected to every suffering and indignity which ecclesiastical hate could devise. Bap- tists were among the first to feel these sharp torments; Non-Conformist Sufferings Under Charles 321 Congregationalists knew the bitterness of torture and death ; Presbyterians themselves endured the persecution they would once have inflicted on others. Fifteen hundred Quakers saw the inside of jails, three hundred and fifty of whom died from their privations. The historians estimate that not less than sixty thousand suffered on account of their religion; and we have it from William Penn that "more than five thousand persons died in bonds for matter of conscience." John Bunyan, lying in Bedford jail, de- clared "he would remain there till green moss grew over his eyebrows rather than obey the oppressors," and Bunyan's grim determination was shared by thousands and thousands more. Thus had Non-conformists proved their ability to suffer as long as an established church could persecute. Corpora- tion Acts, Uniformity Acts, Conventicle Acts, Five-Mile Acts, Test Acts, could not destroy the life of dissent. Through all these fiery trials the Puritan cause steadily advanced, the Anglican cause steadily declined. It was the strength and glory of the downtrodden party that they had Charles Stuart for an enemy ; it was the weakness and shame of the dominant church that it stood in friendly alliance with a lecherous king and his obsequious court. Churchly and kingly coarseness and brutality were no match for Puritan tenacity and endurance. JAMES II It was eminently fitting that the dissolute and perfidious Charles should secretly renounce his Episcopal faith and die in the Roman church, and that the last rites of that church should be administered by a priest in disguise smuggled to his bedside up those very back stairs by which in other days the king's mistresses had been conducted to his 322 Established Church and Non-Conformity apartments. His less disreputable brother and successor had been for years an open and zealous Romanist, and England, in exchanging Charles for James, got a king who at least was neither ashamed nor afraid to avow his church connection. That connection would give reflecting Angli- cans a subject for meditation. Through the reign of Charles the Episcopalians were riding the harrow, and the Non-conformists were underneath. With the advent of James, it was not impossible that they themselves would be made to feel some of the miseries they had so cheerfully in- flicted on others. Under these changed conditions their divine-right dogma did not take on a look so gracious and benign. In short, before that brief reign was over they belied all their former protestations, and the duty of absolute obedi- ence under every conceivable circumstance they were ready to fling to the winds, and they were ready also to join with the Presbyterians, Independents, and Baptists in driving their Catholic tyrant king from his throne, and in ushering in the glorious revolution. For once at least Episcopalians and Dissenters, the nobility and gentry, the army and civil- ians were of one mind, and by their united voice William of Orange became king of England. WILLIAM AND MARY William was a Dutch Presbyterian and the stiffest kind of a Calvinist. In doctrine he was as immovable as Gib- raltar, but in church government and worship he was pliant and liberal. He had been trained in the Presbyterian polity, but he had no aversion to Episcopacy, and he believed in the divine right of neither. When he accepted the crown he promised to bring about "a good agreement between the Church of England and all Protestant dissenters," and this he honestly endeavored to do. He wished the people to King Williain's Act 0} Toleration 323 have the rehgion of their choice, and against tyranny and persecution he set all his power. Burnet says King William always thought that conscience was God's province, and that it ought not to be imposed upon; and his experience in Holland made him look on toleration as one of the wisest acts of government. He was so true to his principle herein that he restrained the heat of some who were proposing severe acts against the papists. In Stuart days Episcopacy had been foisted upon unwill- ing Scotland. William sought to learn the will of the Scots, and, when he learned it, he gave them back their Presby- terian church, but with the gift he refused the right to persecute their Episcopal neighbors. For the settlement of religious disputes among his English subjects he set his first parliament to work on two great projects — the scheme of Comprehension and the scheme of Toleration. The first proved chimerical, and was killed in the House of Com- mons. It sought to make the Church of England wide enough to embrace all Protestant believers. Churchmen, however, could never bring themselves to trim their polity and worship to suit Dissenters; and Baptists and Quakers would sooner die in their tracks than join a national estab- lishment with its episcopal hierarchy and liturgical cere- monies. In no quarter did the Comprehension scheme find acceptance or favor; but the other scheme — the scheme of Toleration — was framed into a bill which passed both houses of Parliament and became the law of the land. That was a great piece of legislation, and marks an epoch in the struggle for religious liberty. Exactly what was the Act of Toleration? It was a measure for the relief of ortho- dox Protestant Dissenters. It expressly excluded Unitarians and Catholics. Under certain limitations and restrictions, Trinitarian Protestant Non-conformists could worship God without legal molestation. The man who wishes to break 324 Established Church and Non-Conjormity away from the Established Church, to absent himself from its services, to drop the use of its Prayer-Book, and hence- forth to be a Christian after the Presbyterian, Independent, Quaker, or Baptist pattern, must appear in person before the civil court and have his name registered. He must take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy; and he must swear assent to thirty-six and one-half of the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion. From the articles which taught Episcopacy all were excused ; from the article which taught infant baptism the Baptists were excused; and the Quakers were only re- quired to declare their faith in the Trinity and the inspira- tion of the Scriptures. Complying with these regulations the Dissenter is no longer required to resort to the parish church, nor to use the Book of Common Prayer. Now if a number of these registered Non-conformists wished to form a congregation or assembly, and to meet together for public worship, their case must be submitted to the bishop of the diocese or to the civil court, and their place of worship must be licensed and duly registered or recorded, it being further provided that the doors of this worship-place must never be locked, barred, or bolted. Com- plying with these conditions Non-conformists could law- fully assemble, listen to their own preachers, administer the ordinances, and conduct worship according to their liking. It is to be noted that the Act of Toleration did not dis- establish the Church of England, nor repeal a single existing statute. The various acts of Uniformity and Conformity, passed in the reigns of the Tudors and Stuarts, were still in full force, as were also the Test and Corporation, the Con- venticle and Five-Mile acts. Men who had not registered to worship with Dissenters must still attend the Anglican service. Dissenters not registered, if caught in a conven- Toleration Not Religious Liberty 325 tide, were still subject to fines and imprisonment; as were also unregistered parsons caught within five miles of a previous place of preaching. Persons caught worshiping in a place not registered and certified were treated as crimi- nals, as they were, also, if caught in a registered place with doors barred or bolted. No dissenting layman could hold the most petty civil office unless he received communion in the Church of England; and every Dissenter must share with the Anglicans in the support of that church. Non- conformists paying all the expenses of their own churches and also helping to pay the expenses of the parish churches. Tithes and rates and parochial duties were levied as before, and refusal to pay brought legal prosecution. Nevertheless, the Act of Toleration was a momentous victory in the struggle for religious liberty. It left the Church of England intact, and repealed no law by which her position had been intrenched and buttressed. It simply accorded to certain Englishmen, under partial and unjust restrictions, the legal right to sever their connection with the Established Church and to maintain their own places and modes of worship. Henceforth all English subjects were not by necessity bound together in a single ecclesiastico-political communion. The national church was no longer national in the sense that all Englishmen are, "as by sovereign right, worshipers within its pale." That was the beginning of that series of victories which has marked the progress of freedom for the last two hundred years. SINCE 1689 The Toleration Act, passed in 1689, was the first recog- nition in English history of the Englishman's right to worship God apart from the National Establishment. In view of this significant fact and of its immediate and remote 326 Established Church and Non-Conformiiy consequences, its enactment must be looked upon as an event of the first magnitude. In itself the act was so outrageously unjust as to be nothing less than odious. Nevertheless, the hour in which it received the king's signature marks a bril- liant epoch in the struggle for religious liberty. In that hour was sounded the call for a fresh contest with the Established Church for emancipation from its proscriptions. Against non-churchmen the English statute books were plastered over with iniquitous enactments which violated every principle of justice and equity. It was the task of two hundred years to undo this execrable legislation, to remove those disabilities, and to secure exact equality before the law for all English subjects, regardless of their religious professions. The Non-conformists came to feel that "abso- lute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty was the thing they stood in need of;" and to the attainment of this end they bent their energies. In the face of the most relentless opposition, toward this end for two centuries they have been steadily progressing. The history of religious freedom since 1689 is the history of the enlargement of the toleration grudgingly granted in the celebrated act of that date. Decade after decade, bit by bit, the Established Church has been forced to yield its unrighteous claims, and to concede to Non-conformists the rights which are justly theirs. Complete equality before the law and absolute religious liberty are not yet the portion of all men English born, but the day hastens, and on their children will fall its noonday light. UNITARIANS The Act of Toleration expressly excluded the Unitarians from its benefits. Other laws were enacted which im- prisoned and outlawed those caught writing, printing, pub- Relief Acts for Unitarians and Catholics 327 lishing, or preaching against the doctrine of the Trinity. Such could neither sue nor be sued, neither bequeath nor receive property, neither offer bail nor find shelter in the courts. To deny the Trinity was to be guilty of blasphemy, and, if the guilty one were informed against, it brought him under the liability of the most awful penalties short of death. For a whole century and a quarter the holder of this opinion was living under the dread of this doom, and not until 181 3 did the Relief Act remove the ban of the law and put the Unitarian in the same class with other Dis- senters. ROMAN CATHOLICS The Toleration Act likewise excluded the Roman Catholics. For well-nigh two hundred years in England and Ireland they traveled a thorny path. In 1700, Catholic priests were banished the realm. If they returned they were jailed for life. One hundred pounds rewarded the informer who discovered a priest in the exercise of his office. Suspected citizens were tendered the declaration against transubstantiation and saint-worship, refusing which they could neither purchase, inherit, nor hold any estate, and their present holdings were transferred to the next of kin who was a Protestant. They could neither educate their children in the Catholic faith nor send them abroad for that purpose. For eighty years they lived under this terrible law, until an act for their relief (1779) annulled most of its provisions. But the passing of that act led to riots, and the howling mobs all over England protested against conces- sions to "the followers of anti-Christ." A decade later another act (1791) gave them still further relief. Certain old statutes, dating from Elizabeth's reign, were expunged; the oath against transubstantiation was no longer tendered. 328 Established Church and Non-Conformity and the double land-tax was no longer imposed; Catholic schools might be opened, but the teacher must register and no Protestant child must be admitted ; Catholic worship was allowed, but it must not be in open public meeting, and the priest must wear no distinctive garb. The profession of the law was thrown open, and Catholic peers could have access to the person of the king, though not yet to their places in Parliament. They must wait forty years longer before they could gain entrance to the House of Lords (1829). Through all this long period the Romanists in Ireland were treated with the more flagrant injustice. In that island a mere handful of Protestants held absolute sway. The Catholic Irishman could neither vote nor hold office; could neither plead nor sue in court; could neither teach nor be taught by a Protestant, nor go abroad for an education; if a Romanist married a Protestant the union was set aside and the officiating priest was hanged; if a priest or monk was found unregistered he was banished, and if he returned was sent to the gallows. In Ireland the Church of England was the established church, and the Catholic population was forced to support a religion professed by only the merest fraction. Step by step out of this state the Irish struggled up until, in 1869, church disestablishment was won, and all churches were put on a footing of perfect equality before the law. Up to the present year, 1905, America and Ireland are the only countries in Christendom in which full religious liberty has been attained. The Catholic emancipation in England in recent years, and the encroachments of the Catholic church on the English church itself, reveal the completeness of its triumph over old-time adversaries. The Oxford Re- formers precipitated a movement which has sent great numbers of Anglicans of the highest social and intel- The Jews and Quakers 329 lectual standing into the Roman fold. Newman and Manning became cardinals in that communion, and their tractarian and ritualistic teachings have transformed High- Churchism into the most thinly disguised Romanism; and the High-Church party has become dominant in the Church of England. Most appropriately, therefore, under these favoring conditions, could the Pope issue a bull, in 1850, setting up again the papal hierarchy, which had been cast out in the reign of Elizabeth — mapping England into dio- ceses, over which were placed papal bishops, and over all the archbishop of Westminster. Since the defection of John Henry Newman, in 1845, how greatly has the Roman power increased in England, and how thoroughly has Romanism honeycombed the National Establishment! THE JEWS The Jews have always suffered at the hands of Chris- tians, and the English Christians have not been the least intolerant. These people, too, have struggled upward toward an emancipation from political and religious tyranny. One hundred and fifty years ago (1753), an act was passed which permitted them to naturalize, but so infuriated were the people that a twelfth-month later the act had to be repealed. Steadily, however, they have gained their ground; and today they can sit in either house of Parliament, and today their synagogue worship is protected by law. THE QUAKERS Being Trinitarians, the Quakers were included in the Act of Toleration, but their scruples of conscience on two points brought them long suffering. Their Testament taught them that the taking of oaths and the voluntary pay- ing of tithes were sinful. After a quarter of a century they 33© Established Church and Non-Conformity obtained relief from the first by an act which substituted a new form of affirmation in the place of an oath; but in their struggle against tithes they were less successful. The duties and rates to the state church they would not pay except under due process of law. Their enemies made the collecting of these small sums ruinously expensive. It sometimes meant the forfeiture of all their goods, and sometimes long terms of imprisonment. In 1736 the records showed that great numbers of Quakers had been prosecuted in the petty courts, and that in the higher courts not less than 1,180 cases had been adjudicated. Three hun- dred and more had been imprisoned, and some of these their prison lot had killed. In 1736 a bill was introduced for their relief. Its sole end was, not to abolish tithes, but "to cheapen the process of recovery." This simple and humane bill, looking solely to a less expensive and ruinous way of collecting tithes and parochial dues, alarmed the Establish- ment, and they raised all over England the cry the "church in danger," and they flooded Parliament with adverse petitions. The Commons passed the bill, but fifteen bishops in the House of Lords succeeded in killing it. It was reserved for Quakers and other Non-conformists to fight the bishops and their church for one hundred and thirty-two years longer before they could rid themselves of the en- forced support of an ecclesiastical establishment which they repudiated. Not until 1868 could Dissenters loosen the Anglican clutch on their own purse-strings. PRESBYTERIANS^ INDEPENDENTS^ BAPTISTS The Act of Toleration, designed to give "some ease to scrupulous consciences in the exercise of religion," was grudgingly granted to Presbyterians, Independents, Bap- tists, and Quakers, because persecution had utterly failed to Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists 331 accomplish its object. The absurdity and uselessness, though not the impiety and injustice, of attempting to coerce conscience had been demonstrated. To lash the entire people into the use of one fixed form of creed and ritual was seen to be impossible. Hence a slight concession was rung from the dominant party, impelled by a necessity from which there was no escape. The hostile laws, enacted under Tudors and Stuarts, were still in force, however, and not one of them should lose its restraining and compelling power. There still remained a full armory of legal weapons which could be used against the adherents of Non- conformity. The history of the struggle for religious liberty since 1689 is the history of the fight of Dissenters against churchmen to gain two points : to break down every legal disability, and to gain complete equality before the law. Before the Act of Toleration it had been a struggle for very existence; now it became a struggle for exact equality and even and impartial justice. Into the details of that conflict it is not possible to enter. It must suffice to note a few of its salient features. It is to be remarked, in general, that it was a contest quite unlike the present war between Japan and Russia, in which from the very start on land and sea the Japanese have won an uninterrupted series of victories. Not so were the victories for freedom won. Often the friends of liberty were less successful; often disasters overwhelmed them, and they knew the bit- terness of defeat. Often they laid siege to some Port Arthur, and for long the fortress proved impregnable. Whole generations of men died in the ditches, not making an inch of headway. Often the assaults of a century left some stronghold still untaken. Not seldom a hard-fought battle ended with the forces routed and the enemy in pos- session of the field. 332 Established Church and Non-Conjormity That was an ugly setback when, in the reign of Queen Anne, the Occasional Conformity Bill became law. It was inspired by bitter and intense hostility to Dissenters. It was aimed against men holding civil, military, or naval offices, who were caught attending the meetings of Baptists, Presbyterians, or Independents. Such culprits lost their positions; and no new office could be theirs until they had communed three times in the Church of England, and could prove that they had not been inside a Non-conformist church for a year. That was an ugly setback when, in the same reign, the Schism Bill became law. The Dissenters had established numerous and flourishing schools — by far the best England then had — which alarmed and enraged the High-Church party. The Schism Act struck a death-blow at these schools. Thenceforth no person was allowed to teach, whether publicly or privately, without, first, signing a decla- ration of conformity; and, secondly, obtaining a license from the bishop, which license could not be issued unless the applicant could give a certificate that he had taken the Lord's Supper for a whole year in the Church of England. Those were ugly setbacks when the state took money from the public treasury to retrieve the fortunes of its wan- ing Establishment. Because the Dissenters were outstrip- ping the Anglicans in raising meeting-houses and paying ministers, therefore the state sought to offset this enterprise by building new Episcopal churches and increasing the in- comes of its poorer clergy. So in 1810, £100,000 were added to Queen Anne's Bounty, and in 18 12, £400,000 were appropriated for the "augmentation of church livings," and the land-tax on church livings was reduced by £200,- 000; and in 1818 a bill went through appropriating £1,000,000 for the erection of new churches. Lord Liver- Hard Struggles for Religious Freedom t,t,t, pool boasted that the object was to "remove dissent" by the legislature, affording the Established Church the means of balancing the efforts of Dissenters. Six years later, in 1824, Parliament again came to the relief of its church and £500,000 more were added to its building-fund. These are specimens of some of the victories Anglicans won — which victories Dissenters must retrieve at some later period. These were open-field victories. But there were sieges as well as battles, in which for long the issues hung in doubt. The acts passed in the reign of Charles II against Non-conformity were so many Port Arthurs which the army of freedom must storm and cap- ture. Again and again and again did Non-conformity hurl its whole weight of assault against these fortresses of tyr- anny. For a hundred and fifty years their heaviest siege guns were pounding at the Five-Mile Act and the Conventicle Act before their walls fell in ruins. It was only after a siege of one hundred and forty-five years that a breach in the Test Act was made, and it was one hundred and ninety- eight years before the garrison surrendered. It took one hundred and sixty-seven years to capture the outer works of the Corporation Act, and two hundred and ten years to destroy its inner citadel. Those were memorable sieges and notable victories in the war of independence. Their final dates are worthy of record. The Conventicle Act and the Five-Mile Act did not fall until 1812; the outworks of the Test and Corporation Act were not taken until 1828; and the inner defenses did not capitulate until so late as 1871. To achieve the ultimate end, there was needed the batter- ing into ruins of these moss-grown strongholds of despot- ism; but quite as essential were the numerous open-field battles of which the final results were no less visible and 334 Established Church and Non-Conformity decisive. This outline recital cannot properly end without at least the naming of a few of these. SUBSCRIPTION TO THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES For example, that battle over subscription to the Thirty- nine Articles is worthy of record. Why should Dissenters, who have no part with Anglicans, be compelled to subscribe their creed? Where is the justice in forcing a Baptist or a Quaker to give his assent to thirty-six and one-half of the Episcopal Articles of Religion? As early as 1779 the iniquity and absurdity of this were so borne in upon Par- liament that thenceforth creed subscription was no longer a matter of compulsion. ARMY AND NAVY OFFICERS For example, again, what is there in the religion of a Roman Catholic or a non-conforming Protestant which disqualifies him from serving as an officer in his country's army and navy? Why is it that only Anglicans can hold naval and military commissions? Is a Presbyterian good enough to stand in the ranks, but not good enough to wear epaulets? Must a man's church connection determine whether he shall serve or command, the Congregationalist always serving and the Episcopalian always commanding? Is no man fit to be a lieutenant or captain or colonel except a member of the Church of England? That unjust and puerile discrimination was not removed until 18 17. Since that date Episcopal exclusiveness has been relegated to its merited oblivion. MARRIAGE LAWS Once again, the Non-conformists had it out with the privileged clergy over the marriage laws, and wrested from them their exclusive monopoly. Time was when no mar- Marriage Laws and Church Rates 335 riage was recognized as legal unless performed by a regular clergyman of the Church of England, in an Episcopal church, after the Episcopal ceremony. From the pulpit of the parish church the banns must be proclaimed for three successive Sundays. To violate this law meant for the min- ister seven years transportation, and for the wedded pair a life of adultery, and for their children the stigma of bastardy. Dissenting couples must leave their own minister, and repair to the parish priest, and in the parish church by the parish ritual be joined in holy matrimony. Perhaps this very priest was a man of unsavory reputation, whose pious zeal was chiefly shown in the mean annoyances and petty tyrannies to which he subjected his dissenting neighbors; but he alone could proclaim the banns, and tie the knot, and receive the fee. Through long decades the Non-conformists fought this monopoly of the favored clergy; and it was not until 1836 that they were able to triumph over it. At last they wrenched from Parliament a law which relegated the parish priest to his proper place; and authorized the mar- riage of Dissenters by their own dissenting ministers, in their own dissenting chapels, by their own dissenting for- mulae. No longer could priestly services and Prayer-Book rituals be forced on unwilling and protesting parties. ABOLITION OF CHURCH RATES That was a long and strenuous conflict in which Non- conformity fought the paying of rates and parochial dues to the support of the Established Church. In ancient times each parish paid for the repair of its church and churchyard by a special rate; but after the legalizing of non-Episcopal worship what had the Dissenter to do with the repairing of the parish church, whose threshold he never crossed? Quite as consistently would the Anglican be compelled to 336 Established Church and Non-Conformity sustain the dissenting chapel. Against church rates protests never ceased, but the burdened ones always cried in vain. So they protested and suffered on down to 1833 when they were almost strong enough to break the bondage. Failing this time, they renewed the contest for another thirty years, when a tie vote in Parliament revealed their growing strength, only the speaker's ballot losing them the day. A few years later, however, they drove the enemy from the field, and, in 1868, the Church Rate Abolition Act ended forever this form of oppression. UNIVERSITIES OPENED That was a long and hotly contested battle which wrung from the Established Church its monopoly of the national universities. For one hundred and sixty-five years it was impossible to break this proscription. Only Anglicans could enjoy the benefits of Oxford and Cambridge. They claimed that the universities were founded by churchmen and for churchmen, and so only good churchmen could enter their precincts — men who attended church services, and subscribed church formularies, and pledged themselves to church advancement. Its studies, its degrees, its fellow- ships, its teaching, government, honors, and emoluments were all for them and them alone. No Dissenter could profane their halls. The struggle was long, and the defeats were many, and the victory came only piecemeal. The walls of Oxford were the first to be battered down. In 1854 the University Reform Act made a wide-open breach through which the Dissenters entered in. The church was shorn of its power to shut against them its gates, its lecture-rooms, or its degrees. Thenceforth Non-conformists could matricu- late and graduate without having a single church formu- University and Burial Laws Amended 337 lary thrust in their faces. Nearly twenty years later, in 1871, they added, in part, Cambridge and Durham to their Oxford conquest. By the University Test Act it was decreed that all these universities "shall be freely acces- sible to the nation." By the act the Dissenter might take any lay academic degree; might hold any lay academic office. He might be a Baptist, a Unitarian, or an infidel, and the state church could not shackle him. These privileges were his without subscribing any religious test or formulary whatsoever. Still he had not yet won complete equality before the law. There remained some disability still. He could not be the head of a college; could not be elected to a professorship in divinity; could not receive the degree of doctor of divinity. These were positions and honors still reserved for churchmen. Ten years later, in 1882, the friends of freedom won out still another point or two. By the law of that year, neither heads of colleges nor fellows in the university were required to be churchmen. (Their head and fellow correspond to our president and professor.) So the highest administrative and scholastic offices in the English universities became accessible to Non-conformists. There still remains one mean distinction. Only a Church of England divine is eligible to the degree of doctor of divinity. At last it has arrived at this, that the Established Church which once controlled everything now controls nothing. These national institutions have come to be truly national; and ecclesiastical hampering and bondage are things of the past. THE RIGHT OF BURIAL A long-continued battle which only ended near the close of this last century was over the graveyards. The Estab- lished Church claimed exclusive ownership, and to perform 338 Established Church and Non-Conformity religious services in them was the exclusive right of the church clergy. Moreover, they had been acquired and con- secrated as the last resting-place of a particular class of people, viz., for those only who had been sealed by the sacrament of holy baptism, which meant those who had been sprinkled in babyhood. It would be an awful pro- fanation to bury in one of these yards a man who had not been so sealed, and by a man who was not in holy orders, and with a ceremony other than that prescribed in the Book of Common Prayer. Against all this the Non-conformists entered their unceasing protest. The graveyards belonged, not to some sect, but to the people at large. They were the property of the nation. The Anglicans had in them only such rights as pertained to all Englishmen. An unbaptized man had the same rights to burial as other men, and a Quaker burial service was as sacred as the Prayer-Book ritual, and no ceremony at all was quite as lawful as that devised by the Episcopalians. So the issues were joined which ended in 1880 in a com- plete victory for the Dissenters. The Burial Laws Amend- ment Act, passed in that year, admitted the Non-conformists to the graveyards, and gave them the right to bury their dead therein, and with such Christian and orderly service at the grave as they shall deem fit, or without any such services at all. Since 1880 the Episcopal rector can bear his dead to the yard and read over him the prescribed formulary, and no one in the world can say him nay. And precisely the same liberty the law allows to ministers of every other com- munion. And if friends wish to bury their dead without either minister or ceremony there is no churchyard law to stand in their way. Concluding Review of the Struggle 339 Thus have we surveyed, in these two papers, the struggle for liberty from the reign of Edward VI to the reign of Edward VII. In the sixteenth century, under Edward and Elizabeth, the Protestant Church of England was getting itself into shape — making its Prayer-Book, formulating its Articles of Religion, and using its power to force all Englishmen into absolute conformity. In the same period the various forms of dissent were definitely shaping them- selves— the Low-Church Episcopal form, the Presbyterian form, the Independent form, and the Baptist form, each form more radical than the preceding, more unlike the established type, and approximating more nearly to the New Testament model. At the end of Elizabeth's reign, in spite of the efforts to kill them, these non-conforming churches were vigorous and growing. In the seventeenth century, under the Stuarts, James and Charles and Charles and James, the horrible despotism in church and state meant only shackles and slaughter for those who opposed the established order. Nevertheless, it was impossible for satanic fury to kill the spirit of liberty. With the advent of William, and the Act of Toleration in 1689, there began a conflict between the state church and the free churches which has continued through two cen- turies, and in which, bit by bit, the free churches have destroyed the special privileges of the state church, and, bit by bit, have gained equality before the law. Throughout the conflict they have steadily advanced in numbers and power, until today they not only outnumber their adver- saries, but constitute the moral force of the nation. No one has ever heard of the Anglican conscience, but the Non- conformist conscience is a very real thing against which no English statesman finds it profitable to contend. Lord Pal- 340 Established Church and Non-Conformity merston said : "In this country legislation follows the con- science of Non-conformists." Lord John Russell said : "Dissenters have passed the Reform Bill, they have passed the abolition of slavery: they will pass the abolition of church rates." And a little later they did. I have taken our history down to the close of the nine- teenth century. The final chapter in the struggle for re- ligious liberty has not yet been written. The new century opened with a reactionary movement the outcome of which no man can see. In 1902 the Anglican bishops and High- Church clergy won from Balfour's Conservative govern- ment the Education Act, which turns over the children of the land to Episcopal and papistical training, for which the rate-payers must foot the bills, though they can have no voice in either the policy or management of the schools. A great army of Non-conformist passive resisters has risen up, and today in default of payment of school rates their property is being sold at auction, and their bodies are being lodged in English jails. A great battle is waging on English soil. On the one side are the Anglicans and the Catholics; on the other are the Jews, Methodists, Quakers, Baptists, Unitarians, Pres- byterians, Independents, and all other sects which resist the paying of school rates for the support of a system of edu- cation over which they have no control, and which turns their children into Anglicans and Papists. It is a great battle, the ultimate outcome of which cannot be doubtful, but for the present the High-Church Romanizing party holds the field. Before the final victory can come the church must be disestablished and disendowed. This has already occurred in Ireland, and most men look for it to come next in Wales, then in Scotland, and last of all in England. XIII THE EDUCATION ACT OF 1902 XIII THE EDUCATION ACT OF 1902 1 At the close of the eighteenth century and the opening of the nineteenth, education for the poor of England did not exist. Nineteen out of twenty of the children never saw the inside of a schoolroom. Throughout England a poor man who could read was scarcely to be found. Robert Raikes lived at Gloucester, and in 1780 he started on Simday a school for the secular instruction of the neglected children of his town. Joseph Lancaster was a young Quaker and he lived with his father in Southwark across the river from Lon- don. In 1796 he started a school for poor children, in his father's house. In less than two years he had more than a thousand scholars under his charge. Of course he could not himself teach them all, and so he set the older boys, who had a little education, to teaching the younger, who had none at all. Young Lancaster met with astounding success, and in twelve years (i. e., in 1808) his noble endeavor had grown into the "Royal Lancastrian Institution for the Edu- cation of the Poor." Later it took the name of the "British and Foreign School Society." * If anyone thinks that Dean Hulbert's arraignment of the Estab- lished Church for its opposition to the popular control of education is too . severe, let him read Qayton's recently published booklet, The Bishops as Legislators, from which the following facts are given: In 1902 the Lords passed the Education Bill by 147 to 37 votes; among whom were 14 bishops in the affirmative and only one against. Their attitude toward the following amendments is also illuminating: (i) An amendment to compel local educational authorities to undertake secondary education was lost. It was supported by 3 bishops, 12 opposing. (2) An amend- 343 344 Education Act of igo2 Against these schools the AngHcans, led by the Anglican clergy of high and low degree, raised a storm of protest. They protested against educating the poor. They dwelt upon the "evils of being able to read," and of teaching the poor to read the Bible. They declared that those doomed to a life of toil and drudgery would be rendered discon- tented and unhappy in their lot if they were taught to read, write, and cipher. They stormed against the poor being taught by a Quaker, and they called Lancaster an "apostate Julian," and stigmatized his school scheme as "wild, absurd, and anti-Christian," and as calculated to breed "heresies and blasphemies." But Lancaster's school system, attacked and maligned in the most outrageous manner, nevertheless made rapid progress, and the British and Foreign School Society set up undenominational, non-sectarian schools all over England. When the Established Church saw that unmeasured terms of abuse failed to check this extraordinary success, merit to allow denominational teaching in secondary schools and colleges was carried; i6 bishops favoring, none against. (3) An amendment for a "conscience clause" in all training colleges was lost ; 14 bishops voting against, and none for. (4) An amendment in favor of two instead of four foundation managers for non-provided (voluntary) schools was lost ; 17 bishops against the amendment, i for. (5) An amendment making the local authority (and not the religious body) responsible for the "wear and tear" of voluntary schools was carried ; 18 bishops for and none against. (6) An amendment to allow education authorities to appoint all teachers "without reference to religious creed or denomination" was lost; 13 bishops opposing, i for. (7) An amendment to confine the control of the religious teaching to the foundation managers (excluding the appointed managers) was lost; 11 bishops against, 3 for. (8) An amendment to make the bishop of the diocese, the deciding authority in any question concerning the religious instruction in the Church of Eng- land schools was lost; i bishop supporting, 13 against. (9) An amendment to prevent school managers from excluding parochial clergy- men from church schools was lost; 17 bishops supporting, i against. Anglicans Oppose Popular Education 345 and, moreover, that this "Goliath of schismatics was en- grossing the instruction of the common people" to the very- great detriment of the Anglican communion, the bishops and clergy took another tack. If the poor must be edu- cated, as seems inevitable, then all that is left for us is to educate them ourselves. Though we deprecate the poor being taught either to write or to cipher, yet the necessity is upon us to take the matter into our own hands, and to prevent this spread of error and sectarianism by a "correct, orderly, clerical system" of education which shall be under the exclusive supervision of the prelates of the church. It was Dr. Andrew Bell who first stigmatized popular education as "utopian," as making the poor discontented and unhappy, as breaking down distinctions of ranks and classes in English society, as fraught with manifold evils both to the people at large and to the church established by law, and it was this same Dr. Andrew Bell who afterward turned about and advocated the founding of schools in which the Episcopal liturgy and catechism should be taught ; (10) An amendment that local education authorities should permit politi- cal meetings in schools outside school hours was lost ; 2 bishops favor- ing, s against. (11) An amendment to allow denominational teaching to be given without charge in all schools, outside ordinary school hours, at the request of parents, was lost; 14 for, i against. (12) An amend- ment to allow local education authorities to appeal to the board of education for the closing of schools held to be unnecessary was lost ; i bishop for, 12 against. In November, 1906, the Liberal government passed a relief measure by an overwhelming majority and sent it to the House of Lords for approval. That aristocratic and ecclesiastical assem- bly battered the bill almost beyond recognition and sent the mutilated measure back to the Commons. When the measure was passed by the Liberal government in 1906, thirty bishops assailed the act and the bishops in the House of Lords almost unanimously voted to destroy the work which the Commons had so patiently and laboriously accomplished for the settlement of the most difficult problem which for many years has agitated the English nation. — The Editor. 346 Education Act of 1Q02 and under whose influence the ''National School Society" was organized in 181 1. We now have two societies for promoting popular edu- cation, viz. : The British and Foreign School Society, founded in 1808, and sustained by Dissenters, and the National School Society, founded in 181 1, and sustained by Anglicans. These two societies entered into sharp rivalry in founding popular schools for the neglected poor. It must be borne in mind that during all this time these agencies were supported by voluntary offerings. The church as a church did nothing for education, and the state took no part in the education of the poor. It was not until 1833 that the English government made a grant for educational purposes. From 1833 to 1839, £20,000 were yearly appropriated. In 1839 the annual grant was raised to £30,000. The very year in which Par- liament voted this sum of £30,000 for the education of the children of England, it voted £70,000 for building stables for the queen's horses. Later the government was aroused to a deeper interest. From 1839 the annual grant was gradually increased until in 1859 — twenty years later — it had reached £1,000,000. This money had been used in supporting normal training colleges, building schoolhouses, and maintaining schools. So matters ran on until 1870. At that date the two school societies of which I have spoken — one supported by Churchmen and the other by Dissenters — had a very large number of schools in operation. There were 1,300,000 children in schools aided by the state. There were 1,000,000 children in schools which received no state aid and which were not subject to state inspection and which were utterly inefficient. Then, besides this, there were not less than 2,000,000 children who were not in school at all. The Education Act oj i8yo 347 To remedy these defects the Education Act of 1870 was passed, and under that act the schools were running until the system was completely upset by the Education Act of 1902. All over England were these voluntary schools, founded by the British and Foreign School Society and the National School Society, and supported by private donations and by state grants. Some of these schools were efficient, some were extremely defective. They were maintained for a double purpose (just as Roman Catholic parochial schools are maintained in our country) : (i) to give the children a secular education; and (2) to train them in sectarianism. Now the Act of 1870 introduced some radical changes. The government broke all England into school districts. Then it said that in each district there must be provided ample elementary education. In districts where school pro- vision was inadequate, it gave six months' time in which voluntary agency might supply this deficiency. If at the end of six months the deficiency had not been provided for, then a school board, elected by the rate-payers, was to be at once formed. To this school board, elected by the rate- payers, was given the power to levy a rate sufficient to support the school which it created. In the voluntary schools, partly sustained by private donations, there might be given religious, sectarian instruction at the beginning or ending of a school session, but any parent might with- draw his child from this denominational teaching if he saw fit. In the board schools, on the other hand, while there might be religious instruction, or not, as the board elected, in no instance was the teaching of a catechism or the creed of a particular church to be allowed. No attempt to prose- lytize the children to any religious body was permitted. 348 The Education Act 0} 1Q02 By the Act of 1870 the attendance of all children between the ages of five and thirteen was made compulsory. The Church of England, through its National School Society and the Society for Promoting Christian Knowl- edge, was not slow in improving its six months of grace. In this year, 1870, it made more than 3,000 applications for building-grants. In districts where provision for ele- mentary education was still inadequate, the newly created school boards made up the deficiency. So we see that since 1870 there have been in England two kinds of schools: (i) the voluntary, and (2) the board schools. In the former sectarianism can be taught, though any parent can withdraw his child during the sec- tarian period. In the latter the school board can do as it pleases about imparting religious instruction (like Bible- reading, etc.), but can on no account give a denominational turn to the religious teaching, and parents who do not want even this religious teaching can withdraw their children from it. So matters have run on since 1870. These are some of the results that have followed : ( i ) The Non- conformists have been satisfied with the board schools. In these schools their children have received a proper moral and religious, as well as scholastic, training. (2) The Church of England people have greatly preferred the voluntary schools, in which they could impart their own sectarian tenets. (3) It is conceded by all that ^fl^j/ca^/owa/Zy the board schools are vastly superior to the voluntary schools. Their teachers are better paid and are of a very much higher grade intellectually, and in every way more competent to impart instruction. (4) In the last thirty years the Church of England has greatly changed. The ritualistic party has increased in power and has moved rapidly toward Rome. Purpose of New Education Bill 349 They would gladly be subject to the Pope, if the Pope would recognize Anglican orders; and in their beliefs and ceremonies there is little left to distinguish them from Rome itself. They are Romanists in the English church. Now this is the very party and these are the very men who have gained possession of the voluntary schools, and are instilling Romanism into the minds of children and youth. The children of England (more than 5,000,000 in all) are to be found in these two classes of schools. The Wesleyans and Roman Catholics also sustain schools, but the figures are small. In the Anglican schools there are 2,300,000 pupils on the roll ; in the board schools, 2,900,000. In the Anglican schools the average attendance is 1,882,000; in the board schools, 2,260,000. So it appears that in num- bers the two kinds of schools are nearly equal, the board schools being somewhat in the lead. Now, in the year 1902, Mr. Balfour introduced into the House of Commons a new education bill which com- pletely upsets the system of education I have described. In December, 1902, it passed both the Commons and the Lords, and is today the law of the land. It went into effect on March 26, 1903. This act was concocted by the clergy of the Church of England, and especially by the ritualistic or Romanizing section of that church. It became evident to that party in the Established Church that they were losing ground; that the board schools were becoming more and more efficient and popular, and that their own schools were falling be- hind; that the voluntary contributions for the support of their schools were diminishing; and that the outlook in general was far from auspicious. To regain their waning power, to secure access to the children of the land for proselyting purposes, and to saddle the entire expense of 35° The Education Act of igoz this enterprise on the nation, they devised this education bill, which a subservient Conservative government actually- passed into an act. Now this educational act which Mr. Balfour engineered through Parliament is exceedingly difficult to understand. It is involved, complicated, and, in many of its minor fea- tures, ambiguous. I have read the act carefully, but to one not perfectly familiar with previous educational enactments it is utterly unintelligible. Men who are familiar make the same complaint. Some of the leading advocates of the measure, in public addresses, bitterly accused the Non- conformist ministers of insincerity and lying in their asser- tion that the act is intricate and obscure; but on the floor of the House of Commons such men as Asquith, Lloyd- George, Bannerman, and Bryce made the same charges; and so I am bound to believe that the Dissenting preachers are right. But though the act lacks clearness and definiteness in many of its provisions — apparently made so purposely — yet its main aims and inevitable results were apparent to all. (i) In the first place. It destroyed the board schools — the schools in which were enrolled half the children of England; the schools which were the best equipped, having the best buildings and appointments, paying the best salaries, em- ploying the best teachers, imparting the best instruction, were killed at a blow. (2) Alost of the duties which formerly devolved upon the school boards are transferred to the county councils — a body of men fully occupied with other matters and with no experience in school affairs. (3) The voluntary schools are controlled by six managers; four of whom are chosen by the parish clergyman, himself being one of the number, thus giving the Anglican church a two-thirds vote in the selection of teachers and in the Non-Conformist Opposition to the Bill 351 school management. (4) The expense of this school system is borne out of the taxes and rates — the church being re- quired only to keep the schoolhouse in repair. When Mr. Balfour's educational scheme was laid before Parliament, and its revolutionary and reactionary pro- visions became known, there was raised such a storm of protest as had not been witnessed in England since the Reformation. On a score of grounds the Non-conformists (or Dissenters) and many moderate Churchmen offered the most decided opposition to the bill : ( i ) Here is a bill that grants rate-aid to denominational instruction — it is a state endowment of religion. (2) Here is a bill that makes four of the six school managers the adherents of a particular denomination (the Church of England), and schools thus managed must be paid for out of the public rates — taxa- tion without representation. (3) Here is a bill that pro- vides that the teachers shall be appointed, not by the rate-payers, but by the managers, four of whom must be Anglicans — once again taxation without representation. (4) Here is a bill that by its very provisions shuts out great numbers of qualified and competent teachers — shuts them out of the majority of the schools because they are not members of the Episcopal church. That is a revival of the old imposition of tests. Think of it, there are 16,410 head- teacherships, paid for by Baptists and others, open only to members of the Anglican church. This radical and revolutionary measure was introduced by Mr. Balfour into the House of Commons on March 24, 1902. On the same date it was ordered printed. The bill consisted of twenty clauses, some of these clauses having numerous subsections. The debate on the bill, at its second reading, began May 5, 1902. On May 8, its second reading was carried by a vote of 402 to 165. On June 3, the bill 352 The Education Act of 1Q02 passed to its committee stage. By July i, clause 3 had been carried by a vote of 232 to 88. On July 2, clause 4 was up for consideration, and on July 8, it passed by a vote of 175 to 15. Before July 16, the fifth clause was passed, and on that date clause 6 was added to the bill by a vote of 287 to 102. On August 7, clause 7 was adopted by a vote of 220 to 98. On August 8, Parliament adjourned until October 16, 1902. Here were two months in this vacation period in which the nation could express its sentiment. The friends of the bill made scarcely any movement, but its enemies roused the nation to a spirit of opposition, the like of which has not been seen since Reformation times. In all parts of England and Wales, where the bill was to be in operation (London, Scotland, and Ireland were not included) in immense massmeetings, popular indignation was stirred to the depths. The leading Non-conformist ministers were the eloquent speakers at these vast gatherings, and asso- ciated with them were the leaders of the Liberal party. The man who attracted most attention and who rendered the most effective service with both tongue and pen was Dr. Clifford, the foremost Baptist preacher of London. Dr. Fairbairn, of Mansfield College, gave to the movement all his time and strength, as did likewise Dr. Robertson Nichol, of the British Weekly. Dr. Hugh Price Hughes, the great- est Methodist divine, and Dr. Joseph Parker did what they could, but both were ill, and both died before the cam- paign was over. The most prominent members of the House of Com- mons belonging to the Liberal party were also in the field and rendered most valiant service, the most conspicuous being Asquith, Lord Spencer, and Bryce, the author of The Holy Roman Empire and The American Common- Liberals Oppose the Bill 353 wealth. The Liberal press of the country was also all aflame, and England and Wales were plastered over with handbills and manifestos, and placards, and tracts, and dodgers set- ting forth the objectionable features of the bill. It was a great popular uprising in favor of justice and equality and freedom. By all these means, it was urged upon the attention of the English people that the bill does nothing for improve- ment in education ; that it makes no provision for the train- ing of teachers ; that it destroys the school boards that have done most of all for the advancement of education; that it gives to sectarian schools liberal imperial grants and pro- vides for their support out of the rates; that it gives to denominational managers the control of voluntary schools, the choice of teachers, and the right to propagate sectarian ideas and practices in schools supported by the state ; that it gives to the Anglican church the training of children whose parents are Non-conformists; that so far from being an educational bill it is a bill for the relief and support of sec- tarian schools; that it is a positive hindrance to secondary education, since it lays so heavy a compulsory rate for the maintenance of denominational schools that the rate-payers cannot bear this double burden; that it iniquitously main- tains the voluntary schools out of the taxes and rates while depriving the rate-payers of control and management; that the passage of the bill would inevitably lead to increased sectarian bitterness; that the bill was so constructed that practically all new schools will be established and con- ducted in the interest of the Church of England, these schools being supported out of the public treasury; that it recognizes and permits the imposition of a religious test for teachers as a condition of employment in schools con- fessedly run in the interest of a particular sect. 354 The Education Act of igo2 There are three or four features about this bill that were galling to Non-conformists in the last extreme. It is galling to be forced to pay for schools in the manage- ment of which they have no voice. They feel that here is an invasion of their constitutional rights. It destroys the very birthright of the British citizen. It is a return to the force-loans and ship-money for resisting which Pym and Hampden went to prison rather than pay. It is galling to Non-conformists to have their children subjected to the blighting influence of a sectarian training, to the neglect and injury of their scholastic education. The teacher in this school is not selected because of his special fitness for imparting instruction, but because he is the pliant tool of the church and will do the priest's bidding. It is galling because he is forced to pay for subjecting his children to sectarian influences which he sees to be in the last degree vicious and deadly. So rapidly has the High-Ckurch party gained control in these voluntary schools that moder- ate Churchmen joined with the Non-conformists in fighting Balfour's bill. To people who still believe in the principles of the Reformation and who still call themselves Protes- tants, it is simply unbearable. Until conscience is dead, they can never consent to be taxed and rated to the end that their own children shall be turned from little Dissenters into Romanists; can never consent to support schools in which Mariolatry and the confessional, and fasting- communion are taught, in which children are taken to the mass, and into which the worship of the Sacred Heart is introduced. And so, naturally enough, the Non-conformists raised the question. Shall we submit to this injustice? Will our consciences allow us to submit ? We cheerfully pay a sewer rate, or a highway rate, or a police rate, but conscience for- Non-Conformists Threaten Passive Resistance 355 bids us to pay a school rate to have our children turned into Papists. This rate we will not pay. That is an infringe- ment of the rights of conscience. The great evangelical bodies of England and Wales resolved upon this course. They resolved upon passive resistance. They will not resist the bailiffs, but they will not pay the rates. Let the officers of the law seize and sell their goods, or even cast their persons into prison, but the rate they will not directly pay. I was at a great meeting of the London Baptist Association, addressed by Robertson Nichol, at which this resolve was solemnly and unanimously made. Later in national assembly at Birmingham the Bap- tists passed the same resolution. The Independents, or Congregationalists, at their annual national gathering made the same resolve. So did the Presbyterians. So did the Methodists. All this took place during the adjournment, or recess, of Parliament. It was generally believed, certainly in Non- conformist circles, that Balfour would drop the bill. It could not be that the government would press so hateful a measure, in the face of so determined an opposition. The House of Commons reconvened on October 16, and took up the Education Bill precisely where it had been dropped on August 8. The government whips had drawn the members of the Conservative party to London in force. The Liberal whips had not been so successful. When the voting began, it was revealed that the Conservative ranks had not been broken. Balfour had his party perfectly in hand. Even then the Dissenters believed that the measure would be abandoned. In a talk I had with Dr. Fairbairn, he said, Balfour has something up his sleeve. I don't know what it is, but it will be disclosed in a few days, I think he is continuing this fight 356 The Education Act 0} igo2 just to show his strength, to show he could press this bill through if he were so minded. When he has convinced the people of that, he will change his tactics. Fairbairn had no idea he would crowd the bill to a finish. Through October, November, and part of Decem- ber, the House of Commons was engrossed with this piece of legislation. The Liberal leaders fought it inch by inch, but they were outvoted two to one. Having run its career in the Commons, it was passed up to the Lords, where it was speedily ratified. In December, 1902, the bill became an act, and went into operation March 26, 1903. Before the bill actually passed, the Non-conformists threatened passive resistance. Balfour laughed to scorn a deputation of representative Dissenters who waited upon him. As soon as the bill became law the national council of the evangelical free churches began forthwith to organize the opposition. The local free-church councils sent to the executive of the national council assurances and pledges of co-operation. A National Passive Resistance Committee was formed, of which Dr. Clifford was made chairman, whose sole function it was to discourage the payment of rates. "No-rate" meetings were held all over England and Wales. Local passive resistance committees were every- where formed to operate under the direction of the national committee. When the government began to attempt to collect the rates, they were met with passive resistance. Thereupon the officers of the law seized the goods of the resisters. In many instances the government officials flatly refused to auction off the goods. Where an auction took place, there was immediately held an immense and enthusiastic meeting to protest against the iniquity of the act. At first the Anglicans and Conservatives laughed at the Non-conform- Passive Resistance and Liberal Victory 357 ists for their foolish attempt to resist the law, but the laugh- ing mood did not continue long. Baptists, Independents, Presbyterians, Unitarians, Quakers, and many Wesleyans were showing a spirit which was no laughing matter. Every month a vast army of passive resisters was increasing in numbers, in zeal, in effectiveness. This multitude of Englishmen, who were cheerfully enduring the despoiling of their goods and the imprisonment of their persons, was made up of all classes — widows, laborers, artisans, physicians, lawyers, ministers, judges, members of Parliament, uni- versity professors, people of all faiths and of no faith, and some Low-Church Episcopalians. It was a great tidal-wave which, with ever-augmenting power, was sweeping over England. While all this was going on, Balfour and his Conserva- tive party were going to pieces. Once and again the party came perilously near to wreckage. Balfour continued to cling to the reins of power, to the disgust of the nation. Chamberlain retired from office and divided the country on financial questions. At last came the collapse which had been so long expected, and Balfour and his cabinet resigned their portfolios. Then followed the election, and it was such an election as England has seldom seen. Avalanches, cyclones, tidal- waves, and earthquakes are very tame words with which to describe it. The Liberals routed the Conservatives, foot, horse, and dragoons. It was little short of annihilation. It was in the main the Non-conformists who did it. They were thinking about the Education Act, and every candidate for whom they voted they pledged to the undoing of that iniquitous piece of legislation. To Bannerman was intrusted the naming of a Liberal ministry. In the electoral campaign, to the Liberal party 358 The Education Act of igo2 was given the solid Non-conformist vote, on the pledge to repeal or radically modify Balfour's Education Act of 1902. THE 1906 BILL TO CORRECT THE EDUCATION ACT OF I902 Bannerman and his party are not unmindful of their ante-election pledge. On April 9, 1906, Mr. Birrill, presi- dent of the Board of Education, introduced into the House of Commons an education bill designed to kill the hateful features of Balfour's act. The following are the provisions of greatest moment: (i) Hereafter no religious or sec- tarian test shall be imposed on teachers. Teachers are not to be excluded from the schools because they happen to be Baptists or non-Anglicans. (2) The control and manage- ment of schools shall be transferred from the county or city councils to local school authorities. (3) Non-conformists shall no longer be taxed or rated for the support of Anglican schools. (4) No church school can hereafter obtain sup- port from public funds, unless it shall dispense with religious tests for its teachers and place itself under the control of the local educational authorities, and confine its religious teaching to undenominational doctrines. (5) Only schools under the control of the local educational authorities shall be recognized after January i, 1908, and only on such schools shall one penny of public money be spent. (6) Church schools can still obtain money from the state treasury, but only on three conditions, viz. : (a) that they impose no religious, denominational or sectarian test on their teachers; (&) that whatever religion they teach it shall be of an entirely non-sectarian character; (c) that the school be under the regulation of the local school authorities. (7) It is to be noted, in the last place, that the bill does not totally secularize the schools. In church schools taken over by the educational authorities, religious or sectarian Amendment Bill of igo6 359 education may be impartial under the following conditions : (a) The local school authorities must give their consent; (b) Not more than two mornings weekly may be set apart for this purpose; (c) This extra-religious teaching shall not be imposed on the regular teaching staff; (d) Attendance of pupils shall be voluntary, not compulsory; (e) The entire expense of this kind of teaching shall be borne by those who are interested in it, and not one penny of it shall come from the public treasury — from taxes, rates, or any other source with which the state or government is con- cerned. Those who want sectarian teaching can have it twice a week for such children as are minded to attend, but they must pay the entire expense of such teaching out of their own pockets. (/) Once more, the bill provides for an annual grant of a million pounds from the royal exchequer for educational purposes. When the bill passed its first reading there were present as interested spectators the Anglican archbishops of Canter- bury and York and the Roman Catholic archbishop of West- minster. These worthy gentlemen were the exploiters of Balfour's act, and it is not impossible they will live to see their nefarious work teetotally undone. That is not so cer- tain however. It is a long way from the entrance of a bill to the issuance of an act. This bill will not get through without the most determined opposition. Already the Anglicans and the Romanists are raising a furious cry. It is not impossible that amendments will be carried which will destroy some of the best features of the bill. We must not forget that the Conservative party will fight it inch by inch. All the high Anglicans will fight it. All the Romanists will fight it. The Irish members (being Catholics) will fight it. Very likely most of the Labor Party, which is vastly stronger than in any previous Parliament, will fight it. They 360 The Education Act of igo2 will fight it because of its provisions for religion. They wish to see the schools completely secularized as they are in the United States. Then if the bill works its way through the House of Commons, what will be its fate in the House of Lords? Nevertheless, we ought not to be pessimistic. The Liberal majority is tremendously strong, and the Liberal party is pledged to kill Balfour's act. At any rate this is the main feature of the Liberal programme, and everything else must give way to this. Ultimately the right must triumph. In a great meeting held by members of the free churches and the Liberal associations, after the Education Bill be- came an Act, James Bryce used these prophetic words : The friends of education will not rest until they have established a truly national system of education — a system based upon constitu- tional principles, emancipated from clerical control — which shall know no conscience clause, permit no tests, and a system which shall enlist local sympathy and energy. This is the greatest source of strength we can have in the task of enabling Britain, through the provision of an enlightened and highly trained people, to hold the place she has won among the nations of the world. XIV THE BAPTISTS OF TODAY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND XIV THE BAPTISTS OF TODAY IN GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND I am to speak of the Baptists of today (December, 1906) in Great Britain and Ireland. The statistics for 1905 show- that there are 426,563 members of Baptist churches in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales. The increase in 1905 over the preceding year was 31,752; but this was altogether exceptional, and is to be attributed to the remark- able revival in Wales. Ordinarily, as the statistics for the last twelve or fifteen years show, the normal average in- crease is about six thousand a year. In proportion to population the Baptists are least numer- ous in Ireland and most numerous in Wales. In Wales, with a population of two milHons, are 140,000 Baptists; in England, with thirty millions, are 265,000 Baptists; in Scot- land, with four and one-half millions, are 20,000 Baptists; in Ireland, with four and one-half millions, are 3,000 Bap- tists. That is to say : In Wales, the Baptists are as i to 14; in England, as i to 112; in Scotland, as i to 223; in Ireland, as i to 1,500. Among evangelical free churches the Presbyterians are the strongest body in Scotland, the Baptists in Wales; and the Methodists in England. In numbers our American Baptists far outstrip their brethren across the sea. The Baptists in our own north- ern states, as compared with the Baptists in England, are as 1,000,000 to 265,000; while our northern and southern Baptists taken together (white and black), compared with 363 364 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland the Baptists of Great Britain and Ireland, are as 4,500,000 to 426,000. These British Baptists, nearly half a million in num- ber, are sustaining 3,000 churches, presided over by 2,000 pastors in charge, and 5,500 local preachers (statistics of 1905)- Besides the local churches and missions there are many societies of a more general character, created to carry for- ward the benevolent, moral, and missionary enterprises of the denomination. The Baptist Handbook for 1905 names thirty of these, giving their corporate titles, their yearly incomes, and their managing officers. Most of these socie- ties are small, and some of them have outlived their useful- ness. Their purposes are to aid aged ministers, to relieve widows and orphans, to provide cheap and safe life insur- ance, to distribute tracts and Bibles, to translate the Scrip- tures, to promote total abstinence, to liquidate debts on meeting-houses, etc. One society, founded in 171 7, has for its specific object the sustaining of churches and ministers of the Particular Baptist denomination; one exists to in- crease the number of Strict Communion Baptist churches; and one to carry on a Strict Communion Baptist mission in southern India. Among these numerous societies there is one that is neither small nor unimportant, viz., the Baptist Missionary Society, formed in 1792 by Carey, Fuller, and their asso- ciates. Its successful missionary operations are carried on in India, Ceylon, China, Palestine, the Congo, the West Indies, Brittany, and Italy. It is the one foreign missionary society to which the Baptists of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales make their contributions, which amount to be- tween eighty thousand and ninety thousand pounds a year, i. e., something over four hundred thousand dollars. This The Baptist Union 365 is doing considerably better than our Missionary Union, and vastly better than the Foreign Board of the Southern Convention, when the comparison takes into account our superior numbers. THE BAPTIST UNION OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND We now come to an organization more general in its scope than any other — an organization which embraces all the Baptist enterprises of wide public interest except for- eign missions. It is known as the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland. It is a union, denominationally, edu- cationally, theologically, ministerially, associationally, pub- licationally, and benevolently, of practically all our Baptist forces. The history of the origin and growth of the Baptist Union is of exceeding interest. Its beginning dates from 181 3. Primarily, its creation was necessitated by the atti- tude of the Established Church toward non-conformity. Baptist pastors were in the way of going out on evangeliz- ing tours. They preached in chapels, in private houses, and in the market halls. Revivals attended these services, and many were won to a better life. The Episcopal clergy took umbrage at this. They had never raised a cry against spreading drunkenness nor against open licentiousness, but the preaching of the gospel by men not in holy orders roused their animosity and opposition. The bishop of Rochester (Horsley) warned his clergy against these men who were plotting to overturn the throne and the altar. They were maliciously charged with being traitors to their country and leagued together in a conspiracy against Christ. Mob violence was turned loose upon them, and the cries were raised, "For Church and King," and, "Down with Dissent" Episcopal families of rank turned on their domes- 366 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland tic servants and cast them out of employment unless they would quit attending Baptist conventicles, and set up a boycott by refusing to trade with Dissenters. Though the Baptists were extremely individualistic, jealous of any interference with their personal liberty, and tenacious to the last degree of church independency, they came gradually to feel that they must combine among them- selves if they were not to be trodden out of existence. So the idea of organic union began to form itself. A writer in The Baptist Magazine, in 1812, said: The Baptists are very numerous in England and Wales, but they know little of their own strength. In their disunited state, their importance dwindles almost to nothing. Every consideration calls on us in the most impressive manner to cry out until all our brethren hear, "Union, Union," yes union of the most extensive, firm, and durable nature. Another declared, "The Baptists have the best cause, but the worst conducted." The feeling grew that too much independence had reigned too long in the churches. The feeling grew that these separated forces ought to be welded together, so that the strength of the whole might be brought for the succor and defense of each. A meeting was called to canvass the situation. It was held in Dr. Rippon's church in London. There and then the Baptist Union took its initial step. It was inaugurated by about sixty Baptist ministers who were in attendance. Dr. Rippon was chosen chairman, and, in his address, outlined the policy. He said, in substance, that for several years the Calvinistic Baptist churches had felt the need of such a union, and that its general objects ought to be the raising of money for the support of missionaries, the gathering of information about the condition of the churches throughout the country, the assisting of our academies for the training of a more Test and Corporation Acts Repealed 367 efficient ministry, the devising of the best methods for cate- chizing the young people and children, the making of provision for the education of the children of deceased ministers, and for the support of aged pastors, widows, and orphans, etc. A series of resolutions was passed at this initial meeting, to the effect that a union is desirable, that an annual meeting be held in London in June, next year (1813), that the churches and associations be asked to send messengers, and that the London ministers act as a committee of arrange- ments. So the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland was formed in London in 1813. From 1813 to 1832 the Union was not in a very pros- perous condition. There still remained considerable luke- warmness and some suspicion and hostility. The records were not carefully preserved, and it is conjectured that there were years in which no meeting was held. As the origin of the Union in 18 13 was occasioned by the attitude of the Established Church, so its revival in 1832 is to be attributed to the same cause. Li 1828 Lord John Russell gave notice in Parliament that he would move for the repeal of the Test and Corporation acts. These two laws bore heavily and iniquitously on Non-conformists. Churchmen fought against the repeal. Dissenters for it. A terrific campaign pro and con was waged, but the Baptists realized their disadvantage because of their ununited, un- organized condition. The two hateful acts were repealed, but in the struggle it became apparent that if the Baptists were to bear their part in withstanding the attacks on non- conformity, they must be more solidly united. So from 1832, the Baptist Union entered upon a new career. Today it is in compact working order and enjoys the enthusiastic support of the denomination. 368 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland Its constitution affirms the sole headship and authority of Jesus Christ; the independence of the local churches; the immersion of believers as the true baptism; the duty of every disciple to take part in the evangelization of the world. It does not impose upon its members any system of theology — whether Arminian or Calvinistic. Its con- stituency consists of churches, associations of churches, and approved ministers. DEPARTMENTS For purposes of practical efficiency the Baptist Union is broken up into thirteen departments : 1. The corporation. — Under articles of association (or a charter, we would say) the Union is legally incorporated, thereby enabling it to hold securities and other property, and to engage in financial transactions. 2. General expenses. — This is the department which bears the cost of working the general business of the Union. These office or other expenses amount to about two thousand pounds a year. 3. Publication department. — This department maintains a Baptist bookstore and a general publishing and book-selling business. It also issues Baptist and evangelistic tracts, and is concerned with the production and sale of The Baptist Church Hymnal; and finally, it publishes the Baptist Times and Freeman, the official newspaper and organ of the de- nomination. 4. The home zvork. — This is the amalgamation of several agencies that had a previous independent existence : (i) In 1797 was formed The Baptist Home Mission Society, which was incorporated in the Union in 1882; (2) in 1870 was established the Augumentation Fund (to supplement ministers' salaries) ; and (3) in 1893 the Church Departments of the Baptist Union 369 Extension Fund (for Baptist church extension in large towns). Now, in 1904, all three of these societies were formed into one, and became the Home Work Department of the Baptist Union. The object is to employ ministers and evangelists ; to found churches ; to establish Sunday schools ; to distribute Bibles, tracts, and Christian literature. 5. The annuity department. — The design of the depart- ment is to provide annuities for pastors, teachers, secre- taries, and missionaries, and for their widows and orphans. It is a sort of life insurance, by which provision can be made for old age and for the widows and orphans of the members. An entrance fee must be paid, and annual pay- ments made according to the age of the member. 6. The education department. — This is a scheme de- vised to aid Baptist pastors in the education of their children. 7. The Home of Rest. — A home is provided at Brighton, a beautiful watering-place on the English Channel, for the use of ministers and missionaries. It has accommodations for about thirty visitors. 8. The ministerial recognition department. — This is something quite unique. Its object is "to prevent the un- worthy and unfit from entering the ministry;" and to assist the worthy and qualified in finding pastorates. The Baptist Union has a standing committee, which has this delicate and difficult matter in charge. Men who wish to be recog- nized as accredited Baptist ministers must make their peace with this committee. The committee proceeds under a sys- tem of rules and regulations. An applicant who has gradu- ated from a recognized college must present the testimonial of the president and one professor as to his character, pro- ficiency, graduation, etc. The applicant must also present 37o Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland another testimonial as to his moral and personal fitness for the ministry. An applicant who is not a college graduate is subjected to two written examinations. A list of text- books is provided for two extended courses of reading in theology, general history, homiletics, church history, etc. On the basis of these textbooks, the first and final examina- tions are conducted. The Baptist Union urges the churches to safeguard their own interests and the interests of the denomination against unworthy or unqualified ministers by refusing to employ pastors who are not accredited by the Recognition Com- mittee. In doubtful cases churches are urged to correspond with the committee. Cases that are really doubtful are very few in number, because the Baptist Union publishes in its yearly Handbook a complete list of all the recognized and accredited ministers in the British Isles. Under each name in the list there also appear the college from which the minister graduated, the degrees he holds, and the institu- tions that granted them, the churches of which he has been pastor, and in connection with each of these items, the appro- priate data. In this way the educational and pastoral his- tory of each minister is seen at a glance. If a man's name does not appear in the list, it is morally certain that some- thing is wrong. If the man is all right, he need have no fear of the ministerial Recognition Committee; but if he is an ignoramus or a fraud, the committee will be likely to find it out. That is the very business of the committee. It is an excellent device, by which the churches and worthy ministers protect themselves against deceivers and disreputables. 9. The local preachers' organisation. — The object of this is to give public and official recognition to local preachers, and to assist them in preparing for greater usefulness. To get his name in the accredited list, the local preacher must be Departments 0} the Baptist Union 371 a member of a Baptist church, and must pass the prescribed examinations. He must also hold himself in readiness to do regular work if called upon by his church. The Union holds itself pledged to provide circulating libraries of suit- able books, to prepare and publish annual courses of study, and to promote conferences and lectures for the training of local preachers. 10. The Young People's Union. — The object of this is to federate the various young people's societies; to bring them into vital connection with the Baptist Union; to pro- mote their study of Baptist history and principles, and to enlist them in the life and work of the denomination. 11. The Chapel Property Committee. — It is the duty of this committee to obtain information as to the titles and holdings of all properties; as to the names of the trustees; and as to the custody of the trust deeds. The end in view is to see that the titles to church properties are in legal shape, that the administration of these properties is accord- ing to law ; and to be on the watch that properties belonging to the denomination are not alienated and lost. 12. The committee of arbitrators. — If any church be- longing to the Baptist Union gets to quarreling, its dispute may be submitted to this board of arbitration, whose de- cision is final. The disgrace and expense of going to law may in this way be avoided. The arbitrators do not receive any fee or pecuniary reward for their services, but their necessary expenses are borne in equal parts by the parties in dispute. In order to preserve intact the inalienable rights of Christian liberty, it is distinctly understood and declared that the reference of any dispute to the committee is wholly voluntary. 13. The library. — The Baptist Union maintains a library which is designed mainly for the preservation of literary 372 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland works written by Baptists and of works relating to the history of the Baptists. THE BAPTIST HEADQUARTERS Recently the Union has completed its commodious Church House, which is situated in the heart of London, on Southampton Row near High Holborn Street Here are denominational headquarters, the offices of secretaries and editors, committee rooms, an assembly room, etc. On the ground floor is the bookstore, and on the second floor is the library. OFFICERS OF THE UNION The president of the Baptist Union is elected annually, the choice falling upon some man of national reputation, either some celebrated divine or some distinguished member of Parliament. The general secretary of the Union is Rev. J. H. Shakespeare, one of the very brightest and most aggressive of English Baptists. GENERAL AND PARTICULAR BAPTISTS UNITED In describing the Baptist Union and its relation to the denomination, a paragraph ought to be devoted to the General and the Particular Baptists. Time was when these two parties were in bitter and violent antagonism. The General had drifted into Unitarianism and the Particular into hyper-Calvinism, and each hated the other venomously. Daniel Taylor saved the General Baptists by sifting out the Unitarians and forming the "New Connection;" and Andrew Fuller saved the Particular Baptists by toning down and softening their hyper-Calvinism. Nevertheless, many decades passed before the two could coalesce. General and Particular Baptists United 373 The Particulars founded their Foreign Missionary- Society under Carey in 1792. After a time the Generals were moved to do foreign work. They offered to turn in and assist the older society, but the Particulars would not harbor them. So, in 1816, they organized their own inde- pendent society. Then for seventy-five years, the two societies were operating in the foreign field separately and independently. By that time the theological differences had so diminished, and the sentiment in favor of union had so increased, that each society was prepared for amalgama- tion. The actual union was brought about in 1891, and since that date the Baptist Missionary Society has been the one society of both General and Particular Baptists. In much the same way the two parties came together in the Baptist Union. In 1864 Dr. Underbill set forth to the Baptist Union the doctrinal positions of the General Baptists, i. e., of the Dan Taylor New Connection wing of the General Baptists. The extreme shades of Arminianism and of Calvinism had so far faded that the brethren could not discover that the two sorts of Baptists differed in any important particulars. The one sort had ceased to be Uni- tarian and the other sort had ceased to be hyper-Calvinistic, and both sorts seemed to be equally evangelical. The result was that, in the course of time, the two streams merged into one, and today in the Baptist Union the membership is com- posed of both kinds, the old terms "General" and "Par- ticular" being now seldom heard, and the old distinction being wholly lost. The Union consists of members who are simply Christian and orthodox. There still remains an insignificant sect of General Bap- tists, Unitarian in sentiment, and an insignificant sect of Particular Baptists of extreme Calvinistic proclivities, but in numbers and power they have dwindled out of notice and 374 Baptisls in Great Britain and Ireland account. The most famous and honored Baptist in all England — Dr. Clifford — was once a General Baptist, but today he is the foremost leader in the London Baptist Asso- ciation, the Baptist Union, and the Baptist Missionary Society. The actual, formal, organic coalescing of the two bodies in the Baptist Union occurred in 1891. COLLEGES There are seven Baptist colleges that hold membership in the Baptist Union. These cannot appropriately be called colleges in our use of that word. They are rather theological training schools. They are, most of them, small and poorly equipped. Many of our Baptist ministers gained their classi- cal education in the English and Scotch universities and in various high-grade secular schools. In 1905 the condition of the seven Baptist colleges was as follows : 1. Bristol. — Founded in 1680; last year's income, $10,- 000; number of students, 24. These students get their classical, mathematical, and scientific training in Western College. 2. Midland. — Founded in 1797; last year's income, $4,000; number of students, 13. These students get their classical, mathematical, and literary training in Nottingham University College. 3. Rawdon. — Founded in 1804; last year's income, $8,000; number of students, 20. 4. Regent's Park. — Founded in 18 10; last year's in- come, $20,000; number of students, 25. 5. Manchester. — Founded in 1866; last year's income, $10,000; number of students, 20. 6. Cardiff. — Founded in 1807; last year's income, $4,500; number of students, 26. 7. Bangor. — Founded in 1862; last year's income The Down-Grade Controversy 375 $4,500; number of students, 21. These students get their collegiate training at University College. It will thus be seen that our seven Baptist colleges have an income of about $60,000 a year, and that in them about 150 students are being trained for the ministry. There is one other college which has no connection with the Baptist Union. When Spurgeon withdrew from the Union he took his Pastor's College with him. This college was founded in 1856. Last year's income was $15,000, and the number of students is 55. THE DOWN-GRADE CONTROVERSY This is the proper place in which to speak of Mr. Spur- geon's controversy with his Baptist brethren, and of his withdrawal from the denominational organizations. It is known as the down-grade controversy. Spurgeon was a Puritan in his theology. He has been called "the last of the Puritans." He most sincerely believed that the old- time Puritan dogmas were the very truth of God. When, therefore, his fellow-ministers began to entertain more modern ideas, he antagonized these ideas with all his might. When the doctrine of Evolution began to find acceptance, he looked upon it as tantamount to atheism. When scholars began to give countenance to the historical and literary criti- cism of the Bible, he felt that such a handling of the Word of God was sacrilegious. Any departure from the doctrine of the person of Christ, as set forth in the old creeds, led straight to Unitarianism. He set himself with all his power against all such innovations. There appeared a series of articles in the Szvord and Trowel in which Baptist ministers were accused of declension from the orthodox faith. All this engendered strife and bitterness. He took the matter to the 376 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland London Baptist Association and insisted that the constitu- tion should be so changed as to express a stiff orthodox creed. His brethren tried to persuade him out of the notion. When they could not in conscience yield, he with- drew from the Association. He took the matter to the Baptist Union. He had always been its staunch and ready helper, but now he in- sisted that an authoritative creed should take the place of the old constitution. Many of his friends who were in full sympathy with his theological views did not believe that a test of orthodoxy, inserted in the constitution, would remedy the evil; nor did they feel justified in following Spurgeon in withdrawal. The officers of the Union tried to com- promise with him and sent deputations and offered resolutions. Nothing could move the orthodox Puritan. He carried out his purpose of severance from all denominational organizations. Since then the Metropolitan Tabernacle has had nothing to do with the London Association, the Union, or the Missionary Society. None of these bodies would tie up their members to Spurgeon's Puritan creed, and so he cut loose from them all. The Baptist Union loved Mr. Spur- geon and were willing to go all reasonable lengths to please him, but he was asking more than intelligence and con- science could concede. They passed a resolution justify- ing their action, and vindicating those men whom Spurgeon had aspersed. Many of the pastors who had been educated in Spurgeon's college followed their leader, but many of them, on the other hand, refused to deprive the Baptist ministry of its liberty. Spurgeon's own brother stood with the Union, and gradually those who went out are returning. It is believed by the more hopeful that the time is not very far distant when the Metropolitan Tabernacle will be again in fellowship. World Congress and Twentieth-Century Fund 2>1'1 THREE RECENT NOTABLE UNDERTAKINGS BY THE BAPTIST UNION From what has already been said, it is obvious enough that the Baptist Union is a Hve institution. There are three notable undertakings with which the Union has just recently been connected which are worthy of mention. First, the placing of a bronze statue of Mr. Spurgeon in the entrance hall of the Church House. This was a specially worthy and gracious act, when we remember that Mr. Spurgeon withdrew from the Union and compelled that body to vindicate itself and to censure his illiberal spirit and conduct. While the Baptist Union was adorning its new church house with statues and pictures, and medal- lions and panels, giving honor to John Bunyan, Robert Hall, and other saints and heroes, it reserved the best place for a statue of Charles Spurgeon. It was unveiled at Exeter Hall, in the midst of the meetings of the Baptist Congress, on July 17, 1905. The address was delivered by Dr. MacLaren in the presence of Baptist ministers and dele- gates from almost every country in the world. The second recent achievement of the Baptist Union was the Baptist World Congress, July 11-19, 1905. The Union was aided by a committee from the Baptist Missionary Society, but it itself assumed the responsibility of defraying the heavy expenses of providing entertain- ment for the delegates, of arranging the programme, and of publishing the proceedings. As the outcome of the con- gress, a Baptist World Alliance was formed of which Dr. Clifford is president, and Dr. Shakespeare chief secretary — both Baptist Union men. The third recent achievement of the Union was the raising of what is known as the Baptist Union Twentieth- 378 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland Century Fund. More than the amount asked for was secured. The Union asked the Baptists of the British Isles to give a million and a quarter of dollars (£250,000) to be expended as follows: $625,000 for church extension and evangelization in destitute districts; $150,000 for the assistance of the weaker churches; $150,000 for annuities for aged ministers and ministers' widows; $30,000 for scholarships open to students in Baptist colleges; $125,000 for educational purposes; $170,000 for the erection in Lon- don of a Baptist church house, to be the home of the Baptist Union. This magnificent scheme was carried to a success- ful accomplishment, and more money was secured than was asked for. Extra contributions enabled the Union to erect a church house costing $250,000. DOCTRINE AND POLITY Our review of the present status of our Baptist cousins across the sea would not be complete without a brief state- ment of their belief in doctrine and their practice in polity. Here in America our two great confessions are the Philadelphia and the New Hampshire — both strongly Cal- vinistic. It cannot be denied, however, that our Baptist people generally (especially in the North) have adopted a much more liberal theology. The new learning has been frankly accepted by many of our most influential leaders. There is a strong and increasing school of thought that frankly accepts evolution, the higher criticism, and the recent teachings in psychology and philosophy. They are out of conceit also with the theology that was taught in our seminaries thirty years ago. It is perfectly safe to say that no books on theology will ever again be issued like those of Hodge, Shedd, Dodge, Northrup, Pendleton, Strong, Doctrine and Polity 379 Hovey, Boyce, and old-time Calvinists of that school. That day has passed by forever. I am inclined to think that in doctrine the British Bap- tists pretty closely resemble their American cousins. There are extreme conservatives who follow in the wake of Spur- geon, there are radicals who are too far in advance of their brethren, and there are sober, progressive men who are not .afraid of truth and whose minds are open to the light. It was men of this type who resisted Spurgeon and who re- fused to shackle the Baptist Union with a cast-iron creed. In the matter of polity, the case is somewhat different. American Baptists, in both North and South, insist upon immersion. Theoretically, likewise, as a denomination, they insist upon restricted communion. A silent and great change, however, has taken place, especially in the North. A formal invitation to the Supper, barring out non-Baptists, has ceased to be extended. Many pastors are avowedly open communionists, and many more are in quiet sympathy with that position. The question no longer agitates northern Baptists, It is a dead issue. What is the sentiment of the British Baptists on these points? Over there things are somewhat mixed. In the course of history all sorts of ideas have prevailed. Some strong leaders in former times were restricted communion- ists, and some, equally strong, were open. Bunyan was open, and so was Robert Hall, and so was Charles Spur- geon. On the whole, the English Baptists have been almost as stoutly open as the American Baptists have been re- stricted. In Wales the case has been somewhat different. Formerly the Welsh were strict, but latterly they, too, are becoming open. There still exist restricted-communion Baptist churches, both in Wales and England, but they are both weak and decreasing. 380 Baptists in Great Bntain and Ireland, But how is it with the other ordinance? Over here we are stoutly and strictly immersionists ; but over there, from open communion the English Baptists are passing to open baptism. There are very many churches in which the mat- ter of baptism is left entirely to the individual. If he is satisfied with his sprinkling in babyhood, the church ad- mits him to membership without further ado. This open baptism is certainly on the increase, and the day seems to be not far distant when practically all of our English churches will occupy this position. Let me read a few lines from a newspaper report of the Baptist World Congress (July, 1905) : Perhaps the most astonishing Baptist phenomenon in Great Brit- ain is the "mixed" church. Among the Free Baptists of this country, at one time at least, some of the churches admitted unim- mersed persons to "watch and care" membership. Those thus received were not given the privilege of voting or holding office, and the membership was more nominal than real. In the larger body of American Baptists such a thing as admitting to church member- ship one who has not been immersed is unheard of. In England, and especially in London, many of the Baptist churches are made up of immersed and unimmersed people, and English Baptists have unim- mersed members. No distinction is made between the two classes, so far as standing and privileges are concerned. One would naturally assume that under such conditions the pastor would not feel free to emphasize Baptist beliefs lest a part of his constituency should feel affronted. The assumption does not seem to be warranted by the facts. Rev. F. B. Meyer is pastor of a mixed church which does not even bear the name Baptist, and yet, no man who appeared before the congress spoke out more constantly and uncompromisingly for funda- mental Baptist beliefs than did Mr. Meyer. Taken as a whole, it seems quite certain that British Baptists lay quite as much stress upon historic Baptist principles as we do, whatever may be thought of their lack of consistency. All sorts and conditions of Baptists are found there as here, and some varieties are found on English soil that have not yet been Dissenters Outnumber the Anglicans 381 transplanted. For example, in the discussion concerning doctrinal statement carried on in the committee appointed to formulate a con- stitution, the fact was brought out that in England there are Uni- tarian Baptist churches. It is not uncommon in America for one Baptist to charge another with being Unitarian in sentiment, but, so far as we know, we have no Unitarian Baptist churches. It is hardly necessary to say that churches of this kind are not recognized by the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland. The free churches in England are those that have no connection with the state, and in this they are distinguished from the EstabHshed Church which is a department of the state and owned and controlled by it. The Baptist denomination is, therefore, one of the free churches. These free churches (Baptist, Presbyterian, In- dependent, Methodist, etc.) have formed themselves into what they call the "National Council of the Evangelical Free Churches." These Dissenters or Non-conformists now out- number the Established Church. The statistics are as fol- lows: In 1700 the Non-conformists were to the Church of England as i to 22; in 1800, as i to 8; in 1900 as i to i. Today the Dissenters outnumber the Anglicans in every respect. The Anglicans still greatly outclass them in wealth and social standing, but not in moral influence. Parliament is forced to take account of the "Non-conformist con- science." No one ever heard of the "Anglican conscience." The statistics for 1902 were as follows : Anglican com- municants, 1,974,629; Sunday-school teachers, 203,902; Sunday-school scholars, 2,841,862; church sittings, 7,000,375. Free-church communicants, 1,946,959; Sunday- school teachers, 384,175 ; Sunday-school scholars, 3,276,895 ; church sittings, 8,140,767. These statistics show that the Anglicans have 28,000 more communicants, but this differ- 382 Baptists in Great Britain and Ireland ence has already disappeared; and no one supposes that, in vital godliness, Anglicans equal Dissenters. The most prominent and influential Anglicans are really Papists, given up to sacerdotalism, sacramentarianism, and ritualism. XV THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY UPON EDUCATION XV THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY UPON EDUCATION 1 Prevailing ideas determine education. If in China 2,400 years ago Confucius gave to his people a perfect scheme of social and political life, then nothing remains but to devise an educational system which shall perpetuate the society and government his wisdom disclosed. If in India the laws of Manu divide society into separate and fixed orders whose regulations must be punctiliously observed from the first breath of life to the last gasp of death, then obviously the chief function of education is to train the pupil in the duties of that particular caste to which by heredity he belongs. If in Persia the religion of Zoroaster controls the public and private life of her inhabitants, then for prince and people alike the Magi will provide an education fitted to fortify and reinforce existing institutions. If in Greece the all- dominating passion of the Spartans is to maintain their supremacy as the ruling class over the hostile and more numerous freemen and serfs, then an education chiefly physical and military must turn Sparta into a training camp, and render her soldier-citizens hardy, obedient, and brave, quick, aggressive, and strong. If in Greece the Athen- ians conceive a beautiful mind in a beautiful body, the harmonious union of physical and intellectual culture, thus evolving, on its aesthetic side, the most perfect idea and form of civilization in the ancient world, so, too, growing ^ President's annual address before the American Baptist Education Society, Norfolk, Va., May 5, 1898. 38s 386 Influence of Christianity Upon Education directly out of this they create a system of education in- tended and adapted to reaHze this their ideal of human hfe. If in Rome nature and circumstance evolve a nation sturdy in character, eager for conquest, gifted in statecraft, strong in utilities, then in the education of such a people emphasis will be laid on military training, political science, forensic eloquence, the mechanical arts. Thus in every instance education is purposely bent to the prevailing idea — be that idea the sacredness of tradition, the fixedness of caste, the exaltation of priests, the neces- sity of self-preservation, the deification of beauty, the supremacy of the state. Something other than education is first conceived and then by means of education this some- thing other is sought to be attained. Inquire first, there- fore, after the civilization of a people, the nature of their religion, their theory of society, their conception of the state, their fundamental and regulative ideas in the house- hold, the market-place, the senate chamber, the field, and the temple. Education is simply the instrumentality through which is sought the realization of these ideas. Hence it follows that the introduction of new ideas must have its immediate and lasting effect on the prevailing educational system. CHRISTIAN IDEAS AND FORCES Now it is the most open and patent of facts that Chris- tianity introduced into our world ideas and forces of super- lative moment. Familiarity dulls our impression of their worth and glory. Christianity is itself a system of thought and the greatest mental and moral power the world has ever seen, and hence vitally relates itself to human progress and culture through all time. When Christ appeared there dawned a new era in the history of our globe. With his Christian Ideas and Forces 387 coming the world was flooded with new thought; there entered a new regenerative force and quickening spirit to revive the race; and new truth from higher realms started humanity on a fresh career of intellectual and spiritual advancement. Christ is himself the way, the truth, and the life; the Redeemer and educator of mankind, whose task it has been since his appearing to appropriate and realize his teachings. The truths concerning God and man he dis- closed to the mind and heart of the race are destined to be in the process of time the ascendent and controlling truths not less in the domain of education than in the realms of society, government, philosophy, and religion. The true idea of God is the most suggestive, inspiring, and fruitful that can enter the mind of man, and it is to Christ that we owe that disclosure of his being and character, which is destined to revolutionize the thinking and living of the race. He it is who reveals the God of the universe as one and free and good; the Father and Savior of men. He it is who gives insight and uplift to intellect, conscience, ajfifection, and will, by revealing a personal intelligence who presides over this creation, and from whom "order and life, force and love, incessantly proceed." Chance and caprice and fate are excluded. We dwell in a cosmos, a system of law, harmony, and truth. History and science and ethics are thus made possible. The educational value of such an idea is simply incalculable. Scarcely less quickening and influential is Christ's revela- tion of man, his place and worth and destiny. Man is a wholly different being since our Lord appeared. Each man is a thousand fold greater than the old world conceived him. He has a dignity and prospect immeasurably more sacred and glorious than the ancients ever dreamed. Through him, "who brought life and immortality to light," 388 Influence of Christianity Upon Education we learn what it means that he is a being created in the likeness of God, and hence capable of knowing and loving him; a being in organic relationship to the infinite and eternal Spirit; a being to whom the Heavenly Father has come with revelations of truth, duty, and love; a being whose nature the Son of God assumed, for whose redemp- tion the Son of God expired ; a being whose intellect is great enough to discern the meaning of the manger and the cross, whose conscience is sensitive enough to respond to their transcendent claims, and whose affections are divine enough to embrace their life-conveying fulness; a being whose rational and moral faculties even divine omnipotence will never coerce, the realm of whose personal freedom not even heavenly violence will ever invade; a being destined to a conscious, personal future life whose character his own volition has predetermined, and a life which shall never end. These wholly new conceptions of man as related to the God who made him, as the crown and goal of the visible creation, as the favored child for whom the worlds were framed, for whom the beneficent processes of nature are carried on, for whom the orderly forms of society and gov- ernment are instituted, for whom the remedial work of Christ was introduced, and for whom the felicities of the celestial world are made ready, these new views of the divine, human kinship in Christ, the God-man, have so exalted the sense of the divine personality and so deepened and sanctified the sense of the human personality as that since that day of revelation the currents of the world's history have run in new channels. Rightly are events in human chronicles dated b. c. and a. d., for precisely at that dividing line have we the revelation of a new theophany and theodicy and theocracy, which in turn have become the fruitful source and beginning of the new philosophies, and Fourfold Influence of Christianity 389 philanthropies, and democracies which since that day have brightened and blessed the world. Prevailing ideas determine education. The introduction of new ideas works corresponding changes. The new ideas brought by Christianity are of the most radical and revolu- tionary sort. Jesus Christ in founding a new religion neces- sarily laid the foundations of a new education. Somewhat to expand and illustrate this truth is the task assigned me. A FOURFOLD INFLUENCE I wish to indicate in four particulars, under four heads, the influence of Christianity upon education. First, the influence of Christianity on the measure of education, i. e., the amount or quantity of it. Since Christ appeared there has been accumulating an educational fund or endowment, a capital stock, so to speak, represented by learning in living men and dead books, by schools and libraries, by museums and galleries, by architecture, sculp- ture, and painting, by the treasured stories of experience, thought, and wisdom wherever found and in whatever form. The question is, what influence has Christianity had in pro- viding this educational outfit with which the world is fur- nished? How much education is there, and how much does it owe to Christianity ? Secondly, the influence of Christianity on the matter of education, i. e., on the material or staple of it. Since Christ appeared what has been the substance or content of education? What kinds of knowledge have been appre- ciated and inculcated? What branches have been taught, studies pursued, topics discussed, fields explored, curricula adopted, and what influence all along has Christianity had in fixing and changing the capital articles in the educational creed? What has been deemed essential in education, and what part has Christianity had in making that judgment? 390 Influence of Christianity Upon Education Thirdly, the influence of Christianity on the method of education, i. e., on the process or way of it. Since Christ appeared, God, mind, and the world are better known; the faculties and affections of the human soul are better under- stood ; educators have learned better along what avenues to approach the intellect and by what ways or paths to lead out its powers. The question is, has Christianity aided in the discovery of the national and rational order of intel- lectual inquiry, instruction, and discipline? How shall we begin and conduct the educational process, and what part has Christianity had in determining this mode of procedure? Fourthly, the influence of Christianity on the motive in education, i. e., on the intent of it and the inducement to it. Why is this vast and expensive educational undertaking kept up? Why do merchants give it their money, and teachers their brains, and students their days of youth? What incentive moves them to these expenditures? What design is had in view ? What end is aimed at ? What good is looked for? To what extent has Christianity furnished the underlying and determining motive in it all ? The influence of Christianity on education cannot be ade- quately presented without discussing that influence as it is seen in the measure, the matter, the method, and the motive of education. In the time allotted to me, I can only par- tially present the first of these four. Let me ask you, then, in the few moments at our dis- posal, to narrow your thought to the influence of Chris- tianity on the measure of education. I. PRIOR TO THE REFORMATION At the beginning of the Christian era primary, second- ary, and university schools, under imperial patronage, amply supplied the scholastic needs of Roman youth. In Schools Be j ore the Rejormation 391 the Attgustinian Age the educational ideas of Greece and Rome had blended, and in every part of the empire Romano- Hellenic culture was easily accessible. While in the larger cities the most advanced studies could be pursued, in the smaller towns the elementary branches were intrusted to "masters who were elected by the magistrates and main- tained at the public expense." Of the existing educational facilities Christians availed themselves, so far as circumstances would allow. In the first, second, and third centuries Roman morals were at a low ebb and Christianity was a proscribed religion. People and rulers were in no wise elevated by their old faith, and were resorting to the utmost measures of cruelty to destroy the new. Living thus in the midst of heathen corruption and under the horrors of heathen persecution it was only natural that Christian parents should withdraw their chil- dren as much as possible from the debasing associations of pagan society and in the privacy and sanctity of home give them such mental training as their own meager attainments would allow, and such moral training as they were better fitted to impart. For the education which public worship furnished in sermon, Scripture, prayer, and song, household instruction gave the needed preparation. Near the close of the second century catechetical schools sprang up at various Christian centers — the most noted and advanced at Alexandria — specially designed to fit candidates for baptism and church membership. Enrolled in these schools were adults as well as youth, and sometimes men of learning and philosophical reflection, and hence a higher range of studies was necessitated to answer objections, and to vindicate the ethical and rational grounds on which the new religion rested. Salaries, schoolhouses, and textbooks were unknown. 392 Influence of Christianity Upon Education With the opening of the fourth century there began the complete reversal of the relations of the Christian and heathen world — Constantine on the throne ; church and state united; the heathen cultus under ban; the Graeco-Roman religion going to the wall. In the struggle between the old and the new the old was destined to pass away. In the midst of the disintegration of ancient morals and philoso- phies the new formative forces of Christianity were slowly winning their way. The inspiring idea and aim of the new religion and the new philosophy of life which that religion brought to mankind were gradually supplanting the decaying idea and philosophy of Greece and Rome. No- where was the advancing thought more marked than in the field of education. For a hundred years before the acces- sion of Constantine the Christian church had been exert- ing a distinct influence in this domain ; and a hundred years later her increasing power gave her the complete ascendency. At the end of the fourth century the control of Christianity over the schools was everywhere triumphant. The old forms of heathen education still survived in some quarters, but the spirit had fled and the forms themselves soon disap- peared. Greek and Roman culture could no longer meet "either the spiritual or the material wants of man." Chris- tianity would take up what was of enduring worth, and the rest must forever perish. From the beginning of the fifth century we have always to reckon with the Christian church when education is under discussion. The Romano-Hellenic schools have passed away and Christian schools have come in to take their place. The state religion has become the foster-mother of educa- tion. CATHEDRAL SCHOOLS First in order are the cathedral schools. Episcopacy was unknown in the Apostolic Age. "Bishop" and "presby- Cathedral and Monastic Schools 393 ter" were synonymous and interchangeable terms. In each local church was usually a plurality of elders. The title "bishop," originally common to all, came at length to be appropriated to the chief among them. Still later the bishop of a single church came to be the bishop of neighboring churches as well, and the local episcopate grew into diocesan episcopacy. The cathedral church was located at the episcopal seat, where, as a part of the ecclesiastical machinery, the bishop established a Chris- tian school, which at first existed side by side with the imperial school, but at a later period superseded it. The priests connected with the cathedral were organized into a guild of teachers upon whom devolved the instruction of candidates for church membership and holy orders. As early as a. d. 181, Pantaenus founded the celebrated school at Alexandria of which Origen became the most famous teacher; and in course of time schools with like design sprang up all over the Roman Empire. As cathedral schools perfected their organization and extended their influence, parochial schools, under the care of parish priests, but sub- ject to episcopal supervision, fitted the young people in the villages and smaller towns for performing skilfully the ceremonies of public worship. MONASTIC SCHOOLS Next in order and more important were the monastic schools. Monasticism was unknown in the Apostolic Age. Out of the ascetic tendencies of the early church grew the hermit and cloister life which appeared first in Egypt in the fourth century, was transplanted in Europe in the fourth and fifth centuries, and became an organized and permanent institution under Benedict of Nursia in the sixth. By the seventh century Benedictine monasteries "were scattered throughout all the countries that had once composed the 394 Influence of Christianity Upon Education Roman Empire." Not more are these monks of St. Bene- dict to be praised for dignifying labor, fostering agriculture, training missionaries, and founding hospitals, than for estab- lishing schools, and "preserving the literary treasures of antiquity for the use of modern times." To their care and laborious copying of manuscripts we ourselves are under incalculable obligations for the preservation and transmis- sion of the entire body of classical and ancient learning. These monks were the teachers and their monasteries were the schools of the Middle Ages. The -imperial educational system had collapsed with the collapse of the Empire, and we can never adequately measure our indebtedness to the monastic schools which took their place in those times which witnessed the decadence and final extinction of ancient institutions. First and last from the Benedictine order have proceeded twenty- four popes, 15,000 bishops, and more than 40,000 canonized and beatijfied saints. At one time their 37,000 abbeys in Europe were the brightest and almost the only centers of piety, charity, and learning. For several centuries they were the principal teachers of youth in all branches of letters and in all degrees of culture. IRISH SCHOOLS But in the times of which we speak Europe was a deso- lation, and it would have been difficult, perhaps impossible, to save learning, morals, and religion from the catastrophe which destroyed the Roman world. Certain it is that both cathedral and monastic schools were caught in the general wreck. The lamp of learning, almost extinguished on the Continent, burned brightly only in the most distant of the British Isles. As Dollinger tells us : While almost the whole of Europe was desolated by war, peaceful Ireland, whose schools were founded at the close of the fifth cen- Irish Schools and KarVs Schools 395 tury, free from the invasions of external foes, opened to the lovers of learning and piety a welcome asylum. From these Irish schools went forth the bearers of letters and religion to the Picts and Scots and so down into north- ern England. From these Irish and English schools, when the storm of fury was somewhat overpast, went forth the teachers and missionaries to re-enlighten and evangelize France and Germany. KARL^S SCHOOLS It was at the arch-episcopal school in York that Alcuin was trained, who, in the eighth century, became intellectual prime minister at the court of Charles the Great, and under whose wise tuition that conqueror, statesman, and patron of learning re-established cathedral and monastic schools throughout his vast domains. It was under the sanction of religion and for the protection and advancement of the church that Charlemagne inaugurated his great educational enterprise. He summoned to his court learned men from all parts of the world through whose counsels he sought to carry to all his subjects the blessings of free public educa- tion. He established grammar schools all over his empire, the principle of compulsory attendance reaching the children of rich and poor alike. His famous edict has been called the Charter of the Modern Public-School System. The age in which he lived was not advanced enough to perpetuate and carry forward his enlightened comprehensive projects. "The educational activity stimulated by him largely died away during the agitated reigns of his weak and grasping successors." His magnificent schemes fell to pieces at the end of his reign and the division and dissolution of his empire. 396 Influence of Christianity Upon Education SCHOLASTICISM But out of the schools founded or restored by Charles the Great grew up, in the course of time, the form of phi- losophy called scholasticism, which sought by the aid of Aristotle's logic to vindicate the truth and soundness of the theology of the church, and to reduce to rational order and system the "stupendous pile of dogmas and legends" which had floated down the Christian ages. THE UNIVERSITIES Then, in turn, out of this scholastic movement sprang the universities of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, which at first were simply "free associations of learned men and aspiring youth held together by their mutual inter- est in knowledge." These schoolmen, through their reputa- tion as teachers, drew such multitudes to their lectures that it became necessary to reorganize the schools and broaden their curriculum. At many centers throughout central and western Europe these incipient universities made their ap- pearance. "They arose so suddenly and at so many points that it is difficult, in the rapidity of the movement, to note the several steps of their historical development." Before A. D. 1500 there were sixty- four universities in Europe — fifteen in France, as many in Germany, six in Spain, three in Scotland, and two in England. How familiar to modern ears are the names of these ancient seats of learning — Paris, Bologna, Salerno, Prague, Vienna, Leipsic, Freiburg, Heidelberg, Tiibingen, Copenhagen, Upsala, St. Andrews, Aberdeen, Glasgow, Oxford, Cambridge, and so on. "Al- though these universities were at first free associations" yet, as Karl Schmidt tells us, "as intellectual forces the church sought to attach them to itself, in order to join to the power of faith the power of knowledge." The first privileges they The Universities and the Reformation 397 received proceeded from the popes. The charter was granted by the Roman pontiff, and the chancellor was usually the bishop of the diocese in which the institution was located. Kings were mindful of the growing importance of the rising universities, and sought to win their influence to the side of monarchy, vying with popes in granting them special immunities. Nevertheless, these institutions of higher learning were ever under the watchful inspection of mother church. Thus is disclosed to us the intimacy of relation that sub- sisted between the church and the school in that long period which precedes the Lutheran reformation. Through all those centuries it was the church which created and con- trolled the educational activities of mediaeval Europe. It was for the church that the school was organized, and the only education Christendom enjoyed was that furnished by her catechetical, cathedral, monastic, parochial, and other schools, and the universities of the later times. Through the first fifteen centuries education was as exclusively the monopoly of the Christian church as was religion itself. In its totality education was provided by Christianity alone. II. THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION The spiritual awakening of the sixteenth century was almost as much a revival of education as a revival of religion. The Reformation has been described as an insur- rection against the absolute power of the spiritual order, as a great endeavor to emancipate human reason, a vast effort made by the human mind to achieve its freedom. This mighty upheaval was as much in the realm of intellect as in the realm of spirit. The great reformers — Luther, Melanchthon, Zwingli, Knox, Calvin, and the rest — had almost as deep an interest in the school as in the church. 398 Influence 0} Christianity Upon Education In their respective countries the results of their reforma- tory movements are as marked in education as in religion. The sources of the educational histories of all Protestant lands are as directly traceable to these reforming spirits as are the sources of their religious histories. The debt of obligation is as great in the one case as in the other. What- ever of education we have we owe directly to them. Luther's appeal for the establishment of schools has been pronounced "the most important educational treatise ever written." His first concern was for the spiritual emancipa- tion of his countrymen, but he plainly saw that the new and true view of Christianity could never be defended and advanced without the aid of gospel preachers and enlight- ened and godly rulers, and he also as plainly saw that these needed helpers and leaders could never be secured without the aid of schools; and he as plainly saw that only by the educational uplift of the common people could they ever be brought to the intelligent acceptance and practice of the evangelical faith. His opinions and zeal were shared by all the other reformers, and hence the marvelous educational results of the religious upheaval of the sixteenth century. When we hear the words of Luther, the leader, we learn the sentiments of his colleagues and followers. I quote at haphazard from a half-dozen of his treatises. The writ- ings of the other reformers abound in like teachings. In my judgment there is no outward offense that in the sight of God so heavily burdens the world, and deserves such heavy chastise- ment, as the neglect to educate children If you have a child capable of learning, you are not free to bring it up as you please, or to deal with it according to your caprice Your children are not so entirely your own, that you can withhold them from God; he will have justice, and they are more his than yours For the sake of the church we must have and maintain Christian schools. Young \ Lutherh Remarkable Appeal }or Schools 399 pupils and students are the seed and source of the church. When schools prosper the church remains righteous and her doctrine pure. There is nothing more necessary than to educate men who are to succeed us and govern. If we were dead, whence would come our successors, if not from the school? .... Even if there were no soul, and men did not need schools and the languages for the sake of Christianity and the Scriptures, still for the establishment of the best schools everywhere, both for boys and girls, this consideration is of itself sufficient, viz. : That society, for the maintenance of civil order and the proper regulation of the household, needs accomplished and well-trained men and women I maintain that the civil authori- ties are under obligation to compel the people to send their children to school, for our rulers are bound to maintain the spiritual and secular offices and callings Wherever the government sees a promising boy, let him be sent to school. If the father is poor let the child be aided with the property of the church. The rich should make bequests to such objects, as some have done, who have founded scholarships — that is giving money to the church in the right way It is the duty of the mayors and council to exercise the greatest care over the young. For since the happiness, honor and life of the city are committed to their hands, they would be held recreant before God and the world, if they did not, day and night, with all their power, seek its welfare and improvement. Now the welfare of a city does not consist alone in great treasures, firm walls, beautiful houses and abundant munitions of war; indeed, where all these are found, and reckless fools come into power, the city sustains the greatest injury. But the highest welfare, safety and honor of a city consists in able, learned, wise and cultivated citizens, who can secure, preserve and utilize every treasure and advantage A schoolmaster is as important to a city as a pastor is. We can do with- out mayors, princes and noblemen, but not without schools, for these must rule the world. Schools are indispensable, and if I were not a preacher there is no other calling on earth I would rather have. We must consider, not how the world esteems and rewards it, but how God looks upon it. These ideas of Luther bore their legitimate fruit in all the countries reached by the Protestant Reformation; through Luther's own labors in Germany; through Zwingli 400 Influence of Christianity Upon Education and Calvin in Switzerland; through Knox in Scotland, and through the reformers who followed in their footsteps in England, Holland, Scandinavia, and America. Most ob- vious is it that the educational systems and all the provisions for intellectual culture in all Protestant lands were created by the men of God who inaugurated the Reformation movement. GERMANY In Germany the existing state-church arrangement, pro- viding alike for religion and education, is the direct out- growth of Luther's plan. The schools are, in large part, a realization of his idea, and most that is best in the system is to be attributed to his wisdom and foresight. ENGLAND In England not less does popular education owe its existence directly to Christianity. Through Robert Raikes the Sunday schools were first established, which are the beginning of popular instruction. Through Andrew Bell, who gained his inspiration from Robert Raikes, the Church of England clergy were aroused to form their national society for establishing schools throughout the British dominions. Through the Quaker, Joseph Lancaster, whose school in London met with phenomenal success, the Dissent- ers were led to organize their British and Foreign School Society. Through the efforts of these societies — often working in rivalry — popular schools sprang up all over England. Not until 1818 could the churches induce the English government to take an interest. Not until 1834 was an annual grant for education secured; and not until 1870 did general and compulsory elementary education become the law of the land. The national schools of Eng- land— corresponding to our public schools — owe their exist- English Schools Fostered by the Church 401 ence directly to the interest of churchmen and Dissenters in the neglected classes. The great public schools of England — Winchester, Eton, Charterhouse, Christ's Hospital, Harrow, Rugby, etc. — corresponding to our best preparatory academies, like Exeter, Andover, Worcester, and Morgan Park, were all founded — with three exceptions — in the sixteenth century — founded for the most part by bishops and churchmen, whose inspiration was drawn directly from the Reformation. The two great universities — Oxford and Cambridge — grew originally out of monastic schools, and through all their history have been under ecclesiastical control. In the Reformation period they passed from the Catholic church to the English establishment. Until our own day persons unable or unwilling to sign the Thirty-nine Articles were absolutely excluded, not merely from degrees, but from all access to their halls. The great majority of the fellows were bound to take holy orders, and the universities were wholly dominated by the clerical spirit. Not until 1871 were the university tests abolished, and the admission of Non-conformists granted. Probably not five persons in this house could, thirty years ago, have gained access to either Cambridge or Oxford — barred out by lack of religious qualification. The establishment by Dissenters of academies and col- leges in nearly every shire in England, in which the children of Non-conformists received their scholastic training, grew out of this religious exclusiveness on the part of the great universities. These numerous denominational institutions are supported by the voluntary contributions and endow- ments of the various Christian sects to which they belong. So wholly and exclusively has education in England been the creation and monopoly of Christianity ! 402 Influence of Christianity Upon Education AMERICA Passing over to America, our own educational history is of the deepest interest, and exhibits, in the most striking manner, the part which Christianity has played in its in- ception and progress. The Puritans who founded Massa- chusetts were Protestants of the most ultra type. They were men of the strongest religious convictions and of the ripest intellectual culture. As Archbishop Hughes says: "Next to religion they prized education." As early as 1636 they founded Harvard. They called the name of the place "Cambridge" after the old Cambridge where most of them graduated. They called the name of the college "Harvard" after that "Reverend and Godly lover of learning," John Harvard, who bequeathed it his library and half his prop- erty. In pathetic language they tell us the reason for their action : After God had carried us safe to New England and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God's worship, and settled the civil government, one of the next things we longed for and looked after was to advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches when our present ministry shall lie in the dust. Their pious wish was gratified, for in Harvard's first cen- tennial (1642-1742) out of 1,421 graduates 641 were ministers. Next to Harvard came "William and Mary," founded in 1692. The charter declares that the college was estab- lished to the end that the Church of Virginia may be furnished with a seminary of ministers of the gospel, and that the youth may be piously educated in good letters and manners, and that the Christian faith may be propagated among the western Indians to the glory of Almighty God. American Colleges Founded by Christians 403 The divinity taught in this college "was shaped and moulded at every point by the liturgy and creed of the English church." Third in order was Yale, founded in 1700 — born of the religious needs of the Connecticut colony. As with Harvard, so with Yale, those most forward in founding it were minis- ters of the gospel. The thirteen Connecticut pastors who started Yale were themselves men of college training, and realized its value to the infant colony. Their charter provided for the founding, suitably endowing and ordering a collegiate school within his Majesty's colonies of Connecticut, wherein youth may be instructed in the arts and sciences, who, through the blessing of Almighty God, may be fitted for public employment in the church and civil state. These three were the only institutions of higher learn- ing in America at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In that century (the eighteenth), following these three, came Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Dart- mouth, Williams, Bowdoin, and others — most of them founded by Christian ministers, and all of them by Christian men, with Christian money, for Christian ends. Never in history have colleges multiplied as they have in our own country in our own century. It is to be noted that most of them have been distinctly Christian, and even denominational, from the very beginning — 84 per cent, of the entire number rest on foundations avowedly religious; 80 per cent, of all undergraduates are attending colleges conducted by evangelical churches; and 54 per cent, of all college students are professors of religion. The state universities are not organically connected with the Christian church in any of its denominational forms, but they are often as pronouncedly Christian as universities 404 Influence 0} Christianity Upon Education under denominational control. Their presidents, most of them, belong to evangelical churches and are men of decided religious conviction and influence. No state school would dare to declare itself hostile or even lukewarm to the Chris- tian religion. It must be borne in mind that only 9 per cent, of the population of the United States are anti- Christian in their sentiments — made up of the illiterate, vicious, pauper class, without character and without influ- ence, while 79 per cent, are in alliance with the Protes- tant communions, and 80 per cent, of the wealth of the land is in the hands of the church members. It is Christian men who vote for the establishment of the state universities and it is Christian men who pay the taxes for their support. So while the denominational academies and colleges are distinctively religious, and are sustained by the Christians of the various sects, it is these very same men upon whom the state universities depend for their con- tinuance. In the end, out of the very same pockets comes the money for the maintenance of both classes of schools. Precisely the same is true of our common schools. The ignorant, irreligious 9 per cent, of the population never established them, and are too poor to pay for them. Their children, by a compulsory law, are forced to reap the benefit of them — and that is all. To old Massachusetts belongs the honor of starting them, the very year after founding Harvard; and to the end that "learning may not be buried in the grave of our fathers in church and commonwealth, the Lord assisting our endeavors." Were the time at our disposal it might easily be shown that the influence of Christianity on the matter, the method, and the motive of education has been as marked and influ- ential through the centuries as we have seen that influence to have been on the measure of it. XVI THE PLACE OF THE HOME MISSION SOCIETY IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF AMERICAN CITIES XVI THE PLACE OF THE HOME MISSION SOCIETY IN THE EVANGELIZATION OF AMERICAN CITIES 1 "I look upon the size of certain American cities, and especially upon the nature of their population, as a real danger which threatens the security of the democratic republics of the New World." This was said by de Toque- ville early in the century, when our urban population was relatively less than a third as large and heterogeneous as it is today. A few decades later Wendell Phillips said, "The time will come when our cities will strain our institutions as slavery never did." Still later Professor Bryce said, "The one conspicuous failure of American institutions is the government of her great cities." Later still Professor Gid- dings said, "We are witnessing today, beyond question, the decay — perhaps not permanent, but at any rate the decay — ■ of republican institutions. No man in his right mind can deny it." At the close of the century our wisest political scientists have not yielded to despair, but they are sane enough to see that in the near future cities are to control the nation, and that, consequently, the fate of the republic hangs, as Burke phrases it, "in a dancing and hesitating balance." Let increasing civic intelligence and integrity wield increasing national power or the end must be dis- astrous. Arrest and reverse the movement, or suffer the fatal consequence. The city holds the strategic position in things religious ^Address at the May Anniversaries, 1899, San Francisco, Cal. 407 4o8 The Evangelization of American Cities not less than in things pohtical, and therefore the problem of the city as much concerns the churchman as the states- man. In the study of the problem on its religious side and in the interest of evangelical Christianity, answers to two inquiries will reward our labors. In American cities : ( i ) What is the status of that type of religion which we repre- sent? (2) How can that status be improved? Partisan prepossessions ought to be excluded, and search for truth ought to guide the investigation. I. THE RELIGIOUS STATUS OF CITIES Inquiry, in the first place, along numerical lines will yield instructive results. It is a matter of common knowl- edge that in the present century, throughout the civilized world, the increasing population has drifted from the country to the city. The century has witnessed an urban growth wholly unprecedented in the world's history. In our own day a movement hitherto unknown is displacing and re- placing the populations of Christendom. This phenomenal massing of the people is one of the most striking features of modern times. The movement is not by chance. About it there is nothing mysterious. For it the political econo- mists and others can cite an adequate and obvious cause. An economic law — level to the mind of a child — is redis- tributing the peoples of the earth. Its working cannot be arrested. It is all-embracing and constant as the law of gravitation. In the new century it will work right on, and, under its continued action, will create an ever-increasing relative disproportion between rural and urban populations. America is in no wise peculiar in this regard. In Europe, as well, the cities are outstripping the rural districts. Scot- land is growing at the rate of eleven per cent, a year, but her cities absorb it all. In Denmark the towns grow nearly twice The Religious Status 0} Cities 409 as fast as the country ; in Germany and Belgium more than twice ; in England and Wales nearly three times ; in Sweden four times, and in Norway ten. In Prussia the cities are making phenomenal gains at the expense of an actually decreasing rural population ; and the same is true of France, whose cities continue to increase, in spite of the stationary population of the nation at large. In large numbers the people of Ireland forsake their native soil to seek homes in other lands, but out of every hundred it is ninety-eight from the country and only two from the city. The capitals of Europe exhibit the working of this law in the most striking manner. The larger the city the more phenomenal is its growth. The foundations of London were laid before Caesar invaded Gaul, and yet it was only one-fifth its present size the day William Carey sailed away for India. In the hundred years prior to that event the gain was less than fifty per cent. ; in the hundred years since it has been more than five hundred per cent. The population of Rome has doubled since Leo XIII became pope ; that of St. Peters- burg has trebled since Nicholas was crowned; that of Paris has quadrupled since Napoleon was overthrown. London today is growing faster than New York, and Glasgow and Berlin faster than Chicago and Philadelphia. Returning to America, what wonders the century reveals! In a hundred years the population of the repub- lic has increased twelvefold, but of her cities eighty-six fold. The last census showed in ten years, outside of city limits, an increase of fourteen per cent., but inside an increase of sixty-one per cent. This urban gain was at the expense of the rural districts, for the census showed an actual de- crease of population in more than ten thousand townships. The very decade that diminished the number of inhabitants in nearly eight hundred Illinois townships doubled the 41 o The Evangelization 0} American Cities population of the state's chief city. In the same way hun- dreds of New England's townships fell hehind, while all her larger cities made enormous gains. In the United States are millions of acres of the best land on earth, which the government is anxious to give away to actual settlers, but a relatively decreasing number of people is destined to live on farming lands. By a law as fixed and irresistible as the law which rolls the earth in space, the movement of human kind is out of the country into the city. Men are now living who will see more than half our population urban. Statistical specialists compute that so early as 1920 the urban will outnumber the rural by more than ten mil- lions. In this study of American cities two questions are held in mind: first, What is their religious condition? and secondly. How can this condition be improved ? In answer to the former, we are trying, first of all, to get some light out of mere numbers. The cities in this country have gained in size as never before in history. This is the most patent of facts. Can the same be said of the churches professing the evangelical faith? It is the question of preponderating numbers. With the phenomenal growth of American cities, have the Protestant churches maintained a corresponding growth? In the century, the total population increased twelvefold; the church membership thirty-nine fold; the urban population eighty-six fold — church membership thus multiplying three times as fast as the population of the entire nation, but not half as fast as the population of its cities. The separate and complete statistics for the evan- gelical communions are not accessible, but wherever they have been collated they always point one way. In no marked manner do the smaller cities differ from the larger, except that the larger contain densely populated districts in Growth of Cities and Churches 411 which conditions exist which the smaller cannot parallel. In Boston, in 1840, there was a Protestant church for every 1,228 souls; in 1890, one for every 2,581 souls. In New York, in 1840, there was a Protestant church for every 1,992 souls; in 1890, one for every 4,361 souls. In four Atlantic cities combined, in 1840, there was a Protestant church for every 1,336 souls; fifty years later, in 1890, there was a Protestant church for every 2,300 souls. These six representative eastern cities show the Protestant churches growing not half as fast as the urban population. Statistics for the larger central and western cities yield essentially the same results. In the country at large there is a Protestant church for every five hundred people. In cities of rapid growth this proportion is far from being maintained. Cities making an annual increase of 10,000, 20,000, 40,000, call every year for twenty, forty, eighty, newly organized Protestant churches. Nowhere is this call heeded. In sec- tions of the largest cities a state of things exists well-nigh incredible. In certain areas are forty-four thousand people and seven Protesant churches; fifty thousand people and one Protestant church; sixty thousand people and one Protestant church ; three hundred and sixty thousand people and thirty-one Protestant churches. In the four areas are five hundred and fourteen thousand people and forty Protes- tant churches — one church for twelve thousand eight hun- dred and fifty-one people, whereas the average for the country at large is one for every five hundred. What then is the condition and what are the prospects of Protestant Christianity in American cities, so far as mere numbers make the disclosure ? Grant that the status is twice or thrice as favorable as the figures indicate — still, how fares it with our religion in the big and growing towns? In the second place, inquiry along industrial lines will 412 The Evangelization of American Cities yield instructive returns. For the purposes of this discus- sion, the dwellers in cities may be divided into two classes : those who live by their hands, and those who live by their wits — the workers for wages and the workers for profits, fees, and salaries. The common designation for the former class is working-men. They are the day-laborers, the factory operatives, the toilers in mechanical industries, the bearers of physical burdens — the hewers of wood and draw- ers of water — the wage and servant class. They are the people who know the least of creature comforts, whose homes are least cheerful, whose food is least wholesome and abundant, whose minds are least stirred and developed, whose tastes are least cultivated — the lower and lowest social stratum. They are the people whose outlook is least hopeful, upon whose intelligence the coming years will make diminishing demands because perfected machinery will more and more substitute unskilled for skilled labor, even children taking the place of trained mechanics — working- men being crowded into big factories to be manipulators of well-nigh automatic machines — with nothing in their occu- pation to awaken intellect, exercise judgment, or develop character. They are the people who constitute in point of numbers the larger part of the urban population. Of the dwellers in cities sixty per cent, are to be so classified, and industrial conditions are such that the percentage will be greater in the years to come. Now to both parties it becomes a question of porten- tous concern, what relation exists between the evangelical Protestant churches and this wage-earning class? If the relation is strained and is to continue so, no mortal can forecast the consequences. That reciprocal, friendly, and helpful relations do not exist is matter of common knowl- edge. Working-Men and the Church 413 On the one hand, the churches know Httle of the work- ing people, and take Httle pains to acquaint themselves with their hard lot and their struggles to better their condition. The sentiment of sympathy and helpfulness, not allowed to flow out and bless, dries and hardens into a temper of in- difference and distrust. Their lack of money, intelligence, and refinement, and their complaining spirit, not accepting gracefully their station in life, make them rather undesir- able and even embarrassing material for membership, and so in many churches their presence, and especially in large numbers, is not welcomed, especially if the tendency is to drive away their betters. On the other hand, the wage-earners, with notable excep- tions, have no dealings with the churches. They seldom cross their thresholds. In thousands of congregations even a single representative is rarely seen. In hundreds of the largest and wealthiest churches not a name belonging to this class appears on the register. A grievance, partly fancied, partly real, has gendered a spirit of indifference and alienation, growing, in many quarters, into open and avowed hostility. The working people regard the economic and industrial system, everywhere prevailing in modern times, as a diabolical scheme devised of set purpose to rob and degrade them. They look upon the churches as upholders of this scheme and in league with its inventors to oppress and destroy them. They look upon the ministers as in such helpless dependence on the men who pay their salaries that they dare not heed the poor man's cry nor help to right his wrongs. Truth that can express itself in the terms of the existing economic order is the only truth they are bold enough to utter. In proof that the statement is not over- drawn, listen to the very words from the lips of the work- ing-men themselves and their authorized representatives: 414 The Evangelization 0} American Cities "Men have grown hard under bitter conditions." "The churches are sustained by rich men who grind their work- men." "Their employers attend and control the churches." "The men who grind them in business are the ones whom they recognize in the front pews." "The churches are not built by them, nor for them, but with money taken from them to be used against them." "Until the church repents of its money-worship, it is not a fit companion for the com- mon people." "Let the church help us fight some of our battles with the rich, and show it is friendly with the work- ing classes." "There is no hope of social reform through the church as it exists today." "Ministers are muzzled, and dare not preach the gospel of the carpenter of Nazareth." "We are very well satisfied to have working-men out of touch with the church ; the church must learn before it can instruct." "Plenty of ecclesiasticism in the church, little Christianity." "Christianity is another name for love and truth; 'churchanity' for injustice and oppression." "Cheer the name of Jesus Christ and hiss the church, honoring the one, scouting the other." "The effort of the church to reconcile the commercial morals of modern industrialism with the revelation of human law and life in Christ is treason to the kingdom of God." "Jesus Christ is with us outside the church." "The American working-man hates the very shadow that the spire of the church casts across his pathway." Now grant that this terrific indictment is largely false, based on ignorance and prejudice, it still remains the awful fact that working-men as a class, with or without reason, repudiate the church, and hate the very shadow its spire casts across their path. They constitute more than half the inhabitants of our cities, and their numbers relatively are to be even greater in the coming century. Their alienation The Church and Foreigners 415 from the church is an awful fact, which ought to appall every Protestant Christian, Is there a chasm between the upper and lower classes which neither will cross — the lower through envy and hatred, the upper through hardness and pride — and which Protestant Christianity has no power to bridge? Is ours a class religion, patronized and supported by the well-to-do, the select minority, unsuited to the toil- ing majority who throng our cities? If this is its animus and prospect well may we ask, Does it truly represent the faith which was born in a manger, proclaimed by a carpen- ter, sublimely lived out by a peasant, and originally carried to the ends of the earth by a band of fishermen whose birth and life were cast with common working people? In the third place, inquiry along ethnic lines will yield helpful results. America is a magnet. It has drawn from every quarter of the globe. For generations it has attracted the surplus populations of Europe and Asia. Representa- tives of fifty or sixty nationalities walk our streets. Every year sees a less desirable quality of immigration. Of these aliens twenty-five per cent, cannot speak English; and mil- lions of them can neither read nor write their own language. They are three times as prone to pauperism as our own people, and two and one-half times as prone to crime. Now the fact to be noted is that if America is a magnet in general, the American city is a magnet in particular. These people are not evenly distributed over the face of the country, but concentrated in the larger towns. Seventy-five per cent, of them have made their abode in cities. Half the voters of Chicago and New York are foreign born. In fifty of our chief centers, one-third the people, and in eighteen of them more than one-half, were born beyond the sea. How appropriately do we speak of American cities, when the statistics show that in Philadelphia and New 41 6 The Evangelization 0} American Cities Orleans fifty-one per cent, are aliens or their children of the first generation ; in Providence, fifty-two per cent. ; in Cincinnati, sixty per cent. ; in Boston, sixty-three per cent. ; in Brooklyn, sixty-seven per cent. ; in Buffalo, seventy-one per cent. ; in San Francisco, seventy-eight per cent. ; in St. Louis, seventy-eight per cent. ; in New York, eighty per cent. ; in Milwaukee, eighty-four per cent. ; in Detroit, eighty-four per cent. ; in Chicago, eighty-seven per cent. Now 'in behalf of these aggregated peoples from dis- tant shoresj evangelical foreign churches are doing a worthy but inconsiderable work. Scandinavian, German, and other churches professing the Congregational, Methodist, or Bap- tist faith have won a few disciples, but the millions reimain untouched. The American churches are locally and socially separated from them, never see them, scarcely know of their existence, would be astounded to learn how overwhelming are their numbers. In Paul's mind these race distinctions were obliterated: Jew and Gentile, Greek and barbarian, were all alike to him. Is Protestant Christianity sufficiently Pauline successfully to cross national boundaries and carry the gospel to the Europeans and Asiatics who throng our cities? Have American Christians enough of the foreign missionary spirit to send their money and friends to China, Italy, and India, and then to go themselves to the little Chinas, Indias, Italics, Polands, Bohemias, and so on, which have crossed the seas to set up the selfsame heathenism a dozen blocks away? A five-cent fare with a transfer ticket will land the missionary on his chosen field. The truth is, we, Protestant evangelicals, accounting ourselves the possessors and champions of genuine religion, are surrounded and hemmed in by coreligionists who have read their bibles and consciences all amiss — Romanists, The Topographical Distribution of Churches 417 superstitious and bigoted; Lutherans, formal and worldly; Jews, legal and blind ; heathen, godless and corrupt. In the country at large our people outnumber the Catholics two to one, but in the four largest cities the figures are exactly reversed. Multitudes of these adherents of false and de- stroying creeds drift away from their mother-faith into agnosticism and blatant infidelity, but few indeed embrace our more rational and spiritual religion and mode of life. Seldom do they pass the portals of our sanctuaries ; and on our part, in turn, feeble and therefore futile are the efforts in their behalf. When, without our aid, moved by the Spirit of God, a Papist, Lutheran, Jew, or infidel becomes a Baptist, the wondering pastor sends a notice of it to his religious journal. In the fourth place, inquiry along topographical lines will yield instructive results. Remember we are asking after the actual status of evangelical religion in American cities. In large towns the people are distributed over the geographical area unevenly; in small places the same is true, only in a degree less marked. In sections, the population is sparse, in other sections, dense. On avenues, boulevards, and around the parks, space abounds; along the river-fronts, near the docks, in tenement districts, and in factory quarters, folk abound. An urban population may be divided into two classes, the few and the many. The few enjoy space and have pleasant surroundings. They live perhaps in single and separated houses, owned or rented, with little yards in front or rear, and have a chance to breathe, and a little elbow room. On the contrary, the many huddle together in con- tracted quarters, whole families dwelling in single apart- ments, and groups of families under a single roof, with sunshine and air forbidden luxuries. It is said that the 41 8 The Evangelization 0} American Cities congested districts in American capitals parallel those of the capitals of Europe. Think of the families of Glasgow, one-third of whom live each in one room, and two-fifths of whom live in two rooms — seventy-eight families in one hundred living each in one room or two. Think of London, the heart of Christendom, in which two and one-half mil- lions of immortal beings, singly or in batches, sleep, cook, eat, bathe, and exist in a single room. In broad America in farming and prairie, in mountain and grazing regions space is the chief commodity, but in the city it brings the highest premium. So sixty-six per cent of the farmers can own their own homes, but the denizens of the towns must be crushed together in lodging and tenement houses, night workmen often renting for the day the very bedroom day workmen rented for the night. In cities only thirty per cent, of the dwellers can own their homes; in Boston only eighteen; in old New York only six. The fact before us, the question is, how is Protestant Christianity dealing with these two classes, the folk who live apart and the folk who live together ? A church map of any city will disclose the policy, viz. : the fewer people, the more churches; the more people, the fewer churches. As the people thicken the churches thin. Strange spectacle! Multiply the souls needing salvation, divide the means by which to save them! Let three thousand dwell in ten blocks, and evangelical churches spring up in numbers; let thirty thousand dwell in the same area and the evangelicals run away. The coming of a crowd is the death of a church. Crowding asphyxiates. The history of many churches is the history of successive removals to escape the encroaching multitude. It is a fleeing and search, not for people to save, but for people to save them; not the salvation of others, but self-preservation. A few people living in comfort in the How Improve the Religious Status 419 more pleasant, spacious, and airy parts of the city can do more for us than many people huddled and squeezed to- gether in narrow, unhealthful, and repulsive quarters. At the beginning of this study two main questions were propounded : What is the real status of our kind of religion in American cities? and How can that status be improved? An approximate answer to the first has been sought along numerical, industrial, ethnic, and topographical lines. The way is now open for the second question. II. HOW CAN THIS STATUS BE IMPROVED? Thus far in this discussion no disposition has been shown to deny or conceal the threatening aspects of the urban situation. But pessimism has not held the hand that drew the outline. No follower of the risen and reigning Christ can ever doubt the final issue. It need not be denied, however, that one set purpose has been to weaken the grip of optimism, the greatest peril next after pessimism into which the Christian church can fall. To be a smooth- tongued prophet, calming apprehension, affirming present and perfect readiness to cope successfully with present and rising ills, promising easy and speedy victory over foes less real than fancied, mostly spectral — with no occasion for alarm, no urgent call for action — to be this oily fool or falsifier is almost worse than to be an open prophet of evil, maximizing difficulties and perils, mourning a defeated church, and bemoaning a ruined cause. The exact truth is that things are not so bad as to warrant a despairing pessi- mism, nor so good as to justify a thoughtless optimism. Our urgent need is neither, but simple, sober sanity. "Wis- dom consists in opening our eyes to the facts just as they are, and in adjusting ourselves to them like men." One fact is that the cities are in bad condition — in a big, 420 The Evangelization of American Cities mixed, seething, social, industrial, moral turmoil, boding ill to political and religious institutions. Sane minds ought to see it with both eyes. A second fact is that methods hitherto employed have proved inadequate. It is only with Baptist methods that we are here concerned, and of these we have a right to speak. The direct responsibility of the individual believer, the divine call of the gospel minister, the independence and authority of the local church are recognized Baptist tenets. These tenets, however, not otherwise fortified, while they have wrought some blessed results in city evangelization, have scarcely touched the stupendous needs which loom before us. Few laymen have felt their responsibility, few clergymen have magnified their calling, few churches have exercised their authority. Insuperable difficulties seem to inhere in these independent and unrelated essays. And so, to remedy these defects, but in no wise infringing Baptist principle and polity, local missionary societies have been organized. But here again, while good has been accom- plished, the results have been indifferent. A lack of steadiness, of uniformity, of permanence, has weakened confidence and retarded progress. Observe the stereotyped Baptist way of taking a great city for Christ. An individual becomes interested in the Jews, hires a hall, and sets a converted Israelite to lead the venture. A band of disciples fit up a vacant store, and start a Sunday school in a neglected neighborhood. A church, in a generous or niggardly way, sustains a mission or two. A city mission society pays in part the salaries of a few pastors, aids in building a few chapels, or in paying church debts. The missionary committee of the association renders a little assistance here and there. The state con- vention board contributes a few dollars to a needy church or Stereotyped Baptist Evangelizing 421 preacher. The Home Mission Society makes a loan from its edifice fund, and does kindly acts to Scandinavian and German Baptists. And so the work goes bravely on. Can we wonder that hitherto city missions have gone so haltingly? Often the working plan has been defective. Often the workers themselves have been at cross-purposes. Often the wrong men have led the enterprise. Often the money has been unwisely used. Often some prominent church has refused to co-operate. Often some prominent pastor has dashed cold water on the whole thing. It seems little short of insanity or idiocy to suppose that American cities, the strongholds of evil, the places where Satan's seat is, are to be captured by such maneuvers. The one fact that our cities are on the way to ruin, and the other fact that present Christian effort will never stay their downward progress, leads inevitably to the third fact that the old evangelizing agencies must be reinforced, and that new and mightier agencies must be summoned into action. As things are now, it would be hard to convince a sober mind that we are making a winning fight. The mar- velous growth of the city, far surpassing the growth of churches; the wage-earning class, constituting half the in- habitants, indifferent and even hostile; the alien races, out- numbering the natives sometimes three to one, scarcely touched by our type of Christianity ; the deluded religionists in the thrall of superstition and formality, outnumbering evangelical disciples, beyond the pale of their influence; the congested districts, dense with souls, where the gospel is needed most, whence the churches flee away; growing out of all this the steady increase in vice and crime, and over against it no corresponding increase in virtue and godly living — can any sober man account this victory! Only in part does the responsibility for the redemption 422 The Evangelization of American Cities of our cities devolve upon Baptists. Perhaps they ought to lead the militant hosts of God's elect, but, lead or follov^, God will not hold them guiltless if they fail to do their part. The question of present and paramount moment is, What is their part, and how^ are they to do it? Carlyle says, "To know the new era, and what it bids us do, is ever the sum of knowledge for all of us." But who of us all can claim such wisdom? Blessed are they who know the initial step that leads to that "sum of knowledge," and who have the grace to take it. On this occasion and in this discussion we venture to suggest no more than this initial step. Having taken that, God will reward our faith, increase our knowl- edge, and train us for the later revelations of his will. In time past, under stress and urgency, our churches have turned for aid and guidance to their national society, and have always found in her the help they sought. Note their employment of this great agency — an agency of their own creation — in behalf of the aboriginal tribes, the emanci- pated slaves, the European and Asiatic immigrants, the newly organized and dependent native and foreign churches, the destitute and struggling frontier settlements. At this very hour, under the new responsibilities thrust upon the churches by the outcome of the war, note their call to this same agency to carry the gospel in their behalf to the victims of Spanish tyranny and superstition. And now once more, in pursuance of this same policy, there comes to this same agency a still closer and more pressing call to under- take the redemption of our cities. To uplift Chinamen, negroes, Cubans, and aborigines are worthy tasks, and for the disposition and endeavor let us grant the fullest meed of praise; but no one of these or all together are commensurate with the obligation and importance of uplifting and redeem- ing the cities of this republic. Upon American Christians Evangelization on a Bigger Scale 423 a heavier burden and a graver duty were never laid. Upon this issue hang the destiny of the nation and the moral progress and future of the race. Can our Baptist churches, then, do a wiser thing, and dare they do a lesser thing, than summon their great society to this mighty task? That will be a long step in advance when American Baptists call the American Baptist Home Mission Society to this leadership and control. Reflection will persuade us that she is an agent pre-eminently fitted for this service. Once thoroughly committed, and weighted with the responsi- bility, she can unify our forces — now everything is at sixes and sevens; can harmonize our forces — now variance in purpose and method mars the operation ; can economize our forces — now means are adjusted to ends in wasteful fashion; can combine and concentrate our forces — now scattered and misdirected energies miss the results intended ; can multiply our forces — now the men and churches actually enlisted are few indeed; can perpetuate our forces — now the work begun today is often set aside tomorrow. It would be neither wise nor kind to disparage the present earnest and heroic workers in city missions, or to belittle the results they have achieved. But these very workers, be- fore all men, deplore the existing conditions, and, before all men, long for a change of programme, and realize, before all men, that once let the Home Mission Society begin the work of evangelization in downright earnest, then wiser counsels will at once prevail; the work will move more steadily and strongly ; more enthusiasm will be engendered ; more churches will drop their petty and hindering jealousies ; more men and stronger will pledge their services; more money will be contributed, and more results and better will be achieved. In this hour of sorest need, this is the provi- dential call that our national society shall put her proved 424 The Evangelization of American Cities ability, stable organization, broad experience, splendid re- nown, common-sense, and hard cash behind and into this mighty and stupendous effort to redeem our cities. Then will laymen, pastors, and churches listen, follow, and achieve. Grant that our Baptist people have the wisdom and grace to invoke the aid of the Home Mission Society and to begin in earnest the evangelizing of our cities, then a knowledge of urban conditions and a plan of operations suited to this knowledge are two primary and indispensable requisites to progress and success. The elementary necessi- ties are enlightenment and organization. ENLIGHTENMENT It will be the first duty of the society, therefore, to fur- nish trustworthy, well-arranged, and easily comprehended information. Today Baptists and Baptist churches are steeped in ignorance. Many a laymen would resent this charge who does not know the number of his ward and could not tell to save his life the last-night wanderings of his only son. He knows the way to his store or office where he rushes business through the week and the way to his Baptist church where he worships God on Sunday. Many a metropolitan church would resent this charge whose aristo- cratic environment, roll of membership, schedule of activi- ties, and pose of self-satisfied contentment preclude the possibility of any wide and fruitful knowledge. Laymen, pastors, and churches, then, may well begin with a con- fession of ignorance, and the society may well begin with an elementary and advancing system of instruction, with an orderly and impressive unfolding of the entire truth, a wide and protracted campaign of education. That Baptist brain and heart may receive this thorough schooling, the The Need of Enlightenment 425 society must teach the churches the actual condition of American cities — their rapid and continuous growth, their heterogeneous populations, the segregation of their social classes. Here poverty and misery, injustice and oppression, vice and crime, dissipation and irreligion, are found in their most aggravated and repulsive forms. Tell it all to the churches. Within the same corporate limits are the miser and the pauper, the west end and the east end, the gutter-snipes and the "four hundred," the gilded sin of the club and the tarnished sin of the groggery, vice in rags and shags and vice in velvet gowns, the grinding tyranny of capital and the industrial slavery of labor, aldermen who sell their votes and syndicates that buy them, the anarchists in blouses and the anarchists in broadcloth. Tell it all to the churches. Here exist sordid greed of gold, political corruption, industrial tyranny, social inequality, polished and vulgar wickedness, which strain municipal and national bonds to the point of breaking — presaging industrial and social revolution, involving religion and government alike in the common ruin. Tell it all to the churches. It is the first business of the society to make the Baptist public under- stand the situation. Tell the truth ; lay bare the facts ; turn on the light; neither exaggerate nor falsify; despise all cant; do all in love; discharge the whole, hard duty in a way so clean and straight that every Baptist intellect shall see its truth and every Baptist conscience shall feel its force. Having shown the churches what the city really is, the society must next show them what the city really needs. Any power which inheres merely in the natural and human forms of civilization can never meet the urgencies of the case. After better sanitation, better housing for the poor, better water- and food-supply, better systems of education, better boards of aldermen, all good citizens should ever 426 The Evangelization of American Cities strive, but these can never meet the deepest needs nor fur- nish adequate safeguards against impending peril. All that goes under the name of law, science, commerce, culture, every city needs, but these never braced any city against an ultimate weakening and downfall. We must look elsewhere, therefore, for the forces which are to conserve the city's life. The only hope lies in the conserving power of Christ's religion. If the cities are to last, their foundations must be laid in Bible principle and verity. The eternal and vital forces of God's own New Testament truth must inspire and direct municipal progress and development, or the move- ment must end in decay and death. If the city is ever saved the gospel alone can save it. All this the society must show to the churches and make it as clear as an axiom of mathe- matics. In further pursuit of this policy, it will likewise be the duty of the society, by way of encouragement, to point out and explain the manifold Christian agencies which are already in successful operation looking to the betterment of the city. Every larger town is the inviting field of these methodized and organized evangelizing activities. These are the special instrumentalities and auxiliaries which the church has created and inspired for the pushing of its mis- sionary and reformatory enterprises. Their name is legion, and they all deserve a place in the knowledge, sympathy, and assistance of Christian people, and therefore a place in that programme of education which sets forth what the city really is and needs and what is being done in its behalf. Lastly, the most important and difficult function of the society will be to teach the churches that there are stores of energy in the realm of grace quite as immeasurable and irresistible as in the realm of nature. God's world of spiritual forces is not inferior to his world of material The Divine Resources Available 427 forces. Let the same exact and patient labor be bestowed on the discovery of his thought in the domain of spirit as is bestowed in the domains of mind and matter, and corre- sponding blessed results will follow. Put heavenly scientists on the stretch for the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, as earthly scientists are on the stretch for the secrets of the kingdom of earth, and the laboratory of the church will yield as rich rewards as the laboratory of the school. Admit that there is new truth to break forth from the word of God as new truth is all the time breaking forth from the works of God, and hail and bless the man who discovers a new spiritual truth or duty as you hail or bless the dis- coverer of X-rays or wireless telegraphy, and this very atti- tude of mind will create a whole race of tireless workers whose sole ambition will be to reveal the Father's mind more perfectly. There are undeveloped resources in the kingdom of God which the church has never yet discovered and so of course has never utilized. It is the business of the society to show the churches the immeasurable stores of uplifting and saving power which lie unknown and hence unemployed in the truth and word and Son and Spirit and providence of God. If the darkness and sin in the city are well-nigh infinite, here are light and grace which are altogether so. "Greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world." The conquest of the city is not impossible. Once disclose to the hesitating church the plenitude of the divine power, and the militant host of God's elect will march to speedy victory. ORGANIZAmON I named enlightenment and organization as the two pri- mary and indispensable requisites to progress and success. Coetaneous with the campaign of education, the organiza- 428 The Evangelization oj American Cities tion of our denominational forces is an indispensable con- dition of progress and success. Today, in all our great municipalities, for purposes of united and efficient action, our Baptist army is well-nigh a mob. An imminent need is that the host shall be marshaled, officered, disciplined, and drilled, and that a definite plan of campaign shall be out- lined and projected. We have numbers, indeed, but they resemble the state militia, out of which an efficient army could be developed, but which in fact is ignorant of the manual of arms, and knows nothing of camp discipline and actual service. This raw material the Home Mission Society must call into camp, uniform and provision, break into com- panies and regiments, officer and drill, and transform from new recruits into hardened and disciplined soldiers. An army thus gathered and equipped, the society must deter- mine the time, place, and order of attack, and see that no ounce of powder is wasted, that no life is needlessly sacri- ficed, that the greatest possible results attend the wisest possible expenditure of force. Dropping the military figure, I say that our most urgent present necessity, along with enlightenment, is organization. This organization, in my judgment, must, first of all, be projected on large lines. About it there must be nothing narrow and petty. We live in an age of great undertakings, an age of combinations, syndicates, trusts, capital leaguing itself with capital, corporation with corporation, labor with labor — the individual lost in the mass, and the single laborer and the small tradesman driven to the wall — millions of men forming a compact union, millions of money thrown into a common pool. Here is a lesson for the Christian church : In union there is strength. Individual local inter- ests must merge themselves in the larger cause and thereby share in the larger profits. Our separate, disconnected The Need 0} Efficient Organization 429 Baptist churches will never evangelize the cities. Forever and forever their individualistic efforts will be sporadic, unrelated, ephemeral, sometimes conflicting, always only- half successful. Pastors come and go, churches wax and wane, and only an organization having something of the largeness, unity, and permanence of the city itself can ever cope successfully with its giant and growing evils. In the second place, this large organization must be ably officered. Just as the present-day colossal corporate in- terests of whatever sort are headed by men of commanding- personality, corresponding to the Grants and Lees in the field of arms and the Bismarcks and Gladstones in the field of diplomacy, just so the combined, corporated activities of our Baptist churches, looking to city evangelization, must be under an inspiration and leadership of consummate ability. Mediocrity was never in less demand. Small men are worse than useless. They can never take in the situa- tion, nor command the respect of Christian intelligence, nor call out the latent power of the churches, nor outline a worthy plan of operations, nor bring any large enter- prise to a successful issue. The hour calls for leaders whose talent borders close on genius. Note in our cities the repre- sentatives of the modern civilization, the leaders in news- papers, schools, banks, railroads, commerce, manufacture, the alert, persistent, and tireless workers who have made possible and actual the astounding material advancement of the present age. Men of like brain and genius, of like powers of discovery and creation, are needed by the churches to methodize and energize their religious operations. Small, weak men can only belittle and destroy. In the third place, our national society must offer the churches an organization thoroughly modern in its methods of working. In recent times man's ways of doing things 43° The Evangelization of American Cities have wholly changed. Wooden plows, ox teams, tallow dips, and all their accompaniments belong to an antiquated realm, for which no room is left in the world we live in. The new age — mechanical, industrial, commercial, educational, socio- logical— has completely revolutionized the life of the race. The new machinery which doubles the manufacturing power of the world every seven years ; steam and electricity which are annihilating time, space, darkness, and cold ; the new division of labor which runs the separate parts of a lady's slipper through sixty pairs of hands before it is ready for its wearer's foot; the new discoveries, inventions, sciences, appliances — these changed conditions in the lives of the civilized races render it utterly impossible to save the cities by the old stage-coach and spinning-wheel methods. If Christian people will not take on the new spirit, nor adjust themselves to their new environment, nor part company with their antiquated ways, they will be simply thrust aside in the onward movement of the human race. As Bishop Potter of New York has said : At such a time, for the church of God to sit still and be content with theories of its duty outlawed by time, and long ago demonstrated to be grotesquely inadequate to the demands of a living situation, this is to deserve the scorn of men and the curse of God. In its organization of our Baptist forces for city evange- lization, one chief duty of the Home Mission Society will be so to modernize our methods of operation as to bring them into up-to-date relations with methods everywhere else pre- vailing. In the last place, the most difficult task of all will be so to organize the work as to reduce waste and loss to the minimum. Science has demonstrated the correlation and conservation of forces. In nature's laboratory nothing is ever wasted. Under the natural, scientific principles which The Economic Use oj Resources 431 dominate modern business operations the profit accrues from what was formerly thrown away. Today the science of business consists in gathering up the fragments. We natur- ally think of a packing-house as the place where meat is pre- pared for the butcher's stall, but an ox serves a vast number of utilities of which its meat is only one. Literally every part and particle of the animal is transformed into some useful product, and no part is turned to waste. Complete utilization is the goal actually reached, the list of utilities running up into no less than 2,700 different manufactured products, each in its own way filling some imperative want of humanity. That each part of an ox may be carried to its utmost economic value, millions of capital are turned into these saving, remunerative channels. This economic utilization which characterizes all the processes of nature, and all the operations of man so far as he follows the laws of nature, the Christian church needs to carry over into the realm of grace. In the kingdom of nature all is saved ; in the kingdom of grace most is wasted. In the economic world the forces are mostly conserved; in the religious world they are mostly dissipated. The most damning charge that can be brought against the Christian church is its prodigal, criminal waste. In exactly this our national society faces its hardest problem. Granted that our Baptist people have the wisdom and grace to invoke the aid of the Home Mission Society and to begin in earnest the evangelizing of our cities, then, if the first duty of the society is enlightenment, the second duty, no less urgent, is organization — an organization that shall conserve and utilize the Baptist power now running to waste; an organization whose methods and machinery employ the newest processes and patents; an organization whose leaders are the peers of railroad magnates and com- 432 The Evangelization of American Cities mercial kings in insight and foresight, in business sagacity, in executive talent, and who are vastly their superiors in heavenly wisdom and enthusiasm; an organization whose largeness in the scope of its operations resembles those vast business corporations which control the products and in- dustries of the land. Our cities will be evangelized when we enter into large operations, under masterful leaders, using the most modern appliances, and utilizing to the utmost the resources at our disposal. XVII THE BAPTIST OUTLOOK XVII THE BAPTIST OUTLOOK ^ In time past marked changes have occurred in the beHefs and practices of American Baptists. In time present changes more rapid and radical are taking place. In time future Baptists will differ from us even more than we differ from our fathers. This shifting of denominational position creates among our people conflicting opinions. Some see in it a departure from New Testament ideals, others a return to them. With some it betokens retrogression, with others progress. Some dare not even touch the Bible and are sure it is about to be injured; others dare not let it alone and are equally sure it is about to get fresh vigor and strength. Some fear the foundations are being removed, others are confident they are being settled. Some turn to the past and would hold back, others hail the future and would push ahead. These diverse views are breaking our Baptist brother- hood into parties. Already the line of separation is becoming so definite and fixed that preachers and churches are array- ing themselves or being arrayed on one side or the other. Party names are being given or assumed. "Conservative" and "Progressive" are beginning to be so employed. Per- haps these terms will remain. Neither is a term of reproach. Each stands for a great and even necessary idea. We shall be helped in presaging the future of our de- nomination by noting some points in which conservative and * From The Standard, February 27, 1897. 435 436 The Baptist Outlook progressive Baptists agree and some points in which they differ. BAPTISTS AGREE Party lines do not divide us, and are not likely to, on what are commonly accepted as our distinctive principles. All Baptists believe and will probably continue to believe in immersion, believers' baptism, a regenerate church member- ship, the memorial character of the Lord's Supper, local church independency, separation of church and state, soul- liberty. Perhaps increasing numbers are and will be less tenacious of the logical order of the ordinances than form- erly. Perhaps increasing numbers are not positively sure of the binding authority of our simple, pure, congregational government. However evident in the New Testament writ- ings and however suited to the first century, it may be less suited to the twentieth, and there is no explicit command. Perhaps increasing numbers suspect that while in theory the Baptists are stout believers in soul-liberty there is no denomi- nation harder on its members if they are rash enough to exercise it. With these slight modifications all Baptists see eye to eye, and are likely to, on our distinctive principles. They will be held as intelligently and tenaciously in the future as in the past, only less belligerently, with less acri- mony, emphasis being laid on points of agreement with other denominations more than on points of difference. Party lines do not divide us, and are not likely to, on the great fundamental, saving, and moral truths of Chris- tianity. Those truths which lie under all religion, those in which consists the saving efficacy of the gospel, those which give breath and form to a life pleasing to God, all Baptists heartily accept and defend. Over the central and vital prin- ciples of the Christian religion, the experimental accept- Baptists Agree and Disagree 437 ance of which renews the soul and the ethical outworkings of which render the renewed life worthy and useful, Baptists have never entered into controversy. They hold a common faith concerning the basal verities of our religion, and speak a common language concerning its graces, duties, and re- wards. When all non-essentials are stripped away and all is reduced to original simplicity and necessity. Baptists, in the future as in the past, will confess a common creed. They have never questioned any primary, saving, and morally essential truth of the gospel, and they show no disposition to do so. We may believe, therefore, that Baptists will never divide on those distinctive principles which separate them from other communions, nor on those simple, ultimate, evangelical verities which unite them with all true believers. BAPTISTS DISAGREE Troubles begin to appear, and divisive opinions to arise when we enter the domain of metaphysics, of speculative philosophy, of historical inquiry, of dogmatic theology, of scientific discovery, of literary criticism. Here the Baptists are no longer one. In our ranks the division is less appar- ent than in some other denominations, but it is no less real. The lines are being drawn and the party spirit is gaining strength. Already the things in which we disagree are being more talked about and emphasized than those greater things in which we stand together. Talk and emphasis are passing on to criticism and censure. In the near future every intelli- gent layman and minister will place himself or be placed in one or other of two well-defined parties. Even now the marks are plain enough for descriptive purposes. The very names assumed or imposed, which begin to be heard, are in part descriptive. 43^ The Baptist Outlook THE CONSERVATIVES The Conservatives are the old party. They stand for the old beliefs and practices. They constitute a large body of brethren who wish things to remain about as they have been and are. We hear them saying: "The opinions we cherish, and in the strength of which we have lived, were bequeathed to us by spiritual fathers who loved God and served their generation, and ought by us to be handed down to our sons, who, in turn, should pass them on to children's children. Opinions tested by time, entertained by the wisest and best of men, taught us and, in turn, taught by us in home and church and school, only recently called in ques- tion by a few zealots eager for innovation and change; opinions such as these we shall still maintain and defend." A generation ago this Conservative party embraced nearly the entire Baptist brotherhood. There was only here and there an erratic, sporadic case of deviation from the recog- nized standards. Probably now the party enrols the great majority of American Baptists. THE PROGRESSIVES The Progressives are the new party. Not long ago they, too, were Conservatives, but they have been touched by influ- ences which have thrown them out of sympathy with the old order of things. These Baptists with new ideas, though not as numerous as Baptists of the old type, seem to be increas- ing, and already constitute a fair body of brethren who are not at all content to have things remain as they were and are. This discontent has been created and nourished by the new thought that has spread abroad since the beginning of the last half of the present century. The marvelous prog- ress in the domain of natural and physical science, the The Progressives 439 recently promulgated theories of evolution, the philosophical and theological speculations imported from Germany, the reconstructed apologetical literature adapted to present-day exigencies, the discoveries in the ruins of ancient oriental dynasties, the studies in comparative philology and in com- parative religion, the new way of conceiving and writing history, the new canons of literary criticism, the new out- look in the realms of ethics, the new science of sociology and the new humanitarian activities — this new world of new thought in the midst of which we are living has profoundly moved some of our Baptist brothers. It has not merely changed their point of view and given them a new center of observation, it has well-nigh revolutionized the very sub- stance of their thinking. They do not look at things as they once did. Mere modification of conception has passed over to radical transformation. They are not able to analyze the process by which this change has come about. It certainly has not been in the main by a conscious, deliberate dropping of old ideas, but rather in the main by an unconscious pass- ing over into a new world in which the old ideas cannot sur- vive. Notions for which they would once have laid down their lives are notions for which they would not now lift a finger. They have either ceased to be true to them or have lost their interest and importance. The whole subject of religion is now looked upon in the light of the new learning. There is not a time-honored belief which must not submit itself to fresh scrutiny. In the ecumenical creeds we have not the final word on the points of which they treat. The doctrinal statements of the Westminster divines need re- vision. The five points of Calvinism are not as delightfully clear and sure and comforting as they once seemed. Indeed, Calvinism, by a process of dilution, seems likely to weaken itself out of the world. Mediaevalism and traditionalism 440 The Baptist Outlook can no longer command respect and assent simply because they are wrinkled and gray. The Progressives, living in this new world of new thought, give a new statement or a new emphasis to nearly every article of religion. They have a new conception of God, of his goodness and glory. His sheer sovereignty and decrees fall into the background, and his moral excel- lence, beauty, and common Fatherhood fill the vision. They have a new conception of Christ as the express image of his Father's person and the perfect revelation of his thought and love; and of Christ's work in man's behalf as designed to meet the necessities and aspirations of his entire being — body, mind, soul — for time and eternity, in earth and in heaven. They have a new conception of man, of his crea- tion in God's image, and his boundless possibiHties of growth in the likeness of his Creator, Father, and Savior. They have a new conception of the Bible. They have ceased to believe that it was dictated in a mechanical way, and that its chief design was to furnish proof -texts in polemical the- ology. They have parted with many of the traditional notions of the authorship, structure, and purpose of the sacred books. They maintain that no theory of inspiration has yet been advanced which covers the facts, and that their reconstructed Bible is a book more human and divine, more consistent and rational, more helpful and inspiring than the traditional volume. Living in this new, modern, up-to-date world, they think their view of all truth is broader, pro- founder, more in accord with fact, more soul-satisfying, more helpful to man, and more honoring to God. So it has come to pass in our denomination that we have or are about to have two parties differing widely in their views of the Bible, and on many of the dogmas of specu- lative theology, yet claiming to be loyal Baptists, and pro- Will They Fight or Be Gracious? 441 fessing their distinctive principles, and agreeing perfectly on the really central and vital things of revealed religion — the fundamental, saving, and ethical truths of the Christian system. WILL THEY FIGHT? In presaging the future of our denomination, the su- preme question is, What is to be the attitude of these parties toward each other? If they are to fight, ostracize, unde- nominationalize each other, then presently Conservatives and Progressives will not be on speaking terms. If the old and the new are to fight it will be a fight all along the line, among pastors, between schools, in churches, associations, conventions, national societies. It will extend to our young people, seminaries, mission fields, religious press, to all our organized denominational activities. Many will tire of the conflict and pass over to other more strait-laced or liberal communions, or will try to propagate their views by inde- pendent movements. Old and new will wage a war of extermination, and neither will live to gain the satisfaction of having destroyed the other. If both parties are to invite and keep up a satanic spirit Satan will deservedly get them both in the end, and, perforce, the denomination will go to the devil. WILL THEY BE GRACIOUS TO EACH OTHER? On the other hand, if the evil spirit is exorcised, and a Christly spirit takes its place, then the two parties can each help the other and both can help the denomination. This good spirit will lead each party to see that in the other the real leaders, pastors, teachers, intelligent laymen, are sin- cere Christians, holding the distinctive Baptist tenets, pledged to the essentials of evangelical religion, anxious to have God honored, souls saved, the church established, and 442 The Baptist Outlook Christ's kingdom widened. Of intelligence, unsullied character, the spirit of inquiry, love of truth, fair minded- ness, neither party has the monopoly. This good spirit will lead each party to say, the truth has nothing to fear from the fullest inquiry. It can never suffer by examination. Therefore the truth we hold the other party can turn bottom side up and inside out, search it, scrutinize and analyze it, try it to their heart's content and their wit's end. If it is really truth, they have no power to destroy it. No crucible can be hot enough to injure gold. If, perchance, dross is there, let the fires burn it out. This good spirit will lead each party to vie with the other in the exercise of a tolerant temper. The Baptists have taught the other denominations and the Christian world what toleration is, and now we will not violate the letter and spirit of it against our own brethren. In every decade of our history we have suffered in some part of the world from the intolerant spirit of the professed disciples of Christ. We have felt the injustice of it. We have pro- tested against the iniquity of it. We have warned our adversaries that they could never win their cause by the exercise of it. We have by unyielding persistence and patient suffering gained the victory over it. Today we stand before the world as the triumphant champions and defenders of toleration; and today we will not belie our antecedents by turning with intolerant zeal against our own brethren who happen to be so unfortunate as to be poorer theologians than ourselves. This good spirit will lead both parties to confess that truth never emerges except by agitation. What the theo- logical world is always needing is a campaign of education. Bring the conflicting opinions into the arena of open debate. Give all sides a fair hearing. Investigate as fully and freely Both Parties Are Needed 443 and deeply as you please, and bring the result to public notice. The time is past for repression, which will only beget suspicion which in time will harden into distrust and disbelief. Up with it and out with it. Then let objections reasonably urged be given a fair hearing and be reasonably met. The distractions created by divided opinions are only temporary, the resultant good is permanent. Therefore let opposing notions grapple. The issue cannot be doubtful. Free discussion is the life of knowledge and the death of falsehood. When this good spirit leads each party to recognize the honesty and ability of the other, leads each party believing that truth is indestructible freely to offer it for testing, leads neither party to crush the other by tortures of the inquisition, leads both parties plainly to see that only as differing views grapple with each other is there any chance for truth to gain a victory, then under the tuition of this good spirit, each party will help the other and both will help the denomination. It is difficult to see how our people can well get on without the aid of both. Both seem essential to our best advancement, only providing that both are inspired and controlled by a worthy spirit. In general the Conserva- tives are needed to keep the Progressives from going too fast, and the latter are needed to keep the former from standing still, and under this alternating check and spur we may confidently look for healthful progress. A BETTER BIBLE This friendly contention of Conservatives and Progres- sives will give us a better Bible and a better understanding of it. So long as the original text and the transla- tion of it are not the best the most enlightened scholarship can give, there still remains room for improvement. So long 444 The Baptist Outlook as the date, authorship, structure, purpose, and interpreta- tion of a sacred writing are left in an obscurity which enlightened scholarship might clear away, a better under- standing of the Word is our privilege and duty. "The Bible is what the Bible means, and not what inaccurate transla- tions and misinterpretations make it seem to mean." The Bible is what the Bible really is, and not what men pledged to a preconception have tried to force it to be. The Book as a whole, who made it, and how he made it, and why he made it, exactly how it came into the world, and what it is here for, are topics in debate on which the Progressives should prod the Conservatives out of their inertia, and on which the Conservatives should check the undue haste of the Progressives. This enlightened criticism and counter- criticism will give the Baptists of the future a better Bible and a better understanding of it than Baptists today enjoy. A BETTER THEOLOGY The Baptists of the future are to have a much better theology than we now possess. It was never in more sorry plight than it is today. It has left the old positions and has not yet reached the new. Once Baptists felt safe and happy in the rigid inclosures erected by that "godly, learned man, John Calvin." Once the Westminster Confession furnished them the doctrinal formula which sheltered and nourished their souls. Once Andrew Fuller's reconstructed and mod- erated Calvinism seemed exactly to meet the necessities of the case. Thirty, twenty, fifteen years ago our seminaries served out a theology which some of the conservative pupils are disposed still to retain, but which to their progressive teachers has become obsolescent. The theology of the future may not be the "new theology" of today, but it will be a vast improvement on the old theology of yesterday. It A Better Education and Ecclesiasticism 445 will not revolve around metaphysical abstractions nor deal largely in proofless and profitless fictions. It v^ill come nearer to the real heart of things, will make Christ more central and regnant, will seek more the spirit than the letter of the Bible, will shape itself to the needs of this life quite as truly as to the life beyond. We may trust the Pro- gressives to import into it all the divine treasures which the new learning of this new age can provide, while we may trust the Conservatives that no divine treasure of the old theology shall be discarded or neglected. A BETTER EDUCATION Along with a better Bible and a better theology we are to have a better education — more of it and of a higher quality. In the last half-decade marvelous strides have been made in an educational way. East, west, and south an im- pulse hitherto unknown has seized our people. Apparently not yet has the denomination struck its gait, but once under way the next half-century will show an advance which only the most daring would venture to predict. True to their instincts the Conservatives are finding fault with the teachers and the teaching, with the things taught and those who teach them — with the new spirit which has seized the schools — but their obstructive tactics will simply keep the Progressives in healthful movement — not too fast for safety — and the denomination will enjoy an educational progress unprecedented in Baptist history. A BETTER ECCLESIASTICISM A better-educated people with a better understanding of the Bible and a better theology, will have a better ecclesiasti- cism. We shall still hold our denominational tenets as wisely and firmly as ever, but sectarianism for the mere sake of sec- tarianism will seem to our children unworthy of Christian 446 The Baptist Outlook men. Confronted by the sullen masses of heathenism abroad, and the tremendous forces of evil at home, we shall feel that it is more important to stand with other denomi- nations against our common enemies than to stand aloof from them for our distinctive principles. We shall still teach what we conceive to be the evident meaning of the word of God, but the old bitterness will disappear. We shall indulge no more in railing accusations. The out- rageous way in which we have been treated by other de- nominations will be forgotten. The marvelous progress of Baptist principles in the past, principles of which these denominations are stout champions today, but for which they whipped, fined, and imprisoned us a few generations back — this gratifying incorporation of principles for which we once stood alone against the world leads us to hope that the other denominations will some day have sense and grace enough to adopt the few that remain. We shall still insist on Bible teaching, but shall try to do it in the spirit of the Bible. It will be some time before Baptists are no longer needed, but we shall make ourselves as agreeable to other people as their errors will permit; and we shall show them plainly that our ecclesiasticism is no bar to the most brotherly co-operation where the interests are common and no principle is in peril. Here as elsewhere the tendency of Conservatives to obtrude denominationalism offensively and of Progressives to disparage denominationalism unduly will check and correct each other. A BETTER MISSIONARY ENDEAVOR In the missionary activities of the Baptists the party spirit is not yet conspicuously present. Here, as elsewhere, however, the old and the new are likely to come into col- lision. There exists a good deal of discontent with present Better Missionary and Sociological Work 447 ideas, aims, methods, and results, which manifests itself in a half-hearted support of existing agencies, but which will some time take new shape in open criticism and in sugges- tions of reform. If the advocates of old-time missions, and the advocates of radical and far-reaching innovations and readjustments meet each other in a spirit of fairness and concession a gradual and peaceful revolution will not be impossible. Not too much will be demanded and not too much will be conceded. The recent creation of a Commis- sion on Systematic Beneficence is one of the hopeful signs. It means much that the officials of our missionary organi- zations are willing to occupy common ground, and to bring their several societies into co-ordinate relations. Perhaps this will prove a greater indirect blessing than anything directly intended. Certainly its tendency will be quietly to remove the wicked distinction between foreign and home missions, and the wicked partisan spirit which that distinc- tion has so unhappily fostered. This instance is a good illustration of the way in which God, in his overruling provi- dence, can break down antiquated prejudices, can harmonize jarring interests, can reshape and reanimate our whole broad denominational missionary enterprise. A BETTER SOCIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY It is certain that in the future the new science of soci- ology will play a conspicuous part in the activities of Baptists. Once two preaching-services, a Sunday school and a prayer-meeting, composed the public duty of a Baptist church. Only narrow and belated people entertain that idea now. Today Christians and churches see it to be part of their Christianity to understand and to help man in all his conditions and relations. It is not enough to think of his soul and his future. To be effective this thinking must 448 The Baptist Outlook include his body as well, and all the antecedents and sur- roundings that affect his soul. And this thinking must become truly effective by reaching a helping hand to the whole need of the whole man. A fractional service will not meet the coming ideal. The institutional church is the initial step in this direction. Such churches will exist in all our larger towns before the close of the century; and our wide-awake missionaries in China and India will catch the idea and transport it to foreign lands. It seems inevitable that much precious energy will be ill directed and wasted in the transition from the historical to the ideal Baptist church, but undoubtedly the improvement will justify the expenditure. A BETTER YOUNG PEOPLE's INFLUENCE It would astonish our fathers to witness the prominence of the young people in modern Christianity. This promi- nence will not diminish. Some evils are already here and still others will doubtless come, but the advantages of this phenomenal movement easily overmaster all unfriendly criticism. The elderly members may wisely attempt to guide this mighty force, but they will never be foolish enough to attempt to stay its progress. The wisdom of creating an independent denominational organization seems to be steadily justifying itself by the increased intelligence and efficiency which its educational and systematizing agencies are bringing about. A few years of Christian culture courses will bring upon the scene of action a generation of Baptists better prepared than were their predecessors to do the Christian work of the day, and to realize the aims and claims of the religion they profess. In the near future we may look for a hot contest between the Conservatives and Progressives over the possession and control of the young A Better Young People's Influence 449 people because it is evident that the whole future is in their keeping. Men who cling to the past and are afraid of innovation will do their utmost to silence the questionings of the Baptist youth and to frighten them into submission to established notions and customs. Men whose minds are open to new impressions and who are willing to change their views on sufficient ground will do their utmost to free the Baptist youth from the trammels of traditionalism and to make them reverently receptive of divine truth however it may collide with their preconceptions. Between Conserva- tives and Progressives our young people will get a training which will admirably fit them for the new duties of the new age into which they are about to enter. In that new age most of the questions which now divide us will be finally settled, and our people will be of one mind concerning them. Just as we have forgotten the issues which distracted our fathers, so our children will forget the issues over which the conflict rages now. In that day new issues will emerge and new lines of division will be drawn. As of old the conservative spirit and the progressive spirit will enlist on opposite sides ; and with new questions in dis- pute the Christian world will advance in the future as in the past under the check and spur of these two principles which have their seat in human nature itself. XVIII THE MAN AND THE MESSAGE FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY XVIII THE MAN AND THE MESSAGE FOR THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ^ In many respects, the nineteen Christian centuries are exactly alike. An element of sameness runs through them all. In many respects, each century has its characteristic features which markedly distinguish it from every other. Christian men of our age share with Christian men of other ages in the experience of grace common to all saints, and at the same time exhibit types of gracious experience peculiar to the age in which they were born. The gospel message is the same in all ages, though in each age peculi- arities attach themselves to it which modify its outward expression. It is to be noted that the things in which all centuries agree are more radical and important than the things in which they differ. The things in which the Chris- tian man has a share in common with all fellow-Christians are more real and central than the things which make his case singular and unique. The things in which the gospel message is the very same in whatever age are more vital and urgent than the things in which some particular age gives the message a peculiar setting and adaptation. Now, in speaking of the man and the message for the twentieth century, I could confine myself to those features of the twentieth century and to those elements of Christian manhood, and to those constituents of the gospel message which are common to all the centuries, and in so doing I ^ Opening address before the Divinity School, The University of Chi- cago, October 4, 1899. 453 454 Man and Message for Twentieth Century should be dealing with the matters of most fundamental and abiding import. But, in so doing, I should also be dealing with matters with which we are already familiar; over which it would be difficult to awaken fresh inquiry; concerning which there would be scant room for difference of opinion, and upon which there is no present and special call for reflection. On the other hand, if, in this discussion, I should direct attention to those peculiarities of the twentieth century which differentiate it from every other, and on account of which the gospel message suited to that century must be differentiated from the message as delivered in any other (I mean not in its essentials but in its accessories), and on account of which the man proclaiming the message must possess qualifications not hitherto exhibited, because not hitherto necessitated, the discussion, so conducted, while dealing with matters less fundamental and vital, would cer- tainly be more timely and helpful. The discussion, so con- ducted, though more liable to misconception, more open to debate and questioning, more exposed to criticism and cen- sure, and more perilous to the speaker, would be more pro- vocative to thought, and in every way more stimulating and informing. I choose, therefore, to pursue this latter course, and especially because, in addition to what has already been said, this seems to be the very intent of the subject assigned me. It is not the man in general, nor the message for any age, but the man and the message for the twentieth century. In elaborating my theme, I do not assume the role of a prophet. The centuries overlap. The nineteenth is about to merge into the twentieth. The early part of the twentieth must necessarily partake of the spirit and tendencies of the closing part of the nineteenth, and it is only with the early part that we are directly concerned. Four Classes of Men 455 In the new century upon which we are about to enter the Christian preacher, teacher, and leader will meet four classes of men: (i) Firm believers who have embraced the Chris- tian religion because they are satisfied it is true; (2) firm unbelievers who have rejected the Christian religion be- cause they are satisfied it is a delusion; (3) a class indiffer- ent to the Christian religion, careless whether it is true or false; (4) a class who have neither accepted nor rejected because their faith is stifled by the anti-Christian prejudices with which the atmosphere is charged. They cannot be numbered with pantheists, materialists, deists, or agnostics, on the one hand ; neither, on the other, can they be accounted Christians. Their sympathies are on the Christian side, but their minds are held in suspense. They have been described as "generous spirits," having "a certain fairness and open- ness of mind," but "under hostile bias." "They are drawn in two directions, toward and away from Christ." They are "honest doubters" who would gladly reach a "stable faith" — "sincere inquirers, earnest seekers after God and truth, groping their way amid the darkness of involuntary misapprehensions." Do not indulge the thought that this latter class is small. It is large today and will be larger tomorrow unless con- ditions change. Many such bewildered minds are found in Christian congregations. They do not parade their per- plexities. They keep their own counsels. They give an outward countenance to the cause of Christ, but they make no profession. Still others have drawn away from the churches altogether, who, nevertheless, have not discarded religion, and who perhaps are nearer the kingdom of God than many whose only claim to faith is based on the "acci- dents of birth and education." In every Christian com- munity, among the churchless masses, many there are in 456 Man and Message for Twentieth Century whom there still remains a "spiritual receptivity,' cere sympathy with the good, an implicit rudimentary faith in God, a restless longing for light on the dark problems of life;" men and women who are neither Christian nor anti- Christian, waiting for a satisfactory escape from the be- wildering maze in which they find themselves placed. Now by virtue of this twentieth-century situation — a situation continued from the nineteenth — by virtue of the material with which the Christian man will have to deal, he is of necessity under obligation to proclaim a gospel message which shall be, in part at least, apologetic. An urgent func- tion of the Christian preacher and teacher will be to uphold the faith, to remove groundless objections, to clear away prejudices, to set it forth in a favorable light, to win for it a favorable regard. This part of his task will not be in the interest of the first three classes. But eminently and solemnly in the interest of the fourth class — people thought- ful and honest, keenly sensitive to the new ideas which are finding place in the modern world, no longer resting peace- fully in the religious notions of their childhood, perturbed, doubting, dissatisfied, inquiring; only needing the intelligent sympathy and proper guidance of wise leaders to be brought into Christian discipleship ; prepared to hear Christ gladly and follow in his footsteps "if his own true voice could only reach their ear." For this class, I say, it is imperative that the gospel message shall have an apologetic tone ; not apolo- getic in the sense of apologizing, nor even of defending, but of simplifying, clarifying, modernizing, bringing the first and twentieth centuries closer together. Once again, the Christian preacher, teacher, and guide will meet in the twentieth century (as he does now in the nineteenth), among professed Christians themselves, two classes of men : Two Classes of Professed Christians 457 First, disciples who have accepted a formulated scheme or system of Christian doctrine which they honestly believe sets forth truthfully the religion of Christ and in which their minds find satisfaction and rest. It is a programme of beliefs which seems to them orderly and coherent, and which can vindicate itself at the bar of Scripture, of history, and of experience. They label their favorite confession of faith Calvinism, or Arminianism, or Socinianism, or Anglicanism, or Lutheranism, or Roman Catholicism. The accepted "ism," whatever it is, represents to their minds the religion which Jesus Christ came into the world to establish. Then there is a second class of disciples to whom the traditional theology, under whatever form, is far from satis- factory. They behold an elaborate schedule of dogmatic propositions which the modern church has inherited, and which many in the modern church deem it a matter of life and death to perpetuate, but which to their minds has lost its power of appeal. They have grown away from it. They have lost their interest in it. They have ceased to believe it. Have they discarded religion ? Oh, no. They have dis- carded this ecclesiastical casing in which well-meaning people have tried to confine and preserve it, and with which many have even tried to identify it. To their minds religion and dogma are not identical, and the current theology is not a worthy expression and exponent of the religion Jesus taught. Some of its articles are certainly true, some half true, some not true at all. Some have their solid bases in both reason and revelation, but some cannot be justified at the bar of philosophy, of science, of Scripture, or common- sense, or even of morality itself. It is to be noted that this mental and moral attitude toward ecclesiastical dogma is of recent origin. Within the last thirty years the new conditions have arisen which have 458 Man and Message for Twentieth Century thus unsettled multitudes of earnest, truth-loving souls theologically, and their numbers multiply as the nineteenth century wanes. Now by virtue of this twentieth-century situation, a situation continued from the nineteenth, by virtue of the material with which the Christian preacher and teacher will have to deal, he is of necessity obligated to proclaim a gospel message which shall be in part at least polemic. He cannot escape his environment; the needs of his constituency fix the character of his responsibility. He must address him- self to the task of proclaiming a message which on its theological or dogmatic side, while true to the facts of reve- lation, shall not ignore the facts of modern enlightenment. Underlying his message must be a theology expressing the eternal verities of our religion in terms of modern thought and in full view of modern needs. Taking the whole revela- tion of God, as found in nature, man, the Book, and Christ, he must so draw out its contents as to enlighten and per- suade that large and increasing class whose intellectual and spiritual characters have been so profoundly affected by twentieth-century influences. This he owes to the religion he represents and to the men and women whom confessional theology can never satisfy. I said, in the first place, that the twentieth century mes- sage must be in part apologetic. I say now, in the second place, that it must be in part polemic. In contrast with the antiquated forms of thought which so many have discarded, it must modernize its dogmatic statements. It must offer the living present a living theology drawn fresh from living sources. Still other changes in twentieth-century conditions will call for still other adaptations of the gospel message, but I have not time to name them here. I wish now to present An Apologetic Message Needed 459 somewhat in detail the grounds or reasons for my conten- tion that the gospel message in the twentieth century must exhibit the characteristics I have named. I. THE NEED OF AN APOLOGETIC MESSAGE I examine, first, the conditions which will necessitate an apologetic message. Early in this new age these conditions will be the very same as now prevail ; what the new age itself will develop no mortal can foretell. What are the perplex- ing ideas by which many earnest minds, predisposed in favor of the revealed religion, will be harassed and hin- dered in the coming century and which it will be the func- tion of the apologetic message to adjust to the Christian faith ? They spring from four sources : First, the postu- lates of recent philosophy; secondly, modern research in the domain of comparative religion; thirdly, the new literary-critical study of the Sacred Scriptures; fourthly, the discoveries and hypotheses of modern science. With the first two I have not the time to deal ; the third and fourth I dwell upon just long enough to disclose the new point of view. 3. THE HIGHER CRITICISM We derive our original knowledge of Christianity from the writings of the New Testament, with which are inti- mately associated the Hebrew scriptures. In recent years, this body of ancient literature has been subjected to a search- ing examination, resulting in the rejection, on the part of eminent scholars, of many of the opinions hitherto enter- tained by the Christian church concerning the authorship, date, structure, purpose, etc., of many of the writings con- tained in the Sacred Canon. This work of learned and fear- less examination will pass on into the new century, and in 460 Man and Message for Twentieth Century the future as in the present will not only greatly disturb many earnest Christians, but will also raise doubting in- quiries in the minds of many who make no profession of religious faith. Here is raised a formidable obstacle in the way of their coming over, with hearty conviction, to the Christian side. Let me enumerate a few of the findings of these men who have given themselves to the laborious and penetrating study of the literature of the ancient Hebrews and the early Christians. Their handling of the books of the Bible cer- tainly plays havoc with many of our preconceived notions. I used to be told that the Pentateuch was written by Moses, except the account of his own death; but now I am told that he had a very small part in its composition; that the Book of Genesis is really a compilation of pre-existing materials having diverse literary characteristics; that some- one, long after Moses, dovetailed together these separate documents into one composite book of origins ; that the four "books of the Pentateuch which follow Genesis are also for the most part post-Mosaic;" that the collections of laws which they contain exhibit "at least three distinct strata of legislation, of different dates, but all subsequent to the time of Moses." I used to be told that the order of events was nearly the same as that laid down in the Bible itself — the elaborate system of legislation attributed to Moses coming long before the great prophecies which are printed in the last part of the book; but now I am told that the law — the ten words excepted — was not given by Moses at all, and that "the order subsisting between law and prophecy must be inverted." Instead of saying, "the law and the prophets," I must say, "the prophets and the law." "The law, in the comprehensive sense, did not come until the great prophets had delivered their messages." It belongs really "to the The Higher Criticism 461 post-prophetic period — to the time of the return from exile and of Ezra the scribe." I used to be told that the Book of Isaiah was the work of Isaiah the son of Amos, but now I am told that "among these prophecies are some which are not the work of Isaiah himself, but belong to a different and later period of Israel- itish history." Chapters 24-27 inclusive, not written by Isaiah, "may be referred most plausibly to the early post- exilic period." Chapters 36-39 inclusive were excerpted by the compiler out of the Book of Kings. The last twenty- seven chapters — chapters 40-66 inclusive — were "not the work of Isaiah, but had for their author a prophet writing toward the close of the Babylonian captivity." Who this second Isaiah was we have no means of knowing. I used to be told that most of the Psalms were composed by King David, certainly the seventy-three directly ascribed to him ; but now I am told that the titles are untrustworthy, and that "the majority of the 'Davidic' psalms are certainly not David's;" that "they sprang in fact from many different periods from the time of David himself downward, very few of them being earlier than the seventh century b. c." I used to be told that Solomon wrote the Song of Songs and Ecclesiastes and most of the Proverbs; but now I am told that Solomon's authorship of Canticles "is evidently out of the question," that Ecclesiastes is the product of an age far later than Solomon, and that the traditional interpre- tation of both books must be set aside. In Proverbs we have before us the work of different wise men, in which Solomon had only a small share. To sum it all up in a single sentence, I used to be told that the conservative view of the Hebrew scriptures, as set forth by such eminent scholars as William Henry Green and Howard Osgood was according to truth ; but now I am told 462 Man and Message for Twentieth Century that both men are representatives of a past generation; that they have no successors, and that the ripest Old Testament scholarship of the present day in Great Britain and America, as well as in Germany, has broken with Osgood and Green and has given its sympathy and adherence to the critical spirit and findings of such men as W. Robertson Smith, George Adam Smith, Cheyne, Briggs, Driver, Harper, and the rest. And so this scientific study of the Scriptures runs on — runs through the New Testament as well as the Old, and yields us many surprising results. I need not pursue it farther, except to say that I used to be told that the Bible was entirely free from errors — but now I am told that errors can be pointed out in numerous instances. Was I not justified in saying, a moment ago, that this critical handling of the Scriptures plays havoc with many of the opinions hitherto entertained by the Christian church? These literary discoveries were once the private property of a few specialists, but now they are the common property of the general public. Nobody today holds a patent on any of them. And so the pertinent and practical inquiry comes. What will the Christian preacher and teacher do about it? I insist that the necessity is upon him to do something. As has been truthfully said : He cannot go on his way as if nothing had happened. He must adjust himself to the new situation. He must take into account opin- ions confidently advanced by others, to the extent at least of con- sidering how far they are compatible, or the reverse, with the faith he is concerned to defend. Thoughtful and perturbed minds rightfully demand his guidance and aid. His message must be in part at least apologetic. How Conduct His Apology 463 Plainly, in conducting his apology, several courses are open to him : ( 1 ) He can say that the men engaged in this work have sold themselves to the devil, and are trying to tear the Bible to pieces and to destroy the faith — thus saving his cherished opinions by blackening the character of investi- gators. The peril here is that the unprejudiced might insti- tute a comparison between his own character and the character of those whom he maligns. (2) Or he can say that the men who are overhauling the Bible are divided among themselves, and need only to be let alone to work their own ruin. It is certainly true that critical opinion is yet in an unsettled state, and that on many minor and some major issues there is great diversity of view, but on the broader and more important critical con- clusions there obtains, in all the advanced schools, a remark- able unanimity of conviction. And the theory that if this thing is let alone it will die of itself hardly comports with the surprising "progress critical opinion has made during recent years, especially in England and America." (3) Or he can say that the documentary hypothesis has already run its course, and that the old Bible is still safe from attack; to which it may be answered that the old Bible is indeed still safe from attack, but the old ignorance of how the Bible came into existence is rapidly vanishing before the critical studies which it is no longer excusable to misrepresent. (4) Or he can say there are certain points on which it can be demonstrated that the critics are evidently wrong, from which it follows that their views in general are to be discredited. But this is to ignore the distinction which the critics themselves are careful to make, viz., that there are "degrees of probability," and that "the probability of a con- 464 Man and Message for Twentieth Century elusion depends entirely upon the nature of the grounds on which it rests." (5) Or he can say that our Lord himself frequently ap- pealed to the Hebrew scriptures and in such a way as to invalidate the conclusions of the critics. But this is merely to shift the ground of debate, for the critics themselves, confessing that Christ made frequent use of the Old Testa- ment, stoutly deny that he ever pronounced a verdict on the "authorship and age of its different parts," or that he ever in any single instance anticipated or confuted the "critical view of its structure and growth." (6) Or he can say the whole matter is easily settled a priori : A book of the character described by the investi- gators is unworthy of God, and therefore cannot be as they describe it; or, the Bible is an inspired volume, and must therefore be perfect in every part — to deny its perfection is to impugn its author. This kind of reasoning is somewhat hazardous. It was once used to prove that every part of the sacred volume is equally inspired. It was once used to prove that the "New Testament Greek is as pure and elegant as the classical Greek" — in face of the glaring fact of the con- trary being the case, now universally conceded. It was once used to prove that every word and letter is inspired of God, notwithstanding the fact that there "are more than a hun- dred thousand various readings in the different manu- scripts of the New Testament, and no man can now say for certain just what were the very words of Jesus or of Paul or of John." It was once used to prove the inspiration of the vowel-points, though it is now known that the Hebrew text was originally written in consonants, and that the vowel-points are a later addition. It is seldom safe to reason a priori. It is safer to ascertain the facts first, and then to suit our theories to them. The Authofs Attitude 465 (7) I am strongly persuaded the apology can be con- structed on better lines. Let the defender of the faith set himself the task of showing that the conclusions of the critics in no wise affect the essentials of the gospel. For the sake of argument, let him concede all that the critics claim, and then let him show how foreign it all is to any- thing that is really vital to the Christian faith. Let him not commit the egregious blunder of staking his religion on the successful defense of the traditional authorship or age of any written document. If he will, let him say that he has no confidence whatever in the results of biblical criti- cism, and, at the same time, let him say that, though mathematically demonstrated, they would not in the least disturb any central principle in the religion of Jesus Christ. If I may be permitted to speak of my own attitude toward these literary problems, I will say that I do not know, from personal knowledge, whether Moses wrote the Pentateuch or not, nor whether Isaiah was the sole author of the book which bears his name. My personal knowledge on these critical questions is extremely limited. Candid and qualified men who have given their lives to the investiga- tion pronounce conflicting verdicts. I am not prepared to say which side is right. I am in fullest sympathy with the reverent study of the Sacred Scriptures and have no sym- pathy with the irreverent study of any subject, least of all with the study of extremists whose chief intent is to mutilate and destroy. Our concern is with Christian men who are trying to do their Christian duty in the scholarly examina- tion of the biblical records; and the point I wish the apologists to make is that, whatever their conclusions, the religion we and they profess is not thereby impaired. I started with the proposition that the gospel message in the twentieth century must be in part at least apologetic. 466 Man and Message for Twentieth Century I have sought proof for this in the new Hterary-critical study of the Sacred Scriptures. A still stronger proof can be found in the unsettling effect of modern science — its dis- coveries and hypotheses. 4. THE FINDINGS OF MODERN SCIENCE I can hint at only one phase of so vast a subject. This will be quite sufficient, however, to establish the thesis for which I am contending. Within our own lifetime men's views of the visible universe have undergone the most radical transformation. Only forty years ago (1859), Darwin published his Origin of Species, and only thirty- seven years ago (1862), appeared Spencer's First Prin- ciples of a System of Philosophy. Under the Darwinian theory, men have undertaken to explain the boundless world of living beings, with its infinite variety of species, from the lowest to the highest forms of terrestrial life. The now accepted teaching is that the present order of things, animate and inanimate, has come about through an evolu- tionary process, stretching over myriads of ages. Since Darwin's day, the entire scientific world has adopted the theory of inorganic and organic evolution. The material worlds and the vegetable and animal kingdoms, including man himself, are all embraced in the process. That man's bodily organism arose out of earlier animal organisms, com- parative anatomy and embryology have so conclusively proved that the scientific mind no longer entertains a doubt. That his intellect and conscience were also evolved is not so clear. That his animal nature is the product of evolution all agree; that his rational and moral natures can be ex- plained in the same way some affirm and some deny. This is still debatable ground, but the problem is being studied with passionate interest, and perhaps there is warrant for The Findings of Modern Science 467 saying that the advocates of the theory that "man is out and out the child of evohttion" outdo their opponents both in numbers and abihty. It is not impossible that the twentieth century will witness the vindication and triumph of their view. Certain it is that evolution, partial or entire, is here, and, in one form or another, is the accepted belief of the learned world. And so the pertinent and practical inquiry comes, What will the Christian preacher and leader do about it? I insist that the necessity is upon him to do something. "He can- not go on his way as if nothing had happened." If the biblical conclusions of literary critics called for an apolo- getic message, still more do the evolutionary conclusions of men of science. I often wonder that questions about Deuter- onomy and Isaiah create such a ferment in the Christian mind, while the immeasurably deeper and more vital scien- tific questions scarcely disturb the repose of confidence. Certain I am that non-professors in Christian communities have been profoundly moved by scientific theories, and that church teachers and leaders must bring to them a satisfac- tory apologetic message if they are not to be permanently estranged. Whether evolution is true or false, the Chris- tian apologist, proceeding on the assumption of its truth, must set himself the task of showing how the old religious faith and the new scientific faith can live together. Take three or four examples by way of illustration : (i) Is the idea and act of creation, as set forth in the first chapter of Genesis, compatible with the idea and process of evolution? (2) Granted a single, primordial, creative act, from which evolution thenceforth proceeds, is there left room thereafter for special acts of creation? The old idea was that the fish, the reptile, the bird, the mammal constitute 468 Man and Message for Twentieth Century four distinct, ascending orders of life, and that with the advent of each we have a special act of divine creation. Is special creation excluded if we adopt the new idea that their common life constitutes them really only one species each evolving from the next below? (3) Does the account we have in Genesis of the origin of man exhibit a leap in the order of creation which contra- venes a fundamental postulate of evolution, that the move- ment and sequence must always be orderly and measured and never revolutionary? (4) Can the Christian doctrine of man's primitive inno- cence and subsequent fall be brought into harmony with the scientific idea of man as evolved from the lower animal kingdom, and ever advancing to higher degrees of per- fection ? (5) But if the first Adam can, in any sense, be said to be the child of evolution, where can be found a place, in the all-embracing evolutionary process, for the second Adam ? (6) Can a man be a thoroughgoing evolutionist and con- tinue to believe in the incarnation and atonement, in sin and forgiveness, in providence and prayer, in the work of the Spirit and the immortality of the soul? These are large inquiries, in contrast with which ques- tions of Pentateuchal criticism sink into insignificance; and they are inquiries which will agitate the bosoms of men as the twentieth-century preacher and teacher delivers his gospel message. If it turns out that evolution has, from the beginning, been God's mode of procedure, a way must be found for adjusting this procedure to the revelations he has made of himself in Scripture and in Christ. Groping and bewildered souls will rightfully demand that Christian lead- ers point out this way. If I may be permitted to speak of my own attitude True Science and Religion Harmonious 469 toward this problem, I will say that I do not know, from personal knowledge, whether God built the worlds by the evolutionary method or not. I do not know whether man ascended from the lower animal kingdom or not. My per- sonal knowledge on these abstruse topics is extremely limited. Candid and qualified men who have given their lives to the investigation pronounce an affirmative verdict. I am not prepared to say that they are wrong. I am in fullest sym- pathy with the scientific spirit, and with scientific methods, and with well-authenticated scientific results. If God has been working in a certain way, I do not wish to be found fighting against him. I am thankful to the man who points out to me the mode of his action. I never threw a stone at a scientist in my life. If evolution should turn out to be true, I should not tremble for the ark of God. Christian men have often sounded false alarms. Christian men once said the earth was flat. When Magellan circumnavigated the globe, the faith was not imperiled. Christian men once said the sun revolved around the earth. Copernicus was not the enemy of God when he demolished the Ptolemaic system. Chris- tian men once said that if the worlds are held together by gravitation, gravitation would take the place of God, who would thereby be ruled out of his own universe; but New- ton's discovery did not harm religion. Christian men once said the earth was made in six literal days; but nobody believes that now. Christian men once said the earth and Adam were created about six thousand years ago; but that idea is now abandoned. Christian men once said the fossils in the rocks were deposited there miraculously on the day of creation, or possibly in the days of the deluge; but even such idiocy did not work Christianity any permanent injury. Likewise the wonderful advances in the physical sciences 47o Man and Message for Twentieth Century in the present century have produced on some minds the impression that the foundations of revealed rehgion were undermined. So wise a man as Dr. Charles Hodge wrote a book to show that Darwinism is atheistic. But Dr. Hodge was more alarmed than injured; and, since his day, the air has cleared, and instructed minds perceive that, though evolution should become the accepted belief of man- kind, the religion Christ proclaimed would not expire. The Christian apologist, aided by God's grace and wisdom, has already learned how to adjust the old faith to the new con- ditions. In the higher realms of thought there are today many devout Christian evolutionists whose faith is in nowise disturbed by the scientific and philosophical conclusions at which they have arrived. The point I wish to make is that, in the approaching century, the gospel message, on its apolo- getic side, should bring this serene faith of the intelligent few down to the uninstructed many. Christian preachers and teachers owe it to the masses. II. THE NEED OF A POLEMIC MESSAGE When I began this discussion I said, in the first place, that the twentieth-century message must be, in part, apolo- getic, and, in the second place, in part, polemic. I have not left myself time to unfold the second division. I can only pause to say that, in my opinion, there exists, in many quarters, in this approaching twentieth century, a profound dissatisfaction with many of the theological tenets which have come down to us from bygone ages, and that, therefore, it becomes the gospel preacher carefully to discriminate between God-made and man-made doctrines. "He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord." I cannot dwell now upon the reasons for this dissatisfaction, nor point out the The Need oj a Polemic Message 471 particular doctrines impugned, nor indicate the remedy to be applied. It is enough to say that, in the twentieth century, men will refuse to be bound by confessional authority, will insist upon going for themselves to the original sources of divine truth, and will take up anew and examine afresh every one of the current ecclesiastical dogmas. They will ask after their origin, trace their history, and pass judgment upon their value. Under these circumstances, the man who keeps close to the teachings of Christ and lays little stress on the traditions of men will preach a type of theology which the twentieth century will welcome. The fundamental, saving, and ethical truths of Chris- tianity remain ever the same, but the theological systems in which these truths are imbedded, and through which they are sometimes obscured and distorted, are the purely human products of the ages which called them forth. The Nicene fathers wrought under the conditions of their time. So did the mediaeval fathers, and the Lutheran, and the Anglican, and the Puritan, and the New England fathers. None of them can be ranked with the New Testament fathers, and none of them can lay claim to special divine inspiration and authority. They served their generation well, and are en- titled to gratitude and praise, but the twentieth-century fathers will have their own work to do, and they must do it under the conditions in which Providence has placed them. In my opening sentences, I said distinctly that those features of the twentieth century and those elements of Christian manhood, and those constituents of the gospel message which are common to all the centuries are the most fundamental, central, vital, and lasting. These I deliber- ately set aside, to discuss with you those less important adjuncts and concomitants of the gospel message for which, in my judgment, intellectual conditions in the twentieth 472 Man and Message for Twentieth Century century will make a special appeal. We have not one gospel for one age and another for another, but one and the same gospel for all ages. At the same time, in each century, the church must defend the faith and formulate the truth ac- cording to the peculiar conditions and needs which then and there obtain. The theology and the apology which quite satisfy one generation may quite misfit a succeeding gen- eration. I have tried to point out those new and peculiar conditions in the twentieth century in view of which the Christian leader should frame his defense of the truth and his confession of the faith. III. THE MAN This Christian leader to whom will be committed this high and solemn trust, what qualities must he possess? Surely, for one thing, he must be a man of rare intelli- gence. He must know the past, and he must know the present. To his knowledge of God's progressive revelation in Holy Scripture he must add a knowledge of the theolo- gies, apologies, confessions, and polities with which Christianity has expressed and declared itself through the centuries. To his knowledge of ecclesiastical developments since the New Testament canon closed, he must add a knowledge of the age in which he lives — the new philosophy, psychology, science, ethics, economics — the new thoughts which are stirring in the brains of men around him. He must know the relations of past and present, and how so to adjust and utilize them that God's kingdom shall be ad- vanced. Above all, he must know the mind of Christ, and the voice of the Spirit, and how to interpret them to the distracted minds and darkened consciences of men. Then again, he must be a man of rare intellectual hon- esty and moral courage. To this end, he must treat his Qualities 0} the Man 473 own mind with respect, opening its portals to the ingress of truth, from whatever quarter; not stultifying himself with fallacious reasoning; not soiling the pure white of his soul with conscious error; not professing fealty to dogmas he no longer believes, nor standing in with the popular party for selfish ends ; "not handling the word of God deceitfully ;" nor concealing the light of God in the interest of place and reputation; not a time-server, in the bad sense of that term, but giving himself, with absolute devotion, to the service of his time. Still again, he must be a man of rare spiritual penetra- tion, able to look into the heart of truth, and to distinguish the divine original from all human counterfeits. His wide, profound, and accurate knowledge, his conscious upright- ness and integrity of moral purpose, his deep reverence for the revelations of God wherever made, have been so many aids to the clear spiritual discernment of divine reality. With the authority of the prophet and the sage, he can convey his message, because it has been granted to him with spiritual insight to behold the things that are freely given to us of God. "He that is spiritual judgeth all things, but he himself is judged of no man." And, in the last place, he must be a man of rare peda- gogical skill. To live in the midst of the unrest of the twentieth century, its divided interests, its corroding cares, its anxious questionings, its suspended judgments, its inar- ticulate longings, its stifling prejudices, its babel of voices, its bewildering maze of doubts and difficulties — to live in such an age, I say, and to teach and guide, to win and save, requires a teaching gift and a guiding skill which only Heaven can bestow. In such an age the Christian preacher must know how to unfold the precious truths of his mes- sage, not as a theologian or an ecclesiastic, but as a humble 474 Man and Message for Twentieth Century and devout disciple, himself sitting ever at the feet of the matchless Teacher. He must know how to gain access to the mind of his hearer, and how to make it receptive and retentive; how to divide the truth, and in what order and measure to impart it; just when to speak, and what to say, and how to say it. He must know how to eliminate error from the mind, and to substitute truth, not unsettling the mind in the process. "We have this treasure in earthen vessels." He must know how to transfer the precious treasure from a discarded vessel to a more worthy one, with- out doing injury to the treasure itself. In this preoccupied, distracted, hurrying age, he must know how to secure attention, awaken interest, allay prejudice, impart instruc- tion, and carry conviction. With what consummate peda- gogic tact and skill must the Christian preacher and teacher carry his gospel message to the twentieth century! XIX ''LEST WE FORGET"— PRESIDENT WILLIAM R. HARPER xrx "LEST WE FORGET" ^ William Rainey Harper, Died January io, 1906 In the death of President Harper our denomination lost its most widely known and highly honored representative. His forceful personality and creative genius rendered him easily the most conspicuous and commanding figure in the select group of our greatest men. The ascending steps by which he attained to this pre-eminence are known to us all and need not be noted here. It is more fitting that we ask after some of those qualities of spirit we so admire in him which, though in less degree, it is quite possible for us to possess, and the possession of which would enrich our lives and augment our usefulness. DR. harper's spirit OF WORK We name first of all, because the most obvious, his spirit of work. He was a tremendous worker. Men who knew least of him could readily believe this when they saw his stupendous accomplishments; and men who knew most of him were amazed at the multiplicity and magnitude of his undertakings. Often he was carrying to successful issues a score of enterprises, any one of which would have tried to its utmost the capacity of any one of his associates. He took on work in astounding quantities, and he turned it off with astounding celerity. In the morning it piled mountain high, in the evening it was level with the plain. As his life ^ Read before the Illinois Baptist Convention, Carbondale, III,, October i6, 1906. 477 478 Lest We Forget of toil was ending he conceived of heaven as a place in which God would have for him still more and higher work to do. It were idle to insist that any one of us could keep pace with President Harper in this regard, but is it idle to insist that all of us ought to work harder than we do ? Could our pastors be animated by his spirit, make conscientious and diligent use of all their powers, account it a crime to live indolently, a duty and a joy to live strenuously, can anyone doubt the immediate, augmented, and blessed results of this enthusiastic devotion to honest and unremitting ministerial endeavor? Plain, hard, dogged, persistent work, what scholars and preachers it would make of us, what pastors and organizers, what men of light and leading. Under such a ministry, what a membership would be secured and edu- cated, and, thereupon, what enlightened and aggressive forces would be created and set free to render the Christian church glorious and triumphant. HIS SPIRIT OF INQUIRY We name, secondly. President Harper's spirit of inquiry. If he was a hard worker, he was also a hard thinker. His passion for doing was not stronger than his passion for knowing. Indefatigable inquiry was as native to him as incessant activity. He was unceasingly on the quest. What- ever the subject, he sought to reach on that subject the extreme limits of ascertained knowledge. Partisan views and incomplete conceptions had no attractions. For the ingress of light his mind was open on all sides. Nor was he content with the exploration of his field to its present bounda- ries ; his inquiring spirit peered into the regions beyond. In- every sphere — scientific, philosophical, educational, biblical, theological — there is assuredly more truth yet to be dis- Dr. Harpefs Spirit of Inquiry 479 covered. Upon original research both for himself and his associates he laid emphatic emphasis. This spirit of inquiry ought to animate every religious teacher and leader. Truths most familiar are capable of more thorough mastery, and whole realms of truth lie be- yond present knowledge. Nothing can be more fatal to stimulating pulpit discourse and efficient pastoral guidance than a closed mind. The man who has ceased to inquire, whose system of thought is a handed-down legacy, whose ideas are incapable of correction and expansion, to whom study and reflection are no longer a necessity, that man may satisfy a few belated followers as sleepy and antiquated as himself, but he has no message for the men around him who are really awake and thinking. Unless his own spirit is ever in eager quest, he can never minister helpfully to those whose minds are open and expectant. When they find a religious teacher as candid as themselves, as unfettered by tradition, as honestly anxious to know, as hospitable to new light, as enamored of patient inquiry, they will heed his voice, respect his opinions, accept his guidance, and remold their thinking and living under the spell of his illuminating and stimulating influence. The man who has ceased to in- quire has no mission to the men whom this age has filled with inquiries. THE MODERN SPIRIT EXEMPLIFIED This leads us to note, in the third place, that President Harper's spirit was essentially modern. Few men had a higher appreciation of the past. His lifelong Semitic studies and his early teaching of the classics gave him the most exalted conception of the religion of the Hebrews and the civilizations of Greece and Rome. He could measure the ancients at their full value, but he himself was not an ancient, and he had no disposition to bury himself in 480 Lest We Forget antiquity. All that was good in that old world he was eager to conserve, but he was not less eager to appropriate the good the modern world has brought us. To live in the past is to die with the past. To think and act in the present, accepting its verified truth, employing its scientific method, feeling its vitalizing influence, immersed in its progressive spirit, is to be a living man in this present living world. No man among us was more thoroughly modern and modern- ized. His magnificent leadership was possible because he was always abreast of his times and always a few steps in advance of the column. We, too, in a smaller way, are supposed to be the leaders of Christian thought and endeavor. It becomes us to esti- mate at their full value the men and achievements of the past. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Edwards, and the rest will always command our reverence. But we must never forget that those men in their day were decidedly modern. They were pioneers and pathfinders, not afraid to question the past or even to break with it, seeking so to conceive of Christian truth as to commend it to the best intelligence of their generation. We on our part shall best reverence them by following their example. The world in which they lived has ceased to be, and a new world has been ushered in. Many theological conceptions for which our fathers would have shed their blood are now unthinkable. The West- minster Confession of Faith was the basis of our own Philadelphia and New Hampshire confessions, and yet there is not a man alive today who can believe the Westminster Confession as it was believed by the framers of it. If we of this age would win to Christ the men of this age, we must offer to them the old gospel, indeed, but the old gospel un- trammeled by theological affirmations in which it is impossible for modern enlightenment to acquiesce. It must President Harper* s Breadth of Spirit 481 be the old gospel as it comes fresh from the lips of Him who first revealed it, and not as incrusted with the accretions of ecclesiastical tradition. In every realm of human inquiry it is the best intelligence that has been touched by the modern spirit. To ignore or antagonize this intelligence is to jeopardize our cause. Unless our teachers and leaders are minded to participate in the intellectual life of the new era, and cordially to accept every new truth, whether in the realm of nature or religion, as soon as it has been decisively authenticated, a gulf will be created between the Christian church and modern enlightenment which no amount of declamation and proscription can possibly bridge. BREADTH OF SPIRIT In the fourth place, President Harper possessed a re- markable breadth of spirit. Though himself a Semitic specialist, he was wholly free from the narrowness so often seen in men ardently pursuing a single line of study. His interest and sympathy easily overleaped all such confining limits. Scholars devoted to the most diverse branches of learning — science, language, philosophy, medicine, law, divinity, education — found in him one who could share their aspirations and stimulate their enthusiasm. There was room for it all in his capacious mind and heart. Though a Baptist by conviction, ecclesiastical exclusiveness was wholly foreign to his nature. He made lasting friendships with Protestant divines. Catholic bishops, and Jewish rabbis, and he im- pressed them all with the urbanity and dignity of his own personality. How it would enlarge the sphere and increase the influ- ence of our Baptist ministry if the world could see in us a similar breadth of spirit ! Without the sacrifice of any right conviction we might be known as men to whom nothing is 482 Lest We Forget alien which concerns human welfare. An enlightened and sympathetic interest in social betterment, civil reform, school improvement, and the urgent calls of philanthropists for the curtailment of intemperance, crime, and poverty would bring us into friendly touch with the most influential citizens in our community and make us clergymen of note and power. We wish to be known as Baptists, but as Baptists of so broad and generous a type that all good men can respect and love us. We wish to employ all honorable means to advance our Baptist cause, but our spirits are cast in too large a mold to indulge in sectarian narrowness and rivalry. Neither our creed nor our traditions compel us to look askance on the successes of others. If Christ is preached and souls are won the Baptist mind is too wide and free to harbor envy and detraction, A CHRISTLIKE SPIRIT In the fifth place. President Harper possessed a singu- larly Christlike spirit of charity and forgiveness. No man in our communion was ever more severely criticized nor more unfairly treated. Hosts of friends in all parts of the world were offset by hosts of enemies, many of whom were friendly at his face and hostile at his back. From pulpit, platform, and press, in public and in private, he was the object of attack. He bore it all with forbearing patience. He never answered back. When he was reviled he reviled not again. He harbored no resentments. No wounds were inflicted which he could not overlook and forgive. Indeed, abuse sometimes seemed the most direct avenue to his benevolent regard. Gracious to all, he became specially gracious to those who distrusted and opposed him. On his most loyal supporters the sun of his favor almost seemed to shine less benignly. Dr. Harper^s Freedom from Religiosity 483 Here is a great example for all aggressive religious lead- ers. If we are positive men and are really on the move, if we have a mind of our own and a will to achieve, we shall be misrepresented and opposed. Friends will rally to our support, but enemies will not be wanting. Slander and abuse will test our temper; opposition and obloquy will be hard to bear; but let it all go. Feel and speak kindly. Give rein to no ugly spirit. Curb the vengeful impulse. Seek no reprisals. Spread wide the mantle of charity. Be patient and go forward. Only forbearance and forgiveness become those who are consciously in the right. FREEDOM FROM RELIGIOSITY In the sixth place, President Harper commended him- self to all right-minded men by his freedom from the spirit of religiosity. Profoundly religious, reverent toward God and all sacred things, saturated with the righteous spirit of the Old Testament and the filial, trusting spirit of the New, he kept himself aloof from all the hackneyed forms of re- ligionism. He never irreverently called God by endearing names, never counterfeited a degree of religious emotion he did not feel, never paraded his religion to be seen of men, never felt the need of evincing his saintliness by talking in holy tones and posing for pious effect. His was a plain, simple, straightforward, honest religion which feared God and trusted Christ and helped men, and which commended itself to the favorable judgment of all who can distinguish between genuine religion and pretentious religiosity. Here is a worthy example for all who are active and prominent in Christian service. Men of sense respect us when we live our religion in plain, homely fashion. Respect ceases when piousness takes the place of piety. Contempt comes when religiosity assumes the role of religion. When we became Christians and ministers we did not cease to be 484 Lest We Forget men, and are expected to be manly still. It behooves us to say our say in clear Saxon phrase, just plain English words from plain, honest hearts, the note of assurance and emo- tion in our speech exactly toning with our unfeigned inward conviction and feeling. It behooves us to do our work as honest workmen should, solely minded to do it well, neither seeking praise nor fearing blame. It behooves us to live our lives as real men and real Christians, scorning all fictitious seeming, and really being what we fain would have men believe we really are. When word and deed and life ring true, religiosity will be shamed out of countenance, and religion will take its rightful place and fulfil its sacred mission. In the last place, we name President Harper's spirit of Christian fortitude under intense bodily suffering and in the face of approaching death. Seldom has the like been wit- nessed. If he was great as he stood forth in the noonday of his power, he was greater as he passed down into the valley of the shadow. Disease might torture and destroy the body, but the intellect remained clear and the will un- conquered. Though stricken and doomed, he performed his daily tasks and carried forward his projected plans with unchanged interest and devotion; and set about his final preparation for the great event with the same calmness, method, and thoroughness that had always characterized him in other things. It needed a long and agonizing sick- ness to exhibit the qualities of his soul. We who remain have not yet been subjected to the supreme test. When that time comes, may the final illness show us working on while strength remains, with a like con- stancy and steadiness, and passing into the strange, portent- ous dark of eternity with a like expectancy and assurance. Date Due Adtaiii . •IMHBHHHnHCt 1 -^"^WiPBl* •7 l^^^^gtmm^U^. ' W^j^P^PP^' 1 i , ««i«» 1 f